Nothing Runs Like a Deere

Most of you know that the last couple of weeks have been quite hectic around here. Emily has been on night call (meaning that she works from 5 in the evening until 7:30 in the morning) for the last two weeks. Her last night was Tuesday night....but after only a few hours of sleep on Wednesday morning she took off for a Sports Medicine conference in the Windy City. Early reports from her indicate that there is indeed sufficient reason to refer to Chicago as the Windy City.

In any event, I'm sure she'll be doing the sharing on all of her excitement when she gets back. In the meantime, I wanted to add a couple of pictures from the last week or so. First, we have Daddy walks, where the seat belt in the stroller is optional:



Then there is the cooking. I got a tip from Emeril on an interesting way to cook sausage using apples and onions. I decided to get a little creative with it and tried to cook the sausages and some spiced apples all in the same pot. While it was a good idea, the execution left something to be desired. This is about the best it looked....and don't worry about the white appearance of the sausages, it is simply because they are made from turkey.



As the title to the post suggests, we are the proud new owners of a John Deere lawn tractor. What can I say, other than it is totally sweet. With Emily gone so much, I had to cut the grass tonight after Lily went to sleep....those headlights do way more than just look good!



Here we are this evening eating a little chicken fettucini alfredo. Notice that the boys are now trained to sit on the stairs during meal times.



And if you will humor me, I'd like to make an observation on parenting. I've been at it now for almost two years, and I figure that's long enough to begin to have some reflections. In light of our hectic schedule the past couple weeks, I have been "moving quickly and continuously." And this is necessary, or else there are many things that would not get done. However, there are also moments of pure peace and/or joy, such as the time we spend at the dinner table most evenings. These times are so important for your sanity...and so difficult to enjoy when you are in "hero mode." My biggest challenge, and to some extent accomplishment, has been working on the balance that allows me to get everything done that needs to be, while at the same time enjoying all the small moments of peace and joy.