Whoops

Sometimes your 5-year-old accidentally knocks your bathroom trash into the bathtub. But, because you are already running late to her dance class due to her "idon'twanttowearTHATleotard" meltdown, you leave the mess there to clean up later and you rush out the door.

Then, sometimes, you forget all about the garbage in the tub, and your husband finds it when he goes upstairs to give your two-year-old a bath that night. And sometimes your husband doesn't want to be your friend right at that moment, not only because of the trash, but also because you got your two-year-old undressed prematurely and he pees on the bathroom floor while your husband is cleaning up the giant load of trash out of the tub.

But sometimes your husband forgives you because you are feeling miserable form a random stomach bug that has left you helpless and stranded on the couch. And, just for good measure, he switches the laundry for you, too. 

And sometimes you remember that family life is two parts bliss and butterflies, and eight parts giant messes, vomiting, tantrums, grouchiness, and just plain old-fashioned making it until bedtime.

And sometimes, that's okay.

Smarty Pants

Julia recently applied to be a member of the National Elementary Honor Society. She came home super excited and told me that she had started loving school (that afternoon, after she received her application, that is).

Some highlights of the rough draft of her application essay included:

"I wish to join the National Elementary Honor Society because I am smart..."

"...most of the time I like to learn"

"I help others and include others (usually)"

and, my personal favorite,

"If I get in NEHS it will look good on my college application which will get me into a good college which will get me a good job to give me good money so I can use some of my leftover money to donate to schools like Mabel Padgett."

Yep. She's a schemer just like her dad.

{I love my little studious girl.}

Don't worry, we toned the essay down just a little bit for her final draft and tried not to bribe the review board with promises of future monetary donations.

Relishing Spring

While Spring is just getting started pretty much everywhere else in the country, I can feel in my bones that it's already winding down  here for us. Yep, sadly, pants are already getting to be a thing of the past. Time to start stocking up on flip flops, deodorant, and sunscreen, peeps.

In anticipation for our infamous bazillion-degree summers, we are trying to relish the few weeks we have left where it's actually nice to be outdoors. It's hot in the daytime, but the nights sure are beautiful. (In my estimation, heaven will be a perfect 75 degrees all the time.)

Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to start thinking about the yummy dinner that we'll be eating outside tonight. 

After I clean all the bubble solution off the table. 

And sweep up the bag of grout that Spencer spilled all over the back patio.

What To Do?

What to do with an adorable, energetic boy who, up until two weeks ago, slept until at least 8 in the morning and now (that he's climbing out of his crib like a serial escape artist) thinks he can start getting up at 6 am?

What to do with a bored baby who dumps out all of the Little People toys just so he can turn the bin upside down, push it to the counter, and climb into the sink to play with the water?

What to do with a stubborn kiddo who all but refuses to say "Mama" while Mama happens to be the one that deals with his exhausting antics all the livelong day?

What to do with a hungry monkey who only wants to eat fruit snacks, crackers, and Pirate's Booty from morning til night because he is too busy to sit still long enough for an actual meal?

What to do with a handsome hulk who man-handles the "childproof" locks open so he can get into the bathroom and eat toothpaste and/or use it for hair gel?

What to do with a silly boy who used to scream bloody murder because he couldn't play in the backyard, and yet, now that he can, doesn't want to?

What to do with a terrifying tornado who, while I am endeavoring to clean up Mess A, runs off to get started on Messes B, C, and D?

What to do with a clever toddler who stealthily pushes a chair over to the kitchen island (while I am writing this very post) so that he can take a sponge bath in the bowl of sugar that I innocently left there?

Seriously, guys...what on earth am I supposed to do with this kid all day?

I sure love him. I really do. But I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing.

Boring, But Important

With the pool done, it's hard for me to get terribly excited about phase two (er, phase 89,000) of the backyard, which involves (Craig) putting up a ledger-board (whatever that is) and (Craig and friends) assembling and installing our patio cover. I will be thankful for this when it's done, I'm certain, especially because it's getting pretty hot already and the shade will be wonderful, but for now I am still trying to fully recover from having an absentee husband for two full straight weeks last month.

(And the fact that there are gigantic holes cut into the back of the house doesn't help my excitement either, that's for sure.)

                                     {early Feb 2015}                                                                                {late Mar 2015}

 But alas, this kind of crazy, overwhelming project-doing somehow makes Craig happy, and the finished product will make me happy, so for now I'll deal with fact that I'll only be seeing Craig at dinner for the next couple of weeks, and I'll just wave to him from the back window every now and again and remind him how much he loves me.

January Dreaming

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm really not sitting around and pining for January (that month is much too close to the chaos of Christmas for that), but I am indeed thinking fondly of the rare time with family that we got to spend in Cedar City for the last part of the girls' winter break this year. (Which, per usual, I haven't documented yet.) 

Craig stayed home and Laura and my mom came on the adventure to keep me company in the car ad to help with The Crazies, otherwise known as My Beautiful Children. Bless their hearts for helping; I doubt I would have made it in one piece without them. (And the kids definitely wouldn't have made it in one piece without them.)

