all about us.

our backyard

  our backyard is quite large... i sometimes forget how large it is, until i go in the back.  it's basically a whole other backyard!  this morning, i was struck by how pretty the light was hitting everything, and how pretty the plants were after the light morning rain.  as i stood the the far corner of the yard, i realized that i never really look at it from that point of view.  i had to go back in the house for my wide angle, but it was worth it to me.  i love this photo.  it's not amazing or anything, but simply for the reason that it's a hardly-seen view.

 

the photo on the right is what can be seen inside the greenhouse.  hehe.  obviously, we are not avid gardeners.  we kind of just mow the lawn, and let the rest grow wild.  This greenhouse gets completely run over with weeds in the summer.  boy do they grow tall and FAST! it's a shame, because this is a nice greenhouse.  running water, heatlamps, fans... anyone want it?

i'm looking forward to blackberry season! blackberry bushes grow like weeds around here.  in the summer, it's not uncommon to see people stopped on the side of the road with a big bowl in their arms, ready to fill!  This blackberry bush grows over our fence from the neighbor's yard. 

 

time for adam to mow the lawn! :)

ahhh... a balmy afternoon, gingerbread tea, some organic vanilla cream cookies (b/c the whole corn syrup thing really grosses me out), and an old comfort book. plus, the kids were SOOO super good today.  no fights, no messes.  just quiet playing. gotta love that. 

life is a lot like the rain

Without rain, nothing can grow.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the similarities between rain and hardships. If we want our land to be beautiful and lush, we can’t say we hate the rain. For you can’t have one without the other. Life is very similar. You can’t grow in wisdom or strength, if everything is happy and sunny all the time. Too much sun results in dry land. The plain simple truth is that life is hard. No one has it easy, no one is 100% happy 100% of the time. No one has everything they want. No one has it perfect. So why would we want our lives to be dry and void of any kind of understanding or wisdom about life? The rain will come. If we are not careful, it will drain us of our happiness, and the lack of sun can result in depression. We find ourselves desperately wanting the sun that we had before, or the sun that we see someone else enjoying (or appears to enjoy... for don’t we all have a little bit of rain in our lives??). Instead of accepting our own life as it unfolds, we waste time desiring something else, and we learn and gain nothing. The sun may come back out, we may temporarily smile, but we have an emptiness that will easily come back up at the first sight of a cloud.

If we are wise, we take the rain as it is meant… to grow, learn, and sometimes, to go inside, be still, and simply listen. When the sun finally comes back out again, we can be filled with a deep sense of strength, appreciation, and renewal of life.

saturday project

so, i made these this afternoon.  i made them from an old sheet (with daisies! :) ), and they are super comfy!  i didn't have a pattern, so i kinda of winged it while looking at my other lounge pants.  just don't look at the sewing too close.  one day, my stitching will be nice and straight! :)

ashlyn helped me take a pic :)

closer up view of the pattern:

chores

i just went upstairs, and ashlyn informed me that they were cleaning all the rooms. she said, "we're going to do all the chores for you mommy. you won't have to do a single thing. you can just sit down and relax."

now, i must say, that they pretty much always clean their own messes, but it's nice for it to be their own idea, and for them to be happy about cleaning and helping. they even made my bed for me. and that is no small task being that we have a king sized bed that is high off the ground, and we have about 11 pillows to arrange! lol.

Land of the Letter People.

So, last night, the kindergarten classes put on an event to celebrate the end of learning about the "letter people".  each week, they would have a new letter to learn about, and that letter would be represented by "Mr. M" or "Mrs. A", etc.   They set up last night's event to have stations for each letter, and the kids would have fun things to do, make, or explore.  i volunteered for the first hour to be at the Dilly Dally Dinosaur museum, where the kids could make a volcano erupt, and they could dig for dinosaur bones.  Adam, during that time, went around to the stations with the kids (or kid, if the other one ran off to do something else), and he sweetly took pictures for me along the way.   ashlyn and ben had such a fun time getting their hair painted, their faces painted, going in a fire truck, eating cookies, making a bird feeder, a pinwheel, planting a tomato, trying out different musical instruments, bowling, golfing... you name it!  Ashlyn even won a jar of jelly beans b/c she was the closest guesser!  it was a fun night, and today, the kids and i are fighting a cold, so it will be a quiet, relaxed day around here. 

some photos of the night:

making a bird feeder.... seriously, will a bird be ok if it ingests shortening?? :{

visiting my station :)

ashlyn's little boyfriend, joseph.  i adore him, and he makes her giddy. he really does call her his girlfriend.  he once gave her a dandelion at recess, and she still had it with her when i picked her up from school.  she said, "does a flower mean love, mama?" :)

ben getting sprayed.  i love that i am in the background watching!  i really wished i could have stayed with the kids through the whole thing.   They came up to me often, telling me what they had just done, but i still felt like i missed out a little bit.

