LittleBrother’s courageous streak is why the child was in a toddler bed before he was a year old. Climber McGee wouldn’t stay put. He keeps me on the edge of my parenting desires. I don’t want to be the Helicopter Parent at the playground. But, man, it would be great if the child would remember that he’s not even three yet and quit trying to be such a Big Kid all the time because I also don’t want him to have another concussion.

At least he’s having fun, right? Or so it seems as I caught him on the underside of one of the play things at our park’s playground during a playdate with another firefighter’s son this week. He was kicking his legs out and swinging by his hands.

Not even three. I’m doomed.

He also launched himself down a (covered) slide head first simply because he saw a Big Kid do it. You can see his brain working as he watches older kids on the playground. “What’s that kid doing? Oh, I see. He’s hanging upside down from the horse. Hmm, I wonder if I can do that, too?” Off he runs. He cracks me up. He worries me so. He is his own person. For that, I am glad.

Of course, then he taught the other firefighter’s son, just barely three, how to do it as well.

And there’s BigBrother, feet firmly planted on the ground, bossing everyone around.

Doomed. Doomed. Doomed.

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[For more fun, this week's You Capture theme, visit I Should Be Folding Laundry. Next week is water.]

Double Purpose Post: You Capture + I’m Doomed is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

But that doesn’t mean I never get Noised Out.

Toys make noise. The exhaust fan in the kitchen makes noise while I’m cooking supper. The dryer buzzes. My cell phone beeps. The neighbor doesn’t have a muffler. And while I’m glad that the birds are back and that Spring is near, man, those birds are loud at times. Sometimes, I just need quiet.

I don’t get much.

Sometimes I wake up before the boys do, though it’s hard to get up before BigBrother. His internal clock is set for Early O’Clock. Lately he’s been struggling to stay in his room until his digital clock reads seven-zero-zero. But sometimes I get to have a cup of coffee by myself in the wee hours of the morning, thinking about my day and planning our adventures before they begin.

Sometimes I get to have a glass of wine by myself at night with the television off, the radio off, the noisy toys quieted and the children fast asleep. Sometimes I get to read in my bed during those hours as well, every third night finding FireDad sleeping at the fire station for his usual shift. Sometimes the kids even leave me alone in the shower, the hot water erasing the stress of the moment. Those moments, however, don’t last long. What is it about a shower that sends absolutely everybody in the house to the bathroom door? I need a sound proof bathroom. That’s the fix.

To be honest though, I can only stand so much quiet. Yes, I crave it. But when it’s too quiet, I hear little noises. The sound of silence is actually too loud for me as we discovered in January when our electricity went out due to the snow storm. It’s deafening, that silence of nothingness. And so, while I get overwhelmed sometimes, I’ll take the noise even if it means that I sometimes get startled and spill my coffee on my robe, pants or new floor. The noise, of course, is just a sign that we’re happy and healthy and able to make that noise.

Or, that’s what I tell myself on the days that I want to run off and buy ear plugs.

For more quiet, visit today’s challenge at I Should Be Folding Laundry. Next week’s challenge is reaching. Hmm.

You Capture: Quiet is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

I’m tired of being stuck inside. I’m tired of the snow. I’m tired, mainly. I need fresh air that doesn’t burn my lungs. I need a little more green, it being my favorite color and all. I need more color than various shades of grey. I need Spring.

I’ve been feeling kind of down in the dumps, overwhelmed with our four walls and constant company. It’s not that I’d just turn my kids loose outdoors and not watch them; it’s that we need more space for our voices, our personalities. We need to stretch and run and spend that energy. It’s been a hard winter, too, having lost two family members. I need that hopeful feeling that the new growth of Spring brings.

And it’s so close I can almost taste it.

Buds. They’re coming. I can almost imagine the blooms that they will soon bring. I can almost imagine our apple tree in full bloom, buds pushing up through the grass. I can almost imagine grass. Snow is melting, here and there, and I can see the dull, dark browns and green from a winter of halted growth. Will it green up soon? Will it soon outnumber the patches, piles and inches of endless white?

