Pottery Tour

We had a beautiful weekend for the annual St. Croix Valley Pottery Tour.  We look forward every year to this event.

When it rains it, it pours...

Here's the picture I drew today:

This week has been one of those "are you even kidding me?" weeks.  Last week Nathan got pneumonia, my low back injury escalated into I can't pick up my child let alone put my socks on, and today Scott picked up Jacob from school early and took him to the doc - to be put on an antibiotic for an ear infection.  Our kitchen counter and schedule on the fridge looks like I am running my own pharmacy. My uncle Ernie would have been proud.  Did I mention how thankful I am for antibiotics and pain killers?  And the fact you can DRIVE YOUR CAR UP TO A WINDOW and they hand them to you?  God bless you smart drug people.  Scott's got his own fires to fight at work which I can't even begin to fathom (no - he's not a firefighter).  Yet, he still manages to keep us all together.  He spent two nights sleeping (or not sleeping) in a chair so that Nathan could be upright.  I couldn't even sit without being in horrible pain.  He has also managed to pick up my slack picking up and snuggling kids, giving baths, running errands, getting groceries, doing dishes and folding clothes.  In addition to running our business.  Thankful for my better half.  Seriously.

So here's the deal.  This week I have NOT BEEN HAPPY.  For those of you that can appreciate back pain you know that is it completely debilitating and draining.  But…I'm on day 1 of prednisone.  With a side of Tylenol for the irritating side effect of a dull headache.  I've been prayed over, my chiropractor and massage therapist are on speed dial, I pulled out the old Physical Therapy stretches and am using heat and essential oils for good measure.  Anyway, as I was passing the fridge this afternoon I noticed one of Jacob's papers that he brought home from school that led me to think about joy…

In Psalm 16:9 David's heart was glad - he had found the secret to joy.  True joy is far deeper than happiness; we can feel joy in spite of our deepest troubles.  (Or back pain).  Happiness is temporary because it is based on external circumstances, but joy is lasting because it is based on God's presence within us.  As we contemplate his daily presence we will find contentment.  As we understand the future he has for us, we will experience joy.  Don't base your life on circumstances, but on God.  (From the Life Application Study Bible NIV)

And those lovely, delicious things that come in the yellow and red wrapper with tulips on them that show up this time of year?  Those make me HAPPY.

Have a joyful week friends! 

Mission: Accomplished

Where they grow their vegetables and herbs that they use in their dishes.  Another great thing they do is use compostable cups.  We threw one in our compost...we'll see how well it does. 

I think I'm gonna like it here.

Open year round.  We sat in the hot tub both nights. 

Relaxed and glowing due to numerous exfoliating spa bath rituals. 

We did it!  Two days of pure relaxation at Sundara Resort and Spa.  You might remember a few weeks back when we had a failed attempt at our "stay cation".  I am thankfully reporting we succeeded in two days of sitting in our fluffy white robes and enjoying all that this amazing place has to offer.  I highly recommend it.

11

9/1/2012

The Green Room - Stillwater, MN 

Cookie Dough cupcake.  You must try it.   Mara - Mi Stillwater, MN

Three states, three countries, two cats, two birds, three fish, two kids...what an amazing ride it's been the last 11 years.  Here's to another fantastic 111.  Love you Scott!

Stone Arch Festival of the Arts

With Jacob spending the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa J's, we spent a greater part of Saturday at the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts. We were quite happy to have our little peanut home again on Sunday but it was fun to have no agenda, no schedule, and no 8pm bedtime routine for a couple of nights.

A great view.

Under the big big bridge.

I'm all about freedom of expression. I'm also all about freedom of press. Unfortunately for her, in my opinion, this is a picture you might see in the "Don't" section of a fashion magazine.

Live music. Outdoors. Nice day. I like it.

The best mango tea. Ever. Totally worth the $6 I spent.

Not even close to being as good as a gyro on Welch at 2am, (ISU campus for all of you non-Iowa State folks) but I was so hungry it was still good.

Love and H2O

Jacob may or may not care about reading his "blog book" when he grows up, but I do hope he reads this one and is reminded to be as thoughtful of a husband as his daddy is.

We had quite the night last night. I had planned to go out for the evening (dinner and a movie!) with my sister and a couple of other friends. I had a wonderful dinner and enjoyed two fantastic glasses of wine before I got the text that said "Plz call if you get this before movie". Uh-oh. Upon calling home I had found that Jacob had thrown up twice (maybe 3 times by the time I got home) but thankfully found him happy as a clam in the bath. We were able to tag team to get him and some other furniture items cleaned up. (Unfortunately his Knuffle Bunny book will have to be replaced.) He was feeling much better and we didn't have anymore throwing up, but it was definitely a long night.

The one thing that I noticed is I didn't really look at the clock. I remember when he was a newborn I would constantly keep looking at the clock thinking how tired I would be the next day. Last night, after 3 or 4 attempts of trying to get back to sleep we just snuggled, read books (in the dark) four different times, got a drink of water three times, had a diaper change, talked with kitty, laid in Mom and Dad's bed so he could hold Dad's hand while listening to Mom try to recite Goldilocks and the Three Bears (he then wanted to see the book) and by 4am he said he was ready to back to his crib. These nights are few and far between. If this were a regular habit we'd definitely be enrolling ourselves in "How to train your kids to sleep".

The luxury I have as a stay at home mom is that we can lay low the next morning or have an early nap if need be on nights like this. Last night was different though as I actually was working in the morning and then had another boy coming over for a short while after lunch. It all worked out just fine but it made me SO thankful for my (mostly) full time job as a stay at home mom and the fresh brewed coffee and bouquet of flowers that I woke up to this morning. That's coming from the man who gets up at 4:50am to get ready for work and last night probably got about 50 minutes of really good sleep. Now that's a thoughtful husband.

As a side note...if you are wondering why Jacob was sick...totally my fault. The poor kid was dehydrated and probably had a bit of heat exhaustion. Scott and I are both extremely sensitive to the sun as I am sure Jacob is. I am great about getting his sunscreen so he didn't get a sunburn, but we were busy all day I didn't remind him to keep drinking his water. This is your friendly reminder...don't forget to hydrate!

For the record

Although some might consider most of our evenings date worthy (good food, great wine, good conversation) minus the attire (sweat pants and thermals suit us just fine...I even wear my fancy blue slippers) it is nice to have an official - for the record - date now and again. After Jacob went to bed we enjoyed pizza, a glass (or two) of our favorite Sauvingnon Blanc, two (how's that for a bonus!?) new episodes of 30 Rock, and a game of Bananagrams. Although, we were in our pajamas. For the record.