Briefly

So I finished a book recently that placed heavy emphasis on prioritizing – your life, your days, your minutes – every thing really, in order to make sure you are a) using your time effectively and b) leaving no task unfinished. It’s been a fun and useful challenge, but also a challenge that a) leaves me pretty darn tired at the days end and b) leaves blogging a little lower on the list these days. (Anyone pick up on the prioritization in that paragraph alone? I am more obsessed with this theory than I thought!)

Anyway, even though I have been over a week without a post, there have been several that have been swimming laps in my head in my head but haven’t made it made to the keyboard. And, seeing as though they probably never will, I’ll give you a brief run down.

Birthday Parties: Tyler attended an all-boy, 4 year old birthday party on the farm last week that just about melted my heart. Watching my eldest offspring run around as an independent little boy – doing independent little boys things– was hilarious and endearing and frightening. They played in the hay, sprayed hoses at each other, ate pizza and generally tore around the place happy just being boys. Even more, two of those boys will be the buddies sitting next to Tyler in his pre-school class this fall. Never had I been so thankful that God gave me a little boy to watch learn and grow, until a day later…

Training Wheels: Ross and I wanted to buy Tyler a bike for his birthday last March but he simply didn’t want one. We tried coaxing him along but all he wanted were dinosaur toys. At 4 years old they don’t really have a grasp on the whole “ask carefully because you only get big presents for Christmas and your birthday” concept. So Ross and I gave him something small for his birthday and decided when he was ready for one, we would buy him the bike. And last week, he decided he was ready. On our way in to the True Value store to run a completely unrelated errand, Tyler spotted a perfectly shiny, orange and black bike – one of only two bikes in the store. It was adorable to watch him become completely enamored by it, bashfully ask the store clerk how much it cost and anxiously tell his daddy (via my cell phone) every detail about it. But not nearly as adorable as watching his face when daddy came home after work with that very same orange and black bike. Now for that completely unrelated errand we running…

Happy camper: I was paying the tax and license fees on the camp trailer that we purchased a couple of weeks ago. Nope, I am not a camper. Lingering effects from our crazy road trip a month or two ago included a realization that our kids love an adventure, we are all pretty good travelers, and life is short so we really want to enjoy as much time with our kids as we have – and so, we bought the trailer. Prior commitments left us grounded for the first 2 weekends of ownership so this past weekend was our first excursion as a camping family and it. was. fabulous. The forest, the river, the campfires, the deer, the elk, the food – we loved it all and can’t wait to hit the road again.
So that should catch you up fairly well, it’s not all inclusive but, for now, it will do.