1.12.2009

are you ready boots?


in different periods of our marriage, jaren and i have come up with mantras to focus on.  a couple of year's ago, the entire year was dedicated to "kicking some A" and when we were busying working on something productive one of us would say to each other something like "yep, just kicking some A over here."  i guess we like having catch phrases and they always make for a good laugh between us.  for the past few months we've been tossing around a really vague, nonchalant phrase, but one that i like so very much since it can apply to your entire life.  JUST BE BETTER.  for christmas i embroidered (crudely, as you can see) the phrase and it now hangs in our office as a good reminder of how we want to be.   the root idea of this month of scarcity really is to just be better in how i live my life and the choices i make as a mother, as a house manager, as a wife, as a consumer, and as a member of this planet.  

one of the things i'm attempting to be better about is taking daily walks with my kids.   i think so much of the time i let the winter weather scare me off from being outdoors.  it just seems too difficult and uncomfortable.  having warm snow clothes for the kids coupled with the fact that i have no car but a stubborn desire to leave the house, have made it seem suddenly doable.  (oh, and i guess i shouldn't leave out the fact that i have a new fangled stroller that lets flynn sit in front and cleo stand and ride in back, which has made the "i'm tired" refrain disappear from my life completely. )   i have to say that exploring the winter landscape has been really wonderful.  i'm amazed at how quiet the winter world is.  all noises are muffled in snow and i swear the loudest sounds i've been hearing are bird tweets and airplanes in the distance.  the moon, day and night, has been insane and huge.  i feel so pleased when i watch flynn eat snow and then cock his head to listen to a bird or watch one fly above us in the sky. cleo is a huge collector and on our walk yesterday she amassed a collection of nuts for the birds.  in that one walk she found a peanut, an acorn, and a sunflower seed.  pretty good for winter bleakdom wouldn't you say?   both kids seem to think eating icicles just as good as snow cones and that there is nothing funnier than smacking the snow off a tree and watching it fall.   these walks rejuvenate all of us.  the cold air clears our heads and it makes coming back home, to the warmth, feel new all over again.

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