Peter drew this maze entirely by himself. Joe likes to doodle like this and would draw mazes for Peter all the time to do: He started showing Peter how to do it himself, and then he spent the next two weeks drawing mazes and getting better and better.
Not much has been happening around the home, but that is about to change. Spring is starting, which means the garden is starting up. We also have some massive plans to work in in the inside of the house, so stay tuned.
Planting bulbs is immensely satisfying. It doesn’t take long in the fall, and then by spring when the act of planting them is nearly forgotten, they spring up and remind you of the wonderful world that exists after the snow.
This pea sprout is the first of the garden. I planted them nearly a month ago during a warm spell. They braved a few cold spells and snow storms, and will start what will hopefully be a large and productive garden.
This flower bud appeared on a shrub I had nearly given up on identifying. I had not seen any flowers or fruit or any other noteworthy characteristics on this thing for a year and a half. This year it has identified itself as a flowering quince. Good to know…although they don’t do great in this climate, so it still might be slated for demolition.
I had a hard time the last two times I had babies. My emotions were not always under control, and both PB and C weren’t exactly happy to be babies. I wanted to have another child for lots of reasons, but one of them was so that I could actually enjoy being a mother to a baby, and feel like I was decent at it.
My experience of being a mom to baby H has been nearly everything I wanted. I adore being a mom to him, and I get lot of big baby smiles. I remember in the hopstial when I first had him, I was content to just sit and enjoy him for hours. Although I have to do get things done now, the attitude is still there. I do a lot of attachment parenting–co-sleeping, and baby wearing–because I just like having him around. (It is also because it just makes life easier too.) Our relationship isn’t perfect (like the one night he about killed me and wouldn’t calm down and go to sleep all the way until midnight), but it is pretty good. And I’m very grateful for it.
Guess what?
I turned three!
No way!
We all love our Curtis. He’s pretty relaxed unless he’s tired. He still doesn’t quite get birthdays. I was trying to tell him all day that he was three and not two…he would would respond, “No I two and one.”
We went down to the children’s museum to celebrate:
I do not love painting. It took us over a year inside our home before we bothered to paint anything. The first thing I did paint was the dining room. Observe:
It was a pretty neutral tan. Not bad, except it was a different tan the the entire rest of the house. I’m not a big fan of brown anyway. Luckily, most of the house is painted in a peachy-tan color that I like. But I felt like the brown tan in the dining room clashed with everything.
So we painted it dark blue instead. Much better. I love it. The dark color helps make a long open room feel more intimate. And it’s not brown and it doesn’t clash with everything.
I love giving my kids the camera. They take fun pictures.
Quotable quotes from the kids:
Peter: “Throw a tomato.” He says it all the time. For no reason.
Curtis: “I can not.” It’s adorable. Even though it means he is usually refusing to do what I ask.
When I was in an eight grade art class, I remember a conversation I had with some of my friends. Our teacher was absent at the time, and many of my friends were discussing the various faults of the missing teacher. I countered and said I didn’t mind her. My friend answered, in almost a derogatory way, “Well you don’t hate anything.” I didn’t quite know what to think then. The comment has stuck with me for twelve years and I’ve thought about it during that time. I now consider it one of the best compliments I have ever received.
Lately it is a philosophy I am striving to live by. During the past year, I have become engaged in the world of permaculture and self-sufficiency. I love the goals and ethics of the movements, but I never agree with everything that is said and written. I simply ignore the negative motions against practices, companies and people. There is a lot of bashing in the world from people convinced that other corporations and practices are evil and worth fighting against. I believe that there is only one thing worth fighting against, one main evil and that is the devil, Satan or whatever word you choose to use. There is real evil out there: people knowingly hurting others and committing crimes. That is worth fighting against.
But there is a lot of fighting against things that are not purely evil like oil corporations, pesticide companies, and non-organic practices. I’m not lending my voice. I’m not going to start hating people who are trying to live the best they can even if it doesn’t match my ideals. I not going to hate practices and companies that aren’t perfect and might be flawed but still aren’t blatantly bad.
Instead I choose to focus on positive solutions, on better ways to do things, of striving to just get a little better. Instead of despising pesticides, I find ways to garden where I don’t feel like I need them. Instead of trying to close down businesses, I try to support good companies and causes I care about. I view things on a spectrum: there are certainly better ways of doing things, but just because something isn’t the best doesn’t make it bad.
Hating and fighting against things that aren’t evil but simply not the best isn’t worth any effort. Instead I choose to live the best I can at this moment and to support the best I can find.
We had a recent foray to the Union Station museum down in Ogden. It was fun, and I was actually suprised to see that they had a lot of new exhibits since last time we went about a year ago.
If you are in the area, they do a reciprocal program with the Ogden Nature Center and Dinosaur Park. If you buy a membership to one, you get weekday admission to the others. They are pretty inexpensive memberships as well.
Baby H is getting much bigger and cutter. He recently started smiling:
We blessed him in Church last Sunday. The only picture I captured is him snuggling with his grandma:
Liz Braithwaite 