a life beyond running shoes.

we did the city. three very full days. .... four very fun cousins. day 1 - all things brooklyn: the botanic gardens, prospect park, the zoo, the bridge. day 2 - natural history museum, central park, playground. day 3 - columbia university, grant's tomb, time square, bryant park, grand central station.... finished with mamma mia! for the ladies. hubbie was with all 7 children. i've been singing abba songs ever since.

i have much to catch up on since we had four cousins visiting us last week, but the first thing i must post is this video of peanut.... remember he is 4. i think i am having heart palpitations realizing that he is getting bigger. video was taken on friday - first day out with hand-me-down bike. thanks to the new iphone daddy got, it was captured on film. we attribute the ease of transition to the peddle-less bike he got for his 3rd birthday. theory is that it teaches balance therefore not needing training wheels when you move to the big boy bike. i guess it worked. (and i have to admit that my heart melted when i was mentioned...sigh.) by the way..... little bit is beside himself that he can't do this as well.

i just thought this was really cute. rare to capture me with the kids since i usually have the camera. taken by my husband's new iphone. yeah, birthday money.

peanut just spent a week in florida with his g'ma while dad was at a conference. he came home with a hair cut.... little bit wanted one too. here is the before.... after..... summer fun for the backyard.... how sweet pea sleeps these days.

these videos crack me up. is this fussing or talking? this started just a couple of days ago and makes me laugh.

at three months old.... we baptized sweet pea. what a fun day! started with church which was a full house. it was awesome to celebrate the day with our growing church family. and in true sweet pea form, she didn't make a peep. then we had the church picnic in the park. it was a gorgeous day... and perfect for a grilled hotdog. then came home to our house for the chocolate fountain party! what a full day to celebrate what we believe is an important day in the life of our family and sweetpea! (this was only the beginning of the chocolate face....and that shirt is not white anymore)

on one hand you have a classic. and i have to admit that i have never read . on the other hand, you have contemporary chick lit that no one will be reading in five years. conclusion: both have merit. little house was delightful, simple, and sweet. i loved how yummy cornbread was and how adoring laura was to her father. i loved how hard they worked as a family for food, shelter, friends. amazing. i loved reading about the "wild west." how loved how much charles ingalls had integrity. i remember growing up with the show and reading it makes it so much richer. i can't wait to keep reading the rest of the series.... it is my summer project. because they are so quick and fast though, i hate counting each book as an independent book when i go to tally how many books i read this year... huh? thoughts? confessions : someone said that this book was like a commercial break. i have to admit that after the couple of months that we have had this was a bit refreshing and just bor...

as i have posted before.... i like to read about food. i have become a big fan of michael pollan and have finished another of his books. as with the other book of his i read, there are aspects of his argument that flies over my head... like when he gets into all the science stuff - which he does for very good reason - because it gives substantiation to his argument. so, i admit to skimming through some of it. BUT there are many things that i take away from this read. much of it having to do with how my family eats. i think most of the major changes, we have already made in terms of some of the things pollan advocates.... but there is always room for improvement. this is what he advocates: eat food. not too much. mostly plants. he does flush out what all of that means but not before he lays a pretty convincing groundwork as to why this should be of vital importance: we are an unhealthy nation (as a whole). he is trying to help us get healthier. some quotables: "the sheer abun...

a big boy bed for peanut. (this will one day be the top bunk to a toddler sized big boy bunk bed set made by dad) the car bed for little bit. (we'll see how he does without bars to keep him in bed...) and one day the crib for sweet potato....

i did not run this year. BUT, my friend jessie did. (she's in the red shorts waving at us with her sister in the black shorts, red top) so, i took the opportunity to live vicariously through her and took the kiddos to the park. we cheered her on just before mile 7 and then hopped on the train to cheer her on near the finish line down at coney island (that would be at mile 13). what fun. her husband helped me wrangle my two boys all the while wrangling his own two. here they are completely in awe of the runners.... and watching the finish line..... but here are the boys on their first amusement park ride.... the duck boats. it was the right speed for my two as the other crew went on the wonder wheel. it was a fun day and sweetpea slept through most of the excitement. for the rest of the afternoon little bit kept asking when we got to see miss jessie run..... uh, i think that is what we just spent the entire day doing and if you hadn't been more excited about the chocolate...

i can honestly say that i devoured it. it could be that the last couple of books we have read have been higher on the "literary" acclaim scale but what i have felt was lacking on the plot scale.... this was all plot (a little flat on the character development but i won't be too picky). in fact it was a murder mystery which was engaging and smart... i finished two weeks ahead of schedule. i have to admit i am usually finishing our book club books during nap time the day of our meeting with a chapter to go when i walk into group. not this time!!!! i finished with a whole week to spare. my family was ready for me to be done since it consumed much of my attention when there were any quiet moments. i opted for this instead of tv one night! whoa! any way.... an entertaining, good, fast read. i do recommend.

