TTT: Season 4, Episode 3

1. Mid-January is the perfect time of the year to have not much to report. 'Cause really, November and December have way, way, way more than their fair share. So I'm happy to say that life is plain, uneventful...normal. Work, pre-school, playing, laundry, library, Bible study, cooking, dishes. Regular life. And it's grand. We did finally have a real winter spell this week. Can I report on that? Like highs in the thirties instead of sixties. It lasted about two and a half days and was back to in-the-sixties today. I've got to give it to Houston though; it knows how to the thirties. With no wind, thirty-eight is somewhat tolerable. Believe me; I spent a good chunk of time watching boys ride scooters in it.

A family trip to Home Depot never disappoints!

2. I've yet to compile my goals list for 2013. In my head I have (in a British accent, no less!), I've just yet to write it out. Something about putting it down on paper makes it so final. Like if I write it down, there's no turning back...so do I really want to do it? But one goal that I can report on that I'm already putting in to action is an overall healthier diet for our family. And really, I won't get much more detailed than "healthier." I'm not one to buy in to lots of diet fads, trendy eating habits, etc. God has greatly blessed me with a family that isn't allergic to anything at all so no mandatory health requirements either... which I am so thankful for! It seems that now-a-days practically everyone I know has at least one kid who can't eat this or is allergic to that. I suppose if I was given that lot, I'd learn how to deal with it, but praise the Lord, we all love food and can eat it all! That's a good thing, but can be bad, too. As in, yes, I do have a few pounds hanging around from Christmas that I'd like to shed. And Grantness has a big round belly he's been working on, too. (Just kidding, of course!) But like I said, it's not a diet I'm after...just a general stronger effort on my part to eat healthier meals. Don't get me wrong, we don't sit here pounding Big Macs or eating fast food daily. I have always made an effort to feed my kids meats, fruits, vegetables, etc. I've just always leaned more toward easy and familiar, and my childhood eating consisted largely of chicken nuggets, spaghetti, fish sticks, mac-n-cheese, PBJs, tacos, etc. (No offense, Mom! They were all delicious and hey, all five of your kids are fairly skinny! Ha!)  I'm also blessed in that my kids (other than Grant) are usually willing to try anything. Yes, anything! So why not try new things? Why not be more willing to swing by the grocery store for more fresh produce even though I just went a few days ago? Why not be excited about the healthy meals instead of the more "comforting" ones? There's no need to be extreme with us...I'm fairly certain that children who have extreme diets are bound to go buckwild once they get into college and discover Whataburger. I'd much rather try to teach our kids the joy of eating and eating well with an all things in moderation approach so that they can enjoy food the right way in years to come.

3. Tantrums, Treasures, and Tidbits

Only treasures to report this week. In the form of videos and photos. I love these boys!

Kolbe working on his QB skills with Dada!

Grant is convince that he's the same size as the big boys. So when he's sees them riding their scooters down the driveway, he's convinced he should be able to do it, too. So he just improvises with his little car. Crazy fella!

These boys LOVE their scooters. (And yes, I know they should have their helmets on. We were being rebellious.) Kolbe certainly has the speed, but Rudy is so, so graceful. Both of them are already attempting to do "tricks" on them...maybe we should invest in knee pads and elbow pads, too. I just love my little Rudy's voice and face in this one. I wish he could stay like this forever.

My least favorite part of winter. Ugh!
Fingers: Raynauds overload (zero circulation). Skin: 85 years old. Knuckles: Lost Cause

When it's too cold to go out, we burn energy in other ways.

This guy.
And the part that's not caught in pictures is where I took him out, stood him on the counter while Dada wiped water from the floor. Stripped the wet clothes, pulled off the five pound diaper and he immediately started peeing on us both. Thanks son, thanks.

TTT: Season 3, Episode 38

1. Tomorrow is a big day for me...I'm cutting my hair! I'm kind of nervous because I've gotten so used to my long hair. The convenience of being able to just pull it back in to a ponytail, being able to let it just air dry and not look all that bad, the fact that my little boys love it. Overall, when looking at the whole of my life, I've pretty much been a short hair person. It was short through most of high school and short through most of college. Super short at one point. I grew it out while Mark and I were dating and it was long for our wedding. But within days of returning from our honeymoon, I chopped it all of for Locks of Love. Then, it proceeded to stay short through Kolbe and Rudy's births. I got tired of looking like a page boy and decided to grow it out again shortly before we moved. And since then I've only had it trimmed once or twice. (I know...that's horrible. Even when you're growing it out, you should still have it trimmed, right!?!) I decided why not do Locks of Love again so I've just continued to let it go, but now it's to the point where I look in the mirror and just know that it's not doing anything at all for me. Let's face it: the celebrities that have long, gorgeous flowing hair have extensions in. Nobody's hair is naturally that luxurious while also being that long! And mine has reached the "that long but now nappy" phase. But hey, I've pretty much run the gamut on hair styles. Really, if you check out some of our early family portraits, it's hard to tell if my parents had four boys or five. And did anyone else out there rock the perm? I did. In a very un-natural way. Seriously...no one's hair naturally looks like that!!! I mean, unless she was struck by lightening. So yes, I do have reason to be apprehensive about tomorrow's cut. Because of Locks of Love I'll definitely be losing at least ten inches but this time it's even longer than last so hopefully post cut it will be long enough to still at least look somewhat attractive. (No pageboy.) My biggest requirements are that I have to be able to pull it back, have to be able to tuck it behind my ears and the cut absolutely, positively cannot involve the clippers in any way whatsoever. Say a little (frivolous) prayer for me around 10:00am tomorrow.

