Focused

Little gifts

Our tree is bursting with little gifts.  Some of them are legit.  But most of them I have no idea about.


Every morning when we wake up, there are another dozen gifts under the tree from Joel. It's probably mostly random stuff he's been selecting to wrap in the wee hours, because I know he hasn't been to a store.  I bought a 30-bow bag and 50 name tags a couple of days ago, when I noticed that our wrapping supplies were being eaten in the night, and those were all gone again today.


I finally asked both boys yesterday to make lists of who to give gifts to and keep them safe from wandering eyes and to make sure that they don't forget anyone.  Then I took them to the dollar store armed each with a $20 bill.  At one point when we were at the store I asked Joel how many gifts he was getting his cousin, because it sounded to me like he had already gotten 2 or 3 things for her.  He said that he had 11 so far!  Now they both have even more little gifts to wrap.  


We're all having a blast with it.


About the tree: I'm sure you can understand why the tree is loaded with decorations from 4 1/2ft and down.  But I have no idea how that gingerbread made it up to the top.  I don't really want to know.  I'm just enjoying the fact that someone thought it needed a place of prominence.  


Merry Christmas to all!

Eagle day.

 Joel took this picture today on an outing with his grandparents.  They're cool.  He and his grandparents.  And Eagles.

Time Warp

Mom: Joel, can you name 600 Pokemon?

Joel: bulbasaur, ivysaur, venasaur, charmander, charmeleon, charizard, ...

Mom: Are you counting, too?

Joel: You count. I've named 6 so far.

Mom: I can't count to 600 right now. I have other things to do.

Joel: Sure you can. I counted to 1000 before, in bed. Really, it took 30 minutes.

Camping with Boys

Seriously, did I go camping alone with the boys? Yes, I did. I must have been in too much shock to blog about it, because it took me 3 months to notice that I flagged pictures to post.

Memory of it was that it was nice to be out there in the peace and quiet with my little adventurers.

Would I do it again? probably. It was kinda hard, with one moment of "I can't handle this" but good memories were made. And that's the point, right?

Another 10 things I'm thankful for:

soft bed sheets

good books

time to myself

a friend to walk with

a nice husband

music

PUZZLEHUNT!!!

a kindof free country

church callings

FG8

Hot and Cold

I love summer. As a kid, it meant no school and swimming whenever we wanted. As a parent, that hasn't changed much. I've enjoyed the kids being out of school so much that I'm anxious and worried about school starting again. And I enjoyed being at the pool every day for the last month to watch my kids play in the water and swim like I did when I was young.

I don't know how many times I've said since moving north (whether Boston or Seattle) that it's the Georgia heat that I don't miss. The cool, dry summers of Seattle can't be beat, can they? However, today when I asked Joel what he missed most from our Georgia summer trip, he said the heat, and I realized that I have been missing the point. The heat is the necessary element that makes that first splash into the water so refreshing and every moment thereafter all about not wanting to be away from the water. Because it's so hot, we are always wearing our swimsuits and are ready to jump in the nearest pool of cool relief. Water is so much fun and relaxing! Whether we're in a pool, waterslide, ocean, or river, we're wet, cool, and having fun!

At 37, I'm just starting to get why my love of swimming runs so deep. I'm a little jealous that Joel gets it at 8.