Our bikers...

Tonight we watched our children successfully ride their bikes to and from - WITHOUT complaint - our house and dinner at Bene pizza. I feel like we have arrived as a family! :) Last summer, I thought walking to the store with the kids was an accomplishment. This summer it is riding bikes. It was very fun, and I watched in awe as I thought how time flies by. Jack is looking so much older this summer. He is really a big kid now - especially with his summer glow of a tan, which will quickly fade with the coming of Oregon's fall and winter clouds. Molly is also looking and acting quite a bit older this summer. She continues to be the mother hen, but in a really kind way. She really does have the person's best interest in mind. I marvel at the fact that I am a mother to an almost 6 and 4 year old. I can barely remember them as babies, which is a sad fact. However, I am so enjoying this stage even with all the parenting of right, wrong, why, etc, etc we have to be responsible for now instead of feeding and changing dirty diapers.

Here is to the joy of bikes, city paths, and close pizza joint down the road to provide us with a memory we will always have in our family.

Many different "hats"...

A mother wears a multitude of different "hats" during the day.

If you are a mother, you know what I am talking about. If you are not a mother, you probably still know what I am talking about because people in general wear multiple "hats" in life.

When a mother is "mothering" on their own for more than two days, one becomes more aware of those "hats" than on a regular day. I was thinking last night about all the "hats" I wore that day, and I smiled. I enjoy most of the "hats" I get to wear, even if there are times when I am tired and would rather not be wearing that "hat" - like wiping a poopy bottom for the second or third time because for some reason my kids have not figured out how to effectively use the flushable moist wipes I provide for them to get it completely clean, so many minutes later we are altogether and wondering just who has the poop smell coming from their bottoms and we have to have a bottom check with pants down and mom spreading the cheeks to inspect! :)

Just in case that rabbit trail was too much for you, I will not go into all the hats I wore yesterday.

I just wanted to let you know about a "hat" I had the extreme pleasure of wearing yesterday...the "hat" of an ARTIST. Yes loyal encouragers of my artistic dreams, I have been working on not only one collage but TWO! I am doing them for a fund raiser, so we will see if they sell. I am "secretly" hoping they will so that it will boost my courage to keep at it - besides all of you that are holding out hope of getting a piece in the next 100 years!

Here are to the "hats" that bring us pleasure and smiles inside and out. It has been too fun and so fulfilling to work with the wonderful paper and all the color it holds that I have has stashed away for too long. I often wonder why color makes me so happy, but that is for another blog. When the collages are done, I will post pictures of the finished pieces...so watch out!

Showers...

There are many reasons that I love my kids being in swimming lessons, but there is one thing in particular that hit me today that I love...showers at the pool. While they might not seem just quite as clean as they would be if they had showered at home, they are clean in the middle of the day. It is one less bedtime routine item that has to be done every night. There is a little less water used at home to show up on the water bill. Finally, I am not as tired doing it in the middle of the day as I am at bedtime. So...here is a thumbs up to swimming lessons and family changing rooms equipped with a toilet, shower, and bench to keep things dry until just the right time! :)

(PS - this is a blog entry done by a mother who has been flying solo for what seems like forever, but really only 8 days! so...read between the lines)