The 1st of "THE Talks"

Kate: "Mama, what are tampons?"

Me: "I think you should ask Daddy."

Kate: "Daddy, what are tampons?"

Lars: "They are what Mama uses when she's reeeeally cranky."


That just about sums it up, I guess.

A little Sundog in every day...

Due to my undiagnosed, unverified, very believable A.D.D.-ness, it has been quite a while since I have issued a new version of the latest tonight. Bear with me...I've had a few miracles happen in my life lately. My mind has been busy counting the blessings in my life and trying to figure out why I can organize everyone else's life but not my own. I'm working on a big, bad, mother-load blog, but for now you get this...

I am making a daily...or weekly....or completely sporadic list of Sundog Moments (footnote..."Everyday Miracles" for the religious. "Sundog Moments" for the secular. Read the book. Live by the glory of little shining moments. Honor my dad by honoring my mom and her own little dispensing book club. If any of this is unclear, I'd love to talk about it with you more.) This is my new theme for my life...looking for those little moments of amazingness in the seemingly ordinary moments of life.

Today...

- My daughter cried. I asked her what was wrong. I asked her to tell me what was bothering her. She refused. I begged. She cried. I feared I was pushing too hard. I loved her too much to give up. I pushed for explanations. She caved. She told Mama. I told her I loved her and that I was glad she told me. She (much later in the evening) came up to me, hugged me, and thanked me for helping her. I hugged her back and realized that knowing your daughter and gaining her trust is worth trusting your gut.

- I decided tonight, like when I decided long ago that I could, in fact, control my hiccups, that I wanted to finally learn how to play the violin. I searched Kijiji and found ONE moving sale this weekend that fit my search. They are selling a violin. I'm going to try to buy it.

- I was downloading pictures from my beloved trip to Richmond earlier this week. Jonas came over, put his arm around my shoulder, asked me what I was doing, and told me "I love you, too," as he stood up and walked back to his table hockey game - on which he huddles the players together to hug after they score a goal.

- There is a new channel that is called B.L.C. The Beautiful Little Channel. They play beautiful classical music, teach you about the composers, and show nothing but pleasing photography. It's like Martha Stewart minus the prison time plus a lot of cupcakes and herb gardens.

I'm done now. Thanks for reading this far. You're great. I hope you have a great day tomorrow.

Kate said a funny...

Ann: "Doesn't Joseph speak French?"

Kate: "No, I think he had an accident."

Ann: "So he has a speech impediment?"

Kate: "No no no no.  What's it called when Gramdaddy says your name 'Ayyyyyyyan'?"

Ann: "Ohhhhh, an accent."

Kate: "Yeah yeah that's it!"

So I'm guessing Joseph probably speaks French. ;)

Jonas said a funny...

After telling Jonas that it was almost time for bed so that he could sleep and grow, he said the following:

"Remember muscle food? It makes me strong.  Just chicken makes me strong.  Just chocolate makes dogs die.  If Jake eats chocolate, he would get died.  We'd be really sad if our dog died because then we would have no dogs.  Rrrrrreally sad."  Then he went back to watching Backyardigans.

Just a blip of a blog...

I have been meaning to post for a few weeks now but have been so busy lately - so busy that my closest friends didn't even know that we decided to move and then decided not to move. But that blog entry isn't going to happen right now. I am currently pedaling away on level 7 of the elliptical machine at the gym, so this must be brief. However, I would like to cite a quote that I just read while feeding my new-found pinterest habit. I feel that it sums up what I've been pondering the last few months. "Pull your weeds. Plant good seeds." That's all. Yes, it was in the gardening section. I'm putting it in my life section.

Almost about a fly...

What are the odds that, when I normally only open my magical bag of blogness once or so a month, today I ended up with two reasons to write. Originally, I was going to tell the story of Jonas closely examining our dogs excrement and then his announcement to me that "Mama, Mama, there are animals on Jake's poooop!" But, that story was trumped by two examples of good friendships. I know, much deeper and more philosophical than a story about flies on poop. Maybe not as entertaining, but hopefully it will touch more hearts. First of all, today was the first day that I truly felt like summer was somewhere in the near future. It was warm, sunny, and created a neighborly buzz around town. When I got dressed this morning, I wanted to feel like I was wearing summer around me. Part of that outfit was a bright orange necklace. This necklace is a special part of my life, not for its material existence (although I do really, really like its material existence) but because of the story that came with it. It was given to me by a dear friend, my dearest friend. It is only a minor, ironic detail that she is also my summer-est friend. The important thing here is that she is such a good friend that she literally gave me the necklace off her neck. I mentioned once how much I liked her necklace, and shortly after I returned home, the very same necklace arrived by mail at my house. Every time I wear the necklace, I'm reminded of her infectiously generous attitude towards her friendships and life in general. Second of all, I had the pleasure of spending time tonight with two great friends. They, like my orange-necklace-gifting friend, are very generous and thoughtful. They're two people that, despite how busy and/or complicated life can get, I feel like when I hug them they hug back. I'm a hugger. I do some analyzing subconsciously when I hug. So I know first-hand that a reciprocal-hugger can be hard to come by these days. They're good friends to me and my family. There was nothing specific to report from tonight except that they remind me of the fact that life is better when you have good friends. Today I saw that it doesn't matter where you are, how near or far your true friends are. It matters more how true they are. Home really is where the heart is. Hold your true friends close to your heart. Be a better friend to them than you feel they are to you. If everyone does that, it would be the best ever one-up-ing ever. And hug them back.

My kid is not stupid.

Jonas: "Mommy, it's face off time. You do it for me?"

Me: "Maybe Jake could do it for you."

Jonas: "Noooooo. Jake don't got hands."

Me: "Okay, I'll do it."