I have this lament every year, like last year when I was worried about snow falling on my day lily sprouts. They came up on March 17th. That’s only thirteen days from now. Surely that means that hope is just around the corner, just waiting to be discovered. Right? Surely that means that the sun will shine more than just today. That soon the snow will melt. That maybe, just maybe, Spring really is coming this year, not leaving us in this frozen tundra of gloom and doom forever. Right?

This has been one of the worst winters I can remember; not just snow wise but emotionally as well. Maybe not the worst but it ranks up there quite high. I’m ready to feel new again myself. To shed my winter coat and stand with my face to the sun and let the bright rays of hope remind me of who I am and what it is that I am doing here.

I’m ready. Is Spring?

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[For more hopeful photos, visit today's You Capture Challenge at I Should Be Folding Laundry.]

You Capture: Hopeful is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

In that photo you can see two laptops, two cell phones, my card reader, my favorite pen, a cup of coffee and the corner of the couch that I do most of my leaning on. It is here that I write, edit, e-mail, network, procrastinate, tweet, play Bejeweled Blitz, press refresh and generally take on the world of a freelance writer and editor. I have started doing some work at the dining room table again but I prefer the couch. (Speaking of, we’re in the market for a new couch and a new recliner. Anyone know of any good deals?)

What you don’t see in the first picture is the mess that my living room becomes while I do my morning work. Here’s a small glimpse.

I would have shown you my entire living room at that point yesterday but it was trashed. The Duplo blocks were out. More puzzles were at my feet as LittleBrother is deep in a puzzle phase. All of our cars were strewn across the floor. The Veggie Tales castle was turned over as was the fire department. And two new sleeping bags were thrown into the mix as well. The truth is that I spend my mornings doing work and building puzzles or coloring or racing or having my toes run over all at the same time. I’m working but I’m also playing with and/or parenting my boys. I had this idea, prior to doing it, that working from home was easy and somewhat glamorous. It is neither. Rewarding? Sure. Comfortable? Totally. But it’s nothing that I had imagined.

Anyway, thanks to all of this…

…I haven’t been working outside the home very much. I was called off on Saturday and almost didn’t work yesterday. I did manage to get out and photograph a game. As I was editing some photos, I took a picture of me, hard at work, which, minus the couch, doesn’t really look much different than what I’m doing at home, now does it?

Things you don’t see me working on this week in this post include: seven loads of laundry, baking three dozen cookies, trying new recipes, Swiffering our new floor and generally helping run the household. (That said, my loving husband did all of the shoveling this week.)

What I hope you see in some of these jokes is that I love the work I do, both at home and away. I am a lucky woman in that regard. I hope that continues. If you want to see some other work photos, visit this week’s You Capture challenge over at I Should Be Folding Laundry. Next week’s challenge is kisses. Sounds fun to me!

Now back to work. Really! I’m at This Woman’s Work’s house talking about our book. WOO!

You Capture: Work is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

BigBrother made five really good faces: left top, sad; left bottom, angry; center, happy; right top, silly; right bottom, surprised.

Then I asked him to make his favorite face and he ended up with this gem:

Next came LittleBrother’s turn. He was distracted by BigBrother and FireDad. Plus his attention span is a bit shorter, being only two, but he came up with three great faces: left, happy; right top, sad; right bottom, surprised.

And then he melted down which is a perfect sad face all of its own.

I enjoyed this challenge and I think the boys did, too. You know, until LittleBrother melted. Life is hard when you’re two.

Next week’s challenge is work. I’m not sure how to approach this one as I work six different jobs (five freelancing, one out-of-home) and, you know, care for these two wild and crazy guys all day long. I think it will be an interesting challenge and I hope to put a little bit of thought and time into it. I’ll be interested to see what everyone else comes up with as well. Until then, check out everyone else’s face pictures today.

You Capture: Faces is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

January 2009

February 2009

March 2009

April 2009

May 2009

June 2009

July 2009

August 2009

September 2009

October 2009

November 2009

December 2009

Next week’s challenge is to share our winter. Which is funny as we’re getting slammed with winter as I sit here and type this later in the evening than usual because I had to run all the errands I normally run on Friday earlier today since we’re expected to be stuck at home all day tomorrow. I’m sure to have some more winter pictures to share with you from all of this!

