Behold the before and after of our backyard project last week - 'after' pictures come first! Looks better thanks to Craig. Now hopefully there will be another "after" photo once we plant the garden boxes and organize the flower/veggie beds. (Oh, and get rid of the dead tree!) We've got lots of planning and planting to do. In our extra free time, of course! If anyone has grand ideas for what we should do with this space, let us know!



I want to paint the shed red, but Craig's not a fan. And, I suppose, if you think about it, that would result in a little more maintenance work.

Dentist Day!

Off to the dentist this morning for a dual appointment for Gavin and Graeme. I was expecting the worst, as it was Graeme's first time. He's not a huge fan of brushing teeth, unless chewing on the toothbrush counts. Gavin is an old pro at the dentist, but I've usually gone back with him. I have to admit I was a little sad when the hygienist took him back without me! I was expecting a total freak out from Gavin too, since I wasn't there. My little boys are getting older. Maybe I've got my guard up too high though. They both did great! I'm torn between: "My boys don't need me as much anymore!" and "Ooh, I can just bring a book and read in the waiting room!"

Of course, the dentist and everyone who works there is great with kids and they've got all sorts of tricks. But I was impressed. And pleasantly surprised that the boys squirmed a little, but generally had fun and have healthy teeth. That's the best part. (And we got a balloon, which is hours of fun.)

Backyard Back in Business!

On this gorgeous sunny day, my lovely husband spent the whole day in the backyard shaping a pathway and garden beds. He's fabulous! Now instead of lumpy grass surrounding our garden beds, we have nice flat gravel that will not need weeding or mowing. And it does make for a nice casual garden space. We have two new beds now for plants or veggies. It'll take some time, I think, before we figure out what we'll plant. It is, after all, only February.

Some of the seeds that I started indoors are already going crazy since we've had so much sun. I'm tempted to just plunk them in the garden a bit early and see what happens. Worst case is they don't make it, right? (And I'm talking peas and broccoli, so they are supposed to be more cold weather I believe. Ok, and maybe a few beans.) When I was starting the little seed beds for our windowsill, Gavin was helping me. He found some corn and bean seeds left over from the summer and wanted to plant them. So I said, "Sure, plant them in this pot." I was planting a few other seeds in the pot and didn't think that his seeds would germinate. But they did! And they're growing fast. So we'll see if I can keep those alive till it's warm enough to plant them. (Trouble is we don't have a great place for light, but we'll see.)

Overall point, we are excited to be working in the yard again! Though this winter was strange and not very wintery, I think most people around here will be glad when it's over and we can plant again! I even already have one little red tulip blooming in the front yard, and crocuses, and hyacinth! Crazy early, but very pretty.

Yoga at Home

Since Craig had a hockey game tonight, I decided to dust off one of my yoga videos. I haven't been able to do yoga at home for a while. Between the early mornings with the boys and the trucks strewn across the floor, I've been having a hard time finding the zen space. But tonight, the boys went to bed without a fuss and I had some time all to myself. Yoga would be the best use of my time, I thought. Stay away from Facebook, don't check email, just go start the DVD.

I'm glad I did, since it was kind of a learning experience. Since I haven't done this DVD in a long time, it was virtually new to me (one from Gaiam if you're curious). It was certainly well done, and very serene, but I found myself wondering, "How do people do this if they've never done yoga before?" To increase the connection with your energy (or something like that) there was no instruction throughout the practice. Only the voice telling you, albeit in a soothing tone, which pose to move in and out of next. At one point there was even a sequence with six poses in a row, but hard poses!

The yoga teacher training has changed my perspective on such matters. Now instead of thinking, "This is hard!" I think, "Wow, you could really hurt yourself if you didn't know what you're supposed to do in each pose!" This DVD in particular was rather rapid fire from pose to pose, and that's certainly not the type of yoga that we're learning. I like ours better; there's more flow and build up to each pose so you feel like you're ready for it.

Anyway, just a realization that I feel like I am learning quite a lot in this training program. It's great, although the side effect is that I tend to critique the classes (or DVDs) that I take for better or worse.

Sun = Dirt Exposure

As I mentioned, it was absolutely gorgeous today! Warm, sunny, and the flowers are starting to bloom. It really is Spring, but in Winter. (I'm convinced that we'll get a huge snow storm and freezing temperatures right after the Olympics ends.)

