“If you’re blessed, you’ve got to be a blessing.” – Pharrell Williams




Work





Play




Love


Neighborhood
Meditations on Life and Parenting
“If you’re blessed, you’ve got to be a blessing.” – Pharrell Williams




Work





Play




Love


Neighborhood
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” – John Muir




We went on a road trip to Leavenworth, WA. I felt the truth of the John Muir quote above as soon as we crossed into the mountains. “…places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul alike.” – John Muir


Speaking of play, rollercoasters aren’t my thing so thankfully my dear friend was up for the rides!



And everyone was in for the snow and slides!



Maybe Cooper missed us…but kept busy finding some enticing distractions.


Snow tracks and signs.
“The only source of knowledge is experience.” – Albert Einstein



One morning this week, we decided to be a little late to school and work so that we could spent quality time together at Starbucks. Seattlites at Starbucks – seem too cliche? Regardless, we made good use of our time as Miss O’s sign conveys!


Cooper spent some time learning to blend in. He’s behind that gaggle of kids outside the school (no wonder he loves going to school pick up for all the attention he gets). And in the next photo, he was hanging out with some older retrievers. I’m not even entirely certain which one he is.



Mr. D on a mission: spraying, building, and doing push-ups


License plate art at the licensing office. Isn’t that the coolest map? And the sign of the week.
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson


As often happens, I opened my phone thinking we didn’t do much this week and then found…pictures of the “make your own pizza” sleepover,


Decorative puddles after the ice melted,


And quality time spent in the garage as Miss O learned to hoverboard while


Coop ate the cones.

And funny signs under blue skies. A pretty good week!
“Beautiful, powerful, dangerous, cold
Ice has a magic can’t be controlled
Stronger than one, stronger than ten
Stronger than a hundred men, ha” – Frozen Heart from Frozen


How do you know it’s cold in Western Washington? Mt. Rainier wears a hat. Ba-dum-dum.
But I can’t take credit for the joke because I heard it on the news. The weather seems to be the story of the week for most of the country. Maybe everyone except Arizona?


We didn’t get snow but we roamed around the neighborhood til we found some frozen ground water. Then the kids sang songs from Frozen and pretended they were ice workers.



Tug of war is just a mechanical engineering problem isn’t it? The weight differential multiplied by the friction coefficient or something like that?



Slime, hugs and motorcycles. All good separately – but never good combined in any way other than a gallery of pictures.


A stick for Cooper to chew on. And a sign for humans to chew on.
“Waiting insistently in front of a tightly closed door is unfair to all of the open doors! Give a chance to the open doors!” – Mehmet Murat ildan



There was a lot of excitement in our house for the UW vs Michigan game last week. It didn’t quite turn out as we hoped but it wasn’t for lack of cheering.


Shredding and cooking. Two distinctly different activities but done in our house with the same amount of enthusiasm.



“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of.” – Ogden Nash

Word!
“The only thing an old man can tell a young man is that it goes fast, real fast, and if you’re not careful it’s too late. Of course, the young man will never understand this truth.” – Norm MacDonald



Cooper! 20 weeks ago the stuffed polar bear was 1/3 bigger than Cooper. 16 weeks ago, Cooper drew even. And now, Cooper is at least 1/3 bigger than the bear. No wonder every time I take him to the vet she looks at him, smiles and says, “He’s going to be big.”
And to make sure he stays on track, Cooper is willing to sleep right outside the closet where his food is kept. As close as possible…





Rock climbing and hiking, including find a bus in the woods – but not one that could carry us out of there.


Delivering some neighborhood cheer.


For anyone who giggled at my story about the Christmas present laughter…


The heart and the sign of the week. May you all have a whole (not fractional) great week ahead!
“Kindness is love made visible.” – unknown


Somebody ate our Christmas cards and was feeling pretty good about it!



The elves busy working on Christmas gifts.


Sticking with the Christmas theme of this week’s roundup – going to The Nutcracker and Santa with my brother and sister-in-law.


Christmas lights on the Space Needle and the sign of the week.
“If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it.” – Toni Morrison






Cooper’s first vacation. I think he enjoyed it – and the rest of us did too even in windy and stormy conditions!


Cooper – wondering what to pack. And the cat showing that she might have even missed him just a little bit.


How is it that Mr. D can look pensive about chocolate chip cookies but enthused about worms? I’d question his taste…but maybe it’s just some sort of wormhole effect. (To the extent I know about wormholes, it’s just enough to know that there’s no relation to real science or astronomy in that statement.) 😉


The latest grocery store soda display and the sign of the week. Seems like with inflation, the charge should be higher.
“Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it. – Soren Kierkegaard


Ice cream and worms


Puddles and singing holiday songs in jammies with candles


Bouncy houses and pile-ups



Eye glasses and looking through the key hole


Hearts and signs. Eat the cookie before you read the sign.