Be sure to visit today’s You Capture challenge post for a lot of other great shots from 2009.

You Capture: Year In Review is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

Turns out I have more favorites than I knew. Most with great stories.

This was the centerpiece in our wedding. That’s right. We had a Christmas themed wedding. Actually, our anniversary is tomorrow. My grandmother did the flowers for our wedding. This centerpiece sat in front of us at the head table. It was gorgeous then and it’s gorgeous every year when I pull it out of our holiday closet, dust it off and situate it on our half wall with the little Christmas trees that were the centerpieces on the guests’ tables.

See?

I added lights for the first time this year, which I’m loving. Though we plan to be in this house for another three years, give or take a Christmas, I hope that our next home has an easy place, like our half wall, to display our centerpieces. Other than our Fire Tree, it really is my favorite part of our decorations.

Next we have our front door which also brings us a gem from our wedding. Maybe your front door has a wreath. Maybe you also have a bell attached to your front door right now. We have… wait for it… two wreaths (small), tied together, made entirely of jingle bells. These were made for the front of the church on our wedding day.

Love them. I love how they jingle every time the door is opened or closed… even if you’re trying to be oh-so-quiet because you’re carrying a sleeping child in the door. Okay, well, maybe that part isn’t so hot but, otherwise, I love their shiny silver greeting every time I look at our front door. (Ignore the bows. I haven’t re-fluffed them since the wind storm we had last week. They’re a bit… mashed looking.) But, yes, I love the shiny beauty they bring to the door… even if you can see me, with morning hair, in my robe (no socks again! but no snow) on the front porch.

Finally, the last bit of favoriteness also sits on our front porch. You see, we have a firefighter that sits next to our front door. He guards it, if you will. He stands about hip high. On me, you know, since I’m short. At Christmas time, I take out a bow and wrap it around his neck like a scarf. It’s also another bow related to our wedding. It was some ribbon my mother had purchased to see if I wanted it for anything in the wedding or reception. While I love Christmas, it was a little too Christmas-y for the wedding. But I kept the bow. When we moved into the house and celebrated our first Christmas, I delegated the firefighter to wear the bow. Our front porch is festive and safe. No?

Did you really expect my favorite Christmas decorations to lack something fire related? Never!

And so, there you have it. These are my favorite Christmas decorations in our home, minus our Fire Tree. Though I do have a post coming with all of our Nativity sets. Turns out we have quite a few! (Do they make a firefighter Nativity set? If not, they should.) I’d head over to I Should Be Folding Laundry to view today’s You Capture post if you’re interested in viewing others’ favorites.

The next challenge is YOUR HOLIDAY. Meaning mine, not yours. I’m not showing up to capture your holiday! (A side note, there will be no You Capture next week due to Christmas Eve on Thursday and Christmas on Friday! We’ll be back on December 30th with a smorgasbord of our holiday pictures. Which works well for our family because we’re not celebrating in Pennsylvania with my side of the family until the 28th! WIN!)

Finally, come back tomorrow if you want to hear me blather on about FireDad, our marriage and general awesomeness.

You Capture: Christmas Flowers, Bells & Firefighters is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

This first shot speaks to something I’m working on regarding my photography as of late. I used to shun noise in photos. I don’t particularly like it in people photos still (or, maybe, yet) but in some of my more recent shots, like this one of snowflakes, I find that it lends a little something to the shot. As such, this particular shot of a Cheryl&Co box I got the other day sitting beneath our tree makes me happy. Noise and all. I love how the lines fade away into my tree. Plus, woo! Bokeh!

(Speaking of Cheryl&Co, I have a brownie giveaway going on. Go see!)

While I was snapping that picture and a few other Christmas decoration oriented ones, it was doing this outside making the lines of my deck more visible!

I also want you to know that I shot the above picture in my bare feet because I love snow that much. And because I’m a little insane. And because I was trying to make lunch at the same time and couldn’t be bothered to find my boots. See? Still finding lines in this shot!

Then I got lunch on the table, located my boots and my jacket and ran out the back door. I love our fence row. It’s old, falling apart and oh-so-perfect to photograph in any season. The softly falling snow was just perfect for today’s capture of the top of our fence row making a nice straight line.

