As a visual communications professional, wife, friend, and follower of Jesus Christ, I enjoy sharing quick online tips, discussion topics, spiritual thoughts, and occasionally announcing some of the great things that happen randomly in life that just make me smile. I hope you will be blessed and that some content here might enrich your life.
Favorite pass-time lately: Imagining I'm superhuman and can do All The Things!
Then I remember my age, my bedtime along with the children, gray hairs, love handles, my growing snarky list of "you know you need a self care day if..." statements accruing in my Notes app that I keep just because I live on sarcasm and a pot of coffee a day to keep up with the rest of my family... and well, life!
Negativity, perhaps the devil, tries to tell me constantly how I'm not measuring up. Heck, I tell myself that enough times in a day. Sure, someone else has it all together in a way I don't. But I am superhuman. I am loved, blessed, overstimulated for sure, my cup (not the coffee) overflows to the point that I can't even take it all some days!
Let's take a moment and check out the path that led to where we are and just marvel at what an amazing thing life really is. Big, beautiful, cluttered, never pinterest worthy, but a chaotic, sometimes embarrassing, funny ensemble of uniqueness, and hopefully, learning all along the way.
May you find beauty in the chaos even if only after the kids are asleep. ;)
Recalling the fun of summer vacations as a kid and wanting to experience travel with our kids a bit, we arranged to purchase a 16’ travel trailer and 4Runner. Jonathan spent quite a bit of time and money making it travel worthy, learning how to winterize, etc.
Jonathan and Kathy worked hard on the
garden, starting seedlings as early as March this year, laying out the
right placement of plants, companion planting, moving raspberry bushes,
fighting against crabgrass and paradise trees, and not the least of
these, Jonathan put in an automatic drip watering system.
We did plan several camping trips this year and due to continued illness, one by one they each got canceled. We managed to get out for one night to try out our little home on wheels, we learned a few things about setting up camp in the rain while also getting exposed to the newest version of COVID-19. After we had to leave the campsite the next morning, and having to rearrange the next few camping excursions we threw up our hands and banished the trailer to provide AC/heat, showers and kitchen for our ambitious family as they begin building their new home above the Walla Walla cloud line.
Thankfully,
Kathy saw an opportunity at Spring break and ran off with the kids see
her brother and family in CA.
Daniel started preschool this summer and continues to amaze us with the new behaviors he comes home with and his resilient resistance to learning the alphabet, coloring or crafting anything. His love of all things motorized is not diminished but he is finding it more interesting to antagonize his family with anything at his disposal. Asking for hugs every 5 min and doing a surprise poke or tickle attack seems to be the height of hilarity right now.
Summer gas prices brought the thought of saving money to mind and Kathy thought we might do well with bikes and a double bike trailer. We did our best to bike the kids to summer programs that are less than a mile away, of course, we were quickly reminded of how warm it gets here in Walla Walla the majority of summer. The extreme heat wave this summer also
took our potted Charlie Brown Christmas Tree we bought while living in
Lynnwood 5 yrs ago, so we were blessed with a fresh cut tree from our
families property at Christmas this year. Kathy and the kids participated in the Frontier Days Parade followed by letting the kids enjoy all the fair rides they could handle.
Serena started 1st grade this year, math seems super easy for her and she is now reading at a level 1 or 2 book and 26 words per minute despite dealing with ADHD. She much prefers to spend her time hunting bugs or learning about or interacting with animals, crafting or drawing. We frequently run out of containers to turn into terrariums, tape and paper are in high demand as well as anything from the recycle bin, and end up hiding the scissors and glue until they can be used with supervision. After being introduced to Direct and Draw on YouTube, she has papered our walls seasonally with the most adorable creations. She maintains her love of bugs and makes it through the winter by cornering a salesperson at the pet store to let her hold the crickets, feeding her Venus flytrap flies that she can catch by hand, collecting green cabbage caterpillars and cutworms in the fall, watching them turn to brown moths and tantalizing our cats with them. Now that all the bugs have gone through metamorphosis and finished their life cycle, Kathy felt compelled to buy 4 hornworms which are now as big as our fingers and almost out of food, we are waiting to see how big of a moth they turn into.
Kathy agreed to volunteer publicity services for the local Mothers of Preschoolers group (MOPS) and is enjoying the creative outlet but finding it easily takes up any "free" time if you let it. It is truly a full time job keeping kids learning when they are often sick and staying home! We just had a meeting with the school about Serena's "excessive absences". Other projects: organizing, decluttering, trying to keep the household low waste, tackling food waste as our own garden and peach tree pumped out mass produce and the neighbors fruit trees dumped into our yard, we were forced to make country wine, can, freeze, dehydrate, and of course, experimental cooking. We’ve done lots of crafting with kids, slowly learning a few words of Spanish, and plotting piano and swim lessons but finally giving in and buying a big inflatable pool.
Jonathan has continued in the same job since October 2011, his current title is Sr. System’s Engineer. His work went through a major acquisition this year so there was a lot of change over from that and the company has another new name. He spent some time early this year helping Bernice work through Paul’s estate in Everett and recently started fiddling with Ableton Live on an inherited piano. Jonathan also spends time sewing the odd stuffed animal or fixing garments for the family on one of his many refurbished vintage sewing machines. He actually parted with 2 of the sewing machines this year which was a huge step; I think we are now down to 17!
He is planning some epoxy projects with a few intact interesting bugs he found. 3D printing continues to be a part of our lives, as the Death Star (Star Wars) briefly topped our tree once again this year. He saw a safety issue with the printer and worked tirelessly to build an enclosure for better ventilation from reclaimed materials. We are sleeping better now knowing he’s not going to die of toxic fume inhalation. Other projects: Replaced router for increased security, growing plants indoors in the dead of winter, volunteering with Yeehaw Aloha, and continuing to build storage into our home for better organization.
There always seems to be so much more we wanted to do in the year. We did managed to take a break from being
sick momentarily to see each of the grandparents leading up to
Thanksgiving. We are thankful for the little bits of time we got to spend with family and friends. We are so thankful for the growth and understanding that is blossoming in our energetic kids and we are so privileged to get to be their parents… but keep us in your prayers. ;) We each have so much growing to do.
