“Wink From God”

My friend via the blogosphere (and my husband’s friend in real life), Tracey Morris, is a phenomenal photographer and writer.  I eat up her posts, both for the stunning visual images and pictures painted with words.  Yesterday, she posted some gorgeous shots of poppies.  And yes, as a 4th grade teacher in California, California Golden Poppies, the state flower, make my heart pitter patter a bit.  She wrote in her post yesterday, “They are one of the first signs of spring here and they announce her arrival with their bursts of golden tangerine blooms. I am not kidding, they truly bring joy to my heart when I spot my first one.”  

So today, as my friend and I set out on our bi-weekly, crack-of-dawn walk, I decided to keep my eyes open for spotting a poppy patch.  Needless to say, the sun hadn’t even risen, and in the darkness, I never spied any of the florescent blooms along the route.

Weird thing happened, though.  Right as I hugged her goodbye after we finished our walk, I looked down and saw my own little poppy.  Embedded into my shoelaces.  WHAT?!?!  How in the world did that even happen??  We didn’t walk on a trail.  We were on concrete sidewalks.  No clue.  But there it was.

Craaaaaazy.  As as Tracey wisely replied when I wrote to tell her about the odd happening, “That is a total wink from God!”

And so, this response, and my dumbfoundedness, begs the question, “does God have a sense of humor?!”  Who knows, but as Anne Lamott writes, “laughter is carbonated holiness”.  (Taken from Katherine Willis Pershey’s guest post on Emmerging Mummy today.)  And sometimes, when things “come together” in an unexpected, and seemingly impossible way, you just have to laugh.  Some might call it strange.  Or weird.  Or perhaps, an odd coincidence.  For me, I think it boils down to looking for God in the circumstances we find ourselves in.  Looking and being intentional about seeing coincidences through a different lens. And listening for God’s laughter and watching for his wink, even in a California Golden Poppy and a stinky hiking shoe.

California Golden Poppy, Point Bonita, Marin Headlands, May 2006

Beach Poppies, Ano Nuevo near Pescadero, May 2011

DPP ’11 // Sewing & Sweater Beauty

As I have mentioned time and time again, our tenure at Westminster Woods brought many incredible adventures, memories, experiences and relationships.  In the span of the last 24 hours, in fact, I have had the gift of time spent with seven folks, met during our time at the Woods.  Last night, three amazing ladies came over for wine and treats.  This morning {which felt like the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!}, I walked with another dear friend.  And today, three more came for sewing fun.  I am pretty humbled by that all.  The bonds forged in the camp setting are very deep and special.

Today’s picture took place when Alex convinced Jessie and Hope to partake in his hair cut and styling salon.  Loved that he used the superhero cape on Hope to keep the hair off her clothes and his M and M wand fan, a Halloween cast-off from our neighbor, as the hair dryer.  These amazing girls kept the boys entertained for HOURS {4 plus} while Hope’s mom, June, and I sewed some Christmas PJs for the boys.  June is my sewing savior.  She has helped me get more comfortable in my feeble sewing skills and time spent together is always an immense gift.

Last year Alex had Hope in Sally’s cage, pretending to be bears for hours, so maybe today’s antics were a bit more tame??

Who’s to say, but what a great day it was.

p.s.  the runner up picture for today?  This LOVELY sweater….

As an explanation, here was my Facebook status this morning:

From the other room I overhear Alex exclaiming, “OH MY GOSH!!!! WHO GOT THIS BEAUTIFUL SWEATER???? Look at all the JEWELS!??!” Yes, this “beautiful, jeweled sweater” was loaned to me by Janine for tonight’s youth group ugly Christmas sweater party. Alex, your taste is “impeccable”.

Developing….

So, as we grow older, aren’t we supposed to increase in wisdom?  To develop?

to bring out the capabilities or possibilities of

to bring to a more advanced or effective state

to cause to grow or expand

I think taking pictures is a way for me to pay attention to this growth.  To look at the familiar, what’s around me, and search for perspective.  For example, Drew & Alex in their Christmas jammies last year….

And a reminder of this year…

Sometimes I need a reminder….last year was harder in certain ways….nursing throughout the day and not getting solid sleep at night; transitioning to a new place, new jobs and being a family of four.  BUT….Drew couldn’t move.  He stayed put.  He didn’t have the strong will that is emerging constantly.  Alex, though, at 4 1/2 this year, is easier in a lot of ways, more independent (often more STUBBORN, but we’re working on that).  So each stage seems to have its pluses and minuses.

