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.