adventure day: woodland trails

For our adventure day last Wednesday, we joined up with some friends and went for a walk through some nearby woods.  This is my favorite trail to run, so it was nice to revisit it.  The kids took off as soon as we got into the trees and pelted as fast as they could down the path.  Isaac bounced along in the baby backpack, singing happily to himself and winding his hands through my French braid (which was completely restyled by the end of the walk...)

 
















Of course, the kids practically fell over from exhaustion (it was really hot and muggy!) when we were about 3/4 of the way through the loop.  But they were surprisingly good sports, guzzling down water and cheerfully tramping along over the increasingly swampy trail. 

When we got to the car, Abigail nervously took me aside and confided (in a very loud whisper) that she thought she might have have a potty accident all over her whole body.  "I didn't feel myself going potty--but my whole body is wet!" she said, looking very distressed. Apparently she'd completely forgotten about sweat since last summer, making it a good day to try out our new wiggle-worm sprinkler.

















Which some members of the family enjoyed...and some did not.

 




































On the other hand, if I was Juliet being chased by Abigail with the sprinkler, I think I'd retreat inside too (or Abigail's other trick of "Hey Juliet!  Come touch the sprinkler!  The water is off!" while holding the hose kinked in her hand, all ready to release the moment Juliet gets near). So Juliet came in and we entertained ourselves taking a lot of weird photos.  


It was a pretty fun day. 

Foodie Friday

I realized somewhere around mile 4.5 of my run this morning that I'd forgotten all about Foodie Friday this week.  Unfortunately, since I'm heading out to pick strawberries with the kids in the next ten minutes, I don't have time to write my normal post.

What I'd like to do, however, is ask you to vote on the poll (left sidebar) as to which topic you'd like to see next on Foodie Friday.  I'd really love these posts to be fun and enjoyable for you, dear readers, so please give me any feedback that will help me to better tailor these towards what will inspire you in the kitchen!  If there's another topic or dish or general genre that you'd especially like to see featured, please tell me in the comments section. 

a lot of random pictures

I took some pictures of the garden this morning while I was cutting spinach and chives for breakfast (scrambled eggs).  Happily, it seems that only three or four tomatoes are outright dead; the others look like they may be recovering.  I was rejoicing during my run Wednesday morning that the weather has changed so it no longer feels like I'm slogging my way through warm soup for five miles (seriously, it was that bad at 6 am on Monday); presumably the garden is grateful too.  At the very least it's giving us tons of lettuce and radishes (the carrots in that picture were from the store; ours are still tiny babies).

The only question now is whether the peas or the broccoli are going to take over the world first; both are giving it their best shot.  The beans have started popping up; they're always my favorite thing to watch since they literally come up like they're on springs.  Nothing but dirt and then POP!  A bean!  Three inches tall with two leaves!  I love beans.

In other news, I started Isaac on a sippy cup with water a week ago, partially in preparation for upcoming vacations.  He's at the point now where he really fights nursing anywhere outside of his room in the rocking chair with his favorite blanket half over his head; hopefully this will forestall dehydration if he decides that vacation = too many things to look at = no interest in nursing any longer than 2 minutes.  He has taken to the cup with great enthusiasm and a corresponding increase in diaper changes (is this blog-worthy?  Um...after the fight I had to get Juliet to drink ANYTHING after she stopped nursing, heck yes it is!!)

The girls did my hair the other night.  I almost fell asleep.  It was so relaxing (plus they covered me up with a blanket and rubbed my back). 

Isaac, on the other hand, did not feel the same way.  At all.

Abigail drew this picture on Monday and asked me to post it on my blog (is that weird that she knows I have a blog?  And that I write about her?)  In any case, this picture is of a volcano about to erupt on a house.  Abigail is standing next to the house with a purse on her arm, getting ready to go out into her garden, which is planted with parsnips and a very big tomato (this is her description as dictated to me).

