23/365

On Monday I got to spend another day with Olivia.  The snow was perfect for sledding and for building a snowman, so that is exactly what we did!

Sledding together was so much fun.  She is growing up, but she is still my baby girl.  When she sat on the sled between my legs she felt tiny.  I love to hug and squeeze her and kiss her beautiful face.  I am glad she tolerates all my loving.

Just look at her adorable face.  I just can't resist kissing those cheeks!

She named her snowman "Butterfly".  I think he is pretty "fly"... ha ha.  Oh boy, I am going to embarrass my kids when they are teenagers!

She talks to her snowmen.  She actually loves them and plays with them like they are real.  But, she does not cry when they melt.  She understands and gets excited to make a new one every time it snows!

Happy, happy Winter!!!

22/365: Who Needs A Snowboard?

Not us!  Cameron really, really wants one, but for now we just used the lids to a couple of plastic storage totes.  It did the trick and we had a ton of fun.  During our visit to Nana and Grampa's house in Gilford to watch the Patriot's playoff game, Cameron really wanted to go outside and play.  I am every conscious of the amount of time my kids spend indoors versus outdoors.  With Wii and Nintendo DS I am fearful of one of my kids falling victim to the indoor epidemic that is infecting our country's children.  Unless it poses a threat to their safety, any time one of my kids asks if they can go outside to play I answer with a resounding and enthusiastic "Yes!"

On this particular day I hesitated because I only had snow pants for Cameron.  I was afraid Olivia would be sad if we went outside without her.  Shame on me for not being completely prepared, but Grampa saved the day by offering to play Candy Land with baby girl while Cam and I played outside.

The first thing we did was completely and totally mess up the pristine snowfall across my parents giant yard.  It was a ton of fun!  Cameron could not stop laughing.  We walked his name in the snow and made some snow angels before he asked if we could go sledding.

All the sleds were brought to our house, so we had to improvise with the lids to plastic storage containers.  After a few times down the hill I decided to try standing.  Cameron thought it was pretty cool and we snowboarded together for the next 45 minutes.  I think Cameron needs a snowboard!

Take your kids outside!

17/365: Mother/Daughter Time

Time with my kids is precious.  It always was pre-divorce, but seems to be of more critical importance now that the time is divided.  It is funny to me that before separating I longed for just one hour where I did not have to worry about anything except myself.  Getting away from my kids was AWESOME!  Now, every moment away from them is spent thinking about the next time I get to see them.  I won't go as far to say it is "torture" because it is not.  The time I have to myself these days is time I feel like I should have been given while we were married.  But, the time to myself these days is not fully appreciated because it took divorce to get it.  Every Sunday at my church we all hold hands at the end of the service and sing "Shalom".  I was holding hands with a couple about my age who also have kids.  The husband is Cameron's Sunday School teacher.  After the song, his lovely wife said, "How did you get to have a break from the kids today."  Well, I burst into tears.  The poor woman was saying what all of us mothers say to our friends or acquaintances who are "blessed" to be without their precious little ones for a moment.  We all usually laugh and say, "I know, isn't it fantastic?"  But, not this time.  When she asked the question, she had no idea that there was a custody situation.  When she asked the question, she had no idea that I was supposed to have brought them to church that morning, but didn't get the kids when I should have.  So, I cried and blurted out "custody" and felt terrible knowing that she felt terrible.  Her husband stood there awkwardly, wondering if he should just walk away.  He didn't.  She hugged me, said she was sorry and said it would get better.  She was kind and loving and I feel so badly that I made her feel uncomfortable.

Totally not the point of my photo for the day.  The point is that every moment I get to spend with my kids is a gift and I treat it as such.  Olivia and I had some alone time while Cam was in school yesterday so we took advantage of the beautiful day and did some sledding and snowshoeing.  When she got her snowshoes for Christmas she could not wait for it to snow so she could walk up to the fire tower with me.  I gave her the opportunity yesterday.  We got about 50 feet into it and suddenly, "I'm too tired, Mama.  I can't really walk."  I pleaded and prodded and bribed, but nothing worked.  The highlight of the walk was when she went under a fallen tree branch and it stole her hat off her head.  In about 10 minutes, the snowshoes were off her feet and she was running (yes, too tired to walk but she could run) through the park.  Ugh... ;)

Notice the body language here.  Totally not into the snowshoes. 

Ha ha!  The tree stole my hat :)

14/365: Snowshoes Are Awesome!

