Tag Archives: Family

Family, Parenting, writing

Be Saying ‘Yes’! 

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I have many incredible mentors in my life.  

Women.  

Men. 

Children. 

Time.  

Life.

Death. 

One incredible mentor that I am blessed to know is Linda Lou, my old Principal.  

Often when I am living life, her sage wisdom will come into my head.  

Last weekend was one of those marvelous moments! 

Linda Lou ALWAYS tried to find a way to say ‘yes’ to every person, adult or child that she worked with.  She was an incredible negotiator.  She listened well and she came up with amazing solutions so it was a yes for everyone.  

After a few days of feeling like a drill sergeant with my boys: fill your water bottle, grab your hombag, where is your helmet…. I decided to say ‘yes on Sunday.  

First I said yes to post-breakfast painting:  

 and then my oldest wanted to make a brunch buffet for everyone.  (CC had shared earlier in the week that he loved our resort in hawaii because he could take whatever he wanted at the breakfast buffet.) 

And then we finished off with some sewing:  

 

Just say ‘yes’ and see what happens.  

Creativity? 

Freedom? 

Joy?

Laughter? 

New adventures? 

I wonder what will come our way next! 

God, Grief

Be Celebrating Your Mom’s Birthday 

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Last year, it was lemon meringue cake, dinner as a family and sending balloons up to Nana in heaven.

This year, it is receiving a beautiful phone call from my mom’s friend’s Donna and Wendy, a morning text from Sexy Neck and a great friend in KCity plus I took an afternoon bike ride.  



It is tears.  

It is joy.  

It is shattering grief and living life all wrapped up in pieces of mom’s birth day.  

I don’t know how to do any of this!  

How does one celebrate a day that they’ve always celebrated with a woman that they love celebrating when that woman is no longer with you? 

So, I bike. 

I sit.  

I cry.  

I look at reminders, especially this one I created one month ago that reminds me of the great roots my parents gave me.  



The waves of grief no longer pushes me underwater until I can’t breathe, but I am still on the boat, rowing in this grief, learning about myself and filled with deep gratitude for how present, wonderful and loving my mom was.  

I wish I could get a piece of that back! 

Boys, Family, writing

Be Reading Signs 

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I haven’t laughed so hard… 

My dad and Sexy Neck were in the front of the van yesterday.  The road we were heading north on was closed due to a traffic accident.   



We spent over an hour on a road trip that could have taken twenty minutes, but oh was it a hilarious trip.  

Dad and Sexy Neck were on the top of their game reading EVERY SINGLE SIGN WE PASSED!   Have you ever noticed that ‘older’ men tend to do this?  I had NEVER noticed until I heard Sexy Neck explaim from the front seat, 

“I am officially ‘old’.  I am reading signs out loud as I drive. And they aren’t important signs.” 



Hahaha!  

Simple times.  

Out of routine.  

Shaking it up.

Sharing insight.  

Doing ‘normal’ things.  

Off to enjoy some pineapple… 



Boys, Family

Be Stealth with Hot Chocolate

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Last week, we were tired and maybe a bit cranky.

We were having an ordinary, grumpy day, but then…

We drove by the high schoolers waiting for their morning school bus ride.

The boys and I started talking.

We noticed they were cold.

We thought they needed some hot chocolate.

We talked about surprising people.

Yup, they definitely needed hot chocolate.

I talked about how special high schoolers are and how hard they work at school.

Definitely they will need donut holes too!

This morning at 7:45am, we sprang into action.

We brought our kids table, picked up some hot chocolate and donut holes and we stealthily dropped them off.

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And look at our faces…

2015/03/img_8559.jpg No more grumpiness. We gave freely and we were blessed!

Then we stealthily drove by to see the faces of our high school hot chocolate drinkers. (JC took the picture)

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Happy day to our high school neighbours! We really hope you enjoyed the fourteen hot chocolate and fifty donut holes we stealthily dropped off for you.  The boys are into playing spies right now, so that made it extra fun!

Boys, Family, health & fitness, Parenting

Be Rolling, Jumping and Balancing

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What do you personally think every human being should know or be able to do?

For Sexy Neck and I, we believe it is essential that our boys learn how to move their bodies safely.

Thus, gymnastics is a priority for our schedule and our budget.

Man, it isn’t cheap!

As we move into our winter activities, we say goodbye to our autumn gymnastics class.

Thank you for teaching our boys to balance, hop and roll.

I wonder if we made gymnastics mandatory for us all, what would our Western-living lives look like?IMG_7482