A Fabulous Day. A Fabulous Family.

Not long ago I had the great pleasure of spending some time with a beautiful family. We wandered around downtown Poulsbo admiring the creatures along the shore as well as the magnificent boats docked in the harbor. A true pleasure to see a family so full of life and love.

Elya

Fun! That is what I had spending time with Elya to take her senior photos. I first met Elya in 2006. I was going to be leading a group of high school students on a mission trip to Puerto Rico and she was a team member. My first impressions were of her quiet nature and respect for herself and others. The more I have gotten to know her I have seen her outstanding moral character, courageous attitude, fun loving spirit and impeccable kindness. My girls have grown to love her and I know when she goes off to college this next fall, she will be missed by my entire family. Elya, I know you will do magnificent. Thank you for letting me capture a little bit of you in these photos.

dicey's song by cynthia voigt

After reading this much talked about and honored book, I must say I wasn't as impressed as I expected to be. I admit that I read it without having first read Homecoming not realizing that this novel picks up where that one ended. As I began the book there were a lot of questions I had that weren't answered until I did a little research into the content of Homecoming.

That said, the book was a pleasant read. Not overly complicated which was refreshing. Although character development was light, I have a feeling some of that was done in the previous book. The story picks up with 6th grader Dicey and her 3 younger siblings as they are taken in by their grandmother after having been abandoned by their mother in the previous book. Dicey spends the majority of the summer caring for her siblings and upon connecting with their grandmother now has a new role to learn.

** A heartwarming & uplifting summer afternoon read.

spring is here - new school style

Yay! We may not be able to tell by the weather we are having, but spring is officially here. This last weekend my husband and I ignored the blustery rainy weather and got out in the yard to get some stuff done. And get stuff done we did. All the pots are planted, vegetable seeds are started, the fence for the old garden space is removed and ready for recycling and the concrete pavers are moved and have reestablished themselves as a nice little patio in front of the chicken coop. Other than the small little mishap with the tractor tire, we did rather well this weekend, and I am excited to get the garden built next weekend. I will be sure to share some photos of said garden once there is something to take a picture of.

I probably cannot bring this post to a close without mentioning the little mishap with the tractor and what we learned from it. Hmmm? What did I learn? I learned that old school is for the birds. Our tractor is by far the best purchase we have made and it continues to pay for itself over and over and over. However, one sharp turn with a bucket full of concrete pavers and the result, a flat tire. :( Although a little bummed, I jumped into problem solving mode and said lets just call and see if any place is open to get it fixed. We were of course 10 minutes too late for that option. I didn't let that deflate my mood and was quick to suggest moving the pavers old school style with the wheel barrow. I tell ya, after one trip moving about 10 one foot square pavers approximately 100 yards, I am so new school. The remaining 44 pavers were moved by way of Dodge truck.

Happy spring every one!

how i planned your wedding

Invited by my mother, I went to Eagle Harbor Books on Bainbridge Island to hear Susan Wiggs and Elizabeth Wiggs Maas read from their new collaboration. As many of you know, I have always loved weddings. Every part of them from the engagement to the planning and execution. I have an especially fond love for capturing these most amazing events so that they can be reminisced over for years to come. So, even though I have been married for over 14 years and am not in any way planning a wedding I was excited to go and hear the perspectives of this mother and daughter as they planned Elizabeth's wedding. At the time of the reading I had only heard excerpts from the book that my mother had read to me as I had not myself purchased the book yet. Since that time, I have acquired the book and read it in its entirety.

How I Planned Your Wedding is a exceptionally well written fun read. You get to hear Elizabeth's voice and Susan's voice as they encounter the many areas a bride unfolds during the process of planning her wedding. Hearing both the perspective of the bride and that of the mother of the bride adds a new dimension to this book that I believe will be well received. It reads like a story, but is filled with all the great information a bride is looking for as if told to her by her best friend. Oh, and it is hilarious.

