wordless wednesday

unsung hero

i would like to go one day without unclogging a toilet.

by default, i am really good at it. i mean, i don't want to brag... but i am reeeaaally good.

the other day, one of my angels was sitting on the pot... probably getting it ready for me anyway,

happily playing with her new toy that she purchased with her own money at claire's.

she loved that toy (for a good 24 hours anyway)(like any new toy)

i was helping another child in the other room when i heard said child "finishing up"

i heard her voice change from "oops" to "oh no!" to "ooohh nooo!!!"

to pure heartbreak "nooooo!!" "wahhhhhhhh"

sadness.

i could imagine what had happened.

my heart was sad for her because she was so sad.

normally i wouldn't have done this, but i think because i heard the heartbreak transpire step by step from the other room... i felt bad.

i went into the bathroom.

she was sitting on the floor crying and pointing to the toilet.

i stepped up like a hero.

i grabbed my mighty plunger...

and gave it a go.

to be honest, i didn't think it was going to work. i mean.. that thing was g.o.n.e.

but alas... after some very gifted plunging skills...

when i pulled up the plunger...

there was a happy little hotpink plastic telephone floating in the water.

we all looked at it amazed.

i took it out, as in stuck my hand in the gross toilet & bleached it.

she wiped away her tears and took it into her hands and with a  big smile  walked into the other room.

as i was washing my hands, again, i heard the rest of the family ask her what had happened.

she replied...

oh, nothing.

Wordless Wednesday

pining vs. pinning

now that the kids are in school all day, i have found a few days (ok this is the first one) (and it will probably be 15 min... not all day) that R is watching a cartoon & little baby J is swaddled in his cradle dreaming away peacefully.

so what do i do?

surf the internet.

blogs have changed a little. now there are so many giveaways that i want to win, i end up going to all the websites and putting things in my shopping cart. wanting to push that purchase button but knowing it's not the right thing to do.

so i move on to pinterest, knowing that i can't buy anything. and i start pinning things. and more things and more things. but that gets my heart pumping and then i get overwhelmed. i'm not going to do any of those projects. and then i just wish i could buy them all.

i can't do that either.

then i think... who's houses look like that anyway? with all of those projects finished.. beautifully completed. well, mine won't ever. and it gets me down.

it's weird how such cute inspiring stories and projects can sometimes have the opposite effect.

sometimes i feel worse.

and then i want to rebel.

so i think i want to eat something chocolatey and delicious. that'll make me feel better.

then i think i'll never loose this baby weight if i do that.

then i get mad.

then i move to instagram and look at people who had a baby at the same time as me and are posting selfies of their beautiful, skinny after baby bod.

then i get down about my body.

it's a downward spiral.

and it's stupid.

i have 4 beautiful perfect daughters that are soaking in everything i say. i have to be so careful of what i say and what i do.

i don't want them to remember their mom scrolling thru the internet... wishing she had a skinnier body, or a more decorated house, or holier kids.

and i certainly don't want them to think that they are not pretty enough or not skinny enough or don't have enough things.

i want them to be grateful for what they have.

i want them to know that they were created to be just how they are. to know that they are beautiful, not because of what they look like but because of who they are.

and i need to believe that for myself too.

which i do. and am thankful everyday for what i have.

i just need to stay away from the internet eye candy sometimes.

so....

i am going to just enjoy this newborn stage with my baby and not worry about my jelly belly. i am going to soak in every minute... because it is so precious and so fleeting. he is so big already!

i am going to turn off the tv and take my 3 yr. old outside to repaint an old table and chairs set.

craft time for him, project time for me. kill two birds with one stone.

and we are going to make the most of the day!

at least until the baby starts crying, and before R spills the paint and then wants to go inside with paint all over him, until they both want to be fed at the same time... not tandem nursing... but making lunch for R and nurse J... not that there's anything wrong with tandem nursing... i was just being clear...

Funny kids

Little conversations that made me chuckle...

With L in the car, trying to get out of going to piano lessons.... Again.

L : "mom can you pick us up early today? We are going to hurry through our lesson."

Me: "no L, that's not how it works. I pay for each of you to have a thirty minute lesson."

L: "you can pay less this week?"

Me: "no."

L: "can I switch to violin?"

Me: "no."

L: "my dreams are shattered."

Me: "well sorry about that. But if you keep working hard at piano, it will be super easy to switch to violin when you grow up"

L: "I guess."