I look at the independence many of my friends have whose youngest is at least 4 years old and I think….”We will NEVER be there.  We will NEVER fly on an airplane again.  We will NEVER be out of the diaper stage.  We will NEVER have two children that can walk.”  And then, I realize that all of those “nevers” will change sooner than I can imagine, and I will soon be mourning the fact that they have passed.

So here, in instagram pics, are a few images of life these days.  I know I’m doing the December Photo Project this month, but sometimes, these pictures tell the story the best.  The pictures snapped quickly as days unfold, tantrums mount, and rhythms attempt to be formed and maintained.

Pictures L to R, top to bottom:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

Hair Insanity

Spaghetti for Dinner (or for a new outfit choice)

More spaghetti

Towers and Building for prehistoric occupants

Gingerbread

Painting Salt Dough ornaments

Drew recuperating (sans older brother!!) while getting over a nasty fever

A rare quiet moment celebrating Advent

 Temper Tantrum

Watching Alex and his new train LEGOS while STRAPPED into the highchair

Eating lots of strawberries these days

Getting Christmas cards out.  Love the mailbox these days!

Brother “love”/forceful wrestling….one of the many moments as a female, only child, that I’m left confused about these boy sibling phenomenons….

Salt Dough ornaments

Dangerous exploring (standing in a moving “vehicle”)

Advent Hair

One more of the tantrum….our new normal.

and now….for two and a half weeks of “vacation” and no school….

MAY WE ALL SURVIVE…

DPP ’11 // Santa & His Little Elf

We have spent the day playing a bit of catch up.  You see, the best laid plans often don’t work so well.  So even though the calendar seemed to be open enough to put “Make Your Own Wrapping Paper” on Tuesday and “Make Paper Snowflakes” on Wednesday and “Go to the Living Nativity” on Friday….well, none of those happened.

So today, we had time and energy to go back and work on those missed activities…

The living nativity will have to wait until tomorrow’s Soup and Sing and Children’s Christmas Pagaent at church….LIVING 1st through 6th graders.  A PERFECT alternative.  Live animals in another form!

And then, Alex and Drew decided to play “Santa Pushes His Little Elf Around in the ‘Sleigh’!”.  It was hilarious.

Sally “Supervised”.

And then we squeezed in today’s Advent activity–

our “family game night” and peppermint ice cream….at 10:30am.

It’s like the “It must be 5 o’clock SOMEWHERE” syndrome.

Happy Saturday!!!!

Oh, Geez….

Last night I found a cup of coffee in the microwave at 9:58….P.M.  Cold and a little crusty.

And then this morning, I found this….

I looked over to the sink and saw that cup of coffee from 24 hours ago, still brewing in the sink….

I  resisted the sick urge to drink it out of desperation.  Instead, I dug out one of 3 tea bags I have that are caffeinated.  It was left over from a baby shower held about 18 months ago, thus the Tea for Two tags.

I think an old, unused tea bag wins ANY day over an old cup of unfinished coffee.  Here’s to hoping my head gets into gear soon.   Best wishes for a happy Sunday filled with your favorite, FRESH hot beverage to start the day!

Lemon Face

{WARNING:  After reading this post, you may never want to leave your children in my care.}  

We started a tradition with Alex back when he was one year old, of giving him lemons, just to see the fun faces he’d make.  At first, it was rather self-serving, for our entertainment.  But as time went on, even up until today, he still requests lemons to suck on to get at this face that can’t be captured any other way.

Well…..my face no doubt looked somewhat similar today.  And that wasn’t with the assistance of lemons.  Hats off and major kudos to my many friends who do this 24/7 as a single parent because it is really tough.  Not trying to have a pity party, but just keepin’ it real.

Matt’s away this week and overall, things have gone really well.  Mostly, I’m staying sane thanks to good friends and family who have come over and helped with the kids, spent the night, arrived for playdates, or sent me hilarious emails to keep my perspective in tact.

Today, for example, Matt’s amazing mom drove down to spend 24 hours with us.  She took Alex to the Children’s Discovery Museum in San Jose, to Costco and Kohls…basically entertaining him for 5 hours.  I needed that.  We were able to squeeze in some adult conversations {with a certain 4 year old’s regular interjections}, eat a yummy, grilled salmon dinner and introduce Drew to….

LEMON FACE!!!!!!!

It all starts out innocently enough with a small lemon slice.

