Conducting an Experiment

It turns out that I have once again been in a blogging funk. But at the same time, I frequently share random things that happen in our family and silly stuff ... on Facebook. Unfortunately, most of my siblings aren't on Facebook. This is a problem, since they are some of the main people I want to update about our life.

At the same time, I've been noticing some things I'm not happy about in myself. I've been getting too concerned about how many "likes" I get on my posts in Facebook. I check far too often just to see if anyone liked what I wrote. It is not where my focus should be. It has become a method of avoiding other things in life.

Previously I had thought, "This is just one tiny thing. I can't put this in a blog post because it's tiny and pointless and blah blah blah." Blog posts must be long and thoughtful and well edited. So I haven't been writing, just telling myself I'll get to it later ... in that mysterious place when I suddenly "have time." Which never comes.

All of which brings me to my experiment. It may not work at all. It may not be a solution that helps me or that improves communication with the people that I love. But I'm going to try it. When I would normally write a post on Facebook, I'm going to put it here instead. Even when it's dorky or short or whatever. I'll still post some things on Facebook, but at least for a little while, most of the silly family stuff is going on this blog. I'll see how it goes.

I may or may not post links to these blog posts on Facebook. I don't know. So if you want updates from me, you should probably follow this blog via email or something. But I won't be offended if you don't. And if you do, I'd love to have you comment occasionally! One of the things I miss on Facebook is actual conversation about things. It's too easy to just push the "like" button and move on.

Oh, and one last thing: I'm doing this pretty much exclusively in my phone. So no more fancy formatting attempts. No smart quotes (which you must know is simply torturing me!). And probably a lot of terrible editing. Which, again, is going to cause me more suffering than it causes you.

And that's about it! I make no guarantees that it will work out at all. That's life!

Random Sillies

In case you haven’t been catching the random cuteness that is my children on Facebook lately, here are a few random items from the last couple weeks that have been quite enjoyable.

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Coriel is enjoying lately how words are put together, and she likes to try out new things. Here’s an example: One night she was trying to lie on Brice (mostly by smooshing him) and saying, “Let me see if you are lie-able.”

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Addra told me one day, “I am going to eat your head. Then you would have no head.” Then she paused, as if really considering the issues with having no head. “But that would be bad because you would have to go to the doctor.”

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Similarly, she told Brice that she was going to eat him: “I am going to eat your head on a sandwich with jellies.”

Brice: And what else?

Addra: Grapes and oranges and eyeballs. And lots of jellies. (Then she pretended to pluck out all our eyes and put them on her sandwich.)

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When asked what her yellow rice tasted like, Addra replied with something that sounded a lot like, “Starlight.”

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Okay, now for just a little bit of bragfest: Coriel is totally jetting on reading. Earlier this week she came to me and told me she was almost finished reading Sky the Blue Fairy (it’s a maybe first/second grade chapter book). I didn’t even know she’d started it. She’d just been sitting on her own, quietly doing whatever she wanted for the last hour or so—and that was apparently what she’d been doing! It’s so much fun to watch her be so into reading.

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I had to share the picture of me and my big sister M somewhere, because I think this is such a cute picture of us. Plus, when I look at Addra I occasionally catch this major glimpse of similarity between the two of us. Here is a place where I think that shows.

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I discovered a new eight-letter, each finger word: BIPLANES! Hoorah!

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The picture of the girls on this post is one my friend Meghan took for us one day just for fun (I can’t decide if I like the color or b&w better, so I posted both). It’s what happens when they get going on the dress-ups. Coriel dresses up as a pirate ninja, and Addra dresses as a fairy queen. It should be noted that there is something so perfect about these choices for their personalities at present. Coriel is all about feisty and heroic; Addra is much more about refinement and power. (Also, I believe that Addra’s expression here is her “fancy” face.) Give Coriel a crown, and she’ll become a princess—probably one who will dress up very fancy and then have to defeat a dragon. Give Addra a crown, and she will be a queen—and we will all become her servants and have to bow to her every whim. (This princess/queen dichotomy has actually happened with them on numerous occasions; I joke that Coriel knows which person gets to accessorize, and Addra just knows who rules the kingdom.)

