Leave the Mess

image by Alissa

cute legs belong to Kaisha

I've never been happier to clean my house than today. 

For eleven weeks I've forced myself to walk past the messes. Decent grades and a sparkling house were mutually exclusive. I could pick one or the other. And while I'm onto true confessions, cooking didn't happen either. I think Grant cooked more meals in the past three months in this house than I did. (Yes, I fed the kids. And read to Ania. And watched Psych with Mia. And stayed up late laughing with my older kids. Just the cooking and cleaning didn't happen. No people neglect.) 

School won't always be like this. Just this quarter. Future class schedules will be the same or harder, but I won't be going through the stupid life drama that tainted every waking moment of this quarter. 

I finished my last Anatomy & Physiology test online this morning, and I have one more exam that doesn't open online until Monday morning at 6AM and I don't even need to study for that one. I'm so close to being done it feels like being done! So to celebrate, I've been cleaning house. 

You know how when someone has a terrible accident and they really, honestly thought that they were going to die ... and then they didn't die? And not only did they not die, but they made a full recovery. And then you hear how they see the world in a whole new light? The sky is bluer, the grass is greener, the sun shines warmer ... ?

That's how I felt about vacuuming under the couch cushions this afternoon. It was beautiful. I loved it.

I've never been happier to clean my house than today.

Awwww.

Image by Alissa

A favorite someone sent me flowers recently! 

Real ones. 

With a vase you can keep. 

That are waiting at your front door when you drive up. 

Awwwww!

Thank you!

A Girl and Her Colors

It took three weeks, with a serious push at the end. But we did it. Her room is deeply clean. Only two bags of garbage. Almost all papers with drawings and stories and lists. A true, from-the-heart pack rat.

Mia.

Eight years old.

 So many colors on one person.

 Perfectly done.

Amazingly pulled off.

Color on her color on her color ... 

until she's THIS beautiful. 

Not just anyone can make a hand-me-down hat and thirty cents worth of jewelry look this stunning.

Lucky Charm Marshmallows

This morning seems like yesterday. 

Fast paced. Full days. Loving life. Looking forward. 

I love Christmas.

Adorable

How Fun is This

I'm eating popcorn and playing with Photoshop at 11pm. Jumping pictures (as my kids call them) are fun all by themselves ... then play with the black/white and color ... and one can hardly contain oneself!

The Downside to Blogging

There is a down side to blogging. Blogging gives the distinct impression that your whole life is just one bloggable moment after another. That the kids are always cute and amazing. That the car never breaks down, the dinner always turns out perfectly, and that you never yell at the dog. Or the kids. That your days are made up of smoothies, laughter, and cozy moments on the couch.

The upside of the whole blogging thing is that when you have one of those horrible days when nothing goes right, you feel like auctioning the kids, you can't think straight or stop crying ... you can go read your own blog and feel better about the world. You get the distinct impression that your whole life is just one happy bloggable moment after another. Ahhhh. Just what you needed. A little perspective.

I Love the UPS Truck

The big brown truck came to our house today! The bearer of my new camera lens. I'm so excited! A while back, I asked Renee about the first steps in improving my photography. "Start shooting in manual," was her answer. So I did. And it didn't take me very long to figure out why Renee shoots almost exclusively with a 50mm 1.4. I just couldn't get enough light when taking pictures in the house or at Alissa's swim meets. So began my quest to buy a lens similar to hers. I can't wait to learn to use it! Just a couple of quick, playing-around shots right out of the box:

(The plum tree in the back yard is starting to bloom! Welcome, Spring!)

Because this camera has an option for a wide open aperture (1.4), the depth of field can be really shallow. So you get the effect of everything behind your focused area being very blurry ... and therefore not distracting to the subject.

(Just a goofy picture of Ania; she is so full of silly expressions lately! She's becoming quite the little clown.)

I really don't have high aspirations about being an amazing photographer ... I just want to take the best pictures possible for me. Life is too short and the kids are too cute to miss out on capturing these moments.