Mommy Take Our Picture!

This never, ever happens. I could not take enough pictures of this pair yesterday. They kept asking for more. Generally I use my phone and sneak pictures while talking to them... it's an art, I tell you. Yesterday, they were posing and begging me to take pictures in front of every doorway, wall, and plant we passed on our adventure. 

Well, if you insist...

Full disclosure: Maggie wasn't into the walk uphill in the last picture. She said she needed a break because I wouldn't hold her up another hill. No one ever accused a 2-year-old of not speaking their mind. ;)

Ramblings Post

Hey, what kind of blog IS this? Skipping days left and right, never writing anymore... 

Blame it on the sunshine getting us out of the house, on my husband being out-of-town last weekend, or on me spending my minutes adjusting the "look" of my blog to make it easier to navigate... it's all given me very few extra minutes to sit at the computer to just write. My therapeutic ramblings have taken second-fiddle to survival. My real-life ramblings are still thoroughly intact though- just ask my husband. I have a large quota of words to say daily, so if they're not landing on the Internet, you can bet Brian and my friends I see in person have been in for plenty of chatter.

Somehow, I've been cleaning my house more regularly lately, which is something right? The other day, my parents came over for a bit, and I enlisted my dad's help to hang a gallery wall in my dining rom {because I'm sure that's exactly what he wanted to do on his day off} and I think it's what's motivating me to keep the dining room and living room cleaner. It's like, well the walls just won't look as good without a clean table, so I better do that, ooh, I need to sweep too... etc etc. The slippery slope of cleaning, I call it... So the gallery wall is finally hung after about five years about thinking about hanging one. Gallery walls are so daunting to create, but now that I've gotten my act together to get it done, it's incredibly rewarding to have a pretty wall {almost} exactly how I envisioned it. I'll post pictures when it's totally done. I still have one frame to fill and then it'll be all ready. Satisfying. 

I mentioned before that I'm also about to start Pilates again. Pilates are like the gallery wall- thoroughly daunting to think about- but eventually rewarding. I'm really only signing myself up for the pain because I don't plan on quitting my bread and fancy cheese habit anytime soon, so it's a sensible management strategy to justify my vice. I don't love exercise. I used to love running, but now that I have children and am on the run all the time, running has lost its appeal. Time to get some of these good disciplines back in my life.

We're in for some rainy days coming later this week. I'm thrilled. Everyone around here has gotten a bit panicky about the lacking water lately, justifiably so. "Everyone" being particularly those who were around in 1990 for the water ration era. We've seriously had only about one real rain in 2014, and it's our rainy season. Yikes. We're all looking forward to the big storm that is scheduled to take our normal weekend sunshine into rainy day games and hot chocolate. It sounds fun, especially because it's such a deviation from the norm.

Today is a good day. We have coughs and sniffles, but happy kids, and that's {more than} half the battle, right?

xo.

Juggling

Image via Design Love Fest

Sometimes I don't say what I'm thinking because I don't want to be a predictable mom / blogger... buuuut today it must be said. 

I'm overbooking. Juggling too much. I'm going to bed too late, waking too early {ehhh, okay, I'll give that one to you. 7am is a solid gig}, never saying no, rarely chilling, never reading books for fun- unless they're kid books and I'm reading aloud, of course, never napping, etc etc.

This isn't a complaint. Everything I've been doing has been fun, exciting, social, good. I don't have any areas of life that I'm saying "oh I could REALLY do away with that." I'm truly enjoying things, which I believe is the gasoline that is keeping me trucking. It's just that I am now that person who somehow cannot hit the snooze button in the morning. As soon as I awaken, thoughts are racing... how will I accomplish everything today? Hmm, I need to coordinate the buses going from here to there, then get a babysitter for that day, where are those ballet shoes! and oh! That's right! I need to feed my family! Glad they're cool with some waffles-for-dinner and every type of soup imaginable when I'm off my A-game. 

The proportions of coffee to water intake are skewed again, and I'm reluctant to change my habits... but my body is begging me for more rest and more brussel sprouts. 

I saw the quote above the other day, and keep going back to it in my mind. Today I changed my desktop background to the downloaded version {they're computer reminders! So convenient right?}... 

I can do anything, but not everything. Indeed.

Time to put those balls down, take a break from the juggle, and read a good book in a quiet room.

xoxo. 

Imagination

Binoculars, my hat & watch, a big smile and a bit of a blur. Pretty much sums up our day. xo 

SF Loving: Crissy Field

The other day, we played hooky.

I don't quite know from what we played hooky, except the insane pile of laundry that won't be washing itself. It just sounds fun and borderline rebellious to say it like that. 

Brian said in the morning that he didn't need the car for work. I said, we'll TAKE it! It's good to have a car only once in awhile, so as to not think it a mundane thing to have a car. It's like sunshine. If we have sunshine every day, we have no clue that we should think it's an amazing thing. It was an amazing thing to have a car. 

We drove to the grocery store, then drove to the beach. I didn't mention the plan until we arrived because if I decided last-minute that I didn't prefer to be scrubbing sand out of everything this evening, I had the option to head somewhere else. I can't attest for other mothers, but sometimes it's a control thing- It's good have options, you know? 

I think it was supposed to rain that day, so there were about five people on the beach. It was strangely warm, and the sky was total perfection for taking pictures and I wished I had my real camera with me- it was incredibly picturesque. The sky was a deeper blue than normal, and the sand looked darker. I sat there with my bare feet in the sand, and my girls just ran in circles around me, laughing hysterically. They made castles and sand angels, and it was blissfully peaceful and right. 

There are so many times as a mother that I play things safe. I tell myself that I won't do a beach day unless Brian is with me because, "how will I keep both of them from eating sand/ getting lost/ falling in the water, etc." on my own? So we play in our back patio, or closer to home, or in a gated playground... then one day I decide to go for it because I can, and it turns out to be more than manageable, more than fun, better in every way than my comfort zone. Sometimes the risks we take are things we are fully capable of doing, but we spend our days imagining that they're too difficult an undertaking. Definitely not up for living life without risk, with only the mundane because we know what's going to happen next. Where is the fun in that? Adventures are the way to go.

By all means, by the end of our adventure, we were covered head to toe in sand, Maggie was crying on the way to the car because she decided that the water was going to get her while she was 50 feet away in the middle of the beach, our sandwiches were crunchy with grains of sand in every bite, and we lost a beach ball (to Sophie's utmost devastation).... but we were SO HAPPY we went.

We came, we saw, we conquered... and we're better for it. 

Conversations

Last night's dinner conversation with Sophie, Maggie & me:

"I think daddy wins for being funniest ever and Maggie is the best at being a princess" Sophie says confidently (note Maggie's tiara + tutu at the dinner table). 

"Oh and Sophie, you're the best at being a ballerina AND you're really funny too," I said.

Sophie replies, "And mommy you're the best at...."

Silence. Stares upward, thinking incredibly hard.

"Mommy you're the best atttttt..."

Crickets.

"Hmmmm."

"Oh! I know! Actually... nooo definitely not that..."

"Ummmm..."

I try not to laugh as I lean over and kiss Maggie's head. 

Sophie's eyes got big, "OH, mommy is the best at giving us hugs and kisses!!!" She beams at me. 

Phew! At least their mommy is good at something!