{this moment} – A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

During the pregnancy, it seemed that everything that could go wrong did. Steve didn’t recover the way he should have.. My pelvis separated, and I ended up in a wheelchair for the last two months of the pregnancy.  My grandfather passed away. I was depressed, frustrated and angry.

Right after he was born, Steve started experiencing horrible medication problems. He couldn’t care for himself, let alone help with a newborn and a three year old. When the baby was less than a month old, Steve went into the hospital for a week for medication issues. At two months, Steve had a third back surgery which resulted in some terrible complications. The first months of this baby’s life were completely horrible for me. I questioned my sanity, I questioned my ability as a Mom, I questioned my existence.

But, no matter what, this child clung to me and made me see what was important. He and his brothers were the light that kept me going, kept me looking for a way through.

Now that things are settled down, this little boy is still my light. The other two boys gravitate to their Daddies. This one is mine. He makes me laugh every day. He always seeks me out when he’s sad, lonely or just wandered too far away from me. Even at home, he doesn’t leave my side for more than a few minutes at a time. He’s a complete Mama’s boy and I don’t mind a bit.

He enjoys the same things I do. He loves to color and play with his trains (I am a huge Thomas fan, don’t let my age fool you!). He loves to read books and take pictures with my phone. I can’t wait until he’s old enough for me to teach him how to sew and scrapbook. He’s the one who will be interested, I can tell.

I no longer question God’s wisdom for sending me this precious gift. It seemed God knew I needed a Mama’s boy. He also obviously knew I was going to need something to keep me going during one of the darkest periods of my life. I am grateful everyday for this little angel who was sent at the exact right time.

Over the last few years our house has become video game-centric. Video games were something that Dad could do with the boys while laying on the couch recovering from his various surgeries. And, when you have one parent recovering from surgery while the other one is taking care of a newborn, you do what you can to keep everyone happy. (Please don’t judge.)

Now that Steve is as recovered as much as he’s going to be, we are trying to find things that don’t involve a screen that brings us together as a family. Bring on the board games…

This Christmas, we bought the kids games, but they were the board game variety.Scrabble,Scruble, Trouble and Candyland joined the decks of cards and Yahtzee game that we already owned.

Now, many week nights and most weekends you will find one or all of us sitting around our kitchen table playing a board game. My 12 year old is working on trying to beat Mom “just once” at Scrabble. The 4 year old is learning to take turns and count. And, we are doing something together as a family which doesn’t involve a screen (well unless you count the Android Scrabble dictionary that we use when it’s getting late and we just want to finish the game!)

How do you spend time with your family away from the screen? What are your favorite board games?

This winter, our local library started a bunch of new programs, including an unstructured play time for toddlers and a math and science class for preschoolers. It is absolutely wonderful way for our kids to get out of the house and interact with other kids especially since we had to take them out of preschool.

We actually have at least one library program every weekday. Along with the free play and science and math class, there are age appropriate and family reading programs and a family fun night.

The kids love every minute of it. They have made a lot of new friends and they are asking for books to read all of the time. Even Steve has started reading again. I call that a plus in any book.

Does your library have any cool programs? How do you keep your preschool kids busy in the winter time?

I’m back to Menu Planning this week. It’s been an oddly crazy month full of doctor’s appointments, trips to Walmart, library programs and just general running around. Which, for us, translates to a lot of fast food meals if I do not have a plan in place ahead of time.

On the days that I have been home, I’ve been attempting to change “regular” recipes into slow cooker recipes. I have found that by the time I should be cooking dinner we are happily doing something else. If I can throw something in the crockpot in the morning and just dish it up at 5, I am a much happier Mom. I am planning on setting up a recipes site in the near future where I will post my successful dinners.

Here is my meal plan for this week:

My goal for this year is to make time for things that I enjoy. Like the Happiness Project and the 365 Project and knitting. HOwever, if left to my own devices, I never make time.

So, when I heard about the church knitting group, I immediately added the dates to my calendar. Tonight was my first time meeting with the group. I was the youngest person there by about 30 years, but it was still a lot of fun. A group of older ladies that hang out regularly have some really interesting conversations (that are not about babies, kids, or husbands).

What I really like is that the group has a goal. Instead of everyone doing their own thing, each person works on prayer shawls based on a symbolic pattern. Once completed, each shawl is blessed and mailed to a person who needs special prayers. I started my first shawl tonight and am really excited about the project.

It is an easy pattern and works up quickly so I may actually complete some projects this year. Won’t that be fun?

