Spring and life with my little ones

Monday 

...between jumping on the trampoline, naps and looking for rolly pollies....I loaded up the kids and headed to Blueville Nursery.

 

I found a new plant to try thanks to the cactus family. It likes heat and and lots of sun, so am hoping it's a win for the dead of summer. I am also a sucker for sweet potato plants in pots. In July when everything else is dead, they seem to hang on quite well.

spread wood chips and fill pots - check!

Tuesday: 

Clark is always DELIGHTED to see his Crazy Aunts! 

 

 

 Welcome Home Anna and Kristen! 

 Wednesday: 

desperate and yet unwilling to loose a chance at a teething baby's nap...

1) I ordered the essentials online.... A good feeling to lay on the floor playing with Clark and get all the bulky essentials walked to your front door. Free shipping! 

2) Posted a summer job on K-state student site and updated my cleaning list.

I used to think that the comment "well if i had a cleaning lady, my house would be clean" was a true statement. WRONG.


Some thoughts

a) True: young mom's have to lower our expectations.

b) I have to be ok with not doing it all - and equally true is being ok with not doing it all yourself, which leads me to...


c) There is nothing wrong with hiring someone to clean or help me pick up my house along side of me.

some days the options are
- it doesn't get done, taking care of kiddos and their souls take priority
or
- someone else changes the 3 year old pee'd on sheets and throws the musty smelling shower towels in the wash, and wipes down the outside of the frig, etc, ect
for $16 a week

a fraction of the cleaning that has to happen every week, but..

I'm going to love on my kids 

 and try to soak in these moments of their little years.

 Grandma B's blue canning jar.

+ flowers clark and I found along the road 

Anytime, my student graduates and I have to hire someone new, I remember how multi stepped the whole process is. These students obviously are not professionals in house cleaning, which is reflected in how much they make an hour but they seem eager to learn how to help me as a young mom. 

This is the list I helped Sarah create ... each week we took a room and figured out what order she wanted to clean the room.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/143603824/Cleaning-List-adjusted-fall-12

being a quickstart mom, i value getting something done even if it's not ABSOLUTELY spotless. Our goal was to take one room and do well a week and then just hit the worst spots in the the rooms. No, my house isn't "perfect" when she leaves - it is progress from where it started that morning. There is a sense of freshness that wasn't there. That's what we are talking about. Progress, not perfection.


3) figure out something fun to do in evening.

We picked up a lil friend of Clark's, Acadia since daddy has to work late these days 

This mama laid on the blanket and made faces at my giddy 7 mom old baby girl. 

Thursday

Since the crazy aunts are back from school, they invited clark to hang out with them.

 note the fierce bow and arrow.

 

...cleaning, grocery shopping, and prepping food for the WSI guy bbq went together faster than normal considering Clark was having the time of his life Grandma peggy's house.

That evening, the kiddos and I evacuated the premise just in the nic of time …and got back an hour late but the kids went to bed within seconds and without a peep at 8:30. Thankful.

Friday: 

The kitchen was full of dishes from the night before.... let's be real - that put me face to face with a bad attitude. 

surprisingly, Clark played sweetly with legos for almost 2 hrs.

....while mommy and Jesus worked on the bad attitude.

  took a date to the zoo in the afternoon

 ...and then picked up some carpet padding from the carpet store. My friend had these soft area rugs and she said the trick is to buy nice carpet padding a few inches smaller than your rug. Done! Love it.

so thankful for these lives!