7.21.12
At almost three weeks postpartum, I was feeling pretty good and was wanting to get out for some fresh air and even a little exercise! I asked Brent to find us a little hike...somewhere we've never been before (a challenge!).
Cape Horn:
The Washington side of the Colombia River Gorge...beautiful!
Breastfeeding + hiking = double calorie torcher
most of the trails we have been on in the Gorge are pretty easy, quick jaunts to a waterfall or an overlook. NOT so much with this hike. It is a pretty long, pretty steep, pretty rocky switchback hike...but with GREAT views. NOT what I was expecting for us to do at 3 weeks postpartum. I didn't bring water or diapers or anything!
It ended up being about a three mile hike, which normally would be a great family hike for us...
if we were prepared. But also there was no signage on diverting trails, and so it wouldn't be too difficult to get lost. From what Brent read online, it was supposed to be a loop to an overlook, a waterfall, and then back to our car. We kept hiking and never found the connecting trail back to our car. We could have kept hiking for while and ended up down the busy highway from our car, but we decided to forgo the loop, and just head back to our car the way we came...even though it ended up being longer. At least we knew where we were going and when we were going to get there! Ah! Only stressful for a moment there until we decided to go back the way we came. But overall, a beauty of a hike.
we found the waterfall...almost no water this time of year.
Toby in front of Cape Horn overlook (the actually geological feature)...
I took a few pictures of the kids with my dslr camera...more practice!
Cape Horn
Uh oh! What's going on here? Deep thought? Boredom? Impending adolescence??
I'm a little worried. :)
the toddler is a very determined hiker...but hiking up a talus field is just too much for him.
...so he will ride on Brent's shoulders instead!
another serious shot of our big laddie
and our medium laddie
I really wanted to get a picture of Ollie's big round eyes, long lashes, beautiful lips and baby curls (before they were cut off).
Like I said we had a very lovely time on the hike, despite the moment or two of worry and stress...but the funniest part of this story happened the very next day.
Brent subscribes to this Portland hikers online forum, and the next day there was a review of this hike on the forum...which was obviously done by someone who passed us on the hike because they wrote about US!! Haha! Here's what they had to say:
"But I mentioned this is a new trail, right? Ouch! The rocks are pretty loose. Poles tend to be useless, as they plunge into the cracks with each plant. And some genius even designed one segment with seven or eight switchbacks down one of these slopes. I saw a family coming off that, two kids walking, each parent carrying another, one parent seemingly ready to scream at the other for "getting them into this mess!" "
Here's the link if you want to read it yourself! Which, by the way, I wasn't made at Brent for "getting us into this mess", but I think that either Brent or I may have been worried at that moment that we were not going to find the right trail back to our car. It was shortly thereafter we decided to go back the way we came. Still funny though!
I DO really like the way they captured my jaw-line.
Yep, Brent got caught by a photo-cop, going 41 in a 30 mile per hour zone. We had heard of these photo cops in the Portland area, and after 5 years of living here we got caught. Poor Brent. It was kind of a crazy speed trap...the speed limit had been 45 mph on this busy highway...but for two blocks was dropped to 30. And seeing that we are often engrossed in cerebrally stimulating conversatiuon as we drive, neither of us noticed the reduced speed until too late. So here we go! Our lovely $200 family portrait. Oh well! Live and learn.
12.13.12
Oliver
16 months old
These pictures of this most precious boy were taken the night that I caught the entire contents of his stomach in my hand during Joshua and Toby's Christmas concert at school because I was nowhere near a bathroom or even a garbage can, I had to hold that vomit in one hand while I carried him in the other and ran past myriads of parents to the nearest bathroom. How was that for a run-on?
I love my kids. They are so sweet and smart and most of all they WANT to do good. Why is it then, that at certain times they act TOTALLY CRAZY in front of people...and then these people think that my kids are horrible?
Take, for example Tithing Settlement: we get into the Bishop's Office and the kids can't sit still, they can't keep their hands to themselves, they touch EVERYTHING, and they don't listen to us when we ask and tell them to stop. (For you people who are totally confused: the Bishop is the leader of our Church congregation or ward, and tithing settlement is a meeting between our family and the Bishop where we declare that we have offered 10% of our earnings for the calendar year). Our dear Bishop is so sweet and kind, but every time we have brought our kids to his office for a meeting they go berserk!! I am afraid that this is all that some people see of our kids and it is making me frustrated. So, every time I talk to the Bishop he tries to comfort me and tell me how the crazy times will be over someday (I actually LOVE these days...most of the time)...and tries to console me. Nice, but it makes me feel frustrated all the same. My kids are ALWAYS good in sacrament meeting. Does anybody notice that? I wonder.
Another example, is when we took our kids over to see one of the families in our ward that Brent home teaches: they are this really cool young family that we wanted to get to know better and guess what? Our kids were berserk! I don't blame that family for never wanting to invite us over again. I wouldn't invite us over again if I thought that the kids always behaved like that!
The problem is, I think that word gets around. We had a really tough year with both of the boys last year (and it was our first year here), so I didn't feel very social, and now I feel kind of like I am branded as the mom with the out-of-control children that I don't discipline and that I can't handle. Well, the news is that I do discipline my kids. I think that I often discipline them too hard. I wish that I were less coercive as a parent and that my kids would obey me because I elicit their love and respect (I know my kids love me very much). And here's another news flash: I CAN"T CONTROL MY KIDS! They have free agency, as I believe is part of the GREAT plan of Salvation. And sometimes I don't want to control them...if they're not endangering themselves or others....really!
