Friday, June 15, 2012

Things I'm Happy About This Week

1. All this sun. I love summer and I love that there are still traces of light in the air at 10 pm.

2. Our new Burley Piccolo tag-along that we got so that the Z-bug can ride along with us on family bike rides. Plus, I got it in great condition off of Craig's List. Score!

3.  Summer reading lists:  I have decided that I will incentivize the kids to read this summer by paying them for each book they read.  Spanish books are worth the most.  And better-written kids book also are of higher value than the general flim-flam that they sometimes read.  I have used Betsy Bird's top 100 children's novels as a starting spot.  I also made Z a picture list of her top 100 children's picture books, and he has taken a great deal of pleasure in reading books with me and then checking them off.  I am also happily putting together my own summer reading list.  I have decided that I am going to read off my shelves for most of the summer--all these wonderful books I own that I haven't yet read.  (I have a mental thing about giving library book priority since they have to be returned.)

4.  Major project at work done:  I am in charge of a big yearly survey.  After doing a lot of research, I decided that I wanted to include a $5 gift card in each mailed survey as a way to get people to send back the survey.  I had the budget for it and I had the research to back me up.  It turned out to be a giant headache.  Trying to purchase 1500 gift cards through the channels of a state-government bureaucracy is a bizarre labyrinth of ridiculous hoops.  But, this week, I got to take the last 500 surveys down to central mail processing myself and send them on their way.  Big sigh of relief!

5.  The purple wildflowers that are out in full force this week. (You can see them in some of the family photos in the link below).

6.  Which brings me to the happiest event of the week:  we got our family pictures taken.  A woman in our ward has started up a business, and she does amazing work.  She shot photos of the kids last summer, and we loved them.  When I found out she was moving to California, I knew that despite my personal aversion to having my photograph taken, we needed to get pictures of us all together.  I stewed and stressed about what we would wear, where we would go, and worried that I wouldn't like them.  But, when I saw a few of the pictures she took, I was moved to tears.  They are beautiful.  They capture my family.  And we got photographed with our beloved books!  Just perfect.  I will have to post a few once we get the digital copies.

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