Grace in Small Things

I'm not overcoming this bloggy laziness, and it's frustrating me. And, oh boy, do I have things to post. So, I decided to give myself a challege and join Schmutzie's Grace in Small Things. I've been seeing it everywhere... and I finally decided to figure out exactly what it was about.

So what is Grace in Small Things? Schumtzie has written that it is "a daily reminder to take notice of the positive things we tend to overlook." And why would we do this? Well , "because we are choosing not to allow the noisiness of life to rob us of the time and energy to be mindful of ourselves and those we love and to recognize the grace that exists in small things." Schmutzie started doing this last year in November and many other have joined her. Me and my laziness... well... we're starting now. And Schmutzie... she says that just fine. So starting tomorrow expect to start seeing this little blue button...

and a list of 5 things that have graced my life (either that day, or at some other point in my life). I'm taking that to mean little things that bring me a little happy feeling just by thinking of them.

One thing about putting myself into this challenge though... I am going to try to do the whole daily 365 days in a row thing... but I'm not going to stress out over it. That... well... that would not make me happy. I am going to try my darnedest... but if I suddenly find that's it's time for bed, and I'm wiped out from a long day... well, I will find grace in going to bed, and I will try again the next day. So my promise... I will do 365 posts... they just might not be 365 days in a row. Sound OK?

Check in tomorrow for my first 5!

Lazy

I've been very blog lazy lately. The day goes by and the next thing I know I haven't posted anything. It's not like I have nothing to post. I can think of tons of things to post. And, of course I have pictures from Christmas and Florida to be posted... and stories to share. Just can't seem to get myself to get to it.

I have been trying to keep up with reading blogs... but I've been lazy about commenting. I just checked my google reader for the very first time today (which is shocking to me... I usually check it a couple times a day at least). 94 posts to read... not bad. But, I don't feel like reading now. So click... away goes the reader list for now.

Blog lazy. Writing and reading lazy.

Sigh.

I'm afraid that when I finally get motivated to post I'll be so far behind on what I want to post that I'll get overwhelmed and keep putting it off. A never ending circle of lazy.

Lazy lazy lazy.

Any ideas to get over the blog laziness?

So much for posting...

I know... in my last post I mentioned that I might squeeze in a post here or there while I was in Florida. I guess you can see it didn't happen.

Sorry.

I was very busy doing nothing. Doing nothing is quite time consuming. And now, after 2 weeks of doing next to nothing in Florida... I'm exhausted. It will probably take me another week to recuperate and get back into the normal swing of things.

I do have about 300 pictures of Zoe and Ana doing Florida type stuff. I'll share those soon. Oh... and maybe I might actually post a few Christmas pictures. I suddenly realized I never really shared Christmas. Anyone up for a little Christmas in January?

Until I get back to my blogging self... just know I missed you all while I was in Florida.
(Well, not you Grammy, PopPop, Jim, Erica, Avery and Grace. We didn't miss you while we were in Florida. We miss you now. Zoe especially misses her BFF Avery (heehee). She got on the plane, buckled her seat belt, and announced "I miss my Avery already." sniffle sniffle. How soon until we get more frequent flyer miles???)

Hello from the Sunshine State!

Yes, you read that correctly. We're in Florida. I just thought I would pop online with a quick sunshiny hello. It is currently almost 70 degrees and sunny, but overcast. Go away clouds... shoo shoo!

I'm barefoot and thinking I could use a pedicure... or at least a little toe polish. I think I may have actually packed some just in case.

Zoe and Grammy are doing a little coloring. Ana and cousin Grace are snoozing. Aunt Prudy is doing a word search in her book.

Nick is off with my dad seeing if they can get a look at the shuttle at the Canaveral launch pad. It's going to launch tonight at about 7:30. Then I believe they were going to drive through the researve area and see if they could get a glimps of some alligators. Since none of us females joined them... there may very well be a stop involving beer.

So... relaxing. Just sitting with my feet up blogging away on my mom's laptop. (note to self... I might need a laptop.)

