It started snowing last weekend and it kept snowing until last night. We had A LOT of snow and it was a crazy week.
Let’s recap the highlights.
1. We had no school on Monday for the holiday and then no school the rest of the week due to snow – awesome. This puts us in school until about June 22nd this year – not so awesome.
2. We drank a lot of hot chocolate. How can you not with a week like this, there is that unwritten rule about playing in the snow and then coming in for hot chocolate.
3. The kids played in the snow more times than I can count. By the end they were both professionals at putting on their snow gear. Ivy could do the pants, coat, hat, socks and boots by herself and only needed help with her mittens and scarf. Owen only needed help tucking his gloves in his coat. This was all so joyous as you will recall they played in the snow more times than I can count.
4. Other than to go to boot camp on Monday and Wednesday night, I did not leave this house one other time from Monday until Friday night. There was no question we were going to dinner tonight.
5. I was reminded that I love when it snows for a week and then immediately warms up and starts to melt.
6. We are in need of all the snow to melt so that we can hopefully locate a missing spray bottle and a winter glove.
7. Spray bottles with water and food coloring make for a WONDERFUL snow activity, even if they need constant refills and new colors.
8. I realized that I love to be able to go places when I want to and that homeschooling my children is not something I could ever do.
9. Steve is the fastest snowman builder I have ever met. He went outside for 3 minutes and instantly had a snowman. One minute there was no snowman, I turned to talk to Angie and the next minute there was a snowman.
10. It is impossible to keep a clean house with a baby, two snow kids and the worst snow storm in years.
11. As it continues to warm up and rain this weekend, it will be only a memory by Monday, but it was fun while it lasted!
TUESDAY:
THURSDAY:
And this has nothing to do with the snow, but I like it (and I don’t have any snow pictures of her).
There was a mouse on a show we used to watch, her name was Muffy. She was a scruffy little thing and for some reason Ivy, in her scruffiness, reminds me of that mouse.
And so we call her Muffy.
I am not sure if it is the hair, her teeth, the clothes that she picks out for herself, the funny way she talks, or that she always seems to have a messy mouth that earns her that nickname.
Maybe it is just the whole package.
And a little bit about that little Muffy…
She loves her brother and loves teasing him about as much. She snuggles up to me and says, “my mom” over and over. She chewed a hole in her binky about 4 weeks ago and I resisted buying a new one. She doesn’t seem to mind, as long as she can suck on the strap it used to be attached to. She loves to eat everything, turkey dipped in hummus (as in the picture above, she is watching tv with the whole package of turkey and the entire tub of hummus), broccoli, asparagus, salad, salmon, cheese, cauliflower, carrots, peas, beans, and the list goes on and on, it is nothing short of a dream for Greg. She loves to repeat what just happened, ie. Ivy: “Hi Baby”, Baby: Laughs. Ivy: “Mama, Iya “Hi Baby”, Baby Ha Ha Ha. She loves Evan. She is the WORST at going to sleep, most nights include a ritual in which she will not stop talking and after threats that last too long, I take her down to Greg sobbing and crying while she says she will be nice. I hear her crying, Greg talking, the crying stop, the noise of the stairs and then she comes back with Greg. He lays her down, says she promises to be nice and keep her eyes closed. She closes them tight and although I am sure she is dying inside, she keeps quiet. We do this every night. She likes to read but not the way you would think. She tells me to read a book, I start to read and then she picks up another book indicating she will read that one. We both read a separate book. Whenever I get home from boot camp she always says, “baby cry AAAALLL night.” When she says ‘what’ she puts her hand on her ear as if to help her hear better. She has a slew of pants in her drawer that are 12 month pants that she wears all the time. She told me today that she loves to wear tights under her pants. She loves to beat Owen in getting dressed for the day and often gets in her pajamas around 4:00 or so to assure she is first. It is usually accompanied with a little song called, “Iya beat Owie, la la la” and a little hip wiggle. She loves the word WHY. She potty trained herself when Owen told her she couldn’t go to school until she wore underwear. Greg and I resisted and pleaded with her to wear a diaper. She refused and has been accident free ever since. She picks out clothes for the baby everyday and even occasionally for Owen. She told me last night she was Mama’s baby, Daddy’s baby, Noni’s baby and Steve’s baby.
