Someone has created a monster.

Ladies and gentlemen, I have discovered Instagram. I'm sure this has come 8 years behind the rest of the planet, and by the time I've tinkered and fiddled around enough to know what's what, everyone else will be on to the next great thing, but nevermind :)

I've taken pictures of the silliest things this weekend, including but not limited to our shower curtain; here are the ones that have made the highfalutin cut:

Hooray for free fun! :)

A pep talk

Boy, there's all kinds of videos popping up on here lately, isn't there?

This one's so fantastic, it's like a great, big hug on a Saturday morning :)

Into the great wide open

Our weekend was full of some of my favorite weekend things: people we love, a good bit of laziness mixed with a healthy dose of moving about, and some seriously awesome planning for seriously awesome summertime adventures.

First, we spent Friday evening with Caleb and Jen, discussing the very important topic of camping in the Hoh Rain forest on the Olympic Peninsula and also on the coast during Long Beach's sandcastle building contest, which made me want to run right home and dig out our tent and sleeping bags.

Then, Derek and Sara stayed the rest of the weekend with us and we applied for a permit to hike and camp in the Enchantments, which is an impossibly beautiful section of the Cascade Mountains. Permission to roam around up there is based on a lottery system, so if we're lucky duck enough, this is what we'll be in the middle of at the end of July:

(Photos captured by Derek - who else? - on their trip in 2009.)

And the four of us rounded everything out by registering for the Survivor Mud Run in June:

I try not to let thoughts of future fun rob me of the fun going on right now, but man, it's hard not to be crazy excited for what we have in the works a few months down the road :)

Love on the 14th ♥

Just a quick glimpse into what things looked like around here yesterday, and two sweet videos that remind us to cheer on all different kinds of love on Valentine's Day...

A great big sigh of grateful

Precisely 21 days ago I very foolishly challenged a box in the back seat of my car to a wrestling match. The box won and my poor, poor, very poor back lost. Please, if you possibly can, avoid back sprains at all costs.

My convalescence has included an inordinate amount of time both in bed and in the bath, many moons spent with a heating pad and an ice pack, a handful of muscle relaxers and just last week, the beginning of physical therapy. It has included very little productive work of any kind and certainly not a stitch of anything involving exercise.

{It has also, for the 7 millionth time, caused me to tumble head over heels in you-know-what with my Jan Michael, who has washed dishes, folded laundry, swept floors and on and on, in order that I might rest and heal. There's a lovely silver lining in everything, isn't there?}

Anyway, today - for the first time in precisely 21 days - we were able to take a walk. Going outside for the sake of going outside after what has seemed like a century was so refreshing, I almost cried. I'm tempted to say I'll never take a healthy, cooperative body for granted again, but human nature being what it is (or mine, at least), that kind of declaration seems a little bit hasty. It's something to work toward, though :)

And maybe tomorrow we'll be able to go out again and make a pit-stop at the park for some time on the swings!

Love on a Friday morning

Double click on the video for the full screen - you don't want to miss any of this :)

Into the new year

This has been the nicest post-holiday week.  There have been naps (one almost every day I think!) and baths (just as many!) and the reading of fun new books (some in bed and some in the tub!). Plus, the weather has been glorious: cold as all get-out, but the sun and the clouds and sky have been impossible to ignore. I've taken two meandering walks, one to the grocery store and one to the library, and have been blinded in the best way by the sunset. I've also started carrying the camera with me whenever I leave the house because I don't want to miss any of it :)

Christmas cheer

 Our Christmas was really lovely, spent quietly with (most of) our dearest ones. Here's a quick peek:

It was a total treat to have Carlos with us on Christmas Eve. He and Jan Michael spent most of the day playing mad scientists, doing things like building a volcano with baking soda and vinegar and blue food coloring (blue lava is lots neater than red, for real!) and making a hovercraft with an old CD and a balloon. Between experiments, he and I sat ourselves down with a mountain of frosting and sprinkles, decorating cookies for his Mom, who was working and wasn't able to join us. 

Brent worked most of the day, too, but was able to be with us for an enormous (and delicious!) dinner. (And for the record, I am a staunch protester of people having to work on holidays. And for a second record, I protest people having to work on Christmas Eve, too.) 

Then, Christmas Day! 

My Mama and I are in complete agreement that one of the sweetest memories we'll carry with us from this Christmas was watching Dad and Jan Michael carry on our Oma's tradition of making strudels. Oma would have been 106 that day; we very fondly toasted her at dinner :) 

They floured and oiled and stretched and rolled and in the end, made enough for an army. 

Our family needs enough for an army. We take strudel eating very seriously.

