the 2nd born

I had an interesting revelation a couple of weeks ago. I'm not proud to admit this but it's just the way it happened. I changed my schedule to work 3.5 days/week instead of 5. Since I am working for free at this internship and paying for Leo to go to daycare, we decided to save the money in daycare expenses. Anyway, this leaves Leo and I with 1.5 days to hang out-just us. My revelation? I've never really hung out with just Leo. I mean, we have had the occasional outings where I knew he'd enjoy going, etc., but to just be us? It's always been Leo AND Lyra. He's never really had to play alone or be with just Mom! :) It was a strange feeling for both of us, I think, to figure out how to just BE together. I knew that extending my internship a bit would benefit us financially but I never saw THIS benefit coming. I am so happy to have Leo & Mom days every week. It's such a great reminder to slow down and not take my family for granted. I love my little man.

I made it

As one can infer from my blogspot title, I am not the happy, sappy sahm-type. I wish I could look at each moment with my kids as a gift to treasure, but I think we go for quality instead of quantity, otherwise it's not so quality :) I'm exagerating a bit but anyhoo...Eric went out of town Sunday afternoon for training and returns tonight (Friday). Now, this is not such a long period of time, I am aware. I think of my friend, Andie, who goes for months without her husband when he is deployed, or even my sister-in-law whose husband is often gone during the week for work. However, as previously mentioned, I am not one of those super moms. So, this was the longest I've been as the sole parent day-in/day-out without school or work to save me. Do I sound like the worst mom ever? Nah, just more honest than most. I was afraid I'd get stuck in my depression or the tv (which happened at times) but for the most part I'd say we had a pretty enjoyable week.

Monday:





Tuesday
lazy day & I cheated - went to my book group for a couple of hours

Wednesday
with friends


Thursday
25 cent show




Friday
Rainy day so...
pork chops for when Eric gets home



And the whole time we've also been working on

lol. he's almost 3 1/2 and would never be potty trained if it were up to him. We've had some accidents but also some successes so I'm pretty happy and proud of my little man.

summer birthdays

We recently got to visit my sister and her son who turned 4! Time goes by so quickly - never thought I'd be one to say that but it's so true! Here are some fun pictures from Dylan's party!

the birthday boy, himself

my lovely niece, ava, who is related on eric's side but still was included in the festivities cause my sister is sweet like that

my silly boy, leo, loved the water gun fights

and lyra, getting tickled by dad - i love those real laughing shots!

peace day in michigan

After my friend Tammy posted about PEACE DAY, my minister asked if I'd be interested in organizing this. It felt like a sign so I'm hoping to be downstate for this event Sept. 21. If anyone up in my area would be interested, Unity church of TC is organizing it (or I am in conjunction with Unity) and for any of my downstate friends, I'd love to hook up there!

This is your opportunity to come together! Come together with no barriers. Come together as ONE on the U.N. International Day of Peace, September 21, 2008. We invite everyone to join together to focus their thoughts, prayers and awareness on creating a world of peace. We can put aside any differences of religion, politics, ethnicity, culture, race, income, education, age, citizenship, or anything that prevents us from experiencing the awareness that at the deepest level, we are the same.

The mission of ONE PEACE is to inspire and motivate people to come together as ONE human family to generate inner peace and create a boundless world landscape of compassion, hope, love and PEACE

The ONE PEACE planning committee invites you to bring your friends, neighbors and family to fill the ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Eastern Michigan Convocation Center (Basketball Stadium) and experience peace for an afternoon. The suggested attire is logo-free white clothing. There will be no agenda other than showing humanity can come together for the cause of peace.

We will be lead by Gandhi Peace Prize winner and founder of Sarvodaya, Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne from Sri Lanka. Dr. Ari, as he is affectionately called, has worked for fifty years for the "awakening of all". He emphasizes practicing loving kindness, compassion, service and equality. In his words, "we are one human society, …we are all members of one living world." His message is very important for all of us.

Michael Bernard Beckwith and his wife Rickie Byars Beckwith will be joining Dr. Ari. Michael Beckwith is the founder of the 8,000 member Agape International Spiritual Center in Culver City, California. He is the co-founder and president of the Alliance for Global New Thought and is best known for his dynamic appearances on the Oprah Show and in the film "The Secret". Rickie Byars Beckwith composes, arranges and directs the 200 voice Agape International Choir. She composes and performs moving melodic music "to inspire deep feeling in the heart and to bring joy to the Earth." Together they have taken their message of peace around the world.

Our area is a microcosm of our world. We have an opportunity to show the world that "peace is possible". Join us!

For details, go to www.OnePeace.us.

camping as a luxury?

I had this strange thought occur as I was sitting by our campfire - how would people from the 1800s view our camping trip? Wouldn't they laugh at us for thinking camping is a vacation? Or would they be angry because we don't realize how lucky we are to have floors, indoor plumbing, & electricity? I don't know. I love camping and we sure had fun but I sure was happy to sleep in my own bed when we got home. We are so lucky to have what we have. I will try to keep that in mind when I get overwhelmed by bills and clutter, etc.
Among other things, here is what I have to be oh so grateful for:

keeping cinema alive in traverse city

I know I keep posting about the film festival, etc. in Traverse City but I just can't express how happy I am to have good films where I live. Moving from Dallas to Detroit was hard enough because I only found 1 arthouse in Detroit as opposed to the 3 or more in Dallas (that I knew of). Then, we moved to Traverse City (considered the BIG city in northern Michigan- population under 20,000!). They had 2 movie theaters here, each with only 8 screens and very old so no comfy, rocking seats that I had become accustomed to :) Never an independent film...Then, the magnificent, wonderful Michigander, Michael Moore decided to bring good films up to Traverse City. YEA! Now, the restored State Theatre plays awesome movies. AND, he wants to keep old cinema alive and affordable so we were able to go see these fun kids' shows today for a whopping 75 cents (that's a quarter per person)!




AND next week, Lyra & I are super excited to go see

It's playing all week!!!

Thank you, Mr. Moore. You've brought my passion back to me.

i know nothing

What is truth? I have said that your truth doesn’t have to be my truth and what feels true to me may not be true for you. But then I think that the truth just IS and doesn’t need us to believe it in order to be true. Interesting contradiction. What I am learning is that as soon as I begin to feel comfortable with myself and what I believe, I have become complacent and judgmental because in some way, I think I have found the truth. That implies that I have some magical knowledge that isn’t known by all. I say I don’t judge but isn’t it judgment to say that it’s ok if you don’t understand or believe as I do? It is condescending, even if not consciously. And when I find myself judging another, I need to look inside instead of outside to figure out why. Arg. I feel these cycles of I know nothing, I learn, I know something, but really, I know nothing…