Around Here Twenty-Seven: 07/01-07/07

A peek into what it is like to live in our home just this minute.

Intentional Hours Outdoors: 268 hours (of 1000)
Up 19 hours this week - thank goodness for the fourth of July celebrations which had us outside almost the full day on Sunday and for a quite a few hours despite the rain on the actual holiday.  Grey had all-star baseball practice this week and we followed that up with an outside shower for the kids which they thought was hilarious. I was grateful to get a quick trip to the Que dam in when our cousin Taush told me to bring the kids out while Brandon worked an overnight reset - it was the last little bit of energy release all five of us needed that day (thanks Taush!) I really could have used some more time outside this week (for my own sanity) but long days with Rusty trying to get him calm has kept me frustrated and inside.  bleh.  Doing some calculations - to get to 1000 hours before the end of the year, I'm going to need to strive for about 30 hours each week from here on out, which is only about 4 and a half hours a day....game on!

Reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho (almost finished!) and finished Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend by Matthew Dicks.  Really, really loved that book and finished it with tears in my eyes (both from the story and from the dedication of the author).  Brandon came in and took one look of me with a closed and finished book in my hand and said, "Babe. You loved it then?" hahah.

Creating our Birthday bags for our June Kindness project.  The kids and I put together four birthday gift bags of an assortment of items including cake mix, candles, frosting & sprinkles, and balloons.  We're going to drop them off next week at a local organization that works closely with kids so that they can hand them out to kids who could use a little birthday cheer.  June's kindness task was in honor of our newest birthday boy, Rusty!

Celebrating America's birthday with two days of fun!   I have a full post coming about it, but we definitely got in our fill of sparklers, bottle rockets, and poppers last weekend!  So much fun with our family and cousins!

Calling the pediatric nurse line with tears in my eyes yesterday as Rusty had a very hard day.  One of his hardest with crying over an hour and half with nothing to console him.  I've completely eliminated caffeine and really trying hard on the milk (that is so hard to avoid  thank you so much to my sweet friend Haley for sending over a whole list of non-dairy snacks! you're a blessing in my life, seriously) and we've done the Mylicon drops and gripe water.  A chiropractic appointment is scheduled for next week and we do his little 'fart exercises' with his little legs in the bicycle motion.  With no spit up and nursing going just fine, the nurses were both (yes two of them were listening to me) assured me that he probably just has colic and I should keep doing what I'm doing and hang in there; that he'll outgrow it.  I know my voice was cracking a little when I said, "I know, but it's just so pitiful and I'm really trying to do everything and he's still crying." because then the nurse was like, 'well you need to take care of yourself too...it can be very...it can wear you down.'  I really did burst into tears after getting off the phone then because it really can wear you down, feeling so helpless - plus so tired, plus the other kids that I don't feel like I'm loving enough everyday, plus the husband who definitely is not getting enough of acknowledgement (let alone intentional kindness).  gosh.  After I recovered from my meltdown, I threw all the kids in the car (rides settle him to sleep!) even though everyone was dirty and Violet literally had no shirt on and spaghetti stained all over her face and I took them for ice cream an a quick stop to the playground.  #survivetheday you guys.

Orchestrating a pet birthday celebration yesterday for all three of our furkids.  The human children and I had a little birthday brunch with Lola yesterday complete with muffins, homemade party hats, and some cat treats.  Lulu kind of just endured it (as the way with most cats, ha) but we gave her a hearty birthday song; she's eight years old (!), and the kids loved seeing her in a tiny party hat.  After dinner, we had a party for Bullet and Trixie with ice cream birthday cake that Brandon brought home, more homemade party hats, and bones for the dogs.  The pups loved it - Bullet is seven  and Trixie is five - Grey was amazed to know that Lu and Bully are both older than him, but proud that he was older than Trixie.  We went around and said the things we like best about them.  (Mine were: I love Lu because she was our first pet ever - there was a time when it was just me, Daddy, and Lulu.  I love Bullet for making me get exercise because he needs it, and I love Trixie because she is the a;ways the first to tell me when Daddy is home each day). Celebrating our furkids was one of my 100 small things list items, number 68!

Feeling much more relaxed about Rustin's colic after a long chat with Bud last night and talking through things with a clear mind about what works for him.  We've started now looking at it as not a digestive problem but actual colic and we're moving forward with what seems to work in terms of situational versus digestive - and it's already a big difference.  The swing makes him happy, as does car rides.  It's been important to stop nursing to burp often and be ready for really long burping time post-nursing.  I feel a lot better to feel like we have a plan (kind of) and that we can also look to it ending at some point (hopefully around month three) when he outgrows it.

Making these very blueberry muffins as part of Lola's birthday celebration (we love muffins for breakfast over here!)  We had a lot of yummy cookout leftovers this week for lunches and meatballs in the crockpot on Tuesday provided meatball subs that the kids loved - followed by using the leftovers for spaghetti and meatballs the next night (another big whole family hit!)