the little things

I am in a weird transition.

I still want to be home for Ellie.  But don't.

I'm a little bored with her gone all day but am being extremely picky with my job search.

I am busy with birthday and life stuff.

And just a titch stressed about how it will all end up.

Should I do something that is not my passion but pays well?

Or should I stick to what I love and make less money?

Or can both be achieved?

Can I find exactly what I want and still be at home?

Tricky stuff.

I have found that I have been hurrying and bustling around too much lately.

So over the last few days I have been refocusing on the little things.

Things like:

Flowers in the bathroom.

And taking the time to let her tie her shoes, even though we were running a little late.

She is so close.

 And making the effort to do something good for my body in a pretty place.

ps. the lunges i did yesterday are making their presence known.  my butt muscles are screaming.

 Coloring at the doctor.  And noticing how grown up she is getting.

 Savoring the flavors of the blueberries in my morning oats.

And lingering over my 2nd or 4th cup of coffee.  Because, right now, I can.

 Making a little extra effort for the food for a jewelry party I threw for a friend.

It was all worth it.

And was one of the reasons I was doing extra lunges...

 Taking a picture of her messy morning bed, cause one day she is not going to have 300 stuffed animals, kids books, or loveys in it.

 A nice clean sun room.

I opened this room up for the jewelry party, and wowza.

It had a rough winter.

It is not even remotely weather proofed and all manner of bugs and such get in there.

This year, there was even some fun mold growing from our warmer than usual winter.

Murphy's Oil Soap and straight bleach saved the day.

It is all nice and bright in there now.

I am also enjoying a good book with another on it's way.

(Have you read Fifty Shades of Gray?  It is on its way to my doorstep and is, apparently, um, very hard to put down.)

I am enjoying a clean house and sunshine.

And looking forward to another fun weekend.

And a possible daytime date with my guy.

It's the little things people.

Enjoy them.

burst of activity

We are coming upon a burst of serious activity over the next few weeks.

I am nervous about all that needs done.

We've got:

Book Club

Dance

Babysitting for friends

Birthday Party for a friend

Hosting a Stella and Dot Party

A different book club

Dance again

Hero Dance with Daddy

Tea Party birthday Party for Ellie

Going to see Chimpanzee on her actual birthday (annual tradition...)

Dance again

Family Birthday Party for Ellie

Birthday Party for Natalie

This is all in the next 3ish weeks.

Cra-zy.

Fun.  But Crazy.

That means I am hosting people at my house for the next 3 weekends.

I love to do it.

But I always stress just a little bit about it.

I don't know why.

Throw a possible new job in the mix.

Plus the every day everydays,

and BAM!

We are busy.



weekend

We had a fantastic weekend!

We started it off with a trip to the Indoor Amusement Park.

We took a friend this year and the girls ran us moms ragged.

We stood in front of this mirror for a good 5 minutes laughing.

 Then Chris and I had a date night.

He had just read the Hunger Games and we went and saw the movie.

First though, we imbibed and watched the end of the Saturday matches of the Masters.

 Then Saturday, our sweet friends Kevin and Lisa has a gigantic egg hunt for the kids.

It was such a nice morning.

 Chris even got some baby love.

Is Reagen not the cutest thing ever?

 Then Sunday morning found us egg hunting.

 Someone was still a wittle sweepy.

I completely dropped the ball on any kind of food for Easter Sunday.

Like, I had nothing planned or in the fridge to cook for the entire day.

Mom Fail.

So we went to Grumpy's for breakfast.

And had popcorn for lunch.

And cheese and crackers and apples for dinner.

Cause that's how we roll.

And bless my girl.

She let us watch the entire Masters.

And it was a good one.

Go Bubba!

He was a blubbering mess when he won.

I loved it.

I may even have a new favorite golfer.

Another great weekend.

I have it good.

lately

Lately:

We have been playing catch-up from the plague of 2012.

Lots of laundry and grocery store going and such.

Lately:

I have been busy planning for a little somone's 6th birthday.

I am throwing a tea party for her and 5 friends for under $75.

It helps when you serve peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, serve homemade cupcakes, and the activities planned are a scavenger hunt and a dance party.

Lately:

I am grumpy. 

Lately:

We have been dyeing Easter eggs and I am afeared that my fingers may be permantly stained.

Lately:

I have found a church I really like.  And Ellie likes it.  And they allow coffee in the sanctuary during the service.  And they give you a Bible when you walk in.  And we are going again on Saturday night for Easter services.

