Wednesday

We're starting school on Wednesday. 
I'm hoping to blog once a week. I'm being realistic here. Not everyday. Once a week.
Maybe posting this will keep me accountable.
99.9% of pictures will probably be from my cell phone.
Oh well.

Some days.

Being a mom is hard. I guess I had some notion that there would be more unicorns and rainbows involved. Or glitter. Or something. The only shiny thing lately is the shine of sweat and oil on my face because it needs to be washed.
Don't get me wrong. I LOVE being a mom but it's NOT easy. It doesn't get easier after the first one either. You may know what to do when the baby has a fever this time but managing not only your own life but that of another...that part doesn't get easier. Some days we eat junk food all day and don't get dressed. Gasp. Some days I yell at my children more than I talk to them. Get on to them more than I hug them. Some days I tell them I'm changing my name so I don't have to hear MOOOOOM one more time and I'm not telling them my new name either!! Some days I just don't want to be a mom honestly.
Of course there are days that I sit there amazed by these little people I helped create and can't imagine being anywhere else. I always FEEL that way but I don't always think those things. I don't think any of these things make me a bad mom, although I'd be lying of in the moment I don't feel that way. Being a mom really is amazing, don't get me wrong, it is, but it's not a sitcom. At the end of the episode, it's not all singing and dancing and friends again. Sometimes you count down the minutes until bedtime and sometimes you turn the tv on so they will stop talking to you. It's true. I know it sounds bad but don't judge me if you don't have kids. If you do and you're still judging me. Shut up. You aren't perfect either.

Storm Landen has hit

No words. Even Chewbaca is scared.

A boy's eye view

I downloaded the pictures off of Owen's camera today...I love seeing what they decide to take pictures of. Some of them were taking by Landen I believe but here are some of my favorites.

Baby feet

What I really want to say

A lot of people ask me, "So how's homeschooling going?" or "You home school, isn't that hard?".  Most of the time I say it's going great, or its hard a lot of days but worth it.

What I really want to say is:

It sucks. It's hard.  Most days I feel like a failure.  Most days I feel like I need at least four more of me to be able to get everything done that needs to be done.  I have three kids constantly wanting my one on one attention and there is only one of me.  Today I was playing Candy Land with Owen while wearing Kennedy in her wrap trying to get her to nap and answering questions Landen had on his math program. During all this I was really thinking, "I really want a cup of coffee and some breakfast...oh and I need to pee."

Today has been a day that I wonder what the heck I'm doing...and I wonder if I'm screwing all my kids up.  I just try to keep telling myself that I love them and I'm trying to do what I think is best for them...that's all I can do right now. I told Landen that sometimes I wonder if I should send him back to ps. Not for anything he's done wrong but simply because I don't want to screw him up.  He said, "Mom, I hated school then, now its fun. I love spending time with you every day."  I'm trying to tell myself that means I'm doing something right by him. I'm trying to see the whining and not listening for what it is, being kids...and not that I am doing something wrong.

So for today, we're reading...and reading...and playing Legos, and enjoying the beautiful day.  Tomorrow we'll go over verbs and adjectives. Today we need to enjoy the day.

O's room progress

Not as far as I'd like but...
The door is painted and on with new hardware.
The trim has been touched up.
A few new accessories have been added.
The closet has been redone.
Hoping a big trip to Ikea is in our future!!!!

Finishing

I'm not very good at finishing things.  My husband gets pretty annoyed by my ongoing 500 projects, all of which are 1/4-1/2 the way done.  Personally I think its one of my many endearing qualities...or so I tell myself.  Any who, I've decided I need to finish some things up. I want to be able to say, "THIS room is DONE."  First up is Owen's room.  Why start with a kid's room? He asked me to do it. Simple as that.

So far its been painted...twice.  It was originally a beige color with blue, green, and white stripes.  Now its a neutral "greige" color.  I'm going to touch up a few places on the walls and trim and finish the floor. Oh yeah, we replaced the floor with faux wood stuff but there's a few places I still need to add a filler piece too. THEN we'll be ready to get going!!  Patrick installed a new ceiling fan yesterday. I need to go take a picture of the old one really quickly before the trash men haul it off. U-G-L-Y and tiny and OLD. EW.  (ok, just went to go look and I guess someone hauled it off. Lucky them?!)

So on the to do list:
-Touch up walls (where L picked paint off...because he's annoying..)
-Touch up trim while I'm at it
-Repaint door, rehang, and add new hardware. Pretty self explanatory. 
-Install new closet doors. The old ones were broken so I threw them away.  I like to throw stuff away.
-Redo the inside of the closet. I want to add a vertical cubby area in the middle with two rods on either side.  This will give him more storage space for STUFF. I'm also hoping that the bins on the cubbies can serve as storage for his clothes. Ideally I'd LOVE to rid of the dresser and put some kind of sideboard/bookshelf (think Ikea Expedit) to house books and toys instead.  That would free up so much room in his room AND it would be SO much more organized.
-After all this, the fun can begin!! We've picked out fabric and wall art inspirations already!!! Hopefully this blog will keep me accountable and in line!

photography less than three

Ok, so I've been looking at photo blogs all night and I decided to link up to some of my favorites that I spent some time on tonight.  You should check them out. It'll make your day better.

