In Pictures

Lately...

 I try to make it to the pool to swim laps at least a couple of times a week, usually after I drop Abby off at school. I love the morning when there's nobody around and I don't have to worry about looking like a drowning flounder trying to figure out new coaching drills. (I'm really, really good at looking dumb. Just sayin'.) I think it's just about the most amazing thing in the world that it can be 16 degrees outside, covered in snow, and yet inside it's almost too warm to comfortably swim laps. Amazing.

Maggie came with me to work on Sunday night to play with the triplets. Lucy latched on to her instantly and thought she was the most amazing person ever. :) Lucy's most favorite thing in the world is to be "upside down" - seriously, if I could figure out some way to suspend her like that I think she'd stay there all day! - and I couldn't resist this shot of she and Maggie playing. Just look at that happy face. :)

The sun is just peeking over the horizon when I get to work these days, and for some reason all of a sudden the mornings are extremely zen. The kids are quiet and calm, everyone wakes gradually, and I'm happier when it doesn't feel like I've arrived at work in the middle of the night. On Monday I managed to get Addie's pigtails put in straight the first time. :)

As I dreaded, on Monday we got snow. This is my road about an hour after the snow started - I crawled along our mile-long unpaved road with prayers and trepidation, and managed to get in before the rest of the 8" got dumped on us. I hate snow. (When we drove out very very carefully the next day, Maggie sweetly said, "We should invite our boss to dinner. Tonight." ;))

Since I couldn't get out the next day until the late afternoon, I spent the day studying breaststroke and butterfly and watching ASCA videos. And about mid-afternoon, I broke down and had a good cry because sometimes it feels like I am never going to understand this no matter how hard I try. Seriously, I don't know what it is about butterfly stroke that makes me feel so small, stupid, and incompetent. The closest analogy I can come up with is that it reminds me of when I was in college and trying to get through the required math classes, and I spent hours and hours every single night working on homework, and no matter how hard I worked, I only ever barely passed the courses. (I'd have had a 4.0 GPA if it weren't for the math requirement, which they dropped the year after I graduated. Of course.)  Studying butterfly makes me feel the exact same way.

I'm feeling much more hopeful today, by the way. I spent some time last night in class with a student, working our way through the progression and trying drills that made no sense on paper (and only limited sense on video) but somehow seemed understandable when I was in the water with her. And today I spent some time in between laps trying drills myself to get a feel for how everything worked together. For the first time, I think I might have a chance of conquering this someday. :)

Beautiful Sights

 

We've gotten back into the habit of going dancing with the local traditional music group on the second Saturday of each month. I'd forgotten how much I loved it - the physical rush of dancing, matched by the emotional soaring of the music, and the sense of community, the "we're all in this together!" feeling I get as I watch friends old and new come together on the floor.

 

 

I ate the first strawberries off my plants this week (not these - the ones I ate were really and truly ripe). They weren't very good; strawberries need sunshine and open air, and it's been too cold and wet for my plants to go outside. But I keep the faith and wait.

 

 

Should I get a boat? Should I get this boat? It's a question that's been weighing heavily on my mind. ;) This boat, while requiring some elbow grease and a little initial investment in parts and work, would be free, and it's so, so tempting. Look at how beautiful she is!

 

 

All these seeds went into the ground at the same time, from the same packet, so you can imagine my amusement at this ambitious seedling dubbed an "overachiever" by a Facebook friend. I cannot wait to get all my seedlings into my newly painted pallet garden.

 

 

And that - that, my friends, is lettuce. Which makes me happy. Because it was supposed to take 7-10 days to germinate, but instead popped out overnight. Because nothing is better than truly fresh lettuce. Because when I buy lettuce at the store, it almost inevitably dies when I put it in my fridge. Just because. :)

 

 

I'm remembering now what it's like to live in a "tin can" during the warm months. :) Luckily, the heat is tempered by the charm of having my windows open to the outdoors, and everything cools quickly as soon as the sun sets. I'm looking forward to being able to run my system fan or AC all night - I like some white noise while I sleep. 

 

 

Look at my latest finds! I was amused at the tea, but once I smelled it I fell in love with the smell. And the lemon olive oil? Amazing. I cannot wait to make some olive oil cake tonight.

 

 

It might end up being a key lime/lemon cake, since I have all these lovely key limes just crying out for a squeeze in my new juicer. ;)
 

  

And... yes, I bought a candle. Despite the fact that my candle stash has become quite large and I easily have enough candles to last me through the summer, even at the rate that I'm going. But this one was sandalwood, and I haven't found a good sandalwood candle since my favorite one got used up a few weeks after I moved in. And I can leave myself messages on this one - and admit it, sometimes you just need a little note to remind yourself about what's important! :)

Of All The Things I've Lost, I Miss My Mind The Most

I don't know if it's the stress of lately, "triplet brain" (our term for what happens when you're so overloaded with the details of baby care times three that all other parts of your brain shut down), or what, but the list of things I've lost over the past few days is becoming epic.

For starters, I seem to have lost my purse. I've lost my wallet before, mind you, but I've never lost an entire purse. Luckily it's no biggie as I had my wallet and camera with me, and so the purse was basically just an oversized Kleenex, hand sanitizer, and makeup carrier, AND it was an older purse that was falling apart and I was about to throw away anyway, but still.

Then today I've misplaced my keys. I always chuck them up on the dashboard when I park at my house, and if for some reason I do carry them inside with me, I ALWAYS leave them on the kitchen table,  but this morning they were neither place. Grr! I'm using my spare key to the truck, but it makes me nervous because if I misplace this key, I'm toast. O.o Hoping my family will find that I left my keys at their house last night when I came to visit.

Also inconvenient - I broke the door to my trailer last week, so if you open the doorhandle all the way, or even 2/3 of the way, it snaps open (without actually opening the door) and, short of climbing out the emergency exit window or takings the door apart with a screwdriver, your only way out is to call someone to open it from the outside. Eventually I'll take it apart and fix whatever catch has obviously become uncaught, but right now I don't gave the time, and it's not a job I'm eager to do in freezing temperatures, since the door will have to be open for awhile. I've pretty much mastered the trick of opening it just to the point of the catch and no more,  but I'm always afraid I'll accidently get stuck in the early morning and have to call the house to have someone unstick me so I can go to work. Since nobody in my family is a morning person, the wrath I'd face would be great indeed. 8(

That's pretty much all the news from my end lately. I leave you with some snapshots of the other 99% of my life:

Things I Love

1) Curious faces

2) Brave adventurers

3) New perspectives

4) Tiny toes

5) Ruffly bottoms

Happy Saturday!

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words

See my poor chipping french mani? Time for some spa time!!!

 Tempeh burger - my mom found big blocks of tempeh at Trader Joe's for $1.80 a block (!!!) and cooked some up tonight alongside the sloppy joes(Good thing, too, cuz I somehow ate some chicken or pork - I can't figure out how! - and my belly was not having anything to do with meat). She seared it with some teriyaki sauce, which was a.ma.zing.

 

 

I looove my new fox mug. :) I longingly picked it up all throughout December whenever I went to Starbucks, but I was not paying $7.99 for a mug. Then Christmas came and went, and the mug got clearanced for $3. So, of course, I snatched it up. :)

 

 

Our tickets to Les Miserable - Maggie's Christmas gift - arrived today! I'm super excited (even though I think I'm gonna go a little nuts waiting for April!) :)