Holiday Whirlwind

December is always over in a flash of twinkling lights, sprinkles on cookies, and tinkling of bells.
Love the holiday season.
And I love that all Levi asked Santa for was "supplies to make books".  This kid and his creative spirit bring us so much joy...most of the time.

Our November in photos

And a quick glimpse of what we were up to in November too!

Our October in photos

Figured the best way to update the blog from the neglect it suffered this fall, was the photo collage.
Through some pictures, here's what we were up to way back in October.

Happiness Reflections

I didn't abandon my happiness goals the last two months of the year.  Just struggled with them...A LOT!  The part of November's focus that really got me was complaining.  Honestly, I did not expect that to be such a challenge.  I've known (and worked with) some habitual complainers.  You know those people that can never say a positive thing to anyone about anything?  I found myself in several situations in November where I very honestly had a lot to complain about.  But instead of choosing what was best for my spirit, health and my joy, I chose to fester in the negativity and complain...A LOT!  And even in the midst of doing it, knowing what I was doing to myself and those around me, I could not stop myself.  And that really bummed me out.

But November was also a time of great joy.  My best friend Peggy had her last chemo treatment and that nasty tumor shrank from 5X6X7cm to 3X3X3cm.  She has surgery January 6th so continued prayer and positive thoughts are still needed.  Another moment of great joy was the final adoption of Coen into our Morrison family.  I am so thrilled to have another nephew!  Such a special kid and a very special family.

So my final thought on this happiness project 2014 is that it's helped me be more aware of joy and looking for joy in all things.  The focus each month really helped me be aware of what I was doing and the choices I was making.  I will continue to focus on things that were a challenge in the coming year.  And I'm going to continue my happiness journal.  Finding (or remembering) one happy thing each day really does help on those days when I wonder why I decided teaching middle school was a good idea.  They also help coming home to a son who is 5 but often acts like he should be in middle school.  I had lots of those in November too!  But finding one thing that brought me joy, often leads to another, and another.  I think you see where I'm going with this.

Happiness: November

The happiness focus this month is to keep a contented heart.
I will do this by:

• Laughing out loud
• Laughing at myself
• No complaining and no focusing on the negative!

And something that's been making me very happy lately...
Levi's obsession with writing his own books.
He has written (and illustrated) about 8 books.  Topics include: Star Wars, Angry Birds, Robots and Flying Saucers.  He's obsessed!

We also had conferences with his teacher on Wednesday.  She said he's "adorable"!  Have to say that we agree...most of the time.  And he's meeting all benchmarks in reading, writing and math.  Very proud of this kid.  He is quickly becoming an independent reader.  It will be bitter sweet when he's reading me the stories before bed.

Happiness: October

It is incredibly difficult for me to believe that today is the first day of October.
This month's happiness focus will be on Mindfulness.
In October I want to find happiness by:

• Paying attention
• Reading Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness
• Creating 5 basic rules I want to live by

Because I've been in serious blog neglect mode, I'll also share what I wrote in my happiness journal today.  "What made me happy today was a delicious fall meal of roast beef and Delicata squash we grew in our own garden."

So many things to love about fall!

First Day of Kindergarten!

First day of Kindergarten Interview

Age: 5

What is your favorite color?

Gold and White

What do you want to do when you're a grown up?

Race cars with Dad

What is your favorite song (or musician)?

Tune Yards (decided with Dad's help since Levi's original answer was "I don't know." But when we ask him what he wants to listen to, he does always choose Tune Yards.)

What is your favorite book?

The Lego book I got at Powell's with my birthday money.

What was the best thing that you did at school today?

The whole school day

What do you want to learn in school this year?

How to do PE (they had PE today with Coach)

Learn how to read books for you...so I can read them to you.

What are you really good at doing?

Levi starts jumping on one foot

"This!"

Happiness: September

Heading back to work is not a happy time for me.  It's nice to get into a predictable routine, meet new kids, and be creative.  But it also means less time with the one kid who means the most to me and a heck of a lot of stress.

I've decided I'm going to make this month as happy as I can by pursuing my passion for art.
This month I want to:

• paint, paint, paint (I have a project in mind for someone special)
• make a John Muir quote "mural" that I've had floating around in the back of my mind for awhile
• catch up on project life
• create a new art "installation" for the dinning room

State Fair

The best way to end the summer?  That would be spending time at the Oregon State Fair!

Of course we ate.  Soft serve ice cream, corn dogs, curly fries, and deep fried mash potato balls.

