A Normal Day...

Live your life so that the fear of death can never enter your heart. When you arise in the morning, give thanks for the morning light. Give thanks for your life and strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. And if perchance you see no reason for giving thanks, rest assured the fault is in yourself. ~ Chief Tecumseh







Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. Let me learn from you, love you, bless you before you depart. Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow. Let me hold you while I may, for it may not always be so. One day I shall dig my nails into the earth, or bury my face in the pillow, or stretch myself taut, or raise my hands to the sky and want, more than all the world, your return. ~ Mary Jean Iron





The great Western disease is, 'I'll be happy when... When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.' Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now. ~ Marshall Goldsmith





If we just worry about the big picture, we are powerless. So my secret is to start right away doing whatever little work I can do. I try to give joy to one person in the morning, and remove the suffering of one person in the afternoon. If you and your friends do not despise the small work, a million people will remove a lot of suffering. ~ Sister Chan Khong

Dinner last night....

I've got a 10 pound roll of ground turkey thawing in my fridge, waiting to be browned and packed back into the freezer. In the mean time I needed something quick and tasty and comforting. I turned to one of my favorite foodie bloggers, kickpleat, for some pizza inspiration* and wasn't disappointed! I love how she cooks and every recipe I've tried has been very tasty!!

We did this last night but in order to please the masses I threw on two leftover bbq chicken breasts, chopped up, and some red onion with the mozzerella. It seemed a little dry so, in famous Texas tradition, I added a drizzle of ranch dressing along with parmesan and red pepper flakes. The kitchen gods were watching out for me because I actually found the leftover piece wrapped in foil in the fridge! Since the kids cleaned the kitchen last night I was not expecting that to happen!

*when I say inspiration I mean that I didn't follow her crust recipe exactly. I guestimated my amounts of everything and added garlic and onion powders to the dough mixture. I also let it sit longer than she directs. Next time, which might be tonight or tomorrow, I'll try it her way just to see what difference it makes!

The difference a day makes...

I think I'm back!! I've been in a funk lately about my STUFF. The staggering amounts of junk in our house and not knowing how to deal with it, or having the time to address it has hog-tied me and kept me from enjoying anything. After a much-needed day of rest, I feel much better about things. It seems like something came up every weekend we thought we'd be able to relax. Finally, after spending most of the day Saturday running errands to the pool supply store, grocery shopping, mall shopping(ugh), and more, we stopped Sunday to rest(mostly). Ryan had a party from 1 to 6 so after we dropped him off we ran to Academy to get shorts for the girls($3.99 a pair) and then home to the pool. We stayed all day.


(Mark had to get up the last bits of glass first)


(my view from the pool)


(straight up from center of the pool)


(the girls swam while the adults floated)


Then, of course, comes Monday...


(my utility room shelf is going to the garage, being replaced by a rectangular table so the catboxes can go under)


(and this needs addressed, again)


(however, I have many obstacles in my way, some with fangs and claws and ill tempers)


(and some with the cute factor that keeps me from moving them)


(and the occasional distraction known as facebooking*)

*you can add me if you'd like, Molly Smith Sonier. Just tell me you know me from my blog if you've got a name I might not recognize.

We needed rain....

(unaltered color of our pool this morning)

What we didn't need was a storm. It carried on, knocked the power out(which caused a stubbed toe for me), felled limbs, wreaked havoc, and destroyed our glass-topped table(second one). UGH!!! Mark wanted to go rescue it about an hour into the storm but I wouldn't let him. These are some past limbs that have fallen from our oak tree in very close proximity to the table. There was NO way he was going out there last night. I'm pretty sure the damage had already been done and he'd have been too late anyway.

***NONE of these fallen limbs occurred because of this storm!***
**and Mark was furious when he found out about the table but is resolved to make something wonderful out of it with a wooden top**


(I love this tree!)


(This limb just fell for no apparent reason, thankfully on a day when we'd decided we were too tired to swim.)


(It landed on the chair I'd been sitting in the day before while watching the kids. I heard it hit and thought it must've been a car crash but when I looked outside the roads were clear. As I walked back through the living room I saw the disaster.)


(this limb fell very recently)


(This one fell on the house, slid down, landed butt-end down and then vaulted over to rest against the tree-next pic.)


(I think it was about 30 feet long)



Here's what happened to the table when the wind caught the umbrella last night...








In other news...

