One of those days.

The kind where all you can do is put the kids in their rooms, close the doors, and pour yourself a chocolate milk on the rocks. 

Oh what I'd do for the screaming and whining to stop. 

Because every once in awhile it is as idyllic as I hoped it would be.

Confession

A long time ago, I used to nanny. If I'm honest I think I only did it for as long as I did (3 years plus some part time after I had my own kids) because I was too scared to try do anything else. Lord knows I didn't keep at it for the money. 

The money was poor. 

Even for 10 years ago. 

But they did let me eat there. 

I could eat every meal of the day there if I wanted to and timed it right. Pancakes in the morning with the kids courtesy of their dad. Whatever I made for lunch. And I usually managed to stuff my face with something that would count as my supper before the parents came home. Snacks were at my disposal all day long. One month I spent only $20.00 on my own personal groceries. $20!! 

Herein lies my confession.

One time at their house I ate a whole bottle of caramel sauce in a day. 

Just the bottle, a spoon, and my mouth. 

Most of you are probably disgusted and I wish I could say I was too, but there is a bottle of it in my fridge right now, and it is all I can do to keep myself from a repeat offense. 

I love caramel sauce. 

Oh to have the metabolism of my 19 year old self again. 

The boy, his gi, and a milkshake.

Ephram is in karate. And loving it. 
Two nights a week on top of everything else we do is a tough pill for this 'busy' averse family to swallow. 
But he loves it. 
LOVES it. 
So it's worth it.


Tying that stupid belt two nights a week might drive me over the edge though. Is it supposed to be as difficult as I'm finding it??  

Dear Value Village,

Thanks for my new fall shoes. 

$15.00 later and I am a happy camper. 

A summer retrospective.

Summer came and went with little written record. Or picture taking. 
But I did just dump the photos off my phone and am realizing a lot has happened and it all deserves at least a little mention here. 


So in no particular order and with only the smallest of  explanations... our summer.

walking

quadding

growing

spinning

wrestling

eating out

summer hair

summer bucket list

camping

waking

baseball

sleeping

kind of waking

golfing

visiting

drive ins

biking

girls day

wedding

melting my heart

driving

more visiting

eating

more driving

watching the kids discover new favorites

gathering around the firepit

weaning

beaching

playing

parades

zoo

family photo taking

homeschool prep

almost walking!!

30 for 30

Seeing my clothes piled to the ceiling in the closet and knowing that I never wear even close to half of it's contents was getting on my nerves. So I gave myself a challenge.
A blogland favorite. 


30 articles of clothes for 30 days.*

And after almost 2 weeks of the challenge I think I could easily say I could cut that down more.
Some days it sucks.
But most days I love it.
And catching a glimpse of my closet no longer puts me in a bad mood.

*Socks, underwear, accessories and jackets not included. And for the sake of full disclosure I will admit that I bought a new dress two days ago. $3! How could I say no?? Plus I can already tell it will be a favorite, so I think it's worth a bend in the rules.


Also! Lest you think I am some sort of purging goddess. I kept everything. It's all in buckets downstairs, but at the end of the 30 days my hope is that I'll be able to edit those buckets down to only those things that I know will be worn.

Stephen says I need to improve my output.

So I am. 
Going to try, anyway. 
Good grief. This homeschool thing is a big job and until I get my feet under me, I think it's going to suck up a lot of my extra time. 


But we did manage to get out from under the books long enough to spend last night with the Barbours and (for the first time ever!) had real family pictures taken. 


It was a beauty of a night.

Look at their work here and if you want to see a sneak peek of our shots, you can go here.