Friday, September 28, 2012

weekend plans



It's Friday!
It's been a busy morning, I folded what felt like seventy-eleven loads of laundry, vacuumed, dusted and did some dishes.
My hope is that after we have ShareFest {local churches helping spruce up our local schools} tomorrow I will be able to veg since I got so much done today.
Hopefully it will work out like that.
Hopefully.

K is home sick today, he hasn't been feeling well most of the week.
He went to the dr this morning, hopefully he will be feeling well soon.

My niece's birthday party is on Sunday, how she is almost 3 is beyond my understanding.

The Color Run is next weekend.
Next weekend, y'all!
I'm excited.
It was so fun earlier this summer that I am sure when it isn't one billion degrees outside it will be even more fun.

What are your plans my lovelies?






Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Sleep is for the birds



This precious little muffin that melts my heart like butter has been a bit of a trial lately.
Homegirl has decided that sleep is highly overrated and has gone on strike.
Her strike causes me to look like this:


I'm tired.
I've also been having some insomnia lately.
Tired.
Thank goodness for naps.

It has led to a dry spell in my writing and for that I apologize.

I have been praying more lately and during the spell of extreme tiredness it is a calming, soothing balm.
For that I am extremely grateful.

I know Abby's no sleep strike will end, I know it's a phase and it will eventually be replaced by another phase.
{I'm praying and hopeful that it will be a fun one this next time, a girl can dream, right?}

How are you doing my lovelies?
Any prayer requests?

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Yesterday, finally tackling a 10 year project

Yesterday I woke up ready to tackle the house.
Sure it was "clean" but I had been a bit {read "a lot"} lax on being intentional.
Bare minimum was the rule of the game and I was out to win.
Luckily for me, my kids are a big fan of the easiest cleaning ever, ha.

Yesterday though felt like a day to tackle it.
and tackle I did.
The final remnants of summer are gone.
The swimming bag is packed away as are the pool toys.
The swimsuits are going on their vacation to the bottom of a dresser drawer.

All of the little projects that I had been putting off and turning a blind eye to were finally tackled.
willingly on my part even.

But then, oh then, I got a cr-a-zy idea in m.y head.

What if I finally finished the kitchen!?!

You see, I've loathed the kitchen in this house from the moment I first saw it.
It always seemed like such a big project that I shied away from it.

Yesterday though, I started the final process.

Paint.

I will take pictures later.
It's a gorgeous icy blue, almost a white.
Gorgeous and a million times better than the horrendous off-white flower wallpaper.

Yay for an end to a decade long procrastination.

Have you ever resisted a project for a long time?

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

I think I'm big enough to do my own dental floss



1. I've had a headache most of the day, it leads me to being pretty unproductive. Scratch that, SUPER unproductive.

2. A certain someone who will not be named and no it's not K broke the screen on my iPhone. That's awesome, not.

3. I'm making lasagna for dinner tonight, I can smell it cooking right now and it smells delicious. I love  making things from scratch.

4. I made a quiche over the weekend. I made one and then froze another. I've been obsessing about eating it. So delicious.

4. I'm feeling discouraged with working out lately. I just don't want to do it but am trying to push through.

5. Abby just walked up to me and said, Um, Mommy, I need dental floss. I got it from your purse. I think I'm a big enough girl that I can do it myself. Homegirl's head was all tilted to the side with super big eyes and a matter-of-fact voice. Holy smokes she's a riot.

6. I'm hungry for the lasagna, please excuse my growling stomach.

7. I'm obsessed with ricotta cheese.

8. Ainsley is obsessed with Pocahontas and John Smith.

9. Adison is obsessed with origami.

10. We are reading Ephesians in small group/church, it's one of my favorite books of the Bible.

11. I'm getting super excited for The Color Run. It'll be here in about 3 weeks.

12. Have I mentioned that we are coming up on Birthday Season in our house? Adison will be 10, Ainsley will be 5 and Abby will be 3. Holy smokes.

