Caring for my mother-in-law the last four months has been hard, but I’ve been so grateful to have my little family during all of it. We’ve leaned on each other and grown together. When I told the kids that their Grandma Glenna had passed away, I told them it was okay to feel sad. Ellen told me “I’m not sad; I’m happy.” When I asked why, she said, “Because she’s with Jesus and she’s going to be alive again.” I’m so grateful…
I have a feeling last Friday morning is going to go into my Worst Parenting Moments Hall of Fame. It all started when I went to drop the kids off at the rec center daycare so I could swim some laps. Ellen was in a mood and didn’t want to wear the shirts they make all the kids wear. I finally convinced her to just hold the shirt which seemed like a fine compromise to me, but wasn’t found acceptable…
Update: the original video was removed from YouTube, but someone posted a better one on Vimeo. Here it is. Update again: the Vimeo one is gone now too. But Daily Motion has it. “Everything is amazing and nobody is happy” by Meowbay So true. I see myself being like that too. I get all irritated with the dishwasher when something won’t fit in there or a bowl has a few specks of food remaining after the cycle. Somehow I forgot…
Being outdoorsy gets sort of complicated when you have kids. Long hikes tend to turn parents into pack animals, backpacking is impossible, and even car camping becomes increasingly difficult with all the paraphernalia kids seem to require. But, because we don’t want to take a 10-15 year hiatus from the things we love, we absolutely refuse to give up just because things get more difficult. With Noel’s sister, Danielle, in town this past weekend we decided it was the perfect…
I’ve spent a large portion of my life being a pedestrian, but have devoted surprisingly little thought to sidewalks. When we decided to rent this house we fell in love with the large yard and quiet neighborhood. It wasn’t until Cooper and I went on a couple of outings that we realized the area wasn’t especially pedestrian friendly. If you look at our neighborhood on Google maps, you realize that it is an island. There’s only one through street, and…
In spite of how hard it often is to wake up (especially since the arrival of the child), I love being awake in the morning. Everything has a certain crispness in the early hours, a freshness that assures me that all that was bad from the day before is being rolled away with the receding darkness. Smells and ideas are pleasant and distinct. Sometimes I feel as if I am the only person on earth awake, free to dream while…
Whenever I’m asked to close my eyes and go to my favorite place, I always find myself surrounded by hot, red sandstone. A breeze tickling my face as I completely relax, lizard-like, and absorb rejuvenating UV rays. It’s always a disappointment to come back to the reality of air conditioned buildings with few windows. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve still been known to use the A/C and I hate sweating when I’m wearing nice clothes, but in the early days…
At just after 11 o’clock tonight our neighbor called to inform us that “the lights are out”–the Northern Lights that is. It was really quite exciting. I’ve never really seen them before, except that one time in Vernal, but these were much better. They looked like a bunch of green hazy clouds resting on the horizon. With the Big Dipper overhead (the only constellation I can correctly identify), and the moon peeking out from behind some real clouds, it was…