Time Flies

I thought I would have oh so much study time in the couple of weeks the kids were in school before I went back.  Boy was I wrong.  I don't think I have had busier weeks.  The time has just flown by.  It is now less than 12 hours before we all sit back down and go through another semester!!  I just keep telling myself to B.R.E.A.T.H.E.

This weekend was Paige's friend birthday party.  She was surrounded by so much love.  I'm so, so thankful for that.  We tried to keep it small,  just with people we knew well to keep the tween drama down to a dull roar.

They spent hours in the pool.

They enjoyed handmade malts delivered straight to the pool.  Everyone had milk mustaches afterwards.

Some of the boys were able to play Wii games.  Luckily we have 4 controller wheels.

Of course, Paige was able to open gifts from everyone.

I'm not sure that grin has left her face yet.

I think the best moment of the day was after almost everyone had gone home.  Paige received money, which is actually an awesome gift in our house.  We have the kids separate their money into 3 envelopes spending, saving, and giving (modeled after the Dave Ramsey program).  We have been doing this for over a year and it is really working to show the kids how to manage their money.  Jay and Paige were sitting down to figure out how to split up all the money and gift cards.  We figure she is old enough to set the amounts for each.  Paige put $15 into giving.  Then came the big decision.  She still had $75 in cash, $50 in gift cards, and 2 envelopes to fill.  Paige was very mature and put the $75 into saving and $50 into spending.  The funny thing was, she never batted an eye.  She even know how she is going to use the giving money.  She is a cat lover and there is a local cat shelter that she is dying to volunteer for.  She wants to ask what supplies they need and buy some for the shelter.  Wow!  That does the heart good!

Heart Tugs

Yesterday was a real nail biter for me.  I was worried when I left Jacob as school that he would be upset about having to go back to school.  Luckily by pick up time, he was the excited Jacob we all know and love.

This morning was filled with talks of responsibility and good behavior.  Jay and I were really stressing to Xavier about the importance of modeling good behavior for his brother while at school.  It would be nice to include all the time and forever, but that seems too big for a second grader who is stuck in the now.  

The boys walked to the bus together.  Jacob was barely able to contain his excitement.  He was reminded by Xavier to look both ways when crossing the road.  They can work well together when they put their minds to it.  Xavier is going to take Jacob to the right spot where they wait for their teachers to take them to their rooms.  I think deep down inside he was happy to have Jacob to show off to his friends.  Not everyone has a little brother, especially one with seven stitches above his eye.  That is cool stuff in the second grade world.

I have put kids on the bus for the first time two other times.  It seems like it should get easier.  It really doesn't.  I waved and watched the bus head down the road.  I walked back to the house with a tightness in my throat.  This was the last first day to ride the bus we would experience.  I know there are other firsts yet to come, but that didn't stop the slight tug on my heart and a few ragged breaths at the sight of the bus doors closing.

[UPDATE] Day 0.5

Today was Jacob's half day transition into kindergarten.

I thought he was going to be thrilled.

He was less than thrilled.  This was the boy who was asking non-stop if it was his day to go to school.

The teacher had told us on parent orientation day to make the drop off quick, so I walked him into the gym and said good-bye and went to take his nap mat to the teacher's room.

The last picture I have of him is sitting on the gym floor, legs crossed, and chin in his hand.  It was enough to make even the most hardened heart break.

Hopefully, the day will get better as he actually gets into the groove of school.

**********************************************************************************
I picked up Jacob this afternoon.  I prayed the entire way to school that it was a good day.

Success!

He was all smiles and happy to know that he would be coming back to school tomorrow.  It was made all the better when I told him tomorrow would be his first trip on the bus.  He pulled out the projects they had worked on during the day.  Kindergarten is the best grade at bringing home cute art projects.

And of course...

"Mommy, when we get home can I have snack?"

