Another week has come and gone

Well, another week has come and gone.  There were a few noteworthy things that took place.  Maybe not for you, but for me.  I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Winter is just around the corner and the year will soon be over.  The snow really is beautiful.  I'm not ready for it.  I want to linger around in Fall for a while, but the snow seems to slow me down.  I need that in my life right now.  We needed that this weekend.  Knowing that I have the whole day tomorrow, we even spent some time doing nothing this weekend (I have the house to prove it).  It was fabulous! And now for my two heartwarming Mom moments.  It was just like overnight that Brinley started reading, it really was.  It seems like we have been working on letters and sounds forever and then one day she just did it.  She read an entire book and I was so proud of her. And for heartwarming Mom moment number two... She walks!  Lunnie walks!  Same thing, she has been standing forever and then today in church she did it.  It's wobbly and adorable!  I suppose I will feel like this way for the rest of my life, each time my children succeed or do something great.  I'm proud of them!  Both of these things were hard yet they concord them. They inspire me!  Yes, I can walk and I can read, but I realize I need to challenge myself more.  I need to quit being afraid of hard things.  On a side note, Dustin and I attended class together today.  It felt like the first time in forever!  It pretty much was the first time in forever.  We have a great teacher and the class is pretty light.  It's just about building relationships, who doesn't need that?  One thing that I took from the class today is that we shouldn't "expect" anything from our kids.  We just serve them, and when they don't get it right, we come down to their level and continue to serve them some more.  I love that!  I'm maybe not so good at it, but I love it!  They don't owe us anything!  They really don't.  Hopefully in serving them we can teach them to be decent human beings and contributors to society, but I really do think we expect too much from our children.  Maybe we should spend less time concentrating on what they don't do right and more time loving, serving and teaching them. I'm going to try it, cause my girls deserve it!

Living the life of my dreams

I’m a daydreamer, always have been.  I have the perfect EVERYTHING made up in my head… lawns and gardens, rooms, houses, hair styles, makeup, conversations, parties, meals, workouts, vacations, outfits, it’s all right there in my head.  I even dream up lives for other people, I know, I know, this is why people don’t like me.  I can’t help it, it’s just how I am.  You should really try living inside of my head for a day, it’s a beautiful place to be. 

One thing I dream about A LOT is what I would do if I was a stay-at-home Mom.  Now please don’t take this as a “poor me I’m a working Mom post” because I really don’t feel like that, but there are things that I wish were different or things that I don’t get to experience because I work. 

So, let me just tell you if I was a stay-at-home Mom first of all I wouldn’t complain about it. I would get up early and look amazing all day, I wouldn’t lounge around in my pj’s, I wouldn’t watch TV and I would spend limited amounts of time on the computer,  I would make amazing breakfasts for my kiddos full of antioxidants and omega 3’s,  I would walk my kids to and from school everyday,  my house would be clean all of the time, we would spend lots of time creating things, playing, exploring and they would just spend most of their time being kids, I would make a healthy lunch everyday and for those in school I would pack their healthy lunch and it would always be creative and cute with fun notes and treats inside, I would do things for them while they were at school  like make their bed, clean their room and leave notes and small gifts on their bed for them (my Mom did this for me), I would craft and sew during nap time,  I would volunteer more, I would teach my kids things, anytime there was an opportunity! I would teach them more about God and less about hurrying, we would have designated family time on the calendar and nothing else would get in the way, my kids would have friend over a lot, our house would be where they wanted to hang out, I would feed my kid’s friends and make them treats too, our yard would always be immaculate, our house would be tastefully decorated for whatever holiday was next, of course I would go to the gym, get may hair done and have manicures so that I could look super hot for my hard working husband, but I would only do these things while the kids were at school or gymnastics or piano or whatever, I would make a healthy homemade dinner every night  made from only fresh whole foods mainly home grown (with the exception of our weekly date night of course), I would look super hot when I greeted my husband at the door and then we would all sit down as a family to enjoy my amazing dinner, we would sit at the table, not the bar, and we would use cloth napkins, matching plates and a table cloth (sigh)  why am I telling you this? 

Well, I was volunteering in Brinley’s class on Friday so I just ended up taking the whole day off, which is really just a half day because I only work part-time, but when I told them I wasn’t going to be there and they asked what I was doing, I said, “I’m just going to be a Mom tomorrow.”  I was so excited to have a whole day to do what I wanted, to just be a Mom. 

