Randomly, and in no particular order, except maybe for the first one.
A daughter who invites me to all her tea parties and tells me every day, "mommy, I like you a lot."
Friends who load you up with citrus.
Flowers that bloom in February, just when you really need them.
Rainy days, and days when the rain breaks.
For friends that invite you to play in the snow with them.
For volunteer parent coaches. And for moms who work their tails off to make their kids' schools better.
For all Olympians who earned medals and all those who tried heroically-we have enjoyed watching the minuscule bit of it that NBC would let us watch before 10pm weeknights!
For Survivor! We laughed out loud last night watching the best challenge ever! Go Heroes! Sorry muddy Villains! Ha ha!
For artists and musicians who do awesome things like this:
I was watching Wyatt and Sarah do their homework the other day, and I was noticing how their feet still dangle from the chairs. It made me think about the fact that their feet won't always dangle like that and I had to grab my camera.
If I didn't have a son I might miss the great girls are better than boys/boys are better than girls debate and I could just tell my three girls that girls were better when Tony wasn't around. But since I do have a son, I can sit on that fence with perfect balance, right in the middle and never again fall to one side. I give you last night:
Sarah: there's more girls in the world right Ma?
Me: right sweetie.
Wyatt: NO! that's impossible!
Wyatt: MORE BOYS!
I wish I could show you what his face looked like when he said "MORE BOYS!"
Wyatt and Sarah are on the same little league team and they just started practices [twice per week, yikes!] this week. Games go through May. I think this is going to be fun and more competitive-they played on the non-competitive city league last year. I know it won't last much longer but it's awesome to have them both on one team! It's also perfect timing since Emily's last soccer games are this weekend. But,oh yes, she does start basketball next week! Whew, she is one busy girl!
Did I mention that Sarah will have her first communion in May? We are so excited for her. It's the same day as our niece Caty's wedding, so it will be a super busy day for us all. Caty gets married at 3:00 and Sarah's 1st communion is just two hours later at 5:00 and immediately after that we will get ourselves over to Caty's reception in Modesto. We are thinking of having a small party for Sarah the following day. I cannot believe March is nearly here already. 2010, hey, won't you please stop and take a breath?
Marathon update: Tony is injured. It's his knee. No March marathon for him. He is disappointed but determined to get healthy and try again later this year.
I hope you enjoy this last weekend of February! C-ya next year Feb, stay sweet.
this time of year is full of signs and signals. telling me to get on with it and get busy and get ready. the warming, the blossoms, the ashes and the cookies too. today is different with the gray skies and drizzle and slightly cooler weather. over the last five or six days it's been so sweet here. 70's and near 70's on most of those days and suddenly the trees are beginning to bloom. ash wednesday has already come and gone and lent is here which is another certain signal that spring will soon be upon us. easter is my favorite liturgical season, i love it. the symbolism is so vibrant and everything is more concentrated and focused and lovely.
this is a chime cross i have had hanging in my backyard tree for years and years. it's small and easy to miss, especially when the tree is full of leaves. the chimes are too small to ever hear them. i can see it when i look out my kitchen window. it usually catches my eye when i am doing the dishes. i can't imagine how it stays up there hanging by that twig, but still it persists!
we picked up a "daily reflections for lent" book which we are reading from together each night after our regular prayers. i hope it bring us to a greater understanding of the season. it's a good way to end the day and settle the kids down and i am really looking forward to getting through it. for ash wednesday there was a section on spring cleaning of the soul and spirit. last night it was a lesson on the meaning of carnival and putting "death to death." it reminded me of a guest priest a few weeks ago at our church who, among other things, said "be where you are, start the journey." out of context i know, but hopefully you get the picture. don't wait for tomorrow.
i can't wait to get our side yard cleaned up and start planting the best garden ever! i got a little ahead of myself and started filling up our big green can with dirt and weeds last week. it was so heavy that tony could not move it. he had to empty half of it just to get it to the curb and even then, he needed my help to steer it out there! oooops! i guess i need to do that kind of business when the ground dries up a bit! i got a sweet lecture on how wet dirt weighs more than dry dirt. hee hee. i think my husband was flattered though that i thought him such a strong man that he could manage the load!
oh, and the cookies. another sure sign that spring is coming. here's what we had before the girls started about their deliveries.
i have only been tempted to open one box [thin mints] and even that was at eva's urging! thanks eva, they were yummy! i sure feel like having a peanut butter sandwich this morning. thanks to all of you who have supported my two girl scouts over the years, your kind of awesome that way!
it's a gray but a great friday, i took care of all the housekeeping yesterday so i am free today!
sharing my two favorite images from this week. eva brought this lovely heart home from school:
i do love it when she remembers to put her shoes on before she goes outside, i love her kisses even more.
the sun was in their eyes so i was inspired to photograph the hand holding that was not at my suggestion but their own whim.
this has actually been a bitter + sweet week for me. more bitter than i would like it to be. i hate goodbyes. i get so emotional. just thinking about it reminds me of some of my saddest goodbyes ever. the ones that happened when i was a child.
anyway. today at mass i could barely hold myself together. this family, a family that we know, sat two rows in front of us with at least three generations represented. the grandmother is always with them at church but i have never seen the grandfather. i assumed, well you know. the grandfather was there in a chair next to the grandmother. he didn't stand. he sat. he sat and then he slept. he slept and then he slipped. very slowly on his bum all the way to the floor during the homily. he didn't move, i actually for a moment worried that he had died. our priest stood silently as the family gathered around him and picked him up. some nice ushers came over and offered to help but the family said no. they sat shoulder to shoulder to keep him propped him up in his chair for a good while. when the time came for the gifts to be presented, the grandmother carried the wine and the large bowl of bread was given to the grandfather as he was erected from his chair by his loved ones. he slowly shuffled his way up the aisle, attended carefully on both sides, to carry the bowl up to the altar. the grandmother was nearby, she needed no help. it was not announced if it was a special day for them so i do not know why today. after our priest came to the grandfathers chair and gave him communion, the family helped him leave the church slowly. to me, this is true love. i don't know what kind of love exists between the grandmother and grandfather. the true love to which i refer, was this family. brave, supportive, loving, and whole.
those tricky emotions of my morning have faded and i will now get myself outside to enjoy the sunshine, maybe draw some hearts with chalk on the cement with eva because it is so lovely out there today.