Discussing a scary commercial little S and D saw during shark week...

D: "a surf board was getting bit by a shark. Then the screen went red. Then the shark was attacking a... " she couldn't bring herself to say it.

Me: " oh D, I'm sorry you saw that. Just so you know, all of those commercials are fake. No one would film that, they would try to help the person if it were real. They are computer generated."

D, somewhat unsure : "I know."

Little s, very serious & convincing: 

"yeah. I know what they do. It's a person in a shark suit, with holes so they can breathe, dressed up and pretending. They are holding a bucket of red paint. When they reach the surfboard, they spill it over. Yeah, it's just someone pretending."

R, within 2 minutes after daddy walked in, returning from a week long trip...

R jumping on his back, attacking him for a "fight" (wrestle)... 

  "You smell like a pirate ship dad!!"

And little baby J...

I love the way he turns his head to attack us when we kiss his cheeks. I guess he has been watching too much shark week too.

first day of school 2013

here my girls all ready on the first day of school.

this beauty tolerated me taking a pic out of the car window...

even tho it was in front of all the students.

such a cute 8th grader... say wha????

we had a little time to kill after dropping off S

so we went thru and got some back to school donuts.

they were pretty pumped.

another out the car window photo opp...

6th grade, 3rd grade and 1st grade

 it's all drive thru drop off this year.

yay! i don't have to get the car seat in & out... bonus.

 well i got all the kids back to school on time on their first day, despite paul being out of town all week,

and the fact that i really have not been out of bed in the last month before 10am.

don't get me wrong, there have been several wakings throughout the nights, late nights, and even a few all nighters... catching the few hours of sleep for the day between the hours of 7am to 9am...

but with it being summer and all... we have had some very lazy mornings.

anywho... i got the kids to school,

but i can't say that it went off without a hitch.

aside from waking up to an ant intrusion... they were ALL over the countertops. in the silverware drawers, all along the cabinets, swarming the countertops and anything on them. even inside my sugar bowl.....

after cleaning that mess up.....

i noticed in the morning, luckily D woke me up (my alarm didn't go off, i had set it for pm instead of am) (a preview of how the day was going to go) when getting the ice packs for the lunches out of the freezer, that they were defrosted. and that everything in the freezer was defrosted. as in all the meats, fruits... everything. including what was the ice in the dispenser.. water slushed out & all over the floor when i opened the door. i thought someone had left it open all night. but no, i realized shortly after that the fridge was slowly losing cool air as well.

great.

i quickly grabbed the necessities (milk, cheeses & coffee creamer) and put them in the outside fridge. lucky for that!

ran out the door to get the kids to school on time.

hurried back home to deal with the freezer situation.

i was in a hurry & a call had already been put in to the warranty co. so i thought help would be on it's way soon.

not so much.

afterschool pick up came and went and we headed home.

to a now hot fridge & freezer.

it was starting to smell.

the baby was crying.

kids needed snacks.

the girls really stepped up.

we spent a few hours cleaning up the sludge that was melted in the freezer, took dripping bags out to the garbage dumpsters...

and the girls took turns holding the baby because my hands were covered in muck
& ant killer... still cleaning from the mornings' invasion.

the girls were such help that we celebrated and went out to dutch bros.
they were giving away free drinks from 6-7pm.

we went to the park & enjoyed

went home, got cleaned up & went to bed.

L came in with a tummy ache... maybe not such a great idea to give her her first coffee drink (it was decaf) right before bed. :(

the next day

we made it thru the morning rush again,

still no one showed up to fix the fridge.

i was waiting but had to leave.

i had to run the baby to his 1mo. check up.

after i pulled out of the garage,

i noticed that the garage door pretty much slammed down as hard as it could when i closed it.

i was running late... i couldn't deal with that at that time.

went to the doc., everything is great with the baby.

praise the lord.

while approaching the car with my hands full of a heavy car seat, diaper bag & holding a little 3 yr. olds hand, i decide to push the autostart on the car to try to relieve some of the lovely az heat from the car...

doesn't work.

hmmm.... the engine light is on.

great.

i can't deal with that now... gotta get the kids home for a nap & wait for the repair man to show up.

got home, manually lifted the garage door and checked it out a little.

yep something is def. wrong. the bars are loosely wiggling.

something must have popped errrrr something of that nature.

ahh... another call to the home warranty.

still no appearance from the fridge repairman.