It didn’t go quite as planned, I didn’t hit quite everything on the list above,  but over all it was a success.  One thing I was determined to do was walk Brinley to school, I don’t know why I feel so bad about not being able to do this, but I do.  I didn’t make an amazing breakfast, Brinley had Cream of Wheat and London had Oatmeal and I didn’t even have breakfast (I never do that!)   I didn’t go to the gym at all that day.  We did walk to school, but I wasn’t all “put together” in fact, my hair was wet so I threw a hat on, but we enjoyed our walk together and I loved kissing Brinley at the door of her class and telling her to have a good day.  We rushed home so I could, pick up Brinley’s room, make her bed for her, do my hair and get Lunnie ready to go back to the school in an hour to volunteer.

My sister and my Mom both offered to watch Lunnie while I went to the school, but then I just wouldn’t be Super Mom now would I?  So I declined and strapped Lunnie to the front of me like a little Kangaroo and was off to the school to volunteer. 

After Volunteering I had a quick errand to run.  I needed a few things from the store and wanted to get a little surprise for Brinley to leave in her room.  Quick it was because school got out in 30 minutes and I still had to run home and leave the little surprise in her room for her.  Dang it, looks like we won’t be walking home from school after all. 

Our lunch was not gourmet and I didn’t even make dinner.  In fact, I think I’ll skip telling you what we had for dinner altogether.

We went for a walk and went to the park.  It was such a beautiful day!  We played in the leaves which ended in a leaf fight and I had so much fun living the life of my dreams (sort of) even if it was just for a day.  

Halloween

Our Halloween was super busy this year, just the way we like it.  Brinley was a Queen and London was a cow.  So cute!  It's impossible to get a miniature cow to hold still long enough to get her picture taken and the queen was complaining about the sun in her eyes, imagine that.

Impossible!

 First stop was Grandma Bette's house for some rice krispie treats.  

 Oh, and dancing. 

We took the girls good old fashioned door to door trick-or-treating.  Our neighborhood is great for that!  Tavie and Abi came with us and we had so much fun!  I thought it was funny when an old lady asked Tavie how she got her hair to do that.  Ha ha.  

After trick-or-treating we went to Steve and Jill's for dinner.  It's a Halloween tradition we love!  Lora and Kemish got engaged so we were able to admire her beautiful ring and hear the whole story.  Then we dropped Dustin off to get some sleep and I took the girls out to my parents.  It was such a fun night!

Admiring the first show fall

We're DRUG FREE and we're gonna celebrate

For DARE week we celebrated being DRUG FREE by:

 wearing our pajamas to school

 crazy hair day,

and crazy shoes and socks day.

Say NO to drugs!!

Fall Festives

I love fall!  Who doesn't?  We have been doing so many fun things!  We met my sisters and their kids at the Pumpkin walk then went out to dinner with all of them.

 My Mom had us all over to paint/carve pumpkins and have a little Halloween Party.  She's such a fun Grandma!

 She had cupcakes for the kids to decorate and a bag of goodies for each of them.  The kids had a blast!

 We didn't finish our pumpkins at Grandma's house so we had a little pumpkin carving party of our own.  It was pretty much non eventful for Lunnie, but the rest of us had fun.

 Brinley's favorite part was playing in the guts!

 And I made a little Halloween dinner for my little family.  

Love this time of year!

The First Tooth

So, we were in Brinley's room and I was helping her pick up when she ran into the bathroom.  She came out with a horrified look on her face and cried, "MOM, I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THIS, BUT I THINK I LOST A TOOTH!"  You could tell by the look on her face she was terrified.  I can only relate it to the dreams I've had hundreds of times about losing my permanent teeth.  I hugged her and said, "That's ok, that means the Tooth Fairy can come."  I then asked her if she bumper her face or anything since we didn't eve know here tooth was loose.  She must have just felt with her tongue that it was gone so she ran to the mirror to look and it was GONE.  She had just eaten some almonds so we are pretty sure she swallowed it.  Gross!  She left a note for the Tooth Fairy under her pillow and the Tooth Fairy still left her some money and a teeny tiny note.

