Your Honor, I Plead Guilty

There is so much guilt in life. It just comes to us, uninvited. And with all it glorious compounding nature, it just adds up, no matter how little it was when I discovered it had snuck in. Not only that, I’m a mom and with that comes a whole new world of feeling like I’ll never add up. Needless to say—I deliberately avoid unnecessary tasks that are notorious for creating guilt. Scrapbooking, for example (guilt, guilt, guilt!) or maybe setting a goal to quit eating chocolate for lent (guilt, guilt, guilt!). Blogging is like unto attempting to abstain from the cocoa bean bliss. I feel guilty. I know why I should keep my blog updated—so many people who are dear to me live so far away and I’d love to share my life with you. I have several dear friends and family who are faithful orthodox bloggers—I am not. Let’s just say that blogging (consistently) is a funsucker in my life. I love to live in the moment, take lots of pictures, laugh until I cry, talk for hours with my friends, read, snuggle, etc… Taking the time out to blog about it makes me want to poke my eyes out. Alright, so it’s not eye-poking worthy, I guess. But I don’t want to apologize and commit that I will be better because I know I will fall off the wagon. Why can’t we all just live next door to each other? Humph.

I’ll humor myself and just try to catch up. By the way, “catching up” is guilt-speak for “I haven’t been ‘good enough’ in the past and now I’ll try to rectify my actions by overloading this post with way too much content just so I can sleep more soundly”. Word of the day? Assuage. Can you use it in a sentence please? Let’s assuage Miriam’s guilt by quickly scrolling through the forthcoming pictures and skim the captions. The not-so-distant future may not hold another blog posting, so get it while the guilt is hot!

This was a "choice" Alli moment. She was helping me clean the banisters (note the pink rag) and she found a book and gt distracted. I'm such a softie for literacy that kids can get out of almost anything if they are reading!
This is Nick showcasing one of Alli's preschool games--scooba diving for words. He's hot stuff in skin tight plastic!

Alli wasn't actually too keen on wearing the "mask". It squished her eyes shut!

I try to take as many pictures to capture family work ethic. Here she is helping to clean up the toys in an efficient way. She comes up with so many creative ways to get stuff done!

Here's another golden moment. She's efficient, que no?

We didn't get to go sledding at our favorite park as much this winter...I guess we almost still could since it WON'T QUIT SNOWING around here!
Ahh... wintertime love! My life is wonderful, what else can I say?

Here is our Sunshine with her two best buds. I love when they all come over to play, they crack me up! I do trip on my tongue trying to get them straight, though (their names all rhyme and are only differ in one consonant).

Have I ever mentioned that Alli does NOT play with toys? If you are reading this and know that her birthday is coming up, please, please, please look closely at the picture above. These are typical items that entertain her. That's an old car we found buried in our garden patch (she doesn't use it as a "car"), a teeny mirror, a glittery fuzz ball, marbles and gem-like beads, and a keychain light that is broken. Hmmm...does she play with that expensive doll I got her for Christmas? Barely. What about the Potato Head? Nope. She doesn't want to play with all the food and dishes in her kitchen set? Not really. Save your money and bring pom-poms. Trust me on this one!

My mom made us matching aprons for Christmas with our names on them. She also included all kinds of goodies to bake together, including Alli's favorite, Rice Kirspy treats. She told me today, "I'm homesick for Mama and Papa's. Their house is so fun and they always have Rice Krispy treats and yummy breakfasts." She's a girl who knows what she wants...and is learning how to cook them!

Thanks for humoring me. I really do love reaching out across the web to all of you in these posts., I just wish I wasn't so prone to guilt trips. I've racked up a LOT of frequent flyer miles!