Impermanence

"Everything flows and nothing abides, everything gives way and nothing stays fixed."   -Heraclitus

I've been drawn to Buddhist philosophy for a long time now, but like many people who are, I didn't really realize it was an actual practice.  I mean, I knew about Buddhism but never realized how much of the teachings I could relate to.  The thing I find most interesting and intriguing is that people from ALL religions can find something in a Buddhist practice that they can relate to or find comfort in.  You don't have to be a Buddhist to practice the teachings and if you ask me, you can't go wrong with treating everyone with "loving-kindness".

Anyway, the above quote encompasses one of the basic principles of a Buddhist practice, and I've had to remind myself of the concept a lot this week.  We had a great Spring Break together and we are sad that it's over but it couldn't last forever.  For one thing, as Nathan said today, if this was our life all the time we'd be in trouble.  Life is a big celebration for us when we are all together and we splurge WAY  too much.   So, although hanging out together 24/7 is a lot of fun, it's not easy on the wallet and since we're on a grad school budget (in other words, we are COMPLETELY broke), we think it's best that things go back to normal for a bit here.

Poor Owen has had a rough few days, though.  He caught a cold which ended up giving him an ear infection so he's been really uncomfortable.  I think that the antibiotics have finally kicked in, and hopefully the actual cold will start to calm down tomorrow so I'm crossing my fingers for a more manageable night tonight.  As if he (and I) didn't have a hard time getting rest at night as it is, when you add sore ears and congestion there's no hope for sleep.  This too shall pass....the cold/infection AND the sleepless young baby nights....

Anyway, here's a quick rundown of the last half of the week:

Wednesday afternoon, Zoe and I found some time to do a quick project, since Nathan took the day to get some work done at the library.  I found this cool yarn basket project and thought it would be a good fit for us.  Of course, as happens so often, Zoe started it and lost interest pretty quickly and Owen started getting really fussy so it wasn't exactly what I had pictured but still fun.  I'd like to try it again with some more colors and better timing with the kids.

The materials and setup

Mine before I realized I wanted to be a little less neat about it

That's better

Done...well, it had to be done anyway

Zoe's.  As you can see it was a big success.

My finished product

Thursday we went on a tour of the Hammond's Candy Factory in Denver.  It was a cool, short (free) tour of the factory and we had fun watching them make big candy canes and lollipops....then spent WAY too much money in the store afterwards....and I gave myself a stomachache...surprise surprise!

Woah candy!!!

On Friday, after a long night up with Owen (it was the night his ears started hurting, although I didn't know that until later in the day), I was really needing some cheering up so I decided to take Zoe for her first mani/pedi.  We were so excited, but the lady that did Zoe's nails did not find it as cute and fun as I did and was a total BITCH to Zoe.  Luckily, Zoe didn't really notice and was just pretty shy the whole time, whereas if she had had a fun person I think she would have loosened up and had a blast.  Anyway, she was excited with the outcome which was fun!

Saturday we went to a going away party for one of the first good friends I made here in Boulder.  I love her, Zoe loves her and we are going to miss her terribly.  We love you, Jenny!

Finally, today we celebrated my birthday!  Okay, it's not until the end of April, but we are going to be in Boston celebrating my brother Ivan and my new sister-in-law Sandy then, so we did it early.  I've been wanting to go to one of those places where you paint pottery and they glaze it for you so we went out to breakfast and then went and did that.  It was really fun, but Nathan had to forgo painting himself so he could entertain both kids.  I was really grateful because I was able to take my time and relax a bit.  Can't wait to see the finished products!

"Come on, Zoe I just want a picture of us having fun doing this!"  Oh well.

Zoe took this

All in all a great, full week with Daddy...now, back to the grind!  I'll end with a couple pictures of Owen, only because he's so darn cute AND 6 months old today!  Way to go, buddy!

Prune face