outdoor adventuring

Yesterday after playing with the bunny, I let the kids go across the street to explore. I loved watching them help each other and lead each other. And they felt so adventurous, it made me smile.

(here is the view of them without the help of the zoom button)

My camera is sometimes handy as binoculars. :)

(And PS - look closely at our landscape here, and then go check out the landscape found in photos here, and then tell me where you think I would rather be?! The contrast is sometimes enough to bring me to tears. It often does, actually. But - that's a topic for another day, I suppose.)

some action shots

As I was outside experimenting with my camera, I tried out this action feature where you hold down the button and it takes a series of quick shots.

I was taking these of Samuel:

And then if you pay close attention . . .

. . . whoosh!! There goes the bunny hopping by!

And then just a few seconds later . . .

Ta-da! Here she comes in the other direction!!

hahaha . . .

ok, I know it's just me. But I thought it was kind of funny. :)

and the bunny's birthday, too

Yeah, no kidding. Along with all the kids, even our bunny has her birthday in the spring (hm, are all bunnies born in the spring? I really have no idea).

But, to celebrate we took Leia outside for a photo shoot. Her big day was yesterday, but it was too cold and miserable to do it then, so today it was. And we got her when she was about 5 wks old, so it's been sort of amazing to see her grow to full size.

And did I get just the tiniest bit carried away with taking bunny portraits? Yes, perhaps. It was sort of fun. :)

Sometimes I have big dreams in the back of my head of building a whole bunny fortress in our basement. Litter-training the bunny. And giving her the cage of her dreams. With multiple levels. And lots of hopping space. Yeah. Sometimes I think about that.

We'll see. hahaha.

But isn't she cute?! :)

Happy Birthday, bunny.

Easter 2010

So. Over the course of this lovely weekend:

We dyed eggs.


We had Easter baskets and an egg hunt in our front yard with lots of yummy candy (the snow had melted by the afternoon, thankfully!!).

We ate a delicious dinner.

And had the most scrumptious dessert ever, which I made myself (!). (Creamy Lemon Squares)

Tasty lemony deliciousness and so pretty, too! It's pretty much like eating springtime sunshine, if you can imagine such a lovely thing. :)

We also watched our church General Conference. (Go here to have a peek for yourself.)

And we gathered with my family at my mom's house for my sister Heather's birthday lunch (but I forgot to take pictures).

So, it was a very lovely weekend. Fun family traditions and time together. Great food. Happy things. Uplifting counsel. The hope and promise of Easter morning and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. New beginnings. New life.

I couldn't have asked for more.

(well, ok maybe I could have asked for a little nicer weather, but I'll just let that go . . .)
:)

4 inches of snow on Easter Morning

(more later)

this I believe

Forgiveness Flour
Marguerite Stewart

When I went to the door,
at the whisper of a knocking,

I saw Simeon Gantner's daughter, Kathleen,

standing there, in her shawl and her shame,

sent to ask "Forgiveness Flour" for her bread.

"Forgiveness Flour," we call it in our corner.

If one has erred,

one is sent to ask for flour of his neighbors.

If they loan it to him, that means he can stay,

but if they refuse, he best take himself off.

I looked at Kathleen . . . what a jewel of a daughter,

though not much like her father, more's the pity.

"I'll give you the flour," I said, and went to measure it.

Measuring was the rub. If I gave too much,

neighbors would think I made sin easy,

But if I gave too little, they would label me "close."

While I stood measuring,

Joel, my husband, came in from the mill,

a great bag of flour on his shoulder.

And seeing her there, shrinking in the doorway,

he tossed the bag at her feet.

"Here, take all of it."

And so she had flour enough for many loaves,

while I stood measuring.

Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.

Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

- Luke 6:36-38

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Ephesians 4:32

Happy Easter

(photos found on flickr)

being alone: my 2 day getaway

As you may already know, I had the opportunity to go with Zac to Logan for 2 days while he had a work conference to attend. And although, yes, we had lunch and dinner together as well as uninterrupted talking time on the way there and back, and a quiet night together (which were all wonderful) - it was, more than anything, a time for me to be alone. I can't even remember the last time I was completely alone like this. It was so refreshing and restorative. I love my husband and loved having time with him without the clamoring of children. And I love my kids immeasurably. There is no doubt about it. But I also love quiet. And I love the stillness of solitude.

What I realized over and over again throughout my 2 days alone was how wonderful it was not to have anyone waiting for me. At home, even when I go do something alone, I know there is someone at home waiting for me to get back. Even out with friends, or with Zac, or whatever, there is always this subtle pressure that I never even knew existed. Getting dressed, going somewhere, doing something, even going to the restroom - there is always someone there waiting for you.

