Love

This is what I have been looking like

Seriously.

I'm not trying to look dramatic.

This is what putting the house on the market did to me. I was an anxious nervous impatient person last week. I frantically ran around cleaning up behind the kids and got frustrated often. I wasn't fun to be around at all. Ask my kids.

The only day I didn't clean up after them was the day we had two back-to-back showings.

Welcome to my world. The one where God uses subtle, (and sometimes blatant,) ways to teach me something.

"Calm down, Mary. This may take awhile. Enjoy your kids. They think you're mad at them. So far selling the house has been hard for them. They are adjusting to having fewer toys and having to keep their shoes by the back door for quick trips away. But you are not playing with them. You're cleaning. You're edgy. That's all that they see. It's not their problem. It's YOU that needs to simmer down."

So consider me simmering.

Amen and the end.

Purse giveaway

So are you ready to win a purse like mine? One that will, no doubt, make you very happy? One that you forget you're wearing until you start looking for your wallet and then realize that in all your newfound carefree goodness you totally forgot you were even wearing a purse?

Then today is your lucky day. Giveaway day is here!

I got the blue and brown one (obviously)

Or you can pick the purple color. Either way, it's a cute, functional, great addition to your wardrobe for Fall. All you need to do is go to my giveaways page and enter to win!

We're nothing if we're not classy

Thursday already?

Here's a pic of my new purse


You know the one you can have too. Well one just like it or in purple. My review and giveaway post is in the works but it's currently being held hostage by a laptop. The one that only Sean knows how to fix.


Oh y'all it is so easy to wear. And it's the smallest purse I've ever had but I love it.


This girl loves dirt. Playing in it, eating it, you know, whatever.



They all love to swing.


As of today in the waiting room where Ty goes to speech therapy, all of the kids enjoy (pretend) reading.


These two enjoy walking to school together.


And pointing things out to me as we walk.

Happy Thursday y'all.

Upcoming giveaway

Remember me telling y'all about my never-ending search for the perfect purse? I've got one to show you. Versatile, durable, cute, and hands-free. Stay tuned.

Because I haven't taken a picture of it yet. Because I'm attempting the impossible: selling a house while we still live there with three even-messier-than-me children. But mainly stay tuned because I'm giving away a purse like my new one soon.

Happy day :)

Day 1

He learned to read! Not really but he thinks so. I'm not gonna correct him. It's maybe the cutest thing I've ever seen. He sits down, crosses his legs and says, "Now I'm gonna read a story. Once upon a time..."

And we sit and listen. Even the girls think he is reading the story. It makes me so happy.

In other news, my house goes on the market this afternoon.

A moment of silence please.

Okay now I've got to go find somewhere to hide the laundry.

The weekend

We cleaned the house. We moved furniture around. We like the way things look more than we have in like two years. Why didn't we decide to move before now so we could make it feel like a house somebody would want to live in? Hmmmm


We went to Costco and let Joy join the basket party. LOVED it except for the part where you can't fit any single item into the cart.


We celebrated our 5 year anniversary and Sean gave me this along with a few other little things. I could do some serious bargain-shopping damage if this was REALLY a gift card THAT loaded.


My boys went to the new stadium for a tour. They've both been really wound up ever since. Football season is right around the corner and they are ready.


See how excited Ty is. That's his, "Why do I have to stop running laps around the place long enough to get a picture Dad? This is boring," face.

He got in free by the way so when I saw this picture and asked Sean if he really had fun or Sean was just telling me he did at least I didn't think we wasted lots of money.

Because that's how sentimental I am.

stream of consciousness

since my night last night was not without horrible MSG dreams i'm a little groggy today. i thought it might be extra fun to let you into my unedited world.

i'm listening to my son sing a song combining the words from 'My God is so big,' and the Barney song. it's so much better than either song on its own. i'm so glad school starts monday. i can't entertain him much longer between the hours of 12 and 3. i could never be a home school mom. they work so hard without a break. i need breaks. i've always needed breaks. maybe i have ADD. yes i think i do. what were we thinking putting joy's napping room directly below ty's room. when she's trying to sleep he is running laps, banging his legs against his wall or trying to play a drum solo on his vent. i couldn't sleep through that either. reminds me of the many prayers i prayed when pregnant with charlie that she would be a sound sleeper. i never prayed that for joy since clearly i was praying for her health. interesting how God answered both sets of prayers.

two days ago i loaded the kids up in the car in the garage and tried to start the car. nothing happened. out of nowhere we were stranded. which shouldn't have sent me into big ugly tears but it did since prior to starting the car (or trying to,) i had to face my worst fear: a big hairy spider that i had to kill since sean was not at home. thankfully there was a huge costco-sized can of wasp killer with a spray radius of like 37 feet right beside my car and i emptied it on that one lone spider. it worked. i'm thinking that combining the spider fiasco with the car not starting sent me over the edge. however the task of loading the kids into the car in the heat then unloading them to put them in the house so i could figure out what to do just might be what actually sent me over the edge. either way i was a mess. add in a strong dose of pms and i was fit to be tied. mom came. the kids were entertained and we had a car that worked until mine could be fixed. car still under warranty. praise be.

