Playground Season, What I Know For Sure & #iPPP

Spring has sprung.  That means no freezing at baseball games, no more winter coats.  That means that is officially playground season.

And we couldn't be happier.

If there is a playground, we will find it and we will have the time of our lives, I know that for sure (this week).

Here's what else I know (this week):

• We like chalk too.  Wade said we should draw the "hopper thing." AKA hopscotch.

• My kids drive me crazy, sometimes.  In this week's vlog, I talk about that and do a Rodney Dangerfield impression. Here it is if you missed it:

• Little moments of meaning are everywhere--be ready to appreciate them.  I walked by the stairs at a family party last weekend and caught a glimpse of a moment between JT and his grandfather, "Bubba." I stopped and watched for a minute and soaked up the sweetness of this moment.

• Let love rule.  This is from a couple months ago (ancient in online terms) but so good.  It's from SoulPancake, it's about love and I love it.

• Music matters.  I love this print from my pal, thelittleillustrator's etsy shop.

• I'm not aware of too many things, I know what I know if you know what I mean.  Speaking of music, this song was in my head all week for some reason--Edie Brickell & New Bohemians' What I Am.  This song is about 25 years old.  I know! Can you believe it?  Such a great song.

• I can't stop thinking about my volunteer opportunity last weekend in Detroit.  It was life-changing,-affirming.  Here's  short video about our day at Cass Community Services. Read about it here.

St. Paul's Trip to Cass Community Social Services from Jumping With My Fingers Crossed on Vimeo.

What do you know for sure (this week)? C'mon, we're friends, share what you know.  Leave a comment here or on the Facebook page.

  Come play with me on Instagram @jumpingwithmyfingerscrossed.

I'm linking up today with my good buddy Greta from  Gfunkified.com and Sarah at SundaySpill.com for the #iPPP link up.  They host a link up where they encourage people to share "your funny, your yummy, your heartfelt, your favorite photos of the week" from our phones.  Check them out.

Oh yeah, and come follow me on Twitter @AngelaYBlood and subscribe to my MomPulse YouTube channel here.

Magic Snow

Snow may have delayed our post-Christmas Christmas trip to Pittsburgh.  But snow also made our post-Christmas Christmas visit one of the best, most magical ever.

My father lives on the side of a mountain in the South Side of Pittsburgh.  If you aren't familiar with Pittsburgh than you don't know there are mountains and hills everywhere throughout the city.  As well as bridges and rivers and beautiful homes and interesting neighborhoods and historic architecture.  If you aren't familiar with me you don't know that I have a thing for Pittsburgh, PA.  

No seriously, I love it.  Pittsburgh is home base for my extended family and has been for almost 20 years.  I lived there off an on for almost six years and now go back a few times a year.  But okay, back to the side of the mountain.

Since my father moved into this house when JT was a year old, I have bemoaned the fact that it was all kinds of dangerous, being on the side of a mountain and all.  The property sits alongside old Incline posts (think chairlift type motor car) from 40 years ago when it used to take people up the steep cliff to their homes from work millions (okay maybe not millions) of feet below.  The Incline is gone and now my father's house is there.  There on the side of  mountain with all kinds of great views and potential for dangerous falls.

After delaying our trip one day because of the Blizzard of 2012, we arrived to some nice snow on the ground in Pittsburgh.  But when we woke up the next morning what we found was magic.  

A new blizzard type storm.  But this blizzard was full of white fluffy flakes, friendly flakes if you will.  There was no angry wind or icey wintry mix.  There was only beautiful Christmas-y, magical snow covering the city like a blanket.  

High up on that mountain it felt like we were right in the middle of a snow globe.  I could hardly contain myself.  None of us could.

All of us, kids and grown ups, bundled up and headed outside to sled, make snow men, throw snow balls, slip and slide in the powder, build snow forts with tunnels, catch snowflakes on our tongues...it was simply irresistibly joyful.

The world was our snowball that day and we got out and rolled it along.  That's me attempting to incorporate lyrics from the song I couldn't stop singing that day--Marshmallow World.  My family sort of thought it was cute at first, but were a little sick of it after the 150th time I sang it.  But come on, days like this are a "yum, yummy day made for sweethearts!"

My dad and his wife getting really into making the perfect snow man.  Honestly, I've never been a part of building a snow man that big.  Color me impressed.

