Feelings, nothing more than feelings.

Sunday nights are all mine. With kids exhausted from a busy day and a husband tired from early meetings, I tend to come alive at night all alone. I generally update the blog. I have so much time for my own thoughts on Sunday nights. I have lots of time for deep introspection, re-dedication, longings and sadness, but mostly feelings of what is most important to me, who I really am and trying to figure out how I can be more true to those feelings.

One of my sisters once said the best time for her to clean her house was at night when all her kids were asleep.  I can completely understand that. Staying up late on Sunday nights leads to the kind of clarity that can be hard for me to find at other times. Maybe because my husband is safe in bed?  More than likely.

Sunday Night

Sunday. A day when we wake up early, get ready and go to church, come home and eat and enjoy a lazy lazy day together. Sometimes playing games. Sometimes reading books. Always spending time together.

My girls love to look at pictures of themselves on Sundays. Old pictures of our old life. Old pictures of our new life. Pictures of family. Pictures of friends. We go back to our roots and remember who we were and are. What matters most.

Tonight while looking at pictures, Reed said to me, "What are we doing here?", in a quiet thoughtful way that I knew meant he was mourning our old life just a little. It's easy to forget, in those moments of moving forward, how hard life used to be even in our old life as compared to life now. I said to him, because I know it's true, "Just you wait, Reed, we will look back in a little while at pictures of our life now and we will feel the same feelings of longing and happiness for that life."

And I know that is true.

Just No Words . . . . . .Not Really

Lucky boy with his Valentines Day present

Two happy girls with new fun lily pad plates and bowls!

I even made myself some strawberry hearts for my oatmeal. Awww.

And to cap off a fun day, Aftyn's friend came over for a little while to play!

                                         

 Aftyn's friend even made her a Valentine and brought us all Reese's hearts. Yum!!

Aftyn and Bronwyn got Valentines from Aftyn's other friend at her preschool storytime this

morning at the public library. They were spoiled!! We sure have a lot of love here.

And we're grateful for it.

Stay Tuned . . . Valentines Day Post is A-Comin'!

Are you feeling the love?

Lots and lots of pictures of the girls because my media card reader is working again

Aftyn, looking very much like Inigo Montoya. You kill my father. Prepare to die. :)

It was cold one day. So I bundled the girls up

and let them watch a movie together.

Cute close-ups

Bubble bath!

Going to go out and play in what Nemo left us!

We decided to have a special toast to Bronwyn's potty training graduation one Sunday.

I was impressed with how well Aftyn and Bronwyn drank out of these (plastic) champagne glasses.

They loved the sparkling white grape juice and the fun little celebration.

Cheese!

Target, Dead Mouse, and Other Things

I've been deep-cleaning our house this week. It just felt right to be re-organizing and deep cleaning! Spring Fever? Maybe. I have been busy doing the girls room, our hallway, our storage closet and partially my bedroom but haven't made it downstairs to the kitchen/ family area. Because of all this re-organizing and deep cleaning, I've been sort of ignoring the kitchen area so there may or may not have been a few stacks of dishes that needed to be cleaned which I got to today. Go me! Except while in the kitchen, I noticed there was a gross smell. I thought surely the garbage needed to be taken out and it would be fine. Reed just came home from school and told me he had discovered the source. There was a dead mouse caught in one of our traps. EWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!  How long that thing had been down there, I don't like to think. Someone needs to invent the mousetrap that beeps when it's full. Seriously. 

POST EDIT: Make that 2 dead mice. EWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I went to Target today and checked out ALL the clearance! While checking out the clothes, I noticed a rack of 70% off coats that were plus-sized but I thought heck, if I found a cute enough one, maybe I could alter it somehow if the price was right. I found a REALLY cute leather coat sized 2XL and tried it on, expecting it to drown me. It didn't. It fit me perfectly. Umm, has Target changed their sizing or am I bigger than I think!?!? Maybe the coat was supposed to fit very snugly, not unlike those legging/jegging/skinny jeans? Sure hope so because I'm pretty sure I'm not that big.

I recently tried those new unjunked candy bars. (Maybe that's part of the problem why the 2XL coat fit me so well?)  Did you know they are made in Boston! Cool beans!! Of all the ones I tried, I liked the Snickers one the best. It tasted the most normal. Something tasted funny with the M&M knock-offs.

As of this week, Bronwyn is done being potty trained. That girl is TRAINED! She got herself on the toilet this morning by herself - no guidance whatsoever from me or Reed and went potty. I came downstairs once I figured out Reed was in the shower and I discovered all of this fabulousness, and even went and checked her pullup and it was dry! She is so good! She tells us all the time when she needs to use the "toilet". She's really good at holding it and seems to go and take care of it before she has an accident.  Now should you think this means she has no accidents, don't kid yourself. I've learned from potty training that it just means the child knows it's all supposed to happen on the toilet and accidents still happen. Bronwyn had one of those today too. Aftyn hasn't had an accident in 7 months, so I'm fully expecting it to take about a year and a half for accidents to completely stop with Bronwyn. Maybe sooner. She sure seems responsible for the most part about taking herself to the toilet.

Also, I went running today because it was 60 degrees this morning. My running could have something to do with my trip to Target. ;)

Endearing

Kids are so endearing. Here are a few examples of today's experiences.

Bronwyn got a wild hare today as I was sitting on the floor of her bedroom

sorting and putting clothes away into drawers.

She grabbed the neck of my shirt, pulled it out and looked down my shirt I guess to see

what it was that my shirt was covering.  And then started identifying things.

"Shirt."  "Backpack."  Backpack?  After thinking for a minute what the heck the backpack

could be, I realized she was talking about my bra. Ha! And starting laughing very hard,

when I was suddenly being squeezed with the sweetest hug by my smiling chubby cheeked

Bronwyn girly. She is such a playful and fun little girl. And man does she make us laugh.  :)

Aftyn at dinner tonight suddenly started chattering up a storm, telling me all about how when

we're 8 we get baptized.  Then she told me that we have to be baptized and then we get married.

With a very serious tone to her voice. When I pointed out to her very gently that 8 years old

was a little young to be married, she then told me "but when I am 8 then Daddy will baptize me."

She sure wants to grow up fast.

 Luckily, she's only 3 1/2 but I know the time will go by too quickly. She is such a

sweet and serious girl. Such a trusting little spirit and understanding and grasping

so many grown up concepts right now!

Yikes! It makes me realize how quickly kids really do grow up. :(