Because You're Worth It . . .

There's a new book on my bedside table, an early Mother's Day gift from that Hubby of mine.  Do you see it?  It's the one on the bottom of the stack.  A book by a little known author:  me.

After Christmas I wrote about a similar gift.  Now I've got two entire volumns full of my crazy ramblings on this little blog-about-nothing.

Look, here's one of my favorite posts from 2009.  In ink, on paper, recorded for generations to come. 

 

If you have a blog, I highly encourage you to check out Blog2Print. The book printing can be a bit pricey, but consider having your blog downloaded into a PDF file which you can print yourself and put into a binder.

It's a great gift hint to give your hubby. Because hubbies can always use hints. And because you're worth it!

Mother's Day is just around the corner.  What are you doing for your mom?

Sparkle and Shine . . .

A year or so after we moved into the house, the Hubby and I ordered these snap on window pane grids for our sliding glass door since it was the only gridless window in the house and had an inferiority complex. This solution has done the job for six years, that is until this week, when little Owlie discovered that it wasn't a permanent fixture and began pulling the grid off to play with it.

I asked the Hubby to remove the grid for a time until Ollie is ready to leave it alone.  With the grid removed, it was time for a serious cleaning of the glass.  So yesterday, while the kids were at school, I washed both inside and out with soapy water and a squeegee.  Then I shined it up with some glass cleaner and admired how lovely the sunlight looked streaming through a plate glass window minus grids and fingerprints.

Fast foward to 4:00 yesterday afternoon.  The chaos is at a feverpitch.  We have three baseball commitments at three different places.  Kids are running around in uniforms with only one cleat on, shoving food into their faces while I bark commands and try to soothe a crying baby.  Hannie B. cannot, for the life of her, find her glove.  I forcefully encourage her to remember when she last had it.  A light bulb goes on in her mind and she recalls having it out in the yard the night before.

Do you already see where this is going?

She turns from the kitchen to go get her glove.  And as I watch in disbelief/horror/slight glee she runs smack into the glass door which she thought was standing wide open due to lack of grime and grid.

It was AWESOME.  Like from a movie awesome.  I know we shouldn't laugh when things like this happen to our kids.  But I laughed.  I might have even guffawed.  Then she started laughing and suddenly I had to run to the restroom or wet myself!  It was just what we needed to take the tension out of an otherwise stressful time.

And I'm not warning anyone else about the door, because if I get to see that again, it will be worth it! :)

Thoughts On Cleaning Closets . . .

Image via Bing

There's something about cleaning closets.  For an anal, control freak, type A kinda girl like me, it's completely theraputic. Last week I finally got around to cleaning my closet and putting my winter/fall clothes away until the chill comes back to the air and I want my long sleeves again.

When I clean out my closet, it is an all day affair.  It involves removing EVERY LAST THING from the closet and systematically going over each piece of clothing or pair of shoes while asking myself questions like, "Have I worn this in the past year?" or "Is this looking a little worn, dated, tattered or torn?" and my favorite, "Do I even like this?" which usually leads to "Why on earth did I ever buy this in the first place?"

The questioning eventually results in a pile of clothes on the floor that are symbolic representions of my impulsiveness, carelessness and regret.  I shove all those emotions in a bag and drop them off at the Salvation Army for someone else to deal with.  Then I go on with  my life until the next closet cleaning.

Last week I was at the usual presidency meeting for my latest church calling as Primary Secretary.  To start the meeting, one of the ladies shared a spiritual thought that pretty much rocked me to the core - especially when she looked me {and the other two women present} in the eyes and asked, "So, do you need to clean out your spiritual closet?"

The quote she shared with us came from a talk given by David A. Bednar:

The standard is clear. If something we think, see, hear, or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing, or doing that thing. If that which is intended to entertain, for example, alienates us from the Holy Spirit, then certainly that type of entertainment is not for us. Because the Spirit cannot abide that which is vulgar, crude, or immodest, then clearly such things are not for us. Because we estrange the Spirit of the Lord when we engage in activities we know we should shun, then such things definitely are not for us.

Then she challenged each of us to clean out our spiritual closet, ridding it of anything that may be preventing us from more fully feeling the Spirit in our lives on a daily basis. 

