Daily Photo::14

I thought homework was supposed to end once you graduated from school...

peace

My life is a musical, apparently

I don't know where it comes from but I swear our kids are Broadway musical prodigies.  They have never seen a musical (although the Backyardigans are pretty musical-like).  I don't even like musicals (except Oklahoma, I don't know why).  But there are at least half a dozen times during the day when our kids are engrossed in some kind of pretend play and they break into song.  And not just all of a sudden they start singing Mary had a little lamb or something that has nothing to do with their play.  No, they have a well written, scripted out transition from whatever they are pretending into a dramatic singing and dancing chorus that underscores whatever climax they have reached in their story.

For example, today they were playing "police school".  They were learning how to become police officer.  Abigail was discussing with Tristan what a police officer's job consists of, such as chasing bad guys (of course).  She went on to say, "that is not the only part of our job, is it Tristan?  Oh no, it is not.  Ready everyone!  ~(singing and dancing now) That is, noooooooo, that is not the only part of our joooooobbbbb!~  And off they were in some semi-coordinated song of the details of a police officer's duties.  I can't help but to bob my head while I am chopping cabbage and they are parading around the house but another part of my wonders, where does this come from?!

Now I must admit here that Matt and I both have a tendency to sing everyday requests to our kids when we are feeling frustrated with them but don't want to show it or when something annoying has happened to us and we want to tell each other about it without it sounding like we are bitching.  Let me warn you, people, it is terribly frightening to face the unknown influence a parent has on their child.

To get a taste of my life as a musical, here is a video of Abigail playing her guitar and singing Tristan to "sleep":

peace

From my Valentine...

Matt and I have never been very into Valentine's day.  Sure, we have gone to dinner or to see a movie but we have always viewed it more as a Hallmark holiday where people are encouraged to spend reckless amounts of money on unnecessary stuff.  Married for 8 1/2 years, two kids and an intense job life, later however, have encouraged us to use Valentine's day as a reminder to appreciate and celebrate the one we love.  Not to replace everyday affection and appreciation but just to remind us that thoughtful gift giving is more about giving a piece of yourself than consuming commodities.

And this Valentine's day, I received a most wonderful and beautiful gift.  My engagement ring and wedding band were passed down to me from Matt's mother's mother.  I have loved these rings for their history and family significance.  I have felt very honored wearing the rings of a strong woman I never had the pleasure to meet but have heard so much about.  I have often looked at those rings on very ordinary days and wondered about the everyday life of the woman who wore them before me.  60+ years of living and use, however, have worn those rings down and they cracked.  Not wanting to risk ultimately destroying the rings by repairing and continuing to wear them, I retired those symbols of love and commitment some time last year.  Below is my Valentine' day gift for this year:  a new engagement ring/wedding band.  Not to replace my family heirloom but to continue what they symbolize; everlasting commitment, honesty, love and devotion.  Thanks, babe, I love it!

  peace

Eekkk!

Is that shriek because of last night's Halloween tricks or because it has been a horrifyingly long time since I have written on the blog?  Well, both actually.  Super cute kids dressed up in slaved-over costumes is definitely motivating me to show my face around here.  It's not that I have stopped having things to write about or a lack of exciting life events to share (don't laugh).  It's just that I am learning that life as a mother of a first grader is busy!  I mean, I have a preschooler too but he doesn't have a half and hour of homework every night and 2 swim practices a week for the swim team.  Although, he does have his own swimming lesson and opinions about how we should be spending our time.  So, I have been adjusting to homework, tight schedules, early, fast dinners 3 times a week (I like to cook slowly, preferably with a beer in my hand so this has been an adjustment) and lots of transitions between activities.  Watching Abigail learn to read, seeing her thoughtful movement in the water as she refines her swimming technique, and seeing her gain confidence in herself as a result of both as been worth the madness however.  Plus getting two nights a week to spend one on one time with my little guy and do nothing but play while sister works hard has been enriching as well.  I am glad when bedtime comes though!

