Well.

I am completely breaking my self-imposed rule of not typing anything to anyone after 10:00 at night for fear of not thinking clearly and doing things like sending my financial adviser a message that says "Could I bring dessert?" and my mother in law a message that says, "We'd like to access our funds now."

So.  This should be a true treat insight into the startling world that is my mind.

I'm just now winding down from a day of exhaustion that ended with more exhaustion when Jonah had a blowout in the stroller after his first bath tonight.

Why were we in the stroller after his bath?  Because he wouldn't sleep.  The kid has things to DO.  There are wheels upon wheels around the house that need fixing, board books that need pages turned, surfaces that need to be tested for durability and strength, and his 'Ol Jo Short' song that needs to be sung to him so he can chime in early with the word "problem" pronounced "plablah."

And I mean seriously.  Who can deny that simple pleasure?!

But this followed a morning where he did nothing but take offense to the sweetest cooing sounds from his younger (female) baby friend who came to play.  I mean the kid took.it.personally.  This sweet little baby would make one little coo and Jonah would just break into tears and sob and let his whole body go limp like she had just called his mama fat.

Which I am because I am currently eating chocolate chips out of the bag.  #fulldisclosure

 I think he didn't like that he couldn't climb all over her.  She's only 4 months old.  Sorry, Jo.  You can't climb on her.

Speaking of which, Jonah stood up on my legs as I tried rocking him to sleep tonight.  Stood. Up.  It was sort of awkward.  It made me think of the SNL skit where the businessman has the body of a baby.  I was like, "I'm sorry Mr. J. David.  It's time to retire to your bed, sir."

That reminds me.  We've added JoDa (like Yoda) to his long list of nicknames.  I'm not even a StarWars fan but was proud I came up with that one.  It's always nice when you can dabble in a world other than your own and feel like you are an everyman's man.

Speaking of dabbling in other worlds, my dad was telling me the other day about the ongoing research and planning for the first manned mission to Mars.  He said that NASA, after running several simulations, decided not to send extroverts on the mission.  They completely derailed it.  It takes at least 9 months to get to Mars and during this time the introverts would all shut down at one point because the extroverts sort of sucked the energy from the group.

I thought that was interesting.  My parents are always talking about the different personality types - Driver, Amiable, Analytical, and Expressive.  Of course introvert and extrovert are pretty broad so I'd like to learn more about that study, but it's interesting!  Howard is an introvert and an analytical and they totally don't get enough catering to in our society.  They have so much to offer but a lot of people only pay attention to the loudest. 

I'm a driver.  I like to be in charge and create and envision and lead.  I like big picture but not the details to get there.  I would say I'm a cross between extrovert and introvert.  Driver aspects supercede that, so I'm extrovert when I need to be and introvert when I need to be according to what goal I'm trying to accomplish. 

I love learning about personality styles.  Knowing your own helps you also know your fault tendencies, so you can watch out for your weak areas and learn to grow and improve.

I think there a select number of people who are all the personality styles because they have worked so hard to be balanced.  These are often leaders, and excellent ones, and are often in the public arena.  Pastors, politicians, and principals come to mind as people who are excellent and keeping a foot in all the personality camps. 

And THAT my friends is my brain on chocolate. 

What is your personality type?  What are you reading right now? 

Howard's 40th & Father's Day

To celebrate my man turning the big 4-0, AND to celebrate what an incredible father he is, we took off for the weekend and headed for the big town of Comfort, TX!

This was a Howard themed weekend!  That means lots of great reading spots, quiet, no schedules, no people, just...being.  We stayed at the Meyer Bed and Breakfast and LOVED it.  If those are your goals - slow and peaceful - this is the place to be.  It was absolutely gorgeous along the Cypress Creek and the breakfast was incredible.

It was so nice to cater to Howard for a whole weekend.  I can't think of anyone more deserving.  It's also so nice that he was so pleased with it.  I love that he loves the simple things in life.  He really does.  It's so refreshing. 

Howard, I am so proud of all that you do and all that you are.  Thank you for being dedicated daily to furthering your mind through diligent study, being kind and noble and just and peaceful and strong, and filling a little boy's home with so much magic and fun that adulthood will be sure to disappoint him and we may have to dig out a basement. 

Our weekend

What a lovely weekend!  It's been the perfect combination of friends, family, home time, away time, relaxation, and productivity.  Wow.  

