Sunday Evening Post, issue 4

Winter. Anyone else want to petition it be officially over? I actually sat in front of my closet at one point this week staring at my sandals.

Tuesday found me half hearted after our car doors and locks were all frozen shut. A little cabin fever has been setting in and I've been dreading the winter crazies since the first leaves started changing color in fall. I stood at the sunniest window soaking in the light and warmth and dreamed of digging in dirt, walking in summer rainfall, and being ridiculously sweaty from the heat of a hot hot day. Then on Wednesday the kids and I lounged and played in the sunny patch coming through their bedroom window. It felt so good. All of our indoor fun as been done and redone. How many "rainy day" activities in a day...day after day can one mom handle? I need some spice. Sigh.

We waited one week exactly for guests at our birdfeeders. We even made birdseed trails from the bushes where they live...heh heh heh.



Natalie also made pictures and signs for them to know they eat there. She hung them on the window. We turned our couch around to face out the window and spent quite a bit of time there with a big pile of books and blankets.



Now we can't keep the feeder filled and the little hearts are picked to shreds.

It's all about birds at our house right now. The kids makes nests out of pillows and pile assorted "babies" (any stuffed animal or soft toy) then sit on them.

So that is life. I've hit the doldrums and am wishing for a Cyrus right about now. First one to correctly identify Cyrus...wins!

The pluses and minuses of this week:

- Our jeep, beloved jeep, has officially gone the way of all good cars and hopefully will rest easy at the local pick-n-pull. Here's to all other jeep owners looking for parts. May they be thrilled to find just what they need. Here's Natalie enjoying a few last moments while we clean it out.



+ Jared has a new pair of snow boots to replace said beloved mode of transportation.

-snowed 15 inches today
+ Jared had the day off, church was canceled, and we shoveled, played, shoveled, cooked yummy food, shoveled, built a "fire," shoveled, watched cross country skiers cross down the street, and shoveled. Jared made snow candy with the kids. Yum.


+ We still have power so this was for fun and not necessity.

Sunday Evening Post, issue 3

The phrase "benefit of the doubt" has been on my mind. My first thought was another crazy nonsensical English concoction. But the more I've let this idea hang out in the forefront of my mind, I come up with a few questions.

• When is doubt a benefit?
  
• What does "benefit of the doubt" look like in my life?
  
• Where did the phrase come from?

No real answers. Sorry. You can stop reading now.

I keep coming back to the feeling of allowing for error in others and circumstances. I've benefited from other's when they doubt a rumor, doubt I purposely didn't call them back, or doubt I didn't try my best and that was the reason something flopped. I've got issues, clearly, let's keep somethings private, but seriously it feels good, it feels right when you hear someone not fault find and instead speak so kindly about someone else in a sticky situation or not get angry over being cut off on the freeway but instead say, "They must not have seen me."

In the instances I am thinking of, doubt is a benefit when there is a choice to make that involves assuming positive or negative intent. So when you give someone the benefit of the doubt you assume positive intent. This is a much more happy thought than jumping to the conclusion it was maliciousness or ignorance or selfishness. I just would rather have people around me feel safe; their name is safe, their intent is safe, their sometimes crazy lives, lack of sleep, miscommunications...I get it. We've all got equally difficult lives and I know you're just doing your thing and I'm doing mine and we're doing our best.

The truth of this post is this: I misplaced my camera cord. No photos, no reporting the week's highlights and there were some good ones. So instead a little rambling. It probably won't be the last time the cord finds a crevice and dives in leaving me only the keyboard. Lucky you.

