Good morning Handsome

As I was sitting on the couch taking a breather from the hurried morning exodus, this handsome man walks over to me with a warm and inviting look on his face. Then I sneezed.

Rather that say bless you and offer me his hand to get up, he stops dead in his tracks and says,
"I was going to kiss you but now that you have sneeze fresh in your mouth, I'll wait..."

And this is what it looks like to be married 8 years....

Dainty is as dainty does...or something

We celebrated Hannah's birthday today in true pink Hannah style. Teeny teacups, itty bitty scones, mini cupcakes and pink plastered everywhere! The girls started their party by decorating straw hats. Good practice for becoming red-hatted ladies in some distant future. Once adorned with their pretty bonnets, the girls sat down for tea, high society style, complete with handsome servants. Hannah is all pajama'd up now, and still beaming!

Today

Today is Hannah's 7th birthday! Seven! Where did the time go? Like fine cheese, my sweet girl has aged well. She began life as the least quiet of our bunch, always uncomfortable as a baby. She tested the title of Mother for me. Helpless is the feeling that comes when you know your baby is sick and no one can tell you why outside of labeling her colicky. There were moments in her first year that I thought she would go through life believing I couldn't help her with anything.

However, when her discomfort subsided along with her tears she became one of the most affectionate little girls I have ever known. She worshiped her big brother and climbed on him endlessly. She loved her daddy and would take any chance she got to curl up next to him. And, as my belly grew with the fullness that was to become Shiloh, Hannah was intrigued. When Shiloh finally arrived, she was thrilled!

Now, Hannah is a young lady. Confident and charming, intelligent and pretty. When she is asked to do a chore or help a sibling, her usual response is, "Of course, Mama!" That is not to say she is without any sort of impishness. When left to their devices, she and her big brother are capable of all sorts mischievous acts around the house. She is his faithful student as he teaches her to play chess and her maturity shines through with her good sportsmanship.

Happy birthday sweetheart!

Wake up World

It is 1:30 a.m. and all the living room lights are out on my block. Most people sleep at this "unholy" hour, but not I. No, I have just come in from the cold, and though I am very tired, the cold jolts me wide awake on my way home from work. This is so not what I signed up for.......

The bright side? The moon is very pretty and Cranbrook is still just small enough to see a few stars. How many people actually look at the stars. I mean, really, look at them. I think I may pick up a book on constellations and brush up on my astronomy. That will make coming home at 1:30 in the morning worth it, won't it?

At least there is coffee for the real morning. I am, of course, talking about that time of day when normal people get up, get dressed, and go start their cars. The time of the day when you don't consider picking up books about the stars for the sole purpose of not going insane. It's a good time of day I will never take for granted again. 'Cause, even if you are blurry-eyed, there is usually someone suffering alongside you. Misery loves company and all that. Perhaps I should mount a fog horn to the front of my house and wake the neighborhood when I get home from work so I won't be lonely. That could be fun the first few times........

Just wondering...

So I am bumbling around from site to site, checking emails and reading up on the goings on of various blogger-buddies, and suddenly something occurs to me. One of my sisters, who shall remain nameless, has not yet a blog of her own. Why not? I ask myself. She reads ours and finds time to comment. She has a Facebook profile. She even has a puppy and is newly married; good blogger fodder. Is she afraid of the competition? The commitment? Has it simply not occurred to her? I, for one, am signing the petition! If she can learn to knit, she can learn to blog! Come to the dark side!

No pressure of course. Just wondering.

Kiddies Crafting

"Here are some pictures of the munchkins diving into some of their creative gifts. Notice the lack of paint smocks. I had cleaned out their closets over the holidays and got rid off all the clothes they don't use anymore. I forgot to save "play clothes" for life's dirtier moments. So I turned the heat up a bit and they used the wipeable smocks nature gave them. It took a few washings to get Selah clean after her "oonoosare 'aintin" (for those less fluent in Selah speak that is dinosaur painting).

*WARNING* snarky post ahead. optimists beware.

Let me paint you a picture of my morning. It's before six a.m. and I have been up since before three. Alex just left for Calgary with his boss and in about three hours I have start getting the kids ready for swimming lessons. I have little or no desire whatsoever to actually consider doing anything remotely productive in the next twenty-four hours.

So here I am bumbling around on the Internet because I can't sleep and neither can I stare at the ceiling any longer. Suddenly this page comes up with an oh-so-inspiring message. It says, "Dream like you'll live forever. Live like you'll die tomorrow." The thing is, this message is spray-painted on a crumbling wall in an alley somewhere. Thank-you teenage kid with the spray can. I just couldn't go through another day without your ageless wisdom.

I'm sorry, am I being a downer? It's just that the message is awesome in theory but sometimes the daily grind is the daily grind. Period. If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, I would not being doing the things I need to do today. Sometimes you just gotta grin and bear it. Sometimes you just don't get to have the warm fuzzies about your day. Besides, those peppy, always happy people are annoying. You know they are. Don't deny it.

Today, I will enjoy my children's swimming lessons. I will get to the end of today with a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. But, today, I do not the time or the energy to "live like I'll die tomorrow."