the sectional arrives

oh thank goodness, we have furniture again! after 4 days of sitting on the floor and looking up six feet to the t.v., I'm glad to have family room furniture again :) now we just need a couple end tables for drinks and i'll be set for what appears to be (finally) a cold, windy winter season.


i'm not sure how it didn't cross our minds, but when we chose the cushions it didn't even occur to either of us how well the circles within circles print would match with our tree prints above. lovely when UNdecorating people can pull that off ;) of course, probably real decorators would advise using contrasting patterns. whatev.

shenanigans already underway....

2012!

It's January! 2012! And we have been out riding our bikes, walking to the mailbox, and generally enjoying the weather. It feels like March. What is going on? Is this global warming? Because I have to say that as much as these temps. creep me out (it is January in Iowa, after all), I am LOVING this.

Things I would like to accomplish in 2012?

1) Clean our master bathroom shower.
2) Meet with a lawyer and get a real will written.
3) Get my knee issue diagnosed so that I can rejoin Farrells and come up with a more regular physical routine.
4) GO ON VACATION. With hubby. And no kids. Far Away. The end.
5) Really and truly focus on being a loving wife, rather than business partner.
6) Visit Bridget and her lovely Willa. Visit Alicia in her new New Jersey home. Visit many in Minnesota. Get. Out. More.
7) Read more. Books currently on my upcoming reading list:

Mama, PhD
The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter
Parenting Beyond Belief: On Raising Ethical, Caring Kids Without Religion
Raising Free Thinkers
The New Book of Family Tradition: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everydays
The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer From the People Who've Lived the Longest
In Defense of Food

And, oh my, there are many more. But I am starting there.

Things I am so very thankful that 2011 brought me:
1) Sleep. Mike has undertaken the challenge of Gavin night-duty. So nursing has greatly diminished and for the first time in two and a half years, my body has learned to get a full night's sleep again.
2) A beautiful new home that has left me feeling settled and more at ease. It has been a joy to host family gatherings, potlucks with friends, work parties, and welcome loved ones into our home to share food and memories.
3) The feeling of brightness and happiness creeping on a more regular basis again.
4) The creation of Wisdom Circle, which picked up where Birth Circles left off, and has offered me three hours every month of rich, thought-provoking conversation about real topics with like-minded women who I have grown to cherish.
5) Saturday morning book club. Pretty much "ditto" to that last comment.
6) The village that Willowsong Midwifery has presented to me and welcomed me into, which has gradually opened up new and rich friendships for not only me, but my kids and husband, too.
7) Much more introspection about spirituality, life, and happiness than I had enjoyed in the past. With the perfect people to discuss it with.

I seem to be listing things in sevens here. Maybe seven will be my lucky number this year.

Many, many good wishes to all reading this as you approach a new year of journeys.

Christmas 2011

We had a very enjoyable, low key Christmas this year. Adam came on Christmas eve and spent the day with the boys and I while Mike was at work. We made eskimo cookies to leave out for Santa. Adam and I used to make those all the time growing up.







Adam also played engineer and teacher, and spent about an hour with the boys taking apart a broken snowman and showing them how playing with the wires and various batteries made different parts dance. Something I would never do. Thank goodness for uncles.




Christmas morning




Bounce House Mania





Rocket launching it the backyard



In the afternoon on Christmas day, Mike's parents, brother and sister-in-law, and all of their kids and grandkids came over. I didn't get a lot of photos, but do have this of Jack really digging down into his gift bag:




My parents came on New Year's Day and we celebrated our family Christmas then. Good food, good times.

doing a little decorating

my slow, slow, slow process of hanging things on the walls continues. my dear and lovely friend sarah gifted me this graduation/christmas gift recently. sarah, we found a perfect spot for it:



and Steph, thanks for the help on where to put the vinyl lettering. the afternoon after you left i finally put them up! this also helped me finish hanging the rest of our photos in the hallway, too :)


today the last of our furniture was purchased and picked up by craigslist buyers. (as i type, mike sits in the middle of an empty living room, watching t.v. on a dining room chair). in a couple days our new sectional will arrive. i'm stoked to see how it will tie together the family room and, hopefully, warm up the space a bit.

little monkeys

apparently the gymnastics classes are paying off for all three of my boys. found them in the hallway one day doing this:

So......huh.

I've been thinking about blogging for weeks. And the longer it takes me to get around to it, the more I put it off because the task seems so much BIGer. At the moment, though, it seems I might just start posting some photos and playing some catch-up. I have a lot of photos I never posted because I'm still meandering through iPhoto, and still haven't attempted to learn how to use it yet. But I've got some fun photos, so for the 2? 3? of you who still pop in occasionally to read this sorry blog, here is your update :)

I'm gonna go waaaay back here....

Mike's 34th birthday. Hawkeye cake.

I am excited that we finally started a new family tradition this year, which is something I've been wanting to do for a long time now. This was our first year of making a Family Tree of Gratitude. Mike's birthday is on the 15th of November, so beginning the evening of his birthday we start hanging leaves on our "tree" every night all the way up to Thanksgiving. We have each family member pick a leaf, and write on it one thing we appreciate or enjoy about one other family member. The nice thought is kept a secret (except for the parent who hears the thought and writes it down for him who is too young to write). This gives us about 10 days/thoughts of thankfulness and appreciation to share and "hang" until Thanksgiving, so that's a cute little tree of 50 leaves. Then the evening of Thanksgiving, we took each leaf off and read them aloud for everyone to hear. It was super cute to see their little smiles of shyness when they heard things like, "I really like it when daddy watches me in my gymnastics class," and "I love it when Benji shares his trucks with me." It was my favorite part of the holidays this year, period, which is why I chose a photo of us and our Tree of Gratitude for our holiday cards :)






Benji and Jack's preschool holiday concerts




One more photo with Santa after driving through the Jolly Holiday Lights display. This time Gavin wasn't too scared to sit by him.

odds and ends of the past week

i was not too happy about this little prank benji pulled several days ago:


after 5 years of owning a king-sized bed, we now finally have a king-sized bed set! it's a little fun stepping up into bed rather than down onto a mattress on the floor.



we hosted mike's pharmacy work holiday party on saturday night. it was about 20 people, so busy, but really fun.





celebrated my mother-in-law's 55th birthday yesterday.

she was pretty excited about the kindle we gifted her.