A boring post . . . just for me.

My sweet husband . . .

I turned into crazy lady on him this morning. I'm sorry. Every once in a while I just get so overwhelmed. So much to do with limited time and energy to get it done.

A garden that desperately needs weeded. A flower bed that I dug out and is now getting entirely overgrown. Four bags of mulch and compost sitting on my front walk waiting to get mixed in to said flower bed. A lawn that needs mowed. Sod that needs . . . rearranged and filled in . . . and is drying up in the wait. A van that is a DISASTER! and desperately needs cleaned out and detailed . . . before we leave again this weekend. Dishes to do. Bathrooms to clean. Furniture that needs dusted. Bedrooms that need cleaned. Papers to sort through and put away. Books to put away. Fish tanks that need cleaned. Floors that need mopped and vacuumed. And laundry that is coming out my ears. A garage that hasn't been reclaimed from several different projects that were basically completed weeks ago. And children who have been begging and begging for me to make ginger snaps and treasure boxes with them.

Some days I feel like a disappointment to everyone.

I think I haven't "really" cleaned since the time I posted and said that my house looked incredible. Ugg. Weeks of mess.

I wish cleaning my own disgusting house was as much fun as helping somebody else clean theirs. :)

When I Say Nothing At All

I sat down today wanting to write you all a lovely blog post. I sat down today thinking, "What a wonderful day. I'm going to blog real quick and then I'm going to clean up my house." I sat down at the computer this morning at 8:45 - before Hazel and Lilie were awake.

Then - Photoshop decided to no longer work. WHAT? I don't know how to edit my pictures without it. This stinks. Tried a few other things - downloaded a program. Need help from my savvy husband.

My children woke up this morning so happy. So cute with their bed-head that was actually from YESTERDAY morning. They are adorable. I looked in the bedroom to see that as they had played for an hour and a half last night after they were put in bed, they'd made quite the little mess. I told them that as soon as their toys were picked up I'd make them some breakfast. --- It is now 2:35 as I write this. They are still in their bedrooms. Their toys are 24 minutes from being permanently disposed of.

I hate being a mad mom. I am deciding to not be a mad mom. I am deciding to be a matter-of-fact mom. Choices = Consequences. They sure do for me anyway. And they will also do so for my children.

I sat down at the computer this morning ready to post a bunch of pictures and write a little post on how

I have realized that when I have something to say that I CAN'T / SHOULDN'T / WON'T say, I don't say much of anything. Hmm.

If I don't say it all, I don't say much of anything.

My brain is overflowing, my mouth - well . . . fingers - are offering no relief. So I avoid my blog. It's sad to me. --- But it won't last forever. I promise.

Something I've been steadily learning over the past few years is that we go through stages of development. (Duh, right? Stay with me, I'm getting to the point. :) Whether as a baby, five-year-old, or even a twenty-seven year old. I think we all need to learn HOW to speak. (Not just in baby terms.) To learn to say what is really in our minds and in our hearts. How to share ourselves with others, regardless of how they will respond. How to feel as if the things inside are important enough to share. ---- THEN, after that, if we are lucky, we go through another stage of development. It's called learning WHEN to speak and WHEN to shut up. Learning that even though you CAN say something, you don't NEED to or you SHOULDN'T.

I'm a work in progress. I'm still developing. Thank goodness for a loving Heavenly Father who is the perfect teacher.

So.

That's a little of what has broken out of my thoughts and made it to my post today. Just something to think about. It's not "this morning" anymore, life has "interfered" :), but it made it out. And in the past 23 minutes, those cute little bed-headed girls accomplished something that they just thought was TOO HARD and TOO MUCH.

Sometimes sifting through all the random mess of things IS hard. But it's possible. It's going to be a good day.

Friday's Fabulous Five

Is it really Friday again already? Wow.

1. I have succes . . . Let me start over. I have survived two weeks of being all but a single mom. Go me! My hubby should be home in 2 hours. ***Sigh*** I couldn't be more ready.

2. I have learned some new things about myself that I need to work on. Learning is good. Learning is hard.

3. I headed to Utah this week for a couple of days - to entertain myself while Nels was out of town. It was lovely and I was able to find a used trampoline for a good price. I'm happy. The kids are excited.

4. I love pizza and fresh cut grass and sleeping children (I love them awake too, just ready for night time to come today). All three of things will be enjoyed by me within the next hour. Mmmm.

5. Heavenly Father answers my prayers. In multiple ways, but more specifically, I (well, Elsie) found my ring this week. In a place that I don't remember putting it. Heavenly Father loves me. I just need to be more patient with his TIMING.

I'm tired. I'm exhausted. I'm drained. I'm happy.

Fight

Lilie and Nels are playing Fight. Lilie is following around her daddy with a robot hand which is like a magic wand.
(Nels is italics.)


LILIE:

Make it so you never turn into fire.
Make it so you stop turning into water.
Make it so you have to lay down.
Make it so you stop flopping.
Chain your head to the floor. (As she runs around and around him touching different parts of his body that are moving)
Chain your hat to the floor.
Chain your knees to the floor
Chain your feet to the floor.
Chain your . . . make a chain across your body.
So you can still breathe.
So you can't get up.
Chain your arms to the floor.
Make your powers into this wall.
Make all of us good.
Make it so that you are turn back into bad.

