I have no idea what the thought was, but you can almost see the light bulb sitting over his head! I really liked this shot..

It is that time of year in Texas that draws us out of our homes and to many of the wonderful outdoor places in Austin. One of those is Town Lake Park. Surprisingly, still relatively undiscovered. Every Friday evening, we head out there with our dearest friends and their kids. We bring our dinners, wine and relax in the goodness and out breath that is the end of the week.

Easter Sunday,we actually put together an Easter egg hunt for the kids and they loved it. The next Friday, some of the kids were playing “Easter Egg hunt” all over again. It is a magical place with magical people and I look forward to it every week.

I am so blessed to be part of this super village filled with such amazing woman. I see their faces smiling and glowing. I know of their talents, strengths, weaknesses and struggles. We are each so different, but we share the desire to create for our kids a nurturing and loving environment, the desire to make this world a better place, and to live our lives more consciously making healthier decisions, but also soaking up all the goodness life has to offer us.

My favorite part though is how strong we all are. I have seen each of us come up to a rock on our path, deal with the struggle, and then clear our path by kicking the shit out of that rock. Not because we are necessarily angry, but more that there are bound to me more rocks, and at some point, we have to keep moving as our kids and life demands. That is the thing about being a Mom, we bear the pressure of so much counting on us. We become masters at dealing with challenges because we HAVE to.

I am waxing poetic. What was this post about?? Oh, good times at Town Lake. Here our a few shots from our last outing. Check out more on the eggs that Craftastica made!

Quinn’s bounty of easter eggs.
The amazing Meredith	Our lovely, glowing Kristy
Tyler enjoying a strawberry found in his egg.	Eva found a rose in one of her eggs!

I recently discovered that my FIL is a great woodworker - something you think I would have known by now since I have known him for 10 years. Nevertheless, my excitement has bubbled over into a slew of FIL/daughter projects. The first being this tower/fort with climbing logs I saw in a most amazing book, A Child’s Garden (which has just been reprinted, yay!!). Well, naturally, this turned into a family affair with MIL over to help make sure the kiddos didn’t try their hands at power tools while we were working. Chris had gone to a happy hour with some other Dad’s, but kindly gave us a hand after he returned.

Environmental Consideration

So I was headed into the hardware store to get the lumber I needed. Shouldn’t be a big deal. An employee points me in the direction of some pressure-treated lumber “ideal” for outdoor construction. It all sounds great until I hear the word “chemical” come out of his mouth. When he leaves I head over to this lumber and see a coupon/flier thing hanging off the bar. I grab one and it gives a series of warnings about this lumber - how it should be handled and disposed of and mentions that the chemicals could leech into the soil hence planting plants around the structure is not advised..yada, yada. Um, yeah, no way in hell I am using this for my kids.

I saw so many people just walk in and grab this wood with no thought about what it *might* be doing to the environment. Granted it is the standard now from what I understand and the chemical is supposedly better than arsenic which was previously used. But if they must still post warnings next to this wood, that tells me it can’t be that harmless.

There is no other outdoor option unless you upgrade to cedar. I say upgrade because a 4×4x8 post is going to run you $16 and one 2×4x10 is going to run you $9. When one needs 12 of those things, well, it adds up. Thankfully, I could afford to make that choice and had some gift cards which helped.

Oh and I am not sealing the fort with anything. I am at peace that we are borrowing this wood from nature for this project and when nature determines, our little fort will decompose and return to nature. It isn’t meant to last forever. We are remaining a part of the natural cycle as opposed to interfering with it (beyond the purchase of new wood, where reclaimed would have been better).

I needed some caulk also and found that had formaldehyde in it and vapors were harmful if swallowed. I again decided there *must* be a better option. I headed over to trustworthy EcoWise and did fine a more “green” option for the caulking I want to do. It is really difficult because in and of itself - the compounds required to build and maintain homes aren’t going to all be environmentally sound. I realize that. However, as a consumer, I can demand that they be made as earth-friendly as possible.

I feel good about this project because I did just that.

Tyler’s Observation

I have to note an incredibly cute Tyler comment. Originally, we had planned to dig post holes for this thing. While working on the first hole, Tyler walks over and observes what we are up to. He then exclaims, “Mother Earth isn’t going to like this!” I was rolling! My sweet child.

