Thankful...

Today I am thankful for...

• Kids, my kids. My kids that love to play games, and don't hold their anger long. My kids that smile and me and hug. My kids that are creative little artists, singer/song writers, architects, and forensic anthropologists.
• A wonderfully creative husband. When I am around him I feel creatively inadequate. He works hard, which allows me to stay home. He makes me laugh. He loves me.
• My sewing room. A place to work. A place to create. A place to share with my kids.
• A new laptop for our family. Shiny, new, just out of the package.
• Tax returns that allow for said laptop.
• My parents and their pork.
• My sisters and my brother.
• Getting all the trash out of our van. Seriously, it was bad. I am just glad its done.
• My best friend, my other half, my platonic life partner. Even if she lives 6hrs away. I am so thankful for technology that allows us to call each other for free (thank you mobile to mobile minutes), video chat, text, email, cyber window shop, etc.
• NO MORE DIAPERS!!! Uri is successfully potty trained. I mean, staying dry at night, potty trained. Yep, its amazing.
• Vehicles that work.
• Houses that keep us warm and safe.
• Embroidery.
• Quilts.
• Awesome Aunts.
• Giving Grandparents.
• Legos.
• Coffee nights at Benettis.

Obviously there are many things to be thankful for. These are the ones fresh in my mind right now.

There is a homeschool meeting tomorrow night! Us moms are going to get together and play games and just enjoy each others company. It was a lot of fun last month, so I look forward to it again.

Its all good...

My eyes sting from crying, my ego hurts from being beat at skip bo, and my belly is full from lunch.

In a weird way this has been a great day. Which means, its a great improvement over yesterday.

I am not going to lie...

Seriously everything about today has been difficult for me.

Im not sure why, or what it is that happen ever so often. I just get

the desire to sit and not do a thing. I suppose I could blame it on

"womanly issues" but really, I just think I am tired. Having four kids

over the span of 4 years and staying home with them, can really take

something out of a person. There are so many days that I desire nothing

more than to just enroll the kids in school and have my days to fiddle

away on everything or nothing. Then I wake up and snap out of it.

Please understand that I love my children. A lot. I once

believed that as a mother you were called to educate your children at

home. I am strongly beginning to doubt this. Or am I just being lazy?

These are the types of back and forth thoughts that will drive a woman

mad.

***

In other news Christian and I switched carriers, and got new

phones. Keeping with the goal of buying nothing new I got a refurbished

IPhone.

The wallpapers available at Poolga make me very happy.

***

Probably the most exciting thing going on around here is the recent addition to the potty trained club! Uri has gone almost a week now with no accidents, and is even staying dry during nap time. I am not brave enough yet to leave him unpulluped overnight. If he continues on this path though I will try him in the next couple days.

***

I kind of want to pause the whole "buy nothing new" thing for these or these. I wouldn't have to feel like I sold out if someone were to gift them to me...I wear a size 10.

Oh wait, I have a blog?...

There really hasn't been much to talk about lately...If I would have updated anytime in the last week it would have looked something like this...

"snowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowihatesnowsnowsnow

snowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowihatesnowsnowsnows

snowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowihatesnowsnowsnows

snowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowihatesnowsnowsnows

snowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowihatesnowsnowsnows

snowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowihatesnowsnowsnows

snowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowsnowihatesnowsnowsnow"

So, there you have it.

I guess there has been a little bit of excitement! I reclaimed a sewing room in our apartment! When we moved in Sydney had her own room, and the boys shared. Most nights Syd ended up on the floor in the boys room with a sleeping bag anyway, so we shifted things around and she now has more comfortable arrangements (complete with mattress and all). Thus, I have a sewing room! The kids still have the Playmobils in the sewing room so they can play while I sew, and Syd still has her reading nook. But I now have a place to go and spread out and sew! I have done an order of tshirts in the new area, a kindle case, and a skirt. It has been so nice.

I love the view I have from the sewing room windows. Its a 70+ year old drug store in down town Raytown!

I think the kids really enjoy sharing the space with me. Isa and Uri laid out pillow cases (or pillow sheets as they call them) all over the floor to make the ocean, and then used Lego bucks with pencil flags ticky tacked to them for boats. It was really cute once I realized why they were pulling out the freshly folded pillow cases.

A few random things...

• I have been stalking Vanessa on skype waaaay too much today.
• I really enjoy looking at house listings online.
• After saving for a few months, we ordered new phones today!
• Spring cannot come soon enough.
• That new Robin Hood movie is great.
• I want to see Beastly. I will understand if you dont want to be my friend anymore.
• My mom brought me a surprise pork package. mmmmm...
• Sydney doesn't understand why Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione cant just mind their own business.
• I have really been enjoying church lately.
• Our best in town friends are moving. While I am happy for them, I am totally sad for myself.
• Sydney wants to know what this says but I wont tell her.

