So Much So Little So Long

It has been a long time since I blogged-I think my longest ever break from blogging!-boy this winter has really socked it to us with the never-ending-rounds-of-sickness. When we're sick I get overwhelmed and shut down and get quiet and hibernate. So that's what I've been doing. =)

A little update on what's gone down:

I helped out at Amelie's Valentine's Day party! They are the sweetest, best-behaved and most lovely little 1st graders ever! 

The next day Amelie came down with the SUPER TERRIBLE STOMACH BUG that's been going around and spent the next 4 days recovering. =( Boo.

My Parents came down President's Day weekend! My Mom played with the kiddos a lot and my Dad spent hours and hours and hours and hours installing a new front door for an early birthday present for me! Yay! Thanks so much Dad!!! It was a true labor of love!

The day after they left Maeve and I came down with THE stomach bug. It was terrible. My husband stayed home one morning to help me and then I was on my own with the kids. It wasn't pretty. =( 

By Thursday we were doing much better though so Friday we went to my husband's Disney Show! I forgot my camera's memory card! GAH!! But it was so cute--Maeve was Sleeping Beauty and Ezra was thrilled to be a dragon. =)

There were snacks and games and prizes and lots of little friends. The kids had fun! Everything my husband does is pretty fabulous!

Then the weekend was here and my husband came down with THE stomach bug. =( Stupid stomach bug. Amelie slept over at the Grandparents and I did my best to entertain the littles. I also finished a few painting projects--One win: the porch, a trash-picked rocking chair and the front door--so pretty with fresh paint--can't wait to finish putting the finishing touches on my new sitting area--will post pictures when complete! One fail: bathroom cabinet--I thought gray would make it look prettier like furniture-y but instead I HATE IT and will be repainting it white.

And then there was yesterday, my husband was recovered and back to work and it was GORGEOUS out so Maeve and Ezra took a nice long walk, went to the library, played outside with bubbles and had a really lovely day. 

And then I went to bed at 8:30 because I was exhausted. =)

The. End.

Hopefully I'll be a better blogger--and HOPEFULLY we can stay healthy for five minutes!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pintrest Day!

The other day I decided to make a bunch of the crafts/food that I've pinned in Pintrest!

 It was a lot of fun--and nothing was a bust so that was good! =)

I started out making paper leaves since I have OODLES of scrapbook paper that I don't ever use. I started out with a 6 inch rectangle (folded in half to a square). Then I cut a curve from one corner to the next, flipped the paper and did the same again and produced two leaf shapes. I had some random craft wire in my craft room so I cut a 6inch length, place the wire down the middle of the back of one of the leaves and hot glued it down and then the other leaf side on top. After my leaf was glued I twisted the wire onto some branches from my backyard and Voila! A pretty paper leaf bouquet for the empty space on the top of my closet.

Since I was making paper leaves--I decided to do a project based on this one (click here). I love the flower design and the colors--a happy new picture for my kitchen!

And with my scrapbook paper I also fashioned an owl for Ezra's room--I saw this idea somewhere (can't remember where) and it's been floating in my brain to replicate.

Another favorite? The yummy chocolate chip cookies I made based on this recipe!

And this 5 minute artisan bread turned out phenomenal!

I have a few more recipes I'd like to try--I'll give ya a report after I do! =)

My husband's last performance (playing for an opera company in Philadelphia) was yesterday and I couldn't be happier! It will be awesome to have him home for AN ENTIRE WEEKEND. Woot. Also it's a 4 day weekend so it's pretty much full of the awesome!

Yesterday, when he was out, I declared it Pintrest Day! and made a few of the projects/recipes I've recently pinned. I'm happy to report that there was success on all fronts and I'll share my projects soon! Amelie even got in on the action and worked with me!=) Love having that girl home!

I snapped a few Valentine-y pictures of the kiddos this morning before church too:

Some thoughts:

1. It's hard to take pictures of Amelie without glare on her glasses. There must be tricks to solve this problem!

2. Maeve was frozen so her face looks crazy =) Mean Mommy makes them take pictures on the porch for good light but it was colder than I anticipated and we froze in the 2 minutes we were out there!

3. It's impossible to get Ezra's picture unless he has a mouth full of food. Which he does. In this picture. =)

Happy Sunday!!

*Both* of my children took naps today.

It was all kinds of amazing.

We had a very quiet day here--we made pink cupcakes because a very cute blond girl asked to and went to story time at the library in spite of said blond girls misgivings:

Me: "Wanna check out story time at the library? I think it would be fun!"

Maeve (with tears in her eyes): "No Mama! That sounds scary!"

Me: "What?! Books aren't scary! And neither are libraries or stories!"

Maeve (deep sigh): "I guess we could try it out--but if it's scary I want to go home."

Seriously?! Ha! She actually loved it though and let me know as soon as we got there that it wasn't scary at all and we should do it more often. Kids are weird. They also got to do a cute Valentine craft and we saw some friends there!