This month’s theme is “Energy” simply because everything else will be easier, if I have more energy. My resolutions this month are:

• Get enough sleep
• Track WW Points
• Drink water
• Tackle a Nagging Task
• Organize

It is the 11th day of the month and I can’t say I am doing it perfectly, but it is helping. I am sleeping better and eating a bit healthier. I am also getting a lot of tasks accomplished that I have put off for quite some time.

Some days I think the “nagging tasks” resolution is sapping my energy. I have been running all of us to at least one appointment a day for the last 10 days. It is rather exhausting. But, at the end of the day, it is one less thing that I have to worry about and I sleep better.

I’m not sure if I would consider myself happier at this point, but I’m not worried. It hasn’t even been a month and I’m still working out all of the kinks. Overall, like the 365 Project, I think it will be a good way to focus myself throughout the year.

How are you focusing your energies this year? Do you have a year long project? If so, how is it going?

My little man turned 5 yesterday. I cannot believe that it was only 5 years ago that I held him in my arms for the very first time. He has grown so much. All of a sudden, he goes from being my little boy to a very short teenager and back again in the space of a few minutes. It is confusing and funny at the same time. He is defiant, lovable and the source of most of my grey hair. He is so much fun to have around.

Over the weekend, we decided to take him to Chuck E Cheese’s for an impromptu family party. It was the “best birthday EVER!” according to him. He played video games (his absolute favorite thing) and rode the rides for hours.

He even had a Chuck E Cheese birthday cake. (They are surprisingly not that bad!)

We all had a wonderful time but it will not be something we do regularly. It is too busy and overwhelming. The kids (and parents) have spent the last two days recuperating from all of the fun!

My Dad, aka “Pappy George”, would have been 70 years old today. Unfortunately, he went to be an angel 5 years ago, mere months before my second son was born. I have missed him every single day since then. And, every day, I wish I could pick up the phone to ask him a question, tell him something that the boys did, or just simply hear him laugh.

Today, on his birthday, instead of being sad, I decided to think of all of the things he gave me while he was here.

My Love of Reading and Education

He was an avid reader and had a very large collection of books. He would become interested in something, whether it was baseball, Old Testament Religion, or the Amish culture, and he would read everything he could find on that interest. He never had the opportunity to attend college but I would bet he was better educated on his favorite subjects than many college graduates. He passed that “need to know” on to me.

My Love of Music

Dad (and Mom) loved music, both listening to it and singing in church or with the Minstrel. He always had music playing loudly in the house.  Music was a huge part of our lives. I am grateful for my musical “education”. Because of him, I enjoy all types of music from Big Band to Barbra Streisand to “Percy the Puny Poinsettia.”

The Ability to Laugh

My Dad was always goofing around and laughing. He loved to play tricks, tease and kid with everyone. He was one of the end men in the Lykens Minstrel and enjoyed dressing up and performing the skits. When we were kids, he would make faces at us that simply made us laugh until we cried. One of the biggest things that I miss about him is his laughter.

The Ability to Talk to Anyone

When I was a kid, my Dad’s love of talking could get rather annoying. “Quick” trips to the post office would last an hour, as he talked to everyone he met. Now that I’m older, I admire and strive to emulate, his ability to talk to anyone and make everyone comfortable. If you looked uncomfortable or shy, my Dad would talk to you and tease you until you came out of your shell. He simply enjoyed people and it showed.

I will always miss him. I will always regret that he never got to meet his two youngest grandchildren. But, I strive to pass the same gifts he gave me on to my children. I love you, Dad.

So, on January 1st, even though I really didn’t think about taking a picture until late at night, I shot the above picture of Steve and Sam watching TV and posted it to the project website.

When reading about this type of project, many people say it gets harder as the year goes on. Life gets busy and you forget to take a picture throughout the day. I believe them. Today, we spent a large portion of the day at the Dentist office. It was something I would love to remember because the kids had such a good time playing while their Dad got his teeth cleaned. But, I didn’t take the “big” camera with me.

I decided that the camera on my Droid would work just as well for the project and took some shots. Unfortunately, the only one that didn’t come out blurry was this one:

This is a fine picture, but I thought I took better ones of both boys playing. Oh, well, it’s still a picture and it still get go in the scrapbook as a reminder of the day spent “playing” at the Dentist.

I know there are other sites for the 365 project. Flickr has a Project 365 group or you could simply put all of your photos on Facebook in a separate album.

I prefer the 365 Project website and interface, so that is what I went with. I think I am going to make a separate scrapbook page for each week so that at the end of the year I have a 52 page book that I can simply print and enjoy. I will also continue to make separate pages for special occasions, but this project is more geared toward celebrating the “everyday.” A daily photo journal, if you will.

Do you have any year long projects you are working on? Have you started yet?