giddy surprise

Talk about NICE! I opened up blogger and Oh! comments are great. I yelled up to Jared, "Guess what? People commented!" Now how do I respond to you all??? Hun? Hun? Thanks. It seriously made my day. I've heard some bloggers say they love blogging because it's like having a conversation. Now I get it. Do you ever feel like you are a collection of all the people around you? Somehow you and I are unique because we are so many parts of so many people put together. I know very little about being a wife and mom until I think about my mom and grandma and aunts and watch my friends and family be wives and moms and then it's like, "Oh, so that's how you do it." Each time I get a new calling I think back to someone I knew who had that calling and how she did it. If I want to throw a party, or learn to get along with someone, or be savvy at something I just look around me! Even everything I own comes through someone else first! Garage sales...thrift stores...hand me downs...awesome. I guess I'm a gleaner, a people watcher and somehow it comes out alright. Well, this morphed into a random little speech. Just wanted to say thanks. You all are so wonderful.

please comment

I've had this crazy blog for almost three years and I still can't get the comment option to work. So here's the deal. When I started blogging it was mostly for my family members so I wouldn't have to send photos through email. Right off the bat someone who must have found my site through I don't know wrote something in the comment section that seriously bugged me, so I took off the comment options all together. Blogger has changed A LOT in three years and there are now ways to block comments that weren't available before so now I would love to have comments but no matter how many times I try to re-set the option to show comments, it doesn't work.

But a few of you clever people HAVE figured it out and I simply adore hearing from you. Here's how you do it. Click on the title of the post, so for this post it's "Please Comment" and the post will show up on it's own page. There on the bottom of the post where the comment option generally shows up is a comment link!!!! So drop me a line. I'd love to hear from you and maybe someday I can work out this glitch.

The Sunday Evening Post, issue 2

I can hear Isaac upstairs still crying. It's quieter now. Oh, wait, wait, no louder. This is how my night has progressed:
Put kids to bed the first time by tucking in, singing songs, kisses goodnight.
Leave room.
Small Isaac whimpering turns into full out wails.
Go back in room, lay down said child and kiss/rub back/tuck in a second time. Natalie has pillow and blankets over her head complaining "It's too loud!"
Third time rock crazed child, tuck older child into my bed where nice and quiet, re-tuck child-who-shall-not-be-named for I've lost count time into bed.
I'd like to say this was also the last time.
It wasn't.
He's got some strange funk going on where he WON'T go to bed peacefully any more. So here I am. Listing to the ups and downs of his wailing as he cycles through crying, talking to himself, loud wails, crying... He's on his own at this point.
And so am I...oh, he's good, he's pulled out the "mamaaa" cry. Must...not...succumb...

I've had the best week this week. Make that BEST. Three good packages came.

One from my grandma full of books for Natalie. She has a great series (www.iseesam.com) for emergent readers she offered to loan me and I will send back and forth as we move through them. We've tried to keep them as pristine as they were sent. These are wonderful so look into them if you know anyone learning to read. This books are the real deal. They've been around for decades and are actually fun to read even for the adult who is helping. You don't have to know anything about teaching reading because it's all in there. Plus there are sets all the way through third grading reading level. Talk about scaffolding.



Natalie is eating them up and just loving reading real books all by herself. This new found confidence has spilled over into her drawing and writing. She wrote a story tonight and read it to Isaac and I. It went something like this:
"Aaa t hhh iii mmm nnn ooohhh "
Okay, that was a strange attempt on my part at capturing a child sounding out letters. But she had written "words" (a jumble of random letters) and was sounding them out. The best part was she would stop and ask me what they meant! "Uhhhh..." I've seen countless kids learning to read and heard about the joy from other parents. It's just different when it's your own.

Also the UPS guy dropped off a package filled with graduation photographs from my sister-in law Carol and she also sent a beautiful wooden box with Ohio State art on the front as a little gift. Hooray! Oh and our favorite movie, Waking Ned Devine we lent them. Double Hooray!

Lastly Santa apparently forgot a gift and it arrived surprise, surprise via UPS. A new kitchen knife! Embarrassingly, all of our knives have come from All-A-Dollar. What are students to do? I've nearly lost a few fingers because I'm not used to washing and cutting with a sharp knife. It's dreamy and anything that can be chopped, sliced, or diced has been.

