Brag or bust?

My hunny has been especially thoughtful, considerate, and downright willing to help lately.
I hope that first sentence didn't seem like a back-handed compliment.

I think for the majority of our married life things have engulfed us. We have felt like life had a strangle-hold on us. Unplanned expenses. Babies. Money - or the lack of it. Swamped by work schedule, pressure at work. General selfishness on both of our parts.

I have noticed a definite mellowing lately - A "Let's just help each other out" attitude.
I have been really trying to do little things to make his days easier and to let him know I care about his world outside our home.

He has been offering to bring me drinks.
He made me an omelet today for lunch.
He mowed the lawn on Tuesday.
He *without being asked to do so* took out the trash.
He sometimes gets up in the morning just to spend time with us and help out while we are getting ready for school.
He has been coming to our bedroom every night to tuck me in and kiss me goodnight. (I go to bed earlier than him because I wake up earlier than him on most days.)

These may not seem like giant, life-altering things - but adding them up over the course of a week or so really marks a positive change for us.

I feel like I am part of a winning team or something.
It's amazing how so little effort goes such a very long way when you feel you are in a place of unity.

I will take the little victories over the big ones for now.
Alas, our bathtub runneth over with his unhung laundry...
:0

Please leave tips in jar.

If you have a green thumb, or any success at all really with eliminating stickers and producing that smushy green stuff we sometimes call grass,
Please comment here:

Here's what I have tried:

1. Weed killer.
2. Hours pulling weeds up by the roots.
3. rock. paper. scissors.
4. shoveling large sections of weedy spots.
5. more weed killer.
6. planting grass seed.
7. watching birds eat the seed.
8. flailing my arms wildly and running at the birds.
9. watering.
10. pulling weeds.
11. trudging through muddy spots or jumping from one 3cm grass patch to the next one 6 feet away - Olympic style with a water hose and shovel in tow.
12. a menacing stare at the new stickers/weeds that weren't there yesterday...

What's a girl to do?

Soon.

I drove by my parents' new house four times today.
Essentially stalking it.
I am too excited for words.
Tomorrow.
Neighbors.
If I need a hug, a cup of sugar, or anything really - they are a stone's throw away.
Family dinners. Saturday mornings drinking coffee with my Momma.
Going through 'treasured' items my Papa Bear has spent his whole life collecting, listening to the story attached to each precious one.
I simply cannot wait.
Family is a beautiful thing.
I love my family.

Take a Gander.

Someday they will hate me for this one - but it's darling, isn't it?

These are some of the pictures from our fishing extravaganza.

It was fun - but I am not sure we'll go again with both kids until they are a smidge older.

feelin' mighty proud... and sore.

I have finally finished some of those projects I had planned to do over Spring Break.

• I planted no less than 75 separate plants. Mostly perennials, but some annuals for a touch of color.


• Weeded and fertilized our yard.


• Got my first official sunburn of the sunny seasons. Please refer to aforementioned bullet-point...


• Removed the unwanted or dead landscaping from our yard.


• Took the kids on their first ever fishing trip.


• Spent some time with family.


• Painted my bedroom. I seriously wish I had before and afters. And before and afters. How many colors did I try? Probably at least 5 or 6...


• Began decorating my bedroom. Mostly with stuff I already had - but please pay specific attention to what is on my dresser!! I'm a spoiled brat!!


• Got our bedroom ceiling fan hung, courtesy of my hunny. That marked the removal of the last pink flamingo from our home - sigh... Have I ever told you about the vibrant color choices of the previous owners? heheh I think we found around a dozen different pink flamingos.


• Polyurethaned my dining room table - finally. I had stained it, but never put on the topcoat to protect it. Silly, I know - but I like to live dangerously with two small children. :)


• Hung some shelves. And my bathroom towel bar. Woohoo! Our towels now have a home that IS NOT the floor!


• Got the tile that we will install during the summer ordered.


• Did not suffocate under oppressive amounts of laundry.


• Survived spring break and my to do list.


• Played with my kids and got gruff with them on a few occasions.


• Tweaked lots of little things around the house not really worth mentioning but that made me feel swell.

I feel like I am risking 'persecution' by talking about decorating and keeping my house just the way I like it. Maybe persecution is a strong word, but goodness - I like it better when I can know that the people who are reading my blog are going to use their words constructively and to edify. I am thinking about making my blog private because I don't want to feel like I have to censor what is going on in my world or the telling of it.

(For those of you who are completely confused, I feel I should mention that someone did use some pretty harsh and anonymous criticism toward a good friend of mine because she had expressed a desire to redecorate her bedroom while keeping expenses to a minimum.)

Here are some pictures of my nearly finished bedroom. Please note that the color of the carpet is a point of much dissatisfaction for me. And no, you do not need to adjust the color on your screen... It is strawberry pink.

utterly exhausted

there is only one kind of 'exhausted' that rivals 'childbirth exhausted' and that is yardwork/remodeling exhausted
i am it
or
it is me
i am pooped

what a day
the to do list ain't got nothin on me
i am about to conquer it

i am so tired my mind is thinking in sentence fragments
maybe i'll have something eloquent tomorrow

This will be funny someday.

