I'm Not Feeling Very Clever, But I Get Back to Redemption in the End

I've had a hard couple of days...Eliana has been difficult, Christian and I have had a rough time, and even Michaela has been a little smart with me (and I don't mean in a bookish way...).  The common factor here is...ME!  Blech.  Sometimes I don't like to be around my own self. 

The thing is, I don't want to be a downer.  So, I got into our pictures and found some that I would like to share.  Just for fun.  It's super random, though!

This is going to be the hat that Michaela wears to the tea party Christian's class has on Wednesday (more on that, I'm sure)...

These are pictures I took when I was going to enter the I Heart Faces smile photo challenge, but I ended up getting the kids to bed too late the last night you could enter, so I missed it.  I'm so glad I have these pictures though.  I was trying to use natural light, and see if I could make it work.  I still have so much to learn.  I know just enough to be dangerous, and to frustrate myself!

I know right about now you're thinking,"She's being difficult?!  How is that possible?"

Oh, but it is...she has to deal with me.  Remember?  haha

I'm pretty sure that my favorite hairstyle for her right now is dog ears.  I don't think it could be cuter.

Speaking of cute...

All I can say is that he is his mother's son.  He had a chocolate cupcake after his final soccer game.  He enjoyed it.  Thoroughly.

Michaela also had her final game; her team made it all the way to the last game of the play-offs.  They played a rough team, not just a tough one.  Our girls handled it well, though.  They played a great game, especially at the end.  Almost at the beginning, though, Michaela got hit in the face with the ball.  It hit so hard that her glasses went flying and one of the moms standing near me on the side cried out,"Was that blood or glasses?!" (they were the red ones)  There was no blood, but she was a bit timid for a while (um, hello?  I would have cried hard and run far, far away from the ball any time it came near me again-not an effective way to play soccer.) but she got back into the game toward the end.

Aaand back to the frustrations of taking pictures.  This is the only picture that turned out when I had the zoom lens on the other day.

There were about twelve pictures of a cardinal right in our yard, but I'm so unstable (shaky hands - my mental state didn't come into play at this time...that's a whole other story) that not one of them was clear.  I was so sad!  I don't know if I'm doing something very wrong or if we once again have the flukey dud.  This does happen to us quite frequently.  We are the "defective" magnets. 

Here is some good news!  I am going to try to start reading Scripture faithfully again.  I have gotten away from that (hmmm, could that be tied to my downward-spiraling attitude trend? [That is a rhetorical question.  Thank you.]) and am honestly looking forward to reading God's word and seeing where that takes me.  Sad, isn't it?  I'm the wife of a pastor and this is my state.  But!  God is a God of redemption, isn't he?  Oh, where would I be if it weren't so?!

Home is Hard Sometimes

There is always the adjustment you have to make when you return from a trip, whether it's brief or longer.  The last two weeks, and longer really, have been a little crazy.  Mike is teaching a class every other week in another town, and so several weeks ago he was gone overnight.  Then I left town for four days.  The following weekend he headed out of town again, and Christian did too, with his class on an unofficial field trip to the state Capitol.  In the state capital, Austin.  How confusing is that spelling? 

At any rate, we are all home again, and have all been trying to adjust to it. 

Eliana certainly feels it when Mike is gone, but having me gone for several days like that was a pretty big deal for her.  She did fine, and was happy, but once I was home she glued herself to my underarm for a few days.  It was hard to put on a shirt or go to the bathroom for a while. 

Michaela and Christian deal with that kind of thing differently since they are older, although they did want to be closer to me those first couple of days after my return.  They are the same way when Mike comes back from a trip or spending a lot of time in the office.  They can't get close enough. 

Then there is the slap of reality:  the daily dirty dishes, making meals (or whatever you want to call what we eat), doing laundry, sweeping floors, cleaning toilets, putting away toys (or kicking them to the wall so no one trips on them in the middle of the night).  That is the hardest for me...getting used to being home and having so much to do.  I don't even do that good of a job normally, and it seems like so much.  I've said this before, but our house is kind of a wreck.  I like to blame it on all the moves we've made, without having time (or in the case of the last one, not using the time wisely) to pack carefully and unpack carefully.  Things are thrown willy-nilly everywhere.  It's hard to recover from that.  And contrary to what some people might think about me, I don't like all the disaster around me.

