Slice of Life

This little darling graduated homeschool kindergarten this week. We celebrated with a new globe (don’t mock, she loved it), getting to play some of daddy’s video games, and ice cream. Now we’re moving on to first grade and I’m simultaneously excited and nervous. This material should be much more challenging for her (and me, more crafts, wah) and take a lot more time out of the day. If you see less of me around here, just know that I’m working to find a balance and probably spending more time writing out math equations and reading American Girl novels.

Speaking of American Girl, it’s so hard to find the classics! They only carry the super new (and subsequently less exciting looking) characters at the book store and the library is pretty random on what they do carry. Any suggestions for finding my favorites? I was a Kirsten girl, obviously, but Samantha, Molly, and Felicity were also where it was at.

It has been snowing for about a week and it has just about killed me. Do you know how long it takes to dress three small children in enough clothes to go out and play in the snow? It’s seriously ridiculous. By the time we were ready to go out I was so tired and angry that I didn’t even want to do it any more. But at that point we had to because I had gone to all that hard work. Even simple errands take twice as long now because everyone needs hats and gloves. If you need me I’ll be in bed until it’s at least 50 degrees out.

I’ve been reading this post by my friend Liz like every day since she wrote it. Go read it. I think about how I long to be that little baby who has someone to take care of her, and then I realize I am that baby in God’s eyes and then I long to love my babies with God’s love. It’s seriously hard sometimes (especially with winter wear in the mix) and almost always exhausting. It’s amazing to me that these small moments of the day where I’m just doing life and dealing with my children are when I need the Holy Spirit the most.

I’ve been working my way through the Serial Podcast. I heard about it from a bunch of my friends a few weeks ago but am just now getting into it. It’s hard for me to follow everything because I feel like I need to really sit and listen without any distractions whatsoever, and we all know that’ll never happen. Maybe I should go back and listen to them a few times. I really don’t know where I stand on Adnon’s guilt or innocence since I can’t even follow everything that happened. What are your opinions?

Fun fact: did you know boys can be fairies too?

And yes, we have a tiny, useless step attached to our kitchen island that I use to feed the kids snacks like dogs. What.

If you don’t like listening to other people talk about what tv and movies they’re watching then move on now. If you like getting recommendations for the very best things to watch then hold on to your hat! I’m seriously excited about quality filmmaking this week. Jeron and I watched Olive Kitteridge on HBO over two nights last week. It might be one of my favorite things ever. It is so real and rich with meaning and humor. It reminds me of Fargo on FX last year as far as quality and scope. Frances McDormand is amazing and I want to tell you to go out and get HBO if you don’t already have it just so you can watch this miniseries. Jeron and I also had the pleasure of seeing Birdman in the theater over the weekend. We’ve been waiting months to see this movie and it did not disappoint. It’s edited in such a way that it looks like one long continuous shot, so it was fun for my film student brain to pick apart where the cuts were. Aside from the technical aspect, it was just a truly engaging story and all of the actors were amazing. Jeron called it “inception acting”, because it was fun to see the actors playing actors in the movie.

The Walking Dead has been kind of boring me lately. I just wish they would edit the story lines so we could see most of the characters each week instead of waiting three weeks to get back to somebody. This week wasn’t too bad because Carol and Darryl are obviously the best, but did anything actually happen? Not really. I’m planning to watch this week’s Homeland tonight but the past few weeks haven’t been too exciting for me. I totally called it with Carrie and Aayan, but was totally surprised with how his character left the show. Has this been renewed for another season? I just can’t see this carrying on.

I’ll leave you with these Salted Caramel & Dark Chocolate Blondies to think about. Maybe after some Butternut Squash and Kale Pizza. Do it. You’re welcome.