Just Pretty!

Beautiful, right?! 

I love the purple with the bright green and the old foliage still lying around...makes me smile!

Enjoy your Monday and have a great week!

What to do now?

A couple months ago, the controller of my husband's company (also my friend) hired me to help out in the office, very part-time and temporarily.  They decided to make it permanent and offered me 30 hours/week (I guess I am just that good!!!).  The problem...I can't do 30 hours a week.  I was doing about 20 hours and they were all when the kiddos were in school.  It took no time away from being with my kids...at all.  I was pretty excited to do it but it has now ended and I am a bit sad. 

When I was a kid, people would ask (as they ask all kids) "what do you want to be when you grow up?".  Besides being a ridiculous question it's very hard to answer when you're a kid.  My answer though was always "I want to be my Mom".  It was simple.  I knew that would be my job.  I have wonderful memories of hanging out with my mom during summer when we were out of school, I always counted on her being there for me when I didn't feel good and wanted to come home from school, I loved watching her sew or having her teach me a new craft.  That seemed like the job for me.

Well I have been lucky enough to do just that.  The last job I had was in 1998.  I gave my notice when I was 4 months pregnant and have never looked back...until now.  My 3 kiddos are now 13, 10, and 8 and besides the 7th grade math homework (which I am just as bad at as when I was in school), I have enjoyed being there for them since the day they each graced my life.  The problem is they are gone 6 hours of each week day!  I got a good taste of being out their working once again and I liked it.  It felt good hanging with adults for a few hours, 3 days/week and getting paid for it.  It felt very rewarding (most of the time!).

So there in lies my conflict...I want to be a good/great mom and wife but I also need to fulfill my needs as a woman.  So what to do now?

Hmmm...this is going to take some major thinkin...


Well the world will keep spinning, I will ponder my life whilst anticipating more of these sweet Daffies popping up, here and there and everywhere (my tribute to Dr. Seuss...Happy Birthday)! 

this pic makes me laugh...it's almost like the 2 leaning over are saying "oh, you say we are too early? how embarrassing!" and the newbie standing tall is saying, "What?  What's wrong guys?  Where is everybody!"        Hahaha!  Just my silly humor!

Thankful Thurs...oops...Tuesday!

I have been forgetting my thankful posts.  Well...better late than never so it's back to it!

I am definitely thankful everyday and this week I am going to be a bit frivolous about my thankfullness.

There are many things in this life that we could all live without but that make our life nice and comfy.  You know...those quilty pleasures that we all have.

Here is my guilty pleasures I am thankful for today...

1. TV
...more specifically
Downton Abbey
Revenge
Parenthood
Survivor
Biggest Loser
HGTV
FoodNetwork
The Ellen D. Show


2. Now for the other things...
The Body Shop mascara
the Goodwill
garage sales
colored pencils (love to doodle)
embroidery floss
my coffeemaker
donuts
candles
chocolates
Pinterest
wine
my computer

Happy Tuesday to all!  See you soon!

Hey, by the way, if you visit, let me know!  I like visitors!

We got ARTistic!

Thanks to Meg and her blog, that is!  Great idea Meg! 

The kiddos had a funky schedule on Friday and it was the perfect opportunity to get some quiet, creative time together.  I saw this and knew this could be done easily without fail.  See, I have no painting skills whatsoever.  I can doodle with the best of them but that is about it.  I consider a page full of hearts doodling and I LOVE watercolors so this was gonna be easy.  IT WAS! 

Getting started...breathe!!!

Hmmm...which color first?

Look at those colors...make me smile!

 
So the girls kept asking me if they could "do this" or "do you think this would look good Mom?"  I kept having to remind them that no matter what they did I would love it and so would they.  Its amazing how hard we can make things if we think about them too much.  If you just let go and know that if you mess up it might be frustrating but it only benefits you...you learn what you like and don't like, right?!

We kept at it...

Looks great so far girlies!  The boy in the fam was shootin' hoops outside, by the way.

And here are our masterpieces!

Lili's!

Katia's!

Mine!

We chatted, sang to The Band Perry Channel on Pandora.com, we laughed, we had a snack break but most of all we had fun!
I suggest you try it too!  Oh and I have a new fun store in St. L...ArtMart!  I had never been in and it's a lot more than just art supplies.  They had an amazing amount of paper products and I love me a new notebook/journal.  Very cool! 

So it was nice to sit and do this with the girls.  I didn't realize how much I missed these activities now that kiddos are all in school full time. 

Note to self...find more easy, craft ideas to do with kids!

Feeling better!!

Almost back to normal after a couple days sick.  Nothing major.  Just colds but it's never fun...for anyone.

The first day it was just me home sick.  That was nice.  Now that I am working 3 to 4 days a week it was like a little mini "me" day.  I ate what I wanted and when I wanted, didn't have to make lunch for anyone else, had the tv to myself and could watch whatever junk was on and more importantly, didn't have to hear fighting over who's turn it was on the computer.  NICE!

Today was a bit different.  Today I had my two girlies home to join me.  I love them dearly but it was not as relaxing.  I needed to make breakfast.  Then before I knew it, I needed to make lunch.  L actually came to me at 10:45 and asked if it was 11:15.  I said not yet and she informed me that lunch is at 11:15 at school and that she must eat then.  Hmmm, I wonder why this doesn't matter on the weekends?
Then I decided to read to each of them thinking that might help them take a nap.  K is 13, L is 8...they haven't had naps in forever and today was no different...nice effort but wasn't happening.  I can't blame them, I'm not a nap person either.

So we are hopefully on our way to "better-land".  One still had a temp tonight but only about 99.4 but informed me that she is going to school tmr.  I am glad she missed being there.

One of my sweet girls shared one of her Valentine chocolates from her Dad and I with me this morning.
She's my favorite!!  Ha!

   
 Here is one of the gifts I gave to my family!

The embroidery I did but the writing was done by L.  She wrote this on paper and I traced it with a lighted board behind onto the canvas fabric and sewed it exactly the way she did it.  Isn't that great?!  A lovely way to capture your kiddos sweet way of writing when they are learning.  I need to do a lot more of these before they all get too old!
This was a fun project!

I hope you all had a.LOVELY Valentine's Day!