MCP Project 52 - Week 19

(Catching up on some of the past weeks)

This week's theme: Spring Fever

 

Mondays with Mommy

In effort to ease some of my working mom guilt while simultaneously indulging my love of summer, I am taking Mondays off for a few months. Weekends are great, but they usually fill up with errands, parties, and events...all great things, but summer Mondays are just for her! I’m so excited to spend more time with my girl and make some fun summer memories!

Aside from a few shopping trips, we've spent the majority of the past two days in our backyard. Girlfriend loves to be outside and loves to get dirty!

Snippets from our outdoor fun:

We watched bugs,

destroyed mommy's flowers,

played with sidewalk chalk,

played in the swimming pool,

 

ate a picnic lunch,

 

helped pot some plants,

and watched airplanes.

It was perfect. Monday has just become my new favorite day of the week!

MCP Project 52 - Week 18

This week's theme: First Thing In the Morning

The Magically Mundane

A few months ago I read the book “Cold Tangerines” by Shauna Niequist. There are so many quotes and pieces from this book that I love. One in particular, from the very first chapter, I wanted to share with you because it speaks so clearly to me. Shauna finds a way to take what I believe to be a profound truth and puts it into words better than I ever could.  Want to know why I document every mundane detail of my life? Why I delight in the flowers in my garden. Why I cheer when my little girl learns to use her fork. Why I celebrate a sunrise, a cold beer on a hot day, a hug from a good friend, a sprinkler, an ice cream cone, a kiss….the magically mundane.  As Shauna so powerfully puts it, “This is it.”

“I have always, essentially, been waiting. Waiting to become something else, waiting to be that person I always thought I was on the verge of becoming, waiting for that life I thought I would have. In my head, I was always one step away. In high school, I was biding my time until I could become the college version of myself, the one my mind could see so clearly. In college, the post-college “adult” person was always looming in front of me, smarter, stronger, more organized. Then the married person, then the person I’d become when we have kids. For twenty years, literally, I have waited to become the thin version of myself, because that’s when life will really begin.

And through all that waiting, here I am. My life is passing, day by day, and I am waiting for it to start. 

…I had visions of life as an adventure, a thing to be celebrated and experienced, but all I was doing was going to work and coming home, and that wasn’t what it looked like in the movies. 

…Life is a collection of a million, billion moments, tiny little moments and choices, like a handful of luminous, glowing pearls. And strung together, built upon one another, lined up through the days and the years, they make a life, a person. It takes so much time, and so much work, and those beads and moments are so small, and so much less fabulous and dramatic than the movies. 

But this is what I’m finding, in glimpses and flashes: this is it. This is it, in the best possible way. That thing I’m waiting for, that adventure, that movie-score-worthy experience unfolding gracefully. This is it. Normal, daily life ticking by on our streets and sidewalks, in our houses and apartments, in our beds and at our dinner tables, in our dreams and prayers and fights and secrets-this pedestrian life is the most precious thing any of us will ever experience. 

…I don’t want to wait anymore. I choose to believe that there is nothing more sacred or profound than this day. I choose to believe that there may be a thousand big moments embedded in this day, waiting to be discovered like tiny shards of gold. The big moments are the daily, tiny moments of courage and forgiveness and hope that we grab on to and extend to one another. That’s  the drama of life, swirling all around us, and generally I don’t even see it, because I’m too busy waiting to become whatever it is I think I am about to become. The big moments are in every hour, every conversation, every meal, every meeting.

…Your life, right now, today, is exploding with energy and power and detail and dimension, better than the best movie you have ever seen. You and your family and your friends and your house and your dinner table and your garage have all the makings of a life of epic proportions, a story for the ages. Because they all are. Every life is. 

You have stories worth telling, memories worth remembering, dreams worth working toward, a body worth feeding, a soul worth tending, and beyond that, the God of the universe dwells within you, the true culmination of super and natural.

You are more than dust and bones. You are spirit and power and image of God. And you have been given Today. 

