I went out for milk and ended up on a vacation.
30 Monday Jul 2012
Posted vacation
in30 Monday Jul 2012
Posted vacation
in25 Wednesday Jul 2012
Dear Maggie,
You are four months old today. You are a laid back baby.
You find your brothers to be most interesting and hilarious. They love to take care of you, sometimes this means they like to lay on top of you or try to pick you up. Luckily, you don’t seem to mind. Mostly, they want to talk to you and give you toys and play “This little piggy…”
You are a joy.
Love, Mommy
19 Thursday Jul 2012
Posted DIY projects
inAfter weeks and weeks of getting up 87 times a day to provide a snack to one of the hooligans TFB finally provided a genius and also kinda obvious (but I was too busy getting snacks to think) solution.
I made some modifications of my own to suit our needs:
-Name labels prevent fighting and help with Henry’s name recognition.
-Reusable cups are easy to open and result in less waste. Glass would be ideal but I have a 4 year old and 2 year old and I want them to help themselves so glass is a no-go.
-All snacks are kept in a drawer in the fridge. So applesauce, yogurt, and produce (like plums) are together with crackers and water bottles making everything easy to find.
-There is no coin exchange but the limit is 3 snacks per day and they have to ask (which is more like notify) me. Because too close to lunch or dinner time is off limits.
When I can trust them not to swallow or hide the money I will add that to the program because I really like the lesson there.
It’s been about a week and it’s working out great!
17 Tuesday Jul 2012
Posted guilt
inI have heard from various sources that giving up cable is the best thing they ever did. Everyone touts money saved as a major benefit, and most people say they don’t miss it at all.
I don’t know many people who don’t watch TV. This isn’t about not watching TV. I really admire people who have a TV free home, but I’m not one of them.
We love ‘family movie night’ and I’m not ashamed to admit that sometimes the TV is on for a large part of the day in my house. It’s not a long-term plan, but in the dead of winter or the heat of the summer I try not to feel guilty about relying on TV for some entertainment. I could go on for days about how I worry they are becoming little TV zombies and they will one day turn on me and eat my brains- but this isn’t about my self perceived shortcomings as a mother, this is about watching TV and not paying an arm and a leg for it.
But I’m not giving up TV, I’m thinking about giving up cable and DVR. But how will I watch my shows!? Hulu? How does it work? Do you use it, and are you satisfied? Netflix? Streaming?
But how will I watch Comedy Central, HGTV, HBO!? What about Discovery and History channel?
Am I going to need my TV to have internet access? Then I could Skype on the TV which would be AWESOME because the kids would actually “get” it a little better. What about media players? Should I worry about bandwidth?
If you gave up TV and got creative I would LOVE to hear how you do it! Tell me everything!
12 Thursday Jul 2012
Posted postpartum, VBAC
inBirth is messy. It’s sweaty and painful and doesn’t make you look your best. Swelling is no one’s friend.
But it’s transformative. It makes you a mom. Or makes you a mom again (and again).
Jack
Now it’s been 4 and a half years since this picture was taken, but I remember the feeling exactly. It’s hard to recognize, but there it is: overwhelming love (and relief).
Despite the fact that my visitors were forced to treat me like a leper- I was just happy to introduce Jack to everyone. It didn’t hit me how detrimental the postpartum hospital experience was until we got home and the relief washed over me.
Henry
This time it’s obvious. Pure joy.
I think I smiled for weeks. The anger and frustration surrounding Jack’s birth finally melted away.
Maggie
I picked this one, because the first 10 pictures are me with a look of relief and/or shock on my face. “Thank God the pain is gone” mixed with “Shit, that was fast!”
I don’t look or feel particularly pretty. But I don’t have to. These pictures aren’t about pretty, they’re about the beauty of growing a family. Don’t hide yourself when you’re swollen and sweaty and sleep deprived. Share your joy.
10 Tuesday Jul 2012
Tags
We were on vacation for 11 days. It was awesome and exhausting. (This is typical of any good vacation.)
