January Dreaming

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm really not sitting around and pining for January (that month is much too close to the chaos of Christmas for that), but I am indeed thinking fondly of the rare time with family that we got to spend in Cedar City for the last part of the girls' winter break this year. (Which, per usual, I haven't documented yet.) 

Craig stayed home and Laura and my mom came on the adventure to keep me company in the car ad to help with The Crazies, otherwise known as My Beautiful Children. Bless their hearts for helping; I doubt I would have made it in one piece without them. (And the kids definitely wouldn't have made it in one piece without them.)

Basically I just stayed inside the whole time I was there because it was FREEZING. Literally. (And yes, the cold does indeed bother me.) I think we might have left the house once to pick up pizza and go to Downeast, but seriously, other than that, I pretty much stayed in my slippers and scoffed at the ridiculously ever-plummeting temperatures for the length of my stay. (Oh, and I opened the back door once or twice to snap some pictures.) The girls ventured outside once to play in the snow, but they were back in less than 20 minutes and never asked to go outside again. (What can I say? We are inside people.) I did go back outside on the day we left out of necessity so I could pack the car. I wanted to cry, it was so cold, but then I just would have had a bunch of tiny ice cubes running down my cheeks, and that would have made it worse.

Here are a few highlights:

Snow sighting, from the comfort of the warm kitchen

He sure wanted to get out there.

Here's Lincoln sleep-eating whilst snuggled up with Cyn.

The fact that he was totally asleep had no bearing 

whatsoever on his ability to keep eating popcorn.

Funniest thing I've ever seen.

Aunt Laura cuddles 

f-f-f-freezing!

Julia's snow baby

Mommy's snow baby

Snow Bunny

Fan and Zac, who I love. And who I only ever take pictures of

when it's my last day seeing them, and they are still in their jammies.

Sorry, guys.

Best Cousins

Favorite Fan

Still beautiful with bed hair

 

my cuties

Love this. It's the best when they remember that they're friends. 

saw some beautiful sights almost the whole way home. but that doesn't 

mean I was a bit sad to turn my back on twenty-something degrees.

I do miss my peeps, though! 

Beautiful Life

I recently heard someone say something that truly resonated with me:

Since life is a composite of so many hard, or awkward, or just plain miserable moments, sometimes it's much too easy to forget what a glorious and wonderful time it is meant to be for us. 

No, every moment may not be lovely, but that doesn't mean that our lives can't be. And truly, the more our moments of happiness and calm are surrounded by moments of stress and chaos, the greater the contrast, and the more we will appreciate them when they come.

Because recognizing those often sparse islands of beauty and peace and seeing them for what they really are--tiny morsels of hope and love to keep us moving forward--is really all we need to realize and remember just how beautiful our lives really are.

Pre-Season

 No, it's really not warm enough to swim yet. 

But you better believe they're still doing it.

Fashion Sense

"Why yes, of course I'll tell you where I bought my fabulous boots!

I was just about to hop on this scooter and go buy another pair..."

Lightening the Load (One Party at a Time)

 Sometimes (well, okay, every week) the clean laundry pile starts looking like this (plus one more basket that didn't fit in the picture, plus probably another load in the dryer):

Needless to say, it starts feeling pretty overwhelming, pretty fast.

When that happens, sometimes you have to do this:

It's called having a Laundry-Folding Party.

It involves dumping out laundry baskets, cranking up some music, dancing a little, sorting and folding a lot, and somehow convincing your spouse and children that they will have fun because the word "party" is included.

Given the right music, the right attitude, and the right dance moves, they actually just might really have fun. And, with any luck, the party wraps up by 8:00 pm and you don't have to spend the rest of the night drowning in other people's (clean) underwear.

Now that's a reason to celebrate if I've ever seen one.