Recovering

After the eye injury, other parts of my body decided to stop functioning as well and I ended up with mastitis. So not fun. Antibiotics are helping an I'm finally feeling like a productive person again. Thank goodness for my amazing husband who cared for the kidlets, cooked, cleaned, etc. all while trying to maintain his job, write and preach a sermon, etc. Oh, and he did it all joyously. He rocks. 

I'm pretty much fully functional today but its been a week. So I couldn't resist joining M for part if her nap today. Who needs clean underwear? Oh wait, we all do. Seriously, it's amazing the way things pile up when one us is down and the other is in maintenance mode. The mail, school papers, cups, laundry, trash. Ugh. I'm happy to do it though after feeling so rough the past week. 

We've entered swim season around here 

That's our girl at the bottom of the lane, their coach noticed her (she's new to this team) yesterday and said "I've got to get my hands on that girl, she's strong, she's a strong swimmer." And she really is, she's beautiful to watch in the water. But we took a year off and her body has changed and she needs her skills sharpened. Swim team is going to be so good for her. H is loving it too and he looks so cute in his speedo shorts.

Good ol' one eye

Toddle-britches, that's her new name, injured my eye. A scratch on my cornea from her fingernail. I thought it would heal up a few hours later but it got worse so I had my mom come and take me to the urgent care because my vision was so blurry. After lots of tortuous drops and washings, plus a freaking expensive antibiotic/steroid drop prescription, it's much better, but still blurry and swollen feeling. I should not be writing this, I'm basically typing with one eye. I can't read or drive or really even watch tv. Last night I had to watch the office season finale with a blanket over my bad eye so I could keep it open but the light didn't bother it. First world problems, huh? It did force me to finally figure out how to download audiobooks from the library so I'm listening to my newest find, Outlander. I know this is actually quite old, but I'm finally jumping on the bandwagon and really enjoying it. 

Ok I'd better go before I injure my other eye from using it took much. Here's my favorite little leaguer who got the game ball last week. His team played amazing and he had great fielding, 3 for 3 hits, 1 run and 2 RBIs! When coach asked the team who should get the game ball, they all yelled his name! So awesome! And a moment we will never forget!

BORING!

This blog has been so boring lately, I mean who writes this thing?! My kids say boring like a curse word. They aren't allowed to say stupid or other "bad" words so they say things are "boring". I have no words to describe why I've been so slack except having a toddler is busy (and the opposite of boring). She demands my attention, how crazy is that?! If I turn my back for too long she's on top of the dining room table, or spilling the glass of milk one of the big kids left sitting on her level, or playing in the toilet, or dumping an entire costco sized box of granola bars and squeezing them all into odd shapes. This is just a sampling of what I've found her doing every time I try to sit at the computer thinking she'll give me a few minutes to write in the past couple of weeks. So I kind of gave up trying to write. I'd read snippets of my favorite blogs and catch up on facebook, but never seemed to have much time to form a cohesive thought. Everything I tried to write seemed trite and, well boring. But then I found this new genre of bloggers, not sure what to call it but these bloggers sure can write. They have a spiritual/Christian slant, but they're thinkers and share openly about life and family and God and struggles. So I got inspired again, and here I am.
We've been consumed lately with baseball. H has been playing on a machine pitch little league team for 6-9 year olds. He's the 2nd youngest and it has been such a fun time for all of us. He has really improved and we all just love watching the games. Even baby girl. In fact, I think she may be the biggest fan of the whole family.

Swim team is our next big thing, both kids are swimming this year which finally made it worth it to join a neighborhood pool (oddly expensive) and commit to practicing 5 days a week. Sounds kinda crazy, but I'm hoping it will be fun too. It'll give some structure to our summer, at least for the first month of it, and the kids will be such amazing swimmers. The coach's son is a gold medal Olympic swimmer and I am hoping it will be of the caliber of the Sewanee swim team A was on when she was 4 and 5. She learned the proper way to do strokes and became such a strong swimmer because of it.

Well, that's it for now, the only reason I can write this much is because today is J's day off. Hopefully I'll be more consistent from now on. It's good to be back.

At a clip

"Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
(name that movie!)

