“Like wildflowers, you must allow yourself to grow in all the places people never thought you would. ” – unknown
Is it hard to find a three-leaf clover in a pile of soda? Not after you’ve seen the Halloween, Christmas and Valentine’s Day offerings.
SPRING TRAINING: includes a water balloon fight but with warm water balloons and hot chocolate after.
Dr Stein said of last week’s photos that I should wrap Miss O in bubble wrap. The closest I could get was to wrap them up in bubbles. Of course, sometimes I also want to keep them in bubbles but I’ll settle for trying to make this time when these little things delight them last as long as possible.
Heart of the week (toothpaste in the sink) and sign of the week.
“Spring: a lovely reminder of how beautiful change can truly be.” – unknown
I know spring has sprung because I’m eating Easter chocolates – even if they are from last year.
This week as I froze my feet taking pre-dawn pictures, I wondered why I take this same picture, more or less, over and over again. I realized that the answer was that it’s because it gives me a beautiful start to my day in which I have a better sense of perspective – that the world is so big and my worries are small. As Lao Tzu says “If you correct your mind, the rest of your life will fall into place.” He just left out that’s it’s an ongoing practice.
So I took the kids up to see the sunrise and they were moderately interested but more impressed by leaving handprints in the frost. 🙂
Activities of the week: nothing but net and shooting stars.
“Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder.” – Jana Stanfield
Indoor bouncy house – inflatable zone on a Sunday morning.
Walking out of the bouncy house place with my kids, I was looking down to avoid puddles in the parking lot and then glanced up to find that we were five feet from Macklemore. He appeared to be taking his daughters to a birthday party at the same place.
At this point I need to say that I’m not so hip as to normally be able to recognize Macklemore, even though he’s a world famous rapper. But he’s a Seattle boy, through and through, and I’d just seen him do an interview. And in the parking lot moment, he was dressed better than any other parent taking their kid to a bouncy house place and most Seattlites in general. So he was noticeable.
When we got ready to go out that evening, I found my kids stepping up their attire. Mr D came up with this outfit out of his hand me downs without any help, except that Miss O added the necklace. I’m calling it the “Macklemore effect.”
I managed to get my kids up to the deck to see the full moon this week. When we were there, Mr D saw the darling, young neighbor in the yard with her puppy and yelled “hi.” She texted me later “I’m taking notes for when I have kids to take them to the roof to look at the moon.” I wished her good luck with that because strangely, it’s so much harder than it sounds to do.
“You are doing better than you think you are.” – Jeffrey R. Holland
Sometimes I get to the end of the week and think that it’s been so busy that I’m not going to have any photos to post. Then I look through the camera roll and am amazed at all we’ve done, even on the weeks we’ve been tired and barely keeping it together. Huh, doing better than I think we are, just like the quote says.
We visited an old-fashioned arcade so the kids can understand any pinball references in culture and media.
Sometimes I have the distinct feeling that the house has a ghost in it. So weird when it’s singing “Baby Shark”
It “warms” my heart that we are getting out to play outside more and more. Even when the players are trash-talking the photographer. We still need hot chocolate afterwards though. Guests might want to turn down the offer of marshmallows when they see how it’s prepared…
“The whole world is a series of miracles, but we’re so used to them we call them ordinary things.” – Hans Christian Anderson
President’s Day Weekend on Whidbey Island – Celebrating that we were the last car in the left lane to get on the ferry. Which was good, because we can’t fly like the other dock denizens.
Beach walks
Horsing around
Meeting some of the critters of the Island, including Willis, the coolest dog to ride on the back of a hay cart and loved leaning on Miss O.
Willis inspired Miss O to believe she could train the cat when we got back home. It might have appeared she was getting all trained up during the ten minutes she was happy to have us home after being gone for 3 days. But then her motivation waned after and she went back to being the untrained cat.
“My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style.” – Maya Angelou
It snowed for something like 5 minutes this week and didn’t stick – so we made our own with formulated snow powder. Not enough for snowmen and snowballs but plenty to dig our fingers into.
Valentine’s morning at Greenlake – I stood in this spot for like 5 minutes and no one came by alone. Even the ducks were in pairs.
A morning at a playground that felt kinda Springy- and I’m not just talking about the action on the zip line.
Reading to the cat
Great advice from Miss O’s art teacher “Never wear your favorite clothes to art class.” No articles of clothing were harmed in the making of this post. iI’s only a look of mock horror.
The heart of the week AND an Einstein quote. BONUS!
“Ever since Happiness heard your name, it has been running through the streets trying to find you.” – Hafiz
Meditation with Mr. D. He might not be thinking deep and calming thoughts (yet) but check out the way those knees bend!
God bless my brother for saving some projects for my kids to help with (of course since he lives on a WWII era tugboat, that really isn’t hard to do) but I appreciate his boatload of patience… Also, for helping Mr. D get the most use possible from his Halloween costume.
Do you remember the days when you had to go to the science center to have your mind blown by optical illusions? These days all it takes is an iPad and an app…
“In every winter’s heart there is a quivering spring, and behind the veil of each night there is a smiling dawn.” – Kahlil Gibran
Weather – from freezing to springlike and back to rain all in one week. Welcome to Seattle winters – but it gave us a lot of interesting pictures.
How much is that doggie in the window? When we drive by, usually it’s an orange cat lounging there but on this particular day, the dog was taking a shift instead.
So nice to have help with my colonoscopy prep…I think. 🙂
Aww….
Which leads to the heart of the week – Cheerio dust in the sink!
“Even the darkest of night will end and the sun will rise.” – Victor Hugo
Mr D has already figured out at 3-years-old that if he wants to delay going to school, all he has to do is say we should stop to take a picture of the pretty sunrise. It works almost every time!
A little Discovery Park outing. Interesting how it’s hard to get both my kids to smile at the same time – but they’ll do synchronized goofy faces no problem!
The neighborhood skeleton has moved on to Valentine’s Day.
As has the grocery store display. (Remember their creative Halloween and Christmas displays?)
Which is a great segue to the heart of the week – hot in the pan!
Surprised By Joy 