This is a photo of my neighbor. One day he plowed pretty much everyone's driveway and sidewalks. How nice! People just take care of each other on our street. There are two elderly ladies across from me. One is probably in her 70's, the other 90's. The seventy year old takes out the other's trash every week. I see her and a couple of other neighbors regularly visiting, shoveling, mowing, whatever-ing. You can't go outside without waving and chatting to someone. We had a wee mushroom infestation in our front lawn this summer. I had no clue how to get rid of them and was out there digging them up. A woman who lives down the street was walking by and said, "You aren't really trying to dig those things out are you? This is what you've got to do..." No fence sitters on my street regarding sincere, going out of your way kindness.


I try to get up early enough to shovel before the kids are awake. Lately I do it while they eat breakfast or even later in the day while they play in the snow and I break a sweat. Here's a photo of Isaac watching me.

And another. He thought the snowballs were so funny.

Jared generally leaves early enough that if he shoveled before he left it would be snowed back over by the time I got up. So last Sunday I saw this out the window and was overjoyed. He knows how Sundays are a little hectic trying to get out the door on time and I usually completely forget about shoveling or scraping car windows until I'm already running behind, so he shoveled two long paths for the car tires and scraped my windows, too. So thoughtful also because he knows how much I hate having compacted snow to shovel later...

He had a day off this week and spent it frolicking. This wasn't much of a slide for him. What a fun dad.

He took the kids to the park via sled (our wintertime choice of transportation). I snapped this when they got back. Isaac completely wiped out and Natalie is under his coat trying to keep the frostbite at bay. Last night he took Natalie on the sled to the grocery store to buy hot dogs of all things because earlier in the day I had mentioned in passing how I had a strange craving for hot dogs.


Sundays can make for looong days with little kids, so today I took some whole wheat buns that have been sitting in my freezer too long, dried them out in the oven for about 20 minutes on 400 degrees until nice and crispy and afterwards the kids cut out heart shapes using cookie cutters. Smoothed on some peanut butter, sprinkled on birds seed and make some early valentines for our favorite feathered friends. And then sat at the window waiting for partakers of our gift...how many birds did we see: none. We will definitely be doing these again on Valentine's Day. And it killed a few hours.

First thing in the morning she pulls out paper and a pen. Isn't it amazing we have access to writing supplies at such a young age? We really do live in an singular country and time. How many countless people never held a writing utensil, never learned to write their own name, never learned to read or write or just fill up notebooks with whatever he or she could dream up?

You may not be able to see very well in these photos, but Natalie's taken to wearing her jammies, coat, and jeans backwards. Just those three things. It started with the jeans because jeans are boring otherwise (well of course they are) and that was the compromise to wear them at all. Then it was the coat and jammies. No boring here. And she also likes her coat backwards so she can have a pillow (her hood) in case she gets sleepy. I love childhood. She's also become particular about her hair: one ponytail on the very top of her head so it sticks out all crazy with a bow that has long pieces hanging down. Also, her hair is "light reddish brown" so make a note and whatever you do, don't forget.

Whatelse? A passerby pushed me out of snowbank. I read in the newspaper our city has the number one ranked Post Office in the country finally beating out Honolulu (that's so funny to me). Had a great time sledding at the park with some other resident wives and kids. Received a long, chatty email from a friend I haven't talked to in a long time. Talked with a lady at a quilting shop for a long time about all the new colors this year. Purple (eggplant) and a blue in between teal and turquoise. I knew you were wondering.

Lastly, Jared sent me on a morning by myself. Post call and all and he sent me away to do whatever I wished and he sure didn't have to tell me twice. So I stopped at a quilting shop I've been wanting to, but wasn't going to wrangle my kids in there. Found some great fabric to finish a few projects which I will post when done. Made some other random stops I've been putting off because sometimes the thought of bucking and unbuckling two kids over and over and hauling them around is overwhelming to me and a bad day for them. Found a couple of great buys at the thrift store. Oh and our water is not floridated (sp?) here, so I went to fill a flouride perscription at Wal-mart only to find out they do it for free! Otherwise it's $4, but still $4 x 2 kids x 12 months = just enough to make me happy.

