Better Week

This week has been going much better, except for the dumb Ohio weather. Sunday was 81 and beautiful.  Monday it rained a ton and was just dreary and bluck.  I worked from bed and it was actually quite cozy and productive.

And then yesterday it snowed - real snow, not just the little flurries that don't do much.
I have captioned this "The Agony of Defeat" - poor things. They are still all slumped over like they've given up for good.

Silas and I have been butting heads quite a bit for the last couple weeks.  He's been very whiny and quick to lose his temper and I've been lacking patience myself.  He's such a funny kid though.  For example, last week:
Silas: Can I have my vitamin? I've got white bumps on my arm.
Me: White bumps?
Silas: I'm not sure but it could be scurvy...
Me: ???


It's so easy to get lost in and overwhelmed by the millions things that always need to be done. Household stuff, work stuff, friends/family obligations...on and on.  I feel lucky that most often, I have the ability to step back and put things into perspective.  Clean the toilets or spend time outside with Justin and the kids on a (currently rare) sunny day.  I'll go with the latter.  And by the state of my house...I probably make that choice a bit too much!  But oh well...

At least I've got my sanity...right?!?  ??

Fraught

fraught - frôt/ - adjective
1. (of a situation or course of action) filled with or destined to result in (something undesirable).

2. causing or affected by great anxiety or stress.
"there was a fraught silence"
synonyms: anxious, worried, stressed, upset, distraught, overwrought, worked up, antsy, agitated, distressed, distracted, desperate, frantic, panic-stricken, panic-struck, panicky;

I don't know why, but the last week has been very stressful and full of anxiety for me. Making productivity very difficult, and the ability to focus a pure joke.

I don't know which comes first, the chicken (anxiety) or the egg (stress). And they become so intertwined that it doesn't much matter when they get rolling and picking up speed. It reminds me of skiing this winter and watching Silas start down the ski run and get going so fast that all he knew to do was fall, arms and legs flailing in all directions, to stop himself. I've been through this enough times now to know when I'm heading for the crash and burn. When I feel it happening I do try to remember how to slow it down without the need to throw myself to the ground causing a massive pile-up all around me.

More exercise, more yoga, more nature...
Juicing, oils, prayer, meditation...maybe it all helps, maybe not.
Maybe it just keeps me occupied until the moods pass. They always do eventually.

our maple finally started blooming last weekend.

it wasn't a sucky week all around - the CF Wine Opener was Friday

and celebrating Jen's birthday too!

April Fools?

Oh, I hope today's weather wasn't a big tease! I can't remember ever longing for warm, sunny weather like I have this long, long winter!

No soccer practice this evening (Justin is coaching both teams again this season) so the kids got to come home and play outside until dinner and then we walked up to the school for some extra outside time.
Ella, mason and Silas were all playing soccer against the garage again...it looks like someone scored!



Ella roller bladed up to the school. I think i need to get mine out soon and give my knees a break from running.


Found this when looking for my other pictures from today. She is getting way too big...hard to believe that 6th grade in a new school is right around the corner.


I'm ready for yard work and gardening and bike rides and sitting on patios and...no.more.snow!

The End of March Madness

I absolutely cannot believe that tomorrow is the last day of March. Even with all the cruddy winter weather, the first 3 months of 2014 have flown by so fast.


One thing that we all did a lot of this winter was READ. With no cable TV and staying inside more because of the bitter cold, we all tore through some books.  Silas has advanced tremendously with his reading.  He started the winter with easier chapter books, then (here in February) read some of the Nate books and all of the Wimpy Kid books.  In March he has completed books 1 and 2 of Harry Potter and just started book 3.

I'm amazed at how much he reads (and by how much he is like his father...see background of picture!).

One day a couple weeks ago, while the rest of us had overslept by almost an hour on a school morning, 
Silas had gotten himself up, dressed, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, spiked his hair and packed his lunch. He was sitting at the table reading his Harry Potter book when we all scrambled downstairs. Besides the fact
that he put his clothes from the day before back on and made a Nutella sandwich for his lunch (and didn't bother to wake the rest of us up!), he did a pretty good job. 


