the things that are most excellent

in case you are wondering at the title of my post, here is an excerpt from the poem I am quoting:

In faultless rhythm the ocean rolls,
A rapturous silence thrills the skies;
And on this earth are lovely souls,
That softly look with aidful eyes.
Though dark, O God, Thy course and track,
I think Thou must at least have meant
That nought which lives should wholly lack
The things that are more excellent.

I can't help that sometimes when I am thinking about things in my life, poetry comes to mind. Does anyone even read poetry besides dorks like me anymore? Probably not.

The poem, in a nutshell, says that there's lots of things that seem to be important in life, but really the things that matter most are the simple things--nature, love of family, friendship, etc.

This is on my mind because today I had sort of one of those difficult days that come upon me every now and again. It's kind of been a rough week honestly. I've been in quite a bit of physical pain and I've felt lonely. I talked to my Mom on the phone and I cried and felt sort of pathetic and pitiful. And then I feel bad for making her worry about me. Mom, if you're reading this, don't worry about me. I'll be okay. Some days are just hard. And when you have a two year old, a lot of days are hard. (sorry to those friends that think this is a mean thing to say about my two year old. I used to think moms who said stuff like that were jerks and didn't love their kids. Now I know that moms who can admit it are very much in love with their kids, just honest and worn out and, hello, they have a two year old).

So my mom tried to give me advice--honest to goodness some of the worst advice she has ever given me. It was so bad I burst out laughing and then she did too. She told me to do a cheerleading routine, "go meeee!!!" whenever I feel bad. She was in the middle of her self esteem cheerleading when I couldn't hold it in anymore and just started laughing. what would I ever do without her cheesy advice (most of which is actually really good and helpful) but some of which includes telling people that sticks and stones may break your bones sort of stuff. :) I know the day will come when I will be lost for words and I will find the exact same thing come out of my mouth. I know because it has already happened many other times. things like, "because i'm the mom." and when asked what we're having for dinner, "I'm making food." what kind of food?? "good food." What kind of good food? "Good food for dinner." ha I hated when she used to do that and now I do it to torture my kids.

but I digress, my Mom followed the bad cheerleading advice with good advice. she told me that since I had listed a bunch of bad things, now it was time to list the good things. and suddenly that poem was in my head. the things that are more excellent. and here are the things that I should have said (but had a hard time getting out over the lump in my throat):

my really lovely daughter who is one of the kindest funniest five year olds i've ever met


that two year old I talked about earlier who also happens to say please and thank you automatically and who thinks that jumping on my back and covering my cheek in kisses is really fun

my husband who puts up with a lot and does the dishes and has never been one of those dads who was on the sidelines of this parenting gig. he is the dad that can handle his kids at home and out in public and in the grocery store and everywhere in between. John is my number one most excellent thing.

health (when I have it). a stable job for my husband. a safe home. food. laundry machine. health insurance. church (even though I had to teach nursery today ha). my cool siblings. encouraging friends (they may live far away, but I know they are out there). and let us not forget bagels.

these are my things most excellent. and sunday feels like a good day to remember them.

caramel frosting and how's the old house search coming?

 First, I feel it necessary to tell the world about this frosting. My Mom made it for my StepDad Gordon for his birthday while we were up there for Easter and it was amazing. I'm not always a huge lover of cake and I kept going back for piece after piece. My Mom got the recipe from a lady she met at some sort of bee keeping or soap making meeting (or any of the other hundred crafty things she and Gordon do meetings).  It's simple but delicious.

 CARAMEL ICING: Melt 1/2 cup butter in a 2 to 3 quart pan. Add 1 cup firmly packed brown sugar and 1/3 cup half and half or whipping cream. Quickly bring to full boil; boil, stirring for 1 minute. Remove from heat and let cool until lukewarm. Add 2 cups powdered sugar and beat until smooth.

 This is what it looks like after adding powdered sugar. If it's a bit too thick pour just a little bit of half and half into it until it thins to perfect spreading consistency. (it sorta looks like peanut butter in this picture, but the color is lighter than it is showing).

The recipe makes plenty of frosting, so be sure to put it on nice and thick. We use a spice cake box mix and it tastes amazing. Tonight we are watching a church friend's little boy and they each had a small slice of cake before bed. He was nervous when he thought we called it "spicy cake" but he ended up liking it. (another crazy note, this same friend had her baby at her house unexpectedly! The baby came so fast they couldn't make it to the hospital! I hear about that happening to people, but have never known someone personally! crazy!)

