One of life's oddities....

Sweet little Hallee looking a tiny bit wicked.

 It's funny how an insane weekend-  full of kids, dogs, brothers, tickling (even my teenage niece was not safe), teasing, torturing, food, wild shrieks from little girls, goofiness and easy laughter - leaves me feeling more sane and centered than I have in a quite while. 

Isn't this the very image of bliss?

Nate is the only uncle that Archer likes - it's pretty obvious why.

  

I don't know what I'd do without my family.

Cooper and Kale - Coop is wild and, in my opinion, proof that  Kharma is real.

So....yeah....um....

I'm not exactly sure where the month of February went.

Actually, that's not true at all.  I knew where February was all along.  She was repeatedly sucker punching me and messing with my head.  She came and went, and being the bitch of a month that she is.....well, let's suffice it to say that this year, February just

Kicked.
My.
Trash. 

There was no one big problems.  No tragedies.  No major drama.  Just a series of little things that piled up on each other until it seemed like I went from one thing to another with no time to breath in between. 

Chicken Pox.
Homework.
Laundry.
Church obligations.
Work deadlines.
Valentines Day.
Paper writing. 
Guest speaking.
Conferences. 
And on.
And on.
And on.

Most nights I fell into bed as soon as I put Riley down and slept like a rock until it was time to get up and do it all again.  One thing I do know is that putting rest above most other things kept me sane and kept my patience in check.  Early bedtimes and me...we're BFF's. 


Since today is leap day, I've decided to consider it my reset button day.  It's not really a 'real' day, so it's perfect to serve as the bridge between the intensity of February and what I have decided will be a beautiful, spring-filled month of March (Don't let me down, March, please.)

And since I didn't show up here for most of the month, I thought I'd leave you with a few visuals of what February looked like to me.

Valentine Day parties with a bunch of goofy 8-11 year old girls.

The chicken pox wore the Girl right out.  More than once, she got out of the bathtub and fell right asleep on my bed, too exhausted to even get dressed.

Some time spent at the Bountiful Temple helped center me in the midst of the craziness.

Valentine tulips from my Girl.  She picked them out, I paid for them.  A fair trade, I think.

Now that Riley can write her own name, she puts it everywhere.  It makes me smile so much.  She's growing up so fast.

So here's to a new month- hopefully a kinder, gentler month. 
But I'm keeping my new BFF around, just in case. 

Tonight, I'm:

 

Wide Awake,  thanks to an unplanned, but much-needed,  3 hour after-work nap. 

Relieved that the last three weeks are over.  They were full of very urgent deadlines, important meetings and lots of responsibilities.

Happy that everything went well and there relatively few fires to put out. 

Giving my house some much needed TLC. It's born the brunt of my limited time these past weeks, and man - it's shows.

Enjoying the time at home, by myself, with NPR podcasts for company.  

Missing my daughter, who is spending the night at her Dad's.

Thankful that those last two activities can peacefully co-exist, without guilt or concern. 

Canning homemade pizza sauce.  Riley discovered we were out and reacted as if this were an earth shattering crisis.  I guess, in her mind, it probably is. 

Considering buying a serger.  Who knew the sewing bug would bite me so fast and hard? 

Grateful for evenings like this, where solitude recharges and I'm able to find my way back to sanity. 

Photo Journaling 2012

One of my projects for 2012 is to take at least one photo a day that truly represents what that day was all about, or perhaps documents the highlights of the day, people who showed up, or some other aspect that makes that day what it was.  The purpose of this project is two-fold- first, to document my daily life in pictures, and second, to improve my photography skills as I go.  (You know....it's that thing about being good at what you do every day.(

Now that January is almost over, I took some time to evaluate this project.  I realized that there are some days that carrying my big camera is just. not. feasible.  For these days, I reserve the right to take iPhone snaps, instagrams, or whatever to document the day.  Also, there seems to be some days that the priorities of the day are going to trump this project.  That's ok.  I try to put first things first, and in some instances, this project just isn't a 'first thing.'  Ground rules are a good thing, and with those in place, here are a few of my favorite daily photos from January.

January 2

January 4

January 6

January 7

January 10

January 12

January 16

January 24

January 29

You know...

You know how it feels when your house is a wreck-I mean seriously trashed-and you can't even imagine where to begin because the laundry has piled up and choked off your hallway and added to that is the bedspread and sheets and pillowcases you just stripped off your kiddo's bed because she spilled milk all over them while you were in the shower and the dishes - oh, the dishes!-and you have a list of work to do that is longer than one arm and both legs and you aren't really sure what to begin with because you have three conference calls today so anything you start on surely won't get finished and you hate not finishing projects because then you have to stop and start and stop and start and stop and start and never have the satisfaction of crossing something off your body-part-length list and thinking about that reminds you of how annoyed you are that four emails were exchanged about your inability to spell the word "accommodate" (two c's, two m's) and you think that surely people must have better things to think about but apparently not and so you wander around for a while and end up writing this random post on your blog because thinking about all the stuff you need to do reminded you that the stuff you want to do is waiting too and so you put on your workout clothes because at least that way you'll make it to the gym at lunch and then you can work this morning in between conference calls and maybe start the laundry but probably not and maybe you should send it out to the laundry service you've used before but-oh wait- they use that soap that makes Riley sneeze so that's out so maybe it's best to just stop thinking so much and start doing?

Yeah?

It's like that.

Finally!

 It's snowing!

 

And we couldn't be happier!

Thanks, G and Co. for a fun breakfast/sled adventure!

Gratitude Friday

Instagram from my friday commute *

Today, I am grateful for:
hard work
opportunities to advance my knowledge
meaningful apologies
shoe swaps
sushi with a wonderful friend
budgets
prayer
encouragement via text message
phone chats with longtime friends
upcoming challenges
simple living
sunny skies
a window view of downtown SLC
impromptu visit from my mom
peppermint laundry soap
5 minute (or less) commute
feeling strong and healthy
streaming netflix
meeting new people
having enough
knowing enough
being enough


*Beck, I was stopped at a very long stoplight when I took this.  I was not driving.  :)