And then there was more cookie decorating...

And potato peeling (strudels without potatoes is a travesty)...

And I shirked kitchen duty by running around all over the place with the camera, but I did manage to take a minute out of my busy schedule for this: 

I have a husband who continually outdoes himself in the gift-giving arena, as proven by our matching pajama pants. The hills were alive with my happy shrieking when I opened them up, and we've decided one of the secrets to a long and happy marriage is pretending to be superheroes together :)

And just like that, another merry, merry Christmas has been written on our hearts. 

A resolute confession

Earlier this month, when we were housebound due to the creeping crud, we started listening to The Chronicles of Narnia on CD. (If you haven't done this, you should! Cuddle up and you'll have a cozy way to spend these long winter evenings, we promise!) Last week, we were somewhere in the middle of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and we heard something I've not stopped thinking about since.

Reepicheep, the (brave! valiant!) mouse who is an ally to Prince Caspian, realizes he's lost his tail in a battle and says, "I am confounded...I am completely out of countenance."

Do you know what? Completely out of countenance is exactly what I've been for days and weeks and even months, and while it's charming in a tiny talking mouse, it's not quite so flattering on me. I've allowed circumstances - and not bad or even slightly bad circumstances, just situations which have not proceeded according to my ideas and expectations - rob me of gladness and thanksgiving and courtesy. No, wait. The way in which I've responded to those situations has robbed me of those things. I have, in an awful nutshell, been throwing a long and constant temper tantrum, and when I stop to consider my behavior, it makes me cringe and squirm.

I'm so sorry that Jan Michael has been front and center, smack dab in the line of fire for all of this, but I'm also vastly relieved that he, the person who loves and understands me best, is the only one who has seen the worst of it. (And that, without question, he loves me still.)

Yuck and ick.

BUT! We are on the verge of a bright and shiny new year, and in it I am going - no ifs, ands or buts - to learn more about being content.

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for He hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." Hebrews 13:5 

"...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content...I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Phillipians 4:11,13

Here are some of my favorite outdoor pictures from this last year, and I love them because when my attitude and heart are right, and I'm resting contentedly in God's love for me through Jesus, this is what everything, no matter what it is, looks like:

Prostate cancer

Prostate cancer is serious business. Let's talk about it for a second, ok?

- Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. About 1 man in 6 will be diagnosed with prostate cancer in his lifetime. 

- Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in American men, behind only lung cancer. About 1 man in 36 will die of prostate cancer. 

- Prostate cancer is very rare in men younger than 40, but the chance of having prostate cancer rises rapidly after age 50. Almost 2 out of 3 prostate cancers are found in men over the age of 65. 

- Having a father or brother with prostate cancer more than double's a man's risk of developing the disease.

That's obviously just the tip of the iceberg where prostate cancer facts and figures are concerned, but we want to share these things because men's health is an issue that seems not to be discussed as openly as, for example, women's health and breast cancer. This is something that's become very personal to us as our Dad was diagnosed in September. So, we want to do our small part in helping spread awareness, which will help promote early detection, which will help increase survival rates, and everyone's the better for it, yes?

Punch prostate cancer in the face, we say!! 

Wonder boys

One week ago today we were scurrying around, packing bags and yelling, "Do not forget your passport!" 

 One week ago tomorrow we were squeezing Derek and Caleb and telling them how much we'd missed them (although words can't really do justice to those kinds of feelings) and marveling at how tall they've grown and how perfect their French accents have become. 

And then, one week ago Monday we were wishing we could stay a day longer instead of having to drop them off for school and rushing to the ferry ourselves. Every time we visit, it's impossibly difficult to leave them, but it does help to know that we'll certainly see them again. And between hugging them hello and kissing them good-bye, we celebrated Caleb's 6th birthday, Derek's 8th, and their Daddy's 31st with singing and cake and and a pile of presents. We put together Legos and lit off a vinegar-and-baking-soda-powered rocket. We laughed at hearing the word 'Roger' repeated 17,000 times while they played with their new walkie-talkies. And my Auntie heart almost burst at watching the two of them and their Uncle Jan wrangle a bunch of pesky ghosts with a makeshift tripod-turned-ghost-buster and immense amounts of enthusiasm. 

Until next time, you precious nephews..

One thing I'm grateful for is this: If they have to live so very far away, at least they're in a place where the ocean is right at their fingertips and the sky is is so beautiful, it's almost unbelievable. Maybe as they grow, they'll find as much awe and peace in these parts of God's creation as I do. 

This one is being framed pronto:

A valley October

Congratulations to October for winning the very lofty prize of my favorite fall month!