It started with ducks on Friday.  I usually have a learning theme for Jonah each day and decided Friday morning when we were playing with a cute stuffed duck Oma gave him that the day's focus would be on the word duck and the sound it makes! So I just decided hey - let's head to the river and look at the real deal!

Here's Jonah squawking at one duck at a time.  His audience kept taking flight.  I can't imagine why being screeched at by a large human baby would interrupt a pleasant morning swim...

I love that we can go to the river in our small town and see multiple friends without even planning!  So so fun.  I cherish that.

By the way did you know that in French (and all languages) animal sounds are interpreted differently?  So we also learned that ducks are called 'canards' say "coin coin" (pronounced "kwahn kwahn").

Jonah hears far, far more English than French so we'll see how much of that sticks.  

Hm.  Based in my previous logic with the ducks I think it's time for a field trip for learning French!  If only!

Friday afternoon when Papa got home from working at the ranch we logged some great pool time and got to see Jonah's awesome nanny from this past semester.  We miss her this summer!!  Jonah loves her son too, and I can tell he always wants to impress him. 

Saturday Jonah and I went garage sale shopping with friends and I found great deals!  I've never really shopped garage sales before and NEVER thought I'd buy clothes at one, but I scored a bagful of H&M and Gap clothes for this summer and I am still so fascinated by the fact that I spent $10 for it all and I didn't care when Jonah threw up all over my new shirt today!  Awesome!!  I am hereby officially a garage sale person.

Come to think of it, I also watch used TV.  I've been LOVING Jimmy on the Tonight Show lately via my computer (while I teach myself to use a drill in the process of childproofing and inevitably losing an eye or a finger or both so Jonah doesn't get into all those towels under the sink).  Since we don't have cable I watch the previous night's episode.  

I mean seriously.  Just call me Thrifty Hill.  

We spent the rest of Saturday at Oma and Opa's swimming and eating freshly fried fish with homemade tartar sauce and tomato basil pesto and homemade chips and guacamole and salsa from the garden and giving Jonah no attention at all and just plum wore this kiddo out.  

This is when we first got in the car to come back home that evening:

And this is at the bottom of Oma and Opa's drive:

He loved his time there and screamed when Opa wasn't holding him, so guess who held him. : )

Sunday morning was glorious.  

I was very nervous because it was our day to let Jonah cry it out at church class so he learns he can't just cry for 10 minutes and then we come and get him (and by we I mean I, and by get him I mean take him back to our church class and pretend for 10 minutes I can participate and pay attention while simultaneously wrangling a squirmy 9 month old until he's too loud and I have to take him out and wait until class is over).

If you are familiar with this blog at all, you know that Jonah is no stranger to the 30 minute nap intruder.  His morning nap is especially predictable at 30 minutes because I only push him to take a long afternoon nap.

Well.

He kept sleeping and sleeping this morning before church and when he was at an hour and we were already late, it finally hit me that he totally knew what he was doing.  I never wake him up from naps or in the morning and he so knew that was the way to get out of church.

I know, call me whatever.  

But I'm right.  I just am.  

I went in and he was fake sleeping and had this look like "oh dang it - you found me."

I mean c'mon.  He knew what he was doing.

So we got to church and he screamed when I handed him off, but the staff there was wonderful with him and got him calm after I left and he did great the rest of the time!!  They even took pictures and a video to show me how he did.  Yay Jonah!!  

This was his prize for staying the whole time, one of my very favorite books and a great prepatory study for some upcoming berry picking!  : )

Howard watched Jo during big church today and it was such a luxury to sit and focus and learn and worship.  Our pastor talked about maturity and I loved his statement: "Maturity is growing from soft skin and a hard heart to thick skin and a soft heart."  My amazing boss said something similar a few years ago.  He said the goal is to be like candy that's hard on the outside with a gooey melty center.  Just love that!

I think it's easy to think I'm tough when I'm not in the middle of a crisis, but when stresses occur - well, I let them stress me.  I internalize things and I hope with more age and more experience I can continue to grow and let things roll off a lot more.

I notice that about (wise) old people.  They don't care.  Not in the way that they're apathetic...but in a way where their happiness trumps all.  My age group is not around enough old people.  We are too caught up in peers, because they are so needed in this stage of life!  But I think in trying to form support networks for raising kids and having a social life, we (or at least I) are missing an important opportunity to grow by not simply being around older people.