And speaking of Abigail, I love this photo of her:



And last but not least, we have been making fruit leather out of all our leftover fruity baby food (Isaac started refusing baby food way earlier than the girls; I don't think he was a fan of the mushy texture).  And I also discovered that Abigail LOVES baby food straight from the jar.  Good solution all around (I must admit, I'm rather partial to apples and blueberries myself!)

A sense of purpose

Thank you all so much for your kind and insightful comments on Monday's post.  I truly appreciated them, and I'm so grateful for the community of inspirational people I've met through blogging and the chance it's given me to continue with "real-world" relationships.

As I was reading through them, I thought I should clarify a couple of things:  I'm happy with where I am now.  The opportunity to be a mother has helped (forced?) me to grow in a lot of ways that, say, graduate school didn't--more patience, for one.  A greater sensitivity to spiritual promptings.  An ability to take more joy in the moment.

What I do want to avoid, however, in my journey as a mother of young children, is losing sight of the forest for all the trees.  I want to continue to develop and expand myself--deliberately.  I know that much of my growth as a person will happen without my realization, but I think there also needs to be concious planning and goal-setting so that where I am in ten years is where I actually want to be, not just where I happened to end up.  Don't get me wrong--I have no plans to be like the mother in The Glass Castle, but I also want to continue my own personal development so that I'm an interesting, engaging woman with interests of my own as my children start to move out of the period where they need my intensive attention.  In other words, I want to be the kind of person that my children want to be around when they're at a point where they're choosing whether they'd like my company or not.  I don't want to be boring.  I don't want to feel lost when this time of intensive mothering is at an end. 

On this note, I loved Kristyn's comment where she said "sometimes I just need something new to get excited about" and then went on to talk about her developing passion for photography, and a goal-setting session where she took the time to write down immediate and future goals.  This really resonated with me, since this is what I think I've been feeling:  I know where I want to end up, but I haven't sat down to clearly outline the steps I need to take to get there.  I'm a very list-oriented person, so something like this is vital for me.  And then to go back to grad school--when I was writing my thesis, Abigail was about seven months old.  I knew I had to very carefully plan my writing time so that it was extremely effective, since I couldn't just sit at the computer for four hours waiting for inspiration.  And just as I outlined that thesis, I need to develop an outline for my life.  Where do I want to be in five years?  Ten?  Fifty?  Where do I want my children to be?  Our family as a whole?  What are the yearly, monthly, and daily things that will help us to achieve those goals?   

So that's what I'm planning to do over the next week or so--some serious reflection, goal-setting, and planning. 

And thank you again for your comments on Monday.  They were exactly what I needed.

reflecting

Today has been a rough day--all kinds of things conspired to make it very grueling both here at home and for Neil at work.  (One thing on the list--there are eleven dead tomatoes in my garden.  And this is the second planting of tomatoes.  All the seedlings we carefully nurtured along were killed by horrible winds, and the second batch got literally drowned over three days of nonstop rain.  I literally feel like I'm going to be sick to my stomach every time I think about this.  It's awful how much these tomatoes are affecting my mood, but there you have it.)  The kids fought almost all day long and when dinnertime rolled around--with a message on the machine from Neil saying he had no idea when he'd be home (I was out visiting teaching when he called)--I looked over to find Juliet and Abigail locked in an epic battle, Abigail with a fistful of Juliet's hair while Juliet pummeled at Abigail with both hands.  Awesome. 

After Neil went back to the lab tonight, I sat down at the computer to work on a grocery list.  Bored, I Googled myself and found my master's thesis.  I read through most of it and got very depressed about how coherent, intelligent, and well-reasoned it was (or maybe that was just in my mind).  I felt guilty for not pursuing the publication of various chapters.  I felt like my brain was atrophying.  Correction:  I feel like my brain is atrophying.  I don't necessarily miss being in graduate school, but I miss the sharpness of my mind that I cultivated in graduate school.  I don't feel like I'm stretching myself intellectually right now. 

