Music to My Ears

 
Scrubbing the toilet the other day wasn't quite the chore it typically is. Yes, I actually said that. Only because of the lovely background music, though.

You see, Sweet Cheeks was reading her sister a book. They hovered over a book all close and cozy-like the entire time I cleaned the bathroom. Crazy, right? Crazy and wonderful. Both that Sweet Cheeks is already reading, and that she's reading to her sister.

The girls have been playing incredibly well together lately. Of course there is the typical bickering, tattling, punching, kicking and hair pulling that all sisters put each other through. But more often than not they are best friends.

And those days when I'm not forced to referee every two minutes make me remember why staying at home to raise my girls is the best choice I've ever made. Until tomorrow when the truce is broken and Referee Mama is on duty. All day. Then I'll need another reminder.

There and Back Again

To Arizona. Back home, and some places in between - mostly this place called Life, really. That's where I've been. Somewhere along the road I lost my way. I once wondered how I would ever find enough material to supply a blog that's not a complete yawn fest. Then a transformation occurred and I began to see life as a series of potential blog posts. Well, that I saw the possibilities of blog posts in every day life is more accurate.

That's where I lost my way. Enough time passed between posts and I went from noticing a barrage of potential blog fodder to forgetting to even look for those things. Thus, the lapse in time. Worry aside - I have returned. The prodigal attempted blogger. Not that anyone but the nagging at the back of my conscious has even noticed the absence. At this point I wasn't planning to document our adventures. But then I was sifting through pictures remembering how much fun we had. I can't just pass by as if it never happened. I figure a glimpse will do. You can see pictures on my other blog.

• Arizona was wonderful albeit not as warm as I had hoped it would be
• I will admit to wishing we lived there on more than one occasion
• All of my siblings made it, though we were all together for just hours rather than days. At least we got family pictures.
• Ragnar was spectacular
• My parent's lemon tree was prolific. As in lemons the size of grapefruit. Seriously. I came home with 35lbs. Don't be jealous.
• Sweet Cheeks went to school at her Auntie Kenna's preschool
• And we visited Auntie LaNae's family in Yuma - what I've always called the armpit of Arizona. It's really not that bad. Once you get passed the smell of the lettuce plants. Plants, as in factories.

I had said I was going to visit Arizona to run Ragnar, but of course the real reason was so my girls could make actual memories of their family. Addie Cakes was an infant the last time we were there, so she was essentially meeting her cousins and some Aunties for the first time.

Before we left she had a hard time grasping the idea that she had cousins other than her "Virginia cousins", whom we see regularly. That is one of the hardest things about living far from family, which is actually why we are in Northern VA. Otter and I both wanted to make sure we were close to at least some family after we graduated from college in Utah. Virginia won. This was before we had children and the difficulty of ensuring meaningful relationships with my side of the family hadn't registered. Of course had we moved to Arizona instead the situation would just be reversed.

But now both of the girls have memories of their family. They see pictures and know names, and make associations that in all reality are probably just a vague recognition of a memory - for Addie Cakes, at least. But the associations are there. And for now that's all that matters. So while I miss my family every day, at least now I know it's not impossible. My girls love and miss my family - their family - more than the space that divides us.