Back to School

Well, our Christmas break ended last week.  Before it did, my parents decided Andrew and I needed to go see "Lincoln" so they watched the kids for us and even had dinner waiting when the movie was over.  They are so good to us.  And the movie was great.  And the way Lincoln was portrayed reminded me a bit of Andrew.  His thought processes with several of the situations presented and the mostly calm manner he had when dealing with others, even others who were more dramatic.  He was also a man of integrity that felt compelled to stick to his beliefs, whether it was popular or not.  But again, it was a great movie and I totally recommend it.  And I saw two movies in a just a few days, which is very, very unusual.  Thankfully they were both good movies.

Wednesday was the last day of break and I took down all of our decorations, inside and out.  Actually Andrew told me he would take down the lights outside, so I did the rest of the outside decorations and left the lights up on the house.  He worked at the office in the morning and then took the kids out to the ranch to go sledding that afternoon.  Well, the three oldest went.  I think they went to several different hills and had a blast.  He took some video on his phone and they were some pretty big hills.  I am so thankful he takes them out to do fun things like that, and I am able to get things done around the house like taking down the decorations and cleaning up the mess. 

Thursday morning was kind of rough as the kids had enjoyed sleeping in during break. But it is always good to get back to a routine.  Most of the day I worked on purging and organizing our storage area-sometimes a hard task with little ones around.  They would play around in the toy room for a little bit and then come visit me in the storage area.  With two birthday parties and Christmas, I ended up just throwing stuff back into the storage area without putting it away in the right place.  I knew I was going to be reorganizing all of it, so I didn't take the time.  Thursday night I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a few more storage boxes and then got it all finished through out the day on Friday.  Andrew picked up another shelf at Home Depot for me and I got it put together, put the last of my stuff on it and stood back and admired it.  I still love to go down and look at my now reorganized storage area. I almost took a picture, but decided not to.  I just love organized spaces.  Andrew still wants to do his own organizing with his hunting stuff.  And then I saved a space for his new gun cabinet.  He already bought it at Orschelns, we just have to get some people to move it for us because it is very heavy. 

After I got everything done Friday, I dropped Jackson and Ellie off to spend the night with Zach and Kate while Lincoln, the twins, and I went to my parents for dinner.  While my kids may not enjoy it, I love when my mom makes soup for dinner.  She usually makes a few different kinds, so you get to enjoy a little of each.  After dinner my dad turned on Duck Dynasty for a bit and then wanted to change it to a football game when Lincoln requested he change it back to Duck Dynasty.  He also requested to watch it when we got home and he was watching tv with Andrew.  He is a funny kid.  He went out to the ranch with Andrew on Saturday and they were home kind of early-around 10:30.  They came back because Andrew found 3 dead cows in the middle of one of his ponds.  He didn't think the pond would be a problem because it wasn't deep enough for a cow to drown it it.  But these got out on the ice, broke through, and somehow drowned.  I don't think Lincoln knew what was going on, but around the time Andrew made the discovery, Lincoln wanted him to sing "Jesus Loves Me" with him.  So Andrew got home, went to the office for a bit, and then headed back out to work on the situation.  In the meantime, I went by to pick up Jackson and Ellie and stayed for a bit so Lincoln and Alex could play together.  Then it was off to the church thrift store to drop off all of the stuff I had accumulated from cleaning out the house.  Soon after we got home, Andrew called to say he was headed back out to the ranch and told Jackson to sneak out and meet him while I distracted Lincoln.  They ended up not getting home until later that night and were grateful to have Andrew's parents offer to help him out.  Again, we have great parents that still take care of us.  I think it was a long day for Andrew.  He has been so busy lately, which also means long days for me as he is not around very much.  But there isn't much choice when you have a job that you work at least 60 hours each week at (even more a lot of times) plus cattle that need to be taken of (especially when it is cold and snowing outside).  He is definitely a hard worker but loves when he gets a chance to just hang out at home with us.  And I was able to get him to come home early enough Sunday morning so I could get to the stores to get some groceries before we had to head to church.  I have been trying to go more at night and on the weekends with it being cold.  It is just a chore getting the kids in and out of the car and cart and I always feel bad having one sit out in the cold while I am getting the other one in the car. 