That's what's been going on around here: Life, moving fast, and trying hard to pay attention. Its so apparent how quickly life moves with a toddler. One day she says a word or 2, and the next she's repeating everything you say. At 15 months she loves to play in the recycling bin, pull food out of the pantry, feed the dog and cat(pours most of it in the bowls), walk independently(dislikes holding hands), and fake laugh with her head thrown back and while 1 hand covers her mouth. She is still a pretty good eater but I'm starting to see a bit of that toddler appetite creep in. She loves mandarin oranges, berries of all kinds, pb&js, hummus, spaghetti (with red sauce unlike the other 2), and all things sweet. She dislikes bananas and applesauce, the 2 most stereotypical of baby foods. She's discovered a love of the fork and will eat much more if she can stab it first.
She really is a joy and such a silly girl. She is so stinkin' smart and independent. She gets jealous when her brother or sister are on my lap or when we're doing bedtime reading and she'll pinch them! But the love they have for her is the best. I watched H lovingly tell her to stop pulling his hair today, which wouldn't be the case if it were his older sister doing that!
Here's some recent shots of the toddler when I can get her to (mostly) sit still.

Snow Much Fun!

Finally we got snow! Big, fluffy, wet, perfectly packable snow! It was predicted without much hoopla and arrived suddenly Saturday afternoon. Within 15 minutes, everything was covered. It was so beautiful. The kids were stoked and ran out immediately with hardly any clothes on, I started throwing hats, scarves, gloves and coats out the front door for them to put on. This was M's first snow and she seemed to enjoy it, but seemed confused by it too. We played until dark and then the big kids could hardly stand it to get back out in the a.m., plus we knew it was going to be gone by afternoon. They bundled up and stareted playing at 8:30 while I continued nursing my coffee. Miss M couldn't stand it that they were out and she wasn't, she grabbed her coat and kept trying to put it on while standing by the door. So I finally threw on some clothes and we headed to our neighbor's house where there is a hill (we have none in our yard!). They were finally able to use their sled and took turns pulling each other and holding M. They relocated theri tiny snowman to the swing and she stayed there long after the snow on the ground had melted. Lots of fun for a snowfall that was on the ground for less than 24 hours!

Lent, the true resolution time

Happy Mardi Gras! I'm planning to live it up big today. Already started with Chick-fil-a for breakfast and a coke. Yum. Tonight is pancakes at church of course, not my favorite but whatta-ya-gonna do? At least I have Talenti gelato to come home to after. :)
J and I have been talking a lot about making some diet changes this Lent. I've always been pretty good about buying mostly whole foods or at least foods with minimally processed and artificially ingredients. We have friends who have tried Paleo, and J is intrigued. We aren't going to go "whole hog" but we are going to intentionally try to cut out unnecessary grains/sugar. So far, my favorite cut has been in the morning at breakfast (except for my chick-fil-a treat today), instead of having toast with our eggs, we've had sauteed spinach and quinoa. Also, I've discovered Lara bars for snacks. Love the peanut butter cookie one.
Anyway, we'll use our Lent time to try this new eating lifestyle out and see how it goes.

I also plan to have more "reflection" time during Lent. Whether it's actually completing my bible study before class (instead of during), journaling, drawing, or reading. Exercise too is a big thinking time for me. I'm feeling...something lately. Not sure what it is yet but I need to have time to be able to listen and discern what that feeling might be. Is it to start something new? A blog, A new craft? A job? I feel pulled towards a lot of different things lately: photography, homeschooling, teaching, music, art...just to name a few.
I don't know, but hopefully the next 40 days will help me figure that out. Stay tuned. And live it up today!

Blurg

February doldrums are here. Even though it is absolutely beautiful outside today, in the low 60s, this household is worn out and worn down. We've had all manner of sickness in the last 4 months: bad colds in November (during our Disney trip no less!), Flu in December, Strep in January, and now colds again. I'm seriously done with illness. I want to pick my family up and relocate to a nice warm beach somewhere for a few weeks.
Plus the weather has been wonky, warm like this, then frigid the next day, then warm, then chances of snow. It's been back and forth like this for weeks. With three different chances of snow and no delivery! Unacceptable! We want snow!
Also we've just been super-busy for the last few months. November was Disney and Thanksgiving and M's birthday. December is well, December. January with the big crazy birthday weekend. And now we're finally having a chance to slow things down, and I think it's all caught up to us.
Luckily the last few weekends have been relatively calm. With no big plans on the calendar, we've been able to take it easy; the kids have been perfecting their bike skills and we're catching up on lots of movies and lego building.

All in all, it's been pretty relaxing actually, if only the sniffles and coughs would leave us.

I think there's a reason why February is the shortest month of the year. Come on SPRING!