Lately:

I have noticed that our backyard must be the secret path for all the stray cats in the neighborhood.  I have seen 6 different cats in the last 3 days.  One big old orange tom drive Atticus bananas.

Lately:

I have plans to make these.

(From Lisa Leonard)

I am going to send them in to Ellie's class tomorrow, so I don't eat them all...

Lately:

Ellie got her hair cut.

She looked all professional in the chair.

We bought a big round brush so we can try and recreate the straightening whilst drying technique.

Lately:

The aforementioned kid and I have been on the outs.  Wowza.

Lots of parenting happening all up in these parts.

I drop her off at school every morning wishing our morning had gone better.

That makes me sad.

Lately:

I am at an impasse on working out.

The sickness got me all unmotivated.

Must. Get. Motivated.

Luckily, my appetite hasn't been all that great.

So that helps.

Lately:

We have lots to look forward to.

Parties, and get-togethers, and fun summer plans.

Life is good.



what i know for sure - being sick edition

In all our years, Chris and I have never been sick at the same time.

We decided, on Ellie's first ever Spring Break, we would end that tradition.

He was worse than me.  Fever and such.

I just had a horrid head cold with body aches and a nasty cough.

Here is now

"What I know for sure about being sick."

1.  You will wonder which is worse, being the really sick one (him) or being the one who feels just a titch better, so therefore has to handle everything.

2.  You will want to cry when your kid asks you to play with her.

3.  Your laundry back-up will get absurd.

4.  Your house will be strewn with Polly Pockets and crayons.

5.  You won't care.

 6.  You will think that sitting in the sun will feel good.

7.  It will only make you sweaty and irratable.

8.  Popscicles will become your friend.

9.  As will night-time medicine.

10.  You will sleep in the basement so you don't disturb your husband with your hacking and restlessness.

11.  You will get no sleep.

 12.  You will feel incredible guilty, that while down in the basement, you can hear your kid making her own breakfast.

13.  And you still won't have the wherewithall to get up and help her.

14.  You will listen to her read to the cat and get weepy.

15.  You will go to the store for more cough drops and sprite and nearly pass out from the exertion.

16.  You will have a tiff with your husband when the power goes out and you can't get out of the garage to go to the doctor, and where is the damn garage key?

17.  You will be extra thankful for friends who come and whisk your kid away for a sleepover.

18.  You will watch an inspirational movie and cry all the way through it, cause you're all drugged up.

19.  You will go to bed at 8:15.

20.  You will have weird drug induced dreams.

21.  You will wake up on day 4, feeling better, and wondering what the heck happened to the last week.

22.  You will convince yourself that the "chapped nose from all that blowing" look is hardly noticable.  Hardly noticable at all.

23.  You will look around your disasterous house, think about tiding up, then decide to pick your kid up from her sleepover and give her a fun day, cause, she was a trooper through the sickness.



where have i been???

I know.

It's been a long time.

We headed home for a visit for a few days.

Played with cousins.

Had a night out with some old friends.

(Which was awesome! Thanks Grismores!)

Etc...

Etc...

Then Chris found out he had to be back a day earlier than he thought.

So we left a day early.

Good thing too.

Cause on the way home, Chris started to not feel good.

That was Monday.

This is Thursday.

He has the flu.

I got my flu shot, so I just have a heinous head cold.

Ellie is totally fine.

Bored out of her gourd, cause her loser sick parents are ruining her spring break, but fine.

Poor thing even had to make her own breakfast yesterday.

She had cheerios.

I feel like I don't want to die today. 

So I might be on the mend.

Chris still has fever.  Off to the Dr. he goes this afternoon.

And Ellie is heading to a sleepover.

Things are looking up!

stolen date

I love it when I get a text from Chris at 2:30 in the afternoon.

"Golf tomorrow?"

Hell to the yes.

It somehow feels illicit and sexy.

Sneaking off in the middle of the week to spend some time together.

So we arrived just after we dropped Ellie off at school.

It was all dewy and green.

Smelled so good.

We walked the first nine.

Rode the second.

I didn't play all that great.

She's in there.  My former golfer girl.

But she has lain dormant so long, she is rusty.

But that wasn't the idea.

It was 80 degrees.

And the sun was shining

It was just my guy and me.

There may or may not have been a pretty good kiss shared behind a tree on the 15th.

Pretty close to heaven.

And I declare this is the year my golfer girl comes out of retirement.

 I need to remember to keep my stinkin' head down.

And to swing through the ball.

And to never leave another putt short.

For. Real.