Rosier goggles

I intended to blog yesterday. I was feeling down and a little overwhelmed, and not a little frustrated with myself. I was going to say something along the lines of "wanting to suck the juice out of life, but having a hard time getting through all the damn peel"
I didn't get around to it (*irony*), and I feel less like that today.

Maybe it's because my monster cold has eased up on me a little. Maybe it's because the sun is shining. Maybe it's because it's Friday, and it's hard to feel overwhelmed on Friday when nobody has to go to work/school for two whole days and I can suck up time with my loves. Maybe it's because Damien is done with basketball for the season. Maybe it's because Patrick rearranged the living room and cleaned out my car and mowed the lawn. Maybe it's because Emily got her science project done and turned in and got an A. Maybe it's because Cali didn't cry when I dropped her off at preschool.

Whatever the reason, I'm grateful for the opportunity to breathe (literally! Thank you su-phedrine) and enjoy life rather than feel burdened by it.

__________________________________

At breakfast this morning, Patrick and I are eating with Cali between us and she's counting out some change on the table.
5 pennies, 2 nickels, 1 dime.

Patrick is explaining the value of each and how the 5 pennies is the same as one nickel and the 2 nickels are the same as the one little dime.

p- "does that make sense?"

c- "kind of"

p- "it does! it makes 25 cents! Ha."

We smirk at each other, so clever.

Caliana furrows her little brow. "but there's only 8" She starts to count them.

"one, two, free, four"

Patrick interrupts. "not free. Money's never free. It's three, th th three."

Cali goes back to eating her breakfast. Patrick gets up. A few minutes later she looks at me and says

"THree, th, three"

Her little tongue sticking out, making the correct sound. We smile at each other.


No point or punchline. It's just another moment. Life. Family. Teaching. Breakfast. Joking. Smiling. It's the good stuff.

Things that have happened

but you wouldn't know because I haven't blogged for two months.

1. I actually turned 30, uneventfully, but I still got carded to buy a lighter the other day, win!

2. We had Thanksgiving the next day, which sucked. It was just us, I cooked, the kids drove me crazy, our oven stopped working, so our turkey was undercooked and inedible. But then we went to the movies after dinner and saw Tangled and the day was saved.

3. The day after THAT we went and cut our Christmas tree down, which was a splendid splendid day, with hay rides, baby goats, storytime with Mrs Clause, et al. Afterwards we went downtown for the city tree lighting which was laughable, but then I won a raffle and got a basket with hundreds of dollars of merchandise and gift cards, so yay me.

4. No, I'm not giving you a day by day of the past two months

5. I'm sure stuff happened in the first half of December, but I can't remember any of it

6. My new niece Jessa was born and she's perfect

7. Emily and I had our annual trip to the Nutcracker in San Francisco, where we cursed every red light through the city, because every time we stopped, the car would start overheating, and there was steam, and people were staring. We had a blast.

8. Christmas eve we went to church and then to my mom's where we had turkey and ham and visited and had a great time. And then Patrick and I stayed up allllll night putting ribbons and bows on presents, and painting and putting together Damien's skateboard ramp, and Caliana's kitchen and Emily's gymnastics bar.

9. Christmas, which was perfect. The kids were so happy and grateful and my mom came over and I made a really good dinner, which made up for Thanksgiving.

10. We threw a New Years party, with a whole crapload of sixth graders. It was crazy and fun and I'm forever traumatized by the thought that I have to raise at least 3 teenagers

11. My mom moved to Oregon :(

12. Emily started Level 5 in gymnastics, so we now go to the gym six, yes SIX days a week.

13. Damien started this season of basketball. They're 3 and 1.

14. I've taken approximately 50 pregnancy tests and been tortured by a period being 3 days late and more recently FIVE days late, thank you very much for THAT!

15. There's more, but now I'm distracted by thoughts of babies

I'll try not to stay gone so long, I know this is all thrilling and you all check back here every hour on the hour looking for my updates. Love ya's!