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Category: Family, Parenting

What’s Essential? Nordic Naturals Wants to Know

On ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.
One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.

-Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

What is essential to your life?

Beyond the obvious: food, shelter, air to breathe. Companionship. What could you not go without?

For me, it is the quiet moments with my kids, especially out in nature and in our home. Places that nourish and join our spirits beyond our blood ties.

These are the times that they will carry within them forever. They will remember the silly, loud, boisterous times too, to be sure. But when one day I am gone, it will be the times that they are quiet and the voices inside them are still, that they will feel how I am forever a part of them.

I know this because I experience it. I sit in an open field or an empty room and I remember what it felt like to have my father sitting next to me, reading or just being, silent but there. Comforting.

In a rushing, busy, saturated world, I think silence is the most essential gift we can give to our children. Not all the time. Treasured sometimes.

I treasure the time we spend sitting at the creek or lying down in the yard or lolling about on a Sunday afternoon, doing absolutely nothing.

I treasure the moments I spend standing at their doors, after pulling their blankets up to keep them warm, one last time before I go to bed.

I treasure the fact that they leave silly pictures of themselves on my phone, knowing full well I’m going to post them on the internet.

I treasure and document these moments, knowing they are fleeting. They grow up faster every day.

These are the times that my heart shouts out, you are mine. You are wonderful. You are beautiful. You are safe. You are loved.

I say it silently, into the stillness, and yet I know they hear me.

That which is essential is invisible to the eye.

That which is said silently is heard by the heart.

This post was inspired by my entry into the Nordic Naturals® What’s Essential™ Contest (as always, brevity is not my strong point).

Let Nordic Naturals® know what’s essential to you in 200 words or less: One Grand Prize Winner will receive a trip for two to Santa Cruz CA, including airfare, car rental, hotel, spending money, Nordic Naturals award winning omegas and more. Six Second Prize winners will receive a Canon® Vixia HF M400 camcorder and a one-year supply of Nordic Naturals award winning omegas. Twelve Third Prize winners will receive a one-year supply of Nordic Naturals award winning omegas.*

To enter, submit your What’s Essential story and accompanying image on Facebook or on whatsessential.com. Good luck!

February 8, 2012
Saint Bernard Puppy Update

Saint Bernard puppy

surprised by her first snowfall

camera? inside.

Yeah, I wrote you puppy haiku.

Late last Friday night was Karma’s first snow. If you weren’t outside that night, it was that really cold snow where each fallen snowflake is perfect and whole; so crystallized that you could hear the snowflakes colliding with each other and crashing to the ground. Karma was afraid to come outside at first and then spent ten minutes snapping ineffectually at the swirling air. I hadn’t realized it was snowing before I opened the door to let her out, so no camera on hand. It’s a real bummer. I wish you could have been there.

Anyway, I’ve had a number of people asking for more Saint Bernard Puppy updates 🙂

Thankfully, Karma eventually overcame her urinary tract infection. Housebreaking was successful, and she now sleeps for six hours straight without wetting anything. THANK EVERYTHING THAT IS HOLY.

In related news, Jeff tore the carpet out of half the house.

Karma is so very cute and sweet, but she’s mischievous as all get-out too. She is very routine-oriented; if I try to hit the snooze button on my alarm she yanks the covers off the bed. And she has decided that once the kids go to sleep, it’s Mommy and Puppy Playtime, which is immensely frustrating when I’m trying to get something done so I can get to bed at a decent hour. But I hate to tell her no.

The nice thing about Saint Bernards is that their disposition mellows in proportion to their size. If this dog was this big and still nipping and raising Cain I don’t know what I’d do. Our Zooey (black lab) was a hellion until he was at least five, and up to no good until the day he died.

Karma loves Cassidy with an intensity that is almost frightening. Jake comes home an hour before Mav and Cass do, and she is generally pleased to see him, sitting up to watch him come down the hill and wagging her tail. But when she hears the brakes of that later bus, boy howdy, she is up, she is ready, she is coiled and throws herself at the door, hurtling up to give Cass hugs and kisses.

Which is quite a spectacle when the dog is as big as the girl.

You see. Remember the little puppy?

That’s her at the vet last week. She weighed in at 80 pounds.

“Oh, Robin,” I can hear you sighing. (I can hear it very clearly, which is odd because no one ever actually calls me by name. Even Siri on my iPhone calls me Honey Badger Mom.) “That picture doesn’t give me any perspective on how big she is.”

Perspective? You want perspective?

OK. Jeez, all you had to do was ask.

Well, here she was as a puppy with Jimmy, aka The Dogness. (I’ve decided Karma is the Duchess of Dog, if anyone needs to update their spreadsheets.)

And here they are now.

Here she is with Cassie and Jake at 7 weeks–

And with Cass now at 7 months.

She’s a big girl.

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Hey, this blog’s going to the dogs!

I’ve got a few more pup-related posts to close out this week, including a giveaway.

So y’all come on back now, you hear?

January 26, 2012
Mr. T Riding a Unicorn

If you can’t see it, it says:

“If I get any wrong, perhaps this picture of Mr. T riding a unicorn will make up for it. Have a nice day!”

Seriously, what am I supposed to do with this kid?

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January 11, 2012