Fridays

Last week my sister-in-law started a new Friday ritual on her blog: a single photograph, no words called {this moment}. The idea is to capture a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment to pause, savor and remember. (I paraphrased this from Heidi's blog - for a better explanation, and to read an awesome blog, go here http://inthebeaverstate.blogspot.com/2010/04/fridays.html and scroll to the end of the post.)

I like the idea, so you can look for "This Moment" on Fridays here as well...it may be hard for me to post without a caption because I am afraid that 10 years from now (I'll be honest, it could be 10 days)I'll forget exactly what it was about that moment in time that tugged on my heart just so. I may have to leave a little caption to jog my memory...


{Self Dressing}

Jargon

stand-down or stand·down (stnddoun)
n.
A relaxation from a state of readiness or alert.


Have you ever heard that term before? It is a military term, but Jimmy and I use it all the time - very appropriate when parenting multiple children, with multiple issues and multiple commitments.

Alison : Jimmy, I may need to you take Emmalena to practice if Ali is sick tonight.
Jimmy: Okay, let me know.
Later that day...
Alison: Jimmy, stand down, Ali is doing fine - I will take Emmalena.

Alison: If one more kid asks me for something my head may explode. When will you be home?
Jimmy: 6PM
Phone rings later
Jimmy:I am going to be 30 minutes late, but I will hurry.
Alison: Stand down, everyone is behaving. My head is intact.

Another term I have learned from Jimmy is "noted." This is used when someone (usually a superior officer) requests that you do something that you don't really want to do, or when they comment on something you have said or done, and not in a positive way. While you may not have to do what they asked of you, you are not in a position to share your true opinion on the request or comment, which is always contrary to theirs, so you just say "noted."

In our house, "noted" has turned into "I heard what you said, don't care, but don't want to start and argument so I will acknowledge that you have made a request or spoke your opinion on something and that's about it."

Jimmy: Would it be possible for you to get the piles cleared off the kitchen counter today?

Alison: Noted.

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Alison: Do you think it would be possible for you to brush your teeth without running the water, wasting one of our most precious natural resources and passing your bad habit on to our children?

Jimmy: Noted.

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Jimmy: (After 8 boxes have fallen on him from the garage shelving) Do we really have to have all of these boxes?

Alison: Noted

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Alison: Is there a reason recycling is so painful for you?

Jimmy: Noted.

Will I ever tame my kitchen piles or my need for boxes? Will Jimmy ever embrace recycling and quit being a water waster? I don't know. But, after 17+ years of being together, we have developed quite the system for dealing with our issues!

Future SiLs

This is our babysitter Maddie. We absolutely love her and her family. She has two brothers and I am determined (as if I have a say in it) that one of my girls marries one of her brothers. We can run this picture at the wedding slide show!

Bedtime with Ali

Snow Day

More proof

Pizza that is delivered to your door, hot and ready to eat, along with paper plates -more proof of God's love.

Lucky Me

Thirteen years ago today, my brother married the beautiful girl in this picture. He got a wife, and I got a friend who has been there for me through thick and thin.

Happy Anniversary!

TFT

"When you love someone, you do not love them all the time, in exactly the same way, from moment to moment. It is an impossibility. It is even a lie to pretend to. And yet this is exactly what most of us demand. We have so little faith in the ebb and flow of life, love, of relationships. We leap at the flow of the tide and resist in terror its ebb. We are afraid it will never return."

Ann Morrow Lindbergh