My mind easily goes to scarcity: not enough sleep, not enough money, not enough time in a day to get everything done. It helps me to look back on these pictures and remember how full and abundant our lives are, even with barely enough of everything to get by. I may be pre-occupied with stretching out food dollars (there is a lot of pasta, oatmeal and peanut butter involved) and trying to maximize every minute of every day, but life happens anyway. Somehow my kids don't miss it. Their giggles, roars and loud outbursts of song pull me into the present. I giggle, wiggle and run through the sprinkler with them. They remind me that the scarcity I feel is only an illusion. What's real is the present moment, the connections, the time we are experiencing together. What would I be like without kids? Would I have everything (sleep, money, time) or would I still feel like I didn't have enough? Hard to say!
We do need a bit more of an income, though, so I am starting to work again starting this coming week. It involves 3-4 new students (one beginner), and I am already being hard on myself to be the most perfect wonderful piano teacher these kids could ever have. Wishing I had more time to come up with crazy awesome lesson plans. (See how a scarcity mindset works?) Wishing my kids weren't so demanding so I could finish the dishes and go about writing my studio policies. (Ugh, multi-tasking with my brain is draining). Wishing I could be a perfect mom and a perfect teacher and a perfect housekeeper. I decided to take a break from kicking myself in the head with my thoughts and instead pour out a little of my story through pictures and fun memories. This is the stuff that's real...
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| In a rare moment of sunshine, Wesley naps snuggled in his crib. He loves the feel of a blanket and instantly calms himself down if he feels one nearby. He also uses my hair like a blanket which means my hair is usually a big knot. |
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| Zac's dad Mike came down for Memorial Day weekend. We enjoyed a round of golf Memorial Day morning. |
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| Mike took us out for dinner afterwards. Both boys wanted to snuggle with him at once. |
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| The Erhardt family! Everett is growing so big and cute. I love his big blue eyes and his smile is adorable. Still a little baby, though! |
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| Wesley plays the piano and drum, sometimes at the same time. Usually he sings, too. He also starts singing as soon as he picks up William's ukelele. |
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| Our friend Rachel is the keyboard goddess of our little trio, Ayd Mill Road. Rachel hangs out with us when it's not practice time, too. She and Eric watched the boys while we went out for a date night recently. |
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| Alex is our fiddle maestro. He improvises to any sort of tune we throw at him. I love his double-stop tuning for my newest song, "No Man's Land." He makes us laugh a lot, too (I know he won't take that personally). :) |
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| May 31st was one of my most favorite days this year to date. I went to hear Van Jones speak with Diane. I bought his book, "Rebuild the Dream." His book is like my music, but much more specific. :) He was hilarious, inspiring and full of intelligent, compassionate ideas. U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison gave me a high-five. Then it was off to our show at Precision Grind! |
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| Well, here we are performing at Precision Grind in Minneapolis. I was excited several folks from the Community of St. Martin came out (the coffee shop is in Seward neighborhood). We shared the night with a band from Fargo called Less Than Organic. |
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| Happy Birthday, me! June 2nd Wesley was horribly sick with hand-foot-mouth. It entails fever, blisters on your throat, and rash on your feet and hands among other places. For Wesley, it meant a lot of pain and a lot of sleep. We had my party in a small little park and ate our picnic on the ground, ant-style. |
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| Emily was William's preschool teacher at ECFE this year. After spring break she needed to quit teaching because she found out she has breast cancer. Upon arriving to her first treatment, she found out it is stage 4. I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with her and we still enjoy seeing her when we aren't sick and she is strong enough. Cancer is the worst. I hate it I hate it I hate it. |
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| My mom and her friend, Cheryl (right) enjoyed a weekend at St. Olaf celebrating their 45th College reunion. You read that right. Forty-fifth! Yet don't look a day over 50. Connie (middle) and Cheryl are lifelong friends and like aunties to Eric and I. |
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| Jill Cadwell, Zach Crosby and their baby, Chestnut! |
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| Sasha takes the plunge (just a couple weeks after marrying Peter, which was even more of a plunge!) |
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| William got hand-foot-mouth, too. His erupted as a slight fever and a horrible body rash. You can see his cheeks and chin still show it. He was not nearly as sick as Wesley, thankfully. |
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| Grandma Sorum is here for snuggles! |
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| Grandma Olson is here for more snuggles! |
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| The short story is our practically brand-new mower broke (while Zac was mowing the neighbor's lawn). Zac's dad bought us a new one for a birthday present. It's electric, no cord! |
