All just a blur...

Do you find that you have periods of time throughout your year that all just seem like one big blur? I feel like that has been my life the past month or two...nothing that is bad, just memories, experiences, moments all globbed together in my head.



Some days I forget to enjoy those moments, no matter how big or small, and just live. Don't think, don't plan, don't stress...just soak up the moment. I felt this way the other day when I was outside with Lawyer. I looked up at the light in the trees and just saw how beautiful the glow of the light was in the gently swaying leaves. I looked to my left and felt content seeing Lawyer playing and singing happily while he dug tunnels and built mountains in his sand box. I saw an amber-hued leaf gracefully floating down from our large oak, to it's new place on the still-green grass. I knew at that moment that there was no other place I was to be at that moment and no other place that I would rather be.



My goal as we head into the holiday season is to stop and soak in each day. It's like I blinked and I went from having a tiny newborn to now a grown 5 year old boy and I just can't remember very much between those times. Don't think I'm being solemn or regretful, more like pensive and at peace.



I hope you are all enjoying your autumnal days and remember to squeeze your loved ones and tell them you love them. Enjoy!

Oh Dear...

I love fantasy/whimsical things - probably why I love children's books and movies so much....Alice in Wonderland having always been a huge favorite. I once was discussing a fantasy-like book with someone once and they told me "I don't like fantasy stuff." Um, last time I checked, most books you read for fun have some sort of fantasy value. That's why people like to read books - to put themselves in another place and in another time! Anyways...

I decided to buy some art on a whim at 8:00am this morning. I've really enjoyed the art and blog of Emily Martin of Inside a Black Apple. Her art is intriguing and whimsical, with a slight dark-side to it. Think Alice in Wonderland meets the Adams Family.

I bought two different pieces and I can't wait to take pictures when I receive the art so I can share them.

This purchase has led me too want to paint my office...again. But not until after we have knocked out most of one of the walls between my office and living room to put double french doors in. Then I can paint it. The same color as my bedroom. I'm thinking the icy blue-green and red would look quite lovely.

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On another note, I hate running. There I said it. Those that like it and love it and live it, I congratulate you because I think running sucks and anyone that can honestly say they love it should be extremely proud of themselves (and I'm not being hateful, I'm truly intrigued by those that love it). This isn't to say that I have quit my little 5k jaunt. I'm still plugging away, I'm just saying it sucks.

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I rented another lens for my camera and it should be here next week, just in time for our little vacation to the beach (thank goodness!). I'm super-excited about this lens since it is an L-series lens...I can't decide if it will make me super happy to have rented it or super-sad that I will have to give it up after three weeks.

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Does anybody know of anything fun to do in New Orleans that doesn't have to do with T&A? We'll only be there for a few hours worth of a stop but I like to do stuff. I was mortified when we took our son through Bourbon Street last time, even at 10:00 in the morning. I'd like something a little on the G to PG side this time. It doesn't necessarily need to be something to do, it could just be something interesting to drive through or see.

10 Things

I've got pictures from the weekend that I'm trying to finish processing but I thought it would be fun (not sure who it would be fun for...) to post some random things about myself so here goes...

1) I wear a dress almost 7 days a week because I want to (and I work from home) but I hate skirts.

2) I make my own frappucinos at home because I refuse to pay $4.00 a day getting one from Starbucks.

3) I wear flip flops almost 365 days a year: with jeans, dresses, shorts, nice outfits, etc.

4) I bleach my own hair and have since I was 18...and I always have people ask me where I get my hair done. And I only pay around $3.00 to color it every 4-6 weeks.

5) I met my husband in a bar 7 years ago (that's something to make your mama proud!).

6) Despite the fact that I wear dresses almost daily, I am NOT a girly-girl at all.

7) I taught myself to knit, sew and embroider all within the last year and a half.

8) I started my own catering business when I was still in my teens and then left it behind after I had my son.