on the home search front, well there are too many thoughts to recount. above is the cool fort that was in the AMAZING yard at a house we looked at. we probably talked for three hours last night about this house. it's a short sale, but it was really kind of big (five bedrooms) and towards the top of what we are hoping to pay. We were really talking ourselves in circles about it because the yard was gorgeous, the house was filthy (and probably needed new a/c units) but overall it was a really great house. In the end we decided we want to error on the side of conservative rather than too big on our next house. but it sorta kills me to walk away from that yard.  but i know that waiting for the right house to come along will be worth the wait. and we have plenty of time, so I'm forcing myself (it's not working yet, but one can hope) to be patient. are you sick of me talking about houses yet? me toooooo. :)

the rundown of the week

 i apologize if i have already posted some of these photos. i am off of my blogging groove so I can't recall what if some of these are repeats. it's been another week at our house and things are starting to go back to normal. grant steals an ipad and manages to watch something/play something

 we take the kids to play on a playground in a neighborhood we are considering

 maddy brings home an art project. john's guess was that she had crafted Beaker from the muppets. the real answer was he is an owl.

 john's car broke down. yeah, the one we just got in november (yes we have a warranty) hope it covers what it needs to cover

 went to a garage sale in the neighborhood we are considering (we are thorough ha) and found Maddy some skates. she has been begging for skates for months. new skates are expensive! yay for garage sales!

 apparently this is why she needed them? j/k she actually skated later

 grant working on fixing some popcorn on his tool table

 oh my little cutes

 making forts out of pillows

 riding our trikes with gusto

 making caramel frosting from scratch to put on spice cakes (this was a while ago, need to do it again, it was GOOD)

 being crazy

 painting

 fortune telling?

 making messes while mom is sweeping in the kitchen

 somehow hurting our heads (running into someone/thing no doubt)

 having sleep studies that require gross stuff in your hair

 eating muffins and being adorably 2 years old

 his feet are still small, thus he is still my baby

 still loving the libary

 good report card sonic slushies (happy hour means half off woo hoo)

 question: why does disney have snow white selling apples now? this still makes me laugh

 a house we looked at this past week had this little tiny courtyard type thing (no that is not my child, it's my realtor's child).

 eagles can fly, but even they need a break every once in a while

cutest snuggle buddies ever. and i'm sorry to say that's all i've got because i'm feeling a bit under the weather. here's to an even better week to come!

monster post

 i apologize for those of you that could care less about pictures of our easter adventures. this is pretty much a photo dump for grandmas. feel free to skip. it's not going to be much commentary, it's late and i'm feeling unmotivated. but once these are up then i will be back to normal blogging. for better or for worse. :)  anyway, above is Granty's first subway ride. complete with a bag of snacks that the subway rules expressly forbade. we're rebels like that.

 these are all sorts of our of order. sorry. mads had the BEST time with her cousins. there is one other little boy cousin in the family besides Grant, so you can imagine the noise/shriek level in that house. crazy.

 they had a blast playing with grandma's pool table

 um, told you out of order. this was at the natural history smithsonian. maddy LOVED it. that might even be an understatment (capitalization and all!)

 waiting to find easter eggs

 he caught on pretty fast to the fact that candy was inside those eggs and therefore were very desirable

 some cheeky person put the egg in the tree....

 hey look, my feet made it into a picture!

 the booty

 a random adorable photo of G

 on the drive up (this was actually taken only ten minutes from where we live)

 he was a champ and drove most of the way

 my mama's house makes me happy

 the shenadoah river right next to harper's ferry

 one of my cutie pie nieces

 Maddy's first subway ride too

 on grandma's swing

 i finally got to see my beloved amish. me+amish pretezels=happiness

 my sister-in-law checking the metro map

 my favorite part of the metro ride was baby Matthew. He seriously was acting like he was on a VERY fun roller coaster for babies. it was hilariously adorable

 picnic on the Mall for the kite festival

 i just love taking pictures of people stuffing their faces. people love it when i do that

 can't you tell?

 we brought our own kites to try out

 john got kite duty with the kids. i love that man

 maddy's favorite place, the natural history smithsonian. when she saw the dino bones she thought she had died and gone to heaven. she is sort of a strange little cookie and i love her for it.

 falling asleep mid-graham cracker

 she was not amused

 there were super long lines for all of the smithsonians which was crazy to me. i've never stood in a line for a smithsonian in all of my years of living there.

 he was not amused either.

 peeking into the air and space museum

unfortunately for him, what happens at grandma's house does not STAY at grandma's house.

 sad part of this was that i really thought my hair was looking amazing that day. #crushed

 photo shamelessly stolen from my sis-in-law's blog. that was a chocolate chicken that met an untimely demise.

 rub a dub dub all the cousins (minus matthew and meg and of course far away sydney) in the tub

 uncle bryan showing them how it's done

me looking mystified by the pirate kite. it was a great short trip and i was so happy to finally meet two babies that I hadn't met yet (youngest kids of my brother and sister). i call it a success. and now? bed time for me.