Mother's Day 2011

Yes, I am just now getting around to posting my Mother's Day photos.  

I had a glorious Mother's Day this year.  I was well taken care of {as usual}.  First, I got to sleep in and then was served breakfast in bed.  I also received chocolate covered strawberries...my favorite and a Mother's Day tradition.  My other gifts included a garden stone which read "mothers are special" {thank you Colin} and a Mom book {new tradition} which was featured in the May issue of Real Simple magazine {but I read about it on Sarah's blog}.  Adorable!   My favorite gifts ever...made by my babies!

We then took a picnic lunch to Springbrook State Park and hiked around the lake.  The weather was beautiful...the day was perfect.  I'm such a blessed Mama!

my sweeties and me

my BIG boys

Ty showing off his muscles {he had to attach his water bottle to his shorts!}

Oh darn.  No big ideas here.  No beautiful pictures this time.  It's ok, because I've learned long ago that this is a place for me to write my feelings, vent, share...if only with my family...if only for our history.

Today was hard.  Emotionally and physically.  Physically because I'm T.I.R.E.D.  Don't want to get my lazy bones out of bed, tired.  Because my heart told me to stay home, but I listened to my head instead.  It took all my strength to keep it together.  Emotionally because I care far too much about things outside of my control.  Because I know that being true to me means dealing with the judgements of others.  Because trying to be emotionally strong when I'm physically tired is impossible.

The month of May is FULL of stuff.  Baseball games, appointments, concerts, track and field days, end of school days, graduating days, birthdays...all on top of our normal days {i.e. work days}.  And bottom line is this...I know that all these things are important.  I enjoy a lot of these things.  But, nothing beats staying at home...snuggled with my family...with nothing to do.  Nothing.  Boring and normal.  That's what I really crave.

Sounds boring?

I say it sounds perfect.

teacher appreciation + cheat sheets

teacher appreciation

It's teacher appreciation week!  We wrote our thank-yous this weekend and potted some pretty annuals for our favorite teachers...

The cards are my favorite.  I hope the teachers like them...

"cheat sheets"

Sarah's been asking me to do this post for a while and I figured that this is a perfect time to do it with teacher appreciation and end-of-year gifts right on top of us.

At the beginning of the school year I sent this letter to Colin and Ty's teachers...  

It's basically a little, informative letter about the boys.  I don't know if you can read it very well in this picture but it tells the teachers their name, birthday, who's in their family, and about some of their favorite things.  Then enclosed with that letter is another sheet....

This asks the teacher to fill out information about themselves and return it to the student.  It asks for their birthday and some of their favorite things like favorite food, color, magazine, snacks, store where they like to shop, activities, hot drink, and cold drink...just to name a few.  Then I stash it here...

in the family "owners manual" {idea from the lovely and talented Sarah } where it remains until I need to shower the teacher with a treat. 

I appreciate {so much} the job that teachers do.  They deserve, in my opinion, some royal pampering for putting up with our little darlings all year.  I like to acknowledge their birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas/Hanukkah, teacher appreciation and end-of-year.  Sometimes if they have something special going on I acknowledge that as well.  This year Colin's teacher got married and one of Ty's teachers became a grandma.  Colin's teacher likes to scrapbook, so I gave her some wedding rub-ons.  For Ty's teacher, I made a "brag book" out of one of those cheapo photo books you can get for a dollar, the ones they used to give you for free when you developed a roll of film...back in the dark ages.   Birthdays are nothing more than their favorite drink, snack and candy...for Thanksgiving I got a bouquet from Costco and turned it into two bouquets with tags that read "thankful" for the pre-school teachers {Colin was too embarrassed to take his teacher a bouquet}.  I do spend a little more for holidays and end-of-year gifts, but I'm talking a $10 gift card to their favorite store for Christmas/Hanukkah and maybe $20 for end-of-year.  Although, with two kids in school now I'm really thinking next year the holiday gifts will be much less...just a little thought...

