Life Does Go On After Christmas

I set a goal for myself that I wanted to get another post up on this here blog by the end of January.  And here we are with just three hours to go and I am achieving said goal.

Clearly, I strive for greatness.

Most who know me in real life know that I call January "let down month."  It truly does stink.  If I had to rank the months from favorite to least favorite, January wouldn't even make the cut.  All the festivities are over, school is back in session, and while I once claimed I like love winter, I've come to realize I simply don't.  What I do love is the fall/winter season right up until real life resumes the day after Christmas break. And then?  Well, winter might as well be done.  Which is truly discouraging, since according to that thing we call an almanac, says that we have about another 10-11 weeks of winter left.

Hmph.  

Now, if we actually got a little snow, that could certainly change my perspective, but the weather here has been very, very mild and I don't see any snow in our near future.  Not that I am a meteorologist or anything.

So, here are just a few highlights from the last time I posted.....

As I mentioned awhile back, my awesome dad has been working on the top part of our "built-in" desk.  I'm getting SO excited.....it's getting so much closer to being done!

♥

At Peanut's school, we have to put in volunteer hours for each student enrolled.  Because I have a two year old and a hard working husband that works crazy hours, I didn't feel comfortable committing to things/activities at school with never knowing what the Hub's schedule would be and not knowing if I would have someone to watch the boy.  So.  I signed up to help with a fruit platter once a month for the weekly staff meetings.  It was something I could do completely from home and I could just drop off in the office.  (Side note:  I was totally hoping for the muffins portion {so much cheaper!}, but they only had need for the fruit platter, which I guess is how God wanted me to bless them, so there you have it!)

Well, despite all my ranting and raving about the month of January, ironically, out of the three fruit platters I did (September, October, and January--November and December aren't done because of the holidays), January ended up being both the prettiest and best tasting month!

♥

On New Year's Eve, I was reading the little brother's devotion to him before bed and it talked about being thankful for all the blessings from the past year.  I asked him what he was thankful for this year. I kid you not, he looked at me and whispered, "Money in my piggy bank."

ALEX P. KEATON.

I couldn't make this stuff up even if I tried.

 ♥

We've had quite a few nice days in these last few weeks and so the kids were actually able to play outside.  The Peanut was all into her chalk drawings and the little brother was semi-interested in the chalk.  What he really liked was the small piece of bubble wrap I gave him to play with that was from a package I received that afternoon.  Yes, I know you aren't supposed to give small children pieces of plastic to play with.  #momfail


Peanut also got to have fun at her school's Family Fun Night this past Friday night.  She got to eat pizza, an ice cream sandwich, popcorn, and I even threw caution to the wind and let her get an orange soda instead of water.  Plus, she got to play in three bounce houses, get a balloon flower from the balloon animal artist, play the Plinko booth, shoot in a basketball shot competition, and walk in a cupcake walk.


Obviously, she was miserable the whole time.

♥

Daddy converted the little brother's crib and now he has a "big boy" bed.  He was just a little bit excited. He shows everyone who will watch how he can climb in and out "all by my-sef."  It's pretty cute.

Except when the 6 am wake up call comes running into our room.  #thatsnotcute

♥

My aunt and uncle got the Peanut a Lego set for Christmas.  WOW.  Had I known how enthralled she would be by them, I would have got her the set myself.  We did get her a very small set as soon as she was old enough (2.5-3 years ago?) and all she did with it was use the many pieces to "cook" with in her kitchen.  You know, sauteed Lego with a wine reduction?  I was less than impressed, because I knew the pieces were all going to wind up missing.  Anyhow, fast forward several years later and she hasn't stopped playing with it since Christmas.  Plus, she had some leftover birthday money and we let her buy another set off of Amazon.  Hours upon hours of entertainment, people!

And last but not least, I was getting all stressed about getting her Valentines done.  I was thinking they had to be done this week, but I guess I could use a calendar, because I actually had about two weeks to get them done.  Peanut filled out all the Valentines and I made the little pencil arrows to go with.  Thank you, Pinterest.  Once again.  Because we all know a Valentine is just a Valentine....unless we Pinterest it, right?  Yes, I realize I am part of the problem.

