I know, I disappeared. The last two weeks have been beyond crazy. They kicked my, ..., well, I'm trying to encourage a obscenity free zone at our house, hence the title, but you get the idea.
I won't bore you will all the mundane details, but to make a tedious story short, it involved a black eye, a funeral and an insane amount of "real" work, all piled onto our usual amount of craziness.
But here is something beautiful. This arrangement of flowers, given to my family for my grandmother's funeral. It is absolutely breathtaking and contains the largest roses I've ever seen.
Seriously, they are the size of baseballs.
And last night, for the first time in way too many nights, I got to cook dinner for my family. And it felt good. It felt right. It was like coming home. And I realized that I really, really love to cook. And when I don't cook, I get grouchy and under nourished, both physically and emotionally. So I just got back from the grocery store, and there will be fresh food this weekend. And my hands will smell wonderfully like garlic. And as soon as I get a get a chance, I'll post more.
Springing ahead for daylight savings time is always so hard for me. At least now, I know I'm not the only one.
Our little guy came down this morning with his big brother and promptly curled up and went back to sleep in our bed. He never does that. I'm so jealous.
There was the occasional stretch, which looked so delicious...
But he'd snuggle right back into the covers and continue his slumber. I love to do that. Stretch and then go back to sleep, knowing you don't have to be up yet.
Next year, that will all change, because my baby is about to go through kindergarten round up. How can that be? This is still a baby hand!
And it is attached to an angelic little baby face, covered by his trademark ratty pink blanket, which was mine so many years ago. Kindergarten will come too soon for us, or maybe just for me, so for now, I'm going to go watch him sleep and listen to the inevitable little sighs and snorts that he makes until he decides to wake up and meet this very early Monday morning head on.
While we were on vacation, we were treated to the most glorious sunsets.
The clouds were different every night.
so, I got to play with my camera, figuring out how to best capture the beauty. I'm no expert
but some nights were just breath taking,
especially when I could coax the boys into the picture.
Then we got home. The Midwest isn't Mexico, but boy, some evenings, the setting sun is still gorgeous. Instead of an ocean, the sky reflects off a frozen lake, but the promise of warm water is taunting me, promising balmy times ahead. Spring can't come soon enough.
Remember when taking a bath was this much fun? Blessedly, these days, my fun is getting to watch bath time be this much fun and marvel at the miracle of children.
Today was "my day" to drive the caravan to school, but I was so happy it was. We were treated to the most beautiful display of snow and ice coated trees.
My kids were telling the other kids that the trees looked like they were from heaven
That they were made by God or an angel
The other (older) kids snickered
But I agreed with them. They were beautiful. I might be sick of the five foot drift which is preventing us from using our front door and the ten foot piles of snow that make it so difficult to see other cars, but the trees this morning, that part of winter I will take.
We've been in our new house for, gee, 16 months now. There was that initial burst of industriousness, when we tried to get everything "just right" and everything "decorated" and then, we collapsed from the ordeal of building and just let it be. But recently, I've been looking at the house with a critical eye and wondering what it "needs" and the glaring answer is something (not much, because we like simple) but something, on the walls.
Herein lies the problem. I hate the idea of just putting "stuff" on the walls. I have to really like what I'm putting there, otherwise, it will get moved off the walls and into the basement before it even gets dusty. The problem is finding the right "thing". I'm not into prints of flowers, or wildlife. I like retro things, but I haven't been able to find the perfect print for our empty walls yet, so finally, as I was lying in bed thinking about it last night, I thought, why not try to get some shots of some old-fashioned things, some things that inspired us when building the house, frame it and hang it?
Now, that means a trip to an old place, an antique shop, an era house, but, I'm at home today, so that is a project for next weekend.
However, I thought I might be able to get some usable snapshots in our bathroom, because it is so predominately old fashioned. I snapped these pictures this morning and am playing around with them. Maybe, just maybe, if I have them printed in a matte finish and put them in a simple frame, they will be the "stuff" that makes it onto our walls, somewhere.
I think that these are best in black and white, and I can't decide which "Hot" picture I like best, but I think I need a pair...
This one is in color, but I like it. This ducky is always on the bath caddy on my clawfoot tub, courtesy of one of my sons.
We are snowed in again. What to do? What to do? How to entertain ourselves on our fifteenth of sixteen days at home (we snuck one school day in there) when it is "Too wet to go out. And too cold to play ball. When we sit in the house. And do nothing at all."
Finally, an "Ah ha!" moment. We should write the thank you notes that we have so sneakily avoided doing for the last fifteen days.
So, this is for all of you who are about to receive a home made card in the mail.
You know who you are, because there was a present from you under our tree this year.
Now, it might not be abundantly clear, when the postman delivers it, who this card is from or even exactly what it is for.
Because, after all, we are 5 and 6 and writing words is tedious... But you will know that we worked very diligently creating it for you.
On our fifteenth day stuck in the house.
and that we are so thankful for the presents, but mostly we are thankful for you and wish you were closer
so that we could give you this card in person instead of trusting it to the mailman. But we will see you soon and we are so excited! Love, the boys.
Being snowed in was made enjoyable by my Christmas gift. I was delighted to receive a prime lens for my Nikon camera. It is a Nikkor 35 mm 1.8 lens and I already LOVE it! Here are a few pics I snapped over the holiday of all the dogs that were in the house.
Jack spent most of his time at my feet in the kitchen as I was cooking.
Very carefully watching for dropped food and giving me "the look".
Rocky spent a fair amount of time there also.
He also has "a look".
Doc, on the other hand, prefers the bed.
Occasionally, he will raise his head, but mostly, he lazes about and tries to avoid being forced outside. Snow is not his friend, especially drifts which are over his head.
Maggie, who was visiting, took right to the indoors and nestled her way right into my bed both nights... But hey, there was another girl in the house, so I was happy for the estrogen boost!
