eight years ago today

It was a perfect day.

as good as it gets

I should be finishing my work for today, but I need a break.

So I alluded a long time ago to "lots of thinking" that I'd been doing. I won't go into the long, rambling details (I tried once and the blog post never made it past the initial brain-dumping stage), but I will say that the biggest thing I've learned through this trial of no-job/little income over the past year is that we absolutely have to enjoy the present as much as we can, because it might just be as good as it gets. I know some friends of mine follow Nie Nie , who was in a serious plane crash and has a prolonged, painful recovery. (And when I clicked on her blog, she has as part of her description "as good as it gets," how's that for coincidence?) I don't follow her blog at all, but I did peruse it once and was impressed at her positive attitude and determination. Shortly after Leif was born, I noticed some symptoms that had the potential of being very serious. Likely in part because I was pretty hormonal, but also because there was nothing I could do to rule out serious illness, I panicked for about a week or so. What it it WAS serious and I was going to die? The thought that was most devastating was that of leaving behind these three kids and David. I no longer cared so much about our financial situation or anything else. And I realized that the reason the present is so important is that it is truly all we have. All the months I spent largely in a state of worry had been wasted. The thing I feared most, losing our home, hadn't happened. But was I happy? Did I see the blessing of having lasted this long? No. I was then able to stare the "worst possible scenario" in the face and see myself being okay on the other side if it did come to pass, whereas before I'd broken down with worry every time the thoughts lingered in my mind for any length of time.

So, there are still moments of panic and worry, but I've gotten much better at giving that burden to the Lord and only carrying that which I can handle. So life is good. Probably as good as it gets, even.

when through the deep waters....

I had lots of time alone to think this morning. Two hours, in fact. But it wasn't the reclining-on-the-sofa or lounging-in-bed kind of thinking. It was the scooping-up-bucketsful-of-water-because-I-left-the-sprinkler-on-all-night kind of thinking. Yup. For two hours I scooped and carried and dumped, repeat. I was supposed to start some very cool workout thing with David this morning, but I thought I had to do my best to save the lawn. There is still more to scoop, so I'll probably go do a few more loads right now. My fingers were numb in a very weird way afterwards. And I now have sore muscles (which I'm sure will only get more sore) in places I haven't felt for ages.

I'm pretty sure that I'll never forget to turn off the sprinkler again, though. At least I hope not. Darn those natural consequences.

I also decided that I like irony as a literary element, but not so much in my own life.

a bit of weirdness for your weekend

Whaddaya think? I was busting up laughing, but somehow frightened a bit, too.

budding entrepreneurs

Last Monday for FHE we went down to David's folks' house and picked cherries. They have three good sized trees, so we invited our friends along. We picked A LOT of cherries (turns out it was about 50 lbs). We decided to have the kids sell them on the corner outside our friends' house, as it is a fairly good thoroughfare for the neighborhood. The adults did most of the washing, sorting and bagging, but the kids did the sales. In total, they sold nearly $100 of cherries! We are using our have of the profits to go towards our homeschool supplies for this coming year. I think it was a good project for the kids, and they had some fun while they were at it, too.

poor little neglected blog...

You know that story/analogy where someone puts all the big rocks in the jar and then still has room for lots of sand. But if you put the sand in first, you can't fit all the big rocks in? Well, I think I've fit all the big rocks in my jar, or almost, but somehow they are managing to fill up the whole darn thing and leaving no room for the sand. I guess it wouldn't be so bad, except for the fact that I'm quite fond of the sand.

mama crow strikes again

Mid sneeze!



He's just too cute sometimes.

V is for

vulture.

We've been doing a "Letter of the Day" every day to help practice ABCs with Spud. Today is "V" and so we were looking at pictures of vultures online. This is a King Vulture. Definitely the coolest looking vulture I've ever seen.

hey, it only took us almost 8 years...

...but we've finally figured out what it takes to keep our house at a decent level of organization/tidiness. Never has been my strong suit, and it so often has just felt overwhelming, so I'd usually just do "cram sessions" before having company over. David decided we should finally get a system, and it's been really good. And having him be actively involved has helped so much. I love having the house clean and being able to enjoy doing things without looking around at all the piles that need to be put away. There are still some areas that need sorting/organizing, but we are doing so much better.

So, yeah, that's just another reason I've been so scarce in the blogosphere lately!

Noodle's Birthday Party

See the pictures here. Sufficeth to say, it was a blast. Have I told you that I'm an awesome party planner? I guess now it's time to start gearing up for Ichthoberfest 2009.

I've found my ideal job...

From this article

Robert Provine, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County who studies laughter, notes that dogs pant in a certain way when they're playing, and rats are known to chirp.

So he thinks the roots of laughter might go even further back and would like to see more studies like this one that compare different animals' playful sounds.

"I think that it's about time we get out there, start tickling the dogs and the cats, and the pigs, the rats, as well as the chimpanzees," Provine says. "I think we'll learn a lot about what we have in common, as well as our differences."

Can't you just see me as an Animal Tickler?

most recent portrait session

Check it out here.

last week...what a week!

We got off to a good start, at least...

