national federation of awesome hair

we are members. gold star members.

i love little boys and awesome, wild hair. i say throw caution to the wind, along with little old ladies who mistake you for a girl, and let your hair be free.

apparently, little boys with glasses who constantly need to "swoop" their hair out of their eyes have begun to petition the national federation for a bit of a snip.

foster started asking me to cut his "bangs" last week. every few minuets, i heard "mom, these bangs are really in my way. they keep hanging in my eyes. can you cut them up to here???" he would ask, while pulling his bangs straight up and over his forehead so only his skin remained.
"ok, we'll think about it buddy. maybe a little trim."

next i heard, "can i get a hair cut mom? like a real one? maybe all of my hair could be short?"

it was a theme. i decided to roll with it.

when daddy came home, the conversation continued. we snagged the camera and some clippers, double checked with the national federation of awesome hair (who responded via email saying "hair grows. go with it.")

and the clippage began.

if i'm being totally honest, i love his old, long hair. but, even more, i love that he loves his new hair and that he chose it. he keeps looking at himself in the mirror and giggling. he marvels at how different he looks...and so do we!

'mommy, what's a bow and arrow?'

my new favorite thing. white boards :)

winter optional

we emerged from the house today to find the most lovely of all fall days.

our jackets were quickly thrown aside and we traipsed about throwing footballs and leaves and riding bikes and dumping sand.
the weather outside feels the way i do on my insides.
glorious.
amidst falling leaves and changing tides...dying perennials and barren forests...
life remains.
the fall and i have much in common.
seasons of change may look bleak from the outside, but closer inspection shows great potential.

and each day i dream of her. hoping, praying, this is the last fall without her.

_______________________________

i'm reading this book with a group of girlfriends. it's rocking my world. my faith. my view of everything.
it's $5.60 on amazon. plunge in. it's incredible.

it's friday. finally.

the close of a long week.
ah. breathe.
i've been having one of those "if i can just get to friday, i'll be ok" weeks
somehow i end up with so much going on, i forget i am allowed to breathe.
i woke up this morning and decided i would forget about all of the packing (we're moving this weekend to my parents house) and lesson planning and craft show prep and orders that i need to finish and the dinner i'm making for a friend who just had a baby and 4 loads of laundry and a mounting pile of paperwork i need to sort through before we move and the shower i haven't had yet and the 7 phone calls i need to make and the unretunred library book that is a week overdue and the supplies i need from joanns and the homemade Christmas project i'm working on and the 15 items i need to find time to list on etsy. the list could continue into the next millennium.

when did life get so crazy? or maybe when did i let things get so out of control?

i whine to my husband that i haven't sat down in weeks, or even months. granted, i do like to whine. somehow it makes me feel better. i'm sure he would agree that i doesn't really help him very much to listen to it :)

i used to spend at least and hour or 2 most nights watching E! or bravo or some sort of scrubs or the office re-runs on tv each night. i would savor a bowl of ice cream and perhaps a glass of sangria in my comfy pants. yeah, i would fold laundry or meander about cleaning this or that, or prepping dinner, or organizing, but somehow i rarely felt stressed out from the vast quantity of things i was juggling. i could prioritize. i could balance.

but now, i just find myself always juggling. never ever sitting or resting or stopping. i have so many things up in the air at one time, but i can't seem to hold one of them long enough to finish it before i loose track of the other ones and they fall out of control.
so i juggle.
they are all up there floating, only touching my hands for a moment.
then another gets thrown in, and another, each one adding less time i get with the other balls in the air.
somehow i need to decide to let them fall, so i can hold on to a few and do them well.

it's control. it's me, wanting control.
i need to let them fall on my own, before i get knocked over by something else because i am so busy juggling that i can't look around at my surroundings.

