Parks and Popsicles

I gave a writing assignment last week, and made it a timed one.  "Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, etc. We'll address that later, just get your thoughts down."  It worked amazing, and then I was feeling all a'guilty cuz' I could probably take some of my own advice over here. 
So put up with some bad grammar and mediocre spelling... Time's Going!
   Another amazingly beautiful day.  I took the kids out to run errands, which mostly revolved around spring fever.  New window boxes, spray paint -- all of the freshen-up-the-outdoors genre.  Except the diapers... that freshens up everywhere.
The kids were really good, and I promised a park outing afterwards.  I'm not really sure who was having more fun, though.  Pushing them in swings. Listening to the giggles.  Watching a Crane. (Of the bird variety)  I even went down the slide a couple times. 
Then home...  where a friend and I caught up over strawberries and white chocolate cheesecake dip... yum, yum. 
 I also started the couch to 5k program this morning.  (And, nope, that doesn't mean I did the couch part.) Whew, didn't realize how out of shape I am.  Now this should be a good challenge for me.  I have put it off, because it's impossible to do with kids.  But now that it's light earlier, I really don't have too many excuses. 
-A couple pictures from today. 
I gave the kids orange push-up pops when we got home, I didn't care if they got dirty a.n.d. I wanted to buy myself a little time in order to carry in groceries.

Here is proof, both received there pops at the same time...


 
Blake is very intent and dedicated to getting the orange sherbet out as quickly and thoroughly as possible

Even if it makes a bit of a mess.

Kamie on the other hand...

Is goin' on a laid back sorta style

Not pictured:

Major drama when Kamie

removed Blake's pop "Cuz he was too messy"



Who Stinketh?

Confession time: when we drive by anything that is sorta on the smelly side... hog buildings, skunks, etc. somebody, (otherwise known as me) usually asks who stinks... or if it be a particularly bad diaper... we declare "You Stinketh!" 
So now we bring you to the middle of this morning's sermon... the part where Jesus resurrects Lazarus, and the point when the Pastor dramatically proclaims "He Stinketh", followed by a pause which was quickly filled with Kamie's equally loud and dramatic parroting "HE STINKETH!!" 
I was kindly asked later if we had just gone over the story of Lazarus... No, the history really isn't that saintly.

Little Stinker on The Left

Reasons for this pic:

We are dressed up

The tractor is clean

(As are we, hopefully, that isn't too noteworthy.)

Spring Field work starts this week

(i.e. Bronz is in the picture)

And the Numero Uno

I love these people!

 

Weekend Photo Dump

We had a fun date night...
Bronz took me to Hu Hot, a Mongolian grill, where they cook your food in front of you.  He knows how much I love to try new ethnic foods.  A frequent question from him is, "What nationality are you?"  Out of all the choices of food, (and it happened to be shrimp night) he loaded his bowl up with beef, a little pork, the requisite noodles, and potatoes.  To think, he's eating out, and still eating his good ol' meat and potatoes.  We tried to get a picture together, but the camera batteries were cold (As were we...) So here's the one snapshot of me before the batteries died. 

 

...And Camera dump...

Kamie and Kara at a wedding.

Aren't they just adorable.

And one of the two is awful photogenic.

The other is probably bending Kara's fingers backwards, or something along those lines.

 

 

Love my Lil Blake Lee

 

 

Kamie adores Fareway and especially their "Little Red Carts"  It's her favorite store because "They have lots of Oreos"  We always hit the produce section first, and load up her cart with fruits and veggies.  It makes the more tempting parts of the store (Like Brach's mix aisle) a lot easier to get through.  Kamie has one speed. Fast.  Watch out wine bottles on the end.

Grocery shopping is so much fun with her, she's ecstatic about Everything! And then we top it off with McDonalds... Oh my, life is good! 

Channeling Kamie's energy is my key to a happy productive little girl.

 

Happy Monday Everyone!

 

 

 

Date Night and Et Cetera

It’s been pretty close to forever since I’ve written…

And I’m not going to even attempt to catch up.  (Sorta like laundry after the flu, it’d be very redundant.)

We are embarking on the novel idea of doing a babysitting swap night twice a month with my brother’s fam.  Kamie was giving Blake the 411 “Tonight Daddy and Mommy are going on a date, and they are going to drop us off at Caleb and Marlys’ house!!” “You won’t be scared of Caleb.” >Pause< >mischievous look< “Caleb IS scary!”  We’ll see how it goes…

I, for one, am looking forward to it. Bronz and I communicated our expectations this morning. We laid our ground rules this morning, in which one of us isn’t to look at their phone and the other of us isn’t to mention f.a.r.m.i.n.g.  Aren’t we fancy.

Now I have to run and get dolled up take a shower, before the lil munchkins wake.  

