all i have to do is act naturally

The other day I was trying to teach myself to play heart of gold and looked up the harmonica tabs on some website. Because I'm self taught - I'm pretty rough around the edges and one of the things I noticed I was doing incorrectly was the breathing technique. Without getting too technical, the site recommended breathing with your diaphragm, and less with your mouth.

You know how babies have perfect posture. Turns out they have perfect harmonica breathing techniques too. Picasso said, "it took me a four years to paint like Raphael, and a lifetime to paint like a child."

Kids are just naturally better at a lot of things. It's kind of funny that things are intrinsic to us at one point, have to be relearned.

On a lighter note, George is the next John Popper (in skill, hopefully not in girth).

potential

We're still learning how to use our new camera - and every once in a while we get a glimpse of what it can do. I thought these really turned out well.

(tip - use the "expand" button when viewing the slideshow to capture the pictures in all their glory)

the farmer in the dell

A couple of weeks ago Ashley heard about this really fun farm with unlimited berry-picking potential, and animals aplenty. George was a little under-the-weather during the trip, but it didn't stop him from having a good time. Just wanted to share a few pictures from the adventure.

down in the dumps at underwood farms

mom and george in the sunflowers

george likes sharing his food

george has turned into quite the hugger

sampling the fruits of his labors

peacefully tending his harvest

we tried to get george to smuggle these out - no luck.

you gotta get me outta here man. i'll do anything.

george lost the game of chicken ala kevin bacon in footloose

i think we can all agree...

that one of the most oft volunteered bits of parental/marital advice is:

pick your battles

i.e. "in life there will be disagreements and in order to maintain harmony you must determine which disagreements are important, and which are not."

I also think we can all agree, that there are times in life when you need to dig in your heels and fight for what's right, i.e., who is better at ping pong and mario kart? Me, or your best friend from college?

I mean, right is right. Right? ; )

Care to share any examples when you picked a really asinine important battle?

waiting...

Waiting... waiting for inspiration. Back in the day, I used to be a prolific blogger. Two, three posts a week. That kind of pace is seems totally absurd to me now. I think if I had one a week now I'd feel like I'd completed a dissertation.

I like to balance blog posts with pictures, so usually I wait to be inspired by pictures we take, or the adventures we go on and the blog posts just write themselves.

The theme for the Pulsipher family this summer is patience. We find ourselves on the verge of life-changing "news." What's trying about this, is that it's completely out of our hands at the moment. It's quite one thing to be waiting on a process or product that you are 100% responsible for the time line and the outcome, it's quite another to be completely dependent on others.


Ashley and I are really good at balancing each other out, even when it comes to being patient. By our own admission, we are both terribly impatient people, but we seem to have just enough of it when the other is about to lose their cool.

I sometimes tell George that we gave him genes for being tall, and having freckles, but that when it comes to being patient, he's going to have to figure out another source for that gift. The patience well has completely run dry.

So here we are... waiting. Like George displays up above. I like what Dieter Uchtdorf said recently about patience:

"Patience is not passive resignation, nor is it failing to act because of our fears. Patience means active waiting and enduring. It means staying with something and doing all that we can—working, hoping, and exercising faith; bearing hardship with fortitude, even when the desires of our hearts are delayed. Patience is not simply enduring; it is enduring well!"

I see George in a lazyboy, and it makes me want to endure things well. For him, for Ashley, and for myself. My life is better when people are patient with me. It is an admirable quality that I hope to develop.

Any tips on patience and enduring well?