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!

Ugliest, but most forgiving project I've ever sewn...

I had a ton of fabric-- a lot of nice canvas-ey type material that I think is supposed to be for outdoor furniture and pieces of sturdy, but less than attractive material-- that I inherited from other gals. Now, I am a waste-not-want-not kind of gal and haven't been able to part with these 'priceless' fabrics, even though I really didn't have a project in mind or any good use for them. I was going to finally get rid of them... when I had an inspiration!

Reusable grocery bags!

Yes, they are ugly. Yes, they are far from perfect. No, they don't have fancy piping or any other accessories that will make them stand open on their own, fold up nicely, or even look cute. But you know what? All 6 large bags only took me less than 2 hours from start to finish, I didn't have to worry about perfect measuring, edges, pinning, corners, or hems. I just cut, serged, and then sewed straps on. Wuah-lah! Fabric put to good, practical use; cut down on clutter from plastic grocery bags; and even contribute a small part to reducing strain on the environment--

a FREE, fast, and FORGIVING way to spend Gwen's nap today!

Making Room for Christ

Gwen reminded me today:

MAKE room for Christ this Christmas.

I chose one 'sturdy' Nativity to put at Gwen's eye and hand level this Christmas so that she could really get into it. When I showed her all the people and animals, she was really excited. She unhesitatingly emptied her purse-- carrying all her favorite 'treasures' like her 2 turtles, ducky, monkeys, Minnie Mouse, and even Aurora-- so that she could fit all of the figurines from the Nativity in there. She was insistent upon carrying it around and taking Jesus with her into the car.

Then later while playing upstairs with her fairy treehouse-- her favorite new distraction and 'home' for all her lil critters-- she unhesitatingly replaced the fairy in the swing with a wise man, the fairy at the table with an angel, the fairy in the tree with 3 sheep, the ducky in the flower shower with a shepherd and cow, and the unicorn in the house with Mary, Joseph, a couple of wisemen, and the baby Jesus. And baby Jesus got to eat the apples.

Moral of the story: there are plenty of GOOD things to fill our lives with this Christmas season. Lots of things that are our favorites. But we have to MAKE room for the Savior, even if that means removing something that we really like. I hope there will be room in my inn, because I'll make it. Gwen's got the idea.

New Year, New Daily Routine

Hey folks! Well, it has been a while. I think this pattern might continue for a bit. Not that any of you readers will really be interested in knowing my daily to-do list, but I think it valid for posterity to know that I was a productive queen yesterday!

I finished all the unpacking,

wrestled boxes and suitcases up into their proper nooks in the closet,

2 loads of laundry folded and put away,

2 loads of dishes washed and put away,

living room tidied up,

prepared and fed Gwen lunch,

Gwen's clothes and toys all put away nicely,

took out all the food and scrubbed the fridge

(thanks to spilled and crystalized maple syrup, this was a real elbow grease chore),

grocery shopping completed during a driving snow

(oh, and bonus, I only spent 3/5 of what I normally spend! Hooray for thrift!),

dinner made and enjoyed,

played with Gwen for hours,

Anne of Green Gables finished,

read 2 chapters in my textbook for my music class,

had a wonderfully meaningful scripture study and Sunday school lesson planning,

put away huge stacks of books at the top of the stairs,

checked email and blogs,

updated my etsy products,

requested books and music from the library,

had Family Home Evening about the Creation with Gwen,

cut Eric's hair,

wrote about 2010 goals in my journal,

and relaxed on the couch.

Whew! I felt so motivated and satisfied with my 'accomplishments'. I love being able to cross things off the to-do list! Few things are more demoralizing than working on things all day but never getting anywhere or finishing anything so that nothing gets crossed off that list. But yesterday was not one of those days. :) Here I am giving myself a very nice pat on the back. :) The only thing I didn't get done was baking a pecan pie for family night. We got over it. :)

The beginning of 2010 promises to offer many such full days to me. I hope I have the energy to take them all. I don't know. Today I'm feeling much less enthusiastic. But maybe that is because cleaning the bathrooms is on the to-do list for today? :P

Anyway, I plan to keep posting about daily life as the only form of scrapbooking, journal keeping, and family history that I'm doing right now. But I can't promise that my posts will be very frequent or very entertaining. Most likely, things will focus on Gwen. Which reminds me that I need to ask my mom for photos from our trip down to visit after Christmas. I hardly even got out my camera because my mom is kind of a shutterbug and took a plethora of photos, so I figured I'd just borrow hers. I'll share some when I get the chance.

Taking on too much... But isn't it worth it sometimes?

Apparently, this is one of my talents. Taking on too much, not realizing my own limitations, going above and beyond expectation... I've done it for as long as I can remember. Ask my mom or my friends from Elementary school... I did it then too. Is this really a talent/gift or a weakness? I'm not really sure. Maybe both, depending on what I do with it. I guess if I get overwhelmed and stressed out about something, that is definitely a sign that I've gone too far... but if I just make some activity or project turn out REALLY great, then that's a good thing, right?

Well, I took on a normal project yesterday and blew it up into a huge production. The Pumpkin Pallooza I was hosting for Gardening/Food Storage Club at church was a smashing success with a great turnout (15 people! Wow! That was so exciting to see all the new faces! And I know so many more would have liked to come!), delicious food (I'm admittedly proud of how the pumpkin pie turned out since I've never made one, let alone from real pumpkin rather than canned--and that cake was all that I could have hoped it would be!), fellow-shipping time for new ward members and some visitors with whom I used to work, and I learned a TON in the process! That would make the 'over achieving' worth it, right?


But did I overdo it? I am feeling exhausted from sitting at the computer too long typing up info and recipes (seriously, like a 10 page document!), have a pervasive back ache that began after being on my feet ALL day yesterday cooking, and it took almost all night with windows open to the brisk October air before I finally cooled off and stopped sweating from being by a hot stove/oven baking all day...but I wasn't stressed, or anything. Just physically tired. (Which I guess is a big deal when you're 36 weeks pregnant. I forget that I can't do as much with my body as I could normally...). I had so many offers of help-- I probably should have taken people up on it-- but could we all really have fit between my table and the oven and baked all day without just having 'too many cooks in the kitchen'? I don't know... I did take Julie up on her offer to come over for about 2 hours and help with the stew. I was pretty tired by then and she was great! So, realistically, should I have asked more people to come help out?

Did I take on too much, yes. But wasn't it really worth it?