Strawberry Picking

It officially takes me almost a week to post something now. By the time I get a chance to sit down and do it, I just feel like laying there and going to sleep. But anyway, we had a great Saturday last weekend picking strawberries and going to the beach.
I am always whining about how I wish I lived somewhere that has farmers markets, and u-pick farms and things of that nature. So I took it upon myself to actually look into where I am presently living and make the best of it. To my surprise, I DO live near farmers markets and u-pick farms. I need to just stop dwelling on where I don't live (Vermont) and may never live and enjoy the present situation.
Here are some pictures from our day.

                                             This is what Eoin chose to wear for the day...
                                                 Hey at least he's getting himself dressed

I guess we didn't get a picture of the barn/market but here's the website, it is called Bedners Farm Fresh Market, it is really clean, has fresh produce mostly if not all locally produced, homemade ice cream. I highly recommend it to anybody who feels like taking a drive up to Delray/Boynton. It was like a breath of fresh air.

Since it was so beautiful out we decided to head east for an improptu visit to Delray Beach

To The Beach!!

Eoin saw a guy with no shirt on, he thought that was really awesome so he took his shirt off.

He also saw these statues and loed this little boy.

What an awesome day!

St. Pattys Day

Being of Irish decent we feel very enthusiastic on St. Patricks Day. The holiday actually began for us on Saturday with the celebration in Ft. Lauderdale. It worked out beautifully that we had already made plans to visit the science museum on that day with one of Eoin's classmates.

Eoin was getting windblown downtown

Well Ry, I think it's time...

Eoin and his friend at the museum

Couldn't pass up a Guinness at the St. Patricks Day Fest

Em girl and I at the parade

The fam

 The morning of the actual St. Patrick's Day (today) started with a delivery from the leprechaun who came overnight.

The card from the Leprechaun

The day proceeded like any normal day. Corned Beef and Cabbage for dinner, then we had a nice surprise from my cousin Brian and 3 dozen donuts.

Made some Irish Soda bread to go with our Corned beef and cabbage...YUM!

Now Ryan and Brian are out drinking some green beer....I can't wait to go to bed.

Hope everyone had a great day! I would love to hear what everyone else did.

Don't Worry

I forgot to mention to everyone that Eoin does wear a helmet evertime while skateboarding. The pictures were taken right after it was removed and right before it went back on. But of course I display for all the world to see the few minutes of it not being on. I think it is extremely important to wear a helmet and I cannot stress this enough. Things happen in a millisecond and once damge is done it is, for the most part, irreversible. So just wanted to throw that out there because I know some if not all of you were worried about it.

Happy Birthday Grandpa and Grandma.

My Grandpa turned 85 this week, whoa. I think I have lived a long time and I've only been on this earth for almost a third of what he has. My Grandpa Lehn is one of THE wisest person I have ever known. Pretty much anything that I am wondering about, I can go ask him and he will have an answer. I love listening to him tell stories, and so does Ryan and Eoin. We chose to give Eoin the middle name Donald, which is my grandpa's first name. My grandpa writes the best letters and sends them in the actual mail which is very cool considering he may be one of the last people on earth to do such a thing. Very sad to think about that actually. Yes, technology has made everything faster and easier but less exciting and heartfelt. I feel like there is nothing in the world greater than going to your mailbox to find a handwritten letter from somebody. Anyways, back on the subject. I always said my grandpa should write a book, even a biography about him would be something interesting to read.

My parents, cousins, Ry, Eo and Em all brought dinner over the other night for his birthday and a great time was had by all.

Grandpa got some help with the candles by Eoin and (his 2nd cousin?) Aubrey.

Along with my grandpa Lehn's birthday we also celebrated my grandma Huskey's 83rd birthday this week.
Another great person in my life, Beverly. She is an inspiration to me as well. Bev doesn't let anything bother her (well at least it doesn't show). In my 29 years I don't remember ever seeing her yell or get mad at anyone or anything. One thing that stands out in my mind is the day we were in a car and there was an accident up ahead. The average person would get irritated that they had to sit in traffic but she said "I hope everyone is ok". I took that and stored it in my memory because I think if only the rest of the world had this mentality it would be a better place.
Today we had my mom's side of the family over for baked potato, soup and salad bar, it was really tasty and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Of course Eoin had to help with these candles too.

We all enjoyed the celebrations and look forward to many more in the future. 

We feel so lucky to have our grandparents in our lives.

Watch this

Maybe Eoin will be doing this someday because he is choosing not to do the mainstream activity. It is so cool!

Acceptance

About 6 months ago, Eoin said he wanted to play soccer. We signed him up for soccer, bought him cleats, a soccer ball and shin guards.

