My Favorite Things

As a child growing up, I want to say that "Sound of Music" came out on the eve of Easter.  It also could have been the eve of Mother's Day, but Easter is tomorrow and I'm mulling over my favorite things lately.

Here's a few:

• our oldest mastering a two wheeled bike and seeming to enjoy himself.  It's been difficult to get him to ride as his balance hasn't been the greatest.  If you read yesterday's post, you'll know how we got him there this past week.  Today we also found a bike he likes, at a price we're willing to pay!
• playing in the dirt!  The older I've gotten, that phrase has taken on new meaning.  Now it most likely refers to gardening and taking care of the yard.  Today, I spread four bags of mulch in a couple flower beds and filled three hanging baskets with red petunias.  YEAH!  The pretty part of Spring (bad side is the greenish cast to everything as the pollen settles).
• a quiet house.  The boys are up at church with their father.  This means I've gardened, read, cleaned, cooked, showered, played with the dog, blogged, and more without any distractions.  I do love my husband and boys, but there are times when quiet is greatly appreciated.  It makes the noise of life that much better.
• the smell of things cooking!  Been "stewing", for lack of a better phrase apples and cinnamon to freshen the air in the house.  Just a bit a ago I began fixing bar-b-que chicken for dinner, so now that smell is wafting throughout the house.  In a bit, the rolls will go in the oven.  Yummy ~ think I could gain weight just from the smells alone.
• knitting ~ lest I forget one of my favorite, portable, activities.  Right now, I've set aside the wristlets I've been working on and am making a baby blanket for a friend who is due in June.  So excited for them, they're having a boy after two girls.
• the contented feeling after a good dinner, devotions, and a few chores completed
• my husband making ice cream
• boys playing nicely in their room
• a hyped up dog after a bath
• days getting longer
• silliness that happens around the dinner table
• living in a country where we're allowed to be Christian
• a child who says he's not hungry for dinner polishing off an apple and a banana, plus some chips and saying he wasn't full yet
• time to read with the boys
• watching my dog burn off energy racing up and down the deck steps and through our back yard
• watching a now exhausted dog trying to keep her head up while she's falling asleep
• phlox blooming in our front yard
• three leafed clovers that fold their leaves up, after sunset, and "go to sleep"; neat thing to watch ~ okay, I don't sit there and actually watch it happen, second by second.  The plant leaves will be wide open during the day and reaching for sun, just after the sun goes behind the trees, they close up until the next day.
• a place to live where we have a pretty good library system to check out all sorts of books and put them on hold too!
• boys that are willing to listen to "The Hardy Boys" out of sequence (a bit out of sequence, if the next book isn't available, we'll put it on hold and get the next one)
• hot tea on a chilly evening ~ "tea, Earl Grey, hot" to quote Capt. Picard
• trips to Dunkin Donuts ~ got to take our oldest along for the ride this morning.  Usually it is Kevin and Thing One, who go pick up donuts, but today it was the two of us.  Was quite enjoyable to be able to hand him my phone and let him pick out the music to be played. 
• Wide variety of music to choose from in our house hold.  VERY wide variety.

What a week . . .

We had our oldest in "Loose Those Training Wheels" (LTTW) over Spring Break.  LTTW is a very cool organization that helps kids, with various special needs, learn to ride a regular two wheeler.  Over five consecutive days, your child rides a modified bike with a roller on the back.  For the first couple days, or so, the roller is changed from almost a cylinder shape to one wider in the middle and narrow along the outer edges.  There are 7 or 8 rollers, so the change is gradual enough that most kids don't notice the change.  Some kids, this go around, didn't even believe the rollers had been changed.  Soon the bike gets changed to a regular wheel.  Most kids, by Wednesday or Thursday, are riding practically independently while practicing braking, stopping, and coasting along with some riding outside.  Friday brings riding their own bike.

This held true for our kid!  The only unfortunate part is that it has taken a bit to find the right bike for him.  We hope the one we ordered comes in just a few days!

 The blur here is our kid, in green, and one of the instructors on a

tandem bike.  They ride on Monday or Tuesday, together so the team 

can get a feel of how your child is doing.

A short video, from Wednesday I believe, of riding with minimal help!

Riding independently by Friday!

Brief award ceremony at the end!

The whole staff was knowledgeable, friendly, and really wanting to help the kids.  It made it so easy to let my kid go and learn something new.  I'd recommend this in a heartbeat!

Dreaming

I've been dreaming a lot lately, about our house versus moving.  Could we afford to move to one that has most everything that I've wanted in a house, but more importantly, a yard that is more flat than our current one and with a good sized two car garage.  Not so sure that will happen as most we can afford look just like the one we're in or is a the category of "huge fixer upper".

