hey, mommy.

S has, as mentioned, been under the weather. Just a cold. No big deal. While she's a faucet of snot today, I can tell she feels better. "How," you ask. Because of the sheer quantity of "hey mommies" this morning.

"Hey, Mommy."

"Hey, S."

"Hey, Mommy."

"Yes, S, what do you want?"

"Mommy sit, too," or, "S go outside. Color chalk," or, "Cinderelly," or just more, "hey, mommy."

At one point this morning I flat out told her that if she didn't stop with the hey mommies that her mommy was going to lose it, so she needed to go play with her toys and leave me alone. And she did. For a really long time. I'm going to have to try that more often.

So, I hereby proclaim that "hey, mommy" is the sweetest sound that I hardly ever want to hear. I will say, however, that when she was going strong with "hey, daddy" last night, I found it hysterical. In a glad-its-not-me way.

MIA. no excuses.

I know, I know. I've been missing. I'm sure you were all worried that I'd been abducted by aliens or recruited to work for the President or laid up with Ebola or something. Alas, none of the above. I've just been boring, which is different than being bored.

We've not been doing anything terribly interesting. The fabulous weather went on vacation, leaving us with the dull gray and cold of winter for a few more weeks. I feel bad for the poor daffodils that thought their time had come. So, we've been indoors again, and though we've been able to play with Feathernester and L a lot, it's just been playtime. Nothing to write about.

Now, though, S and I are under the weather, so we aren't even playing. We skipped Kindermusik yesterday because S started coughing, and I didn't really want her hacking her germs at her friends. We skipped storytime at the Nashville library today, too. Boring, boring week at the Ouiser household. I'll have to think of something to do...

oh my ouch.

So, Simple Mom posted an article on budgeting yesterday. I've been meaning to look at our finances and re-budget since Christmas, but it took her article to get me focused. It's always miserable to think about budgeting. It makes me ill to see the number. You know, the number that indicates what you've got to spend on coffees, books, gifts, ice cream, new socks. I was looking at that number and thinking, oh my crap. We are broke. Quick, S, let's turn off everything that uses electricity. Then I realized that we save a substantial chunk of money every month, and I felt better because I know that I can keep myself from hitting the coffee shop when I know that it means that we, as a family, are more secure. Just the same, don't ask me out for coffee anytime soon:)

experience

I know I already blogged today, but I meant to post about this yesterday...

M and I had an interesting little conversation this weekend, and it turns out he'd gotten an email earlier in the week that involved the same topic. The internet is sucking the life out of a lot of our experiences. If you research something to the point of being an expert before you ever try anything hands-on, where's the fun? If I had started my little gardening hobby by doing excessive research, I think I would've chickened out. I would've known too much about what could have gone wrong. Instead, I've actually enjoyed my little failures, and truly appreciated my successes.

Anyway, I was telling M how much I loved that about gardening and composting...the learning process. The "figuring it out at kitchen tables." I'm the same with sewing. The same with art. The same with parenting. The same with cooking. I've found that the things I throw myself into with fairly reckless abandon (okay, a pretty calculated amount of reckless abandon) are the things that have made me happiest in life.

It's the exhaustive details of things that wear me out.

I desperately want to create an environment where S can learn through her experiences. I want her to know that it can be a good thing to fail...as long as you fail from trying. As long as you can learn from the failures. I desperately want to remember this idea every single day.

a broken record

I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but we are just loving our little warm spell. We've spent so much time outside over the past four days that I almost didn't even notice how badly my floors needed to be swept. Almost. Alas, I swept them this morning before we headed outside. It's just too easy to forget about the housekeeping side of things when you're busy stealing days of glorious weather away from old man winter.

Random things I've thought of during our time outside:

• As we played outside at my aunt's house yesterday, anxiously awaiting lunch, my cousin and I kicked a soccer ball around while M and my brother threw a frisbee and S wandered between the two and just generally ran around the yard. Watching us all bask in the sunshine with our little impromptu games, especially as my brother was wearing shorts, I stood there, thinking that we looked like the book/website Stuff White People Like threw up all over us. Seriously, that guy has us pegged. (This thought was further proven when, upon hearing that my brother and his girlfriend chose to go bowling instead of going to the park with her dog, I said, "what insane person would choose to go bowling inside instead of playing outside on a day like today?" Turns out they were going with her sister, and I declared that my brother must seriously like this girl. He always picks outside.)
• As S and I played with some friends at the park down the street, I thought to myself that she never, ever looks prettier than when her cheeks are flushed pink from running and being outside.
• While we were hiding in J's "secret clubhouse" at the park (a little hidden cove under some magnolia trees), I thought to myself that that particular space is almost like a little piece of heaven. It's brilliant.
• Upon arriving at home, as I sat reading Snow White to S, I couldn't help but smile at the stinky kid smell coming off her. You know the smell, right? It's the smell of outside. Sunshine and dirt.
  

I don't want this weather to end, but I know it will. I know it is February. All we can do is enjoy all of it while it's here.

Oh, and S's wardrobe for today included a purple fairy ribbon skirt over her cords, her pink crocs, and for quite a while, my sweater tied around her shoulders like a cape. She was quite a sight to behold as she ran around outdoors like that. Too precious. It makes me gag a little.

a perfectly wonderful day

Today has been fantastic. I couldn't write a much better day. M and I woke up this morning before S and laughed ourselves silly talking about nothing in particular. When S woke up, she was snuggly, so she and M cuddled on the couch watching Aladdin while I tidied up the kitchen and made coffee. S and I had cheerios with strawberries (I know they were trucked in from Florida. They were still delish, and I wholeheartedly believe they've added to the cheeriness of my day). S and I played in the backyard while M de-Otis-bombed it. We went to the farm and had lunch with my granddaddy and played outside with the puppy and the cat, and we mooed at the cows. S is napping now, and I've made a lemon cake. I'm thinking we should take a walk to the coffee shop after her nap and go play in the green park. We're having BLTs for dinner with the cake for dessert. This day has been great, a great day of nothing special but lots of happy.Oh, and S and I went to the zoo yesterday. She is now loving the "mary cats" Or the meerkats. Whatever. Why do all kids love those little guys??

happy

I made myself so insanely happy yesterday. I got new Sharpies. That's all it took to totally make my day. Today's crazy simple dose of happiness will come from roasting the chicken that's busily coming to room temperature on my kitchen counter right now. We'll be having it with mashed potatoes and the baguette that I picked up this morning. I am so, so excited. I'm also excited about the spinach I'll be sauteing with garlic, but I'm certain I'll be the only one excited about that one.

Oh, and here are a couple of pictures featuring last weekend's glorious weather.