 

…The world is alive, blinking and clicking, winking at us shyly, inviting us to get up and dance to the music that’s been playing since the beginning of time, if you bend all the way down and put your ear to the ground to listen for it.” –Shauna Niequist (Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life)

(Okay, so this is probably one of the longest quotes ever, and I’ve even cut out several parts to shorten it.  If you want to see the whole thing it’s available HERE on the Amazon look inside.)

This is it. The magic is in the details, now go out and enjoy today...soak it up.

My baby's growing up...and other random news.

Sydney continues to amaze me every day with how fast she’s growing up and how much attitude…errr…I mean… personality she’s developing. She blows kisses, teases the dog with food, refuses to share her pillow pet (nooo, MINE!), waves goodbye to every single car, person, or squirrel that crosses our path, and is capable of throwing tantrums of EPIC proportion.

I took Sydney to her 18 month appointment today.

After the appointment, I narrowly avoided multiple swats at my face as I loaded my screaming, flailing toddler into her car seat where she so clearly did NOT want to be. I quickly assembled and offered my arsenal of toddler soothing paraphernalia, and once again was forced to bob and weave as one by one a sippy cup, blanket, book, and rubber duck whizzed by my head.  Ah yes, personality, ain’t it grand?

But for every yin there is a yang…and while Sydney continues to push boundaries, test limits, and find new, ever more terrifying ways to express her anger and frustration, she is simultaneously learning how push herself, explore her surroundings, and find new, ever more endearing ways to express her love and happiness. 18 months old is as equally amazing as it is frustrating, and for every time I find myself thinking, Lord, I can’t wait for this stage to pass, I also find myself thinking, Lord, let it stay this way just a little bit longer.

Maybe that’s why, when I finally climbed into the front seat and glanced at the papers the Dr. gave us, and saw that her next appointment and questionnaire was for her 2 year checkup, a lump formed in my throat out of nowhere and tears stung my eyes. How can this be? How can two years old be just around the corner? Just a little bit longer.

............................................................. 

They planted the field last week and Sydney was mesmerized by the tractor. 

Bye! Bye-Bye! BYYEEE!

 

 Wait! Where's it going? Come back!

Recently, she’s become attached to her blanket and wants to carry it around everywhere. She had a complete meltdown one morning because I wouldn’t serve her ketchup and eggs with her blanket piled on top of her highchair tray. O.  M.  G...! Moms are so evil!

Her vocabulary is rapidly expanding. Some of her latest additions include: eeww, cheese (referring to both the camera and the dairy product), ball, mine, whoa, no, bye, hi, brrr, and thank you (chee-choo). There are lots of other things she’s saying repeatedly…I just have no idea what they mean. Like when she goes around in a sing-songy voice shouting “chico-bye!, chico-bye!”.  No idea.

She’s getting better at eating whole foods (bananas, crackers, etc.), she’s pretty good at using a fork, and she loves to dip food! Especially in ketchup. Giver her ketchup and she will eat it. 98 and ¾ percent guaranteed! She also likes to eat sand, dirt, crayons, bath bubbles, and cardboard boxes. I’m afraid I may be raising a billy goat.

In other random news:

Seeds have been planted. My fingers are crossed.

 Sawyer is learning the hard way to steer clear of moving swings

and toddlers that like to accessorize four legged animals.

Wait! Where's he going? Come back!

Mother's Day

When Jon asked me last week what I wanted to do for Mother's day, I knew right away the answer was to take a picnic lunch and go to the park. The weather was supposed to be beautiful and I could use my new picnic basket!

Totally forgot my basket on Sunday.

But the air was warm and the sun was shining, so we gathered up our family and headed to the park for a Mother's day picnic!

Sydney kept me glued to the swings and slides, while Jon cooked up some great Filipino street food (marinated pork skewers).

(The pork was so good, it didn't last long enough for me to get a picture of it cooked!)

It's a bird, it's a plane...

It's headed straight for us!

We spent a couple of hours at the park, headed across the street for custard, and then went over to mom and dad's house to work on her vegetable garden (she's still dealing with a broken foot bone) and hang out for the evening. 

And for the cherry on top of this Mother's day Sunday...Jon got me a little something extra...

Have you tried chocolate with pineapple yet? You should! Yum. Thanks babe!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's day!