We were hit

I started this post days ago. It left was left half started/half finished in my drafts. I think I was called away mid-post by one of my children. Today when I returned, I determined to scrap it entirely. Well, all except the photo above. I love the genuine smiles on these three faces - three of my favorite faces in the world. I especially love Vaughanie's blurred finger pointing up or saying she is #1 or something.

We were hit this week with the stomach bug. Sweet V had no idea what had hit her. We survived and I am hoping we can avoid others getting it too.

I have lots I want to share - like how Alan and I went to see this amazing play last week, how I had a girls' night out with Ellery and Vaughan, how I feel conflicted about being drawn to beautiful things and wanting to beautify my house and knowing that these things aren't what matters as I read about a friend's removal of her brain tumor. Wow - that got serious fast, right?

My brain hurts so those thoughts will have to wait until later. Anyway, I think I hear a baby stirring and I need to go nibble on her cheeks!

Happy Friday!

Serenbe

"What should we do today?" I asked after glancing outside.

The weather has been incredible - highs in the low to mid 70's, bright blue skies, warm sun (I apologize in advance to those of you still suffering through the snow). I wanted to take advantage of it and Alan had the day off.

"Let's go check out Serenbe." And that, my friends, is exactly what we did.

Serenbe is a community about 45 minutes south of Atlanta. It has been developed with sustainability principles in mind. There is a farm there, some restaurants, a "town" with shops. It has been written up in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Cottage Living, House Beautiful, etc, etc, etc.

I was skeptical. Sometimes these "developed" communities seem a little too contrived for my likings.

This time, I was wrong. The girls loved it. I mean, check out these tree houses. They could have stayed here all day. There were actual rooms in the houses and within seconds they had determined which room was the kitchen, which room was the bedroom...

Off to the left, though, was this trail. It was too enticing to pass up. We started off on what we thought was going to be a little hike. And an hour and a half later, we took a break at this little waterfall.

The girls were troopers. I have no idea how they lasted as long as they did and never even complained. It was a long hike and when we returned we promptly marched into the bake shop and ordered some drinks and cookies.

There were smiles all around. As you can see on little V's face below.

Oh and if you look closely enough on the table you can see two little Polly Pocket legs. Yep, the little Polly Pockets and/or Barbies travel everywhere with us. Even on hikes at Serenbe!

Sniffle, sniffle, sneeze

Yep, I have been hit. Luckily not with strep. The good news is that a dear friend sent me a dozen tea cakes from Ham 'n Goodys. Oh you poor souls who have not delighted in the tea cakes from Ham 'n Goodys. This photo doesn't really capture the tea cake (they are the large cookies on the left.) Go ahead - google it "ham n goody tea cake." Only then might you begin to understand just how great these darn cookies are - I mean people are going to great lengths to try to replicate them. Alan took a bite and said that it tasted like raw cookie dough. Need I say more?

My "plan" wasn't actually to write about tea cakes, though that is clearly what I have done. My plan - and let's be honest, calling it a plan is really stretching it - was to point you all to my friend's blog "a gift a day." Anne is an incredibly talented writer. But there are lots of talented writers out there, right? Her blog is compelling because she is compelling. She is compassionate and she is a seeker.

In her own words, this is what Anne is doing.

"Day one of my experiment in giving begins… now.

So, here is the deal: every day for the next three months I will give at least one thing of value away. It is tempting for me to construct 48 different rules for myself around this project, to allow my insatiable perfectionism to get in the way of its completion, to set myself up for imminent and disastrous failure, but I am resisting. The only thing I need to do is give something meaningful away and to write about it. Done."

Go check it out. I promise you it will be worth your time.

Post Valentine's Day Post

I felt sort of apathetic about Valentine's Day this year. Walking down the aisle at the drug store, seeing all of that sickly, sugary, garbage just wasn't doing it for me. Or maybe it was the THREE hours I spent at the drugstore walking up and down the aisles desperately searching my soul for patience - trying to remind myself to set a good example for my children.