Andrew ended up taking Jackson with him most of the rest of Sunday.  Jackson got into a little trouble at church (being disrespectful to the lady in charge of his church service) so he had to write an apology letter to her, clean Andrew's office, and no video games or tv.  He had a much better attitude by the end of the day.  I was able to finish up a Christmas present for the grandparents I had to redo.  Using Kathy Powell's adorable ornaments she made for Miles & Bennett last year as an example, I painted some wooden blocks and used Modge Podge to apply family pictures to them.  The first ones I did soon after I got the wood from Home Depot and the wood was still wet.  I went ahead and painted them anyways thinking it would still work and I didn't have time to let them set and dry.  Well that was a big mistake.  It seemed like the paint would never dry even after I put them in front of a space heater for a while.  Actually, when my mom opened her box, the box was damp.  The pictures were washed out and looked funny so I promised her and Mary that I would redo them.  I brought the wood blocks inside for a few days to dry and it all turned out much better.  Only problem was I forgot to sand off the edges to give them a worn look before I added the pictures.  Oh well.

And at the end of the day we went to my parents to have a belated birthday celebration to me.  It was not necessary, but my mom insisted on doing it which was very nice.  We had yummy fried chicken for dinner and red velvet cake, of course.  Lincoln decided he really liked the yellow cake-corn bread.  This morning he was talking about the yellow cake again and telling me he loves people's birthdays and that he loved me and we loved each other because we had two  hearts :-). 

 

Ellie got to start jazz class today so she was very excited.  She will spend an hour and a half there on Mondays so we will see how it goes.  She was also able to finally take out her starter earrings and try out her new ones.  She probably put in 6 different pair on Sunday and was stressing over which ones to wear today. 

 

A sad update on Jackson...he has been eating Honey Bunches of Oats since he was three and as of a couple weeks ago he no longer likes them.  He has switched to Frosted Mini Wheats or whatever the Aldi version of it is.  My siblings will understand how epic this is.  One Christmas we all had to wait on him to finish eating his Honey Bunches of "Boats" before we started opening presents. 

 

And Miles and Bennett-right now they are in a full on fight with each other, screaming.  A common occurrence lately.  And what are they fighting over this time?  The handle that came off of one of their little John Deere riding toys.  Miles really has an ear-piercing scream.  Bennett has been walking a lot.  It is his preferred mode of mobility.  Miles has just taken a few steps, so this is one thing that they aren't doing at the same time.  They are both getting their first year molars at the same time I believe.  They have been pretty grumpy and not napping well some days.  So hopefully those break through soon.  Otherwise they keep me busy.  As I was making dinner tonight they were pulling every pot and pan out of the drawer that is right under the cooktop.  All of the doors are rubberband closed but I don't have anything in place yet to keep them out of the drawers, hence I really had to watch where I was walking while I was cooking.  They are still so darn cute though and just charge at you when you get down on the floor.  I was trying to take some pictures of them the other night with my phone without too much success.  Bennett likes to act like he is talking on the phone and he was using his Super Grover phone.  And Miles just likes to play with the phone.  They also like to stuff whatever they can find into their new ball popper and then wonder why it doesn't work.  Maybe it is the finger puppets and wooden blocks :-)

 

 





And I can't forget Miles' crazy hair.

So that is about it for this past week. This week we start up small group again and get to find out which basketball team Jackson will be on for the Y league. Oh, and tomorrow I get to go out with some friends for a girls' night, which is always nice. And then maybe a trip to Columbia on Wednesday with my mom, Molly, and the twins.

