Planning toasts, the end of babies, and TV zombies

My sister is getting married, I'm super excited, like a little bit, maybe, sorta a crazy person excited.  I may or may not have written a toast in my head today and then in hopes of not forgetting it (it was good in my humble opinion) :) recorded it as a voice memo on my phone.  Did I mention that she has been engaged for one week, has yet to set a date, and has not asigned me any toasting duties.  In my defense I can't help it, I write random things in my head all day long, though I (obviously) rarely write them down, which is the problem if I don't write it down it'll soon be gone, I've lost really good stuff that way.

Kylynn has been devouring every Boxcar Children audiobook our local library has, she'll check out all they have available and listen to them over and over, while at the same time be in the middle of one which we read at night before bed.  Our library is a little behind the times and they have more of the books on tape than CD, so Kyle took his old boombox out of the garage and put it on her dresser so she could listen to even more.  The other day we were driving somewhere in the car and she said, "Mommy I know something we can do together when I get to be grown up, like a teenager, I can come home and visit you and we can read Boxcar Children books together."  Girlfriend knows how to have a good time.  It is true that the first Boxcar Children book is one of my favorites of all time and I too once devored each and every one I could get my hands on.  It just occured to me in the 100+ books of solving crimes, do they ever get any older?

I packed up all my baby stuff this weekend.  I mean we've still got one in diapers and two in boosters, but all that stuff needed for babies under two, is out of my house!  Kyle optimistically asked me if this meant I feel done having children now and I have to admit getting all of that crap out really did help me feel done.  The other day a friend of mine said that, "it wasn't in her plans" to have any more children, she doesn't know what God's plans are, but she is not planning on it.  That's my new answer, I feel done, but I'm ready to change my mind if God has something different for us in the kiddo department.

Speaking of kiddos the motivation to get rid of all things baby, was having to move, our baby into a big girl bed.  Chloe has always been a climber so really were lucky to last this long, the transition has been a bit rocky, but tonight went amazingly well.  She has also {finally!} begun giving me kisses, without me begging or bribing, she is settling more and more into our family and it's such a great feeling!

Has anyone ever heard of this thing called the OLYMPICS!!  That's right it's only the coolest thing ever and it starts in 2 days, 15 hours, and 46 minutes.  That's right I'm a total Olympics geek and couldn't be prouder.  My children will be little TV zombies and we will eat more food in the den than we have in the past 4 years combined and of course, Kyle will want to trade me in for a more normal wife :).

And to go out on a high point, two pins that I made (or began making) this week,

Source: ashleyannphotography.com via Jenny on Pinterest

Source: brownpaper--packages.com via Jenny on Pinterest

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging much lately but....

You would think after four years of blogging, I would be good at this, I would have crossed over the threshold into blogs that will stand the test of time.  Well maybe you wouldn't, but I think those things.  But as of late I have been a horrible blog slacker and it scares me, because this blog is pretty much the only outlet I have.  Writing is the one activity (that I do!) that I enjoy and is purely for me, it's one of the few (non-mommy) things that I feel like I am *somewhat* good at.

But all hope is not lost, we are allowed seasons in our lives, right?  And we can learn from our mistakes and make better choices next time, so they tell us at least.  I have a lot of good reasons and some pitiful ones to blame for my lack of blogging lately.  In no particular order I give you my "I'm sorry I haven't been blogging much lately but..."

I have three kids, ok the lady who just gave birth to her 7th over at Vitafamiliae still manages to blog everyday, but I have yet to figure out her secret.  As it is my children fill up my day to overflowing and often fill up parts of the night.

They invited Pinterest.  At the end of a long day (are the days ever short?) if I want to veg I am no longer limited to checking on the blogs I love, I can click over to Pinterest and see what they're pinning.   After getting sucked in I leave feeling like my eyeballs are going to fall out from staring at a screen that long.  When I'm done the last thing I want to do is do something else on the computer.

I am questioning how much I should be sharing about our life, our struggles with our children, and what we do on a regular basis with the whole world (because you know the whole world is reading :).  But as they get older I sometimes want to tell you this crazy/horrible/hilarious thing they did and think but would they want that up on the internet for all to know, probably not.  So that leaves me just confused enough to throw my hands up in the air and click over to Pinterest instead.

I joined facebook.  It has not been the time suck that people warned me about, but still it's one more thing that I put before checking in over here in blogland.  In addition sometimes when I'm really excited about something, like getting our IRS refund after 10 months of fighting I share it there instead of here and once out of my head I forget all about it and am left thinking I have nothing to blog about.

I am tired in a way I've never been before.  We are all still adjusting around here to being a family of five, to the challenges and stresses adoption can bring to a family.  This past year I have learned so very much about my inadequacies, about my need for a community to help me on this road, about what it means to rejoice in suffering.  I have found some great books, some great friends, some great support and I know that God will provide everything we need for this journey but that doesn't change how much it takes out of me each day.

So those are my excuses, both the good and bad, and some others have been kept quiet, lest you get sick of my complaining (I'm working on it :).  But one of my goals for 2012 (it's something I plan on blogging about soonish...) is to return to blogging two times a week, because this blog is important to me for many reasons.  Top of the list is you, the people who come here a read my attempts at writing and most especially those of you who have reached out to me and become real life friends who were my first support group and to this day some of my favorite people.

Spring has sprung

I credit Pinterest (and yes it is impossible for me to have a single post without talking about them) for it, this spring break has been amazing!  I am way more laid back and unorganized than I ever like to admit so most spring breaks we pretty much just take a break from, well, everything :).

