My Conversation With Mother Nature...

{This Morning}
Me: Oh come on! Snow? Again?
Mama N: But you love snow!
Me: But I'm ready for Spring! And warm weather, and blossoms, and green grass. Not more snow!
Mama N: Yes, child {she calls me child}, but Spring is not ready yet.
Me: Right, but I have seen enough snow this year. In fact, I don't even think that Greta {my camera} will take another picture of snow.
Mama N: Oh don't be silly! And besides, this is not just any snow. This is big flaky, warm, fluffy snow...it's almost like cotton. Just look!
Me: Oh my...that is really pretty. Look how it just collects on the branches and...No! I am done with snow. Greta and I are in protest.
Mama N: Fine. But Spring is not ready.
Me: Okay, fine...like ONE picture of the super fluffy, ginormous flaked snow and that's it!

{30 minutes, 100 pictures, & lots of frolicking later}

Mama N: Ahem...see, you like winter and you know it!

Me: Yes. I do. But I like Spring, too!

Aaaarrrgghhh! You dirty rotten snow...you got me again! Okay, but next time, I'm holding out for Spring!

Rain...

I like the rain...{not so much in winter because I strongly feel that it should be snow, but we won't get into that}. But I can sympathize with the clouds just needing to finally release in a big way. Like how they feel they've been so happy and cooperative for so long. But yet the whole time they've been holding all this weight and they just need to let it go. Call it a side affect of the depression and anxiety I battle with constantly, but having a lot going on inside while making the outside look nice is something that I deal with daily. So rainy days make me feel like I can take a little break from holding so much inside.

Today it is not raining here. But it rained enough over the past couple of days that I still feel the powerful pull to release. And I want to keep this space as honest as possible so I'm going to do something I never do here...whine! That's right. In an effort to embrace the concept of letting go and hopefully as a means of actually letting go, I'm going to let out some things that are shallow and silly {especially in light of some recent global occurrences} but are bothering me none-the-less.

{wow, I'm very nervous about being so honest and showing my emotional knickers like this}

1) My car needs a new transmission and we're going to have to take from our vacation fund to fix it. That makes me very sad because we never take {real} vacations and we were planning a really nice trip to Maine. Now, that trip may still happen but it stinks that the kids won't get to eat the whole time we're there.

2) I've been waiting very patiently for four long months to spill the beans about something HUGE...{no, I am not pregnant!}. It is close, like any day close. I just need one little thing to come in the mail and I can shout it from the rooftops. But, each day I wait and try not to get my hopes up too much. And each day I get this little pang of disappointment that I'll have to wait a little longer.

3) I hate my hair right now. Like really hate it. I can't really do much with it and it doesn't look very nice. But my hairdresser {the one I spent 27 years of my life looking for and for over two years traveled 1/2 hour away just for her to cut my hair} has moved to a salon even further away. I had already been grumbling about the 1/2 hour drive to get my hair cut...I cannot drive 1 hour! So...I'm back to the unfortunate process of auditioning for my next favorite hairdresser...which could take years...which also means that having a decent haircut is just not something that's on the immediate horizon.

4) So I'm knit/purling this scarf, right? And it was looking so good. I have big plans to use it in Maya's 1 year portraits. Over the weekend, I must have knit when I was supposed to purl. Then it took me a few rows to figure it out and get it right again. So now I have this backwards clump 1/4 of the way through my scarf. It's okay...I'll just make backwards clumps at the other quarter sections throughout and it will be fine...but it's not they way I wanted it to be. I will not waste my time or the scarf so I will make do and make amends, but I'm still really peeved that I did that!

5) We're running terribly low on groceries in the house but our funds for the week have run out and I must make do with what we have until the weekend. Which means that I must make cheeseburger pie tomorrow night! I hate {I know that's a bad word} cheeseburger pie. i don't even like cheeseburgers. But when you've got ground beef, Bisquick, cheese, onion, and not much else, what else are you going to make?

Phew! I feel much better now that I've let all that go! Thank you for letting me vent and allowing my proverbial rain to fall down here in this place. I promise the sun will be back soon! And please allow it to be said that, all these things included, I really love my life!

Down with the Sickness...

Rayne has off of school all week this week. You see, we live in a pretty small town {technically the only "town" in Pennsylvania}. All of our local schools close for the week that "The Fair" comes to town. {I know, it's a little crazy...} So, I was planning all sorts of fun, fall welcoming activities for all of us to do this week. But after a super fun weekend with my brother and his family in town, my little Maya has her very first case of the sickies! It's very heartbreaking hearing her little raspy cough and her stuffy nose, not to mention the big tears coming out of her eyes. So, needless to say, our first day-o-fall-fun was spent inside doing everything we could to help make our Maya more comfortable.

The day did inspire my first ever Bench Monday photo. {see above} If you haven't yet heard of the phenomenon that is Bench Monday, it's a photo group on Flickr where every Monday you're to submit a photo of you/your friends/your family on a bench or some other improvisation. Let me just tell you that I have seen some massive creativity {and a whole lot of fun} coming out of this group. Like this, and this, and this, oh and this I just had to join in. You should, for sure, go check it out. And join in, too!!!

So, other than the Bench Monday thing, and the rocking Maya thing, and the loving that Rayne & Layla are best friends and play so well together thing, it wasn't a real productive day. But that's okay. I actually got some time to gather some ideas today for future endeavors...always exciting!

But really. Bench Monday. Go check it out!!!!