Alive

We're alive.  We're well.  We're busy!!

I have something going on every day this week.  I have piles of things I need to tackle.  I have a list

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to get through.  It's never ending.  Today I ignored the list for a bit and watched Lost on Netflix.  I gave my self a break today as I woke up at 4:20am this morning to take Jim to the airport.  I didn't get to bed until after midnight last night.  Four hours isn't a lot of sleep -- enough for some, not for me.  Anyways, I was tired and wanted to ignore my list, so I took a break and got my Lost on.  I never watched it when it was actually on the air, I'm enjoying it now.  Maybe I enjoyed it too much today, because as I look around at my house, those piles are stacking up.  I'm feeling a little overwhelmed.  I have things I need to do and things I want to do.  I'm having a hard time picking which to do first. 

We upped Tralee's speech therapy to twice a week.  Fingers crossed that this will get us through the S and Th sounds (she's been stuck on those for a while now) so we can start working on V and R sounds.  Today was the first day we started going on Monday.  After speech the kids and I ran some errands, then I came home and instead of tackling my list, I watched Lost.  I don't really feel too bad about it.  Last week was just as busy as this week, and it was the first time I sat down in I don't know how long to just enjoy a show (usually a show is on and I'm folding laundry, doing the dishes while listening and sneaking peeks at the telly, ironing, sewing, or picking up toys.)  Today I just watched -- that's a lie.  I watched as I read through a stack of magazines that have been ignored under my coffee table for a few weeks.  Now that I'm caught up on my mags and snuck in some telly-time, it's back to business (well. . .after I finish this blog post it's back to business).

I have been trying really hard to spend some quality time with my munchkins latley.  I've been feeling like a slacker mom.  They've been fed, dressed, bathed, wiped, huged, and kissed, but I've been saying a lot of things like, "I'll play with you as soon as I'm done with __________."  Today I spent a little time playing pretend and reading library books with them.  I want a day I can dedicate to my babes.  I haven't had one of those in a while.  My munchkins and I need a fun day together.  

Tomorrow I'm having some women from church come over to work on some invitations for an up-coming event.  I need to pick up a bit.  The house was super clean and orderly just a few days ago for a doTERRA party I hosted, now it looks all sorts of messy again.  How does that happen so fast?!

The rest of the week will be spent teaching pre-school, driving to-and-from activities, and watching some kids for a family member for a few days.  My kiddies and I will be spending the night over there.   

I'm also trying to get everything in order for our up-coming trip.  Jim left for Maui, Hawaii today for a business trip.  The kids and I will be joining him in about a week (YIPPEE!).  I have a lot of pre-trip prep work to do.  I'm so busy I don't have time to get really excited about the trip yet.  It feels like I have a mountain of work to climb up before I can descend into paradise with my family.  Don't get me wrong, I'm excited about my first (EVER!!) trip to Hawaii, I'm just feeling a little like, "AHHHHHHHRRRRGGGG!" at the moment when I think of my to-do list.

Speaking of my super long list, I better stop typing, and start working.

Just thought I would give an up-date to those that check this blog a lot and worry if there are no updates  (you know who you are - loves and hugs to you from me!).

Alright.  I'm off to climb my mountain.  Wish me luck!

Put A Bird On It!

Have you ever watched Portlandia?  I have, and laughed right out loud several times -- that doesn't happen very often.  Anywho, there's one skit where they satirize the recent bird trend (watch it here if you want).   Birds are everywhere now-a-days, and I guess I've jumped on the bird bandwagon because I woke up one day with an image in my head of a piece of art I wanted for our house -- birds and all!!

Originally I was just going to paint on canvas, but the canvas I had in my stash had a rip on the side, so I had to come up with something else.  I remembered a blog tutorial I saw about modge-podging old book pages onto a canvas.  I can't remember where I saw it, or I would include a link.  Anyways, I put the book pages down, then painted, glazed, white-washed, and antiqued over the pages until I got the look I wanted.   Here's what the canvas looked like after that:

Then I painted on the birds (I put four birds on it!), our names, and used glue and red glitter for the hearts.  The finished project looks like this:

I'm planning on re-vamping this shelf area to make it look less cluttered and cleaner.  The painting will probably stay, but the rest will go.  I have another art project to complete to add to the shelf.  I might place one or two knick-knacky things up there as well, but the rest will go.  I don't have time to re-vamp right now, but I'm sure I will post a picture when it's done.  I mostly just wanted to share my completed painting -- Bryce Shivers and Lisa Eversman would be so proud!