9) I absolutely LOATHE shopping. When it's necessary to update my decade-old wardrobe, I usually go to the closest store near me and if something fits, I buy one in every color. I did this two weeks ago with two different pairs of shorts (I hate shorts), two different dresses and several tops...I hadn't bought new clothes in about 5 years.

10) My adult beverage of choice is either a Bud Light in a bottle (the cans have a funky taste to me) or Crown and Coke....see, I'm not a girly-girl.

Alright, wasn't that intriguing? I hear both crickets and snoring now. Ha! Well, I gotta split. I've got some other things to share later!

I Love the Country

My mom is probably cringing at that statement, but I do! I like the openness, the smells, the peace, the surroundings, the nature, the animals, etc.

Luckily for me, I get to live in the 'burbs down the street from my parents and only drive 5 minutes before I'm in the country. And luckily for me, I get to drive past these wonderful creatures EVERY day taking Lawyer to school...since he goes to a school in the country.

Ah, don't you love it? I'm holding out for one day to at least have a few acres so that I can have an acre of a vegetable garden. My mom would say "you are such an old lady".

What's Been Up

This weekend was wonderful; full of working in the yard, playing outside, opening windows, eating great food, spending time with friends and family, starting up baseball season and starting new knitting projects.

I really enjoyed everything this weekend, warm weather and green stuff sprouting will do that.

As much as we like to be "busy" all the time, taking time to unwind and decompress by just going with the flow was much needed this weekend.

Plus we are all well and have kicked all the nasty sick germs out the door; that was reason enough for weekend enjoyment. Hope you had a great weekend as well!

Ode to Spring

I love spring...have I mentioned that before? If so, my apologies, but I do love spring. I'm solar-powered, heat-powered, plant-powered, etc. so I can't wait for spring.

To rejoice in the spring-like weather we are getting to enjoy, Lawyer and I ate our breakfast outside at 7:30 this morning. By the looks of him, you would think I threw him out into freezing temperatures but he's a weird one.

As usual, he makes all attempts to NOT get his picture taken but I'm wily, I am. He usually likes to ask me "what are you taking a picture of?" when I am clearly pointing the camera at his face and I always try to be sly and say "I'm trying to get a picture of the strawberries on your plate" and he doesn't buy it.

Once again, in the car, he claimed he was cold (even though it was pushing 70) and he put on his big parka of a coat.

Lawyer cracks me up...he is as independent as can be and doesn't make any bones about it.

Oh and I was walking down the stairs last night and this is what I see at the bottom of the stairs...Lawyer kicked off his WAY TOO BIG jeans (I swear they fit him in the waist a few months ago) and boots all in one swoop. It was too funny!

On a side note, I dropped my freaking iPhone in the pool today while trying to brush off the pool steps. Everything APPEARS to be okay with it, other than the random messages that pops up on it and I can't talk to anybody on it unless I have my headphones on. "Damn it, I can't have anything nice!"

A Full Weekend (and it's not over yet!)

Sigh. I've had one of the best weekends in a very long time. It's not that I have bad weekends but this particular one just happens to stand out to me.

It didn't start out as great...I picked up Lawyer from school and he had a fever. He slept on the car ride home and slept in bed until 8:30 that night. Of course he was wound up by then since he had gotten rid of his fever and we were up for quite a while but I'll take a late night of hyper-activity over the doldrums any day.

Jason likes to include Lawyer (as do I) on our every day chores. Lawyer loves this, he feels like he's a contributing member to this family and that's important.

The weather has been awesome this weekend, we've been in the mid to upper 70's. Shorts weather! I've been making it a point to go for a daily walk to get rid of the excess pretzels I ingested this week. I promise my feet aren't this huge in person, although Jason would disagree.

A neighbor's cottonwood tree has been blowing all kinds of stuff into every one's yard this past week. It really does feel like cotton. I just liked the different textures in this picture.

