Chasing Bluebirds

Sept 2013

Getting ready for a two week trip with my mom to London (ahem) and Scotland (yay!!) This Sept travel tradition has been wonderful for my mom, who is dealing with mild dementia and I have enjoyed the process of researching/planning with her throughout the year. Wishing we could bring the rest of the family along, but it is so expensive even with just the two of us. Last year we added Paris to the mix and somewhere in the middle of all the steps and cobblestones, my mom threw her cane away and started hoofing it for real. Something changed in her for the better and I am happy to say she is still moving around easily. Originally we had signed up for a tour but it fell through (not enough people signed up for that week and I couldn't switch work around to go a different week) so we pieced a short trip up to Scotland from London ourselves. I think we will have a blast no matter what, we always find a way to laugh and amaze ourselves and get lost and then found. Traveling with a parent as a middle aged "kid" (yes I guess I am!) has it's quirks, for one I sometimes snap at my mom like she is one of my kids and then realize, oops! I am the kid, she is the mom (she lets me know by just one look) but hey, I am in "mom mode" and it's hard to switch back and forth sometimes. I will post on the blog if I can during the trip, when traveling with my mom we tend to turn in early and I get tons of uninterupted reading/computer time. Hoping to get this blog put into book form (I have only the first 6 months of it so far) but what a task that will be! Every year I wonder if this will be the last and then panic all will be lost somehow. We'll see...

It's been hot hot hot here! Several dips a day into this pool has made all the difference in the world, not sure how we survived without it before. No AC in our rancho (no roof insulation either) = roast out!
tweenager in the house, how did that happen?
a cat who is pushing the limits of age, very much loved and doted on. I have become obsessed with a few blogs lately: rachel eats and yellow house. I read this book (late to the party as usual) so am back-reading the blog. I really really really loved the book, the writing was so easy and down to earth. I read so many books and don't always know why one book rubs me the wrong way and another is so refreshing. I loved Molly's book, I savored every page and can't wait for her new book to come out. Berlin Kitchen felt very similar and comfortable (I was thrilled when the author Luisa commented on my instagram photo of her book, I'm such a dork!) anyways! I am continuing to work out at the local cross fit (for the over 40 crew) and hoping to keep chipping away at losing weight, feeling better. Loving instagram and of course, facebook keeps me busy too. I sense a shift in what interests me these days, not so interested in parenting/kid/baby blogs and more into travel/food/art blogs. I have been in "gut out and get rid of" mode trying to get out from under all the fabric and clutter I have hoarded for years. Getting back into painting has been on my mind constantly, so hard to just get out and do it! sigh... ok so stay tuned for a few more posts, trying to get back in to "it" but not sure what I want to say.

Sleep away camp: Wintaka time!!

My kids just returned from "sleep away camp", this is Emily's 6th year and Lizzies 3rd. I find it interesting how many of my friends are too scared to send their kids to camp, worried that something horrible might happen. Having gone to camp every summer since I was going into third grade, I couldn't wait to send my kids. I don't look forward to them being away, not at all, but I enjoy giving them this most magical opportunity. It is an amazing gift to give your kids a camp experience, I know personally that camp was one of the most important experiences of my life. It gave me an independence I never would have had without it. Here are a few things I have learned about sleep away camp:

1) Kids are forced to work out their squabbles. You can't get away from your bunkmates, you are together 24/7 for a week. If there is an argument, you must face it and work it out. This is something that doesn't happen at home with your school friends. You don't get to go home, talk with your folks, find a new friend etc etc. You work it out. What a great life skill! The roller coaster of being friends, getting on each others nerves, bickering, working it out and being best friends again brings kids closer together in a week than in years of going to school together. I remember truly "loving" my camp friends on a very deep level, which I still have today! School friends, not as deep.

2) Kids learn to be away from their parents, that it's ok to miss them. A whole week away seems like a long long time to kids and I think it's important for them to trust other adults to care for them. I also like that other adults are disciplining them and teaching them new things. It takes a village to raise a kid, I truly believe that! (It's also good for parents to let their kids go a tiny bit too, so hard sometimes!!)

3) Kids learn to follow a schedule, to do their daily activities (like brushing teeth, brushing hair, getting dressed) on their own. They follow the routine which includes meals, activities, getting ready for bed, sleeping... managing their time in a way they don't have to at home. I remember becoming very aware of how long an hour activity is, the time it took to walk down the hill to the lodge, being aware of the dinner bell ringing, watching the sun go down and knowing how much daylight was left. There is something about camp, without parents around, that teaches a kid to pay attention to details they take for granted at home.