So on with Halloween!  I have made the kids costumes every year since they are born and this year I learned two things.  1 - I really like to make costumes!  I like the challenge of creating something from their imagination and getting to watch them enjoy it.  2 - Ears are really hard to make well.  The kids have never dressed as something with ears before (besides their own ears, that is) so I was not prepared for this challenge.  It worked out in the end.  Trail and error makes perfect for me.  I know I said 2 things but here is number 3 - Making Halloween costumes is kind of like making a really great homemade dinner.  It takes about 3 times longer to make the thing that it does to enjoy it.  Ah, well, good thing I like the process of creating as much as I do the product!  So without further ado, here are the super cute kiddos:

Do you know what she is yet?  Well, try the next one.

Give up?  She is a horse, of course!  This costume was hard to capture in a photograph.  It looked better in person.  Any guesses on Tristan's costume?  Check out below...

Easy one, Batman!

The loot!  They are still too young to know what a small amount of candy that is compared to what other kids bring home.  Shhh, don't you be the one to tell them either!

And what is Halloween without carving up some pumpkins and eating some yummy seeds, eh?

peace

Harder than I thought...

Seeing as I view myself as someone who doesn't wear shoes a whole awful lot, going barefoot for a day was way harder than I thought it would be.  I realized a few things:  I wear my slippers a lot.  Our house has all tiled and hardwood flooring.  We only have 1 or 2 area rugs because, well, we are messy.  In the winter we are constantly dragging in snow, the spring and fall, mud and in the summer, dirt.  So I have seen rugs as just one more thing to get dirty.  Because of this, our floors are cold almost all year long plus they are, well honestly, dirty quite frequently during the day.  I never noticed until I chose not to wear my shoes, how often I put my slippers on.  It is uncomfortable to walk on a dirty cold floor.  Not to mention the mud and rocks on the way to and from the van.  I was honestly, disturbingly uncomfortable by the end of the day wearing no shoes for most but not even all of the day.  Irritable, almost.  I was surprised at my own reaction and humbled.  I spent a good portion of the day inside working, a little outside in the driveway and nothing even touching the miles that most folks without shoes walk everyday just to get water.

I know all the well-intentioned but sometimes cliche phrases after doing something like this.  The expressions of gratitude for what you have, the compassion for those that don't, the passion for wanting to do something about it all.  And I feel and experience those things but something else as well.  Something of a hole in my heart/soul that these kinds of divides (those with and without, etc.) even exist at all.  Something of an ache, of a longing for this world to be put in such a state where those who have don't even consider keeping more than what is sufficient for themselves (myself) but give as freely as if nothing they had belonged to them alone.  And I know that this is the deep desire/longing for God.  This is feeling of separation from the Creator Himself.  This is the groaning for a reconciliation of this world that none of us can bring about with our own power.  And I am grateful.  For shoes?  Yes of course, but more so for a God who gives me (this world) a hope beyond this mess, a glimpse of life as we all see it could be from time to time.  For Love that does not change no matter how broken I (we) may be.

peace

Face-to-face

Friends of ours share a beautiful farm with thier parents and will eventually take it over themselves one day.  They have recently acquired around25 chickens and started selling the eggs by word of mouth.  I just love the various sizes that come in one carton, the bright yellow/orange of the yolks, the way the whites just zoom out of the shell...so fresh! 
For the past several weeks our friends have been delivering their eggs to interested people in our church.  I have just loved watching these exchanges: people bringing back their cartons from the previous weeks to be reused, trading their hard earned dollars for farm fresh, hand gathered, lovingly raised free range eggs, seeing all the eggs cartons carefully labeled by name and date in the church frig.  I love when agriculture & community take on this interconnected relationship: farmer and eater exchanging goods in person, talking about the chickens, how the weather is affecting production, what future plans of the farm are, and chatting about life, community, work, etc.  Person to person, instead of farm to truck to store to consumer to table.  It is amazing how much more valuable an investment becomes when it has a face & a name, when it is your neighbor.  This is how all of us do more than merely eke out an existence or make ends meet, this is how we live a life: face-to-face.

peace

Kid Speak

My favorite phrase of the day from my 3 year old:  "Oh my Heavens!"  (Imagine it being said with a slight lisp at the end).

Precious...

Ringing in the New Year...

Happy New Year to you and yours!

What are you doing on the first morning of the new year?  I am enjoying children having a sleep over at Nana and Pappy's house, aka a quiet house!  Catching up on the news, reading articles reviewing the last decade (whatever you may want to call it), checking out discussions on the change in the way we listen to music (and reveling in the fact that I still have a record collection that I love which balances my dependence on Pandora),  generally just pondering this life of ours: the assumptions we make, the people we love, the things we take for granted, the unknown life that remains before us, what our children will be like (and ourselves, I guess) at the end of the next decade, the choices past and future.

