self portrait tuesday (on wednesday) - time

i was looking through a cd of old pictures my grandma compiled, trying to find a picture of little me. I came across this one, which I don't remember ever seeing before. I'm the littlest one in the back. this i do remember from a spaghetti dinner with a bunch of family. look, even then, bread was my favorite. and this is probably the most confident I've ever looked on a horse. I can't remember if this was before or after a time that anne, a cousin and myself were on a horse all together and we all slowly slowly sorta leaned off and hit the ground hard enough that I've been a bit nervous of horses ever since. self portrait tuesday blog self portrait tuesday time challenge

poor kiddos

remember when you were rather small and just learning to dive into the pool instead of jumping in feet first? you'd perch your feet on the extreme edge, crouch down and just sorta lean over into the pool? ellen did that yesterday, only her perch was the kitchen chair and her pool was the kitchen floor. i'm not sure what she was trying to do - maybe fly over to her sticker collection a few short feet away. she now has a nice little purple knot on her forehead, but she doesn't seem to mind at all. on friday night, the night before the shower, ellen had the flu. she's was a phenomenal little sick kid and used a little bucket quite nicely. last night, isaiah got it, but much worse. he first started 'spitting out his food', as ellen calls it, about ten minutes after he and i had been on a little adventure walking through the professionally decorated, very expensive looking model home for a new neighborhood in our town. poor kid couldn't even keep a bit of water down and was sick all night. my poor poor baby got so desperately thirsty he just cried and cried pointing at anything that looked like a cup, and when i finally gave him some he just couldn't keep it down. and then he'd start over, crying crying, pointing to a cup begging for water. naively, i thought he'd know when to stop drinking. finally i just gave him a small couple sips and then hid the cup and he eventually went back to sleep. and now this morning he seems to be recovered.

Sunday is going to be one sweet celebration day

this morning we hosted a baby shower for one of dave's coworkers. This was my first time hosting a shower and I learned a few things, mostly about myself. 1. Not everyone eats as many sweet things as I do. Usually when we go to get togethers and people put things like vegetables and various things other than the sweet stuff on their plates, I always assume that either one, they're dieting or two, they're just better behaved than me and believe in eating the healthy stuff before the good stuff. But they're defintely going to go fill their plate with the real food next. this is not the case, apparently. people actually really like things that aren't sweet. luckily for me, I had a feeling this might be the truth and didn't just make sweet things. I do have a very tempting amount of sweet things left - anybody want some treats? 2. i have a new and growing fascination with serving plates/things and putting the food out in combinations and designs that are as pretty as the food is tasty. I had the very brief thought that catering could be fun. 3. I'm a better guest than host. When I go to parties, I think I do a pretty good job of drawing people out and finding things to talk about with people that are looking lonely. As a host, for some reason I just don't do it. I sit there awkwardly. Actually, I don't think its that I'm a bad host - it's that for this, I have a one track mind. I can either think about food and details, or about people and conversation. weird. 4. The woman the shower was for offered to help over and over, but that's just illegal. no one else offered and this annoyed me to no end. i should have just asked for help. 5. Truly, I am an introvert. I am so ready for a nap. Of course that could have something to do with the setting the alarm to get up this morning and clean up the yard a bit before people we knew saw the mess that is our property. (And by the way, who needs the gym when you can do yard work? No commute, you can work up as much of a sweat as you want and there is always something to do.) 6 I like to work as a part of a team. a small team. like me and one other. I need someone to remind me of the things I'm forgetting, like something to drink for instance. Or to actually serve the cake that I made. ah well, more for tomorrow. (it is quite handy that i planned this for a saturday, when i only had to wait one day until I could eat the good stuff on Sunday)

dave is a banking stud

i just realized that I am on spring break! woo hoo!!! i think i'm going to read a book. and by the way, we are officially accepting visitors. mom and wood are coming next week... who's coming next?

