the nap

We had been running on low fumes for a few weeks, between the jobs and kids' activities, and the homework, and the regular chores, and holidays, and sweet baby Jesus the clutter.  And so one night during bedtime, I found myself staring down two huge hampers of dried, clean laundry in the girls' room.  He put the boys to bed, and while I folded laundry, the girls chatted themselves into sleep.

A little while later, he snuck out of the boys' room and stood at the doorway to the girls' room while I sat in front of an almost empty second basket of clothes surrounded by piles and piles of cleaned laundry.

'How's it going in here?' he asked groggily, clearly having just woken himself up after putting the boys to bed.
'Slowly, I'm so tired, babe."
"I know, me too.  I have to do the garbage yet."

and he was standing there in his comfy sweatpants and hoodie
with that face I've been looking at and loving since I was a teenager
and I was so very sleepy

so I patted the floor in this little open space among the laundry piles and asked, "come lay with me?"
"if I lay down I'm not getting up for awhile."
"yeah, this is definitely a nap that I'm proposing."

and then he smiled
and I smiled back

And while the sound machine crickets chirped, surrounded in little piles of folded sparkles and pinkish purple frills, we wound our arms together, laid down, and closed our eyes.

We woke up about three hours later, disorientated, a little sore in the neck, and with full knowledge that the garbage still needed taken out and the dishwasher needed run and all those pinkish purple frills need put into the correct drawers.

We untangled, and he stood and helped me up from the floor, and we did a little mini team huddle - complete with 'okay break!- and got to our respective before.bed jobs with a renewed sense of energy - spurred from our three hour nap and the comfort that comes from a conspiratorial escape from duties.

and so the moral of this story is..

my sweet darlings,
be with the one who can help you up from the floor
but who will also lie down beside you sometimes too.
love,
your mumma.

Around Here Forty-four: 10/28-11/03

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours:  505 hours (of 1000)
Another not great week (up 5 hours) and I really can only blame it on my own exhaustion.  ugh, must get out of this funk.  I attempted a walk with the pups and Rust only to be forced back home at the neighbor's house by a thunderstorm (ugh).   We had some beautiful days in the low seventies (!) this week that had us all outside and basking in the sun - as a forecast for a very heavy snow season looms...oh boy.

Reading My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman with our Inspired Readers book club (finally started!)

Finishing up our Halloween celebrations by volunteering in Greyson's class for their fall fest party and parade.  I loved meeting Grey's classmates and getting to chat with some of the other mommas.  And then our kids got to go trick-or-treating Round2 at Mimi's house with our Garrettson cousins and Caleb!  The big kids ran off into the streets while us parents hung back and walked around with Gemma and Violet.  Thankfully the big kids were able to find their way back to Mimi's house as the sun started setting (we were starting to get a little nervous, hah).  Gracie had a sleepover and then we separated half of our candy into a package to be shipped to Operation Gratitude for their Candy for Heroes project!  And our Trick-or-Treat for Unicef change boxes are being filled daily in-house with all of the change we've accumulated through the year in the jar in the kitchen and out in the community with my fifth grade CCD students!

Party-hopping on Saturday.  Grey attended his first ever drop-him-off friend birthday party and had a blast while the rest of us had a mini party for Lainey's third birthday.  Then we spent the rest of the evening at my parents' house for their annual Fall Festivus party.  We all had a great time - so much good food and the weather was beautiful!   Fall Festivus is always one of our favorite fall traditions (thanks Abba & Chum!)

Celebrating el dia de los muertos with my students in Spanish I class by coloring calaveras, making tissue paper flowers, papel picado, and watching The Book of Life in class. bonus for me that it was an easy week in lesson planning.

Trying to get a handle on it, but holy mother-loving Laundry.  Our dryer has been inconsistent for a few weeks now but finally seems to be alright again (thank goodness).  So I haven't felt quite caught up (thanks Abba for doing our laundry more than once through those weeks!) and then add into the mix that I'm switching out winter/summer clothes for Bud and I and also I just had to buy all new pants for Gemma because at 4 and a half she's wearing size 6 pants because she's so tall and Violet has been in a wardrobe-changing phase big time...the piles of clothes are ne.ver.end.ing.  Have you read that post from Bunmi Laditan about laundry babies...or the one about laundry shaming....hilarious. I'm so there, friends.

Speaking of Violet's wardrobe-changing phase - she's naked approximately 80% of the day because...toddlerhood.  I came home from work this week and Brandon said, "Violet's changed four times already and it's not even noon.  Also, pretty sure she's naked and in Gemma's high heels right now so don't be too surprised when she comes downstairs."