4) Kids will look up to their counselors and want to be like them intensely. I remember falling in love with my counselors and I just could not wait to be one too! This is a totally different feeling than loving your parents. It is magical and more effective than being told "this is what you should do when you grow up." They see their counselor up there singing and they want to do that too. It is powerful stuff even though it seems so simple.

5) Last, sleep away camp FEELS so much more exciting than it really is. It is safe, organized and pretty routine, but to a kid it's like a trip to the moon. 

heading to camp, so excited!!

Returning from camp energized and happy, priceless!

Springtime

We took a trip to Utah over spring break, I hope to have a full post on that trip with lots of photos. One of my favorites was this one:

we were beat but happy, can you tell? Utah is just so gorgeous and the springtime is a great time to visit because it's not too hot. I did one quickie painting and really enjoyed all the orange and blue combos with sky and rock. It is also the end of our camp fire year, end of the school year with lots of camp fire events going on:
not just cleaning up the wetlands, we are PLANTING now!!

my favorite wetlands event yet. we also had the camp fire grand council fire event that celebrates all the kids who make their "wo he lo" the highest honor in camp fire. 11 this year! wow!

Spring camp out was a hit too, this is a time for families to camp out together at camp shiwaka... not just with their group and leader



i'm pretty nuts for instagram these days!
an art installation at the wetlands
and i started doing cross fit, ouch but so much fun! i am really enjoying the new friends i have made and how much better i feel. more to come on our utah trip! happy springtime everyone!

back to work

I am back to work, feeling the stress of a busy schedule again, ugh! we are finally getting our living room painted, it's more like a major restoration project and costing a small fortune. i am super excited and enjoy the progress. it is a bit of a mess though, kicking my OCD into top gear. since i had to work this weekend the kids went to the desert with their dad and cousins, here's a few shots sent to me: 

looks like everyone is having a great time! i have never been with them, working weekends is such a drag but i am sure i will get a chance someday. here's a photo of our living room in progress:
i love my house, really love it but it has a lot of quirks and nothing is a simple fix. the doors need to be replaced but the door guy says they weren't made correctly in the first place, the dimensions are off that hold the glass. so dilemma, do them right or keep with the design of the entire house? of course we need to to keep them the same but it's hard to tell a professional who knows what he is doing that. in other news:
i took a painting workshop and jumped right in, very fun and very inspiring. i found a local artist (who is also a yoga instructor, good move!) and she very kindly helped me get back in the groove. i am now back and ready to go! i splurged on some new paints from here and dug out all my old supplies. i had been wanting a new plein air easel/setup and splurged on that as well. everything is working as planned and i am so glad i spent a little more. i have had two cheapo plein air easels in the past that were wobbly and fell apart after a few years. at $100 each, really not so cheap when you add it up. i am hoping to get out to the wetlands asap and start on some of the paintings i have dreamed about for years now.

lots of walking around the park lately and happy my youngest is joining me now
i think that fitting into her older sisters running shoes might have something to do with it. :)

time warp

having a few more days off, i was ablet to FINALLY go through my iphotos and fix many of the goof ups that happened when i tried to put all of my photos from my old comuter onto the new. for some reason i had random duplicates all over the place, probably 1/3 of my storage taken up by this goof. i still haven't finished, but i have put a dent into it. along the way i came across lots of fun photos so i thought i'd do a little time warp for 2013:

photos of the mountains and our catalina trip from several years ago (that was a pet cemetery we stumbled on during a hike)...plus one of maggie as a puppy. healing up and getting ready to get back to it!

Slip/Fall

So i had a slip and fall accident this week in the shower (!!!) and rapped my head on our glass shower door (not recommended) thank goodness i didnt break it, but i came away with a nasty cut over my eye. At first i thought that was it, but by morning i had two black eyes and a goose egg over my nose. Unbelieveable! Very humbling to say the least and very very embarrassing. Sure people fall all the time but i have never injured my face like this before, never, even as a kid! I have instantly become house arrested as every day my bruises go from pink to purple to greenish and yellow and quite shocking i must say. The kids are nice and make their funny comments to make me feel better. Being housebound has had its ups and downs. For the first two days i was in too much pain to really do a whole lot, but by day 3 i was cleaning the house like a freak and trying to get through a zillion "to do" lists. Today is day 4 and i have cabin fever like crazy. I am supposed to be back at work in 2 days but i am so freaking scared these bruises will remain. I am not a vain person but to be honest i don't want anything to draw attention to myself. I prefer to just muddle through my work and get back to what i want to do each day. 

