That's a Good Day Thursday

What a perfectly normal, perfectly imperfect, perfectly wonderful day.

I snuck in a quick treadmill run this morning. Second one for the week! And that's saying something since I'm just now easing my way back into running since being a lazy bum since Thanksgiving. (Did I just drop three "sinces" in one sentence? Oh yes I did. Oh the shame! The over abundance of "since" AND the no running.) It's quite a relief to see that although my mileage and athleticism are suffering that the ability to run comfortably is still there. There is much work to be done. Sigh.

Speaking of running, I drove into downtown Salt Lake for a lunch date with some of my favorite people, my running group ladies. I almost didn't go. I'm so glad I did.

One migraine later...one handful of ibuprofen and one coke later...

The new home phone is set up. I'm trying to teach the kids about the sounds on the phone, how to use the phone, and phone etiquette. It all seems funny and backwards and exciting. And now my son has decided calling my cell phone is better than walking across the room to ask a question about homework.

Homework is done.

Second quarter report cards have come home. Everyone is doing pretty awesome in an average sort of way. Even Dee who can't seem to stay on task, stop talking in class, or remember to turn in assignments. (Are all third grade boys like this or just my kid?)

Dee finds out he will be getting his Wolf badge in time! (Note to self: We work on Bear more consistently and earlier.)

And in a last ditch effort to get some help with daily chores I dangle the new Lego movie coming out February 7th as bait.

"Complete your chore charts for two weeks straight and I'll take you to see the Lego movie. Popcorn, pop, the whole nine yards."

I want to see it just as bad as they do, but I want my house clean too. It's just too overwhelming for me to keep up with. And for goodness sake, they are old enough to help! Besides they make the messes! I've been trying to step back and hand over more responsibilities and have more expectations of my children. I know it's overdue. It's just easier said than done.

I remember my mom saying over and over when we were kids and doing chores: "A lazy mother does all the work." It didn't make much sense to me. I just figured she was in her room laughing it up behind our backs, eating chocolates, and congratulating herself for raising herself a bunch of free labor, but I believe "slaves" was my word of choice back then. Now I can appreciate the work she put into teaching us to work. And how she was doing the lion's share beyond my limited vision.

So far I have been a "lazy mother". It's just so much easier to do everything and do it the way I like. I have tried so many different methods to get my children to help clean the house. Most of the "methods" were just half-hearted efforts that fizzled into nothing more than yelling. Yelling seems to be my favorite method. Sigh.

Today I dug deep and found the patience to not yell but to teach and guide. It took everything I had not to grab the rags out of my son's hands and just wash the toilets myself *twitch, twitch* but I stood back and talked him through it. And he actually did an excellent job! And he even said it was--GASP!--"fun"!






Jeigh was in charge of dishes. Not only did she unload the dishwasher and put the dishes away, but she also loaded it without being asked and did so while singing her little heart out.

Elle took some coaxing. Every few feet she needed to be reminded to turn the vacuum back on, but she eventually made her way through it. I've found several missed spots *twitch, twitch* but I'm really trying to spotlight effort and attitude versus perfection.

Oh this is hard.

And Cee...well...

And me! Well!

In an effort to reinforce all the positive warm fuzzy feelings of accomplished chores and stellar report cards I suggested we go out and celebrate! (AKA: Mom didn't want to make dinner.)

The cherry on top: My 7 year old daughter breaking out into The Robot while riding home.

Playing "Justin Bieber" with my son:

And Elle and Cee wanting to say their own personal prayers.










Oh and Cee dubbing her big bear as "Daddy" and asking me to put him in her bed so she can snuggle "Daddy" as she falls asleep. (Joe, you are missed as always.)

Good day. Good life. Good nite.

A Day in the Life

I had these marvelous intentions to blog every day. And no. As much as I love you, it wasn't for you, dear blog readers. It was for me. Over the past year I kind of lost track of why I started blogging in the first place. That reason was to record our family life while it was still fresh and funny and frenzied. I got swept up in comments and followers and swaps and such. I lost sight of my primary purposes. I began blogging so that years from now my children (and maybe their children too) could sit with me (for I hope I am still around; I would hate to miss a good round of laughing and tears) and we could relive these stories of their sweet and bitter children-hood and my stumbling, bumbling adventures through early motherhood.