Thankful for our new sliding glass door that Brandon and Pappy installed this week.  B has been on vacation all week so there have been lots of little projects getting tied up while he's been home (new brakes for Sheila!)  Pappy and Gigi got the sliding door for us for an early Christmas present (thank you!) and it looks beautiful and shines so much light into the dining room.

Surprised how quickly five months can fly by as our Rust Man is officially five months old.  He is such a hungry kid gobbling down full bubbas, baby oatmeal, and whole baby food containers with no problem.  He loves 'chewing' on anything within reach including our hands, toys, and his own toes.  His favorite activity is talking to someone face-to-face but also like his exersaucer or rolling all over the floor.  This kid - he's the fastest growing one yet!

Dancing one joyous, nervous, excited, happy dance.  details coming soon.

Making garbage bread with leftover sausage from the crockpot for the guys while they installed the door and from scratch brownies for our Witch's brew brownies that the kids helped make to use up some Halloween candy (disclaimer: ours did NOT turn out quite as lovely as the pin. #duh).  I started the 21day fix program up again this week too and it's been going great thanks to having Greek Yogurt, strawberries, and lots of veggies on hand

Around Here forty-three: 10/21-10/27

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

Intentional Outdoor Hours: 500 hours (of 1000)
Up a laughable (if it wasn't so depressing) 4 hours this week.  We finally had enough leaves to build a proper leaf-jumping pile in the yard and the kids were pretty happy about it.  Grey of course had to throw sixty thousand touchdown passes to himself while diving into the pile while the girls held hands and ran through them together.  Bullet has always loved rolling around in leaf piles, so we all called him over and he comes over, stands in the middle of the pile while we are all cheering him on, and takes a pee all over the leaves instead.  I could not stop laughing.  The kids and I tried to separate out the wet leaves (semi-successfully) so it was definitely a bath night after that.  Sheesh, always a circus here.

Reading nada....which is quite terrible for my soul.

Celebrating Bud's birthday on Friday with some kid-homemade paper/crayon banners, and dinner at our house with his parents.  He's kind of my favorite person on Earth, so I get particularly thankful and gooey in my heart.  So grateful he was born (thank you Gigi!)

Eating brains as a family...hahha, just kidding.  we did all dress up like zombie though (even Rust!) for the Zombie Crawl downtown that my sister planned for You in Flood City.  It had a great turnout and even a flash mob to MJ's Thriller in the middle of Central Park at 9p!

Running on empty (as they say) big time.  I think the hustle of the rotten eight which turned almost immediately into working part-time and keeping up with all of our other stuff has finally caught up to my brain and soul.  I read in some article last week about how getting around six hours of sleep a night continually is the equivalent of being drunk which really resonated with me.  That is how I feel, intoxicated in a sleepy -can't remember-hazy kind of way.  ugh.  On the upside, it's really forced me to take stock of what needs to get done each day and the things I can let slide - and without (too much) guilt even.  Lowered standards isn't such a terrible thing when it comes to housework, right?....right?!?! hah.

but...Trying to copy Violet's enthusiasm about life when she daily looks at me (or Bud) and says, "Best. Day" at the instant of any one thing she loves (like hot dogs for lunch or finding a baby doll)

Helping in Ashley's Pajama Drive which we love to do every year!  We used her Amazon Wishlist to order some jammies and sent them directly to her house from there to help kids who need some extra warm and cozy as we move into the colder months.  Thanks as always for organizing this awesome drive, Ashley! There's still time to participate too - please hop on over to her wishlist and do something kind today :)

Grateful for our awesome babysitter, Kristy, who has alleviated a lot of my daily stress of scheduling our home during my part-time hours.  And who also plays hair salon and dance party with the girls and follows my weird no tv before 10:30am rules and pretends like she doesn't notice our house is a mess.  xxox thank you Kristy!

Trick-or-treating on Thursday night as is tradition for us at my parents' house.  Grey wanted to be Harry Potter, Gemma was Rapunzel, Violet was dressed as Hulk Hogan (because they share the same hair genes) and Rusty brought his big brother's first Halloween costume back to life as a little tree frog.  All three walking kids did amazing and Violet was so excited that getting candy for knocking on doors and saying 'chickacheet' is a real thing that exists in life.  Like a total sap, I always get weirdly emotional on trick-or-treat night because it highlights the beauty of neighbors, and neighborhoods, and community, and real life face-to-face speaking to one another.  What a strange little holiday where people turn on their porch light and wait for kids to ring their bell to give out candy and treats and a smile for free.  I just think it's lovely.

Making roasted vegetables for brandon's birthday dinner and the girls and I made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies one afternoon.  but truthfully, I feel like we ate a lot of pizza last week - some weeks are just like that.