Kaysen had a Little Lamb

Kaysen found a stuffed lamb.  It's a small, cute little thing with a teddy bear that attaches to it with velcro.  Really cute and cuddly, but also very annoying!  We found it a few weeks ago at Target marked down to 30% off.  But still too expensive in my opinion.  Today was the day that Target put their clearance toys 75% off.  The lamb was ours.  You should have seen this little boy's face when we picked it up and gave it to him.

About the annoying part, the lamb "BAAs" at you.  Over, and over, and over again.  That's all it does is Baa and it does not stop, even when you put it down.  *sigh*  At least Kaysen likes him, right?  It's the little things that makes them happy.

A Beautiful Afternoon

What a beautiful afternoon.  It was the first perfect-weather-kind-of-day in over a week.  Decisions, decisions, what to do? 

Mow the lawn?  Pull weeds?  Work outside?

None of the above.  How about a nice afternoon at the PARK!

Running around the play ground kept them busy for at least 20 minutes.  What did we do after that?  We brought out the little trucks and let them create new roads on all the equipment.  That's what my boys truly love to do, drive trucks around and around.

Just another day...

We've been hanging around the house the past couple of days.  The weather has been too hot to do much outside so we have been playing, reading, and just trying to pass the time.

Yesterday Steve had the day off of work.  He created a huge train track for the kids to play with.  It lasted for a few hours until Caleb decided that he would rather play ball and couldn't roll it around with the play set in the way.  I managed to capture a few pictures before it got destroyed.

 

This morning I set up playdough.  Kaysen is still in his "I want to eat everything I touch" phase.  It took at least 4 attempts (and rolling fits on the floor) before he realized that this playdough was not food.  But once he understood that I was not going to let him eat it, he had a fun time.

Caleb made a tree out of a leaf that he found outside this morning.  We also had fun making puzzle pieces out of shapes. 

Just another simple day around our home.

Staying Cool

It has been very hot the past few days.  Temps have been reaching up into the 100's and it feels even hotter.  The boys are not able to go outside and play like they want to and it makes the days long.  It leaves me looking for fun, frugal ways to stay cool. 

Yesterday (while it was still in the 90's) I filled up a plastic container with water and plopped a few toy boats and balls into it.  It kept the boys busy for quite some time, plus they got to play outside a little bit.  They had so much fun splashing water and chasing each other around the front yard.

HOME is where the HEART is

Home is where the Heart is.  The place you long to be.  The one place no matter where you live that your heart lies, even if that's not where you are right now.

It is so mentally draining to live in a house that no longer holds my heart.  To wake up every morning to a place, which although very nice, is not my true home.  To put so much time and effort into a dwelling that I do not want to care for.  To sink money into it like a pit with no expectations of getting something back in return.

Our house is not my home.  It stopped being a home a couple years ago.  It is not where our heart lies.  We have poured our hearts into a place that we have not seen.  We have not been there and I do not know when we will reach our destination.  But it is not here.

Every morning I wake to chores that need to be done.  The yard needs clipped, the floors need swept, counters need wiped and the bathroom needs cleaned.  Every day I grumble through my chores with a sour mood and a bad outlook.  It's not the chores themselves that makes me angry.  I honestly don't mind cleaning and organizing, and I even enjoy mowing the lawn.  It's the fact that I am putting energy towards a place that I no longer care for.  I don't want to wipe these counters or the floor.  I don't want to see them ever again, let alone maintain them.

Some people will look at this as extra unnecessary stress.  In fact, they are probably right.  I should be very thankful to have a roof over my head, a place to go at night, shelter for my kids, and food on the table.  Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for all of that.  But that doesn't mean that my heart has to be happy here.

Tomorrow I will wake up again to another day full of things that need to be done.  The house will sit on the market without a sound.  The visions and dreams I have for my family will sit tucked away in the back of my mind, and my heart will lie there, even I don't know where "there" is.  I will continue to wait for that special day where we can pack up our things and GO.  Start on our journey to find our true home.

Until then, there is nothing left to do but wait...

Enjoy the little things

It's the little things in life that matter to us.  To our family, a simple day at the park, a walk down the street, or some quiet time tossing around a ball are things that we do not take for granted.  This evening it was chinese food and ice cream.  We don't eat out very often, so when we do it always feels like a special treat.  Today before nap the boys fell asleep quickly knowing that when they woke up we were going to have a "good day" like Caleb calls it.

We went to the store and picked up a tub of ice cream, cones, and chocolate syrup.  The look on Caleb's face was something I will always remember as he scanned his things at the self check out.  He knows that this is family time, and he enjoys it.

Life may be crazy and hectic, but it's the little things like a simple family dinner and dessert that puts spark back into the day to day routine.  It is times like this that I will remember the most.

Yipee! More pics!

I'm so happy that I finally got a new memory stick for my camera.  I was worried about fitting it into our budget, but got this one online FREE from Amazon and also free shipping.  Can't beat that! 

You know what that means, more frequent pictures of the boys.  Here's Caleb today playing a game with me.  We tipped his tent over upside down and stood a few feet away so we could toss balls into it.  He had so much fun counting his points every time he made one in and finding the colors that he was going to throw next.