staging lady came to the house and what i expected to be a nightmare was actually quite pleasant and helpful. since i lack the decorating gene she said i was an easy person to work with because i'm not attached to anything in my house besides the pictures of family so when she made comments like, "yeah this needs to go into storage," i just moved it into the closet. it didn't hurt my feelings at all and after the morning that i had that day it's a wonder i didn't take every single thing she said personally. i've moved stuff around and taken things down and put different stuff up and honestly it's like i need someone to just decorate for me when we move. if i had extra money i'd totally do that. it'd be like Christmas-just come down the stairs and find cool stuff that someone else put together for you. i'm so not a normal woman that i can't get passionate about decorating.

now ty is watching word world and i really like that show. it's clever and educational. maybe i could be a home school mom if i could use tv shows to help me. he has learned more in the last fifteen minutes watching this show than he has learned from me in two weeks. that's sad. well i'm not that pitiful. i teach him stuff but this show is teaching him a ton. he just looked at me and said, "hey mom they're herding cows! there goes the cow into the herd." i've never taught him about herding cattle and i grew up in the country. i'm a failure.

thankful that God's mercy is new every morning. thankful for five years of marriage and how every day it gets better and easier. thankful for my husband. thankful for my kids. working on being thankful for my dog who keeps having bouts of diarrhea during the night. wondering what is causing it. thinking he needs stronger anxiety meds. can hear the baby (when will we stop calling her that) crying. got to wake my brain up and get cracking. putting the house on the market next week. prayer. lots and lots of prayer.

amen.

How Charlie Eats

Barney and Baby must be touching her at all times. "Mommy I can't leave my friends..."

Goop

For years now I've heard about Sean's grandmother Mammie. How funny she was, how in love with her husband, how committed to her church. Even more than any of that other stuff I heard about what a great cook she was. Her recipes live on in all of the girls in their family and her specialties almost always included lard. Homemade biscuits, gravy, you name it she made it from scratch.

Sean always talks about eating angel food cake at her house when he was little. "It was magical and perfect!" He always followed the description up with the literal icing on the cake-which Mammie called 'goop.'

For years I've wondered what the heck goop is/was so a few weeks ago I asked Sean's mom about it. She laughed. Then she kept laughing. Y'all she couldn't breathe she laughed so hard.

"What is it?" I asked.

She said, "Well, like all things she cooked she was secretive about goop for a long time until Gene, (Mammie's son and Sean's dad,) asked me to make it for him. As his mother she felt it was only right to finally tell."

Then she said, "You want to know what goop is?"

"Yes."

"Frozen strawberries and Cool Whip."

Love that Mammie.

We're from the country and we like it that way

Things are hopping around my house because we're putting it on the market soon. I know, I know, that kind of came out of nowhere. It came to the surface out of nowhere but it's been part of our (mine and Sean's) conversations since we were dating. Things like, "One day...country...someday...everything barefoot outside...rocking chairs...drinking tea...not too busy..." have always laced our conversations about our future. We both grew up in smaller towns and love everything that offers for raising kids. We're spoiled where we live because we have anything we'd want at our fingertips but it's worth giving it all up for our end goal.

Some people are city people. Emmy and Ethan are. They love living right in the middle of the action. Lots of great things are available to you in the city and there's an endless supply of fun things to do and see. Then some people are country people. They get a tad annoyed with traffic and having to put matching clothes on to go to the grocery store. That's us=country. We want to grow stuff and run around barefoot. We want to be bored. Well maybe not bored but we look forward to not having much to do but watching the kids and playing with them. It'll be quite an exciting life :)

Brace yourself for all the excitement.

So here we are-trying to make it happen. Since I'm not a real estate person I'm going on what I hear on TV and assuming that it will take (maybe) years to sell our house. We know the odds are against us and this might not be a good time to move but our realtor thinks it's possible so we're going for it. Aiming to move to a slower-paced place where the kids can run and play and run into people that can help keep tabs on them for me. Ha! No, really, that would be nice.

It's really exciting. We're not very afraid of the process because we kinda just did it three years ago AND we moved while I was 8 months pregnant and worthless as far as helping Sean make any decisions whatsoever. Not to mention how worthless I was to physically help. We have great motivation for this move and the energy to match the enthusiasm. We are relieved and at peace about our decision and hope to survive another move, this time with our three little helpers. Pray now for showings--not that we'll get them but that I'll manage to get things looking nice enough so people won't be scared away! I haven't cleaned out as many closets or cabinets as this in five years. Basically about as long as I've been married.

Ahem.

