26/26

My birthday started off with a trail ride. Shuga and I worked very well together. We actually led the group for about 1/3 of the ride - which is kind of incredible if you know Shuga and me. I was told that it's the most relaxed I've ever looked in saddle. Progress!

We ended with a small birthday party with friends and family. One of our friends brought her cockatiel, Cheek, as begged by the kiddos.

lazy night

no longer bored

Reading is boring, huh? Let's just see what the library has to say about that.

Lila wasn't very pleased with how long it took him to decide which book to bring home, though.

chosen superhero

Batman with a (Harry Potter) wand has been the superhero of choice these last few weeks. Love that boy of mine.

want to play?

Yonah waited and waited until Kim finally decided he is old enough to play League of Legends. He's starting to he the hang of it against the beginner bots. But considering he's only 6, he's doing remarkably well.

Photo Challenges: Week 2

We've been busy lately.

Busy with kids, busy with horses, busy with recording songs.

Last week's photography themes were Daily and Love.

I combined them into one shot. Partially because I just love this picture, and partially because coming up with two separate ones that week was a very overwhelming thought.

Yonah loves learning to read just as much as I love teaching him.

January 7: Sketch-A-Day

I think I am slowly letting go of strictly drawing what I see and beginning to also draw what I imagine.

This is a scene I've seen many times, but not at any point today. It turned out so much better than I was expecting.

(Pencil on regular paper.)

is that a . . . ?

Yonah drew another picture. Can you guess what it is?

Why, it's a good witch, of course. The circle thing in the middle is her face, with eyes and smile. She is wearing a hat. What were you thinking it was?

not that kind of training

"Hey, Mom?" Yonah asked, staring out the car window as we drove home.

"Yeah?" I responded.

(Our conversations always seem to start like that.)

Can you believe I haven't taken any pictures of the moon?
Not even the super moon we had a little while ago.
Please accept this substitute picture. I mean,
clouds are kinda the same thing.

"Can we take everyone with us when we go to the moon tomorrow?"

I took a brief moment to think through everything we'd driven past or talked about, which might have led to this question. I couldn't think of anything that would have sparked his mind to thinking about the moon, though.

"Did you say 'the moon'?"

(A big chunk of our conversations are spent in my clarifying what he said. I hate responding incorrectly to him.)

"Yeah. The moon." He's so used to me asking for clarification that he didn't bat an eyelash. Even though he'd spoken clearly this time, and we both knew it. "You said we would go there tomorrow. You know, with our rocket?"

I really paused then. I had said that we would try to go somewhere tomorrow . . . but to the moon? "Moon" sounded nothing like what I'd been talking about. Unless my mouth had malfunctioned again. But the real problem was that he wasn't using his "I'm serious about this joke" voice. He was using the same voice he used to talk about real things, like the sun coming up every morning.

"Um. We're not going to the moon."

I caught his eyes glancing my direction in the rearview mirror. "Why?"

"Well," I said with a sigh. (I get so tired of that question. I hear it all. day. long. I love his inquisitive mind . . . but not the frequency of that one word.) "For one thing, you have to have a lot of training to go to the moon."

"Oh, like in Kung Fu Panda."

a game of hide and seek

I'm going to start posting little tidbits of interactions I witness or am a part of, much like I do on Facebook. They don't really feel "blog worthy" to me; however, they do make me happy. Or, at least they make me laugh. So I suppose they have their place here.

These posts will be tagged with "that's what she/they/he said", because I honestly cannot think of a better tagline. If you can think of one, please let me know!

Y: Okay, wait until I'm ready. [runs upstairs, slams bedroom door]
A: Okay! 1 . . .
Y: [opens door] I'm ready! [slams door]
A: 1 . . .
Y: [opens door] Did you hear? I'm ready! [slams door]
A: Okay. 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . .
Y: [opens door] Are you counting yet?
A: Yeah!
Y: [slams door]
A: 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . . 8 . . . 6 . . . 3 . . . 8 . . .
Y: [opens door] Don't find where I am, okay? [slams door]
A: [continuing counting] . . . 7 . . . 4. Ready or not, um . . . Here I come!
Y: [opens door] Are you going to find me?
A: Yeah!
Y: [slams door]

yonah and the horses

Today Yonah came with me to help out at Blazing Hope.

He was a big helper! He swept out the barn, fed horses, and helped to groom a few.

A few lessons were also learned (more than once). Normal boy stuff like, no climbing on the horse's pen like a crazy child, no throwing hay at the horse, no using a handful of hay as a lightsaber, no running at horses tied and waiting to be groomed.

I didn't get to help as much as I would have liked, but it was still a great time. I enjoyed watching and helping him. And, anyway, it's all for the kids. I'm just there to help where ever needed - and today, that meant keeping an eye on a very excited, and slightly absent-minded boy as he eagerly worked so hard.

And then . . .

After a long, long wait, while horses were warmed up in the big round pen . . .

He finally got to ride.

This was something he was very excited about.

Until he realized just how big horses are when you're standing right next to them. And just how far away the ground is when you're sitting on their back.

But he gave it a try anyway, and absolutely loved it.

I am so proud of him.

playing along

I spent the afternoon playing a video game that Yonah is crazy about right now. When I've casually observed his playing, I've always found it to be lame and unnecessary. (As if Halo isn't the only necessary video game . . . ) But he loves it.

So, today I picked up the controller and tried it out.

It isn't that bad. I rather enjoyed it, actually. Easy enough to not be overwhelming, but challenging enough to maintain my interest, and a whole lot of fun. (Even if the humor for the most part falls flat.)

The downside is that I lost my excuse to not help when Yonah gets stuck on a difficult part (like one of the bosses), since he now knows I can play it better than Kim can. Oops.