Today we tried out our snowshoes.  The kids enjoyed it a lot.  The snow was packed with a layer of ice.  We would have walked on top of it without the shoes, but it was fun just the same.  I know when we get some more snow they are going to love hiking through the woods.

There was a lot of falling down and it was fun to watch them get back up.

I love the concentration on Cam's face in the photo above.

Cameron asked if he could run in his snow shoes, and I said, "Probably not."  He proved me wrong and pointed it out.

My beautiful snowshoes!

I have no idea why kids like falling in snow so much.  It is freezing.  The more I ask him to stop, the more he falls.

We made memories today.  I have always felt, and proved it today, that it is not about the amount of time you spend with your kids that matters, it is what you do with that time.  The kids will remember today for a long time and I will remember it forever.

13/365: Baby, It's Cold Outside

The temperature has dropped significantly in NH over the past few days, which means it finally feels like winter.  The kids have been resisting putting on winter gear because it just hasn't been necessary for most of December and January.  Until today.  It was freezing!  And of course, today was the day that the bus forgot to show up and we were standing outside for twenty minutes.  We made the most of it, as we always do, and I got to spend some quality time with my kids.

I am a fan of winter.  I love the stillness of it all.  It is just so beautiful!

And speaking of beautiful, my children.  They bring joy to my life every single moment!

Here is to another four months of winter in New England.  Prepare yourselves :)

Tomorrow we try out our snowshoes!

MUD!!!

We made mud yesterday.  The photo club I am a member of meets tonight and our theme for the month was mud.  I couldn't find any interesting mud, so I decided to let the kids make some and play in it.

If you have time (and believe me, I know how precious time is), head on over to Gilford Clickers and see what my friends have posted.  :)

Chalk Art

Even with the husband away all week I managed to get the kids dressed, fed and ready with an hour to spare before the bus came on two separate days.  I even fed the dogs and took them out, did laundry and dishes before 8 a.m.  It's days like those that I feel like a Supermom (even though I am far from one!)

On those days the kids and I went out to play at my parents house before school.  My Dad has an old RV that belonged to my Uncle who was a hoarder.  It is filled with stuff that the kids think are treasures.  One morning they found a bag of decorative river rocks.  They started out just making snowmen and faces with them, but then the creative juices started flowing and this is what they ended up with.  Can anyone tell what it is?

"Spring" Ball

Cameron is playing baseball this year.  It is strange not calling it "T-Ball".  He has graduated to coach-pitch baseball.  He is one of two six year olds on the team.  The rest of the kids are seven and eight and really really good.  That is not to say that Cameron is bad, he's just six and doesn't have as much experience as the others.  I know in a couple years he will catch on a little more.  It's fun to watch the eight year olds who actually know to cover bases and lead and some of the other rules that are lost on the younger kids.  Cameron was hesitant about playing this year, but once he got there he remembered how much he loves playing.  Damien and I do not try to push sports on our kids.  We play catch and help him hit when he is into it, but as far as rules and "drills", we know to not pressure him.  He will like it or hate it and I don't want it to be because of us that he hates it.

Day 133 - The Shiner

Here is the story (because life is about the story):

Yesterday afternoon Cameron fell off his scooter and hit his knee.  He is pretty melodramatic when he hurts himself, and this was no exception, so I laughed at first.  Well, he saw me laugh and this upset him, which I totally understand.  No one wants to be laughed at when they fall, it's embarrassing.  So, of course, now I am feeling bad about the whole thing so I have to initiate damage control before he gets really mad at me.  I check his knee with all of the concern that should have replaced my laughter and realize he has ripped a hole in his new pants.  The knee is a little bloody, but not bad at all, so I decide to try to make light of the situation.  In my best fake mad voice I can muster I say, "You ripped your new pants, I'm so mad at you," to which he laughs hysterically.  Yes!  Score one for Mama.  Then he starts play wrestling with me, which I'm not that into.  It's a Daddy thing.  I'm obviously not good at it either.  He went to fake head-butt me just as I was sitting up from laying down and got me right in the eye!  I saw stars!  It hurt a lot, and I might have cried a little.  The result is what you see above.  Cameron felt so bad that he actually got mad at me again.  Poor thing hurt his Mama!