The happiest I've ever seen her

Things I love

From my bedroom safely covered in air conditioning on a day that temps will soon reach 104, these are some things I love:

Listening to Ty and Sean mow the backyard. The things they say are priceless.

The fact that Charlie just woke up and it's 8:30.

Knowing that next week we will have been married 5 years.

Getting to already wear my anniversary present since I picked it out. I'm not a shoe person really but for some reason around our anniversary I always find a pair I want. And Sean keeps saying, "Okay."

Diet Cherry Dr Pepper in a can. Not having to go to Sonic as often to get my ultimate drink.

Cleaning out my closet (not the cleaning part but what I find)

Just looking at sweaters and jeans and believing that I'll wear them again one day.

Coordinating the girls outfits since they are little enough that they don't care.

Team Umuzumi (sp?) it isn't as weird as Yo Gabba Gabba and all three kids LOVE it.

Purple nail polish but only on my toes

The school calendar that says it is starting soon

Seeing Fall decorations at Hobby Lobby and especially smelling the Fall candles

And my most loved thing today is that Joy thinks that when you hug somebody you have to say, "Awwwwwwwwwwwww"

Glimpses of the week

Nattie's reading glasses



Big girl sunglasses


Sitting in traffic=sadness


Making it home

Proof that the book works

Y'all have heard me rave about the book we use to get the kids to sleep. Here is living proof that if you stick with it they might actually LIKE going to bed!

The girl can talk

Oh the places we go

Ever feel like you're carrying the weight of the world when you travel with little kids? Like there are way more bags than people, and each single bag outweighs the heaviest child. Sean thought I was overreacting those first few months when Ty was a baby but he has seen and believed, (and been caught without what he needs,) enough that he doesn't argue with my arsenal of luggage. I'm always on the hunt for the perfect bag and lately I've carried one big diaper bag with all three of my kids' stuff in it. If I can literally shoulder the weight then it's much easier than each one having a separate bag, especially if we're going somewhere for just a little while. Once again CSNstores has me on the hunt for a purse small enough to fit into my huge diaper bag. See, that's perfect. A big bag for the kiddies that isn't maybe the cutest thing but just when I see my cuteness diminishing I can pull out a small, pretty, and functional little purse. I've been browsing for hours.

That may or may not be what I've done two days in a row during nap time.

It helps me brave this heat, too, looking at winter-ish purses. It should make me depressed but I'm able to zone out and dream about the day when jackets don't cause heat rashes. Or the day that a snow cone doesn't sound like the best thing I've ever eaten. Or the day that I don't seriously consider running around outside when the sprinklers are on. When the kids are in bed.

Okay I'm done now. I'm off to the pool.

Ty's room makeover

While painting the girls' room I decided that it might be fun to paint Ty's too. When I was waiting on the paint to be mixed at Home Depot I checked the "Oops" paint table and lo and behold there was the color I was thinking for Ty's room. Like exactly the right color. $5 later and after a few recovery days (I needed a break after the girls' room) I went to work. His room is smaller than theirs so I started and finished today. Here are before and afters

Before:












And after















My dad made this for Ty before he was born. He and mom found the unfinished airplane and dad painted it. We decided he has to like airplanes at least until he is old enough to buy and hang his own decorations.






Another painting success! I'm so retiring now. My right arm hurts.

Memory game

I have a fun project to show you. My mom discovered it and made it for Ty and it's been a huge hit. It's a Martha project. I'll give you all the links that you'll need, (at least that's my goal...) and you can get started making one for your child or any other child that you are willing to do crafts for. As far as Martha projects go this one's pretty easy. Believe me I know. I've tried a few other ones mom has recommended and sometimes Martha outdoes herself. I've heard she gets up at like 4 am to work on stuff and from some of the things she creates I totally believe it.

Here is the direct link where you can watch Martha make the game.

She gives you a link to the craft store where you can find the wooden tiles. I ordered directly from them and since they shipped from the DFW metroplex I got them in two days. The set of 25 tiles was $5.00. Clip art is free and ModPodge is like $6.00. The way I see it this is way more fun to give for a gift because you can make it so personal and you can't beat a personalized gift for $11.00.

Now for my words of wisdom: Order the tiles that are 2" in diameter. They come in many sizes but smaller than that is tricky when you have little babies in the house.






The clip art can also be tricky to find the right size for the squares. The best one I've found is here. Just print the pages that you like and then cut them out. Use ModPodge to glue them onto the squares.






I used the same paintbrush that I finished the trim in the girls' room but feel free to use a new brush.

I know, I know, I'm just so helpful to recommend that.

Really, this is a joy to make. You can take my word for it that 2/3 of my kids LOVE this game and it's actually good for them because it teaches them something as they play. (I guess all play teaches them something-never mind.)

If you decide to make this I hope you like it! I know you will.

A room for two

Couldn't get the kids to stand still but you're used to that by now.