Life Lessons

I intended to sit down and write about real life.  I post pictures of the things we have been doing, but I wanted to write about what life is really like… that was spring.  I’ve since watched the mountain turn red from my kitchen window and we have even had our first show fall.  The days come and go so quickly.  My garden has been planted, harvested and even preserved since my intentions to write about life.  And I’m sorry you get this post on a day like today.  I apologize if it’s a little too honest, a little too much emotion.  It’s raw and it’s real.  And today, this is my life.

 This life is really amazing you know.  I’m convinced there is no greater joy on this earth than being a parent, a mom especially.  Out of all of the things we can experience in this earthy life, out of all of the emotions we can feel becoming a parent surpasses anything else.  And because of this, a bad parenting day exceeds any other ordinary bad day.  When it comes to our kids, our emotions seem to be so much stronger.  I have watched this in myself and had to try to overcome some of this.  If I feel like someone is being mean or unfair to one of my children, watch out, mother bear comes out!  Not kidding, I have recognized this and know that I need to let my children fight their own battles, but I can’t help it, like I said, when it comes to my children my emotions are just so much stronger. 

Today wasn’t exactly the best parenting day for either Dustin or myself.  To make a long story short, we found our selves in a situation with Brinley that we really didn’t know how to handle.  Or should I say, didn’t want to handle.  Our daughter is only 5 and I realized it is HARD to watch your kids make a choice when you know there is a better way, an easier way.  It’s HARD being a parent sometimes.  It’s hard loving someone so much!  And it is HARD being the one that has to punish them!

Brinley made a choice, it wasn’t the right choice.  She didn’t do anything bad, but Dustin and I both felt that there was a lesson she needed to learn.  We gave her the choices and we gave her the consequences.  The choices and the consequences were both very clear, but stubborn little Brinley chose what she wanted to do and together we walked over to the dumpster and threw away her very favorite most prized earthy possession  “blankie”  I probably would not have gone to such an extreme measure, but that’s all we had with us at the time.  Blankie was Brinley’s favorite blanket.  It was a soft pink, green and white striped blanket we purchased at Target when I was pregnant with her.  It has provided comfort for her since she was and infant.  She loved it!  The blanked was really quite gross and worn and…loved!  The entire walk to the dumpster I just wondered if I was doing the right thing, wondered if I had taken it too far, wondered why we weren’t the type of parent to just spank their kids and get over it and wondered if I would really have the courage to break my little girl’s heart. 

I tossed blankie, dropped to my knees in the middle of the parking lot, wrapped my arms around her and told her how much I loved her, I asked her who made the choice and she said, “I did”  I asked her how it made her feel, I told her she had another chance to make the right choice and we talked about bad choices having bad consequences.  I picked her up, she wrapped her arms and her legs around me and I carried her.  I gave her the opportunity to make the choice again.  I was convinced that she would make the right choice, but when it came down to it, she did not.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  By this time I was just mad!  I handed her over to Dustin because I was so done being a Mom.  Stubborn little Brinley still refused which resulted in more privileges being taken away and we all came home feeling defeated.  Is that what this was about?  Was she really making the “wrong” choice or just not doing what we “wanted” her to do.  Did we make the “right” choice?  Needless to say, I cried, a lot.  I cried with her, I told her she was a really good girl, I told her we all make bad choices, I told her how making bad choices always makes us sad.  I wonder if this whole things was just a “bad choice” on my part?  What was this all over?  Something stupid.  She didn’t really make any “bad” choices, just a few less favorable ones.  How do you make sure your kids draw a line between the choices they make and the person they are?  How do you get them to see that because they made a bad choice doesn’t make them a bad person?  Did we blow this way out of proportion or will she get it? What if she really did learn a lesson about choices and consequences?  What if her harsh punishment tonight saved her from making some life altering “bad choices” down the road?  How do you ever know if you got it “right” as a parent?  Yes, I do have a lot to learn about life.  I don’t have all of the answers and sometimes I wonder if I have ANY of the answers, but tonight I can’t help but relate our experience to a part of this great big plan.  And I’m pretty sure I love my little stinker more tonight than I did this morning.  I hate it when she hurts!  Because when she hurts, I hurt MORE. 

In the end, we had a great dinner together, we talked about the things we were thankful for and we're crossing our fingers that we have a better day tomorrow.  Ahh, life lessons  (sigh).