We looked at animals.  Both farm and exotic.  (I always find the cages of snakes and the baby tiger strange at the fair.)  Watched a pig race and spent some time in the petting zoo.
Levi's been asking about the bumper cars since he saw them at Oaks Park last month.  So, he and daddy waited in the long line to give them a whirl.

Levi and I rode the "roller coaster".

Levi and Brooke rode some rides together too. It was Brooke's first time riding amusement park rides...so that was super fun!

Levi wanted to play some games this year too...unfortunately. He had fun.  That's what matters right?

The rest of our weekend we spent shopping and cleaning.  Hitting up the back-to-school sales at Fred Meyer and getting the last things we need for school.  I can't pass up $.19 spirals for my kids who don't bring one. Plus Levi and I both needed new sneakers! Cleaned the house and picked up the yard so we could have friends over for an impromptu BBQ.  Kalua pork and mac salad...my favorite Labor Day tradition.
Here we go. Goodbye summer.  See you in 10 months!
(I do have a September happiness goal...but I'll be back to blog about it tomorrow since I've got to get to bed early tonight.)

#5

This kid is 5 today!

It's been a big year for him too.  This year Levi has:

-learned to swim

-started riding his bike without training wheels

-ran his first race

-lots of adventures as a rescuer
-worked on writing all his upper and lower case letters

We had an awesome shark party at the pool on Sunday.  Friends and family celebrated and swam.  It was so much fun!
Today we took Levi to his favorite "french" restaurant.  It's really just the diner in Multnomah Village but he calls it that because he thinks they make the best french toast!  Then we went to OMSI to check out the submarine and the dinosaur exhibit.  Fun family day!
And very soon Gabe and I will be off on an adventure without our birthday boy...to celebrate our upcoming 10th anniversary.

Happiness: August

This month the happiness focus will be on Spirituality.  I will take time to contemplate devotion and peace.

The focus this month will be in these areas:

• Imitate a spiritual master (done!)
• Read a memoir of catastrophe (done!)
• Create a will (done!)

This goal is hitting me very hard right now.  My best friend Peggy was diagnosed with breast cancer on Monday.  So as I've thought about her (and the fight she has ahead of her) I've had trouble finding joy and happiness.  Writing my daily gratitude has been almost impossible.  I've been especially angry and confused by the unfairness of the whole situation because Peggy's husband Paul has fought thyroid cancer twice in the last four years!  It's all so wrong!  It's so unfair!  Because of the anxiety I've been feeling related to Peggy's struggle, Levi and I had some difficult days.  I hope my goal this month will give me new insight and peace for what lies ahead.  Maybe it will give me a new outlook to deal with the anger I have about what's happening to Peggy.  Maybe it will give me patience to be in the moment with Levi.  I hope it will give me what will best support my best friend as she fights (and wins) this battle.

Happiness: July Review

Honestly...this month I've really struggled on the happiness resolution.  I haven't gone on my morning runs in weeks.  And I knew I was slaking on the happiness goals this month and I couldn't get myself to really care about it!

Maybe it's because July has just been plain fun!  We played a lot with friends and family.  And I just feel happy.  It's amazing what summer sun can do for the soul.  The things I wanted to accomplish this month can wait!  The to-do list is always there, but summer will soon disappear.

While I've been slacking on the goals I set for myself in July, Gabe deserves a shout out this month.  He's working on getting our mortgage refinanced...something we've talked about doing for months!  We'll sit down and budget soon!

Silver Falls: Family Reunion

Over the weekend we went to the reunion my dad's side of the family has every summer.  This year the reunion included my grandparents...and all of my dad's brothers (his sister and her kids and grandson live in Hawaii now so they didn't make it)...and most of their kids...and even the grandkids.  In addition, two of my grandma's brothers and some of their kids were there.  Reunion for the Girard/Rhoten crew means we camp, we eat, we laugh, and we listen to stories of all the crazy things my dad and his brothers did when they were kids.

We also play games.  Beer frisbee was the popular choice for the young men.

We hike...well some of us do.  Since this year the reunion was at Silver Falls State Park, the activities included some hiking.  So glad our family from Nashville is here visiting and was camping with us.  (Even though all my pictures of Sawyer look like this one.  I guess I know where Levi gets it from and that unfortunately the smiles won't get better any time soon!)

Here's Levi with his big cousins under the South Falls.

And four girls.  It's been over two years since my sisters and I have all been together.

We cool off after hiking in the water.  And cute Coen easily manages to convince a stranger to let him use their little raft for awhile.

