but today, i have to say, it’s a great day to be alive.

travis tritt style even.

and yep. i totally just embedded a video of a mullet-clad country singer.
cause, to be honest, that’s how i role many days.

can i get a WHO-RA! new hampshire?

but for real. the sun’s been shining, my bare tootsies have been smiling, my children are covered in dirt and i’m singing.

also, we’ve been here a whole lot.

which a certain someone takes very seriously.

his sister, however, has bigger fish to fry; like the pebble variety that inevitably make their way into her shoes. harrumph.

not to worry, this wild one can’t be slowed for long.

except maybe for the occasional, life-sized, granny smith.
(rumor has it she even made it onto the live radio broadcast as the “little girl in the stands eating the enormous apple”.)

and in other news, we’ve been on a complete chocolate high the easter bunny came!

and we welcomed him/her with open arms.

and of course, the obligatory egg hunt.

next year, note to bunny self, do not mix candy with special rocks. funny how hard to distinguish the two can be.

and to be honest, the past few weeks have left me totally blissed out.

happy spring. i hope you all are finding your inner shine and letting it go buck wild.

(photo credit: bliss sisters)

justin left for work about 9 and in that time, one hour and three minutes, J has been sanctioned to his room indefinitely and lost the privelidge of ice cream with daddy tonight.

it’s rough being almost four. and almost thirty one, for that matter.

in fact, today it’s even rough to be two and a half.

but dang. isn’t that little pixie cut just too cute for words.

i agree.

today is one of those days in perpetual morning mode. that is, you feel like it should be 3pm but it’s only 10:20. so you give your kids lunch at 10:42, nap at 11:37 and call it a day.

may the force be with us all.

maybe someone can lend some insight?

what is it about guys and movies. specifically, what is it with my husband and movies? here’s the common occurrence at our home post-kid bedtime:

the tv is turned on to one of six movies (step brothers, wedding crashers, the hangover, the patriot, gladiator, 300 or troy) which inevitably play on a non-stop loop seven days a week. and the movie is inevitably at least 1/3 of the way over.

i mean. truly, how many times can you watch the same god forsaken movie. in the same week. about the same thing.

moving along…

since i’m sitting on my deck wearing shorts and a t-shirt on march 14th (connecticut is the new north carolina in case you wondered) and the year 2012 is so quickly speeding on by, i thought i’d go back to a little new year’s resolution blog from january.

…aspire to incorporate. bring it awn 2012.
i’ve decided that this year is going to be one of my best yet.
afterall, it may be the last one ever so might as well go out with a bang, no?
i’ve never been one for new years resolutions. somehow they never seem to work for me (or the other 50 billion who try).
so this year i’m not making any specific, quantitative goals. i am not going to loose 3 or 5 or 7 pounds. i will not go to the gym 3 times per week. i will not limit my discretionary clothing fund to $35. i will not only buy one new pair of shoes.
but there are things i will do. things i am going to incorporate, not resolve to do.
they are, in no particular order:
breathe.
move.
dance.
be me. all the time, even when it feels easier to adapt and change.
make love to my husband. a lot.
eat less sugar.
watch my aunt beat breast cancer.
stop re-arranging furniture.
breathe.
run the cranberry race with my mom.
drink better wine.
skype with the distant loves in my life.
keep paco cinco alive.
resurrect our love fern.
create.
laugh.
execute.
see the hawks win. often.
not only understand that the answers i seek lie within but believe it.
let go.
enjoy.
there are probably a million more. but these are the most important, the most doable and will be the most rewarding; this i know.

and i thought i’d go down the ‘ol list and take stock of how i’m doing nearly 1/3 of the way through the year.

so, here goes.

move. check. i bought a groupon for a kick ass gym called muvement and am trying to find a way to make a monthly membership fee manageable.
dance. ah, yes. doing a lot of that via our ipod ’round the kitchen island.
be me. all the time, even when it feels easier to adapt and change. WIP (work in progress.) have joined an awesome church which is most def ME. feeling more confident and inspired by myself. so, yeah. check.
make love to my husband. a lot. always a WIP, but check.
eat less sugar. needs improvement.
watch my aunt beat breast cancer. the best check of all. my auntie lulu is cancer-free.
stop re-arranging furniture. i have learned: this is not possible. i apologize to friends who attempt to place beverages on side tables that no longer exist.
breathe. holy shit do full, deep breaths taste extraordinary.
run the cranberry race with my mom. need to sign up. but have made progress towards thinking about attempting to someday soon sign up for a warrior dash. does that count?
drink better wine. check. and wow, fewer headaches!
skype with the distant loves in my life. needs improvement.
keep paco cinco alive. so far so good. check.
resurrect our love fern. re-potted in new spiffy pot with enriched soil. watering weekly and sunning daily. fingers crossed.
create. hmmm. i have taken on a couple new clients who i’ve been creating for. check.
laugh. check.
execute. always a WIP for me, but an A for attempting.
see the hawks win. often. welp, one win. but we saw it. and J cut his hair into a moHAWK to help their chances. this is also a WIP.
not only understand that the answers i seek lie within but believe it. amen.
let go. check.
enjoy. yessem.

my days are filled with much to be thankful for and much to work towards, always. including bare tootsies sticking out of windows.

i hope yours are too.

happy wednesday,

hannah

point in case number one:

this morning after a leisurely sleep-in and re-heated (but still totally delish) pancakes and fresh, hot coffee (insert here, yes Justin is totally awesome. and no, i will never share or trade him, sorry.) i realized it was a little quiet. a little too quiet.

