This Day

The past couple of days the sky froze. Snow. Grey. White.
So. Much. Snow.

These photos are only from the first day of snow fall!

And so. This morning I decided to try and go to my voice lessons. I did a 360 in the neighborhood but thought the freeway would be better. But as I merged into the lane as I got on I spun around and into the snow bank on the side. Thankfully nobody was close enough behind me that I was hit. I was able to get out of the snow and get back onto the road. I obviously decided to go home instead. But as I got to the first exit I spun off again, facing on coming traffic. But thankfully they stopped for me to get back on track.

Despite the fact that I vowed never to drive anywhere again, Buck convinced me that he could drive his Jimmy with 4-wheel drive so that we could take June to my aunts, as planned, and then he would take me grocery shopping. About two minutes after we dropped June off and I told Buck he was my knight in shinning armor, we feel the car clunk-clunk-clunk down the hill. FLAT TIRE. So we stop in a pile of snow on the side of the road. Underneath the open spout pouring snow from the clouds. It was too icy to use a jack and so we ended up getting towed home. RIDICULOUS.

We had some here and there's of putting the pieces back together of our snow day but we survived.

What's crazy is that when things like this happen, it actually shows me how much God blessed us today. Everything could have been much worse. We literally sat here and counted our blessings from the day. (although, I can't lie, having to buy two new tires really sucked...) But still, somehow, it was a good day.

Away-from-it-all

Every night it's the same. I turn off the house lights and turn on the light in the hall so that I can see in her bedroom. I open the door as softly as possible and my feet whisper over to her crib, soft light rolls off the carpet and onto wood bars. I look down at her and I stop breathing so that I can hear her breathe. I watch her belly go up and down, up and down.

Another night. Another day. We have lived and will go on.
We survive.

Everyday my mind wanders. It goes far away, into meadows of flowers, past pine trees
and down a dirt lane. It walks in the front door and into what I wish was our front room. It looks out the large windows and up at the mountains and all around at the land. My mind loves to go there. Because it is safe.

It is away-from-it-all.

I can't read the news much or get into politics a whole lot. I can't scope out the best geographical place on this earth to live based on natural disasters. I get too anxious and start feeling this need to find control. A gun, a massive food storage and several 72-hour kits, a well of water and solar panels, my own military base. And if I could somehow secure these items in our home-on-the-mountain (official title) then maybe we'll have a chance.

And maybe we'll have a chance if I can somehow instill in my kids a hatred of action and sexy movies. And raunchy music. Maybe they will only want to go to church and play in the yard and explore our mountain. June will love to collect all the wildflowers and little Harvey* will want to camp and be one with nature. In fact, we wont even have a T.V.

Right?
Right ?!

Sigh

It's easy to get worked up. I love my family. I hear of so many horrible things happening to other people's loved ones and it freaks me out. And I swear every movie wants to teach my June bug that she will only be a sex object and that my future son* needs to be a punching/killing machine.

So I dream of getting a home away-from-it-all. It feels like the only thing left to do in this crazy world. To focus on nature and go back to the basics of the earth. I'm not saying I want to be Amish (although, sometimes I kinda do...) but I want to live somewhere where loud and busy and blue screens are second third fourth tenth best to the stars and the water and the wonder of being alive. 

But always, always, always, after having my daily imagination attack I am reminded that I DO have peace and calm about it all. I have the ultimate knowledge to combat anything the world could fling at me and my marvelous little family. 

I believe in God. 

I know that there is a plan and a reason for being here. And the reason isn't to live a perfect controlled and safe life. It is to learn and to return to God to live forever with our families. I know that whatever hard and awful things come our way that all things will be made right one day. I know that even if the earth herself decides to swallow us whole that we will be okay. This is not the end. Thank God. This is not all there is. 

And I don't EVEN CARE if this is all true. Honestly. It doesn't matter. Not really. Let's say I am wrong and there is no life after this. That's okay because believing in God and the religion that I do gave me the most peaceful life. It has given me true control- to know that when I feel so out of control from the fears of the world that I always have the end choice to believe in eternal good and to be 

still 

and calm.

