Updates for October

I've been struggling with balance in my life for a long time. It has been said, more than once, that I am fire and ice. I wont deny those tendencies, but I have been working on finding balance in all things so that I may enjoy life more. Lately, it has been working wonderfully. My marriage is stronger, and happier, than ever. We are having so much fun with the kids, we are making steps to declutter the house, etc. Overall, the house is just a happier home than it has been in years.

I feel like I'm falling into my role as homemaker, stay-at-home mom, whatever you want to call it, with happiness and peace now. I am happy to be home with the kids. I am happy to cook dinner for the family, and I love it when I create some random concoction in the kitchen and it turns out delicious. The kids have been helping me cook, helping me clean, but playing and enjoying life as well. I play my games (marrying a gamer can rub off on you!), the kids watch their shows, play their games, and even work on the many craft projects I pulled out for them. I knew that stash of wood crafts and sun catchers would pay off eventually!

I used to miss my village, even mourn its loss. Now, however, I am comfortable without it. We seem to have fun as a family, whether the extended crowd is with us or not! The night before Halloween we carved pumpkins as a family. It was so much fun. We worked together to clear off our cluttered dining table, making it clean and functional again. After we finished that, we laid down some of the thick paper you can use as a drop cloth, the kind you can buy in a giant roll at Lowe's. We taped it down to the table and the fun began. BJ helped Aubrey with her pumpkin, he drew a face on the paper so she could decide just how she wanted the pumpkin to look and together they carved it. I helped Jayden with his. He told me which shapes he wanted for which parts and then held the knife with me as we created his pumpkin. Then it was the parents turn! The pumpkins turned out great!

Another fun family event we did this month was our annual trip to Gardner Village to see the witches. Mike, Jenessa, Chris, & Cassy came along to see the witches, and the kids reactions to them. Grandma Cassy paid for the kids to go on a pony ride, and they loved it. Aubrey got to ride on Silver, and Jayden on Snowflake. The woman who led the horse around for Jayden just got a kick out of his stories. She told me I should take him to a storytelling festival they have nearby because he would do great. He does tell a good story, and he is so animated about it. I need to be better about taking videos of his stories so I can share them with everyone.

Anyway, this is just a quick update. When I get all the pictures from Halloween night, I'll be back to tell another story :) For now, I'll leave you with some highlights of our month.

They are so cute when they are sleeping!

Aubrey with her dolly and her iPad. She insists on sleeping with that decorative "square" pillow. 

Jayden's pumpkin

Aubrey's pumpkin

BJ's pumpkin

My pumpkin

Looking spooky!

Kale for dinner

Aubrey helped me wash and dry it

She is a great kitchen assistant

Now it's time to color robots

And glitter glue on pumpkins! 

Jayden thought that was a lot of fun.

Goofy boy

Pained smile

Glitter glue and my sharpie collection has created days worth of entertainment around here

Off to see the witches

Aunt Nessa and Uncle Mike with the littles! I love how Mike had to hold Jayden's head.

Daddy & Aubrey

The whole family

Waiting in line for the pony ride

She wouldn't let go of that ticket

Big cheese loves pictures of herself

Aubrey has been doing Yoga with Aunt Nessa, she absolutely loves it. As soon as Jenessa came over that day, Aubrey rolled out the mat and begged to do Yoga with her!

Jenessa helped me organize my closet, while Mike and I organized the crawl space. I'll post more pictures of that later. It's been quite the project, but it needed to be done, desperately!

My mom brought me a bunch of apples from her tree, so I decided to dehydrate them. It was one of my favorite treats when I was growing up, and I wanted to share that with the kids.

I may not be "that kind of mom" but I've been having fun pretending lately! My kids are happy and healthy, and in the end, that's what really matters!! The more I work on balance, the happier everyone seems to be. 

Look what fun we are having

Today I was "that kind of mom" for a little while. First, I bought mini pumpkins. 

Then, I decided to have craft day and let Aubrey paint them with glitter glue. 

After the pumpkin, while the glitter glue dried, we switched to a princess puzzle. She was very excited about it. 

While we colored pumpkins and puzzles, Jayden decided to play World of Warcraft with his dad on my laptop. 

Since the boys were still busy, and we still had to wait for the pumpkin to dry so we could continue coloring it, I decided to make cupcakes or muffins, depends on how they turn out!! 

Of course, I needed my kitchen assistant to help me with the most important part. 

I may not be a very good baker, but I do know how to clean the spoon properly :) Just like my Grandma taught me!! 

All in all, it has been a wonderful Sunday afternoon :)

Adventure is out there

Here are some fun facts about me. The last time I was on an airplane was about 1999, and I've never been east of Colorado. Perhaps I've been very sheltered in my life, but I like the western United States. I mean, I live in Utah and for the most part I love it here. It's beautiful, my family is here, my home is here, what more could a girl want? I've been to my nearby states, Colorado, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, even Wyoming. But I've never ventured east. Until now. In a few days I will not only be flying for the first time in 14 years, but I'll be flying across the country to Delaware for my best friends wedding. Yes, I know, this is not a big deal to most of you. This is huge for me though. I've been on an airplane 3 times total. First (and second) was a round trip flight to San Diego. Last was a one-way to Portland. All of which were simple non-stop flights. All of which occurred 14 years ago. I'm just a simple girl, a simple girl with a simple mind.. Okay, perhaps that's stretching it a bit, but I grew up in a smallish town and smallish towns are where I'm most comfortable. The whole bright lights, big city idea is a little on the terrifying side for me. 

