rainbow = miracle

so, the other night we were driving home from paul's parents' house and saw the stump of a very pale rainbow. when i say "we," i mean paul and i saw it... layla pretended to see "LOTS of rainbows!" but carson, to his disappointment and frustration, could not see it. we kept looking for another rainbow but couldn't see one at all.

carson was very sad, convinced he "had never and will never see a rainbow."

arriving home, we got the kids out of the car. i took addie inside and, almost unknowingly, said a little prayer that sometime soon carson would be able to see a rainbow. i went back out to the car to grab some stuff, and, NO LIE, there was a huge, perfect arching rainbow, visible directly between/above our garage and trees. i called carson and layla over, and we all ooohed and aaaahed (carson was ecstatic).

after spending some time appreciating the moment with my family, i ran inside to grab the camera (you know, for the blog), but as soon as i came back out, it had already vanished. honestly, the rainbow was there at the perfect place, at the perfect time, and for less than a minute -- just for carson.

maybe noah's rainbow was more meaningful to the guys on the ark, but this, at least to carson and me, was a pretty close second.

temple rules

primary sharing time teacher: "how should you act in the temple?"

carson: "you can't talk. and....i'm not sure....but i don't think you can BREATHE!"

that being said, i recommend that we all plan our temple attendance strategically.

newsflash: i now have TWO ankles!

i'd like to make an important announcement: i now have two ankles. one of them has been lost in a swollen, painful abyss for the past week. but it's been found and is working toward behaving like a good ankle should.

thank you and good night.

hammock = fun

two hammocks from paul's mission have been stored for...let's just say a lot of years. i finally got them out, hung them up in our front yard with some old nylon rope and lots of knots (we're talking quantity not quality here, folks), and the kids spent the entire morning swinging in the hammocks and LAUGHING. even addie was having a dangerously frolicky time.

if you need any fodder for convincing someone to serve a mission, feel free to consider this exhibit A: the goods you get to take home, store for a decade, then bring out for your kids to enjoy. you're welcome.

who YOU gonna call?

name: super-shades

alias: carson p. smart

superpower: "defeating the bad guys"

weapon of choice: plasma blaster

sidekick: blacky the dog

name: wonder-princess

alias: layla j. smart
superpower: "finding stuff"
weapon of choice: the staredown
sidekick: lulu

chunky brewster

you can't tell me your day's not brighter from having checked out the many faces of our homegrown chunk.

well, you can, i guess. but you'd be lying.

birthday boy carson

we had a great time at carson's 5-year-old b-day party. 1-1/2 hours, 11 5ish-year-old kids, 2 pools, 1 slip-n-slide, 2 craft ideas, 4 pizzas, 1 ice cream cake, about 18,000 water balloons (which lasted for about 3 minutes), and a backyard full of festive anticipation.

after carson opened each gift, he had to find the giver, look him/her in the eye, and say "thank you" before moving onto the next unwrap job. the kids all thought that was hilarious -- carson's frantically looking around at the faces of all the friends to make eye contact with the one who would be, by this time, standing very still and trying not to smile to see how long it would take him. it was a cute memory for me -- we're so grateful for his good friends!

just want to say a word or two about carson: he's a wonderful kid, very sensitive and inquisitive and smart. he's good at solving problems and will often "take one for the team" when diplomatic compromises among peers aren't working out. (his preschool teacher told me that carson would often wait until all the kids had lined up before going to the back of the line, "so no one else has to be last.")

he's imaginative and loves to create projects -- many every day, and the more complex the better. he's getting braver at getting dressed by himself in his basement bedroom and is becoming very confident about the abilities of his superhero alias (super-shades) to "defeat the bad guys." carson loves playing and reading and riding his bike. he's a good big brother to his sisters, playing with layla and helping to keep addie safe and laughing. he wants to know the inner workings of the world and will ask "why?" until he's satisfied with the answer (rarely) or the adult shrugs and says, "i just don't know" (not as rarely...in fact, his mother does this more often than she probably should).

he is a sweet kid mixed with silliness and a budding streak of independence, and we just plain ol' love him. happy 5th birthday, kiddo.

what hurts worse, my pride or my flesh wounds?

flesh wounds, hands down.

oh, and i suppose my pride stings a leetle as well, seeing as how i accrued these little beauties (and many other scrapes, bumps, and bruises) DURING my motorcycle endorsement skills test. crashed & burned during the "swerve and miss" part of the test, although i don't think i should've failed, because i did swerve and miss the obstacle...my body just took one for the team, is all, as my leg dragged and scraped under my skidding scooter. if the obstacle were, say, a little old lady crossing the street, for example, and i did this, i'd be a hero for swerving-and-missing.

too bad it was actually nothing more than a painted red line on the asphalt, which now contains several large chunks of my dna.

sighhhh. guess i'll have to stop embroidering "biker chick" on all our living room pillows.

earthy

last year, my sis-in-law jessica posted something about how canning (fruits, sauces, veggies, whatever) makes her feel "earthy." i was impressed with that description and have since tried to notice when in my life i, too, am feeling grounded and earthy. it's happened a lot recently.

like this morning on my wee-hours run, i saw a moving tractor's headlights out in the field. although i had nothing to do with the productivity of the tractor driver, i couldn't help but remember back to the days when i, too, drove a tractor through the night (9 p.m. to 9 a.m.) harvesting pie cherries one summer in high school. something about the smell of alfalfa and a sleepy but trudging-along tractor and knowing that, hey, i might not exactly be producing food to sustain life, but we're in this pale early-morning task together. downright earthy.

and like yesterday, when my father-in-law came to sunday dinner and brought two bags full of veggies he'd grown in his garden. so many fresh peas, pop the pod right open and toss the peas into my mouth. (forget the fact that i've never so much as laid a finger on the earth that grew them...) and i'll probably still feel undeservedly earthy when i saute up some of that squash for dinner tonight, sprinkled of course with cheese from another farm's cows.

and like last week when i biked my girls around in the trailer next to carson shooting his plasma blaster. carson was talking about how he needed gas to pedal his bike (translation: he needed a drink of water), and i was like, nope, we don't even need a drop of gas to pedal bikes (translation: i was ignoring his muted request for a drink because i had not even a swig of liquid handy but once we got home i knew he'd be able to drink to his heart's content). leg muscles: a natural resource. earthy.

and like a while ago when i sat outside on our driveway in a camping chair reading a magazine, supposedly so i could keep an eye on the manually-operated sprinklers, but actually because there was really nowhere in our house that i could sit unless i wanted to lounge on some tack strips or the hardwood floor.

and when i brushed my teeth with my finger because i didn't have a toothbrush. and when i watched lizzie walking the 3 miles to pemberly through the rain to see her sick sister jane in pride & prejudice. and when i left my cell phone at home on purpose. earthy earthy earthy.

i know what you're thinking. i'm a virtual 100% cotton canvas tote of organic granola mix.

peace.