The Moment It Happened For Me

We watched the lunar eclipse night before last. Pretty cool. Me, being a good child of the 80's, thought it would be stellar to listen to some tracks from Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon during the show. Mark and I went down in the basement to the room where we store our LP's, mason jars, and oil for our furnace. We dug out the album, took it upstairs and prepared to play it. As I slid the record out of its sleeve and prepared to place it on the turntable, Ben asked "What is that?" That's the moment it happened for me. The moment when I realized that I have crossed the line into "oldness"; my child does not know what an album is and pretty soon he's going to view me as really uncool for playing all that old stuff on that really old stereo. Just like I did with my folks. Full circle. All those times when my mom said "just wait until you have kids", they're sinking in now.

The students in grades 3-5 had to make something out of a potato this week. Here's Claire's Panda Potato, complete with the hamburger, fries, and salad that she made for him out of foam.

And for those of you who have posed the question to me about what I do as a stay-at-home-mom, here it is: feed them, bathe them, snuggle with them, and take pictures of them watching Clifford the Big Red Dog with a Lego bucket on their head.

Art and Teeth

I just completed this project that Ali posted on her blog a couple of weeks ago. I chose a 5x7 frame size, making the butterfly image 4x6. I planned on changing it out every once in a while, but this morning Mark said no, if I wanted other images I should make a new project because he wants to keep the butterflies!

I completed this layout for the Overlooked Challenge about collections. I'm loving her site and this challenge because it is prompting me to record the little, seemingly insignificant things about me and my life.

And I created this binder to house the layouts for Overlooked. I shopped around and couldn't find anything I liked that didn't cost a fortune, so I picked up an old binder at the thrift store for 49 cents, gave it a coat of paint, and then covered it with favorite papers from Scenic Route. I'm pleased with the results.

In other news, the kids and I ventured to the dentist yesterday. Claire's teeth were perfect, I need a crown and two fillings replaced, and poor little Ben has 4 cavities that have to be filled because they are in the molars. Mark and I were really shocked because he is such a good brusher. I spent a lot of time talking to him about what's going to happen and showing him my fillings. I told him it would look and sound like it was going to hurt, but wouldn't, and we decided ear plugs would be a good option. A better option would be a money fairy, because all that work will cost us a pretty penny, even with dental insurance. Oh well, they're the only teeth we get!

Went to a Stampin' Up party last night hosted by my friend Erin. It has been years since I've been to one and it was a lot of fun. They are coming out with some great new products and my wish list grew very long. I'm not a big stamper, but I think I could be!

The Rumors Are True

After our arctic blasts of the past few weeks, there is hope that spring is near. As the glacial drifts slowly recede around our yard, I noticed these little snowdrops poking up in one of my flower beds. It's amazing that they were growing under all that ice and cold and I am very happy to see them!

A layout I did recently (can you believe it?) of Ben lounging in our hammock last fall.

A few of the photos from "Water World", our yearly Columbia River celebration with Mark's family.

Heading out skiing this weekend. Should be soft snow and sun on our faces.

MIA...

...because our lives are so boring right now STILL dealing with the snow. We did find our dog; some folks on the highway had had her all along, but they hadn't had phone service either. I haven't been on the road driving since last Wednesday. I tried to get out on Friday but instead got my car very stuck in our driveway 2 feet from the nice black gravel. I sunk it so hard that I couldn't get the chains around the tires, so I had to get the big pickup and pull myself out. This all took a really long time and after some crying and cursing, Ben and I decided to bag it and watched a movie instead. We were going to go skiing yesterday, but we're all kind of tired of playing in the snow. We did do a little butt sliding on some great drifts behind our house. The snow is melting so hard and fast that it was more like "sponging" and everyone got very wet!

I haven't done a lick of art since the LOAD challenge ended, but I'm hoping to remedy that very soon. I just haven't felt like it and I'm running pretty low on pictures, so I've spent my time uploading photos and clearing memory cards. I am, however getting really inspired seeing all the new product coming out of CHA. That and the garden catalogs appearing daily in my mailbox!

oh normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are

• the kids have returned to school and the husband to work
• the roads are plowed, all the way to town
• the phone is working after our nice repairman Jack hiked out to find the box the mice had taken up residence in and fixed it
• the furnace has oil in it and our delivery guy only got stuck for about 45 minutes in our driveway

Our blessings abound. On a sad note, our dog has been missing since last Wednesday. She followed our neighbor on a hike and hasn't been seen since. We are all getting a little anxious. This morning at breakfast Ben said "I don't have to miss Belle anymore because I love her 100%." I think that's his way of sending good vibes out to the universe.

Some photos from our snows.

Our farm all blanketed in white.

Ben was seriously grooving on the snow shoes and the fact that he could pretty much walk straight up the side of a hill or drift.

Claire doing a little ice climbing during a beautiful sunset.

Me resting my coffee cup on the drift in our garden.

Mark posing on top of the pile of snow he had to dig out before he could get our snow plow into the shop.

Beauty.