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Songs of Life//When You Grow Up

The Songs of Life blog circle is composed of a group of talented women who desire to work on lifestyle photography. Each month a song is chosen and we interpret the song individually.  I have included a link to the next photographer's blog at the end of this post.  Click through and see these other amazing photographer's interpretations of the song.

I missed the first month but am excited to share and participate this month. This month's song is "When You Grow Up" by Priscilla Ahn. You can listen to the song here. I found my inspiration in the last line:

When you grow up, what kind of person will you be?
Oh the things you'll be happy

Childhood is such an amazing part of life to observe.  Here and there, glimpses of a future personality shine through. What parts will stay with you, shape you as an adult?  You are a creature of routine.  You, as you like to say, "teached" yourself.  You have a vivid imagination.  You are cautious.  You love to play in the rain. You love to get your sleep.

What kind of person will you be? I am sure of one thing: you will be happy.

3-13-6, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

i
3-13-7, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

3-13-8, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

3-13-9, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

3-13-4, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

3-13-5, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

3-13-3, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

What will you be when you grow up?  I like to think that I'm still not done growing up.  Don't stop here - click through to Heather Kelly Photography here to see her amazing share.  

grateful friday.

i'm feeling especially grateful for these two little guys this week. i am constantly challenged and amazed.  they keep growing and changing and surprising me. 

3-13-14, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

andrew has hit this stage - finally - where he likes to draw.  i am absolutely loving it.  most of his pictures are mario and luigi and lots of sounded-out words.   and then there was the one where he couldn't stop giggling, of his daddy with the words "yor fierd." 

he has such a good heart.  the other day he prayed at dinner, "i hope that people won't talk while i pray, and i'm thankful that i went to an egg hunt, and that mommy and daddy gave me such a nice easter basket with candy."  he shows a lot of joy in doing right and asking for forgiveness when he has done wrong.  he teaches this mama a lot of lessons, for sure.

3-13-13, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

the peanut is my little buddy.  sometimes a family member offers to babysit him so that i can run errands, and i don't really want to take her up on it.  i know many moms would jump at the chance to head to target alone. and although he does NOT stop talking, i enjoy his company.  

the peanut is my little creative child.  i have no idea what God has in store for him or his brother, but i can already see a tendency toward the imaginative and creative.  he makes up amazing stories and all his cars talk to each other.  he can make any toy talk to another.

i'm realizing that they are both growing very fast, and that the days go too quickly.  i want to remember every moment.  every time they need to fight over sitting with me.  every time they wake in the morning, warm from sleep and the smell of sweet breath. every time they giggle together in the backseat of the car.  

sure, there are moments i don't want to remember - the fighting, the gagging over vegetables, the pee on the floor around the toilet, the tantrums...  but sometimes we need the bad to appreciate just how good the good stuff  really is.

ch-ch-ch-changes.

3-13-12, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

our kitchen has officially been painted 3 times since we bought our house almost 10 years ago.  the irony is that the color that i've finally become content with is almost the same exact shade it was painted when we bought the house.

when i get itching to paint and change things, chrispy knows he can't fight me on it.  i'm willing to do {most of} the work, and paint doesn't actually cost that much but has a big impact.

i've been wanting to re-paint our bathroom for a while now but i've been hemming and hawing about colors.  finally today i went and bought paint - oh, you know... because family comes to visit next week and i'd like the bathroom to look nice.  i love to be last minute.  

so here's my color, swatch taped up on the bathroom wall so that i could see it in the light.  of course i'd already bought the paint, so - oh, well if it didn't look right.  gray is so difficult to choose.  warm gray, cool gray, grayish, beige/gray.... i was about to pull my hair out.  but i took my time, picked several grays and then eliminated.  i got it down to two colors, and then realized by the name of this color that it was the one i'd pick.  and now i'll never forget the name of my knitting needles bathroom. 

so we've been busy.