Read This: The Environmental Impact of Feminism

Don't you love to stumble upon great blogs that leave you wishing you lived next door to the author? Robin over at Blue Skies Urban Farm is one of those moms. She keeps up on three blogs (whew!), and I found this post about stay at home mothers, creating a home, modern living, and the environment worth passing along. Make sure to click on the "comment" section and read the interesting follow up.

Go Bucks!!!

Santa gave me a cake stand for Christmas. I gave him a big kiss.
For more cake fun, check out A Year of Cake.

Sunday Evening Post, issue 7

Cried reading over ya'll's (I'm so into correct punctuation ha ha ha) plethora of comments knowing we all have bad days...opposition in all things, right? We sure couldn't have good days without having bad ones to know the difference.

I had an EXTREMELY pleasant week this week which I will have to record about later because Whoops! Started this week's post a little late in the evening and I'm way past tired. So, rather than write a jumble of jamble, I've skimmed through fun things I've collected from surfing the web. Here are a few of my favorite things.

• What's not to love about Lois Lowry? Think Number the Stars or The Giver. Here's something I came across a few years ago on antidotes and anecdotes from her website, April 23, 2006:
  
  "...a woman came up to me to have a book signed, and said: "I just loved listening to your antidotes." She meant anecdotes, of course, and I didn't point that out because I didn't want to embarrass her. But I've been thinking about it ever since. My anecdotes are simply the bits and pieces of my life: the things that went into the making of who I am, as well as the fiction I've written, and none of them important to the world in any way. But I do like thinkng of them, now, as antidotes. The whole process of telling our stories to one another is what makes us human, and is sometimes very healing. If you eat a little Drano by mistake, you call the Poison Control Center in Atlanta, and find out what the antidote is, and then you don't die. In the same way, if you have had caustic experiences in the past....you talk about them. Tell them to others. Listen to what they tell in return. And it neutralizes the Drano that might otherwise erode your being. Gardens, dogs, children, and stories are the most restorative, antidotal things I know."
  
  
  
• At burpee's seed catalogue:

WHITE tomatoes. A little strange...yes...but very, very amazing and very, very much making me want to try one.

• "The universe if full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper." ~Eden Phillpots

• Over at at etsy.com, I came across one of my favorite things ever!

A recycled book clock. Made by recycleeh

• Modish: Handmade Goods has a great assortment of handmade stuffs for sale just like etsy.

Cute little hair ties by Insidesign

Just beautiful cut-out earrings by Debora de Stefanis

The Sunday Evening Post, Issue 1

PBS has a great advertising campaign: Be More. You've probably seen the Be More Empowered interstitial where a little goldfish makes her way to a river filled with salmon via puddles and drainpipes. When I see it, I want to do two things at once: jump up and down cheering "go little fish go" and I want to cry over the sentiment of being empowered. You can watch it by clicking here. I love it. I love all their clips. Mostly I love the idea behind this campaign of
Be More: Informed, Engaged, Inspired, Creative, Open-Minded. Don't you want to be all those things? Life has so much to offer. Here, read this:

Develop interest in life as you see it; in people, things, literature, music
- the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures,
beautiful souls, and interesting people. Forget yourself.
~Henry Miller

The summer of 2000 I took a job doing something I've always wanted to do---work as a camp counselor. What days and weeks I spent at a child and teenage hiking, boating, singing crazy songs, tromping through rain, and tying knots were pure joy. So this was a dream come true. We were assigned a tentmate for the summer and I seriously lucked out getting Amanda Morgan. She changed my life forever. We had some great times together and if you know her, you know what a gem she is. I'll never forget the day she said to me,
"Just share yourself!" It was a much needed slap in the face because I didn't realize how introverted I really was. I think she was fed up with my keeping to myself. It never occurred to me we need to share ourselves. We just go along with the flow our life takes and let inhibitions, busyness, and sometimes apathy take place of these ideas to Be More, to Forget Yourself.