Things I've Learned This Week

1. Time flies, especially when staring down nursing school.
2. Jacob is the calmest kid I know when it comes to injuries.  If I don't freak out, he won't freak out.  He cracked me up at the hospital asking the nurse who was restraining him, "Can you get off of me now?"
3. Big brothers can watch out for little brothers when they are struck by guilt for crashing little brother's head into the kitchen island.  He did a good job looking out for him at church during a large group activity.
4. I have run out of holes on my belt.  Not a bad thing, just inconvenient.
5. I am fascinated by watching my robot sweep for me.  It's amazing how he (Yes, it is named, Ozzy, and is now a he.  He was named this because he can't seem to go in a straight line.  It seemed fitting.) can get himself unstuck in some of the strangest places.  I haven't seen him get stumped yet, surprisingly.
6. The early mornings are getting cooler.  I hope this means fall is right around the corner.  This summer was shockingly hot.
7. I will miss the summer, even though if was filled with sibling fighting.
8. I have dusted off my ironing skills to save on dry cleaning every week for Jay's clothes.  He looks nice in a suit and tie, but I will miss the days of being able to throw his clothes in with the regular laundry.
9. It just clicked that next year will be a very big deal for our household.  It will not only be graduation, but Jay and I will have been together for 15 years.  P A R T Y, somewhere!
10. "The only lifelong, reliable motivations are those that come from within, and one of the strongest of those is the joy and pride that grow from knowing you've just done something as well as you can do it."  ~Lloyd Dobens

It Must Be Genetic!

The scene: Friday night, 5 p.m.

The plan: Early dinner and take Xavier to his Tae Kwon Do belt testing

Enter Life!

I asked the kids to set the table so we could sit down for dinner.  The next thing I know, Paige is running out the the kitchen yelling "Blood!  Jacob is bleeding!" and Jacob is coming out of the kitchen with blood streaming down his face.  JOY!  Jacob hit his head on the edge of the kitchen island playing with his older brother.

I grabbed a napkin to clean up his face and assess his injury.  He had a 1 inch laceration above his left eye.

This picture really doesn't do it any justice, but it was a meaty, bloody cut.  I called Jacob's doctor's office, but they were not going to see him so late in the day.  The next call was to Jay.  "Don't freak out, but Jacob has been hurt."  "Do you want me to come home?" he asked.  "No, but we are on the way to the emergency room."  

I grabbed a kitchen towel and an ice pack and we were on the way to the hospital.  The absolute worst time to have any sort of emergency is 5 'o'clock.  We hit every red light and the traffic was miserable.  Jacob was a trooper.  He thought it was pretty cool that he could look like a pirate.  I couldn't get him to say, "AAargh!" though.

We arrived at the emergency room.  Of course there was a wait, but he hung in there.  I can right most of the wrongs in his world just by making room on my lap.  He told his story, I filled out paperwork.  He told his story, the nurse took his vital signs.  We waited in the emergency room.  We were "fast tracked."

Finally, we were taken back to be seen by a doctor.  Jacob was swabbed with numbing cream to prepare him for stitches.

Jacob is freaking out at this point, scared and inconsolable.  Can't you tell?  Haha!  I think he was just excited to be able to watch cable channels, which we don't have at home.  Finally, the doctor came in to put in the stitches.

Seven total.  Jacob stayed perfectly still.  He was a picture of grace under pressure.  The nurses were impressed by how great he was.  I guess it isn't often they get a 5 year old that isn't crying and making a fuss about being in the emergency room.  This kid has touched real hearts and brains.  A needle and thread are not going to scare him!  They even decided to release him from being restrained by practically laying on him and give him a special treat for being such a strong boy.

Everything was made better watching the Disney channel and having popsicles.

2 hours later we were on our way back home.

"Mommy, when we get home, are we eating dinner?"
"Yes Jacob."
"Good!  I'm starving!"
"Of course you are."

It's a tough life, I'm telling ya!

An Oozy, Sweet Kind of Love

I love this picture.  They are my great grandparents.  I'm not sure what the occasion was, but the love just oozes off the corners of the picture.  They are my inspiration.  I wish I could ask them what their secret was and share it with the world.  Everyone should be able to experience this kind of devotion in their life.

Today marks the 14th year Jay and I have been together.  I have to admit it hasn't all been rainbows and unicorns, but we continue to learn and grow together.  We have made huge growth in the last year thanks to good friends and an awesome church.  I have never been more proud to be his wife.  He works hard to make it possible for the rest of us to follow our dreams.

