Whoa.

I just wanted to share this amazing quote. Let it sink in.

"Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts.
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as he loves the arrow that flies, so He loves also the bow that is stable."

-Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, Copyright 1923 (Knopf), p. 17.

Pretty amazing, right?

Bathroom. Done.

Oh yes I did!

I had a burst of energy on Saturday and voila, there you have it.


That night, I ran over to Target and when I got to the bathroom department I thought (or could have said it out loud) "what the...what am I doing here?" I had not even planned any colors but so pleased with what I found. I picked up new rugs, towels, and a shower curtain. I don't quite know what I will use to cover that little window, it faces east so it gets the intense morning sun.

The paint color is called "soft denim." I had originally picked the color for Sarah's bedroom, then I thought it would be nice in the bathroom too. Sarah's room is still yellow. Tony painted her room about four years ago and we have never liked the color but figured we'd just change it later. I'm thinking that will be the next room to get painted but like I said before I am not anxious to do any more painting right now.

Bathroom. Done. Love it!

Friday Sweets 5.25.

So it looks like I have a theme...sweet things on Friday. Something really sweet that happened this week:

Babies + water = irresistible.

This bathing suit was Emily's. How I held on to it for almost 9 years I dunno. So glad I did.

Sarah received a reading award this week. They give it only twice a year to one child from each classroom at her school. The event was a little dessert gathering where each child was recognized individually. It was very special, they even had two girls playing harp music. We are proud of our little Sarah. She is reading, writing, and speaking in two languages, pretty darn well for kinder. We have had a few challenges this year but overall it was a good school year for the girls, I'm glad it's almost over though. I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing summer at home with four kids and nowhere to go. Before you laugh your head completely off, you know I'm not really that naive. I'll do my best to keep them busy and not trying to beat each other with ______ (fill in the blank). We do have a few camping trips planned for June and July and a San Diego trip in August. Those excursions will be complicated but we'll work it out...we always do.

By the way, we're new at this camping thing so stay tuned, it should be interesting.

Kitchen. Done.

Well, not entirely, I still have a lot of touch up, re-caulking and such. But it is mostly done and I really really love it.

I'm not sure if I'll change the roller shades or not. They have been up for 7-8 years and obviously the pistachio color was picked when the walls were whitish. At first I thought it wasn't a good fit but the more I look at them I don't mind it so much. The sun is a killer there in the afternoon so they have to stay up until the moment I change them out for something else.










I'm so glad to be done with it, I'm getting tired of painting. I'd really like to get the guest bathroom done before my Dad (yep, I said my Dad) arrives in a few weeks but it probably won't happen. In any case, I am so completely loving everything that I have painted to this point...the living room, the hallway, the entryway, the dining room, and now the kitchen! Yay me! Yay, yay, yay! Bravo!

OK, that's enough of that.

Yay!

Fruit Basket.

I know I promised not to post more pictures of strawberries but these aren't mine, they are someone else's so it doesn't count! My sister-in-law Maria (aka Chonchi) brought fruit to her mother on Mother's day and proceeded to cut it and spike it into a ready to eat fruit basket. She got the idea from a magazine ad. She didn't have any cookie cutters for the pineapple flowers so she just cut it by hand. It turned out very pretty.

The company that sells them florist style is called Edible Arrangements and their version goes for $50-60 depending on size. Maria used regular wooden skewers and green leafy lettuce inside the basket. I thought this was such a fun idea!

 

Friday Sweets.

Here are a few things that gave me good cause to pause this week.

Sharpies. Normally I can't hurl myself across a room fast enough to remove them from the hands of my little people. You know what happens... they leak through the paper, and always end up somewhere that I would have preferred not to have to scrub and scrub and scrub. Fortunately, I didn't notice that Sarah had picked up the fine tipped red one (that I hadn't put away properly) and before I could spew the words of a nagging mother, I saw it.

This one is worth a lot of scrubbing.

Then, there was Sarah's oruga (caterpillar) that came home from school...beautiful thing.

And one more thing that's made me happy this week...the remainder of my Mother's day treat:




You'll notice plenty of them already gone...I'll never forget them.

Kissing Don Quixote.

I'm wearing my beautiful dress again

and

I want to kiss Don Quixote.

Mmmmwaaaaaa!

I just kissed Don Quixote!

Happy Mother's Day Mommies.

Happy Mother's Day Mommies. You are beautiful! You are doing the most important job on earth, the reason you were put here...to grow good little people. We were made to make more of us. The most fundamental reason for human existence is what YOU do! So cheers to you, today and every day of the year for all the loving, loving effort and sacrifice you put into your mothering.

To my mother, I love you, Happy Mother's Day. We are going to take more pictures together from now on. I just thought you needed to know. I searched for a good photo to post of you and me...nada. I'm posting the only one I could find of just the two of us, I'm only half in it! It's probably thirty years old and it's from a photo booth!!! We are going to take more pictures together this year and forever!

I love you Momma.

A Gift.

Sometimes, when I least expect it, I find something wonderful and sweet right there in the middle of my crazy day. Here is the sweetness I just received. I am thinking of this as a little gift. And, in case you're wondering, saying it doesn't make it happen. At least not in the case of my kitchen.

Gettin' Busy!

This is kitchen week! Now that I have said it, it has to be true! I have been lacking the energy to start anything new for weeks now. I'm still not feeling very full of it, but I'm going to make an effort. I've started clearing things out, next I will clean everything along with the walls, and finally paint. I will share pictures later, I'll probably need the whole week to get it done...here goes!

One more thing for today I must share. This morning Wyatt excitedly called me out into the backyard, he pointed at nothing in the cement and told me:

"last night, there was a dead roly-poly right
there..."

then he looked straight at me, and with a great big smile he said:

"...and today God bringed it up to heaven!"

For me, it just doesn't get much better than that.

Anniversary Antics!

Yesterday Tony and I met for a special anniversary lunch, it was dreamy.

Oh, but last night was incredible! We got a little crazy, but it's not everyday you celebrate your 10th wedding anniversary. Turn on your speakers and watch what we did!

I just know Tony is going to love seeing himself with all that hair!

[There was a really cute video of our faces superimposed over dancing bodies to the song "I don't feel like dancin" by Scisser Sisters, but it vanished]

Seriously, we had a nice evening with our sweet little fan club of four.

Not really.

They were loud and fussy and almost pushed me over the edge. The fan club, not Tony.

I'm doing much better today though, I just returned home from my monthly moms meeting. I go once a month to see and hear from other moms that are experiencing similar things, to socialize, and just be a grown up (yes, they have childcare!) It helps. Plus, we always have a speaker that usually inspires me to be a better mom. Today was no exception, she was awesome. When I gather my thoughts on all of the really good advice about raising kids I have received in the last couple of months, I can share a bit of what I have been learning here (not yet actually successfully practicing, but learning.)

Being a parent is really hard. I find myself conflicted, always looking forward to when things will get better versus trying to live in and enjoy "the moment." For the rest of today, I'm going to push the non-critical things aside and enjoy the moment with my kids. Wish me luck, you know I need it!

10 Years Ago Today...

...I married an amazing man and then we made a lovely family together.

We had a really big wedding, it was special and wonderful.

Sharing a few photos from our wedding day...

Click on this photo

How happy am I right now? So, so, very.

Happy 10th anniversary to us.