And so I came home and asked myself the questions, "In the past year, what has kept me from feeling the Spirit?" and "Are there pieces of my spiritual practice that are worn, tattered or torn?" and of course, "Why do I even do some of these things in the first place, if I know they don't bring me closer to Him?"  Then I went to work making a pile of impulses, careless actions and regrets to rid myself of.

I am saying goodbye to favorite TV shows {so long Glee}.  I am unbookmarking favorite internet haunts {adios People.com}.  I am carving out time for my own spiritual enlightenment {hello early morning scripture study} and I am once again putting things that matter most first {get ready for scheduled one on one time kiddoes!}. 

I recognize that this is personal.  I am putting this out here as a way to feel accountable.  I also recognize that just like my clothing closet, my spiritual closet will need to be cleaned often as it tends to pile up with junk rather quickly.  And the cleaning isn't always an easy job to do.

But for an anal, control freak, type A kinda girl like me . . . it's feeling good.




  

The Buzz, The Busy and Some Business . . .

We had a great weekend here and are heading straight into what is going to be a jam packed few weeks. I'm hoping to keep updates regularly coming on the blog, but am also trying to recognize my limits, so bear with me if things get sparse.  Wanna know what I'm talking about?  Here it is:

The Buzz:

• All three kids won in all three games this weekend.  Hannie B. even got to pitch for two innings - a first that had her glowing from head to toe. Lesson learned: Trying new things, though scary, brings great rewards.
• Due to extra commitments on the Hubby's part, I actually got to mow the lawn and do most of the other yard work this weekend.  Lesson learned: I miss getting my hands in the dirt and improving our exterior surroundings.  Big props go to Owlie for taking extended naps so I could commune with nature.
• Four kids with four colds is not fun.  Why can't my seven year old blow his own nose?  Why does my ten year old blow so hard she gets a bloody nose?  Why is my infant son's nose a chappy little snot faucet? Ponder and get back to me on these.
• In honor of being nine months old, Owlie has slept through the past three nights.  I cannot emphasize enough what a difference eight straight hours of sleep do for me.  I am like a new woman.  One without dark circles under her eyes.  One who can conquer the world! Really, I can conquer the laundry and dishes, but that is MY world.  I took Owlie for a little ride on our tree swing yesterday to celebrate.

The Busy:
In the next three weeks the following things need to occur in addition to my regular life:

• Wrap up graphic design job for Stake Girls Camp Director.
• Host Primary Pajama/Ice Cream Sundae party for 80 kids 11 and under.
• Send off reunion T-shirt design.
• Continue Audrey's challenge to improve the health of my life.
• Mail baby gift to Kasey.
• Mail April giveaway to Laura.
• Gather, price and sell "junk" in community Yard Sale.
• Celebrate birthday of nephew.
• Prep and paint basement.
• Attend or chauffeur to 18 baseball games and 9 baseball practices.
• Attend leadership meeting for church calling.
• Spend quality time with visitors: cousin Tobi, Aunt Julie & girls and sister Melissa.
• Help Hubby put together Mother's Day gift for church women.
• Rock Top Secret decorating job for a friend (more on this later . . . it is REALLY BIG).

The Business:

• I owe an apology to those of you who follow my photo blog.  I am tired of cheating on my new computer {Jacob} with my old computer {Slowpoke}.  Until I can get some good photo editing software on the new computer, the photos will continue to come up in batches based on my patience with the severe slowness of the old computer.  I am taking lots of pictures, though, so be patient. Go check it out today to see my cute baby who I rarely post pictures of.  {Ha!}

April Giveaway Winner . . .

Congratulations Laura!  You are the lucky winner of my cleaned out craft closet goodness!  I hope you'll email me and let me know what clever things you make with it. I also hope you'll email me your address so I can send you your package!

Here, as a reminder, is the give away bounty:

And this is what I did with it:

1. Made a Spring banner out of pre-cut chipboard {Christy was right, these flower shaped chipboards would be darling in a girl's room}.

2.  Made DIY card kits for the ladies at church to put together. You have two complete kits, but you can do whatever you'd like with them!