So, that's how I do the whole teacher gift thing.  The letter makes it really easy to treat the teachers throughout the year to some of their favorite things.  I should work on making one for my husband :).

Enjoy your week...

Easter weekend

We had a busy and productive weekend!  It went by way too fast, as weekends generally do.  We painted our very ugly front door and now it's not as ugly, but it's still pretty bad.  We're trying to "get by" with it for a bit longer...like until we bust out of this joint.  But, with super-inflation looming around the corner we'll realistically be here a bit longer.  BOO.  

The color we chose was "poppy seed" by Behr {paint and primer in one}.  Not diggin' it completely.  Too dark for a north facing door...I think we need a shot of color.  But until we get rid of the red, peeling paint on the bottom 1/4 of our house this is going to stay.

Also, we chose curtains!  Yes, I made a decision.  I took a risk {for me anyway} and I gotta say I'm liking the result!  I did not go with the patterned curtains...just plain, old neutral ones.  We got these at Home Depot.  Cheap and easy {that's what she said}.

Our little chicks ready for the hunt.  Don't you love how they dressed up for the occasion?  {Sarah, E is wearing the dress you sent for her birthday...it is so cute on her!}

And, one last picture cuz it's so stinkin' funny... what a squirrel!

Have a great week!

P.S. I also made one of these over the weekend.  It turned out way cute!  Post pics soon!

crummy monday

Crummy Monday started Monday-eve, better known as Sunday, at about 10:30 p.m. when dear, little Eden woke up crying and clearly uncomfortable.  Gas? Ears?  Whatever it was wasn't good...I was up until 2:30 then Dad took over {pulled her into bed where she finally zonked out, of course} and I crashed until 6:30a.m.

It's cold.  It's supposed to rain and be chilly all week.

Dropped the boys at school.  Left Eden at my Mom and Dad's {guiltily} and headed toward another work week.  One of my favorite patients died over the weekend.  55 years old.  Sudden.  Sad.

Tom Brokaw once said "Life is like Jr. High"...or something close to that.  And my workplace fits the bill. So does 2nd grade, turns out.

I'm like every Mom.  I want my children to have friends and be happy.  When they don't..., when they aren't..., it hurts...a lot.  I want to fix it.  I can't.  I pray.  I wonder...what if I had made that choice or done this instead of that?....I make myself crazy.  I give advice that I should take..."people who don't make you feel good aren't people you should keep around".

Here's to a happier Tuesday.  Let's put Monday to bed!

Could I really have just forgotten my password to blogger?  Yes.  It has been a while.

Blog-land seems to be on the same page.  I seem to come across a lot of other bloggers with, what I have diagnosed as, blog-block.  Many have expressed their guilt about the time they spend blogging.  Others have nothing to say.  Some are finding life too busy.  I can say I have a bit of "all of the above" going on.

I'm in love with my children.  I have so much to say about them.  They feed my soul.  I want to record our memories here.  How is it then that all three had birthdays and little to nothing was recorded here?   Don't know, except that I've been living my life with them.  I've been loving them.  I haven't been writing much.  I hope that they will look back and remember the time and not miss the "reporting".

It seems that I have just enough energy for my everyday life right now.

And that's ok.

Bottom line...when they are all in bed, and I sit down to type, and nothing comes out, it is because my body is screaming go. to. bed!  


So I have been :)


I will leave you with an exciting tidbit.  I hung pictures on my bedroom wall!  I know, I know...I was feeling brave.  And you know what?  I love them!  And, I have plans to hang even more!

Risk...

it's highly recommended by me!

** did you notice the other addition to my blog at the right?  I'm seriously considering changing the title of my blog...

for Sarah

OK Sarah...here she is in all her crazy glory.  This picture looked a little less psychotic on my tiny camera window.  She is, however, psycho over chocolate...like her mama.

Will be posting again soon...I hope.  Had a great thought for a post this morning, but...well...apparently I need to start writing things down.

*Curtain update:  not going with either.  I'm stuck and will probably never own actual drapes.  I'm kinda over it for right now because I hate dealing with window treatments!