so here's to a day with no juggling.
it's friday. i'm going to pretend it's a day of rest :)

photog

i've been letting foster use my good camera from time to time. i'm usually hovering close beside with my hand secretly placed in the drop zone vicinity for fear his little hand would fail him whilst holding the full weight of it's bulkyness.
he never cease to amaze me. love the shots he takes. and i love that he loves it. maybe, just maybe, i've got a a photog on my hands. we could live life in photo together. splendid.

the factory

has returned.

who in the world is this family??

could this possibly be us??
were the boys ever that small??
did i really shoot all my photos on that fuzzy point and shoot camera??
i can hardly remember that moment in time.
in fact, it seems like another lifetime ago.
so does this, and this and this, and this.
it's crazy to think 3 years from now i'll be thinking the same exact thing about these:

our life.
it doesn't stop.
literally.
never.
it's an insane concept when you stop to think about life.
how we were created.
c r e a t e d in a fabulous way that is so intricate and amazing it is hard to comprehend even the simplest of concepts when you stop to think how amazing it really is.

my boys are fascinated with planets. the universe.
they talk constantly about taking a rocket to a distant planet and exploring uncharted territory. one day this past summer, we were daydreaming about skipping rocks whilst floating in Saturn's icy rock rings. foster was using a hula hoop and spinning around pretending to be the rings, and rowan was attempting to shoot tennis balls amidst the spinning "planet".
 and it occurred to me. a foundational thought that i have forgotten for nearly all of my life.
i am standing on a planet right now!
i don't need to fly into outer space, i am already orbiting on a planet, orbiting the sun, which is probably orbiting some distant galaxy in the vastness of space, which, in turn, is orbiting some far off star cluster that is more breathtaking than anything we can comprehend.
i jumped up and exclaimed, "do you realize we are on a planet right now?? we are literally orbiting in space!!" we freaked out together at the realization of something so crazy awesome.
our play began to change. suddenly their conversations moved to "whoa, check out this planet i'm on!!!"

amazing how my perspective gets lost in all of this moving. always moving. changing.
it's a dose of perspective i need constantly.
i'm not the only thing in the universe. in fact, i am so ridiculously small, i am, in fact, awed by the fact that God thinks i matter at all. my little life and the things i get so stressed about are so minute in the scheme of the universe. smaller than small. a teeny tiny spec. a molecule so small it's hardly visible when compared to eternity.

once again, my kids bring me perspective.
they explore the things i forget to notice.
and they change.
everyday, they are changing.
growing up.
the thing we parents always boast "wow, look how big you are getting!"
it's happening.
i see their independence growing right before my eyes.
foster took a shower last week all by himself. not a bath. a shower.
he hopped in, closed the curtain and said, "i'll be out later mom. don't worry about me. oh, and keep this curtain closed. i'm taking a shower."

someday, when days of making little lunches, and doing load after load of laundry filled with adorable little pants and shirts, and holding whining toddlers, and kissing little scrapes is over. i'll look back and wish it was all here again. but time will have moved.
oh my dear little ones...stop changing and growing and moving long enough for me to cherish you right where you are. right at this moment. i am so fantastically in love with you, i can hardly stand it.

we are orbiting on an awesome planet in outer space.
a concept that is mind bogglingly incredible.
and our moments are moving
no one knows how many we each have left
our moments
perhaps we can use them in such a way that we remember they aren't really ours to begin with.

ordinary heros

i just found out about an amazing family who started a foundation to advocate for orphans as well as families seeking to adopt...they are amazing. beautiful. generous. truly heros.

AND they have generously given up their tshirt sale profits in the month of November to a large group of families who are adopting...
and WE are one of those families!!!


BUY any shirt from their website in November...

PUT our name in the "add special instructions" area during the checkout of your order...
(clint and angie weldon adoption)

and $10 goes directly to our adoption agency for each tshirt sold!!!

AND you get a really sweet shirt!!

if we are one of the top 3 highest selling families, Ordinary Hero has generously offered to MATCH all of the funds we raise!

i'm thinking christmas gifts!!!


read more about this amazing family here...they are indeed making a difference!!

















oh, and buy a tshirt. pretty please :)

missing...

summer