3.  Made garland for a party which I then turned into a baby mobile for Ollie. There are enough circles here for a small garland.  Just run it through a sewing machine with some coordinating thread.  Don't sew?  Punch holes in the circles and use as gift tags!

4. Made last minute birthday gifts for two friends. You can keep this note pad and the mini-composition book all to yourself for listmaking!

5.  Froufified some jars and flower arrangements. There is enough polka dot ribbon {and some pink camoflage too} to wrap gifts, make hairbows  or tie on just about anything you need prettied up.

6. Decorated a tree with well wishes for a new one. There are multiple tags to tie on gifts or slip in lunches with wishes for wee ones.

I've also included some fun paper clips, a chipboard album with photo corners, and a little surprise that isn't in the photo above.

Have fun crafting Laura!  Hope you enjoy.

A Sick Little Obsession . . .

It has to be said.  I have an obsession with fonts.  As in typeface, not the kind you get baptized in, although those are good too.

I am currently working on two graphic design projects - one for a friend and one for family.  I am getting paid for neither, and I don't care since I'm a total faker graphic designer anyway and because it is fun for me to play around on the computer like I know what I'm doing. Plus, I get to use fonts.

Last night I spent hours (yeah, hours) staring at thousands of delicious and FREE fonts trying to find the perfect one for this summer's family reunion t-shirt.  It was a nice distraction from trying to settle on the perfect paint color for the basement, which I think I've decided upon. Or have I?  Devil!

I came up with no less than one hundred new ideas and creations just based on fonts I fell immediately in love with.  Once my eyes started hurting, I had to quit.  But then I dreamt about fonts!  Is it just me?  Why am I so strange?

I've chosen the font "Marcelle", pictured above, for our t-shirts.  It has vintage appeal with its weathered look and reminds me of old school university jersey writing.  Since we're doing a baseball themed shirt, I think it is going to look fantastic.

My fabulous friend {and shirt maker extraordinaire} Jennie Doezie is going to be printing the shirts for me.  I'm sending her the design today and will share it with you in July after the reunion.  Why July?  Well, the Hubby came up with a FANTASTIC idea for the shirts and I want to keep it under wraps until then so the whole family - a few of whom have actually started reading this silly little blog - will be surprised. I'm pretty sure it is going to put a smile on their faces.

If you're interested in free fonts, I recommend checking out dafont.com or urbanfonts.com
but let me warn in advance, you might just end up with a little obsession!

The Devil Made Me Do It . . .

In case you aren’t aware, paint is the devil.  Not a believer?  Let me illustrate:

• Try deciding on a color based on a tiny 1 X 2 inch square sample.  Impossible.
• Recognize that even if your picking a blue, it WILL have red or green undertones that are almost undetectable to the human eye.
• Pick a color and watch it turn into three completely different colors depending on the time of day or light in any given room.
• Buy one $3 sample jar after another until your room is painted in multi-colored polka dots – none of which are “the” color.
• Get an entire room painted and HATE the color.  Paint it back to white.

Though I feel somewhat confident in my decorating choices, paint is the one element that haunts me!  And believe me, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree . . . just ask the Queen what color she’s picked for her walls.

I am currently staring at a page filled with 236 different shades of blue.  One of the colors on the page is THE COLOR for the basement. 

When it’s all said and done, I think I’ll put together a little book of all the colors that work time and time again {hello Restoration Hardware’s Silver Sage} and those that are absolutely to be avoided.

How about you?  Do you dance with the devil?  {and I’m strictly talkin’ paint here, people.}

Stylist To A Star . . .

Photo via here.

This morning I played stylist to a star in my life - my mom, The Queen.  She's headed on a trip with my dad this weekend and needed a critical eye to come help her edit and craft outifts that will have a wow factor at the events she'll be attending.  Clearly, I've been watching to much Project Runway and now I think I'm Tim Gunn.

We had fun putting the wardrobe together and then venturing out for a few needed pieces to complete some looks.  She is a beautiful lady and will look smashing, as always.

Now I'm home and my own closet is in need of major attention, so I'm off to work!  In the meantime, would somebody please tell me why the April giveaway turned out to be a total dud?  If no one else has entered by tomorrow, I will crown Christy - the sole entrant - as grand winner!  What's up?