My brother and sister and I acting like kids.

Cousin snow fort.

Maybe it was because everyone had the week off, maybe it was because it was a holiday, maybe it was because we didn't have to drive anywhere...whatever the reason, we all forgot about how annoying snow can be, we forgot how cold we were (well except for the baby Wade, he was like this is great now get me the f#&@ inside), we forgot to make a plan, we forgot to be stressed* out, we forgot about our iPads,iPods, Kindles, KindleFires, Nooks, etc. 
***The being on the side of the mountain thing still stressed me out, but we played behind the house on the hill that if you fall down, you fall into Grandpa's house which is better than a million 30-foot drop onto concrete.***

We remembered how much fun building a kick ass snow fort can be, how silly and reckless it feels to fly down the hill on a slide, we remembered the magic of being a kid.

Just in case you don't know the song Marshmallow World, here it is my friends.  

Not IT

"Bubble gum, bubble gum in a dish, how many pieces do you wish?" the kids chanted to see who was IT in their game of Hide n' Seek this past weekend.  I remember singing/chanting this so many times when I was a kid, especially running around playing outside in the summer.


We got a taste of summer this past weekend and it was, um, amazing.


There was so much sunscreen at the baseball game it smelled like the beach.  

The kids were outside more than inside this weekend.  They fell into their beds beyond exhausted each night.


We even took out the pool. The kids seemed unfazed by the freezing cold hose water.  

I mean it was a warm 85 degrees, but that water was damn cold.


That taste of summer was good and needed. Last week was intense.  


It all started with Mother's Day, which is a great holiday, really.  But I am so not a holiday kind of gal.  I mean I like the whole idea behind holidays, but I get so uncomfortable, so uneasy.  Maybe it's having expectations, possibly being let down, possibly not doing enough--it's just too much.  


Then the week involved a horrible, god damn awful stomach flu.  


Lying down without the energy to stop my two-year-old from spraying the couch with his Gogurt or to break up the WWF re-enactment my boys were doing in my living room, was making me crazy.  With Gogurt dripping from my already dirty couch and two of my three boys crying, I lost it.  I was in charge, I was IT and I so didn't want to be IT.


Nothing was good.  I was going to the dark side.  No joke.


I couldn't see past the darkness that was the moment--my dark Gogurt moment.  It was more than the silly yogurt kids like to slurp out of a plastic tube of course.  It was stress.  Stress of life not going exactly how you wanted or planned or both.  It was disappointment.  Disappointment of mistakes made over and over.  The pace of life.  The unfairness of it all.  The lack of sleep.  The utter exhaustion of making it all work and then it doesn't work.  


But then, the sun came out.  I had a long, amazing talk with my brother who helped me see past the darkness and get out of my funk.  The sun came out and I watched the kids play games and be silly and have fun.  And it felt like everything was going to be okay.


Just as I was starting to sing "I can see clearly now the rain is gone..." Tim, my husband, started to go dark.  Not only with the stomach flu, but also the negative doom and gloom.  The whole "why do we work so hard and have it not work out?" feeling.  The feeling that makes you wonder what the hell the whole point is anyway.


Me going dark?  Normal.  Tim going dark?  The world just might indeed be ending.


Luckily, we hardly ever go dark at the same time and we are usually pretty good about lifting each other up.  So, when he needed it, I was ready.  When he needed a what's the point, what's next, why are we doing it all answer here is what I texted him:


Buying a house and renovating it, backyard parties with he neighborhood, being the backyard all the kids want to go to, watching our kids grow up safe and smart and kind with good values, coaching more and stressing less, traveling a little, getting away alone for a weekend or two the next 15 years, being in love and feeling lucky that we get to share all of this together and not alone.  Together because we are soul mates and the great loves of our lives.


We can get through our tough moments.  And the thing is, we just might be stronger because of the tough, dark moments, even those scary dark Gogurt moments.

And the the little taste of summer was indeed just what we needed.  Sunshine, playing outside for hours, bike rides, baseball, ice cream on the porch, running through sprinklers...oh man, it's going to be good.

Here is something else that is good.  I love Fresh Prince and I love Will Smith (even with all that slapping business going down right now) for honoring his roots. Ch-ch-check it out. I especially love how EVERYONE knows all the words to the Fresh Prince theme song/rap.  Life is indeed good again.