This morning while we ran my friend and I were talking about training for upcoming races and what we're planning to run this fall.  I'm excited for those, but I also just feel like I need something to enrich myself mentally and spiritually.  I've been thinking about it all day while I went about mopping and washing dishes and reading stories and picking up books and changing diapers.  I need something.  But I don't know what quite yet.  There are so many areas of my life where I feel like I should be doing better that I get overwhelmed just thinking about it.  I feel like I spend a lot of my days focusing on getting everyone through another day clean and fed, and there are a million other things that are crucial to their and my development, but...where do I fit them in?  Good, better, best, obviously, but sometimes I feel like our button is stuck at "good" and we're not exactly moving upwards on the choices scale.  I want to still be an interesting person who is expanding her talents.  I want to be well-informed about what's going on in the world.  I want to have conversations that do not revolve around my children, beloved as they are.  I want to maintain the same motivation and energy I feel at the end of my church meetings on Sunday and somehow carry that past Thursday. 

Done with the pity party...but do you ever feel this way looking back on your day?  Like you're just sort of treading water and not heading in the direction you'd like to?  (and exactly what are we heading for anyway?  Is this the "season" to be doing thus-and-such, or should we wait until the kids are 5 years older?)

Granted, today was Not a Good Day.  And many days I find what I do as a mother very fulfilling.  But underneath, I still have these worries.  I know I'm not doing everything I need to be doing to reach my full potential, and that is very exhausting and disheartening to think about.  I just don't know where to start.  I feel like I'm stuck halfway--I run before the kids get up, but I haven't showered yet.  I've read my scriptures, but I was nursing Isaac so I didn't have a hand to write down cross-references or to flip around through the pages and really study.  I've cleaned the house, but it's already messy again.  I'm learning about volcanoes as I read to the girls, but I'm not very up on current events.  I eat dinner with my family, but most of our conversation is coercing another bite into someone's mouth rather than discussing family goals or nice things we did for people that day. 

I know perfection is a goal, and the whole purpose of this earthly life is so that we can work towards attaining it, but sometimes, sheesh, it seems like a pretty steep mountain.

mobility

So you know how in college you would have cleaning checks from the RA? 

They should really get babies to do that.

A baby of crawling age, when introduced to a seemingly immaculate room, will immediately beeline for the only speck of nastiness and promptly insert it in his mouth.

Better go.  Isaac has crawled away and is probably cleaning out the sliding door tracks with his tongue (hey, a spider! Protein!)

(how did I forget how fast babies can go?)

.

What we did yesterday, or, a post for my Uncle Kevin

Can you guess where we spent our day?

Would a few more pictures help?

That's right...we were here.

Since the Indy 500 is on Sunday, we'd kind of resigned ourselves to the fact that we'd never see it.  However, the Pole Day qualifications are NOT on Sunday.  Because of Neil's involvement with the electric vehicle racing here at the university, we were offered not only free tickets, but garage passes and suite passes. 

Pretty darn cool.

This is Danica Patrick getting into her car.  There were five women drivers there yesterday, which I thought was really neat. 

Also, it's very hard to take a picture of a car going 227 mph.

Probably the coolest thing about the whole experience is the NOISE.  The crazy, insane, loud noise.  You can hear it so far away--it totally starts your adrenaline surging.  As you get closer and closer to the stadium, it's just deafening.  And the cars are going so insanely fast that the Doppler effect is crazy--you literally hear just a little engine noise before the car is past, and then WHAM!!!  It's like a jet engine is sitting in your ear canal. 

We went over with some friends, who watched Abigail and Juliet for a couple of hours while we went into the university suite and Neil hobnobbed with all the people he was supposed to talk to.  Then we met up with the girls again and went into the Hall of Fame, where the girls found a pink car and their joy was complete.

Neil was in heaven--the girls got (several) very detailed explanation(s) of exactly How A Car Works.

