Framily

Yesterday a group of us resident spouses and residents went horseback riding on the beach. With Joe still on MICU that meant I had to line up a babysitter. (Which is something I never do!) But I moved heaven and earth to make it happen or so it felt. And it was so completely worth it! 

I have always LOVED horseback riding. And it was so fun! I mean riding a horse in the ocean?!? Come on! But the best part was spending an uninterrupted afternoon with friends. These ladies have basically carried me through residency. They have hung out with me at all hours of the day and night. They've played with my kids. They've listened to me laugh, cry and complain. (I've done too much of the last one lately). They have supported me through some of the longest, hardest and loneliest months (almost years!) of my life. I'd be lost without them. So horseback riding with them on the beach was pretty much a dream come true. (Except in my dream my horse was talking to me and in reality Roman did not speak;-)

Goals

Lest anyone think I've got this life thing figured out I'm here to set the record straight. My lack of posting doesn't mean I've finally got my act together. Quite the opposite actually! On Wednesday I was having my very own pity party (for no apparent reason other than the fact that Joe is on MICU and that makes life plain ICky...terrible pun intended). So Thursday I woke up with a fresh sense of ambition. Thursday was going to be my day. I was going to be productive and happy. 

My goals for the day were simple and completely reasonable:

1. Drop Isaiah at the bus ON TIME and with a packed lunch. 

2. Finish folding the laundry. (I had half a load left and I would be all caught up!!!)

3. Make two returns at stores before zumba. 

That's it. That's ALL I wanted to accomplish in my entire day. Well that and keep the tiny humans alive. But that's kinda a given, right?

If you count chasing the bus down to the bus stop as "on time" then I totally accomplished HALF of my first goal. Thank goodness for school lunch because that lunch did NOT get packed...yet again. Sorry kid. After our mad dash to the bus stop I sat down to fold that laundry. I was SO close to finishing when Charlotte announced she spilt her milk....INSIDE the fridge!!! On the top shelf and it had dripped down onto ALL the shelves and inside each drawer. Nothing was safe from that milk spill. As I was emptying and scrubbing my fridge Levi walked into the kitchen and announced that he had gone "pee pee in his undies". Which meant I had to stop that clean up job to clean him and throw in a load of potty laundry. Just as I was nearly finished scrubbing the fridge Levi announced from the living room that he had pooped in his undies! And like the novice mom I still am I "checked" BEFORE moving him into the bathroom. Bad move. Very bad move. The mess was no longer contained between the living room and the bathroom. (I will leave it at that.) And so I threw in yet another load of laundry and bathed Levi and bleached most surfaces of my house. All of this happened before I was even able to get myself dressed or eat my oatmeal! We did eventually make it out the door only to have my van overheat in the Wal-Mart parking lot. 

And THAT is my life in a nutshell. 

A Little Project

I'm sure I've mentioned it a million times but it's worth mentioning one more time: I despise our master bathroom!!! It's not the outdated and very vintage lime green counter that I adamantly dislike. It's not the matching-yet-clashing green floral wallpaper that bother me so much. The ugly hanging ball lights and weird vanity/make up area...I can handle those! It's the tub. I hate that tub! More like that tub hates me. I swear it's mocking me. It's old and dirty. As in you can't scrub hard enough to get it clean. It's peeling. And the tiles are bowed and moldy. It is all kinds of YUCK. And the worst part is (even if I could get past the dirty factor) I can't bathe in it. The back of the tub and the wall line up perfectly and there is absolutely no angle. Meaning laying in the tub is nearly impossible and incredibly uncomfortable! And I LOVE taking baths. Long leisurely baths. They are my favorite. If I could list it as a hobby I totally would (along with sleeping). And my plan for surviving residency (as the spouse) was long baths with good books. But that hasn't happened. Not once. And I'm tired of waiting for a new bathroom. So today after putting Levi down for his nap I told my girls to meet me in my room for a "special project" and we took matters to our own hands...

Yup. We started tearing it out. I don't really know what I'm doing. But I've been watching a few YouTube videos and I'm willing to try. And I've got plenty of time. And great helpers:) We ended day 1 of with half of the main wall of tiles being torn down - which unearthed A LOT of mold (no surprise there!) and ants (big surprise!). 

