Places we are not

It is snowing.

But not here.

Here it is a (comparatively) balmy 53. Tomorrow it will be 64. The sun is shining and the sky is blue and I am very glad for that . . .

Kinda . . .

In the place where we are not, the place where my family lives, it looks like this today.

And I’m just the tiniest bit jealous.

(Thanks for the photos, Aunt Martha! Wish we were there!)

I {heart} you

The kids and I made these adorable crayon hearts today to give to their classmates for Valentine’s Day! This is a great way to use up all those bits and pieces of old crayons – just remove the wrappers and place the bits into a mini muffin tin – ours was heart shaped for Valentine’s Day but round ones would work just as well. Place the tin into a 250 degree oven for 10-15 minutes and viola! New, multi-colored crayons!

I’m thinking we will attach the crayons to a piece of construction paper with a cute saying like “You color my world.”

I did it!

I wasn’t terribly fast, but I finished my first 5K! In fact, I finished it while pushing a stroller full of two children much too large to still be in a stroller.

And the craziest thing was that it was really fun!

Not so much the stroller part . . . that just sort of happened out of necessity and it was actually incredibly frustrating. The fact that for the first time ever I was pushing, what . . . 80 pounds worth of kids in the stroller? (Neither of them has ridden in a stroller for years now!) That was hard enough. But then I also made the mistake of getting at the very back of the pack, thinking I was being courteous. What I didn’t realize was that I was behind all the walkers, and they kept lining up 4 and 5 across the lane so I couldn’t  pass! And of course I had to stop every now and then for Fletcher to climb in and out of the stroller. He did run part of the way, maybe even as much as a  mile of the 3.2, but never for very long at a time.

But the point is that I finished. My time according to my iPhone running app was 44 minutes, which was right around a 14 minute mile. I’m pretty sure I can do a lot better next time.

After the 5K we met up with friends, collected our post-race Power-Ade for the kids and beer for me, then stood in the rain to watch the half-marathon. It was surprisingly fun to stand there shivering and cheering as the main pack of runners passed the half-way point – and the front-runners turned the corner into the home stretch! When Raymond came back around on his way to the finish line, Fletcher ran out to join him and they ran across the finish line together. It was really sweet.

So all in all I would say the experiment was a success! I can’t imagine I will ever be a real runner, and I still think anyone who runs more than a 10K is out of their mind, but I enjoyed it enough to give it another try! There are quite a few more races coming up as we enter Spring. Next time, Raymond is watching the kids. Once with the extra 80 pounds was enough for me!

Thinking about Easter . . .

How precious is this little dress? I can hardly stand it.
Lola Gray needs this dress for Easter, don’t you agree?

I couldn’t be fuller of wonderful things

Fletcher and I have been reading the wonderful book of A.A. Milne poems, Now We Are Six, and loving every page of it. Tonight’s poem seemed so incredibly timely, given our discovery today, that I had to share it with you.

The Little Black Hen by A. A. Milne

Berryman and Baxter,
Prettiboy and Penn
And old Farmer Middleton
Are five big men . . .
And all of them were after
The Little Black Hen.

She ran quickly,
They ran fast;
Baxter was first, and
Berryman was last.
I sat and watched
By the old plum-tree . . .
She squawked through the hedge
And she came to me.

The Little Black Hen
Said, “Oh, it’s you!”
I said, “Thank you,
How do you do?
And please will you tell me,
Little Black Hen,
What did they want,
Those five big men?”

The Little Black Hen
She said to me:
“They want me to lay them
An egg for tea.
If they were Emperors,
If they were Kings.
I’m much to busy
To lay them things.”

“I’m not a King
And I haven’t a crown;
I climb up trees,
And I tumble down.
I can shut one eye,
I can count to ten,
So lay me an egg, please,
Little Black Hen.”

The Little Black Hen said,
“What will you pay,
If I lay you an egg
For Easter Day?”

“I’ll give you a Please
And a How-do-you-do,
I’ll show you the Bear
Who lives in the Zoo,
I’ll show you the nettle-place
On my leg,
If you’ll lay me a great big
Eastery egg.”

The Little Black Hen
Said “I don’t care
For a How-do-you-do
Or a Big-brown-bear,
But I’ll lay you a beautiful
Eastery egg,
If you’ll show me the nettle-place
On your leg.”

I showed her the place
Where I had my sting.
She touched it gently
With one black wing.
“Nettles don’t hurt
If you count to ten.
And now for the egg,”
Said the Little Black Hen.

When I wake up
On Easter Day,
I shall see my egg
She’s promised to lay.
If I were Emperors,
If I were Kings,
I couldn’t be fuller
Of wonderful things.

Berryman and Baxter,
Prettiboy and Penn,
And Old Farmer Middleton
Are five big men.
All of them are wanting
An egg for their tea,
But the Little Black Hen is much too busy,
The Little Black Hen is much too busy,
The Little Black Hen is MUCH too busy . . .
She’s laying my egg for me!

Have you figured it out yet? Any idea why I am so full of wonderful things right now?

Yep! You guessed it! We have eggs!!!!

We had all but given up on seeing eggs before the spring! I am absolutely giddy! We are pretty sure all these beauties came from Henriella – she has been squawking up a racket lately and I can only imagine she was trying to tell us to come outside despite the rain and check out this amazing thing that popped out of her! I mean – WOW!

I realize it is a little silly that I am sooooooooooooo happy about this but I don’t care. Simple pleasures, right? Now let’s just hope that Juliana will follow suite and start laying some beauties of her own. Yeah for eggs!!

the gang

The Greatest Show on Earth

Now we are six

My dear, sweet, Super Fletcher,

Six years ago today, my world changed forever. You took my breath away the first time I saw you, the first time I held you in my arms. I loved you so much in those first hours and days that I could not possibly have imagined anything better. But it has gotten better.

With every passing year you are growing and changing and becoming ever more YOU – and you are incredible. You are smart and funny, sweet and sensitive and loving. Your energy, imagination and  curiosity blow me away. Your ability to run headlong into any situation, to always make friends, to always have fun, inspire me every day.

I have missed you so much since you started kindergarten. The days seem to pass so much more quickly now than those endless afternoons when we would walk up and down the block, you on your little horsey bike and me following protectively along behind. I can’t follow you everywhere now. You don’t need me to. There isn’t much you can’t do on your own these days. (Though you still say you are too little to make my coffee in the mornings – we need to work on that one!) I am so, so proud to be your mother, so excited to see where this amazing journey will take you.

Happy Birthday, sweet potato. Mommy loves you.

life in the fast lane

last day as a 5 year old . . .