Saturday Snapshots

Dancing (or spinning) the morning away. Gotta love a little lady who can take the lead. And then prove that Big Girls Don't Cry...they don't cry when their dizzy dance partners bow out of the show.

No...they steal the show solo with pretty pirouettes and amazing arabesques.

Whiling away the afternoon dying eggs for Easter. The GIRLS (Miss Bit, Aunt Jess and Moi)...

COLORED...

EGGS while...

The boys (cats) were dying to get ahold of the noisy birds in the bushes.

Until Mr. Sun called them in for their afternoon siesta.

And the other boys (T. Bone and Hubby) immersed themselves in March Madness...

And Legos.

When "art" imitates life.

Somebunny sure is cute!

Tomorrow is the start of Holy Week. I'm praying for a week filled with reverence and grace.

Friday Photo

T. Bone is channeling his inner prep, which makes me wonder if I still have my copy of my tween Bible - The Preppy Handbook.

He's revisiting the 80's while my girls gone mod back to the swinging 60's. Never a monochromatic moment in our house.

Grateful Friday

Today I give thanks for...

• Miss Bit woke up with a big smile on her face yesterday morning knowing that it was her school's Open House/Ice Cream Social last night. When she saw the outfit I set out for her she said, "Oh I just know you're letting me wear something so beautiful because it's a special day!" She skipped around the school hand in hand with her friend M. happy as can be.
• T. Bone had a tough situation with some neighbors/friends yesterday who are older. They go to the middle school. They excluded him even as they built a fort on the edge of our property in our neighbor's yard. He calmly said, "It's OK...I have better friends than that." I not so calmly wanted to tell them $#@! and call them $#% &#^#%*%$S! but how could I when my little boy was being so big? At the school function last night he worked things out with his friend P. all by himself.
• T. Bone got down right excited about a green gingham dress shirt at the Gap the other day and for a moment I wondered where the aliens had taken my grunge lovin' son.
• Crystal and Casey...next week is rhythm and blues.
• The Real Housewives for keeping my life REAL.
• So much pink in my closet for spring.
• Pizza at my brother and sil-to-be's tonight.
• I talked to my Dad this week. We had words a couple weeks ago. I finally broke down and cleared the air. I so don't like being on the outs...I'd rather be sorry than right...something my big hearted hubby has taught me.
• Baking a fresh loaf of banana bread for my kids this morning for breakfast. They love it...they appreciate it...it makes the house smell so good.
• I'm feeling a little better, lighter, brighter.

Today is Tuesday

I logged on and now I don't know what to say. That's the story of my week. It's still quiet in my world, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, Father T. gave us 3 rules this week during his sermon that were given to him every Sunday he visited the cemetery as a kid: be quiet, don't step on graves and don't drink the water (poisonous lead pipes). Basically, turn off the t.v. and tune out the noise around you and pray, be nice, and neither myself or my hubby was exactly sure just where he was going with the last one. Let's face it... based on most accounts I don't drink enough water. We kind of decided the premise was steer clear of poison as in negativity, fear, judgement, reproach. When he suggested turning off the t.v., Miss Bit's eyes got as wide as saucers. She is still a major Sponge Bob aficionado and needs her daily fix. (I'll gladly turn off the propaganda spewed by the biased, brain washed media and be thankful if I never again have to hear about Pelosi and her Slaughter tactics. If you aren't scared yet, you should be people, and let me just state for the record that I am not against health care reform.) T. Bone listened intently to the story of Lazarus. It's an attention grabber for a 9 year old.

Spring sprung here last week. The longer, warmer days mean the kids are spending lots of time outside refilling their vitamin D reserves. There are as many robins in the yard as kids, and the chipmunks are once again chasing each other around the yard making the cats crazy. There aren't any buds on the trees yet, but before long the world around us will be vibrantly verde. The cats are leaving hairballs when they wrestle, following the sun as it moves from room to room, and mewing for a little fresh air...their own edition of the morning news (acccording to my Aunt). The bbq was fired up over the weekend to grill some chicken served with a side of fresh steamed green beans. I've been busy planning our Easter brunch and my sil-to-be's shower. The world around me is sunny and bright so the way I see it...I'm bound to perk up one of these days.

