The Secret Forest (and other places)

Just beyond the corner of our driveway, atop a terraced garden, a grove of trees & bushes grow. Mikey and Jonny love to climb up the rock wall, and weave in and out of this small clump of trees. It has become quite the outdoors destination, and Mikey has taken to calling this hideout his "Secret Forest." 

Other favorite hot spots include the driveway & sidewalk - the ultimate spot for racing scooters and bikes, plus the random moments of creativity expressed through sidewalk chalk...

And of course, the playground...

There are so many wonderful places to play in our yard - it makes me happy. Hopefully this year we can get a little garden growing, and if the mosquito's take a break this year, looking forward to spending some evenings on the deck this summer.

Eleanor.

Last week, we found out that the someone in my womb happens to be a daughter. Our daughter. It feels weird to say.

After being surrounded by a sea of blue and green and power rangers, race cars and rough tough little boy stuff, I went out on Thursday morning to Target with G-Ma, and faced the deluge of pink, purple and glitter. It was a smidge overwhelming. My tendency was to push back on the "girlie girl" stuff - because I'm certainly not a "girlie girl" myself, but I finally decided to just go with it. I now have a pile of pink sitting on my daughter's dresser, waiting to be washed and folded.

This last weekend, G-Ma and the boys and I went out on an adventure to find a "theme" we liked for Eleanor's nursery, and amazingly enough found something I loved, that just happened to have pink in it. Fortunately it also has owls, so that helped!

So, progress has been made, and we have all had too much fun talking about what it will be like to have a little sister around here. The boys are both so excited at the concept of helping with a baby... I just hope that the enthusiasm sticks around after she is here and everyone is a bit sleep deprived.

2014: Resolved

So, peace out 2013. I stayed up til midnight to watch you die, and celebrated your departure with a glass of cheap champagne (and was rewarded with a splitting headache the next morning). 2013 had its ups and downs, and many wonderful parts, but also many sucky parts, so I'm glad it is gone. Besides - we have so very much to look forward to in 2014.

In just a few short weeks we'll know if the little one growing rapidly within my womb is of the male or female persuasion. My money is on girl, but I had one of those common to pregnancy vivid dreams last night, and was shocked to find out that I was having a boy! In my dream I even got to see the babes face, and it was precious. But yeah, really, considering how absolutely dismal my first trimester was, I'm guessing I have 2x the normal amount of estrogen flowing through my system. We'll see very soon - less than 3 weeks to go!

2014 will also see our mortgage returning to normal (thanks escrow screw up!), Jonny turning 3, me turning 31, the baby being born, Josh turning 35, Mikey starting Kindergarten, and many other things.

So anyway, we all have already decided that 2014 is just going to rock our socks... because it just has to. I can't another 2013. And in the spirit of the new year and resolutions and all that, I decided to hop on the band wagon and come up with my own "word" or phrase to describe my goals/resolutions for 2014.

It is hard to think of one word to sum up all that I want to accomplish in the next year, but I think "Devotion" does the trick. According to the dictionary:

de·vo·tion

  [dih-voh-shuhn]  Show IPA

noun

1.

profound dedication; consecration.

2.

earnest attachment to a cause, person, etc.

3.

an assignment or appropriation to any purpose, cause, etc.: the devotion of one's wealth and time toscientific advancement.

4.

Often, devotions. Ecclesiastical . religious observance or worship; a form of prayer or worship forspecial use.

It is my intention to devote myself to the care of my family & our home. This is going to cover a whole wide range of subjects, so I plan on writing about it here on the blog a lot. It could be something as simple as soaking my children's mildewy humidifiers in hot bleach water, or dusting the cob webs, or dragging my little family to church. I just want to make sure I'm doing all I can to take the best care of my people and our place.

Happy 2014 everyone!