Spring Break 2017

Without a doubt Spring Break 2017 was FAR better than Spring Break 2016 (even though Joe had to work most of the week). And here are the reasons why:

1. No one threw up.
2. We all got to sleep in our own beds.
3. We didn't spend a ridiculous number of hours driving from camp ground to camp ground all over the state of Texas.

AND LAST BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST....

4. We spent the week with our very best friends!!!!!!!

These people drove 1,200 miles to spend 4 days in our home and it was THE BEST! The weather obviously wasn't the best for our first beach day:(  But that didn't stop us from having a great time. Plus those Wisconsin kids thought boogie boarding and swimming was fun regardless of the temperature. My Texan crew may have had slightly different opinions. But we all agreed being together was great!

And that was just the FIRST DAY! The rest of the week was much of the same. Playing at home. Exploring local parks and attractions. Spending time at the beach. Kayaking.  Playing cards after all the kids were in bed. Staying up a smidge too late at night talking. Oh and baby wearing zumba of course! I had to take my favorite people to my (new) favorite place!

In middle of the week we dressed all the children in black, white and red and loaded them up into the minivans and brought them here....

TO A PIRATE SHIP!!! It was such a fun surprise! The kids absolutely loved it. And the best part was they had NO CLUE until they were standing in front of the ship. (I kept the pirate goodies hidden until then:) It didn't taken them long to get into character either.

Even us moms got into it by the end:)

And then because four days is just not long enough for time with best friends we convinced our husbands that one more day together was needed. So we ALL drove to San Antonio to spend the day together as they started their journey home. I mean no one was shooting out of Texas or anything! Might as well check out the River Walk and Alamo together...along with everyone else in the entire state of Texas on the Friday of Spring Break which also happened to be St. Patrick's Day. Oops! It was a tad busy, but totally worth it for just a little more time together.

A Facebook Break

I deactivated my Facebook account. (Meaning it's completely shut down. As in I don't currently exist on FB). It was a rash decision I made 7 days ago for all the obvious reasons: wasting too much time + comparing my life to others and feeling like it came up short. And here how it's gone since then. 

Day 1: I felt good about my decision. No regrets. I read an entire book. A short book but still one book in one afternoon while my children played. Life without Facebook was good. 

Day 2: Starting to regret my decision but not willing to give up that easily. So I just stomp around grumpily instead. (My poor family). Not my best day. 

Day 3: I find myself grabbing my phone randomly throughout the day to scroll through FB only to realize there is no Facebook to scroll through. (Such a bad habit!) I discover a VLOG on YouTube to fill some of that void. (I wish I were kidding. I am not.) 

Day 4: I clean and purge and sort my house like a mad woman. So much stuff to donate! Oh and it's laundry day! A very successful laundry day.  I check Joe's Facebook at the end of the day and find it quite uninteresting. 

Day 5: I attack a few house projects with a vengeance. The laundry room gets sorted and cleaned. The girls' closet gets organized finally. And I hang all of Isaiah's nerf guns (to clear the top of his dresser). It doesn't sound like much but these three things make me so happy. (I'm not sure if it's the lack of FB or the impending arrival of company that is motivating me so much but either way I like this newfound productivity!) 

Day 6: Shopping and crafting fills my time. The latter is a good use of my time (and resources) the former is...not! I better find a job soon if I want to keep up this spending spree. 

So will I stay off Facebook indefinitely? No probably not. But for a little bit longer. It's been good for me. My house. And my kids. I'm less distracted. More able to respond to them and their many needs. I spend more time thinking about my kids and husband - MY LIFE - and less time thinking about others' lives. (As it should be) Unfortunately I use FB for a lot more than just wasting time and looking at pictures. I have my MOPS group, my exercise group, my family group, residency spouse group, book club, and homeschool co-op to name a few. All of which post important information on Facebook and without it I feel a little lost. So far I've been able to depend on others to relay any vital information to me but it's not a good long term solution. Life without Facebook has been good. It still exists even if it isn't documented* for the world to see. I mean I always knew that. But now I've experienced it once again:) 

*Obviously my life is still being documented here. But it's not the same as FB with its instant likes and comments and general feedback from others.