Category Archives: Everyday Chaos

Weekly Wrap-Up

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There is definitely something fishy going on around here. And not just with these two little fishies, either.

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So first up. Let’s talk about our weather. Last week, and the week before, it was chilly and kinda rainy. (Not that I was complaining, I kinda liked the “winter-ish” weather.) But two little girls were growing a bit weary of wearing tights and sweaters.

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And this week? Time to break out the sunscreen and sundresses. The summer sun has arrived.

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But it is still very weird to be driving with all the windows down in 86 degrees and look up and see snow on the mountaintops.

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Besides all kinds of lovely blooms (Addie’s little head is about to pop! Flowers, Mama! Everywhere!!)…

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The week also brought a little shake-up around here. We woke up at about 4am on Tuesday morning to every window rattling and the house shaking. Emma was sitting up in her bed, “Mama? Daddy? Was that an earthquake?” Yes, indeed Gracie, it was. A little 4.4 earthquake to remind us that we do live in earthquake country.

Jam and I were just lamenting over all of the earthquake activity lately, too. While we have our kit ready and we know what to do, it still was very unnerving and has made me cautious again. (Addie, by the way, slept through the whole thing.)

Besides the earthquake excitement, we have been battling coughs due to colds and tidepool dioramas. Not necessarily in that order.

I have decided that some days it really is the small victories that we have to celebrate. Like, “Hey! I got two consecutive loads of laundry done today.” Or, “I managed to get both girls dressed, fed, and to school on time and even remembered to pick them up when school was out.” (As I give myself a celebratory pat on the back.)

I did manage to inspire Emmy this week though, I think. Well…we’ll see.

She told me last week she wanted to learn how to run. So I bought her some running shoes and we have started (very slowly) to run a few blocks afterschool a few days this week. She claims she wants to try to do a triathlon with me next year. Again…we’ll see.

This year, (as in tomorrow!) she is just going to cheer me on. I’m not sure I’m really ready for the tri this year, but I’m reminding myself…it is the small victories. So I’m shooting for making it across the finish line on Saturday. And taking my own victory lap with my new running partner.

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Finally Friday.

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It has been a long week.

No really. A loooooong, never-ending, why-isn’t-it-just-Saturday-already kind of week.

I guess it technically isn’t even Friday yet – still Thursday night, but after I magically post-publish this, fall into bed and get a good night o’ sleep, it will indeed finally be Friday.

I mercifully just shut my oven off. It had been on and baking away for nearly 3 hours and now we have over 7 dozen cookies (three different types) for the Pajama Party at Em’s school tomorrow night. I thought how nice it would be to bake them afterschool tomorrow so that they would be fresh and gooey for the party, but it just isn’t going to happen. For as crazy as the past four days have been – tomorrow is even worse.

Em had a lot – A. LOT. – of work to do this week. Just normal homework, a special little book club, the first part of their habitat diorama project, and her showtime are all due tomorrow. (Yes, this is first grade, folks!)

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Granted, we have known about her “showtime,” since last week. And I was very worried and kept suggesting ideas for her, for they are supposed to take 5 minutes and teach the class how to do something.

“How about doing some ballet?”
“No. I don’t want to dance.”
“How about doing some magic tricks?”
“No. I don’t want to. Eric already did one.”
“How about how to draw an animal?”
“NO! Mom! I’ll think of something. Don’t worry.”

Ahem. Ok, then. Of course I did still worry, but then she decided she was going to talk about why plants are important and show the class how to pot a plant. Nice! I can help with that! We can make posters and visual aids and plant some flowers!

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Now, while I am very, very good under pressure. When I have a time crunch or a lot of things on my plate, I can shine. I can pull it all out and make it look relatively easy.

Emma? Not so much. She has not yet learned the tricks of the trade, multi-tasking shortcuts and such. In fact, when she has a lot of things to do, she actually moves slower. Like snail pace. I have been Nelly the Nag all week long and it is exhausting.

But I must say she has practiced her show a few times for me, once for Addie, and even once over Skype for Daddy (traveling again – yes, over the weekend! Boo.) and she has it down. She is pretty darn good. I’m excited to see how she pulls it off tomorrow. Oh, yes…I will be videoing it.

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And at the other school, we have a Pancake Breakfast fundraiser on Saturday morning that I was “helping” with, but have kind of ended up co-chairing, I guess. I love Addie’s school and think it is a very worthwhile cause, but there is always something to be done. I can’t wait til Spring Break when the somethings are all done!

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I am actually working on a website for our friend and realtor. So that really hasn’t left much *free* time for doing things like, oh, say…laundry? I used to have this great schedule and by Thursday all of the laundry would be done. But these days it seems to just be on a continual cycle. Literally. Our washing machine is constantly on. Or has clothes in it to be moved over. Or clothes on top of it to be put in. It is never-ending.

