March 24, 2008

"The divine is not something high above us.
It is in heaven, it is in earth, it is inside us..."
-- Morihei Ueshiba

Cleaning Kids

John's been recently posting at UB, asking for advice on how to handle the mess that will happen when living with children.

I thought it was SO fitting that I snapped a photo of Stone doing this the other day, on his own, didn't ask him once.


He was curious to see what he could find underneath all the couch cushions. He had a blast, exclaiming, "Wow! There's all kinds of interesting things under here!" So, he removed them from the couch, loveseat and chair, cleaned out all the big, fascinating gunk with his hands, then fetched the little yellow vac and sucked out the cracks. When he was done, and on to something more meaningful to him, I happily popped all the cushions back in place and put away the vacuum. I love that Boy! What a lucky mama, I am...

Egg Coloring

We colored eggs and hunted for them a couple times. Had dinner with Grandma last night, and did more egg hiding & seeking there.

Look at all that glorious sun! :) Makes me feel really bad for our chilly friends up north! :) I send you a sun-filled hug!

March 23, 2008

Sunny, Sunny Sun-Day

We're without our two big boys this morning. They spent the night with Grandma last night. It's always soooo very weird when any one of them are gone, and especially weird to have them both gone right now. Sage is lost, to say the least. But he did get lots of mama and papa attention all for himself last night. He's happy watching his cartoons at the moment.

John and I are seriously entertaining the thought of listing our house for sale, and buying something in the 'multi' family category. The economy is scaring the sh** out of me right now. And since our income relies on funding (road work!), eeeeeeeeek! Breathe, Breathe, Breathe, all is as it should Be, Trust, Trust, Trust...............

Well, minor panic attack over, and moving on! So, if we bought a duplex, then the renter helps to pay our mortgage. Frees us up to travel more, opens up doors of opportunity when less of our money is sunk into our mortgage. Enables us to pay down that blasted cc debt. It's something that the boys need to be excited about, too. They're such free-flowing spirits, they're usually ok with just about anything! They occasionally ask to sell the house and live in the bus again. I do know they love their home base as well, so the win/win would be to find a way to have both.

The biggest, most exciting news these days is that the boys and I are planning a big, fat road trip to attend the LIFE is Good Conference in May! We're so excited, and already counting down the 5o something days until we leave. We'll drive out from here. John will be back at work in the twin cities, so if we can find a cheap ticket for him, he'll fly out and join us for the Memorial Day weekend. We are, of course, reserving the right to hang out in Oregon for as long as we wish, or until we're tired of sleeping on their floor.

On the ticket for today:
1. egg dying in our back yard, in the southern sun, warm and wonderful
2. a bike ride, in the sun, warm and wonderful (with Grandma, too!)

~~~~~~~~~~Peace, Love, Free~~~~~~~~~~

*oh, and speaking of which,
SHE will be at Life is Good, too!
Life ***IS*** Good, truly...

March 17, 2008

Monday

The sleep-over was great fun, but we all were dragging our sleepy butts around yesterday. We made up for it, today, though, sleeping in until 9:00. Ahhhhh......:)

It's a beautiful sunny day here; that's one thing I love about living here. The sun shines almost ALL THE TIME. Lovely.

We made a quick stop at the dollar store yesterday on our way to the gym. I thought if they each had something novel to play with, they'd be more willing to hang out in the "kid's room" while I did a bit of sweating. They did great, and now Stone really needs to go back to the dollar store today so he can get a snake (Sage got one yesterday); so he and his brother can play snake games. They play together all day long. It's so fun to watch.

Saylor's outside shoveling snow right now; we got a couple inches yesterday, and now it's pouring off of the garage roof, our own mini waterfall just outside my kitchen window. That's the other thing I love about living here; peaceful, wintry snow fall one day; sunshine, melting snow and 50 degrees the next. I'm just one of those kinds of people that loves the variety. Probably explains my need for constant furniture re-arrangement, too.

Enjoy the day!

March 15, 2008

The Goings-On 'Round Here

Truly, I'm too tired to do this now, but I can't keep using that excuse. The boys are happily engaged with Robert, who's spending the night, so here I have a few moments of un-interrupted time. It seems that I can only keep up with my e-mail on a daily basis, and after that, I'm ready to get OFF the computer; so I haven't even been reading all of *your* blogs. ....sigh.... Hope you are all as crazy and happy as we are! :)

Ok, things are good. Stone lost a tooth a long time ago, and the other one is coming in already. We've done some dirt biking lately when the weather heats up enough to ride without frostbite. I attended a birth a couple of weeks ago; an exhausting 17 hours in the hospital, but now have more great friends in my circle. Always a good thing. I'm looking forward to attending two upcoming births, one in April and on in May--both friends, so it's an extra-extra special treat!

John's leaving for Minneapolis tomorrow for a Monday meeting/training and will hang out until the union meeting Wednesday night, so he'll be gone most of the week. The boys and I will likely spend time with friends while he's gone.

A few of us have started a breastfeeding support group for our community, and we'll have our second meeting this week. Our sleepy little town of 65,000 doesn't have a LLL anymore, so we had to do something!

John, Saylor and Stone are planning a 2 day kayak trip down Rapid Creek. Then, they want to try a 4 day trip. They're busy preparing and having a good time just doing that! They'll take the official trip some time in April, after some of the ice has melted.

We're eagerly anticipating a visit from our California-turned-Colorado friends early April. Sure to be a wonderful weekend. It's been too long, and I so look forward to having that wonderful energy around us again.

Saylor and Stone are both having a grand time playing WoW. We're all sharing an account right now, and it goes pretty smoothly *most* of the time. Saylor's been Skyping with friends a great deal, he loves his friends! We need to figure out what we need to do so that he can play WoW *and* Skype at the same darn time. Maybe just a little memory boost on the lap-top? Have to figure that out, fur sure!

John and I are reading _A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose_ by Eckhart Tolle. Tis a very, very good, enlightening book. We're also doing the on-line free class that he and Oprah are offering. I do love that Oprah! (until she tells women everywhere to "get the epidural", that is! ;)

Life is crazy, wonderful, brilliant. A Gift.

Hope you are enjoying yours...