I mostly just wanted to drive this home.

It was pretty neat to look inside the cars and see how they were designed specifically for the Indy race.  The tires were hardly worn at all on the outside, the engine and other components were all aligned along the left side, the headlights were stickers, etc. 

Some other cool things from the day:

Seeing crashes.  I know that sounds really horrible to say, but it's pretty cool to watch.  Neil and I just saw it on the TV; the girls actually saw it happen right in front of them.  Fortunately the drivers weren't injured at all (as far as I know), so the kids thought it was cool rather than scary.  What impressed me most about these was how much manuvuering the drivers were able to do after they had already started the crash.  Very skilled. 

Touring the garages--although you have to sign a comprehensive waiver form and you're not allowed in the garages unless you're over 18, it's cool to get a little bit of a "backstage" view of how things work. 

Of course, to put it all in perspective, I asked the kids later what their favorite part was (expecting to hear something like "seeing the pink car" or "when those cars crashed" or "getting to wear cool squooshy earplugs,") and Abigail tipped her head to one side, looked thoughtful, and then said, "the brownie that we ate at the place for Daddy's work."  And I said, "The brownie?"  and she said, "Yes, next time we can just stay home and make the brownies with nuts."

(although I must admit they were REALLY good brownies.  and I should know...I ate a lot of them.)

So there you have it--our day at the Indy 500 Pole Day.

Foodie Friday: grilled lemon artichokes with spinach, fettucine, and fresh Parmesan

Last Saturday was busy, busy, busy.  We spent most of the day in the garden.  It was really fun--but very busy.  When dinnertime rolled around, I opened the 'fridge and considered my (limited) options.  Usually I am a super-strict meal planner, but occasionally I plan a night where I will create something out of whatever we have on hand so that I can use up lingering foods before I go shopping again. 

Here's what I had in my lineup of viable ingredients (not counting jams and things like that):

fresh spinach
strawberries
eggs
baby artichokes
pesto
yogurt
shaved Parmesan cheese

I'd purchased the artichokes on a whim, because I'd never cooked with them before and I thought it would be fun.  Neil eyed them a little dubiously when I got home. 

"Do you have a recipe in mind?" he said.

"No," I replied, "but I'm sure I'll think of something."

So.  Faced with a mostly empty 'fridge, artichokes it was. 

Here is what I came up with:  grilled baby artichokes tossed with spinach, Parmesan, olive oil, lemon juice, and fettucine retrieved from the pantry.  The nice thing about this meal is that you can take a little longer if you're feeling particularly chef-ish and prep the artichokes yourself, or you can go the ten-minute-meal route and toss in some canned artichoke hearts (I'll be honest, prepping the artichokes was more time-consuming than I'd anticipated).  I served this with a spinach salad and a huge bowl of sliced strawberries.  It had a nice little Mediterranean feel to it, which made it a fun Saturday night supper, and the artichokes really dressed up an otherwise ordinary bowl of pasta.  Recipe HERE.

adventure day: little zoo!

So how was the zoo, you ask?

Completely awesome.  So much fun.  It's just this teeny tiny little local place two minutes away from the pediatrician, but teeny tiny is perfect for this kind of outing.  And really, for a little free zoo in our not-a-big-city town, it's pretty decent.

Here's what we saw today:  porcupine, monkeys, wallabys, emus, bald eagles, chickens (a whole bunch of different kinds!), pigs, miniatures ponies, rabbits, pygmy goats, river otters, Galapagos tortoises, prairie dogs, peacocks.  So fun.  We had a blast.  We ate our picnic while we watched the monkeys, played on the nearby playground afterwards, and even got to see the wallaby joey poking its head out of its mother's pouch--which I thought was really cool (although somewhat odd-looking). 

One thing I love about this zoo is how close you can get to the animals--you can go in little tunnels to see the prairie dogs at work, and we were literally six inches from the wallabys.  It's a nice change from the more impressive zoos where you're twenty or thirty feet away from a tiger (not that I don't want to be that far from a tiger), but it's fun to get closer.  I would say our first adventure day was a resounding success!  (I certainly had a blast!)

