daydream weekend

not counting losing one hour of sleep,
jake's back hurting today,
a late evening with julia,
and too much time in the bathroom with ben -

this was a weekend like i use to daydream about.

not perfect, but pretty darn close.
at home with my husband and our kids,
eating pancakes saturday morning (jake makes the best!),
doing some household chores,
grocery shopping and running a couple of errands,
saturday night mass (ben was so well behaved!),
homemade pizza saturday evening (once again - jake makes the best!),
an online visit with grandma and grandpa,
staying up late watching tv with jake,
sleeping in sunday morning,
eating leftover pancakes,
laundry and cleaning,
listening to some john prine pandora,
cooking a sunday evening dinner - including brownies for dessert,
playing chutes and ladders,
dancing with ben,
cleaning up the kitchen,
and listening to the quiet sounds of our little family in our little home.
simply beautiful to me.

hope your weekend was just as lovely.

warm days

it's sure been warm here lately!
in fact, our quince are blooming and our daffodils are shooting up.
and even though it's also been windy,
we've been trying to get outside as much as possible for some much needed fresh air.

 

when we're not outside ben has been spending lots of time tracing shapes and letters in this dry erase book he got for his birthday from my aunt and uncle. 

it's pretty amazing to watch him learn these days.

he is really interested in reading and writing - 

and he sure makes his mom and dad proud.

we were also proud parents when we took ben to visit a preschool tuesday morning.

we are considering starting him this coming fall - just two days a week.

he was initially worried that we were going to leave him there that day, 

but after watching the other kids and meeting the teachers, 

he was soon standing in line for the pledge of allegiance and sitting on the mat to listen to the teacher.

once we were home he started pouting.

i asked him what was wrong and he told me he was sad because he wanted to stay and play at preschool.

being three can sure be hard.

for all of us.  :)

so glad tomorrow is thursday - i think it's my favorite day of the week.

 

a car window & a paper flower bouquet

today definitely felt like a monday
a little rushed, disorganized, hurried, and blah - all at the same time.
but today did also have a couple of really good moments.

this first good moment happened when the kids and i hopped in the car to head to the post office.
but first i have to back-up to sunday afternoon when jake and ben cleaned out the car
(very thoughtful i might add).
they finished cleaning and found that the front passenger side window would not go back up.
bummer - seems like there's always something happening to our "well-loved-almost-vintage" vehicles.
but thanks to my diy husband a how-to video of replacing the window part was found,
and he was going to order the part from our local oreilly's today.
so now we're back to the trip to the post office.
just for fun i thought i would try roll up the window while we were driving -
maybe it would work.
no luck.
oh well, i thought.
and then we were stopped at a light, and i looked down and noticed the child safety lock was on.
i flipped the button to off and UP went the window.
UP. DOWN. UP. DOWN.
i quickly called jake with the good news.

the other highlight of today was mailing a birthday present to my friend nikki.
my friend mandy and i were planning on sending a gift together,
but weren't too excited about any of the ideas we came up with so i decided to make something.
i've been wanting to make rolled paper flowers for awhile now.

i used this tutorial for a guide and really enjoyed making a such a special gift.
and i can't wait to make some more!
(please excuse the so-so photos - took the inside late last night)

 

 

lately...

i've really been consumed with thoughts of my friend nikki lately.
it's amazing how much i find myself thinking about our friendship -
and it seems like such a long time ago that we were kids.
i have so many memories of us during grade school and junior high.
she moved away in high school, but we stayed in touch and then ended up being roommates our first year of college. (living in a dorm room the size of the closest can always bring out the "best" in people so our second year we went our own ways.)
but then lived together again our third and fourth years of college with another dear friend, mandy.

somewhere along the way we both found our own ways,
and i must confess my path didn't go the way i had planned.
i wasn't the friend i should have been - on many occassions.
but despite the bumps along the way... nikki was always there and willing to be my friend.

age, distance, husbands, kids, moves, jobs, and busy calendars have definitely minimized our time to stay connected over the years.
but really i find my friendship with nikki isn't necessarily about what our relationship is today,
but the time we spent together years ago, the kids we used to be and our dreaming about the future.
that's all part of who we are today.

so i now find myself anxiously awaiting any update, thinking about how her life is changed, thinking about her family, thinking about her new baby girl, and just thinking about my friend -
the girl, the woman, the wife, the mother, the daughter.
i would love to "do" something more - but right now i fell like the only thing i can do is pray,
and look forward to visiting her again soon.

a new year

i like to think of my birthday (it was yesterday) as a good time to make goals and resolutions -
you know, just like you do on january 1.
and my birthday seems to be well timed to do this -
just enough time has gone by since january 1 that i may have "slipped" a bit from those new year's goals.

this year i hope to work on simplifying, focusing and being more intentional.
(of course i'd also like to exercise more, cook more from scratch, be more crafty/artsy, do more projects with ben, sew more, garden more, etc.)
but i also know that i have a husband, two small children and a home... 
those (very important) things take most of my time - which i love.

so for now i will focus on a couple of words that seem to be running through my mind quite often...

SIMPLE & SINCERE

 my mom sent me this gorgeous flower yesterday.

orange is my favorite color and i love gerbera daisies.

it is beautiful ~ thanks mom!

three months

this little girl is growing way too fast...

we love you julia!

and you love smiling, talking, watching your big brother and napping.

(you also love your fingers - especially your thumb!)

we are so blessed to have such a sweet baby girl.

a saturday evening post

what a week it's been.
as usually the days have often seemed long, but have quickly passed by.
monday started with a trip to the doctor - bronchitis was the diagnosis for ben.
tuesday jake traveled out-of-town for meetings.
wednesday jake was still gone, a friend dropped by with a beautiful quilt for julia, ben had fiddle class and we had a couple of friends over after dinner.
thursday jake returned before dinner, ben had story time at the library and we had lunch and play time at a friend's house.
friday was spent looking forward to the weekend and making a visit to jake's office and the wildlife and parks museum.
saturday has been spent trying to get the laundry under control and doing some cleaning. jake and i also had a nice takeout dinner at home while the kids spent the evening with some family friends.

and now, everyone is sleeping but me.
so here are a few pictures...

 hate seeing this little guy not feeling well - 

but at least he was able to rest after he got his medicines.

and with ben resting i couldn't resist a few pictures of julia.

 with the heat wave mid-week, 

we made it out for some much needed fresh air.

 ben called this his first picnic of the year.

 why the lovely pole and wires you ask -

because there are two planes of course.

very important to a certain three year old.

 this is the lovely quilt made for julia.

 did i mention we play a lot of uno around here???

 

visiting the museum out at dad's office.

hope you are having a nice weekend too.