Tokyo - Imagine Dragons

My happy song for today. So fun! :)

Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis

I read Mere Christianity, or at least parts of it earlier this year, and these were some favorite parts. I obviously didn't read much of it. I found it to be very enjoyable, but I kept falling asleep. I think that says more about me than the book. :)

Favorite bits and bobs of this book

"We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort."

"As Dr Johnson said, 'People need to be reminded more often than they need to be instructed." -on morality

It's that time of the year again.

Tomorrow, to be precise. The opening day of the bow hunt for deer here in Utah. I did posts here and here about last year and prep for this year.  Dustin's really excited. He has a whole boyfriends sleep over. It's good times. :)

This years prep has been on going, but now it's the last minute stuff that's getting done. Snacks and water and clothing and sleeping bags, etc. are getting put together. Dustin decided he needed a new camouflage shirt. So we went to 3 different places last night to find one. We ended up back at Sportsmans Warehouse. We'd already been there once. It was quite adventurous. What we thought was going to be a half an hour trip to the store ended up being 3 hours! ugh. It was long. But we found a shirt! woo hoo. Then this morning I was gathering all his stuff together to wash it in this special laundry detergent he has that is unscented. hahahahaha. Turns out he had a BRAND NEW t-shirt in with his other hunting stuff!! hahahahahahahaha. He also had like 2 and 3 of everything (pants, t-shirts, long sleeve t-shirts, hats) hahahahaha. I laughed myself silly.

This morning was spent getting the last minute things, and then he'll be off tonight and home sometime before Sunday. I'm tired. How about you?

I think I'll take a nap. After I do all my chores. ;)

Miaya still naps?!?!

So you guys asked if Miaya still takes naps, and yes, she does. Sometimes. Most of the time we just do quiet time. This is something I learned when I was watching a friends children a few years back. Miaya was little, and she still took regular naps TWICE A DAY. Lucky me. :D These kids, though, were a bit high strung, and nothing at all like my little content baby. Their mom, though, told me that she had them do quiet time each day. What is that? you may ask. Well, just like it sounds. Quiet time. No loudness, running, wildness, etc. Like Mamma said: reading a book, watching a movie, something quiet. It was so great. They would sit down and chill for like an hour, no coaxing necesary. Most of the time.

Now on to the pictures. I love this little sequence of pictures.

In the first two, Sarah was making her way over. And then by the end, she's almost to me again. haha!

Is that all your questions answered? I always think I answer the comments, but they never make it to the blog or facebook.

Oh, and Mamma, yeah, the order in the day thing: My kids totally thrive on a schedule. Or maybe it's me? Either, way, we love a good routine in the Baker household. It's not anything big. Here's our typical day. My kids get up between 7 and 8, then we do breakfast. Then we spend the morning cleaning, or running errands, or playing. Then we do lunch. Then naps. The playing and cleaning and getting dinner ready. Then dinner time at 6, then bath, bedtime at 8pm. Awesome. The only things really concrete are sleep and meal times. Everything else is pretty fluid. So now you know way more than you ever wanted to know about that.
The end.

Blanket Forts

I don't know about you, but one of my favorite things to do as a kid was to make tents and tunnels with blankets and couch cushions and pillows. 

Miaya and Sarah love it too.

Miaya begs me to let her sleep in them for naps.

And sometimes I let her. :)

Brigham City day trip

I mentioned in a post a couple of days ago, or maybe it was yesterday, that Dustin gets to install office furniture in the temples sometimes? Well, he was at the Logan temple also last week, and on his way home from there, he saw the Brigham City temple. I didn't realize it was so far along.

Neat-o, huh? This picture was taken on the south side of the construction site. I stood up in the car and poked myself out of the moon roof (which I am sort of amazed I fit out of! hahahaha) and took the picture while we were on the one way street. hahaha. It was great. We went to Brigham City to check out the temple, and get yummy peaches (they've just started becoming ripe! nom nom.) And we also like to just go on day trips, and this was our day trip on Saturday. We also stopped at Smith and Edwards, which is always fun in an overwhelming way.

delightful.

The Urban Cottage: Design*Sponge- Yay!

I love this day bed. I want to make one. Someday. ;)

The Urban Cottage: Design*Sponge- Yay!:

Not all those who wander are lost. - J. R. R. Tolkien

It is true. They aren't. And it is also true that the title has little, if anything, to do with this post. And so on we go.

Miaya left her cereal bowl on the table one morning after eating her breakfast. She is supposed to put it in the sink, or rinse it and put it into the dish washer. So it's sitting on the table and Sarah comes along and sees it. 

This is what Sarah lives for. Opportunities to make lots of fun messes. :)

And then she likes to eat them. Oh. My.