I was lying down with Eliana tonight, feeling aggravated about all the things that are in my control but I have a hard time reining in.  It does come down to choices.  I get that.  But, then I don't make the choices that I should.  I don't behave like a 35-year-old wife and mother ought to behave.  I'm like a rebellious teenager.

I'm grounded!

I wish I could ground myself, but...that's kind of hard to do.  I can't believe it's May already.  I'll tell you something.  I quit exercising.  I started drinking soda again.  It's such a battle!  I wanted to start the good stuff back up tonight.  Give it 30 days, starting today.  That would take me through the end of the month...and hopefully get me going in the direction of a new habit.  A better one.  It's a mid-year resolution.

I am rebellious, you know.

So, I have had a hard time getting back to the real world.  But!  I know that it can happen.  And that I can be content.  I have to choose to be.  May the Lord grant me that contentment...it can come from no other place.

Not even chocolate cake or a Dr. Pepper.

Plus, if I weren't around, I'd miss things like this...

Talk about not wanting to miss out on something meaningful. 

I still have to do the dishes, though.  (Insert smile here.)

We Have a Winner!

First of all, I want to say that I deserve a prize myself for figuring out how to put that image in this post.  But I really wanted to be able to show you that I used the Random Number Generator, and to show you the actual result. 

But what do I think?  This is about me?  Certainly not!  It's about Jaime and the fact that she won the giveaway, since she was indeed the number one commenter!  Yay, Jaime!  I hope you like the Moon Valley Organics soap, lotion and lip treat (remember, it's more than a balm!) that will soon be headed your way. 

Thank you again to everyone who played along.  It was fun!  I loved reading your stories...some of family trips and some of girlfriend getaways.  And then there was my sister-in-law who made me cry! 

I hope you all have a lovely Saturday; it's still all girls here...but we have soccer and softball on the agenda. We can wear dresses and play ball too! 

--edited to add:  I have been informed that the number generator box isn't showing up properly for some.  I can see it on my computer, even when I'm not logged in to the site.  Let me know if you are also having this problem. 

Just the Princesses

It's just the girls tonight.

But not just any girls.  The royal girls.  The Princesses.

Some things you need to know about princesses...sometimes they go barefoot.

They also wear very large earrings.  Long necklaces are a must.

Princesses often purse their lips.

They are also known to be quite serious at times, as if the weight of the world were on their shoulders.

I think it's just the earrings, actually.

They are demure, and thoughtful.

(Just like her mother!)

It is important to remember that princesses are very bouncy.

And as for these two princesses...

they love one another very much.

(Since these girls are princesses, then I must be the queen.  Of nonsense, I'm sure.)

Back in Seattle Again...

Can you believe it snowed on the way back down the mountain?

We left the cabin midmorning on Saturday and headed back to Laurie's house in order to take charge of her girls momentarily (until we hit the road again), so that her husband could catch a flight.  Confusing?  It wasn't too chaotic!

She dropped her three older daughters off with a friend and then the remaining women involved in this madcap weekend drove to the city of Seattle. 

Seattle makes me think of Frasier and Niles, Daphne and Marty.  Did you watch that show?  That group of characters is one of the funniest ever put together.   That was a good show.

Well.  We drove into town and were greeted by the famous Space Needle.  For some reason I was enamored of this building.  Building?  I believe that it is a building.  We didn't go up in it (it's a little pricey) but I took more than enough pictures of it.  Maybe I enjoyed photographing this towering observation point because it was actually still.  A little break from taking pictures of monkeys supercharged with M&M's and Skittles moving targets. 

We even managed to get a picture of ourselves in front of the Needle.  I set the camera up on one of the girl's purses.  My guess is that several people may have wondered what on earth we were doing smiling at the bag sitting on the ground. 

Here is the Space Needle, towering above us as we headed to the monorail.

Oh!  Here is the Space Needle still towering above us as we head to the monorail.

I couldn't help myself.  Sorry.

There were other cool things to see while we were there...a lovely area where someone (or several someones) was playing some funky music while folks hung out on a pretty day...

Cool architecture...

