Posted by Alli on November 3, 2009
Yesterday morning I looked out the backdoor and stared at the mountain, peering at the colors of the trees and wondering, “Is it today?”
I always worry I might miss the peak of Fall colors and with all the rain we had recently it would be very easy for the leaves to change and then throw themselves on the ground in disgust, sick of being heavy with rain and under the cover of clouds for so long.
Last year Fuller and I took a Fall walk on Lookout Mountain so I could try and capture some of the Fall splendor. This year, we tried to do the same, but a sleeping Tebow sent us elsewhere… to a playground. The sky was clear and bright, lining up for some beautiful shots.
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Posted by Alli on November 2, 2009
Next Monday I am turning 33. My birthday always gives me a sense of excitement and entitlement. I always want it to be about me, me, me. From the moment I wake up, I desire to have everyone around shower me with love, attention, affection, and gifts.
Honestly, it doesn’t ever really work out that way. In fact, a lot of things haven’t worked out in ways I thought they would. I’m the type of person who, when it comes around to certain milestones (birthdays, New Year’s, etc.), I tend to dwell on the way things haven’t worked out. It’s not a particularly happy past time and some might even say it isn’t healthy.
See, I think the reason I think about the things is because I’ve been trying to answer the question “Who am I?”
I know at some point along the way I have lost myself, a struggle plenty of women have. And when I think about my dreams that didn’t become a reality, I use them as the starting point to get back to that “Who am I?” question that plagues me.
But like I said before- not a happy thing to do and probably not healthy. And I never come up with any answers, just more questions about why those dreams didn’t become a reality.
So, in an effort to find answers (because I don’t think there is just one) to the “Who am I question?” I plan on trying to focus on things I do know and accept about myself for the next six days. Then, as a birthday present to myself, I’ll hopefully be looking forward to the future, happier, and closer to being sure about myself.
[tags]questions, who am I?[/tags]
Posted by Alli on November 1, 2009
A few years ago I bought a spray can of gold hair/ body glitter. I didn’t really have an idea of what I should dress up for on Halloween (if at all), but I knew I wanted there to be glitter involved.
I opened the can for the first time on Friday. I decided, even if I didn’t have a costume, glitter in the hair on or around Halloween was perfectly acceptable. I wanted to be shiny and sparkly.
Then, when we were at Wal-Mart last week, I found a pair of fairy wings for $5. Specifically, I found a pair of orange wings for $5. So, I decided I would slip them on my back and become the Magical Mom. Wings, glitter, and me- my ideal costume.
(I even sprinkled “Mommy Dust” wherever I went, since the glitter transferred to everything I touched, looked at, or even thought about. Tebow’s diaper changes were interesting.) (Oh, and the wings were great since I could slip them over the straps of the Ergo when I had Tebow on my back during our church party.)
Hope you had a good Halloween, I know I did!
Posted by Alli on October 28, 2009
I’m very excited to have my pictures published in a local magazine! If you think you’ve seen them before, you probably have in 2008 and 2007.
Also, please check out my Wordless Wednesday on our family blog!
Check out other Wordless Wednesday pictures on MomDot and Five Minutes for Mom.
[tags]wordless Wednesday, photo credit, Chatter, Chattanooga, Pride of the Dixieland Band, Tenessee Vols, Marching Band[/tags]
Posted by Alli on October 27, 2009
Last Friday, Damon and a friend participated in Camp Out to Stamp Out Homelessness. It was put together by our local Interfaith Hospitality Network, a homeless ministry our church is heavily involved in. While it was fun for Damon and Dave, they got to make things out of cardboard (they did a tailgate area) and camp overnight, it also made me think how awesome it was that I got to go home and sleep in my house and in my own bed.
However, I have to admit that various circumstances have me not liking my house right now. Our fridge isn’t working again. I’m disorganized because we have so much stuff and not enough room to store it all. And every evening that we have problems with Tebow sleeping through the night, I curse the fact that we don’t have another bedroom to put him in to cry it out (don’t bug me about this).
So, in order to change my attitude, I am going to write ten things I actually like about my house. And I’ll leave this window open all day if I have to… just to get TEN THINGS.
1. The sense of accomplishment. We might be on year ten of our five year plan to renovate the house, but every time we complete a project the sense of accomplishment gets us so high, we decide to keep on keeping on!
2. Our built-in book case. It looks so nice and actually does help us stay organized to some degree.
3. The bamboo floors. They really warm up the dining room and living room, and still look great, three years later.
4. A working dishwasher. I think having a broken dishwasher would be worse than our broken fridge. (We are using the dorm fridge from D’s office in the interim.)
5. My kitchen island. This is addition to our kitchen gave us such a great amount of counter space. And when I pile junk on it, I still have plenty of counter to do work on!
6. Two bathrooms. Enough said.
7. Sunlight. Sure, it rained today. But! We have plenty of southern facing windows and it really helps warm the house on days when the sun is out and strong.
8. Our attic. I might complain about lack of space, but Damon did a bang up job on making our attic an excellent and safe place to store things.
9. Our dog door. Once we had our fence installed, we put in a dog door. This has changed so much for us. I feel safer knowing the dogs can head outside any time they hear something or need to do something.
