Flowers

Let me share some of my early summer flowers with you.

My soon-to-be sister in law took this photo of some Lily of the Valley. I just love the shallow depth of field in this photo, it looks almost lacy.



Iris buds remind me of lipsticks twisted all the way up. Either that or ballet slippers. I'm weird like that.



Along that same association theme, this fuchsia plant makes me think of a Barbie I had when I was a kid. She was some kind of a fancy formal Barbie who had a ruffly salsa type dress that could be wrapped around her body in all different ways to create different looks. It was the same colors as this fuchsia. Again, weird. I know.

I had a lot of fun playing with the depth of field and these daisy buds. I'm so excited for them to bloom, this plant is loaded this year.

Remember our sand box project a couple years ago? The plants are really filling in. It's going to look great when they are all blooming. The kids keep moving the rocks around. I give up. It's their sand box, let them rearrange.


I took this one last night in the early evening when the sun was filtering through the trees in our backyard. It was one of those serene moments where everything is lovely, and you just want to lay back in the grass, close your eyes, and breathe deeply.

Food and Fun and Food

The internet has undoubtedly expanded my recipe choices. Thanks Al Gore! I hit my family with something new, yet again. This one went over a little better, for the most part. There is just something about a salad for supper in the summer time. Light, fresh, and yummy, it always hits the spot on a hot day. As soon as I saw this one, I knew I had to try it. Spicy Honey Chicken Salad. Mmmm.





The avocados were not a favorite with some of the kids, but they loved mango. Everyone was asking for more chicken, it was fantastic.

We got together with friends for some Memorial Day grilling and I knew I wanted to make that chicken, I couldn't get it out of my mind. I also took a Pioneer Woman recipe. She hasn't let me down yet. Everything on her site is amazing. The Fluffy New Potatoes went over well. They were just the right size to pop in your mouth. Not necessarily a good thing.

A for sure good thing? Playing the paper game with a fifteen crazy friends. Hilarious.

Because Casual Is The New Dressy

When our seven year old laid eyes on this photo of me and Nate circa 1993ish, he erupted into laughter. Nate probed as to the reason, what could possibly be so hilarious? He started with the obvious, "Is it because dad is a lot skinnier in this picture?" No. "The ridiculous glasses?" No. "Then what?"

"DAD! You have your shirt stuffed into your pants!"

Breathe Deeply

On either side of my front steps grows a little patch of lily of the valley. Despite being trampled by small feet that cut across, right through the green leaves to the steps, it continues to grow. Every April and May up shoot little stems adorned with neat rows of dangling, delicate white bells. They are so dainty and so sweet to look at, but even more appealing is the aroma. I'm not sure how such a powerful fragrance can come from such a small flower. I cut a couple of stems, stuck them in a little jar, and put them in the window sill over the kitchen sink.

As I stand there on the sticky kitchen floor amongst the piles of dirty dishes, cluttery counters, and stacks of unsorted papers, it's tempting to become overwhelmed. And then the whining starts inside my head. "Will the work ever end? Why isn't anyone helping me? I'm pregnant, I should be sitting down with my feet up, reading a book and sipping on ice water. How am I raising such inconsiderate slobs?" It just gets ridiculous. Each thought feeding the next, the stench of my discontent creating a dark cloud of grumbling around me.

As I turn my head, a tendril of lily of the valley aroma finds it's way to my face. I breathe deeply. Such a sweet smell. A breath of fresh air in the middle of my mess. A reminder of the tender love of my God. Along with millions and billions of other species of plants, He decided to create these delicate, intricate, fragrant flowers. Why? He didn't have to. I am overcome with awe of His attention to detail and His mind blowing creativity. I turn my attention to the small beauties and suddenly the work doesn't seem so difficult. Suddenly I don't feel so alone and so overwhelmed.

I feel loved.

Blossoms- If Only They Could Last All Summer

Mother's Day Weekend

It was a lovely weekend.

Saturday morning was one of my favorite races of all time. Run Like A Mother. I think this is the 4th time I have done this race, the second time I've been pregnant. I was happy that my hips gave me the day off from aching and allowed me to run the whole thing. I finished the 4 miles in 36:56, and completely enjoyed my post race bagel and coffee. Doing this race with friends makes it even better. We had way too much fun.


Saturday night we went out with friends. Dinner, a movie, and coffee. It was perfect. Who cries in a Star Trek movie? The pregnant lady, that's who. Ten minutes in and I was a mess.

Nate did good, he bought me a maxi dress for Mother's Day. Bring on the comfort. After church, we spent the afternoon at my parent's house. We feasted on grilled chicken with coconut cake for dessert. Some people took naps and some people went mushroom hunting. I'll let you figure out which option I chose. This is the bounty that was found.



The kids were great. I was lavished with home made cards and cheerful help all day long. One child even gave me the gift of actually wearing their glasses that they have worn a total of two times since getting them a year ago. Isn't that nice?

Happy Mother's Day

Overdue

A recent stop at the public library became an instance in which my character flaws were revealed. It seems I have passed more to my kids than just my freckles. I decided to pay my overdue fines and thought, what the heck, I'll just clear the whole family and we can all start with a fresh slate. So she started totaling. And totaling. And totaling. I walked away, hanging my head after writing a $25 check.

Of course I want my children to be responsible for their own overdue fees. The problem is, we don't always check out stuff under our own cards. Sometimes I send a kid in after some movies or a book for me and I have them use their own card. Or vice versa. You can never be sure if the fees incurred were the result of your own procrastination or someone else's.

From here on out, it's every man for himself. You keep it too long, you pay out of your own piggy bank. Either that or it look like our family will end up single handedly funding our public library. I like books. I just don't like them THAT much.