April Give Away . . .

April is more than half way over. Excuse me? I'd like to make a personal request to my good friend Mr. Time {it's always a Mister}: Slow Down, please! Oh, and while you're at it, would you stop gracing my face with wrinkles? Probably not. Bummer.

So, around these parts Spring can only mean one thing  five things:  allergies, baseball, pollen, softball and SPRING CLEANING!  We're in the thick of it here.  And by we I mean me.  My house is currently resembling the aftermath of a natural disaster.  There are little piles of rubble scattered in each room, awaiting a bag or box and transport to either the storage room or Goodwill.

I've been avoiding switching out my fall/winter and spring/summer clothing in my inefficient closet because I know it is a good half day ordeal.  Instead, I refuse to put the cold weather clothes away and they are quickly turning into a laundry tower on my floor! My resolve to get it all done while the Hubby was away last week crumbled with the arrival of a cold and semi-arrival of two teeth for Ollie.  AAAAAACK!

What I haven't put off, however, is the Spring Cleaning in my craft closet since it's getting ready to make its big move to the new and improved basement creative area.  As I was sorting and purging, I decided that there was enough excess crafty goodness to share with one lucky reader. So, if you'd like to win everything in the above picture, here's how to enter:

Pick one of the numbers on the photo {1-6} and tell me what YOU would do with the materials underneath the number.  Want to enter twice?  Pick two numbers.  Want to enter three times?  Pick three.  You've got six chances to enter this give away.  All the entries will go into a bowl on Thursday at 5pm EST, and Friday I'll announce a winner and show you how I used all of these items in crafts featured on this blog.

Happy Monday!  I'm off to clean another closet.

An Introduction . . .

Hello dear blog readers. Meet my basement. Basement, meet my beloved blog readers.

I'm sorry it's taken me three years to properly introduce you, but I've been a little hesitant. My basement is dark - don't let these pictures fool you. My basement is musty smelling, or so says the Queen. My basement is a constant mess of arts and crafts supplies, Wii remotes and tiny legos that embed themselves into the bottom of my feet. My basement has an ironing board and pile of wrinkled shirts as year round decor. I think what I'm trying to say is that my basement is pretty much my secret shame.

But that is all about to change, because I've had an epiphany. Oh, how the Hubby hates it when I have epiphanies!

It all started with a little idea I like to call The Seven Year Deadline. When we moved here six years and eleven months ago, the Hubby made this very declarative statement: "We'll live here for seven years and then reassess." Upon reassessing, we both agreed that we love it here and don't see ourselves moving any time soon.  His job is great, the schools are amazing, we love our church congregation, we have amazing neighbors and friends and we live near family.  Pretty sweet deal, right?

But just shy of seven years in our unique {read: quirky} house and I am itching.  Itching for change.  Itching to mix things up a little.  Our family has grown, but the house has not.  It is time to make more effective use of our space and spruce up the things we've lived with and worn down over the past seven years.
 
The reality is that we spend the majority of our time in two places in the house - the kitchen/family room area and the basement.  The kitchen/family room area, which I've photographed extensively on the blog, is lovely.  The basement - not so much.

So, Phase I of the Lee Family basement redesign has begun.  It started with the table in the photos.  It was a nasty orange stained piece of junk that I found at Salvation Army for $20.  It has lived in our garage for almost three years.  I finally channeled all of my post partum horomones into sprucing it up and now the table that nobody liked has found a home in what is going to become my new creative space.  A place where I can craft, write, photograph and enjoy.

The next big change will be taking the large den and playroom areas from a boring sea of beige, tan and cream to a fresh palette of blues and whites with brown accents.  And there will be molding and artwork and some great Ikea furniture thrown in the mix. And I may even repurpose a dresser and invest in some chalkboard paint to cover a large portion of wall space if I feel like it.  Ooohhh, I definitely feel like it.

The buzzing of my brain in this decorative direction is making me feel really happy - like my old pre-baby self again.  I can't wait to see how this turns out in reality, because in my brain it is fan-freaking-tastic!

I'll try to document as much as I can here on the ol' blog.  Won't you come along for the ride?

