Happy New Year!!

 

Hello world!  How was your New Years?  How was your Christmas for that matter?

I’m a little sad that it is all wrapping up, and a little bit happy to be taking down the clutter, and a little bit excited to start putting up valentines.  (too soon?)

Our little fam partied on New Years with some “china food” ( Isaac’s words), cake on my new cake stand, root beer, family wii time, and a family dance party to the Netflix King Julien’s New Years Countdown!

(right after this we told the boys they had to start dancing or else go to bed)

My resolution this year?

Operation Feel Fabulous!!! Or Operation Feel Awesome!!  I can’t decide! (another resolution: work on decisiveness)

Wanna hear about it?

Well, there’s this blog that I have recently started following, and she always talks about making yourself feel awesome and I thought….waaaaait a minute.  When was the last time I felt awesome??  I feel good.  I feel bad.  I feel tired.  I feel happy.  But Awesomeness seems to have left me behind.

So here’s how it works:

I’m dedicating 2015 to feel more awesome/fabulous, so that it will trickle down to my family and voila!  Happy wife (mom) happy life!

Will taking vitamins daily (esp. vitamin D for we vampires in the pacific northwest) make me feel fabulous?  You betcha!  Down the hatch!

Will eating healthier make me feel healthier and more energetic so therefore more awesome?  Sadly, yes.  Bring on the veggies!

Yummy smelling lotion?  Check!

Lots of candles to combat the darkness? Double check

A clean house?  Probably.

A messy house because I was having fun that day doing something I’d rather do?  Yeppers!

A yummy dessert with my sisters?  Ooooooh yeah!

You see how flexible this is? Do you see how this is a resolution that I will actually want to keep?

And I can’t forget how great I feel when my marriage is running smoothly…..date nights on the calendar monthly!

Also my spiritual health….bible studies and reading plans!

Mental health?….time away from children, and time during the day to blog, read or use my brain!

You guys, I am so excited about this idea.

I’m so excited to start feeling awesome/fabulous (awesomely fabulous?) again.

Shall we check in with this resolution in a few months? Now, Christmas updates will have to wait for another day, I’m off to browse etsy.com because I’m preeeeety sure that 150 small gold heart decals will make me feel awesome.

xoxox

Caitlin

I’m in my 20s

 

You guys!

My birthday is on Sunday!

And I’m going to be……THIRTY!!!!  Thirty freaking years old??? (“freaking” is a bad word in our house.  I get a little thrill out of using it)

I’m unsure how this has happened.  And what worries me the MOST is that, before I know it, I will be unsure how 40 happened.  Then 50…you get the idea.

So, quick…ask me how old I am!  Who me?  Oh I’m in my 20s.  NBD.

And, while the countdown continues in my (grey hair free) (for now) head, here are 30 facts you probably didn’t know about me.

Ha!  Just kidding- NO ONE wants to hear 30 facts about me (except Brian of course)  So here are actually 10 facts instead.

 

1) I came home from the hospital on Christmas Eve in a stocking.  Something that always sounded so adorable and magical, until I became a mother and realized how much freaking stuff (thrill!) you have to get done on Christmas Eve and how having 3 other children and recovering from a very hard birth must have been so exhausting for my poor Mama.  You rock Mama!

 

 

2)  I thought that a chimney was called a “chimley” for an inappropriately long period of time.  I still secretly call it a chimley in my head.

 

3)  Being the youngest of 4, it was sometimes hard for me to accept the signs that I was growing up. (Obviously since I am sitting here sobbing about turning 30)  (not really sobbing, people, it’s a creative embellishment) 

I remember watching a movie…gaaah!  What was it called??!!…Suzy, you will know, because we watched it ALL THE TIME in my pre-teen years.  But anyway, there was this girl who didn’t like the fact that she was getting breasts and so she taped them down!  Haha, silly young girl, but no!  I decided that was genius!  And I would try it!

Sadly, I  taped them UNDER my training bra, meaning that I had to rip off the packing tape from my bare skin.  Without an epidural.

I don’t think I ever told anyone that one.  See! I’m still full of surprises, even in my 20s!

4)  Growing up I had a doll named Isaac Gregry.  Just like my own little Isaac Gregry!  Except the doll was much less naughty.  But my real Isaac is actually cuter, so maybe it evens out?

 

5)  I sometimes listen to country music, but only in the summer.  I don’t know why.  It just seems summery.

 

6)  I had terrible acne in high school, and if/when I do get a zit now, it is still a “forbidden topic” for Brian.  No jokes, no mentioning, lets just move past it.  Oh the teenager anguish!  It still stings a little even in my 20s!  Acne, braces, glasses, half-a-head-of-bangs, AND taped boobs?  I was a fox people.  A. Fox.

 

7)  I am totally that mom.  That mini van mom.  Who has a disgustingly dirty mini van.  Okay, this is not a secret for anyone who has seen my car, but you guys?  I just can’t.  I clean the house, I clean the children, I clean myself, so the car?  It’s out. 

Also, if you ever want to vacuum out my car for me, (cough! MARK! cough!) I will not be offended in the least.  It bugs me as much as it bugs you, folks, so have at it!  Please!

 

8)  I don’t like the taste of chocolate with mint.  Except for like 1 York peppermint patty per year.  Or some crushed up candy canes on top of my fudge.  Or chocolate mint mochas once or twice a year.  Or mint chocolate chip ice cream which is one of my favorites….waaaaait a minute!!! I am realizing as I type this that the above fact is untrue.  I DO like chocolate with mint apparently!  Eureka!  I just don’t like Andes mints.  Or too much mint.  Or those mint hershey kisses.  

