kid survey about their Mumma

There is a kid survey going around the internet that is incredibly sweet (thanks Shelly for sharing it!) The idea is that, without any prompting, you ask your kids each question and write down their responses. 

The thing that maybe is the most endearing part about the stuff that kids say is because there is usually the smallest hint of wisdom to their words - at least if only because it comes from a perspective that adults can't see anymore; we've lost along the path of growing up.

So, here is a bit of sometimes funny, sometimes insightful bits and pieces of what kind of mumma my kids have:

Greyson, age 5
1. What is something mom always says to you?  you are special

2. What makes mom happy? being good

3. What makes mom sad?  being bad

4. How does your mom make you laugh?  she tickles me

5. What was your mom like as a child?  she liked to play kickball

6. How old is your mom?  21

7. How tall is your mom?  shorter than Daddy

8. What is her favorite thing to do?   do exercise

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?  she goes to races

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?  talking about the weather

11. What is your mom really good at?  writing and doing letters

12. What is your mom not very good at?  making Violet happy when she's putting her clothes on

13. What does your mom do for a job?  I don't know....what?

14.What is your mom's favorite food?  shrimp

15.What makes you proud of your mom?  when she went in the race

16. If your mom were a character, who would she be?  her name would be 'Johnson Fairakin'

17. What do you and your mom do together?  we go on special dates and eat

18. How are you and your mom the same?  we have the same brain

19. How are you and your mom different?  different hair.  and you're bigger than me

20. How do you know your mom loves you?  she always be's nice to me

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?  she just loves him

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?  her sister's house

23. How old was your Mom when you were born?  21



Gemma, age 3
1. What is something mom always says to you?  Don't Yell!

2. What makes mom happy?  make her toast

3. What makes mom sad?  the butterflies flying away

4. How does your mom make you laugh?  make funny things

5. What was your mom like as a child?  she yelled

6. How old is your mom?  3, like me

7. How tall is your mom?  this big (with her arms outstretched)

8. What is her favorite thing to do?  make pizza

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?  Daddy's here then

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?  being on Mickey

11. What is your mom really good at?  doing computer things

12. What is your mom not very good at?  doing bad things

13. What does your mom do for a job?  carrying Violet

14.What is your mom's favorite food?  chicken

15.What makes you proud of your mom?  sleeping

16. If your mom were a character, who would she be?  Action!

17. What do you and your mom do together?  sleeping and going to the store

18. How are you and your mom the same?  this is taking too long

19. How are you and your mom different?  Mum!

20. How do you know your mom loves you?  her give me snuggas

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?  marrying him, giving him kissas and huggas

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?  to the store

23. How old was your Mom when you were born?  16

Currently

Saying farewell to our butterflies this week.  We enjoyed our newly emerged butterflies for a day or two by giving them plenty of fruit and kid-picked flowers.  But after I caught Lola sneaking up on our habitat to pounce (! I moved it before she got to it thankfully) and having one butterfly die on us (!! I think it was my little runt caterpillar that has had me stressing all along!), it was time to let them fly off and make their own families and life.  Right after they all flew away, both Grey and Gem said that it was very sad that they couldn't stay with us forever (to which I secretly weeped inside my heart 'try being a mother?!') but then they quickly followed up with 'Can we get more?'

Cooling off this week in all sorts of ways.  We pulled out the slip 'n slide much to the kids' delight and then spent an afternoon at the Ebensburg Public Pool with Aunt Uch too.  We had never been ,but will definitely be visiting again this summer!  I've seemed to 'win' the AC argument this week which means we're 'sweating' it out (hahah).  So we've also been enjoying meals outside and by candlelight at the dinner table (to keep the lightbulb heat down).

Reading Make It Happen by Lara Casey with our Inspired Readers book club.  If I'm being fully honest, the book on the whole is a heap more religious than I am personally, but I am keeping my focus on all the pieces of inspiration that shine through about reflection, naming my goals and fears, and starting to consider what my life could look like if I wasn't afraid to change.  As I talked about in our group - the book has helped me see that maybe part of a my fear (a big part?) is that success could mean a change to the way our life looks now - which is a life we love - so thinking it could change (even if because of something great happening) is a scary thought.  Also still reading Their Eyes Were Watching God and listening to The Husband's Secret on an audiobook on my jogs with Bullet.

Finishing up Grey's very first teeball season this week.  What a great first introduction to organized sports we had and we were so grateful to Grey's Coach Jeff for being the very first coach to our son.  Grey had so much fun and really did learn a lot about the rules and vocabulary of the game - which will certainly serve him well as we've been informed he'll be moving up to machine pitch next year.  Grey's favorite part (besides the action) was his new friends he made and he's hopeful that some of them will be in his kindergarten class this fall!

Gratefully surprised to get a notification that a a friend of mine tagged me in a beautiful passage about being an artist on instagram. It was a passage from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and I loved the whole passage, but especially, "Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor.  It's a gift to the world and every being in it.  Don't cheat us of your contribution."  It was doubly wonderful because the friend that tagged me (hi, Sarah!) is someone that I've only met in real life once or twice but somehow in the way humanity and magic works - that's all it took for us to recognize some common thread in our souls and maintain contact via social media and inspire each other.

