A Visit from Grandma Sandy

Grandma Sandy always seems to get roped into a lot of cooking/baking while she is here.

First it was making enchiladas with Maya.



I'm not exactly sure what Fin was doing but it was thoroughly entertaining!



The next day was cookies.

Maya helping mix while Fin protects her ears!


Fin got braver.




The whole group working together.

Resolve

Posted at The Next Family
by: Danny Thomas

Well it’s a new year, and

As happens,

Maybe out of natural course,

Maybe because that’s what everyone else does

(maybe those are the same thing)…

I have been thinking about change

And resolutions.

I don’t care much for resolutions.

Here’s the thing;

I spent much of my teen years,

Like so many of us,

Filled with an antipathy for myself so profound

It was at times paralyzing.

I spent a lot of that time making lists

Of resolutions

In journals.

Ways I could be better…

Things I needed to stop messing up.

Ways I needed to change.

Eventually I realized that this was not a healthy pattern for me.

It caused a lot of guilt, negative feelings, inadequacy, helplessness…

At some point either through self reflection or good advice it occurred to me that a more enlightened approach might be to work on accepting my flaws even as I worked to improve my character.

So I guess I resent resolutions; they remind me of an ugly adolescent memory.

However…

Earlier this week

My daughter had her Winter Program

A 10 minute performance of a handful of holiday-oriented song type things…

The climax was Jingle Bells.

It had been rescheduled from mid-December, due to blizzard.

She and I spent the afternoon running errands

And hanging out at home.

We were all very excited for the program.

We had to pick up Jen and Zilla on our way…

I misjudged the time.

We missed the program.

I was mortified.

Jen was livid.

So, here’s the thing;

For me there is only one,

And really only ever has been one, resolution.

I want to be better.

I know we are human,

We make mistakes.

We are forgiven.

We learn to accept our flaws

But we want to be better too…

It is a force of nature.

Driving evolution, we want to grow, change, expand…

I make lots of little mistakes, I let people down, hurt feelings

Break stuff…

Forget.

But this was a big letdown.

All I could do was own up.

There was nothing to say but Sorry.

I guess, in this situation,

I learned to stop there.

So…

In some way

I got better.

I still haven’t forgiven myself…

I wonder which one of us will hold on to it the longest…

Homemade Robes

Maya and Fin both talked about wanting robes and so Grandma Sandy made them for the girls for Christmas. As with most homemade projects, they took a bit longer but it was well worth the wait!

Skyping with Grandma Sandy during the big reveal.


Posing, sort of.


Thank you for the wonderful Christmas present!

Kitchen Helpers

Maya and Fin love to help in the kitchen. Sometimes it is as simple as letting them "do the dishes" (aka play in water with dishes) and other times we can actually put them to work! Here they are actually getting along with one another while working side by side. This does not happen often.




Complete focus!