Spring is peaking its head out...my Italian flat-leaf parsley is coming up and my rose bushes are getting some new leaves!

The days are getting just a bit longer and the later afternoon sunlight that filters into the house is getting more and more beautiful.

A long-time friend of mine called me yesterday to say they were having a birthday party for her daughter THAT DAY. No need to bring any presents, she says. We didn't have anything going on and Lawyer loves playing with her kids but I'm not going to show up to a birthday party empty-handed, so what to do? I made her girly-girl of a daughter a dress! Yes, I can't believe it myself, but I made a dress in about 2 hours...no pattern, no nothing. I just sewed away until I had made a suitable dress that can grown with her daughter for the next few years. It can be a long dress now, a short summer dress, a tunic and then a cute summer top. I think it turned out rather cute, if I do say so myself!

So a funny thing happened...we got a new TV back at Thanksgiving and our hand-me-down TV that my parents had given me (they kept saying...it's going to die any day now, if you took it, it probably wouldn't last the move, etc. - yeah well, it's survived two moves now and we've had it for about 3 years!!) was going to be retired. Getting rid of a 200 pound big screen TV is no easy feat so I decided that we should keep it in the garage and pull it out at night during the summer-time and have our own version of a "Movies in the Park". Well, last night was PERFECT weather so we drug out all of our pillows and blankets, made popcorn and watched two movies out back under the full moon. It will always be one of my most treasured memories.

Back-To-Basics...

I've been thinking a lot about how I occupy my space here on this planet. I know why I'm here, God put me in this planet, specifically in Texas in a day and age where so many luxuries are to be had. Way unlike had I been born in 11th century England as a pauper, literally living off the land - lucky to have a coat or shoes. God specifically wanted me to be born in 1979 and live with my family in Texas today, and I know that.

What I'm talking about is HOW I live and contribute to my tiny corner of the world. Now, this is where my family begins to roll their eyes and think what a "hippie" I truly am...my "world ideology" as they probably think of it. But actually, I have more a 1940's-1950's personnae than a radical '60's view.

What if...

...we began to sew our own clothing again?

...we began growing our own fruit and vegetables in our own backyards, or joined a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in our area?

...we realized that the 1/4 mile distance to the grocery store was actually better served "walked" than driven?

...we got rid of the 10 TV's per house and actually started acting like "families" rather than "roommates"?

...we valued hand-made fun over "Made in China" mass-produced Martha Stewart hand puppet kits (sorry, we just bought those, that's why I put it down)?

...we played at the park, went on a walk, rode our bikes, etc. instead of "pretending" we are doing those things with video games?

...we bought food that wasn't fast or bought food that wasn't from a box?

...we were truly thoughtful about our purchases to buy as much "American-Made" items as possible?

For as many faults as I see about how we as Americans live, there are so many wonderful things about it as well. We get to CHOOSE how we want to live, more or less. We get to CHOOSE to be more successful or live in a nicer house. We get to CHOOSE where we buy our food from. There are so many places in the world that the people are told how to live, where to live and what they can eat.

I think if we were to make better choices, even small ones, we as a nation could have a hugely (is that a word?) positive impact on our country. So what do you say, let's make good choices together America! Let's take advantage of our ability to be free in our decision-making! Let's not be "robots" to our society any longer and take responsibility for OUR country. Let's loose some of our "fat" and be active members of our society!

Thank you from one June Cleaver hippie to another.

Just Because...

Some of the pictures either I just absolutely love, feel God's awesome power, crack up about or am just plain creeped out by...so enjoy!


This poor guy...
had to do this to get any food around here...

This went from bad...
too worse (gross, doesn't he look like an inmate from Alcatraz in the early '70's having his picture taken for a documentary on high-security prisons?)

Driving to Houston...

Christmas Gifts: Hit or Miss

I'll try to keep my ramblings short for this "toy" post, which is apparently a great challenge for myself.