What made this special was it was my Grandma(BoBo)’s 85th birthday. We celebrated by flying my Grandpa and her up to my parents place and gathering their progeny together for an old fashioned hootinany. Here’s what we did:
We took the kids (just my kids) to the local pool for a swim.
Margaret Ruth met her namesake Ruth Emily.
Henry tried to go on a boatride but as soon as we pulled out from the dock he freaked out. So much for that idea.
We visited the local Ocean City waterpark. Frontier Town. This place is great, but if you don’t like swarming crowds of people you have to plan to get there when it opens at 10. Here’s Aaliyah, Jack, Henry and I enjoying some rafting.
We hung out at my Uncle Walt and Aunt Laura’s new camper. Sierra enjoyed the flower pinwheels.
On July 4th- I ran my first 5k. I met my goals: don’t die & don’t stop running. My official time was 32:46.8
We celebrated the 4th with some red, white and blue. (Later there was a cookout, some gin and tonic, and several members of the family belting out classic Americana while watching the sun go down. Speaking of which, after the sun went down:
We encouraged the kids to play with fire.
Aunt Alba and I took the boys on a little kayak tour.
Everynight they were like this. Sacked out. But one night…
We talked the older folks into holding down the proverbial fort while we hungout fireside. Drinking together without kids was something we havent done since the “Great Cruise of 2004.” Which, by the way, was legend-waitforit-dary.
By the second half of the week we were starting to get creative about ways to beat the heat.
Okay, at this point it was 100 degrees and we were completely desperate.
Most nights we enjoyed a game of poker. One night I totally killed it. I haz mad poker skillz.
I love it when we have a chance to take a big group shot like this because you never know when we’re all going to get together in a group this big again.
04 Wednesday Jul 2012
If you don’t like brutal honesty intermixed with the occasional swear word you are not going to like this post. You have been warned.
This morning I donned my running shoes and what can only be described as a straight jacket sports bra. I grabbed my running number and my fancy running chip… more on that later. My traitor brother and I drove over to the race.
Before we started I was like “Okay, I’m going to rock this- its going to be awesome!” My brother turned to me and said “So, I want to get a good baseline time (it’s his first 5k too) so I’m going to ditch you.”
Awesome.
Not surprising, but still super freekin’ awesome.
It was probably better that I pace myself than try to stay with someone who is faster than me.
Then the race starts and I’m running (jogging). I refused to get sucked into running wicked fast at the beginning, there were lots of people who passed me. Some were 3 feet tall… I’m going to get my ass kicked by a 6 year old girl. Fvcking great.
I just jogged at my pace. Doing my own thing. Trying not to die and not to need to stop. Then I looked down and saw my fancy chip was falling off my shoe. I reached down and grabbed it and shoved it in my sweaty bra. Sexy.
Right around the second mile marker I wanted to give up. I wanted to walk so bad. But that 6 year old girl was using me as some kind of pacing device. Bitch. She would run fast, way faster than me and then gas out and stop completely, and then her dad would say “come on, let’s catch back up to her.” and suddenly they would pass me again and then she would stop. Again. It happened like 10 times. I wanted to turn to the dad and say “Can you guys leave me alone? Kthxbi.” But my kids are that annoying too, so I let it go. That and ya know, trying to talk might have been the end of it. Me dead in a pile of sweaty awesomeness.
By the time I rounded the bend and could see the finish I was just about ready to lay down and die. I was telling myself if I just finish the damn thing I will never have to run again. Ever. Ever. Ever.
But as soon as the finish was in sight my body took over. Just like I’ve always trusted it to in the water. When the end was coming some yet-un accessed energy reserve was suddenly there for the taking. I never looked at the time as I crossed. I was just trying to survive. But they tell me it was about 33 minutes.
And that fancy chip all sweaty and in my bra? Never registered my time. So for my official time I have to wait till tonight when the official results get posted.
Would I do it again? Now that I’m a few hours out… yes. I don’t know how much of a thing it will become, but I do enjoy that it is the easiest way for me to get exercise right now.