And in the end, with this feeling and hope, I can live anywhere. 

So come what may. 

WE ARE SAFE. 

With God, we are always safe.

**This is not a pregnancy announcement

Lately

While we're not off buying dogs, we are still keeping busy, trying to find things to do in this cold, cold winter. Here are some of the finds:

Mall play ground. Can't go wrong with dinosaurs, I always say. (okay so that was my first time.) And I'm obsessed with the ceiling. And, of course, it's free, which is always nice.

One day we went to the Aquarium. It was $10 for a day pass or $20 for a year pass... so, umm, we are now members of the aquarium! Guess we'll go more often now. It may not be the most exciting, but June sure loves it and "fishes" is one of her words.

Best Buds//

Penguins!

That same day we also went to meet a friend for some cake and conversation.

And June didn't mind one bit.

Neither did I...

 On MLK Jr. Day we took a little free family outing and decided to check out the new MASSIVE sporting goods store. It did not disappoint. I mean, they have a ferris wheel! And moving robot presidents. And Animals.

And a fish tank arch.

And photo ops galore!

And these running shorts I really want.

(So most of these photos are taken with my old point-and-shoot camera or with my phone. Don't judge. When dealing with the June bug sometimes it's easier to leave the nice camera at home. )

Botswana Day

Remember that one time I invented a holiday (or three?) Well we marked "Celebrate a Country Day" this year by celebrating Botswana. And it was awesome. (Last year we celebrated Laos and the year before that was Italy)

We kept the decorations simple, but I was happy with it. We were even able to use some real relics from Africa. :)

 

June's "African dress."

Buck. Cooking the meat. Like a man.

The food was the main focus. We had seswaa meat (cooked over four hours in the dutch oven!) and the staple food of bogabe (a corn meal mush) and a side of a spicy carrot & cabbage dish. We also had watermelon, because the people of Botswana claim that is where watermelon comes from.

Not shown is the dessert which was pudding and crushed cookies with gummy worms. The reason for this is because a popular item to eat there are these fat caterpillars. SICK. Too bad we couldn't find any of those to eat... dang we had to have chocolate pudding instead.

To drink we had coco-cola in glass bottles, because that is a popular thing to drink there everywhere. Also, there is a movie filmed in Botswana about a glass coke bottle falling out of a plane into a primitive tribe. It causes all this contention and a tribe member has to go in search of the end of the world to get rid of it. So these were perfect.

People watching the movie I just talked about. It's called "The God's Must Be Crazy" and it's old and you should watch it because it's hilarious.

We had 5 babies tearing up June's room.

All in all it was a success. We ended up having around 16 people show up! (which = a mad house in our small home.) We had a history lesson on the country and a language thought. And we also listened to African music and played that drum a bit.

So now I will leave you with a few proverbs from Botswana.

~Beautiful words don't put porridge in the pot~

~It is better to walk than curse the road~

~It is the one who lies by a fire who can feel how hot it is~

Help

Help!

We are out of control.

 Can't. Stop. Buying. PETS.

Meet June's pet fish, August.

18 Months

Today June is 18 months old. So crazy. But awesome. Here's a look back:

New Born

Six Months old

One Year Old

Annnnd 18 months

I wanted to take some photos of June today to mark the age, and well, I feel that I got some accurate photos of how June wears her 18 months.

Tantrum style

She really wanted my iPhone.

And obviously wasn't getting it...

We'll be the first to admit that we have no idea what to do with her. Maybe one day we'll learn how to discipline and all that stuff. For now, I'll just take pictures of her while she gets mad.

As for the stats on her weight and height and stuff we'll know later this week but last check up she was in the 96th percentile for height! So we might have a 6 foot tall daughter one day at this rate. 

Anyway. Happy year and a half June Bug. We love you. And Despite your tantrums.