Here is a gift that I really thought I was going to absolutely love. A map of the United States puzzle that "speaks" out the state's name, capitol, and nickname when you put the state in its correct place.

While I love the concept, even though I'm not a "talking" toy kind of gal, there are some things that are VERY wrong with this gift.

Check out New England. What in the hell were the toy manufacturers/developers thinking when they created this item? The tiny states, such as Delaware, Connecticut, New Hampshire, etc, have been clumped together to make one puzzle piece that is a horrible representation of the individual states and, even worse, when you put the multi-state puzzle piece in the correct area, it blurts out ALL the states that have been thrown together, along with their capitals and nicknames. I hate this about this gift. It makes me want to return it but I think it's overall ability to give state recognition (for the most part), is an okay idea. I definitely don't plan on having this electronic, sorry-excuse-for-a-map-of-the-US be the sole educator of the US map for my child. I'm already planning on making state cards (they are called 3-Part cards in Montessori education) that will show the shape of the state and then the state's name typed out below the state.

Anyhow, I'm border-line on this gift...not certain whether to embrace it or be embarrassed for it. We'll see what Lawyer thinks about it when he receives it.

If you would prefer to purchase this "iffy" puzzle map, you can buy it here.

Had I really done my research for a US map puzzle, visit here to see what I should have bought instead. I LOVE this map since the pieces can be used for a tracing activity.

Christmas Gifts: Hit or Miss

Christmas is in full swing and we are full of holiday cheer in my house. From decorating a tree just for Lawyer upstairs to Lawyer break-dancing to Frank Sinatra Christmas classics, the fun keeps going on and on. I thought it would be fun to show how and why I choose the items (I truly dislike the word "toys" - or at least today's toy-makers perversion of the word) I do for Lawyer, the 4-year-old boy in our household.

Lawyer definitely doesn't NEED anything and I'm not a toy person, per se, so I put plenty of thought into what I would declare as old-fashioned, classic or multi-sensory for Lawyer. I love the classic toys that Lawyer does have since they allow for an imagination, thought-provocation, hands-on manipulation and fun of all kinds. One such "classic" are Lincoln Logs. Oh, how I love this construction toy. Did you know that the son of Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect of both the Arts and Crafts period and in our American history, created the logs after being inspired by a building in Tokyo? They have been around for almost 100 years and there is something to be said about a toy that can last a century in the fickle world of toy-making and toy-selling.

Anyhow, my point is this: I like sensorial, imaginative, battery-less, educational "toys" for Lawyer to both play with and learn from. I plan on doing posts on the different items I purchased for him and explaining the analytical reasoning for the purchase. Wait, did that even make any sense? Never mind, don't listen to me, I know not what I say.

This bug discovery kit has real bugs encased in clear, acrylic blocks. I think it will be a real winner with Lawyer, especially since you can look at both the tops, bottoms, sides, heads, rears, etc. of each and every bug. The few things I'm not fond of are the cheap, plastic magnifying glass (I plan on purchasing a real one for Lawyer's stocking) and the ridiculous storage container the bug blocks came in (a plastic bag, or better yet, a reusable canvas bag would have sufficed for me). I'm sure most of my money for this item went to pay for the container and the colorful packaging but seeing as I have yet to catch bugs in my yard, put them to their death in a gas chamber of bits of cardboard doused with rubbing alcohol (that's how I used to kill bugs for my biology bug projects anyway) and then put them in a plastic-y, see-through grave of acrylic, I doled out my money for this item.

You can see the detail of the bugs here a bit better but my picture is a tad on the dark side so you can't get the full-effect of seeing the hairs on the wasp's thorax. What? Don't know what a thorax is? Look it up and be enlightened by the wonderful world of entomology. Huh? You don't know what entomology is? Good grief people, get a set of encyclopedias and look it up...and I don't want to hear the excuse that nobody even owns physical sets of encyclopedias anymore. Although, Santa Claus did bring me a fabulous set for my 6th Christmas (it was at the top of my Christmas list) and they were a beautiful shade of 80's maroon tinged with gold. Anyhow, I digress.