And that being said...I don't want you to think that I've been holed up in my bed paralyzed behind my room darkening shades, or that I'm crying in my coffee day after day overcome with sadness and despair. It's just that my grief is closer to the surface than it's been for a long time. And my heart is heavy in a way I'm not used to. Instead of periods of pain and disambiguation, it's a constant aching funk, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it sure doesn't seem to be getting any closer. I feel alone, even though I'm not. I'm not speaking what's on my mind very often because if I did, I probably would be alone.

So last week about this time I felt unlucky, and this week I feel uninspired. I'm getting through each day, but I'm just going through the motions. I'm moving forward crossing them off the calendar, but where am I going? What's the point? Why? I've had moments of laughter. How could I not chuckle when I came home with a bag full of lovely Liberty of London dresses only to hear Miss Bit exclaim, "Thank you Bermuda!" Her commentary during Dancing with the Stars last night had me in stitches. There's no way not to crack up when she walks around listening to my I Pod singing songs from The Princess and The Frog, or the Black Eyed Peas loudly. I had to crack a smile when T. Bone came home excited and proud that he won first place in his den's Pinewood Derby races. He makes me laugh the way he is so consumed with March Madness and already convinced that he's going to win my office pool. And to hear his British accent...now that is funny! I even felt genuinely happy Friday celebrating my friend's milestone birthday with the girls, and celebrating my brother's with my family on Sunday.

I started writing not sure of what I wanted to say today, and now 20 minutes later Father T.'s rules...simple and true...seem uncannily relevant at this time. I'm going to keep praying for the courage to be nice to myself and the strength to be nice to others.

Grateful Friday

Today I give thanks for...

• Driving with the sun roof open the last couple of days.
• The way my kids love corned beef! We ended up making it again on St. Paddy's Day to go with my sil-to-be's delicious colcannon.
• The special job of bringing up the gifts during Sunday's mass. Miss Bit presented the wafers and T. Bone brought the huge glass carafe of wine. Of course, Miss Bit wanted to follow Father T. straight up onto the altar for the rest of the service.
• Not paying to see Up in the Air or The Messenger in the theater because they were so not worth the $. Planet 51 was worth the $3 + free popcorn price of admission for Saturday's Frosty Flicks.
• T. Bone's resourcefulness.
  
  
• Today is pajama day at school!
  
  
• Fresh berries on my cereal for breakfast.
• A field trip to the Planetarium with Miss Bit's class this week. Even I learned something about our solar system.
• Liberty of London is coming soon to a Target near me!
• An extra hour of daylight.
• Playing outside after school.
  
  
• This Daddy's girl!

• Friends that have your back.
  

• Cat naps.

• My princess...pretty in pink with pigtails, a pouffy skirt and a polka dotted present ready to party.

• Knowing that nothing is ever impossible.
  
  

• Grandma's who leave chocolate cake for dessert and take stuffed animals home to mend.
• My hubby went out for some March madness with friends last night.
• I went to bed early with a stack of reading and a cat.
• Getting up early this morning to workout.
• Dinner tonight for Rose's 50th. Tapas, vino, good friends and gifts.
• This week is over.

Top O' the Mornin to Ya!

I didn't want to get out of bed this morning and I couldn't figure out why until I remembered that today is St. Paddy's Day. It's been a rough week already, and here we are at March 17th. I feel like I'm being kicked when I'm already down. Last year this day was a doozey too because it was such a favorite of my Mom's. How can I not think of her....miss her even more...on a day that she so loved to celebrate? I miss her Irish jokes, sharing a green beer, dreaming together about traveling to Ireland someday. It's hard to feel lucky today.

And really how lucky are the Irish anyways? Cursed with famines and a bloody civil war that is still being waged?

Nonetheless...I had to get up. I turned the frosting for our cinnamon buns green lest my own children go hungry. Miss Bit declared the outcome even more magically delicious than usual. Then I shamrocked my kids (shirts, cheeks, headbands, boxers and fingernails too) and sent them on their merry ways. I couldn't convince either one of them to let me give them the green freckles my Mom gave me year after year, and they're too young for her O'Shit button. O' Well!

And then I look at these two and I am so quickly reminded of just how crazy lucky I am.

Backyards Full of Boys!

My yard is filled with boys and now I KNOW it's spring. 5 to be exact. Playing a loud, competitive, cut-throat game of scrimmage...2 on 3! Forget it that my nose knows...I hear this with my own 2 ears. Thankfully, I'm signing off to meet a friend of my own for dinner on this lovely night.