I LOVE the smell of wood.  Sawdust around the house brings back a lot of memories of my high school days when my mom and dad completely rebuilt the home they bought in South Carolina.  Of course I see saw dust as their home just about every day right now as my mom's sewing room is slowly coming together. Because my dad was in the Navy and gone for so many days and often months at a time, it is the memories of him working around the house and making new things that stick most in my mind.  I still have some of the furniture he made me over the years, and I am pretty sure I'll have them forever.  My memories are wrapped up in all that sawdust.

So when my husband decided to cut off all the wood on our family room windowsill that had been eaten years ago by our two "land sharks" with puppy teeth, I absolutely loved the mess.  Crazy.  I know.  But true. Take a look.

(I'm head-over-heels crazy about my handyman, but don't tell anyone!)

"Snow" in Austin and a little bit of EVERYTHING else...

If you've ever wondered what snow in Austin, Texas looks like here is your chance to get a good look...don't miss it.  I swear it is there.

Now for a little bit of everything else from the past month or two.  Warning: they are not organized in any way, some are completely random, and I'm certain I'm leaving out something important - like say, Christmas.  I keep waiting for time to sit down and write up some great posts on what we've been doing, but life is happening and there is never enough time to think, let alone compose something.  So instead, this is what you get.  Messy.  Crazy.  Just like us!

Making Poinsettias

Alex petting an iguana

My boys dressed up for Christmas Mass...

(one of my favorites from this past year)

Studying the presents under the tree

New Geopuzzle to put together

Our "Happy Birthday Jesus" Cake for Christmas Day 

(see, I did find a couple Christmas pictures to include)

Christmas Day dinner - look closely at my child...

Look closely again...notice a theme this year? 

And because we are hardly ever in pictures and I love this guy, 

here we are, ready to fall asleep after that huge dinner of prime rib

Viruses and Germs - one of my least favorite topics!

I put this one in because Alex walked right up and said, "Look, Mom.  DNA code." 

like we have been studying DNA, which we have not.

Snow and ice in Austin wouldn't be as much fun without

freezing a few action figures to excavate the next morning.

The boys at Alex's first hockey game - The Texas Stars in Cedar Park

Finally, here it is - photo evidence of BOTH boys on their FIRST ice skating adventure!

Tomorrow

It's funny how our moments throughout the day can so clearly shape our attitude and feelings. Today couldn't have been a more perfect example.

I started out with a headache at 8 a.m. so I was feeling pretty proud of myself when Alex and I finished grocery shopping at 10 a.m.  The headache had grown into a dull throbbing pain and I've been getting some pretty bad migraines lately so I thought a quick stop at McDonald's for a coke (the caffeine) on the way home would be justified. For those of you who know me, you know the one thing I haven't been able to give up is coke. But that's another argument for another day. My point is, Dustin and I have had tons of experience with coke in the car - one might say we're kinda experts in the field.

Unless the sweet McDonald's employee gives me a torn cup...without a lid firmly affixed. The result - one large coke covering 65% of my car's interior. I kid you not. I think it exploded! And then Alex spilled chocolate milk and said HE was angry at the mess.

I paid a dollar to NOT drink coke, spent thirty minutes cleaning the car, and then had to shower since I was soaked from arm pits to knees. You would think I'd learn a lesson here, but no. There's more.

As I'm finally fishing up my second car cleaning this week (if you want to see my car clean come now!) and ready to scrub the sticky off my legs, my sweet, big scardy-cat of a dog pees her way across the entire family room floor. And she's a pretty big dog. With a bladder the size of Lake Michigan. And I just used all the cleaner on the car.

I decide after all of this, and I still had a headache by the way, an easy dinner was in order. I got out my brand new bag of rice, added it to my steamer, and found BUGS. In complete defeat I tossed it all down the drain which promptly backed up into both sinks and the dishwasher.

Then I had to wait for Dustin to take the drain apart.

Some time later as my headache began to fade (thanks to a McDonald's coke - I took my mama with me on my second trip) I realized that some days God just doesn't want us to be worried about all the little things because -

THEY. DON'T. MATTER.

I've spent the past weeks trying to check off my list things I have put off for months but now isn't the time. Truthfully any other time I would have gotten a good chuckle out of all the crazy things that happened, but not today. God could see I was missing the big picture and he spoke through the familiar voice of my mama tonight when she reminded me that tomorrow is a new day and we get to start all over again.

God, I need a big do-over so help me do it right. And if all else fails please let there be coke in the fridge and a restaurant gift card in my purse!