Happy Brithday Daddy!

How do you live?

I read this blog and it made me re-realize how lucky we are to have everything that we have.

Here is a little excerpt: The book is all about pureeing vegetables and sneaking them into your kids' food. So as I am preparing to give it a test drive, shopping for fresh ingredients, firing up the blender, roasting the veggies I couldn't stop thinking about how lucky I was to be able to do it at all. I thought about all the moms at the shelter, moms who love their kids just as much but are unable to cook for their kids so instead they are forced to feed their kids food that is prepared or donated to them and that food is often starchy and processed and the veggies at best are often canned.

We live in a beautiful place, have lots of healthy food, have a wonderful family who love us and take care of us without question--we have so much!

Sometimes I am upset that we live in this little apartment and don't have a house yet. Sometimes I am too lazy to cook the healthy food and make a frozen pizza or feed everyone fast food instead. Sometimes I don't talk to my family enough or appreciate the friends we have. I have that luxury, but I should work harder to live in this moment and realize what I have and cherish my life.

Eventually I get everything back on track, but I am even lucky enough to have the choice to be a positive or negative impact in my kid’s lives. We can't be perfect all the time, but working on ourselves--eating healthy, living morally and correcting ourselves when we stray is important. Life is so much better when you appreciate what you have in the moment and live to be a better person—don’t want too much, consume too much and when you have a lot, give all the extra away because there are LOTS of people who have hardly anything at all. It is an everyday lesson taught to any 3 year old who has never been hungry and has a room full of toys—there is no way for him to understand how lucky he is, he thinks everyone lives like him.

We should all try to live simpler. Eat simple. Stop buying unnecessary things. Get to the basics of life and see that we live extraordinary.

Look at what we have!

Are we home yet?

click for more pictures

We are back in Portland. Wonderful, beautiful Portland. It is October and the harvest is going on all around us. From experience, we decided not to go to Sauvie Island on the weekend (friends waited an hour and a half to get off the island--traffic, on the farm! and I'm not talking cows people.) We went to French Prairie Gardens instead--just outside of St. Paul. It is a nice farm with a lot of space and no traffic! There are pig races--our duck won the pig race--long story but we got a nose for it. And Apple shooting, yet another pig nose for hitting the target.

I am so glad to be back at home. Home is a lovely, busy place. It takes so long to get 'back home' after a trip with two little ones. We aren't completely there yet, 10 weeks is a looong time to disrupt your regular life even if it was vacation you were supposed to be on. But we are almost here--and a few more beautiful Oregon weekends will help!

PS. there are some pics of last weekend when we went to Streamwatch in Wildwood Forest--gorgeous!