friday morning

Last Friday morning in review.

While I love the last three photos, they made me realize something: I need to lessen the amount of time I spend looking/using my phone. Really. The only reason Win wants to play with my phone is because it is an item I constantly use and it vies for his attention. He should be the center of my attention. I don't need to check Facebook, browse Pinterest or search the web. I can do that when he's not around.

Less iPhone, more Win.

in the groove

I used to be decent at finding new music before it became mainstream, but I'm not really ahead of the groove anymore, I'm more in it. That being said, I want to share two of my current favorite songs: Midnight City by M83 and Shake it Out by Florence and the Machine. You've probably heard both of them. That's okay. I'll take what I can get on KROQ and STAR (98.7...not even sure it goes by that anymore...oh well).



Love the harmony. Feel free to dance it up in your living room.



Florence has such awesome hair and such a powerful voice. You'll want to turn this one up really loud.

I'm not sure how I feel about either of these videos. The first one has undertones of X-Men and the second one feels a little Exorcistic to me. I like to picture my own things when I listen to music, but they're a good medium for posting songs.

Enjoy!

christmas day 2011

We were at Kent's house for Christmas so Win got to celebrate the holiday with Grandma and Grandpa Sommer, Aunt Lindsey, Uncle Lance and Mommy and Daddy. Amazingly, he knew which toys were his right from the get go and he didn't spend all his time playing with wrapping paper and bows. Below are some snapshots of the day.

Early morning flash...sorry, buddy!

Oooo....

"This!" or "That!" with a finger point.

His new push CAT truck. Very boy.

New helmet to use while pushing it. Just kidding.

It's for his new bike seat. Time for some family bike rides!

Enjoying Aunt Lindsey's company and his new dog, Scout.

He loves his daddy.

Just love this one...

and this one.

The post-church family photo.

Cousins in their matching track suits.

That tongue cracks me up.

Helping Grandma play some carols.

It was a lovely holiday and I loved watching our boy enjoy his first Christmas.

my boy

One of my favorite shots from his first Christmas.

ER

I had my first 'Scardest Mom Moment' over Christmas break and it wasn't pleasant, but it gave me courage to face the almost certain other 'moments' we might have in the future.

Win caught a cold somewhere along our Christmas partying path. It was a pretty standard cold until it started affecting his breathing in a bad way. He went down to bed like normal, but woke up around 1 am or so and was breathing really fast and sort of labored. I tried nursing him back to sleep, but he threw up. Kent had to work that week so I was at my mom and dad's house without a spouse. I walked down the hall to get my mom so I could change my soaked shirt. She held him for a bit then we had my brother listen to his breathing. He thought it wasn't too bad and he was acting rather alert and chipper so I put him down. He woke up about an hour later and I brought him in bed with me. He would fall asleep then wake up, cry/grunt then try to sleep again. His breathing was really labored at that point and his heart was beating quick. I tried to wake my mom up to tell her that he wasn't doing too well and that maybe we should go to the ER. She was exhausted so I couldn't rouse her.

I tried to help Win sleep for about another hour, but I just knew we had to go. Mother's Intuition? I woke up my mom, she got my brother, he took a look at a pale-faced, lethargic Win and we were on our way to the hospital.

As you can imagine I was a wreck. I am so grateful my mom and brother were with me. He is a doctor so that was reassuring.

At the ER they took a look at Win and got his vitals and he was taken care of pretty quick. He got some oxygen, three nebulizer treatments, an X-ray of his lungs and a shot to reduce the swelling in his bronchials. Initially, the doctor thought he might need to stay at the hospital for a couple of days, but within a couple of hours (6 to be exact) we were out of there. Turns out he had brochiolitis or swelling of the bronchials in the lungs. I feel for asthma sufferers now-so scary!

I am so grateful for modern medicine, prayer, a supportive family and a courageous little boy. Win has recovered 100%, but that was a scary night/morning. I hope we don't have repeat that again.

something is better than nothing

If I've learned one thing this year, it is that something is better than nothing.

For years it has bothered me if I can't do something 100% (or at least close to it). For example, when I clean, I always feel the need to do a really thorough job, when I run or exercise it needs to be at least 4 miles or an hour in length, when I design or write something it needs to be exact and uniform, when I blog the photos and content need to be edited and scripted well, when I read the scriptures it needs to be for a significant amount of time, etc.

Having a baby has loosened me up a bit. I have had to make adjustments. It's the law of becoming a mother I suppose. I just don't have the same amount of time I used to have.

I tend to be perfectionistic yet indecisive by nature so I'm learning a huge lesson. I'm not saying I'm going to start doing things halfway, but I have realized that sometimes it is better to do what I can rather than not do anything at all. So I didn't have time to run 4 miles, but I was able to do the 2.7 mile loop with Win in his jogger stroller. I couldn't declutter the entire house in one day, but I did manage to clean out one of Win's drawers. I didn't make that labor intensive dish from Sunset magazine, but I did get spaghetti on the table. Case in point: Something is better than nothing.

Along those same lines, I found this quote on Pinterest that helps keep things in perspective for me. It says, "You can do anything, but you can't do everything."

The list in my mind makes me want to do everything...at the same time. I want to sew a skirt, make a wreath, hang some pictures, bake banana bread, take a photography class, juice some pomegranates, read more books, finish a personal history project. You name it and I probably want to do it.

This is not a bad thing. Wanting to do and learn things is healthy. Being motivated keeps life interesting. I run into problems because I want to do many things at once so my projects are left unfinished. A few illustrations: I have a box of two year old pinecones sitting in my mom's shed waiting to be made into a wreath, fabric in my closet for skirt I wanted to make over a year ago, three wall hangings for Win's room that should have been hung before he was born and a slew of thank you cards that should have been written a year ago from my baby showers. The thank you cards are a big regret. I'm admittedly bad at sending them. Once again, I can trace this to my perfectionistic tendencies and lack of narrowing down projects. Something would have been better than nothing and if I would have focused on that one thing I could have completed an important task.

I know some characteristic traits are impossible to change, whether they be learned or inherent, but I can continuously learn and grow. I can't help but think of these scriptures:

Isaiah 28:10 "For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little."

and

Mosiah 4:27 "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

So for 2012, I will always try to do my best, but something is going to be better than nothing (for the little things) and I really can do anything, but I can't do everything...at one time.

A big thank you to this little guy for teaching me some important lessons in 2011.

jolly

Win's first Christmas tree is a little "Charlie Brown" table topper. We didn't want to get a full size tree this year because1) We didn't want Win to get into the breakable ornaments 2) We didn't want the tree to fall over on him if he decided to use it as a climbing device and 3) We frankly don't have a lot of room for a tree. The table topper suits our family just great this year.