Looking Beyond The Obvious

I am associated with quite a few individuals through church, pre-school, and community happenings that have gotten me to thinking about people in general and why they do what they do.  What I have discovered is that what you see in people's lives is rarely the whole story.  We can often get caught up in what we think is going on with people and miss what's going on in their lives. 

Just like a laptop looks simple from the outside, so do people.  On the outside the laptop is only a screen and keyboard, inside are circuits, receptors and all kinds of gizmos I don't understand.  When dealing with people their lives may appear simple but when we get to know them better we come to know the challenges they face, their struggles and what they've overcome to get where they are.  So the next time you find yourself wondering about someone, give them the benefit of the doubt, what you see is rarely the whole story.

Being The Mom-Happy Moments

Life as a mother is CRAZY.  Not too long ago I had four additional kids at my house for about three hours and it can feel overwhelming at times.  In my average day there are dirty diapers, dirty dishes, broken toys and constantly hungry children.  In life I have found it incredibly important to watch for those quiet, happy moments when all is well and there is nothing but love and peace.  When I can stop what I'm doing to hug a child or wipe away a tear or just listen to what they have to say.  In these moments I feel fulfilled as a mother and fing that all the craziness is worth it.

Thankfuls

When I was in college one year my roomate came home with a big roll of paper and covered the back of our front door; she told us it was our thankful wall.  We spent the next few weeks writting down things we were thankful for.  As friends an neighbors would come over they would also add to our wall.  It was a great excercise in counting our blessings and we saw it everytime we left the house.

 

This is our thankful wall this year.  My goal was to have each member of our family add one thing each day.  The kids drew pictures and I wrote.  We missed several days but it was a really good excercise for me to take time counting our blessings.  If you're wondering why Tylenol, Doctors, and Strong Bones are listed it's because my five-year-old broke his wrist about two weeks ago. I am so thankful it was not a bad break this time.

 

On the second day I asked my three-year-old what he was thankful for and he said, "ME."  I wasn't sure how to tell him that he wasn't allowed to be thankful for himself (we sure are thankful for him) so we put that he was thankful for his body and he drew a picture of himself (see lower right corner).  You will be happy to know that the first things on our list were sisters, friends and grandparents.  We have been so blessed to have so many amazing people in our lives and look forward to all the memories we will make with all of you in the years to come.  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Widfelts

Every so often you find special friends...

 the kind of friends that stick by you in all your adventures...

 whether you're just haning out...

 or off to save the day.

Our friends have moved to Canada.  We wish you well.

I hope you will have some great adventures in Canada. You will be missed.

Happy Halloween

We had so much fun getting ready for Halloween this year.  We have a costume closet and the boys are always dressing up with their friends and playing pretend.  This is the first time I asked the boys what they wanted to be for Halloween and we hunted for costumes.  If you don't recognize the little one he's Green Arrow a little known cartoon action figure.  

The funny thing is that they changed their minds about two or three times a day but when my almost three-year-old decided on this one it stuck.  He saw it on a movie and has really been into bows and arrows lately so we borrowed a bow and quiver from a friend and found him a hood.  We had a trunk or treat with our church friends where we had the kids come around to our cars in the church parking lot (so much faster and easier than door to door).  I call it the great candy exchange as we buy candy for other people's kids and they give our kids some.  On Halloween night we spent the evening at Uncle Sandy's making homemade donuts and rootbeer while the kids played and watched a movie.

Making It Work

We have a fair number of crows that live in our neighborhood and they are always finding ways to amaze and sometimes disgust us.  Lately there is a crow that has been cracking nuts on the road in front of our house.  He takes a nut, flies up about 15-20 feet and drops the nut over and over.  The first time I saw it I thought it was just a crazy bird until I figured out what it was doing.  We've watched it for a couple weeks now and that seems to be the preferred method of opening nuts, though my husband claims he's also seen crows leave nuts in the road and watch for someone to run them over.  He says they are really smart and has several really good crow stories.  Ask him about it sometime.

 

Anyway the lesson I learned from this crazy bird is that sometimes we just have to find a way to make things work; kids get sick, cars break down, dinner gets burned, people fall through.  My motto lately is "adapt" or "be flexible."  Stressing about the situation does nothing to change it so all you can do is choose a plan of action and make it work.  Most days will pass wether much gets done or not, what does matter on days like this is if you snaped at your kids or your friends and damaged relationships with unkind words.  I need to work on this one.  Here's to a week of trying a little harder to be patient when things don't go as planned.  Wish me luck.

