Under the Weather

Me for the past week. And now the boys. Please excuse the radio silence as we work our way out of this nasty mess!

A moment

Someday, he will be big enough to run around unsupervised with the big kids. For now, he watches from the windo, patiently waiting for his turn.

A Moment

I don't have a picture of this moment, I couldn't have captured it even if I tried.  Steve, Griffin and I walked out of his school, after our parent-teacher interview.  Griffin had just finished blowing us away by his intellect, and his intuitiveness, and his vocabulary, and his holy-shit-has-this-kid-ever-grown-up-ness.  He gave us a tour of his school.  All 8 rooms of it, spread over three floors.  We walked out into a perfect early winter day.  It was chilly, but the sun was shining, and there was the smell of a freshly-stoked wood burning fireplace, coming from a home close by.

And I spun around, and thought "Wow."

Wow.  This is our life now.  It's SO different than any life that we've either lived before, but we are so in the right place for us. I feel so lucky, so fortunate to be right here, right now.  I feel like I might have had to cash in a lifetime full of karma, in order to pay for this place. 

There is not a lot of money in the bank these days, but we are still so rich. 

I might stop gushing about the perfection of this place some day, but I kind of hope not.  I kind of hope that we never take this place for granted, and never stop noticing it's beauty, and it's richness, and never stop being thankful for this place and the people in it.

And what I'm realizing now, is that where we are right now wouldn't be right for everyone.  But it's right for us, right now. 

We had a family motto for years - "Make it Happen." You want something in your life?  Stop talking about it.  Make it Happen.

And we did.  We made stuff happen, left right and centre.

And now, we've decided that we're all done making things happen for now.  Big things anyway.  We're tired, and we need a bit of time to chill, and enjoy it all, and figure out our place in it all.

We're a couple of wanna-be hippies (me, more so than Steve) with a six year old kid (with Aspergers,) and a nearly three year old tornado-on-feet.  We live in a barn, that is older than everyone in this house put together (including the dog.) We live next to a river, in a valley, in the coolest place on earth (that I've ever seen.) We like to watch big movies, and make soap, and eat good food. We love being happy.

That's pretty much the basics.  Us in a nutshell.

So now, new family moto, since we've spent the past 8 years making all that happen? 

Own it.

Wanna be a semi-hippie, who lives on the river and makes soap?

Fine.  Own it.  

Don't mind if I do!

xox

Some Kinda Heaven

My favorite mason jar. My new fingerless glove wrapped around it, inspiration for a knitting project. My favorite tea. Life is sweet.

Busy Beaver

I is one. T'is the season! (And I love it!)

Pit Stop

A run around town, get it all done kind of day. Rice crispy squares were in order.

Sunday Morning

The whole family snuggles in the big bed. Giggles, and cuddles and kisses galore. Heaven on a Sunday morning.

Breathe

I was late for work today, but I really wanted to stop and see the water.  So I did it anyway.  Got out of the car.  Took a picture, and a few very deep breaths of lake fresh air.  And then got back in my car and proceeded to rock the day.

********

"Hey Jansen," you might be saying, "whassup with the short little posts with pictures."  Well, reader, I'm glad you asked.  I'm hanging out with the Habit ladies this month.  And by hanging out, I mean creeping their sites and doing what they do. 

From Habit: Habit is a place to capture and celebrate the bits of our daily lives. it is our intention to make this capturing and celebration a habit, so we will be here regularly.  We'll be inviting friends to join us here. and in some small way, we are hoping to capture the collective life of a community of women who are artists and writers, photographers and bloggers, mothers and sisters and daughters and granddaughters, and thinkers and seers and wonderers. We believe that there will be something extraordinary about holding these pieces of life together in one place.

I really wanted to do NaBloPoMo this month, but just couldn't commit.  So this is a medium ground.  Posting every day, just a little bit, and with a photo if I can.  

Goals.  I has them.

No comment

It would appear, that my blog hated a bunch of you for a little while there, and wasn't letting you comment.  It would appear that the days of hate are over - I think I've fixed the little glitch, so comment away, mes amis!

(Bloggers love comments...they're like crack to us.  So go DO IT!)

November 7th

I sat here this afternoon in the bright 2pm sun; drank tea, cursed the dog for covering the windows in greasy nose prints, and thought about my Dad, who has been gone for 7 years today.

Growing up Brothers

My kids are dressed up as the Kratt brothers.  Griffin with his backpack, and Corbie with a little bag that used to hold binoculars.  Griffin has packed his bag with play dishes, food, (real) binoculars, and hot chocolate.  Corben packed his bag too, with one thing - pizza.

These are my children, in a nutshell.

Griffin? Prepared for any eventuality.

Corben?  Mostly just hungry.

They are headed to the North Pole, to look for Polar Bears. 

My children recently have begun to play with each other, instead of just being a pain in the ass to each other.  (Griffin being very sensitive, and Corben being an impish little monkey, who likes to push Griffin's buttons, and knows exactly where they are.)

But they're having fun together, and hanging out together. (Corben has maybe, just maybe, stopped destroying everything in his path?)

It's so lovely to see.

And even as I type this, it's decending into a right before bedtime disaster.  But usually it would have gone here an hour ago.

Now tears, gotta go.

But you get the picture...this is nice!

We woke up in a Christmas Card