But, as anyone who lives here knows (or at least I hope it isn't just me), when it gets sunny, you notice just how dirty your windows are, and your car, and pretty much everything. We did get the car washed today; mostly because it was a marginally fun thing to do that wouldn't contaminate other people. If the truth be told, Gavin would be entirely happy driving around hunting for speed bumps to drive over. (And Graeme is happy doing anything that doesn't require getting in and out of the car seat.)

As the boys napped and then played in the backyard, I found myself cleaning. Mirrors, windows, walls, whatever I noticed was screaming, "Clean me!" There was a lot to do. I have, however, found THE coolest thing on the planet for cleaning. Introduced to me from friends in Canada, I have these microfiber cloths from Norwex. One is a window cloth and one is a antibacterial cloth that cleans just about everything. Both of them have silver fiber embedded into them and they work only with water. My windows have NEVER been so clean. No streaks, no lint, and the cloths were even able to scuff out the glue from manufacturing that was stuck onto some of our windows. (I thought it'd be there forever because I couldn't get it off with Windex or a scrubby.)

As lame as this sounds, tonight at dinner Craig was beaming about Team Canada winning the shoot out in hockey, and I was beaming because my windows were SO freakin' clear. (Not that a measure of a woman or anyone is how clean their floor is or any such 1950s ideal...) But, we all need to clean sometime and when you have kids or pets it is probably more often than we really want. And these cloths make it SO easy that - dare I say it - it's actually fun because they work so well and get things spotless is so much easier and quicker. No gloves or chemicals involved. Pretty sweet.

Check it out if you hate cleaning but like things to be clean. The website is: www.norwex.com and they have a bunch of products. The company is fairly new to the States (as far as I can tell), and the catch is that they are sold only through consultants, a la Mary Kay or Avon. Since the few products I've tried (total of 5 things) have made life that much easier, I decided to become a Norwex consultant. (This is in addition to life coaching and yoga, but it all helps people live happier and healthier!) I'm not a person who ever thought she'd be excited about cleaning products, let alone signing up to sell them. They just work that well. So, if you're curious or want to try something, let me know. (No pressure of course, just letting you know it exists.)

Getting better, I hope!

We are finally, hopefully, on the mend. (I hope, I hope, I hope.) My NetiPot is endearing for only so long, and I'd like my shirts to cease functioning as tissue for the boys. (I usually use tissue on the boys, of course, but every once in a while there's a huge creature crawling out of their nose and tissue is no where in sight... then once you've used it once, what's the point? At least I'm organized: one sleeve for Graeme and one sleeve for Gavin.) Can I make the request that all the other bugs this year pass us by? I'd like to order that up. Thanks.

We did have a fun day today, despite the guck. It was gorgeous outside! We ran a few errands, met Craig for lunch at the park, went for a walk later, and played in the backyard. Gavin was a little low energy early in the day, but he was back to normal before bed. And Graeme is just a trooper. He could fall face first off a mountain and still be happy that he's outside climbing. (That hasn't happen yet, by the way, but I'm sure it will at some point!)

What to Do??

This morning I'm wondering what to do today. I've got two boys who have nasty coughs and runny noses, who still have lots of energy. And its raining, or at least forecast to rain all day. Hmmm... my options are limited. Graeme has a double ear infection this time too. I'm getting to know the pharmacist quite well!

It might be a 'going for a drive' day.

The Good Life

Today I've been noticing the joy in simple pleasures. Watching Gavin and Graeme, I see just how much joy they get out of life. It makes me smile; a good reminder that we don't need a lot. Something yummy, and something cozy.

For Graeme, I can see the fun he has every morning (and afternoon) coming downstairs and flopping onto his two enormous Pillow Pals. He flops down and rolls around a bit like a puppy getting comfortable, tongue wagging just the same. Also, when offered some dried mango, his eyes widen and he says, "Maa-gooo," then comes running like I made his whole day.

Then, I was watching Gavin as he ate lunch this afternoon. Tomato soup. Each spoonful came with a focused slurp. You could tell he was enjoying every bite. "Does slurping make it taste better?" I asked. He responded, "Mummy, it tastes better when I eat it." Well, that makes sense too. After lunch we went downstairs (while Graeme was napping), and we played a game. Then I put some laundry onto the couch straight from the dryer. Gavin jumped up and started to roll around in it, which was very cute, but also wrinkle-inducing. So I grabbed the blankets we keep downstairs and tossed them into the dryer for a few minutes. Hearing the giggles when I bundled him up in the warm blankets was priceless. "Oh, snuggly, snuggly," he said.

