No Fruit and Dress Socks

You know what? I'm not perfect. I know, I know. I just blew some minds just then. I'll give you a moment to recover...

Okay, now that you've taken me off that shiny, tall pedestal you had me on, let me tell you why I know I'm not perfect.

1. Yesterday I forgot to take Yemi to choir practice at school. It's only the third week and it didn't even occur to either of us that we missed it until well after we were home from school doing homework. Memory fail.
2. We ran out of fruit at our house yesterday and I have yet to get any more. No bananas, no apples, not even a fruit leather. The closest thing my daughter had to fruit or vegetables in her lunch today was the peach jelly she put on her sandwich. Healthy lunch fail.
3. Yemi just left for soccer practice wearing a pair of John's dress socks over her shin guards. Because she asked me to do laundry on Sunday and I still haven't done it. And she only has two pair of soccer socks and wore them both last week. Laundry fail.
4. My sister's and my nephew's birthdays were Tuesday. My mom's birthday was today. I bought all of their birthday presents to mail two weekends ago. They are all still sitting in a bag on my desk. Birthday fail.

I'm sure the list could go on and on but I have some sort of reputation to uphold here. Lucky for me, I'm an eternal optimist. I look on the bright side of life, pretty much always. And also, I read this blog post today and it reminded me that, actually, I'm pretty awesome. I mean, I'm nothing special, but also, here's why I'm awesome:

1. My house is clean enough for people to be in it. I know this standard is different for everyone, but there are people coming over in a few hours and I'm not embarrassed for them to see it. A nice, homey, clean-but-not-too-clean feel going on. Maybe I'll light a candle and it will just push it right over the edge.
2. My child has been on time to school every day this year. (Not to choir practice, but to school). That's the important thing.
3. I made a healthy dinner tonight all by myself. And it tasted good and even though the smoke detector went off, I didn't actually burn anything.
4. I enrolled my child into soccer to help her get more exercise. So even though it's a hassle to take her and I don't know why six-year-olds need a twice a week practice, I know that it's good for her. So I did it.
5. Yesterday, I paid all my bills. On time. No late fees, no pink envelopes from TEP, no telephone reminders (not that I would know that those things come when you pay your bills late or anything. I'm just assuming).

So, if you're feeling like you haven't done enough today, just remember, most likely, you're awesome. And if you don't believe that, give me a call and I'll tell you a few reasons why I think you're awesome.

What awesome things did you do this week?

Cc is for...

So, my original goal on the whole Alphabet posts was to do one a week. I would never have said that out loud of course, but that was a vague goal for myself. Seeing as my last post was a month and a half ago, I think my first Cc is appropriate.

Consistency- The online dictionary (I don't know which one. This is a blog, not a research paper) defines Consistency as "conformity in the application of something." A quick scroll through the archives here will show you how good I am at this one. When getting ready in the morning I almost never do things in the same order and in the Myers-Briggs Personality Test, I am very strong in Perceiving, which means I don't necessarily need closure or plans. And while the practical side of me likes lists for the sake of not forgetting things, To Do lists are useless because I literally don't care if something, or everything, is left undone. If I can do it tomorrow, I probably will. Or the next day. I think my friends Tori and Jen G just had mini-panic attacks reading that. Sorry ladies. Remarkably, I still manage to be a productive member of society that has a job, a happy marriage, and am attempting to raise a future productive member of society. There are a few things I'm really consistent at though, and we should all celebrate small victories, right? Like, I'm a really consistent dessert eater, I regularly throw theme parties for various unimportant holidays (International Star Wars Day, Valentine's Day Sing-A-Longs, my birthday), and, and, actually I can't think of anything else that's not food related. However, I understand that my daughter needs a lot of consistency and I strive to give her as much of that as my soul can possibly handle. And as she becomes more healed and secure in our family, there becomes a greater amount of flexibility and freedom in schedules. But I'm not sure I'll ever be able to put her to bed without kissing all around her face. We might be doing that every single night until she's 28.