Random Thoughts

Just some of the randomness from the last week:

The Peanut has been asking to spend the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house for several weeks now.  I was on the phone yesterday with my mom and Peanut was waving rather wildly to get my attention.  And who am I kidding, she was whispering RATHER loudly too, about her NEED to talk to Grandma as I was getting ready to hang up.  So Peanut gets on the phone and asks Grandma when she can spend the night and I hear an "uh huh.....okay.....love you too, Grandma" and she hangs up.  I ask her what Grandma said.  Peanut tells me confidently, "Grandma said I can spend the night in the next year."

"The next year? Are you sure it wasn't before the end of the year?" knowing full well my mom would never give Peanut a 365 day window of spending the night--and even just as doubtful that she would even give a 60 day window of time.

"Nope, that's what she said."  And she went back to playing.

So I talked to my mom this morning, "So mom, what exactly did you tell Peanut about spending the night?" {We had just made specific plans for her to spend the night this weekend}  "Oh, I told her we've been really busy, but definitely in the next month or so."

While Peanut's concept of time is getting much better than it used to be, I guess we still need to work on terms like months and years.

♥

The Little Brother's newest phrase any time he sees a picture of him and his sister on the computer, a cell phone, a framed picture, etc?  "Ohhhh, that so CUTE!"

♥ 

My roots grow out is something awful right now and my mama (bless her heart!!!) is going to color those this weekend.  Why, yes, I am still trying to hang on to the vestige of my youth (blond hair).  I've never really felt like myself with the brown hair I developed in my twenties.  That said, the silver lining is that my hair is probably close to 25-30% gray now, so I can confidently say that my hair is actually starting to get lighter again.  Or not--at 35, I am not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

♥ 

I have an awful habit of biting my nails.  Yes, I know.  Tacky.  Gross.  SO unladylike {spell check tells me this is all one word.....who knew?}  It's an awful, nervous habit.  Well, I figured out if I paint my nails, I am much less likely to bite them.  So girlfriend has been keeping her nails painted for the better part of two months and my nails look so much nicer!  But of course, then I have to repaint my nails nearly every week, because while I won't mess with my newly painted nails, once that first nail chips?  All bets are off and I start picking at the polish.  See?  NERVOUS HABIT.

♥ 

The Hubs and my dad felled the two large trees in our front yard this past weekend.  Boy, was that stressful to watch.  It probably would have been a good idea to call in some professionals for peace of mind (mostly mine!), but that just wasn't in the budget and the trees sadly needed to come down.  Why, you ask?  Because we hate the leaves.  I am SO kidding!  No, really there were two major factors.  We have a VERY tiny yard and the trees were just getting to be too big.  Like many people, the prior homeowners didn't account for the fact that trees grow and they get bigger.  When that happens in such a tiny little yard, the root systems can start to cause problems with the foundation as well as any paved surfaces.  Just a couple blocks away from our house, our city went through the neighborhood and highlighted (with hot pink spray paint, no less) any damaged sidewalks from tree roots.  You can guess who gets to pay to have the sidewalks replaced--the homeowner.  Well, we are not in the position to pay $5-10K to have the sidewalks around our home repaired.  While the trees hadn't done any damage just yet, it would have happened in the next couple years, so the trees needed to come down while they were still somewhat manageable to do ourselves {you know I use that term very loosely, right?}.
 

The deer on the right was just a little visitor we had this past summer.  SO NOT normal for our little suburbia!

Anyhow, thanks to my dad's help and Hub's cautiousness (not that my dad is an idiot--he's not at all, I just think they balance each other out in some ways) both trees came down just fine.  Of course, I DIDN'T get a nice before shot to give you an idea of just how big the front tree was, but it was pretty good sized.

Enough to make this mama's heart rate sky rocket and palms sweaty during the cutting process and to make my knees/legs like Jell-O for the better part of 15 minutes after the tree was down.  

We live on a corner, so Hubs played the part of traffic control from both directions in case there were any cars coming at any point during the cutting.  The bigger of the two trees was definitely tall enough to lay across our street, so obviously we didn't want any liabilities from the whole thing.  So Hubs was cautiously darting back and forth across the street to watch for cars (and a falling tree!) while my dad was hopping around the trunk of the tree with the chainsaw going full force, doing his best to "expertly" cut the tree so it fell that way instead of this way. 


Yes, I was a little stressed.

But I couldn't NOT watch, because you know I had the full capability to stop anything bad from happening.  Ahem. 

