Yesterday and today

Relaxin'

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Sitting on the jeep. Watching the bailer.

Sitting on the jeep. Watching the bailer.

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And the kids...it's what they asked for.

Delicious breakfast!

Lost and found

Lost and found

The Big Project update

So, remember this? 40 boxes of kids clothes?

It was a bigger project than expected....here is the story....

I worked all week, slow but steady. Going through every box. Slimming down. Getting rid of some really cute clothes. Some tough choices. Monday I had 35 boxes done, only 6 boxes being kept. All those keep boxes were jammed full of folded sweet clothing. I had all the girl and boy 12 months and under done. Girl 2t-4t done, folded but not yet in the boxes. But 2t was also organized with a pile set aside to go to a dear friend who is currently taking care of her 2 grand-daughters. The only thing left was 2t-5t boy, which was only about 5 boxes.

And then I had to work. Monday evening. Jon put the kids down for bed....Callie was asleep, William was in bed and heading toward sleep.....Jon went out to mow....and returned to William running back up to bed as fast as he could ....and THIS......

ALL boxes unloaded!!!! ALL over the room!!! Things thrown across the room. Socks behind the tv stand and on the book shelf. The floor covered a foot deep in unfolded clothing.

Jon told him I would be sad....and I would probably cry. He called me at work to warn me...he came nowhere close to warning me for what I would see. I came home from work at 11:30 pm. Spent a little time in the kitchen, unwinding and preparing myself. Jon had said he thought the boxes may have just been dumped, so may still be in some order. Um, NO! All unfolded, all thrown. I looked for dents in the walls as the baby monitor and bottles had been thrown to the other side of the room. I was livid!! I cried. I threw clothes. I got the poor boy out of bed and lectured. I drank. I stayed up until 3 am just putting all the clothes in the appropriate sizes. Not folded, not organized. Just sizes. Not happy. As I was working on this. If I looked up and around the room, I would get overwhelmed at the huge mess and cry again. I wanted to just put everything in a big pile in the front yard and let people take it all. The only way I got through was to look down and do one item at a time.

The next day...(surprised he survived the night?)...he didn't remember me getting him up. Probably a good thing since it wasn't my finest mommy moment. And he argued with me for 10 minutes that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong because .... "It's not on the list". Not on the list of "wrong" things....aka the 10 commandments that is posted on our door!!! Are you kidding me, Boy??? There were so many wrongs here....we don't throw things in the house, don't mess with mom's stuff, multiple times throughout the previous week I had made them go away from the clothes so they wouldn't mess them up, he was supposed to be in bed....etc! But no, "it's not on the list". ....Honor your Mom and Dad, perhaps?....Oh, and he didn't see me cry, he did ask to see if that had actually happened.

Yard sale came and went. But the boxes around my living room of unfolded, unpacked clothing remained. I could not bring myself to continue. It took Jon helping me to finally tackle all the folding and packing again. And now, it is done! Even more of an accomplishment than I planned on. Lovely, all organized...twice. Can you tell? This...

....organized and decreased to this...

And he survived....and we still love him...and I'm not sure if he learned his lesson.

Next project, make the green bench brown....don't think the kids can do much to this...but we shall see.

Mama's snack time!

Just the beginning!

Would you??

Went to a friend's house for dinner last evening. With these lovely ladies from my Community Bible Study Group.

Had a wonderful time! Amazing home! Beautiful. Full of stories. Here is the living room. It was like stepping back in time!

But here is the tricky part.

First you have to cross this bridge!!

We all did it! Twice, to and fro! And we made it!

I knew there was a "bridge" that she told us we would be "nervous to cross"....but once I saw it I still had to call to clarify that she really meant I should drive over THIS bridge!! It looked like an over sized walking bridge. I wasn't even sure if the car would fit! But it did. (PHew! You should see the thing on google maps...scary.)

Big project under way!

In 1.5 weeks is the yard sale.

My project, go through all the kids clothes and scale down.

In my attic. 40 boxes!!!

I had no idea there were that many! I'm hoping to get it down to 10 at the most. One girl, one boy for each age.

While I'm at it I'll do the 4 Christmas decoration boxes as well.

Step one. Today. Bring all the boxes from the attic. It took me, and my great little helpers, almost 45 minutes. Whew!

Here they are stacked in the living room. Insane!

Callie asked, "Mom, can you take the chain off my bike?" Me, "No Callie, I wouldn't know how to put it back on." .... "Oh, that chain." (The dog chain)

Meanwhile....William is taste testing dog treats. Me...gagging. That kid will eat anything. Did I mention that while we were working on Callie's garden he had a worm, and YES, HE DID. In his mouth. Flowers, sticks, blanket bits, boogers, you name it, he'll try it. Yuck. But I do love that kid.

It's that sad time of year again

When my boys cut their hair off.

The last two years Wm has wanted to grow his hair "long like Callie's" so he "can have piggies".

We get about this far

and then it gets to the point where it really is getting too long and we have to cut it. I wish he would opt for the cut I want, but alas, he wants his hair like Dad's.

I'm not a fan. But it is a quick easy cut with low maintenance. And they like it. And he's just so cute either way.

Exercising...

I've been doing some new exercising videos and the kids have been joining me. They will correct me if i'm not doing the moves just right. When I put my knees down on push ups I hear, "that's not what they're doing!". And they will walk around me saying things like 'that leg is straight, good' or 'yes, like that' just like the video guy does with the other exercisers. Callie will also stand behind me and pull my shirt down every time it starts to creep up...keeping me modest, thanks Darling.

Here is William doing his warrior stance.

And Callie stretching with her "Yoga Block" (toy building block). Jen, She does do some yoga. : )

And this is the heart rate monitor Callie put on me. Very helpful!

Tang...

This container is for sale on craigslist, with matching glasses!.....so tempting. This is all I drank growing up! I remember the container so well!!

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The real hope is not in something we think we can do, but in God, who is making something good out of it in some way we cannot see. (Merton)