An Ordinary Day

Joshua requested a picnic today.  While I showered, John and Joshua filled his new Thomas lunch box (compliments of great-grandma) with cheese, pickles, carrot sticks and cucumber.  He ate the tuna sandwich before it made it to the box.

John had to leave for work in a few short hours, so in the interest of time we just went to the park around the corner and ate while seated on the lone bench.  John pushed him on the swing afterwards.

It was an ordinary afternoon.  John left for work and Joshua had quiet time (if a Veggie Tales sing-a-long counts as "quiet?").  I wanted to use that time to make a grocery list/menu, but Joshua asked me to have quiet time with him today...lists can wait  We cuddled, instead.  Then we played a game together, ate dinner, did a new puzzle (more compliments of great-grandma), read some Dr. Suess books (my personal favourites!), and got ready for bed.

That's it.  Just a simple day in the life of us.  But I loved every minute of it.  I always enjoy being a mom, but some days I guess I'm just extra aware of how blessed I am.  Today was one of those days.

Mini-Golfing

Just pictures.

Oh, and you ought to know that I was the only one who got a hole-in-one.  ;-)

When It Rains.

When it rains, and when the park across the street from your home floods with water, and when the rain stops and the evening is still young...you don swim trunks and go puddle jumping, of course!

Why not?

Beautiful Summer Days

There's this park.  It's well away from the road, with a man-made (but very believable) pond occupied by turtles, frogs and snails, a lovely little foot path with bridges (I love bridges), lots of trees, a great playground with plenty of seating, green grass, shade...it's perfect.  I love it there.  It takes me back to my teenage swamp-prowling, mud-tramping, frog-catching years.  After all, I hung out with my brothers a lot.

Looking for frogs.

John put a bug carcass on Joshua's t-shirt.  They both thought it was lovely, I was disgusted.  At first Joshua told me, "I will hide it with my hand, so you can't see it Mommy."  After a while, he decided chasing me with it was much more fun.  Oh yes, boys are boys, and nobody has to teach them how to do this well.  I finally got over it and took a picture for him-- grimacing all the while.  You can see the mischievous delight in his eyes.

I'm usually the one behind the camera, so here's a rare picture of me and my little man.  Still taken by me, I just realized, but it turned out pretty good.

I love beautiful summer days like this.

The Month of June...and July.

Well, blogging every day for a month did NOT develop a blogging habit, though it certainly developed a greater awareness that I wasn't blogging when I would have liked.  I guess that counts for something.  I have been preoccupied with so many things in the last six weeks that blogging became a much lesser priority. Or...maybe it wasn't so much priorities that kept me away, but my inability to manage time.  I get so caught up in the task at hand that I neglect everything else.  I really need to learn how to divide my days so I can accomplish more.

So a quick recap to get me up-to-date, and then perhaps I will do better....?

I've spent a large chunk of my time researching, looking into an anti-inflammatory/Candida diet to help my PGP, and trying to ease myself into it.  It's the most extreme thing I've done for my health as of yet, and extreme is often difficult.  I've had to work out a lot of kinks in my plan, dealing with hormones, low blood sugar, etc. but hopefully I've ironed all the problems out this time and can jump in head first.  The plan is to reduce inflammation so that I can be more consistent with my exercises, restoring my core and low back function to potentially eliminate my pain, though to what extent, is yet to be determined.

In addition to research, I was working on an afghan I have been crocheting for Joshua.  It's finally done and I was pretty happy with the results.  So was Joshua.

When Joshua saw it for the first time, he said, "WOW!  I can't believe it!  I love, love, love it!  Why did you make this for me, Mommy?"

"Because I love you."

"Awwww," he said, getting up and running across the room to kiss me.

Made every stitch worth it.

We've been taking Joshua to story time at the local library.  The librarian reads a book or two, teaches the kiddos some cute jingles, and plans a craft.  Joshua's first craft was a noodle head:

John and I both sit with Joshua during the story time, and afterwards he picks out a few books to take home and read at bedtime.  I peruse the library myself, and came across some books by Lemony Snicket: "A Series of Unfortunate Events."  I read the first page and couldn't resist the great humor and classic writing-style, so I read all 13 of the books in the series.  

One of Joshua's newest hobbies is painting.  We have a whole stack of pictures he has painted.  This is his first time:

Show me your muscles!

 Of course there has been more to life than just this, but if I were to recap any longer, I'd probably bore you to death-- if I haven't already.  Daily blogging is unrealistic for me, but I hope I manage to make more frequent appearances in the blogging world.  

Chutes and Ladders

Joshua played, loved, and won (fair and square) his first board game today.  

REAL LIFE

 All in a hard day's work, doing what toddlers are supposed to do.  Real life.

Typically, I believe in teaching kids to pick up their toys as they use them, but I have never had to do this with Joshua.  He's a pretty neat kid.  Then BAM!  He went crazy one day.  And of course it happened to be on a day when I could barely move to keep up with him.

*******

So real life gets "realer."  It always looks worse before it gets better.  The war zone inspired me to get rid of some toys and organize the ones we had (again).  It took two of us, me and my hunny, in the dark of the night.  I mean, have you ever tried getting rid of toys while the owner stands there watching and finding renewed joy in each cast-off toy?

JOY comes in the morning!  (I couldn't resist the urge to re-arrange furniture while we were at it; it makes cleaning and organizing so much more interesting).

I am pretty excited that Joshua has stopped living for his train table.  He's barely touched it in weeks.  That meant I could move it out of the living room.  Now we have SPACE and even better, a whole empty corner!!!

Yes, that's what my living room really looked like two days ago....and then, that's what it looks like now.  Tomorrow....who knows.  That's all part of real life.