Oh.  And if you've ever felt miserably pregnant, you will probably feel just as bad for this goat as I did.  Poor thing.  She's not due until June 2nd.

who replaced my tiny baby with this little man?

The fact that he's started crawling forward--quickly--in the last two days is not helping my "baby you are growing too fast!" feelings.  Slow down!  Be small and squishy and adorable a little longer! Keep bouncing with joy whenever you see me walk into the room--and please don't ever stop reaching out for me with both chubby arms held wide and that adorable little grin that lights up your eyes.

summer plans

Abigail finished up preschool last week.  Immediately, she asked what she was going to learn all summer so she'd be ready for kindergarten.

Hmm, I thought to myself.  I was really looking forward to slow-paced days with no commitments where we would all just sort of be at home together.  And then I really thought about that and realized that with no planning our days would devolve into this:  cabin fever, a trashed house, and feelings of "we are doing the exact same thing every single day and going nowhere!"

Abigail did all her lettering herself--she's still not quite sure which way the tail on that darn "g" goes, but boy, is she inventive!
This is what the girls and I came up with:  a loose schedule where something fun is assigned to each day.  I decided to build on the fact that they are in that voracious learn-everything-about-everything stage and make that our little guiding theme (seriously, are you ever amazed at how much info small children soak up and how fascinated they are by EVERYTHING?  Today we spent a good long while talking about the differences between hinge joints and ball-and-socket joints--we even watched a few hip joint motion animations that I had on file from an ID client.  Inspired, of course, by the fact that they were dragging Isaac around by his arms and I was explaining why that was NOT a good idea).  And I also wanted to just have the chance to have fun together, because isn't that the best part of being in a family?--while not going crazy with overscheduling and still having time to run around in the backyard, work in the garden, go to swimming lessons, etc.  Key word:  simplicity.

So here's what we've been doing.

Monday is our "learning day."  We sat down together and picked sixteen things they were interested in (their suggestions ranged everywhere from "butterflies" to "how planes stay up" to "Niagara Falls" and "big bears.")  What we did this week was to cuddle up together, read a bunch of books about butterflies, and then we did a simple art activity with construction paper diagramming the life cycle of the butterfly. (Then the girls talked nonstop about pupae and larvae all day.)  The basic plan for this day is to learn about something (half-hourish) and then have a ten-minute hands-on activity.  Very simple.  My plan next week, after we learn about volcanoes, is to build our own and have an awesome baking soda-and-vinegar explosion.  Sweet!!

Tuesday is our art day.  Again, we just thought of a whole bunch of random art activities that we wouldn't normally do (coloring is normal, making something out of paper mache or getting out the poster paints requires more commitment).  Today we painted in those awesome little pre-colored watercolor books (no mess!).  I had to schedule this in because I'm not much of an artist so my first inclination isn't to pull out the crafty things (storytime, anyone?)

Wednesday is adventure day!  This is the one I'm looking forward to most.  Hikes, meeting friends for a picnic at the playground, children's museum, etc.  I plan on about two hours for this, since it's more involved.  We will probably meet up with friends for this off and on throughout the summer.  Tomorrow we're going to our tiny little local zoo and taking a picnic along with us. 

Thursday is our regular trading playdate with friends--one week they play at our house, the other week at theirs.

And Friday is library day, where we go stock up for the next week.  Hurray! 

This has really been fun for us so far.  I like the fact that it gives us something to look forward to every day and a little bit of structure, but it's not so involved that I have to stress about getting things just right. 

Have you done anything similar to this?  I'd love to hear your ideas!

I read a really depressing book last night.  It was one that I'd been looking forward to, since it was by an author I'd "discovered" in an American lit class in college and fallen in love with.  Basically the book was chronicling the collapse of a family and a marriage.  It was very well-written and very compelling, but horribly bleak.

