Our budding artist!

South Haven has a great art center just on the east side of the downtown. The kids have enjoyed craft days there during such city events as the Icebreaker Festival.We were thrilled to get a letter that Kyle had created a piece of art that would be displayed in the elementary art show. Go Kyle!! Here he is with the ribbon he was presented with.And here is the clay heart that he made that earned him his spot in the show. Way to go, Kyle! We're proud of you!!

31 in 31

No, not a reference to my days of old at Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors. In an attempt to jumpstart my blogging, I am challenging myself to 31 posts in 31 days. Bring on May! I would venture to say that many of these posts will be short and sweet, usually with a picture or two. I have some catching up to do!

Early in January a friend started doing 365 Project and I thought it looked so cool. I knew, though, in the craziness of my life at the moment that I would set myself up to fail. I knew I wouldn't manage to post each day. Also, I knew I wanted to stretch my photography outside of the random day to day pictures I take and post "cool" pictures. So I settled on that being a goal for next year. This might help me get some of those shots taken, too, though.

So here is a May Day post and picture to begin the month. Bring it on!!! :)

Three years as a blogger!

Three years ago today I began this blog. A new start because we were about to have a new start; a baby was set to arrive six weeks later. I look at my life then and my life now, and am amazed at the difference three years brings. While there is a degree of sameness – I am still a stay at home mom and part time freelance writer/editor, I live in the same house in the same town, I hang out with many of the same friends – there is so much that is different.

Three years ago we had just returned from a trip to visit friends in California and the concrete convention in Las Vegas. Traveling was easier with one child, and we haven’t attempted it with two yet. Three years ago Kyle was still in that middle ground of baby turning into toddler turning into preschooler. Now he is such a big boy; off on his own in school, doing things without his mom by his side. It is Erin who has not only arrived in our lives, but arrived at that middle ground of baby turning into toddler turning into preschooler.

While I was a parent three years ago, my parenting role has changed immensely today. Parenting a five year old means that he is old enough to fully comprehend what it is I am asking him to do and why. In a way this makes it easier, but oh so much more frustrating when he doesn’t respond how I want him to. And frustrating when he wants to exert his independence, and I’d rather my shepherd-wannabe be a sheep. Erin is a bit easier right now for the most part, but she also has an independent streak that may surpass Kyle’s. She wants to do everything herself, and make up her own mind about whether she does what you want her to do. I have trying days indeed!

Almost harder than parenting my children, is the role I now find myself in of parenting my parents. With my children I am their mother. My role as an authoritarian figure is defined and expected. It is up to me to steer them in a direction that will enable them to be good, responsible, productive members of society. With my aging parents I can see what is happened to them. My mind and my heart know the answers and solutions, yet my parents remain unconvinced.

When it was their turn to raise me into a good, responsible, productive member of society they excelled. They guided me to be a person who tries to do the right thing. Even when doing the right thing with them, the very thing that must be done to literally keep my mother alive, leaves me as the target of their anger. So this mode of parenting I find myself in with them leaves me questioning myself every moment of every day. It helps that my sister and I have been firmly backed by our family and my parents’ network of friends, and even the court system that we had to turn to, but it does not stop the soul searching.

So the past three years has brought much parenting joy to my days. My husband and children so openly love me that my heart overflows. Even when my kids are in trouble, they are seeking my love – and of course they get it. And when they’re not in trouble, the love is even better! It helps soften the hardness often left in my heart by the actions and inactions of my parents in the past eight months.

My new and unexpected parenting my parents role has had an affect on this blog. It almost doesn’t exist right now, because of a lack of time since I have spent so much time down there, and also because it’s been a depressing time. But, now that I am regaining time lost to caring for them, I am going to make a concerted effort to blog more. Now that I am replacing some of my bitterness with the joy of my immediate family, and the arrival of spring in more ways than one, I aim to cheerfully post!

Welcome back blog, happy three years! And welcome back me.

Who Dunnit?

Here's Erin in her long-haired glory. The girl that as a babe in the womb the ultrasound tech kept saying, "Oh my gosh this baby has SOO much hair!" The girl with hair down her back and long pony tails at two and a half.

This morning as I was blow drying my own hair, Kyle comes in to tell me that Erin is cutting her hair. A lot. I come out to find clumps of hair and chunky layers. An emergency call is made, and this was Erin this afternoon.