Changes to the blog

Why?  Because I was bored.  Hope you like it!

Business as Usual

This week everything is back to normal.  Steve is working, the kids have decent bedtimes/awake times, and I am back to bargain hunting and budgeting.  The days start and end in the same way every day.  Routine...is it good or bad?  I'm not so sure.

Kaysen is still going through sippy cup withdraw.  Tonight as he was having a major melt down over not having a sippy, Caleb apparently kicked him in the face.  I didn't see this of course because they were in their room supposedly trying to fall asleep.  Kaysen started screaming louder, which I just thought was part of the tantrum he was throwing.  I walked in and Caleb told me "My foot hit Kaysen face".  Great.  So in other words, you kicked him.  Nice one, Caleb.

The days are not all that rough though.  We have our good points and our quiet moments.  Just today Caleb woke up from nap in a great mood!  Here's how the conversation went.

Caleb:  Hi Momma
     ~ Hi baby.
Caleb:  You miss me?
     ~ I did miss you baby.
Caleb:  Miss you too me night.
     ~  Awww baby, I'm glad you missed me.  I missed you too when you took a nap.

Very sweet!  These little guys are amazing, aren't they?


Here's some pictures of our afternoon together.  Business as usual.  I told you I finally got another memory stick, right?  It was a huge bargain...FREE!  Can't beat that, huh? 

Growing Flowers

Growing flowers is always such a bittersweet experience around here.  I love growing and taking care of them and I will admit, a lot of them die.  But it's so nice when things start to bloom and grow.  My luck has it that every time something starts looking nice, there's always a mishap to destroy it.  A storm comes, a rabbit eats the petals, or Kaysen picks them.  Anyway, here's a few things I have growing around my yard.

Vacation, Emergency Rooms, and Disappointment

I'm back!  We have been on vacation all week long.  Our family rented a small cabin at a state park a few hours away from here.  It really was a good time.  The kids LOVED it and we got some much needed time away from the house.


The Cabin

The cabin was nice and quiet, 2 beds, a bathroom, and a few tables.  No tv, phone, or computer.  Very nice & air conditioned.  It had a small porch up front with a bench and the boys used the porch rocks as a track for their cars.  It was a short walking distance to a larger inn where we could get ice and anything else we needed.

I packed a cooler so we could pack our meals, snacks, and drinks.  We did dishes in the bathroom sink and lived out of bags for a few days.  The simplicity of it all was relaxing.  No where to be.  Nothing to do.

There was a small water park inside the inn which helped pass the time.  Caleb took to the water very easily but Kaysen was a little more cautious.  By the end of the trip he was splashing and playing just like Caleb.  It just took him a little longer to get there.


Grammie's House

We stayed two nights at the cabin and then headed out to Grammie's house.  The boys really enjoyed getting to see everyone, even though we had a couple mishaps while we were there.  Poor Caleb got poison ivy BAD all over his legs (which matched perfectly to the poison ivy I had all over my neck and arm from pulling weeds last week).  It keeps spreading and getting worse.  I know we are into some pretty rough days ahead. 

Kaysen fell over a rug and hit his mouth on the coffee table.  He bit straight through his tongue.  It was so bad that we took him to the emergency room knowing that they probably wouldn't be able to do anything for him.  The end result?  He's ok but needs to be on a soft food diet for a few days.  He's doing much better now.

The down side of all this is that he was not able to make a sucking motion to drink from his sippy cup.  Kaysen is VERY attached to his sippy cup and the fact that he had a gaping hole in his tongue and 4 hrs away from home made it worse.  The first 12 hours were rough.  He wouldn't drink anything.  The next 24-36 hrs were also very hard as we transitioned him cold turkey over to a regular cup.

How is he now?  Still very stubborn.  He will ask for something to drink and then throw the cup because it's not in a sippy.  But he is taking some liquids so I guess it's better than nothing.


Disappointment

Which brings us to today, the day of our open house.  I can't tell you how many hours I have spent over the past few months trying to get this house ready to sell.  Today was our day to shine.  I cleaned this house from top to bottom and staged every room.  The house had never looked better.  Only to discover after it was all over that NO ONE showed up.  Go figure.


Here I am tonight taking some time to myself on the computer.  The boys are tired and worn out from a messed up nap schedule today (working around the open house) and they are still not settled from being on vacation.  They are cranky and irritable.  Steve goes back to work tomorrow morning and it's business as usual for us here at home.

The week went by so fast and even though we had a great time as a family, I still feel like maybe it all would have been easier to just stay at home and stare at the walls.  As for the house, I don't know where to go from here.  I can't sell the house if no one comes to look at it, and no one has been here in almost 2 months.

What about vacation pictures?  I only had 2 pictures left on my memory card before we left and I "accidentally" left the camera at home.  Now I have a new memory card and I'll be able to take more pictures of the boys.  You should see Kaysen's new hair cut.  So cute!

Yep, that's pretty much it.  I'm back to clipping coupons and bargain shopping.  Dealing with crying toddlers and cleaning up messes.  It's almost like we didn't even have a vacation in the first place.

Lightning "Bees"

Caleb has his very first ever experience with lightning bugs (he calls them lightning bees) the other evening.  I could tell you the story in words, but I think the pictures explain it all.