Choreography- I'm not a dancer (oh, how I wish I was a dancer!) but I really, really enjoy watching good dancing. That being said, I think most people know my obsession affinity for So You Think You Can Dance. (I'm very consistent in watching it every week.) It's wonderful. So, so wonderful. But, since this post is about Cc's, I'm going to highlight one of my favorite choreographers of late, Christopher Scott. His specialty is hip hop and not only is he not bad to look at, he is a genius. Just watch this, this or this if you want some convincing. But under no circumstances are you allowed to watch his starving children dance from a few seasons ago. I'm not even going to link to it, mostly because it's terrible and took me several years to recover from the horror, but also a little because I can't remember the song title, making it difficult to find on YouTube.

Catkins- This is our nickname for our cat (whose real name is Benny). It comes from the cat version of the Atkins Diet for humans. Now, I'm generally not a believer of any diet that completely cuts out a whole food group (hey, what do I know?), but I think the person that thought of this pun is remarkable. They deserve an award. So, while I'm not necessarily a proponent for a obese cat going on said diet, the name has stuck with the Weatherfords for about a decade now, ever since John and I saw it on the cover of a magazine in Lincoln, NE. A friend once told me she thought it was funny how we picked out little things in life and hung on to them for a long time. I think she'd probably consider this one of those things.

Chiefs- I always miss Kansas more in the fall. September in Tucson is the worst. Not because it's actually worse than the rest of the summer, but because it's when I'm so ready for a chill in the air and pumpkin desserts and long sleeves again. And football seems less fun when it's still hot. And we're still at least 6-8 weeks away from weather you can actually justify wearing a scarf in, but if we turn the air conditioning down a little and turn a Chiefs game on, we can almost pretend the leaves are turning beautiful colors outside. Growing up in Kansas City meant I was born a Chiefs fan. Sometimes it's a hard lot in life, but I'm in good company. I truly do love professional football, but no matter how you feel about it, I think most can agree that there is something lovely about laying down on the couch under a blanket on Sunday morning and falling asleep the the commentary of a game you care nothing about. That wouldn't be the KC game for me, but we don't get a lot of those down here anyway.

Bb is for...

I must admit, this will be harder than I thought. "A" was pretty easy, because I could pull from anything. My blog was open to anything. But "B" took some more time to think out. Mostly because I wanted to talk about a lot of what I had already mentioned in the last blog. But, I am determined to keep going and to try not to bore you. :)

(This is Benedict Cumberbatch, star of my favorite TV show. We also named our cat after him, Benedict "Benny" Cumbercat.)

British storytellers- British authors have always been my favorite. Okay, maybe not in elementary school. I mean, I assume the author of the Sweet Valley High books and Nancy Drew were American? But since high school I have been much more attracted to British authors. I don't know if I'll every get tired of reading Pride and Prejudice or Jane Eyre. But this has expanded recently from just books to TV as well. I could watch Sherlock (see above picture) and Downton Abbey over and over again. The current Brits seem to be moving in a bit more cruel direction, however. Like, I never have to worry about Jane Austen killing off one of my favorite characters and breaking my heart (I'm looking at you JK Rowling and Julian Fellowes.) But they sure know how to suck you in.

Beatles- Hey! I just realized they're British too! Totally unrelated, however. Since meeting John when I was 14 years old, he has greatly improved and expanded my music consumption. I'm pretty sure if he was completely aware of the kind of music I listened to before he came along, he would not have been so keen to love me. (Let's just say that he still won't let me live down that I owned, and liked, Throwing Copper by Live.) Luckily for me (and him), The Beatles helped me hide this information from him long enough to let him fall in love with other things about me. I liked the Fab Four long before I met John and it was one of the first things we discovered we had in common. He used to wear a shirt with the cover of Beatles For Sale on it. So I'll always have a soft spot for the band that helped me trick my future husband into falling in love with me (even if it was unintentional on my part.)

Boldness- This is an attribute that I've been trying to work on in my life. Those who know me would probably not use this word to describe me very often. I almost never send food back at a restaurant, I'm fairly quiet when meeting new people, and I'm not usually the first to volunteer for things. I don't like looking stupid (as opposed to all of you out there that just love looking stupid!) and like to be cautious when in new situations. But this isn't always a good thing and I do miss out on a lot of opportunities to encourage people or get to know someone new out of a fear of judgment. So, I'm trying to find out what boldness looks like while still being me. What it looks like to get over my self consciousness and go for it! And be okay if I end up looking stupid sometimes.