before my accident, i had spent some time walking with the girls out in the on and off rain to sell candy and stumbled onto some fun landscape ideas

I have only recently become a fan of this type of native gardening. I still have a love for the "tropical" look so i am trying to see if i can mix a little
I took a walk around our local park yesterday, for the first time really getting out of the house. Felt so good! Our weather has been amazing. I say it over and over again, California is best in the winter. Cool nights, warm days... just perfect!

mish mash

i am still struggling to get decent interesting posts up regularly here... i find i take the coolest photos on my phone and then i post the most god awful crappy ones here on the blog. here goes with a few favorites from a recent phone download...

lots of cloud photos to inspire me to get back to painting


new car love
kitty love
milestones
embracing tweendom
miss maggie
getting the backyard in shape for some major plant redo and finding a way to paint again in my own personal outside studio
black bamboo... best choice ever
fathers and daughters... love! gotta get to school, working on our garden club...it's coming along s l o w l y... cheers!

whirlwind new year

For the first time in a long time, i didnt take on extra work over the holidays and just hung out and took it slow...
spent time up at the cabin, didn't spend every minute trying to clean up and fix this or that, just hung out
gazing at snowflakes
watching the snow fall and pondering this past year. 2012 was a year i carefully created and with intent to accomplish many personal goals. it was important financially (no more child support and a refinanced house) so we weren't struggling to make ends meet the way the past few years have been. i took some risks to put the italy trip together and it came off without a hitch, truly a trip of a lifetime on so many levels. i worked less and checked more things off the "to do" list. i made it to the gym more regularly and could feel the benefit of regular exercise for the first time in many years (still have a long way to go on that but it's a start). i cut back on all my volunteering and put more energy into my family. i finally took the plunge and bought a new car, something a little reckless that has energized me in ways i haven't felt in years. i studied and passed the first of a two part test i need to be credentialed in a new specialty for my career. something i had put off since i was pregnant with emily, 13 years ago! i find myself thinking about how every morning my mom would ask me as a kid, "what's on your agenda today? what are your plans? what are you looking forward to?" and i remember no matter what i had going on, i would think about the one or two good things i had to look forward to. something fun was on the horizon even if there was school or work or whatever too, there was a tv show i had waited all week for or dinner at my grandparents or a letter coming in the mail from a friend or a new book to read. i have always been a hard worker but my secret is to have a focus, something amazing to distract me while i muscle through the hard stuff. so for 2013? well, we'll just have to see!

xmas 2012

we had a little family dinner for lizzie a couple nights ago and found the "elf yourself" app fun as well as the guitar hero game

Looking forward to a movie and maybe a nap before dinner... back to work tomorrow but will FINALLY have a weekend completely off so we can head up to the cabin for New Years. This has been such an awesome year, so many good things to be thankful for, really the best ever. Hoping to keep this going for 2013! Planning a Florida/Disneyworld trip and maybe take another mom and me adventure (Scotland!!) I was surprised by many Padre Pio gifts from chris, having been introduced while driving through Italy. I do wish I hadn't done any research on him though, as the mystery was better than the reality but that's what I get for being curious all the time. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!

halloween

just a quickie (after the fact) halloween post. i turned 45 this year! seems like a milestone but i feel pretty much the same. i have been in midlife crisis mode for about a dozen years anyway, right?
i like homemade, handmade costumes but the girls begged to look at the cheapy costumes at the store so i went along. it was actually fun and surprisingly easy !! Lizzie is some character from the monster high books? cartoons? not totally sure
emily was little red riding hood, always a favorite in our house (lizzie still has the cape my mom made her when she was about 4 or 5)
we used the "fish" game again at our camp fire carnival. it is so easy to set up and has a nice big look to it. our halloween carnival is super corny and retro, which i love, but we are trying to elevate it a bit so the kids don't get bored. the big kids REALLY get into it
they did a gross out booth... which was very popular!!
this cracked me up because i remember sorting out my candy with my friends and my brother.... the girls were so excited! another halloween (and birthday) has passed! on to thanksgiving and christmas we go...