Number 5

When you're little birthdays are a really big deal.  This year we had so much fun doing our not-so-little boy's favorite things. First, we opened presents...

then we took pictures with his camera.

 We made spiders to put on his cake...then we ate them. 

 We carved pumpkins, okay so maybe that was my favorite.

 We finnished the day by building legos and playing games.

Here's to another great year little one.  I'm so proud of the little man you're becoming.

The Team Player

Growing up I pretty much decided that I should never play team sports.  We used to play basketball in the driveway at home and there were always fouls left and right (partially because we were so bad at basketball that fouling was the only way to get the ball and partially becuase we didn't know the rules very well).  I had a very aggressive nature and soon realized that it was better if I stuck to sports where the competitors were seperated by a net.  I did make an exception and played intermural flag football in college with my roomates; we had so much fun but got called for unneccisary roughness many times. 

 

In high school I played tennis and after a year and a half playing doubles my coach figured out I did better on my own.  In college I played intermural tennis, dodgeball, volleyball and flag football.  In all the time I played it was all about having fun and I was never very competitive and I never played on a cohesive team, until now.

 

I started playing with a team at church three years ago.  This is my third year playing with these ladies and I love it.  Our season is only about 9 weeks long but I look forward to it every year.  I've learned so much about being part of a team and being in it together.  We have two more games until the season's over and I will be so sad.  Thanks ladies for turning me into a real team player!

Squirrel Season

One of the interesting things about this time of year is how busily the squirrels are working.  It is too funny to watch them running around the yard picking up nuts and leaves and carrying them off.  We were out in the yard a couple of weeks ago and I hadn't realized I'd left the front door hanging open.  Before long a squirrel ran through the flower bed in front of the house and ran into the open screen door.  He must have been disoriented because when he got up he walked into our living room.

 

He must not have known what to do as he went about ten feet into the house and just stopped.  In my head I'm thinking, this could go really bad.  I was remembering the time a wild cat got into the house when we were growing up and we spent about 15 minutes chasing it around watching it climb curtains and run into windows in an attempt to escape.  Everyone was outside and the back door was locked so there was no other way to get into the house so I slowly walked through the door.  I sent the kids away from the door and walked around the living room staying as far away from the squirrel as possible.  When I got in front of him and started towards him he ran outside and up the tree. 

 

 I haven't seen our little squirrel friends around lately so he is probably all ready for winter sleeping in some tree somewhere in our neighborhood.  The kids still talk about the day the squirrel came in our house.

All Tuckered Out

The other day I was working on my computer when my little one came over and laid down on the couch.  He soon fell asleep and after a while started to squirm trying to find a comfortable position and this was the one he chose.  I even tried to have him lay on my arm and hold his head in my hand but he pulled away.  After we took the picture I did lay him down was this just looked painful.  So next time you're lying in bed and can't seem to get comfortable try sitting up, it worked for this little man. :)

Compensating

I've fought with hip pain on and off for the past three years.  I've learned that I have to watch for the warning signs when I need to get a little help.  The soreness usually starts when I sit for too long or I stress the muscles.  My low back gets achy and that's a good indication I need to slow down.  A couple weeks ago I had done a bunch of physical work and I had a couple really sore days.  The first day I was stiff, the second day I was stiffer, by the third day the pain was tolerable and the fourth day the pain was almost gone.  I had already decided to go to the chiropractor so I went and I was really glad I did as there was an amazing amount of things that needed some adjusting.

 

So this is what I learned from this expereince; we are made for change, physically and mentally.  When something needs fixing, or is just off in our lives it doesn't take long before we start to compensate for that weak spot, in my case it only took four days from putting something out of place to barely remembering it happened.  So when you have an argument or make a mistake don't waste any time before setting it right.  If you let it go your mind will compensate until you've found a way to live with it.  The longer you let it go, the harder and more painful it is to fix it.  I learned this when I waited to go to the chiropractor several months after having my first child.  After my first visit I was so badly out of alignment that I hurt for three days.  It's always better to fix things as soon as possible.