new hobby to juggle

i've been slacking off on blogging. dave told me i better get with the program since i always complain about other people not updating their blogs. i've found a new hobby - baking. i loooove baking. tonight i made little brownie bites - they look like little brownie muffins, but they're only about 1/2 inch tall and 1 inch in diameter. so cute. last night i hosted a mary kay 'skin care class' and made a pizza for dave and ellen and isaiah ahead of time. of the three people who came, three of them had not had dinner and gobbled it all up (after dave and ellen). and they all were amazed at how good it was. i was so proud. i've been in a bit of a state of shock lately, wondering how in the world it is possible to get everything accomplished that is on my list day to day. and these are all things i want to do - not just things i can conveniently procrastinate away. I can not figure it out. I was talking to a friend tonight and she randomly mentioned something along the same line - although granted she is in way deeper than me as she already has four children and is expecting another. She said she's learned its not about how much she can balance, but how much she can juggle. I think that might be the way to approach it all - I know other people have mentioned similar ideas to me, but somehow this clicked in my head. Well, sorta clicked. I guess I still want everything to be checked off my list and to do the things I've been dreaming about (like a new quilt, and all those things I want to try baking, renting movies, reading books, taking naps, cleaning up the yard, ...the list goes on and on) but i also realize they're not all going to happen in the same week. or even in the same month.

Sunday celebrations

"This year at Imago Dei Community, we are approaching Lent as a season for embracing the resurrection life. As we have been journeying through Romans, we have seen the realities that in christ, God has made us a new creation, has made us righteous, has given us new life and peace with himself, has set us free from sin, has shown us his love and called us to the power of his future hope. As we approach this season of easter, we are intentionally taking time as a community to embrace these realities that havebeen made true by Christ's resurrection. This book is designed to help us orient our lives toward these truths in this season. Lent originated in the very earliest days of the Church as a preparatory time for Easter, when the faithful rededicated themselves and when converts were instructed in the faith and prepared for baptism. Today, we celebrate Lent for a forty-day period before Easter. It begins on Ash Wednesday. Traditionally, we skip Sundays when we count the 40 days, because Sundays commemorate the resurrection... For us, Lent is an invitation to 40 days of reneweal, -"Lent" means "spring"-, 40 days to prepare ourselves to take in the good news of Easter through deeper disciplines of prayer, fasting, and giving. We are nto only fasting from something, we are hungering toward God...Some people find the cravings they experience can be redirected toward postive ends: as a reminder to pray or to practice a chosen spiritual discipline. Thus, giving up a physical practice may make room for internal change just as you replace a bad habit for a good one... In the end, Lent is a time for us as community to embrace the resurrection life God has given us in Christ. It is not just a time to give up some thing or another, but a time to orient our whole lives towards God." Taken from "Prayers for Lent" which Imago put out this year. I include it here because I like the explanations and reasonings they give. Also, when i first read it, my eye caught the part about not counting Sundays because that was a day to celebrate the resurrection. So, I decided on Sundays, I would eat sugar as a sort of celebration and be reminded every sunday of resurrection life. Dave thinks its a handy gimmick I'm using to get whatever food I'm craving. But, its not. Really. Last Sunday I had a bite of fudge and a soda, and with every sip I felt like it was a special day and I was celebrating and my mind was brought back to the resurrection. And this week, I've been saving up things I want to eat today, and again, with every one of those thoughts, I'm reminded of resurrection life.

just talk

ellen: look mom, they're playing soccer me:yep. ellen would you like to play soccer someday? like maybe when you're five? ellen: maybe when i'm 2 and 1/2. me: really? you'd like to play right now? ellen: noooooo. I'm just talkin about it.

self portriat tuesday(time): breakfast edition

tuesday wednesday thursday friday saturday (dave took ellen to work with him and isaiah was sleeping) sunday monday tuesday do you see how far back isaiah seems to be in all these pictures. he does this thing where he bangs his body against the back of the high chair and scoots himself all over the place. and yes, the wheels are as locked as they can be. I've tried everything to get him to keep still, looping my leg around his chair leg, turning on music (maybe he's bored?), i don't even know what else. usually he scoots backwards, but sometimes he goes forward, when there's something that looks especially good to him on the table. self portrait tuesday blog spt - time theme

dave's the master

we went out to target this afternoon - i see that dave must have been home for lunch while we were gone.

how else can i procrastinate?

