dive right in

that's what they say right?

don't just walk around the pool, thinking about how cold it might be.
don't wade in slowly, waiting for just the right time.

just dive right in.

(splash)

i miss you, blogging, and to my readers, i miss you, too :)
summer is busy, huh? want to know what i'm doing today?

here it is: (get excited. you'll need to. my life isn't that exciting...)

yard work. what a great day for yard work. i'm thinking i'll weed the garden, water it, then weed the driveway, and then water the grass and flowers and the transplanted shrubs. so they don't die. because i transplant things like it's my job.

make lunch.

put piper down for a nap (in her new big girl bed! yes, pics to come ams). she has teeth coming in and a little smoker's cough (which makes her tiny voice even more adorable). maybe i'll take a nap myself. apparently, staying up WAY too late is so hot right now. but my head hurts. i need more sleep.

get up. finish laundry.

go through heaping piles on desk.

make to-do list (now that i've discovered how many things i've been ignoring for weeks on end)

unload dishwasher, do pots and pans. i wish i cooked everything in throw away containers JUST so there wouldn't always be piles of pots and pans.

grill up the chicken for dinner (i'm making chicken caesar salad.).

discipleship with lindsey. she's bringing me iced coffee. what more do i need to get me through the day?!

then maybe a show with dbs and bed early? i've been addicted to bravo reality television, namely top chef and the next great artist. and last comic standing. i'm also at the end of a really good book, so maybe i'll finish that tonight.

that's my plan.

so what are you doing today? anything good?

when the writing on the floor is in brown crayon

i was sitting here at my desk this morning thinking, "hmm. i really don't have any good ideas for a blog today." this happens a lot, despite what you may think. i thought for a moment whilst sipping my tea (yes, whilst) and started working on a blog about the kids rooms and what i'm thinking for the future.

and while i sat here, looking for some good ideas, googling crib sets, guess, just guess, what piper was doing.

here. take a look :)

(yeah, really wishing i had painted my toenails now that i've featured them so prominently in this video)

some of you have asked me questions in the past like "michelle- how do you do it all?!" and "how do you find the time to write?!" (by the way, these kinds of statements do make me laugh. because i KNOW what i do all day. and realize i ought to divulge more of my realities to you if you actually think these things...)

you see folks, there's a very simple answer to these questions: i ignore my children.

i don't have superhuman powers.

and i don't always write when my children sleep (although i do admittedly try to write when piper naps, and as you saw, for good reason).

i write when i feel like it, sometimes even at the expense of my children (gasp).

i don't occupy my children all day, and i sure do get mad at them when they're not playing nicely while mommy's trying to write.

i even yell at them.

(i will tell you that yelling does make me hate myself when my beautiful children simply want my attention. do they have to literally climb on me, though? and cry and wipe their snot on my lap while i type?? apparently...yes.)

so this is a little gift from me to you. it's hard for every mom to find the time to do...well, anything.

and it's even harder not to laugh when the marker on the floor is in brown crayon :)

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 :)

the catch up poem

(humor me)

to try to catch you up to speed-
well, that would take a century
'what's going on?'
you might ask.
i'll try to sum it
up real fast:
messes, dishes, laundry piles
haven't blogged in quite a while
it's hard working 15 hours
surely there's no time for showers
2 teeth coming in for piper,
change another dirty diaper
young boy covers room with poop
wakes last night, can't breath, has croup
my puke yellow door- it makes me happy
his puke on the floor- that's kinda crappy
piles of notes and things to-do
cleaning, washing, nothing new
thank you notes on desk unsent
wondering where all the weeks have went
grocery shopping and meals to cook
need a nap, want to read my book!
life feels too disorganized
outstanding tasks are super-sized
luckily my husband holds it down
on the days i'm not around
house is clean, kids are fed,
tucked and snuggled in their beds
i am thankful to have work
and try not to be a tired jerk
let's play with puzzles, go for walk
call a friend, for a moment, talk
talk to Jesus, ask for help
i can't do this by myself
realize there's never enough days,
working or not, life will be crazed
just take care of children, love them well
on the hard things, do not dwell
know you're blessed beyond belief
get ready to face another week
i'd love to catch you all up more
and not about poop and puke on my floor
i know, dear friends, these crazy weeks
have not allowed for many peeks
inside the walls of my brain and life
as a mom and pastors wife
but in time i think, i'll be back to share
with friends and family everywhere

so stay tuned...

work it, mama

okay- so i'm not dead. dead tired? yes. but not dead.