We play card games too.  The men in the Girard family love pinochle.  The youngest generation of males started their training this weekend.

It was a great weekend with family.  Both immediate family and extended family too.

Morrison, West and Osbourne grandkids with their great Grandparents.  These great Grandparents have 3 more great grandchildren not in the picture.

My dad with his parents and three brothers.

Clackamas Lake

On Friday we were very excited to take our first camping trip to Mt. Hood since getting our little trailer.  We love Mt. Hood, but all the camping up there is on forest service land and the sites are primitive.  (Meaning they have no hook ups...and we've become pretty spoiled having running water and lights in our trailer.)  So when we saw smoke billowing from between the trees as we approached, we were concerned that our blissful weekend on Mt. Hood with friends would be over before it even started.  The paved road we were suppose to take was blocked.  The fire crew was concerned the fire was going to jump the road.  So they detoured us on a forest service road with gravel that hasn't been maintained...ever?  It was slow going hauling the trailer over washboard and huge pits in the gravel.

And we arrived at our camp ground to this:

Three helicopters were using the lake at our campground to fight the fire we had just driven around.  It was very cool to watch, but we left the trailer hooked up to the car just in case the campsite had to be evacuated and we needed to leave quickly in the middle of the night.

Levi spent most of the weekend "rally racing" on his bike around the two campsites and the trail in between. We went over and played in Timothy Lake for a while.

It was nice to just relax with friends around the campfire.  We love camping!  Sadly, the last camping trip of the summer is coming up this weekend.

Ways to stay cool

When the temperature is over 90 every day this week what do you do?
First, spend Monday afternoon at the pool.

On Tuesday work up a sweat riding bikes with a friend at the skate park, and then cool off in the fountains at the park.

Spend Wednesday at Blue Lake Park's splash pad with friends.

And don't forget the afternoon Popsicle snacks.  They've become a necessity around here this week!

Mt. St. Helens Mini Vacation

Since Gabe and I are taking the big vacation this summer by ourselves, we wanted to do a little something as a family.
Off we went on Thursday up north to spend a long weekend exploring Mt. St. Helens.  The camping was fun.  Levi met lots of friends to play and ride bikes with.  And we finally made ice cream!  It was way too hot to have a fire and make s'mores.  So a cool treat was perfect!

We explored the northwest side of the mountain on Friday.
We took in lots of amazing views!

And we did some hiking.  2.5 miles was more than Levi could handle.  The hike on the Hummocks trail had him in tears because his "legs hurt".

Saturday we explored the east side of the mountain.  It was a lot of driving, but the views were worth it!  And we stretched our legs with a little more hiking...without tears over tired legs.

The amount of logs in Spirit Lake is still pretty amazing.

At Windy Ridge there are 367 steps up to a view point.  Levi and I conquered all those stairs together.  I was able to convince him that he could do it if we took lots of breaks.  And lots of breaks we took!  But he did it!

And the view was amazing.
From the top of the view point we could see Mt. St. Helens, Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainer.  Here's Mt. St. Helens with Spirit Lake.

And here's the view to the north with just the peak of Mt. Rainer.

Levi and Gabe took the trip down together...and more breaks were taken.  Mt. Hood is in this picture, but barely visible because of the high noon sun.

We learned lots about the 1980 eruption. 

It was lots of family fun...although I could have done without the mosquitoes.

Oaks Park

Portland summer fun has officially been had!  Levi and I met friends at Oaks Park last week and had a blast!
Every ride was enjoyed.  The Tilt-A-Whirl a few too many times for me.  I'm getting too old to do it again and again and again like these boys want to!

The boys even road the "roller coaster" a  few times on their own!
They are in the very front pink car.

Holiday Weekend

The 4th of July holiday weekend began on Blueberry Hill.  Oh how we love fresh picked blueberries!  Between the three of us, 22 pounds of berries were picked.  Plus, it's also very nice to meet friends to pick with!  I put blueberries in many delicious baked treats over the course of the weekend.  Blueberry lemon muffins...of course!  An amazing Blueberry Rosemary Focaccia bread.  And blueberry crumb bars.

This kid is turning into quite the berry picker this summer.  And he still wants to go pick blackberries later this month.

We enjoyed another great evening at the Shaut's 4th of July BBQ.  Delicious food was eaten, corn hole was played, water balloons were thrown, cold hoppy beverages were enjoyed.

