mama fun

lulu has been slightly obsessed with doing her "homework" lately----which just means that she's coloring or creating art most waking hours of the day.  i'm just happy when she's not drawing on my granite countertops with sharpie markers or "practicing" her writing on my plywood floors.  when i'm not cooking or puttering around, i'm usually parked next to her, creating my own works of art that make me giggle.  it's the little things, people.  the little things. 

just a day in the life

wake up early, headache
the kids all pile into bed at 6:15am and snuggle under blankets
grubby feet from the dirty plywood floors
all grumble and follow each other downstairs
breakfast, three different ones for three different kids
watch a show while we wake up, eat
two eggs for mama with nutritional yeast
wash your face!  get that eye crust out before school!
teeth brushed, mama showered, hair combed
head wrap on, dirty jeans back on because we have no laundry
machines this week
get kids outside for the bus
say hello to the man who's putting in our hardwood
pack snacks and lunches for the car and off we go
grain store to buy 10 pounds of flax seed
and we say hello to the baby chicks huddled near the warming lamp
then more errands to pass the time
off to storytime
to watch my child
hide under the seats and not want to participate
and that's just fine with me
five little pumpkins sitting on a fence
snacktime
cartime
hanging outside in leaftime with nice people and babies
lunchtime with my dadtime
snuggling on a couch with four beautiful dogstime
iced coffee date with my lovetime
organic store for a big bag of vegetables
kids off bus
one kid in the car with snack, off to afterschool activity
mama goes food shopping and reads JK rowling's new book in the car
back home
dinner waiting
couchtime snuggling, oreo eating, wine drinking
captain underpants reading
kisses
kisses
kisses
bed

all he wants for christmas, evidently

"i'm not saying that i want anyone in our family to die, because i totally don't want that.  all i'm saying is that i really just want to slap a dead person in the face, over and over.  slap slap slap.  that's all i want for christmas."  -joey

with a little help from my (little) friends

the above picture pretty much sums up my life lately.

getting lots of help from my three little friends, while we are in the midst of a major home renovation project.  john ripped up all the flooring in our whole downstairs (and at the top of the upstairs, too).  which wouldn't have been a big deal except houses built in the 1970's have this crazy thick board stuff that has approximately a trillion nails AND screws in it, and that needed to come up, too.  the kids love to "help", and we've been trying to be patient and let them be involved.  which results in lots of little scenes like the one above----markers "helping" us take the carpet up.

so i've been quiet here, and everywhere.  pulling back and pulling in.  maybe it comes with the change in the season, maybe it comes with the darkness, or maybe it's come because of all the rain.  maybe it's because i've been living with a thick layer of dust all over every surface of my household.  maybe it's because we have plywood floors right now and if i look hard enough i can see into my basement.  life seems a bit unsettled. 

in a few days we will be completely done with the tear up.  then we will cover (again) most of the walls with a new (different) color of paint.  and then in a week or two we'll be getting our floors!  and i can bring my finished island up from the basement.  and start really nesting and cleaning and getting ready for thanksgiving, my favorite holiday.  i may or may not have started my christmas shopping today.  it's all about the nesting right now.  nesting and fall scented candles.

so if you're looking for me, i'm here, under a dusty quilt waiting for the beginning of november to arrive.  xx