upon further inspection, and to my wildest amazement, J was quietly playing with his trains, splayed out on the living room floor and h was silently diapering her babies (case in point #9,854 why cloth diapers are totally the best way to go – they become doll diapers.)

huh. well, maybe i’ll just slide down into this here chair with my piping cup ‘o joe and do some work. we all know that the moment my rear hits the seat and the first sip of smooth hotness cascades down my throat that a finger will get stuck in spencer’s coal-tender and somehow a baby spoon will get lodged in a two year old’s ear. this is reality and it is totally expected.

but nope. not a word. even after the baby feeding re-located upstairs to baby tucking-in, still not a word.

second cup of piping hot joe down (seriously, moms, when does that ever happen?) and just about to pop a bottle of bubbly to celebrate and i hear some mild whining and a few muffled words and one not so muffled word beginning with poo and ending in oop, from upstairs.

and this my friend is when that dear old phrase comes in. because we all know, at some point it was too good and it is true.

my ever so independent 2 year old had decided that she could poop in her potty-now-used-as-stepping-stool in her bedroom. which although i don’t promote, i don’t necessarily have a problem with – so long as i am there to supervise. but this morning there was a glitch in the pj bottoms and undies and which to pull down and in what order ending in a pro-longed struggle to get bare bottom seated and centered.

in other words, poop half in the pants, half on the thigh, smidge on the calf and hunk on the sole of the foot and wherever said foot decided to move in said struggle. followed by a valiant cleaning effort involving poop on the hands, poop in the hair and poop (admittedly discovered 5.5 hours later) on the radiator.

three piping hot cups of coffee would have been way too much. you’re right.

my second point in case doesn’t involve kids or, thank your lucky stars, poop. it involves one of the really great things that has happened to me in the last few months. which i’m starting to think might just be good and a whole lotta true.

in which case, there really wouldn’t be a point in case number two.

alas, i will share it with you anyhow because it is just a whole lotta good.

(six days later when i finally get around to opening wordpress again…)

we started going to church a couple of months ago. by we, i mean myself the kids and justin when he can. and i’m not so religious, really, as spiritual. i believe in a lot of things, from a lot of different places and times. some high, some low, mostly within.

my beliefs don’t really matter to any of you, so i won’t bore you with them. but i am over the moon ecstactic about the church that i found just a few miles from our home; full of love, light, insight, knowledge, openness and purpose. where my children attend a class called ‘spirit play’, where floor to ceiling windows give way to endless streams of light and inspiration.

where an acoustic guitar played by a woman in jeans reverberates with tunes from ziggy marley and aimee mann. where a 24 year old black, gay female poet stands in the pulpit and performs a poem entitled, “Radical Homosexual Agenda”.

a place where my children will be educated in all kinds of religions, encouraged to be true to themselves, to care for our planet Earth, to treat all people fairly and kindly and to believe in working for a peaceful, fair and free world.

can i get an AMEN!

feeling connected, spiritually and within this new chapter of my community has been the icing on the cake for me in my most recent quest to hannah-hood.

i’m quite sure some things that seem too good to be true are. but i’m equally sure that sometimes things are just good. and right.

and if you work really fucking hard to unearth that goodness when you finally do it just surges.

storm surges in a very rainbow-y way.

J's painting self-titled, 'rainbow storm'.

*special thanks to my dad and stepmother for introducing me to UU at an early age and for encouraging me to find like-mindedness in my community through UU in adulthood. i love you.

i hope it was fantastic.

how was mine you ask?

i’d say this photo sums it up pretty nicely.

pretty damn perfectly, actually.

onward to friday.

i think i can.

i think i can.

i think i can.

- hannah

something that came into my life last week and has almost ah, completed me.

you see for the past two and a half years i’ve been washing down removable potty seats after every single pee and poo my children have excreted. yep, i just wrote the word excreted.

and yes, this life-changing event is centered around a potty. bear with me. (snort) no pun intended.

our first one was on clearance at tjmaxx for like $4. obviously J thought it was way cool. and yes, it helped him conquer the whole it’s-not-ok-to-poop-in-ya-draws thing. great. but the stream of his pee went directly in between the top and bottom portion of the seat resulting in continuous, non-stop leaky pee syndrom. otherwise known as mom throws the potty seat into the tub and scrubs it all.damn.day.long.

when H decided she, too, was ready to lose the poo in her draws i purchased yet another one.

( i know they look exactly the same but somehow they weren’t. i swear.)

and although this one didn’t need a tubbie after each use it did need a wipe down. which might seem insignificant to most but after an average of 5-10 times per day for over 600 days…yeah. significant.

i’m about to get a litlte emotional with you.

ready?

this is our toilet. (i tried to make it look all ethereal, can you tell?)

it is used for many things as you can imagine. even matching games.

and this, my friends, is the inside of our toilet.

notice anything different about the lid?

uh huh. you got it.

a built in little-tush seat.

do you people know how much extra time i have these days? incredible.

yes, i understand it’s not going to win any aesthetic awards. trust me, not much of the nitty gritty of parenting is either.

can i get a H A L L E L U J A H up in here!

that is all.

if you are soaking or wiping a potty seat more than twice per day get off your duff and buy this.

oh and just to wet your pallet even more, the toddler seat is magnetic. so your kiddo just has to shut the (no slam!) lid down and voila…tiny seat re-stuck to big-bum seat. genius.
and yes, i said no slam.

g’day friends!

- hannah