3-13, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

we celebrated Easter this past weekend.  i love dressing the boys the same.  i will only be able to get away with it for so long so i'm taking every opportunity!
 we had a wonderful holiday with beautiful weather {i have so missed the sun!} and can't wait for the rest of spring to arrive.

getting crafty.

3-13-10, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

on friday, cheri and i got together for a bit of crafting.  we used to craft once a week.  this was pre-bebe (for cheri) and with my boys driving me a bit more nuts during the day, i needed desperately to get out of the house once a week.  

unfortunately, now we craft in our minds when we wait in traffic or wait in the doctor's office.  read:  we have no time.

we decided we'd make more of an effort, since walking around target is great and all - but not creatively stimulating.

following this tutorial, we spent an afternoon painting away.  i think we both ended up with three paintings.  this one was my first and i love the quote, so i might re-do it.  i'm not crazy about how the ombre came out.  i also made one that is super-duper-top-secret so i can't show it just yet.

lesson learned:  make time to get crafty.    

a little throwback.

6100_132356951094_1769866_n, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.
why did i think i needed that pop-up flash on a bright sunny day?  

i always see people posting old pictures for throwback thursday.  so, it's thursday and here's an oldie.  cheri, kristen and i in nyc.  back when i was crazy, out of my mind and drove to brooklyn only 6 weeks after christian was born.  what was i thinking?  i certainly paid for all that driving and walking the next day but it was worth it.  not sure i'd jump so quickly to do the same thing again, as much as i do love these girls...

cheri, kristen and i would never have met if it weren't for the internet.  well, cheri and kristen wouldn't have met me.  it makes me think of those movies with alternate realities where people pass each other without knowing what could have been.  we all went to the same college but they both left just before i arrived.  so internet, thank you for introducing me to some lovely girls.

it doesn't always work out the way it's supposed to.

3-13-9, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

living in a household with two little boys, food doesn't stay around for long. to be honest, food doesn't stay around for long with the big boy in the house either, but he tends to leave their favorite treats just for them.

i bought some delicious organic blackberries for my birthday breakfast. you see, chrispy makes delicious breakfasts and can you just imagine blackberries on fluffy pancakes? don't drool on your keyboard, but he also made a blackberry syrup. seriously.

so we had leftover blackberries, and left to their own devices, my little boys would have eaten them all up. i insisted that they'd make delicious muffins, and so i held the little wolves off. chris tends to brag about my cooking, amazed that i can just whip something up. he doesn't understand that it's about 10% skill and 90% luck. part of that luck is that i have a very good memory and that i tend to remember food combinations that i've seen before. ok, maybe i'll give myself 15% skill, but that's about it.

i had some bananas rotting away so i figured we'd make banana-blackberry muffins. we cut the blackberries into fours because those things are big and you'd probably end up eating a muffin with one honkin' blackberry in the center.

end result: beautiful ingredients in the bowl (see above). icky muffins popped out of the oven.

final determination: my boys will eat anything - they said they were fantastic.

grateful friday + a winner.

thank you for all your sweet responses on my last post. we have a winner!! Merideth is my lucky winner. you can feel free to message me on facebook or email me at maryelizabeth.orlowski@gmail.com. thanks everyone for entering!

3-13-8, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.
 taken tuesday evening, hanging out my bathroom window.

thankful this week:
- this beautiful sunset that just reminded me of God's amazing creation.  
- celebrating chrispy's birthday on friday with special time with the kids and a movie date in the evening.
- time spent with my sister this week.
- having a good friend that is always there to talk to on gchat.
- free books on my kindle.  i find that i am finishing books and reading more frequently and it feels great.

they say it's your birthday.

in true embee fashion, i started a craft about 2 weeks ago and just got around to finishing it. i do that far too often.

i've seen cute kid silhouettes all over pinterest but i've never had kids who would sit still long enough for me to take the right photograph until now. can you believe that my nursery school teacher created silhouettes of us for our parents by having us sit still with a light aimed at us, and she would trace our shadow - crazypants. ain't nobody got time for that.

the basic concept is this: you take a photo of your kid, and depending upon your tutorial, you blacken the image of your kid, and bam! you put it in a frame. i don't like to do things that simple.

