We're a Biker Family

Wishbone Design Studio

My father-in-law always says, "we're a biker family."  He says this usually when we are packing up 10 or so bikes for an afternoon outing.  And a bike family we truly are.  I bet there are about 20+ bikes between the members of Josh's small family of 3 children. 

Already Josh is starting to collect images and supplies in hopes of making a bike for Monet.  Have I mentioned that she's not yet one?  I must say this makes me a bit nervous considering that Monet's genes come theoretically half from me.  My husband, unlike me, can maneuver around any situation on a bike.  He grew up mountain biking and really is quite impressive.  I on the other hand, ride around things, and even that causes me trouble.  

Last Friday I was reading one of my favorite blogs, Scoutie Girl.  Tara just got a new bike and unfortunately took a tumble.  You can read about it here.  Her story made me laugh, rude of me I know.  It brought back a flood of "falling memories"...

I grew up in Illinois and I now live in Utah.  If you've never been to either of these states, there is one huge difference between them.  Can you guess?  Well, Utah has mountains and Illinois does not.  By the way, you don't pronounce the "s" when you say Illinois; just letting you know in case you were curious.  

Sorry, took a little road trip there, no pun intended.  Ok, so we're back on track.  When I moved to Utah and I road my bike for the first time, it was a huge shock to me.  I couldn't believe the size of the hills.  I tried riding up this one hill by my apartment complex for an entire week before I made it to the top without having to stop.  Really, they're tremendous!  And when I decided to take up road biking, you know be "official" about it, get all the fancy gear, well that was an interesting day.  

Picture this, I'm inside, bike gear on, including my new fancy clip in bike shoes.  That's right, "official bikers" where shoes that clip into the bike pedals.  It's more energy efficient, like green energy kind of, except that you're saving your energy instead of the earths.  So I'm inside and I'm trying to learn how to clip out before I fall over. I've fallen about 15 times and have rug burns all over my one knee.  After a while I get the hang of it and I decide to go for a ride.  

I'm out riding and I'm feeling good, "official" really, my father-in-law would be proud.  As I approach my first stop light, I say to myself, no big deal, just slow down and clip out, you did it 100 times inside.  I approach the light and, YES, I did it, I clipped out.  This might be a good time to mention though, that the light was on a slight hill, a Utah hill which I guess we could also call a mountain.  The light turns green, I pick up my loose foot to clip in and the gravity of the mountain pulls me down to the ground, hard.  I have an entire row of cars waiting behind me, wanting to go through the light.  By the time I get up, the light has already turned red.  I now have to sit there, absolutely embarrassed, my face now as red as the rug burns on my legs.  I sit there and wait till the light turns green again, angry eyes of people running late staring at me. 

I'm happy to report that I made it through the light that second time.  I wish I could report though that this is my only falling story.  It is not!  I fall and run into thing constantly.  Just ask my husband and my students.  

Falling is funny really.  In the moment we are embarrassed, egos bruised, and physically hurt sometimes, but as time goes by these falls become something we don't mind sharing.  I find that interesting.  I think maybe this is a good life lesson for me, to have a sense of humor about the mistakes I make, if not in the moment, maybe as time passes?

Wont' you please share a funny falling story with me today?  

It's Monday, I think we could all use a few good laughs.

Happy Mother's Day

I love being a mother!

Monet was never much of a sleeper the first nine months of her life.  Each night she would awake every 2-4 hours.  Often Monet and I would co-sleep just to maximize sleep time and minimize moving back and forth between our rooms.  And while I am happy to report that Monet is now sleeping through the night, I must confess that I miss our nightly cuddles.  It seems that the short 15 minutes that I rock her to sleep each night, just isn't enough.

