thankful overload

I'm on thankful overload. I haven't been able to narrow down a Thanksgivingish bloggy post to something that makes sense because my brain keeps reeling through images of my life and I've narrowly escaped panic at the realization that I am so blessed that I don't know how to show enough gratitude. It's not balanced. How can a person be this blessed?


This is a little earlier this morning. A parent sits/lays anywhere in this house and there is an influx of little people who want to be ON TOP of them. (Right after I snapped this picture, #4 tipped over and hit her head and cried. Both babies started waiving - the sign for "nigh-night" - and they were promptly put into thier cribs where they stood right up and grabbed onto the rails to look at eachother and baby talk.)



There is so much beauty in this world. Surely it balances out the ugliness.

There is so much love. I hope that everyone feels it. It is enough love that I might burst. (how can I be this blessed?)



There is enough good in people that we can share what we have with eachother and be more balanced. Surely there is enough good. I wish I could take pictures of the good and put Good on display.



How many things I am thankful for. Some of them are silly. Like markers and cookies and toenail polish. Some of them are eternal. Like family and love and God. And everything in between.



Happy Thanksgiving, friends and family.

Much love,
Britt

the beeg weenah!

Sorry I’m late! I got a little busy and ran out of time.

But this morning after the big kids were on the bus and the babies were back in bed, I had the middle child pick a name out of a pottery bowl that my little mommy made.



She chose…


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Lucky Candice!

She’s lucky yet again. I’m thinking of dubbing myself Lucky Brittany just because that will undoubtedly change my entire life.

Thanks for playing with me.

Just so you know, as I was cutting out your little names and placing them into the bowl my heart was happy looking at this collection of people that I love. Thanks for making my life feel full of good people which in turn brings joy.

I’m planning on doing a few more give-aways before Christmas, so stay tuned…

Smooches,
Britt

late bloomer (beautiful rebel)

When the rain stopped coming down and the sun poured through the window, I walked outside. Then I saw her. That little knockout. She decided to bloom in late November, the rebel. Thank the heavens.






I can't talk--I've been a little sickie and I literally can't use my voice. I never knew how much I love my voice! I love to sing. LOVE. I sing all the time! It's a little annoying to my family (they make fun of me) because when they say something, I always sing a song with lyrics that match. Do you play that game? It's fun.

I also didn't know how much I use my voice to comfort the babies. It's sad. I go in to get them out of thier cribs and give them a big smile and they start laughing and jumping in thier cribs, but when they hear my squeek/whisper they give this look like, What's the deal? Are you really my mommy? Say something. With thier little furrowed brow, it's killing me!

There's so much to communicate and it's exausting. Last night I was trying to whistle my replies. An affirmative response=swee sweeeeee(it goes higher at the end.) Negative response=swee swoooooooo (it goes down at the end.) Jake announces: If you're getting annoyed, it's because mommy is trying to communicate by whistling.



Okay, a little thankful list:
-DVR
-desitin (this is for the baby's bottom, you see.)
-comfortable clothes that can also look cute.
-foundation (this is for my splotchy face, you see.)
-that I'm married to the love of my life.
-and he's taking me out on a date tonight, voice or no voice.

ps-the comments close for the giveaway tonight at midnight! good luck!

tut, tut. looks like rain.

The other night while I was folding laundry, Jake was sitting on the couch with the oldest three surrounding him. They were still and quiet for once and the only peeps I heard were little fits of giggles. He had his secret weapon out: the iphone.

Have you ever seen anything like it? It is a serious tool.

Got loud children? There’s an app for that.

Then everyone starts wondering things out loud:

Is that a platypus?

What’s he doing?

He doesn’t have wings.

Then the wind came through carrying a cloud of “ooooooh”s and “that’s so cuuuuuute”s. A virtual storm of agreement that this was adorable.

“Play it again for mommy.”

So I squeeze into the fray (the screen isn’t that big, you know.) and they play it again for me. And as this little animated animal on the tiny screen feels joy, the lightning crashes and drops start to fall next to me in my own family room.



In other words, my daughter (10.5 years old) felt the joy right along with that little creature and she says, “Oh, he’s just so cuuuute! Oh, my eyes are getting wet…But it’s just so cuuuuute…I don’t know why my eyes are watering!” I tell her it’s because it made her cry and while everyone else is on to the next “best of youtube” she’s sitting there laughing and crying uncontrollably. Jake and I look at each other with that knowing look: and thus it begins. He says to the smaller children (who are now staring at thier big sister), "This is what happens when your big sister starts to become a young lady." And then she laughed and cried some more.

Here's the video if you want to watch it:



In other news, my awesome cousin Mikael started the coolest blog: Starter Home to Dream Home and I have been over there checking out all her creative projects going on in her home. And today she wrote a post about me and made me sound like a super hero. (If anyone saw me now, they’d know I’m just a sick little puppy in a messy house who has lost her voice.) You should go check out her cool projects.

My little friend Lucky Candice has posted our weekly pix at a Hop and a Skip. We’ve been doing TtV every other week. I’m going to be doing a tutorial on how to do TtV soon. It’s so much fun, you’ll want to try it out.

let's celebrate.

I’m 34 today! So in celebration, I decided to have a little sale over at the shop.
All aprons are $34.00 in honor of my birthday
and there will be free shipping on all items until Christmas.
(Because I’m tired of paying for shipping and I figured you were too.)