Ps.  How is half of April already over?  Give away details next week!

Thoughts On Bubbles . . .

Last week we introduced the wee one to that childhood joy known simply as bubbles. In the half hour he spent with bubbles, my boy oohed and ahhed. He cooed and giggled. He stared with wide eyes and wonderment. And I was there with my Edward to capture it all on film.

I re-learned - and quickly - the illusive nature of bubbles. So beautiful and transparent with their oil-in-rainbow color, so light and seemingly weightless, the bubbles would roll off the wand pushed only by the breath of my oldest child. And then they were there, dancing merrily on the air, so happy and free, bobbing to and fro as my infant son tried to catch a glimpse and I tried to catch a photograph before the subtle sound of Pop! Pop! Pop! signaled that the bubbles were gone.

The baby would wimper until his big brother worked to recreate the magical bubbles. Over and over, whimpering then bubbles, always ending much too soon for baby, blower and photographer alike.

After a half hour the big brother finally tired. He slowed down long enough for one grand finale and managed to produce The Bubble. The one that made Ollie's body stand still, head fixated, eyes wide. He reached out for it with his chubby little finger, hoping to touch the side of the smooth, glassy orb.

But before he could reach it, it lifted effortlessly off the wand, spent a brief moment in the air and landed quietly on the front of his stroller. It was his for the taking. He paused for the briefest second, reached out, grabbed it, and before he even knew what had happened, all that was left was a small wet footprint of the beautiful bubble. The crying ensued and I comforted my boy as the bubbles were put away for the day.

Now I'm going to wax all philisophical. Prepare yourself.

If your human, you've probably experienced the bubble effect at some point in your life. I'm learning that my life and the lives of others seem to be made up of a series of bubble moments - beautiful, effortless, enjoyable - followed by a series of bubble bursting moments - whimper, cry, deal with the aftermath while staring at the footprint of what was. And it's a cycle. Sweet, bitter. Joy, pain. Up, down. So it goes.

The good news is this: We can always enjoy the bubbles before they're gone. And there will always be bubbles because God wants us to have happiness in our lives. Does this mean life is going to be easy? No. But once a bubble bursts, we truly appreciate it's beauty and we immediately want for more. And He is waiting to give us all that we want, but we have to learn patience during the time it takes for Him to reload the wand and add his divine breath. He will never tire of blessing us, and He will never leave us alone in our trials.

A Simpler Life In 2010 . . .

Sometimes Wednesday rolls around and I have to chuckle at the very thought of blogging about a simpler life.  My life falls squarely under the heading of CRAZY right now.  There is nothing simple about it.  The house is in complete disaray due to remodeling, reshuffling and general untidiness, the husband is out of town for five days, the kids have 13 commitments between now and when he returns {dumb baseball!}, I'm supposed to be exercising and eating healthy each day, my sleep is disturbingly disturbed, the infant is cutting another tooth, it's rainy, then cold, then foggy, then hot, and on and on and on.

But there are still a few things I am grateful for that make even tiny moment of the craziness seem more calm and simplified and so today I impart some of that sweet peace on you.

Every year in April and October, our church has its General Conference.  It is a great opportunity for me to recharge my spirit with inspiring guidance and messages from church leaders.  It is also a time for us to do three important things in our house: 

1.  Shine dad's shoes.  As you can see, he rounds up all his shoes - no small task - then picks a boy and they head out to the front porch to polish wingtips and discuss life, sports, girls and all that other father/son type of stuff.

2.  Check the batteries in the smoke detectors.  The kids love hearing the alarms go off and we love putting new 9V batteries in so we don't have the random beeping of a detector keeping us up at night somewhere down the road.

3.  Update our 72 Hour Kits - We go to the basement storage room, get down all the backpacks, eat the food items (granola bars, oatmeal packets, crackers & cheese packs, etc) and replenish them, check to make sure that back-up clothes still fit the kids, change the size of diapers to fit our growing baby and double check to make sure we have everything we might need in case of an emergency.

By marking these things on our to do list for Conference Weekend, we know we've always got a date and don't have to worry about forgetting to do these little things that are important.  Just think - if the emergency was a fire, our working detectors would warn us, we could grab the 72 Hour Kits and escape the house with my Hubby in perfectly shined shoes!