Oh decorating, how I love loathe you!

Remember when I said I could get the basics done.  The paint, the larger pieces of furniture...you know...the boring, easy stuff?  The accessorizing... not so much!

So the problem I'm dealing with is curtains.  Or, lack of curtains.  I need some curtains.  When we moved in there were some funky, nasty, straight from the '70's curtains with sheers.  We tore down the heavy curtains immediately and lived with just sheers until I could no longer stand it.  I wanted matchstick blinds with curtains.  After we scraped the shiny, striped, straight from the '70's wallpaper off and painted I nabbed some cheapo matchstick blinds from Menards to "tide us over".  They were literally $7.  They are fabulous, no?  I realize that they are way to small for the windows...but it was just "for now", remember?  Two years later I still cannot figure out what to do here.  Pathetic, I know.

Sorry, bad picture....but you can see what I'm talking about...

I've decided to make this my next goal.  I should be able to find something to work here, yes?  So I've begun my hunt.  I love the curtains in the family room on this blog.  It was featured on YHL on their last house crashing.  I was so stoked because they said the panels were JCPenny and I thought maybe they'd work...probably too yellow...but definitely discontinued! so it didn't matter anyway.

So here are two I'm considering.  Feedback please.  Our walls are close to the blue color on the bottom there and our couch is a chocolate brown {scroll up and check it out}...so, I was considering either the pebble or latte...but, maybe too modern looking?

Then, I'm liking these too.  They are similar to the striped ones I liked in that one family room...but, could be too shiny looking, therefore more formal...I cannot tell for sure.

So, what do you think?  Am I way off?  Too boring?  Too ugly?  On track?  Really cool :)?  

I'm scared... :)

Hooray!  Spring is officially here and even though those meteorologists said it would be below seasonal temperatures this week   I   DON'T   CARE!   They cannot change the fact that spring has officially arrived...the calendar said so!

I can see the buds on the trees.  I can hear the birds.  I can almost smell the campfire.  BRING IT!

*one other small thing.  I have not given up on my blog.  Only, it has become increasingly more difficult to find the time to sneak away to write.  I've somewhat forgotten how challenging 12-18 months can be.  Heck...I've somehow forgotten how challenging parenting in general can be!  Every age brings something new!  I'm trying to navigate it without loosing total confidence in myself...not an easy task!  So bear with me...I may only eek out one post a week...that's my goal...I'll hope for more.!

Have a wonderful week!

It's fair to say that I've been a little busy with life.  Two out of five of us had a flu shot this year.  Guess which two have been the most sick?  Coincidence?  Eden is the ear infection queen.  She still hasn't had her 12 month immunizations because every time she is scheduled to see the Dr. she gets another ear infection!  Ty will not stop coughing, and was just diagnosed with influenza A { a lot of good the flu shot did} and took a trip to the ER on Friday morning due to that cough that just won't quit.  He came home with Amoxicillin and an ear infection of his own along with cough medicine containing codeine {which we never used!}.  We will be scheduling appointments with an ENT for both... Eden for her ears and Ty for his tonsils/adenoids.  Thank God for health savings accounts, that's all I have to say.

So, here's hoping the rest of us can stay healthy because I've had it with this sick stuff!  Common Spring!  *8 more days*!


And, a big THANK YOU to my cute husband for doing the Costco and Target run for me this weekend {because he knew it just might put me over the edge} and because he got me these beautiful flowers because he knew that the many Dr. visits and sleepless nights were wearing on me.  
Isn't it the always the grocery store bouquets bought "just because" that make a girl feel the most loved?

no title

It's March.  I now have a 1-year old, a 5- year old, and I'm days away from an 8- year old.

We've been sick.  We are tired.  We need to re-coop before another birthday celebration.  Cake anyone?

If I was better organized or well-rested I might have pictures to share of Ty's birthday celebration.  But...I'm not either of those things.  So, the pictures will stay on my camera for now as I attempt to become well-rested.  Wish me luck.

Happy March!  We're days away from spring!!  Hooray!!!!!