This post is in loving memory of Bruiser. Who has now found his way into my belly. Thanks old friend.

Random List...and Random Rant...

There are a handful of things I am trying to make a conscious effort to do.

I wont call them resolutions or goals because that almost insures their failure.

1. Eat more local food. This is especially hard for me during the winter months. Im not creative with food.

2. Less yelling.

3. Pay more attention to my kids schooling.

4. Be more creative.

5. Read more. (I have set a goal of reading 27 books this year. Thanks to the Kindle I got for Christmas I have read 9 books so far.

So I should be able to accomplish this, at least.

6. Keep the house cleaned up more regularly.

7. Play more cards/board games.

8. Take more pictures.

9. Buy everything used. (There will of course be things we just cant/shouldn't buy used...but I am talking, clothes, furniture, shoes, etc.)

10. Really, I couldn't think of anything else. I just thought 10 was a nice round number to stop at.

In other news...I thought it would be extremely smart to venture out into the snow yesterday. I had cabin fever, and just had to get out.

Well...I didn't even make it to a main street before I was stuck. Really stuck. After being passed by 3 police officers, 2 tow truck drivers, and countless men in big trucks three ladies stopped to help.

They dug the scion out (worst car ever to drive in snow btw, only because it sit sooo low) and pushed me to freedom. So thank you mystery ladies.

Also, if Uri doesn't give into potty training soon I might just go nuts. Anyone want to take him for a couple weeks and deal with that for me?

The Grass is Always Greener...

Yesterday I received a much needed day time break. The kids and I set a play date for them with their great grandma cha cha (see above image) over google chat. Yep, I have a pretty tech savvy grandmother! She kept them for 4 hours yesterday afternoon. It was so great to be able to get out by myself during the day. I was able to go to run to the grocery store, hit up an antique store, and a couple thrift stores. I spent a whole $4 on my excursion on a few records. Including a couple Chopin records that I was pretty happy to find. Having days a lone like that really make it hard not to entertain ideas of having the kids in school and being a free lady. But, even if the kids were in school I would probably find a job during their school hours, and then, I would dream of just staying home with my kids. The grass is always greener right?

I had a couple of surprise T-shirt orders come in from Bandwagon this week. The past couple evenings were spent seam ripping necklines, and sewing in hem tags. Which has thrown off my personal reading, and my project that I am working on. In just a few minutes I am going to drop Syd off to play with her friend Katia, and then I am going to come back home and work on my little project. If I get enough done on it perhaps I will share in the next couple days!

Sometimes I do a lot of laundry...

I read somewhere a few months back that people who regularly tidy up their houses are usually thinner. Hmmmm...

Saturday morning I left the house around 7:30am to go to the laundromat around the corner from us. While I enjoy my trips to the laundromat, not having a washer and dryer in the apartment is definitely one of the down sides to where we are living right now. The nicest thing about using the laundromat (besides the amazing customer service, no, that wasn't sarcasm) is the ability to get my whole families weekly laundry done in under 2hrs. I just load up the biggest machine they have (whom I have loving deemed "Big Bertha") and read. 24 minutes later I shove it all in the dryer, and head out on foot to Benettis where I sip on tea and read until my load should be done. This is my laundry routine, and this Saturday was no exception.

When I got home, folded laundry in hand, I was surprised to find christian in the boys room. He was running the vacuum, the final step in the daunting task that had been cleaning that room. Now, this was no ordinary room spruce up. This room was trashed. And had been. For weeks. (Now you see where I am connecting my opening thought? I totally prove whomever said this to be correct)Our friends Cory and Vanessa (and their three kids) came in to visit over New Years. We all had a wonderful time! The kids played, and played, and played, having full reign on the boys bedroom. Based on mess to fun ratio...the fun was intense! And yes, I put off and put off cleaning. Meaning the original mess had multiplied to a number I cant even count to. Almost a month later the cleaning finally got done, only, I might add, because my husband took the initiative. We also went ahead and cleaned out Syds room as well collecting a trash bag of stuff to donate, and created a little reading nook for her. In the course of cleaning the kids rooms we had another full basket of dirty laundry.

So...remember that laundry routine? Yep, I repeated that Sat afternoon. Which was actually a good thing. I went ahead and washed all the kids coats and some other random household items that were in need. I was also joined at Benettis by my friend Cassie.

Last night Christian and I started watching The Walking Dead. He sat and worked on some sketches and I started working on a secret project, that I am excited and nervous about. Here is a sneak peak...

Yeah...that really doesn't show you much of anything. Sorry. This project is actually turning out to be a bigger pain that I had originally thought it would be.

You can always check out more of what we are doing in our family flickr stream!