Silas also took a-lovin' to playing goalie in Indoor soccer this past month.  He now constantly takes the soccer ball out front and kicks it (much to Justin's dismay) against the garage door and then tries to block it as it shoots back at him.  He's got great reflexes and I can't wait to have him do some goalie training to see what  he thinks after he's got some more practice at it and plays more in Outdoor this season.

Though 99% of the month was cold and yucko, we did have a nice Saturday in March (it got up to almost 60 and then the next day it snowed again...) and enjoyed the afternoon hanging outside playing soccer, riding on the scooter and rollerblading.

And these 2 were looking pretty awesome with their punked up hair and way-too-cool sunglasses.

Ella has been using my old Rebel to take some pictures - she is pretty good.  She's very anxious to get a laptop (Justin's old one) so that she can start doing some editing to the pictures.  

At the beginning of March, I started a new yoga class which is right over by the trail and sometimes I get to sneak a run in too before or after the class.  Which is particularly nice on days like this one! I've started doing some juicing too - which is interesting and worth a post sometime.

And now Spring Break is over, March is almost over and before we know it - school will be out - and it'll be Summer...right?!? Crazy weather!!

The Birds and the Bees - Maybe Spring Really is Here!

The day before our recent weekend trip, I got a message from Mason saying that our foster dog, Chyna, was bleeding.  It looked like there was blood in her urine.  When I got back into town, I made a vet appointment for her because it looked like it was still going on.  She drinks SO much water.  She is 13 years old and much like Zoe was, old and creaky.  I thought she might have a UTI or bladder infection.

On Thursday, Silas and I loaded her into the van, trying to keep her sitting on the towel...not very successful.
The vet tech was super sweet (I love our vet office) and took Chyna outside for a urine sample.  I have to say, I thought getting a urine sample from a dog, in and of itself, was a feat.  This woman got the sample in a soup ladle.  THAT friends, is impressive.

The sample came back with some blood in it.  As the doctor was examining her, he asked - "is she spayed?"
"Of course she is - well, I'm pretty sure she is - hmm, I guess I actually don't know if she is."
I pull out my phone and start texting my sister and niece. "hey question for you.  is chyna fixed???"

The vet leaves to check on something else and I sat there waiting for a text back.  I'd thought that the dog had a UTI, a bladder infections, cancer and God only knows what else, but not ONCE did it cross my mind that she had her freakin' period!
And never would it occur to me that a 13 year old dog could still even have such biological happenings going on - don't dogs go into menopause??

The doctor came back into the room and said that all her counts looked good with the exception of one, which was just a tad bit low.  "If she has been spayed, give me a call and we'll check some other stuff out."
Right about that time is when I realized just how dense I can be sometimes.  I just took a female dog to the doctor because she was on her period...with an 8 year old boy in tow.

Next stop - PetSmart...

I've spent the latter part of my week chasing around a geriatric dog so that I can strap her Kotex on her and dodging the repeated questions from Silas about "why is she bleeding and wearing that diaper?"
Oh kid, I wish I knew...

Good Ol' Rocky Top

You can't drive to Tennessee without that song bouncing around your head - especially once you start seeing the peaks in the horizon (and feel the waves of nausea clutch your gut), without singing this song!
Our great friends, the Sayres, asked if we were interested in an impromptu long weekend, Spring Break trip to Chattanooga.  I've been to TN quite a few times but never to Chattanooga.  What a great city!

I always have some high hopes for the kids' school breaks.  We'll do this, that, I'll take them here, there...
and I almost always fail...and they sit around bored or watching too much television during their breaks.
And then I feel guilty...I tend to be a bit of homebody (really, I am), so when Jennifer asked me if we'd be up for a short trip to visit her friends in Tennessee, my first though was "nah".  And then as my week slowly dragged along, I wasn't as concerned about taking a long weekend...I figured it was a great idea! (And it was!).

