02-28-09

Do you like tea?

In the book Three Cups of Tea, the author drinks many cups of butter tea, a staple of the Balti diet. It is green tea with salt, baking soda, goats milk, and a sliver of prized aged rancid yak butter added. Yum! He said it smelled incredibly stinky and he gagged on it at first, but he eventually learned to like it, since all social and business transactions are conducted over pots of tea.

As hard as I try, I cannot stomach tea of any flavor. I'm glad that in America we rally around coffee instead.

Today I am practicing relinquishing, putting aside the things I feel I should be doing and reading instead.

02-27-09

Here are a few glimpses of my world this evening.

At about 4:30pm, my coworker had a box delivered to her. It was a box of little boxes with various co-workers names on them, including one for me. To step back, when Weyerhaeuser does big projects, they give them code names. Last year several of us were working on Project Glinda. They said it was named for the good witch, but it was an awful project. Anyway, the little box contained two ruby slippers in appreciation or our hard efforts. I thought that was pretty creative in this time of belt tightening, it gave us a chuckle. They are Belgian chocolate, from the Ruby Slippers Specialty Company!

And after dinner, I headed to church to help usher a free showing of the Fireproof movie to the community. I'll be helping to facilitate the eight week marriage course using the love dare journal from the movie. It was my second screening of the movie and I enjoyed it even more the second time around.

"Saving someone from a fire does not make you right with God." - John Holt, "Kirk Cameron"'s dad

02-26-09

When the weather is cold, the first thing I do when I wake up is to take a peek outside the window.

Today there was a blanket of white all around.

My next stop was the school closure website. Kelso was 2 hours delayed, but Longview was on time.

So I launched myself into my morning routine. Ham for breakfast, prayer and Bible reading, to the basement for exercise... and 90 minutes later, off to work.

This was my view from the very icy parking lot.

02-25-09

Happy Ash Wednesday.

Wow, this would be a fantastic photo without the ash on their forehead! LOL!

Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance and it marks the beginning of Lent. Ashes were used in ancient times, according to the Bible, to express mourning. Dusting oneself with ashes was the penitent's way of expressing sorrow for sins and faults.

I won't be giving up anything for Lent (maybe one of these years), but Anastasia is giving up the Disney Channel.

Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return. —Genesis 3:19

02-24-09

"You are my blog subject today, so do something interesting!" - Mom

Little man likes meat, sauce, focaccia bread. He likes wearing the same clothes over and over. He likes spending all his free time on World of Warcraft. He locks the basement door when he is home alone. And he likes sitting in his chair with only 2 legs on the ground. He's always asking to have friends over. He's one of the few guys at his school to read the Twilight series.

"How do you decide what your blog topic is?" - Xander

02-23-09

Here' s Anastasia with her "new" saxomaphone. Bruce will let her play it as long as she calls it a saxomaphone. Think quick, where is that from?!?

Flashback to Lisa as a baby:
Homer: So, what do you like, Lisa? Vio-ma-lin? Tuba-ma-ba? Obo-mo-boe?(Lisa points to a saxophone)Homer: Ooh, saxo-ma-phone!

We've rented Anastasia a flute for the school year. And she'll keep playing it. But she has also taken on the oboe and the saxophone. Fun to see that she got the musical talent that alludes Xander and I.

"This is so easy! Piece of cake. I think Alexander should try it, it's so easy." - Anastasia

02-22-09

I almost chose the first photo from this photo shoot, the one before anyone knew that the shutter was being pushed. We all looked very grumpy. Then the timer light starts blinking and we are all smiles. LOL!

I told the kids that the group photo was in exchange for me not dragging them to the concert after all this afternoon. They still thought it was a good trade.

“Sunday is the core of our civilization, dedicated to thought and reverence.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

02-21-09

Instead of going through the woods to grandmas house, today we went though I-5 construction. Over 12 hours door to door for the kdis and I.

