Saturday, I Think I Love You.

I have never been so glad to see Saturday.  This past week was a doozy.

Monday started off fairly normal.  They are usually the hardest day for us.  Trying to recoup from the weekend, the house is trashed and it's time to start school again.
And, all in all, it was a pretty typical Monday.

However, Tuesday and Wednesday were not.
Because my kids are using a charter school's curriculum, at home, they are still subject to the state testing regulations.  Josie, being in 1st grade, didn't have to take the tests but Jayce did.
So, that meant, bright and early Tuesday morning, I had to pack up all 4 children and head downtown.  He had to be there by 8 a.m. Have I ever mentioned I am not a morning person?  I count myself lucky if I'm ready for the day by 9:30.

Anyways, my hubby and I  pulled out of the driveway at the same time. He to go to work, me to take Jayce to his testing site.  However; I got "sidetracked"and pulled over to look for the neighbor girl that suddenly disappeared from the bus stop. Once I called her mother and got that all straightened out, we were back on our way.

Until I got about 1/2 mile up the road to a major traffic jam.  Complete with fire engines and police lights.

I immediately thought of my husband, who was technically only a few minutes ahead of us.  I started quietly crying and praying that we would not see my husband's truck smashed into a million pieces.

After listening to the radio, we found that a power line had fallen across the freeway.  And, the police were directing traffic to an off ramp.  It literally took me one hour to move about 1 mile.
My nerves were shot already but when my fuel light came on in the middle of it, I started to hyperventilate, just a tad.

We finally reach a gas station,when my husband calls and turns out, he thought we were ahead of him and he'd had pretty much the same reaction I did to all the lights and fire trucks.  The panicky " I hope it's not someone I know" feeling upon arriving at the scene of an accident.

We dropped Jayce off at his testing site, dropped Jarrett off at preschool.  Waited 2 hours and picked everyone up again.

Rereading what I wrote above, it doesn't seem that big of a deal. But, when you're running behind, fearing you're going to run out of gas and plug up an already plugged up traffic jam, and your 7 yr. old is crying because "You're stopping too much!!", it makes for a pretty crappy beginning to your day.

And the best part was--we got to do it again the next day!!  Minus the power line across the freeway.

Thursday, my husband was unexpectedly off work.  To most, that might be a pleasant surprise.  But, being the crank that I am, it was not. Having pretty much taken the 2 previous days off of school/housework, I was a little behind and stressed. Having another person, especially a grown man person, under my feet was not fun.

Fridays are always a tad busy. It's the day a friend and I visit a local assisted living residence and hand out birthday cards and make visits.  She has 2 boys that she brings here to my house, we have another friend come over with her 2 boys and stay with all the kids while MJ and I go to Woodside.  That's a grand total of 8 kids at my house.  It's a little stressful getting the house picked up and ready for that kind of "action" but it's worth it.  I have met some wonderful people and have seen how much a simple visit or greeting card can light up a face.  I will have to post about some of those visits soon.

That brings me to today--Saturday.  In where I spent most of the day out of the house, while my kids were at grandmas!
I went to a friends "resale" event and bought a dress for Josie and a jammin' Wiggles dance mat for Jeven's upcoming birthday.
My parents, for Christmas, had bought me a gift certificate to a local craft store.  I got to use some of it today and made two adorable cards:

(the pictures are blurry but, hey, you get the idea)

I used to scrap book a lot but somehow, haven't had the free time for it for the past 11 years lately.
I enjoyed doing a little "artsy fartsy" stuff today and hopefully, I can squeeze some more classes in.

My Saturday is almost over with.  Tomorrow is church day then we're back to Monday.  I am hoping next week is a little less crazy but....I'm not counting on it.

Hope you all are having a restful, uneventful weekend.

Pictures Of What Spring Should Be

On our way to the playground.  We live less than
5 minutes from an elementary school.  That is if you drive.
If you have 4 kids and a busy time of day, it's takes about
forever to get there!!

Jeven doing....Jeven-ness stuff.

Jarrett looking all handsome and stuff. 

Concentrating on the "ringy things". His little chicken arms hold him up quite well!

Happy Spring!!  

Heartfelt Thanks

I've heard that term before but never have experienced it. 

But, after my last post, my heart really felt thankful! 