i could not resist this one!

a way to spend a dreary, wet day inside.... we baked cookies. peanut butter chocolate chip. played with the bungo (which we have never had for any other children). she looks so funny sitting up so erect..... and the boys like trying to sit in it just as much. played on the bed and tried not to destroy all the laundry i had just folded. this is how she sleeps - with her head cocked upward... funny girl.

dad gets one year old.... friday: dinner with friends.... with mojitos. yum! saturday: farmer's market, the park then brunch at friend's house (including feeding his worm compost farm - a treat for both little boys) finished with a steak dinner and fabulous chocolate chip cookies (dad's favorite in lieu of cake). sunday: homemade pasta with browned butter sauce. the kids ate every bite!

ten weeks old. 10 pounds 8 ounces. wow this past month flew by. and this one is just cute and funny! just in case you couldn't catch what he is saying: on this face and on this face. micah hit me with a broom. he said sorry, sorry. i cried.

mostly because i know what happens after this memoir ended. i read a book by ann patchett over a year ago. it was the memoir of her friendship with lucy grealy. this is lucy's story. the problem is that patchett's book tells of the sadness that followed the publication of grealy's book. so while reading this book and getting caught up in her prose and reflections, i also knew that whatever happiness was in her story did not last long after the pages were written. it colored the reading of her story.... which is a bummer because it is a story of obstacles and victory. i just wish i hadn't known that her victory was short lived. lucy grealy had cancer at the age of 10. it was in her jaw and so she grew up with a disfigued face, chemotherapy and surgeries, and her body (for the most part) stay pre-pubescent. her story is of coming to realize what truth and beauty looked like when it was not what you looked like. she found solace in poetry and frienships in colleg...

and boy did it go quickly.... yet it also feels like a lifetime. she is very well loved by both her brothers but in particular by little bit who might love her just a little bit too much. we have also taken time to work in the garden. our lettuce has popped up and has been included into our salads twice this week. of course, there are also lots of weeds that make it hard to tell what we planted and what needs to be taken out. we think the squirrels might have gotten our squash seeds. oh well. it is a learning experiment.

the lord gives and he takes away. while we mourn the passing of my father-in-law it was elixir for the soul to be blessed with three newborns within four weeks of each other. that is my sweet pea in the purple polk-a-dot onsies. she is 11 days older than boy cousin in the green stripes and exactly four weeks older than girl cousin in the pink & green polk-a-dots.... the poor boy sandwiched in there between two girls. g'ma and girl cousin. so very cute! i'm not sure how much i actually held my child while we were in florida. she was snuggled and cuddled by g'ma, aunts, friends, and cousins alike. sweetpea particularly loved her aunt kristen. it is hard to figure out how to grieve a father-in-law. the hurt is as deep as losing a father, but he was not my father. i loved him like a father even though i have a dad that loves me. he was just different. maybe that is why i loved him so. he was just different.... different than my dad. which meant that i got to know h...

it is hard being home. it was excruciating to leave. is nice to be home. it was nice to sleep in my own bed. but the strange thing is that walking thro ugh the airport yesterday i realized than anyone seeing us would think we are normal people - a cute family getting on a plane after their florida vacation. we aren't. look close. we are sad. we are grieving. our lives have been altered. but you can't see that without looking really close. in florida, everyone has lost him. everyone's lives have been altered by his death. his fingerprint was on everything and everyone. here at home, reality has not been shifted. nobody else lost him. it won't always hurt like this, but our family will never be the same. we have friends, dear friends, that are mourning with us, grieving with us, loving on us. and for that we are thankful.... so very thankful . but it made leaving hard. some helpful words from a friend: "events and things come with the moments; but god...

i think this was the summer of 2006. what a handsome man! the last five days have been a long blur. at moments i forget what day it is, if i have eaten, when the last time i fed sweetpea. but in the midst of those moments of forgetfulness, i realize that he isn't on his way home.... or up asleep.... or out at a job site. he is at home in heaven. my husband got to do the call to worship for his father's funeral on saturday. it was amazing. here are some things he said: We are grateful you are here to help us mourn, to help us grieve and to help us celebrate the life of an amazing man. My brother said last night that he was a man whose heart had been gripped by Christ, and that turned him into a man who gripped each of us. But most importantly, we are grateful you are here to worship the risen Lord with us this morning. It is what DAD loved to do above all else, and there is nothing else we can do that is more important than to come into the presence of our loving heavenly ...