in a galaxy far, far away

I promise I took a picture today. Seven of them, in fact. I can't show you those pictures, however, because I deleted them from my camera after I thought I had uploaded them to the computer. I had not uploaded them, and once I realized I had inadvertently deleted them, the moment was over for me. I wasn't about to send Catcher and Alex back into the kitchen to stand side-by-side, adjacent to the outlet, faces aglow by the light of their electronic devices. Alex wasn't particularly proud of this techno-moment anyway.

Instead I deliver you snapshots from our weekend when we stumbled across Stormtroopers and Jedis-in-training at the Bob Bullock History Museum. The place was so crowded we had to pay $8 to park in the garage, which I'm fundamentally opposed to when you can find free parking on the street, but it turns out the fee was worth it when all three children arrived just in time for the last (FREE!) Jedi training session of the day.

begin again

For a brief moment this morning I reconsidered giving up on my New Year's resolution of "one picture per day." Inspired by a podcast about resolutions, I learned we humans are quite predictable. Apparently we are wired to break our resolutions because we view our past selves as inferior than our present selves. I can't remember how that played into the whole breaking of the resolutions equations, but it was reassuring to hear that the Sarah of January 19, 2016 onward can be more focused and determined than the old Sarah. There was also something about psyching yourself up by speaking in the 2nd or 3rd person. See what I did there?

There are some other key points I'm missing here, but the 24-minute podcast convinced me that it's okay to start your resolution again because of the whole humans being wired thing. We naturally gravitate toward starting things new/over at the beginning of a new year or on birthdays or the beginning of the month...or week. Sarah was feeling pretty good about herself and decided she would reinstate her new year's resolution starting today.

But then...

I got home from school with the children this afternoon and I was mentally exhausted. I had to input grades from last week's history test and prepare my lessons for tomorrow and the kids wanted a snack and Tillie fell over on the front porch and scraped her elbow and Scout was showing me all the scrap paper with her doodles that she brings home from kindergarten every day and Catcher was asking me to sign his homework...so I gave myself a break. I realized that--human nature and wiring and all that stuff that sounds great on a podcast aside--perhaps we break our resolutions because we're busy. Or tired.

But then...

I felt like I was making excuses, so I turned to our most agreeable child and asked her if I could take her picture on the front porch. Let me assure you that my momentary awakening on the resolution front in no way signifies I will keep it up for the remaining 347 days of 2016 (I had to use a calculator to figure that out, but I remembered to factor in this year being a leap year).

Side note: As I'm writing this, I realize Scout's shirt is speaking to me. May the force be with me indeed.

second grade science

Rarely, with children, do I find myself saying "Well...that went better than expected." But my first foray into the world of elementary school science fairs went better than expected. I had a strategy: have Catcher pick a topic that he likes and finds interesting and keep it simple. You see, Catcher and I do not have the best "working" relationship (see: the time(s) I tried to teach him to ride a bike, etc.). I knew I had to have a good plan or else the science fair would haunt me for the rest of my adult life (or at least the parts of my life where I have children participating in science fairs).

With my fool-proof strategy at the helm, we were naturally led down the road of paper airplanes--show me a second-grader who doesn't like paper airplanes. Catcher folded, tossed, measured, added and averaged. I was simply there for the documenting (and, yes, I do fancy my paper airplane photography quite stunning, and I admit that a small piece of me will be disappointed if there isn't a special award for art direction/photography this year).

However, photography abilities aside, I've already come to the conclusion that second grade is about where my science expertise taps out. Once these experiments need complicated charts and graphs and multiple points of data to test a hypothesis...I'm out. Catcher won't need my help anyway; and he'll probably think my pictures are dorky.

made to be broken

Obviously New Year's resolutions are made to be broken. Or else why would we make them? Isn't the fun in the breaking of them and not in the making of them?

I realize I overshot my potential this year in thinking I could actually take one picture a day for 365 days in a row. At first the challenge seemed doable--when we were all at home driving each other crazy and looking for new tricks up our sleeves during those waning days of winter break. But then life kicked back into gear, and the next thing I knew we had piano practice and play dates and preschool fundraisers and my classes to plan. I haven't even had to factor lacrosse and soccer practices into the schedule yet. There's also the big science fair coming up--actually, I have pictures of that, which I'll share at later date--so I'm letting myself off the hook early this year. And I'm definitely not beating myself up about a silly resolution that was made to be broken.

In a different world my children's birthday parties would be Pinterest-worthy,* and I would take one picture a day in 2016. However, in this world where I find myself residing, I'm lucky to make it through the day without tears from a three year-old and seven year-old sass. (The middle one gets a pass on this rant because she was particularly agreeable this past weekend.)

*Let's be honest--saying "Pinterest-worthy" is once again overshooting my potential. I don't even have birthday parties for my children. So it's more accurate to say that in a different world I would have birthday parties for my children.

vacation from my "vacation"

When I was a child, I thought of "Winter Break" as "Christmas Vacation." It was a vacation from school and your regular routine, and everything was awesome! As an adult, however, I realize that a two-week break from your regular, routined life can be a bit much when you're the mother of three little rascals.

True, the first week of our forced time together did fly by; and we breezed into the new year a day early without a hitch. But these last four days have lingered interminably. And who's idea was it to have the children go back to school on Tuesday instead of Monday following this ridiculous "vacation?" I think we're all excited to see faces not our own--or each other's--bright and early tomorrow morning.

Then again...those moments when the children played nicely in between screams and tears and tattles and jabs were quite sweet. It was also amusing watching the girls wrestle each other on the sofa every morning. And a part of me has to admit that the non-stop-princess-dress-up was pretty cute. It's going to be so quiet around here tomorrow.

the thinker

Last night was Friday, and that means--until further notice--Family Game Night at the Wheat House. In lieu of a game, however, the children and I decided to tackle an 850-piece United States puzzle. It's one that we've started before but have never managed to finish. Catcher dragged it out yesterday afternoon, and by 6:30pm (when it was about 1/3 assembled) we decided it would count as our game night activity. I had to put on the breaks at 7:30 to get the girls in bed, so it sat on our floor half-together all night.

It wasn't a bad idea, though. We woke up to a cloudy, rainy Austin this morning, and everyone* was eager to get back to work. Catcher, the thinking man, lead the charge and kept the troops in line until we finally finished the thing in the early afternoon.

*Tille was not so eager to get to work. She was more eager to put on her plastic mules and stomp around threateningly close to the puzzle and fingers of the puzzle workers. At one point she threw a fit and destroyed the Hawaiian islands, but Catcher stayed cool and got everything back in place for us.

1/365

Knobby knees and backward socks: my first portrait of 2016. The other night during our New Year's Eve Eve party, I stated my "resolution" for the year was to take one picture every day. I was inspired by a mom-photographer who made that commitment a few years ago, and reading her story propelled me to do the same.

For the record, that mom is a professional who takes amazing photographs. This mom (the one writing) has gotten lazy under the excuse of being "busy" the past several months, so I need the challenge to keep me on my toes this year. If I can pull this off, then maybe next year I'll vow to blog every day.