When I finished it, I wandered out into the library where Neil was working.  I kissed him, and I told him how grateful I was for our marriage.  And I really am.  And I'm grateful that my children don't have to grow up under that kind of shadow. 

I've been realizing more and more how blessed I am.  To be in love with my husband.  To have a husband who's in love with me.   To not feel like I have to hide anything or hold anything back.  That really is an amazing gift, and one that's easy to take for granted.

ma famille

Today is my sister Elise's twentieth birthday and my parents' 29th wedding anniversary.  Just in case you know my family in real life and you'd like a wee update, I thought I'd give one, since my family is doing some amazing things these days.

My dad just got back from a two-week business trip in San Francisco.  As he has for my entire life, he works incredibly hard to support his family and is inevitably the rock on which his employers rely.  At the end of the day, however, I have never for one second doubted that his family was more important to him than his work.  While he was in San Francisco this week, I got an email from his Blackberry with a shot of the street he was walking down and the message "Miss and love you all." 

My mom is totally my healthy-living inspiration. She has switched over to a vegan diet and does more yoga in a single week than I do in two months (let me tell you, my thighs are muscular from running, but they are NOTHING compared to my mom's!).  If I go for more than a day or two without just chatting with her, I feel like I'm in withdrawal.  She is one of my very best friends.  I love that with all her diverse interests and running her own business, she always makes me feel like she has all the time in the world to listen to me describe the frustrations and joys of my day.

My sister Mary Beth just finished her second year of law school.  In the brief couple of weeks before she began a prestigious internship with the state capital's district attorney's office (one of several such positions she was offered) and clerking for a nationally-respected judge, she took off to England and Scotland for several weeks.  I LOVED hearing about all her adventures and admire her so much for making up her mind to embark on such an adventurous trip!

Ruth, who is finishing her master's of accountancy, and her husband Jordan just announced that they will be moving to Hong Kong so he can open up the Asian offices for his company (no surprise if you know how awesome Jordan is, but really impressive when you consider that he just turned 24).   Is that cool or what?!  They also just got back from an awesome vacation to Taiwan (seriously, my family is giving me a massive case of wanderlust!).  They also finished out the semester with amazing GPAs (and Jordan won a golf tournament with some sweet prizes). 

Elise just concluded her sophomore year of college.  She'll be working this summer as an EFY counselor--and if you know anything about EFY counselors, you know that a) the hiring is extremely competitive and b) the people who work as counselors are absolutely amazing in every single facet you can think of.  One thing that I really love about Elise is how close we've grown since she's been in college.  When I left for BYU she was only eleven, so I didn't have all the childhood friendship with her that I did with Mary Beth and Ruth (although one of my very favorite things to do when Elise was a baby was to go get her after her nap, when she would snuggle down sleepily into my neck).  It's been really neat getting to know her as an adult and chatting with her so regularly.

Speaking of getting to know younger siblings, my little sister Rosalind is growing up to be absolutely delightful.  She's finishing her junior year of high school, and is apparently the only one in our family with any sort of aptitude for dancing, which she has embraced whole-heartedly--she was one of the featured dancers in her high school musical this spring, which is a really big deal.  She's coming on vacation with my little family this summer, and my girls could not possibly be more ecstatic (Aunt Rosalind!! for a week!!  the stars have fallen from the sky into their laps!!)

I feel so lucky to have sisters and parents who are doing such wonderful and exciting things with their lives.  As the oldest, it's so neat to watch these little tousle-headed tomato-stained people growing up into my best friends.  It's also incredible to look at my siblings and parents and see the huge effect the gospel has had in our lives--the faith that my family has in going forward has created amazing, wonderful, incredible opportunities and blessings beyond our comprehension.  And the best part?  I get to be with these people for eternity.  Forever.  No "until death do us part."  I am so grateful for that knowledge every single day of my life.