One day, we will be have a picture taken like this, but we will write our secret to success on the back.  "A great marriage is not when the 'perfect couple' come together.  It is when an imperfect couple learns to enjoy their differences."  ~ Dave Meure

Weekly Challenge #5

I just finished grocery shopping sans 2 kids.  It was heavenly!  Jacob was more than willing to help grab stuff.  He was able to read labels and grab a lot of items on his one.  One benefit to this is having eyes closer to lower shelves where the stores seem to stick the cheaper items.  Total spent this week was $77.  The only processed item I have in the fridge is Boca (meatless) burgers.

I have been packing the kids' lunches everyday.  Poor Jay is stuck with leftovers for the majority of his lunches, unless he ventures over to a DeliDave's downtown.   The kids normally take a sandwich, grapes,  crackers, carrots, cucumbers, and a sweet treat that I made on Sunday.  All of the items were packed up into individual servings so I can just toss them into their lunch boxes the evening before school.  I did try to make their sandwiches ahead of time, but that didn't seem to work out so well.  It's been a pretty good system so far.  It does mean that Sunday's are pretty hectic days trying to bag up all the items and making treats for everyone.

Last Weeks Successes:

• Creamy Alfredo with Edamame
• Most places put some type of meat into the Alfredo sauce.  I substituted that for shelled edamame.  The sauce over whole wheat pasta makes a whole grain, protein 1,2 punch.
• Black Beans and Saffron Rice with Fried Plantains
• Sauté onions and bell peppers together, season with garlic, cumin, cayenne, and cilantro.  Add cooked black beans.  Mix all together with saffron rice.  Yum!  Plantains are a tough, grainy version of bananas.  They need to be cooked twice to make them easier to chew.  Sauté the plantains until soft.  Place them in a large bowl and mash them until smooth.  Form small pancakes sized patties and brown on each side.  Dust with cinnamon.  
• Grilled Cheese and Pear Sandwiches
• A sweeter twist on plain grilled cheese.  On one side of bread, spread your favorite jam or jelly (I used my mom's blueberry jam), top with cheese and sliced pear or apple.  Grill until golden brown and cheese is melted.  

Have a good week!

Storytelling

Have you ever noticed how stories get  more grandiose the more times they are told?  One of the favorites my mom and I like to tell is one camping trip gone wrong, very wrong.

My mom has worked for the Forest Service for ever and a day.  She is now a district ranger in charge of her own piece of forest.  (Of course there is a lot more to it, but I prefer to keep things simple.)  Before that she was a hydrologist.  This basically meant she got to play outside in water during good weather and was stuck inside writing reports in bad weather.  As I got older, I was able to go on more of her adventures and help with water testing, finding bugs, and mess around in the creeks and rivers while she was working.

One late August, Mom had a 15 mile backpacking trip planned to a lake on a mountain top for sampling.  I was invited to come along.  She was planning on using llamas to pack the majority of our supplies.    How could I resist llamas?  Taking the llamas divided our group into 2.  The first group led the llamas.  The second group followed behind because llamas and dalmatians do no mix.  The fist couple of miles were uphill on switchbacks.  Everyone was good, even Mom's newer employee, who was more of a desk jockey than an outdoors woman.  I still have no idea why she worked for the forest service.  Anyhow, after a couple more miles we ran into snow on the ground.  No one had really prepared for snow.  It was late August after all, but we marched on.

The farther in we got, the worse the weather became.  The wind was blowing the hard, crystalline snow from the ground into the air.  Then, it started to snow.  The further in we got, the deeper the snow became.  We could no longer see the trail to the lake, but the lake was always "just over the ridge."  We kept moving.  Exhaustion was starting to set in.  We had been moving for hours, through snow, and leading the llamas was not as easy as it might sound.

Around mile 8, Mom was starting to worry.  She had a large group and didn't think we were going to make it all the way to the lake.  She told everyone to keep an eye out for anything that would work as shelter overnight.  We found an abandoned mining shack and decided to call that home.  The walls of the shack were covered with scratch marks.  There was some debate about whether the marks came from a bear or a porcupine.  Neither of which I really wanted to run into in the middle of the night.  Mom started working on getting food prepared, others were getting the llamas tied down for the night, and the rest of us worked on getting sleeping bags and pads laid out.  We all ate dinner and laid down.  The desk jockey employee started to waterproof her boots.  She then told us she had just bought them the day before our adventure.  The other seasoned employees groaned and tried to look away before she could see the idiotic looks she was getting.  Why would anyone decide the best time to waterproof boots was after you had been hiking in snow all day?  Why would anyone buy boots the day before a major hike?  Did she enjoy blistered feet?  Why did she work for the Forest Service?  We turned out the lamp and tried to get some rest.  I woke up in the middle of the night because my eyes were stinging.  It felt like someone had thrown sand into them.  Mom gave me ibuprofen, her fix all, cure all.  One of the guys in the group said he was feeling the same way.  Uh oh!