These blocks could be used for bug identification (Montessori is very big into this), a matching game or even to learn about the different parts of an insect.

Kids LOVE "real" things to play with, thus the reason I'm purchasing a real magnifying glass for him to use and the real bug blocks. And seeing as I'm originally from Arkansas, I know that "my people" LOVE to have the real deal stuffed and placed oh-so-carefully on their mantle to display the one that "didn't get away". This particular item is right up my Arkansas-roots alley. Plus I'm a science nerd - that probably explains more than enough about me.

If you are interested in this bug discovery kit, you can purchase it here.

Ooh, and if you REALLY are into science, this online store is AWESOME! I can't wait to buy a few experiments from there for Lawyer.

M.I.A.

Sorry, sorry, sorry! This past month has found me trying to tread water just so I can breathe. I have so much to blog about and so little time. Here's what has been going on:

*Lawyer turned 4 in September (I truly do have pics to share...just not today!)

*We've being doing some remodeling...a wall has been knocked down, lights have been put in, closets have been renovated.

*Jason and I had our 4 year wedding anniversary this month.

*MANY books have been read...I read the entire Twilight series in a week and now I've started them all over again because I fell deeply, madly in love with Edward and I wasn't ready to part from him just yet...Twilight the movie comes out next month!!!!!!! And the actor playing Edward looks like he's already living up to my physical expectations (I have a thing for vampires - always have and probably always will)!

*I'm trying to finish up knitting my scarf I started sometime this year.

*Friends have been visited, birthdays have been had, food has been eaten (even if it weren't of my own creation) and laundry is piling up.

*Panic! at the Disco will be in concert with the Plain White T's and Dashboard Confessionals and I'm hoping to go. Um, hello? Check out the lead singer (sitting in the chair)? Do you see a vampire-esqueness about him? Sigh.

*Oh and my mom bought Jason this painting (you may remember this from a previous post). It's so dark, mysterious, vampire-ish (seriously, I have vampire issues) and deeply disturbing and Jason and I LOVE it.

With all this having been going on, I'm SOOOO excited because Jason and I are headed to Miami on Friday and then we fly to Antigua on Saturday for a whole week of all-inclusive indulgences! I plan on chilling out so that when I get back, I can commence my blogging duties!

I've Joined the Ranks...

Well, with much prodding, my husband finally got me to get a new phone...a new iPhone 3G nonetheless. I really didn't want/think I need so much phone but....HOLY COW!!! This phone is amazing. In fact, it's so amazing it's scary!


What made me shrug my shoulders and say "fine, I'll take the phone" (can you believe so much arm twisting from Jason to get this phone? I really didn't want a new phone and didn't find the need to jump on the iPhone bandwagon!!!!) is that I was wanting an MP3 player for Christmas and this phone basically is an iPod as well.

But I can also check my email, get on the internet and see the internet exactly as if I were on my home computer, I have a calculator (and low-and-behold, my favorite calculator just died so perfect timing), a calendar, phone (I guess that is the main point of an iPhone), oh and I'm so excited because I downloaded an App (application for those non-iPhone users) that is a grocery list. You can't imagine how exciting that is to me!


So anyhow, I promptly went home and whipped up a carrying case so I can through it in my purse. It matches this purse here.


Anyhoo, I have SO much to blog about: Lawyer's birthday was Tuesday and his small party is on Saturday, the caterpillars that are eating my mandarin orange tree to nothing and they look like snakes, a few recipes and some random things. Oh and I might throw in a few more thoughts on the upcoming election.

Did you check out the t-shirt here, here, here and here? Buy one today...Kelly will be finished selling these in the next few weeks, just in time for you to wear your shirt proudly before the big election!!