Showing posts with label golden days. Show all posts
Showing posts with label golden days. Show all posts

29 April 2011

Adios Abril

We've had a nice Spring so far. The boys and I are chasing our dreams around all day and when it's time to shower, get dressed up, and kiss them goodbye to go teach my new Spring term class my separation anxiety is quickly replaced with the appreciation I have for my new crop of students. Kind of like a paid book club. I always come home uplifted, energized, and refreshed for more play and dinner with the boys I love most.

I can't seem to keep up with everything that needs to be done everyday, but I have a kind sidekick in Thomas Robertson so that helps. That's what I've been feeling grateful for. All of that and the connections to bright spirits here and on the mainland. Thanks for being my friend friends and family.

Who else is loving the new Eisley album and listening to it over and over and over? Me too. Favorite lyrics by far:

And you and I were meant to live our dreams
So, be very kind
Don't let the world fall on your shoulders


Good words to live by. My current life motto. Have a nice life!

Aloha,

Stephanie Joy

06 July 2010

"To love would be an awfully big adventure." — J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)

My two Peter Pans:


One doesn't want to potty train and the other has no interest in walking. They refuse to grow up and I have decided to stop worrying and just enjoy.
baby work
"So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. Just think of happy things, and your heart will fly on wings, forever, in Never Never Land!"
— J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan)
a creative mess

02 July 2010

team boo

man
Today we had good news to share back and forth and I paused after hanging up to enjoy it. The glow you feel when you're moving forward is exciting and even more rewarding when you can feel genuine joy for the ones you love as well.

We work well together. Tonight was a great night celebrating our little one's potty achievements and believe me it's a big deal that you can only understand when you also have a headstrong toddler to train.

Here's to more good nights and days. Working together. Staying positive. Optimism yields the most effective growth and unspoken understanding and teamwork too.

It helps that we are eternally invested in this progression too. Interestingly enough there is something freeing about that type of security.

Hardworking, modern, helpful, silly, intelligent, and true-to-yourself honey.

Glad you are mine.

28 June 2010

seen and heard (love is in the air edition)

ambeast
**** Heard ****
Ambrose: You wanna hear a story Mama?
Me: Tell me a story Amby.
Ambrose: Ok. (in a faster paced voice) Once upon a time there was a little mommy naaaaaaamed... (thinks it over)...... (looks at my shirt which has little deers all over it) ummm... little goats!
Me: Ahhhhh, yes.

**** Seen and Heard ****

Ambrose: (picking up a piece of popcorn and holding it out to me) Oh Mama, you want this piece?
Me: (touched) Sure buddy.
Ambrose: Ok, here! (puts it in my mouth and giggles with delight as I crunch it.)
Ambrose: Here Mama, have another one (holds it out like he's going to feed me again so I open my mouth as I say-)
Me: Thanks buddy- (and just as it reaches my mouth he snatches it away and quickly goobbles it up! laughing so hard he can barely swallow)

**** Seen:
Asher reaching two arms out to Mama
**** Heard:
Asher clickity-clacking his tongue, which means he wants a kiss
**** Seen:
Mama grinning ear to ear as she get a big slobbery Asher kiss
**** Heard:
More clickity-clacking as Mama heads off to finish cooking- baby wants another kiss
Asher

**** Seen ****
Ambrose finally getting in the swing of a little potty training action today (!!!!!)
**** Heard ****
Mama: GOOD JOB MY BIG HANDSOME AMBROSE BOY!!!
Ambrose: (giggling)
Mama: You're AWESOME!
Ambrose: oh, and you are so awesome too my pretty Mama girl

22 June 2010

almost as beautiful

as this song, Star Lfur by Sigur Ros, is the fact that

if you stand still

and are quiet

and listen

you can hear the ocean

at any point of the day or night

around here.

I like to open all our windows and

lay in the calm, cool at the end of the day

and enjoy the unique lullaby

that is our very own.

The magnificence of the ocean

crashing in the distance

and

roaring my babies to sleep at night.


Good night little fishes. We swam hard today and tomorrow we'll sail on some more.