The really hard part is that Joshua has a disability, but it is not very apparent. So he gets berserk when he is over stimulated, but people don't know about his disability (or maybe they think it's an excuse?), so they don't understand why he acts that way. They just think that I don't handle my kids very well...ooo it is FRUSTRATING! As Joshua grows older he is doing better so that's good, but I still feel like we can't rid ourselves of this scarlet letter unless we move (but I really don't want to move). And Toby is great, a little stubborn, but great. I don't see him having the same problems that Joshua has...but you combine his stubbornness with the terrible two's and that made for a tough year. It wouldn't have been so bad if Joshua wasn't also struggling.
And don't get me wrong. I KNOW that I am not a perfect parent. But I have tried so hard to improve and be the best that I can be.
I just feel like the only friends I have are either the ones who knew me and loved me before I had kids (so they know that by nature I try my very hardest all the time or they overlook the silly things my kids do), or ones who are totally kind and understanding. The latter have come to love me and appreciate my kids...both their struggles and their goodness.
My conclusion at this time is to ask you not to draw conclusions when you see parents and kids struggling. You don't know what's really going on and how hard they ALL are really trying. Maybe you SHOULD jump to the conclusion that this family could use your friendship, understanding, charity and unconditional love.
I enjoy keeping it real here every once in a while. I feel so much better getting that off my chest, and Nobody's life is perfect...not even in bloggerland!
Brent was recently called as the EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS specialist in our ward. He is in charge of helping the ward members to be prepared in case of a disaster. This has been great motivation to work on our food storage and other emergency essentials. It is so NICE to have a house where we have room for food storage! There are several potentials for natural disasters here in the Portland area: tsunami, earthquake, volcanic eruption, flooding due to heavy rainfall or due to global warming raising the sea level. (WE are pretty safe up on top of our bluff at about 200 ft). But our Stake Presidency (presides over the churches/wards in our city and a few neighboring cities) has specifically instructed us to prepare for a Flu Pandemic and a corresponding 3 month Quarantine. So we are readying food, supplies, personal protective devices, sanitation, etc. in case we are stuck in our house for 3 months. Oh! And here is a great link to some Pandemic preparedness information that Brent found:
BYU-Idaho Pandemic Training. "If ye are prepared, ye shall not fear..."
That brings me to the next point. CANNING! My current calling in church is the Enrichment Leader and one of the special interest groups that I have tried to organize is a canning group. We have planned and consulted and done canning demonstrations to take advantage of all the wonderful and fresh produce that we have in the Northwest (many farms even within 15 minutes!). My friend
Tara was awesome enough to invite me to can with her. We planned it while our kids were at school and we did it together to pass the time. I am so HAPPY that Tara taught me so much about canning and I am ELATED about this:
This is my half of the canning that Tara and I did this year. We did Pears, tomatoes, salsa, pickles and applesauce. We have officially re-formed "the cult of domesticity" here :-). (A club that my friends Emily, Maria and I had in high school in which one had to bake, sew and do various other domestic activities in order to join.)
...This happens:
We came home from church last week on a ferociously windy day to find that our neighbor's carport thingy blew out of their yard and landed right on top of a good sized tree in our side yard, snapping it right in half! Poor tree. It was half dead when we bought this house and I was able to nurse it back to full health and it was getting nice and big and now...snap! What a bummer. It looks like I need to do some tree shopping.
Yael Naim
We had the incredible opportunity to see Yael Naim in concert here in Portland last week. It was such a fabulous performance. She is an Israeli singer songwriter who has lived in Paris, France for many years. Her music is a complete mix of Hebrew, French, and English ranging from folk/beautiful ballads to edgy jazz. Her guitar playing is lovely, her piano melts my soul, her voice is so beautiful and unique...but mostly it was her lovely, sweet, engaging personality that stood out and swept us off of our feet. By the end of the show I was teary from laughter and love of this musician. Near the end of the show she was playing her most known song "New Soul" (which I love for many reasons) and at the end, before she finished the song, she got off her piano (her band was puzzled) and instructed the audience to sing the "ah's" to finish off the song. The audience got divided into three parts, which she quickly taught us...and then she stood up in front of us all and directed us (choir style) to the end of the song. Beautiful. Touching. Energizing.
I strongly recommend that you go view the music video for
New Soul on YouTube. (I would put the clip on here, but I can't figure it out.)
Keeping it real:
I just have to say why this song means so much to me. I discovered it last year during Joshua's kindergarten year from hell. It was at the point where I had just about hit my lowest point. I could no longer take the negative comments from the teacher and the principal almost every day and felt that Joshua (a new and different beautiful soul) was greatly misunderstood and misjudged. This song pretty much described how I felt at the time and surprised me with
HOPE for a happy end. I especially appreciated that the person making the mistakes wasn't asking someone to make her "normal" but tried to take others "by the hand" to go "far away" and see a different perspective. OK, now you can see why I was crying by the end of this concert. But the good news is, that at this time in life it is a cry for remembering hard times only. It is not a cry in the present tense. For this year, it seems as though Joshua never had any problems in school. And this end boosts my confidence so much because this was the end that I suspected all along. I always knew that Joshua would mature and grow out of his issues and it appears that he is and has. It just goes to show that the mother's intuition is always right!
yAeLnAiM official website...eNjOy!