Heth Does Yoga

I've kind of always avoided yoga, figuring it was kind of googly-woogly and a little too mystical for my taste. I really had no interest in "going into myself and finding unification of body, mind, and soul". I only have two eyes, thankyouverymuch, so I have no idea what you are talking about asking me to focus on my third one. But the stretching, athletic, toning aspects of yoga have always been appealing. When I went looking for a prenatal yoga DVD that would stretch out some of these achy pregnant joints, I sought out my friend Sara's advice. That would be my very pregnant friend Sara who I knew wouldn't fail me. Of course she didn't. I was thrilled when she recommend a DVD that was very basic and tasteful, focusing on just the poses and no chanting or whatever else. It's been awesome and I completely enjoy it. Running is starting to have to taper down, my hip joints are beginning to feel the strain, so they love me after being coaxed into all sorts of contortions that stretch and soothe them. But I have a feeling my experience isn't as relaxing as it's intended to be.

Take this morning for example. Now why I chose to pop the DVD in right smack dab in the middle of the morning school rush, I don't know. The school kids are old enough to get themselves ready with an occasional "encouragement" from me. Something along the lines of "Do you have your shoes on, have you brushed your teeth, do you know where your backpack is? No? Then why are you laying on the couch?" That kind of encouragement.

If you need a picture in your mind, picture this. Me, in the center of the living room, twisted into some sort of a living sculpture with one leg in the air. Toddlers running circles around me as if I am the eye and they are the hurricane. Teenager, sighing and asking for lunch money. The elementary crew, busy looking for their shoes. Not a picture of relaxation, but that's my own fault. My timing wasn't great.

So by the time I yelled goodbye from a very awkward "downward dog" and was left with just the three littles, the session was coming to a close. The workout ends with shavasana which is basically laying flat on your back, and breathing deeply, and relaxing. For those of us who are in the second or third trimester, laying flat on the back isn't a good idea, so I was laying on my side. It was hopeless. The instructor is soothingly trying to coax me into "allowing a gentle wave of relaxation to flow from the top of my head to the tips of my toes". The only wave I feel is the one of total anxiety washing over me as Toby and Gemma hurdle me like Thoroughbred's. I am a human obstacle for my little purple rain-booted two year old. I don't trust the stability of that miniature body running in Barney boots. I can foresee a collision. When Toby resorted to straddling me and bouncing on my fragile belly, I decided that this isn't what the instructor had in mind and I scrapped the "relaxation" and turned on cartoons.

Yoga can be hazardous to your health if done in the presence of small children.

A Little Game With Lots of Laughing

This weekend we played a little game that had us all crying we were laughing so hard. Here's the jist of it. Each person has a stack of blank papers. One sheet for each person playing. So if 8 people are playing then each person has 8 blank sheets in their pile. Each person writes a simple sentence on the first sheet, then everyone passes their pile of paper to the next person. That person looks at the sentence written on the first sheet, and then draws a picture of that sentence on the next sheet. Everyone passes again. Now you look at the picture on the top sheet and write a sentence about that drawing. And you keep alternating like that until your original pile of papers comes back to you. You only are allowed to look at the sheet of paper that was written or drawn on by the person that is passing to you, you don't get to look at previous sentences or drawings. Then you each take turns reading through your pile of papers and show the pictures to the whole group. Ok, that was a horrible explanation but here, I'll show you some examples of three rounds of this game. Hill-air-e-us.


This was my original one. I wrote this and passed it to Noelle. She read my sentence and then drew this:


She put my sentence to the back of the pile and passed to Mariah who then looked at her picture and wrote this sentence:


After she wrote this, she passed to Shane who drew this little number:


Then Shane passed to Luke who looked at Shane's picture and wrote this sentence:


Then Luke passed to my Dad who read Luke's sentence and then drew this picture, note the guy holding the gas can....


Dad drew this and then passed to my Mom who looked at his picture and then wrote this sentence:


After writing, she passed to Camryn who read her sentence and then drew this picture of mean people and inasent (innocent) people:



After she drew this she passed to Tyler who looked at her picture and then wrote this sentence:


Then Tyler passed to Nate who read Tyler's sentence and drew this picture:



After that picture, it had gone all the way around the circle and was back to me. Does that make sense? It's like a game of telephone gone horribly wrong. Here are two other of our favorite rounds.

The end.


Here is another:

This is my new favorite game of all time ever.

Bookworm

These are the three books I'm reading right now.

Me, Myself, & Lies by Jennifer Rothschild is the study that our church's women's ministry is working through. Good stuff. It deals with our thoughts and the things we tell ourselves all day long. I liked the analogy she gave of our stream of constant thoughts being the "soundtrack" to our life. She challenges us as women to fill our minds with the truth about ourselves found in God's Word.

I'm about a quarter of the way through Boys Adrift by Leonard Sax. Wow. I can't say enough or even begin to do justice to this book. It has been amazing and I would recommend it to anyone who has a son or anyone who works in the educational system. It has been a real eye opener so far and I can't wait to keep reading.

I've just started Crazy Love by Francis Chan. Francis is the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, California. I have listened to a few of his podcasts and he doing some crazy things out there in California. I watched this You Tube video and was completely challenged. I liked this line from an online review of this book. "Chan writes with infectious exuberance, challenging Christians to take the Bible seriously. He describes at length the sorry state of lukewarm Christians who strive for a life characterized by control, safety and an absence of suffering." Ouch. I have a feeling this one is going to mess with me and I'm looking forward to it.

Have any of you read any of these? Thoughts? Reviews?