A Misty Dream

Yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, I dreamt that we decided to take a trip to Yellowstone over our fall break.  We were hiking along the south rim of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, and the trees were brilliant with autumn reds, yellows, and oranges.  I was particularly happy because it had taken only four hours to drive there.

Then, as I was waking up and the veil of sleep was still hanging over me, I thought, "Oh, it's so great that Yellowstone is only four hours away from us.  Wait...Yellowstone is not four hours away from us.  It's a two-day drive!"  Then, I felt so sad.

We had such a wonderful trip back west, including several wonderful days in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks.  And I have added two things to my bucket list.

1. When the kids are a few years old, rent a house near Yellowstone for a month in the summer and do a ton of exploring and learning in Yellowstone.

2.  When we're retired, become seasonal rangers at Yellowstone.

For now, I'm feeling a little blue that we didn't get more time there. I keep thinking up schemes on how I can get back sooner, rather than later.
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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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Mother's Day

I got to play the organ today, making it impossible for me to skip out of church at the last minute if I felt so inclined. Mother's Day is always a little bit iffy for me. I do like to hear stories of women over the pulpit. Yet, I really hate the One Size Fits All mentality and the pedestalization that sometimes comes when we talk about women and mothers.

Because it has been such a beautiful spring, I decided that we should sing about Mother Nature today rather than how time sweetly glides along when there's no contention at home. We sang "For the Beauty of the Earth", and then later "All Creatures of Our God and King", and I felt slightly subversive to mentally place Mother in Heaven into these songs. No mention was made of Her today in my ward. At least I didn't walk out in a rage.
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The house is not a garbage can

Why is it that my kids cannot put their wrappers, papers, and other junk straight into the garbage can? The worst times of the year are Easter, Christmas, and Halloween, when they get candy and they drop their wrappers on the floor wherever they choose to eat (which SHOULD be only in the kitchen, but somehow that never happens either). They also throw their wrappers behind the sofa and piano--is that any easier than throwing them straight into the garbage can?

I was very happy to see Mr Z (the youngest) pick up a candy wrapper off the street all on his own when we were downtown so he could throw it away. He's the only one of my kids who seems to have a gut feeling that tells him that you shouldn't mindlessly drop garbage on the ground.
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Found in my Bed Tonight

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Irony

In the February Relief Society newsletter for our ward, the presidency message cited Daughters in My Kingdom. Yay!

But, the quotation was by Brigham Young. Boo...
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Favorite Things About My Town

We moved to Eden Prairie in 2006, so come June, we will have 6 years here. Amazing. I don't think we thought we'd live here that long, and I started to feel really claustrophobic around year 4 1/2 when I realized we had been here longer than any other place we had lived. And to top it off, I liked it less than any other place we lived.

There are many things I love about Minnesota, and Eden Prairie. I am going to write about them to remind myself of what's wonderful (even if I don't think the whole package is perfect).

Number one over and over is Staring Lake, only a couple of miles from our house. It has a path circumnavigating the lake which trails through dense foliage and tall trees. There is a little outdoor center which offers kids' classes and family activities, and it has a telescope. There is a great park which the kids love and an amphitheater for summer music and drama. We are there during all seasons.

Because the winter has been so mild, we have been more often than other winters. T got to try out his new rollerblades right after Christmas. I took the kids there on a Sunday afternoon when AJ was gone and we walked around the lake and onto the frozen lake to slide around and look at animal prints.

Last week, I worked from home rather than deal with the traffic snarl-ups during a snow storm. At the end of my work day, I hustled over to the lake so I could get a walk in before picking up the kids. It was gorgeous. I was alone on the trail for virtually the entire time, with only the sound of snow crunching and an occasional bird call. There is something so soothing to me about walking around the lake.


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Time to Step it Up

Well, I just looked at my pathetic stats for 2011. A total of 11 posts. Terrible, just terrible. I have so many blog posts in my head (still thinking about summer 2011 highlights!), but then I get home from work and the last thing I want to do is sit down at the computer desk and type. I am going to try blogging from the iPad (anyone out there do that?) and see if there is less of a mental barrier.
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