You Shall Not Pass

I'm not sure what we've done to upset our trash collector, but they've started leaving our can right in the middle of our driveway. For reference, we leave our can on the far left-hand edge of our driveway in the morning. After the trash is collected, our driveway ends up blocked by the can right in the middle. There's a solid chance we haven't upset the trash collector and this is just a fluke. But it does keep happening...

Quick Work

The kids went back to school today. I spent my morning attempting to put the house back in order. I was pleased with how quickly I worked and then realized why I was so effective: no one was following me around undoing all my work.

I love when they're all home, but there are benefits to having them all in school.

I Wish to Laze About

My proclivity toward sloth is in full force this week. We unpacked and cleaned our house as soon as we got home from our trip, and I think it wore me out. I made dinner the last two nights, and I've slowly been putting Christmas decorations away, but I am dragging. I'm not the only one. The boys went back to school today under some duress. Yesterday, when questioned about his plans for today, Peter announced that he would be sleeping until noon.

He did not.

I let the girls stay in their pajamas today, part of my attempt to hold on to our Christmas break. Phoebe was disappointed to learn that she would need to actually get dressed tomorrow. Is love of lounge wear taught or a genetic trait?

My big goal for the week (to support my bigger goal for the year) is to go to sleep earlier than eleven o'clock. I haven't made it yet, but I still have a few nights left to try. Then next week my goal is to maintain that bedtime.

Hopefully more sleep will help kick my love of laziness out the window. Or at least across the room, because out the window would take too much effort.

Oh I've Been Everywhere (Almost)

Have you seen the map going around Facebook that lets you mark all the states in the US you've visited? I finally filled one out.


Create Your Own Visited States Map

The South is calling out to me, "Come visit, ya'll!" Or something like that. But North Dakota is just mocking me. I can see myself getting to Alaska and Hawaii before making it all the way up to North Dakota.

This bothers me far more than it should...

And on that note, have a great Independence Day!

The Way Of It

Sometimes I sit down to write a post and discover I don't know what my topic is. This isn't the same as last week's writer's block, not really. No, it's more like each day has a designated subject and that information has not yet been made available.

I'll start to write, only to be met with the distinct impression of, "Nope, that's not what you need to write about today." Some days I begin (and then subsequently delete) four or five posts. At that point I usually stare at the screen for a while, waiting for inspiration to strike.

A few of these end in picture-only posts, others in movies. Occasionally I'll remember some funny thing one of the kids said and I'll quickly record it before the memory slips away. And sometimes, when I'm really lucky, I realize what I should be writing about and compose a post that I adore.

There are stories that I never tell on the blog. Some of them I want to share, but the words get jumbled and I have what the scriptures call a stupor of thought. This stupor is different than the regular I'm-a-mom-and-so-tired-I-can't-think-straight brain fog. No, this feels like the words themselves are being snatched from my fingers even as I try to type them. I'm not always sure why some experiences and insights make it onto the blog, while others are left to fade out of memory.

And then, every once in a while, I'll have a post that writes itself. The words will pour from my brain like water from a faucet, quick and clear and fresh. Just like the stories that don't appear on the blog, sometimes I record things that I hadn't originally deemed blog-worthy. Even as I type, I wonder, "Why am I writing about this? This was nothing. I'm sure I have better things to put in this space."

Somewhere down the line, on a day when I'm feeling nostalgic, I'll reread one of those inspired posts. And then I'll understand, "Oh, this is why I needed to write that."

Counting Down the Days

Summer break is a magical time of sleeping in, slacking off, and lazing about. At least, that's the dream that my sloth-inclined heart harbors. Visions of no homework are dancing through my head. I know it's never really that idyllic, especially the sleeping in part.

It's been a long few weeks. Our friends in Utah are finishing their school year sometime in the next week. We still have more than a month to go. And I think that's wearing me out. A lot.

We're all looking forward to summer break.

Happy Birthday To You And You And You And You...

I'm conducting an informal experiment. I'll be looking for results twice, once in five months and again in seventeen months. This experiment requires a few minutes each day at most, and some days it takes no time at all.

Curious?

Over the last few years I've been terrible at wishing my Facebook friends happy birthday. I wanted to leave a nice note for some, but I worried that if I remembered one, but not another, then someone's feelings would be hurt. That's how my brain works. So I chose to do nothing. I would send texts and emails, but I wouldn't write anything on their wall.

