jackson and his cute little face

look at those cute little freckles he's getting on his nose :)

sometimes i sit around and wonder what life would be like right now if i'd made just a couple different choices in my early years. it can be fun sometimes to imagine a life that could've been. but it's always the little things that bring me back to reality.

those cute little freckles on his nose. his skinny legs and knobby knees. how he farts uncontrollably when he laughs.

reality is much better than anything i dream up in my head.

temporary contentment

this is the time of year when i'm at peace with utah. the sky is blue. there's no inversion. the mountains are still green. and you don't melt away or freeze your butt off the second you walk out the door. 

i used to think i need 4 distinct seasons each year. i needed the extremes of winter and summer. 

now that i know better, i know that i don't need winter or summer at all. just the calm in between. 

so now, where do i go to find it??

the boy who couldn't boil a noodle

do you teach your kids to cook? 

i had a boy babysit the boys for me last year. he was 13 so i just assumed he could do basic cooking. i had leftover spaghetti sauce so i said for dinner he could just boil some spaghetti and microwave the sauce. 

but he didn't know how to boil spaghetti. 

so i got out some hot dogs and said he could microwave them for dinner. and i had the popcorn popper out so they could have popcorn while they watched a movie.

i came home to find out that he had no idea how to use an air-popper, and they ate cold hot dogs for dinner. 

and they almost started a fire trying to figure out how to use the air-popper.

i thought back to my childhood and couldn't remember a time when i wasn't cooking things for myself. i was 4 when my brother started paying me a quarter to make him popcorn. i believe i was 7 when i started baking all my siblings birthday cakes. by 6 i could at least make noodles, grilled cheese sandwiches and fry, poach & scramble eggs, and make a killer chocolate chip cookie.

after that incident i realized having the boys in the kitchen with me was more than just a fun activity. i'm determined to raise boys that know how to cook everything that i can cook. 

i can't tell you how nice it is to sleep in on saturdays and not have to worry about breakfast because jackson is in the kitchen happily making toast and scrambled eggs.

teach your boys to cook!

(i was in the kitchen on mothers day happily baking some brownies, when payton came in wanting to share the load so i could enjoy my day.)

a beautiful, beautiful flamingo

the pictures were so cute they didn't need a description

they call me the wanderer

i try to not be a complainer. i think it's important to be positive about your circumstances no matter what they are. but darn it if i don't complain about life sometimes. there are just days when you wish you could trade places with someone who is living a more exotic life, or at least one moderately different than your own.

today was a day where i kind of just wandered around aimlessly. i thought about taking payton to the park. then ended up at the yarn store. meandered over to cafe rio. then found myself at the other end of the valley 40 minutes from home.

i wasn't sad or mad. i was just.....going through the very basic motions of life. but i looked out over the valley and just thought "life's pretty dang good."

on the farm

payton went to wheeler farm with his buddies eli & landon. it was such a perfect way to spend the morning. the boys spent an hour climbing a big tree and ginger and i just relaxed, talked & took pictures. the weather was perfect, the boys were perfect, and being there made me walk away even more convinced that i want a mini farm someday.

and then the melancholy hits

“I began to understand that suffering and disappointments and melancholy are there not to vex us or cheapen us or deprive us of our dignity but to mature and transfigure us.”
― Hermann Hesse, Peter Camenzind

water and chalk

the best thing about spring so far has been playing with sidewalk chalk and the hose. that is really all you need to entertain a group on kids on a beautiful sunny day.

sunday dinner

i know that for a lot of people, especially around here, if you asked what was their favorite thing about sunday is they'd list the various things they enjoy about church. and i appreciate spiritual enlightenment on sundays, but the best thing for me on sundays is the food.

and it's nice to know that my kids love my food as much as i do. in primary yesterday the kids were asked what they loved the most about their moms. jackson's hand shot straight up and he said "my mom is the best cook!"

i'm not gonna lie. i was proud. and i was extra happy to be in the kitchen yesterday baking rolls, mashing potatoes and smelling that delicious turkey roast in the crock pot.