Well.  I take that back.  I have Howard.

Ba-dum CHING!  Good night everybody!

This will lift you up

Well it's nothing but pool babes and peanut butter here this week.  We are in full on summer mode.  I'm not even really sure what that means because a day with a 9 month old is really similar to a day with an 8 month old.  But everybody's saying that so it's the mode to be in:  summer!  I will say that I have somehow already read 3 books (all fantastic by the way) and this is certainly a sign of time gained.  

I'm sitting in a messy living room procrastinating because I jogged and played tennis today in addition to hauling around 23 pounds of preciousness and I just don't feel like moving any more muscles.  And even though I'm going to leave the house messy this time (a certain temptation to fate for someone to come over in the morning and see this place), I should get up to get my computer.  I've got to order some baby proofing things.  Because there's a baby here.  And he likes to test things out.  Like the cat. But they don't make baby proofing products for cats.  I think it's just having a sweet temperament like Cotton does to let your ear be tugged or your tail pulled quickly before an adult hand intervenes.  She never runs away from Jonah, so I hope she's ok.  Sweet kitty.  Jonah and that cat.  They love each other.

Alright it's off to do some online shopping but I'll leave you with this:  Jonah apparently needed a different angle while working on the stroller today because I walked back in the living room to find one of the wheels on a lift.

He cracks me up. : )

To Jonah: The Bear Necessities

Jonah, little Baby Bear,

It's sometimes not a good idea to follow.  You can end up following someone who makes bad decisions, or doesn't value the things that are important. But there's one person you know that I would be so proud to watch you follow.  That's your dad.  Now you and Papa Bear are different, for sure, and we adore who you are!  But there are some things you would be wise to adopt from him even as you become more of you.

I hope you are as kind as he, as funny as he, and as sincere.  I hope you're as disciplined as he to keep both your mind and body in shape (you're doing great on the mind part so far...).

In whatever you do, I hope you are an artist like he, a teacher like he, and a student like he.  I hope you are an attentive, caring, and polite husband like he.   

I hope you cherish the simple things like he.  They are the best things.  And actually, they're rarely, if ever, things.

Love,

Mama Bear

What day is it?

Even though I've had a virtually non-existent school schedule the last two weeks, Howard's home now and it's officially summer.  I knew it was the sign of a great one to come when we both wondered today what day it was.  

Ahhhh.  And it's only the first Monday. :-)

In other news, Jonah is at an awkward age for summer I feel like.  He thinks he's ready for finger painting and slip n' slides and day camps at the nature center...but I'm just not quite sure.  I sort of think he needs to learn to walk first...

In any case, he sure is a sweet, sweet baby.  Even though he's looking less and less like a baby and more and more like a little boy.

Sigh.

Books!

Summer means reading to me.  The kind of reading where you truly get lost in a story because you're traveling to a faraway place of beauty that seems like it should be familiar, but it only is because the author has captivated your imagination so well.  The kind of reading that comes to you, and you don't have to work for it.  The kind of reading that is so entertaining it makes you feel guilty for wasting time until you realize you've learned something new about yourself or someone else or everyone.  This is the kind of reading that makes a summer spectacular.  

It helps to know your genre.  This has taken me a long time to discover, and I thank Alexander McCall Smith for helping me do so.  While I do appreciate biographical history, philosophy, apologetics, or personal finance books, what I actually most purely delight in is an easy read with a fantastic setting (usually Scotland or France), fiction (so as not to take it too seriously) with undertones of truth and discovery.

I just finished this little treat and it was delightful:

I also just devoured this and can't say enough about it!  It was so fun, especially for a Francophile!

The author, Peter Mayle, was recommended to me by a friend and when I also learned he wrote A Good Year, the book one of Howard's and my favorite movies is based on, I knew I'd like him.  I can't wait to read more by him!  

Isn't it so great when you find an author you love and he or she has written a ton?!  (Yes, I'm looking at you, Harper Lee.)

I am now onto this little adventure by McCall Smith, who has currently landed me on Grand Cayman.  A great summer reading destination!

And I absolutely can't wait for this purchase to guide my devotionals the next several weeks, Beth Moore's new study on 1 and 2 Thessalonians:

 

What are you reading this summer?