i'm doing some hardcore procrastinating from any and everything remotely productive this week. isaiah's been sleeping a bit better so i felt the freedom to watch a couple movies and that seemed to put me in a lazy funk. the first one, "Rundown" (an action featuring the Rock) was really funny and clever. the second, "Forty Year Old Virgin" had a lot more breasts than I was expecting. dave's off playing volleyball and when he gets home I'm going over to my neighbor's to practice cooking asparagus. I have to make it for my show on saturday and since i don't like it, i need someone to tell me if it's tasting good or how to know when it's done. I'm supposed to be doing homework right now, but I just don't want to. so there.

poor me

ellen received her first paycheck this weekend. Dave took her with when he went to clean a fish tank that belongs to an older lady. dave thought she might enjoy the company of a two year old. I didn't get a complete rundown of the afternoon, but I did hear that she actually went out and bought ellen mcdonalds for lunch. so it must have gone well. when they got home, dave gave ellen a 5 dollar bill for helping. me: oh wow, 5 dollars ellen! ellen: no, that's one dollar mom me: see that 5 in the corner - that means its worth five dollars. ellen: oh MAN!!! she promptly folded it into a small square and put it right in her pocket. i didn't know she would know to do that. usually she gives all money right to me...when she first started noticing money i taught her that all money goes straight to mom ;) guess she's growing up, and i'm going to be poor from here on out.

101 in 1001

once again, Jill has inspired me. I'm going to do 101 in 1001 - 101 things to accomplish in 1001 days. I posted up my draft list for 101 in 1001 over on the side bar. I'm a bit short though - I need about twenty more. Any suggestions? I promise to format it better after the list is complete.

the ground snow has melted, but the snowmen remain it did hail today, though (those things that look like scratches are hail)

this was a crayon

until isaiah ate it.

it snowed yesterday!!

I had to head out to school, but after the babysitter came, Dave stayed home long enough to make a snowman with Ellen. The beauty of owning your own business.

ellen has a wide variety of interests

new dollar store jewelry. she's been loving to play dressed up lately. i love how the bugs are so carefully lined up

lent: day 3

i had a show tonight, and at every show i bake and take a cake. i figured that would be no big deal temptation-wise cause i don't really like to eat at shows anyway. but i forgot to make sure the cake was completely done when i took it out of the oven, and it collapsed a bit in the center. so i had to make another. no big deal, except now i had an extra cake sitting around the house to tempt me. for those of you that don't know I can easily polish off an entire cake in about two days, and that's when i'm trying not to eat it and save some for dave. so i called my neighbor and she came and took it away for me. isn't she nice?

you, my friends, are reading the blog of a senior executive.

in my first (real) month doing this little business, i've scaled two rungs of the company ladder. i am now an senior executive. which basically means i get a raise. two raises, actually. pretty impressive huh? now i need to get someone else to want to do this so i can be a manager. i have a show tonight, so maybe someone will want to be just like me.

self portrait tuesday - an uber post **UPDATED**

i've been wanting to do self-portrait tuesday for a long time. last week i decided i would start this month. but i forgot until i checked jill's blog this morning. and bummer for me, i picked a month when the theme (time) is not one you can just do real quick. so i took way too many pictures today, documenting the passage of my day. breakfast still half asleep before a shower isaiah's ready for nap #1 ellen reading while i put him down isaiah sleeping (he loves that blanket) so excited to have had a shower blogging unloading dishwasher and the usual highlight of our day: "the mailbox is here!!" (it is a rather boxy van/truck thing) picking up some demarle product i lent out. isn't the person who did the borrowing supposed to do the work of returning? during the 100 yards of traffic we hit in tigard, i got to read bumper stickers picked up some water filters for the refrigerator grocery shopping isaiah was "massaging" ellen's head with his feet and they both thought it was just so funny ellen sleeps isaiah eats isaiah not sleeping doing a bit of homework isaiah eating again daily trip to the bank to make deposit in kids' accounts making pizza (i hate pizza sauce. so now i always use barbecue. pretty good.) dave comes home and the kids pounce on him replacing the filter and finally bed time

the kids at breakfast