I spent nap time drowning in Pins (via Pintrest) and watching tv clips on youtube instead of cleaning, cooking or doing laundry.  Oh well. No one's perfect. =) Luckily now that my husband is home again at night I have the luxury of being lazy during nap time and I can play catch up when he's home. WIN!

Happy Wednesday!

Whattalongweek(ortwo)

So happy it's Friday and 

Tomorrow 

IS

THE last long day

(for now).

Woot.

'Cause it's been lonely on the edges of the day

and

long in between.

But happy too.

Also, grumpy.

I'm thankful though, for the precious ones and their 

endless infectious

glee.

Maeve and I started lessons on the letter B today-and she really surprised me about how much she already knew! We worked on number order 1-20, no problem, alphabet upper case/lower case identification, no problem, letter tracing, no problem, sounding out words, no problem and coloring, HUGE problem. Maeve is the worst color-er ever. Ha. 

I feel like she could have some small motor-issues that hopefully we can work through in the time she has before kindergarten. She is a VERY willing and excited student and it was a ton of fun to work with her. 

A few pictures of our morning--

letter tracing

Maeve's favorite activity--number clothespin matching

Ezra is a bit letter obsessed and worked on his favorite puzzle.

Cheese! =) Love it--even though it's blurry! =)

We are working on this cute B is for Ballerina pack. 

After a few hours of work she didn't want to stop! Luckily we were invited to spend time with our friends and that distracted her from wanting more projects. 

It was an absolutely gorgeous day and after school we walked to the park and played for a bit. 
This is the best January ever!!!
Not much else is new-just looking forward to next week and much more time with my husband!! =)

It always seems a whirlwind when my husband is away working a lot and I am home with my precious ones. They are always good and a lot of fun but it wears. me. out. to be the one that is *on* all day. They really do keep me laughing though--so thankful for my children!

Anyways--a few tidbits from today--

*I read this article and it was the singly most convicting, discouraging, encouraging thing I've ever read. Oh, and for an example of column A, I just need to look in the mirror, To a T. I'm such a works-based-perfectionist it makes me sick. I need to make more room for grace and MUCH less room for pride in my heart. 

* I've decided to structure our days a little more...again...I decide this frequently and fall off the wagon. Let's see if it sticks this time--Maeve and I are going to work though this easy-peasey-fun curriculum . I think Ezra will enjoy many of these activities too--it will be fun and different. Maybe I'll take pictures. =)

* Downton Abbey last night?! Can't even talk about it. The show is beautiful--if you aren't watching you should--so much emotion--so little said--seriously---LOVE. Watch it here. 

*My husband has just gotten home and helped me tuck the wee ones in bed so I'm going to hop off. Phew, just a few more days of madness till he's back home again at night!!!

We are still chugging along here--more long nights with no Daddy--luckily the kiddos have been precious. =)

I spent the afternoon catching up on my Beth Moore Study (the last week of When Godly People Do Ungodly Things). The reading this week is geared towards people who have made mistakes/fallen into sinful patterns and encourages us to embrace the freedom of forgiveness.

My favorite portion today, 

"A guilty conscience that precedes sincere repentance is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. A guilty conscience following sincere repentance is condemnation and that is not coming from God."

It's so easy to fall back into bad patterns of behavior because we (I) feel defeated. But in forgiveness we have victory because HIS forgiveness is Complete. We can't earn our way into God's good graces--His grace is enough. 

More than enough.

John 8:36

"If the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

It was a timely message for me today--so thankful for the Word. 

*****

In other news, it's still unseasonably warm here and I was able to enjoy a run today (YAY!) and we had some outdoor playtime as well. Ezra was a little sad and quiet (he misses Daddy =( ) but we still had fun.

Some pictures of my favorites:

Life lately has been equal parts 

lovely

and

lonely

and

exhausting.

My husband is extremely busy and I've been a bit overwhelmed as the amount of time I'm on my own far outweighs togetherness-time. 

*frowny face*

We have spent some lovely mornings with friends and that has been a great encouragement--and today--it was bright and warm out and so I took the littles on a very long walk and felt much better for all the fresh air and sunshine.

And now, it's quiet. 

The kiddos all fell instantly asleep.

And so, I think I'll treat myself to a new book (kindle = love) and a cozy night on the couch.

It's lovely--even though it's a bit lonely.

Window(s) Shopping: The Children's Place

I <3 spring dresses!

This Week...

Our backyard was invaded by hundreds of scary screeching black birds:

I found a recipe for homemade Thin Mints (baking now--woot!)

Worked furiously to catch up on our Bible study--

Decided I'm going to save up my Christmas gift cards (even though they are burning a hole in my pocket!!!) and combine it with my birthday coming up in a few weeks to get one of these:

 We've also had playdates that I forgot to take pictures of....=)

And celebrated Maeve's last day of preschool for the semester--and especially celebrated not having to drag Ezra up and down 10 flights up steps kicking and screaming twice a week to get her there. 

