Sophie and Maddy had a lemonade stand and were having a great time encouraging pedestrians and cars alike to buy their “ice cold lemonade”.  We have quite a few homeless people walk down our street because the National Guard armory that is across from my house has free meals 4 times a week.  I am glad that they have somewhere to go to get a warm meal, but we have had some issues over the years.  For the most part, things go smoothly.

Unfortunately, today was not one of those days.

One of the regulars walked by and yelled out, “You shouldn’t be selling lemonade on the street like that, especially you – you African.”  (that was directed at Sophie).  I didn’t hear exactly what he said, but from my neighbors reaction (walking aggressively behind the man and threatening him to never come back on this street) I knew it was something bad.  When I asked what he said, my neighbor said that it was best that I didn’t know.  “Especially you…” he said.  Adam knows my temper…

I found out.  I grabbed my keys with shaking hands, jumped in my car, and headed out to have conversation with this “man”.  It took me awhile to find him.   I drive a manual transmission, and my feet were shaking so bad that I had a few instances of popping the clutch during my search.  When I did find him, I stopped in the middle of the street, put my hazard lights on, and proceeded to “escort” him up the on ramp to the highway – the entire time explaining to him that he was never welcome in my part of town and if I ever saw him again I would rip his head off and drink his blood.  This was all sprinkled with some amazingly profane language and vivid imagery of his fate if I were to ever see him again.  He did not engage me in any way, which is probably good for both of us.

I know that he could have been dangerous, even armed – but when I am that angry I am pretty confident that nothing at all can hurt me.  It is a good thing that losing my temper doesn’t happen very often.

I am still angry.  I will be waiting at the door of the National Guard Armory at dinner time for the next few weeks.  He will not be allowed back.  The Catholic Church that sponsors the dinners may not think this is very Christian of me.  They will be right.  And it will not change.

Independence Day is relative.

Oh God. Am I one of those Moms whose life is defined by their children? If that is true, they do define me quite nicely. Both had straight A’s this year in school and Maya was accepted into the Science and Math Institute and will be starting high school (gasp!) next year. They are talented, funny and crazy smart. I could not function without them. Their successes are so amazingly exciting and their potential is unbelievable.

I think my problem is that when things for them slow down it emphasizes that my successes and potential are not all that they should be. My work is fantastic in the sense that it gives me incredible freedom. I work from home a lot, I am always there for the kids’ events…..but the work itself is not lighting any kind of fire in me, and hasn’t in a while. I have no idea what would. That is the disturbing thing. The most exciting thing I have going on is a “Crap to do this Summer” list on my refrigerator that lists exciting things like:

• Paint the fence
• Make curtains for the living room
• Re-finish the bedroom floors
• Paint the patio furniture

Really?  THAT’S what I want to do this summer?  It has to be done, but where’s the fun and adventure?  Where is the spark? 

A while back my sister mentioned that she missed my blog posts that were not written about my kids. She loves them, but she liked to hear “me”. I just didn’t have anything to say about me. 

I’ll have to see what I can do about that.

It was glorious.

We hiked through snow-covered trails in the rainforest (with the sun shining!).  This area averages 144 inches of rainfall per year.  How did we luck into the perfect day?  I like to think we deserved it.  There were numerous waterfalls, mossy trees, misty stands of douglas firs, the world’s largest spruce tree…..and that was all before 2:00.  Then an hour drive through the forest led us to Moclips, a sleepy ocean-front town perched on the edge of the Pacific.  Driftwood, seagulls, sand and sunset rounded out our day.

I forgot that my shoulders were not supposed to be crunched up toward my ears, but relaxed.  The knots worked themselves out and my neck feels 20 inches longer.

Is that wrong?

(www.sadiewilliamsphotography.com)

Don’t they both look like they are up to no good?

He drives me crazy (not in a good way) still…but it was nice to see this.  It made me smile even after all the ridiculous B.S. we’ve put each other through over the years.

Isn’t it wonderful when the presents are opened and you realize that the craziness is finally over?  I love Christmas - don’t get me wrong, but I love it being over even more.

Little Christmas Eve (the 23rd of December) is always a party at this old house.  I have the smallest house on the block, but I still seem to be able to pack in more and more people each year.  This year the official headcount was 31 (15 of which were children ranging in ages from 18 months to 17.

The theme was “Awkward Family Photos” inspired by this site.  In preparation I purchased the most god-awful (sorry about using that term on Jesus’ birthday…) gift wrap with which to paper the wall behind the Christmas tree.  A few props later (think red wig, random styrofoam head, strange doll, etc) and we had ourselves a party.

Some understood the “Awkward” part more than others, as you will see….

The one below is my favorite.  Merry Christmas!

Pretty good contrasted with One Digit Ditty from her first year…..

Ah…there are many kinds of Christmas miracles….