The next morning, Mom started on breakfast, and we started packing up the llamas.  I went outside and could not see.  I told Mom and she rolled up a bandanna and placed it over my eyes and told me to stand out in the sun to get warmed up and stay out of the way.  We were not going to continue on.  Three people were unable to see, the desk jockey had blistered feet,and it had snowed all night.   Mom was now leading a band of blistered and blinded hikers.  She was ready to get out of the wilderness.  Mom and the llama outfitter tied the llamas together and told the blinded folks to go ahead.  They would pick up the rear.  They had been saved from blindness because they had transition glasses.

How were we going to pick our way through the snow and get back to the trucks at the bottom of the mountain?  The blind would really be leading the blind!  Have no fear, for the dalmatian is here!  The dalmatian had his very own red pack.  This was the key to getting us out of the wilderness.  He was told, "Go home Ringo!"  Off he went.  I had a bandanna completely covering one eye and partially covering the other.  The only thing I could really see was the red moving off in the distance.  I was following behind completely trusting this dog to get me out of the wilderness.

We all safely made it to the bottom and back to the trucks.  Those of us following the dalmatian made it out much faster than those leading the llamas.  Later, we learned that many of us were snow blinded on our hike in.  The sun rays bouncing off the snow had burned our retinas.  Not only that, but we all had varying degrees of wind burn.

One last detail to mention.  This was about a week before my freshman year of high school.  I remember wondering if I could convince Mom to let me miss a few days because my face was sliding off.  You laugh.  This wasn't such a funny site.  I could have passed for a zombie because of all the blisters and strips of darkened, burned skin.  Luckily, everything healed in time.  I would never have convinced her to let me stay out of school anyhow!

Things I've Learned This Week

1. My mom makes awesome jams and jelly's!  I might have a new favorite with this year's batch of blueberry jam, but I only have one pint.  It will probably take another pint for me to really be able to declare a favorite (hint, hint)!
2. My husband may have grown up in California, but he's really a southern boy at heart.  
3. Our house will never be without butter and real mayo... see above.
4. The kids going back to school leaves a very quiet house and a very worn out mommy by late morning.
5. I definitely believe kids take on their own personalities.  I'm not too sure it is related to birth order, but maybe it is.  I'm not the biggest fan of psychology.  I have a little momma, a clown, and a little lover for my 3.
6. God works in awesome and mysterious ways.  To see it in action really takes my breath away.  His plans are far greater than ours.
7. I'm ready for fall.  Having super curly hair in the heat and humidity of the south leads to super frizz.  No amount of styling product can make my little friends lay down and stay there.
8. Nothing makes a house smell better than baking something in the oven.  The smell blankets the whole house.
9. I have been blessed with true friends, and I'm thankful for them each day.
10. I feel cooler if my knees aren't covered.  This helps me cool down some when I'm running.  How was that for a completely random statement?  I'm impressed with my randomness.

Quiet

It is so quiet in the house now that the bigger kids are in school.  Jacob hasn't started school yet, but I'm pretty sure he is content to not have his older brother and sister pestering him.  He has been happily coloring and reading for hours now.  I almost don't recognize him.  I have been able to get a lot of things done around the house.  I've called upstairs a couple of times just to make sure he was still alive.

 So much for the quiet!

"Mommy! It's time for lunch."  His life revolves around food.  He wakes up and immediately asks for breakfast.  Jacob probably dreams about food too!  He grabbed a plate, went into the fridge, and grabbed out the prepared lunch items.  It was his own little buffet.  He set his plate on the table, grabbed a napkin, and started eating.  "Momma!  Can I have a drink?  Make it with ice please."  

He grips my heart!  

It was a glimpse into his future. It was definitely a nice picture. 

I know I'm not the only mom that has experienced this.  If I am, please don't ever share that with me!  I feel crazy enough as it is.