21 June 2010

do something nice for yourself

I have been hard on my body lately. Eating stuff I shouldn't and telling myself I'll just run a billion miles to work it off, BUT I'm pretty sure that's not how good health works OR how we are supposed to treat the amazing gift that is our bodies and it can't be good for you in the long run. (unintentional pun. wha-whahhhhh)

Plus I have old lady feet and have been feeling the pins in my feet from surgeries in years past, so I am taking a running hiatus and swimming laps in the morning and I LOVE IT! Swimming is so gentle on the body while still being a huge workout. I already feel more toned. I don't know about looking more toned. But I feel good and I come home all energized to start my bright-and-early day with the family.

Swimming laps is the nicest thing I have done for myself in a while and we all deserve something nice don't we?

Another nice thing I've been treating myself to is a delicious green smoothie every morning. My dad was intrigued so I told him I'd post the recipe.

My cousin's cute wife posted this recipe on her blog a while ago and we started out doing the orange juice variation which was good, but one day I didn't have orange juice and so I tried the milk variation and have never looked back. It's like a tasty milkshake.

Here's my version:

1 cup milk
3 HUGE handfuls of spinach (fill up that blender!)

Blend until smooth.

Then add:
2 TBSP flaxseed (buy from costco. easy huh.)
2 heaping scoops of vanilla protein powder (Also from costco. You have no excuse. Get the purple and silver bag. Not the white container. TRUST ME.)
a frozen banana cut up (I buy 2 bunches at a time, peel them, throw them in a bag all together, and freeze them like that.)

Blend all that up together til it's nice and milkshake-y.


And that's it. And Thomas and I drink it, and the boys gulp some down too. Every morning and BAM you started your day with a HUGE green salad with calcium, protein, omega fatty acids, and a serving of fruit. You can add fresh or frozen berries...etc. if you want, but we keep it simple and it's totally delicious.

ENJOY!

18 June 2010

we give them something to gawk at

Living in Laie can make you feel like a fish in an aquarium. Tour buses come into our tropical little town a couple times a day to gawk at the natives. Haha. I kid. Actually, they just want to get a view of our gorgeous temple, PCC, and BYU-Hawaii; and since we live a stones throw (if you can throw with great force) from all of these locations we frequently encounter many a bus on our daily jaunts about town.

I actually don't really notice anymore.

It wasn't until yesterday, when I saw a PCC tour bus of several tourists of the Asian and maninland variety rubberneck their way down our street that I realized me and my band of babes were the main attraction.

I even saw a few camera flashes go off.

And it made me come upon a halting, hilarious, incredulous realization: my life is kind of odd to the everyday human. Or is it?

If you consider a barely 26 year old woman, walking down a street lined with towering palm trees, holding a black-eyed scrappy baby on her hip who is absent-mindedly tooting a hot-orange recorder at his high-pitched singing brother, who is sitting in a red wagon full of food for his friends family who just had a new baby a rare sight...

...then yeah, we warrant a few stares and maybe even a camera flash, but what are they gonna need that picture for and what are they gonna see when they finally load their memory card onto their computer two years later (if they're anything like my parents- hehe)?

I bet if they looked back at pictures of themselves as young mothers and fathers they wouldn't see something too different.

We're all just getting through this tiring, hilarious, and exhilarating stage with as much patience and fun as we can... palm trees or not.

14 June 2010

nature: my fave

The Bull & The Bear
other current faves include:
thomas and his nature photography (see above)
ambrose
asher
birthday weekend extravaganza
ward camp week at the beach
oh yeah, beach
filling my house with tree images (yes, like the one above)
the new bike i'm getting belatedly from my parents and thomas. all i had to do was turn 26.
trying to get organized about teaching my sons (see side bar: mama school)
my friends
essential oils ("balance" and "wild orange" to be exact. makes me feel like a revitalized mother nature. i told you i'm psycho.)
planning our up-coming mainland take over! i mean trip.
a resurgence of mates of state love
a tall glass of cold water with 1/2 a fresh squeezed lemon in the morning
love wherever it is found
sneaking little moments on the computer to keep in touch
the book of mormon
seizing creative moments
lists. obviously.

13 June 2010

asher and gideon host their first bash

Remember when Asher looked like this?
"i got two boys"
peachy
a patient little brother
Sorry for the hugeness. I just can't get over it.

Asher is one. Let's all cry a little. Ok, that felt good.

Here's his family party wherein he hated his cupcake because he has like at least four teeth coming in. Painful business.









And then, because we are party animals I guess, here is the party he and Gideon Allred threw together. They are six days apart. They are BFF. They invited a couple of their friends over too. They are just social like that. We indulge them when we can.