I'm not old

Do birthdays make you feel old? Remind you of your aging? Send you down memory lane? Make you wish for other years? I feel like my birthdays have become less significant to me as I've gotten older. I still love celebrating my children's birthdays, but mine are just... well... I just don't feel compelled to have all the pomp and circumstance for my own day. (Mother's Day, on the other hand, has become a much bigger deal to me!...)

Eric scattered little collections of flowers and post-it notes of love throughout the house so I'd find them when I got up. It was a wonderful surprise that kept on surprising me as I'd discover each new vase! Even when I thought I'd found them all, they just kept appearing! Best one was the laundry room. :)

I had a great birthday with a fun workout in the morning, well-behaved kids, a nice piano lesson with Gwen (I'm her teacher this year and my lessons are hit and miss in their awesomeness), time to work on some sewing, treats brought over, socializing with friends when collecting children from a playdate, City Barbeque deliciousness, and Graeter's ice cream with the gals after bed time. It was a wonderful day!

Birthdays are so interesting because you are celebrating an event you had little to do with successfully accomplishing (we should all give my MOM presents on my birthday!). You are also acknowledging your aging. But you know, I've never felt older on my birthday. And I still don't. I still feel like I'm 24 not 34. (Okay, I don't feel 14 and certainly not 4, so I guess I can measure SOME change!)

Here are a few things that keep me feeling young:

CREATE. I love to make things. Add to the beauty around me. Sew it, bead it, paint it, sing it... I just love to create! Above is a lace tee I made from the lace I had leftover from the wedding dress. Not enough for front and back, so I added a floral pattern for contrast on the back. I LOVE it! My new favorite shirt!

 DANCE. I love to move, to feel the music, to push my body and not be bored while doing it! I get the best workouts when I'm dancing because I push to the end of the song instead of talking myself out of as many reps or slacking off my intensity. Can't slack off when that beat is driving me! I love music and I love having a good time with my friends! I am so happy that I get to teach a "Zumba" class (I'm not a licensed instructor, so technically I can't call it that) once a week!

 EXPLORE. Eric and I are doing monthly stay-cation dates this year. We have had so much fun traveling around the world culinarily! I look forward to visiting some of these destinations for real some day, but in the mean time I'm happy to just explore from a distance!

 MOTHER. My kids keep me on my toes. Keep me busy. Keep me searching for new things and new places and new books and new ways to experience the world. I love seeing simple things through their eyes. Things I take for granted are kindled anew and become magical! Mothering gives me opportunities to help lil ones learn how to cope with imperfect moments (Emmett was not happy for this picture, but I still love it).

 LET GO. I am not always so good at this, but I try to not worry as much. To just enjoy living and not stress about what other people think of my house, my parenting, my financial choices, my occupation choice, my clothes... or my dance moves. These moments are when I can look back and know I was truly, blissfully happy! Photo cred goes to Breanne Weston Photography

 LEARN. I have a voracious appetite for learning new things, whether it be new places and cultures, or history, or skills. I love to read and non-fiction has moved up to my favorite genre of late. Best non-fiction reads of the summer? Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions, The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals, and In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex. And 2 others I read last year that were also fabulous: Horologicon: A Day's Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language and The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and their Epic Quest for Gold in the 1936 Olympics. There is so much to learn and eating it up all keeps me young! Best learning is hands-on and we loved our sight-seeing this summer!

 LOVE. Oh, how can I express. My Eric keeps me young. Our love keeps me young. Our intimacy keeps me young. I. Absolutely. Adore. This. Man. We celebrated 10 years just recently. It was an exquisite excursion!

LAUGH. My mom once told me, "if you can laugh at it, you can live with it." I see the wisdom in this and have tried to find something happy or quirky in every day to keep the stress and worry from creeping in. It works wonders for keeping our family happy!...I will admit that this is soooooo much easier to do when Eric is around. He just makes me laugh so easily! He knows how to diffuse my angst like no one else!!!

 I don't have any great pics to illustrate the remaining things on my list. But I am quite certain that SERVE and FAITH belong there too. Whenever I start to think I've got a lot on my plate, I think of someone else I know whom I've had the opportunity to serve. and I remember to count my blessings. And most definitely my faith in Christ gives me hope and purpose, providing the joy to each day that makes life so wonderful. Without faith all the above things would become dull and lose their luster. Service and faith both keep me young because I remember I am more than myself. Keeps everything in perspective and helps me to appreciate each day. 

 nah, 34 isn't old. Not when I've got my wonderful family around me to keep me young! Happy birthday to me!

A wee bit overwhelmed (this might qualify as a complaining post--you are warned)

Do you ever feel compelled to make a post JUST to get comments and feel connected to the world? I suppose that is this post. I don't have any pictures or videos. I don't even have any exciting news. I just feel... a little overwhelmed with all that is on my plate right now... and why does that make me take time out from what I NEED to be doing to blog? I don't know. Post-poning the inevitable escapism? Giving myself a short mental break? (which this isn't really doing, in all honesty.) I feel like I need to talk, but I have a cold and I talked too much yesterday and now I don't ACTUALLY want to talk to anyone because my throat hurts, but I want to talk...see my dilemma?