Here's another picture of Pickles. Next to a nickel.

Look-ee what we made!!

I totally forgot to bring the camera to the park for how-to pictures but oh well. Many thanks to all who participated(and brought stuff to share), it wouldn't have happened except for y'all! We had a great time making these and I hope they survive!

Here's the results...



(Sarah's terrarium)


(Mark and Molly's Buddha terrarium, the moss and plants will grow, they're about the size of a dime now)


(Amy's terrarium)


(new family member, Pickles Turtle rescued from the middle of a brush pile many many yards from water, slightly bigger than a quarter)

The clutter, the clutter!

As I sat staring at my desk this morning, I became horribly overwhelmed by the mess of it all. A water bottle, stacks of mail, aromatherapy bottles, balls of yarn, books, picture frames, stacks of music cds, a purse or three, dishtowels, magazines, make-up, drink coasters, paint cards, electronics, candy wrappers, dishes, change, quilt sundries, newspaper clippings, and more littered my beautiful wooden desk. It is crazy how cluttered it gets! That's why I was SO thrilled to receive this timely reminder today in my email.


You only have to do a little each day, Molly, to get a ton done. Ton done,
The Universe

I enjoy getting messages from "The Universe" but most of them are vague pep talks or more mental self-helpy stuff, not really a whole lot of how-to advice. This one hit like a ton of bricks, get it? TON. I have been putting off cleaning my desk because it looks like such a huge job! It really isn't if I break it up into little bits(in this case not a little each day, just little sections). I bet it can be done in less than 15 minutes, maybe even as I type this blog post!(ok, I saved the draft at 11:40am, got back to it at 2:45) So, it took 3 hours to get my desk 95% clean. I had a few rabbits to chase and such, like lunch, taking Ruby and Rosie outside to explore, getting the kids lined out with their chores, doing some dishes and so forth. Oh well. I did do a little at a time and now its decluttered!! Still need to dust and take some cosmetics back to my bathroom, but I'm happy.

In other news...

Tomorrow is our homeschool terrarium day!! I'm so excited! Someone is bringing plants, another mom is bringing potting soil, I've got river rocks and activated charcoal, and hopefully someone will bring the spaghnum moss. The camera batteries are charged so I'll have pictures to share! And some of my thrift store finds from Saturday I hope.

And a really, REALLY bad picture of what I've been working on. This isn't the best one as far as fit, its too narrow at the forehead and too long top to bottom. But its the only one I have a picture of.


(my own pattern in Hobby Lobby's I Love This Cotton)

Crazy Times...

If anyone ever tells you that toddlers are harder than teens, please smack them immediately. They are NOT. Teens have to be driven around, watched like a hawk, and fed lots of pizza(or other junk). I swear I'm in the car more in a month than I was in a year before anyone turned thirteen. My kids didn't do soccer or gymnastics or music or art lessons, or anything else extra-curricular so their childhoods were blissful. Now that two of them are teens(and the youngest a very social nine), they still don't participate in those kinds of activities but I find myself hauling them around almost daily!! To a friend's house, to work, to the mall, to church activities, to homeschool activities, etc, etc.

Hauling kids along with real life have overwhelmed me to the point that my blogging is getting neglected! I hate that! Anyway, here's a catch-up:

Mark's job is going well. Slower paced than he is used to but very stable. He is driving an hour one-way to get there and back so that's been an adjustment. Things he used to do on his lunch hour here in town, I'm having to do.



I'm still in decluttering mode. It is amazing how much STUFF we have! Items that have been stored on shelves for years and years that we don't have a need for. I've taken bags and bags to the local thrift store(Hope's Closet). The bad thing is that I can't even tell anything is gone!! Where was I keeping all the other stuff before? I have no idea.

One of my favorite blogs shared this a while back...

The Story of Stuff. It has certainly opened my eyes!


Our pool is finally up and running! Usually we're swimming by the last part of May. This spring was cool so we didn't even start on the summer prep til mid-June. Ryan had a pool party the last weekend of June and the water was horrible, even after lots of chemicals. We ended up having to drain it and start with clean water. So far so good and Ryan's hosting another party in a few weeks!

The kids are going to North Carolina at the end of August. I'm still deciding if I'll join them. There is SO much to do here that I'd love to have that "free time" to work in the house.

Hopefully things will click soon and I'll be back to blogging on a regular basis. I definitely READ blogs almost daily!!LOL