Lantern Tree
We went out for a stroll last night, soaking in the holiday awesome, when I stumbled across this:
A tree decorated with an assortment of lanterns.
Love
Love
Love this effect.
Happy Chanukah. Merry Christmas. Happy Holidays.
Adventure makes me happy, and I have my shoes on
Every once in a while, my daughter says something that makes me look at her in a whole new light.
The other day, she started our day at 6 am, by saying “adventure makes me happy, and I have my shoes on.”
I’ve always known she was adaptable, and maybe even adventurous, and she’s happily rolled with the punches of every upheaval we’ve thrown at her, family illness, new home, road trip, frequent changes in routines…
But this time I saw another dimension. Not only is she adventurous, she’s a go-getter, she doesn’t wait for adventure. She’s got her shoes on, and she finds adventure everywhere we go.
The park is full of adventure, leaves, things to climb on, trails, squirrels to chase, and even in winter we can usually find a flower. The grocery story is full of colors, and signs with letters and numbers, balloons, magazines, apples, brownies, and the greeting card aisle can entertain us for hours.
Even the commute on those days we drive Aaron in to work is full of adventure, cars, trucks, signs, buildings, sometimes we can see an airplane take off or land as we drive by Boeing, and some of the trucks have letters and pictures on them!!!!
Life is just so full of adventure. It’s wonderful to go somewhere new, but if you’re willing, you might even find a little adventure in your own back yard.
Foggy Day
Sometimes, a little fog is a good thing; it makes you focus on what’s right in front of you.
The scanning project
My Dad was a shutterbug; he loved to take photographs, and he took a lot of them. That’s where I get it from. This is a wonderful thing for collecting a treasure trove of family memories. On the other hand, neither he nor my mom were the organizing type who enjoyed putting together photo albums. As a result, I’ve inherited about 30+ boxes packed full of random family photos and other mementos.
I’ve got my work cut out for me.
Add to that, I’ve got the world’s S L O W E S T scanner.
Yes, yes, I know. I can pack them all up and ship them off to a service that will scan them all in for me, quickly, and for a nominal fee. Nominal being defined as an arm and a leg, and my first-born child. But I’ve already lost a few body parts in the past couple years so I have none to spare, and I wouldn’t give up my first born for my life; that option is not on the table.
So back to the slow scanner, and my ADHD.
[That’s Grandpa. He was a dentist. I’m sure his patient there would be thrilled to know he’s been immortalized in my blog. Just doing my part here, helping everyone live forever.]
ADHD? Oh, yeah. I get distracted easily. Especially when going through old pictures. I was that kid who could never complete cleaning her room because I KEPT FINDING THE COOLEST STUFF IN THERE. Sorry for yelling, but you have no idea just how cool some of your own stuff can be. Especially when you’re supposed to be cleaning.
There’s just so much to see in here.
There’s proof that my dad once had a mustache
There are good times
adventure
garage bands
and precious memories
What am I going to do with all these pictures? I’m really not sure yet. For starters, I’ve got to get them scanned in quickly because they are starting to fade, and some are falling apart. Also, storage space is becoming a problem; my husband has accused me of being a photo-hoarder, and he’s not entirely wrong.
But once they’re scanned in, what next? I’m going to upload them to our family Flickr page, and hopefully family members will help with tagging names, dates, and locations, and then at least we will have the photographs in one central location that is accessible to everyone. After that? Well, that’s a few years out yet. I’m telling you, it’s a lot of photos. They have their own closet in our home.
So, now it’s time to get back to work. I’ve got some skeletons to dig out of my family’s closet
Who she saw
She saw a woman with kind eyes and a big smile who was happy to play peek-a-boo with her.
I saw a homeless woman with brown teeth grinning at my little girl.
*Stranger Danger* [Insert helicopter-mom posture here]
Seriously, what was I afraid of? Their exchange was completely innocent, and grounded in sharing joy. There was a full table width between them. Why the fear? Why did all my red flags go up? Am I really that shallow?
When we talk about listening to our gut, how do we know the difference between intuition and prejudice? Bigotry can feel a lot like instinct.
I consider her again as my daughter continues to play peek-a-boo and talk to her. She’s warming her hands around a cup of tea in a Pioneer Square coffee shop. Her clothes were tattered, but appeared clean. The coat had seen better days, as had her shoes. The clothes in the bags around her feet were faded, but neatly folded…
Oh, good grief. Really, Judy? Is that the best you can do?
I had to look back a couple times before I saw not what, but whom my daughter saw: A woman with kind eyes and a big smile who was happy to play peek-a-boo with my little girl.
I’ve got a lot of learning to do.
