To blog, or not to blog

That is the question. For some reason I always lose motivation to blog in the summer. When we came home from our trip to Utah in July, I couldn't get myself going to post it. Then the pictures kept building up, further discouraging me from blogging, and then I decided I actually didn't miss it. Here were some of my gripes about blogging:

1. It's unrealistic. I often read a version of this on people's blogs: "A lot of people only blog the good things, and never the hard times or the trials, but I want to blog the good and the bad." I agree that when people only blog about the wonderful things in their lives, sometimes it's easy to try to compare yourself (the realistic, good-but-flawed version of yourself) with the Internet version of other people (when often they are putting their best foot forward). Alas, I am one that tends to blog when I am in a good mood and things are going well. By nature, I'm a pretty private person and I have a hard time putting my struggles out there for all to see. For me, that's what my private journal is for. So yeah, I'm that blogger.

2. Wasted time. When I stopped blogging, I spent most of my computer time on a gigantic family history project I'm working on and that's been pretty fulfilling. I started thinking that maybe blogging was a monumental waste of my time.

3. Most of my friends aren't blogging as much as they used to either.

I've resolved these issues the following ways:

1. It's my blog, I can post happy things if I want to.

2. Last week I read through a couple of my recent posts. Then I got hooked and started reading farther and farther back, and I was so grateful that I had journaled so many details to go along with my pictures. It's ridiculous, the things I had already forgotten about in just a couple of years. I try to write in my notebook journal a few times a week, and sometimes I scrapbook, but really the only times the captions go along with the pictures is on my blog. So, in just a few days I have gone from thinking blogging was a big waste of time to thinking that it is the ultimate journaling experience.

3. Meh.

So here we go. Months worth of blogging going in one post (maybe 2 or 3). This is where I tell friends and family that they are respectfully invited to oblige their first inclination, which is to X out of the blog right now, and invite Mom and Dad to enjoy. :) I'm going to blog everything this weekend if it kills me, and not let it happen again.

P.S. After spell-checking this, the computer has informed me that I have made "journal" into a few new words that didn't previously exist. I knew that.

First of all, kids change so much in 3 months, so here is what they look like right now.

Next up: my last post was innocent enough at the beginning, when it was true that I was dealing well with the summer heat. But now that it's October and still 104 degrees and still not cooling off, well now it's just obnoxious. I did pretty well until September. So if we're counting June through September, I'll say it's Emily - 3, Summer - 1. But if October doesn't start shaping up, and FAST, I'm going to lose about a bazillion points. I'm as homesick as I ever get when October doesn't cool down and feel like Fall. Anyway, here are a few pics of us TRYING to enjoy the summer months.

San Tan Splash Pad

They have so much fun together.

AJ Library

Bowling. This was for Marty's 29th birthday, which was on Labor Day this year!

And speaking of annoying, blistering, night-time heat, Brynn had a pretty exciting night Friday. Marty has a bunch of students on Spirit Line, so we participated in a fund-raiser where they taught the kids a little dance to perform at the half-time show during last-night's football game. It was pretty cute, but I got a taste of how very, very little it takes to feel like a horrible parent. We got her there way late, Bryce screamed the whole time, we forgot to bring water for her the kids, but the kicker was that I thought I had plenty of room in my camera to record the whole performance, and I didn't. I recorded about 5 seconds of it. My mom assures me that I still have plenty more times to mess up ahead of me, but much better ones as well.

(all the pics are so dark)

Marty and I have been planning to make a relatively substantial expense this month (more on that later) so we've been trying to save up for it the last couple of months. We decided that we weren't going to eat out AT ALL, which shouldn't be that hard, but we haven't been perfect at it. Most of the times we eat out are because I didn't prepare ahead of time and we find ourselves out and about doing errands with starving children. Well, one thing that has helped us is to try to find something really FUN to make together on the weekends, after the kids are in bed.

This week we make sushi (with canned salmon) and we couldn't believe how good it turned out, and what a fun date it was! Other weekends were:

-Chili Verde

-Chicken Mole

-Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches

-Cafe Rio Salads with sweet pork and tomatillo dressing.

Now that I look at this list, a few things are evident: We like SPICY food, and Mexican food. We are almost a food-match made in Heaven, except that Marty doesn't like anything vinegar-y and that's just WEIRD. If anyone wants the recipe for the Cafe Rio salads, just e-mail me. It cost less to make it than to buy it there, but then we had enough pork and dressing to freeze for three meals. So, WAY cheaper.

About every other Saturday morning, Brynn goes on a date with Daddy. She makes sure to bring all the essentials.

Surprise, surprise - pictures of Bryce making a big mess (or I guess in the case, Bryce actually is the big mess). This particular marker only took one day to come off!

And this muddy mess wasn't his fault. Sister was the one caking on the mud. As you can see, he's very upset about it. I'm sure this game wasn't any fun at all for Brynn.

He thinks he doesn't need two naps anymore, and then sleeps through lunch.
Most of the time, it's a pain when I give Brynn the camera because then I have to delete a million pictures of the carpet. But this day she got a picture of me loving my boy. I like this picture because it's a representation of all that I haven't blogged the last few months. This is pretty much what I do all day, every day. Play, play, play!

Up next: Our pioneer trails workshop trip.