I made a big oops on my computer yesterday afternoon and failed to save my week-long progress on my paper. All of this week's efforts are gone. have to start over. Not even an auto-save to recover. believe me, we looked. SOOOOO demoralizing. And frustrating. and I'm soooo mad at myself because I KNOW to be more careful. And now I've got to put in double time because the paper is due next Friday. I wouldn't have to rush if I'd saved properly.

and I'm sick. and tired. and I feel lousy. and maybe just a teensy bit grouchy, can ya tell?. :)

and I've got these weight loss goals that I REALLY want to achieve, but I'm too tired bc of being sick to work out like normal this week. and too mentally tired to be as disciplined as I need to be. and, if I'm honest about what I've got cut out for me next week homework-wise, I need to cut back next week too so I have energy for finishing this paper. So I feel torn between two goals that are very important to me: school and fitness. and I'm annoyed that I even have to make this choice (annoyed at both my computer-oops AND my cold).

and we're in the process of trying to take care of some financial-loan-maybe-we'll-get-a-house kind of things, which is just one more thing to keep me awake at night stewing (as if the non-drowsy decongestant wasn't enough to keep this already-confessed-insomniac awake at night), so I'm definitely not getting enough sleep.

and we're having friends over for dinner tonight. This is a reschedule because last month the girls had the flu. I don't want to have to cancel again, especially because of a stupid cold, so I'm just powering through all the food and cleaning prep. But I'm so tired already--and it is only 9:45 in the morning--and I know it will take energy to be excited and chatty and a good hostess in general. and I'm just a little overwhelmed by all the preparation (we're having Mexican fajitas and I've got to make flan and slice all those peppers and cook Spanish rice etc etc etc) and entertaining today. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to have my friends over... but I just don't want the work that comes with it. At least not today.

and I'm just kind of overwhelmed with it all and want to cry sometimes but even that takes too much energy plus it makes my congestion worse. Sigh.

Thanks for listening. Just one of those days, I guess.

Random Animal Thoughts

Want to know something random that I just thought of? Ever realized that we say:

horsie
piggie
doggie
kitty
teddy
duckie
goosie
birdie
lambie
squirrelie
fishie
froggie
and these don't really count because they don't get a new affectionate name but why not add monkey and turkey since they already have an 'ie' sound

pretty much any small animal or any cute animal can be made into an "ie". You'd never say, 'look, it's the lil lionie.' or 'see the pretty peliconie'. I doubt anyone has ever tried to make a moose into a moosie, an elk into an elkie, a tiger into a tigerie, an elephant into an elephantie, or a whale into a whalie. Also, in general, unattractive animals don't become "ie"s. I don't know how turkeys slipped past that one. The affectionate title seems to be reserved for small and cute, but especially for everyday or farm animals. Things kids might see regularly. That's why even cute and small exotic specimens like penguins might be excluded. Again, I don't know how monkeys made the cut. But, they don't REALLY count because they don't change from their normal name into an affectionate name, they just get lucky with their normal name. So, my thesis is: cute, small, everyday animals can be made 'affectionate' with an "ie" ... EXCLUDING COWS!!! Now, I think cows can be cute. and horses didn't get left out because of their large size... so why don't we say

"Cowie"?

a few surprises in the last box

Remember in the Incredibles when Elastagirl calls her husband to announce they are officially moved in because she has unpacked the last box? Well, Eric and I have finally "moved in" to our apartment where we have, apparently, not officially been living for the last 2 years.

Amongst the loot of the last box, there were some surprises:

This tie. It was Eric's first tie ever. Cool, kinda, to see it... but I convinced him there were better ways of commemorating such things.

This pretty awesome (but not so space efficient) collection of Brazilian calling cards from his mission. Complete with a card of Bethlehem, a guy kissing a very pregnant belly, comic strips, food, and a random Japanese girl enjoying a bowl of noodles with chopsticks (is there a Japanese sub-culture in Brasil? News to me...). I was very amused. I don't want to just trash these, but haven't quite figured out how to use them in an art project yet. Any ideas? Paving a swimming pool, perhaps? :)

and...

wait for it...

THIS!

cuz of course, a box of random items wouldn't be complete without a rubber chicken foot... (what happened to the body? that's what I want to know...) :)

What does this tell you about my hubby? Did I mention he wouldn't let me throw away the bat skeleton from our old apartment in Springville? I guess I have my own collections of random things, especially supplies I'm going to use for sculpture... somewhere down the road... in some creative way, I'm sure! Could be worse though. I read about this couple that held on to their baby's first poopy diaper as a momento. Yuck! :) What strange things do you stumble upon in your spouse's drawer, in your own purse (and don't even remember putting that in there!), or in your children's pockets?