And then it starts to get a little…sour…

Miffed and confused, believing SURELY the same thing wouldn’t happen twice, you try again…

Quickly realizing that NOOOOOOOOOOOO…..it is still sour.  VERY sour.

And then it happens….LEMON FACE!!!!!!!!

One last half-hearted bite, an attempt to convince oneself that there is NO way Baba Judy and Mom would do this to me….

But yes, they would.  And they did.  MANY TIMES.

Thankfully, SOMEONE was willing to step in and console Drew….

But you can only imagine the thoughts going through his head—

And just for nostalgia’s sake, here’s a few of Alex’s first lemon face encounter.

Circa October, 2008, 17 months old

and there you have it….

proof of why you should never leave Mom at home alone with the boys.

Luckily my parents are coming when Matt goes away for another week in August.  They were both high school teachers.  They’ll try to keep my errant ways in line.

Contest Fun

Many of you have been inundated by this via email or facebook, but only a few more days to capitalize on the contest!

I’m crazy, I know…..
But, I need your VOTE!

Ha ha…..

Sent in a pic of Matt and Alex to a “Daddy and Me” Photo Contest and it’s one of the 16 finalists.  Would love to win and I need your help (this is oddly reminiscent of Senior Class Secretary voting in 1991).

If you have 20 seconds to go to this link {http://www.redtri.com/san-francisco/daddyme-photo-contest-finalist-14-2} and then click on the link/email address {promo@redtri.com}  to send an email and vote, that would be Love-a-leeee.  When you send the email, be sure to put:  SAN FRANCISCO 14  in the subject line.

Thanks, all…..another crazy Christine scheme.  Can’t help myself.

p.s.  Just for the record, this picture was taken almost a year ago while we were working at Westminster Woods Camp.  Each week there was a crazy game focused on a land called “Eccentricstan”.  The whole point was to dress up crazy and through the activity/game, get across the message that each of the kids is loved, valued and accepted no matter their differences or oddities.  Such a fun time each week.  For those of you that know Michelle Myers, you are aware of her extreme creativity.  This one was her brain child and baby.

Almost Famous

Managed to get a view pictures of the Drewster this morning to commemorate eight months of life for the little buddy.  It was probably quite dangerous to give him this truck, but it was a desperate attempt to win him over with a new toy that might allow me to get a few pictures.  As you can see, “we” lasted all of 5 minutes.

Anyhow, I sent the image into Costco to get my usual wallets for his 12 month baby frame.  Later today I popped by Costco and had the weirdest incident.

I was paying and the lady at the next cash register over was helping another gentleman.  All of a sudden, I heard, “Hi, Christine!”  I kept digging for my debit card and then realized it was a man next to me, so she MUST be addressing ME.  Weird.  So, I looked up and said hi.  She has extreme strabismus/lazy eye like Alex had, so even when I looked up at her, I wasn’t sure she was talking to me.  Anyhow, about 5 seconds later, she commented, “Can you believe it’s been EIGHT months???”  Then I knew for certain that she meant me.  Didn’t have either of the boys with me, though, so I was still a little confused.  She assured me that she’d been so excited to print up my picture order earlier this morning and wanted to wish Drew a happy eight month birthday.

Cute?  or Creepy??

Still not sure, but I did laugh throughout my 1/2 an hour Costco shopping trip.

A closet People Magazine and US Weekly fan, I do have a great affinity for the famous subset.  I sneak in watching episodes of Entertainment Tonight or Access Hollywood while Matt’s out dutifully leading bible studies or attending Session meetings.  And yes, I often wonder what life would be like if I were famous.  What would day-to-day errands and life look like being in the public eye??  {ugh, just the THOUGHT of that, coupled with today’s incident is a big “NO THANK YOU!” from me}  Would I have a house cleaner, and thus, not be sporting gorgeous interior decorating skills like this??

Would I be driving Alex to school in this??

….a Tesla in case you can’t see….

{we were BOTH excited enough to scream to get the camera out on the way to the last day of school on Friday}

Even though I can imagine some of the perks of a famous lifestyle, I will whole-heartedly pass for now.  Even though our life is crazy these days, I’m grateful for anonymity (minus the Costco lady) and a pretty normal existence.

Drew, at eight months, you are such a love.

You LOVE…..

grabbing and YANKING my hair

grabbing and YANKING whatever I’m holding

grabbing and YANKING food from the shelves at the grocery store

grabbing and YANKING cords {time to finalize baby proofing!}

eating everything offered

sitting up straight on your own, looking at detailed things and fingering them

laughing at Alex when he’s having a temper tantrum (it’s entertaining, huh??)