Anastasia and Xander taught G&G cheat and spoons, and after a few rounds of each I decided we should get out of the condo. I suggested visiting the little park with the zip line, forgetting that nobody ever really remembers where the heck it is. We saw some pretty houses driving around looking for it. [Note for next time: Meadowvale Neighborhood Park, near Dairy Queen!]

The park was shady and cool, but the kids enjoyed pushing each other for quite awhile.

Xander took a lot of photos today, but the camera was on sports mode the whole time, so very few are in focus.

02-20-09

I am proud of myself! I am on day 3 of eating right, drinking 80 ounces of water a day, working out, and spending 20 minutes a day on wii fit.

And another accomplishment, I have already carved out 10 hours this month for scrapbooking. Which was not unusually in a prior life, but for the last six months has felt impossible.

I am meeting two of my relinquish goals!
From January:
I will put aside time to scrapbook more and relinquish the idea that it takes incredible energy to organize and create.
I will cease to hold these extra 15 pounds. Well, at least 10 of them! I will relinquish the patterns and influences that keep me from eating well and exercising.

So, here is another completed project. Our "National Park" trip was last July, but it is now all pulled together in an album.

“Life is a great adventure… accept it in such a spirit.” -Theodore Roosevelt

02-19-09

Do you have signs of spring in your yard?

I hear that some are seeing daffodils and crocus's. I'm not yet, but I was a bit shocked to notice that this bush right next to where I often park my car is in bloom. I'm not sure I even knew that it did bloom!

I haven't quite carved out time to be outdoors much yet, but I enjoy watching all the people walking the lake on my way home form work. At 5pm it is still light, I like that part too.

We're getting closer!

“One flower does not bring spring”
Proverb

02-18-09

Here's a big part of our lives that doesn't normally get documented on film.

Xander and I have bad allergies, so we have mother-son outings to the clinic to get our allergy shots. He is down to one shot, but my allergies seem to grow with each testing, so I get three shots per visit. Right now we are on a once a week regime, but normally it is monthly.

The hardest part is to remember to wear a short sleeve shirt on shot day. And bringing a book or magazine to read, since you have to wait 20 minutes after the shot to make sure there is no adverse reaction. We both swelled up today, Xander has a really big goose egg. Some days are like that.

It's a big investment of time and money, but it is well worth it to not feel miserable.

“The difference between an itch and an allergy is about one hundred bucks.” - Unknown

02-17-09

I am bound and determined to lose 10 pounds.

Starting tomorrow.

Because today I had cheesecake at my Seaside meeting and a Starbucks date with Bruce.

“American consumers have no problem with carcinogens, but they will not purchase any product, including floor wax, that has fat in it.” - Dave Barry

02-16-09

Today I didn't carry my camera around, and missed a gorgeous sunset.

So a walk down memory lane instead.

Anastasia's collage from her baby dedication was what started my scrapbooking hobby. I attended a parks & rec class on photo mounting that turned out to be a Creative Memories pitch. I thought I was going to just do my collage and be done. Right.

I would do these projects so differently if I sat down to do them today. Just like my old albums. But I like having the record of how it all started, and I like watching my skill evolve through my albums. And deckle scissors even came back in for a little while, right?!?

02-15-09

Yesterday three of us were dressed up for Valentine festivities, and I took no people photos! A day late, but I asked the clan if we could pose for a group shot. I think we need more practice; surely we can get a better photo than this!

I was disappointed that our clock was in the photo, but Bruce pointed out that it is worthy memorabilia. Each hour a different bird sounds. When we have friends over it is hilarious to watch them react to the noise.

Right after this they headed out the door for at trip to Grandma & Grandpas. Which has left me an afternoon and evening of reading, scrapbooking, and uninterrupted chores.

“No evil photos of doom!” – Xander, who didn’t want to pose

02-14-09

Happy Valentines Day!

We had a lot of fun today, but not much of it got captured on film. If only carrying the camera around count for something!