Yesterday, my son thought it would be entertaining to color A's bedroom walls, doors, carpet, and furniture with lip gloss.
This was no mild infraction.
It actually evoked the quiet response from me.
If none of you are familiar with the quiet response, it goes like this:

Normal response - You walk into the room and find something kinda awful, you shout and holler and the kids are not phased at all.

Quiet response - You walk into the room and find something despicable beyond all belief, you utter no words. You just stare. There probably aren't words to describe all that is being communicated with the stare. At long last, you quietly, and in a somewhat psychotic whispery voice, offer suggestions like, "J, why don't you walk down the hall, (pause) into the kitchen, (gulp) and grab a washcloth. Then you can come back and (gleefully and detached) clean this up. (All smiles)"

There is real fear in the room at this point. I do not encourage using the quiet response for anything other than real, nightmarish events - otherwise it loses its potency.

I have never had to utilize my psycho, quiet trick twice in a short period of time. Until today.

Yesterday was lip gloss artwork. Today was much, much worse.

First of all, it would be important to note that there is a mother-in-law visit in progress. She witnessed the whole thing. For that, I am ashamed because due to the sheer magnitude of the offense, I had to 'up' the poker face just a smidge.

Here's today's event:
The kids have worn me ragged throughout the day prior to the arrival of Grandma with oodles of Easter baskets and goodies. Enter goodies: enter misery for mom.
They were ravaging the baskets and making Grandma feel so happy.
How they savored their treats! It was kinda cute. Until...
They had run out into the backyard and crushed about a dozen confetti eggs and then thought it might be cool to crush the hard boiled eggs they just painted, Yucko!
Egg in hair is not really a good look for anyone, nor is it a delightful smell.
The worst of it came when J. realized that playing with gum when Mom isn't looking is an adrenaline rush.
He must've pulled it out of his mouth and started playing with it. Stretching it out between his fingers, like a "spiderweb."
Next thing I knew A. walked in with her head ducked low and said, "Mommy, J. put spiderwebs all in my hair."
I looked real close and felt of it, because this looked like one phenomenal spider web!
It was NOT spiderweb. It was gum.
It sufficiently coated her entire head in a web-like pattern. It was smeared into her eyebrows and down one of her cheeks.
Then came the boy child.
He walked in with gobs of sticky mess between his fingers and his best attempt at putting 'bubble gum' eyeshadow on.

At this point, it was clear we were all too far invested in this moment to back out now.
I quietly asked, "J, is this bubblegum?" Ha! As if there were any other possibility...
He sheepishly said, "It's spiderweb."
Good one.
I encouraged them to go to the bathtub and touch NOTHING along the way.
A's hair was an absolute mess. I just KNEW she'd have to be shaved bald for Easter. Tragic, I tell you.
My mother-in-law kinda stood in the bathroom doorway watching, waiting to see if there was anything she could do. I think she was already horrified at the pace my children keep, but this was way more than either of us expected.
I calmly talked with my son about all the reasons this was unacceptable.
And furthermore, that he would not even remember what chewing/bubble gum is by the time he got to college, which is the next time he'll be given a piece.
There were spankings involved. Calm, earned spankings.
I proceeded to strip globs of gum out of my daughter's hair.
Hair by hair. Olive oil is what it took. And olive oil is messy all by itself.
I pulled off the quiet crazy response flawlessly.

Both of my kids were beyond mortified by the end of this experience.

The psycho mom trick is way too easy for me.
Almost natural.

Dud.

I have struggled with feeling like a dud all day over cancelling that silly get-together.
I looked out my window this afternoon and thought, 'I probably could have done it still.'
It seemed to be drying up fairly quickly today.
So poo.
I really hope no one becomes squeamish about coming to my house for fear that Fickle Face will change her mind moments before...
I guess that's all I have.

Long live the to do list.

Why do we say, "I guess I'll get that done over Spring Break, " when the cumulative list is physically impossible to accomplish in one week?

I have been going and going - probably with as much velocity as any work week, but I am still no where close to finishing the list.

Too bad it's not cold outside, I'd make a fire and burn that silly list.

As it goes, I have shortened its' contents by a good amount.
I do know one thing though, being a homeowner means that you'll never really cross out the list completely.

Next step, polyurethane the dining room table.
I'll probably put that off until tomorrow...

• hang pictures in my bedroom
• hang the ceiling fan in my bedroom
• re-caulk the kids' bathroom
• fix the tile in my shower
• peel wallpaper off my bathroom walls
• pull weeds in the front yard
• hang towel bar and curtain rod in my bathroom
• tile dining room and kitchen

I put this list up here for me, and rest assured it'll never get done over the course of this week.

I'll be glad if it gets done by summer's end.

The Darndest Things

I was washing dishes today and A. walked in and said, "Mommy, um...., I love booger sandwiches!"
Then she turned around and walked out of the kitchen.