Lastly, just something I wanted to get off my chest.  Maybe it is for cathartic purposes or maybe just because.  I received a birthday card in the mail recently from Andy and Autumn that was pretty funny.  It shows Wonder Woman trying to lay out by a pool as everyone around her screams for help and she says, "I just wanted five minutes..."  And inside it says, "Relax, it's your birthday.  Let someone else save the world today."  Maybe that is how a lot of moms feel, they just want a little break but don't seem to get it.  And sometimes people will call me super woman or super mom just because I make cute stuff for a birthday party or get a few things accomplished during the day with the kids in tow.  But I want to let everyone know that I am nowhere near a super mom.  I do have a lot of responsibilities but I don't really excel at any of them.  Andrew can get frustrated at the amount of time I spend on making stuff for birthday parties.  Especially now as I am learning all the ins and outs of the Silhouette.  And since graphic design is not my forte, it takes me a while to design things since I keep changing the way it looks.  So I probably do spend too much time on it without meaning to, and I probably spend too much time on the computer in general.  I get easily distracted when I am doing office work or paying bills or researching something.  I should spend more one-on-one time with my kids, I am not good about reading to them.  I don't let them do that many crafts because I don't want to clean up the mess.  You know all those things out there about the house being a mess because your making memories with the kids-not me.  I get anxious if the house isn't clean and I should probably let that go a little.  I feel like I should do more special things for my kids, but am too tired and lazy to take the time to do it.  I let them watch too much tv and get impatient with them a lot.  I can get easily overwhelmed and ungrateful even though I have a pretty good life with many blessings.  I am now perpetually late.  I still underestimate the time it will take me to make sure everyone has shoes and coats on and buckeled into the car along with an occasional poopy diaper right when you have to leave and general whininess that comes with getting ready to leave.  I have a hard time resisting baked goods.  I feel like I don't bake as much any more because I eat so much of whatever it is I make.  I once bought a package of chocolate chip cookies to surprise the kids, ate a few when I got home, and then threw them in the trash so I wouldn't eat anymore.  I didn't even save any for the kids.  Oh and I make almost the same thing for the kids for lunch every day.  I don't need to look at the all Pinterest ideas for fun lunches, because my kids get the same thing.  Partly because of me and partly because that is what they want and that is another issue I don't want to force.  I was the same way.  I packed a peanut butter and jelly sandwich almost every day when I was working.  I was fine with it.  And I feel like I used to like making dinner more than I do now.  Now I try to find easy crockpot meals that I can make in the morning and forget about the rest of the day.  And while I'm on the subject of food, we eat nonorganic, processed food which I guess is a bad thing these days.  I neglect my friends and hardly make time to talk to anyone.  I hardly ever volunteer in my childrens' classrooms except for an occasional party.  I actually hardly ever do volunteer work in general.  I have good intentions of working out, but I go in spurts.  When things get busy, I put it off until there is no time left in the day.  And same thing with trying to read my bible and spend some time with God every day.  I think I really want to do it, but a lot of times it just doesn't happen. And then Andrew would probably agree (and should agree) that he gets forgotten about a lot too.  Maybe it is because I know he loves me even when I don't deserve it, but he deserves so much more from me.  Then it really bothers me when I mess up something or forget something even though I should just let it go.  Just today, I added a deposit incorrectly and the teller at the bank let me know.  I was a little embarrassed.  I want to wear a button that says, "I know it may seem unbelievable, but I did graduate 5th in my high school class".  Like that should matter now at all, but I still cling to it :-).  My mom has reminded me several times of the phrase, "Don't let comparison steal your joy."  But I read other blogs of people I don't even know (again, probably on the computer too much) and I don't understand how they do it-devout to their religion, make time for their kids and spend time educating them, doing crafts with them, doing science experiments with them, and still have them in all the different extracurricular activities; they run 5ks or marathons; eat healthy and make great meals for their family and also post the recipe; they are very crafty and use that skill to help out at school or church; and they appear to have a great marriage... I like reading blogs to get different ideas.  I like reading blogs because some people are such great wordsmiths with great stories to tell and great advice to give.  But I wonder if it is harder these days because we do compare ourselves to all of these women.   So maybe this will put me in a different light and maybe you read this and think, "I'm not doing too bad."  Either way, I just wanted to put it out there :-)