So for this year, if I were a PBS commercial I would read (insert inspiring music):

Be More...known and knowing.

Share yourself. Be the best Visiting Teacher ever.
Be an abundant sister, daughter, wife, mother, friend.
Get to know those around you and let them in so they will know you.

Be More...uninhibited.

Just say it. Just do it. I did not want to jump in the lake.
Cold, lots of cold, lots of deep dark depths...but I knew myself and those
were just surface feelings because truly I am more adventurous, more fun loving?
So, if it's scary (or unflattering), do it with pizazz, at least you'll look back with a smile. Jared is so good at just doing things even if he feels apprehensive (you'd never guess would you?) or unsure if it will work out.
This year I want to be more proactive.

Be more...true.

I think about my primary role and commitments of
everyday life---making an orderly, inviting, happy home. Being
true to those dreams and hopes surrounding motherhood and companionship.

Be more...energetic.

When I think back on my best days this past year, they are the
ones filled. That's all. Just filled. Filled with people, filled with fun, filled with nothing to do, filled with a huge to-do list, filled with spontaneity, filled with routine. Funny how some of those seem contradictory, but you can't have spontaneity without having routine.
How fun is hanging out with mom until 10 pm if you always get to stay awake until 10? I just dread the mundane and half-hearted.

Last year I set some big ideas for myself for example getting to be earlier. The hard-headed night owl in me pretty regularly gets to bed around 10 pm. For some reason I feel like Denise will be happy to hear that. I shimmied off all the extra fluff from Thing One and Thing Two by the end of summer and actually enjoyed the process of loosing weight. I am WAAAAY more organized, my house is cleaner, I follow through with things and obligations. A lot of this a result of necessity (like my eyelids are stuck shut out of exhaustion and I simply can't stay awake...) But here's the thing. I'm far, far from perfect, but I've felt successful enough (and that's the key) to find setting ideals worthwhile. So here's to a great 2008.

Adios to a wonderful 2007!

A few favorites from a very happy year for us.

Winter

"Leading" her Happy Birthday singing.

Fall

a walk through the leaves

pumpkin Halloween dress

Summer

This and the next five photos chronicle one of one of my favorite days: a hammock (thanks Jason and Nicole), some chalk, and nothin' to do but be.

a study in snail

I can't even think how to title this photograph. Any suggestions?

Who could forget the mandrake?

Partners in crime...who got the raw end I wonder?

I'm so looking forward to life with her! How did we get so lucky?

What a joy.

What a girl.

Natalie was immesurably excited about this.

This summer my bike-con-bike stroller was our car---the library, grocery store, park, church all within short biking distances. One afternoon coming home from somewhere, a certain 3 year old pulled out the camera and took photos all the way home. I didn't know it until I down loaded our camera later. The best part is, she had the setting on video so we have all these few-second video clips with all sorts of random chatter and views. Enjoy.



Spring






This was such a fun date. I was almost the youngest person in the theater. Some parents had dragged their pre-teen daughter with them. Not unlike what we did to our friends Krissy and Ray---you are such good sports! Thanks for chancing $10 and coming with us! I'm sure it was a highlight of your year as well...

Another favorite "date" was actually a win of sorts. Our ward had a service auction where ward members donate skills and talents or services and then everyone bids on them with fake money. We won a backstage look into the life our a great friend , John, who was getting his PhD in percussion. He played some marimba for us (the video clip does not do it justice AT ALL) and then let us into the practice area to get a first hand look at all the instruments which included drums, gongs, triangles, and such but also a WIDE assortment of garbage cans, plastic buckets filled with water and hand-made gadgets . One of our best afternoons. Thanks John! We felt awed and educated.