The flu bug has recently jumped from one member of my family to the next.  I was the last to catch the bug and was home sick the last couple days of this week.  On Thursday morning Monet woke early like she always does.  I guess she didn't get the memo about me having the flu.  I couldn't muster up the energy to get out of bed quite yet, so Monet and I just played in bed for about an hour.  Over time Monet was able to tell that something was up with mommy.  She played very gently and kept laying her head on my shoulder, as if to give me a hug.  Repeatedly she would pop up with a huge smile, play for a short while, and then go back to hugging.  After an hour of this, Monet cuddled in next to me and the two of us fell back to sleep.  And in the midst of a fever, body aches, and other unmentionables, at that moment my day could not have been any better.

And there we have the life of a mother.  Though motherhood can be extremely difficult, it is full of perfect little moments like this one.

Here are some moments from yesterday showing our happy and finally healthy family playing in the yard.

Happy Mother's Day!

Sock Monkey Art

My niece Althea turns two in about a week.  I hate, with all my heart, that I won't be there to celebrate on her birthday.  So instead of sulking, I dove into making her a little present.  My sister Katrina has lightly decorated the girls' toy room with Sock Monkeys.  When I say lightly, I mean perfectly light.  Sock Monkeys don't scream at you when you walk in the room, rather they pleasantly give you a smile and say hello as they sit amongst the other decor and toys in the room.  The walls of the toy room are a little bare though and so I thought this would work perfectly in the space she has created.

Can you see the jacks and ball that the monkeys are playing with.  Those are hand embroidered.  There's also a very faint, hand embroidered hopscotch path behind the sock monkeys.

Now if only I could figure out a way to shrink me and Monet so that we could ship ourselves to IL along with this package.  I imagine we would enjoy ourselves, sitting in the sun, under the trees, playing with the Sock Monkeys.  Monet might even be old enough to go down the slide.

Althea, Sylvia, I hope you know how much your Aunty Ang loves you.  I miss you both very much!

Grandma's Napkins; A Granny Inspired Green Project

A few years ago, when my Grandmother passed away, my family found itself faced with the task of dividing her estate.  We're not talking like, "I'll take the summer home in the Hampton's and you can have the cabin in the Rockies," but rather, "Do you want the plates with the butterflies or the pink couch?".  Our 1200 square foot bungalow didn't have much room for her collection of about 200 angels or a gigantic entertainment center for an old tube television, so we found ourselves seeking out the little things.  Angela found a few pieces of vintage jewelry that were just coming back into style, and I happily took Grandpa's old dented green metal toolbox filled with all the basic tools and even a "church key" inside for the really hard jobs.

As we looked through Grandma's things, and memories associated with each item came back to our minds, Angela and I went down to the basement.  While down in the depths of the earth, we stumbled upon a giant treasure chest filled with wonders.  It was actually the chest that her family used when they immigrated to America from Germany, and she had recently been using it to store all her sewing supplies and fabric scraps.  There were tons of great swatches, from years past, that would be quite difficult to find in stores today.  Unfortunately, many of the fabric swatches were rather small, but I knew Angela would find something creative to do with them.  We loaded them up, happy to have found our treasure.

Fast forward to today.  Well, it took a while, but we found a great use for some of those small fabric scraps and we thought the idea fit in great with this months theme of "reduce, reuse, repurpose, recycle." See I'm Busting My Stash Up This Month and Going Green for more info.  Grandma's leftover fabric scraps are now our nightly dinner napkins.

What a great way for us to remember Grandma at every meal, decorate our home with a little bit of charm, and also to keep a few more items out of the landfill.  

- Joshua Flicker

Valentine's Day with Daddy

Can I just say that I absolutely love daddy-daughter relationships, especially when they involve my husband and daughter.

Josh got Monet a Valentine's card and I absolutely melted. After that I didn't even have to read my card, he had already won my heart that day.

And to top it all off he spoiled me as well with a pretty spectatcular gift. Let's just say that from now on the photos you see here on this blog will be of much higher quality. Monet and I, we are pretty lucky, I think we have ourselves a diamond in the rough.

I love you Joshua.