Lake Walk

Owing to the unusual confluence of a sunny day in January and both Ariel and I home from work -we took Elias and Chester for a nice walk (Isaac was in Kindgergarten). It was a good respite from our house - Ariel is tired of installing wood floors and I am really tired of listening to the nail gun.

We are also rather bogged down in paperwork - between forms for our adoption, taxes, and our financial planner we are getting severe writers cramp.

While I was running around the lake in the sun, I was thinking about a question I wanted to post to anyone reading this....the majority of my friends are involved in churches as adults, separate from their families or parents belief systems. I would really like to hear from people about what kind of church they attend or would like to attend - and how did they find it?

I am only now feeling confident in calling myself a Christian even though I veer pretty far from the right leaning evangelical theology I was taught.

Religion is not something I get to talk about on a day to day basis, even though I love listening/reading to people talk about how they have sorted their beliefs out for themselves. So, please, if you feel like wasting time, indulge my curiousity and write me a note about your 'spiritual journey' (which makes me wince to write - but I do not mean it any kind of tofu-ey religious way)
Oh, and I got an interview for the job in outpatient infusion I applied for. Nothing makes a person feel good like being wanted.

Avocado Ice Cream

Ariel and I made avocado ice cream tonight - I made the base and he did the freezing part. He got me a kitchen aid ice cream maker for Christmas and it is quite the success. Ariel and I have a particular fondness for avocado dairy products after one of the best things we have ever eaten was an avocado milk shake at a Filipino restaraunt in the Bronx a few years ago.
That is the only productive thing I have done all day - I really need to be stuyding electrolyte disorders for a test, but I have that foggy numb tired feeling that keeps me from doing anything (except for the internet, of course).
I am applying for a slightly different job at the hospital that would probably be a little less hectic and would require no weekend shifts! I am not sure what will come of it, but I figure it is better just to go for it. Tomorrow Ariel and I are leaving the kids to see a one man play (Pay What you Can Wednesday at Harlequin Theatres!!) about Leonardo Da Vinci - Aimee saw a brief preview and said it was wonderful.

I swear that my next post will have pictures!

Mission Statement

What am I going to blog about anyway? I tried to give it a lot of thought, but realised that nobody really reads blogs much, and it is all self indulgence and doesn't really matter after all. I started the blog partially because I love check a handful of people's blogs - mostly friends and a few classical homeschoolers. I don't quite know why I enjoy reading about people's mundane lives (and everyones life is mundane if you look closely enough), but I do.
So what I have been up to? Reading The Jungle Book and working on a rainforest mural with Isaac, and playing Candy Land. Ariel and I are watching all of Ingmar Bergman movies this winter - although I needed a break after Wild Strawberries. I am studying for a test on electrolyte imbalances and reproductive disorders. This has been a problem because Isaac loves to try and look at my text books, and no five year old needs to see a syphillis lesion. I am also working on a presentation on the role of the nurse practitioner I am giving next month at the Evergreen State College. I am reading War and Peace and The History of God by Karen Armstrong. I really am enjoying both, but am glad to be back to the Peace part of W & P - it takes me forever to get through the War stretches.
So that is it for today - I have to work this afternoon and have to fit school work, studying, house cleaning, and a trip to the gym in before then.
"Out of the crooked timber of humanity no straight thing was ever made" - Immanuel Kant

Mellow

Ariel and I are both home from work today, which is very nice. I had a rather traumatic run-in with a very angry and frightening (to me anyway) family member of a patient last night at work. It ended okay, but I am rather rattled from it. Ariel has ripped up all the flooring in our house (yeah!), so we are going to take the afternoon and take the boys to the Children's Museum.

Welcome, Chester!

With our families new blog, I am very happy to announce the addition of our newest family member, Chester the bulldog. We were lucky enough to be given Chester (named after G.K. Chesterton - check out his picture to see why he deserves a bulldog named after him http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G.K._Chesterton) by a very nice family Ariel was working for. He is one year old - and is getting along fabulously with the whole family. Even Itchy is coming to accept him. As long as he doesn't come within a few feet of his food. Also - check out the boxes that are soon to be our new bamboo flooring.
"If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly" - G.K. Chesterton

first official blog

This is the Biggerstaff families first blog. There will be more exciting and new posts soon, but this weekend 3 out of our 4 members had the stomach flu, so it will have to wait.