Planning some of our summer fun trips including our Grandma and Kid annual trip (switching it up to a new city this year!) and our summer AKT play date with my best friends and their kids.  We also have the 7th annual Beer Olympics, a wedding, and three family reunions on the horizon.  Bring it on summer, I'm ready :)


This week in interesting internet:

This article about the hypervisibility and invisibilty of black children was both fascinating and informative - especially following my viewing of the McKinney video with open-mouthed horror.

Happy to read this article about how Free Play is fundamental to teaching kids independence and self regulation.  Thank goodness as my interest in doing home preschool has severely waned in the past few weeks.  Oops.

I feel passionate about the topic of giving kids information and education about their own bodies, relationships, and safety  - so I enjoyed this article about Pre-school 'sex' education in the Netherlands and the good it is doing.

A negative article was released about my hometown (of which I am vocally proud of) that stated that our town is the 'poorest' in the state of PA.  After watching many people take it as an opportunity to post unkind things about this city - I responded on our local news facebook page with my thoughts.  Much to my surprise and pride, many people responded to my thoughts with solidarity and positive feedback.

This article about the wild and confusing situation with Rachel Dolezal helped give me a stronger foothold in where my thoughts have been trying to reach about race and privilege and media.

happiness tracking

I've been mentally/emotionally struggling the past few weeks* because it's that time of the year again when I tend to overbook myself (even more so than most of the year).  Spring is my 'gear up' for the mayhem that summer brings, and by mayhem I mean our summer weekends get booked up solid before we even head into June.  Which is both overwhelming and exciting.  I sort of thrive on chaos and I love all the experiences and fun we get out of all of our commitments - but that doesn't mean that sometimes it doesn't feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water.  Actually, with three babies, it's less of 'sometimes' and more of 'most times' that I'm gasping for air.

Because I have an addiction to self-reflection (hah), I wanted to be accountable for my self-induced stress.  So, in an effort to sort myself out, I've been tracking  my days as to what constitutes a 'good day' in my planner for the past two weeks.  Its with the hope of shedding some light on how I can be more proactive at helping to make each day be a 'good day.'

My days have fluctuated between two and five star days over the past two weeks and there are some obvious reasons as to why some days are better than others.  Five and four star days happen more when Brandon is off that day or if it was a day that had grown up time for me (playdate with my best friend and her kids, a sleepover with my sisters).  So, having time to talk to a grown up human appears to contribute to my general happiness.  #sahmprobs

By far the biggest (at least it appears) contributing factor is the morning and whether or not I get time to get my day started as just a human, not necessarily as a mom.  That sounds awful, but the impact my day has if I can get up, fully wake up (!), make coffee, make Brandon's lunch for work, and clean up the kitchen a little bit - is profound.  I've been trying (not that successfully) to get up early enough to do all of that AND add in enough time to do a little something for myself (exercise? write?) too.  Baby steps over here, friends.  Baby steps.

There also seems to be some trends in my day to day life that contribute to three and a half to four star days:

the weather:  sunny days and warm days are always rated higher because just the light makes me feel more productive and motivated.  Plus, the kids and I can spend a big part of our day outside.  this is worrisome because I have no control over this.

creativity outlet:  I feel much better when I get a chance to do something creative like write a blog post, read a little for leisure, or work on our family yearbooks.  Even if it's only for a half hour, it feels like I've done a little something for my own guts and I feel recharged.

exercise:  this is not rocket science.  everyone knows this to be true.  On days that I get to take Bullet and myself for a run it does double boosting.  I feel good and energized and also Bullet gets the exercise he needs.

Hanging-over-my-head To do List item:  I have a standard chore list in place (laundry, bathrooms, etc) but there are always tasks that get pushed to the back because they are annoying or tedious to do and I just don't feel like it and the world won't come crashing down if I just leave it for another day.  On days that I just jump in and tackle those items, I feel powerful and proud and the day gets rated higher because I removed some of the guilt load I've been carrying around.

No distractions family time:  even if it's just sitting and reading a book with the kids for fifteen minutes it counts.  We had dinner outside on the patio one night followed by playing baseball in the yard, we all worked as a family in the yard one afternoon getting our flowerbeds cleared out, and the kids and I all sat up in the playroom laughing while Violet tried to talk to us with her silly little baby babble.  These brief moments remind me about that the kids are little and they still want me around and as a stay-at-home-Mum I have the blessing to be able to do that throughout the day.



Limited cell phone screen time:  ack.  I'm not horrible at this, but I'm not as good as I want to be either.  The struggle is always (as I've written a thousand times before) that if my phone is within view, the temptation to mindless scroll is strong.  But if I leave it out of sight, it's easily hours before I think to look at it at all.  I'm working on this, but sometimes the days can be long and boring and I can't reel myself in from looking for a distraction.

The problem now is figuring out how to get enough of my good day boosters (above) in each day so that I can feel productive, happy, and recharged.  I'm trying to juggle with the fact that all days are not going to be able to include all of these (::gulp:: any of these) but I feel a little better at least having an idea of what it is that I need to boost a day.

I'm also working on trying to extend some grace to myself and 'be okay' with chalking some days up to crap days.  Ya know the ones where the kids won't stop arguing and teasing each other - or those days that I get so clumsy I drop nearly everything I touch.  Some days are going to be a pain because life and I want to be able to just be a friend to myself, get myself a beer, and say - okay, we're going to try this again tomorrow.

*I just want to publicly acknowledge quick:  #firstworldproblems
that is all.