The Busy Season

Summer is always the busy season for us. It just is. This year, Justin even decided not to play baseball this summer, but somehow it still feels insane. Right now, a lot of that insanity is due to Justin's crazy work schedule where he's been getting up anywhere between 3am and 5am to head to work, and then working until 5 or 6pm (or later). He's tired, and has asked me to help make sure that he gets up and doesn't sleep through his alarm in the mornings, and so then I'm finding myself waking up almost every hour in a "CRAP! Did we sleep through the alarm?!" panic. Work for Justin is crazy, but at least there *is* construction work for the first time in many years. Still, we are both very tired.

Southern Oregon is experiencing some crazy forest fires right now. It's really scary. On Monday night, lightning struck and started a fire near my sister-in-law's house, and we headed over to help them evacuate. At the end of that night, there were 5 homes in danger and the fire was 50 acres. As of this morning, just three days later, the fire is 600+ acres with 130 homes in danger, and the governor has declared a state of emergency. The firefighters have been absolutely incredible, both on land and from the air, and so far have saved every home. But, the fire is not contained at all, and many, many families that we know personally are displaced, and/or have damage to their property. It's a terrifying thing, and we would all appreciate your prayers.

 {Smoke in the valley over the past few days. Bottom left is a photo of one of the many helicopters doing drops from the Rogue River. Bottom right is stolen from my friend Amanda, and shows the smoke from the fire near my sister-in-law's house}

Other than that, I'm still working out consistently, though I've switched from P90x to P90x3, because hello...30 minutes. It's just easier to make that happen. I'm currently in week 4, which is sort of like the rest week before moving to block 2. I haven't seen any crazy dramatic differences in month one--about half an inch lost each from my waist, hips, and thighs--but I wasn't expecting a lot of difference either. I've heard that with P90x3, most of the change comes in blocks 2 and 3, so I'm trying to keep eating well, keep trucking, and not get discouraged.

{Week 1 on the left, Week 4 on the right}

Our garden is doing well, the kiddos are as crazy (but fun) as ever, I've made some really, really delicious food (thank you Pinterest). Life is good.

  

Life Right Now

Last Thursday, Lizzy finished her last day of preschool. Next year, she'll be in pre-K and going three days a week, and she already CAN NOT WAIT. Actually, she cannot wait for kindergarten, and doesn't quite understand why other kids who will be five will be in kindergarten next year and she won't (she's a January birthday, so she's past the cut-off). But, she'll survive :)



After her last day of school, as we were driving home, she was looking at the yearbook that her school does. She told me, "I'm just looking at the pre-K kids, to make sure I know what I'm supposed to look like next year!" She is so funny sometimes.

This past week, I also took the girls around the corner from our house to do an annual sister picture. And because you KNOW I'm a sucker for comparison pictures, here's the batch from last year, June 2013:

And then this year, June 2014:

Becca, at 18 months, is actually wearing the same dress that Lizzy wore in the 2013 pictures, when she was 3. It is crazy to me sometimes how different Lizzy and Becca are, both in terms of personalities, and also in terms of size. Lizzy was a lot more verbal at this age than Becca is, and I think sometimes we treated her a lot older than she really was (we still forget sometimes that she's only 4!). Becca knows plenty of words, and is totally on track for her age, but because she isn't nearly as verbal as Lizzy, it's easier to treat her like the age she really is. I'm sure part of it is a second child thing too--with the first kiddo, I feel like I was more excited for all those milestones and "firsts", and with Becca, I am 100% fine to hold off on some of those things, ha!

On the other hand, there's also a set of things that I think Becca will do more quickly than Lizzy, because she has someone to keep up with!  For example, Lizzy was practicing her scooter on Saturday, and Becca was royally ticked that she didn't have one of her own to ride--she kept yelling "Beppa! Turn!" (her version of "Becca's turn!"). Justin would help her stand and roll a bit, and she could not have been more proud of herself.