“crawling”/throwing yourself towards where you desire to go

You’re a force, Drew.  Hopefully you and your brother won’t kill your mom before you turn one.

Just keeping LAUGHING at Alex’s tantrums, not EMULATING them….PLEASE.

We love you, Drew!  Happy eight months!

Life on the Ranch….

Today was a glorious whirlwind and I’m POOPED.  And the crazy part?  Alex was in school from 9-2pm!  The amazing thing which kicked my rear today?!?  Boy energy.  100% pure and simple.  Boy energy.  Drew even added his two cents worth.  You won’t see it in the pics below, but the poor bunny is teething and pretty much wants to be held and snuggled 24/7.  To allow for time with Alex, though, he can stand a few moments in the swing.

Needless to say, today’s post won’t have any attempts at profound words or thoughts (despite Drew’s “Deep Thoughts” hat in the pictures below).  It is simply a photography montage to give you a sense of the day-to-day pace our lives have.

You’ll see….

~ Alex sporting his new cowboy gear.

(I seriously can’t get enough of the cute shirt my mom sent to accompany his thrift store sheriff’s hat from Baba Judy, the bandana from when I went to camp in the 90s!, and his new horses.  One of the horses was given to us for free for opening up an account at Wells Fargo—yes!  My ATM card still doesn’t work, 2 months later, but at least we got a free plush toy. )

 

~ sidewalk chalk creations

 

~playing hide and seek with all of his sporting equipment

 

~playing hide and seek with Mom

 

~playing hide and seek with Sally

 

~lots of running and jumping

 

~more running

 

~ and some MORE running, for good measure

 

~fun marshmallow 3-D structures (thanks to Ashley Ann Photography for the idea!)

 

~and finally…..my favorite shot is this one:

surveying the yard and the sunset over some Cheeze It crackers

(in other words, the crash and burn stage)

 

Don’t know about the rest of you out there with boys, but man, they wear me out in the best way possible.  So, here’s to a three day weekend!  Not much resting and relaxing to be done around here, but full & rich it will be!  And while you’re thinking about it, pray for Sally.  As you can see, she’s got a lot of supervising and monitoring to do these days.

January Reflections: Food

Food: Describe the best meal you had in 2010. What role does food play in your house? Share a recipe.

This prompt could keep me going for post after post after post.  Last year, I even did an “Alex in the Kitchen” calendar for the grandparents for Christmas.  I love food.  I love cooking.  I put up with the mess and insanity love getting Alex in the kitchen.

So, food plays a big role in our house.  Food equates to hospitality and creativity in my opinion.  It can become the foundation for welcoming people in and taking care of their most basic needs.  Food and cooking can be messy and can go very very wrong, but I am still convinced it’s worth the effort and insanity.

I think food should be fun.  I grew up in a household with a high school Home Ec teacher for a mom.  Food was always central for us, but it was much more calculated, measured and specific.  I began to realize the difference between my approach and my mom’s.  Even though I’m incredibly type A, I began to find that being a little less calculated, and cooking to taste and creativity can be really freeing.  My mom’s job was to teach high schoolers (she even had a class filled with only 12th grade boys!  Holy, holy Moses.).  The whole point was to give her students a recipe and have them create a product with as much precision as possible.  Baking is much more about chemistry.  I began to realize that cooking can have a whole different approach.  I’m trying to instill in Alex, and hopefully in Drew eventually, that food can and should be exciting.

Case in point….today’s breakfast.  It’s not a complicated recipe whatsoever.  Just an attempt to make eating and breakfast fun.  Alex is obsessed with purple and so I decided to use our neon food coloring to *spice* things up a bit.  I mixed up some Trader Joes Buttermilk Pancake Mix {(from SCRATCH, folks!!)} and then put in the food coloring.  Pretty intense cooking here in the Gough household.

Next, I dished it up and called in the *troops* to eat and enjoy.

So, enjoy some HOMEMADE breakfast.  Add a bit of whimsy….and be sure you make it into the clean plate club!

Recipe for Rainbow Pancakes:

1 3/4 cup pancake mix

1 cup water

1 egg

Neon food coloring

Combine the pancake mix, water and egg.  Add LOTS of food coloring.  Pour onto a hot skillet.  Cook.  Dish up.  Eat and enjoy!

This post is part of the January Reflections 2011 writing project.