living the GOOD life

Success

I have been been in a bit of a rut lately. A rut that has lasted a good part of the last six months or so. A rut that has left me questioning who I am, what I am doing and why I am doing it.

My day to day consists of diapers and cereal. Loads and loads and MORE loads of laundry. The vacuum makes an appearance at least once a day. I clean the same messes over and over. I budget and plan meals, pay bills, do yardwork and make doctors appointments.

But lately, it has seemed to be all about the housework. The never ending, daunting, make me want to kill myself housework. The pointless because it will just be messy again in a half hour housework!

And today it hit me.

I am not a maid! I am not a housekeeper!

First and foremost, I am a mother. 

And so my days should consist of stories and make believe. Parks, nature walks, play dates. Snuggling, and never ending squishes. (We call hugs squishes in our house, if you haven't caught on to that yet.) Art projects, play dough. Sitting on the floor playing with cars, and Barbies (even though I truly detest playing Barbies). School field trips, and soccer practices.

Yes, we will have to throw in about five thousand dirty diapers (side note: We have spent over $2500 on diapers and wipes at Costco in the past six years) and plenty of doctors appointments. Lots of cereal, peanut butter and sippy cups. But it's a price I'm willing to pay.

So today, I sat on the playroom floor and played Barbies. I sat with my poor, sick Jakey and watched Monster House. I helped Emily collect worms. I helped Daniel practice his piano, and was thrilled that he agreed to sing along. Ben and I growled at each other for the better part of a half hour, and let me tell ya, that kid can growl. 

And then, while Jake and Ben slept I cleaned Emily's room. I spent almost two hours on that particular disaster. But when Jake woke up, I stopped.

The rest of the house was a mess. And normally, at the end of the day, I would have felt like a failure with my house in that state. But I've realized keeping my house clean is not my number one priority, or at least it shouldn't be. And let's be honest, it would be a full time job in and of itself to keep my house clean at all times. Of course I have been failing! And I am pretty sure that feeling like a failure at the end of every single day has contributed to my rut.

Today, I didn't fail. 

Today I was a mother. A good one.

Today I succeeded.

Bright spot

Lately, this kid is a bright spot in my day.

He is hilarious. I mean it. HI.LA.RI.OUS.

Every time I ask him to do something, he tells me he is too little. Only he says it, "widdle".

 He is on a love kick right now and tells everyone all the time how much he loves them and everyone else.

He has a tendency to only wear Super Hero T-shirts and costumes, and shorts. Always shorts.

He has such a tender heart, even Ben is able to hurt his feelings these days. (I think Ben is turning into a bit of a bully.)

He has to give me a kiss and squish a million times a day.

He says "Pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaase" in such a sweet, sweet voice, while turning his head to the side, and smiling.

He is convinced he's a grown up, AND a dad.

Oh I could go on and on.

See? Bright spot.

Bring it on Winter

Today we mowed the lawn, pulled up the dead plants, put away the patio furniture. We rolled up the hose, packed away the water toys, and cleared out the garage so we could park in it.

The kids chased us around, rolling in the leaves. The weather was gorgeous, my kids are gorgeous, and you better believe Kev is gorgeous.

Good day.

just a little info for ya...

FIRST:

My mirror is done!

Here's the lowdown on how to do it:

1. Cut moldings to fit.

2. Prime and paint.

3. Glue on moldings and corner pieces. I used mirror glue. It worked great.

4. Tape pieces on while the glue dries for 24 hours.

5. Do any paint touch ups needed.

6. Caulk around the inside edge of the mirror.

This was originally just one of the standard mirrors found in pretty much every builder home, no frame just silver brackets on the top and bottom.

EASY!

Halloween Recap

This year, both Daniel and Emily wanted to be a mummy. Daniel was a little confused about what mummies actually are though. He assumed that because mummy sounds like mommy, mummies must sound like girls. So he practiced talking like a girl for weeks beforehand. 

Jake wouldn't even consider being anything besides Superman, and let's be honest, Ben had no idea what was going on. So a recycled costume from last year worked great.

When the actual day came, I was just about done wrapping Emily up, when she decided it was taking too long and she wanted to be a cow instead. I was just fine with that, since I was running out of strips of fabric anyway, and we have a cow costume that Daniel wore when he was three (yes, it fit Emily).

An HOUR AND A HALF later, I finally had Daniel all wrapped up. I had to sew parts of it on to his pjs, and I used a lot of safety pins. It wasn't enough. By the end of trunk or treat, he had fabric around his knees and couldn't wait to get home and get out of his costume!

So by the time evening came around, Emily was wearing Daniel's bat costume from last year, Ben was fast asleep in his crib, Jake was wearing his Superman costume minus the cape (that we still can't find) and Daniel had on the most ghetto "ninja" costume I've ever seen. He wore a beanie hat with eyes cut out, and that's about it. Yep, the mother of the year award goes to me! In my defense, it was his idea and he loved it!

After they came home from trick or treating, we frosted sugar cookies and ate chili and rolls. The kids were in bed by eight, we turned off our porch lights by eight thirty, and we watched part of Napoleon Dynamite with friends. We were in bed by ten. I think Kev and I are getting old.

(PS all the pictures are in the previous post...so you'll have to scroll down!!!)

Happy Halloween!!!

What I've been up to

I made this little quilt for Ben for Christmas. Jake already has a Cars quilt, so I thought Ben should have one too:) I even hand quilted it:

 

This one is for Emily for Christmas. It is absolutely COVERED with mistakes. But she won't notice or care, and I don't have the time to fix them:

I also did this on the back of my Merry Christmas blocks from Super Saturday:

 

and made these at Super Saturday:

I am in the middle of this project:

 

I still need to paint the molding. But doesn't it made such a huge difference to have a frame on the mirror? I love it! Super easy and cheap, the way I like it :)

I've also been working on Daniel's Christmas quilt, painting bookshelves, my roll top desk, a file cabinet and a hutch. All meant to go in either the new office/craft room or the new playroom. Hopefully I will have pictures to post soon. 

Can you tell I use crafts/projects as coping mechanisms? They diffuse all the stress in my life :)

Mr. Mom

This is what Kevin did on his day off: 

Sometimes I think we should switch roles. He would rather spend all day playing and building and goofing off with the kids than anything else. And seriously, I would never in a million years have thought to do this with them. I just keep thinking about who is going to clean up all those pillows. 

He's inside building forts while I'm in the garage playing with power tools and spray paint.

Any second I just know he's going to pull one of their mattresses of their beds and start surfing down the stairs. And now he's talking about pulling out the lifetime tables and using those to slide down.

I can't even begin to compete with that.

Chicago

On Friday Kevin and I left all four kids with our friends, bless their hearts. We headed north to Chicago for a chance to attend an endowment session at the Chicago Temple.

Traffic was horrendous, the weather dismal. We spent nine hours in the car that day. I was cold, and Kevin was hot, so rather than fight over the heat I pulled out the emergency blanket from the trunk (it worked). We spent every last dime we had on gas, food and temple clothing.

But those two hours that we got to spend inside the temple, those two  hours of quiet, and peace, and reflection, made it worth it. I saw a couple about to be married, saw their excited faces, the private glances at each other. I think Kevin and I threw a few of those glances at each other too.

So all in all, in was a good day.

A really good day.

Last picnic of the year