Post Bath Crazies

I want to remember the post bath craziness that happens. Little people just go a bit crazy when they get out of the bath, they are cold, and there is a good chance daddy-o is chasing them.

Made Me Laugh

Rea likes to watch me draw and try to guess what it is.

“It’s Papa.”

“Oh, it’s Papa drinking chocolate milk.”

Arrggghh Matey!

The letter of the week is X…

X marks the spot…

pirate day!

a pirate face

Rea & our neighbor friend, Knox  

Finding

Joy, it comes in the morning…

Joy, it comes not in the gaining but in the giving, not in being someone but in being a sacrifice, not in laying up treasures, but in laying down self.

Joy, it comes in the mother who doesn’t think twice to do the unthinkable, to do the unlikely, the unlovely, the unheard of — who lives the Gospel.

It comes in the woman who loves the kid who has no one, the man who isn’t thinking about winning on earth but in heaven, the kids who cheer for the hurting.

And it comes again in the morning…. what lets the beginning always happen again.

True sacrifice isn’t the losing of anything — but the finding of joy.

The One & Only…Fuzz!

HAPPY 19 MONTH BIRTHDAY!

Sweet Cousins

Dress-up shoes, Bibles, princess wands, and totally adorable!

Kaci & Rea

Again?

I’m back at it. Feeling overwhelmed with the pace of life. It’s been so long since I last felt this way. Or has it? I spend many moments thinking about if and when I could leave the crazy for just a short bit. Go somewhere where there is nothing. Am I considering it all joy if these are really my thoughts?

What is my responsibility in this craziness? Where should I be drawing boundaries? Did I create this? Or is this the plan for me and I’m suppose to be accepting it?

I’m tired. Disconnected. Impatient.

I push through to get my Bible study done. I LOVE it in the moment, but I really have to make myself sit down and begin. Why doesn’t it come more naturally?

 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” ~Matthew 11:28

 

Visit with Cousins

My Community Helper

Friday was “dress up as what you want to be when you grow up” day.

Me: “Rea, what do you want to be when you grow up?”

Rea: “A princess”

Me: “Well, that’s not a real job.” (I didn’t feel like explaining that some countries have princesses.) “What kind of community helper do you want to be?”

Rea: “A pirate”

Me: “They aren’t real.” (I didn’t want to explain this one either.)  “What kind of work do you want to do?”

Rea: “Be an artist and wear my apron.”

So that’s what we did! We filled the pockets with paintbrushes, sponges, and empty bottles of paint. She wore her school tye-dyed shirt. She was going to wear her rain boots and a bandana in her hair, but she backed out the morning of.

Here is our free-spirited artist at the end of the day (the reason why the buns are a mess)…………..

Who would have known two type-A parents would have an artist for a little.

Boing!

When JMA was away, the girls and I went to celebrate Abigail’s birthday at Boing! I didn’t really know what to expect, but it was super fun to watch. Fuzz was too young, but was all about doing it. As soon as we walked in, Rea said she didn’t want to jump because she didn’t want to wear the required helmet. So the girls and I watched the others (including Mimi & aunt Julie) have a sweaty, fun time!

We convinced Abigail to allow us to go to dinner somewhere other than Chick-fil-a in exchange for milkshakes there afterwards. Fuzz had a couple shakes herself.

Keeping It Real

Never a dull moment with our crew! Our daddy gets home from his long trip…yay! We’re trying to get back into somewhat of a normal swing and we find ourselves in the ER.

I had been at my desk for 10 minutes when I got a call that JMA had fallen at work and they were taken him to the ER. Oh goodness! I left immediately and met him there.

He still wasn’t running on all cylinders since his trip. He was still dealing with jetlag, a head cold, stress from trying to catch up from work, etc. He also has inherited from his father the gene which does not do well in bloody situations.  A colleague was telling him a pretty nasty/gory story about an injury he had sustained. JMA told him he had heard enough and that was it. A guy walked up and started giving JMA an estimate for some work he was going to do. JMA said I’m going to be sick, just a minute and walked away. In the next few seconds he proceeded to pass out, fall 6 feet, and smack his face on the concrete. He doesn’t remember anything else except his colleague standing over him yelling his name. The rescue was called, quite a bit of buzz around the shop, and off he went to the ER.