Brown- This is the color of my daughter. Don't let her hear you call her, or anyone else with her skin tone, "black." It doesn't fly in this house. She will never cease to remind you (as she often has to do with us) that she is brown and we are peach. Which really is a more accurate descriptor in most cases. Just don't ask me what color other races are because we haven't quite gotten there yet.

Blasé- 1. indifferent to something because of familiarity or surfeit. 2. lacking enthusiasm; bored. I hope I don't fit this description too often in my life. But it is a fun word to say, isn't it? Try fitting it into a sentence this week.

Aa is for...

(The Helvetica lower case "a" is my husband's favorite typeface. If your spouse is a designer, you probably know their favorite letter in a typeface. If not, you probably know something weird about them related to their own profession/hobby.)

Aspirations. I so desire to be better at things. A better mom. A better photographer. A better follower of Jesus. A better writer. Putting plans into action is not my strong suit, but that doesn't mean I can't try, right? So this will be my new experiment. I'm going to try to base some blogs on the alphabet to also write about things going on in my life. And so I don't feel like a failure, I'm not giving myself a timeline. Just a way to improve my writing and consistency.

Adaptability. This is one of my top strengths on the StrengthsFinder assessment. It is one thing I love about myself. I am a go with the flow, take things as they come kind of girl. This makes it easy to adjust quickly, not get bent out of shape when things change and not get stuck in one spot. But this is one thing that makes me a very bad planner. I'm not always very proactive because I'm pretty good at handling things reactively. With every strength there is a weakness...

Absorbed, see also Addicted. Mostly with fictional characters. Right now it's Harry Potter. I'm seriously staying up til midnight or later unable to stop reading about my little wizard friends. And I have come to terms that when you wait a decade after a book/movie series is popular that you are going to hear spoilers, but if people would stop blurting things out when they're talking to me about all things Hogwarts related, it would be much appreciated. BTW, I'm near the end of book five, so anything before that I'm more than happy to geek-out with you about.

Annoyed. At the All Star Game. Tonight. On Fox. In the time slot usually reserved for So You Think You Can Dance. I think you catch my drift.

Archibald Alexander Leach. This is Cary Grant's given name. Could there BE a more British name? If you haven't seen a Cary Grant film in a while, do yourself a favor and rent Bringing Up Baby. Or watch Charade on Netflix. You will not be sorry. Unless you hate charming British men falling in love with Hepburns. Then I just feel sorry for you.

Picture A Day In February, Where I Slept

February 3rd was "Where You Slept." I thought about making my bed for this shot because that's prettier, but we make our bed about twice a year, so this is more authentic. Plus, John said it was more artistic and since he's the artist, I left it. Isn't John's Grandma's handmade quilt awesome?

Happy Super Bowl Day!

Picture A Day In February, View Out My Window

February 2nd was "View Out Your Window." This is out our front window. An accurate view would have been of my neighbor Theo because he's usually out front checking on the neighborhood and tending to his cactus, but the zoom on my camera isn't big enough. Plus, it's a little creepy to post pictures of your elderly neighbors on the internet without them knowing. :)

Happy Groundhog's Day!

Picture A Day In February, Self Portrait

I always say that I want to improve my photography skills. I don't plan on making a career of it or anything, but I'm always envious when I see people who can take pictures when the camera setting isn't in "Auto." So when I came across a list of things to take pictures of everyday for a month, I decided to do it. It might be fun. And since my husband teaches photography to high schoolers, why can't I learn a few things from him?

So, a picture a day for the month of February. No Photoshop (that's a whole different thing to learn), but just trying to use my camera the best I can.

February 1st was Self Portrait.

For the photographers out there that might care, I'm using our Canon S90 point and shoot. We have a fancy SLR, but I use the Canon more often since it can fit in my purse and that's the camera I'm more interested in learning to use. Baby steps...