Balancing Bliss

2 weeks of us.....

that is how February feels every year. first there is valentines day, then tax $, and then both of our birthdays. between friends and family stopping by with cards and gifts, gifts for each other, dinners out, cupcakes, flowers, chocolates, oh my it just turns out to be all about us. lucky we have that i guess. it helps 1.) that it falls at tax $ time and 2.) there are two of us! by the feb. 25th or so i am ready to shut the party down....

i am so excited about what my dad got me this year....i of course picked it out and said "this would be a great bday present" because let's get real he would never just pick this out;

 

i already bought the stripper. now just some white paint and glass knobs. if it were only that easy. it will be quite the project i'm sure. the drawers are lined with velvet and open smoothly. i just love it madly. it will be the home of crayons, art supplies and homework. possibly the top will house my scrapbooks. can't wait to see the final project.

on our birthday we wanted to get away. i don't need a week or even a night but just a day away. so we headed up the mountain to where we first fell in love on a camping trip and where we later married just 4mo later. this time i decided i would share a place with brian that he had yet to visit. the 'real' hot springs. the natural as in all natural , hike into, no clothes, hippie goodness. after all it was just us and what kept us from going before were the kids. so after the drive and then another 20min up the windy road there we found 10 cars in the parking lot! are you kidding me?! it was monday and around noon. huge let down. luckily i packed suits just in case ( and because i don't think brian could have gone through with it!) so we drove up to where we were married at the resort style hot springs. we had to pay $15 to soak for an hour but it was a huge pool and we shared it with 4 senior citizens. it was a lovely day. we came home refreshed. ready to face another year.

glimpses of happy busy us.....

the sun is shining and things are looking much brighter here.

last weekend we went geocaching at mcdowell creek falls. it's lush green there and the sun peering through the mossy trees made it even more mystical. i did not take the camera on the hike due to slick muddy trails and two pups pulling on leashes with 3 children in the mix. i just love my camera too much. wink.

 

i guess i should explain geocaching a bit. our friend joe turned us on to it. there is a website that has clues to treasure hunts and you use your gps to go find them. that is why i got brian a gps for CHRISTmas...it just sounded very him. brian enjoys it as does his dad so it gave them something to do together. when you find the 'treasure', you put something in it if you take something and sign a book saying you have been there.

 

sunshine, trees, the drive = peace of mind

so does seeing this;

my sister jenny is coming into the final weeks of pregnancy. i think she has 6wks left. can't wait to meet this little person. (jen- scroll over the pic and see what i named it...hope you name this child fast before this name sticks)

she is such a good aunt to my kids. like letting them make personal pizzas when they go to visit. cutting up a tomatoe for a smile face even though you know luci is going to take it off before she eats it!

 

our biggest project yet and i am just so proud of brian and i both. we have worked so hard this week.

before;

 

after;

it just opens the place up! the hippie chick i am i never thought i would be the one to go chopping trees down but we have 10 more trees on our property and oh so many plants.

we dropped them, cut them up, split wood for next winter, and hauled the brush away. two boys and guess who was more help than anyone? this little brute;

 

her head is looking much better these days. not much of a scar even. eli blu takes after his momma;

 

gaven? he chose not to participate. so i made him clean his room and floss his teeth. he found this to be a good trade. he also got out of this weeks yard project by going fishing with my dad. HE CAUGHT HIS FIRST STEELHEAD! 

 

while we;

 

cut and hauled brush from the trees. we WORKED this week. easy to do when you are soaking up the sunshine and fruits of your labor, like these that i put into the hard fall ground;

we went to some local nurseries yesterday. not with the intent on buying, i'm quite aware that this is a false spring in feb. but we are dreaming our little dream.

then my dad asks if i read this yet;

 

why yes dad...while raising a family, cooking dinners, and logging i found time to sit down read the grapes of wrath. sigh.

my kids (along with the classmates) did something that was in the weekend paper;

 

they sent bears to children in haiti.

and just for pure cuteness;

 

do you think they are loved?

i felt the love this week too. no one picks out cards that are fitting like grandmas.

 

thank you gram and gramps. brian just loves the flashlight tripod you got for him and i can't wait to shop the sale at joannes this week with my gift card. thank you.

then came along my friend Heather with this for me;

 

it reads "good friends hang together" and oh how we have. years worth of friendship....boyfriends, apartments, stuff i can't write on here, hee hee, marriages, babies, now kids, past, present and future. true friendship. thank you for the visit it was perfect timing.

hope this made up for my lack of blogging. we are off to a hot spring adventure tomorrow for our birthday. more wilderness should just set my soul free. well that and the cupcake i plan on having for breakfast!

one in the same....

luci has had a hard week and i'm right there beside her.

her head looks better than it did, she took quite a fall on the sidewalk while we were in portland. it didn't help that her hands were in her pockets. she hit so hard it ripped through both knees and we think she bounced and hit again because there are two bumps on her head. the picture is from injury #2 though. she wanted to play ball with her big brother. gaven went to kick the ball....(do you see where this is going?) and his shoe came off and hit her in the face! that is mud all over her new shirt just for valentines day, she is covering up the shoe print that was on her face, and there was blood coming from her nose AND her split lip. 

i may not have been hit in the face with a shoe or pavement but i am feeling like it these days. maybe it's the lack of sunshine. or the lack of medication. or PMS. or that having PMS means we aren't pregnant. AGAIN. or that my 34th birthday is fast approaching and i feel old. i know i know....34 is not old but it feels like it if you have been trying to have a baby for a year and in another year you are entering dangerous genetic territory. and your husband will be approaching 40.

so no....it's not a shoe or pavement, but it is my 'own pavement' of sorts. luci is very over the hitting of shoe but that doesn't stop her from crying over the most trivial of things. anything that goes wrong makes her knees hurt. i see her struggles and know that it's not the knee that hurts; just as Heavenly Father watches over me and shakes his head because he can see beyond what i can. 

in the next day or two i plan on gathering up some of my raw emotions and make some big decisions. now is not the time to do so. then i will glance around at all my blessings and open my heart to it's greatness. today i am going to stay in my yoga pants and do laundry. no plans of doing much more because the kids are home from school. the highlight will be feeding the rest of the valentines candy to the kids and see what kind of outrageous show they put on. yesterday they rapped (tried to because we don't really listen to rap here) the yellow submarine after they consumed;

need sunshine therapy.....

i can really tell the difference in my mood when the sunshine is out. thought the sky would clear already today but not yet. keeping up with the daily work of having 3 kids, 2 pups, and 3 cats but not much more than that. as you can see from the absence of my blog i just don't have a creative spark in me. creativity keeps me thriving and alive but it just isn't here right now. hoping the sunshine we have been promised this week will change that. until then i am going to admire what brian brought me home from maui...

simply amazing. my father in law (thank you bill) ...pointed them out to brian. i just adore them.  they are real butterflies that were raised on a butterfly farm. they were not killed but collected after their short life span. the back sides are totally different and gorgeous. love them. they make me VERY happy, gray skies or not.