The verdict is in...

I am GUILTY!

I have been found guilty of expecting too much and being unrealistic. Expecting...

Too much from my curriculum-- it's supposed to make our lessons easy! and quick! and perfect!

Too much from my morning cup of coffee-- it's supposed to give me the energy of a 5 year old boy that's hyped up on sugar... and give me the endurance of a marathon runner.

Too much from my husband-- he's supposed to read my mind and never have a bad day.

Too much from myself-- I'm supposed to always have it together, never lose my temper, wake up at the crack of dawn and have white-glove-clean baseboards (HA!).

To make things even worse, ...

*****

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TIMBERRRR!!!

My husband is a handsome man, a manly man, a handyman and now a lumberjack. His shorts, however, are just one thing: distracting (and I'm being kind by limiting it to that one word).

So try to look at the giganto tree crashing down to the earth and not at his bright red shorts running across the yard.

Pretty cool, eh? I'm glad no one lost a limb or head over that.

I hope his future wife will thank me some day

The other day, 3yo Dozer and 8yo Dash ran up to me and gave me a big hug.

I looked down at them and said, "I love my little squirt. I love my big squirt. And medium squirt (aka 6yo Tank) is still taking a nap."

Dash gives me another big hug and says "And you're a long and skinny squirt!"

And because I want him to elaborate and to make sure this would be a compliment instead of some sick form of potty humor, I ask him "What do you mean?"
He says, "Because you're long and skinny, mommy!"

Oh, I just love that boy! He has a great attention to detail. :-)

The next day, even though he woke up waaay too early, Dash brightened my day when he was doing his language arts worksheet.

He had to go around the house and find examples of the antonyms on the page. For example, "Ugly & Pretty." For ugly, he put his little brother Dozer. Okay, so that wasn't very nice. But for pretty, he put "Mommy". So I guess I'll let that first part slide this time.

Yup, I'm educatin' him real good like for his future wife. Not only can he dish out breakfast in the morning but he is really good about dishing out compliments as well!

When being a mom isn't enough

Some interesting food for thought by Amy Hollingsworth. Click HERE.

Not too ugly chickens

April showers...

In Time of Silver Rain

In time of silver rain
the earth
puts forth new life again,
green grasses grow
and flowers lift their heads,
and over all the plain
the wonder spreads
of life, of life, of life!

-Langston Hughes

*All of these photos were taken at Great Grandma's house. :-)

It was warm here

It's been in the 80s here all week. This is how the boys cooled down after soccer this past Saturday.

It's a chilly 54 degrees with rain right now... but tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and 78. Not quite sprinkler weather anymore, but it'll definitely do!

Great Grandma's are like that

The boys and I stopped by to see David's grandmother on our way home from visiting my folks last week. She lives in a very small house in a very small town. But her heart is quite big.

She also makes the best angel food cake EVER, has a green thumb, is a sewing genious, plays t-ball with the boys, has a super fun tire swing in the backyard, has vintage toys that have survived generations of boys, and is SPUNKY. Oh yes she is!

Okay, I know the boys look orange here, but they are not sunburned! It's just a horrid picture with the background being SO BRIGHT and the boys being so dark. I tweaked and then I got tired and now they're orange. I've decided to give up now and just let y'all use your imaginations to make them look more normal. And while y'all are at it, just pretend that they act normal too, okay? ;-)

Having Dessert First

I don't know about you, but I am a Type-A kind of girl. And no, it doesn't mean that I am an A+ excellent home educator and on the mommy-honor-roll with my kids proudly proclaiming it with a bumper sticker on their bikes!

Reality would more likely show me to be an overbearing, over-scheduled, checklist loving, rule following drill sergeant! At least that's how I'm naturally bent. Or was today anyway. When the troops... er, my children don't keep to my schedule, follow all my rules to a T, and allow me to merrily mark off all the items on my checklist, let's just say it gets pretty ugly around here.

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My niece and nephew

Why is it that people say niece and nephew but not nephew and niece? I guess it flows easier with niece first for some reason. But I digress.


I just wanted to share a picture of my nephew and my niece with y'all. Nephew first because he's older and I'm just used to putting the oldest child's name first when I'm writing. You can blame my older sister for that.


Anyhoo! These pics were taken by my sister on Easter Sunday. I've been playing around with my new Photoshop Elements and tweaked them ever so slightly.


This is Benjamin. We call him BenBen (we as in the boys and I). He is a month younger than Dozer and love sticks. He is a true BOY.

My sister and I grew extra-super-dee-duper close when we were prego at the same time. It was so nice to have someone to talk to twenty million times a day about big bellies, feeling tired, FOOD, puking and all the other fun prego stuff. My other non-mommy (so far) sisters would've disowned me before the end of my first trimester-- or at least blocked my calls!

Back to BenBen now... BenBen speaks very clearly and has beautiful hair. He and Dozer are great buddies. I really wish we were neighbors. (HINT HINT)

This is Emily. Em is almost 2 years old. So far, she is the only niece in the familia. She is woefully outnumbered by my three boys plus her brother. I think she likes it that way though.

Needless to say, with all her aunt's and their penchant for retail therapy (I've got three sisters and a brother) she is always fashionably and beautifully dressed. I don't know what it is about that funny face she's making, but I just LOVE it!