Gavin also came home from preschool today with a Valentine. On the back it read:

What is a Valentine?
"A valentine snack."

What color is love?
"Mummy."

How do you know?
"Because she's snuggly."

I think I need to go have a snuggle. And maybe a snack.

Success! (or Mud, Wonderful Mud)

Here are the pictures I took with my phone yesterday, and one from another rainy mud puddle day (where I was more prepared for the muck).

Day Improving...

Don't you just love the droll on his shirt in every picture?
He's got a lot of teeth to come in yet.

My apologies for being grumpy this morning. The day improved greatly as Graeme doesn't have an ear infection and it was sunny enough to play at the park after preschool. (I still don't like getting up early though.) And Celeste also told my how to get the pictures off my phone, so I've added some below.

Here are some pictures of our time at the park.

The Mummy Lottery

Having just changed my profile picture, the computer told me it was "fetching". I needed a compliment this morning. (Though I realize it was intended as a verb rather than an adjective, I choose my version.)

Here's our house this morning:

1) Graeme half heartedly crying at 5am,
2) Me thinking, "Why is Craig not getting him?"
3) Me realizing Craig had gone to workout,
4) Graeme has a fever and soggy pants (likely cause: another ear infection)
5) Gavin wakes up 5:15am
6) Gavin wants to take Motrin though he doesn't need it (he likes the tiny cup)
7) I have to sit on Graeme to get him to take it
8) Then I get a diaper surprise to top it off

I won the Mummy Lottery this morning. I'd just like to know when the snot faucets will dry up.

Our Exciting Day!

Yoga came in handy today. My neighbor knocked on our door saying that, while walking her older son to the bus, her younger son (3) locked the door. So he was stuck inside the house and she didn't have a key. We figured out that they have one window slightly open for a TV cable; a basement window that's kind of small and kind of a drop off to the floor below. My neighbor wasn't having success getting through, so I gave it a shot and hopped in quite easily. Cara to the rescue! Agility, flexibility... see yoga helps! (By the way, my kids were happy eating breakfast, with Graeme buckled in, so it was pretty safe to leave them. And we have a key hidden.)

Other excitement today? Going to the park after it stopped raining. We took a walk, which I needed, but the boys LOVE to play in dirt. Preferably mud. Even better if there's a puddle. As my kids were playing in the dirt, I'm trying to test out the camera on my phone with pictures of them. I think, "Oh, I should take a picture of myself for my Facebook page." (Since right now I'm Jennifer Garner, and I don't have any recent pictures of me for some reason.) Click, click. Then I notice Graeme's enormous, mud smeared smile.... I suppose I should actually watch what my kids are doing. Dirt can't be that bad, right?

(It would be really cute to post the pictures I took with my camera; however, neither Craig nor I can figure out how to download them from our phone to our computer. They were good, but you'll have to take my word for it... unless someone can tell me how to download from my phone...)

Back Outside

Even though this winter has been quite mild, I was happy to see the first bulbs sprouting up through the dirt in our yard. This, to me, signals that winter is almost over and gives me something to look forward to, particularly since I planted a bunch new tulips and daffodils this year. It has been so warm, though, that now I'm worried that everything will get frozen in a late or unexpected frost... since it is only February. I've got leaves coming out on most of my plants, which is exciting, but disconcerting at the same time. So, we'll see how they fair for the rest of the season.

The weather was so warm (56F) and sunny yesterday that Gavin and I spent over an hour outside yesterday. He rode his Skuut bike and played in the dirt while I pulled weeds. It felt great to be outside! I'm trying to figure out how and where to build a strawberry patch. We had a couple small plants last summer (grown from a plant from our old neighbor), but they sent out TONS of runners. So now we have a bunch new plants - everywhere! Gavin was excited about the idea of a strawberry patch. We'll see if he can wait to pick them until they get red! Doubtful.

A Window into Our Car

We're sitting at a stop light this afternoon, and a giant FedEx semi pulls up next to us. Here's the dialog that followed:

"Hey there's a truck," I say.

"Duck!" says Graeme.

Gavin replies, "No, Graeme, don't say 'duck'. It's not a duck. It's a TRuck! A dualie!"

"Doooooeeeee," responds Graeme.

"Hey, Graeme! You said 'dualie'! Good job! Graeme said dualie, Mummy!" says Gavin.

My own little comedy team.