Casualty

Some of you may be asking yourselves, "what in the world am I looking at?" Well, what you see above (from a weird angle, the computer is giving me attitude) was once my jewelry box. My grandmother gave it to me over 15 years ago. It survived several moves, but it didn't stand a chance against my one-year-old. To be fair, Rose was only trying to get a bracelet I let her wear once. Unfortunately, to get that bracelet, she pulled the whole thing down, smashing it to bits.

Now my jewelry is sitting in the little surviving drawers of the box on my dresser, far out of Rose's reach. She has taught me a valuable lesson: don't get too attached to things. Who needs earthquakes, rust, floods and fire when they have a Rosie about?

Chocolate Tears

With Ryan gone this week, the kids and I have been busy playing - not to say that we can't play when Ryan's here, it's just something to keep their minds off of it. William is very confused as to when Dad's coming home (in a few days). He asked me at the dinner table last night if his daddy is gone forever. "No, he'll be back for church." That satisfied him.

Most cake recipes are for 9x13 pans - I needed something smaller. So we found a chocolate cake with chocolate glaze that bakes in a 9 inch pan. Much more suited to our family size. The cake was delicious and William had two large pieces!

This morning, I found him sitting at the table, waiting patiently for his breakfast of chocolate cake. After some cereal, I only managed to stave him off until 8:30am. Then we all had some cake.














While I was feeding Rose her cake, there was some sort of miscommunication - either I was holding the fork weird, or she was full, or something, but she ran off crying and was very angry with me. I'm not sure what happened. But after a little milk, she was ready for more - tear stained face and all.

Optimistic

After all of the flurry of yesterday, today was rather quiet. I'm sure our productivity coincides with the sunshine. Rose has recently shown an interest in coloring. In the past weeks, she has managed to color on the wall, Claire's homework, the kitchen table, some scrapbook pages I was working on, the floor and my journal. Thankfully, nothing was ruined (of course the wall had to be painted) but now we have to be diligent in keeping any type of writing utensil out of Rose's reach.

A few weeks ago, I was in a bit of a sewing frenzy. I made a dozen dish towels, a sundress for Rose and a skirt for myself. The dress for Rose was my first attempt at smocking. It looks much cuter on her than on a plastic coat hanger. I now want to make one for Claire; a project for next month. I have fabric for another dress for Rose and Claire is going to sew herself a skirt for church. Every thing's ready; we just need to sit down and do it. But it seems such a shame to stay indoors on these perfect, spring afternoons.































This last picture is of my optimistic "clock", as William calls it. It consistently reads 10 degrees higher than the temperature actually is. At least it's consistent.

Sprung

It's amazing what sunshine can do to a soul. It's at times like these, that I'm thankful for the cold Illinois winters; it makes me appreciate days like today.

Laundry out to dry.











Isn't this heather beautiful? I was drawn to it and thankfully,
I have the perfect spot to plant it. That's on my list for tomorrow.

Years ago, Ryan and the kids planted crocuses throughout our side yard. Each spring, they are the first things that pop up. Sadly, they're already fading. Only a few still bloom. Too bad I couldn't get my camera to focus on the bloom and not the grass. If I laid out in my side yard with my camera any longer, the neighbors were sure to think I'm crazy.

Better Days

I have nothing in particular to say, but I always have pictures of Rose, up to no good. She is quite the character. Tonight she discovered the moon while we sat out on our patio, enjoying the cool spring evening. Armed with a small flashlight and a glow-in-the-dark constellation book, Claire and I attempted to find a few well-known constellations. We only managed to successfully locate two. We'll keep practicing.

Spring Blues

Today was one of those days in which I would be happy to forget. A day where all seems hopeless, gray, and neverending. Thanks to my Mom, who let me ball like a baby, gave me a few words of encouragement and sent me back into the thick of things with a little glimmer of hope. Nothing in my life is falling apart (if you don't count me); it was just one of those monotonous, draining, icky days. Let's hope the rest of spring is better than the way it started. A bit of sunshine and some warmer weather wouldn't hurt either! At least my zinnias are on their way here, though they were fallen or stepped on several times today.

Oh and the picture of Rose was taken last week, on a warm(er) day. I found her on the table, yelling out to a dog she saw outside the fence. So much for leaving the patio chairs out!

Girl Time

Claire and I had a wonderful day together. We had some good girl time. We drove into the city: first we went to lunch and then walked over my favorite salon for a little pampering. We both had our hair cut. Claire was very excited about getting her hair washed and styled. I had fun too! We both felt very glamorous afterwords. I had so much fun visiting with Claire and hearing about her little world. She is so sweet and friendly. We've already planned to do this again sometime in the future.

Just Dropping By

I hadn't realized that I haven't blogged in almost 4 months. Now I'm not promising anything, but I'm going to try and update my blog more often. I know that there's family out there that appreciate the updates, and I really should be better about it.

What have we been up to? School, work, activities, church, house stuff, holidays, etc. The same things all of you have been doing. So what's my excuse? I've just been focusing on different things. I've been trying to exercise more, eat better, get caught up instead of starting more, writing, etc. In short, I've purposely been spending less time on the Internet (almost none, actually).

Here are a few pictures of the kids, being kids. I have been bad about taking pictures, so I don't have much to share. I hope to start reading all of your updates too - a little at a time. Thanks for stopping by!