2. Life is full of "seasons" or "phases" and I'm so happy that right now we are finally in just a normal, steady season of life in our family. Summer time is always fun, but chaotic. So fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants. Out of routine, here, there, and everywhere...it's full of adventure but just so unstructured. And, of course, the winter holiday season is all over the place too. Lots of traveling, lots of activities, parties, etc. But then in between you have these periods of just normal-ness that are so nice. Sure, the calendar is filled with this and that but it's all routine. Things that last their scheduled hour or two at the same time and place every week and that's that. It's nice. It makes me feel somewhat in control of our little family! And really, considering we always seem to be going through some major life event, it's nice to just have nothing significant going on for a while. Life is good.

3. Each week when I sort through my phone pics to add to my post it always surprises me how as the weeks pass, different kiddos seem to steal the show. I never realize it's happening as the days pass but then I go to set up the pictures and find seven of Grant and one or two of the others. Or a whole slew of Kolbe and not much else. This week, my little Rudy seemed to steal the show. Like I mentioned last week, he has been such a sweet boy through all of the changes going on with Kolbe and one of the things I've loved most about Kolbe going to his little pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday is getting to spend some quality time with Rudy. He's so, so unique. And though they're connected at the hip, he oh, so different than Kolbe. For example, some fabric that a customer of mine requested came in this week. Upon opening it, Kolbe sees it and says, "Mom, that fabric has Os all over it." And then Rudy interrupts with "Kolb, those aren't Os. They're glazed donuts. And these ones are donut holes." (polka dots)  He's definitely my creative, imaginative one. He sees things through different eyes that anyone else. And as always, he's just the biggest (and best) tender-heart around. I love everything about my Rudy. He's a dreamer, that one. And I can't wait to see where all of his dreams take him.

We had a lot of rain on Sunday...the kind without thunder or lightning so we went out for another round of playing in the rain! And this time turned in to a great round of making mud pies. We detached part of the gutter, moved a bunch of the rocks, and had the perfect little mud pool. Rudy was the ultimate mud pie chef.

But all three boys got in on the action!

Pa joined us for dinner last week while my mom was hosting a get-together for the ladies on her street. He loves to play "wrestle mania" with the boys. They usually choose some object (in this case, his keys) to be "the power." Pa is the owner of the power and it's the boys' job to try and steal the power from Pa!

Another bolt of fabric or a typical creative hide-and-go-seek spot for Rudy?

Rudy fell in love with this awesome tweed fedora at Old Navy today. He wore it home and proceeded to keep it on the rest of the day. He wears it well, I'd say! 

And, of course, your weekly dose of yummy baby. It's the obligatory picture of Grant, because he's just oh so precious!

TTT: Season 3, Episode 19

1. It's 10:00 am. And I'm sitting in bed, feet propped up, hair wet from a nice, hot shower, TV playing in the background...and no, not any kiddie cartoons! And I just got back got back from a morning stroll with my little guy down at the River Walk! I'm here in San Antonio visiting Mark at his work conference without the "big kids" for just a short twenty-four hour trip. But man, even twenty-four hours can make a huge difference when it comes to feeling refreshed! Back on the home-front I've been taking care of munchkins and sewing during every spare moment as I try to finish up all of my orders before we leave for the beach. But here, I'm just taking time to relax, unwind and breathe! Grant and I drove over here yesterday afternoon and had a fun evening with Mark on the River Walk. We ate steaks, walked and walked and walked, and even got ice cream. I was a little worried about how Grant would do since I knew we'd be up past his usual 8:00 bedtime, but he was a champ! Maybe he's just enjoying all of the exclusive attention from Mom and Dad! He and I are hanging out a while longer to enjoy lunch with Mark and then we'll head back to The Woodlands to go fetch the big boys from Pinkie's house. From what I hear, they're having a ball too!

2. But back to all of the sewing. It's probably a good thing that Mark has been holed up here in San Antonio for the week. 'Cause I've been sewing like a mad woman! I don't like to sew when Mark is at home...I feel like that's our time to be together as a family. So really, I may cut fabric while we watch a movie, or respond to messages on the computer, but I try not to actually sew after the kids have gone to bed. But this week, with Mark gone, I've been in overdrive trying to get all of my outstanding orders done before we leave for a week at the beach. I don't think I've been at a status of zero outstanding orders since Grant was born! And I think it will feel nice to start back up from zero. 'Cause sometimes the always growing, never ending list or orders gets a bit daunting. Sometimes you just have to take a break and start from square one! But that being said, it's also giving me time to digest a few aspects of my little business. To wrap my mind around what it is and where it's going. I always just saw myself as being a stay-at-home mom, but clearly I'm a small business owner now too. Kind of a cool feeling!