Valentine's Day

I mentioned before that I'm not a huge Valentine's fan.  However, I AM a fan of surprising my children.  February 14th was the perfect excuse to sprinkle a few little surprises throughout their day.

In the morning each child found a little basket of Valentine's Day goodies waiting for them where their breakfast should be.  Nothing too spectacular.  A few treats, a few little toys, and a sandwich cutter (a dinosaur shaped one for Hunty, and a heart-shaped one for Stinks) which we used at lunch.

I made pink, heart-shaped, chocolate-chip pancakes for breakfast served with heart-shaped strawberries, and red applesauce.  They were only okay.  Kind of dry.  I don't think the kids cared though, so that's good.

During the day the doorbell rang, and left on the doorstep were some surprises from Grammy Char-Char (a little playmobil castle for Tralee, and a magnetic building set for Hunty).  They played with those for a bit, then we made sandwiches (peanut butter and honey for Hunty, and a cheese sandwich for Tralee) using their new cutters.

We also spent a good portion of our Valentine's day making Tralee's Valentines for her pre-school class the next day.  I found the idea in Family Fun magazine, and thought it was pretty cute.  We purchased a pack of animal figurines (found at any craft store), made a cute card themed for each animal, and used a hole-punch and twisty-ties to hold the animal to the card.  They turned out pretty cute, and Tralee and I had a lot of fun decorating them.

For dinner we bought a heart-shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, I made a spinach and strawberry salad, and we had a nice little dinner together.

Later at night I watched a friend's children for her so she and her hubby could have a Valentine's date (Jim was still out-of-town, so we had no hot V-day plans).  My friend watched Tralee and Hunter the the night Jim came home from his business trip.  It was the perfect trade-off, and I ate an uninterrupted(!!!!!!!!!) sushi dinner with my main squeeze the night after Valentine's Day.  It was so lovely!!  We also went out for ice cream.  YUM!

Tralee supervising the two-year-olds

They were pretty cute together.

See what I mean?

The day after Jim came home, he sent Stinks and I to a salon to get our nails done.  It was super fun.  Tralee had all the ladies giggling at her precociousness.  I love that little girl.  I also love my little boy.  I also love my hubby.  I'm lucky.  I guess Valentine's day isn't so bad after all. 

Olive Juice

Olive Juice or Olive You.  I couldn't decide which saying I wanted to use more.  I remember my friends dared me to mouth the words, "Olive juice" to my crush in eighth grade.  They said, "If he looks confused after you say it, just say to him, 'What? all I said was, 'Olive juice!''"  I never got up the courage to actually mouth to my crush, "Olive juice," until my crush became my husband.  Now we're always lipping to each other, "Olive juice," and "Olive you" like we have nothing better to do.  It's fun! 

This might make a cute Valentine's gift, or cute print to hang up for V-day!

This print and more available at my etsy shop.

Superbowl Sunday

Baking these football cookies with the kids was about the most football-ish activity we did all day (besides watching about five minutes of the actual game).

My Superbowl Sunday was pretty eventful!  I got a phone call early in morning from a friend/family member from Jim's side of the family letting me know her water broke.  I volunteered to be her go-to girl for when she went into labor, so I packed up my kids, some things I might need during the day, and  headed over to her house to spend the day with her daughters.  My kids thought this was the best thing EVER.  An ALL DAY PLAYDATE!  Score!

I spent Superbowl Sunday baking football shaped cookies with four little helpers, watching kids' shows, going for a walk (it was BEAUTIFUL outside), playing at a park, making an, "It's a Boy" banner with my helpers (glitter glue and kids ranging from ages 8 to 2 gets a little tricky), and playing hide-and-go-seek inside until it was bedtime.  Oh yeah, at one point I did turn on the Superbowl so I could at least say I watched (sorta).  When I tuned in it was close to half-time and the score was 15 to 17 (not sure which team was up).  When I talked to Jim after I got all the kids asleep (he's in Arizona at the moment) he told me it was a great game and that the team he was cheering for won.  Go GIANTS!  I'm the kinda girl who usually just watches for the commercials and the halftime show, and I'm not sad that I missed it.  I had a pretty great day hanging out with four cute munchkins.  See for yourself:

The icing on the cake was a cute new baby was born early the next morning, and the girls I watched got a brand new baby brother!  That also means Hunter will have a new friend to play with soon -- a friend that's actually a BOY!  Hooray!