Lizzy has been asking over and over if she and Becca can share a room. She talks about bunk beds NON STOP, and I secretly think she's trying to teach Becca to climb out of her crib so that we'll be more likely to want to transition Becca to a different type of bed. On one hand, it would be really nice to have them share a bedroom and maybe have our third bedroom be a toy/playroom. On the other hand, Becca still naps and Lizzy does not, but she usually still goes into her room and reads for quiet time. I feel like going to a shared room is going to eliminate Becca's nap since she'll want to be just like Lizzy, and I am definitely not ready for that! I feel like why rush it unless we have to. We'll see.

Thursday Printable

Yesterday, I was making the newsletter for our Mom's Group, and I realized that there really wasn't anything important to include...so, I went a little rogue, and made a printable to hand out for Easter.

It's nothing fancy, but a good reminder for me nonetheless as we go into this weekend--it's a busy time for a lot of families. I know we've got service tonight, Justin's band is recording all day tomorrow, and then service that night, someone texted me that they have a trombone for Justin (which was news to me, but apparently he is playing the trombone for Easter Sunday?), there's outfits to wash and arrange, and Easter baskets to fill (whoops), and bread to make for Easter dinner for about three dozen people (or bagels? or rolls? ). There's a mountain of laundry on my couch, and workouts to do, and bathrooms that haven't been cleaned in I'm not sure how long. Anyway, the point is that it's sort of like Christmas time for me-- I can easily get flustered and busy and overwhelmed and forget the joy in it all.

So, I popped this printable in a frame, leaned it up against the wall on our buffet, where I'll see it 100 times a day as I walk through the tornado of a house. And I think about the Easter morning call and response of "He is risen!" followed by "He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!". And I think about the time of Lent where in the Lutheran church the alleluias are missing from the songs and the service, and I didn't realize the I missed them, but I do.


If you want, click on the image, and that will take you over to Flickr, where you can download the original size. It's 8.5 x11, but worked just fine in a matted 8x10 frame for me. Enjoy your Thursday!

This weekend.

This weekend....

-We ate a lot of really GOOD food. The highlights were an *amazing* meal at a local brewery, complete with some hibiscus ginger beer. As a general rule, I'm not a big beer drinker, but Caldera has some really unique and interesting beers, and I can't wait to go back sometime and do some tasting. I mean, toasted coconut porter? Yeah, I'll try that!

-We had a lot of sweet, silly, and fun moments with our little family. It felt so low stress, which was a welcome blessing.

-We spent a good amount of time working out, and also a good amount of time outdoors, both of which were so welcome!


-I spent some time evaluating. One of the things that I love about photography is that there is *always* so much to learn. This past year, I've spent a lot of time trying to learn more about Photoshop, both in terms of photography and graphic design (which is why you occasionally see Monday printables around here). There's so much to learn, and THEN there's also the trick of learning and discovering what I actually like and want to implement for myself. HDR? Not so much. Different blanket fade techniques? Yes, please.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to re-open a photo that I took of my niece Lyla back in 2012, and edit it the way that I would if I had taken it today. It's fun to look at the differences, what I've learned, what I'd do differently, now. There's a subtle difference, but I'm happy with it. I'm sure that in two more years, I'd have a few more tweaks to make, and that's what I love about photography. Learning, growing, stretching, always.

-I applied for a job. It would be working from home, doing something that I absolutely love. Basically, my dream job. There were around 100 applicants, so it feels like a long shot, but one that I had to take :)

How was your weekend?

Beauty in the Mundane- Volume 3

We had an unexpected evening at home last night with some unexpected sunshine, and it could not have been more amazing. Recently, some friends have given us some old outdoor play things that their kids had outgrown--a slide, and then some swings--which are amazing placeholders until we eventually buy or make what we'd like to have long term. The girls got to play with them for the first time yesterday, and had a BLAST. I'm so glad that I grabbed my camera before we headed out to play after dinner--there's beauty and a story in these little moments, you know?