Fancy attire, dinner music, and a little gourmet dining {p.h.f.r}

{pretty}

My first lace shawl, which I recently finished knitting, but now need to block (eek!)  I've never been one for blocking - of course, most of my knitting items have been made of acrylic (though I recently learned it's possible to block even acrylic - drat! now I have no excuses.)  I'm especially intimidated at the thought of blocking mohair and silk - decadent fibers that I'm now terrified I'll ruin in the process!  ::SO FLUFFY!!!::

 

Our most recent trip to the zoo yesterday revealed that the trumpeter swans were, in fact, a pair and have a new family!  So cute!  And such a good excuse to use a rarely enjoyed and slightly snooty word: "cygnets"!

{happy}

 

My little pianists - even Jelly Bean is getting in on the action these days.

 {funny}

Toddler Gourmet:  Pan-seared HotWheels, anyone?

My little guy still refuses to try out potty training, but apparently Potty Scotty is interesting to him again.  After requesting the doll, he entertained himself for at least an hour, asking me to "make a bottle" (i.e. refill with tap water) for Scotty.  He even admits that Scotty is a big boy for using the potty and gets to wear underwear now instead of a diaper.  Progress?  Could be...

{real}

If I can't stop her from eating Cheerios off the floor, I can at least distract her with Cheerios on a clean surface on the floor.  She adamantly refused to sit in the high chair for this snack.  (Too restricting apparently.)

Back in high school, I used to ponder strange questions like "If we took the contents of every locker in the entire school and dumped it all out on a big scale, how much would it all weigh?" and "If I were stranded on a deserted island with only a pile of tomatoes, would I be able to make ketchup?"  (At the time, I hated tomatoes.)  These days, I find myself still pondering odd questions whose answers have no real value, like "If we were able to save every UN-consumed Cheerio over the course of our children's lives (including children yet-to-be-born) just how big would that pile of Cheerios be?  How many boxes would they fill by weight?"  And the related question:  "What is the average number of Cheerios that stick to Jelly Bean's butt every time I lift her out of the high chair?  How many days would it take to fill a whole box?"  These feel like the word problems we had in middle school math.  Maybe we are meant to homeschool the kids after all.

Seeing the Silver Lining {p.h.f.r.}

Well, once again it's Thursday.  In fact it's been 3 (THREE!) Thursdays since I last managed to pull off one of these {p.h.f.r.}s, or really a post of any kind at all.  Been doing a lot of thinking, and a lot of resting (or at least a lot of thinking about resting - or maybe just wistfully considering what feeling rested feels like) since my last on-location hospital post.  Life has been busy!

{pretty}

My adorable Jelly Bean - already 9 months old and already crawling for the last two months!  I know I'm biased, but I do believe her to be the most beautiful baby girl in the world!  I'm excited to start including pictures of my beloved babes.  Hubs and I talked it over, and while we won't be disclosing locations or real names, we decided it would be ok to showcase their beautiful smiles.  And pictures make it a lot easier to convey their sometimes hilarious antics!

{happy}

My little guy (better nickname hopefully coming soon!) recently decided he actually likes to hug his little sister.  Oddly enough, it seems this revelation came at a Greek restaurant near my parents' cabin that I DID in fact get to visit one last time, despite all the recent goings on.  A family sat near us at a large table with three young children, one of which was a little baby girl with a big bright flower headband.  Jelly Bean spent the entire meal backwards in her high chair (checking those people out!) and when the baby was pulled out of her carseat for a bottle, my son instantly asked "I hold her?  Pease?!?"  Well, that was certainly out of the question - the family was very friendly, even when my son barged in and stole their toddler boy's chair as we were leaving, but they weren't nuts!  We got back to the cabin and before bed that night, he asked to hold Jelly Bean!  So we had him sit on the floor, and he hugged and held her and rocked her back and forth.  It was delightfully shocking!  We took pictures, though, unfortunately, they're all on my parents' camera.  Now that we're back at home, he has asked again:  "I hold her?  Take pictures?"  Who can refuse that?!

Regarding the photos above - everyone is having a good time, even though Jelly Bean appears to be punching him in the lower left photo and he appears to be choking her in the bottom center.  Guess that's what happens when you're trying to get good shots while he's rocking her wildly back and forth!

{funny}

The Little Dude will sometimes throw a complete fit over being offered a small bowl of Cheerios when he wants something sweeter ("Gam cacker pease??") but will then turn around and unabashedly swipe Jelly Bean's off her tray right in front of me.  I guess we'll just call that "sharing".  For now.

