Outgrow birthdays?!?

No, never.

Why should I?

If anything, I should think I certainly have more to celebrate about myself and my life now than I did when I was five.

Although, admittedly, that was a pretty awesome cake. ;)

Happy Birthday to meeeee!

Is Blogging Dead?

Just a little reminder for me at the beginning of this year, when I'm feeling so behind anyhow and I'm back to wondering how much my babbling little blog matters to anyone but myself. I have to even remind Zac to read it (hey did you read my new post yet? hm, hm? noo?). Ah, anyway.

Here we go:

Read this lovely post if you're wondering (as I sometimes am) why I'm still at it. ;) It articulates my feelings on the matter very nicely. And no, blogging is not dead. At least not on my blog. haha.

And, as you know, any comments of support and encouragement and compliments are always always appreciated. And craved. And needed.

Thanks a bunch, friends. I so appreciate your listening ears and willingness to read along.

The Embryo

- by Carol Lynn Pearson

Love is no eagle
Strong amid
The heights.
It is an egg -
A fertile,
Fragile
Possibility.
Hold it warm
Within your wing,
Beneath your breast.

Perhaps in heaven
Love can live
Self-nourished,
Free.
But in this world,
Where mountains fall
and east winds blow,
Oh, careful -
Love is embryo.
---------------------------------------------------------
(going into this new year, I am pondering the embryos I am nurturing in my life, where more care should be taken, what needs more nourishment, etc. I guess whenever I think of relationships and how much we need to care for and work for them, this poem comes to mind, so I thought I'd share. {I had to dig through some old High School papers to find my old copy of this - haha. It was just stuck in my head and I needed to look for it.}) Also, this quote I ran across the other day:

"Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendship and intimacies, and soon their places will know them no more, and yet they leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by the roadside, expecting them to "keep" by force of inertia." - William James

What's on your mind this New Year's?

a winter's walk

Just a few random thoughts and pics from a walk:

- We had a really lovely Christmas. We really did. And I have a ton of posts backed up in my brain to write.

-But temps in the 30's meant I could walk outside yesterday and not freeze my tail off. It started off sunny, then the clouds from the distance rolled in. But I loved my walk - and taking pictures along the way. Hope you enjoy them.

- This is a hard time of year for me. I was doing really well, just in general, until I started thinking about this past year and the things I had wanted to accomplish. And when I start thinking about where my life is going and things that I need to change, it is really really hard for me not to get discouraged. Both the evaluating and the looking ahead processes are hard for me at the moment. Ugh. New Years. Perhaps I should skip it. But it is so in my nature to reflect, and assess, and make lists, and goals, and want to feel like I am doing ok in a measurable and meaningful way. It's not something I let go of easily.

- I love seeing the fun, quirky and imaginative things my kids do and I want to be a fun mom and do fun creative things with them and love this extra time with them. But at the same time they are driving me absolutely bonkers. Seriously. And I am not the mom I want to be.

- And why is it that I seem to have this capacity (and need) for almost endless sleep??? I've been sleeping approx. 10 hrs every night easily and still sleepy and ready for a 2 hr nap in the afternoon. I seem to never feel rested and energetic no matter how much sleep I get. It is unfortunate, really.

Anyway - well. There's that. Seems there might be a little symbolic significance to the progression of sunlight to cloudiness reflected in these photos. haha. Now if only to find a way to disperse the clouds . . . hmm . . .

How is winter treating you?

Merry Christmas to you all!

We're not getting Christmas cards out this year, so here are our greetings instead. Hope you like it!

A photo from our church Christmas party family photo booth:

And a screenshot from our wonderful holiday greeting video:

Go here to see our cute little video.

Wishing you and yours peace and joy and all that is the best of this season. :)

(I'll be doing some major blog catch-up in some of the quiet(er) moments after Christmas. See you then!)

14 years

" you are my delight

and my comfort all night

and I'd wrap you up tight

in my arms . . . "

- from Niamh Parsons,

"An Paistin Fionn"

Happy Anniversary, Zac.

(go here to hear the song this quote comes from. It's one of my very favorites.)

( PS - I've been blogging for 5 yrs now (!!) and posted wedding pics for each of our anniversaries in that time. I'm working on transferring my older posts from the old blog into this one so you can see them all. Because I know you want to.) ;)

a day in the life

Yesterday just seemed like I was driving back and forth all over the place all day long. And as I sat and thought about it, I really had been. Want to see? Yes, of course you do.
Here was my day:

8:00 drive kids to school
drive home
call Dr about pain Isaac was having in his groin
9:15 go to zumba
drive home
11 go pick up Elisabeth
come home
11:30 go pick up Isaac and check him out from school early
go to Dr, he sent us over to the hospital for an ultrasound
12:30 grab some fast food lunch on the way to the hospital
1:30 ultrasound for Isaac's pain issue (everything looked normal)
2:30 go home
2:45 pick up Samuel from school
home again
nap for 20 min.
3:30 send Isaac off to piano lesson
3:45 take Elisabeth to dance class
4:45 back home
start dinner
5:30 take Abigail to violin Christmas party
home again
6:30 go pick up Abigail, wait 30 min for the party to finish
back home to pick up a white elephant gift
7 drive Abigail to church youth group
back home

And in case you're wondering what Zac was doing during those evening run-arounds, he stopped at the store to pick up Isaac's prescription for an antibiotic (in case there was an infection causing his pain). Then he helped Samuel and Elisabeth with their homework while I played chauffeur, etc. And cleaned up dinner. Then we both got the kids to bed.

And that, my friends, is a day in our life (or a part of it anyway). Wasn't that fun? ;)