Currently I am...

appreciating My two beautiful, healthy children.

reading A Visit from the Goon Squad, Lorna Doone, and A Prayer for Owen Meany. 

listening to Pseudopod, episode 369.

tasting Big Red gum. A change from my usual mint that isn't peppermint. 

learning to slow down and breathe and live in the moment, because life chances in a heartbeat. 

noticing the sunshine outside, and the dull throb in the finger I jammed this weekend.

anticipating the arrival of our new range on Wednesday, an evening hosting a friend for dinner, my birthday next week

working at chipping away at the mountain of data in front of me.

making the best of what I have.

watching C play Brutal Legend (because it is the awesomest game EVAR and it's like watching an interactive movie).

accepting that I have no control over most things in the world, and that my daughter will probably continue to request her morning snuggles in my bed for a while yet.

organizing our basement and finances so we can send Dee to preschool in the fall.

planning updates to our house so we can sell it and buy a bigger house with a yard in a year and a half or so. 

loving my family, even when they make me completely crazy.

buying only what we need. It's a re-training thing. I used to be really good at it. 

finishing my second cup of coffee (well, I will be soon, anyway).

embracing the shape of my body.

daring to speak my mind. 

I got the idea for this listy post from Beth Anne. If you haven't read her blog, you should. It's the comfort of a chat with dear old friend at it's finest, but in a blog.

A Ladybug in Winter

The Miracle of Beerika

Once upon a time (late fall 2007), C bought some Sam Adams Utopias. He gathered his brothers and our fathers together, each contributing what he could, so they could purchase the bottle and share in the drinking of this unusual brew. Once it was divided as planned, C poured out the remnants into a small glass for himself, thinking it was the last drop he'd taste.

The next day, on a whim, he tipped the empty bottle over a glass. To his utter shock, a measure of beer trickled out! He gladly savored this, surely the final bit he'd get.

The third day, reasoning that it had worked before, he again tipped the empty bottle over a glass. Again, there was beer to be had! It was truly a miracle. Alas, this was the final quantity, but what joy at the miracle we had witnessed!

In honor of this miracle, C decided we should ever after (in early January) celebrate the Miracle of Beerika (so named, because, like Hanukkah, this occurred over multiple nights).

Each year thereafter, beginning in early 2009, we have celebrated Beerika with friends and family. A feast is prepared and beers are paired with every course, from appetizers to cheese to dessert.

This year, the sixth that we have celebrated, C had some fun with 3D glasses and a 3D-esque beer label.

We ended the night with Cards Against Humanity (proving that we are all truly depraved) while the kids watched Pokemon. It was glorious!

Poor Little Sickie

Poor Dee is sick. She's got a head cold and her little upper lip is just raw. She cries when she sneezes, when her nose runs, when we wipe it, and just because she doesn't feel good. So J and MacGuyver kept her company to watch My Little Pony.

J isn't actually sitting on the dog. It looks like that, but he's not. MacGuyver is patient but not that tolerant!

Longing

I know, I know. I hate being pregnant. I ache, I puke for half of it, I have a reactive uterus so I have contractions for months.  I know. And yet.

And yet I feel the absence of a son. I want to adopt a child, still, but there is a deep yearning ache for a child born of my body. Both are meant to be mine, my children. As much as I dislike pregnancy I miss it so much. I ache to feel a baby inside, kicking.

It is worse now, while I'm fertile, but it persists. Stories of morning sickness, seeing maternity clothes, seeing or holding tiny new babies. Twinges in my core, twinges in my heart.

I must be healthier, take care of myself and get in good condition. Then pregnancy won't be so hard on me. Maybe. I hope.

From my pregnancy with Dee. I miss this...Not that old phone though.

A Book

We watched this series on Netflix last year. It was fantastic. So I put us on the list for the book at the library.

Then I decided to play with camera settings and take artsy pictures of the book on our couch. Because I'm weird. I notice now that there's a decent amount of beagle hair in this picture. Also, it turns out my phone takes way better pictures if I wipe the child-goo off the lens once in a while.