Here are some more fun facts about me. I am what you could call, people claustrophobic. Lots of people, confined spaces... Kind of makes me panic to just think about it... I don't like to be touched by people I don't know and I have a pretty large comfort bubble that I don't like being invaded, even my kids can make me feel claustrophobic when they get up in my face with theirs for too long. I know, I know, I sound like a total nutcase. That's probably not far off the mark ;) 

Another first for me, I've never been away from my kids for this long. In fact, I haven't been by myself for this many days in a row since I met BJ. The longest my kids have gone without me is about 2 days. After day one Aubrey starts getting twitchy because she misses mom. Thank goodness for FaceTime. 

Anyway, that's all for now.  This nutcase is off to read the TSA traveling guidelines so I know what I can pack on my grand adventure. 

Love this...

Just came across another saying that sure hit close to home. In my heart, I'm pretty sure this hits the mark. Something to think about, anyway. 

How important is this lesson...

There are times when I have to stop and ask myself "how important is this lesson for the kids?" I have refused to clean my playroom for a while. An embarrassingly long time, but I think I have a good reason for it. See, my kids destroyed that room and I think they should have to clean it themselves. Not long ago I wrote a blog post about making my kids clean their own room. What would have taken me an hour, tops, took them about three hours to complete. It's true, I could have cleaned it for them, but what would they have learned by my doing so? That they can make ridiculous messes and I'll be there to clean it up for them. I don't want them to learn that. I don't want to helicopter parent either. They are 3 and 4-years-old. They are going to make messes. However, in my mind, they are less likely to do so when they know that a) they have to live in the mess they make, and b) they have to clean the mess they make.

When they did this... I CLEANED IT!!!

When they did it AGAIN.... I CLEANED IT

When they did this, I cleaned it... (This is behind my couch in the front room)

Ahh, much better... but they didn't learn a thing! How do I know? Because of this:

I had their playroom beautiful and organized... There are LABELS!!! 

And in a mere 30 minutes while I was downstairs making dinner... it went from THIS....

TO THIS!!!!!

DO YOU SEE THIS!!!

SERIOUSLY!

So... I was livid. They literally took EVERYTHING off the beautifully organized and labeled shelves and did that. Every single toy they own, which I admit is a ridiculous quantity, was taken OFF the shelves and thrown into a giant pile in the middle of the floor. I worked so hard in there, painstakingly organizing, labeling, I even built and installed the shelves... I worked my butt off in that stupid room and all of it was undone in a mere 30 minutes. My husband is going to kill me (metaphorically speaking) for admitting this publicly, but I have refused to clean the room ever since that day. Well, I've tried a few times but I don't make it very long before I get mad again so I have to walk away until I can get in the right place mentally. So far, I haven't found the right place and finally I asked myself why that might be. The answer is simple, it feels like an injustice for ME to be the one to clean that room. Yes, I know, that's just part of being a mom, but isn't teaching your children to clean up after themselves also part of being a mom?

I've had friends over who ask "why don't you just bag everything up and get rid of it?" That's a good question. Honestly, it's because I am convinced this is an important lesson for them to learn. I don't let them play anywhere else for the most part, I don't let them use the tv in the entertainment room to escape their mess. It is their mess and, by golly, they have to live in it or clean it up. I'm nothing if not stubborn. I just have to be patient with them. We have been making progress, very slow progress, but progress nonetheless. The problem here is that I'm working with children who are 3 & 4, which is to say, little people with tiny attention spans. I've tried a few different tactics. I was feeling especially hopeful after the success we had in their bedroom, but the playroom has been challenging for them as well. I tried setting a timer, telling them they got to play for the same length of time as they cleaned. It seemed like a fair deal to me, but to a 4-year-old 20 minutes is apparently an eternity. We didn't get very far. I tried enticement "when you get this room all cleaned, I will buy you the video game you want." Unfortunately, that wasn't enough motivation either. I may not have found the appropriate level of motivation, but I have a quality that is far more important. Determination. It might not make sense to you, that's okay, but I am stubborn and determined enough to teach them this lesson.

Every time they have to throw a toy away because they haven't taken good enough care of it, it's a lesson to them. Every time they ask for a friend to come over and I say no because the playroom is too messy for their friends to play in, it's a lesson for them. Every time they complain about having to clean up the mess, I simply ask "who made this mess?" When they reply "we did" I make sure it's a reminder of the consequences of making such a mess. Like I said, I could have had the room clean by now. I could do it all myself, but what would they learn if I did? A big, whopping NOTHING and I just can't have that.

How important is this lesson? If you ask me, it's very important.