In like a lion

Hey and woah, was that some whiplash from this past week? British royals trothing, Bin Laden exiting, the end of my adjunctship. Seriously. Whirlwind. Surely I missed the release of a new Toaster Strudel flavor in there? Please inform. My sister and her beaufriend visited for a long weekend, so I'm just getting back to life without their jocundity. They are lovely folks and very open to adventure-making. So much so that I have no not so many pictures of their time here. We were very busy mounting carousels and giving one another fictitious names and singing the throwback Care Bears theme song ad infintum. And talking about walking, parking, driving, and garages. And making fun of Shad for his iPhone dependency.  ♥ ya, Shad.

There's a lot happening; even the trees are busy doing their pollination dance and hitting my sinuses with a meat cleaver. I've got a hundred squillion and one papers to grade and childcare is nil but it'll all get done. I know this tried and true business of Getting Things Done. What I also know is that my strength comes from above. I was on my knees last week begging God as to why He was expecting so much of me all at once.  His response was perfect. "I've given you enough for one day, Kendra. So just unwrap what you need for today. And tomorrow, well, that's tomorrow's business."

Amen.

*** Sights from a princess party at our wonderful and inventive friend LMac's:

Daisies + Pimms

Bubbles on the porch

Principesa Ita

AC and her divine twins Cal-Bow and Mooese

Viewing party

Charley, king of his castle

Tatum, non-plused

Honk, Taxi

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says, "Honk if you're Amish"? I've seen it a few times. I laugh uproariously every time I do. I mean...that's so funny, right? Amish don't drive car--wai-- that's so, so funny. *** He's wearing skater shoes. Indie jeans. An androgynous haircut, but edgy-like. I pronounce his name, which in English is a verb, conjugated in the past tense. I give myself props for pronouncing his name correctly.

I can tell English is not his first language.

I use him as a proper noun in the sentence I am diagramming for the class. Past Tense Verb and I thank you for your support. Your support was important to Past Tense Verb and me.

At the end of the second meeting of class, Past Tense Verb approaches me. My name is Past Tense Verb, but, "I am girl."

This is new. I fumble to apologize, do I apologize, is it better to apologize, omg, OMG, is my tongue actually unfurling out of my mouth like a robot trying to reboot itself?

***

Our front tire had a nail puncturing it last week, which I learned after Loverpants took it to the tire place, which was after he came home and swapped the spare with the punctured tire in the freezing cold, which was after I called my friend whose wife just had TWINS to take me to the nappy and ferry me home with the kids, which was after we had taken a TAXI with zero carseats to the nanny (good thing my boy wears a helmet, heh!), which was after I called four different taxi services, which was after I wondered if I honked loud enough, would the Amish come and pick me up?

*** Dear Winter. You are made of terrible. But I've still got my wits about me. Yours, Kendra

Chasing Away the Winter Blahs

This weekend marks the half-way mark. Friends, we are mid-way through the soul suck that is January! January is still such a hard month to endure, my SADness always feels so much more magnified, the wintry weather always swirls of endless gray, and jumpstarting a whole new crop of students for spring semester takes everything I've got. Spring Break seems an interminably long time off, as do any other holidays of note. Ergo, God knew what He was doing in giving me a daughter in January. There's more to which I can look forward in this month when I can focus on celebrating the blessings that she has brought to our family. As I toast my daughter this month, I'll also try to share a few other things that I'm doing to make festive during these first 31derful days of the year.

Stocked up... To avoid a critical shortage, I purchased a ridiculous quantity of Cinnamon Gummy Hearts, Cherry Hearts and Strawshmallows.

His banner over me is love... This bunting was handcrafted by the talented artist Jenny at BlueMoonStudios. The quality is excellent and this little banner is surprisingly impactful! I recommend her work!

More Comfort Food... I can attest that Laura's Peanut Butter Baked Oatmeal is what gets me out of bed on the wintry freeze your tochis off morning.

(To Be Continued)