A Friendly Reminder

Have you fed your birds this winter?

Last week I brought our bird feeder inside, took the entire thing apart, and scrubbed it down. Now it's back up, full of sunflower seeds, and the birds are having a blast.

A little seed = A lot of happiness!

Tweet tweet!

What fills us is real, sweet, dopey, funny life.

Who wrote that?  Oh how I wish it was me. What a beautiful little sentence.  But it's actually Anne Lamott.  Have you ever read one of her books?  If not, get thee to a library or bookstore pronto. She is a genius writer.  But I didn't come here to discuss Anne Lamott.  I came here today to share this wonderful article that she wrote (which I found on Simple Mom's Weekend Links post).  

I couldn't agree with Anne more.  My house looks like a pigsty most days. Paper, unread mail, old catalogs and half-read magazines litter the counters. It happens more often than I'd care to admit that I don't invite people over because it's too messy or my house needs updating.  BUT it's because I let those things go that I feel pretty full inside and I feel like my kids are happy and healthy and have a beautiful sense of wonder. People often tell me they don't have pets because dogs are too messy and birds are too loud.  Yet those folks don't know much about the endless, unconditional, affectionate love of a dog or the quirky fun and beautiful songs I get from my birds. Standing in my kitchen and having the birds fly around  me divebombing my head brings me so much joy! That's their language and their way of communicating and playing with me.  My house might be full of fur and bird feathers and seeds but my family knows the soul of these animals. It's such a gift and so priceless!  I don't wear makeup or fix my hair often but I read some damn good books. Our bed isn't always made but my girls and I have fabulous tea parties. Aren't those the things that make life worth living? When my end comes, I like to think that people won't remember my messy house or that my hair never looked good but the more important things.

Anne Lamott, thanks for bringing some soul into my morning.

Note: These photos have absolutely nothing to do with this post. But I couldn't have two photo-less posts in a row and these self-portraits of Clara & I making dinner seemed somewhat appropriate.  If only you could see the disastrous mess on the counters behind us!

Books Read in 2012

As I was putting together yesterday's post, I realized I hadn't yet posted about all the books I read in 2012. Last year was the first year I took the time to track each and every book I read.  I loved it. This year I kept track by pinning the books on a board.  So, here's my list for 2012 with my favorites marked with asterisks. Please do tell if you've read any of these and your thoughts/opinions.

1. The Element by Ken Robinson  *****
2. A Walk Across the Sun by Corban Addison ***
3. The World We Found by Thrity Umrigar ***
4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
5. Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother by Amy Chua
6. Heaven Is Here by Stephanie Nielson ***
7. The Blueberry Years by Jim Minick
8. The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
9. Garlic and Sapphires by Ruth Reichl
10. The Mesh by Lisa Gansky
11. Waiting for Birdy by Catherine Newman
12. In The Pleasure Groove by John Taylor ***
13. You Can Buy Happiness (And It's Cheap) by Tammy Strobel
14. Active Hope by Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone ***
15. Too Much Magic by James Howard Kunstler
16. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

I've included the Amazon link to each book in case you want to read the summary, see the reviews, read an excerpt, etc.  I also added a few notes for each book on my Pinterest board.

Tell me, did you read a lot this year?  Any favorites? What do you intend to read in 2013?  The book I most look forward to reading in 2013 is Brene Brown's Daring Greatly.

Note: Ken Robinson's book got some extra stars because I find his books particularly inspiring. Have you ever seen his original TED talk?  I read recently that it's the most watched TED video of all time.

Reading, Watching, Listening

HELLO 2013!!!

As I usher in 2013, I've been reading, watching and listening a lot.  Hence my lack of blog posts.  Here's a peek at what I've been reading, watching and listening to......now, it's your turn, how about you???

READING:

Just finished...

Now reading...

With this one on the backburner just waiting....

WATCHING:

Just finished watching Season 1 of this show.....(thanks, Little Brother!)...

Not sure yet what my opinion is on the show but let's just say that I intend to watch Season 2. (Obvi, we're the ladies! ~ love that!) I'm intrigued by Lena Dunham. She's obviously talented and I LOVE how she puts herself out there.  I admire it, actually. For this reason, I watched her movie...

...but I quickly found myself wishing I'd spent that hour and a half doing something else.  Sorry, Lena.

Also, I recently watched this movie:

....and let's just say that I liked it enough to add it as one of my favorites on my Google profile.  I cannot wait to own this on DVD.  And the music is so incredible!

