Let it snow

Gee, I just got my iPhone back up and running, only to have our spanking new (I mean, seriously?! It's less than a year old) computer decide to freeze. Over. And. Over.

Totally. Busted.

Awesome.
Orrrr not.

*sigh*

Technology...I'm trying to be in your corner, but you just keep rooking it (right, Ams?) ;) Oh well, I'll just show you what's what and bust out a blog anyway. Take that.

As many of you are aware of, unless you're living contentedly under a rock, the Big Guy is takin out the big guns and giving us a blizzard! Yay! love being snowed in! Get a big old fire blazing in the wood stove, bake some cookies, read, play Legos...I mean, what could be better than THAT?! Who cares if I haven't finished Christmas shopping?!

*nervous face*

Ah, well. My Christmas cards aren't done yet either. Details, details...

That's okay, Christmas time rules. Here's some holly jolly pictures :)










Stay warm, everyone!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

rockin' around the christmas tree

if there's one thing i do know, it's that there's nothing quite like music to get you into the holiday spirit, is there?

elias and i tend to agree that we should be rockin' around the christmas tree whenever possible, singing some dean or some frank or some mariah. we love us some christmas jams. music is like the fifth member of our family.

so i HAVE to ask- what are the CD's that are in your constant rotation in december? i would like one or two to add to our collection, and i need some suggestions!

anyone??

oh, christmas tree!

one of our stratton christmas traditions we've developed over the past five years is a yearly trip to a tree farm (we've settled on the mockingbird tree farm as our local fave) to choose a tree out in the snowy fields and to then ceremoniously cut it down ourselves. i think our tradition began of necessity when dave and i lived in easton in a condo with a loft, so the ceilings were high. and the only place to find a 12 or 14 foot tree is a tree farm! it's a cool tradition, and scouring and hunting down the "perfect" tree is tons of fun (exceppptt when it's 26 degrees with 10 mile an hour winds...then it's umm, cold)! :)

so today our tree is finally up (we'd have liked it to be up right after thanksgiving, but with that whole flu issue, and then the rain trend we've been seeing on weekends, it has taken us a while), we made it to the little gym almost on time, and heck, i went for it and took the kids grocery shopping after (huge mistake, by the way. market basket is a MADHOUSE apparently at 1:30 on fridays. or is it every day? right. it's every day...).

how about some pictures??

elias was so cold he stopped at every tree pretty much every one nd said "how about this one? this one looks good"

dada takes a saw to it while eli says "you can do it dad. never give up! you're doing great!" hilarious.

and here it is, anxiously awaiting ornamentation. that's going to have to wait a couple days, but...

tell me, what are YOUR christmas traditions?!

all i want for christmas

(warning: this blog is whiny, but i have to get it out there)

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS:

my iphone to not be broken :/

my to-do list to magically appear from inside my broken iphone so i can, ummm, do stuff. i desperately need a brain with the capacity to recall without the use of technology.

so, a brain. with total recall. like reid on criminal minds.

time to blog. since i cant blog from a broken phone. ehh.

time to christmas shop WITHOUT children. my back is not feeling very excellent after pushing two kids around the mall, running after piper, and things of the such.

so a new back, too. with superhuman strength. to lift heavy dressers without pulling muscles. that lead to being punched in my spine a million times with an activator by my chiropractor.

annnd to not have a whiny embarrassing silly list of things that don't really matter.

but they do.

a little.

to me.

sometimes.

:)

okay. i hate even having to read all that complaining. i'm done now. and i'm going to turn it around. immediately. here i go:

this is why i'm grateful:

that my job even affords me the ability to have an iphone in my possession. because that technology is flipping awesome.

that to-do lists don't matter as much as playing with my kids, reading them books, and spending time with them. to-do lists, in fact, are directly from satan. that's the rumor.

that my brain does remember...some stuff. i think? ;)

that i am, in fact, blogging. right now. real quick. while my kids glare at me and shove books at my keyboard. and cry. and yell. and climb all over me.

that i did manage to get a couple things at the mall today. including a much cooler birthday gift for my husband (who will be 33 tomorrow!) than i had

that my back is considerably better after being aligned and resting this weekend as much as possible. that's huge. because i was a cripple there for a few days, and it was TOTALLY my fault (sick truth is, i'd do it again in a second. when i'm painting, i cannot be bothered to think about how ridiculously heavy a dresser is. and my bedroom looks awesome. pictures to come...whennnn i can get them...off my iphone).

SO. that's all i've got for you right now. and i feel better. sorry it wasn't more glamorous. just bein' real :)

elegant or not

ohhhh, blogggg.

i miss youuuu.

it's been a really lame couple of weeks, i have to tell you.

the flu (or his cousin or maybe his second cousin?) came for a visit our house and decided to stay a while. dave was the first to go down, then elias, then me (the day before 23 people were to arrive at my home for thanksgiving), then piper. we mostly had a random, peculiar and miscellaneous smattering of symptoms. 103 temps, chills, nausea, runny noses, headaches, general gross feeling-ness. i won't bore you with any details, like about how sick kids are whiny and needy little drips, but by last saturday, i was so desperate to get out of the house that i was giddy to just get out and do errands. i mean, i almost was willing to gladly go to the grocery store. almost. but we're all better now, and truly, i'm grateful that we weren't more sick. a lot of people are really getting nailed with these various strains of flu.

it's funny, i finished reading traveling mercies by anne lamott* when i was sick. and suddenly i felt like being sick is a great opportunity (and not just to catch up on reading).

let me explain.

i picked up in the middle of the book somewhere, and she was talking about her neighbor who had cancer and how one day she woke up feeling awful and achy with a headache and so on, and was complaining to her neighbor. who's essentially...dying. and having chemo and various other painful cancer treatments. but he smiles and is chipper every day because he is at peace, and is enjoying his life anyway. you know, come what may-type thing. and she was killing me, talking about how ridiculous she felt because she was sick, and there she was complaining to him about her seemingly insignificant troubles. and it really reminded me that there is always someone sicker, always someone who's frying a bigger fish in a murkier pond.

she writes "i hate being the kind of person who tries to get someone with stage-four metastatic lung cancer to feel sorry for her just because she has a headache. (though it was an ice pick headache.) but the way i see it, God loves you the same whether you're being elegant of not. it feels much better when you are, but even when you can't fake it, God still listens to your prayers."

i tell ya, my head/body didn't feel better after reading those pages, but my heart did and my soul did. we've all been there, haven't we? when our life sucks "the most", we're the "most tired", or the "most overwhelmed", even though...we're not. and we're really not trying to be elegant, we're just mad or sad or ill or annoyed and we don't care who knows it.

reading those pages was a good reminder to be grateful even when we're ill, and our kids are sick, and they whine and demand to be held constantly. because when we're sick, we get to read books. and snuggle our kids and watch movies all day. and wear pajamas, and have no pressing things “to-do”. and be present. and enjoy the good things wrapped up in the not so good things.

because that’s life. and life IS good.

*and seriously, if you've never read anne lamott, pick up anything she's written. bird by bird, operating instructions, anything. she's somehow reverent and irreverent, quick-witted, insightful, and at times, cheeky. but i live for honesty in writing. it's like breath to me. i'd rather listen to nickelback on repeat then read books that are a bunch of crap. so i admire her rawness. i wish i had half the audacity she does, even if i don't always agree with some of her theology. it's neither here nor there. hilarious is hilarious. and i love me some funny :)