First up is JHintze Photography. Jenny is a friend of mine, although she probably refers to me as that crazy chick or "girl who likes/comments/texts/stalks/ect every photo I post".  Jenny photographed our baby girl's birth and has been really helpful along our home schooling journey as well. Jenny is crazy talented and well..she's kinda crazy too. ;)

Next is my cousin, Brittany Dawson Photography.  She's pretty amazing! I haven't seen her in ages but I love seeing bits and pieces of extended family as well as her amazing work.  I don't know what she considers her specialty but I'm the most fond of her bridals and wedding work.

Eleanor's Eats..ok its not JUST photography but she posts a bunch of really cool stuff.  Food, crafts, ect, all with amazing photos.  My friend Emily (Eleanor is her daughter) is just starting out in the business side of photography but home girl has had mad skizillz for years.  If you live in the Chicago area, you should call her. Now...why are you still here??

Ok, some people I don't know.

Sarah Q: I have never met her and don't know anyone who has but I LOVE looking at her work.  I have spent HOURS on her blog and site...many times just to see all the pictures of her daughter, who is the coolest little chick I've ever seen.

Ashley Ann of Under the Sycamore Tree...she's crazy creative and I love seeing her perspective on things.  I believe right now her blog is mostly about adoption right now but she's always got new things going on and great photos to go with it. She also has three boys and a girl, which is always the family I said I wanted growing up. (I was CRAAAAZYYYYY).

Jinky Art: Located in Australia unfortunately for us.  I love how different a lot of her sessions are. The creativity and thought that goes into each session is apparent and whoever comes up with and finds all her props deserves a raise!!!

Bre Thurston: I don't know her but we both posted on a photo forum years ago and from there I "liked" her on facebook and continue to watch as she rocks each session.  She's another I could spend all day on her site!!

That's it for now...its midnight and I'm sleepy.

small things

 

Lately I've been trying to dwell on the small things, the good, the things that make this crazy life we lead worthwhile. It's really not that hard..most days ;)

Little Kennedy's smile.  Oh how that girl can light up a room.

Landen's laugh.  His full bodied, big belly laugh.  When that boy thinks something is funny...he lets the whole world know! I love it..even when its obnoxious. 

Owen helping me in the kitchen.  Telling me "the water is boiling!".  

Patrick hugging me from behind while I cook/clean/whateverI'mdoing.

The way Patrick smells after he grills. He makes fun of me because I sniff him like a dog.  Whatever. 

Teaching Landen something new. He knows everything already ya know (*insert sarcasm here*). It's pretty cool when I teach him something and even he recognizes that mama isn't THAT dumb.

Owen being...Owen. He is SUCH a boy. Dirty, rugged, bruises all over....and blue painted toenails.  

Kennedy sucking her thumb. It cracks me up.  One day she'll learn to stop poking herself in the eye.

There's a lot more but those are the things that were my small things over this past week. 

ps. I wanted to include a picture of all the kids in this post...and realized the only one I have is them in the bath tub. OOPS. Bad mommy moment. I'll have to work on that this week!

I surrender

School last week

Last week was our best week yet for school.  Landen didn't complain, we had fun, and I was organized.  I put together a planner binder (if you know me, that's a MAJOR organizational step).  I have a monthly at a glance sheet and a weekly sheet that I can put what we need to do each day.  It really helped with MY motivation and direction for sure.  I also revamped our curriculum A LOT over the past two weeks and we are really enjoying our time more.  

Here's a little photo overview of the week:

We did a small study on Van Gogh. We watched youtube videos Van Gogh and Van Gogh interview, read an article, and looked and some of his more famous paintings.  We used oil pastels to color a coloring page I found online- Starry Night outline. 

Finished!!

We also learned about matter- solids, liquids, and gasses.  This day we saw how liquid takes the shape of the container it is in, where solids keep their shape no matter what you pour them in.  The boys had a lot of fun transferring the liquids (tea and colored water).





In our history we learned about archaeology, historians, and how we know and learn about the past.  I set up an "archaeological dig" for the boys in our "flower" bed. (more like a dirt and weed bed...)  They had a lot of fun digging up the "artifacts".  While they were digging we talked about how we know which items are older (the ones farther down), why we have to dig carefully (so we don't damage the artifacts), and what each item we dug out taught us about the people living in the area.  They also learned that throwing dirt at mom makes her not so happy.









Some books we read this week:

Landen continued Mr. Popper's Penguins in his independent reading.
I CAN BE AN ARCHAEOLOGIST
The Magic School Bus Shows and Tells: A Book About Archeology
What Is the World Made Of: All About Solids, Liquids, and Gases


Next week: Teaching mom how to spell archaeology without spell check.