wordless wednesday

raleigh ground to a halt last week when we got a few inches of snow; thank goodness there was a weekend in the middle of it so we only missed friday and monday.  (funny note: i emailed with my college roommate from new jersey, whose kids only missed one day of school, even with more than two feet.  gotta love the south.)

we've gone through umpteen sleds/mats/discs over the years ... but the kids' favorite by far is this one, the Flexible Flyer straight out of my 1970s childhood

susanna met up with two friends from the neighborhood for a few downhill races (she's on the right.)  you often hear statistics of serious injuries sustained from sledding ... after this incident, i have to wonder what percentage of the victims are actually the parents, who are standing still, just trying to get a video

wordless wednesday

the north carolina museum of art is five minutes away from us, and yet it took us three months to make it there for the renowned m.c. escher exhibit.  i figured we were smart to wait til the end and let the crowds die down, but i should have known better.  the exhibit was so popular that they extended its stay by a week AND opened for special hours on the martin luther king holiday.  so it turned out that we weren't the only ones with this idea on a blustery cold winter day when all of raleigh was off work and school.  we had to sort of move en masse from one piece of art to the next.

as i observed both wailing toddlers straining to get out of their strollers and sullen teenagers glued to their iphones, i was reminded how fortunate we are that our kids are still in that middle "sweet spot" where they actually enjoy doing things like this.  and with liam's mathematical mind and susanna's love of art, they were totally enthralled by all that we saw.   they would study each piece, talk about what they noticed, and pontificate on the meaning of many of them.  they discussed the similarities among his works, kept changing their minds as to which one was their favorite, and discussed some artistic components that i never would have noticed otherwise.  (at one point i found myself googling "vanishing point" after liam mentioned the term to me.)  and twice, different women standing near us caught my eye, pointed to liam and susanna, and gave me a thumbs up. 

alas, no photography was permitted until we exited the exhibit (two hours after we arrived) and found ourselves near several spherical mirrors much like the ones escher used in some of his drawings. 
 

i'm only thinking about this now as i type ... but escher was perhaps the first king of the selfie.  a man truly ahead of his time.  who knew?

wordless wednesday

 crossing fingers and even a tongue ... let's just say that if we do win it all, one our first purchases will be new sets of pajamas

one would have to be living under a rock to not immediately recognize what liam is holding in his hand -- a powerball lottery ticket.*  well, five powerball lottery tickets, to be exact.  these tickets might have been bought by a mother with a severe case of fomo who just couldn't bear to be the only family in raleigh without the possibility of turning into billionaires overnight, who left her children at home alone when she realized she had only two hours left to purchase said tickets and raced out to the nearest gas station to find herself tenth in line, surrounded by nine other fools hopeful dreamers, and who raced back home and let her children pick the number combination that will be theirs even though her son said that legally he nor his sister are old enough to participate.

as i tucked him into bed tonight, liam gave me a kiss and then said, "i don't mean to sound negative, but i'll bet you a ton of money that we don't win."

"sorry, but i can't take that bet," i replied, shaking my head.  "i just spent all of my extra cash on powerball tickets."

* i just looked back at the photo and realized that one might actually not immediately recognize that what liam is holding in his hand is a powerball lottery ticket.  that's because i'm a very savvy player, and don't want all my thousands of blog followers to be able to read my numbers and see that i'm the grand winner before i've contacted my lawyer and financial advisor.  you can never be too careful, you know.

wordless wednesday

every december 31st, the UNC men's basketball program hosts a clinic for kids as a fundraiser for a local charity.  the team members lead them in drills and scrimmages, and at the end, are available to autograph posters, jerseys, programs, and most anything else* (see below.)  even though liam opted to concentrate on soccer this winter and not play basketball , he attended the clinic and had an awesome time.

need proof of just how awesome of a time was had?  check out the tweet that appeared on chris's twitter feed, posted by one of the assistant coaches.

here's the tweet ...

... and here's the larger version

* yep -- they'll sign just about anything.  (from the 2013 archives)

two days in a row! i'm on a roll!

resolutions

i'm big on new year's resolutions.  well, big on making  new year's resolutions.  keeping them?  not so much.  in fact, i keep a list on my iphone, and every january 1 i simply rename it with the current year and just add a few more.

the consistent ones?  go to bed earlier.  read the entire bible in one year.  plan out our weekly dinners every sunday evening.  to be fair, i was successful in keeping a few in 2015, which i guess makes the practice worthwhile.  i read more books, took the pooch on a walk whenever the weather allowed, and changed up my workout routine to include much more weights.  so i'm not a total lost cause when it comes to setting goals.

but one new resolution that i've had to add for 2016 is to update this poor blog on a much more regular basis.  i'm disappointed mostly for the kids, that their entire last quarter of last year went by undocumented.  they still pore over our old blog books, and i'm sad that i haven't spent the time on here to capture the funny moments, important milestones, and just day-in and day-out activities of our family.  so starting now, i hope to get on here more often.  maybe resucitate the Wordless Wednesdays, which only require a picture and a caption -- how hard can that be?  perhaps revisit events from months ago, adopting the better-late-than-never approach (which, incidentally, reminds me of another consistent resolution: stop running late.)  but mostly, i just want to do right by the kids.  this is something they love, and it takes little effort on my part to provide it.

and maybe, just maybe, if i have it in writing (other than on my iphone), i might just stick to it.  here's hoping.