I can't help but feel like this precious, precious time is passing quicker than I have the mental ability to retain it. It's so strange how never ending it feels some moments. Then the very next second it strikes me how fleeting this time is as well. It truly pains me that I can't seem to grasp on to these moments, the good and the bad ones. My memory already fails me as I try to think back on my oldest being a baby, on only a year ago when the youngest was a baby. Before I know it they're going to all be potty trained. I'll blink and everyone will be in school. Turn again and we're attending the last graduation ceremony. And weddings and births of grandbabies and holidays and special days and boring days and on and on.

It's all so beautifully tragic and tragically beautiful.

Here I blubber and babble trying to pinpoint with pathetic little words my frustrations with this dilemma of time tick tick ticking on whether I'm ready or not...

It's all so futile, isn't it?

I'm never going to find the perfect, magic words that will freeze my little ones as they are now.

But that doesn't stop me from trying I suppose. So...I'll keep promising to try to maybe blog and journal and scrapbook with the hope that I will be successful in my endeavors and capture little moments that can't be erased by clocks, poor failing memories, and children who refuse to not grow up.

As for today...

Today was like any other day. Nothing unusual. Nothing amazing. Just another day of survival and silliness. There were moments when I looked into my children's faces and wanted to squeeze them. What motivated the intentions behind the squeezing varied wildly. And I did manage to squeeze each of them a few times each. Mostly with love.

A rushed morning complete with a few harsh words.
Huge bear hugs from Dee and dainty cheek presses from Jeigh as I dropped them off in front of the school. A few cuddles on the couch with the two youngest.
A carefully timed treadmill exercise routine (two in school, one down for a nap, one watching PBS. And...RUN!).
A forgotten lunch rushed to the school.
$10 of gas in a minivan tank full of nothing but fumes.
A much needed lunch play date at Chick-Fil-A. Waffle fries and swapping of gluten free recipes. Homework. Snacks. Nap times.

We went grocery shopping. They asked 49 times if they could have this treat or that toy or this sugary cereal. And I said "NO!" 49 and a half times. We ate hot dogs, pizza, and lemonades at Costco for dinner. I patted myself on the back for feeding my entire entourage for a whopping $6.67 and tried to ignore the absence of health in hot dogs, pizza, and lemonades.
Home.
A failed Family Home Evening consisting of nothing more than sitting around eating Muddy Buddies together.
Too much junk food and not enough veggies. Sigh. Try again tomorrow.

And off to bed. Everyone hugged. Everyone kissed. Everyone pottied.
Everyone loved. Very much. By a very tired mother who wants to capture just another boring normal day. Because she sees the beauty in it. Because it was terrible and wonderful all at the same time. Because she knows one day she will miss days like this.

(Not) The End.

Easy Halloween Decorations: Pass the Popsicle Sticks Please!

Halloween is riiiiight around the corner. So what if I just barely got my Halloween decorations up this week? At least they are up! 

One little treasure I found in the bottom of my Halloween decoration box was these cute little ornaments the kids and I made last year. My children felt that my collection of Halloween decorations was sorely lacking and wanted to supplement with something homemade. I had a ton of Popsicle sticks sitting in my craft drawers. With the help of my trusty glue gun and some paint we had some new Halloween decorations in no time. Very easy, a little messy when the kids got involved, but loads of festive fun for everybody.

We made pumpkins and Frankensteins. The Frankies were my favorite so that's the one I'll show the tutorial for. You could probably figure out how to make these simply from looking at the finished result, but for those who are craft-challenged like me, here's the how-to:













Arrange about 6-8 Popsicle sticks *** in a row. Don't worry too much about everything being nice and neat and even. The fun of Halloween is that "messy accidents" look "spooky" and "intentional".

Hot glue one stick across the row of sticks to secure everything in place. Make sure to leave some of the stick out on both sides of the row of sticks. This will serve as Frankie's bolts.

Flip the whole thing over so that the one glued on stick is in back.

Paint and let dry.

When dry paint the bolts black and paint on hair. Let dry.

Go crazy decorating Frankie however you want. I used my paintbrush to flick black paint over the entire face.

I cut out yellow paper circles for the eyes and glued them on. I also glued on black pony beads. A black sharpie marker worked perfectly for the mouth. My kids used the marker and other beads to add facial features.

A layer of Modge Podge sealed the deal nicely. I also hot glued some string on the back so that Frankie could be easily displayed. Right now all our Frankies and pumpkins are hanging on our dining room curtain rods with the help of some fishing line.

The pumpkins are just as simple to make with a few variations. I used more sticks (11 to be exact) in the row of sticks and glued on two sticks in the back in different spots to make the decoration more secure.

We used black paper and wood triangles for the eyes, nose, and mouth. I had some spare fake greenery that we glued on for the pumpkin stems and leaves.

