Should I be worried?

The following is a transcript of a written conversation between Jacob and his Aunt Caitlin:

Jake: Let's pass secret notes. Please reply then pass back behind couch.

Caite: What kind of secrets should we share?

Jake: Like the ones that spys do.

Caite: I don't know what kind of secrets spies have?  There's a secret nuclear reactor exactly 12.5 miles north of Traverse City, Michigan.

Jake: Do we destroy it?

Caite: Not on purpose, I should think... What other options do we have? World domination perhaps?

Jake: As long as a city is eliminated.

Caite: Which city should we pick?

Jake: Well, I think we should pick the location of the nuclear reactor... thingy.

Caite: So... Traverse City, Michigan?

Jake: Yes... that's it!

Caite: Okay, well you go ahead and plan that then.

Jake: Please read the following:

Which as far as I can tell is a plan to run a line of black powder from Utah to Michigan, with the detonator being somewhere in Arizona...

A Last Hurrah!

Today we spent playing with Josh, Elena, and Huck before they head home this weekend. We spent the whole morning at the Discovery Gateway children's museum.  Such fun...

The ball area is always a favorite with my kids. Huck and Lila were fascinated by all of the pipes and gears and gadgets.

Caitlin came with us which made a perfect ratio of 1:1 adults to children.

What do you do when everyone brings a camera? Take pictures of each other taking pictures! Cheese!

Evie playing the giant xylophone.

Huck making special deliveries.

Giddy up cowboy! Er... cowgirl Lila.

Huck was checking the play produce for freshness...

A great place when your children are climbing the walls.

Jake isn't really falling off the horse, he just likes to clown around.

Elena, Huck and Caite out for a spin.  Notice how neatly Caitlin fits in this kid-sized car.

Jake decide that he was the foreman and had all the children working together to build the skyline.  He cracked up the other parents when he suddenly shouted, "Come on everyone! We got to get these built on schedule!"

Huck graciously shared his hard hat with me.

Lila was so proud that she was able to operate the cranes by herself.

We had fun playing in the helicopter because it was cold enough that we had the whole thing to ourselves!

Lila grabbed the joystick and then yelled, "Abort! Abort!"  She is such a mimic.

There was this fun wall of magnetic gears.

Obviously the children were not the only ones mesmerized with them...

Proof that building blocks appeal to children of all ages.

Evie and Huck really know their alphabet, even if they can't tell their rights from their lefts yet.

That little tongue sticking out is my favorite! 

They have so many fun things to build with.

After 3+ hours of playing so hard we met up with Pa Dave for lunch.  The poor kids were sooo tired.  Lila fussed and fretted until they finally brought out our food.  Then she fussed and whined until I gave her my soup.  She attacked the soup and about two and a half seconds after she ate the last spoonful she was asleep! 

It was good that she got a little catnap while the rest of us finished lunch because after we ate we went to Build-A-Bear! (I know, my kids were beside themselves with excitement.)  Huck had never been so he made a fun little puppy dog. My kids had brought their bears we already had and they each got to pick out a new outfit for them, thanks to Pa Dave's generosity. 

Then tonight the fun continued for me as I got to go to both knitting night and a craft group with Caite and Elena. (I am really exhausted, and it was honestly a little bit hard to blog tonight.  Brownie blogging points for me, right?)

Thanks for inviting us to come and play with you all today Josh and Elena! This was much more fun than my original plan of doing laundry...

I really should know better...

It is a 100% certainty if I let my children take popcorn downstairs this will happen.

So why do I never remember that until I am standing over the mess and fuming?

I guess the real question is "Is it worth the hour I got with no one coming upstairs and needing my attention?"

It might be a fair trade-off...

Mom Guilt

I came across this article today and it just really spoke to me.  Not so much that I struggle with an overabundance of mom guilt. In fact sometimes I feel a little guilty about not feeling enough mom guilty. Case in point #2, #3, #4 and #18 (substituting fully caffeinated Dr. Pepper for the wine) are all things I've already done with little to no guilt, and #9, #11, and #13 make perfect sense to me. (I haven't done #12, but totally would in a pinch.) But my favorite item is #28, because it is so true. I am also very excited about the prospect of #1 very soon, because our anniversary is next week!  The thing I am looking forward to the most? Two blissful nights of sleeping with no extra bodies crawling in between us during the night...

