Saturday, January 15, 2011

Sleepover

Kay's here with Grace tonight for a sleepover. They had a nice boy over to watch a movie too. Things are changing. I love how they talk so honestly and laugh all together. I gave them the family room and I enjoyed some time in the living room
Grace, Kat and I stayed up for Saturday Night Live. We chatted and had some fun. Kate and Grace rolled into a tumble trying to get the other's blackberry.
Even sleepovers have changed since cell phones have arrived. These kids do make me laugh.

Oh Happy Day!


Saturday out and about in the woods... deep in the snow. Good workout for all of us.

Sunshine


What a day! Cold, crisp and blue skies.

Tromping through the snowdrifts....

Absolutely beautiful in the sunshine...Daisy and Fitzy were like sled dogs!

Cinderella

Grace was off to the city today with Biff's sister Cee. T.J. left with Biff yesterday for a Navy Lacrosse camp for the weekend.

I stayed home to be here for Grace this weekend.

After I walked the dogs through the snowdrifts in the woods, they leapt and bunny hopped and jumped and trudged...me too....we were all exhausted.

After a cup of coffee and some quiet time to think....... of the many choices available to me, with a day all to myself...solo..me...alone....on my own....I decided to make a huge commitment. This may be hard to believe but I chose to stay home to clean and scrub and mop and scour and do laundry and vacuum.

Did you faint? Yup. It's still me. Just a cleaner, fluffier me. Oh sure, there were so many more glamorous choices out there today. So tempting!

But no. I had the house to myself. Different than any other day, I had no interruptions...no calls from school, no visits to the gym or the grocery store. No calls from friends to walk the dogs. No need to shop....we have too much stuff.

With that in mind, I had a dream...a flash of inspiration...a moment of truth....a badge of courage...I cleaned for 4 hours!

I am exhausted. Our house is back to liveable. Until we're all here again...then it will be moments...just moments and the kitchen table will have mail and the foyer will have backpacks, the bathrooms will run out of toilet paper, shoes strewn all over at the back door.

It will feel like home. I love our family even though we're not perfect. I love our family BECAUSE we're not perfect!


Lessons

This is the tree that came into our home as a little lesson for Grace and T.J...since they didn't come with me an Biff to cut down our tree. It was bare amd rather bedraggled and pathetic at first glance. It was the perfect remedy for our crabby and resistant Grinch-like, moody teens that day! They snapped right out of that when we showed them the real tree. They were just like little elves from that moment on. I painted and dressed and bedazzled that tree with sparkled and tinseled and sequined and glittered an glistened that tree. Just as our children sprang back into the spirit of Christmas , this tree sprang to life and gave us all peace and thw ability to laugh at our less than charming side. The tree gave us calm where there may have been a storm. There was abundant beauty in thi tree's simplicity. It has been a peaceful reminder. We have all found it to be calming with the little white lights, different from our colorful traditional tree trimmed with special ornaments, reminders of family and friends and Christmas' past. What a gift this Christmas season has been. The traditional tree has been down for awhile.....this tree is still standing....it still sparkles. Do we have to take it down? Maybe later. Not today.