All the comments meant so much to me. 
Mostly, I was glad that you understood what I was trying to say!  I wasn't wanting to whine or be told to speak up. 
Sometimes, the thoughts that are in my head and what comes out on the screen are different.  But, by the comments left, I felt understood.  And heard. And seen. 



The weather has actually perked up a tad today, so we are off to the playground.  I will be posting some pictures soon. 

I just wanted to use a post to say "Thank you", my dear, sweet, bloggy friends!

Invisible

I'm a good friend. I think. 
I am a good listener.  I don't like to shoot my mouth off and give advice.  I will just listen.  Sometimes, that's all someone needs.

However, when you are a good listener, you become invisible. 

When a listener needs to talk, no one is used to listening to you, so, you get ignored.

I have many friends. That have helped me in many ways.  But, lately... I feel invisible. 

I know, how can a mother of 4 children ever feel invisible?  In my house, I couldn't be invisible if I tried. 

My husband is my best friend and he hears about everything that's bothering me. But, men don't make the best girlfriends.  They're too....manly.

Over the past few weeks, I literally have spoken, out loud, to human beings, about something that's on my mind--family issues, health issues--and have been totally 100% ignored. 

Maybe I'm not loud enough?
But, with all this frustration that's in my mind right now, I'm liable to burst and really make a spectacle of myself. 

Jarrett is a quiet kid.  He goes with the flow. He listens.  But, sometimes, he'll have a bad day and blow up over something stupid. 

I understand completely.

The quiet ones are the ones you have to watch out for.

This and a Little of That

Our get-a-way was in a word--wet.  Get your mind out of the gutter, I mean that it rained. A lot.  Too much.

But, we had fun.  A lot.

We got to go to a little store called Ikea.  Yeah. First time.

Loved it!! A lot!!  A little overwhelming and I would never, ever go on the weekend. I would stay in the car and shake like a frightened little child.
Luckily, we went on a Monday, just a bit after they opened.  By the time we made our way out, it was just starting to fill up.

We then drove back down to the outlet mall and attempted to shop until we dropped.
Both Judd and I needed new clothes, desperately.  He's still wearing clothes from when we first started dating--16 yrs ago.
"He must be in great shape if he can still fit into 16 yr. old clothes" you say?
I never said they fit.  I just said he still wears them.

I don't have "regular" clothes.  I have church clothes ( like 2 outfits) and sweats.  It would be nice to be able to drop off my child at preschool in something other than those 2 options.

We had minimal luck shopping.  Seems forking out $30 for a plain t-shirt just isn't our style.

But, we had fun dodging raindrops and picking out ugly clothes for each other.

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This past week was our Spring Break.  Public school had theirs the week before.

My "to-do" list is huge.  And, I was hoping to accomplish much of it.  So far, I've crossed off nothing. Nada. Zip.
I'm not looking forward to school starting up again next week.  I would take a few extra days off but we're already behind and I hate being behind.  Hence the frustration of lack of accomplishment with the "to-do" list.

Ah well. There's always Summer Break.
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I recently suffered celebrated a birthday.

I'm fine with my age, 35, seriously.  But, I would also be fine with not having any more birthdays.  I think 35 is a fine age to STOP.  I can do that, right? Grownups can do anything they want and I want to stop getting older.

I often complete online surveys for a small payment.  There's always a section where you have to click the box for your age:  18-24, 25-30, 31-34, 35-90.  I now have to click the other box!!!  So humiliating!
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The other night, I had purchased some new shave gel.  Not a big deal to you or I but to my children, that can sitting on the counter was just too much to resist.
At some point, we had strawberry shave gel all over the bathroom.
No one would fess up to the crime but we had 2 strong suspects-Jeven or Josie.
Of course, both pointed fingers at the other.

At one point, I told Jeven "If you say you didn't do it, then Josie will get a spanking and it will hurt and she will cry and be so sad. Are you o.k. with that?  Josie getting a spanking for something you did?"

And in true brotherly love, Jeven says "Yep."

I had to step out of the room so he wouldn't see me laugh.  Poor Josie.

Neither one got a spanking, by the way.
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This coming Sunday is Easter.
I hope you all get to enjoy with family and/or friends.
I hope you take a moment to think about what Easter really means.
It's not all about eggs and phantom rabbits.
It's about a Savior who paid the ultimate price for you.  And for me.
If you don't know the true Easter story, I would be happy to share it with you.  If you do know it, take some time and re-read it, appreciate it.

Happy Easter and God Bless!