As I was about to go inside, I noticed the birds were sitting on the power lines above my head. I wish I would have had my long-long lens but it was sitting inside on my bed waiting to capture my boyfriend and other birds outside my window. So I just shot with what I had going and gave it a black and white treatment and voila, birds in/on a line.

There are some more great photos of lines on today’s You Capture post. Go take a look! Next week’s challenge is holiday decor… but I already snapped our fire tree so I don’t know what I’ll come up with next week. Guess we’ll wait and see!

You Capture: Lines is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

But I did manage to get some food shots. You see, BigBrother has been wanting to make pumpkin pie for weeks. But then we got the flu and it kind of fell by the wayside. With today being Thanksgiving, I figured we’d make a pumpkin pie together. Last night we got together in the kitchen, after I already had the crust made, rolled, fought with and placed in the pie pan, and made a pie together. Our pumpkin pie has no cinnamon (I’m allergic) and is actually a maple pumpkin pie.  BigBrother had a blast. Truth be told, so did I.

To prove that I was involved, FireDad snapped a picture. Thanks, hon!

He looks awfully smug, doesn’t he? So proud of himself! I’m proud of him, too.

Recipe is a variation on this Real Simple one, sans cinnamon due to my allergy and cloves due to my distaste for their very existence. Our maple syrup is Gramps’ homemade maple syrup so, of course, ours is better than any variation you will make. It is heavenly.

Somewhere in between the last two pictures I managed to spill the pie out of the crust and pan and onto the bottom of my oven. The spilling also caused the crust on that side to burn. Knowing that it would, I ran to the store and picked up some Reddi-Whip which I plan to use so that my Great-Grandmother doesn’t see my pie snafu. Also, I picked up wine on my quick outing. See?

The big bottle in the back is for today to share over dessert with my enormous family. The small bottle in front was for me to test last night (as my favorite brand wasn’t available in a big bottle). You know, just in case it wasn’t going to be good, I had to have a glass last night. I took one for the team. (Moscato is my favorite.)

Next week’s You Capture challenge is to tell a story. I have something in mind. We’ll see if I remember to do it or not!

–

Food (and wine) aside, I’m very thankful today, of all days, to be where I am, who I am and with those in my life. Our life may be busy and hectic at times but that in itself is a blessing. I am thankful for the three amazing men who live under this room. I am thankful for an amazing Munchkin and the people who love and care for her on a daily basis. I am thankful for my friends, both here in Ohio and back home in Pennsylvania, who bring sanity and laughs to my life. I am thankful for my blog friends who encourage, challenge and generally make my life awesome. I am thankful for so many, many things.

I hope that you are able to be thankful today as well!

Happy Thanksgiving from the FireFamily!

You Capture: Food (& Thanks) is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.

In fact, I’m on Day 12. That’s right, I got a respiratory infection on top of the flu. When I do something, I go all out! LittleBrother got sick late last week, the flu as well, and got a double ear infection on top of it. Apparently we’re just overachievers. BigBrother, on the other hand, is fine and dandy, moving at speeds I couldn’t keep up with even if I was well. The good news is that we’ve had lots of quiet moments, cuddles like we had yesterday.

And so, really, this has been “our real life” since Thursday of last week.

I’d share a picture of BigBrother but, as I said, he’s well and moving at lightning speeds. I simply can’t keep up. (As a side note, I am finally on antibiotics for my respiratory infection. I hope to feel better before BigBrother’s birthday next Tuesday.)

Hopefully someone else who participated in this week’s You Capture challenge has some pictures that really show their lives. But, really, that’s all we’ve done. Most of the week we didn’t get out of our pajamas. Mmm, pajamas. Next week’s challenge is Sunrise/Sunset which makes me think of the song which makes me weepy as my sons will both be turning another year older in the next week and a half. These sniffles? Uh, they’re just because I’m sick. I swear…

You Capture: Our Real Life, Flu Style is a post from Stop, Drop and Blog. Want more of Stop, Drop and Blog? Like our page on Facebook! If you have questions, contact me or hit me up via twitter.