P.S.  He just woke up from his nap.  His hair was standing straight up, and his eyes were still puffy with sleep.  The first words to come out of his mouth:
     "Can I have snack?"

'Twas Night Before School Started...

... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, just a fat cat playing with her toy mouse.

It is almost like Christmas Eve in my house tonight.  The anticipation is pulsing through the house.  The two bigger kids start school tomorrow.  They couldn't be more excited.  I keep telling myself to enjoy these days because I'm sure the days of leaping out of bed and running into school will not last much longer.

We have been preparing the kids for tomorrow for about a week now.  It sounds funny, but our house needs to be a will oiled machine in the mornings by the last week of August when everyone in the house will be out of the door by 8.  The kids have been going to bed earlier.  They have been waking up like it was a school day.  They both have school clothes picked out, from shoes to under-roos.  I spent the majority of the day getting ready to make 5 lunches by dividing out crackers, grapes, carrots, etc into individual bags.  I have sandwiches made up and ready to go too.  It is all ready to be thrown into lunch boxes  Water bottles are filled and in the fridge.  Hopefully it will all help to make things flow easily in the morning.

This school year I have kids getting on the bus at 7 a.m. and 7:55 a.m.  I'm afraid my oldest will be walking into school a zombie.  She is just like her dad.  They need plenty of time to wake up in the morning before the brain juices are flowing.  Can you say early to bed?

Speaking of early to bed, I should probably head that way too.  Wish me luck in the morning!

Weekly Challenge #4

This week we have only one meal that has meat in it.  I wasn't really doing this on purpose.  It was just how the recipes fell.  The kids go back to school this week.  I'm still trying to find the right combination of items to stick in their lunches to make them fun, healthy and not too boring.

Successful Recipes this week:

• Strawberry cake - YUM!
• Basic 4,3,2,1 cake recipe (4 eggs, 3 cups of flour, 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of butter), cream butter and sugar together, add eggs one at a time, slowly mix in flour.  The bake time will depend on your pans, but I usually stick with 350 degrees for 30 minutes.  When your kitchen smells like cake, the cake is usually done baking.  Slice strawberries between each layer.  Ice with cream cheese frosting (2 blocks of cream cheese, 1 stick of butter, 4 cups of powdered sugar, 1 tbsp of vanilla).  This was a perfect summer cake with super ripe and flavorful berries between moist layers of cake and topped with sweet, but not too sweet, cream cheese frosting.
• Salad
• It is so easy to forget how nice it is to have a cool, crisp salad on a hot summer's day.  I mixed iceberg with spring mix to add crunch and coolness to our salad.  Sliced almonds, dried cranberries, shredded cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, make it a generous and healthful meal.  
• Lasagna
• On the complete opposite end of the spectrum as salad, but it's so good and gooey with melted cheese, tomatoe sauce, and ground turkey.  I served it with salad and warmed garlic bread.  If the oven is on, might as well go all the way with the carbs!  This was a surprising success because it filled up all 3 kids with only one serving.  That day will go down in history and will probably never repeat itself.
• Snack of the gods
• This is one of those things that I probably shouldn't admit, but it's so good!  A local grocery store sells chipotle flavored tortilla chips.  I devoured these with a pineapple chipotle salsa.  It's amazing!  The salsa has big chunks of tomatoes and pineapple, you could almost talk yourself into thinking it was good for you.  Everyone has a weakness right?  Right!?

Things I Learned Last Week

1. I am starting to worry about the amount of food my kids ingest.  I think such large amounts are abnormal. We aren't even to the teenage years yet... Be afraid, be very afraid!  They have been compared to goats and bottomless pits.  I have yet to run into anything they won't eat.  I'm not complaining about the latter though.
2. Making cream cheese frosting during the summer isn't the best idea.  I guess it doesn't help that we keep the thermometer at 78 degrees to help keep costs down too.
3. Looks don't matter.  It's the taste that counts!  (see above)
4. I am toying with taking refined sugar out of our diet.  There is sugar packed into a lot of grocery items you might not think about: spaghetti sauce, crackers, and the list can go on and on.
5. I've been looking into vegan baking.  I found it is easy to do egg substitutes in more savory items, but not so easy in sweeter dishes.  I think 4 and 5 kind of go hand in hand.
6. I am not above bribery to lure the kids into doing what I would like them to with good behavior.  I think I should be more ashamed to admit it.  I will really be hurting when ice cream is no longer a good reward.
7. Taking tags off of new clothes is a bummer, especially when clothes shopping in mass.
8. Labeling new school supplies for 3 children is an even bigger bummer.
9. I learned how to hem pants so we didn't have to pay $30 to get Jay's new suit pants hemmed.  It was surprisingly easy, and it definitely didn't cost $30 in materials or time to make it worth going to a tailor again.
10. “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” Proverbs 12:25  I should put this on my badge for school since I had the remarkable ability for getting the most confrontational patients last semester.  

