Unique Perspective

 People in Alaska keep a unique perspective on things...

This is a poster I saw hanging in the office of my new elementary school secretary...

Image v. Reality

 Christmas Eve morning, I snapped this picture of myself enjoying my morning coffee in the early morning quiet and stillness of our main floor in front of the Christmas tree.

My description is completely true.  Nothing I wrote is false... but I left a few things out.

In reality, the statement should read something like this:

Christmas Eve morning, I snapped this picture of myself enjoying my morning coffee in the early morning quiet and stillness of our main floor in front of the Christmas tree.  Here's hoping I can get all this clean laundry folded and put away and cleaned up in time for Santa to come -- and some of it won't even get put away -- it should go straight into the suitcase since we're leaving for St. Louis in approximately 48 hours.  If I need to be up at 4:00am doing chores, at least I can enjoy our Christmas tree and put on a Christmas movie while doing it.  It's okay to fold laundry in the family room, right?

Mmmmm... coffee is good.  Coffee keeps this Mama going.

Wow, that's really a weird face I'm making.  I guess that is my face at 4:00am.

The Reality

I saw this posted by a school administrator a few days ago and I wish more people understood the reality of what many people, including teachers and mothers and fathers and school administrators and many more people are doing now...

This is not "working from home." This is "at home, during a crisis, trying to work." So take a little advice from The Duke.

Reality

I bought the kids new pajamas yesterday from Once Upon a Child and I surprised them with them last night before bedtime.

After they chose which pair they wanted to wear to bed and got dressed, I asked them to stand at the foot of the bed so I could get a picture of them in the new pjs.

The idea was that they would stand still and maybe say, "Cheese" or "Yay!"

Then, the reality of all four of them dancing around in their new pajamas each singing the different song affiliated with each of their respective pajama characters was so funny, I just settled for some pictures of reality... four overjoyed children way too excited about their new pajamas to stand still.

 

Less Time

Truthfully, this summer I am finding that the less time I spend at my computer each day or each week... the less time I want to spend at my computer.

Its frankly not as much fun to open my computer to blog at the end of the day, because I just don't want to see the screen.

I especially don't want to check emails or think about the fall or update our amazon subscribe and save or really tend to any of my normal computer responsibilities.

I like being completely on vacation and I wish the entire world could be on vacation while I am so they would stop bothering me.  Lol.

Maybe if I have no other computer tabs open except my blog each day... maybe that would help?

 

No Pictures

I love taking pictures of my children, our family, and the adventures we take together.  Not only do I like to document the fun we had -- or sometimes feelings other than fun -- but I find it helps me remember times that I might otherwise forget amidst daily routine and lack of sleep.  

That being said, I am learning that sometimes the best times involve no pictures.

Yesterday, for example, the forecast for Vail was a high of 71* and rainy (Hubby and the kids and I are in Vail, by the way) so we took the kids to the Silverthorne Rec Center and we had so much fun.  They had a great kids' pool and kids' slide and then a huge water slide that we could ride with the kids.  Although none of our big kids can swim independently yet (I'm really hoping this is the summer Tracey begins to swim better on her own), all of our children LOVE the water, which is so much fun!  Not only are Tracey, Howard, and Caroline total fish in their floaties, but Addallee is now big enough to be in the water with the crew.  She cannot sit in a float independently, of course, but the she can sit in a floaty in our arms without all of her weight supported by the adult.

The rec center pool was warm, which was so nice after the pool in Vail is cool at best, and our kids had so much fun.  An added bonus was that either Hubby or I had to accompany all of our kids on the big waterslide, so we both got to ride the big waterslide multiple times.

Not everything went perfectly.  Howard ran across the deck at one point (as I was saying, "Don't run! Don't run! Don't run!") and fell and skinned his knees... and we had a slight head bonk as Hubby and Howard went down the water slide for the last time... but for the most part, it was a great facility and we hope to return.

With all the fun, and all the little (non)swimmers absolutely no pictures were taken.  We simply didn't have the hands, and that was okay.

Then, we all went to Ruby Tuesdays for a late lunch/early dinner around 3:30pm (which is an excellent time to take four children under age five -- the perfect mid-afternoon lull in the restaurant world).  We all had a great meal and used some coupons -- and didn't take any pictures there either.

Some times great days just don't happen to include pictures.

 

Mom Life

Here is my baby girl who wanted to be held... and behind her is the laundry that will wait to be folded in order to cherish these baby cuddles.

When you cannot find your makeup brush and someone is going to be here in five minutes... you use a dry paint brush.  Results were just fine.