LISTENING:

I have a confession ~ in general, I really do not like children's music.  At all. There are some exceptions, like certain Raffi songs. But I usually stick to artists like Bob Marley or Van Morrison or Miles Davis or Nina Simone....beautiful music that (luckily) appeals to my children as well.  How pleased I have been to discover Elizabeth Mitchell.  My mom bought us both of these CD's....

.....and I find myself wondering how I've managed to be a parent for 6+ years without music THIS GOOD. I'm not at all embarrassed to admit that I listen to it even if my children are not in the car.  It's so, so, so beautiful.  I'm hard pressed to even say which of these two CD's I like better.  Elizabeth Mitchell, thank you.

So what am I missing?  Tell me,what are you reading, watching, listing to????  

2012 Highlights

2012 was an incredibly hard year.  

During the first half of the year, we were barely sleeping.  I think, on average, I was sleeping between 3 and 5 hours a night. It was so difficult.  There were times I wondered if I could die from lack of sleep.  Then, slowly, as the weather warmed and the year dragged closer to Summer, Clara's reflux started to subside and she began to sleep a little better.  Still far from ideal but better.  I felt like we were slowly coming back to life.  During this time, Sophie started her very first soccer season...and Clara began to walk...

In early June, Sophie spent her last day at preschool and we had a pizza/cookie cake party to celebrate...

Somehow, in the midst of the crazy first half, I did manage to plan and pull off a belated 40th birthday bash for Alain (and, in usual Audrey fashion, I took a bunch of photos of my prep work but none during the actual party!).

In Spring, Alain had a very large project at work and we didn't see a lot of him. Then, as Summer started, he finished said project and we prepared to leave for a week-long vacation over July 4th to New York City.  

The day before our flight we learned of our dear brother/brother-in-law/uncle's tragic passing.  

Our trip to Switzerland was heart-wrenching, emotional and just plain hard.....but, even in the midst of that, there were some beautiful moments.  We don't get to see Alain's family much so, even in the midst of our pain, we had to do our best to soak up our time together (and to celebrate Yaron's 2nd birthday). It was the first time all five cousins were together in the same place and the joy of the children kept us all going.

A life without Ygal. We're still attempting to come to grips with this, if we ever can. It's been six months now. Therefore, the second half of the year has seen us muddling through.  

As soon as we returned from Switzerland, our baby Clara turned one.  My grand plans for her party were put on the back burner and we had a small, intimate family gathering to celebrate.

{I don't know why this picture is "foggy" but I'm including it because it's one of my favorites!}

The very next day we commemorated what would've been Ygal's 36th birthday by releasing 36 balloons.

In early August, my aunt and uncle invited us on their beach vacation.  It turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.  It was peaceful and relaxing....

A few short weeks later and Sophie started kindergarten. Unbelievable!

After two days of school, we drove down to Hilton Head for a long weekend to celebrate Sophie's 6th birthday. It was a lovely, lovely weekend and that trip included what was probably my favorite moment of the entire year....

As I was going back through all my pictures from the year, I couldn't believe how many nature pictures there were.  Flowers, birds, trees, insects, deer, shells, leaves, my garden, you name it.....I don't even know how my computer can contain them all.  I was surprised but this makes sense to me.....when I'm down, nature is my solace.  And there was a lot of nature in my life this year. For that, I am so thankful.

Hard years also come to an end.

I am looking forward, with a hopeful heart, to 2013!

Happy Christmas!

Here's wishing all of you a cozy, warm, happy, healthy, peaceful Christmas!

PS ~ I took this picture last year. My parents' neighbor had this homemade wreath hanging on their shed and it looked so simple but so festive. I knew it would be the image for my Christmas greetings this year. It's a small miracle that I remembered! 

Iggy Pop

For this week's post, I thought I'd do a follow-up on this post.

Since Ygal missed Sophie's birth, he didn't get to meet her until she was a year and eight months old.

As you can see, they made up for lost time!

Sophie is lucky in that she got to spend time with her Tio during several trips over the years.  Since she was five years old when he passed away, she may even have some concrete, long-term memories of Ygal.  I feel thankful for that.  It does make me sad that Clara won't have the same....although Alain and I often discuss how happy we are that Ygal and Clara met earlier this year.

I've always liked these two pictures ~ I think they again clearly show what a great uncle Ygal was to Sophie!