I’ve Moved!

Hey Y’all!
I moved over here… Sermon on the Mount of Laundry.

Add comment | August 8th, 2011

My Little Dancer

She loves, loves, loves to dance! And she is so funny to watch! Hee hee hee.

3 comments | August 2nd, 2011

Life, Currently

Well, yesterday I turned 32.  Thirty-two. I can’t quite wrap my head around it.  Most of the time I still feel like I’m 19.  Or maybe 25.  But not 32.

But, like I was telling my husband on our little birthday date yesterday, I wouldn’t trade where I was at when I was 25 for where I am now (or where WE are at now.) We’ve come such a long way in our 11 years together, and I am happy with the progress we’ve made.  I hope we continue to change and become better people on a daily basis and continue to make progress as a couple and as a family.

Recently we’ve implemented a few things to upgrade the quality of our life.  For me, it was adding physical activity, learning how to define and defend my boundaries, providing myself with opportunities to create and to share.

For my physical activity, I’ve taken up running, biking and walking in the mornings by myself.  The “by myself” is an important part of that.  I need my alone time to be able to think, meditate, pray and basically just get myself centered so I can better give of myself to my family.  The “running/biking/walking” part is also important, well, for kind of obvious reasons.  It’s a good thing to be in shape.  Helps your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health immensely.  And it’s been very good for me, as I was having a little struggle with depression (again) recently.

Learning how to define my boundaries has become an important thing because I’m a people pleaser, and sometimes, that causes me lots of problems, and therefore, unhappiness. (Can I get a witness?) This is not really anything new for me, so I suspect I’ll forever be learning how to say “no”, “maybe another day”, “I’m not into that”, etc. etc. etc.  Really, I’m learning how to be okay with not pleasing everyone all the time. I can also guarantee I’ll have more to add on this particular subject later…

Pottery, drawing, writing, just plain creating (lots of things fall under this, because I like to do it all) are all part of providing myself with opportunities to create and share. Getting this new computer played a huge part in that! So I am very thankful for it! I am also making a concerted effort to get to the pottery studio each week from here on out.  I also have plans to paint a mural (of sorts) on my bedroom wall, and continue on with various sewing and knitting projects.  What I’d also like to do more of is photography and drawing.  So… I’m hoping to integrate those into my crazy schedule somewhere.  We’ll see.

The other thing Kevin and I have done very recently is hire his wonderful mom to come in and be our personal assistant.  Mostly she has just been helping me out with all four of the kids.  (It is still kind of amazing how overwhelming quality care of four kids can be to even just the two of us! Well, that and housework. Being a good parent is hard work, and “it takes a village!”)  Soon, we’ll get her working with Kevin a little more and helping him with various different ventures.  She has been a godsend and Kevin and I both feel significantly less stressed and a whole lot more productive with her help.

So that’s more or less where I’ve been lately.  I’d like to say that I’ll be blogging more now, but I can’t really make that promise.  I HOPE I’ll be blogging more!

5 comments | July 24th, 2011

In the Creative Department

A while ago, I had made some pizza for dinner, and as I was washing my pizza stone, one of the scorched pieces of cheese fell on the sink and Kevin asked, “What’s that, a little dragon turd?” And suddenly, I had this vision of a little dragon, sitting up on the top of my cabinets dropping things like cookie crumbles and the occasional turd into my sink. Inspired, I went to the pottery studio and created this little guy…
I named him Fergus. (my autocorrect thinks Ferrous is a better name though…)
Here is the progression from a lump of mud to a ceramic sculpture…

Beginning stages…

All the minute details are added last. And as you can see, he fits in the palm of my hand.

Rear view.

Finished product. He now keeps me company whilst I’m washing dishes… He’s polite though, no going to the bathroom in my sink.

Recently, I’ve been working on another dragon, and she is actually finished as far as the construction part of things go. I’m just waiting for her to be bisque fired, and then I can move on to the glazing…

The owner of the pottery studio has also succeeded in talking me into bronzing these little dragons. I’ve never ventured into bronze, so I’m a little nervous about it. First I will sculpt a dragon out of wax, and then a mold will be made of it, and then bronze will be poured into the mold. Then it will have to be sand blasted, and color will have to be added to it. So, it’s a lot of work. We’ll see if I like it or not, but for now I’m just giving it a chance.

4 comments | May 22nd, 2011

For Mother’s Day

I thought I’d share Beau’s gift to me… It starts with the above picture, and when you open it there’s a booklet, and the first page contains a questionnaire.

What is your mom’s age? 24, she’s not old. (If only, Beau, if only.)

What is your mom’s name? Sara, like Danny’s mom. (Uh, for the record, my name is spelled with an ‘h’.)

What is your mom’s job? She doesn’t have one yet (I think this is my favorite answer! Bahahahaha!)

What is your mom’s favorite thing to do? Go on vacation (Pretty close… and there are many thing I consider a “vacation.”)

What do you do that makes your mom laugh ? Pillow fights and tell jokes.

