Unusual Juxtaposition

This morning I did my yoga

 

while watching the worldwide leadership broadcast.

 

Multi-tasking at it’s best!

President’s Day Perfection

I started my day making breakfast for my cute kids and my dad & Ramona.  (My dad has come to Durham every Sunday for the last 4 weeks to have an experimental allergy treatment on Monday morning.  It’s been such fun for us to see them!)

Then after I spent a little time with my favorite youtube yoga gal, I went to hang out with these awesome women who are some of my favorite people.

We spent hours sitting in the sun on the steps and (of course) talking, talking, talking.  (Picture taken by cooperative but less-than-coordinated 3 year old!)

 

When I came home Russ had gotten wood to build a new raised garden.  He worked on that

while I got things cleaned up on the deck so that I can plant some greens tomorrow.

 

It was a beautiful day and such fun to spend so much of the day outside with wonderful people!

 

 

PS—Jared has the flu, poor boy.  I don’t think his day was nearly as good as mine.  But it did have this interesting moment!

Should This Worry Me?

(overheard in the kitchen earlier…)

Jenna:  And then you hold on to the tail, and you pull the skin right off the body.  Then you can cook it.

Jared:  You mean if we shoot a squirrel we have to EAT it???

Valentines Fun

I read a comment on a random blog the other day that said that Valentine’s Day is a one shot deal.  Either it happens on the 14th of February or it doesn’t happen at all.

 

My life is SO not that way.

 

We started our valentine’s fun last week when I baked and froze a bunch of cookies.  Sunday evening I pulled them out and made a new kind of frosting called Glace Icing.  I made the glace icing so we could decorate our cookies.  I thought they were so beautiful, and they turned out to be lots of fun to make.  It was even more fun because my dad & Ramona were here to decorate with us.

On Valentine’s morning I got up early and made heart-shaped pancakes.  They were a big hit.  Then the little kids and I drove to Greensboro where we saw the play “Freedom Train,” and had our homeschool valentine’s party at Steak & Shake.  By the time we got home I was exhausted and that was the end of any festivities on Monday.

Tuesday I awoke refreshed and invigorated.  I planned a fun Valentines dinner and our annual Conversation Heart activity afterwards.  For dinner we had:

Heart shaped individual pizzas (made by the awesome Russ)

and heart shaped stained glass jello.

The kids loved the pizza and the jello, though they didn’t like the white part as much.  I want to make them again (with different colors of jello) for Easter, so I’m going to experiment to see if I can find something they like the taste of better for the white part.  (It was unflavored gelatin + sweetened condensed milk.)

After dinner came the real fun.  Plate sized heart shaped sugar cookies covered in pink frosting, and a table full of conversation hearts.  We passed the cookies around the table and took turns making messages for each person.

I’m not very good at doing traditions, so when I stumble onto something that isn’t too much work, is yummy, and all the kids like to do, I try to remember it!  In the end everyone was happy with their cookies

and we had fun reading all of our messages to each other.  (See the “M” at the top?  That was my identification—for “mom.”)

And eating the cookies!

Directions for glace icing here, and for making the cool cookies here.  You can find the jello directions here.

New Year’s Resolution # 87

Don’t you just love that it’s the middle of February and I’m still talking about my resolutions?  I thought so!

It’s actually been really good for me to think about these over a couple of months.  And let’s be very real here, it’s very unlikely that I will EVER spend the month of December thinking about anything other than December!  (Between my birthday and Christmas, how would I think about anything else?)

So here’s the next resolution.

Get organized.

Now this may sound extreme and perhaps even a little over-reaching, but I’ve been working on this goal for almost 6 months ago, and it’s really happening.  I’ve read several organization-for-Dummies type books and gotten ideas that help my naturally unorganized brain.  I’ve given away lots of stuff and I am thrilled with the way my house is feeling.  But there are a couple of hot spots that just seem to gather chaos faster than I (naturally unorganized brain, remember?) can figure out how to deal with it.  (See picture of desk above.)

This is my challenge for 2011.  Conquer those areas, but even more importantly, figure out what strategies enable me to keep up with the piles.  I can tell already that one strategy is dealing with as much stuff in the moment as possible.  The mail pile—if added to the already existing pile it becomes overwhelming, so I just need to deal with it in the moment that it is in my hand.  I’m also working on having some fluid/temporary file folders in my filing drawer that can hold things until I need them. 

I used to have 2 sets of book ends on my desk, and I “grounded” myself from them a couple of months ago since I figured they were just adding to the clutter.  I think I have to put one of them back, because this is the logical place for my library books to live—I just need to make sure other books don’t land there since they do tend to breed.

And interestingly enough, I’ve learned that I’m much better off if I fold all of the clothes right out of the dryer (except for the whites) and put them away—then they don’t just stack up in the “laundry hall of shame.”  (Now I should tell you that I don’t do my kid’s laundry—they do their own.  So I’m only talking about household laundry & mine & Russ’s.  Before you get too impressed.)

 

I’ve been really helped in my efforts to organize my house by reading two books that have been teaching me how to do a better job of making change really happen.  The first one I’ve already mentioned, called “This Year I Will,” and the second is called “Succeed: How We Can Reach Our Goals.”  Good stuff!

Where We are Wishing We Were Today

If you’d like to know, go to maps.google.com.

Put in Ahihi, Maui, HI into the search box.

Ahhh…doesn’t that look nice?

 

Just kidding.

 

Zoom in one click.

See how there’s a tiny “nose” of water poking out right below where it says “Makena Road” just below and to the right of the place marker?  (Which is right on top of the Ahihi Bay label.) Click on that nose of water until you are all the way zoomed in.  Then change to satellite view.

 

Now grab the google man icon.

Drag him over and drop him right where it says “Makena Road.”  Wait a minute.

 

Now you can sigh with me…you are looking at one of the best snorkeling spots on Maui.  It’s been two years since I was there, and will probably be two more years before I’m there again.  But I think about it all the time!

 

There are little arrows at the bottom of your map screen.  If you click to the right 4-5 times you will see that yes, some lucky human lives right beside A’hihi Cove.  (And on the far side as well.)  I hope they snorkel every day—I would love that. LOVE IT.

 

Sigh…so that’s what I’m going to be daydreaming about today!

Note to Self

Next fall, before the cold comes to stay, deal with the plants.  All of them. 

Because the truth of the matter is, once it’s cold outside, nothing else is happening.  NOTHING!

And you’ll be really tired of looking at those dead plants before spring comes again…