If we can get through the busy-ness of tomorrow (today) and get through the Pancake Breakfast on Saturday, I have promised the girls some beach time on Sunday afternoon. So we’ll more than likely see you back here on Monday. Have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!

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It is still Friday, right?

Man, my SuperMom cape was ripped right off this week. Yesterday I found the worst case of the flu knocking on my door, and I just now (9:00 at night on Friday) feel even close to human again.

And what is the thing I hate even more than being sick? Feeling like I have lost control. I do not like having to call for backups, asking for help. I don’t like feeling like I have let people down, or slacked on my responsibilities. And for someone like me who has each day planned and packed full, it is very hard to have to make twenty phone calls canceling appointments and meetings, arranging for someone else to pick up and drop off my girls.

But, then again…Oh.My.Peas! This flu knocked me on my butt. Thankfully I had my little staff of cuties to take care of me.

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When Em came home yesterday and found me barely moving on the sofa she brought me my tea and a washcloth for my head. And then she brought in the thermometer and took my temperature. I wanted to cry, it was such a sweet, motherly thing to do. And then she leaned over and said, “Mama? What about the bucket? Do you think you need me to bring it? Do you think you might get sick?”

Ah, that girl. And then Addie came home and rubbed my back like I do when I’m trying to get her back to sleep. Little pats of her hand and all the while asking, “Does that feel good, Mama? Like this?”

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As good as it felt having my girls take care of me, my super husband picking up all the slack over the past two days was even better. From representing me and taking Em to get recognized at a Daisy thing last night to packing lunches this morning, it made all that “letting go” just a little bit easier knowing he was “on it.”

And the good news is, now that we got that out of the way, we can really enjoy the weekend! Hope yours is happy and healthy, too. We’ll see you on the other side.

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The view around here.

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Wednesday was the much anticipated “Special Friends Day” at Addie’s school. Daddy got asked to be her special friend and off they went happily skipping to her school.

About an hour and a half later, J. walked in carrying a very lethargic parcel of a girl. And this is pretty much how she looked the rest of Wednesday and most of Thursday…

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I hate it when the girls are sick. But now that they are a little older, they know enough to just sofa surf for a bit and take it easy. And that makes it much easier on everyone. She did however try convincing me that she was okay to go to school on Thursday (even though she had a raging fever of 101).  I think it was just because she wanted to deliver all of her kitty valentines to her friends. (They were delivered – thank you, Brandi – and the valentines for Addie were even delivered back to our house! Such service.)

Emma finished all of her Valentines as well…

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Her class had a Valentine’s Day tea party celebration that I was kind of in charge of coordinating. I was very excited – as we had many fun things planned and the kids were REALLY excited about it. But alas, I had to bail out and couldn’t party with the first graders since I was home with Addie. I was kind of disappointed, but the other moms said it went off without a hitch and Emma had a great time, so no worries.

What did I do with an entire day housebound?  So, you know how I really hate…HA! J. is cringing right now. Every time I start a sentence with, “So…you know how I really hate (insert some sort of travesty here)?” He just knows that there is going to be some project tied to my proclamation.

And of course, there is.

I really hated the wallpaper in our little breakfast nook/kitchen. (Apparently I hated it so much I cropped it out of most photos, but you can get a glimpse of it here.) It was too much. We have a Spanish-style house with really cool Spanish tile in the kitchen…and this wallpaper is the last thing that should have been put up in there.

So it came down. And I spent the majority of my day stripping the glue off, so that we can paint it nice and fresh and new.

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And even stripped with just the primer paint it already looks a hundred times better. Now…to find a color to paint it.

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The girls have a four-day weekend, and I already promised them that we would paint their rooms, so I foresee an awful lot of painting in the near future. (Sorry, J.)

Before our crazy (short) week around here – as in last weekend – my view was a little bit different…

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That was my plane from Orlando to Miami on Saturday. Yeah. That IS the cockpit. No flight attendants, only the pilot and co-pilot and there was no door separating us from them, either. Now, I am not a nervous flier, I actually kind of enjoy flying. But when the plane starts shaking, you can see the runway (out the front windshield) still a good couple hundred feet below, and then you watch the co-pilot flipping about twenty switches as fast as he can…yeah, it makes you a little bit uneasy.

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Needless to say, I made it safe and sound to Miami and the SuperBowl! And then I was treated to views like this…

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And hey, there’s that boat featured in our Team Up Thursday yesterday…

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And I got to go to my first SuperBowl…

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And even though my Colts didn’t win, it was still the SuperBowl…

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And it was pretty cool. We had great seats. Besides football we got to see The Who (I didn’t even know I liked them – but their halftime show was amazing!) …

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And we were entertained by the slightly drunken antics of Jamie Foxx who was just a few rows behind us up in the suite…

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Yeah, it was pretty spectacular. And well worth the crazy traveling and jockeying around to make it all work.

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Thanks for taking me, J. It was so much fun.