Big deal, right?

Well, it turns out I'm truly terrible at keeping in touch with people. I already knew this about myself, but at least I used to comment and say hello on Facebook. I don't really do that so much anymore. Well, I do comment, but only about a third of the time I want to. Other than that I'm kind of a social media hermit. I even type replies, then delete them before publishing anything. Over the past few years, the number of people who wished me a happy birthday went down. I wondered if it had anything to do with my lousy online presence. I hadn't put in the time to maintain our virtual friendship, why should they?

This year I decided to do something different. During 2015 I am wishing all of my Facebook friends a happy birthday. So far a few have even written back. Which means I should probably go respond...

I want to see if the number of people that wish me a happy birthday increases. Because my birthday falls halfway through the year, I'll need to go through a full cycle to check for results, which means eighteen months of online birthday cheer.

I'm sure I've just skewed my results by writing about it, but I have a good reason. This week I discovered a flaw. Two of my good friends had birthdays. In years past I would have sent an email or a text. (Birthday phone calls tend to be reserved for blood relations since that's usually the only gift we give, because in addition to being terrible at keeping in touch, I'm truly awful at giving gifts.) This year I wrote on their Facebook pages, because I had to in order to follow-through with my goal. After I sent the messages I felt like it wasn't enough. But I had already sent a message, so another in text or email form would be overkill, right? Except that Facebook really isn't very personal.

And now you know my first-world problem for today.

Heat Wave

It's a balmy 9 degrees outside right now. That's up from the 4 degree weather we had last night when I went to sleep. Both of those numbers don't take the wind chill into account. It was so cold this morning that the beginning of school was delayed by ninety minutes, because it was dangerous for all those little fingers and noses and ears to be outside.

Our heater has been on almost constantly and it can't get the main floor of our house warmer than 67 degrees. That might be warm enough for some of you, but for this continuously-cold-California girl, that's uncomfortable. I've been rocking my big warm sweatshirt and faux UGGs all day.

And on that note, I'm going to go burrow under my blankets.

Too Short

Today was the last weekday of the Christmas break. My kids didn't have a full two weeks off and the time feels too short.

You know that song It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas? There 's a line that I've seen quoted by some people on Facebook during the last few days. "And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again." I don't feel that way. I like having the kids home, even if it means I can't go grocery shopping. I like not worrying about making lunches or insisting that the boys do homework.

I think a three week break sounds good. I wonder how I could make that happen...

The Punctuation Dilemma

I over think my punctuation. How can I not? Each little comma or period can convey so much information. Returning a text message can be a laborious process for me because I write, then rewrite each reply. Add in that pesky and completely unofficial punctuation: the smiley face, and I simply have too many options.

Tonight I wrote a text to my neighbor. Then I added an exclamation point. Not because I regularly use that particular mark, but because compared with the exclamation-filled message I was replying to, my plain "You're welcome" came off as downright morose.

After rereading the note, I switched the exclamation point for a period and added the peppy punctuation to the concluding sentence. Sometimes I feel disingenuous using exclamation points in my writing. I'm not sure why, because I certainly use them liberally when I'm speaking. I'm so dramatic and expressive in person, but rather understated when I communicate via the written word.

My favorite punctuation remains the ellipses, because it leaves so much to the imagination...

Let's Go Have an Adventure

We have adventures. I don't mean the my-kids-are-full-of-energy-so every-moment-is-an-adventure kind of adventures. We have those as well, certainly, but I mean honest to goodness, pack a lunch or stay in a hotel, see amazing landmarks, kinds of adventures.

Of course, those of you that read the blog (I'm pretty sure you're still out there) have seen the pictures and read the travelogues of these adventures, so this isn't news to you. But it came as an epiphany to me today. I recently printed out a bunch of pictures at Costco to make our walls fancy. This afternoon I taped several of the pictures up, just to get an idea for where I'll put them when they have frames. As I looked at all the places we've been it struck me: we have adventures.

I want to say the adventures are because of my own drive for excitement or knowledge or culture. But really, it's because we've now lived in four different time zones and we want to take advantage of what each place has to offer. And so Bryan and I have a list of what we want to see and we put forth a lot of effort to make that happen.

The Thanksgiving break was one of these adventures. Two of my brothers live in the Baltimore area, so we made the drive down and spent four days with them. The kids got to play with their cousins, I got to see my brothers, and we all ate delicious food. Then we spent a day visiting museums and seeing national monuments.