We spent Sunday at the Minute Clinic. It was awesome - OH YEAH (as Vaughan's likes to say these days). Ellery has strep. I dragged Vaughan along for the ride because, let's be honest, those two girls are all over each other all day every day. As far as I was concerned, they might as well have been licking each other. I was certain if Ellery had strep, it was just a matter of time before Vaughan's symptoms kicked in too.

But let me back up just a bit. My parents had actually invited Alan and me out for a Valentine's Day dinner with DANCING. "You do come from a dancing people" reminded Alan. I was seriously excited to dance. My sweet dad had even made special music requests. We had a pre-dinner oysters, a delicious lobster appetizer and then...and then...well, then we got the text message.

We hurried home to comfort our heavy eyed 5 year old.

Back at the Minute Clinic my suspicions were confirmed. Strep. Two days later (as I predicted) Vaughan had a fever. Today my throat feels scratchy - here's to hoping it's just paranoia.

By the way, check out my cousin's rockin' cookies. I mean who makes cookies that look like that? Here's a sneak peak.

Told you they were good!

P.S. I must mention that Alan rescued us all from our Valentine's Day doldrums. He bought all the McKnight girls flowers and then made us an incredibly delicious dinner (green salad with dried cranberries and pears, sea bass with a fresh tomato salsa, green beans with pine nuts, gelato with strawberries for dessert). I think he is trying to show me up!

Alan's Birthday and Another Girls' Weekend

Has it dawned on you that we are already more than 1/12 of the way through 2011 -- and I am still writing 2010 on all of my checks. Where did January go?

We have been busy here on Rockingham. Doing this.

What's this you say? Well, let me tell you.

We celebrated Alan and Uncle Tony's birthdays. I mean that -- we CELEBRATED! Recently, we have been confronted with the unfortunate trials of illness. A mother at the girls' pre school passed away from complications due to a brain tumor last week. The same week, a friend was diagnosed with a brain tumor. She has three small children - the youngest is just a year old.

All of this to say, that this year instead of dreading another birthday....another year older... Alan and I are truly grateful for what we have - including our health.

Speaking of health - Alan has recovered quite well from his sinus surgery. Oh - did I not mention that? Yes, we also squeezed in a surgery this week.

In honor of January birthdays, we were lucky enough to have Shaun Doty come and cooked us a delicious dinner.

Let me introduce Shaun. He ROCKS == for lots of reasons - just one of them being that he is an amazing chef.

He and Alan hit it off discussing the importance of understanding and appreciating where our food comes from and what happens to it along the way. This is a hot topic in our house lately - but really it is best saved for another post.

OK - so the meal was rocked, Shaun rocked, and most importantly our guests rocked. We had a great time hanging out with everyone.

Oh - and this is Latham kickin' in a baker's hat....because kick it she can!

Happy Tuesday!

I am still here

Latham is eating food! Poor thing looks like she has been starving, right? Wasting away to nothing really. And that is in fact hair on her head. The sweet thing finally is getting some hair.

I have been here there and everywhere. I took a trip to Seattle to spend a fabulous weekend with these lovely ladies. I am so thankful to have had these girls as best friends for almost 20 years. YIKES - 20 years - that make me feel like an adult. We get together every year and every year I leave this weekend feeling recharged, grounded and exceptionally sad. Sad because it will most likely be another year before we are all together again. We spent the weekend talking about the latest fashion trends (um, can someone say pajama jeans?), books to add to our reading lists (The Room), parenting challenges (should we allow sleepovers?), easy recipes, family dramas...you name it and we covered it. Thank you girls! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

I returned to a household of children who missed me terribly (no really, I know they did) and husband who missed me even more.

We celebrated a birthday and now I am nursing my sweet husband back to health after sinus surgery.

I will be back soon with more pictures and more stories to tell!