I took this photo this morning.  It didn't look like this when I went to bed, it was just a little puffy and bruised.  I was shocked when I went to the mirror this morning, as you can imagine.  But, fast-forward nine hours.  The kids are home from school, the other children have left, and we are playing in the driveway.  I think to myself, "The light is great, the kids are happy, I should try to get a group shot."  My thought is to practice with backlight as well as self-portraits.  We had so much fun!  Well, not at first.  At first it was like that commercial on TV where the Mom has to photoshop her Christmas card photo to get everyone looking nice.  To get them in the mood I had them make mad faces, sad faces, silly faces and happy faces until, voila!  A nice family photo!

OK, minus the black eye, a nice family photo.  I truly forgot about it until I uploaded and edited a few minutes ago!  We'll try again in a few weeks :)

A Walk in the Woods

When we set off on our adventure through the woods, with four dogs, four kids and two mamas, I was thinking about the wonderful experience I was giving my children.  I imagined 45 minutes of calm and peace where the children would be in awe of the beauty that surrounded us.

Instead I got this:

There were also a few contrived smiles and a little bit of pure joy.  It made it worth while :)

Also Known as "Damey"

This is my husband Damien.  He's super!  When Cameron's best friend Mia was first learning how to talk she could not say "Damien" and shortened his name to "Damey".  It stuck.  My friend Kim and I call him "Damey" all the time.  I'm not sure he likes it, but he doesn't complain.  That's how super he is!  I'm pretty lucky to have found such a fantastic guy.

Here he is throwing a snowball at me today. He thinks it's hilarious, but what he doesn't realize is that I was not going to stop taking photos to see where the snowball was headed.

Then he realizes that it is about to hit me.  I'm so happy I did not stop taking pictures.  This face is so classic!  Believe me when I say, he is not worried about hitting me, he is frightened that he will hit my camera and I will get really mad.  Ha ha!  Oh Damey, I love you!

A Day On the Lake

The Sevin Family gets to spend a lot of time at the lake, but it is rare that we are able to spend a day on the lake.  A friend invited our family and another family to join him on his boat for a day last week.  we eagerly accepted the invitation!  It was cool, but sunny and absolutely beautiful!

All the kids took turns driving the boat.  Cameron looks like a pro, doesn't he?

Olivia spent a lot of time snuggling her "Moma" (that's what it sounds like now when she says my name and I think it is soooooo adorable!)  It was chilly.  I didn't take my sweater off except once to jump in the lake.

As I said, it was chilly, but that did not stop us from finding a quiet little cove to do some swimming.  I have observed my kids at lots of lakes and pools and I have noticed something.  They take swim lessons at a lake, therefore they are VERY comfortable swimming in a lake.  They are over their heads with life jackets, but at ease.  When they are in a pool they behave completely different.  Very unsure.  The funny thing is that I have talked to other parents who do swim lessons at pools and their kids swim without any help from a floatation, but are very fearful of swimming in a lake.  So weird!

And here is sweet little photogenic Olivia at her best!

We had so much fun and cannot wait to do it again!  I love friends, and if you have a boat, I love you even more (haha!)

Strawberry Season!!!!

I love strawberry season!  We have a great farm right up the road and we have been picking three times so far.  The kids have come with me every time and they absolutely love it!  I'm so proud that they are beginning to really understand that food does not come out of a grocery store, or worse, a box!

My friend, Lindsay came with us on one of our strawberry adventures.  She is a bus person at the restaurant where I moonlight, but more than that, she's a dear friend.  She just graduated and will be going to college far far away, so we will be packing lots of fun into our summer before she goes.  My kids adore her.  They call her Lindsay Loo Who.  (Well, to be fair, that's what I call her and they just picked up on it, but it's still cute!)

Just look at this sweet girl.  The strawberries are pretty sweet too, but she is definitely sweeter!

We ran into a family from our church so I actually got a pretty awesome group photo!  Yup, that's Little Cameron on my back.  He has a great time way up there!

Lots of people ask what I do with all the strawberries I pick.  I mean, we have been three times, and you can see above that we pick a lot of strawberries!

First, I hull the strawberries and wash them.  Last year I used a straw, which worked well, but this year I invested in the Stem Gem and I am so glad that I did.  It is awesome!  After they are washed I lay them out on a cookie sheet and place them in the freezer until they are frozen.  Then I transfer them to 1 quart freezer bags for our chest freezer.  Strawberries will always thaw out and be mushy, but they are great for strawberry shortcake, pies, toppings for waffles or pancakes and tons of other tasty treats.  We always save out a couple quarts each week for just plain eating!

Alright, gotta go to bed.  We have an early morning of strawberry picking planned for tomorrow, ha ha!