Okay, really, let me try just a small bite of your chocolate mint offering first, please, thank you and no offense.

9)  I’m in my robe by 3:30 in the winter.  This is also not really a secret to anyone who has come over after 3:30.  I think the neighbors must think that I have a chronic illness or something.  So hear this:  I’m not sick, I’m not fresh out of bed (I wish!), I have my clothes on under my robe, I’m just chilly.  And my robe has awesome pockets.

 

10)  I wear a mouthgard at night.  See? I’m still actually a giant fox!  Poor Brian, I try to wait until he’s sleeping, but the thing is that his children make me so stressed out that I clench my jaw at night.  So this could all be construed as his fault. 

During the day it soaks in a bowl.  Filled with denture cleaner.

What?  Its recommended by the manufacturer!

60 really is just around the corner for me.

Reminders to Myself (and maybe you too)

 

(unrelated pictures from my solo mama cookie-baking-craziness last weekend.  It was really fun, but thank goodness for Dora.  Oops, I mean BOOKS.)

I dumped out baskets upon baskets of laundry on the floor, making a mountain of things to be folded and put away.  Again.  Again, again again.

I rested my head on that warm mountain for a moment and I thought, “Its okay Caitlin, love.  It won’t be this hard forever.  I promise.”

I whimpered a little, and then got back to work.

“The days are long but the years are short”

“This too shall pass”

“It goes by too fast.”

All of these things point me to the truth that this season, though it feels oh so very very permanent, IS NOT FOREVER.  I guess.  I guess?

       

Some day I won’t remember that I was sick the whole 2 weeks leading up to Christmas Break 2014. 

Or how every night I would tell my big boys  that they were NOT going to get to watch movies before school…only to change my mind the next morning for 20 more minutes of sleep for sick Caitlin while Joseph asked, “Why do you keep changing your mind?!?”

I won’t remember the broken ornament stash that Isaac revealed to me under the couch.

Or the plate of sugar cookies that he had hidden in the upstairs closet. 

And maybe not even how Samuel wants back into my uterus immediately and heaven forbid that I might want to do anything without him attached to me.

I won’t remember how tired I used to be.  I will say that I was tired, but I won’t remember how it FELT. 

Or how I felt like I did the same 5 things over and over and over day in and day out  (wipe, sweep, feed, wash, discipline.  In case you are wondering.)

I will only remember the joy of this Christmas season- my favorite season!- with three enthusiastic, starry-eyed little boys!

Thank goodness.

 

Thanksgiving Eve

“Tell me what you are Thankful for tonight”

 

ISAAC:  “That a couple of days ago we go-ed to Pump it Up Jr!!”

SAMUEL:  No response except for naked jumping in circles

JOSEPH:  “I will tell you TOMORROW when it is ACTUALLY THANKSGIVING!”

I am thankful tonight for the smell of pie baking, the Christmas music that is mostly-appropriate now, the rocking of my baby whilst he requests songs, the scratching of Isaac’s back as he tries to convince me that I actually love him more than Daddy, and the interactions with my oldest that are giving me peeks into who he will be as an adult.

Some of my favorite things Joseph has said this season:

“Mama, I’m really glad I’m a boy.  Because on the first Thanksgiving the boys got to just sit there while the girls cooked and served them allllll the food.”

and just tonight, when I was asking him whether or not he would eat pumpkin pie,

“In my head I always think I’m going to like it, but then my mouth decides that its really horrible.”

And how Isaac is currently calling chili “Freezing” by mistake (get it?  CHILLY?)

And for my new house.

And for Brian’s work from home job so he can give me attention whenever I want it (and stay with sleeping babies for chilly morning bus stop waiting)

And for Samuel saying “I love you” and giving me all sorts of kisses (and bites)

And OH!  Just everything!  I am a lucky lucky girl.

Scenes from a snow day (that actually wasn’t)

 

5:30 am, my alarm goes off, I check my phone and BEHOLD!  A two hour school delay in anticipation of the coming winter storm.

I congratulate myself on picking up milk last night, and roll over to doze back off.

6:20 Joseph joins me (heaven forbid he sleeps in).  I tell him the news, and he is giddy with plans of how we can fill those extra two hours.

6:30 Coffee and quiet time.  Samuel singing on the monitor, Joseph checking out the ice outside. (can you see my red robe reflection?)

6:45 I’m playing (and winning!) my second round of a card game with Joseph.

6:55 Gangs all here.  Good morning my adorable cranky children!  Why are you all awake if you are cranky?

7:15   I receive the good (?) news that school is closed for the whole day.  I crank up “Let it Snow” on youtube and tell the boys

Joyful dancing ensues.

From there it is a blur

Hot chocolate after being out in the cold

Movies (our  recent “no weekday screen time” rule doesn’t apply when it’s a snow day)

oatmeal cookies with caramel centers

(note:  They fall through the cooling racks.  Rethink these for next time.)

(another note: These are delicious.  It was worth the cleanup)

Fresh bread paired with vegetable rice soup

The snow is not here (is not coming?) but we do have freezing rain and icicles galore.  Spirits are high, and I just turned on the fireplace.

This day can’t get much better-

And its only 1:31pm

May I suggest…

 

That you make these pancakes?  Maybe tomorrow? (Ooooh- maybe in the shape of PUMPKINS?!  But don’t let me tell you your business!)  I had forgotten about them over the summer until THIS VERY MORNING when they popped into my head.  Yummm…..

I now make mine with whole wheat flour, and I sometimes throw in a handful of pecans…because I love to hear my children shriek, “WE DON’T LIKE NUTS!”  But, hey, maybe that’s just me.

 

 

Pumpkin pancake recipe here