Also, this morning I sneezed several times.  It wasn't the first time he's said "Bless 'ou, Mama!"  (Be still, my heart!)  But it was the first time I asked him to go find me a Kleenex.  He promptly agreed to go find me one.  I held my breath, not expecting a miracle.  Several moments later, he came back "Mama, I have Kleenex?"  So... you're asking me to find you a Kleenex so you can bring me a Kleenex?  Well played.

And right now he's begging me for cake.  And cookies.  "Mama, what 'bout cake?  What 'bout cookies?"  Not that he gets these things often.  Must be dinner time.
 

{real}

Life being the way it has for the last several weeks, I have to admit that, at times, I've been feeling what I'd have to label "discontent".  And I read something recently (probably in my most recent MomSense MOPS magazine) about contentment - that it has to be cultivated.  And that it essentially means being at ease and satisfied with your situation, without becoming complacent about things that could or should improve.

I got to thinking that patience is a lot like contentment.  Patience is NOT forcing yourself to do things slower, thinking that it might rub off on your sense of urgency.  Rather, it's knowing how long something is going to take and accepting it.  It's knowing your children are being a little difficult and accepting it to the point that you don't lose your cool, without sacrificing their long-term discipline and good behavior.  It's accepting a moment of misunderstanding long enough to get the story straight before blowing up at your spouse.  All things I can work on.

Contentment and Patience also seem to have a connection to Gratitude.  And with a lot of the things that have happened in our family recently, it's sometimes difficult to think of them and be grateful.  My husband's grandmother passed away recently.  My Father-in-law was just diagnosed with lymphoma, shortly after I had been hospitalized overnight for the first time in my life that didn't involve childbirth.  It's hard to find the silver lining.  But - the silver lining is really still there!  For instance, my hospitalization showed me just how much I love being with my children, even when it's so easy to get impatient with them.  My Father-in-law's diagnosis is horrible, but we'll be visiting them a lot more often now.  I'm not saying the silver lining is enough to make you think, "I'm so glad that happened!  Let's do that again!"  No way!  But God does manage to include a little goodness in any situation if you just search for it.  It doesn't take away the sting, but it does soften the blow. 

So in the spirit of cultivating a little more Contentment, Patience and Gratitude in my life, I hereby plan to do a series of Silver Lining posts.

Reflect the Brightness!  Even if there's a bit of cloud blocking your sun.

Wildlife and sugar, sugar, sugar {p.h.f.r.}

{pretty}

Well, zoo animals aren't necessarily so much pretty, as interesting and fascinating (though yes, many of them are very beautiful).  It's fun watching my little guy try to interact with them.  My darling girl even gets in on it too, sometimes.  You should have seen the uproar the normally casual prairie dogs were in after she chattered at them a while.
I always enjoy the burrowing owls, especially this one that actually leaned in when I got close to the glass to take this shot, and the moose, which oddly enough is kept just feet away below the deck the owls are on.  I'm still trying to figure out why I always have this strange urge to "moo" at the moose.

{happy}

Yesterday was my hubby's birthday!  We had a delicious dinner of bistro burgers on the grill and a marble cake with chopped chocolate in the butter-cream filling.  Turned out better than I expected.  I was also thrilled to be able to give him the present that I'd been hiding for the last 6 months.  My guy is an Eagle Scout and loves seeing bald eagles on the river sometimes when his work takes him there.  The first one that arrived (on the right) didn't exactly live up to the photo I based my purchase on, plus the legs had big cracks in them!  But, much to the seller's credit, he made it right and sent the replacement on the left.  Beautiful!  So, now we have two - we're talking about putting the smaller one in the garden.  Heck, maybe it'll keep the crows and rabbits away!

{funny}

My poor girly girl - aside from the Cheerios addiction and the constant "Cheerio-butt" syndrome (which definitely contributes to the Cheerio-laden state of our kitchen floor), we add insult to injury making her wear her brother's old bibs.  No girl should have to suffer through having "That's my boy!" hanging around her neck.  Curse those awesome rubber-backed bibs.  Hopefully this isn't why she's always stealing her brother's Matchbox cars.

Here, it's a little hard to see, but my son fully tried to take the cake (literally) before dinner last night.  We all agreed it was a shame, considering the effort put into it, and the time-out that resulted, that he didn't even manage to get a good finger-ful of frosting, instead just leaving deep fingerprints - the evidence leading to his arrest and conviction.  (Don't worry, we had more than just circumstantial evidence against him...)  Hubby and I made a bet this morning regarding just how many times the kiddo will be begging for cake before lunch.

{real}

 It's tradition at Hubby's work that the birthday celebrant brings donuts.  Apparently there were some (read: too many) left over.  This was breakfast.  Or rather, the jelly-filled long-john you no longer see on that piece of tissue paper was breakfast.  I'm not even usually much of a donut person, but dang, that was good!