It was an incredible relief to have time all for myself. Nothing I had to do. Nowhere I had to be. No one wanting anything of me. Amazing.

So, we got to Logan just before 8 am and Zac went to his conference. I had to wait until 3 (or 1 at the earliest depending on room availability) before I could check into our hotel. And I would meet Zac at 12 for lunch. So, first I went to the Logan LDS Temple and did temple work there. It was peaceful and beautiful.

And then I wandered around the temple grounds taking pictures. It was so nice.

After that, I found the Logan library and spent some time reading and writing there. The weather was cold and snowy so I was glad to have a warm quiet place to hang out. I had my bag with all the essentials: 2 books to read (an extra in case I tired of the first - haha), my journal, good pens, my camera, gum, a blank notebook, and my ipod. So I was quite content to hang out wherever. :)

Here are some pictures of the snow. The top and bottom pictures on the left are of basically the same view out of the hotel room window - the top from the next morning, and the bottom one from later on in the morning as the fog lifted. And surprise! There were mountains there that I didn't know existed! I've never been to Logan before besides driving past it on the way north, so I didn't know what was even around. Interesting.

Anyway - Zac and I had lunch at a little diner, he went back to his conference and I sat in the hotel lobby pestering the guy there to please let me check into a room early. After about 20 min, they found me a room. Yay! So I checked in and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.

That evening we went to check out this antique bookstore that I had seen earlier and wanted to see. And I bought a book of children's poetry for $6 that I've wanted for some time. And we had a great time pointing out interesting obscure books to each other. My kind of date! :) We had dinner at a nice restaurant, thanks to his work allowance. And then we were so full, we rolled ourselves back into our room and digested a bit before going to the fitness room to try to work off some of those calories. He ran. I tried out an elliptical machine (for the first time) and then swam in the pool. So nice.

I found this bookstore so fascinating (and I went back again the next day to browse some more - and take pictures - hahaha). It was like a library/used book store gone out of control. Books up to the ceiling and stacked in random piles all over the place. I loved it. I especially loved the antique books. I really like new books, the smell of new pages, creasing a new book spine. But I also love really old books - especially after reading 84, Charing Cross Road where the lady orders books from a bookseller in London and loves the passages marked by other people, and the pages that are so well-loved that the books fall open to them. The history that a book has been through, thinking about all the other people who have loved, marked and handled a book is fascinating to me. I know I'm just sentimental. That's okay.

Anyway - that pic on the bottom right of the set of green books is an almost complete set of the Harvard Classics (it was only missing one volume out of the 50). They are long out of print and not easy to find, so it was kind of exciting to see. The guy in the bookshop didn't know for sure how much it would sell for (he said I could call the owner if I was interested) but I know from seeing old sets of them online that it would probably be at least $200. How I wished then for a spare couple hundred bucks. Sigh. Oh well. Someday. :)

Another thing I realized while away is how much I truly love and adore my king sized bed. I almost wanted to title this post "spoiled by the king, and disappointed by the queen." The hotel room had a queen size bed (well, 2 actually, but that's irrelevant). The point is, I rolled over at some point, sadly overestimating the size of the bed, and fell completely off. My back hit the corner of the solid-surface topped nightstand and I now have a super nasty 3-4 inch sized bruise on my back. Ouch.
That was the only "sore" spot of the trip, if you will. ha.

Anyway - the next morning, I slept in while Zac got up and went to his conference. I went swimming again. I wrote in my journal and laid on the bed watching the snow out the window until it was time for me to check out. Zac and I grabbed some lunch. He went back to the conference. I went back to the bookstore. Then I came back to the hotel lobby because I figured that was as good a place as any to hang out for the remaining couple hours I had. I read some more until I got sleepy. And then I listened to some relaxing cello concertos on my ipod and dozed off in front of the lobby fireplace (it was a very cozy lobby). Zac got out of the conference early. And off we went.

I have to say the time went far too quickly and I would need about a week of that to truly get enough of it. But it was so good. I can't say I had any grand revelations about my life or self-discoveries or anything. But I did write 12 1/2 pages in my journal (catching up on a lot). And read about 100 pgs of The Mill on the Floss (which is a sloooow-going book for me). And took too many deep cleansing breaths to count. Ahhhhhh . . . sweet precious solitude. I definitely need this more often.

(Finally, I leave you with these cool pictures of a tree at the temple. I was having fun tinting it different colors and couldn't pick just one. The original sky was gray, of course.)

And now, Easter weekend is upon us! And our Spring Break is next week. I can't believe it's here already. Such fun. :) Hope you all have a glorious weekend, as well.