It was a colorful place...

with a lot of bustling and busyness.  But in a fun way, probably since I wasn't the one who was particularly bustling or busy.

Our next destination was the Public Market; several people told me that we just had to go there.  We sure did, but not before we hit the Gap.  Ha!  We hit a great sale, and continued one of our great traditions-purchasing a matching shirt for ourselves that commemorates our time together.

Then it was down the street and around the corner...

And not only did we find the Public Market, but we found the Sanitary Public Market!  They must have known I was coming!

A couple of people told me before I left that we must go see the famous fish flingers at Pike Place.  I had a hard time leaving the sanitary area and moving to the fish-flinging area.

There was the famous Monkfish...which I am so thankful did not snap at me.  I might have peed.

These guys throw the fish.  The customer asks for the fish they want, and one of the fishmongers sends the stinking thing flying through the air.  They sing while they do this, chanting and yelling the order back and forth...

I wish I had more and better pictures of this, because it was fun to watch.  They really seemed to enjoy what they were doing, and they enjoyed entertaining the crowd, too.

Speaking of entertaining...

We decided that who needs roller coasters when you have a tilting monorail?  Or something like that. 

Maybe you had to be there.  It was seriously funny at the time.

Who needs Frasier when you have friends like these?!  That's what I say!

Our day had to wind down at some point, and so we headed back to Laurie's once again, for dinner, brownies, and a movie. 

We had such a full day, from our morning at the cabin, to a beautiful drive back down the mountain, to a sunny day playing in the city, to a perfect ending on the way home...

All these good things were gifts for me.  Treasures for me to store up in my heart.  I missed these girls before we had even parted ways.  They mean the world to me and I am already looking forward to the next time we get together.

I was able to think a lot, too, while I was gone from home.  I thought a great deal, and talked a lot, about how things have gone these last months and even couple of years.  It hasn't always been good...there have been some low points amidst the joyful moments and the memories that have been made for our family.  Ami (above, not holding the baby, not holding her face) said how much she was enjoying this time in her life, the ages of her kids (they are about the same as mine); she spoke of how she appreciated so much that the kids still wanted to be with them (her and her husband), they enjoyed being together as a family and hadn't reached that age where they'd rather be off by themselves or at the mall with friends instead.  They like to snuggle.  All of these things reminded me that the same thing is true in our house.  Our kids want to be with us.  They love to love on us.  They still want us to read to them, to go to ball games together, to go on family trips.  They need for me to be present.  These things might seem like no-brainers (I am a no-brainer, you know), but it was a good wake-up call for me to look at our life from a distance and see the good and the needs-improvement.  I'm so thankful for these ladies, their listening ears, their loving hearts, their encouraging words.  And also their jokes, and their laughter.  Did I mention that already?

Now I am home and feeling rejuvenated and energized for the tasks that lie before me.  And now it is time to share with you one final thing!  While I was gallavanting around Washington, whether in Bavarian villages or big cities, and having a very good time with some of my closest friends, I was also on the lookout for something to bring back with me to pass along to one of you, just for fun.  I wanted to bring back something that was representative of my time there...and this is what I ended up with...

Moon Valley Organics handmade soaps, lotion bar, and lip treat (it's more than a balm!).  It seems especially appropriate since this trip was such a soothing, rejuvenating time for me.  I hope that whoever wins these items enjoys them, finds them soothing and fun.  They're pretty, too.  And they smell lovelavenderly.

To enter to win I would love to hear your stories!  Tell me about your favorite vacation, or trip with some friends.  You can tell me where you went and what you did.  You can tell me why so-and-so is your favorite person to be with.  You can tell me why you love going to the beach, the mountains, or SeaWorld the best.  You type and click, and you're entered!  The contest (if that's the right word) will end on Friday evening at 9 pm CST. I'll randomly pick a winner and announce it soon thereafter!  I'm nervous.  I've never done this before!

Thanks for joining me as I walk down memory lane, even so soon after my trip.  I hope that you get to be with a good friend, have a good laugh, and eat a brownie really soon!

**Thanks for participating, everyone!  I'll announce the winner of the giveaway Saturday morning.  Even though time's up for entering, if you want to leave a story I'd still love to hear it!