A Re-Direction

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lifeasaclayton.blogspot.com

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Thanks and have a WONDERFUL day!

It was a high counsel that I once heard given to a young person, "Always do what you are afraid to do."

Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have a feeling that today is going to be a great day! I've got energy, I'm excited, I'm getting things done! It's awesome!

However, there is one chore on my list that must get done today, and I have been procrastinating for quite some time now. For anyone who knows me reasonably well, it's a known fact that I am TERRIFIED of taxes. Every year, I go through about a three month panic attack. I think I have a phobia of taxes, if such a thing exists. I literally have nightmares about them. It's weird, I'll admit.

This year, a dear friend of mine gave me a swift kick in the behind and made me get on top on them early. It was great. Everything's done and at the tax place. All except my car expenses that is. It's waiting on one simple thing. I really want to get it done an handed in today. That way, if there's problems, they can hopefully let me know before we go on our trip next week.

Today is going to be a great day anyway, but if I can manage to make myself get that done and handed in, it will be a fantastic day!

Wish me luck!

Burnt Bread

As my grandparents have recently moved into an assisted living style apartment, out of their home which they have been at for decades and decades, needless to say, there has been a lot of downsizing going on. 'Stuff' just seems to accumulate no matter how hard one tries to resist it. Times that by 30 - 40 years, and that's an awful lot of 'stuff'.

So many of the members of the family have been getting a lot of household goods from this downsizing. My grandma was very sweet and sent a lot of her dear plants to me for safe keeping. When I warned her that I'm not always the best with keeping plants alive and thriving, she said she didn't mind. She'd rather they die here at my house, then from being neglected and forgotten at their old house.

And so I inherited a veritable indoor garden. Most are still doing okay. I'm still trying to pay attention and figure out which ones need more water than others. Hopefully this will work itself out soon, a lot of them were in beautiful shape and health when they were brought to my care. My favorite is a citrus tree of some sort. My grandma can't remember if it sprouted from an orange or a grapefruit seed that she experimented with. It's beautiful. As luck would have it, it is also the plant that seems to be having the hardest transition. Some of the bottom leaves are already drying out on the edges, and some others have developed some yellowy spots on them. I'm afraid maybe I was over watering it from giving it too much attention, as it is my favorite. I've toned down the watering and no more new dried out edges have appeared. That's a good sign!

Besides the plants, my grandparents have made a couple trips to my house to drop off some kitchen things for me. I only mentioned that I could use some bowls, and ended up with a microwave, bread machine, lot's of glass dessert bowls, lot's of plastic mixing bowls, a collection of measuring cups, and more. That's all I've picked through so far! One of the boxes is quite large, so I haven't even gotten to the bottom yet.

The microwave has been handy a few times, as mine recently stopped working very abruptly. These last couple days, I've been experimenting with the bread machine. My mom brought over the Operation Manual, which included a collection of recipes to use specifically for the machine. Yesterday I made some yummy buns! I'm not a fan of the loaves that come from bread machines, so I've been sticking more to the recipes that just make dough, then you can take it out of the machine and do something else with it. So, the buns turned out great yesterday, and by lunch today, there was nothing left of the batch!

Today I tried a different recipe, so that I could compare them to each other. I found two recipes that I wanted to try, and luckily, they both needed the dough to be split into two halves anyway, so I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make both out of one batch. I was going to make a 'raspberry braid' and a 'cinnamon-raisin swirl loaf'. Mmmmm!

The dough turned out well. They rolled out well. Assembled well. Rose well. Everything was looking great! Toward the end of dinner, I got the oven ready and popped them in! I love baking, and I love sweet-bread desserts! So I was excited! Although Layla and I had walked over for a little visit at a friends' house earlier in the day, I felt we hadn't had quite enough fresh air yet, so I checked the timer and quickly got Layla and myself ready for a little walk outside. We grabbed the frisbee and headed for the Park!

We had so much fun laughing, running, and generally goofing around! Layla even tied her shoe almost entirely by herself when it came undone, and her face just lit up with self-confidence after she did it! It was so cool to see! I love little growing moments like that! She's the best to play with, ever since she was a little munchkin, you always had to be on your toes around her. She's smart, clever and quirky. In only a couple of frisbee tosses, she had already figured out a few different ways to turn a simple toss into a race between the two of us, or to throw it so that it would hit me in the stomach right when I wasn't looking, or do a frisbee 'bunt' to make me run for it, or make it sail away behind her, or even just toss it in such a way that it's just about close enough for me to get, so I have to scramble and reach for it in obscure ways, meanwhile making me look like quite a silly fool! It's hard to put it in words, but our quick little trip to the Park was magical. We just laughed and laughed and laughed and we both had so much fun trying to trick the other one with our cleverness.

It's so fun, now that she's getting older, it's not just tickles to make her giggle (although that still works like a charm), but it's cleverness, it's thinking outside the box, it's participation and engaging interaction that gets her laughing. I love it!

As much fun as we were having, we had to cut it short to walk back home because our bread treats were in the oven. Regardless of me checking the time and thinking that we'd be back just in the nick of time, and the house smelling fantastic when we walked in the door, when I opened the oven door, our beautiful, delicious treats were very, very dark brown. Not black. But definitely over done. I was disappointed, they were pretty dried out with incredibly thick crusts on them. But I couldn't really mind. If I felt so inclined, I could make it again and again a few times everyday until I got I perfect (which I won't do!), but the memory of playing frisbee in the Park at sunset with my daughter and giggling like crazy people will be with me forever. I know it will. It was just one of those magical moments that stick with you, ready in the back of your mind to always make you smile when you need it. These tender moments are so fleeting, and with Layla's sixth birthday coming up, I'm getting panicky. She's growing up. And sometimes I feel like I can't keep up. There's never enough time in the day to play or cuddle as much as I'd like to. But I'll take what I can get.