truthfully, i saw plain unfinished wooden plaques in walmart and remembered that i wanted to make silhouettes. i also remembered that hey, i have kids that might sit still now. armed with some candy and my camera, i took a picture of each kid sitting in profile view. my plaques were something like 6" so i cropped and sized my image in photoshop and then printed it out. i taped the image onto the plaque where i'd like the silhouette to sit. then, taking a ballpoint pen, i traced around each kid's silhouette, pressing hard enough to leave an imprint in the wood. i went over a few times to get enough of an imprint. be careful you don't rip the paper and actually write on the wood, though. 

3-13-3, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

then it was time for me to stain the wood. i'd never done it before, but it was really quite simple. the only note is that by using a darker stain, you are less likely to see your imprint in the wood. but really, all i had to do was angle it correctly so that the light hit it and i was able to see the imprint.

3-13-4, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

let the stain dry for a while.  you might be impatient like me.  so put on the kettle get yourself a cup of tea and watch paint stain dry. this step is mandatory.

3-13-5, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

then i took white acrylic craft paint and painted inside my imprint. it took about 3 coats.

3-13-6, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

i let it dry for a few hours and it was ready to go. i love how the grain of the wood shows through.

3-13-7, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

now the only question is where to hang them? i originally planned to put them in the boys' room but now i love them so much that i'd like to see them out in the open. so to celebrate my birthday this past sunday and my return back to blogging, i'd love to give one of these away. the winner will need to send me a picture - it can be your kid, dog, husband, whatever.  please leave a comment on this post to enter. you can simply tell me how fabulous i am. i'll close the contest on friday at noon and announce the winner.

grateful friday.

IMG_0587, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.
just a pretty little weed to get me thinking about springtime, new growth, and sunshine

 this week i'm grateful for:
- forgiveness.
- playdates with friends.
- God's provision.
- having more than enough.
- hugs from my sweet little boys. 

respite.

life gets busy. i ended up with an unplanned break from blogging due to the busyness of life. the summer brought beautiful days where i spent many hours studying and then playing in the sunshine with my boys. the fall brought a mix of emotions as i completed the final leg of this teaching journey, but left christian for the first time.

here i am. finishing up grad school, trying to get back into my groove. bear with me, will you?

two recent pictures of my sweet boys. taken about a week apart - christian, outside in the sunshine, and andrew, inside during an unexpected 12 day break due to a blizzard.

3-13, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

3-13-2, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

three.

IMG_0307, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

his birthday arrived after a week of sickness.  mama stressed about another test.  not managing to do anything for father's day. i felt like such a failure.


seriously, i didn't have a card or a gift for him until chris and i went for dinner saturday night and popped into a bookstore to browse.  we found ourselves in the toy section and realized we hadn't even bought him a gift.  i'll admit that i had looked for one about  month ago, but the store didn't have it and i had resigned myself to not getting exactly what he wanted.


we had to postpone his party because he came down with the hand, foot, and mouth virus earlier in the week.  he had a mild case of it, thankfully, but i was totally out of birthday mode since we wouldn't be celebrating until the next weekend.


and then i spent most of his birthday weekend studying and stressing out.  and then i started to feel bad for myself because i'm no good at multi-tasking when it comes to my own life and my family. 


in the end it doesn't matter.  we sang happy birthday to our sweet little boy; had a wonderful breakfast out to celebrate both the birthday boy and his special daddy; ate yummy brownie sundaes; and his big brother picked out a special present for him.  we spent special time together despite my anxiety.


at the end of the night, i crawled right into bed next to my little boy.  three years ago i would never have imagined how much joy he would bring to our family, how big his smile would be, how bright his eyes would shine when would look directly at his mama.  happy birthday christian.  the past three years have been amazing.

grateful friday.

lazy daisy, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

- glitter nailpolish.
- exciting things on the horizon for our family.
- andrew's last day of pre-k. he's officially a kindergartner!
- yasso frozen yogurt bars. thank you, i'll have another.
- my wavy hair. it is starting to not irritate me.