We had our pajama/fort building/movie day on Friday and it was enough to fuel me for some get out the house time the rest of the week.  Monday we put on our rain boots and headed out for a nature hike.  The kids had so much fun and I hurt my cheeks smiling at their joy in splashing and their sheer excitement in finding a worm!! a rolly polly!! look mom a giant stick!!

We also had lunch with Daddy on Monday, which was Jack's only request for what fun thing he would like to do over spring break, now that will make a Daddy feel special.  Tuesday we headed to Target (which is a highly requested destination from the kiddos, though you know I happily oblige).  They love Target because they know they get to have popcorn and they wanted to spend some of their money that they had saved up or gotten as a gift.  Mommy got two new spring Essie nail polish colors with her money, so it was a win win.

image credit

That afternoon we made cookies, well ok most people would not call them cookies, they were healthy peanut butter cookies from Dr. Oz (one guess where I found the recipe), they contained no butter or sugar and very little flour.  Anyways I've been trying to change our eating habits around here and so I was excited about these cookies and I had ever thing on hand.  Only after finishing the dough did I start to read the reviews and realize uh-oh everyone says they're horrible.  So I went back and added some baking powder, some salt to help bring out some of the sweetness, and some chocolate chips because let's face it my children will eat anything if it has chocolate chips in it.  They were still just barely pasable, but Kylynn loves them (I love that girl) Jack has managed to get down one (score, snuck fruit into him!) and Chloe loves to break them into a million pieces and feed them to the dog.

Wednesday was a bit non-spring break of a day for us, Jack had speech in the morning and then we ran errands.  But we got to have lunch with our adoption group and it was one of the highlights of the week for me.  The park was swarming with adoptive/interracial families, and I got to meet several new families.  It was so comforting to see something that I have been asking God for since we began this process become a reality, families like ours to walk along side of on this journey, God's goodness is always overwhelming to me when I stop and pay attention.

Source: littlewondersdays.blogspot.com via Jenny on Pinterest

Today I kind of lost my mind and decided that I should do a craft with the kids, after all crafting is Kylynn's love language and it's something I never do with her.  I found this shaving cream painting project for Easter and thought I can do this...maybe (that's the best it gets when it comes to me and crafts).  First I gathered all my supplies and could not find the construction paper anywhere so we spent the next 20 minutes searching and gave up and headed out to the dollar store.  Perhaps it should be noted that I look like I have the flu with my sweats/old t-shirt/frizzy hair/no make-ups self, but we only need one thing, and I have no time for dignity when I just want to get this crappy fun craft done.  We came home with three things but still they were only a dollar and began our project.  Kylynn had fun and they even turned out like they did in the pictures on-line (mostly).   But the thing about crafts is there is always cleaning involved so I spent about 30 minutes returning our garage/children/cookie sheets back into their normal color.  So if you get an egg card from us for Easter know that it was 3 hours of my life I will never have back again, and that is how much I love you.

I will now go and recover by sleeping and then only if there's time taking a shower.  Tomorrow Daddy is taking off of work (can I get an Amen!) and we're off for an adventure and I do mean adventure because we have no idea what we're doing, but by golly we are going somewhere and doing something!

How's the break going friends?  What is the most fun things you've done?  Did it involve crafting :)?

This Birthday party was brought to you in part by Pinterest

blowing out the candles

Jack turned four at the end of February.  I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around that, four, four is a big kind, officially no longer a toddler.  And everyone knows a big kid deserves a friend birthday party, something I try and avoid when they're too young to know or care who attends their birthday party.  So I spent some time on pinterest and planned out a Fireman birthday party, at the request of the four year old.

we had a pinata, Chloe figured it out without instruction :)

First I did the ol' evite of course, but for the kids in his class I needed a physical invitation so I copied Rage Against the Minivan's idea and printed out the evite as a photo, to pass out to all the kids in his class.  They turned out great and cost me 10 cents a pop.

For the cake I knew that no amount of pinning would help me turn out anything other than a hot pink cake with chicken scrawl that said "Happy fireman Birthday party Jack." So I turned to a professional who also happens to be a dear friend (I'm telling you folks if you cannot craft to save your life surround yourself with those who can and you will never be disappointed).  When I saw what she had made Jack I cried, yes I'm for real, all I had told her was it's a fireman birthday party and ps- can you use lots of frosting because I love your frosting so much I want to eat it with a spoon.  And she came up with this amazing firetruck cake, with all these details like "ladder 4" and "JCFD" (Jack C fire department) on it.  I really couldn't believe that she expected us to cut it up and feed it to everyone like it wasn't a piece of art, until I remembered the frosting and I decided it was worth it.

Source: mamalovesfood.com via Jenny on Pinterest

I tried to keep the food simple considering the party was not going to overlap a meal time and it's enough to make anyone lose their mind trying to clean a house with three children still in it!  So I just did chips and candied jalapeno dip (it was ridiculously good), fruit, pigs in a blanket, and these amazing ham and cheese crescent rolls (have I told you how much I love that blog).  I'm known for overdoing it in the food department, but actually most of it was eaten up and it wasn't even me who ate it :).

All the decorating came straight from pinterest.  I thread balloons using a thread and needle and hung them up all over the house, we cut up plastic table cloths and hung them above the food table and the gift table, and at the last minute I rolled out some wrapping paper as a table runner on the snack table.  It was the most decorating I have ever done for a party but it was all easy and looked great.  I was up till the wee hours in the morning threading 50 balloons and hanging them though out the house, easy but time consuming.

The party really felt like a success and I think Jack felt loved and celebrated the way I hoped he would.  Besides his friends and their families we had a lot of our family come down, which was like icing on the cake (hah!).  I'm still finding a balloon here and there over a week later, and I've made a mental note: come July when the kids are making you feel like you might run away from home, head to the dollar store and buy them some balloons, fill them up and let them play, hours of fun!