today

today, i:

ONE - had the following conversation with myself:

me (noticing that i could still scrape out a little butter from the spreadable butter container i was about to throw out): "i bet that would taste good with those pretzels."
me (again): "but you're trying to lose weight."
me: "but it would taste so good."

(the butter won out this time, but i have made it to the gym the past two nights - so we're doing ok with the calories out, just need to work on reducing calories in.)

TWO - i got teary-eyed with pride while talking with grace at lunch. (yeah, i'm lucky to be her mom.)

THREE - started a project that corresponds with my word for the year. (post about that coming soon).

FOUR - made snickerdoodles with my kids and a couple of their friends. (again, need to work on calories in.) p.s. snickerdoodles ended up being a great activity for the little ones as i would just hand them little balls of dough for them to roll in the cinammon and sugar.

FIVE - got hit in the nose with a wet snowball by a four year old with amazingly good aim. (she had just nailed me in the back with the previous snowball she threw. those were actually the only two snowballs thrown as i was shoveling the driveway and made a rule of no throwing snowballs at someone whose working - plus with that record i didn't feel like being her target.)

SIX - took pics of my new "do." my friend, angela, cut my hair last friday, and, i must say i'm thrilled with it.

before

my meager offering (for locks of love)

all in all, not a bad day.

for the record

while i think it does say something about the growth of our country since the 1950s that americans were willing to vote an african-american as president, i would just like to state that i voted for obama because i thought he was the best man for the job. skin color didn't even make the list of considering factors. and i think that's how the great and fearless dr. king would have wanted it. (since so many spoke of him in heaven yesterday).

as for the inauguration, you can't go wrong with iztak perlman, yo-yo ma and "simple gifts." i liked the poem. the benediction was a little long, but definitely energizing (and silly) at the end. my favorite part was the end of president obama's speech.

"So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
'Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive...that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet (it).'
America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations."

God. Bless. America.

just one more brag

i played a little too much at christmas and have since been tackling projects one at a time. i'm getting close to being done and should be back to blogging soon. for now, i will add a "hinckley brag" that i forgot about it. i noticed the day after the last post that i never mentioned my amazingly talented sister-in-law, annie, who takes the most amazing pictures of my kids. when pat and i went to hear her husband sing in december, she watched our kids. we came back to happy kids and this amazing picture of fritz.

hope you haven't forgotten about this equally amazing photo shoot of my girls.

since all the other hinckleys got more than a month of being the main post on my blog, i'll let annie stay here a few days while i finish my projects. be back soon. (and i'll try and catch up and read all your posts soon. oh, and susan, i'm about halfway through twin peaks.)