He had scratches on his face, a gash on his nose, beat up mouth, a bruised knee, dirty clothes (from the dirt on the shop floor), and a sore body. Overall, he came out pretty good. I’m very grateful this is all there is to report. Thank you, Lord, for your protection.

18 Month Fuzzer

Our little Fuzzy girl is 1.5 years old! So big! You are starting to take steps toward doing little kid things…understanding more, following directions, using “words” to express needs (even though I can’t always understand these “words”), keeping up with sister.

You are observant and reserved in social environments. You are expressive and busy at home. You need big girl things…babies to hold, phones to talk on, strollers to push, bags to carry, etc. Well, you “need” everything Rea has. You are super ticklish. You love to be held as we chase sister around. You love to sit in my lap on the floor. You are enjoying books. You are adventurous. You love fruit and all things junk, of course …not a fan of meat.

You still take a morning nap and an afternoon nap, but I think you might be combining them. You go to bed at 9:00 and wake during the 7:00 hour.

Words: “bye”, “hi”, “moo” (I love your squished lips when you say this), “mama” (you aren’t calling me, you say it when you want more of something), “blah” (with your tongue out when something is nasty or dirty, like doo-doo in your diaper). You really want more words and you get frustrated easily.

We think you are just CRAZY…crazy funny and we are are CRAZY in LOVE with you!

~stuck, but happy~  

~stuck and definitely not happy~

~must climb anything with steps~

~going to get a diaper after I asked~

~first time with play-doh~

More Projects

I am beyond pleased with Reagan’s preschool. It is an exceptional program!  She has said on multiple occasions “you picked the right ‘cool’ for me. Preschool is the right ‘cool’ for me. I love my ‘cool’. Thanks, mom.” Rea never wants to miss a day because there is always something fun going on. They often send home projects for us to complete. We had a blast tracing and decorating our feet for Ff week.

Reagan’s photography

The finished product…

For Yy week I was asked to draw a picture of something I liked to do when I was young. What?!?!? I do NOT draw!  ANNNDDDD it was going in a class notebook which goes home with all the kids. Ugh! Here are our drawings. Rea’s caption, “When I was young, I played with my dollhouse.” My caption, “When I was young, I loved being with my family.” (Believe it or not…that’s a true story. When I think about when I was “young”, I think of them.)

Big Undertaking. Long Overdue.

Background Information: We’ve lived in this house for 4.5 years and have worked on home improvement projects in spurts. I’ve put off our room for a couple reasons, but mostly, because it’s a doozey! If my math is accurate, its over 600 square feet. That is a lot of space to work with.

Current situation: JMA was traveling for business for two weeks, so I (brainiac over here) think this would be a perfect time to paint and redecorate.

Additional Information: 1) I DO work well under the pressure of a deadline. 2) I wanted to do it while he was away so he wouldn’t have to do it.

I had an inspiration piece, but I still needed to pick colors.

Before: (I love how I took pictures at its all time low, so the “after” would look even more fabulous.)

(The stack in the hallway is my ironing pile. Have I mentioned how much I loathe ironing? It is so annoying, but I LOVE pressed clothes!)

To Be Continued….

When THE man is away…

You realize how annoying taking the trash out is, but putting the bag back in the can is even more annoying.

You have do to less laundry because you don’t have his giant clothes to fill the basket.

You realize how much he keeps you company at night…even if he’s just breathing heavily in bed.

You don’t have to cook real dinner.

You don’t have anyone to write a “script” with on Saturday.

You are just so weary at night because you’ve had no outlet or back-up all day.

You have random technology issues. What the?!?

You get extra, extra excited to see your parents coming around…or anyone who might talk to your kids for 10 minutes.

You become a bit envious of San Francisco and Germany because they get your man.

You plan for big things to get done, create a huge to-do list for yourself, as if him being away creates more hours in the day. Weird.

You become more compassionate for mom’s that have to live this life all the time.

You pray through more moments and your steps become more intentional.

You become weary.

You grow a bit…or a lot.