Craziness with a 9.25% Discount

This weekend was Tennessee's tax free weekend.  School supplies, clothing, and technology were without sales tax.

My aunt and I decided to brave the crowds and make the best of this chance at an almost 10% discount.  Every little bit helps after all.  We were really on a mission to find pants to fit my very tall and very skinny children.  I think they might have space alien genes.  If they could just stop growing, I would be able to sit by the pool sipping umbrella drinks instead of shopping for clothes.  We also had to find shirts with collars for Paige.  Her new school has a very strict dress code that is similar to a uniform without calling it a school uniform.  Apparently all the other parents at her school were also looking for these shirts because each store had a very limited selection.  We were able to find enough to get the kids started for the school year.

Did I mention rule number one for clothing for my kids?  They are not allowed to wear white!  All three of them have the ability to roll their lunches down the front of their shirts.  If it were an Olympic event, they would have many gold medals decorating their walls.

I have strange kids and this weekend just re-confirmed it.  I enticed the boys to come shopping with me by bribing them with different things.  No, I am not against bribery, especially when they have to try on several pairs of pants to make sure they go past their ankles!  Xavier was enticed with a new pair of sneakers.  His old sneakers found their way into the garbage can on the last day of school.  Jacob was enticed by a new lunch box, one that wasn't his brothers in a school year past.  I think the amount of choices really boggled his mind.  He went up and down the aisle several times before he finally made his choice.  He has a very discriminating tastes after all.

All in all we were successful.  They are all going to be clothed on the first day of school.  They will all have their backpacks filled with the necessary school supplies, and they all have their very own, not hand me down lunch boxes or backpacks.  WooHoo!  High five to my aunt for sticking in there with the craziness of shopping with the kids and having the sense to kill a shopping expedition into a store when the checkout line wrapped to the back of the building.  Thanks!  I don't think I could have survived the weekend without you.

Eat More Cake!

Today has been packed with excitement and it's only 11:30.  I think that may be mom lingo for I'm ready for a nap!

I had one of those days when the clutter was beginning to make me crazy.  It wasn't just any clutter that got to me.  It was the spice cabinet above the stove.  These little cabinets are not really good for storage, yet that is mostly what they are used for.  I ended up taking everything out, wiping it down, throwing out old spices, and refilling the jars on the spice rack.  The duplicates ended up in the pantry.  The spices I use all the time are in the jars on the spice rack.  Believe it or not, I can actually see the back of the cabinet when I open the door.  I didn't go totally CDO (OCD in the correct, alphabetical order) and alphabetized the spices because deep down inside I knew that would never last.

Just because I didn't really have much to do today, Jacob decided he was going to take a dry erase marker and draw on his door.  He then decided to hide the marker.  I guess he thought he wouldn't be in as much trouble if I didn't have the marker.  After turning his room upside down, I finally found the marker.  Jacob used a magic eraser to clean up his door and spent some time thinking about what he did wrong.

The rest of the morning was spent with the usual cleaning and straightening.  Although, I'm pretty sure no one could tell.

**Fast forward to the afternoon**

I had the baking urge strike today.  Strawberries were on sale for 99¢.  How could I possibly resist?  The final idea was a 4,3,2,1 cake (basic cake recipe), sliced strawberries in between the layers, and a cream cheese frosting.  Yum!  There was only one problem, the heat and humidity.  Normally, I have no issues with cream cheese frosting.  It is usually stiff enough to frost on any cake.  Today, it melted right before my eyes.  Notice the big blob running down the middle of the cake.  Currently, I have the cake stuffed in the freezer to keep the frosting from sliding back off.

It sure is a pretty cake.  White frosting with the red of fresh strawberries poking through.  Cake really does make everything all better.  Enough typing, must go do some devouring!