as you all know i started a new job working part time for a family i nannied for when i was in college. kate and i stayed in touch and we all got together when we were vacationing in nantucket, one thing led to another, and now my sister and i are sharing a job doing housekeeping and some personal assistant-type tasks.

and i love it. i work every wednesday for as few as 5 hours and as many as 10 until the fall starts, then i'll be working 10 every week. but i've been party-planning for kate (she and the kids stay in their nantucket house for the summer) for her husband tucker's 40th birthday. meeting with catering companies and designers, addressing invitations, organizing her guest list and contacts and the like. very fun. but it's been quite monumental.

so i'm not dead. or missing. just missing in action, and way behind in my own life. laughably, actually. but it's all good.

so do you want to hear a funny story?

we are (were) working with this catering company called "the catered affair" and they work with another place called "party by design" and kate was thinking she'd throw this loungey, sexy party in her backyard (which is gorgeous) for 50-75 people. i meet with the people who make these things happen, we discuss what kate wants, yadda yadda. okay- so she's looking to spend about $10-15,000 on this party. sounds reasonable [well, not for everyone, of course. it's a little out of my league ;)] for a party with tents, lighting, bartenders, catered food, loungey furniture, etc. i figured they'll come in about double that, maybe at $25,000.

i DARE you to guess what their quote was. just try and guess...




over $65,000 PLUS alcohol.

!!!!!!!

can you even believe that? it's nuts man. suffice it to say, we're going in a new direction. check out this place- it's called "mooo" and it's on beacon hill. plan b it is!

so i want to be blogging, i miss writing when i don't have time, but i've been working every day party planning and momming, with no extra time to be found. i have been working on a culture blog but it's so epic, i'm going to have to break it up into a few i think. i'm excited about it. i'll probably have volume one posted tomorrow.

uh, where'd you go?

okay, today is not proving to go as i planned.

this is not the first time this has happened.

my little loves have been on this funky schedule the past couple days where they've been sleeping in until 8:30-9:15 in the morning (what!?), but it messes their whole routine all up, elias doesn't nap, piper is eating when she sleeps and sleeping when she eats.

ohhh, i don't know. it's a big mess.

that said, i AM working on a blog discussing the highlights of this past week, since i've been MIA for so long. but with this wacko routine we're in for the moment, i have...well- no moments.

but i have to tell you- it's really nice that some of you miss me when i'm gone. truly.

and i promise to get you more michelle crack for your withdrawals :)

soon.

makeover

it's time.

time for a makeover. for my blog, that is.


truth is, the layout i have is such a pain in the neck, and i don't even like it that much! it requires tech support, ie, my husband, who's behind the scenes, editing the html for me just to get the font style and size i want. and i can't even change the page elements or add widgets, which are things i know how to do...when i don't have a whack template. i need a template that isn't in french, or made but some random person who doesn't know what they're doing.

i'm a low maintenance kinda gal, and i want to be able to make changes when i want, all by myself.

so a makeover is in order.

i'd like one, too, actually.

blog first, though. it's a lot cheaper. but if you bloggers out there know where i can find the goods to make my blog pretty (without writing html), let me know!

in the famous words of ace ventura: "if i'm not back in five minutes...just wait longer!"

hit me baby one more time

(haha. sorry. i couldn't help myself. finding a title is hard.)

but wow. i feel so inspired! fact is, i was totally having writers block when i noticed my blog reached 100 hits. thanks, everyone. i wish i could wow you with some deep and amazing thoughts today, but i'm tired and my brain is literally struggling to make cohesive sentences. in light of my current condition (i think they call it motherhood?), i'll share a couple short eli anecdotes from this evening.

tonight at dinner, elias wants be to give him more of what we call fizzle. it's bubbly flavored water, really. so he stands up on the bench, slides his empty cup to me and says "more fizzo in that cup, kayyy?!", his voice rising ever so highly as he oh so matter-of-factly tells me what i need to do. and then he leans back, his little belly exposed as his hands reach behind his head, and lets out a big old belch.

it was so boy.

and so hilarious that i just lowered my head and tried not to drool out the food that was in my mouth. who is this small person?

and after dinner, instead of digesting, elias likes to run. you know, work off those calories straight away before the dust settles. so i chase him...and capture him...and tickle him. the standards. and then i spun him around a bunch (no, he doesn't throw up, don't worry) and when it's all over he says to me:

"get busy againnn, mummy!" which is even funnier because he can say dizzy. dizzy is the cement mixer on bob the builder. we know and like her very much. but for some reason, when we're spinning, we're getting busy, so i just had to laugh.

a good end to a long day. a little laughter goes a long way for me.

again, i am humbled that you're here to read about my little life. i'm glad you like it.

i know i do :)