A Few Perfect Minutes

A small, and very much needed, miracle occured in our house this afternoon. 

The sun was shining, Disney music was quietly playing, and everyone was calmly and quietly engrossed in their own things...

For a glorious 40 minutes, I sat and played on Jason's computer, while being entertained by the sights and sounds of my kids being healthy, normal, imaginative children. 

And for those 40 minutes, I took back everything I said during the rest of the day about wanting to sell them to the circus (that's code for a lot of things I can't or shouldn't repeat).

And during the time it took me to write this post (about 30 minutes), I've cleaned up two spilled water messes, physically pulled Sophie off of Spencer, threatened to send Spencer to his room for back talking, been accused of "never giving us candy!", pulled Carson off the table twice, and have listened to nothing but screaming and crying. 

Ah, the glorious days of being a stay at home mom.

Looking Forward to....

Finishing this art caddy....

and this...

And maybe all of these...  

This needs finished....

And this...

  

This may never be finished....

 

And this may have been finished before this post was...

Item(s) of the Day...

I'm loving having a little bit of spring inside, even if it's early.  Helps with all these terribly grey and dreary days.  I'm so ready for sunny days and warm weather!

Rachael and I checked out a local antique store a few weeks ago and I fell in love with this broken chair.  I love everything about it.  The chippy yellow paint, the spindles, the randomness of it being only the back of the chair.  I may be worrying my family just a little bit with some of the random and eclectic decorating things I've been trying out. 

Last week, my mom and Mallary decided to take a spur of the moment trip up to Dayton to visit a couple antique stores.  Rachael was pretty bummed that she couldn't go and nicely watched Sophie for me.  In an attempt to make her feel better, and as a thank you, I brought back a couple towels that she had seen at a store and debated buying.  As I was giving them to her, I couldn't handle how much I loved the green one.  Again, I love everything about it.  To me, it's got the perfect green, yellow, and red.  I love the vintage style labels, and the ruffle at the bottom.  Lucky for me, my dad's been making frequent trips to Dayton for work, so I sent him with Rachael's towel and asked him to stop at the shop and see if they had another one for me.  Gotta love a dad that's willing to walk into a shop with a frilly towel and ask if they had another one available!

Do you recognize this man?

This picture appeared in the Tri-City Herald today.

My dad reads the paper every morning, faithfully.
He also calls us if there's anything of interest to pass on to us.
I thought it was strange that he never called today, so I called him.
I asked him if he saw Jason's picture in the paper.
He laughed and said he didn't.
As I started to describe the picture to him, he knew exactly which one I was talking about.
He said he looked at the picture more than once.
He read the caption.
Before he read the caption, he wondered if the picture had been taken at St. Pat's Church in Pasco (where he went to school/church as a kid).
He could tell me without looking at the picture that the girl had a really long ponytail and the guy was holding a squirt bottle.
Again, he had read the caption.

And somehow, it completely escaped his attention that the man holding the squirt bottle, who's name was in print next to the photo, was his son-in-law, of almost 7 years.

It's kinda like all those times in high school when we would pass him coming in the opposite direction, or be at an intersection as he drove by, or sometimes even be in the lane next to him, flailing our arms and hands waving, and he would never notice.

Sorry...

It didn't think about the fact that without putting a title to my last post, the assigned title in everyone's reader would be the first complete line of my post.  It looked a little doom and gloom, with a touch of insensitivity, to me when I glanced at Rachael's google reader this morning.  Sorry!

Untitled

My cousin lost her husband in a motorcycle accident yesterday.  She's 38, he was 43.  They have three girls, the baby is only 8 months old.  I couldn't help but think of her throughout my day.  Do the rest of you imagine how you would react to a tragedy like that?  Do you picture yourself answering the door?  Calling your family?  Telling your children?  Or is that just some weird, self torturing thing that I do?

Times like this make me want to be more involved with my children, spend more time with my husband.  Does anyone else find that easier to do in your head?  When it comes down to it, you still speed through your day waiting for the moments you want?  Like bed time, a clean house, and quiet, calm children?  I think that that is one of my biggest struggles.  I am a much better mom, wife, sister, and friend, in my head.  I always find myself thinking of all the things I should do/could do to be a better person, but in the end, my self-centered tendencies win.  It is honestly something I struggle with, when I face it.

This morning I couldn't help but think again of Angie and her family.  I thought about all the things I take for granted and I realized that most of the time there is one thing I don't ever forget, whether my husband believes me or not.  I'm happy.  Not the goofy, silly, playful type of happy that I think Jason wishes I was (he told me a few weeks ago that I'm not a happy person, to which I was offended, until I realized that him and I have different interpretations of the word), but the content, satisfied, kind of happy.  There are a lot of areas that I need to improve on, daily, but in the scheme of things, I am happy. 

Even if I'm not where I imagined myself being six years into marriage.  By now, I imagined us in a home of our own, enjoying projects and to-do lists.  I imagined a husband who worked a traditional 9-5, home every evening for dinner.  I imagined well-behaved children.  I imagined myself 25 lbs lighter.  I may not have any of those things, but, I have so much more.  I have a home to live in and though it's not mine, and it's little, I will someday miss my little house.  I will miss the coming and going of family that I've been afforded living next to my grandma and my aunt, and just a block or two from my cousins.  I have a husband who is not often home for dinner because he is busy working two jobs so that I can stay home and take care of the three healthy, spunky children that we have.  I may not look like the girl I envision in my head, but my friends and family don't seem to care (at least they don't tell me).  I have a mom and dad I can count on every day.  It's rare that a day goes by that I don't talk to one of them.  I have sisters who are always there for me, and there isn't a day that I don't talk to one of them.  I have more family than my heart can even handle.  Seriously.  I have friends who I may not see often but I know they are there, especially when they leave the ever so coveted comments.

I know life can change in a split second, when you're least expecting it, so I hope to remember as often as I can, to be truly grateful for what I do have.  And maybe to take more opportunities to write it down, because my husband just may be a little bit right, I may not act like I am as happy as I know I am.

The best part of....

 Since coming up with the list of ideas for blogging topics to keep Rachael and I going, it's been my job to pull the ideas out of a jar and then email her and Lisa.  But posting about the same subject is getting a little tricky.  In fact, it's starting to feel a little like it does when we're out shopping together and it's all about who sees it first, or when the three of us girls go somewhere together and the two passengers have to beat each other to the front seat.

It's all about who hit's publish first. 

So, while my intention was not to copy any of Rachael's list, I'm not sure I can avoid it, because I also think the best part of...

-a cinnamon roll is.... the outside
-talking to Rach on the phone is.... the 1.1 second hang-up time
-my year....the ocean trip
-girls night out....laughing so hard you're crying

-a Monday....volunteering in Spencer's class
-cookies....the dough
-brownies....the batter
-the summer....a warm weather rain shower
-the Xbox....streaming Netflix
-socks....knee-highs
-the winter....7 p.m. bedtime (for Carson)
-warm summer evenings....staying out past dark at grandma's
-a morning....Sophie exclaiming that the sun is out
-a tired Carson....rocking him to sleep
-an afternoon....Jason coming home for lunch
-Katie babysitting....coming home to a clean house
-being out of the house by 10:30 a.m.....sausage egg mcmuffins
-last minute laundry....putting on a warm pair of blue jeans
-having an artistic husband....bribing him to help with most of my projects
-blogging....that's a tie between knowing that my dad is my most faithful reader, and waiting for Rachael's phone call making me proof read her posts, too bad I don't have anyone proof reading mine!