This is Bruce's gift from me, a hand picked pound of chocolate. Most of them are Apple Pie Truffles, of all the crazy flavors to like! I got a gold heart necklace. It started out as silver; Bruce forgot that rich and spicy autumns aren't supposed to wear silver. But a quick exchange solved that. I'm not high maintenance or anything.

02-13-09

The trouble with being the photographer is that I don’t get in the photos. But at least I remembered to a take a photo this time!

We had a ladies night at the local pottery and glass studio tonight. It has been months since most of us have been there; it felt good to be creative again.

Lorraine’s chicken on the bottom of her soup bowl reminds me of eating split pea soup at Split Pea Soup Anderson’s when I was a kid. If you ate all the soup, Happea and Pea-Wee were at the bottom of the bowl to greet you.

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the enjoyment of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort” - Franklin D. Roosevelt

02-12-09

Hmmm, for all the jump roping he’s been doing at school, I thought maybe he’d be better at this. I guess maybe he takes after his uncoordinated mom. Or, maybe his sister’s rope is just a wee bit too long. Either way, he entertained me for a few minutes before heading back to his quest on the computer.

“I don’t care which one you use, I look stupid in all of them.” - Xander

02-11-09

“It's true that it doesn't make sense straight off the bat that someone would shop for a Valentine's Day gift at Home Depot. But we do see a high volume of traffic just before the holiday.” - John Simley

So what are you getting your Valentine this year? What are memorable gifts from past Valentine's days?

When Bruce and I were dating we had a heart shaped pizza for dinner, that was memorable. As was the recent year when Bruce greeted me after work in a pirate costume and took me to Burgerville. You can imagine the stares we got. I don't remember the gifts, I remember the experiences. And that sums up Bruce!

Anastasia was telling me the other day that she enjoys the unique Valentines Day gifts they get, and was remembering the wax lips from last year. Xander wrote his class Valentines this year, I think this is the last year we'll see those flimsy little cards, which is kind of sad but kind of a relief.

02-10-09

Yay Anastasia!

Today we all got up early and trudged (in the snow!) to the quarterly award ceremony at the middle school. I wondered why kids would come to school so early for hits, then I saw the big cinnamon rolls.

Anastasia got called up three times and won the all-star award for her grade this quarter.

We're all proud.

02-09-09

Us girls got back on wii fit today after a long hiatus.

I had missed 36 days, have gained two pounds, and was told that I am now overweight. There's some motivation to get back in gear! No wonder my recent photos look like I have multiple chins!

Anastasia has missed 166 days, has gained almost 16 pounds, and has moved up to the middle of the "normal" bar. Finally, some meat on her bones!

Two weight gains, two different perspectives.

“We do not see the lens through which we look.”
Ruth Benedict

02-08-09

I enjoy the author Sarah Ban Breathnach. I have sworn off most self help books in favor of fiction, but her simple abundance series is a mixture of meditation, how-to-manual, and memoir. So at work, when the lunchroom is empty, I read a few pages of her book Moving On: Creating Your House of Belonging with Simple Abundance.

And an early exercise is to walk around your house and photograph the mess. Not to beat yourself up with it, but to get the "before" version captured. So I did that tonight. I photographed:
- My necklace holder that is so crowded that it takes 5 minutes to untangle to the necklace I want to wear.
- The small drawers of my dresser, that are brimming with spare buttons, rarely worn slips, unwanted swimsuits, etc.
- The top of Bruce's bookcase that holds my pile of books available for trade on Bookins.
- The family file cabinet that has a few labeled folders, but really no rhyme or reason as to which "important papers" go where.
- My closet with hanging slacks and shirts that is in dire need of another purging, and maybe some directed additions instead of just skimming what's cheap off the clearance racks.

And the photo I thought most worthy of making the blog, my scrapbook room that is overtaken by Sunday School supplies, other papers I can't part with, too many undone scrapbook projects to manage, and my personal favorite, the red and blue glass vases (middle top of photo) that I could not live without at Ikea even though I still have no idea what to use them for!

