Wednesday~September 30, 2009 I’m having a crisis of blog. A crisis of B-L-O-G is what I’m having. I started out skipping along with a tra-la-la in this whole blogging thing and then people started calling me a writer and I was all really? It’s a nice thing to be called, but I’m still not sure I have my mind wrapped around what it means for me. I guess I just can’t figure out how to do this anymore, or how I want to do it. (Blog, that is.) Which is why I nearly up and closed this baby down the other day. (I know, GASP! How would life go on?) (Please note my sarcasm as you read that last sentence.) I absolutely loved Maggie’s post Evolution of a Blogger. It said all that I could say here. You should read it, it’s just plain excellent. To be completely cheesy, I want to do […]
Monday~September 28, 2009 Miles watched me pick up a book and set it in the library bin and he said, “That’s not a library book, Mom.” So I pointed out the bar code on the top right corner and the library sticker on the back of the book. He accepted defeat in the argument and moved on. Then, because I’m totally random and like to spice things up, I told him that he has a bar code on his forehead and a sticker on his bum. I said, “I guess I’ll have to return you to the library soon. It was nice of them to let me borrow you, but now another mom needs a turn.” He rolled his eyes and smirked, but I immediately felt bad for my little joke. I could see the questions in his eyes as he mulled over this concept. So I scooped him up and kissed his […]
Sunday~September 27, 2009 As you scroll (ever so slowly) through the pictures in this post, you will certainly become only a pile of goo upon your keyboard. Now let it be known! I am not responsible for any tears you may shed, or for that goo you will become. But I will take credit for the grin on your face. You’re welcome. Look out, now. You will be melted! (You have been warned.) I wonder who will marry first? Miles and Olivia? Olivia (conveniently our close friends’ daughter) and Miles If they continue to make each other this happy? Marriage is NOT a bad idea. But then there’s the little brother and the little sister… Will Asher and Ellorie be the first ones to say “I do?” (Forgive the poor blurred quality of this photo,it’s just that they move so fast-pun intended.) A kiss for an upset Asher… I’m terribly sorry. But our […]
Friday~September 25, 2009 There are all kinds of super heroes… costumed kiddos who believe they can save the world, a Grandpa with strong hands and a huge heart, resilient little boys who spendtoo much time at the doctor’s office, good friends who love your messy self just how you are, and maybe even me. A super hero of the mothering kind. This post is a part of Better in Bulk’s Give Me Your Best Shot. Speaking of super heroes, my friend Jo over at Mylestones wrote an absolutely beautiful post you need to check out. It’s your one and only Friday link from me this week. It deserves center stage. Happy weekend! Thank you for allowing me to pop up in your inbox and for reading my words, silly or serious. I appreciate you. ~Heather
Wednesday~September 23, 2009 There are dust bunnies. So many. They are under the bed and in me, scurrying across the wooden floors of my home and my heart. They are moving much too fast through the empty, bumping into toys and crayons and dried up play-doh, then coming to a weary stop. It seems no matter how we try to keep up with them, they are winning. So we sweep up only the ones that are out in the open and then we leave the house, coming and going with the living of everyday life. We could hold them out in the palms of our hands to show that we have them, but the bunnies float and they spin and we can’t seem to catch them. We push them under the rugs to hold them still. We ignore them. We force them to unnoticed parts of our cluttered minds, and move on to […]
Tuesday~September 22, 2009 I would like to introduce you to Mona… Yes, I said Mona. Maybe you’ve met her? If not, please welcome her. (Clap now. She deserves some applause, she’sbeen in my bag for quite some time now.) Mona is making her way around (almost) all 50 statesvia the blogosphere, and she’s doing it in only 5 days!When she arrived for her visit with us here in the lovely Minnesota,she wanted to head straight out to see the world around her.I said, “That’s my kinda superhero/blog traveler!” So we strapped her in the car and off we went. (She asked if we could pull a Thelma and Louiseby running away from life and then driving off a cliff,but I said, “Are you kidding me? My kids are in the car!”So we went to the Farmer’s Market instead.) Mona may not be Minnesotan, but she sure knows how to pick her corn! Next, […]
Monday~September 21st, 2009 I don’t walk around announcing the fact that Miles (4) and Asher (2) don’t watch TV, but if the subject comes up, I answer honestly. Even so, one doctor rolled his eyes and said, “Yeah right, Mom. He’s an American child, I know he watches television.” I retorted with a high-pitched, “I unplugged them!” (Because that’s a perfectly normal thing to say.) He still didn’t believe me. Many of you know that we chose to “unplug” last spring. (We’ll see how it goes in the depths of a frigid Minnesota winter, but for now we’re sticking to it.) You may also remember that the catalyst for this change was due to my inability to achieve the ever-elusive moderation I was striving for. Some mothers can do just that…moderate screen time. I am not one of them. So when I had a very helpful email conversation with my friend Debbie of […]