Checkin’ In

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So…we’re back in action. It was a bit of a whirlwind weekend, but I think we are up to task for this week.

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I won’t say it is “cold” here (since I already get called on that as it is — yes, my blood has thinned!) and Ems is modeling her winter gear above because we were just leaving the ice skating rink, BUT…it is chilly around these parts! And I am loving it. It really feels winter-y! Sweater and scarf weather. And it is definitely helpful with the holiday spirit front. But when we had a few really chilly nights (low 50s/high 40s) and our heater wasn’t working last week, that was not so fun to wake up to.

The Daisy troop didn’t seem to mind the cold. We had an ice skating outing on Saturday and it was a lot of fun. The girls all did pretty well – many of them were on skates for the very first time. I was proud of all of them for fearlessly flinging themselves around on the ice. We all know how hard the first time (and sometimes only time – right Papa?) on skates is. I didn’t get any photos – but I know J. did. So I’ll have to sneak onto his camera and see if he got any good ones.

Let’s see. What else rounded out our weekend? My mind is still a little foggy – I think from exhaustion. Friend Jamie and I also had the Holiday Boutique on Friday night and did really well – I’m sure I can lump that wrap-up into Crafty Tuesday somehow. Emma sang in church this morning. Daddy and Addie were talked into being our surprise “star guests” in the Christmas pageant by our director. We had a birthday party. A date night out – where we were both kind of tired so we never even made it to a movie – but it was nice to shop and have a dinner with just the two of us. And somewhere in the middle of all of that we managed to finish our holiday decorating and get the two Christmas trees up. It was busy, but all very, very good.

Although I think Daddy is looking forward to traveling this week, to get a little bit of peace and a rest for his back.

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Me, My Girl, and Some Cocoa

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It was a chilly, fall-like morning, well, I know it is all relative, but it was chilly for us. I was enjoying a big cup of coffee and Addie had moved all of her Polly Pockets to the one spot where the sun was streaming in through the windows.

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“Mama? Do you want to play with me? You can bring your coffee over here and be the Mom?”

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“Hey, wait! When it is cold outside we should have some hot cocoa! Can you have your coffee and make me some hot cocoa? Please, Mama?”

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Who can say no to that? And she “helped” make the cocoa with very specific instructions. “I need the Winnie-the-Pooh cup, Mama!” I have had this mug for over 10 years, 15 maybe? Wait. I may have had it in college… At any rate, it’s been around a long time. And I love that the girls like to use it. It is definitely a good hot cocoa mug.

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It is also nice when there is only one girl around, so there is no fighting over the Pooh mug.

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And no fighting over the camera either. I decided as long as it was all sunny and my girl was being sweet that the camera needed a little bit of love, too.

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So the camera got some shooting time…

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Addie got some Polly Pocket playing time with Mommy…

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And Mommy got some warm fall sunshine, good coffee, and girl time with her favorite 4-year old.

Does it get any better than that? I don’t think so.

Should I turn down the air conditioner a bit, perhaps?

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I promise you, I had NOTHING to do with the staging of this photo. She just found the hat and mittens in the basket. And proceeded to try them on, to see if they still fit. Which led to wearing them for a half hour while watching Max and Ruby. Which led to wanting to wear them to pick up Emma. Which led to her actually wearing them outside – in our 98 degree heat. Which led to heat stroke, I’m pretty sure.

Well, maybe not heat stroke.  But being hot, coupled with being cooped up for the seventh day straight (still with the fires!) and no way to burn off any energy, it all led to a very cranky almost 4-year old this afternoon.

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It is as if they know…

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I am completely at the breaking point. So tired of the constant bickering and fighting over the past week. I’ve been to that point where I would rather endure nails on a chalkboard than hear that “Moooo-oooom!” one more time.

And then I walk in the living room to this…

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Although the reprieve from the fighting will be most welcome, we are going to be so lost without Emma Grace around here tomorrow.

This & That Thursday

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  • Yep, it is Thursday, albeit a little later than I usually post, it is still Thursday, and still early since we are now back in the correct time zone!
  • There is nothing better than sleeping in your own bed.
  • I take that back. There is nothing better than being picked up by your husband at the airport (who you missed horribly!), sitting back while he navigates the traffic back home, walking into a spic-n-span clean house, taking a shower, and sliding into fresh, clean, warm-from-the-dryer sheets. In your own bed.
  • Yes, I know. He IS a gem. And no, you can’t have him.
  • Thank you to all of our hosts on our whirlwind tour of Michigan and the greater Chicagoland area. We had a great time and miss you all already.
  • I have over a 1200 photos to sift through and post. That is TWELVE HUNDRED. And I feel like I didn’t even really pick up my camera much.
  • I’ll get right on those. Right after I work on the laundry, grocery shopping, and tackle that stack of mail and bills.
  • And I’ll get right on all of that…right after one more cup of coffee.