The Scampering Horse

My younger brother John went by himself to Alaska for 10 days. That is vacation. I recently went camping in Utah with my husband and four children. That is a family experience.  We camped. So, I am not one of those people that doesn't like camping because they don't like the outdoors. I spent two summers during college backpacking and hiking, and living in a tent in northern New Mexico. I camped with my family when I was a girl, and being outside is like being alive to me. It pains me to say it. Pains me to my core, but the truth is...I don't like camping as a mom. I know, I feel like Voldemort saying an unforgivable curse.  I don't like it because it is a lot of work, and I guess I am lazy in my soul. Camping required planning. Planning and follow-through. My worst qualities. I have to plan meals, buy the food, bring all the stuff to prepare it, then clean it up. Then I have to set up the tent, and then sleep in that dang thing with all of my wigg...

Cast: Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman Indiana Jones Ceasar the Ape King Brutus the Ape I arrived at my lovely theater slightly early. So...I was able to hear the music to the credits before seeing the movie. Holy dramatic and intense music. Very intense. Sometimes drama makes me giggle. So, I giggled through the credits of the movie I was about to watch. Then there were the previews. I won't be watching the cartoon plane forest fire one. In this new dawn, there has been a worldwide epidemic that has killed all humans who aren't genetically immune to a deadly virus. The vast and rapid death toll has led to the breakdown of societal structures. The original virus was created by humans, and tested on apes as a treatment to alzheimers in a laboratory. We meet the apes first. They all know sign language, and they read and write English. Their society is a happy one where the kids all go to Orangutan school and learn not to kill other apes. The males hunt for deer in the woods, ...

Getting ready for church is pretty exciting. And by exciting, I mean stressful. I usually sleep in, waking up at 7 or 8. Kind of depressing that sleeping in until a normal wakeup time is sleeping in, nonetheless, it is. Somehow that extra hour or two of sleeping for me puts me behind.  Panic. Must clean the children so I can get them dressed. I have decided the best way to bathe the children is to put them in and out of the shower one after the other. Bathing them on Saturday causes them to play in the dirt or smear ketchup all over their faces and they are dirty again, so it has to be Sunday morning if I want clean children for church. It also has to be AFTER they eat breakfast. After.  Then I get them dressed. This seems like a simple task, but somehow it isn't. My 2nd child is never happy with the dress I've found for her.  She has an alternative, but somehow it is too short even though I just bought it last month. We argue about it. We both hold our g...

I took my three girls to see How to Train Your Dragon 2. The older girls loved the movie, but I regret taking my 3 year old. She was a popcorn and soda hogger, and wanted to go home half way through because she was scared of the bad guy. In her defense, the bad guy was terrifying, the popcorn was delicious, and who doesn't love Sprite? Last time my husband was at our  movie theater in Sidney, he bought a popcorn bucket. The bucket now only costs $2 to refill. When I went to the movie, I bought a soda mug. That thing costs $1 to refill. So, going to the movies is now a treat extravaganza for only $3.00. Having some popcorn that doesn't cost as much as my ticket really makes a movie more enjoyable. I encourage all movie theaters to do something like this. It seriously makes me want to go to movies more often. My suggested titles for this movie are: Hiccup the Dragon Whispere r, Alpha Dragon War , and  Dragon Pirates and their Prosthetic Limbs. I understand why the franc...

I only work part time. Sometimes I work 10 hours a week. Last week I worked 20. My friend and I swap babysitting so we can each go to work at our  awesome job . So, she worked 15 hours or something like that, and I worked 20, so together we were pretty much full-time. It felt full-time. With her kids and mine, that makes 6 beautiful children. Seriously, they are beautiful. And darling. My friend, her name is Emily, has this baby that is so cute. She doesn't cry unless my one year old body slams her with love. She has the cutest rolls all over her arms and legs. The baby has milky skin and bright blue eyes, and she smiles all the time. Like when I sing to her, or tickle her under her neck. This baby ruins all other babies. But, even though the children are precious, there are six of them, so I didn't do things like: go to the grocery store, make dinner, do all the laundry, clean my house, wash enough dishes, weed my garden, paint that one wall I took all of the pictures off ...

So, I hardly EVER go to movies in the theater. The movie I saw before this one was The Hobbit, with hot Mr Thornton from  North and South  as a dwarf. Thank you cinema. The movie I saw before that one was...I didn't see Frozen, so let's go back further...maybe Toy Story 3? Last night I went with a bunch of mom friends to a 9:00 movie. It was so late. I couldn't believe I was doing something so crazy. I bought a Sprite soda all for myself and drank it all, and my friend shared her bucket of pop-corn with me. It was a fabulous experience. The title for the move (The Edge of Tomorrow) is the worst name ever for this movie. I had to look it up  online because I couldn't even remember what it was.  I would have called it "Octopus Cats" or "Groundhog Day with Guns" or "Tom Cruise as Ironman." Really, anything would have been better than The Edge of Tomorrow. What does that even mean? Despite the horrendous title, "The Edge of Tomorrow...

I am still going to yoga sometimes. I still think the first 30 minutes are very hard. Like, every week I can't believe it has only been 30 minutes. But then at about 40 minutes I get a fun little brain buzz. I am  also noticing small improvements in my flexibility, especially when I touch my toes, and I think maybe my arms/shoulders are more defined. Maybe? If the light is just right and I hold it like this.  My happy baby pose is more like a shaky dying grasshopper. My dead bug is more like a tipsy tree. Pretty much anything that requires me grabbing my feet while lying on my back is not what the yogi masters had in mind. What is most surprising about yoga is my yoga injuries. I currently have three. 1. My right wrist feels pressure when I do high plank. I try to make my fingers long and strong like Alex tells me to. Alex is my tall, blond, always painted fingernails teacher. Her fingernails are so bright and perfect. She says,"Keep your fingers long and strong and press ...