A Little Absence

This is my last week before I become the caretaker of 5 kids. Although I'm super excited to get to know my newest nephew in the same way I know Chunky Monkey, I realize Little Miss and Little Man will lose a bit of my attention. Soooooo, the remainder of this week I'm checking out. See you Monday!

Go, Go, Go

Once again it has been a go, go, go day.  In many ways I love these days, but they kick my bootay!  I am one beat mama.  I have very little wit left in my brain.  In fact I have very little left in my brain at all, but lucky for you I'll share what's in there.

• I hope my baby boy sleeps tonight. He's been waking up a few times during the night.  It's killing me.  I'm ready for him to go back to his 11 Hour Sleepfests.
• I'm thirsty, but already in bed.  I'm hoping Steven will take pity on me and walk all the way to the kitchen to get me some water.
• He did.  I'm not thirsty anymore.
• I'm already sick of this heat. A thermometer should never read above 100 degrees.  Glad I'm not going to Hell.
• Tomorrow is Super Hero Day at the library and church.  Little Man already has two separate costumes laying out.  Heaven forbid he repeat costumes in one day.
• Little Miss thinks her Cinderella dress qualifies as 'Super Hero-ish'. I'll probably let her wear it.
• Chubby Cheekers is his own Super Hero.  He'll wear his own clothes.
• I'll wear whatever is clean and fits.
• I still have a baby bulge left in the front.  It drives me nuts.
• I miss my abs.  A LOT!
• Steven just climbed in bed and left the light on.  If he thinks I'm getting up out of my comfy spot to turn it off, he's got another thing comin'.
• One time he left the light on and refused to turn it off.  Since we're both stubborn we went to be with the light on.  We sure showed each other.  
• It's time for me to sign off.  I'm tired, and the light's still on....Good Night!

Summer List

All these cutesy Summer Lists I see on this and that site have me a little jealous.  The most ornate homemade chalkboards with artsy script and fun colors listing out 'must do's' of Summer.  I would love to have one of those.  In fact, I have found myself daydreaming about my Summer List.  It goes something like this...

I slowly wake to the sound of raindrops on my window.  As I glance at the clock, I realize the kids have slept in again.  It's 9:30.  I decide to roll out of bed to enjoy my cup of coffee in silence.  Seeing that the kids are still not stirring, I turn to my perfectly DIY'ed chalkboard and begin to relish in how awesome it is and add a few more items to the list.  My handwriting is perfect and looks more like a work of art rather. It's surprising.

And then I get hit in the face with a Nerf ball.  Who am I kidding? I'm not the type to take the time (or have the time) to make a chalkboard.  So instead I'll just pretend this one is mine...

{via Whatever}

Despite not having a uber cool chalkboard, I do have a list going...a list on my iPad.  That's crafty, right?

So here's what we got going on this summer before Little Man has to go back to school...

• Pick Berries
• Swim
• Ice Cream
• Snow Cones
• Kiddie Park
• Water Park
• Splash Pad
• Family Hike
• Park and Picnic
• Baseball Game
• Baking Day
• Free Summer Movies
• Pudding Body Paint
• Water Balloon Fight
• Aquarium
• Trip to Chicago
• Visit Grandparents
• Donuts
• Summer Reading Program
• Craft Day

Now I want to know what fun things you are doing this summer so I can steal your ideas.

Time's Up

Sometimes I feel like I'm on Minute to Win It. When the kids are in bed and I've showered, the buzzer goes off. Time's up. Day's over. We really focus on making the most of our time as a family, and this past weekend we used our time to visit my wonderful grandparents in Springfield, MO and hen a Sunday dinner with my FIL to celebrate his Father's Day. We are so blessed with family. And since we're blessed,I didn't want to take one second to interrupt that time with technology. Hence, the menu wasn't ready in time for me to type it out. My buzzer went off. Time's up and I'm ready for bed.