In the end, things went great (even the weather cooperated! PTL!!)  and Hubs has nearly all the debris hauled off.  Now he gets to work on getting the trunks and roots torn out.

And silly me, I thought the hardest part was over!

Dress Up for the Little Brother

When the Peanut turned two, my mom made a very impressive dress up box for the Peanut's birthday present. So this past June (ahem), when the little brother turned two, my mom required herself to follow suit in making him his very own dress box. Never mind the fact that the Peanut didn't really start using her dress up box (aside from the gaudy jewelry!) until about 18 months later--when she was about 3 1/2.

I told my mom as much when she was frantically trying to get his dress up box done just before his birthday, "Mom, Peanut didn't use the dress up stuff until she was nearly 4.  You've got some time...."  Her response should have been expected.  "Peanut got hers when she turned two.  He will get his when he turns two."

Well, okay then.  

Just as Peanut's dress up box was fit for a girl, his is just as masculine as her's is girly.  My mom stained his in a nice dark finish, very much like the finish on his furniture she refinished for him when I was pregnant with him.  She was going for a treasure chest look--which worked out well for this mama.  We ended up using the chest for the treasure hunt at the Peanut's pirate party in September!

And in the end, I guess the surprise is on me. I didn't account for the older sibling factor.  Peanut is there to show him the ropes in the art of all things dress up and make-believe.  She takes her role as teacher very seriously.  And he takes his role as apprentice even more seriously.  He can "fight a fire" like nobody's business.  He hammers away on things with the force of a grown man and he can give a patient "a shot" without a thought to their pain.

Yes, he definitely needs to work on his bedside manner, but he is all boy.  Indeed.


 

My Thoughts Are All Over the Place Right Now

I was thinking the other day about our family and our move back to Hometown. Thinking that this coming January, it will have been three years since we've moved back.  It got me thinking even further--that we have actually been back here in Hometown longer than we were ever gone.

If my calculations are correct, and let's face it, there is a good chance they aren't--math was never my best subject.  However, these are just simple calculations and I only started to struggle with math once I got into high school.  Differential equations, anyone?  Anyhow.....I digress.  As I was saying, we lived up in Smalltown exactly 827 days.  Which is 2.27 years OR for those of you who like simpler terms, 2 years and three months.

As of today, we have been back 1,003 days.  It's just shy of 2 years and 9 months, so we have actually been back here in Hometown about 6 months longer than we were ever gone.

Can I hear an amen???!?!  I just can't even believe how fast it has gone by.  Or how God has continued to provide for us.  It was quite the financial stretch for us when we moved back--and as a matter of fact, it still is.  And you know what?  He wasn't kidding about that birds in the air thing:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?  And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?  Matthew 6:25-27 NASB

I think I need to do myself a favor and tattoo that on my forehead.  

In case I haven't mentioned it before, I am. a. control. freak.  I like to let myself believe that I (as in me, myself, and I) can control it all.  Yep, I know exactly how much we have deposited in our bank each month and I know where every. penny. goes.  Every penny, I tell you.  And I control that.

But you know what?  I like to think that, but I don't have control.  He does.  He provides Hub's job that pays our bills, He provides our home, and He provides our health and the health of our children. He also provides the food we eat--HE provides everything.

He is the Alpha and the Omega.

But somehow I think I have control. 

Silly me.

It's funny too, because while I like to think I have control, one of the things I always remind myself (and others!) is that He is not a God of coincidences.  (Must be my alter ego??!?)

Things just don't happen.  There was a plan with us moving away when we did.  There was a plan with us moving back when we did.

How we were EVER able to afford for me to quit my job six years ago--in His plan.  

How things with Hub's job have fallen into place--in His plan.

How well things worked out upon our return to Hometown--in His plan.  

And even now, with Peanut going to her sweet little school--in His plan--at least for now.

And let me tell you, that is a huge source of my worry these days.  As in, if I did add hours to my life because of my worry--I'd be living to a ripe, old age!!!   On the worst of my days, I think know we are kidding ourselves in thinking we can continue next year with an even higher tuition payment.

Then, on some of my best days (which are sadly not very often), I think, you know, He already has it figured out.  Whether it be private school, public school, or home school, it will be fine.  It will be just fine.  He can take care of that little girl way, way better than you.

And I have to remember cling to that.  

