A Day in the Life of Us

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

We finished up our gift basket for Gabby's spaghetti dinner raffle and sent it off...go ahead and buy a raffle ticket on Sunday to win this super cute basket as well as many others...you know you wanna! :)

We painted in the AM and hung our artwork to dry...

Per Noah, this is a "pig"...huh. ;)

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."

Pablo Picasso

We played make believe and "fished" for a while...(Noah is a "responsible pretender" - he even wore his life vest)

We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.
- George Bernard Shaw

We cleaned our house...

Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
- 2 Corinthians 9:7

We played baseball...

...and I discovered that one of my very favorite sounds in this life is that of a bat hitting a ball...

And older taught younger...

The other sports are just sports. Baseball is a love. ~Bryant Gumbel, 1981

Then younger decided that perhaps he needed a bigger target...

Then decided that maybe a game of horsey would be more fun... :)

Inside, taking a break from the heat, Miss Natalie immersed herself in a little Super Mario Bros...

We hung clothes to dry...which is totally my new "thing"...

I just read that only 4 percent of Italian homes have a clothes dryer...interesting, huh?!

We cut the crust off...with style... :)

Dinosaurs for the boys...

Hearts for our sweet girl...

And we dined alfresco...of course...

And gentlemen wore hats...

You know you're a mom when you run out of croutons and improvise with goldfish...

We drank lots of water...

With lemons so fresh, you could almost eat them like candy...

And some of us did...

It started looking rather daunting outside...

And sure enough...

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

But it was still sunny inside...

So, we had cookies and milk...

...and watched a little TV...(and Nicolas was wearing his 345th outfit that day...and FYI...the boy cannot match to save his life... ;)

“Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.”
- Barbara Jordan

By the way, when I say "we" I really mean "them"...

Cause I'm a mom and I have other things to be doing...

Like laundry...

And yup...I even took a picture of that...

Because let's face it...sometimes...we do things and it doesn't LOOK like we do things...so we need PROOF! :)

Hence...pictures!

By the way...the one bad thing about hanging clothes out on the line...is that when it looks like it's gonna rain...

...ya gotta get the clothes off the line REAL QUICK...

...and then throw them on the dining room table...

...and then take a picture of it...

...just because...

Ahhhhhh...

So, that was Wednesday...a day in the life of US. Just normal everyday stuff...complete with...

...ants in our bag of croutons because they are literally TRYING to send me to a mental institution...oh, did I say that I "ran out" earlier? No no no...what I meant was...the ants got to them before I could. I know...I know...so gross. And this package was sealed.

No idea.

They haunt me.

I'm not here to sugar coat things...it's not what I do...I like it real...and it's not all that pretty when it's real. My pictures are straight out of my camera...but taken with love...to document a life...

When it comes right down to it...we all just want to...

And this is a reminder to me that...we are doing just that. :)

XO

Hope for Gabby

This is Gabby Vogel. I haven't met her in person yet but she is my cousin, Kelly Billhime's, neighbor. Just a few short weeks ago, Gabby, who is only 5 years old, was diagnosed with a very rare form of brain cancer called, Intrapontine Glioma. You can read all about her story here. Honestly, the smallest thought of one of my children getting cancer scares me more than I can put into words. It is so encouraging, however, at the amount of support that she and her family have been receiving so far. They NEED it. From what I have read, Gabby's father who was working 2 jobs has had to quit one of them in order to spend as much time as possible with Gabby at the hospital. He's taken vacation time at his other job but is not sure how he's going to progress with that once his vacation time is over. Gabby's mother had been running a small daycare in her home but had to give that up as well given Gabby's diagnosis. Obviously, their first priority right now is Gabby. There has been a tremendous hit financially to this family and fundraisers have been put in place trying to make up for at least some of this lost income. This week, a spaghetti dinner will be held in Gabby's honor and Gabby's Angel's are looking for donations in the form of gift baskets or other items that can be raffled off. If you or someone you know would be willing to donate, please send a message to Kelly Billhime on Facebook OR comment on her blog here. Donations are due by this Wednesday, June 22nd.

My family is donating a garden "basket" to give you some idea. I got the gardening book, tools and pot from HomeGoods. Seeds, gloves and bug spray are from Target.

My hope is that whoever receives this "basket" will be reminded of Gabby each time they look at their flowers growing in their new pot and HOPE and pray for Gabby and her family.