Popping in...

I've been stressed about getting our taxes filed, but they are finished! Even though we aren't getting a return this year and (eek!) owe, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted. It isn't like me to wait until the last minute...I will not be doing that again next year.

In other news. I am so thrilled with Spring (even though it's dreary today).  I love that when I am pulling up to the house I see a beautiful border of cheery daffodils around the house. I keep cutting fresh bouquets and bringing them inside.  I see tulip buds about to open and the trees in the front yard are just ready to flower.  None of this has to do with any work I have put into these grounds. It's so exciting to me to see what perennials might pop up. I want to take a nice spring pic of the house, but I am waiting until Spring has put on the full regalia!

Today, since it is raining, I plan to go through the girls clothes and swap out the seasons.  A huge task.  I better get to it!

What better way to end a short, but meandering, post than with some pictures? Might as well throw some on!

Jordan's Dream Schedule

I found this handwritten in 7 year old scrawl on the kitchen table this morning (I am transcribing it as written--but will correct in parenthesis):

Jordan's Dream Schedule

3:00 a.m. Go shoping (shopping) for new clhose (clothes)

3:30 a.m. Go to the park.

4:00 a.m. Have a play date!

4:30 a.m. Selebrate (Celebrate) girls day!

5:00 a.m. Get icecrem. (ice cream)

5:30 a.m. Go to the zoo!

6:00 p.m. Get MicDonels. (McDonald's)

6:30 p.m. Go to Kennywood!

7:00 p.m. Go to Iled wild! (Idlewild)

8:00 p.m. See a movie

8:30p.m. Go to the serkiss. (circus)

9:00p.m. Be in a play.

9:30 p.m. Sing on a stage.

10:00 p.m. Be in a dance resitel. (recital)

10:30 p.m. Go to a party

11:00 p.m. Go to my friends house.

11:30 p.m. Go home.

12:00 p.m. Go to sleep.

Hehehehe.  This IS a dream schedule isn't it?

Lambchops After Dinner

Yesterday, Ava requested that we dress Chloe up as a lamb after dinner. (For Ava, the kids-dressed-as-animals obsession continues.)  I kept saying "no."

But she kept asking.

After a few more increasingly agitated "NOs", I thought, really what am I saying "no" to?

A fun family moment?

The perfect photo-of-the-day fodder?

A few laughs? 

So I did a complete 180 and without another word, dressed the baby up as a lamb for goodness sakes!

First of all Chloe LOVED being dressed as a lamb and was making hilarious faces and doing many cute lamb-like things.

Second it turned out to be apropos of Spring and I got some uber adorable pictures!!!

YAY for YES!

Eight Chapters

I just finished my assignment for Lenten Book Club and finished the next eight chapters in the book "How Big is Your God?: The Freedom to Experience the Divine" While the previous eight chapters left me feeling a bit Ho-Hum about the book these last eight have been really thought provoking and have lots of highlights throughout. I'll share some of those highlights with you. They speak to me and sharing them with you, my dear reader, will give you a glimpse of the me I strive to be:

Get rid of the material things in your home, and you will learn how to be free. Chapter 25

If you want a relationship with God, you must make space in your life for the spiritual. Chapter 26

If you give away something that you're attached to but you haven't enjoyed, it will haunt you for the rest of your life. Chapter 27

People, Places, Things -- enjoy them so you are not possessed by them. Chapter 27

Live life with a beginner's mind. Theme of Chapter 28

If you don't experience the Divine inside you, you won't find God anywhere. Chapter 30

While you are holding on to your children they are changing...the relationship that you have today is not the one you had yesterday and is not the one you will have tomorrow. Chapter 32

The present moment is eternal time. Chapter 32

I am striving to live in the present moment.  Whenever I have a quiet moment with Chloe I often say--You will never be this little again. That one thought magnetizes and magnifies the present moment for me. I experience the present most fully during my day at those times. I hold her close, feel her soft skin, breath her in and I just try to BE. With her. In the moment. Peace. Happiness. And a glimpse of the Divine.