And so for tonight, I don't mind a little burnt bread.

Chop chop!

You may have noticed in some of the recent pictures that Layla's hair has an updated hairstyle. Here's the official record of it! Below are first the 'before' shots of her hippy hair. Long, shiny, straight and never wanted me to do anything with it or put anything in it.

From The Side

From The Back

(is that long, or what?)

From The Front

The sun was shining really brightly into her eyes, hence her scowl and double chin!

Pretending to freak out in the stylist's chair! What a ham! By the way, I originally booked her just to get a trim, because she always loved her long hair and would get upset if anyone ever talked about her cutting. Then, the morning of the appointment, she got the idea in her head that she wanted to 'chop it all off!'

I can't say I'm too surprised, as that's what I usually do, and our personalities are a lot alike!

One last look!

I'll always remember that she used to sometimes sit on the toilet and put her head back to feel how far down her back her hair would reach! She's get so excited if she could feel it down to her bottom!

Funny thing is, I remember doing that when I had really long hair as a kid too!

Are you ready?

???????

Are you sure?

???????

Can you handle it?

???????

The great unveiling!

My beautiful daughter and her lovely new hairstyle! So chic!

From The Front

From The Side

From The Back

This one is a bit further away, so you can see more of her back and just how much she got taken off! Wowza! Layla actually wanted it even shorter. She wanted her hair cut above her shoulders, but I think this looks nice and so I'm glad the hair dresser was a bit generous with her cut.

And I'll throw in a monkey picture for good measure...

Have an absolutely, fantastically, beautiful day!!!!!

:)

The Other Party

Below is Layla opening more presents at her second Birthday party! What a lucky little girl! It was so much fun! We're so lucky to have absolutely amazing friends and family in our lives. We are so blessed!

I always like getting pictures of Adam and Jen!

Later in the evening, it was just Amanda, Kelly, Layla and I left. My friends and I were going to have some 'grown up girl time' later. But first, there was some very important work to do.

Every year since Layla was two, we've gone on an Annual Mother Daughter Birthday Roadtrip. Our Birthdays are one day after each other, so I figured, let's make the best of it! This year, Layla still didn't know where we are going yet. She hates surprises. It drove her crazy that she knew we were going somewhere, she just wasn't sure where yet.

So, the amazing Kelly came up with the idea of doing a Treasure Hunt as the means of telling her! Which was awesome, because I didn't have much of a plan going on, so I thought it was fabulous!

I wrote simple instructions on some post-it notes that lead her some place to place around our house. Here she is, reading her first note!

Let the games begin!

Let me just say, Kelly is amazing with kids! Absolutely fantastic! Best I've ever seen! She's found her special calling in the world. And it made me quite happy inside when she was raving about how good of a reader Layla was! I love my little Egghead daughter! She still says that she wants to be a doctor when she grows up, so she's got to be smart!

And yes, her dress may look a tad unconventional. She likes to dress up and change outfits a lot. Here she is, in an old Halloween costume of hers, it's Raggedy-Ann!

Reach high! The post-it was on Edmonton!

A super fun activity that also improves literacy! Win-Win!

This one was on her baby bum! Tee hee!

Last clue!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Where are we going Layla????????

DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then she fainted....

No need to worry. The drama queen is alright! She's super stoked to be going to Disneyland this year for our Birthday trip! Really, what kid wouldn't be?

I'm also super stoked, as I've never been there either! I will actually be in Disneyland on my actual Birthday! I'm so excited!!!!! Not a bad way to ring in a new year!

Kids Party

It's Birthday Season!

In our home, mine and Layla's Birthdays are one day apart. So April is Birthday Season, to us. Since Layla is in Kindergarten this year, she's been able to develop quite a few more friendships with children her age. So this year, because our house is pretty small, I thought it'd be best to have two parties instead of one big one.

So on Friday, since it was Good Friday and there was no school, we invited some of Layla's friends from School and Church to come celebrate! We ended up having eight little ones running around, it was such a fun time! I love the hustle and bustle of kids running around and having fun, they have so much energy!

Following then, are some snapshots of the Kids Party!

Big Thanks to everyone who was able to come!

It was a great day!

Absenteeism

We're okay.

Everything's okay.

We've just been really busy.

I'll show you why.

I completely moved rooms around in our house. The room below was Layla's crazy messy, filled to the brim room before. I took everything out and cleaned it up.

So I could have a home office and work from home!

Emptiness.

Layla loved having a big, empty room to run and dance in. She also loved the echo effect it gave.

Tom-Tom wasn't even quite sure what to do himself in all that space.

This was the end result!

My massage room!

Now I work from home and LOVE IT!

I'm so happy doing it. It was one of the best decisions of my life!

Turned out pretty good, eh? Does it look comfy and relaxing?

I love and adore and appreciate my clients so much. Without them this would never have been able to happen. Last Thursday, one of my wonderful clients even brought me these gorgeous spring flowers when she came for her appointment!

I'm such a lucky girl!