P texts me and says he (the repairman) is not coming. P is very mad.

sooo....

i need to get the fridge, the car and the garage door fixed and get an exterminator out here 

PRONTO!

however...

to put things in perspective,

my pediatrician had just returned from a mission trip

to africa.

2000 very sick children and 

2 docs.

she said she saw diseases she had personally never seen before.

very sad & eye opening.

malaria, polio, typhoid fever...

as i came home to my air conditioned (for now) house and tucked my healthy children

in their beds....

getting food from my outside garage refrigerator

didn't seem like such of an inconvenience anymore.

lately....

besides sitting around nursing my baby and snapping pics of him,

we have not been up to much else.

school starts monday and i have to say i am not ready.

i am dreading the early mornings, the schedules, the late nights of homework,

the DRIVING.

but, alas, summer has come to an end and my kiddos are ready to start

a new school year.

they are excited.

which i guess is good.

well, i think S is excited but she says she is not.

she says she is starting her jail sentence again.

i'm interpreting that as "i'm excited to see my friends but too cool to say i like school"

here are a few random pics of everyday summer....

R getting his hair cut. i usually cut his hair, but he also goes to a barber sometimes. he said he prefers to go to the place with the sports, the girls and the lollipops. hmm.....

perfect little lips....

oh yes. i'd been waiting for this. however... it might be short lived. the little one seems to be sensitive to dairy & wheat. umm... not allowed.

uh oh.. more little lip pics......

this little guy got a "worker" set. he hasn't stopped fixing things around the house since.

we have has endless basement performances, plays, shows and even a circus.

and not to mentions movie times.... errrr days

brace face, metal mouth.... names she has a fit if we say.

again, i think she really likes them.

not even close to enough monsoon storms. i think there were only two. not sure, but completely bummed. it's the only thing that makes these arizona summers bearable.

here is one that the kids ran around in.

heaven.

did i mention i am kind of crazy about the baby's lips???

there is not enough time in the day for turns holding the baby.

what am i going to do when they go back to school?

a few trips to bahama bucks.

a nice, cool, dairy free treat to beat the heat.

we heard about a crazy warehouse toms sale.

so yes, we headed right over.

it was kinda overwhelming, but we dug thru and everyone got a new pair of toms.

lots of dress up time. i've been saved from robbers more times than i can count.

i am one lucky lady to have this cowboy protecting me.

he's tough, even in his undies.

bbbaaaaabbbbyyyyyyyy.....

this was after their big theater performance.

they loved it and all had a solo.

they sounded pretty good if i do say so myself.

we adventured in the world of moscow mules.

pretty good.

and more icees....

we didn't do much this summer,

other than welcome a new family member,

but it was a good summer.

went way too fast.

13

 this tiny newborn baby girl turned

13.

wait, what?

 

we went to get make up lessons and an eyebrow wax. now that she's a teenager.. that stuff is all the rage. she watches you tube videos on how to apply make up.

we had the cousins over and her sisters made her a cake.

we then went on a scavenger hunt. love those.

her favorite gift was from her dad. a collecters monet barbie doll. she couldn't believe he surprised her with it.

see, she's still my little girl.

happy birthday S! we loooooove you!!!

cloth diapers....

yes ma'am!

i love it.

so far so good.

i started on day 7.

even paul will say that it is really not any different.

 well... i do all the laundry,

but other than that...

it's really not hard.

and the diapers are so cute!

for your viewing pleasure.....

here are several pics of my newborn in his cloth diapers.

can't you just hear the environment getting cleaner?????

 

 in his first cloth diaper.... bum genius newborn in moonbeam.

 

 grovia newborn all in one in cloud.

thirsties trees cover size 1 and flat....

vanilla grovia newborn aio....

 ok... no diaper in this pic... but he had his eyes open.

 modeling his albert bum genius pocket diaper...

featuring the grovia robot snap cover with a folded flat inside :)

woodlands grovia newborn aio....

i wash the diapers every 3 days. and then lay them out in the sun to dry. it is sadly such a thrill to see those yellow newborn poop stains just magically disappear. luckily i had a friend who has been cloth diapering for a long time help me with brand selections, and i love the brands she chose.
i do have one new brand that i like too... apple cheeks. you will have to stay on the edge of your seat waiting for a picture of that one.

to be continued.....