Nels: Suck out your brain.

Take my brain, put it back in.
Pull out your wires.
Give back your wires so you can have a light bulb in you - so you can glow at night.

Nels: Make karate!

Make it so I'm hard to beat.

Nels: Make me a giant monster. . .

FREEZE!

Nels: . . . that can't freeze!

Make it so you can freeze!
Make you a tiny baby!
Chain the binky to your mouth.
Put a spiderweb on the binky so you can't get it off.
Now take your teeth away!
YOU'RE A BABY!

A Lilie by any other name would still smell as sweet?

So before I forget, I have to add another of my favorite things that Elsie has been saying.

To preface, she can say her "L"s which to me is incredible, because neither of my other girls could say them until WAY later. (Hazel called Lilie "YaYa" for for at least a year. And Lilie called herself "Wo-wie" "Li-wie" "Wi-Lie" "Wiwee" and such clear till she was three and a half.)

Elsie has recently started saying Lilie's name.

"LA-Lie"

So cute.

However, sometimes she gets tired of the effort it takes and reverts back to her old name for Lilie.

DooDoo.

She calls Lilie DooDoo!

It makes me laugh every time.

Friday's Fabulous Five

Today I only have non-fabulous things to post.

1. I can't find my wedding ring. I have no idea where it is. Where I placed/dropped it.

2. When I make phone calls to find it (or almost any other phone calls!), NO ONE will answer the phone. Is Jefferson County entirely let out for the day!? Nobody can work on the THIRD of July????

3. My mouse is on the fritz and not working properly

4. It's already 10:30 and I have done nothing today.

Okay, as fun as this is . . . we're going to switch gears here. I don't like non-fabulous.

1. Today, for the time being, is BEAUTIFUL!

2. Because of said beauty, I am going to go outside and play in the dirt. I think I will take pictures of my yard today to show you. And maybe paint my shutters. --- I decided to just do green shutters and leave the door white. And paint the numbers on the house black. And maybe get sod for the backyard tomorrow.

3. I have three sweet little children who want to finish making their "treasure boxes" with me today. (pictures to come)

4. Elsie has started saying three of my favorite words as a mother. "I hode djue?" (I hold you?) She wants to hold me. Isn't that the sweetest little thing? I loved it when both my other girls started saying this too. It doesn't last long, but it sure melts any willpower to be doing anything else. If only they knew the power those words have over me, they would keep saying them much longer. "Mommy, I hode djue?" I love it. ---- She has also started saying "Yas." When I ask her questions. "Elsie, do you want a drink?" "Yas." What a happy girl.

5. Like I mentioned last night in my weird post, MY HOUSE IS CLEAN! Really clean! Like windows washed, curtain cobwebs dusted, vacuumed, dusted, scrubbed, swept, mopped --- kind of clean. SO incredible. Incredible to get anything clean in the summer with three dirty kids constantly running through.

Do you ever have days that just go by so . . . strangely? Like time isn't passing correctly?

Who knows.

Maybe it's the light, never setting and yet still not long enough.

Maybe it's that Nels hasn't been home for more than sleeping for several days.

Maybe it's that I talked to Amber on the phone for 2 1/2 hours in the late afternoon. (Late afternoon is a strange time of day to do anything for me.)

Maybe it's that my house is clean. (((gasp!)))

Maybe that I haven't really worn makeup in over a week.

Maybe it's walking straight into the wall last night after turning off the lights. - So hard that I scraped my nose on the wall.

On days like this, one never knows . . .

Ooo La La!

I would like to briefly share with you a miracle.

My favorite hair products of all time.

I was introduced to Bumble and bumble several years ago at the Defining Line Salon, here in town. One day after Marci (who is magic, by the way) cut my hair and dried it, she asked me how it felt. Running my fingers through my hair, I was amazed (as I feel every time I go there) with how SOFT my hair was. This time I finally asked her what she had put in my hair to make it feel that way. She said she hadn't put anything in it. It was the shampoo and conditioner. --- EVERY time I have used it, I am re-amazed at the difference it makes.

Come Christmas time this past year, money was tight, so I thought, "What the hey, I'm not going to fork out the moola right now. I'll buy the El Cheapo. I'll live." It has taken me 6 months to get rid of all the crapola shampoo that I have stashed around the house. This morning, we were reunited. It was lovely. And I'm still amazed. Like the difference between burlap and silk.

(((Sigh)))

So worth the moola.

Post Script (for Hannah and whoever else is interested): Here is the link to Bumble and bumble, if you are interested . . . I haven't talked to anyone outside the salon on how they like their products, but for ME, they must be perfectly pH balanced or something. :) They have lots of different shampoos and conditioners - a stylist can point you in the right direction for what is best for your hair type, of course. It's about $20 a bottle, but I've found (even with my long hair) the shampoo lasts me almost 3 months and the conditioner lasts nearly 6! They have a link on their website as to what salons sell it.