3. When we moved down to The Woodlands and looked for houses I had several "musts" on my house hunting list. Things like four bedrooms, a kitchen that opens to the family room, more windows and more space for the kids stuff. I certainly got all of that and more in our new house. But there have been a few things about our house that I've discovered over the past year that will definitely go on the things-to-look-for-in-our-next-house list. One of them being the kitchen dining area. For as big of a kitchen as we have, the area where the table goes is tiny! The main limiting factor is the back door. It's placed on the wall where if we have a table that fully fills up the dining area, you can't open the door! That being said, we've been in need of a new table and chairs for a long time. We inherited my family's childhood dining set when my mom inherited her childhood dining set. (after my Popo died) At the time, we were happy to have it because our existing set was cafe' (bar stool) height and Kolbe was sitting in a high chair and close to transitioning to a booster seat. No so easy for little ones to get up and down! The table and chairs we got from my parents worked great for the past few years...and the twenty some odd years prior...but let's face it: they've taken a beating between a total of seven boys and one girl, countless moves, and more. The legs on the chair were falling apart. The ladder backs were splintering, the table top was completely warped. Not to mention the massive layer of grime on all of it! But with our tiny eating area, it would be really crazy for us to invest in our dream set of table and chairs, knowing it wouldn't fit. And crazy for us to spend a ton on a set that we'd eventually want to replace as the kids get bigger. So I've been scouring the local craigslist, keeping my eyes out for a nice, quality set that would actually fit in our dining area and not break the bank. And I finally found it! It came home to stay with our family on Tuesday, thanks to a lot of help from my dad and his truck. To me, the kitchen and the table are the heart of the home. Like a place instead of an object. And I'm sure this new little place in our home is sure to hold many, many memories in the years to come.

The new dining set! (you can't see it, but the door is just the the right. Grr!)

The boys getting a talking-to before Dada left for the week (they were running around doing major shenanigans just before he left!)

Rudy working on filling his shopping cart

The guys decided that all of their toy cars needed to be washed so we had a huge car wash in the kitchen sink

Isn't this guy pitiful! He cries every single time I put him in his booster chair...and then proceeds to pig out!

Sewing Room

At the fabric store a day or two ago a woman caught me looking at some lovely fabric and asked if I had ever used it before.

"No. Not yet. It's a bit out of my budget," I replied. "Have you?"

"Yes, actually. I used it to make the curtains in my sewing room. I love it."

"I do too! It's really pretty. You must love being in your sewing room."

"I do. But don't we all! Do you have a sewing room?"

I paused for a moment and probably flushed a bright shade of red. Wanting to defend my humble little dwelling, I simply replied with:

"No, not quite. But I've got room to sew."

Now it was her turn to blush a bit. "Well I guess that's all you need," she said with a smile and casually walked off.

No, I definitely don't have a sewing room in my house. Just a jack-of-all trades room that serves as a guest room, office, and sewing storage for me. I don't actually sew in there. There's no table where I could make that happen. All the sewing takes place in the kitchen...which is why it only takes place during nap time or after the kids have done to bed. Yes, it's annoying to have to set up and take down each day, but we're in the put up and shut up phase of life and I have no room to complain. Maybe someday I'll have that dream playroom I've imagined where I can corner off some space for permanent placement of my things. And maybe not. Only time will tell. But you know what? I have a feeling that I'm not alone in this. While there are certainly some very blessed women out there, such as the owner of this:

or this:

I'd say that most of us who like to sew, or scrapbook, or read, or... probably get along just fine without an entire space dedicated to our hobby. I mean, really...how many of you out there have a library in your home!?! So I thought instead of sharing my "sewing room" with you, I'd show you my "room to sew."

This is how I roll. Literally. This is my sewing cart. A random hand-me-down printer cart from my uncle. She lives in the guest/office/storage room, just inside the door. She gets rolled out to the kitchen each day that I sew. The machine stacked on top, thread just beneath, and works-in-progress on the bottom rack.

Across from her stands the guest bed/work station. Shamefully, it usually looks like this whenever it's not housing a guest. I know it annoys Mark to know end, but hey, no one else sees it! I realize it looks like a total mess...complete with confiscated Buzz Lightyear that was being mis-used....but I know where everything is and why it's there so I'm happy. Organized chaos.

Once the babes are resting, my cart makes the trek with me down the hall to the kitchen table. Where all my goodies spend an hour or two looking like this. Sewing cart: check. Machine set up: check. Large: Sonic drink: check (rare...just on lucky days!) Cell phone: check (you know...just in case the slight possibility of someone calling might occur)

I must admit that guest/office/storage room does live up to the last part of it's name in a great way. It has an expansive walk-in closet that houses my ever expanding storage of fabric, among other things. I know. I know. This also looks ridiculous. But really! Most of this yardage I got great deals on! Ok...ALL of it!