blessed beyond measure

And welcome to the longest I've ever gone without blogging. Or taking pictures. It's just sad, I tell you. We've been living under a cloud for a little while, as wintertime illness-type blues settled in once again after a much-appreciated four or five week respite. Aden got his croupy croup back. And then...Brandon got pneumonia. Yeah. The last ten days have been difficult on all of us. For me, this has been oh so much harder than the single-parenthood of basketball season. For then I only had two kids. Sick husband makes three. Just keeping it real. Love you babe. So not much sleep lately, and positively no cohesive thoughts to post here. Cabin fever like mad. You know it's bad when the highlight of your day (and your kids' day) is to drive a mile to the dump. God even sent a train for us to watch, always a thrill for one Aden Harris. Anyhoo, as for the blog, I figured it was past time, so tonight I busted out the camera to capture at least a couple of Febru...

I do not like boxed valentines. Not a single one. Really, I'm not a huge fan of mass-produced sentiment in general. The whole greeting card game is just teeming with drama. Once you manage to steer clear of the super-cheese and the inappropriate humor, it's a crap shoot that one of the five remaining options will even come close to expressing what you hope to express. And then the worry over the recipient flipping the card over and noting that you only paid a dollar for it, and all of a sudden you are the black sheep cheapskate of the family. It's stressful, I tell you. Anyway. Wow, that was a tangent. The last couple of years I have stood strongly against boxed valentines, forcing my unsuspecting eldest son into the tedious tasks of making valentrains and vowlentines . Because homemade cards are just so special. They really, really are. I love homemade cards. And that was the reason I would have given to anyone as to why we spent hours making those lovel...