He's cute, and this 11 year old girl is in love with him.
I said no seven hundred times before I said yes. And before I said yes, I told her to ask her dad. We are not anti-pet. We are just highly discouragingly pet. I changed diapers for almost ten years with my four kids and I do not want more responsibilities along those lines. Plus I just in general would rather not live with animals. It's not that I dislike them, many of them are cute and I do want all of them to be treated well by humans and loved. So if I don't pet your dog or even look at your cat, don't be offended, I'm so so glad you love them.
Having said that, I too began to look at this dwarf hamster lovingly soon after he came into my home. He is sweet. He is almost affectionate. He is funny and cute and has big eyes and long whiskers. He has a gimpy foot and that makes him all the more endearing to me.
One of Emily's classmates who thought she had two hamsters of the same sex was surprised to find that her two "females" had babies and was offering them up. Emily's teacher took two. It's all Emily talked about for a week.
I remember a friend that had several of them and several cages in her bedroom when I was a kid and I remember a certain smell. To my greatest relief, Erwin doesn't smell, and his poop is really tiny. Emily is keeping things clean and so far I like it. He sleeps in the laundry room in his cage because as you know these little things are nocturnal and when he's scurrying about through his fluffy bedding and jogging around all night on his wheel he was keeping Emily awake.
The only other experience I had with a hamster was a summer Renee and I spent in Tennessee and we talked or Grandmother [Granny] into getting one for us to play with. We kept it in a cardboard box and one day when it bit me I dropped it on the floor and I think it died shortly thereafter. Erwin has been in residence here for almost two weeks and has not yet bitten any of us and that makes me happy too.
We just presented him with his first and very own ball to run around in. Since we are carpet-free, he gets around pretty fast.
So, although we are a large distance away from a big pet like a dog, for us, this is great progress. All the kids are enraptured, Emily is in her own pet paradise for now, and it's been a good thing. I know I shouldn't say never, however, I do know one thing for sure: NO CATS ALLOWED!
Last Saturday I took Emily to both of her soccer games in a small rural town called Linden, which is about an hour north of us. She tied with Oakdale and lost to Calaveras. It was such a beautiful day and it was a fun drive for the two of us. Emily took pictures of the big white puffy clouds in the car all the way home. Tony's father celebrated his 80th birthday last week and some of his relatives from the L.A. area came to visit so he stayed behind with S W and little E to spend the day with them.
Sunday we piled into the car early and made it up to Dodge Ridge by 8:45 for a full day of skiing. It was another unbelievably beautiful day, perfect skiing weather. The roads were clear all the way there [lucky for us since we forgot the chains] and it was a super sunny and warm 35° day. Tony, Emily, Sarah and Wyatt skied while me and Eva played in the snow and colored red hearts in the lodge.
I could have put Eva in ski school and I could have skied myself. She is four, pretty well coordinated, and good tempered. I know she would love it. It didn't dawn on me until later in the morning so I'm thinking next time for sure.
Here's Sarah, cheerfully heading into the lift line.
Emily on the lift with her friend Alex.
The kids are pretty awesome on their ski's already. Wyatt is maybe a little too fearless so I am going to work on that, somehow. For those of you who know him, you know what a challenge this is for me! After 7 hours on the slopes [yep, I said 7] Wyatt did finally take a pretty good fall, losing his ski's and scratching up his chin, and decided it was time to call it a day just as the lifts were closing anyway. This was him on the lift right before he fell and first time without a partner on the lift. Listen to him, he's such a confident fella.
Wyatt and Sarah are so competitive as you can imagine, this is a funny video that gives you an idea. Wyatt comes down, then Sarah flies by him saying "I beat you Wyatt!" To that he says, "no I won you already!" Then he passes her in the lift line and falls down in front of her. That's Tony in the blue jacket coming in behind them.
So, hopefully we can ski again soon. This time it was a family event with the Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts so it was a little more affordable going up with the large group.
It has been a blessing to see the sun for so many days in a row now. It's totally helped my mood! Thank you February, you are too kind.
Ew, sorry for being such a downer last week. I actually was over it moments after I published that post. Those crazy feelings appear more often than I would like to admit and most of the time I am able to simply brush them off or suppress with distraction. Less often they reach my lips and lesser still my fingertips. Oh well, I am surely not made of stone and probably much thinner skinned than I think I am.
It was nothing. And it was everything. More than just one instance, it was a rush of many things and disappointments at once that made me feel blue. Not even important really. It did get me a phone call from my mother who's words were "is it me?" I reassured her that it was certainly not her. It was me. Disappointed and insecure and feeling needy I guess.
The winds of change are blowing. In this funny place between winter and spring things are coming together in new ways, not so much for me but for people I love. There I go being cryptic again. Stay tuned, more rain is on the way, but I can see the spring from here, and I think it just might be sweet.