Our activities so far...
*We arrived Saturday.
*Sunday we went to Grace's 1st birthday party at my brother's house.
*Monday we went to Gatorland. A trip to Florida is not complete without a few alligators.
*Today, Tuesday... seems to be a lazy day.
*Today is also our 7th anniversary. Nick and I were married 7 years ago. 7 whole years people! Tonight we are leaving the kids home with the grandparents and we're going out for dinner and a show. We're not sure where we're eating... but last night we bought tickets online to see the Blue Man Group. So, we'll be eating somewhere near the theater at Universal City Walk.

I'm going to try to check in a few times while I'm on vacation. I might post a little. You won't get any photos until I'm back home though. I think that I will mostly just update facebook occassionally and do a little extra commenting on other blogs.

Gotta run. My toes are calling for a little polish!

... and then Zoe used the DSLR for the first time.

I woke up Monday morning excited to get started back to our normal routine.

It starts with having my alarm clock wake me. I have 2 clocks... one is named Zoe and one is named Ana... and I never know which one will sound off first. Monday it was sort of Ana, who woke to nurse at about 6 am. But then she went back to sleep. So I guess it was really Zoe, who came tiptoeing in around 7am.

Once Zoe is awake and I've convinced her to snuggle in my bed for as long as she'll allow, we head for the bathroom where she sits for a bit while I collect the underpants, clothes, socks, etc. She gets dressed and we head downstairs for breakfast. For about 3 weeks now Zoe's breakfast has included 4 mini pancakes and whatever fruit I can sneak in as a side. Monday it was grapes. I wonder how long the pancake trend will go on.

Zoe eats her breakfast over a little Playhouse Disney. Monday they screwed up our routine a little bit. Mickey Mouse clubhouse WAS on at 8:30. Usually we have an "as soon as Mickey is over it's time to get to school!" warning. Now they've changed their show schedule and it's on at 7:30. Zoe got all excited an hour early today. It took all I had to convince her school wasn't for another hour. I wonder if it's a permanent schedule change. One plus, after Mickey is over at about 7:50... they've added in a "new" short... Shaun the Sheep. We love that show and watched it a number of times on ToonDisney and even added it to our DVR. It disappeared for a while but now we see it EVERY morning. Yippee!

Once Zoe's eating I get to work with the coffee brewing. Mmmmmm coffee. No day can start without coffee. Sometimes it goes with toast, or toaster scrambles, or cheerios. Whatever it goes with... there is always coffee.

At some point Ana politely announces that she'd like to join us. OK... she screams and yells and carries on until I snatch her out of her crib. But, then she's all smiles. Sometimes she's up right after we get downstairs and other times I have to snatch her out of her crib to take Zoe to school. She usually pops into the high chair by about 8:30 for her cereal mixed with whatever fruit seems to catch my fancy that day. Monday it was prunes. I think we're needing a poop sometime soon. (I know... thanks for sharing, right?) Sometime after Ana finishes eating I change her from her pjs to her clothes.

On most days I squeeze in a shower. Sometimes after Zoe and I eat and before Ana wakes. Sometimes after we've all eaten and Zoe's watching TV and Ana is jumping in the doorway jumper (her FAVORITE activity of all time). But at some time... I hop in the shower.

At about 8:50 we all start scrambling to get on shoes, and coats, and hats, and mittens. We grab bags, and keys, and Ana in her car seat and run out the door. Sometimes... we make it to school on time at 9am. Mostly we wander in by 9:10. We're never alone dropping off no matter what the time.

That gives you a general idea of what the normal morning chaos looks like in our house. Generally we have 2 hours (give or take a bit) from wake up to school. We squeeze a lot in to those 2 hours.

So, Monday morning we got a little thrown off. Somewhere after Zoe had her 4 mini pancakes and grapes in front of her... but before my coffee was done brewing... I opened my e-mail. I deleted all the random junk, checked out a few FaceBook notifications, and then opened and e-mail from Chris at Dad of Divas. The e-mail subject was "check out my post"... and all his e-mail said was "I tagged you in a post today!!!" So of course I clicked right over... because you all know I love a good tag.