i know you, you know me

recipe - mac n cheese, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

i had a request for this recipe and post, written on my old blog.  post written july 21, 2010.

my family has a few die-hard recipes that we always go back to. i've never been a fan of mac n cheese. i admit it. my mom didn't make it all that often and i've never really liked cheese. and then once i found out that dairy and i are not bffs, well. cheese and i parted ways.


but then i found myself pregnant and able to eat cheese without any repercussions (gross, i know) and my sister's mac n cheese became my favorite.


her secret? using seasoned salt instead of regular table salt. i like to mix it up, so i use 1/2 tsp seasoned salt, and 1 tsp regular salt.


anyway, her recipe is hands-down the best recipe, and now i have friends calling me for it. so much that i typed up a pretty recipe card so i can give it to them and they'll hopefully save it and stop calling me. and i feel like i should share it with you, too.

i'm no superman.

waterbury tulip festival, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

on thursday night, i drove to class and the theme song to scrubs came on my ipod. i'm no superman. i sang along, loud and proud.

see, i usually arrive late to wherever i am going. i forget to finish things and i leave things to the last minute. i take on more than i can handle.

when it is important, i can finish it, but man, is that hard with the responsibilities of being a mom. this week, i needed help. the stress of the impending exam saturday morning was more than i could handle. friday night, i was mean to my family. i snapped. it was due to the stress. it was because i was not trusting that God could handle it for me.

 so this week, i am late, once again, to grateful friday. but i am grateful. grateful for help from my mom and mother-in-law. babysitting just when i need it. a husband who has made dinner for the family many more times than he should have, as a man who supports his family only on his income. for friends who study with me. for the peace that God can give us when we just trust him.

i'm no superman. but i think i did pretty stinking good on that exam. and i'm also grateful that is is over, and i can move on to the next challenge.

*random picture added because pictures make even my depressing posts just a little bit happier.

delicious.

IMG_0217, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

my sister and the kids came over for memorial day so i made sure to have some popsicles on hand. and i was so grossed out by the food coloring on the tongues and faces. i'm pretty sure that the popsicles (cheap ones from target) had no real fruit or fruit juice in them. gross.

so last week i bought a popsicle mold from amazon.com. then i went looking for recipes. one of the easiest ones i found was on martha stewart. puree watermelon and a tiny bit of sugar and freeze in your molds. the kids were crazy about them and chris and i even had one. i'm definitely more likely to have a popsicle on a hot day if i know what is in it.

and for the kid in me, the rocket shape helps too.

back in baby's arms

IMG_0105, a photo by sassyladybug on Flickr.

i have my camera back. i am so happy that it is fixed but more overjoyed that it is back in my hands. i have missed it. i have lots of work to do this week, with a very important exam on saturday. but i could not resist this photo of my niece dancing with andrew. i love spontaneous moments.

grateful friday, late.

i've been focusing on studying for some exams and trying to enjoy the nice weather during the rest of my time.  and with a broken camera, i've been able to step away from the computer and do other things.

always thankful, albeit a little late.

- my sweet husband planted a bunch of things for me.  we have this terrible root network in our backyard.  we have lovely raspberry bushes and strawberries growing, and i wanted to plant blueberries as well.  he worked so hard just for me.

- fresh, stove popped popcorn. nothing better.

- gorgeous spring weather.

- park dates and picnics and running into friends.

- good grades and a wonderful feeling of satisfaction with the semester over.

- a full week without driving to new haven.  ain't nothing better.

grateful friday.

- the largest of my end of the semester papers has been handed in. i actually did a victory dance.
 - afternoon cups of tea with my sister.
 - sunshine after a grey, rainy week.
 - playing video games with andrew. yeah, i know that they are bad, whatever. they work as an excellent reward for good behavior, and his bed has been made every day without prompting.
- chris planned a date night for us this weekend. i am incredibly excited.
- good advice from my mom not to take anything more on my plate. she's always right (and sometimes i hate that.)