Sticky

This is the kind of week that makes me want to move to Alaska for the summer.  This has been the hottest week of the summer in Tennessee.  For us, temperatures have been in the high 90's and humidity has been at least 40% during the day.

My alarm is set for 4:50 in the morning.  I chose this as my run time because it was the coolest part of the day and kids are still asleep.  This morning I got up for my run and checked the weather.  I have a nifty app on my phone that shows the temperature, humidity, and rain chance on a nifty graph.  (I'm embracing my nerdyness fully!)  According to the app, it was 80 degrees and 88% humidity.  I had an internal debate about whether it was worth running or not.  I ran just because I'm a glutton for punishment, or something like that. 

This was the type of morning when the birds and the bunnies look at you and decide it's not worth running  because that would take way too much effort.  At one point during the run, I wasn't sure if it was sweat running down my face or if I was beginning to foam at the mouth and drool.  I came back from my run drenched.  Usually, after a stretching cool down, I go upstairs to take a shower.  Today, the stairs look mighty daunting.  Instead, I’m enjoying the coolness of my wooden floor.  I wonder how much of my day I can spend laying on it.

Stay cool everyone!

Creativity Burps

It occurred to me today that I have mentioned creativity burps without ever truly explaining.  Oops!  I shall explain here and now.

I have an avalanche of pictures.  When Paige was born, we were gifted a digital camera.  She was the first child so everything was documented, and I do mean E.V.E.R.Y.thing.  This led to even more pictures when the boys were born.  Now, I feel an obligation to document every stage.  The benefit of digital not having film to develop.  The disadvantage to digital is not having film to develop.  This all leads to an avalanche of stray photos needing good homes.  I started scrapbooking to give the photos a good home.  I wanted to be able to share my documentation of our lives with everyone, and then I started school...

My mom showed me how to crochet last winter.  I think most crocheters dream of making blankets or baby garb.  I wanted to make a zoo out of crocheted animals, so I started with a blue hippo and an alien because every good zoo needs an alien!

I made a couple of bunny blanket buddies for friends having baby girls because babies need to have snugly toys and interesting patterns to stare at.

I have a catalog of animals to crochet, but then I started school...

I am a pyromaniac.  I'm pretty sure I have been all my life.  I remember going camping with my mom and spending hours poking at the campfire with different sized sticks.  I have rekindled this love of fire recently with lampworking.  It is an amazing process to see sticks of solid glass become molten enough to be manipulated to form different shapes.

This is also why my creativity workshop needs to have propane and oxygen lines and good ventilation.  These rods of stick turn into beautiful jewels like these (the frog was made by the class instructor, I'm capable of the round beads only):

And then they get morphed into treasures like these:

I love this whole process.  It's so soothing to start with something simple, a stick of glass, and end up with something so beautiful, jewelry.  And then, I started school...

I'm not sad I started school.  I find it very rewarding.  I'm just glad dust isn't corrosive,  photo boxes are made to archival quality, and there are large capacity hard drives.

This Week's Recap

1. There are all types of crazy in the world but that's what makes it all go 'round.
2. Breathing drops of sweat through your nose stings and tickles at the same time.
3. Broken air conditioning on hot, humid evenings stinks.  A broken air conditioner on a hot, humid day stinks even more!
4. When running under low hanging trees, it is better to watch the ground than to know you hit a spider web.  If you don't, the rest of the run will be filled with sensations of spiders running up and down your body.
5. Movies are classified as really funny when "even Grandpa laughs."  Paige was able to spend this weekend with her great grandparents.  One of their activities was seeing a movie together.  She said it was funny, so funny that even Grandpa laughed.  
6. Gelato is like ice cream but so much better!  It is like an intense fruit explosion on your tongue. Yum!  Everyone must try it.  Yep, yep!
7. Men and men in training have a very different idea of what they need to eat than women.  Men would be very happy to eat only meat for every meal.  Women appreciate a good salad and a light meal.
8. Android beat the pants off of iPhone.  Haha!  I just like getting a rise out of the die hard Apple fans in my life.
9. 80 degrees and high humidity is my cut off point for running.  There is something about running through air that could be cut with a knife that makes running less fun and more like work.
10. "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because some day in life you will have been all of these." ~ George Washington Carver