And now for a give-way...

I want to give someone a 4 oz. bottle of my handmade lotion.

To enter, just tell me something that you're thankful for in 3 words or less in the comments. I'll pick the big winnah on Saturday. (enter from now until Friday 11/20, midnight)

xox
Britt

Presenting: Affirmation No. 37

Life is such an interesting dichotomy of joy and pain. I find myself on top of the world and overwhelmed in gratitude and then stifling the hot tears of anger and frustration all within the same day. (Okay, sometimes the same ten minutes.) Maybe I’m weird. Maybe I’m so normal it’s ridiculous.

I’m a firm believer that I have a choice to react in love. If I make a conscious effort, I can bite my tongue even if I have the perfect retort; I can walk away even if I have the energy to fight; I can give my child a hug even if it seems like they don’t deserve it; I can let it roll off my back even if it was obviously offensive; I can forgive even if they haven’t changed their ways.

I wish I was perfect at it! But I am getting better and that’s what matters, right? Right?? Well, sometimes when I am on the verge of reacting with a human tendency instead of love (that’s right, love is better than being merely human, it is transcendent.), I say this to myself: I am a lover, not a fighter. Because fighting never got me any closer to who I want to be. Fighting never solved one single problem in my life. That’s right. I’m a lover.



Presenting: Affirmation No. 37 will be available at my shop soon. (would you rather have a print, a card, or a post card to choose from?)

overheard:

Phone rings.

Mrs. C: Hello?

#3: Hello. (awkward pause.)

Mrs. C: Hi, Honey.

#3: Can you tell Lily that I’m sick? I have the swine flu.

Mrs. C: I heard. I’m sorry, honey.

#3: Can you tell her that the swine flu is wicked bad?

Mrs. C: yes, honey, I’ll tell her.

#3: okay, thanks,

Mrs. C: Alright, I hope you feel better. Bye.

#3: bye. *turns off phone* Mom? Can you save some lots of money so that we can get Wii Music?




Okay, little rosey cheeked stripey jammied cute thing. Get back in bed.

Post edit:

We don't know if she officially has H1N1, but I thought her conversation was funny:)

interview

B: Well, hello, Mr. Squirrel. You are a mister, right?

S: {slight twitch}

B: Yes, I could tell. You know you are the first interview that I have done on my blog! Welcome, and thank you for joining me.

S: {clicking} (how does he do that?)

B: I remembered you from several weeks ago. You made quite an impression on our car-load of people. It had been a hard morning and I was grumpy from trying to get everyone out the door on time and I was scowling and the children were sulking in their seats. But after we saw you, we were all laughing for the rest of the car ride. What was your morning like?

S: squeak, squeek…squeek.

B: Mm hmmm. Had you been having trouble with the acorn all morning?

S: *nose wiggle*

B: I was wondering how the acorn escaped your grasp.

S: squeak, squeak. *running in circles*

B: Does that happen very often?

S: {staring}

B: Mmm. Well, that was quite a steep hill, so I’m sure the acorn got rolling really fast. You were about half way down the hill when we came upon you and it was such an unusual sight for us to witness a squirrel in pursuit of a runaway acorn.

Oh, there he goes. He’s a fast little bugger. I was just about to ask him if he actually caught up to the acorn before another car came upon the scene. It will have to wait until next time.

And there you have it! The first interview here on Whatever & Stuff.

Happy Sunday afternoon, friends!

smoochies

have a happy weekend!

glowing leaves

Japanese Maple showing off

Redbud Love

Ah, November.

I have a special kinship with November. It is my birth month. That’s right, I’m a scorpio. We’re mysterious and all that. What’s that? You don’t know any scorpios? Oh, well, you probably do but they don’t just come right out and tell you, they want to you to figure it out yourself. (Maybe it’s because we’re, um… mysterious.) Or it could be because our sign always scares people off. There’s that whole thing about being very jealous. (“watch out for the scorpio’s sting!”) But I think it’s a bunch of hoo-hah. (yes, hoo-hah.) I think it gets way to much play in scorpio’s horoscope.



I have a new little scorpio in my life. A new nephew. Isn’t he the sweetest? (yes, brittany, he is.) (scorpios are so controlling!) This new family is in heaven and you can’t help but feel it when you are around them. What a delight.



But that’s not all I love about November. It starts out great, what with all of the leftover candy from Halloween. (I was going to do a post with cute pictures, but I just have been too ridiculously busy. That’s a whole other post in itself.) Then we start to think about Thanksgiving and the focus of the whole month turns to gratefulness. What can be more uplifting?



The leaves have mostly dropped from the trees, doing their pretty little dance on their way down to the ground, but I have several Japanese Maples in my yard and they are in a fit of showy redness right now. I don’t remember this happening in the past. Last November I was on bed rest, and I don’t know what I focused on the year before, but this year, I’m focusing right on the bold little trees who are refusing to blend in. That’s right, let’s have all the beauty we can stand, little Japanese Maple, I’m right there with you. Maybe I’ll actually do my hair today and wear something snappy. (speaking of, I think I will start a portfolio of outfits my eldest comes up with—it is inspiring me to be more bold.) (there. I just did.)



Happy November, friends!