Reality has brought me back to our house and gets me dreaming about this one.  What can we do to get it back in shape?  What can we do to make it more friendly for guests?  Probably the two bests things we can do is to do a HUGE purge.  We've been in this house for almost 10 years and we have so much stuff, shoved in nooks and crannies that just hasn't gotten used in years.  I may possibly just need to take advantage of those folks that call saying they'll have a truck in my area on such and such date and find a couple bags and boxes of stuff for them.  Some stuff may be hard to get rid of, but would love to be strong enough to purge our house as if we were moving into a 800 - 900 square foot house (currently ours is about 1800 sq. ft. according to tax records, but that doesn't include the basement we had remodeled and the extra 1/2 bath down there).

After a big purge, it would be nice to be able to actually clean in all those nooks and crannies.  Add some fresh paint, new trim ~ possibly (builder used door molding as floor molding).  Possibly change out the flooring on the main level to all hardwood and redo the carpeting upstairs in the bedrooms. 

Yes, I even have dreams for outside too!  Lots of wishing and dreaming there for various things.  Just don't want to dream to far in advance so that it seems out of reach.

Been a long day!

A very long day!

Friend found my pedometer in her car and returned it yesterday, so it's been worn all day.  At just after 9:00 PM I've hit over 9,700 steps and really haven't left the house much today.  A vast majority of my steps have been the result of doing laundry today.  About 10 loads washed and dried adds a lot of steps and stairs to your count; especially when you inadvertently go down to soon to switch things over!  Also made a few extra trips downstairs as I'm patching yet another wall and all that stuff is downstairs, too.  Did do some weeding, as well, so I wasn't inside all day.

Looking forward to our oldest getting home from Scouts so we can get the boys to bed and call it a day!

After 35 years

it finally happened.  Took an intentional trip into Washington, D.C. to see the Cherry Blossoms.  I've lived most of my life just out of DC, but have never gone in ~ it was about time!

 Right outside of the Smithsonian Metro Stop.

 Jefferson Memorial across the Tidal Basin.

 Close up of blossoms.

 Tulip display ~ I was partial to the yellow . . .

 and red ones.

 Stopped by the WWII memorial.  Took pictures of the

two states that our foursome were born in.

I'm the only one born in Wisconsin!

Lots of walking, lots of steps, a few tired legs here!

I can now check off seeing the Cherry Blossoms in person, that is if it where on an actual list somewhere.

K.I.S.S.

Thoughts can run quickly through my head and not stay long.  Other times, they stay and linger awhile.

It's those thoughts that I need to pay attention to.

Lately it's been about keeping things simple.  Keeping every aspect of life simple ~ house, relationships, school, cleaning, etc.  Word (s) seem to stay stuck and get mulled over.  Variations of the word come to mind ~ simplify, simply.  Songs pop into my head and chorus' play over and over in my head.  Titles and videos get looked up!  Now I have "Clinging to the Cross" by Tim Hughes because of the chorus.  My A.D.D. brain begins to slow down and begin to wonder about application and definition of simply.  Checking out the definition at a couple different places, it is defined as plan, without art, weak minded, or unwise.  Had always thought of it as more of it as an adverb to mean "1. in a simple manner; clearly & easily or 2. plainly and unaffectedly"; I'll probably ponder this portion of definition and apply to life!  I'll practice Keep It Simple Silly.

Hardy Boys

Not sure when be began reading "The Hardy Boys" to our boys.  It honestly feels like we've been reading these books to them forever.  Know that isn't true ~ we had begun by December 2008 though.  Here's a post from then with the boys in laundry baskets!  Don't think we'll be getting many more photo's like those.

Anyway, we've been reading number 45 "The Mystery of the Spiral Bridge" since yesterday.  The boys and I got through a large number of chapters this afternoon and added a few more with Kevin this evening.  We might just have the series finished before the end of the summer ~ all 58 of them!

Truths about the Hardy Boys:

1. They don't age ~ they are still 17 and 18, even though there has been an obvious passage of a few years.
2. Chet shows up in every book, hungry.
3. Chet has a new hobby in every book.
4. More often than not, someone gets knocked out by the second chapter (sometimes within the first few pages).
5. There are always 20 chapters.
6. Just about every chapter is a cliff hanger, except for 20 (obviously!).

Pick one up, if you like, you may just like the series.

First!

Happy March 1st!  Have changed a few things over from Valentines to St. Patrick's Day.  Weather was nice, warm, sunny and just a few clouds.

One kid was incredibly dirty, sweaty, and stinky by the end of the day.  Good thing he knew he owed me a shower this evening!