Well... he tagged me alright. And here are the rules...

1) Take a picture of yourself right NOW!
2) DON’T change your clothes, DON’T fix your hair… Just take a picture.
3) Post that picture with NO editing.
4) Post these instruction with your picture.
5)Tag 10 people to do this..

And here are the results...

Obviously the Zoe needs some work on using the viewfinder to aim...
OK... after about a dozen tries she's getting a little closer...
Oh... look... there I am! A little crooked... but not bad (considering she tried for about 2 dozen clicks just to get my head in the shot). Don't you just love my fuzzy comfy teal green robe?

And look... there is Chris' post in the background. I am impressed with Zoe's aim. Make sure you click on over to that post. Chris is a great dad... and seems to enjoy a good game of "Pretty Pretty Princess."

And to tag some people. (10 people???)
Kathy (because she was VERY enthusiastic about seeing this picture when I told her about the tag)
Laura
Miss Banshee
Carrie
Christina
Natalie
Allison
and I give up at 7. Zoe's not napping... and now Ana is crying in her crib. Everyone has colds. No one is sleeping well. And it's icy and rainy and yucky outside. I give up!!!
Anybody else that reads this and decides "hey! I wanna take a pic of myself right this minute and post it!!!", well you let me know and I'll happily add your link!

2008 - a VERY brief review

I'm stealing this idea from Laura at Synchronization for Us, who copied it from Lisanne at Bathtub Junkie. It seemed like a quick and interesting way to review the year. What they've done... and now I'm doing... is look back at all of the blog entries for 2008. Then, post the first sentence from the first post of each month. (I added links to each post... so if you're dying to check them out... it's an easy click on the month.) Make sense?

So... A Madison Mom... Snippets of 2008

January - "Sorry it's so dark... we were sitting in the light of the Christmas tree... but I think you get the idea." I posted a video of 2 1/2 year old Zoe attempting to wish everyone a Happy New Year.

February - "I'm at about the 16 week mark with this pregnancy." Obviously the 16 week update post about my pregnancy. On reading it myself the strangest thing is knowing we didn't know we were having a girl and seeing that I wrote "it" when I talked about Ana.

March - "We made it back from our cruise yesterday (actually.... we made it back to our house after 9pm last night)." A post detailing everything I was going to miss about being on our cruise. Now I miss it again. I wonder when we can book another cruise.

April - A "Wordless Wednesday" called "Searching for Puddles". I posted Zoe in her new rain gear.

May - "We went upstairs for our normal daily snooze... but Zoe asked to sleep in the "butterfly room"." A post about Zoe's very first time sleeping in her big girl bed in her big girl room.

June - "First... and most importantly... you must always practice proper bicycle safety." A post about riding bikes in Florida with Uncle Jim and Avery.

July - "Like every other update post... we're moving right along." Another pregancy update. This one was week 37.

August - "Once upon a time... a long time ago (OK, fine it was just June 20th... it sure seems like a LONG time ago) in a place far far away (um, yeah, Chester, NJ... I guess it is only about 15 or 20 minutes from here) in a world totally unlike the one where we live now (you just try and tell me that the addition of a newborn doesn't completely change your world)...we went strawberry picking." Hee Hee Hee. A post about our trip to go pick strawberries. Obviously it took me so long to post because between the strawberries and the post Ana was born.

September - "I photographed some flowers in the last week." Um... and then I posted the photos.

October - "Me - Zoe, it's time for your snooze." A funny little post relaying a conversation had with Zoe.

November - "Halloween was a success! Yummy, yummy, yummy! " A very quick Halloween post. It's a SOOC Saturday.

December - "I was tagged by Jeanette at Jenty's Ramblings for the Real Mom Meme." Yep, you guessed it... I posted the "real mom meme".

So there you have it. 2008 reviewed quicker than I ever thought possible. If you have been with me all year long... then maybe I've brought back a couple good reads and photos you remember (October might be my favorite of the list). If you're new here... then you've got a few posts to help you catch up on how things have been here in Madison, NJ.

I hope your 2009 is off to a fabulous start!