*** I give this book a three star rating because it is very audience specific. If you are in the midst of planning a wedding, about to become engaged, or recently married you will love this book. I highly encourage you to pick it up either as a great tool as you embark upon the wedding industry or as a reminder of all that you went through while planning your wedding. The sneak peak we get as readers into the mother daughter relationship that is shared is wonderful.

the true and outstanding adventures of the hunt sisters

According to Merriam Webster, a sister is, first and foremost, a female who has one or both parents in common with another. Later in the lists of possible definitions Merriam also says that a sister could be a girl or woman regarded as a comrade. Curious, I then wondered what Merriam would say about a comrade. Turns out a comrade is an intimate friend or associate, see companion. So I did. Merriam informed me that a companion is one that accompanies another. Now I realize that for each and every word there are multiple definitions available and for these words I did read through the lists of possible definitions. But none of them embodied the definition of a sister more than Elisabeth Robinson's book 'The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters." The love hate relationship that surrounds all sisters. Whether you are yearning to be like your sister or struggling to be your own person, you have a deep rooted relationship with this person. A relationship so rooted that if something devastating were to happen to them, you would forget about everything and give up everything to be by there side.

In this wonderful, easy to read novel, Robinson takes you on an adventure many sisters hope to never have to see. Written as a series of letters from the perspective of the older sister (starting the year of her sister's birth and then picking up 20 years later) the novel chronicles their lives as Maddie fights a fight of all fights, leukemia. It is a peak in on their relationship, reading Olivia's private thoughts as she pours them out onto paper in letters to her sister, mother, father, business partners, best friend, ex-boyfriend and lover.

**** I am going to give this book 4 stars. Kind of a high rating for a pretty simple novel and one that only took me a few days to read. I chose 4 stars for a couple reasons. First, I think the way the author chose to write the book, as a series of letters, really allowed you to get inside the relationships in the story. This is HUGE in a book that really is about one of the most magnificent of relationships that can exist. For those that are sisters it was like a reality check and for those of you that aren't it is a clear glass window into what it is like. Second, as a sister myself, it was wonderful to put a literary picture to a relationship that is so hard to put into words. If you are a sister, pick up this book and get ready for the possibility of an overload of emotions. This is a great book to remind you how important it is to remind your sister you love her. Kristin, I love you!

two days is not enough

I want to know who's idea it was for the 5/2 split to a seven day week. Was any rational thought put into it? I realize a mother's work is never done but it is ludicrous to think that two days is enough to catch up on housework, go through your kids rooms to see what they have stashed in there throughout the week, do all the grocery shopping and meal prep for the upcoming week, wash and fold all the laundry, balance accounts and pay bills, help with the outdoor chores including stocking wood sheds, gardening, cleaning animal pens and the list goes on. This isn't even taking into account any time spent relaxing, rejuvenating, and getting refreshed for a new week.

This weekend definitely started off on a high note for me. I was naively optimistic on what could be accomplished and in all reality I should have known better. Saturday morning I woke up to two bouncing girls in fabulous spirits and decided to take advantage of that attitude and head outside to get some wood stacked while Robb was working. With an eager tone to my voice I told the girls we were going to have a great day, to get dressed and grab their coats and shoes because we were heading outside to surprise daddy by stacking some of the wood he had split the previous weekend. Out we headed. My youngest was quite excited for what she exclaimed was a helping adventure. My oldest started being excited but had not heeded my previous suggestions to bring a coat and therefore within minutes of being outside was "freezing" and demanding that she be allowed to go inside. I calmly informed her that was "not" going to happen and away I went stacking wood. All our neighbors know how she took that. As if the demands weren't enough, she insisted on screaming them at the top of her lungs in a dramatic exercise of her willpower. Again, ever so calmly, I explained to her that we were staying outside and I was bummed that she wasn't having any fun with us.

Obviously having missed the signs, after lunch the girls and I embarked upon the Bermuda Triangle of grocery stores (Costco, Wal-mart, Central Market). It was now my Ellie's turn to kick it into full gear and proceeded to see how patient I could be. Between waiting until we were at the back of Costco on a busy Saturday to exclaim that she "had to go potty right now" to the repetitive complaining that she didn't want to be in the cart nor did she want to walk while we were trying to make our way through Wal-mart. Three and a half hours later we finally pulled into our driveway. Now to unload all the groceries, get them put away, make casseroles for the freezer for the week and get dinner on. Oh, and I need to switch the laundry.

The weekend has come to a close and almost all the laundry is washed although not all of it is folded, there are bills that need paid, checking accounts to balance, tax documents to pull together and I would still love to steal away some time to read. This brings me all back to my original thought, who's idea was it for a 5/2 split to the seven day week?