blerg brain

I may or may not have misinformed my kids from a very young age that if they watch too much television it will shrink their brains.

Today, since 3/4 of them are sick, they pretty much laid around and watched movies most of the day (aside from our bike ride and when we were all doing chores at the barn - so there was some a little activity in the day as well).

Natalie came up to me tonight right after brushing her teeth to get ready for bed and says, "Mom, do you think my brain is smaller tonight because of all the movies today? I'm sort of worried about it."

I told her that one day of movies isn't going to shrink her brain too much and she's probably just fine.

She thought it over for a minute and after breathing a sigh of relief says, "Well that's good, but I did do a huge division math problem in my head after every 15 minutes, you know, to help my brain stay big - just in case."

what not to wear

Carter: "Where are we going today, Mom?"
Me: "I don't know if we're going anywhere yet."
Carter: "Then why are you dressed like that?"
Me: "Dressed like what?"
Carter: "Like you're going to see more people than just us kids."

{The sad part is that I'm just wearing jeans as opposed to the usual yoga pants. At what point, exactly, did jeans become my "I-put-in-effort" clothes?}

CALL ME CRAZY

I'm about thisclose to letting one of my friends talk me into signing up to run a half marathon next summer with her.

Someone {QUICK!} shake some sense into me before it's too late!

...

Three weeks from today I will drop the three older kids off at school and then will come home and sit here with tears streaming down my face and into my cold cup of coffee as I lament about how fast the summer has gone and why school now gets more time with my kids than I do.

I know that I could home school, but the kids and I both know it would ruin us. Don't get me wrong, there are tons of families that successfully do this all the time, but let me be straight with you - we would not be one of them.

So, that being said, I'm trying (trying!) to enjoy the rest of summer even though, lets be honest, some days I'm counting down the days to when I have nap time all to myself and I only have to drag one kid grocery shopping and to Target, Starbucks, and TJMaxx. 

I love fall - the air turning crisp, the leaves changing colors, apple cider, soccer season, sharpened pencils, running outside without feeling like the humidity is going to swallow you up. I love it - but right about now is when I start back peddling and freaking out about missed opportunities all summer and mentally (and foolishly) make the list of all that we didn't do. 

My kids have had a great summer. Really - we all have. But, like everything does, it has just gone far too quickly.

Carter's birthday breakfast: Homemade cinnamon rolls!

Natalie kissing the best man at her Uncle John's wedding. :)

Enjoying the sun at the Umpqua river.

Ring security at the wedding.

"Mommy, take a picture of me going super fast!"

I don't know what it is about boys and reptiles, but man they love em'!

"Mom! STOP! I want to take a picture of you!" (Out on a run. My favorite time to have my picture taken! {Sense the sarcasm...})

a keeper

God doesn't pick favorites but I still tend to think that if he did have a favorite, I would be it. 

Why?

Because I'm the only one he gave this guy to...

Oh how I love him!

parenting

This is exactly how I've felt since I had kids lately.

  This is especially true when Jeff is gone. {He's gone for the week/weekend.}

Lord, help us survive. AMEN.

The Fridge

Monday was Jeff's birthday. He turned 33 but I'm going to stay 29 this year...for the 4th year in a row.

He's well loved around here and well loved at work. This is no secret. He's blessed to work with some amazing Jesus-loving people who not only put up with adore him, but encourage him in many ways as well.

My man has many nicknames - I call him "Jefe"  (which is 'boss' in Spanish) - and I thought it was hilarious when I found out that a ton of people at work call him that, too. Another nickname they've given him there (from over a year ago when he was almost 50 pounds heavier) is, "The Fridge" because he reminded them of the football player nicknamed that as well.

Anyway, this year for his birthday one of the ladies at his work, Renee, (who has a cake-making business as a side job) made him this:

I couldn't believe how amazing it looked! She even has him holding his favorite coffee cup!

Anyway, Happy Birthday to my amazing husband, Fridge.