And the after. I still love her beautiful hair on my beautiful girl!

An interesting thing happened at the salon, though. Rachael asked Erin what happened to her hair and Erin announced that Kyle cut it. Oh really??

So here is Kyle this afternoon.

His story is: "Erin cut her hair. She just snuck and did it. She used the black scissors."

Here is Erin.

Her story is: "Kyle do it. He cut my hair. Then he letted me cut it."

So they both have admitted now that it was a joint effort. The story continues to vary as to who made the first cut. But here are the accomplices in crime:

Wordless Wednesday

40 Days and 40 Nights

The flood that occurred while Noah and his ark floated along. And the number of days it has been since my New Year's post to return to blogging. Sigh. And here I am, still in a Sahara Desert of blogging. Why? Sheer busy-ness. Stress. And wasting time when I can get away with it to try to get rid of some of the stress. Or so I tell myself when I play a dumb Facebook game again. And again.

A snapshop of our lives...

6:40 -- I'm up. After hitting snooze a few times. Very quickly hitting it, because while I hit snooze, Erin does snooze in the sleeping bag on the floor beside me. Our compromise to, "NOOO! Sleep with Mommy!!"

7:00 -- Out of the shower, dressed. Jack arrives, and Erin gets up at the same time. Snuggle up Erin in a blanket, put the fire truck together for Jack.

8:00 -- Mostly ready for the day. Two are breakfasted. Go to get Kyle up.

8:45 -- Out the door. Why is the last 15 minutes always a frantic rush, even though I think I have planned enough time? I go through Kyle's backpack as I add the things for today. While I take out yesterday's paperwork I see a note from the teacher. My regular day for helping in the classroom won't be needed since Binder Park Zoo is coming for a presentation -- but I'm welcome to attend that. Alright, I'm running out the door and Erin is already set up for a switcheroo. Hmm.

9:10 -- Kyle to school. Jack to school. Erin to the gym daycare where she will hang with her buddy, while my buddy works out. Get gas and a pop and head home for a minute. Grab my comforter off my bed to wash it at Beth's -- fits in her washer, not mine. To Kyle's school. I plan to stay for about 20 minutes of the zoo presentation, and get Erin early.

11:05 -- Sucked into staying for the whole thing. I was enjoying it, and enjoying sitting with Kyle in the gym bleachers. His teacher had forgotten her camera, so she was glad I had mine.

11:15 -- Ready to head to St. Joe to see my mom. Erin decides she is hungry, so I decide on a whim to not actually eat with my mom and get McDonald's so Erin can eat on the way down. My sister will be there for lunch, too, so it will work out.

11:45 -- At my mom's. She's not feeling well, so no lunch in the dining room anyway. Odd how that worked out well with Erin's Happy Meal! She was apparently so hungry that she fed the nursing home dog, Shadow, two of her chicken nuggets. :) Talk to the nurses, stop in the dining room to say hi to the friends we normally sit with, and spend time in my mom's room. We leave with Shadow snuggling in close to my mom.

1:15 -- Later than I wanted to leave because I continue to ruin Erin's nap, and we need to stop at Target for diapers and Valentine's for tomorrow's play group party. We put the diapers in the cart and Erin pouts, "No more diapers! Done!!" I tell her for bedtime. She says, "Ahh! Right!" Hello Kitty Valentine's for her, Scooby Doo for Kyle -- praying it works out okay that I picked them for him. Can't find Valentine crafts I need to have in five hours' time.

1:45 -- Leaving Target and spot Michael's -- that's it!! Valentine's crafts! Hit the jackpot because they are actually 60% off. Three stores down to get printer ink at Office Depot. Oddly both WalMart and Target were out, and I can't print in red only any longer. Thrilled that Erin is being a trooper with all the stops.

2:52 -- Pull into South Haven. Erin is sound asleep and I don't want to wake her. I really don't want to get in the pick-up line yet either, though. I decide to drive from school to the land we made an offer on to time it. Ten minutes. Not too bad.

3:15 -- Number two in the pick-up line! Never this far up. Talk to another mom. Read a few pages in my book. Erin is awake. She wants the cheese puffs she talked me into buying at Target.

