Ode to Estie in Purple (title of photo--no poem forthcoming)

Here she is in the "Peace Room" aka Living Room....initially dubbed "Peace Lair" when the Furrs were visiting...now just "Peace Room" to make it easier. Leah even calls it the peace room, which I find totally cute, and even totallier hilarious.

On second thought, this pic is Queen Esther of Peace.

I now know how to do pictures. Watch out, world!

Peace out

Happy Thoughts 8/30/05

--Japanese Maple leaves' shadows dancing on the walls of our master bedroom
--Esther learning how to crawl (mixed blessing) and getting on her knees and bouncing around with her butt in the air
--Fun friends everywhere
--My "Priorities" list on my new white (really silver) board with NO priorities listed.
--Leah is potty-trained!
--I re-found a black and white pic of Susannah grabbing onto me and laughing into my ear--we lived on Swanson Drive--I assume I'm 3 and she's 5 in the pic. Jon says Estie looks like me in the picture.
--"We're going to the zoo, we're going to the zoo..." tomorrow with Fillmores.
--Leah picking fairy wings with her $1 at Dollar Tree.
--I'm resuming work on my Kaffe Fassett pennants quilt.
--Speaking of Kaffe and pennants, I love my pennants (celebration flags) strewn from my patio. Picture to follow if I can figure this thing out.
--4 cozy schutzes in the king in the morning
--the delta breeze is alive and well.

How is today different from yesterday?

I've got some sorting to do.....not just the random dregs of our recent move (2 huge boxes in my closet, 19 boxes in the "office/craft/guest" room, but mainly mental sorting.

Being a mom is really hard for me. It brings me my greatest joys, but my ultimate lows: try yesterday when estie was screaming her guts out for no apparent reason and Leah was fake crying because her Strawberry Shortcake band-aid was coming off and I was being "not very nice" to her--this at the near-end of a day with incessant whining, complete exhaustion, total boredom, and an afternoon realization that the missionaries were coming over for dinner at 5:30...I ended up locking myself in my bedroom and calling a quick s.o.s. to jon--not that he's able to really physically save me, but mentally?...that's the hope--anyway, I really felt that the only way out was out--I jokingly told jon "self annihilation or a full-time job." But it didn't seem too funny at the time.

So today I've been to the gym, made a cute t-shirt that I'm currently wearing, made homemade granola complete with 3 baggies for various neighbors, played a bit with my kids and taken care of them--and I'm not at all crazy. This is what I'm sorting. Today I feel like the alter-ego of yesterday. I'm pretty content, but a bit frightened. What lies on the other side of today?

Can I attribute today's success to the fact that I went to the gym and got an adrenaline rush and free time? Maybe. Is it pure circumstance that my kids are actually behaving better today? Maybe. A huge blessing from God to derail yesterday's dilemma? Maybe. I honestly don't know. But I'm going to run with it. Gotta go deliver that granola.

Sometimes the view is better if others are looking in

Leah, Esther, and I just said goodbye to Joe, John, Jacob, and Billy. We were their last stop on a whirlwind Cali roadtrip. It was really fun to be with Joe--this is only the second time I've seen him post-mish--and Jon's first.

Susannah and Nathan were here, too, with chittlins until yesterday afternoon. Before Joe got here, we went to the Yolo County Fair to try and go to the Demolition Derby. (How WT can we get? Read on.) After much unsuccess with tix, etc, we succombed to pony rides, cotton candy, and shaved ice. Walking next to Leah on her pony was magical. She was so happy and exclaimed, "my pony has four legs!" when she first got on and looked down. After her ride was over, she kept saying, "I want to go ride MY pony!" She was thrilled. Jon watched on, a very proud father, and Estie giggled everytime Leah went around and passed by her. Magical.

So back to the purpose/title of this blog. What I mean is that I was just kind of down this weekend (we had three heinous run-ins in a row with anti-family-men who claim church callings, jobs, "sisterly love for wives" as their excuse to not hang out with their families; Jon had done a few minor things to annoy me; our kids haven't been sleeping well....) and I was beginning to think that OUR little family was in peril. (I'm quite dramatic when it comes to family/marital relationships.) But then we had a magical night last night with joe and co. We went downtown Sacramento to show off our environs, the capitol building, etc, and when Leah announced that she had to pee, Jon ran her around to every building in a 6 block radius to see if the doors were open so she could use the toilet (after trying to coax her into using a nearby bush without success). They were on a mission, and when Leah emerged triumphantly from the Wells Fargo highrise, gleefully screaming, "THE DOORS WERE OPEN AND I WENT PEE!", I was thrilled that I am me and that jon is my husband, and Leah my girl.

And then when Leah came out from her bedroom the THIRD time after Jon had already read her 17(?) stories, and instead of getting ticked we put on "Hey Ya" and had a dance party in front of Joe and his friends, I was even happier. She shook her little booty and Esther was awake and laughing melodically, and the boyz were laughing at the whole scene--and quite possibly thinking, "i want my future family to be like this"--I was glad that this is my family, past, present, and future. Sometimes it takes other people enjoying my family to make me realize how fun we really are--and how little everything else really is. I love us.

Hello World!

Susannah and I are sitting here reading random people's blogs and we decided to start this one up right now. Testing, Testing, 1-2-3.