face painting

 

take proper care of yourself!

please go take a moment to search for your sundries (everything!  toothpaste, hair dye, deodorant, soap, shampoo, etc) on the site below.  If listed, they will give you the hazards of the chemicals used in production.  you'd be very surprised to see that most of the products we use, are made with chemicals linked to causing Cancer and Neurological problems over time.  They rate products 0-10, ten being the worst.  For an example, my facial moisturizer was rated at a hazard of 7!  Less hazardous products can be found by selecting a type of product (ie face wash) and clicking "score".  it will automatically list all products starting from zero.

natural products may cost more, but you're going to save yourself some health care costs in the long run. 

cosmetic database

take me out to the ballgame

So, as i mentioned before, adam took ben to his first baseball game last night.  It was Mariners vs. Angels, and here are a few things that describe their night:

-again, i will say, perfect weather.  Our first really warm day of the year!  the game started with the temperature at 80 degrees, and by the end of the game, it had dropped down to only 70.  perfect for baseball.

-they were sitting on the field, with a great view of everything

-benjamin got all the junk food his little heart desired.  Daddy bought him pizza, cotton candy, cracker jacks, french fries, red rope, ice cream, and peanuts.  um, yeah.  Ben's first words to me when he got home was, "i got lots of junk!!" lol

-ben cheered, clapped, screamed, boo'ed,  and did the wave.

-daddy put ben on his shoulders while they sang, "take me out to the ball game"

-the ball girl made sure that ben received a game ball.  it has dirt and grass stains all over it.  SO cool.

-my little guy made it all the way through the game. 

-the mariners won 8-3

update!  we just went through our DVR'd copy of the game, and in the 5th inning, you could see ben and adam when there was a foul ball!  ben was eating his ice cream. lol.

ball girl #1

ball girl #2 who got him the game ball. her name is Erin :)

eating ice cream, and posing with dad and the fake "soul patch" they were handing out. lol

per-fec-tion.

today was perfection.  perfection.  can i say it again? perfection.  it seriously felt like summertime.  the temps are in the mid 70's, which really only feels like that in the shade.  in the sun, it easily jumps a good ten degrees or probably more.  heck, it's 7:30pm, and my thermometer still says it's 75 degrees out there.  But oh, my.  i took ashlyn to her party (which was super fun and cute), and once we got home by mid afternoon, i went outside and stayed outside for a few hours.  i sat and ate a late lunch, and then settled in the shade to read and watched the kids play.  being barefoot outside again just feels so heavenly.  i feel a bit sun kissed.  that feels kinda nice, actually.

adam and ben left around 4:30 for the game, which i'm sure will be just so much fun, and perfect weather as well.  Benjamin has been learning the "take me out to the ballgame" song for the last few days, adam got him a little glove and baseball, so he is just super excited.  The promise of junk food/cotton candy was equally as thrilling, i think. lol. adam just emailed me a photo from his phone... how freaking cute is that?!?!??  and i mean, come on.  his first game he goes to, he's right there on the field.

It was so cool to be just me and ashlyn when they left.  that pretty much never happens.  she ate dinner, and then joined me outside.  She blew bubbles for quite awhile, and then took one of my books and sat down to really try and read it.  She sat with it for awhile before she looked up at me and said, "mommy, this is like a grown-up book.  this will take me forever."    She promptly found the last page of the book, read that, and called it good :) i laughed.

this will not be adam's favorite pic, but i couldn't help taking it. sorry babe ;).

I'm eating my dinner now, and just popped in "You've Got Mail", which is my all time favorite relax and be comfy movie.  Ashlyn just finished some milk and a cookie, and is being such a gem, that i'm waiving the bed time and she is putting in Peter Pan.

good night!

:)

a note under my pillow

happy friday :)

do you ever feel like if you had to one more hum-drum chore, you would scream?  i've been feeling so lazy and bogged down by those every-day chores lately, but today i realized that it might just be burn out.  i need a re-charge.  today, as i was about to go upstairs to collect some dirty laundry, i was pulled outdoors instead.  part of my brain was trying to pull me back inside, but the other side of my brain told me to just sit for a little while out in the warm sunshine.  after awhile, the pull of chores went to the wayside, and i was completely relaxed.  i soaked up the sun, watched a few butterflies float around the yard, listened to the birds chatter away, and had a little bit of my own time to just empty out my brain.  things seem a bit more clear when you just stay still for awhile.  And there is something about the outdoors that calms me.  that small 20 minutes outside was enough to re-charge me a bit, and now i'm off to do that laundry :)  tomorrow, i take ashlyn to a birthday party for a school friend, and adam is taking benjamin to his first baseball game!  The Mariners are playing the Angels, i believe.  the temps should be in the low 70's, so it will be a perfect day for it.  have a good weekend!