I have never really been one for New Year's resolutions or year-in-reviews because I believe in constantly (maybe even obsessively?) reevaluating who I am and how I am living my life.  This morning, however, the quiet - the rare and blessed cessation of sound - seems to allow for a wider reflective view.  Take the time to ponder the view yourself.

"Flu-like illness"

Of course on the day the kids are scheduled for their flu vaccinations & Matt is in NYC, Tristan develops a fever, chills, an ache and a cough.  Abigail was able to get vaccinated but since we are leaving on Sunday for NYC he won't be able to until we get back in December.  And then of course there is the decision of do we skip the H1N1 vac since that is probably what he has or do we do it in December since we don't really know for sure what is making him sick and do the seasonal flu as well?  Too many unknown factors and options.  To put the situation in perspective, though, he is mildly sick compared to what other kids have experienced.  But there goes my plans of having all our stuff packed and the house clean before we leave.  Oh well, being organized is overrated anyway (are your eyes rolling yet, Matt?).

Trying to catch up...on life

It can be so hard to be consistent in life with two small kids. Lovely as they are, they sure can be needy sometimes, can't they?

All joking aside, we have been busy and not really in the best ways. The last few weeks have been filled with colds, snow, shoveling, ice, stomach virus (experienced by the whole family!), getting our vehicles stuck and unstuck, did I mention snow and ice? It really is so beautiful this time of year. The trees have been caked with a wonderful white coating for the last week, like they were all dressed up for a wedding. This last storm (or two) has brought an onslaught of ice, though, that is now covering everything. Earlier this evening I thought it was still raining out until I stepped outside and discovered the sound I thought was rain was actually the ice ridden trees moving and rubbing up against each other. I have not ceased to be amazed at the weather here. And the thing is that the mountain's weather really is quite intensified than the lower elevations (flatlanders, as we found out they are called). When I was talking to a friend who lives in town recently, she said "wow the weather really is a life style for you now isn't it?". And it is. We are at the mercy of nature, the town's road crew, and our own two hand's energy for the day. It is not a bad thing. Just tiring. Remember when I asked for a long winter? Well, it seems that my prayers have been answered!

With being snowed (actually more often iced) in, my creative juices having been flowing. The kids and I have been doing some fun projects and I have been sewing my rear end off any chance I get. My previous sewing machine was broken beyond repair and we were able to get a vintage Singer with cabinet and attachments for $50! It is a 1946 and it runs smoother than any machine I have ever worked on. It only does a straight stitch but it has lots of fun attachments and I am enjoying the challenge of sewing without the zig zag option. Here are a few pics of the beauty.



Here are also two recent projects I did. The first is a pair of pants made out of a Jon Check t-shirt my brother gave me that was too big (thanks, Jas!). They are great bumming around the house pants for Abigail.



This picture of a purse I made. The picture does not do this Goodwill-found-fabric justice. I love it and still have a yard and a half left over for lots of other projects... It's reversible with a red fabric inside and a pocket of the same patterned fabric as this side. As you can see, the colors compliment my coat pretty well. :-)



peace

You know you live on the mountain when...

• You see more snowmobilers on your road in a day than you do cars in 2 weeks.
• The 5 ton plow truck gets stuck in the snow on your road and has to radio the highway plow truck to pull him out.
• You and your spouse stand admiring and talking about the positive qualities of your woodstove. This is after 2 weeks of a smoked filled house, CO2 detectors blaring, finding a manual online (who knew our stove had a damper? That's helpful to know!) cleaning out the chimney and buying a new one piece elbow for the pipe. And weeks later still periodically saying to each other. I love our woodstove, don't you?
• You have to transport the Home Depot employee and all his equipment to your house in your own truck because his won't make it and shovel a path around your house from the 2 feet of snow so that he can install storm doors.
• The UPS carrier leaves a note in your mailbox that says "Left your package at John Smith's house on the corner". I guess that's one way to meet the neighbors.
• You step outside to get your ash bucket for a morning's cleaning of the woodstove and think, hmm it's awfully warm out here. You check the temperature and realize, golly, it's a balmy 10 degrees compared to the -12 the morning before.