Will I tackle any of these unorganized areas of my house? We'll see if Sarah motivates me, but it's not in my plans right now. Except the necklaces, I'm ready to weed out some of those.

“If I had a dollar for every self-help book that was sent my way, I could have probably paid for this studio,”
Oprah Winfrey

02-07-09

What would you do with a free day?

Just as we were heading out the door for our long drive north, Grampa called to say that Grama was under the weather. So a day suddenly stretched before us. The kids planned a trip to the movies and sleep overs, Bruce stuck with his pinochle plans, and I decided to bake and scrapbook. I made banana bread, banana-butterscotch cake, and egg salad.

I also practiced and contemplated my "relinquish" word today:
- Made each recipe with a missing ingredient. No nuts for the bread, no chocolate chips for the cake so it became butterscotch, and no celery in the egg salad. Life goes on, one trip to the store is enough.
- I went to bed for awhile when an afternoon headache hit.
- At Starbucks my cup sleeve said YOUR NEXT ACTION ITEM: DO AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. Amen. And today was about what I wanted to do, I've already scurried to get my weekly to do's under control.
- While scrapbooking, my Sisterchicks audio book stated "Relinquishment is a beautiful thing."

02-06-09

Did you know that today is National Wear Red Day?

Heart disease is not a cause that is very near and dear to my heart (punny!) compared to diabetes and cancer, but how hard is it to pull red from the closet?

So here we are.

Today I also started fundraising on Xander's behalf for his last year of Jump Rope for Heart. Another heart disease awareness opportunity.

“Our costliest health care problems -- in both economic and human measures -- are related to chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes. "
Gregg Lehman

02-05-09

This week I finished up our 2008 family scrapbook. I used the blog theme and had two layouts per month. 23 photos per month captured, one jumbo, 16 in miniature. Not every photo made the blog, but most of the photos were taken because of the blog. A fun year in review. And another scrapbooking goal complete. Now on to our Mt Rushmore trip...

“A blog is an ideal way of doing a brain dump on a daily basis of what is going on right now.” - David Adams

02-04-09

When I got home from work today, Bruce told me "Alexander's in the shower". Yeah, like I couldn't tell by the trail of boy mess down the hall.

“One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one”- Charles Dudley Warner

02-03-09

Reviewing month 1 of our new budget/spending tracking system. It was a good month, but January brought an extra paycheck with how the bi-weekly dates fell, and that always adds to a false sense of "doing good".

According to Real Simple magazine, monthly grocery bills for families add up to:

$250 or less for 12%

$251-$500 for 39%

$501-$750 for 33%

$751-$1000 for 12%

Over $1000 for 4%

My first reaction was that $1,000 is sure a lot.

Our January spending on groceries was $489. Seems good, until you expand to our total Food category (including dining out, school lunches, coffee, and going out to dessert). Our monthly spending jumped to $1,041. 7% under budget, but still a lot.

“Food is an important part of a balanced diet.” Fran Lebowitz

02-02-09

I liked Marie's recent postings of books she has on hand to read. I don't have very many of them, but I am drawn to the covers with the modern "cartoon" beautiful gals. Chic lit, I guess. Usually the cover is more captivating than the book synopsis, so that is why I could only find three in my current collection.

By the numbers:
Books purchased/sent from bookins in January: 4. I was surprised, I expected it to be higher.
Number of books to read in my pile: 82, not counting audio books
Willow tree statues in my life: 32, 20 on the fireplace (since Kitsel asked!)

“It does not matter how many books you have, but how good the books are which you have” - Seneca

02-01-09

One of my favorite parts of couples retreat weekend is when we take communion. We worship in the beach front room, facing the ocean. For communion we take turns serving our spouse the elements and pausing to view the ocean. It is so easy to lose sight of how unique this scene is; both the breathtaking ocean and the significance of remembering the last supper. It's good to pause and soak it in.

“There is no more lovely, friendly, and charming relationship, communion, or company than a good marriage.”
Martin Luther