I love that girl.
As I end, she is helping Owen clean the kitchen. She is wearing a shirt, that is all, and chewing gum, singing a song with Owen about cleaning all night.
just as Muffy as ever.
1. That little baby no longer poops during the night. I don’t mind feeding her at night and with her sleeping in the bed it is really easy, but changing babies at night – not a fan. This is a very happy time in my life.
2. That we are on Christmas break from school. No getting me and three others out the door at 8:30 every day. Enough said.
3. Pomegranates. I love them. The other day I prepared two at one time because they take so long, I figured this would last awhile. I took my delicious bowl of seeds to my desk to work and I looked down and they were gone. I ate two giant Costco pomegranates in one sitting. Oh well, I love them.
4. That Owen has a girlfriend named Rylee.
5. That Ivy wore not one but two skirts the other day. She hasn’t worn a skirt for months. This was a good day and made me realize that there is hope for her current scruffy style to change.
6. That at Toys R Us yesterday, a big black plastic snake and Owen made the baby laugh. Not just a little laugh, but hysterical laughing. Not giggling but screaming with laughter. It was the highlight of my day, possibly even my week and maybe even the month.
7. That I am doing yoga at a class I love and that I am back to boot camp 2 days a week.
8. That I have these three pictures of the baby.
9. That Owen’s front teeth all fell out and somehow that made him able to say his “s” sound and we were able to graduate from speech therapy.
10. That Ivy made a special box for her binky to go in during the day. (It doesn’t always make it there and there was that time when I said she couldn’t take the binky out of the special box during the day so she turned it around and held the box up to her mouth and sucked on the binky in the box. What can you say to that?).
(aren’t the clothes awesome, see why I was so happy she wore the skirts)
11. That Ben cooked our turkey on 0 degrees for 2 hours this year. He accidently turned his oven off and didn’t know. It was almost as good as the year he told Greg to hold open the cooking bag while he put the turkey in it. Greg held the bag open, Ben took the prepared turkey and dropped it in the bag. The 30 pound turkey sailed straight through the bag without even slowing down and plopped on my floor, spilling oranges and seasoning all over. We are not sure why we thought that bag was super strength, but it was a classic moment.
12. That Ivy zooms around the kitchen on her bike.
13. That Angie and I both separately made list blogs tonight without knowing the other one did.
and
14. That I have a picture of both my kids in the same predicament.
I am happy.
This poor plant of mine. I glanced over to it a few days ago and found it in the sad state above. This is not a plant that sits in a dark corner somewhere in a room I don’t go in, but rather it sits next to the front door. I see it everyday and somehow managed to forget to water it for who knows how long. Actually, I didn’t forget to water it, I just couldn’t find the time to water it. That sounded ridiculous in my head and even more so in print. How could I not find time to water a plant, it takes all of 30 seconds.
I couldn’t find the time because every now and then I feel like my plant looks. A baby who is always happy as long as she is being held or looked at, a son who is always busy, a little girl who is always nearby, work that cannot wait, cleaning to be done, groceries to be bought, lessons to go to, and so on and so on leave me feeling like that plant.
The last few weeks I have only been good at one thing, if the house is clean, I am behind on my work and the kids are orphans; if my work is caught up, the house is the aftermath of a tornado and the kids have fed themselves all day; if I have stocked shelves full of healthy delicious food with planned meals for the day, all my clients are mad and the house is just plain awful; if I decide to get rid of it all and work on Christmas ornaments to fill my advent calendar, we eat take-out and get dressed in the laundry room from the clothes in the dryer.
It doesn’t take long after those 30 seconds I took to water the poor guy and he starts to look like this. There is a little more life, it has picked itself off the ground and has probably come to the realization that some days you are watered and some days you are not.
Today the house is clean, the laundry is done, my work is done, there is a chocolate peanut butter banana snack waiting for us in the fridge, there is a tent to play in that I made, we ate healthy all day and all the kids are happy.
Tomorrow may be one of those days when all the water is gone and I drag myself on the ground. We may eat terribly, barely get dressed, go late to school, watch the house fall to pieces and struggle just to get through to the end.
Either way is ok because I am coming to the realization that some days you are watered and some days you are not and it is not good or bad, it is just the kind of day it is.