Miaya loves to play dress up. I love that she loves to play dress up. This is her graduation cap from her preschool graduation and a stick and a feather. I'm not sure what she's dressed up as, but she loves it.

Cute girls.

Don't you love having the park to yourself? I do.

Sarah while she naps.

Miaya eating lollipops.

Sarah eating lollipops.

 So Dustin went to Arizona last week. One of the perks of working for Midwest Commercial Interiors is that they get the temple contracts quite a bit, and so Dustin gets to travel occasionally to go and do the office furniture. Most of the time it's just local, but a few years back he went to Oakland, and last week he went to the Mesa, Arizona temple. He left here at like 8:45 in the morning and got back at about 5 the next afternoon. 

After dropping him off at the airport, the girls and I went to the park. It was great. We were there for like an hour and had the whole place to ourselves. :D

Miaya love love loves the park. She wishes she lived there. It was fun, though.

Determination

When I was a kid, third grade I believe, I had a book about Sleeping Beauty and it said in small letters that it was a story about determination. I always had a hard time saying that word, but an even harder time understanding the word. I have no problem understanding now. 

According to dictionary.com:  

de·ter·mi·na·tion/diˌtərməˈnāSHən/Noun

1. Firmness of purpose; resoluteness.

2. The process of establishing something exactly, typically by calculation or research. 

I am talking about the first definition. 

A while back, we found a small sunflower plant growing in the cracks of the concrete by the back door. My first reaction was to pull it up. Miaya saw it before I did that and asked what sort of plant it was. I told her. She thought it was so amazing and it became HER sunflower. And so, of course, I did not pull it up. We (Dustin and I) are such suckers for stuff like this. Earlier in the year, Miaya adored the dandelions, and so we left them for a bit longer because she enjoyed them so much. Anyway, so back to the sunflower. We have let it grow, and so now it looks like this:

This sunflower was determined to grow. Can you see where it is growing? Out of a crack. It wanted it enough to grow and exist. Awesome.I don't water it, I don't do anything to it. I just let it grow. Miaya checks on it most days and often comments on how well it is growing, how big its getting, etc. So fun.

Another determined thing, or more accurately, person in my life? My Sarah girl. If I had to describe her in only one word, determination would be it. She does not give up EVER. It can be difficult sometimes. Like when it's bedtime and she's not ready for sleep. Or when she wants my glasses and won't stop taking them off my face, or even when she wants to play and it's the middle of sharing time, and I'm teaching, so she can't. But it is such a huge part of who she is and so, very much a part of her I love. I mean, how can your resist this?

 I can't. hahahaha. 

Now, my Miaya girl is also determined. Stubborn, obstinate, whatever you'd like to call it. But hers has only shown up in the last year or two. She is my laid back kid for the most part. She loves to play. Play is her life. Take away play, and she is a most unhappy girl. She is the kid that always gives way to what the other kids want to do, because she really doesn't care, as long as she's playing. Like I said, though, she has this crazy stubborn streak in which if she does not get to do what she feels she needs to (sometimes it's something as simple as brushing her teeth BEFORE brushing her hair, instead of the other way around) the whole house is in an uproar because Miaya is unhappy. 

And yet, again, it's a part of her growing up, becoming who she's becoming, and so I love it. Not in the moment, but I have high hopes this determination in both my kids will continue on in other aspects of their life as they grow and get older.

Life is hard. But life is so good.

August, what are you doing here? You are not supposed to be here yet.

August sounds so late in the year...so Summer is ending...so the year is more than half way over.

That can't be right, can it? It is. And strangely enough, it felt to me like July was so long, and luxurious. Time goes fast and slow. It's weird.

So, how have you been? I can't be bothered getting on my computer any more. A lot of the time any more I only get on to pay my bills. This Summer has been glorious. It has been so mild here in Utah. I know lots of places have experienced drought and heat waves. But not here. No, I don't even think it's been one hundred degrees yet. Divine, I tell you. Lots of playing and picnics and lounging outside reading books with the girls. Day trips, and store trips, and airport trips. (Okay, just two airport trips, but you know.) Sunshine, rain, stunning thunderstorms, and rainbows. Bathtimes, storytimes, prayertimes, and bedtimes. Sickness, colds, sniffles, and coughs. Family parties, and fireworks, and barbecues. Fresh peaches, cherries, and corn from the roadside fruit stands. Fresh strawberries and raspberries from the garden. Movies in the afternoon, forts made out of blankets and furniture. So good. I love summertime. It's my favorite time of year. Although, I love all the times of the year.

Oh, and Dustin just told me that it has been one hundred degrees.

I hope your summer has been lovely.