I is for I

Mary took our family pictures this summer. I can't decide what to use for our Christmas cards. 

1. I love doing puzzles. They are nostalgic and addicting. But I have found an extra reason to love them - in this day of technology (you know, like blogs and stuff), puzzles are one of the few things that requires no technology. It's just me and my thoughts. I sing, I talk to myself, I meditate. 

Even better than THAT is now Avery is joining in with me. She found the flag pieces and put them together all by herself. I told Jim, "that is a big step into the Charles Wysocki school of puzzlery." It is great together time. Evan...still needs some time before he effectively contributes to the cause. He was using his back hoe to dig it up tonight.

2. I love a good documentary. We just watched the one about Julian Assange and Wikileaks. What a bizarre event in history. Plus, I don't watch the news (it freaks me out a bit), so when I watch these stories, I am blown away that something like this actually happened (while I was comfortably oblivious that it happened in the first place).

Along this note, I cannot stand fighting/action scenes in movies. They bore me to death.

 Just give me an intriguing, likable character and some good dialogue. And popcorn.

(ps we just bought an air popper...it is amazing. I can't believe we went so long microwaving popcorn.)

That segues nicely to #3. I am kind of a food snob. Not gourmet food - but food with fresh, real ingredients. Like, I can't eat soup out of a can, or a pie made out of ingredients found in a can/box. I enjoy making dinner for my family, and they are starting to eat real meals more and more.

4. I don't mind how rainy it is here. I thought it would bother me, but I love the hunker season when we hibernate in our house for a few months with the heater humming. Yet a few months later I am ready for the sun and outdoors, right about the time spring rolls around. 

I think having four seasons is the most brilliant thing of this world. I am fascinated by how perfectly balanced the planet Earth is. The specific distance of the sun from the Earth makes such an impact on us humanoids. Too much of it, or not enough of it makes such an difference on how we function. It's a perfect balance, and one that's obviously not accidental. 

5. I don't have many talents, but one thing I am good at is being a leader. I can take control of a situation when there is a lack of leadership. If there is already a solid leader established, I am an excellent follower. I think this comes from being a middle child. I can lead, I can follow. (Unless it has to do with driving in Canada. Then I become a pathetic fool. Don't ask me to navigate or drive. Ever.)

6. I always thought I would be a way better mom than I am. I imagined myself reading with my kids all the time, teaching them lots of things, being funny.

At least I feed them good food though; no soup from a can over here.

heh. But really, I hope I get better at this as my kids get older. Because it gets easier when they are teenagers, right? heh. heh.

7. A wet, cold towel after a shower? The worst. 

Also, putting pajamas on kids after a bath when they aren't all the way dry yet? You know what I'm talking about. Also the worst.

8. I have mild anxiety about bad things that could happen. I don't talk about them because I think if I say the bad things that could happen, they might actually happen. Let's just move on.

9. I grew up on a dairy farm with all kinds of room to explore. I for sure prefer a small town over a big city. Me and Jim's dream is to live up here in Washington forever and have a home with some land and maybe have a cow that we feed and then butcher it and eat it. Maybe have some chickens, and I will get good at gardening. That kind of a thing. (Of Mice and Men anyone?)

10. We dream of when traveling with our kids will be easy, and when we can go to neat places. We have hopes that our kids will enjoy going on adventures together, and we will all be each others' best friends. We've fantasized about going to Hawaii of course, but also Brazil to eat one of the oranges that are green but really tasty on the inside. And tonight Jimi painted the scene that one day it would be awesome to spend Christmas in a small European village with Christmas lights and lots of snow outside. That exists, right?