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.              Matthew 6:34 NASB

 

Surprise Visit

We had a surprise visitor this last week.

Well, "we" technically didn't, my parents did.  My sister was able to visit for the Peanut's birthday!  She hasn't been home in nearly two years and her sweet husband made all the arrangements so she could make a visit home.  It was such a special treat!  

They are hoping to move home next spring {sound familiar?} and we are praying that that be the case.  It was such a fun visit for the whole family.  It was super good times and super good food (thanks, Mom!). 

She got to love on my kids, so that was extra special as well.  We miss them so, and my kids miss their auntie and uncle so, so much! 

I am very hopeful that we are all blessed with their opportunity to move home in the next six {or so??!?} months.

A New Chapter

Her lunch is all packed, and her uniform is laid out for tomorrow and she is FINALLY asleep.  She usually doesn't go down at night without a fight and tonight was no exception.



The first day of school butterflies, to be sure.  But whether or not they are jitters or if it's just all around excitement, I don't quite know.  When I was her age, it was jitters all the way (even through my first days of new classes in college!), but thankfully not much seems to make this girl scared.  I certainly don't want to plant those ideas of nervousness in her head, so I don't ask if she's nervous.  I ask if she's excited, and I get all sorts of yeses combined with jumping up and down.

She starts school Friday and yesterday, we fit in a last minute trip to the coast.  We've been talking about it for awhile and the days and weeks just seemed to be getting away from us, so it hadn't happened yet.   My mom encouraged us to make it happen, so we did.  And I am so glad we did.

Because they had SO much fun.  My one regret is not packing their swimsuits.  I am sure you are thinking you went to the beach and you didn't pack swimsuits?  But hear me out.  This is the Pacific NW.  The high for the day was supposed to be 65*.  And our ocean water?  NOT warm. At all. (It hovers around the high 50's this time of year, which to me sounds absolutely miserable!)

But I forget my kids are not my kids when it comes to water activities.  They are their father's children through and through, loving any and all water related recreational activities.  Like I said, that is so not me.  My idea of good recreation is a Netflix marathon.

You think I'm kidding. 

It ended up being such a nice day and the kids were taking off their overprotective mom gear (rubber boots, socks, sweatshirts....) and rolling up their pants within minutes of getting out on the sand.

To put it simply, they played for hours.  And thankfully they have a daddy who loves it just as much as they do.

This mama was content to take pictures and try and record as many memories as possible.  In other related news, I was also the pack mule, carrying my purse (never leave it in the car anymore, not after having my car broken into and my purse stolen from said car) and their shoes and sweatshirts and camera bag.

Thankfully I had a decent excuse for not taking off my boots while on the beach.  Not really--I tripped the other day and ripped off half my big toenail.  Ouch!!! It's still very much in the early healing stages, so I was not about to get all kinds of sand in it.  So for me, the boots stayed on.

I wanted to get a fun jumping up and down picture of all of them.  They gave it their best effort to be sure, but the timing was never quite right.  However, lots of laughs were gained in the process--and that was priceless!!

It was a great bookend to our summer.

As for tomorrow, it's a new beginning......

Summer Update

We have been enjoying our summer to the fullest these last few weeks.  It's been consistently in the mid to high 80's with more than several 90 degree days thrown in.  So that has translated to a lot of trips to Grandma and Grandpa's to take advantage of their open house hospitality and pool.

What a blessing that has been for this no air conditioning family.

 I've said this before, but we really do live in a climate where air conditioning is not really a necessity at all--the average temp in our little neck of the woods between June and September is right around 75 degrees--which is actually quite liveable and comfortable without the luxury of AC.  But after several weeks of high 80's and low 90's, I kinda' wished we would have shelled out the $5,000 for air conditioning several years back.

I said kinda'.

But then almost as soon as I start to get sick of the hot weather, the weather starts to change and we start heading full speed into fall, and while I love all things fall, I sometimes need to remind myself to enjoy the moment and everything it has to offer.

Sweatiness and all.

While everyone was in the pool the other day (I don't really go in terribly much--it has to be Africa hot for me to indulge) I got out my macro lens that I had nearly forgotten about.  Honestly, I hadn't really forgotten about it, it's just not as practical for every day use when taking pictures of on-the-go littles.  At least I haven't found it to be, but perhaps I haven't played around with it enough?  I had the macro lens on my camera taking the photos of the Peanut the other day and I was too lazy distracted to put my every day lens on, so I went with it.