What about you?  Do you have a date with household must-dos?

Upping the Coolness Factor . . .

Big C modeling a cravat at the Newell K. Whitney Store in Kirtland, Ohio.

It has happened.  My tweenager has crossed that threshold from being totally fine with his mom picking out and buying all of his clothes to having a say in what he's wearing. 

It all started a few weeks ago when the weather got warmer and Big C started wearing some of his clothes from the early fall of last year.  Everything was too short or too tight or just small in weird ways.  Shirts, pants, shorts - all of it ill-fitting and wrong.  I suggested that maybe I should buy him some new clothes, to which he said, "No, mom, that's okay."

I was confused.  Did he want to wear highwaters and tight t-shirts?  Did he not care that his shorts were a bit snug on the bum side? I had to investigate further.

It turns out that "No, mom" really means please don't buy me any more button down polos from The Gap or sports t-shirts from Target or Old Navy. 

What "No, mom" means is I want to fit in and wear what everyone else is wearing, but I'm embarassed that I'll hurt your feelings by telling you that you've been dressing me like an elementary schooler for the past six months. 

What "No, mom" means is that Big C is wanting to up his coolness factor by caring about fashion just enough to nonchalantly give a few pointers to his mom on name brands (gasp!) and styles that are currently acceptable with the middle school crowd: namely, that boys wear a lot of Under Armor brand shirts and basketball shorts or that anything from Aeropostale would be "cool".

Wow. I am really out of it.

We sat down at the Aeropostale website and found some t-shirts at decent sale prices.  He is also now the proud owner multiple pairs of basketball shorts, which when paired with a t-shirt make him look like - well - like he's going to play basketball.   He is well on his way to looking cooler.

In my mind, however, he's been cool all along.  It doesn't take clothes.  It just takes being a great kid.  And Big C has got that down!

The Post Wherein I Declare Craziness . . .

Image by Chris Carlson of The Little Camera {check it out, cuz it's UH-MAZING!}

I woke up today thinking it was Saturday.  I got out of bed and took Ollie into the hall where I heard the Hubby say "RedDog, where's your lunch?  We're getting behind schedule! You need to hustle!"  Huh?  I called downstairs, "Where are you guys going?".  The Hubby had to physically see my face to respond: "They're going to school.  We're about to read scriptures.  Are you joining us?" Wow.  I guess it's not Saturday yet.

I'm going to go ahead and blame yesterday for today.  Here's a snippet of what happened to make me cuckoo:

 I chopped off all of my hair.

*

I left my house at 8:45 AM and did not return until 4:05 PM.

*

I did not see my Ollie from 8:45 AM until 3:30 PM.

*

I took one too  many allergy pills.

*

My cell phone died a tragic and most certain death.

*

I spent an hour at the doctor's office cursing the very existence of the urinary tract.

*

I got locked out of my house.

*

The extra allergy pill kicked in and I fell asleep for twenty minutes at around 6:00.

*

I refused to cook dinner.

*

I attended a meeting where I was given enough work to keep me at my computer for at least ten to twenty hours.

*

I finished reading The Glass Castle and had strange dreams all night long.

So, since it is FRIDAY, I am going to go to lunch with a dear friend.  And then I'm going to come home and finish yesterday's laundry.  And then I'm going to finish a painting project.  And move an entire kitchen. And smooch all over a little bald fellow with a bruised head.

What are you doing today?

 

Oh, The Guilt . . .

In our house there is a universal truth, which stated is:  Ollie loves Hannie B. best of all. 

 It's a fact and no one tries to dispute it.  He lights up when she enters a room.  He giggles when she sings silly songs and makes goofy faces at him.  He turns at the sound of her voice. He loves her like no other.

  As I listened to General Conference this weekend, and specificially a talk by Elder M. Russell Ballard, Hannie B. was on my mind. He talked about the ability and desire to nuture that is inherent in woman and young women.  I see it in Hannie B.  She is a natural and gifted nurturer.