Today

Today my house is a mess. It's been messy for a while.  I need to do some serious deep cleaning/organizing around here.  Once I get started, I know it'll feel great scrubbing, dusting, throwing stuff out, sanitizing, and organizing.  I struggle with the whole getting started thing.  Where to start?  How to start?  Sigh.  I just need to start.

Today Hunter had to go pee while we were at the grocery store checking out.   Then he had to pee at the library. . .twice!  There's no "holding it" for this kid, when he has to go, he HAS TO GO!  So, I ran him to the bathroom like a mad woman all three times, even when I was in the middle of checking out at the grocery store (sorry lady behind me, it was either take my two-year-old to the bathroom, or risk having him puddle up the floor where you were about to push your cart of groceries through).

Today I took the kids to the library.  The librarian told me I have a CD that's been overdue for a while now.  I'm 98% sure I returned it.  While talking with the librarian my sweet angels (said with just a shovel full of sarcasm) were running amok.  I tried to corral them, but off they ran like crazy people.  Whenever they came across someone new Hunter would yell, "HI!" at the top of his lungs until the person would acknowledge him in someway.  Once Hunter got a response, Tralee followed up with a complement.  I heard her say, "I like your mustache," "Your shirt is pretty," and "cool shoes!" among other random commendations.  While the librarian agreed to override the hold on my account, so I could check out some books, I glanced at my kids and saw Tralee striking up a conversation with yet another stranger, while Hunter swung from a hand rail nearby.  I watched as he swung too hard, lost his grip, and fell onto his back.  Tralee stopped chatting-up her latest stranger-of-choice, turned and yelled in my general direction, "Hunter's hurt!" as another lady, a lady who gave me a you-need-to-teach-your-kids-proper-library-decorum-stare two seconds earlier, helped Hunter up and dusted him off before I could make my way over.

Today I left the library balancing a handful of books in one arm, Hunter crying in the other with a big wet stain on the front of his pants from a semi-unsuccessful potty attempt, and Tralee trailing behind-- mad at me about something I can't remember.  I was cranky about how my kids behaved, I was ticked off I had a dirty house to return to, and I was about ready loose it when a man came up from behind me and said, "Good job, Mom!"  I turned, wondering if this compliment was legit, or even meant for me.  He must have seen the look of disbelief on my face, because he continued speaking while pointing to the 14ish children's books balanced on my arm, "You know, I just read a study that showed that kids whose parents are involved in their lives, you know, parents that read to them and take them to the library, those kids are interested in learning their whole lives.  So, good job, Mom!"  If my arms weren't full of a pee-stained-two-year-old and a week's worth of new reading material, I just might have hugged him.

Today I started out feeling like a failure in the homemaking/mothering department, but after that kind man's compliment, I felt uplifted.  Somebody noticed that I'm trying my best, even if my best is (most likely) someone else's mediocre.  I'm trying to do a "good job" at a job that gets the better of me nine times out of 10 -- this mothering stuff isn't easy.  I need to start celebrating the one thing I get right each day (today it was going to the library), pat myself on the back, and tell myself, "Good job, Mom!" Then I need to forgive myself for the other nine things that went haywire.  As long as I'm trying, I should celebrate the little victories and stop stressing over the messes and mishaps.  'Cause most likely, what went right today will probably go wrong tomorrow, and what I messed up today, I'll have a chance to make right with the new sunrise.  So, thank you stranger!  You probably don't realize what your "Good job, Mom" comment did for my whole day, but you turned it all around.

Today started off kind of crappy.

Today ended with me reading my kids their library books as they drifted off to sleep, while the words, "Good job, Mom!" repeated in my head.

Hot Off the Press!

I made this print today.  It's up at my shop.  I like it!  It think I might put it in my playroom.  It's a good reminder for my kids (or anyone I guess) that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to.  Ah. . .the things we learn from children's fiction!