overheard this morning...

"Once I saw a parent watch tv"
Joren

I'm too busy to write a poem....

Rushing, chasing, pushing, racing
straining creases, forhead deepening
laughing, playing, hugging, kissing
Hurry along children
Mother in haste

Pet coyote by Teig

One time I saw a coyote in my serious water in my submarine and he couldn't hold his breath much longer and he was my pet coyote. And ven he had a satchel where I hang into and ven he had a fing that goes on a horsey and ven I hang onto it and ven he runs. And vats my best coyote. We better get him. My serious water is in my serious lab and my wab is far away! We better get vere. I hear my coyote calling for me. My wolf is about to get eaten by a whale. Vere are a lots of whales. Vere are two teenagers and two babies and two moms and two dads. And all ve whales are trying to bite my coyote!

The draw of design

I went to work with my brothers two days last week and did a faux finish on a a bunch of pine to make it look like reclaimed barn wood for the ceiling of the kitchen in the del prado house. The hours passed like minutes and I had to tear myself away. I enjoyed the creative process so completely. Davy installed it as I painted and it looked amazing. The collaboration was a blast. Tracey told me he wanted me to stage the house and told me to start collecting furnishings and accessories to get it sold. My mind started reeling with excitement.

Last night Paul said he was worried about me. I guess he could see that spark ignited in my eye or maybe he felt how my spirit had been snagged by a distraction and I was suddenly preoccupied. I'm not sure how he knew but immediately he could sense my heart was wondering. With all that my family needs, if I get distracted my family suffers. I tell myself I will stay up later, I will do things while the kids nap, I will make sure they have good sitters so I can work but the reality is that the family is not as strong when I am distracted. Having a family is supposed to help us learn to be unselfish. I know that it is not very many years that they will be young. I want to invest in each of them while they are little. I want no regrets about the time I was willing to put in. I just want to work AND do it all as a mom and it is not possible.  Every day is a choice.

Juniper Gayle Age 1

Joren's nighttime creative juices brewing:

"My head is so heavy because i have so many heavy ideas. I want a cave to live in. In my next house I am going to cut it in half and make half of it a museum. I will have a whale skeleton and a cave. I want my own real dinosaur skeleton. I want my own pet turtle that's real and alive and I want to study sea turtles and I want a real mermaid suit that moves around. It needs to flexible so I can move around and twist.I just can't sleep because my head is exploding!" Joren

like a hundred dozen special

I like to make sure Teig knows how much I love him. I asked him if he knew how special he was to me and he said, "I'm feeling like a hundred dozen special to you." Teig

This will make you feel old.

I told my kids, "When we get back from winter break it will be 2014!! Wow! I was born in 1977. That sure makes me feel old!"

"I don't get it. How could you have been born in 1977, doesn't it have to have a 2000 in it?" Eirik

An attempt to get a longer playdate:

"In 65 million years Hudson can let me come home.."
Teig

The roller coaster ride of motherhood

"Mom you are so old I used to hate you so much, but now I don't.  Now I wuv you, wuv you, wuv you."
Teig

Remodel complete!

We finished and sold our remodel project this week! What an absolute adventure! I feel so completely blessed to have been a part of this. First of all, the team of investors agreed to let me do the design work.  I count this as the first miracle. Second, they said it needed to be high end with quality finishes and that cost was not to be so limiting that it would hinder the quality of the result.  What an opportunity! The next best part was that the team was so amazing! Robert Allan and my brothers Dave and Michael Law did a huge amount of the labor. We hired landscapers, inspectors and painters as well as some specialists along the way, but the credit for the craftsmanship and quality of this house goes to these three men. We also hired a team of stagers to bring in furniture when the house was finished to help it sell.  We hired "On Stage", a wonderful staging company that had all the pieces I was hoping for for the house. They saw exactly what I was looking for and set it up beautifully.  I am so proud of the way everything turned out. I take every chance I can to go visit the house and enjoy it. One of the last nights of working, Michael and I were painting and doing touch ups late at night. We turned on some good music, turned on the fireplace and just enjoyed every second of being in such a beautiful house. At night the whole house just glows. The lighting is gorgeous! I was not surprised that the house sold 4 days after going on the market! It sold for full price with a cash offer. I hope we get to do more. It was such a fun project and I learned so much!

 

AFTER: 

Teig at 3 1/2.. Already!

I wish I could record somehow how absolutely ridiculously cute Teig is. He is very serious about life. He doesn't like people to laugh at him and hates being three. He wants to be big like his brothers so bad. He hates his carseat more than life. Getting him to sit in it is the worst. He has this adorable way of using an H sound at the beginning of words like use, so I died when yesterday he asked me if he could "huse my Hobo dryer." (use my hair blow drier.") of course it would kill him to think I was laughing at him so I have to bite my lip when he is so cute. I bought him a new pair of skinny jeans and I'm telling you, there is nothing cuter in the world than his little legs in these jeans, except maybe when I get him to wear his suspenders with them. Teig is a candy lover. He has some sort of magical candy finding magnetic devise in him. I can't keep anything hidden from him. He would eat cereal for every single meal, unless there was anything sweeter around. He "woves" his sister Juni more than anything. He can not stop himself from constantly hugging and kissing her and rolling over her and smothering her and "helping" her all day long. When he accidentally hurts her he says, "I can't help it, I just wove her so much!" Teig is younger than his brothers but that never lets that stop him from getting right in the rough and dirty mix of everything. He is tough and fast and eager to try everything. I am looking forward to getting him into soccer, his first sport, next month.
I do have to say that I have spent a good deal of time worrying about Teig because he is quiet and so... "easy". I am used to so many demands and requests and feeling like I can't possibly live up to the "needs" of some of my other children, that when it is just Teig and Juni and I, and we're all just hanging out and Teig is not pestering me to death, I can't help but wonder if something is wrong. Is he ok? Is it ok that he sits and plays by himself or that he is fine not being"entertained" all the time? It's weird and great and such a relief that I have to consciously not take advantage of it and remember to engage him and stimulate his mind enough. Weird and wonderful. I love my sweet T.

Valentines day fondue party 2014

What does romantic mean?

"I'm not sure but I think it has something to do with shooting paintballs guns."