living the GOOD life

It's back.

Motherhood is hard. Sometimes the hard overshadows the wonderful.

But now, the wonderful is back. I can see it again, feel it, anticipate it. I am remembering all the reasons I love being a mom. Not only a mom, but a stay at home mom.

Like a beautiful little girl who loves to collect worms. And is not squeamish about it at all. Look at that handful!

Yes, he has hit his terrible twos early, and is getting in like five molars at once. Both make for a very ornery baby. But that face! Oh that face!

The snuggles, the giggles, the adventures. Teaching them something new, watching their eyes as they learn. So many times every day that cause me to smile or laugh out loud.

So many times every day that cause me to say a prayer of thanks.

New office and playroom!

I finally convinced Kevin to switch the playroom and my craft room. He was reluctant, especially since I had already switched them about a year ago. But I promised to do as much as the work myself as I could :) 

The "office":

 

I painted all the furniture black. I love the desk!

 

I've been putting off posting pictures, because I wanted to capture the playroom when it was clean. I finally realized that is never going to happen, so here it is in all it's messy glory:

 

I bought a couple of bookshelves off a salvage site for super cheap, and added some bead board to the back to make a faux wall to divide the space better. 

 

I painted this wall yellow to match the rest of the room, and added the banner and plane.

 

I love the extra storage that these shelves provide! We moved ALL the toys out of the kids rooms and into here. Hopefully this will make their rooms easier to keep clean, although I am sure Emily will find a way around it.

 

If you look really close, you can see Jake laying on the floor in front of the TV there :)

So there you have it! I absolutely love it! Downstairs stays clean, and the kids spend a lot more time playing with their toys. Win-win!

Parent Teacher Conferences

I went to Daniel's on Wednesday. No big surprises there. All his test scores are above grade level. His teacher said she's never had a kid pass off his addition so fast, and he's almost done with subtraction. And his reading scores are jumping so fast, I can hardly keep up with them.

His teacher said she has reccommended him for the high ability class next year. It's a mixture of 2nd and 3rd graders, and he will stay in the same class for two years. They cover a lot more material and do less busy work. I think he will really enjoy that. He's also doing well socially, amazingly well actually. He still has his quirks, and probably always will. But he's making friends, he's following rules, and he's just overall doing GREAT.

Today I went to Emily's conference. My sweet, sweet Emily. This is her third year of preschool. She loves everyone, loves school. She is friendly and animated and has a fabulous imagination. She is is a great little artist and very outgoing. But the girl can't focus on anything long enough to learn it! She isn't learning her letters or numbers. She can't count past 14. She isn't really learning anything academic. Her teacher said they will talk about a letter on the carpet, and by the time they move to the tables she will have forgotten which letter it is. She can't even remember the kids names in her class.

Her teacher said I should probably get her tested, and unless something changes she probably won't test in to a regular Kindergarten class. In the schools here they have a full day, every day class for the kids that need extra help and I would imagine she would be placed in that.

I know she's smart. But I think she just has absolutely no interest in letters and numbers. She can't sit still, she's always all over the place. She can't even look at you when you're talking to her. So I am at a loss as to what to do. Someone suggested holding her back, but she's already going to be one of the oldest in the grade. And I don't think another year of preschool is going to help at all.

They are so different!! I really want Emily to find her niche. Daniel knows he is smart, and I think it makes him feel really good about himself when he learns something new or does well on a test. I want Emily to have that. Everyone always tells her how beautiful she is, but I want her to have something else that makes her feel good about herself.

I wonder what challenges Jake and Ben will bring?

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 :)