Basically I just stayed inside the whole time I was there because it was FREEZING. Literally. (And yes, the cold does indeed bother me.) I think we might have left the house once to pick up pizza and go to Downeast, but seriously, other than that, I pretty much stayed in my slippers and scoffed at the ridiculously ever-plummeting temperatures for the length of my stay. (Oh, and I opened the back door once or twice to snap some pictures.) The girls ventured outside once to play in the snow, but they were back in less than 20 minutes and never asked to go outside again. (What can I say? We are inside people.) I did go back outside on the day we left out of necessity so I could pack the car. I wanted to cry, it was so cold, but then I just would have had a bunch of tiny ice cubes running down my cheeks, and that would have made it worse.

Here are a few highlights:

Snow sighting, from the comfort of the warm kitchen

He sure wanted to get out there.

Here's Lincoln sleep-eating whilst snuggled up with Cyn.

The fact that he was totally asleep had no bearing 

whatsoever on his ability to keep eating popcorn.

Funniest thing I've ever seen.

Aunt Laura cuddles 

f-f-f-freezing!

Julia's snow baby

Mommy's snow baby

Snow Bunny

Fan and Zac, who I love. And who I only ever take pictures of

when it's my last day seeing them, and they are still in their jammies.

Sorry, guys.

Best Cousins

Favorite Fan

Still beautiful with bed hair

 

my cuties

Love this. It's the best when they remember that they're friends. 

saw some beautiful sights almost the whole way home. but that doesn't 

mean I was a bit sad to turn my back on twenty-something degrees.

I do miss my peeps, though! 

Beautiful Life

I recently heard someone say something that truly resonated with me:

Since life is a composite of so many hard, or awkward, or just plain miserable moments, sometimes it's much too easy to forget what a glorious and wonderful time it is meant to be for us. 

No, every moment may not be lovely, but that doesn't mean that our lives can't be. And truly, the more our moments of happiness and calm are surrounded by moments of stress and chaos, the greater the contrast, and the more we will appreciate them when they come.

Because recognizing those often sparse islands of beauty and peace and seeing them for what they really are--tiny morsels of hope and love to keep us moving forward--is really all we need to realize and remember just how beautiful our lives really are.

Pre-Season

 No, it's really not warm enough to swim yet. 

But you better believe they're still doing it.

Fashion Sense

"Why yes, of course I'll tell you where I bought my fabulous boots!

I was just about to hop on this scooter and go buy another pair..."

Lightening the Load (One Party at a Time)

 Sometimes (well, okay, every week) the clean laundry pile starts looking like this (plus one more basket that didn't fit in the picture, plus probably another load in the dryer):

Needless to say, it starts feeling pretty overwhelming, pretty fast.

When that happens, sometimes you have to do this:

It's called having a Laundry-Folding Party.

It involves dumping out laundry baskets, cranking up some music, dancing a little, sorting and folding a lot, and somehow convincing your spouse and children that they will have fun because the word "party" is included.

Given the right music, the right attitude, and the right dance moves, they actually just might really have fun. And, with any luck, the party wraps up by 8:00 pm and you don't have to spend the rest of the night drowning in other people's (clean) underwear.

Now that's a reason to celebrate if I've ever seen one.

And...DONE!

When Craig told me (at the beginning of February) that he wanted to try to get the backyard done in time for his Dad's memorial (which was on the 20th), I did what I usually do when he says that he wants to do something completely unreasonable: I said, "Okay, sure honey," while secretly figuring that there was absolutely no way it would happen. And Craig, in characteristic fashion after telling me that he wants to do something completely unreasonable, worked his tail off night and day finishing up trenches, wiring, conduit, and block walls, not to mention coordinating contractors, getting last-minute quotes, and setting up installation appointments just so he could prove me totally wrong.

In the span of fifteen days, after the backyard had loomed behind us for months largely ignored and sorely tolerated (by me, anyway), the tile was finally ordered, delivered, and put down, the pool fence was put up, the planter boxes were completed, fake grass was measured and installed, and the patio furniture that had been sitting in our house since last summer was finally assembled and taken outside (thanks to some very good and awesome friends of Linda's). The pool itself was literally finished on the very day of the memorial, with the contractors turning on the hose to fill it right before we left the house for the cemetery.

There are still some things to do in other parts of the backyard, but this was the BIG one, and I have to say that it never ceases to amaze me how quickly Craig can get something done once he decides that he's going to do it. (Once HE decides, mind you.)

And guess what? I am not dreading summer nearly as much as usual this year, 

(Remember that kidney-bean shaped hole in the ground that used to look this this?)

(Well now it looks like this!!)

(But first it looked like this...)

(Which means that, for a few hours at least, the kids looked like this.)

Okay, now who's coming over??

Clinging to Spring

Phoenix may not do Spring for long, but she sure does it beautifully.

(Please, please please stay forever, Spring, and don't let the summer 

come and crush our fragile spirits for 6 long months...)