Sethisms.

As I'm pouring a coffee today, Seth says,

"I don't think Oscar the Grouch ever knew about coffee."

So funny and pitiful all at the same time. I guess he's picked up on my coffee enabled transformation from tired cranky mommy to cheerful mommy.

Poor Oscar the Grouch, think how different his life could have been if someone had thought to introduce him to the little black bean.

Into the woods we go.

We went on the most beautiful walk over the weekend.

After a pretty lazy couch vegetable Sunday we all needed a little fresh air before bed. Also both Max and Claire had had late naps and needed toddler size workouts in order for bedtime to happen.

It was after supper before we were coordinated enough to head out, the fall sun was quickly lowering, the sky red, so we had to keep it close and decided to head for this little trail nearby we had heard about.

The trail was full of little wonders. An old shed, house, or a workshop? Isolated in the woods, trees growing through the windows and falling in on itself, sundried and grey, the door hanging open, you couldn't help but imagine what it's once upon a time was. The most beautiful pile of cars ever seen, circa nineteen forty Troy guessed, with two front windows, round top and wheel wells, two round little headlights sticking up on the front, the seats eaten, rust brown and moss covered. Animal trails leading down to the brook on the side, through the bright lime soft moss forest floor, a hill rising on our other side, with tall straight thick dark evergreens and slim light hardwoods beginning to lose their leaves. Old trees lay composing, soft and squooshy. Sometimes the trail weaved dangerously close to a ravine ledge over the brook, thrilling the kids, making my heart skip a beat, holding their little hands tight. The sunset light made it magical, serene, at times the long shadows made it a little haunting, a tad eery.

It was such a pretty little trail we decided to go back again yesterday to take some pictures, joined by my nieces and my mom, my mother's and Thane's shared birthday. The light of course was different midday, but no less beautiful, just different. More cheery. I almost got nice pictures of each of the kids, except Seth was either on the move or not smiling in all of his. My mission for nice pics to enlarge for the wall almost accomplished.

 

Oh so Wembley.

Hello there blog. It's me. A stranger, I know.

Writing feels forced today. Awkward, rough. It's been too long to feel familiar. I've been so busy. Not nice busy. Hectic busy. Missing my kids, feeling like each one hasn't received enough of me at the end of each day, feeling like things are slipping through the cracks busy.

I jumped into the middle of a wave of doing at work, spectacular enjoyable great for the gallery events. But now it's time to settle into a quiet planning month. There has to be the inhale exhale combination. Especially when the inhale has been so huge.

I'm not sure if I've written about my Fraggle personality theory before.

I think everybody is one of the Fraggles.

In recent years, I would tell you I'm a Mokey. She's everything zen and sees the beauty everywhere, readily embracing each situation, a positive thinker. Googling her name to remember the spelling I came across a site listing the character qualities of each Fraggle. Mokey's list reads motherly, spiritual, and optimistic. The me I like to be. The me I often am. 

But the busy-ness. Agh, the busy-ness. It leaves me feeling so... Wembley.

Wembley's list reads young, nervous, indecisive.

Not the me I want to be.

My catch phrase this month could have been, "What do you think?" I couldn't seem to weigh out an idea and make a plan if my life depended on it. There was simply no time to take a minute to figure it all out. I've been spending empty moments fretting about what might have been forgotten, not present in the moment. I don't work well at full capacity.

So with my calendar turned to a month with so much more white space, I'm onto a planning spree. Brainstorming, thinking, listing, scheduling. Spacing the doing out properly to create quality over quantity. Long term plans, prioritizing, action lists. A plan to work and be able to be present plan, a plan with breathing room. For gallery and renovations and my little people. Before me sits bits of paper, full of numbers, don't forgets, schedules and dates. And lovely blank paper with, more importantly, a blank stretch of time, waiting for the marching orders, to be filled with want-to's, have to's, the what, when, who and where. The don't forgets should turn into won't forgets, the running nowhere into progress, the chaos into a rhythm. Ahh...

Love the exhale.