Sunday~September 20, 2009 I love a whole lot of things, but one of my favorites is when friends and strangers alike come together for the love of the same thing, for something they care about, to help. So yesterday was a good day, walking around Lake Calhoun with stranger/friends “for the love of Liz,” and to raise money for the foundation that was born in her honor. Liz Logelin 5K – Lake Calhoun-Minneapolis, MN Matt Logelin with daughter Maddy on his head The lovely crew I had the pleasure of walking with When I wrote the post about doing this walk and why, so many of you took the time to donate what you could to this cause or to leave a comment to reach my $100 goal. Thank you just isn’t enough, really. But thank you. Your kindness spread all around Lake Calhoun yesterday, and it was an honor to be a […]
Friday~September 18, 2009 Wanna see/read some cool stuff? Okay then… Amy Turn Sharp of Doobleh–Vay put up a post last Friday called while they nap I should be working. It made my day. Go ahead and watch her short video clip, it’ll make you feel all happy.(Check out some other posts while you’re there. If you think her lip-syncing is good, you should read her posts with her own words. She’s absolutely positively talented, that lady.) Then over at Moms Without Blogs, I was moved by Lee’s post about the small moments gifted to us by our children, the ones that help us realize we’re doing okay even when we haven’t felt at all like we’re succeeding. It’s a beautiful heart-felt post, giving me just the reminder I needed at just the right moment. COMMENTS ARE OFF ON THIS POST.(Not because I don’t care what you have to say,I just want you to […]
Thursday~September 17th, 2009 This week, Beth’s challenge for You Capture was MACRO. So I got up close (but not that personal) to a few things I see all the time, every day. It amazes me how I can find the beauty even in the most familiar of things, if I take the time to look closely… Asher shoots water from a balloon to his face for a “drink.” (Yes, until it gets too cold outside, I do see water balloons daily.) One of the first fallen leaves from the “Miles Tree” in our front yard. I found beautiful little dirty and worn out details in three more things.Let’s see if you can guess what these ordinary things are… You can check out more close-ups, or learn how to join in next week by clicking on the picture below… Thank you for allowing me to pop up in your inbox and for reading my […]
Wednesday~September 16, 2009 This is getting ridiculous. Really. I screamed today. At myself. Hands up in the air, flailing about and then down to my face to cover it because I was SO FRUSTRATED WITH MY FREAKING BRAIN. I was saying “NOOOOO….NOOOOO you DID NOT!” All by myself with no one around, just me yelling at me. Last week Asher’s pediatrician looked at me and told me I have Attention Deficit Disorder. He’s not even my doctor, but he can tell. THAT’S not embarrassing AT ALL. I said, “Yeah, I know.” He said, “Do you get help for it?” I said, “Um…no.” He said that it might be a good idea, and to try to not be ashamed, and then I almost cried. Then I was all, “yeeeaaaah, you’re right, I should,” but my mind had already wandered. So it was too late, how would I remember to get help later if I […]
Tuesday~September 15, 2009 I’ll never forget taking Miles to his first big event when he was about two weeks old. I was a mess of hormones, a lactating machine filled with angst, joy, and fear all at once. In short, I was a complete mess and somehow, I was absolutely loving it. Those first days, they all ran together and felt as if they’d last forever. Such a strange thing, being so tired that you just want your baby to hurry up and grow, and yet wanting them to be newly born and in your arms your entire life. And then you want a break so badly, you come close to asking the mailman to babysit so you can run around the block. And then you want to wake that sweet little monster up after he finally falls asleep because you suddenly miss him…yes, it’s crazy-making, alright. My mom was holding him on […]
If a weekend could take human form and walk around, mine would be a haggard and shuffling old man. As I sat on the floor and rifled through old boxes of letters and journals from my past at my parent’s house this weekend, I knew I was taking a risk. You see, my past is definitely tainted with things that bring me pain, things I won’t name here, things that still sit in boxes, waiting to be healed. They are ugly things, some that were out of my control and some that were in it. So I ran down memory lane instead of strolling, holding my breath and leaping over pot holes, eyes scanning the pages in a bit of shock. At one point, I tripped. I took a sharp curve and landed face down in the dirt of my own mistakes and the mistakes of others in my life. And there on […]
Friday~September 11, 2009 Remember when September 11th was simply September 11th? Me either. Now we say the number nine and the number 11 together and it only means one thing. 9/11 Terror. Memories of exactly where we were on that day, the surreal slow-motion day that changed how we think about our safety. Now 9/11 rolls off the tongue and brings memories, and that’s just as it should be. To forget would be a disregard for the lives lost, and a slap in the face to those who are grieving and always will be grieving. We talk about it and remember so that it will always help to color the way we live, embracing every day. I figure today is a perfect day to share some powerful posts with you about redemption and hope. Check these guys out, you won’t be sorry: A very public experiment: last one by Mike Adamick at Cry […]
