I Got Curtains!

It's hard to tell with the sunshine, but they are so totally awesome. They are olive green and wrinkly pattern. They are also grommet topped which are sweet.
Covering the massive window that leads out to our deck. It almost looks like a movie screen, and I love how much privacy we now have.

Don't you love them too?

Just For Fun

We write numbers.

We play dinosaur.

Rawr.

What Exactly, Do I Do All Day?

To those not in the know, staying at home and being 'just a mom' is more than a full time job. I get very upset when working parents act like I'm not doing much but watching Oprah and the View and not much else. I often hear, "You try doing what I do...blah de blah de blah".

How about YOU try doing what I do? Not that I'm playing tit for tat, but here's what my job consisted of doing yesterday...and I'm not even going to get a stimulus bonus to prove that it was worthwhile.

All Before I took Jack to school at 12:30 I had:

*Fed 3 kids breakfast.
*Gotten 3 kids ready for the day, dressed, teeth brushed, etc.
*done 3 loads of laundry (washed, dried, put away)
*taken Nate to preschool
*Sat in on an impromptu preschool meeting
*swum exactly 1 mile
*picked Nate up from school
*taken Nate to speech therapy
*fed Jack and Maddie lunch
*picked Nate up from speech therapy
*taken Jack to school.

My afternoon then consisted of:
*Feeding Nate lunch
*reading pre-naptime stories
*put kids in bed for nap
*clean kitchen
*eat lunch (read also, first meal of the day at 2 p.m. because that's when I had time).
*start crock-pot chicken for dinner
*deal with bout of stomach flu
*sweep floors
*More stomach flu
*wash windows
*More stomach flu
*wake up Nate and Maddie in order to get Jack from school
*Pick up Jack and market day order simultaneously
*More stomach flu
*change Nate's sheets, since he wet the bed during Nap
*feed children dinner while silently begging God for John to get home so I can lie down
*Weigh myself on the Wii-which incidentally thinks I need to lose another SEVEN POUNDS!!!
*dress kids after bath
*Read to Maddie
*Read to Jack
*CRASH!!!!


Somewhere in all this autopilot running, I'm educating my children, instilling morals, teaching them respect, and dealing with school papers, homework, gathering things to get into backpacks, etc. etc. I'm glad I'm at home raising my own kids. Nobody can take any credit for how awesome they are, but it gets tiring. And maybe it's the fact that I am not feeling the greatest, but I am tired. And I'm VERY tired of people thinking that because I'm home I'm not working. Because when I used to work Saturdays, that was the easiest day of my week. I took care of myself, got myself out the door, listened to my music on the car ride in, and crazy of all craziness, I was able to form a coherent thought in my head without someone needing, demanding, needing, wanting, demanding, needing.

I suppose I could prioritze and not do some of the things I'm doing, but what EXACTLY should I cut out?

Speech therapy is 3 days a week, and very necessary.
School is NOT OPTIONAL, so 2 mornings and 5 afternoons a week I am shuttling the kids there and back.
Exercise for me is also NOT OPTIONAL. I don't think it's too unfair for me to be physcially fit and mentally stable, and exercise helps with both.

Anything else we do for fun I almost feel obligated to do, because we are always running to the have-to's, like speech and school. The boys have asked to play soccer and t-ball. I can't really say no since they will learn a lot, skills, teamwork, etc. And that hasn't even started yet.....

And really, what would/should I change about all this.

Probably not a darned thing. I think for the most part I'm an a-okay mom. Maybe not the coolest mom (reading these Star Wars books to Jack at night is like reading Russian, I just don't get it), but the kids are thriving.

Right?

In The Tub

Conversation replay, with all 3 kiddos in my fun tub.....

Nate: Mom! Madilynn is a girl. She has a JINIS! (He likes to remind us randomly, every so often).

Me: Yes, she is.

Nate: I not have jinis. I a boy. Boys have PENIS.

Me: Yes.

Jack: Well, Nate, the hard part is trying to figure out girls. They have 2 holes. Which one is for poop? Which one is the pee hole?

Nate: I don know.

Me thinking: Cripes, how did I get here? "Hey guys, look at mermaid Barbie swimming!"

Ever see those Johnson and Johnson commercials "Having a baby changes everything". Yes, yes it does. Like, your vocabulary (jinis), your ability to lie (Santa et al), and your ability to think on the fly (see above.) Their health teachers are gonna love me in 5th grade.

That's all I know.

And You Thought Facebook Was Addicting?

Thanks Keri for showing me the way....

http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/

It's a Cinderella Story

I cannot think of a better way to spend Valentine's Day than with my niece Brooke and Maddie at the Princess party at Brooke's church. The girls both HAD to be Cinderella. They did crafts, and got their hair, make-up and nails done. We also had lunch, and the 'real' princess read a story. Too too cute.

This says it all, no?

All the Princesses, big and small.

Checking out the results.

Hair-do, it also came complete with a little hair bling.

Brooke's turn.

Pretty Nails.

Checking on Maddie. They had to always be aware of what the other girl was doing. They are really funny together.





Not liking the nail drying spray.

Getting pretty puple polish.

No, it's not Angela from "The Office", but the "real" princess. Maddie was a bit hesitant, I think she was expecting someone a little more grand, the real Cinderella perhaps?