Nursing After Bath

Dee still loves to nurse. She asks to nurse every night (and every morning) even though I stopped offering shortly after she turned one. I love nursing her, for the most part, though at certain times in my cycle it's painful and I would really love to sleep a whole night until 9am (haha) without her 5:30am "Mama, is it time to nurse? Can I come snuggle you guys in your bed and nurse?" just once. But it will all end soon enough, and in the meantime, I treasure it. I realized I have no recent pictures of her nursing so I tried to get some last night. This is one of my favorites.

She was alternately petting my neck or cheek and the cabinet behind me.

Birthday Boy

 

Six candles on a cupcake glow pretty bright! Happy birthday, kiddo. Thanks for being mine.  

My Sleeping Five-Year-Old For The Last Time

J turns six tomorrow. I want to snuggle him and savor his last night as a five-year-old.

Sweet dreams, sweet J.

After Our New Year's Walk

 

I took this after our walk on New Year's Day (you know, the fateful day when the stroller broke?). Anyway, everyone was pretty tuckered out and apparently the couch was the place to be! We were watching Good Eats if you were wondering.

Our New Year's Card Photo

Yep. We're sending out New Year's cards this year. 10 of them. That's about how much energy I had to devote to the project. I just finished editing the picture my sister took of the four of us. I think it came out pretty well, especially considering that it was taken in relatively low light and on a phone.

Oh, and don't mind Dee. She's... Dee.

In other news, I took the dogs on a walk today in the snowy, blowy cold. It was like 20 degrees out, and we made it a whole 1.38 miles. Yay! Almost 3 down...297 to go.

Surprise New Year's Snow

 

This picture was taken on my phone a few days ago. Not today because I couldn't get a chance to take any today. The kids were playing in the snow we got on New Year's (unexpectedly). Clearly they had other priorities than looking at me... 

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My Mister Beagle-butt

Nine years ago we brought this hound home and named him MacGuyver. Yes, like the show. It is spelled wrong, I know, and I have only myself to blame. C got him for me for my 22nd birthday/Christmas present. We adopted him from a family who had gotten him as a puppy and had hoped to train him as a hunting dog. A duck hunting dog. If you are familiar with beagles at all, you likely know that they are traditionally rabbit hunters, and they prefer to avoid water unless they have absolutely no other option other than, say, death. I once carried MacGuyver into a lake up to my thighs just to prove that the water wouldn't hurt him. He swam back to shore and gave me what can only be described as a withering look. He will get his paws wet on very hot days but will not willingly get anything else damp. You might say he's a little prissy. You might be right.

I will likely write more about him in about a month when he turns ten. In the meantime, he's napping on my bed in the beagle nest he's made.

Happy 2014 From Mommy's Evil Geniuses!

The kids were practicing their evil laughs and also wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year!

This was after we went on a 1.5 mile walk (the kids and me plus the dogs, though Dee was in the stroller). As we got home and returned to our garage (the door of which is not functioning as intended due to a busted gear in the opener, yay, but we can manually open and close it), one of the front wheels on the stroller broke off (like, the plastic snapped). So glad *that* didn't happen on our walk. Then about a minute after we got everyone inside, it started snowing. So what I'm saying is we had absolutely perfect timing.

2013: A Year in Review

Things That Happened:

J turned 5, and had a pirate party.

I turned 30, and C threw me a surprise party.

C turned 31, and I did not throw him a surprise party.

Dee turned 2.

I got the Mirena removed.

We went on a fabulous road trip this summer to visit my dad and step-mom in WA. The kids got to go to the beach for the first time, and they absolutely loved it. So did the dogs.

We refinanced (more or less) and now have no more budget issues. YAY! We aren't rich but we don't have to stress about money so much any more.

Dee graduated from diapers.

J lost his first tooth (and lost the second one a few weeks later)!

J started kindergarten.

The kids were dinosaurs (well, James was a pterosaur) for Halloween.

I had to put down my parents' 14 year old lab.

 Thanksgiving happened!

Christmas happened!

 

I read 51 books.

I ran/walked 43.7 miles (out of my goal of 300).

Quite a year, really. Let's see what 2014 will bring (other than the cold I have gotten since last night...)!


P.S. If you want to see my list of goals for 2014, there's a tab at the top of the page that should take you right to it :-).