Thursday, August 23, 2012

A New Beginning....


Today was the first day of school, so naturally I became very reflective all day long.  I kept walking passed my boys' room - beds dutifully made, floor free of scattered legos, and house a bit too quiet.  I moped around all day and counted down the hours until their return.  Somehow, I'm a bit resentful that Mrs. So-and-so gets just as many waking hours of their time as I do.  That just feels wrong to me.  But, at the same time, I'm not quite woman enough to homeschool my kids.  I wish there were a half-day option where they go to school for say four or five hours to learn the basic reading, writing, and math and get some socializing with their peers.  And then I provide all the enrichment activities like music, art, sports, etc.  I think it'd be a better overall use of my kids' time.

So...within all the "reflecting" I was doing, I decided, like so many other parents out there, that the kids are simply growing up too fast!  Time is flying by and I feel like I'm not savoring this precious stage enough.  I'm not documenting, journaling, keepsaking, etc enough.  Hence, I'm making a renewed commitment to spend more time recording these precious moments as best as I can (which means the dishes just might not get done sometimes!).  And I've decided that blogging is the best medium for me to utilize because of its flexibility and wide range of media resources.

I used to regard blogging as somewhat superficial and superfluous - really just something that took needless time AWAY from my family.  Now that I have a more focused purpose I can justify the precious time it will take to do a good job.  My goal is to be true to life and courageously honest in presenting what life is really like at this stage of our family without regard to who may be reading it other than my family and our posterity.  Plus, I'd like to become a better writer.

So, here's to a new beginning...

Monday, August 10, 2009

The day of the first vintage hand-me-down



Today, No.3 wore a dress to church that used to be one of my dresses when I was little. I would love to find some pictures of me in it, but haven't been able to find any yet. The dress was so cute on her! I didn't realize until now that the dress was handmade - I need to find out who made it. Quite possibly one of my aunts made it for me thirty-something years ago.

FYI - No.3 had just woken up from her nap in this picture. It's apparent that she wasn't really in the mood for a photo shoot.

Garden Update Week #7 - The day of the first harvest!


We came home from vacation to seven beautiful burpless cucumbers! Look at these beauties, and they taste great! We've been enjoying them - the kids like them peeled, sliced and sprinkled with a little salt. Dad and I like them thinly sliced and marinated. Here's a great marinade recipe that I got from my Aunt Rose:


1/4 c. Rice Vinegar

1/4 c. Sugar

1/4 tsp. Course Salt

1/8 tsp. Fresh Ground Pepper (I added this part)

1 to 2 tsp. Fresh Ground Ginger (I like to go heavy on the ginger)


One hint* - you do have to slice the cucumbers pretty thin to really get enough taste. I use a V-slicer on its thinnest setting. Yum!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

The day of the first house painting project...

Dad decided that he didn't want to pay the $1,200 quoted price to have the trim on our house professionally painted. So, as resourceful as he is, he borrowed a hugemongous laddar, bought one $25 (after rebate) gallon of paint, and went to work. It's only taken a few weeks, but I'm proud of him for being just about done. Although, I must say I worried a little about him falling...


The house looks great, so now we want to change out the shutters too (its never ending...). I'll post the completed project once our shudders come in and get hung (we had to special order the right size).

P.S. Before you think we're cool for saving the money, we ended up spending the saved money on Living Scriptures DVDs from some BYU students that came to our door last week. *Sigh*

Garden Update Week #5 - baby veggies!


We have little baby veggies - cucumbers, peppers, and even the tomatoes have decided to do something (I was getting a little worried because they didn't seem to be growing much).






My favorite, though, are the darling little tendrils that stick out like bad hair or cling for dear life to the trellises. Isn't nature fascinating...


Monday, June 29, 2009

The day of the first fish babysitting job...



Toby, our friend's beta fish, has come to stay with us for a week. The kids don't have any pets, so they are pretty excited. I just hope we don't kill it.