31 Reasons You Shouldn't Feel Mom Guilt

Say goodbye to the blame game by learning it's OK to relish in life's little luxuries, from bliss-filled date nights to planning weekends away from the kids.

By Stephanie Dolgoff, Parenting

Sure, you could always be more organized, more cheerful, more on top of every little detail. But you're not a Mombot, thank goodness, and no one (except, perhaps, you!) expects you to be. Below, we've rounded up 31 things among hundreds that you can give yourself leeway to do - without the burden of even one ounce of stress.

1. Taking a vacation with only your husband.

It's such a tragedy for the kids to spend time with their super indulgent grandparents! Besides, they'll benefit from you two not giving each other the stink eye during dinner.

2. Feeling smug that you're a better parent than those on Supernanny.

No worries. We all feel smug watching Supernanny. Until we don't, at which time we employ her techniques.

3. Not signing up to be class parent.

Think of it this way: Your ability to say no to volunteer tasks you can't handle will leave you better able to concentrate on what only you can do, like getting your kids fed, dressed and onto the bus. Some days, that's huge!

4. Yelling at your son when he actually didn't do anything wrong.

Sure, not a great move, but it's a good opportunity to show him that even you screw up sometimes, and that saying sorry really does help make it better.

5. Enjoying your work.

You can love your kids and still have that "Thank God It's Monday" feeling, well, every Monday. Especially after a long and dreary winter weekend.

6. Buying your daughter the generic UGGs.

She'll live without the label, even if she thinks she will not, and her tootsies will be just as toasty.

7. Buying yourself the real ones.

You treat your shoes better than your kid does, and you won't outgrow them. Plus, they're really cute. Being the wage earner has its perks.

8. Giving him the answer to the last problem on his math homework.

He'll get more practice with the teacher in school.

9. Dipping into your son's goody bag when he isn't looking.

What's a funsize Snickers between family members?

10. Not going in the pool with them.

Chlorine does a real number on your hair, and besides, that's what dads are for.

11. Accepting your son's compliment that you're a good cook when he's eating pre-breaded microwave chicken breasts.

You did your part. You pressed "Start."

12. Wiping your daughter's nose with a panty liner - the closest thing to a tissue you had in your purse.

For heaven's sake - it was clean!

13. Stashing the Häagen-Dazs in the back of the freezer, and showcasing the supermarket brand.

If they're not ready to dig, they're not ready to appreciate the premium stuff.

14. Closing the bedroom door in their little faces.

You did not magically lose your need for privacy when you gave birth. If someone's bleeding or not breathing, by all means, they can knock.

15. Giving in once in a while.

It can be a wise parental trade-off, especially if what you're acceding to will buy you a few minutes of quiet time, private time or time to regroup. You don't need to be perfectly consistent.

16. Making your daughter get down from the top of the monkey bars, simply because it makes you nervous.

Yes, she's done it a million times safely, and she'll likely do it again, but who says you have to watch? Your comfort level counts, too!

17. Making the grandparents take them to "Disney on Ice."

It's torture for you, but for them, it's a future memory they'll cherish forever. What's the problem?

18. Tossing their artwork.

After you've saved the truly superior thumb pots and the especially sentimental glitter collages, you will still have a heap of crafts the size of Mount Etna. Fill up a big black Hefty bag after they're asleep, pour yourself some wine, and then watch Hoarders. You'll feel better instantly.

19. Being psyched that the best friend you never liked has moved to another state.

You're not happy your daughter is upset, of course, and you'll help her through it. But being secretly pleased that you won't ever have to host Little Miss Caitlin-Who-Gets-to-Wear-Belly-Shirts for a sleepover again doesn't make you a bad person.

20. Neglecting to videotape his role as "third planet from the sun" in the school solar-system pageant.

There will be other, more important achievements, and you can bet your son won't notice.