Make-up.

Not a fan of the glitter application after the make-up.

Lipstick, and lovely.

Look at all that make-up. What a pretty girl!

What a GREAT way to show someone you love them! We had a lot of fun. Can't wait til next year!

Stupid Broken Foot

Pay no attention to the fact that I'm in DIRE need of a pedicure....

Yesterday my foot hurt like hell. It didn't stop me from working out, though I kept it easy on the elliptical. I found it odd when my foot would go numb, and then my knees hurt. I knew I'd see Andrea the Super PT from work today when I took Nate in for speech and she confirmed my foot is in fact, broken, right between where my 2nd and 3rd toe are (and the tape crosses in the middle).

She said I could have done anything to get the stress fracture...even stepping down a stair the wrong way, since I sincerely CANNOT recall what I've done in the past 2 days that would have broken my foot. Fantastic.

So, she kinesiotaped it for me, and with some tylenol to boot it already feels a bit better. She told me she saved me a lot of money in a useless x-ray and a dr. bill that would amount to a dr. doing nothing for me, except maybe pointing me in the direction of a physical therapist. Yay!

The good news is there is no restrictions on my activites, which means I can still run, but I need to ice my foot when I'm done and/or at the end of every day. I can handle that...I can handle anything for 6 weeks, right?

Almost Like Spring

The weather has been fabulous the past few days, so we've been outside playing, and I've been tinkering with my rocking camera. Check out some of the delights caught on virtual film.

Yes, that is Nate riding his motorcycle into a snowbank. At least he has his helmet on.
Here is Nate doing something he shouldn't be doing, because although I was standing there watching, I never gave him permission to cross.

And then he got stuck. Serves him right for not listening to his mother, who by the way just kept taking photos instead of offering to help.

She LOVES her scooter. She LOVES wearing her helmet. She LOVES pink and purple!

With the helmet on she looks less Fraggle like. She actually enjoys posing for me!

Nate VS. Snow.

As you can see, Nate lost. Even the Dr. last week at a sick appt. I had for Jack had to ask what happened. He totally understood when I said, "Well, Nate decided to battle the snow mountain by sledding into the cul-de-sac (ie: street, ie: PAVEMENT). Nate lost."

Road rash. How sweet is this?

Happy nonetheless.

Out of Context

Taken out of context, Nate yelling : "YES! I have a big rocket" is hilarious. Add in he was talking about his Mario Kart vehicle...still funny.

Jack is proof to me that there is a God in heaven who believes in Karma-he's like me reincarnate. Nate is proof there is a God who has a sense of humor. Wallpaper in general is proof of Satan's mission to destroy the world, one overly flowery bathroom at a time.

To end the weekend, I'll prove my point on Nate with a chuckle. Fridays are my worknights. It is also a sacred pizza, Batman/Starwars, and popcorn night with Daddy. Nate was on punishment this week, so in order to earn it all, John made him clean up. "Stop making messes Nate" is a drone heard at any given time in the house. He's a dumper, always has been.

So now, daddy is pounding into his head that if you make a mess you must clean it up. Yesterday, Nate was bored.

N-"Wish I could play toys."
Daddy-"So go play toys".
N-"Well, why don't you take them out."
D-"Why would I do that?"
N-"Then you cwean up the mess!".

Hmmmm ....pretty smart thinking for a three year old my sister says. Me, I'm not so impressed. Nate's path always lies in the direction of least possible effort required from him, so this just made sense.

And God is sitting up there laughing.

Bodies

Thursday I was wandering the grocery store aimlessly, seeing as I didn't have any kids with me, and found myself in the magazine aisle. There was an article in one of the exercise mags..."New Workout for EVERY body shape!!!"

Great, I thought. I could use some new ideas. And so, I turned to the article. Incidentally (and ironically) body shapes are described in terms of food...fruits to be exact. For example:

If you are a banana, your body looks like this:

Long and lean, thin, but with no muscle mass. Doesn't really describe me. I'm tall, but I have muscle. I'm not mushy, except in my front butt, which will never go away, thanks to babies.

Moving on, if you are a pear shaped person, you look like this:

Apparently, if you are a pear, you have a small head and a big ga-dunka dunk

Now, if you are apple-icious, you look like this:

You have no body shape whatsoever. Apparently you look like a blood filled tick with little arms and legs sticking out of your overly round body.

I am not a banana, I am definitely not a pear, since I don't have hips or a booty to speak of, and I'm certainly not an apple. So, what kind of food best describes me? What food do YOU look like. I'd love to hear it.

Maybe, I'm like an ear of corn, and the little nib lets represent my muscles, the protective husk masking my true inner sweet goodness....Maybe I'm a peanut, body weight distributed equally, but that would imply a tiny waist which I don't have...

Sigh...I guess I'll have to think on it for a while.

Welcome Lucy!

My cousin Carey had a baby girl last week on Groundhog's day (best thing to happen that day since the stupid rodent saw his shadow and predicted a looooonger winter).

Welcome Lucy Flora, 8 + healthy pounds and a truly pretty baby. I'd post photos to share, but I have a rule that unless I have explicit parental okay, I don't put anyone elses kids on the net.

Just take it from me, she's adorable...and surprisingly enough I can see her grandma in her!

Congrats Grandma Eileen and Grandpa Bob!