Blossoms 2016

We just got home yesterday from a whirlwind two week trip out to Utah.  It was a fun and exhausting couple of weeks but I'm happy to report that the kids slept better than they ever have on a trip.  To me, that is really something to celebrate. 

So now, it's back to regular life.  I pulled out my paper planner (because I'm still cool like that) and started the list of all the things I need to make sure gets done.  The list never seems to end, church, school, finding quality activities for the kids, making sure we get to the doctor, getting the house organized.  It's been nice being away for a couple of weeks from all of the normal worries. 

Going on vacation sure puts life into perspective.  Things I missed before come into focus and it always seems to help me be more motivated to improve.  It was also a time of a lot of contemplation with the upcoming move of my parents to Chicago.  They were busily getting things cleared out of their house in preparation for this big life change.  I'm excited for them to go and have this new adventure but it has taken some adjustment for me to think of them not in my childhood home.  Through this new lens, I saw my childhood home and situation with new eyes.  I always thought that it would be home to me but over the last year I've felt the shift of "home" move east to Virginia. 

This morning, I dropped Leo off at school and Amy and I ran into see the cherry blossoms.  The peak of the blooms was last week but I was still happy to see some blossoms.  They are my favorite thing to see in the city.  I still remember seeing them for the first time in 2005 as an intern and all alone in a new city.  Sometimes, I have to take these moments to see beautiful things and let the list go out the window for the morning. 

 

 

 

Under the Blossoms...

It's cherry blossom season in Virginia.  I always get nostalgic this time of year because this is the time of year where I discovered DC for the first time.  It's been 10 years (wow) since I interned here, I can't help but picture myself as a 21 year old single girl under those blossoms.

We just got home from Utah on Wednesday.  It was an amazing trip but we have all been exhausted (during and since).  On Thursday, with mounds of laundry not dealt with and bags packed and splayed across the play room. I decided to go into the city to see the cherry blossoms.  The blossoms are almost sacred to me, when they bloom, I must go.

It was so beautiful.  The kids enjoyed it (after a snack of course), and I just walked and watched.  I'm not one to drive into the city much, the traffic and parking stress me out but we lucked out and got a great parking spot.  I guess luck was on our side.

It was just the pick me up I needed to get going on life again.  Now to tackle that laundry....

 

 

 

Spring Photos

One of my friends out here in Logan, Christy Brown, put together a mini photo session in honor of spring.  I am so happy with how the pictures turned out.  I think I need to hire her to do some family shots soon!   Here's her blog if you want to check out more of her work: http://photographychristybrown.blogspot.com/

The Right Place At the Right Time

My cutest boy.

Do you ever have those moments when you feel like you are exactly where you are supposed to be?  The timing is right and you know in your gut that you're doing the right thing?  Those moments are few but when I experience one, it's magical. 

There are thousands of cherry blossom trees around here.  It is my favorite time of year.  The heart of the trees are at the Tidal Basin in DC.  There are blossoms everywhere you look.  There is one day every year that is the peak, when the trees are in full bloom.  Everything comes together and for that one moment, everything is in bloom.  Immediately afterward, the flowers will begin to fall and the season of blossoms will end.  It's in that one perfect moment when everything comes together.

  

One of those moments was when I decided to go back to grad school.  Having been laid off from my job (darn recession), I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life.  When I made the decision to go back in Instructional Design, it's like it all came together.  Within less than a week I had two jobs that were great experiences (one which I kept all throughout school).  It came together to be one of my best experiences.

We went in to see the blossoms on Sunday before conference started.  It was beautiful but more than half of the blossoms hadn't bloomed yet.  I just knew that the potential hadn't been reached yet.  

Check out all of those unopened blooms, and the Washington Memorial in the background.

 We trekked in again to see the blossoms yesterday.  It was so worth it.  The blooms were at their peak and it was incredibly beautiful.

Churches and Faith

There's something you should know about my family...my dad loves visiting churches. When we vacation together, we visit mass. When we had a choice between visiting Chicago or Notre Dame for the day we visited the homeland of the fighting Irish.

Needless to say, I have visited many, many churches all over the world. In South America, some of the facades are stories high and covered in gold with full scale icons. Not to mention one of the large Cathedrals in Lima, Peru. You'd better just ask about that one in person. In Europe, we visited the Vatican with all of it's incredible art, saw relics and century old buildings.

The Catholic Church is still mysterious to me. Such tradition, rites and ritual. I must admit that I don't understand it all.

Last night, a friend and I visited one closer to home. The local Catholic Church holds monthly tours of their beautiful new building and off we went. It was a good opportunity to ask questions and to come to better understanding. The building, built in 2005, was beautiful. It was unlike the ornate churches I've seen elsewhere and I really liked the feel of the space-open and clean.

For the first time, I got past all of the decor and was able to hear about their beliefs. It was incredible to see the devotion and faith, and somehow renewed and solidified my faith even though I am a member of another church.

The church in Hyde Park holds tours the first Tuesday of every month in the evenings. I would completely recommend getting out there.

Conferences and Chacos

I ate outside in the sunshine today. The building where I work has picnic tables outside. Being Natural Resources, they are always filled with "granola people". Well today I was one of them. It made me want to pull out my chacos.

It's been pretty crazy at work lately. It's pretty much the reason I haven't posted much. I hate it when my job takes over my life. The conference is on Tuesday though and I am home free, except for all of my final projects for my graduate work. Sigh. This was why it was so nice to take a minute.

I've been thinking about that a lot lately, taking time out. I realize how important it is to take time to think about the world, about who I want to be and about nothing at all (is for fun). I went out and bought a new notebook this week. I've decided to start writing again. I hope to take more time to be free - oh, and to survive the end of the semester. I can wish, right?