3:55 -- Pull up at home. Try to put some stuff away, get a few things done, answer two American Greetings emails from my boss, snacks for the kids. Gather stuff for WILD Wednesday.

5:25 -- Leave for WILD as I call Mike and ask him to pick-up the wet comforter from my sister's since I forgot. Leave Kyle and Erin in choir -- Erin's first time. She sings at home, maybe she will be okay. Worth a try. Upstairs to set up all the crafts for the night.

6:00 -- WILD starts. By 7:15 the kids are done with the crafts, the place is a mess, and I am about to lose my mind. Help swoops in and I can clean up while the kids play musical chairs with Pastor Jeff.

7:45 -- Home. Kids are wiped out. So are mom and dad, for that matter. Bedtime. I handle Erin, Mike does Kyle.

8:30 -- Downstairs. I have 60 reports to edit. Argh! Working in the evening after bedtime is tough. I want downtime. I want to not use my mind. This is usually clear because I intersperse goofing around most nights. I swear no Facebook, though.

10:30 -- Yeah. I am finishing this post. I have only done ten reports so far. Not good. And when I decided to write a blog post I noticed a new post on a blog I follow. I haven't read it in ages. It was one I followed, but not a person I personally knew. I clicked her post, and lo and behold there are hats on her son from a friend who just made hats for my kids. What?? I click the link and end up on Amber's hat page on Facebook. I see Amber in the chat list and chat with her that I saw her on the blog. Small world, she follows that blog as well. Interesting turn, but it all took me away from reports, where I now will head back to.

Yawn. Will probably make it to bed around 1. Maybe I will try to do a picture catch-up post in the next few days. Or maybe in the next 40.

Happy New Year! 1-1-11

Ahhh, 2011 is here! It is officially 1-1-11. I love patterned numbers and dates. Doesn’t it just look cool? It is 1-1-11. I had to type it again. I even went so far as to tell Mike we should get pregnant next month and have a baby on 11-11-11. That would be extreme, and NOT gonna happen!!

2010 was a rough one for me. It started out well, and seemed to just be on a path toward destruction in the second half. I am hopefully that those issues will work themselves out and thankful that my immediate family is and has been well!

As with most people most New Year’s days, I’ve been thinking about what 2011 will mean for me with regard to change and improvement. It’s an opportunity to reflect and see what I can be doing better. So, here’s my laundry list for now.

1. I always say I and my family will eat better. So again, this is on the list. My thoughts on this for 2011 are many. I’m going to look toward more real food, and less foods that have long lists of ingredients I have never heard of. I’m going to be more forceful with my picky children and make them try new things and broaden their tastes.

2. Spinning off of number 1 is an effort to be a great couponer. I have subscribed to a couple coupon sites, Coupon Divas and the Krazy Coupon Lady, and man are there deals out there. The reason I spin 1 into 2 is that one of the things that will fit both categories is I am going to try to meal plan better. The article I was reading suggests planning and shopping for a month at once, but that might be a drastic start for me. I’m going to try two weeks. The point is that you will not end up picking up something unhealthy and expensive. Unfortunately, this has happened a lot lately with my crazy life and schedule, so this should be a good step.

3. Organize. Geez, this makes the list every year. I really need to clear out junk and clean up stuff. When we move to our next home, I want it to be easy and as painless as possible. I am not moving any junk! I need to be more diligent in getting rid of outgrown toys, instead of saying, “Oh, but Erin played with this for five minutes two weeks ago!”

4. Time management. Again, this spins off the one above it on the list. I need to organize my limited time well. With three part time jobs that I schedule around my full time job of the kids and home, I need to plan well. Then throw helping care for my mom in the mix, and I need more hours in the day! So procrastination needs to go out the window. Getting sucked into the world of Facebook needs to be limited! I will do it! I really have to, because the 1am nights were killing me since Erin is my 6am riser. I also need to be able to squeeze in my sanity hobbies – my girls nights out, my scrapbooking, and reading.

So, that’s enough for my list. I also hope to get back to blogging. Life is what it is right now, and I need to fit my family’s life around the challenges.

Here’s to 2011! Bring it on!!

Above is a picture from our very first New Year's Eve out with a sitter! We had a great time last night with our friends Ralph and Kristine.