Plant.

Plant.

Our yard has been devoid of plantlife since we moved in, now over two years ago. With Lowe's clearancing shrubs after the first snowstorm for 62 cents, I couldn't resist bringing home a truckload.

Here's a picture of my friend Cami, helping me plant the very first plant in our yard.

This was, I realized, the first time I planted anything with the intent to keep it alive. (My only other planting attempts were science projects with the kids--projects I put our on the deck to get some sun and forgot about until the following day and all that remained after the nightly wind storm was a few scattered empty science project cups. Oops.)

I loved it! It was very Zen.

Then the boys got involved in the "planting" . . .

I just wanted to plant a couple shrubs, that's all!

I should note here that Cami is the one who actually maneuvered this heavy machinery for the majority of the day. She's awesome. As are my all neighbors who helped me pull of what turned out to be a complete yard rennovation.

My yard has plants! Now let's hope we can go a couple of weeks before it's all covered in snow.

Act more normal--for the kids.

Act more normal--for the kids.

Yup, snow this weekend. One of the eight months of the year I ask myself again and again WHY I live here. I do not like cold!

The kids love it though so I took a few pictures of them enjoying this weekend's snow storm. Looking through the photos, more interesting to me than how depressingly snowy it is for my favorite season, is what a nut Chase is turning out to be. Sadly, there is no mistaking he gets this quality from me.

Check him out in this series of photos:












Hmm. Looking again it seems I may need to feed them more often too.

See the SYTYCD Live Tour.

See the SYTYCD Live Tour.

My friend Sue and I went to see our favorite SYTYCD dancers live on tour last month. I loved the show, which was no surprise, but I was surprised that my favorite part, I think, was Sue's sudden, very loud, enthusiastic and apparentally uncontrollable outburst to break the silence in the arena after her favorite dancer, Will, came on stage:
"Will I love you!!!!! Your body is so hooooooooooot!"
A classic moment.

Heal.

Heal.

You know what's not a good idea when you haven't slept in a week because you have a sinus infection and can't breathe?

About 1/4 mile into the race, I knew the best answer to that question: run a marathon.

One near-asthma attack, one panic attack, a sneezing fit, and one second degree hip flexor strain later I had made it to mile 7.

It was all I could do to limp home the last little 19 miles. Dehydrated, no less, from crying the whole way.

I'm going to go ahead and put this out there so it doesn't surface as blackmail as some crucial date later in my life. This is me, stumbling toward the finish line, six and a half hours later. If I look like I'm about to give someone the finger, or throw up, or lifelessly collapse, it's because I nearly was:

Catch up on life.

Catch up on life.

Both because I've been both super-busy and super-sick as I endure the longest and worse allergy season of my life, I haven't blogged for a month and I'm going to catch up over the next few days.

This will come as a surprise to no one, but I have a little bit of a problem saying "no". Not because I'm afraid to, but because a million different things genuinely sound fun to me. And when I say "yes", I sincerely believe I will have the time and energy to do it all. And usually, I do. Every once in a while, though, my list gets a little too long and my stress level gets a little too high for any kind of peacable feeling in our home.

Chase started preschool this year and it has been a reality check that my time with these two little kids at home is quickly slipping away. My goal this year has been to scale back on on my million activities and focus for a while on being a mom and housewife and enjoying feeling fulfilled in just that. I love being a stay at home mom and wife have no doubt I can feel fulfilled being only that. So I don't know why it has been so hard to let go of other things.

One huge step in minimizing the clutter in my life was quitting my job at the paper. Although it didn't really take that much time away from home and I enjoyed the tangible accomplishment of seeing my writing in print, the stress of deadlines (and trying to sound professional while interviewing the mayor, locked in my closet with my four-year old banging on the door and screaming my name, then realizing I didn't bring my laptop or notebook for that matter into the closet with me and thus taking notes on a shoebox with a crayon...) had its affect on my life and as a result the lives of the rest of my family. It's been five days since my last story was submitted to my editor and I already feel lighter and more at ease with my kids.

Now the challenge will be resisting the urge to say "yes" to something else (or three something-elses) to fill its place.

Chase's first day of preschool (we're a month in and he LOVES it, and I love that he loves it):