LIFE (KIND OF) LATELY

Honestly some of these pictures are a little bit old (like from Meg's visit in October), but I have just never gotten around to posting them. Oops!

More Hanukkah fun with friends:

Best latkes ever!!

AND it's Christmas time:

Grandma & Grandpa's tree

The lovely and talented Meg paid us a visit. Yay!

Farewell brunch with the equally lovely and talented Stephanie. Yay again! 

And some pics of my favorite boys in the world:

That "favorite boys" thing also includes these guys:

What a handsome Grandpa!

Uncle Wheat Thin!

Right Now

Right now I am...

• Packing and packing and packing: Last weekend we had a big moving sale and sold most of our furniture and now I'm packing all of our remaining possessions and making Goodwill runs on a nearly daily basis. By the way, isn't it amazing how much extra stuff we accumulate? I'm going to try to live a more simple life once we get settled and buy only what I need/love.

• Reading: The Bone People by Keri Hulme. So far it seems beautifully written and I'm really liking it, but I'm only about a hundred pages in. It won the Booker Prize, though, and I am usually a big fan of books that win that award. Another digression: I think I need to make subcategories to my Book Recommendations page to differentiate between books that I absolutely love and those that were just pretty good. I'll get on that one of these days.  (Follow-up on this book: I wholeheartedly DO NOT recommend this book. I liked the stylistic writing, but did not care for the content at all). 

• Looking forward to: Warmth! And non-terrifying driving conditions! Noah has his first ever snow day today. We had a big ice/snow storm yesterday and, even before that, we've spent the last week slipping and sliding along the roads. Poor Isaiah has been telling a story about how we were "sliding and sliding and sliding down the hill (by our house) and a nice lady stopped to help us" to anyone who will listen. He keeps saying how the roads make him "a little bit nervous" and he wants to go to California. A boy after my own heart :-) 

• Considering: We're thinking of buying a truck. We have a U-haul truck reserved to move our remaining belongings and haul our car, but we may buy a truck instead and haul a trailer out. I am a huge Craigslist addict, so it may be useful for us when we get out to Cali too because then we'll be able to haul my furniture finds back to the new house. I am in love with vintage trucks and have dreamed of buying one for years, so this may be my chance to get a little bit close to that dream :-) 

• Planning: I've been checking out my Pinterest pages for decorating ideas for the new house. We could tell pretty early on that this was not going to be our long-term home so we really never settled in. In fact, we never really fully unpacked or decorated. I want our new home to feel like "home" and so I am going to put in a real effort to decorate and get settled this time.

Right Now

Right now I am...

• Happy: I'm really glad that I got to see my old friend Ryan get married last weekend. It's been a long time since we've seen each other and it was great to re-connect and see him marry the girl of his dreams.

 

• Inspired: At Ryan's wedding, we met a couple who is living their dream (and ours too!) of starting a family farm. They want to make it a refuge for troubled kids as well and that's something that Shawn and I have talked about doing, so it was very inspiring.

• Looking forward to: An upcoming girl's weekend with Stephanie and Birgit at Stephanie's lovely beach house in St. Joseph. I need some girl time! As you may have noticed, I'm slightly out-numbered by boys at my house :-)

• Disappointed: I've been a bit stressed lately about some impending decisions and, sadly, I've returned to my nail-biting. Boo! Well, I briefly had nails for the first time in my life. I'll give it another shot and hopefully I can kick the habit for good.

• Proud: I'm so proud of Noah for adjusting so well to school. It's been a HUGE change for him, but he's handling himself like a champ. The first day was pretty rough, but he's really pulled it together and I can already see how good it's been for him (and for Isaiah, who is developing more independence with big brother away for most of the day). 

Right Now

Right now I am...

• Feeling: Really grateful. Life is good!

• Watching: Orange is the New Black. It's really not kid-friendly viewing, though, so I'm watching it in five minute intervals when the kids are feeding the cats with Daddy each night. I should be finished with the season in a couple of years :-)

• Realizing: Up to this point, I haven't been terribly structured with the boys - being home part-time with them didn't really require that. Now that I'm home full-time, I think that we need to develop more of a structured routine. I'm trying to come up with activities to keep them entertained. Any suggestions from other moms would be greatly appreciated.

• Looking forward to: Shawn ordered me a new camera - the Canon Eos Rebel T3i. I can't wait to try it out!!

• In disbelief: Noah is going to be starting pre-school soon and I can't even believe it's time for that. I'm going to meet with someone from the school today and get him registered.

Right Now

Right now I am…

·         Reading: I just finished The House at Tynedford by Natasha Solomons. I’d never heard of this book before and just picked it up on a whim from the library. I ended up loving it. It’s the story of a young Austrian Jewish woman who moves to England just before WWII to work as a maid (and escape the impending war). Really good!

·         Watching: I watched What to Expect When You’re Expecting the other day and the Elizabeth Banks character cracked me up. Like me, her character is a complete hot mess during pregnancy and seeing her melt-down made me feel a little less crazed.

·         Looking forward to: There are almost no words that can describe how excited I am for Season 4 of Arrested Development. They start airing on Netflix on May 25^th and I can barely contain myself!!

·         Regretting: I forgot my camera on Mother’s Day, so I don’t have a single picture from our day. My parents hosted a lunch for me and the boys (Shawn was in California). Hope you had a great one Mom!

·         Envying: My friend Stephanie and her boyfriend Edwin recently dropped everything to hike the Pacific Coast Trail from Mexico to Canada. You can follow along with their adventure on her blog, And Everywhere in Between.

·         Craving: Cantaloupe.