I love this blog...

I love this blog. It makes me so happy.  I started it about a year after Stacy died, and it really helped me cope. Some of the pictures are so beautiful they make me cry. I have such a sweet life. Lately, I feel like I'm not treasuring my life nearly enough.

Tonight I discovered that Boo really hates wearing her Daisy vest. I also discovered that she is pretty good at math facts. We are reading On the Banks of Plum Creek together right now, and she is delighted by it.

Bardo is hilarious. He sat and giggled as he read out-loud a health quiz that I got from the gym over dinner. Maybe a medical career is in his future if he can get that laughter under control. He's quite the book worm lately. I thought Pippi loved to read. Well Bardo never wants to stop reading. He walks home from school with a nose in a book. He probably reads at least one book every day. Granted, that the majority of the books he read are from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series or somehow related to Captain Underpants, but today he was pretty stoked about the biography of Milton Hershey and requested that we go to the Hershey factory this summer for our family vacation. Bardo's got it all planned out. He says we can even stop by the Liberty Bell.

Pippi is a busy, delightful, busy, crazy, busy and did I mention busy teenager. I didn't anticipate how her high school career with it's early mornings and late night would affect my sleep schedule. She made drum line, as a Freshman, and we are oh so proud of her. She's also on a competetive soccer team that plays out of Rush soccer program in the Woodlands.

And guess who started school?! MEMEMEMEME! I love it. I feel like my brain has been shaken awake. I really love study and getting good grades. I'm attending University of Houston's post-baccalaureate teacher certification program. I'm excited and scared to be a teacher. But, so far, everything is going quite well.

Cramped Spaces

This will be fun.  I'm so grateful for clean, running water.  Oh look!  I can clean this kitchen in 15 short minutes.

We are well into our 2014 Home Life Disruption Project.  We sold our Quiet Summer Ln home earlier this fall, after signing a contract to build a Ryland home in Summerwood.  It's the Vivace floor plan, complete with a guest room, extra garage and a launch pad for Rebecca's drum set that we really hope she'll start using.  We drive by everyday to check on the progress.  I have so much respect for the craftsmen that are putting our home together, bit by beautiful bit.

Breakfast every morning in our apt. is like an episode of Cutthroat Kitchen.  We can squeeze 4 people into our kitchen, but it's tricky.  I'm afraid times like these reveal my uglier side.  We're watching record amounts of TV. We used to have a shoe shelf.  Now we have a shoe/backpack/coat pile.  It's glorious.

Luckily we have friends.  We have friends dogsitting.  Another friend's catsitting.  And another friend loaned us her digital piano when we discovered that our upright would definitely not make our home life better.  So Quinn continues his piano study.  It's something he can do while he recovers from his broken arm, which he obtained while walking and then tripping and then catching himself.  And then of course, we needed a piano sitter, a service provided by yet another friend.

So you're having a hard time, you ask?  I guess.

My Butt

This year I've had my rear end photographed at least a dozen times.  Never again will parents be allowed to take pictures from the coach's side.  Never again.  However, I look at this picture and I think the argument could be made that my rear is indeed my better side.  What do you think?

Days 3, 4, 5

I'm grateful for Nick.  He is so thoughtful and generous.  He carries so many burdens so that I don't have to.  He's amazing.

I'm grateful that Daphne was hugging my leg happily instead of crying in Target today.

I'm grateful Quinn rode his bike to school today.

I'd be even more grateful if I had more time to write.  Everything feels abbreviated because I have to do it so fast.

Gratitude Days One and Two

I'm grateful for soccer.  I love the way it gets us out of bed in the morning on a Saturday.  It keeps us outside 3 out of 5 nights a week.   It makes little girls laugh.  It feels good to little boys to run run run run run run and the running is only made more fun by the focus on a ball.

I'm grateful we have finally successfully nuked Quinn's sinus infection.  He woke up today, the first time in weeks, with no headache.

Homemade Costume Part 3: Grim Reaper

Homemade Costumes Part 2: Nymphadora Tonks

My Harry Potter

Homeade Halloween Part One: Rapunzel

The trick to Halloweek sewing is to let go of perfectionism and to just enjoy the journey.  I feel kind of sad that this was the first year I attempted any homeade costumes.  It would've been good to practice my sewing skills once each year.  The dress and the braid were sewn  from the Simplicity Rapunzel pattern.

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