It was a great adventure.

I am What You Wear

Sometimes I think I'm an overly strict mom. I don't let my kids jump on the furniture, I insist that they stay in their chairs during meals, I even ask them to fold their own laundry. I'm not going to be winning any "Most Fun Mom Ever" awards anytime soon. 

When I start to feel sad about this (because I, away from my mom persona, am pretty fun), all I need to do is look to Phoebe and what she's chosen to wear for the day. When she comes out of her room in such a creative outfit, I don't ask her to change. She's modest, and that's what is most important to me. See, I do support fun. And self-expression apparently.

My Barometer

It's going to snow here. I know this because my phone keeps giving me weather alerts and the local internet is buzzing over the crazy storm that's rolling in. I know for another reason though: I now have my own barometer.

My injured foot, which is mostly healed, started hurting terribly one day last week. I was shocked by the sharp pain I felt and spent the rest of the evening wearing the boot. The next day we woke up to a dusting of snow. It's happened a few times now; my foot hurts, then it rains or snows. Somehow my healing injury knows when the pressure in the air is changing.

It's going to snow. My foot told me.

Love Languages

You know the 5 Love Languages? Which love language would "Cooking Delicious Food" fall under? Because that's one way that I show love: I cook. While everyone has been sick this week I've baked homemade bread, rolls, rosemary focaccia bread, baked a pumpkin and the seeds, made a double batch of waffles to freeze, and cooked dinner each night.

I'm not sure what it is about being needed that propels me into the kitchen, but more often than not, I feel the pull of the pantry. I guess I believe in food as a source of comfort, and I always want people to feel comfortable.

Heavenly Aroma

We're inching closer to having a functional home. As of this week we have a working dishwasher, two working garage doors, a garage empty of moving boxes, and now today a sealed foundation that will (hopefully) stop the source of moisture for the mold. I celebrated by making my first batch of bread in this house. We had BLTs for dinner, so my house currently smells like bacon and homemade bread.

I think heaven will smell like baking bread, fresh laundry, newly cut grass, and Dove soap. Probably not like bacon, but in combination with the bread it created a lovely bouquet.

Crisis Averted

Good news, folks: I found my keys! Actually, Phoebe found them for me. After a week without them I was starting to fear the worst.

I know you were all concerned.

Also, we got internet today! Stayed tuned in the next few days for all kinds of travelogue goodness...

Missing

Has anyone seen my keys? I've looked everywhere I can think of here (including all the trashcans), so it stands to reason that they must have fallen into a tear in the universe. If you find them, please let me know.

That is all.

Continental

The number of things broken in this house is laughable. In addition to garage doors that don't work, a wall of mold in the basement, and an untethered toilet, the dishwasher is broken. This means that we've been using paper dishes for our meals. It also means I've been preparing foods that don't dirty too many items. We've consumed lots of chicken nuggets, French fries, and pasta.

Tonight as I opened a bag of frozen goodness, I noticed something. The brand, America's Choice, is not one that I was familiar with in the west. It appears to be generic, like Great Value or Western Family.  I realized the name America's Choice was a bit misleading though. Look closely at the picture and you'll understand why.

Nature's Lullaby

It's raining. This isn't a Washington kind of storm that gets heavy for a minute or two them goes back to misting/spitting on you. No, this is an actual thunder and lighting storm with lots of heavy rain. The rest of my household is asleep for the night and I'm listening to it through my open window.

Lovely.

"Mom, Your Phone is Yelling at You."

The GPS on my phone has been working overtime here. I can now find Bryan's work, Home Depot, and the freeway... and that's about it. Part of the reason I'm having such a hard time (aside from my normal inability to find my way out of a paper bag) is that there are so many trees here you can't really see any landmarks. I love trees. I think they're beautiful. But wow, they are hard to see through.

A bridge is closed in town and my GPS doesn't know, so tonight we took the looooong way around to get Peter to cub scouts. I glanced at the route before we left home. A few minutes into the drive we heard the dreaded words, "GPS signal lost." I kept driving. He was late, but I did okay just remembering and guessing where we should go.

On the way home I decided to risk it and just follow the detour signs instead of the GPS. You know what? It was a much easier drive than the first one had been. That lady that lives in my phone and gives me directions doesn't always know what she's talking about.