What is the prettiest thing about your mom? She dresses up nicely. (Is that all?)

If your mom was a Disney princess, which would she be? She likes pink, she would have a dress. (Good to know.)

What is your mom’s favorite color? Pink (Actually… it’s purple.)

Why did you get your mom, and not a different mom? Because she got me out of her belly. Babies come out of belly buttons, right? (Glad he didn’t inform the interviewer where they really come from, because he does know.)

What kind of little girl was your mom? I haven’t seen her when she was little. (That’s right, I’m big.)

What is your favorite thing about your mom?She’s really, really nice. Sometimes she gets mad at me and Drew. (Wait a minute, he likes that I get mad at him and Drew? *wink*)

What is your favorite thing to do with your mom? Go out out on dates. (That’s my favorite thing to do with him too.)

If you could go anywhere with your mom, where would it be? Legoland, and Disneyland, and Mesquite to see Papa Decker. (Good choices, buddy.)

What is the difference between moms and dads? Daddies are boys and mommies are girls. (And so much more…)

Why did your mom marry your dad ? When they were little they were boyfriend and girlfriend. (Again, we’re big now.)

What did your mom have to know about your dad before they were married ? That he makes people calm down. (When asked what he meant by this, he said that Daddy makes Mommy calm down. Baha!)

What do you want to thank your mom for? Treats, and Legoland!

And Drew constructed is little Lego turtle for me, a very creative and thoughtful thing to do. He said he would have gotten me a real turtle if dad had taken him to the pet store…

Hope you all are having/had a wonderful Mother’s Day!

1 comment | May 8th, 2011

The Floor

Oh, the floor. So, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away… wait a minute, no, um, long ago, when Kevin and I were just getting married, we had the hardwood floors in our cute little house re-finished. We loved them, and have adored hardwood floors ever since. When we bought this house, and gutted it and replaced just about everything in it, (except for the hot tub in the basement, we didn’t replace that) we chose to put carpet in. Probably because it was cheaper. We have regretted that decision ever since. So recently, my husband has been working with a flooring company, and we again became enamored with the idea of getting hardwood floors put in. So we did our research, looked at samples, Kevin worked out a proper trade with the flooring company, and here we are, (three weeks ago) starting on a huge flooring project. Originally, we thought we’d have the project done in two weeks. Buuut, we had a little problem that took longer than expected…yeah, I know, typical for construction. Remember that hot tub I mentioned before? Yeah, well, it was in our basement, with no ventilation, since 1978, until 7 years ago when we sawed the thing into four pieces and hauled it out the front door to the dump. So, hot tub + no ventilation = wavy subfloors. Also, the hardwood we bought, needed to be nailed down into wood that wasn’t particle wood, which was what our wavy subfloor consisted of. So my dad, whom we have hired to do the entire flooring job, had to replace the entire subfloor. Big job. Took two whole weeks all by itself, and oh yeah, that was just the living room, and the master bedroom. Yes, we still have the hallway and the kids rooms to do. I’m told that will probably be another two weeks. All this week though, the harwood has been put down in the living room, and master bedroom, and will most likely be finished by the end of the day. Yay! In the mean time, Kevin and I have been staying out in our playroom, and I’m very much looking forward to getting back into my own room.

When it looked like this at the beginning and I began to realize it might take awhile, I just kept trying to focus on the end product.

Then the new, and not wavy, but nice and solid subfloor went in, after extensive work to level out the floor joists, etc… My poor dad… I thought “my poor dad” through a lot of this project, and I’m sure I’ll think it some more before its done.

But he’s kept a great attitude throughout the whole project even in the face of setbacks, and unplanned purchases, and staples that bend when they get shot into the hardwood. I know he very much misses my mom who has elected to stay at their home 70 miles away during the week. This is him throwing her the “I love you” sign.

He is doing an absolutely top notch, terrific job, and the floors look gorgeous.

So, I haven’t had the best of attitudes during this whole thing. In fact I think I might be losing my mind a little bit. But. I think it will definitely be worth it.

1 comment | May 6th, 2011

A Few Things

A few things.
1. I am currently without a computer. I have an iPad, and yes, I like it, buuuuut, it’s kind of unpleasant to try to write for my blog with it. Touch-screen, and auto-correct, to name a few of the frustrations…

2. We are currently remodeling our home. My dad is installing wood floors for us, which has also required us to rip up our sub-floors and replace them and level them all out. This house was built in 1978, before certain things became code, and well, let’s just say it’s taking longer than expected. Such is the way of construction projects. My poor dad. Also, Kevin and I are currently sleeping in the playroom.

3. We are in that springtime crunch at school where they start trying to cram a bunch of stuff into the last few weeks left in the school year. Kevin and I just finished preparing costumes for the boys for History day tomorrow. Beau is going as a scientist and Drew will go as a Greek warrior.

4. So far this week I have two children on antibiotics. Selah was diagnosed with an ear infection on Monday, and Beau was diagnosed with strep today…

2 comments | April 27th, 2011