Simple and cute. Just the way I like all my crafts.

Happy Halloween everybody!

***Unless you happened to save all those sticky Popsicle sticks from summertime you can find Popsicle sticks for sale at any craft store or Walmart's craft area.

Symfully Sweet Saturday

Has it become apparent how fond I am of Sami over at Symmetry in Motion yet? My Blogger hyperlink button almost has her website link memorized. For how much I talk about her at home, I'm just waiting for my husband to say, "Well, why don't you just marry her then?!".

Well, it's all one big fat ploy I tell you. I've just spent the last several months buttering her up so I can win THIS little contest!


Sami is hosting her first linky party and it promises to be saaaaaa-wweeeet!

The Big Idea: Sami picks a candy each month and we, the bloggers, looking for any viable excuse to bring more candy into our homes think of something fun and creative to DO with that candy. (Check out THIS post and see what other linked up bloggers have done.)

As for me and my household...

We are in education mode around these parts. With two little ones in school and one dying (and crying) to go every time she sees her siblings putting on their backpacks, I just knew I had to take a scholarly approach to our little tootsie roll assignment. I bought my supplies (one KING-sized bag of tootsie rolls) and set about brainstorming for a few days.


I can't really remember how I came to it, only that I woke at 4 am, absolutely convinced I had the most brilliant and winning idea for our monster-sized bag of tootsie rolls. (Anyone else think they have one up on Einstein at 4 am too? Did you ever notice that by 9 am, those 4 am ideas somehow lose some of their potency?)

My Big Idea: Tootsie Rolls=Abraham Lincoln


That's right! Chewy little chunks of chocolate and Good ol' Abe! Wait for it.

First of all I showed the kids some pictures of Abraham Lincoln and explained who he was. We learned that Abe is the man who appears on one of Jeigh's favorite things: pennies!

Did you know?

...Abe's mother died when he was nine years old (she was only 34). His father remarried and, whew! no evil step-mothers here, Abe loved his step-mother even calling her "Mother".

...he only had 18 months of official classroom instruction. He was a self-educated man.

...he hated hard work and was even considered lazy by his family and friends.

...Abe was a talented wrestler.

...Abe didn't like to kill animals and refused to hunt and fish.

...Abe suffered from "melancholy" or clinical depression as we would call it these days.

...he had only one child live to adulthood. Abraham's wife, Mary, was committed to a "mental health asylum" after suffering the losses of her sons and husband.

And of course, the one thing we all remember from grade-school...Abraham Lincoln grew up in a one-room log cabin. And what do you build log cabins out of? Lincoln logs. And what yummy little candy bears an uncanny resemblance to Lincoln logs? TOOTSIE ROLLS!

After our little history lesson about one of the greatest men who lived, we set about making log cabins out of our pile of tootsie rolls.


Elle's technique: Build a log cabin in her tummy. At least that's where all her "Lincoln logs" went.


Jeigh had a more abstract vision for her log cabin. Although I doubt it would be very useful in keeping out rain and attacking Indians, it sure had an artistic feel. Maybe it would look nice on the hearth of the fireplace of someone else's cabin.




I was totally impressed with Dee's engineering mind. He immediately set about building a stable structure with support and symmetry (extra points, Sami?). As you can see by his expression, he was pretty darn proud too. And he was the one to stick with me the longest on our project. The girls wandered off about as quickly as they got their fill of sugar for the week.


Here's the beginning of our official little house on the prairie.


And here's the {almost} finished result, Pre-Abe Lincoln residence. Dee and Jeigh helped me figure out to make the roof. Couldn't have done it without them.


And never one to leave well-enough alone...A little Abe Lincoln to live in the little log cabin. I thought the penny added a nice touch. Maybe he could use it to buy a door so he can actually get in his house. (Oops!)

We were pretty proud of our afternoon logging skills. The kids so much so that they gave free house tours to all the neighbor kids for the rest of the day.

At the end of the day, when Joe got home from work and found what we had been up to, I lined up the children, prepared to amaze him with the sweet rewards of my home-school efforts. I told the kids, "Go ahead and tell Daddy who we learned about today!".

... ... ... {blank stares}

The lasting impression: Tootsie rolls make good houses.

Oh well.

Maybe I at least have a chance of winning Sami's linky party with my original and one-of-a-kind idea...

Wait a second!! Rats! Looks like great minds think alike.

Well, it was a fun afternoon spent with my kids anyway. Thanks for the inspiration Sami! And for hosting the "symfully" fun linky party!

And I promise I'm not just saying that to convince you to pick me. But if it helps...