He was so excited until he actually started playing. Out of about 30 kids Eoin was the only one who didn't want to play. He wanted to climb the fence, look at the burrowing owl, sit there, whatever came to mind. So I thought ok, do I force him to play to teach him that he shouldn't quit something? Do I let him quit because forcing him to play would be damaging to him at such a fragile age of 4? Well, I let him quit.
Next he said "all I want to do is play baseball".

Ok, so we sign him up for baseball, buy him a glove, bat, ball, tee, and new baseball cleats. Baseball lasted longer than soccer at least, after about the 5th practice he decided baseball is boring and refuses to go back. I asked myself the same questions about "proper parenting". The same thing happened with baseball as did soccer, we let him quit because I felt that forcing him would be the wrong thing to do. For several months now I have been stressing out; worried that Eoin has something wrong with him because he is the only kid out of a total of about 50 who was playing in the dirt and not playing the game.
I don't know why I was so stressed over this. My whole life, I always said I will raise my children to do what makes them happy. Not to do what the whole crowd is doing, think outside of the box, be independent, march to the beat of their own drum. Why is it that my child is doing exactly what I dreamed my child would do but I am worried?

I have fully accepted the fact that Eoin is a unique individual and I am so excited to see what becomes of him. From now on I will follow his lead and see what makes him truly happy. Eoin will find things that he is good at and things that he enjoys doing. It is so ridiculous that I even think about "what is the proper parenting move". The proper parenting move in my heart is to support my children in whatever they choose to do.
Right now Eoin is choosing skateboarding, he loves it and I must say he is getting very good.

Daddy and Emmi support Eoin too.

Emmi is learning from her brother :)

I want to hear everyone's thoughts on this.

Success

At one point in my life I thought in order to be successful you had to have a big house, expensive car, expensive clothes & shoes, a giant diamond ring etc. Now that I am more mature in my thoughts and way of living, I realize that those things really don't measure success at all (in my opinion).  A long time ago one of my best friends, Danielle, told me that she thought "to be successful means that you are happy". At the time I thought "nonsense, happiness doesn't buy anything". Now that I am older and wiser I think back to that time and conversation (about 8 years ago). Now I know that Danielle was so right, to be successful in life is to be happy. So many people in this world walk around everyday so miserable about what their life has become. If you aren't happy in life then really what is the point? We have the power to change the direction our lives have taken us and steer toward happiness. I can say with confidence that I am happy with my life. I do things that I know make me happy and avoid doing things that don't make me happy. Here is a list of 10 things that make me happy, I would love to hear what makes everyone else happy.

1.Hearing my kids laugh
2. Going on outings with Ry, Eo, and Em
3. Drinking coffee. To make me extra happy once in a while I will dunk an old fashioned donut in there.
4. Cooking and food
5. Yoga
6. Doing crafts and puzzles
7. Talking to my sister 10 sometimes 20 times a day
8. Learning about new things
9. Watching Ryan and Eoin hang out together
10. Sleeping (which doesn't happen much lately)
11. Family

My oh my things have changed. Go back 8 years to when the conversation took place and the list would include:

1. Going to Tarpon Bend on Mondays
2. Going to Tavern 213 on Tuesdays
3. Going to Tiki Bar on Wed.
4. Going to Poorhouse on Thursday
5. Going to Downtown on Friday and Saturday
6. Watching Sex and the City episodes with Danielle, Kelly and Jerry on Sunday
7. Summer on the lake
8. Riding bikes to the beach
9. Sleeping in until 2 or 3
10. Talking about what happened the night before


I want to hear everyone else's list!

Shifting Gears

As many of you know, Eoin is very strong-willed. It is often very difficult to get him to do things when asked, or for that matter do things when not asked. He has the type of personality where he knows what he wants and he will take any measure to get that, which reminds me of somebody else eh hmm... I don't particularly think that this is a bad quality by any means, it is just a tough quality to parent. I have been trying to be a stern parent but it just insn't working out. It creates bad moods and makes Eoin's not wanting to do something even worse because it is me telling him to do it. I have taken a step back and looked at it through his eyes. I need to remind myself that before 7 months ago it was just Eoin, no Emmi. I am still nursing Emmi and she still is just a baby, therefore it takes a lot of time and attention away from Eoin. He doesn't ever say anything about it and he is never mad at Emmi or anything but I am slowly seeing that he needs more attention. I get frustrated with him for pretty much the same reason everytime, not listening, and not doing simple tasks when asked to do them. The result is me raising my voice, counting to 3 and him getting TV taken away because he didn't end up doing it. Taking a step back now and seeing things from his perspective I realize that he just wants attention. By him not doing something, he gets attention. I will have empathy for Eoin and show him the attention that he deserves and we will see if there is a diference in his "moods". Eoin really isn't a bad kid by any means, he doesn't hit people, he isn't verbally mean to people, he isn't like trying to start fires or anything, he is just a strong-willed child who needs attention.