On Memorial Day we got a lot of work done, plus I got to go to Savers with my friend Leah (in case you didn't know, Savers has everything 50% off on all holidays) and got some great stuff. Some jeans for Noodle, a cool vest for Spud (that he wore nonstop the next two days), some clothes for Sprout, a little stuffed toy for Noodle & Spud, I also got four very cute juice glasses (okay, to the untrained eye they probably look like plain juice glasses, but trust me...) and two fabulous blue dinner plates. And it was fun to hang out with Leah for a bit with just the babies.

Monday evening we went and had a picnic at Rock Canyon Park which was also a lot of fun.

Tuesday morning our internet was down. And it was down Wednesday. And Thursday. There were a couple of hours during those days when it "flickered" on. This wouldn't be such a big deal if my job didn't require the internet. On top of that, we have this preschool thing for Spud that he is supposed to do 5 days a week, 15 min/day that requires internet, and we are also working through some online phonics lessons with Noodle. So, not having the internet was a major disruption in our regularly scheduled life.

David's grandmother came into town on Monday, his sister Tina arrived on Tuesday and his other sister Jenn came on Thursday for their youngest sister Anita's graduation. So there was all those things to do, too. David and I had a "misunderstanding" on Thursday morning, which caused hard feelings between us the rest of the day. Thankfully we had a chance on Friday to talk and resolve things. After nearly 8 years of marriage, we still have serious glitches in our communication at times. We feel like we're finally making some progress, though. I think we'd been stuck in a rut for quite some time.

Jenn came to hang out with the kids on Friday, then Friday evening she, David & I went out for dinner. The kids slept over at their Nana & Pop pop's house. I worked a whole bunch of hours to make up for the downtime.

Saturday the internet was down for a while again, my computer crashed, I had book club and then we had a family BBQ with David's family. The evening ended with us all trying to mediate a dialogue between Joe (David's dad) and Anita. She is having a really hard time being at home and the parents, especially Joe, aren't making it easy. He says hurtful things to her without realizing or remembering them. We had to end before we made much progress, but we are planning a "group session" for later this week. At least Joe is willing to try. Most fathers of his generation wouldn't even bother.

David & Keith are in the processing of restoring my computer and we bought a 1 terrabyte back-up drive since it is essential for my photography business. Oh, last Saturday I did a family portrait session with a very cute family in our ward. I'll report when those are on my website. So I've also been editing photos this week.

This week was a painful reminder that my life doesn't function smoothly without an internet connection. Weird to be so dependent on something.

So, yeah, that's my life lately. And Noodle turns SEVEN this Tuesday!!

(And the irony is that the internet died yet again as I was trying to get this posted Sunday afternoon....)

tummy time

He's not a huge fan, but he sure is cute. And drooly.

it's a dog's life

This is what the dogs were doing while I was working this afternoon.

being a mom...

means that sometimes the oddest things will make you emotional. I was cleaning off the table and I came across Noodle's drawings for the day (click to view them on her blog). For some reason, the fact that all three depict such happy scenes just got to me. I especially love the laundry one, and I'm glad that she is familiar with clotheslines as I imagine there are many kids in the world who aren't! It made me so happy to see these pictures and know that she is having a happy childhood. What a wonderful little girl.

thank heavens...

for baby slings. For some unknown reason, Sprout is refusing to nap today unless I am holding him. He usually naps just fine upstairs on the bed, but not today. So after a couple of HOURS of holding him, I decide to just grab the sling and strap him in. Since he weighs about 17 lbs now, this is a much better way to hold him.

Last night we ran a bunch of errands and stupidly left all of our slings at home (we have three plus one that is missing). That is a mistake we won't make again! He was very content just being held in our arms, but we certainly could feel it!

On a semi-related note, we got a new battery for my pedometer. It calculates calories burned, also, based on your weight. I figure I can probably add 1-200 extra every day for packing around this "little" guy. :o)

end of pity party

Yeah, I'm over it. I had a nice mother's day, complete with a homemade card (plenty of glitter) a primary teacher-assisted bookmark, and yummy food made by my husband. Also, a box of chocolates (that I specifically told him to get). I think next year for my birthday I'll just make sure he knows that I want something wrapped. :o) He's very accommodating and thoughtful, even if he isn't "into" birthdays and made up fake holidays.

i guess i skipped over...

...my birthday. Well, to be honest, there wasn't all that much to report. David's folks are always really kind to get me something nice, but we hadn't settled on anything this year. I was leaning towards chickens, but then decided that at present I'm not up to being responsible for any more living things. David tends not to get too into birthdays, preferring to do nice things and give gifts unexpectedly at other times of the year. Which is nice, but I would be lying if I didn't confess to wanting at least something to unwrap on my birthday. A very sweet friend brought me over a gift card, and I am enjoying contemplating what frivolous thing I should get with it. Another friend brought over some cookies that night, and another friend came back into town and brought me some delicious treats. Also, I went and bought myself a birdbath a couple days later for the backyard as my birthday present from David. The best part of the day was the delicious hot fudge brownie sundaes we had instead of a cake. I just wasn't in the mood for cake this year.

I think what I'd really like in the future is for him to coordinate something with the kids to give me. I know they'd like to be able to give me something, but they are too young to come up with things all on their own. And having Mother's Day the same week as my birthday (and also not having much fuss made over that) is also kind of a bummer.

Anyone want to come to my pity party? I've provide the cheese to go with my whine... :o)

happy kids

We've been having a lot less fighting around here lately. I attribute it largely to the new "consequence" I've imposed -- they each get to pull 10 weeds every time they fight.