21. Letting it slip that the tooth fairy was actually her daddy.

You didn't destroy her childhood innocence. You let her in on a grown-up secret that she must never, ever tell her little brother, which makes her feel mature and important.

22. Knowing you could go months without sex, without even missing it.

Guilt about not feeling frisky makes you even less so. So your libido isn't what it used to be when you had no children to wear you out by 9 p.m. If you can remain open to the idea of sex, and get into it when you can, that's fine until things change. Which they probably will as your children get older.

23. Only pretending to be sad that your child's birthday falls in mid-August.

No gigantic birthday parties, full of political decisions as to whom to invite.

24. Reading this article instead of soliciting donations for the PTA auction, cultivating your organic vegetable garden or cleaning out that kitchen drawer with the random rubber bands, screwdrivers and old keys in it.

Even machines need to unplug and reboot every so often.

25. Sitting and reading.

You do not need to be on the treadmill in your first free 20 minutes in three days. You'll exercise at the next break in the action when you can.

26. Looking forward to guys' weekend even more than your husband.

It's so much easier sometimes to just take care of stuff by yourself without having to take someone else's opinion into account. Plus, a little time apart is never a bad thing.

27. Not letting her pierce her ears until the age at which you were allowed to.

Just because.

28. Finding aspects of motherhood incredibly tedious.

If you didn't find watching your child go down the slide for the 100th time that day ("Mom, look at meeee!") or nagging him to put his socks in the hamper a bit of a snooze, you'd be too easily amused, and hence a moron.

29. Noticing the hot dad at drop-off.

Ahem, you have eyes in your head, and (sex drive or no) you're not dead yet! Did you lick him? No? You're okay.

30. Still being really PO'd about the stretch marks.

31. Forgetting to lay out her best outfit for school photo days.

Years from now, you'll appreciate seeing her as the adorable, rough-and-tumble tomboy she really was - instead of some dolled-up version of herself.

A little motivation...

I spent most of today doing nothing. Okay, I guess it was more like equal parts sleeping and doing nothing.  Jake and I were both still not well this morning, so I let the kids pretty much have free reign while I went back to bed for the morning. I am very lucky that I have very good kids. 

The afternoon went a little smoother. I spent most of it on the couch doing nothing. Then I decided I felt like making something. So I went down to my sewing room that was still a disaster area after Project Christmas Overkill...

So I cleaned it.

Then I made something. 

That's good enough for today.

bleech...

Tonight I feel like the toy room looks...

Chaotic 

Down in the dumps

 (well it is downstairs and kind of a dump right now...)

Just all around blah

I put in all the time and effort to get to church on time, early even! And was completely thwarted from hearing even a tenth of the messages by a combination of a huge influx of teenagers who came to a missionary farewell, an insanely tired toddler, a four year old with a bladder the size of a pea, and a wicked headache that really wanted to be a migraine.  I would have seriously considered throwing in the towel and going straight to bed after the first meeting if I didn't have to teach 6 four year olds who were tired of holding still and being quiet by the time I got them. (Really, who could pass up that kind of fun?)  Add to all that my husband got to leave early, to bring our son home to puke his guts up...

But I am not really complaining, because given the choice I would and will do it all again.  And to be entirely truthful I would take any number of four year olds over a vomiting child any day of the week, and twice on Sundays!

Trying to find her own style...

Yesterday afternoon we decided to run an errand to get some yarn so I can knit a hat for my brother.  I told the kids to get their shoes and coats on. Evie came out of her room sporting an ensemble which included her Christmas nightgown, slippers, bathrobe which she couldn't find the belt for so it is tied closed with a piece of blue curling ribbon, and only half of her hair still french braided.  

I started to try to get her to change into something more appropriate.

 Some battles are not worth fighting....

I can't decide if she was going for "escaped mental patient" or "ghetto fabulous".

I guess as long as I get to help her get ready for church; I am okay with it if she wants to go to the grocery store dressed as a princess or to the library with her swimming suit on over long johns. 

Yup. 

We are going to be that family.