A hastily stolen photoin the park of her this lovely little lady I don’t know I watched her secretly hoping that when the years make me herI’ll read booksin the park I want to walk the pathscarrying the storiesof my lifein my heartjust as I carrythe bound pagesunder my arm All those brokenlovely storiesmixed with fictionof poetryhistoryand humor I hope I take that uneasy walkthenafter the years have passed and nowwhile I’m navigating this paththe uneasy roadof the unknown leaps of faith scraping stepsstooped backhands holding tightlyto stay up Broken working my wayto the benchthat’s too lowand not softbut somehow just right I hope that when life calls outin the flowers and the breeze I’ll answerthen and now to keep livingthe brokenand the lovely Life. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This week’s You Capture assignment was to photograph somethingyou’ve never photographed before.The above photo is my contribution to the task. VisitBeth at I Should Be Folding Laundry.(She […]
Wednesday~September 9, 2009 All this time, I’ve titled posts “From the Mouth of Miles.” Now I get to add Asher. This is gonna be even more fun than before. Double the hilarity. Here goes: There is my absolutely delicious Miles. I asked him to have Asher help him with something and he said,“But my brother is NOT helpful, he’s MEANFUL!” ~~~~~~~~~~ He and Asher are on my bed, staring up at the ceiling and doing nothing but talking. Well actually, Miles is talking and Asher is saying, “uh huh” over and over. Miles says, “I asked God for a lot of brothers.” Then he adds, pointing up, “Look! Do you see them? All the brothers falling from the sky?” (OK, so I was a bit terrified while eavesdropping on this one…falling from the sky? NOW? Does this mean I’m pregnant with twins or sextuplets or something???? ALL boys??? NOW???…But I’m not…I don’t think.) […]
Monday~September 7th, 2009 Yesterday, while at the state fair, we happened by a sea of cars on display. So the boys spent a good half hour climbing in and out, grabbing steering wheels and shaking them from side to side, Ryan included. Meanwhile, I went to get buffalo chips. (No, not actual buffalo, the animal, but buffalo like buffalo wing sauce but on fries, not wings. With sour cream. End of explanation.) I’m not all that into steering wheels or climbing in and out of cars, but I sure am into pretty much any fair food. Except alligator on a stick…not that. Anyway… When I got back, Ryan excitedly told me there was something new with some of the display models they were climbing in and out of. He said that the speedometers can be set so they won’t go over a certain speed. Then he went on to say that there’s also […]
Friday~September 4, 2009 I wrote a little something that I needed to write to myself over here today. It’s about God and how most of the time I just wish He would fix everything without me having to do a stinkin’ thing. Laboring of any kind isn’t all that fun. But I suppose it’s also got a beautiful point to it… And please, if you haven’t yet, could you comment on my last post? Commenting means another dollar donated to the Liz Logelin Foundation. Thanks muchly. It means a whole lot to me. I hope your Labor Day weekend is totally fantastic. Peace. (Comments are closed on this post. You know, so you can head over to those other two places and save loads of time.) Thank you for allowing me to pop up in your inbox and for reading my words, silly or serious. I appreciate you. ~Heather
Thursday~September 3rd UPDATE: Warning: later in this post I will claim that a 5K walk = 5 miles. I have no idea why. I didn’t think, I just typed. I do realize that 5K does not = 5 miles. I just decided it does because my brain does that sort of thing. I need medication, obviously. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We grew up just down the road from each other. We’ve often joked that the country song that goes something like, “there were 700 fence posts between your place and mine and neither one of us was old enough to drive a car…,” was written just for us. This friend is a very big part of my heart. How do you sum up nearly 30 years of friendship (and counting) with stories and words? You can’t. So I will simply tell you that this friend stole a part of my heart when we were very young, […]
All morning I’ve been trying to figure out how to say what I’m thinking. I didn’t know how to express it, couldn’t find my words. I kept trying and getting frustrated and shaking small people off my legs and getting frustrated. Then I would stop and do dishes or pick some stuff up or break up a fight. Then I read a couple of blogs, and what do you know? Two of my lovely friends said exactly what I was trying so hard to say…. Amber of The Run-A-Muck wrote How to build a house of prayer: look for flags of JOY and Jo of Mylestones wrote Weebles Wobble But They Don’t Fall Down Lately I’ve been ignoring my need for constant renewal. Not just rest and some peace and quiet and a break here and there, but renewal of the spiritual variety. I ignore it and then I feel up to my […]
Tuesday~September 1, 2009 I’m going to have to do it. I’m going to have to put my fingers on the page, lifting it up and over, turning to September. School, schedules, activities, the cold settling in and stealing Summer, making it seem even shorter than it was. Minnesota is as abrupt as she is indecisive, when it comes to the changing of seasons. I love the Fall colors, the crisp leaves underfoot on long walks, and the need for a cozy sweater. I love that Fall means I’m about to pull out more blankets, throwing them over our beds, soft and colorful, something that feels new. But so soon? I don’t like that Fall means Winter is peeking it’s huge noggin around the corner of the next calendar page, ready to pounce, stealing the beautiful colors from the trees, making their visit even shorter, and then staying just a moment long enough to […]
