nuggets :: february reflections

hump day nuggets :: little bits of the season in photos and words from the last week

nuggets.

This is what $14 gets you.  I'm just sayin'...

To the naked eye the above photos probably look very much the same.  However, the one on the left is the before haircut image and the one on the right?  You guessed it.  The after haircut image.  Really?  Yes, really.  I love his long hair, but we did get the dreaded lice notice sent home last week from school - so his long, lock-loving days could be numbered.  He was offered up to $200 to cut his hair and he declined.  This boy loves his hair and so does his mama.

The boys had smiles plastered on their faces for over two hours straight

We spent an entire day with our friends eating really good mexican food, hitting a few new thrift stores and watching our boys ice-skate at Snoopy's Ice Arena in Santa Rosa.  

We even popped into the Charles M. Schulz Museum long enough for the boy to sit down and draw a quick comic strip before they hit the ice.

Night and Day at the Ponderosa

G hosted a little hotdog, popcorn, ice cream, marshmallow extravaganza last Friday night at our place.  He really likes the relocation of our fire pit and couldn't wait to invite our friends over to enjoy it with us.  He sent an email out earlier in the week requesting their presence and helped me shop for the food and set up for our evening fireside.  He gathered wood, set out candles and made paper cones from the pages of old magazines to hold our freshly popped, buttery popcorn.

Winter Footwear & My Handmade 2012 Calendar

The boy is still very into listening to books on tape and set-up a Lego making station out on the front deck over the weekend, alongside his dad's old boom box.  He designed and redesigned make believe aircrafts for the bulk of Saturday and Sunday.  Finally settling on his master creation...the Hover Pod H26.

Living Room Art Wall & New Acquisition from Clare Elsaesser

I recently purchased a few new pieces of art to add to our art wall.  The very talented artist, Clare Elsaesser of Tastes Orangey, painted Undertow (pictured right) and I absolutely love it.  Visit her etsy site for a glimpse at her beautiful body of work.

Fallen Tree & Grady urging me to JUMP from said tree

A package from Grandma Gigi arrived on Friday and had the requisite sweet tarts and Twix bars stuffed into various articles of clothing, along with this very cool red sweatshirt.  I had to pry it off of his body Monday night to get it in the washing machine.  H is for Hecht, right?

We had grand plans of heading out to the beach for the negative low tide on Sunday, but Mother Nature had other plans and a cold wind kicked up mid-afternoon.  We decided to put on our boots and venture out back, behind our house in the cow pasture.  Oh, I'm so glad we did.  The change of perspective was a nice surprise and looking at our house and the valley from a different spot was just the kind of metaphorical jolt I needed.  I was refreshed and inspired by my surroundings.

My chives have come back to life after several months of playing dead.  Shadow hunting was a silly way to experiment with my camera settings.

It's funny how changing your perspective helps you to see things differently.  I know this in theory, but loved how a small shift in the way I walk around my property changed how I viewed my very own home.  I noticed all of the plants just about to bloom and the ones that needed a little future pruning TLC.  This was an exercise in slowing down, paying attention and stopping long enough to log it all in my mind for a future garden to-do list.

Our art studio has been quiet lately.  It seems like the days of February have gone so quickly and we have not made time to just be and create.  We must make time for this in the coming days.  I'm itching to make something, anything.

When work and life obligations start stacking up, I like to attack them like a taskmaster.  I feel good being productive, checking things off my list, juggling work, home, volunteerism, family and friends.  It's this wonderful combination of everything that I care deeply about and it fills me up 95% of the time.  The other 5%?  Well, that's what I refer to as hitting my wall.  Yesterday I met my wall head-on and slammed right into it, slowly sliding down its face and into a puddle of emotions.  While the husband shuttled G to basketball practice, I stayed home and was witness to one of the most incredible sunsets.  I shook me up an ice cold martini, bundled up and watched the fiery show from my back deck.  Ahhhhhh.  I then picked myself back up, declared breakfast for dinner and salvaged the evening with my guys.  Perspective had hold of me again and gently nudged me back into the groove of my life.

All of this self-reflection and recording of our life has been strangely cathartic.  At times it feels really narcissistic and other times it feels like I'm cataloging real life.  Our life.  And who better to do that than me?  By way of veto power, Steve can weigh in about what I share.  Grady has been approving all photos as of late and likes reading what I write about us.  Stopping every week to work on this exercise in family preservation via this blog, photos and words has challenged me in ways I didn't know it would.

I'm grateful for this space.

I'm grateful for this life.