13. Have I mentioned how ready I am for the lasagna to be done? Because I totally am.

14. Abby has 10,001 different facial expression, they provide hours of entertainment. Days of entertainment if you include the different voices she uses while making said faces.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Chalboard Cabinet Happiness



This is the reason that I wanted to paint our kitchen cabinets with chalkboard paint.
So I could see the creations of my kiddos.

They each have such creativity and imaginations, it astounds me.

Adison: the picture above is hers. She started drawing a few circles, maybe five or six then it became a radio tower and out of nowhere this rainbow spectacular emerged. I love it. I love watching her draw, it's almost as if she sees something that the rest of us just can't. Her art astounds me.

Ainsley: she likes to draw people. She likes to make up stories about them. She is very detailed, making sure that their clothes are just right. She likes to talk to you about what she's drawing while she drawing it. I love her stories, one of my favorites was one she drew of K and I. I was a princess with long hair like Rapunzel and K was a prince that came to rescue me. Oh my girly girl.

Abby: she is the most precise artist, she reminds me so much of my brother {he's an AMAZING artist}. His drawings are very detailed, made with small pen strokes. Abby's are as well. She will spend a long time on her drawings and will tell me about them when she is done. Then she'll ask, Do you see it? Yes baby, I do.

Thursday, September 13, 2012

A rock up her nose



Yesterday afternoon we met up with some friends at the park.
Adison has been begging to go but it's been hot, not park weather at all.
The weather was nice and the kids were thrilled to be outside and play with their friends.
I was happy for the same reasons only switch playing with chatting.

Abby was playing on swinging on one of the bars and I had just commented to my friend Jennifer on how impressive Abby's swinging was.

You know what's coming, right?

Abby face planted into the pebbles.
Instantly screaming, freaking out.
I run over there to get her.
Blood in her mouth, on her lips, on her knee and some coming out of her nose.

Lots o' blood.
and snot.

I saw something in her left nostril and went to get it out, right then Abby inhaled really strongly through her nose.
I knew it, she sucked a rock INTO her nose.

Jennifer handed me a kleenex and I attempt to wipe her up.
She then offered to hold Abby so I could look up her nose, yep there's a rock up there.
She told me about a trick the pediatrician taught her about plugging the nostril without anything in it and blowing into their mouth and whatever is stuck in the other nostril should just come out.

First attempt, nada.
Other than my cheek covered in snot.
awesome.
Second attempt, I blow and feel a gob of snot land on my cheek.
Ugh, I thought, it's still not out.
Wrong, it came out with a big glob of snot and landed on my cheek.
Sweet relief at knowing it was out.

She was so happy to get it out of her nose, can't you tell???


Prayer request:
My Dad is having back surgery tomorrow, would you please pray for him?
Thanks lovelies!

Thursday, September 6, 2012

water + iPhone = ____________

I've been learning some life lessons lately, the most vivid is this: migraine + Pilates = puke, that was a very memorable lesson.

Yesterday, I learned another important one: water + iPhone = __________

It started out innocently enough.
I had a dentist appointment yesterday so I didn't make it to the gym as early as usual meaning that I had a shorter workout time.
No biggie.
But then, my genius self decided that I should mow the lawn, because, hello it looks like we have one of those wildflower and grass preserves growing in our front lawn.
It was bad folks, I'm embarrassed to admit.
In our defense it has been approximately 29485763 degrees with an abominably high amount of humidity as well.

I psyched myself up to mow the lawn only to remember that we were out of gas, sadface.
But then {of course there's a "but then" because hello, we've met and you know me} I decided to just use the rotary lawn mower a la 1900's.
source

Holy smokes, it was so freakin' hard and hot and miserable and I swear I was going to puke or pass out which would have been awesome in a not sort of way.

People were driving by giving me the weirdest looks and I swear a car or two drove around the block again just to watch me sweating up a storm.

It was miserable, I swear I haven't been that hot and sweaty since The Color Run, I had to all but pry my sweaty clothes off of me with a spatula.
Ew. Just ew.
I even disgusted myself, it was that bad.

I finally finished and was proud of my vastly improved lawn able to overlook the random long blades of grass that refused to submit to the mower's blades and the strength of my will.