And I can't forget that sparklers were lit and colorful explosions awed over.  Everything the celebration of America's birth is suppose to be.  And I loved Levi telling me (while the big mortars went off), "Mom, hold me!"  That just meant I had to put my arm around him.  He loved it and I was happy to be his reassurance.  We actually didn't leave Dave and Carley's house until after 11pm.  After all, I did tell Levi we could stay as late as he wanted...

The rest of our weekend was spent with bike rides to the park, chatting with friends visiting from the Netherlands, rides with said friend in Gabe's "race car", and another BBQ to celebrate Jackie's birthday.
Great weekend with lots of friends and fun.  Perfect!

Happiness: July

This month the happiness focus will be on money.  I firmly believe money can't buy happiness but I do believe the opposite is very true.  Money can cause a lot of unhappiness.
I'm a saver.  Gabe's a spender.  This difference has brought us both unhappiness at many points in the last 10 years.

The focus this month will be on these three areas:

• Take time to really examine our budget and find ways we can cut back on things we don't really need.  Give something up!
• Indulge in a modest splurge. (Maybe one for both of us.  I know Gabe won't be happy this month if I cut him off from amazon and steep and cheap completely.)
• Spend out.  This month I want to focus on spending more love and generosity.  That could be financial but it could also be time.  Time is extremely valuable in our house too!

Happiness Project: June Update

The goal I set this month to make new friends was difficult.  I knew it would be.  Life is busy, and it's hard to get people to take time away from what they know and give me a chance.  In addition to trying to get some people together to pick berries, I've also made a huge (for me) effort to be more friendly and talk to other moms at Levi's swimming and sports camps.  I've been amazed at how just saying "good morning" opens people up to engage in more conversations.  I've especially hit it of with a mom who's two daughters (ages 6 and 4) are in Levi's sports camps.  I haven't worked up the courage to ask for her contact information...that's my goal before Thursday.

Here are some photos from Levi's swimming and sports camps for the grandparent readers:

This kid rocks the back float!  And his front glides are really looking good too!

Apparently it can get boring waiting at third base!

Levi and I also randomly ran into one of his friends from school at the library this afternoon when we went to see a clown presentation.  I'm so glad we did!  Levi loved sitting next to Roman, and laughing with him at the clowns silly rhymes.  Plus, they are getting out their slip and slide tomorrow and asked if we would be interested in coming over after baseball camp.  So awesome!


We've also been fortunate this month to spend time with some long time friends.  My friend Sarah is back in town for the summer from Japan, so all the girls (and kids) got together last week to visit.  We've also been lucky to spend some time with my dear friend Peggy and her boys during their visit from LA.  We enjoyed a presentation from knights at the library about the science of sword fighting.

Played some at the park.

And picked raspberries (between rain showers)!
Hopefully we'll be able to spend some more time together before they leave on Thursday.  I know for sure Peggy and I are going to go out without the little boys!  A true best friend is definitely one you see twice a year but somehow it doesn't matter because you can always pick up right where you leave off!

OK...I've put off doing my homework for my summer class long enough!

End of June???!!!

Levi has been busy already this summer with swimming lessons and sports camps.  Our mornings have been spent going from one activity to the next.  Luckily, they are all at our community center so it just involves us moving from the pool to one field, and then another.  Between all that activity, we've also had some time to spend with friends.  (I'll get to more about that later!)  Honestly, we had such a busy week I was a bit relieved his two sports camps were canceled on Friday because we got some serious rain on Thursday and Friday.  It gave us the chance to get things ready to head down and spend the weekend with Grandpa Tom and Grammy Joey.

Friday we took off and headed south to hear Grandpa Tom play at Agrarian Ales.  It's such a nice spot and is very kid friendly.  Plus, they have the best musical entertainment!

Levi took this picture of Craig and Tom with Mom and Dad's big camera...pretty good job!

Saturday we went into Eugene and took in the sights, sounds and smells of Eugene's Saturday Market and Farmer's market.  The highlight for Levi was the balloon sword the "clown" made for him.  We also enjoyed some time throwing rocks at the river.  Joanne's birthday is today.  (Happy Birthday Joanne!)  So we were lucky to be able to enjoy the birthday feast Tom made for her as well as cake.  It was nice to celebrate a little early with her!

When we got back into town yesterday, we met my parents and the Osborne's at the Hops game!

It was a great game!  (Just hot when the sun came out from behind the clouds.)

And they won in extra innings.  That's always exciting!

And of course the boys had to celebrate.

We are looking forward to lots more summer celebrations this weekend.  Check back next week for the run down of the 4th of July celebration and BBQ's (of which there are suppose to be many!)