My dad puts in a garden every year {mostly for yours truly} and so I got some pictures of it's progress.  While he has at least a dozen tomato plants going strong, we are no where near to harvest like some of the other bloggers I read about.  It seems like they've been harvesting and putting up tomatoes for weeks while our are just getting started.  Here, our harvest for tomatoes is usually early to late September and then it's a roll of the dice to see how many you can let ripen on the vine before the first frost comes.  Clearly, one of the disadvantages to our nice, comfortable summertime average of 75 degrees!

Our boy has been learning the fine art of water fights as well.  Most days he is still figuring out how to fill up the water gun, but then when he does, he is so darned pleased with himself.  It's serious business for sure. 

The little Peanut has been having so much fun in the pool--and she is rocking the tan as well.   (Sidenote--I stink at taking iPhone pictures-- see below.  While very convenient at times, the smart phone so does NOT replace my DSLR.  Just sayin'.)  We affectionately call her our little Indian.  Not the most politically correct term, I am fully aware.  But in all honesty, my side of the family is quite jealous of her genes from my husband and his swarthy-esk skin.  While he is actually quite fair skinned most of time, when he gets out in the sun?  Full on tan lines in a matter of hours.

Like I said, jealous.  'Cause this pasty white girl doesn't tan very easily.  I have to get my sun in very small increments otherwise I'll be a lobster.  But the nice thing is I can rest assured that both my littles will have very nice school pictures indeed, with both sun kissed skin and hair.

And it doesn't get much better--as those pictures will be evidence of a hot, long, lazy summer. 



 

Happy Fourth!

Our fourth was fun filled with lots of family, friends, and food. Not necessarily in that order.

Ahem.

For reals--we had some awesome weather, even better food, and the best company. 

I learned several years ago when the Peanut was nearly three that if I wanted a special family picture to document any type of occasion, it's best to get it at the start of the event.  Everybody is rested, clean, hair all combed, etc.  Everyone is also typically in the most solid emotional state they will be in that day.  Not that we've ever had any type of temper tantrum.  No, not me us! My family has never done that.   

Sorry, I couldn't seem to find the sarcasm font.  

That said, we got family pictures first thing when we got to my parents.

It was nice enough to go swimming, and these four girls bonded (L-R: my cousin's little girl; my best friend from high school-her little girl; my other cousin's little girl; and of course, our little Peanut) rather quickly and were busy playing with each other ALL day. 

And I do mean, ALL day.

Our little guy had his own activities, including getting into absolutely everything and keeping all said adults on their toes, blowing bubbles, and even having his very first sucker.  They weren't a kiddin' when they say you are always more lax with the second one.  Peanut?  I think she was pushing three and half before I let her have a sucker.  This little boy?  Not even a week into two and he had more than one this weekend.  I know. 


There was also baseball with some of the kids and dads.  Peanut has been practicing on choking up on the bat correctly with lots of instruction by those who have come before her.  My friend's little boy was so sweet and patient with Peanut.  He's such a good big brother to his own little sister and it's evident in how he treats our Peanut.  So very sweet!

We also had horseshoes, yummy Sangria, and this dessert made by yours truly.  All not pictured, because either a) blogger fail or b) I was having such a good time, I didn't get pictures.  You decide. 

We had one small kerfuffle with the Peanut, but she bounced back in no less than two minutes.  Because you know, she might miss something. 

At the end of the day, we had a pretty awesome fireworks show (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!) and it was proven once again that boys will be boys.  Not that we ever doubted that. 

Cough, cough--dad, hubs, my uncle-cough, cough. 

Even our boy thoroughly enjoyed the festivities.  So much so that he has asked for fow woks {fireworks} each night since the 4th.  The noise did startle him a bit, so we got out Peanut's ear muffs for him.  Poor kid.  I'm thinking this a great one for the future graduation/wedding slide show?
 

I even got to play around with the camera and I actually got some pretty good fireworks shots.  Finally, three years and counting and I finally got some worth posting!  Third time's a charm, right?

Last, to close out the evening my dear sweet cousin camped out with the four girls in a tent....and captured this sweet moment of the girls before going to sleep in the tent.  

Blessings abound.