Bathing was a necessity, ASAP.

I was texting K as he was due to come home for lunch and set my phone on the edge of tub when Lee walks in and needed some help.

I literally got as far as saying, Be careful of my phone, I don't want it to...

**SPLASH**

My phone slipped into the water and my heart slipped up my throat.
It was completely submerged, just hanging out on the bottom of the tub for the 2.3 seconds it took me to scoop it out.

I finished quickly, telling Ainsley that it wasn't her fault and that I wasn't mad, she merrily went on her way.
I don't think I have ever washed my hair that quickly before, ever.

I grabbed a bowl, dumped some uncooked rice into it and per K's instructions {he had just walked in the door} turned it off and buried it in the rice.

Oh. no.

Needless to say, the wait until I turned it on this morning was a bit tense.

It's a bit wonky, but slowly getting back some of it's pep, I have strong hopes for a full recovery.
Thank goodness.

Consider this another lesson learned you guys, never ever ever put your phone by the side of the tub and don't try to do Pilates if you have a migraine, neither one end all that pretty.








Tuesday, September 4, 2012




 I struggle with no.
I'm a yes person, you know, unless you are one of my children.
Then no is a word that you are really used to.

The song in the clip above it from They Might Be Giants, they rock.
Their song, No, is one that I frequently reference with my kids.
No means no, no is always no

Get it, got it, good.

Although this is apparently disproved by Ainsley's latest trick, If you let me do it once that I will stop asking you {insert precious smiling face like one of these, I couldn't pick just one, because holy smokes my child is gorgeous and yes, I know I'm totally biased.}

Ha ha, yeah right kid, not so much, but thanks for trying and for batting those pretty blue eyes at me and for flashing me that scrumptious smile of yours.




Sorry, I totally got off on another tangent.
Shiny objects, I blame them.
Or in this case, pretty objects.

Back at it.
I'm trying to say no right now.
Like really really really trying.

Here's the annoying thing about me, not only do I have the hardest time saying no but I then feel the need to justify and explain why I'm saying no.
The guilt of no starts eating away at me.

No, in my mind, is not sufficient enough.

Sure, I'll sign up to be on your committee that will suck 1,000,000 hours of my life that I don't have to devote to ANYTHING else because I have already signed on to do x, y, and z as well as some of the Greek alphabet because stopping at z just wasn't enough.

Yes, I'm being slightly really dramatic, but I do it to point out my annoyance at myself.
I have enough on my plate right now.
Enough that makes me feel I can handle it but anything else could be enough to make me feel slightly loony.

This came to a head tonight as I was at two different events where they had the committee sign up sheets out and people were encouraged to sign up.
No pressure from anyone else, just me pressuring myself.

I have enough committees, activities, commitments and whatever else on my plate.
I just can't sign on for anything else unless it's really important, you know like family.

Family, you get the official Gold Star Card, you're exempt.
I give you my time out of love, not pressure or guilt or anything else.
For you {and friends} I give you that because I want to.
Again, get it, got it, good.

Let me just say that this in no way points the blame at anyone else, just me.

Goal: Learn to say no and let no be enough. There is no need to justify saying no, just no.

Anyone else struggle with this, how do you handle it?

Monday, September 3, 2012

m-o-n-d-a-y




we took the girls out for donuts Friday night and they had these tiny picnic tables lined up, they were darling
m- many naps were taken this weekend and hopefully another one today ::yawn:: I have been so incredibly tired.

o- overwhelmingly blessed with friends. We went to a bbq at some friends house on Saturday, saw friends at church Saturday evening and hung out with some more friends last night. Friends rock.

n- NCIS watching with my oldest (only the non-scary/gory ones) who want to be an NCIS agent when she grows up. For real.

d- dancing beauties, my girls twirl and whirl with skirts shaped liked bells while giggling, squeals of delight

a- a labor day spent doing zero labor

y- ::yawn:: again. I'm considering spending this afternoon resting and watching some P&P, Lizzy and Darcy, what a lovely story.