Woot. =)

Happy Thursday!

My husband has been extremely (x 1,000,000) busy lately and so I've been a terrible blogger. He was out a few nights last week and THE ENTIRE LONG WEEKEND. 

It was stupid. 

I love him so much and am so thankful that he is such a hard worker AND that he has lots of extra work but it was killing me that we couldn't enjoy the long weekend together! 

Thankfully, the kids were extremely well behaved. 

I was not. =) 

I'm so whiny. 

I'll have a chance to practice my not-whining this week when he's out working late again. 

Bah. Humbug! =)

In other news, I took the littles to Fridays yesterday because I NEEDED TO GET OUT. My long-suffering friend and her boy joined us and the kiddos surprised me by being perfect. It was a much needed time out and made the rest of the extremely longggggg day easier. We also went to Target on a gift-card-shopping spree. The kids made out better than me because the toys were 70% off. I got a pair of socks. 

It seemed exciting at the time. =)

So....life will be crazy the next few weeks with my husband's new show coming up and I will try my best to stay level-headed and happy and thankful.

Things are finally getting back to normal-ish around here! Ezra is off the steroids and acting MUCH more normal and happy. I forgot how much I liked him because the meds sure did make him CRAZY!! =) Poor guy! I'm thrilled he's feeling better! We even got out for a playdate with friends yesterday and I went to exercise class at night! It felt great to be getting back into the swing of things!

In other news, a series I LOVE on PBS just started back up on Sunday--Downton Abbey.

The cast = amazing

The story = engrossing

The costumes = fabulous

The acting = phenomenal

It is an absolutely stellar series and worth checking out! You can even stream episodes from PBS.org! Witty, clever, beautiful--everything a show should be. Hands down the most wonderful series on tv!

Anyways, =) Maeve is back to preschool today and I have yet to figure out how I'm going to entertain Ezra.

My girls' favorite game of the moment?

Jumping Off The Couch!

Angsty

My poor Ezra boy, although he's been feeling better, has not been himself. He's on steroids to improve his breathing/decrease asthma symptoms and he has been 

off. the. wall. 

5 days of INSANITY! =) 

The first day was the worst--he just kept running around screaming/crying/hanging on me--it was sooo sad! 

He was CRAZY! He progressively got better each day but is still VERY emotional--like a little baby manic-depressive. I'm so happy today is his last day of steroids! Hopefully he'll be more himself once they wear off. Poor guy! The other day he was playing with his blocks and everything was so tragic--I had to take pictures. 

To sum it up:

SnowyDay

Yesterday we woke up to our first snow! It's all fun and magical...for about 5 minutes...and then your gloves get wet and you. are. done. Well, at least that's *my* opinion of snow. Other than that snow is acceptable at the following times:

1. Christmas/Christmas Eve

2. When it produces a snow day

3. See 1 or 2

Otherwise I'm not a huge fan--although, any reason to stay home and hibernate does make me happy! =) Also, the snow was gone by lunch which was awesome. Here are the kiddos outside in it:

Window(s) Shopping: Valentine's Day

Playing Catch Up

On Christmas the kids caught another cold and so we were down and out most of last week and this week. And of course, because they are so thoughtful, they shared it with me! =) I ended up with just a mild case of the sniffles and a raging ear infection. Woot. I'm all medicated and feeling better now but Ezra's cold was just not letting go so he had to go in to the Doctors yesterday. He ended up with ear infection/sinus infection, and wheezy little asthma lungs. So he's on antibiotics and TWO kinds of steroids. Wow. Can you say *BABY 'Roid Rage?!* =) Oh well, so glad he's in good spirits though! In order to get Ezra to stay still for his inhaled breathing treatments (which can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes) we've been finding fun You Tube videos for him to watch. We started out with Old School Sesame Street but have progressed to some new kooky ones. The kids love dancing along to them (Maeve doing her blind girl dancing =)!

And for your listening pleasure--our favorite--the Letter Z Song:

I have a few more posts I'm working on--I still haven't even LOOKED at Christmas pictures no less edited them! AHHHH And we had our first snow today so the kiddos went out and played! AND we painted the toy room again (third time is a charm?!)....I'm so behind on blogging! =)

Le Sigh 2012! Le. Sigh.

2011 went so quickly

(except for November and the 7weeksickness which shall forevermore be blotted from my mind Amen)

my baby finished Kindergarten and started 1st grade

my middle baby started preschool

my little baby started talking in sentences and became obsessed with all letters and numbers

my husband had many extra hours of piano lessons and extra opera-gigs in Philly

and i spent a lot of time maintaining the aforementioned people and their home =)

years never went so quickly before i had children

(yet, days never felt so long either =)

i am thankful for another year here

with them

supporting them on their adventures

and wondering when i might have one of my own. =)