10. The roof. We aren’t homeless. We have a roof over our heads. It has been raining sooooo much this Fall, the roof has protected us from all that rain.
For more Top Ten lists, check out Oh Amanda!
[tags]top ten Tuesday, top ten list, home, interfaith hospitality network, camp out to stamp out[/tags]
Posted by Alli on October 26, 2009
Right now my living room is an obstacle maze of fabric, bits, and bobs all intended for Fuller’s costume of 2009. Which is why I’m going to look back to last year for this week’s I ♥ Faces theme: Halloween Dress Up! (And if you know our family, you know dressing up isn’t restricted to just Halloween. But I still want to show off Captain America!)
What I’m showing off this week is Fuller’s Captain America costume from last year. We took our little Captain America to several events and some special locations for various photo shoots. This particular shoot was irritating to Fuller because the sun was in his eyes. This is cause for melt down. I remember we tried to tell him Captain America would suck it up, but it didn’t translate to the then four year old.
Head over to I ♥ Faces for more links to costume fun.
Posted by Alli on October 21, 2009
So today the fridge got repaired and started humming and cooling, waiting for us to fill it up with perishables.
BUT! Before I could move the food from the dorm fridge to the big fridge, I had to clean it up. It was gross. There was dried on yuck under the veggie drawers. There were some moldy things and dried lettuce stuck the bottom the drawers. And so, I had to clean it.
The thing is, I had to figure out how to get the dried on yuck out. It didn’t just wipe out. And at first I couldn’t scrape it away. So I set the tea kettle on the stove and waited for it to whistle. Once the water was boiling, I poured it directly on the yuck. Within seconds, I was able to scrape it all out. Then I was able to disinfect and scrub with soap.
So, that’s what worked for me.
To find other inspiring (mine was inspiring, right?) works for me tips, just go see We are THAT Family for the links.
[tags]Works for Me Wednesday, hot water, cleaning, fridge[/tags]
Posted by Alli on
I love that our family is trying to make it a tradition to attend at least one educational demonstration by the Auburn Southeast Raptor Center each football season. They have the demos on the Fridays before home games. The first time we went, last year, there was a decent size crowd. We went again this past Friday and it was very full.
My idea of taking pictures during the demo is to use continuous shooting mode to try and capture flying birds and some of the interesting faces the birds make when the trainers bring the birds around for a closer look. I didn’t even know I had this picture of the winking owl until I looked at the pictures on my computer!
To see other Wordless Wednesdays, check out the linkies on MomDot and Five Minutes for Mom.
[tags]Wordless Wednesday, Auburn Raptor Center, Southeast Raptor Center, raptors, owls, wink[/tags]
Posted by Alli on October 20, 2009
Our family had an awesome weekend. And when we got home, well, I took one look around and realized it was time for a break.
As the mom who organizes a lot of things around here, I have been trying to prioritize the cake ingredients in order make school number one every day. Another homeschool mom I know says that she views school like her job and when school is in “session” she pretty much ignores the other things (laundry, cleaning) until school is over. I realized I had been doing the same and a lot of things were piling up (literally and figuratively) around here.
So, when we got home Sunday, I decided we would go on Fall Break so I could get caught up around here.
Monday began with a call to a repair man to see if he could fix our fridge. We got home and it was dead. We couldn’t tell what was wrong. When the guy came, he unscrewed a panel and discovered something had crawled in and chewed the power cord.
I caught up on laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and stared at the piles of baby clothes I need to sort. I did some more staring at them today.
Tomorrow the fridge should actually be fixed, I can fill it with food, and I better find myself sorting Tebow’s clothes so they can be put away and not living on the floor in the living and dining rooms.
I remember the days when Fall Break meant sleeping in, overdosing on TV and maybe reading a book I for a class I was taking. Not so much now.
But, I can tell you, I we needed this break. Fuller was starting to fight things, I was getting short, and the lack of sleep was cutting into my energy needed to make it through the day. After a few days of no school, I’m already looking forward to starting school again next week (actually Friday, since we have a field trip scheduled). And here’s hoping I actually get the clothes put away.
Posted by Alli on October 15, 2009
How awesome is it when you put on some music and suddenly your five year old asks you to dance? Melts your heart, right?
That’s what happened wen I put in the latest Harry Connick, Jr CD, Your Songs, on the CD player in the living room. Fuller and I had a sweet ten minutes or so dancing around the living room, dodging Tebow who was crawling around near our feet.
I received Your Songs from the One2One Network, with the opportunity to give it a listen. The songs are all covers of popular songs ranging from Smile (Charlie Chaplin) to Just the Way You Are (Billy Joel), with his classic big band sound that I always seem to associate with Harry Connick, Jr.
The album was delightful, not only causing my little family to have a dance party in the middle of the afternoon, but it has been calming to listen to on the way to Asheville and later in the evening when I need to focus. While I don’t really enjoy all the songs on the album (I’ve never been a fan of Mona Lisa or Besame Mucho, regardless of the performer and even Harry Connick, Jr couldn’t win me over on those) overall, it is a good album to have in my music collection.
And I will always remember the first time my little boy looked up at me and asked, “Mommy, do you want to dance?”
[tags]Harry Connick Jr, Your Songs, music review[/tags]
Fall Flare
