My Baby is 6!

I started putting together a slide show of photos of Asha since the day of her birth and even with 0 photos of her between the day she was born and about 18 months due to our camera breaking it is amazing to see how much ground she has covered in her short life so far! And yet it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye!

Happy Birthday dear Asha - you bring joy and laughter and light and love in abundance into our world every day and I'm so glad you decided that you were ready to join our family even though we didn't think we were ready yet. I love you, birthday girl! You are such a blessing in my life!

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Friday Fill Ins

Thursday, September 11, 2008
Friday Fill-Ins #89



1. I enjoy being naked.

2. House paint colors is something I wonder about often lately.

3. In your heart, you knew what only you could know.

4. Take kids, add a little garden hose and you end up with shreiking laughter that makes the neighbors curious.

5. Life has gifted me with a better family than I ever could have designed.

6. The beach house is an instant vacation.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I’m looking forward to some personal grooming (epilating my legs), tomorrow my plans include Maya's swim meet in Hilo and a trip to the astronomy center afterwards and Sunday, I want to see my husband!

Our Family and other animals

Since watching the movie version of "My Family and Other Animals" the kids and I have talked a lot about how much we loved all of the outdoor spots that the family ate and relaxed and hung out. We have decided that we want to create a bunch of places to do just that at our new house. And yesterday at the beach with the cousins I walked down to find this:

A game of Apples To Apples on the beach (and later a huge tray of pupus and drinks arrived thanks to Auntie Katherine - who is seated in this photo).

Look who earned her "lellow" belt today!

A big day here- Asha tested for her yellow belt!








Ta Da!! (and look how well it goes with the carpet!)

New season begin

I really liked the sight of the 3 of them today all geared differently and off to their respective sports. (And no, Cyrus is not upset about having his picture taken or pissed off about anything for that matter. On the contrary, he is thrilled to be geared up and starting a new season again so soon! I mean are you KIDDING ME? This is BASEBALL for crying out loud!! And he takes his baseball very seriously!!... and seriously, that is fun for him - trust me:). I am often overwhelmed keeping up with all of the scheduled activities. I would not choose to have so many, but the kids all choose to do these things and really enjoy them. I had a fellow homeschooler ask me not too long ago how I dealt with it when the kids didn't want to go to their "lessons". Once I figured out that she was not talking about school lessons I told her that we almost never have that scenario because the kids choose and enjoy all the things they do. Occasionally someone doesn't feel like going because they are tired or involved in something else, but that is rare and when it happens we just skip it. There have been things that they have tried and then stopped doing too. This Mom then told me she wanted her daughter to continue the activity (in this case aikido) because she was sure she would be happy that she'd stuck with it and was so good at it once she was a teenager!! Her daughter is 7!!! I couldn't help it, I said, "I doubt I'd enjoy anything after years of being told I had to go when I didn't want to" The Mom's response was, "Yeah, maybe you're right. I sometimes wonder if I should just let her take a break." At which point I had to excuse myself before I got all worked up in front of her.

So we are really busy and my ongoing challenge is finding my joy in that. I just remind myself that this lifestyle is what brings the kids joy right now and I also allow myself to realize that it may not always be so easy to meet their needs for this kind of involvement and level of organized activity. We are pretty blessed to have so many quality options available living in such a remote and lightly populated area!

A new favorite quote

I was reading (through my tears - the good kind - the happy, laughing, OMG I really need to pee!, kind) at theblogess.com which I found by following a link from Mary Gold at zenmommasgarden because she said it would make me laugh and I trust her judgment on that. I read this and appreciated it enough to quote her here:

"It was awesome and terrible. Like a tornado filled with glitter and pretty shoes."

And really, that is just what I need, another blog to read....

But who doesn't need to laugh more?