  Last week a mock newspaper came home from school filled out by HB.  All of the boxes were cleverly done and filled with skilled little drawings. Favorite foods were noted.  Memorable stories were retold.  But my favorite box was the one titled "What I Want To Be When I Grow Up".  There were two simple words written there:  A Mom.  I love this girl so much!

Here's where the guilt part comes in.  Yesterday Hannie picked up Ollie off the floor to bring him to me.  He was fussy and needed a late afternoon siesta.  As she made her way over to the kitchen, she tripped.  I watched in horror as the slow motion played out.  She didn't know what to do because she was clearly going down and she still had Ollie in her hands.  So she let go of him and he went tumbling, face first onto the hardwood floor. 

There was immediate crying - no - HOWLING on the part of both parties.  Hannie was devastated.  Ollie was scared and hysterical.  I was frantic trying to assess the baby.  I rushed up to Hannah to see if she was okay, and in the true test of a mother-soul, the first words out of her mouth were, "Is he okay? Is he okay?".  Nevermind her own injuries, she just wanted Ollie to be okay.

He carried on for another forty-five minutes.  All the while, Hannie paced back and forth guiltily wringing her hands while saying things like, "I am a horrible sister" and "Why won't  he look at me?".  After he had calmed down, I sat with my sweet daughter and explained to her in no uncertain terms that this was an accident.  And it could have happened to me, or dad or anyone.  And Ollie will wake up tomorrow and not remember that this happened, so she should do the same.

All seems to be well.  But we are headed to the doctor just to make sure. From this experience it is clear to me that also inherent in the mother/nuturer is the ability to feel guilt when not necessary.  I've lived it.  Have you?

Getting To Know You . . .

When you find out at age 36 that you have a sister you never knew about, there's a bit of a learning curve that has to be dealt with. There's learning how to have a sister. And learning how to be a sister. Also, learning what it means to not be an only daughter. And learning how to share your parents {in a daughterly way - sorry brothers}.

Those types of learning don't even take into account the fact that a brand new person is suddenly thrust to the forefront of your mind and you crave any tiny nugget of learning about that person that comes your way. In the beginning, to quote my parents, "it's like trying to drink from a firehose".  But Oh! The water from that firehose is so very delicous and so unbelieveably thirst quenching!

Then, as time passes and the new person becomes a regular and necessary part of your life through phone calls, emails, gift giving and not-frequent-enough visits, you begin to settle into a sense of normalcy and peace with how everything has turned out. Unfortunately, the passage of time tends to fade those frenzied beginnings that set the head aspin and the heart all aflutter as you settle into a comfortable relationship more fit for life-long siblings than newly discovered ones.

Luckily, there are moments of brilliance - moments where you once again capture that feeling of complete giddiness and adoration for this person and it causes you to wonder, once again, how you got so lucky. 

Spending a few days in Ohio with my sister was just such a time.  While there, I was reminded of a few things - things I already knew, but took for granted. Dear Edward was with me and captured some examples:

She's a devoted mom to three darling children who adore her wholeheartedly.  She's patient and kind with them - something I could be better at.
 

She is a great listener, offering sound advice and wisdom.  It's no wonder her niece loves her so much! 

She's a doting Aunt to my children.  They were each the beneficiary of some sort of special attention from her during our stay and Mr. Ollie even got his first dip in a pool with her.

And she is a caring and delightful sister and friend.  See the smile on my face?  It is genuine happiness. I am remarkably impressed with how she has taken me in and given me unconditional love and acceptance.

Thanks sis for a truly relaxing and delightful visit. It was so fun to spend more time getting to know you and it was hard to come back to real life!

Four Firsts In Ohio . . .

First sister to sister plank-off. I lost the plank contest, but won the darkest roots contest. Lame.

First honking of a nose by Ollie. Lucky for him the adoration of a certain cousin outlived the incident.

First guitar lesson. I'm almost ready to start an all kid band - think Jonas Brothers or Hansen.

First decorating job for Hannie B. She gussied up this doll house in no time flat!

Stay tuned for the last of the vacation coverage tomorrow. I'm now faced with a blogging backlog and must catch up. The kids are back in school, some projects are getting cranked out, and I'm feeling the full effects of Spring fever. Much to be grateful for.

Happy Monday!