what I need is all around me

the naughty one

Anna has missed recess five times in the past week. Five times. That is more times to be punished at school than Sam and Mary combined. Okay, let's be honest. One time was more than Sam and Mary combined.

Most of the time it's talking too loudly or fighting with one of her little friends. Today we added "playing with my shoe laces" and "kicking the garbage can with another kid" to the list of infractions.

I'm honestly surprised by this little naughty one. It's not something I'm used to. We've decided to implement punishment at home to emphasize the seriousness of being naughty at school.

Let's hope it works.

a good weekend!

I spent the weekend doing not much of anything. Love this kind of weekend!

Today was 8 loads of laundry.  For real. And there are still plenty to do, but I feel pretty good about the dent I made in the pile!

I also cleaned the kids bathroom. Which isn't something I usually do because the kids clean their own bathroom, but every once in awhile it needs a "real" clean!

I finished this week's Project Life yesterday, which doesn't usually happen until Sunday. That allowed me to finish a few "real" scrapbook pages.  Both were copies of pages I'd seen (either on Two Peas or Ali Edwards)

Totaly Ali Edwards steal and I couldn't be happier with the result.  The color is wonky here, so I apologize. But it looks (and feels, because there is cool embossing on this page) great in person.

A totaly steal I found on Two Peas. The baby in the "original" was pretty dang cute, but I do think my patterned paper selection is better!

I made delicious homemade chicken pot pies for dinner, and while they were cooking, enjoyed a little of this wine:

Anna's grandparents stopped by to pay off a debt to our youngest family member and she was able to talk Grandpa Sam into a game (or three) of Mario Cart.  Priceless!

Grandma Jean also did a race with Anna and had the same reaction I usually do...car sickness. :-) Seriously, whoever made this game never met vertigo!

Anna is taking a bath right now, and in 25 minutes Jason and I will have those delicious pot pies. Maybe a little more crafting and we'll close the door on another wonderful weekend!

love

Love this girl.

Love that she still enjoys Wonder Pets enough to dance in front of the tv when a new episode is on.

Love a lucky shot to capture that moment.

Love a dad who lets me borrow his camera while mine is in the shop to get said lucky shot.

Love digital elements which allow me to document on a photo.

Valentine's Day

Anna didn't want to give "normal" valentines to her classmates because she was worried that they'd either be good for boys or good for girls but not both. I found this idea on pinterest and modified it to suit our tastes and have to say, the whole family is happy with the result! Cute but not "lovey", no candy and didn't take me too long to design, print, cut and adhere!

In case you need help, they say "Ready Set GLOW have a happy Valentine's day" and are mounted on glow-stick bracelets.  CUTE! Anna signed them all and drew a different picture on the back of each one.

And happy birthday to my Aunt Jane.  I {heart} you!!!

today

Today I:

*Left the house for the first time since Monday (if only to take Mary to school)

*Showered for the first time in three days.

*Started drinking wine before 3 pm to stop the pain

*Approved more than $50,000 worth of invoices for work from my home computer (I {love} the internet}

*Finished preparations for our "Favorite Things" party this weekend

*Made a scrapbook page that wasn't Project Life related

 

The level of my desperation

One of the shitty things about being 40 is that my body doesn't like me anymore. Which is getting easier to deal with as the time goes by for the most part.

But once every 3 or 4 months, my back and/or neck gets tweaked. Typically from doing nothing. Like nothing.  As in, doing some scrapbooking and some laundry on a lazy Sunday nothing! It usually lasts a day or two, and it's about 50/50 whether I can deal with it at work or not.

So Monday I went to work, limping. Luckily, sitting was the best position for my back. On the drive home, my neck went out. I haven't been out of the house since.

Awesome.

Last night Lindy came for her regularly scheduled dinner, and God bless her, she brought a couple of bottles of wine.  Which I we managed to put down in the five hours she was here. And I was able to sleep for a few hours before the pain came back.

Today we're out of wine. Well, we have white. But I only keep white in the house for my friend Missy because I don't drink it. Ever.

My level of desperation has reached new heights. As I type this, I'm gulping taking dainty sips of something they call Pinot Grigio in the hopes I find a tiny bit of relief from the pain.

Look, it's this or head next door to our neighbors who occasionally smoke something that doesn't smell at all like cigarettes and ask if I can join in.

Don't judge me.

But feel free to bring over some red wine if you happen to be in the neighborhood...

JOY

One thing I really love about Jason is that he just "gets" me. Lately he's been trying to take more photos because he knows I enjoy his perspective in our family's "Project Life".

While I was away this weekend, he and Anna joined Grandpa Sam and Grandma Jean at a street fair. When he sent me this photo in a text, I felt the JOY I'm striving for this year.

He claims it's "dumb luck" that he got this expression, and while a part of me totally agrees, part of me thinks there was a little something special going on that allowed him to capture this particular memory forever.

Finding JOY in street fairs.

Finding JOY in pictures taken by Jason.

Finding JOY in dumb luck.

Finding JOY in capturing memories.

Finding JOY in my life.  Yay me!