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| We are on our way to Sarah's wedding shower in Neenah, WI. This is one happy guy! |
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| Best travel buddy ever. |
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| I couldn't pick my favorite photo of the two of us. You get them all! |
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| I am crazy lucky to have the family I do. This is my sister-cousin Miriam. We're at an Applebee's celebrating Sarah's shower and a couple of graduations. She earned her Master's in Kinesthiology and Paul (her husband) graduated with his Doctorate in Biology! They did this while raising their twins (Daniel and Annalise, now 8) through the Early Childhood years. I am so proud of them. |
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| Wesley takes in the crowd at Sarah's shower. This is the only picture that turned out ok. |
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| Miriam and Wesley. |
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| Miriam, Paul and Wesley. Miriam and Paul are his and William's godparents. William couldn't come because he was still sick. |
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| The bride-to-be with her wonderful groom. Welcome to the crazy Blom family, Mark! |
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| I love to see my mom with her siblings & in-laws. She has fun! :) |
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| So do they! (My Aunt Beth) |
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| We played whiffle-ball baseball for quite a long time with Daniel and Annalise. |
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| The next morning, it was time to head home. |
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| And it was time to say goodbye to mi amigo, Diane. We went out for one more time for a girl-chat and glass of wine. We split an awesome brownie. We talked about us visiting Peru. We talked about the last 8 years. We didn't cry. I dropped her off at the airport early in the morning, June 12. She wanted to make sure her luggage would get checked in and so we made a plan that I would loop around the airport (having forgotten my cell phone at home). We hugged good-bye and she said she would wait for me at the same door to give me a thumbs up or thumbs down. We still didn't cry. I looped around twice and saw her there with a big smile and a thumbs up. I burst into tears and blew her a kiss. She blew it back and stood there biting her lip. It was suddenly real and she was on her way to Peru. I know we won't have money to go, so it will be a long time before we share another glass of wine and brownie. She was my "bestie" here in St. Paul and, no matter how trite my complaint, she would always lend a sympathetic ear. I miss that girl! :'( |
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| My mom and dad came back that weekend to hear Eric's choir concert (Hymnos). They spent all of Monday playing with the boys. These are especially happy days in our house. I am happy because I get caught up on housework. Everyone else is happy because they are playing and having fun. William was not sleeping well, and that puts him in a sour mood, but Grandma and Grandpa can handle these things. |
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| Wesley is almost walking now. He needs an extra leg sometimes. |
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| The first sweet corn of the season! |
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| After we got done with hand-foot-mouth Wm & Ws both contracted colds. Runny noses for 10 days each. |
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| Standing! (In the tub! Yikes!) |
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| Wesley makes a "vroom" sound as he walks with his car. |
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| Grandma Olson's birthday party at Old Country Buffet June 15! Who doesn't love 2nds and 3rds? |
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| Everett! See how cute his smile is? I am so excited to be an auntie! |
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| I made Zac a special breakfast for Father's Day (June 16). William enjoys doing a "cheers" with Daddy. |
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| I also made a special dinner for Zac's birthday, the next day. I ordered his birthday present on Amazon but it hadn't come yet. |
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| And then the doorbell rang! Great timing! I bought him a new wireless stereo. We are listening to way more music now we can easily play the music we like from our computer or internet. I do keep MPR going much of the day, too. |
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| William sometimes treats Wesley like a doll. But he shares his toys, too. |
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| It's finally park weather! This is our favorite park with lots of different toys in it. |
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| It's beach time, too! We went to Lake Josephine with Rachel last Thursday. |
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| Green stuff everywhere. Yuck! |
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| William dancing. |
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| William spinning with his friend. |
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| Wesley climbs up the slide. Stinker. |
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| Susan is all tired out from her new job. These boys don't let her rest, though! |
There are so many times I forget the camera. I don't have memories of those times. My mind is foggy. I am glad to have a few moments captured like this! It's nice to feel the abundance and, for awhile, put the scarcity thoughts aside. Watch out, to-do-list, you won't ever be this cute!