We made it there on Saturday evening just in time to catch an hour (who knew they closed at 10PM?!) in the swimming pool.  And then lots of settling in, so it was 1AM before we all got to bed. The kids were pretty wired!


The Tennessee Aquairum was great, especially for a rainy Sunday afternoon.The overly priced, me not smiling picture below, not as nice!

Here the kids were tossing pennies into the wishing pond - Silas told me: "I know what you wished for...30 bottles of wine".  Close...I was wishing for 30 bottles of wine PLUS a few minutes of complete silence.

I loved watching the jellyfish - I could have sat there for hours (with that wine that I wished for) and just vegged.  It's very relaxing to watch them.

Ella and Abby were ready to strike a pose pretty much anytime.  The boys were more difficult to get to stop for a picture.

I wish I  had caught more of Si's face here - he was reaching in to touch a hammerhead shark!

The friends that we visited had an awesome backyard.  They live on Signal Mountain, which was much different that I thought living on a mountain would be like.  They had a flat backyard with lots of room to run around and play ball.

I think that the kids could have spent the entire weekend in the pool and hot tub and been very content. (Ignore Ella's Addam's Family face above!)

There was a new baby in the house - baby Samuel let Ella hold him for awhile. He had quite the audience.

 

  Our last activity before hitting the road was going back up Signal Mountain to Signal Point. It was beautiful!

Herbie was Samuel's big brother, and boy is he adorable.  And very chatty!

The girls started walking on the Cumberland Trail and I started to follow, worrying that they'd get lost.

Herbie then started following me and before long, the 6 of us were doing some impromptu hiking.

It wasn't far but it sure was steep!

Jen and the kids!

After this, we loaded back up for the long drive home.  It was so fun spending time with friends, and spending some uninterrupted time with my own kids.  (Thanks Jen for the invite!).

More Winter Adventures

A couple weekends ago now, we took another winter adventure to Mad River Mountain - to take the kids skiing for their very first time.  I was not 100% on board with the whole deal - it was cold, expensive and I woke up feeling quite cruddy that day.
After we got up and moving though, it turned out to be a great day (and still way expensive)!
Ella and Silas started with 2 hour ski lessons.  First time on skis and the instructors showed them how to do all the basics.
While the kids were in their lessons, Justin forced me to go down the hills too. I would have been happy to sit inside and read.  We started on the easiest of the  non-bunny hills.  I did fine, though I'm sure I looked as confused going down the hill as I look in the photo below...


The 2nd time we went up on the lift...it didn't go as well for me.  I was concentrating so hard on "keeping my tips up" as the sign says...that I forgot to "unload" - and had to jump off (which basically was fall out) of the lift seat before it headed back down the hill.

We were able to watch a little of the kids' lessons as we'd ski/fall down the slope by the lesson area. 

Ella and Si were both awesome - both were totally ready (mentally) to hit the slopes as soon as their lessons were over.  And the lessons didn't really cover that much.  They didn't use the lifts, didn't go down anything but the bunny hill and really didn't even learn to stop all that well (as Silas proved on his first run down the hill).
Ella was really amazing - she had no fear at all and was doing the expert runs after about 4 or 5 times down the green runs (the ones that I was still doing). 
I definitely imagine that we'll be back here a lot next year. Especially if the weather is like this winter!

After getting back from the skiing, I ended up over at Hayden Run falls to check out how frozen they were. A photographer friend had taken an awesome pic on Monday and by Tuesday, they were already starting their thaw.




By the way, you may have forgotten that we actually have a 3rd kid - Mason has been busy with work (he's working at Meijer in the deli and they are working him quite a lot) and with school.  In May he will finish his first year as a college Freshman.  It's been quite an adjustment (probably for all of us) but that will have to be saved for another post...