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And they all lived happily ever after. The End.

Watermelon Carnage

In case you were wondering what it looks like when Brice T-rexes a watermelon man (and I know you were), here you go. Poor, unsuspecting watermelon man.

 

And now for what it looks like when Coriel does it...

 

And just in case you haven't gotten the idea yet, here's me.

 

Doesn't it all make you want to go and buy some watermelon? (And possibly teach me how to use Blogger so my formatting isn't always a mess?)

P.S. Isn't my husband epic?

The First Curry of the Growing Season

The day has arrived, my friends. This week we celebrated the first curry of the growing season. Our first two zucchinis came off the bush (already!) and one went immediately into the curry. By the end of the summer, I’m hoping our curries will also include carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, yellow squash, zucchinis, and maybe even green and red peppers from the garden. Wouldn’t that be shiny?

You will think I sound like some amazing gardener with mad skills. My life must be so put together since I’m growing such a fabulous veggie garden. Um, no. Will it help if I send you a picture of the top of my dresser? Or the box full of papers I keep meaning to file? Or, heaven forbid, the undone items on my to-do list?

But this post is not about me. This post is about curry and its sheer awesomeness and our celebration of its existence. I think we are going to make this into an annual Stay family holiday.

So let’s all take a moment to be grateful for the gift of curry and veg from the garden. Yum.

P.S. You can only do so much to convince your average four-year-old that curry is not an abomination. In our case, that is not enough. So we settle for convincing her to try a bite. Sometimes with her nose plugged. In the last picture here, Addra (ever wanting to be like her older sister) is attempting to plug her nose too. Good times. 

P.P.S. I'm sure that if I had mad skills, I would be able to convince the html in this ridiculous blog post to not randomly change the font type at the drop of a hat. But I don't.

P.P.P.S. And please, let's not even mention the curly quotes again. It's getting a little OCD, don't you think?

Top Five Reasons Why My Husband Is a Poohead* ** *** (those are asterisks, not swear words)

1. It is 9:53 pm. He is being my voice of endurance, forcing me to do my writing today (which I haven't done yet, even though I'm on a month-long streak of writing every day) instead of playing WoW with him.

2. He stops me from eating too much sugar when I tell him, "I've hit my limit. Any more and I'm going to feel terrible."

3. Sometimes, on the night of a social event I've been looking forward to, I suddenly say, "Ugh, I don't want to go. It will be too long and I'll be leaving you here with the kids all alone. I don't really need to go. Waily waily waily, excuses, excuses, blah blah blah." Then he says to me, "You've been planning on this all month. You are going." And then I go. And have lots of fun.***

4. Sometimes when I want to stay up reaaaaaally late reading (which will lead to me feeling lousy the next day), he tells me I have a time limit and I'm going to be in "big trouble" if I don't go to bed by then.

5. Pretty much he acts in place of my better self when my better self has taken a vacation or is sitting on the couch watching movies instead of helping me do things that are wise and will make me happy. He helps me be far better and stronger than I otherwise would be.

What a poo, huh?

*No, I really don't think he's a poohead.
**This post was written in the horrible composer that has no smart quotes. Please ignore this terrible oversight.
***Yes, I realize that no one but me finds this to be an oversight.
****A note to Meghan: This comment did not apply to your baby shower. I was unerringly excited to go to that.

Day #12: Drummers Drumming

(Another haiku)

Yours: Radiohead.

Mine: Dido. Different drums, but

Perfect harmony.

Happy Three Kings’ Day, Brice! You’re the best.*

*Please note that I had to copy and paste in the smart quotes because the cursed composer doesn’t automatically create them. 
*Please also note that after typing this, I had a very long debate with myself and Google over whether it really needed an apostrophe at all. The jury is still out, but I'm leaning toward none. Argh. (Granted, I could just fix it, but where would be the fun in that?)
*Please also also note that the previous note has a straight quote, but I'm tired of fixing them and then fixing the font and blah blah blah. So we shall just ignore it and call it artistic.