And after hitting hard rock and realizing we could spend the entire day doing this, my creative FIL thought of another way that required no hole digging. So Mother Earth was spared more holes dug into her and we have a fort than can be moved around as our yard and needs evolve! A win-win all around!!

Yesterday morning, the kids asked for some milk. Tyler went to the cupboard to get his mug, so naturally Quinn followed to grab hers as well. I poured the kids milk and they headed out the kitchen door to the backyard to drink it. I had to snap a picture because they stood there holding their mugs quietly surveying the day. You can’t see Quinn holding her mug, but she has her hands around it. It just cracked me up - this little quiet moment over some mugs of milk.

A few of Quinn’s favorite phrases these days. She is too funny.

Me: “Quinn, we aren’t leaving just yet, sweetie. We need to get our snacks packed.”

Quinn: “oh.”

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Her oka-ay’s are sing-song and are used when there is some potential mischief about to go down.

Me: “Quinn, you need to hand those scissors back to Mommy when you are done.”

Quinn: “Okaa-ay.” (sung up and then down on the last syllable)

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Me: “Quinn do you want a snack?”

Quinn: “yeah.”

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Me: “Are you petting Chase?”

Quinn: “Uh-huh.”
These 4 words dominate our conversations these days! It cracks me up. She is so little and using these “social shortcut” words. I don’t know how else to describe it. Tyler never really talked like this, so it amuses me what she has picked up from the three of us.

John Mayer’s “Heavier Things”. If you have it, give it a listen. I LOVE THIS album. It is so cohesive and somehow is so fitting for times where you feel that you are wandering. Listening to him, I hear him searching for purpose just like me. It is a haunting and seductive listen if you ask me.

One of my favorite lines from, “Something’s Missing”:

“I can’t be sure that this state of mind is not of my own design”.

How many times are we just lost in the drama conjured up in our own heads??”

Another from “Bigger Than My Body”:

“Someday I’ll fly
Someday I’ll soar
Someday I’ll be so damn much more
Cause I’m bigger than my body gives me credit for.”

That song is my song. I sit here so many times feeling like I feel short. Wondering when, when will I find the right place where all my strengths and talents will be utilized. I love my job as a Mom and know that this is where I am meant to be in my life. But when I look to the future, I wonder, when will I be so damn much more? Surely, the universe has intentions to use me more. I mean I am sitting here blessed and aching to give back, to make a difference.

Anyway, the whole tone of this album resonates with me. My only fast forward songs are “Daughers” believe it or not. The lyrics are sweet, but the song itself just doesn’t resonate with me.

Daylight Savings was the final straw stripping us of our energy.  There was so much going on.  As I’ve mentioned, I tend to get project-focused to the detriment of everything else.  And so this weekend I stopped and slowed down - determined to just breath and allow everything to unfold as it will, determined to stop and actually do some planning, determined to get us back to fundamentals to get our energy and motivation back.

Sleep

We are really trying to get to bed by 10:30pm, 11 at the latest.  I have been doing a terrible job at this and since i tend to be up at 7am, I really need that sleep.

Food and Water

I am so bad about getting the water I need daily.  So I am getting back to that.  I also started an on-line food diary for Chris.  We did this a few years ago when he was trying to lose weight.  We went to a nutritionist and she recommended it.  It has been so helpful.  Chris has been tired from the stress of work and lack of sleep, but I think that his cycling to work and food consumption are out of balance contributing to his weariness.  I was really surprised.  Trying to get ahead, I was entering his meals and such for Monday.  I had entered his cycling so it would take that exercise into account as well.  He was STILL under calories needed to lose 1.5 pounds a week after all the eating was entered.  I kept adding snacks and even beans to our dinner for Monday trying to get him enough calories.   I also got him Gatorade to add to his water for the morning commute.

I am a big believer that food is fuel and when you don’t get the RIGHT fuel and the needed times, your body will operate poorly.  I have seen it so many times in myself when I neglect my own nutritional needs.

Excercise

Chris has this covered with his biking to work 3/days a week.  However, I think we both need something else - yoga!  So next Sunday, we will start taking a yoga class together.  I hope that we will both get up to at least 2 classes a week.  I have a feeling yoga will help us in spades from the stress relief, to stretching out our bodies, to working on some meditation to relax our minds.

Anyway, kind of a mundane post, but very typical me.  When everything seems to be in the gutter, I always have to return to basics and find some “plan” to drag us back out…