Grandma Update:

(There you’ve been given your warning,

this is where I’m going to brag on my kids

and say all the boring stuff. Judge not. Leave now.)

 

Blake has had his third haircut, and is now waving and saying “Ha”. He loves to crawl, and be chased. Also in the process of developing an extremely cheesy grin.  He looks like he’ll be my picky eater, everything gets spit out examined, stuffed back in, with Momma as the human napkin. Not funny, my man.

Kamie is finally making some serious headway on potty training. Woot Woot!  The impetus? I have a jar of 21 popsicle sticks, each day that she keeps her training pants dry, she can remove a popsicle stick.  When they are all gone, I’m taking her to the pool.  (Celebrating being dry by getting wet.)  She insists that training pants, be called, that. “Boys wear undies, girls wear training pants.”  A bit disturbing to have her folding laundry and hand over “Your training pants, Mom.”

Thinning Out The Life

I started a detox/diet.  Yeah, real fun.  I have all these motivational thoughts running through my head:

• If you keep doing what you've always done, you'll keep getting what you've always got.
• I've got a mortgage with chocolate.  Need to make some progress on the debt snowball.
• Trying to visualize carrying the extra weight around in gunnysack.
• Worthwhile things don't (usually) come easy.  If I don't want to do it, I prolly should be doing it.

In order to not focus on what I'm not eating, I'm implementing some more of the wonderful Flylady lists.  Which, is kinda like a diet for the house.  I let Kamie cross off our lists this morning as we slowly worked through.  I love how doable the plan is.  Rather than waiting for the perfect time to get the kitchen floor scrubbed right- I followed her encouragement of "Just do what you can, any effort will be a blessing to your family."  And I really got most of the floor scrubbed.
-Side note: For the longest time I faithfully scrubbed the kitchen floor every single Saturday. Hands and Knees.  I was pretty proud of my consistency, and said something to Bronz about it. "You do it once a week?" He says. I'm so proud of myself and continue to boast.  "Umm, Mom did it every single day." Whew, way to take the wind out of my sails.  There is no way the kitchen floor is getting scrubbed every day over here.  I am just about as likely to run a marathon as have that happen.
Sooo,
If I keep this up I might just end up with a healthier self, and a sparkly house.  Nothin' wrong with that.  Anyone want to come over and eat grapefruit with me?

Valentines Fun

 I adore simple crafts. (You see, I'm pretty simple myself.)  So had to pass along this idea.  Don't hold your breath, it's not overly profound just heartfelt. (ha ha)
My sweet Mom came over today, bearing gifts, of course. A fun new product, known as Glass Crayons.  I watched Kamie play with them, and patiently waited my turn.  Fun! Fun! Fun!  They write so nice.  I only lasted a little while on Kamie's glass before I took to our gigantic entryway mirror. And here's the project.
Operation Valentines Day:
I Love You
In every language of our family's ancestry.
This site helped greatly.
We ended up with
English
Danish
Swedish
Norwegian
German
Irish
Threw in some Navajo in a nod to the rumored Indian blood
and I drew the sign language symbol.
Can you feel the Liebe?

-Our Camera is hanging out with my sister, right now. (Accidentally, that is.) So no pictures -

I Won't Be The "I'm Not..." Person

Unglued by Lysa TerKuerst is a fabulous read. There were many takeaway points, so many that I'm in the process of starting a group study for the book. One of which, was, not letting ourselves get nailed into boxes of our prior habits. We can do all things through our strength in Christ. We don't have to be the person who... has a messy closet, explodes, doesn't mail their Christmas Cards out on time, can't fry a chicken... etc. I'm sure you have your own list in your head. So this was running through my head tonight after our Bible time.

I had corralled the kids, and asked Bronz to >quick< read the Proverb for the day while one child was firmly planted next to him, and my lil Extra Appendage being ever near me. He laughed, "You do know what chapter that will be?" -Bummer, the 31st. Hmm kitchen clean, hair done, chicken fried steak digesting, I think I can take it. So after reading and discussing the chapter, I couldn't very well just veg out. Enter stretching, not Edith Project. I can sew, sorta. But it's always stressful. I'm artsy, and sewing requires too much of the mathematical parts of the brain, the parts that were misplaced when I was born. (Hey, maybe that's what's in my feet!)

So I pursed my lips and made This, well almost made it... The one below is not mine, I promise to put pictures up, no matter how lumpy it may be.  And I really only have a couple more steps to go before completion. But something about the sewing machine running into night time noise ordinance... Naw, Bronz is a great sport, he didn't even complain about all the racket I was making.  He did wake up and wonder about football stadium-esque lighting I had going on.  That would have been the time to make a coy reference to "Her candle goeth out not at night" or, "Hmm, wonder what the Proverbs 31 man's light bill was?"  I guess I was just too engrossed in making my own binding.