This Is What It's Like

Children. There's nothing like 'em.  Nothing like 'em jolting you out of your bed after you've fallen in a deep sleep in no less than twenty minutes.  Nothing like their cries in the middle of the night that can have your heart racing faster than an energy drink, and your feet moving faster than The Flash.  

I'm sure I'm a sight to see in moments such as these.  All my eye-boogered, bird's nest hair, frumpy pj gloriousness sprinting.  I should set up some video footage of myself.

I digress.

All of the above descriptions happened a few nights ago.  No sooner than my head hit the pillow and working on my second dream, was I awakened by Little Miss crying in her room.  It's not like her to wake up and cry so I was concerned.  After blasting past her door, I found her in her bed frantically trying to get out of her covers.

"Little Miss, Little Miss, what is wrong, honey?"

"I need to wash my shoes."

"What?"

(Crying.  Lot of hysterical crying.)  "I need to wash my shoes."

And that's when it hit me.  So this is what is is like.  My poor mother.  I did this to her so many times.  I was an avid sleepwalker and talker.  How many times had I walked to my mom's room, gotten inches from her face and whisper shouted, "MOOOOOOM!!!"?  Only to summon her to get the thorns out of my bed or pick something from a tree.  All of which she pretended to do just so I would be satisfied in my delusional sleep state, and go 'back to sleep'.

As I tried to reassure Little Miss that her shoes were clean, safe, and sound, I tucked her back into bed and gingerly walked out of her room.  I went back to bed too, but not before I chuckled to myself.  Oh how history repeats itself.  My own little mini-me doing the same quirky business.

The best part was when I called to tell my mom the next day.  Like any other respectable grammy, she was first concerned about Little Miss.  Was she okay?  Oh poor thing!  That just breaks my heart. Yada, yada, yada.  Then she laughed.  Laughed at me and said, "Well honey, now you know what it's like.  Good luck with that."

Geez, where was my "Are you okay?  Oh you poor thing. That just breaks my heart."?  Nope, all I got was reality in my face.  Well played Mom!

Now here's my sleepwalkin' princess...

It Took Flight

A couple of weeks ago we had a storm pop up in the middle of the night.  High winds, heavy rains, a little bit of hail.  It woke me which isn't unusual.  What was unusual was it woke Steven.  Let this be known that I could punch Steven in the face and he would just roll over. He. Sleeps. Hard.  Real hard.

Since the storm woke him at 1:30am, he did what any normal person would do in the middle of the night, he went look out our back windows.  That's when I heard him.  "It's gone!"

I wasn't fully awake, "What's gone?"

"The trampoline.  It's gone."


I squinted through the rain and darkness and he was right.  The trampoline was no where to be found.  Our hearts sank.  Our kids love that thing.  Not a day goes by that they aren't out there jumping.  They were going to be devastated when they woke.

After the initial sadness for the kids wore off, we came to our senses to realize if it wasn't in our backyard, it had to be somewhere.  We quickly looked out all of the side and front windows.  That's when we saw it.  Two houses down in our neighbor's driveway.  A crumbled mess.  Knowing our neighbor would need to leave for work in the morning, we trudged outside in our jammies, in the rain and hail to pull the mess back to our yard.

Let me just say I have never been so thankful for my husband's strength as I was that night.  We were getting  soaked and the rain was only getting heavier.  The little hail pellets were stinging my skin.  As I was scrambling around picking up loose springs and poles, I peered through the downpour to see my husband pick up the vast majority of the trampoline, heave it over his head, and walk it to the backyard.  I have never thought him sexier.

Once we gathered all the pieces we could find, we headed inside to dry off and prayed.  Prayed that the trampoline would be salvageable.  It wasn't.

There was no way that at this moment we would shell out another $150 for a new trampoline.  We had just done that 3 months ago.  So I asked God for wisdom.  Then it hit me.  Our tramp had about 4 pieces that needed to be replaced.  We would just buy new replacement pieces.  Nope.  Another dead end.  Replacement pieces were $50/piece.  That would be more expensive than buying a new one.

I tried another avenue.  I put out on facebook that we were looking for some pieces to fit a 14 ft trampoline. A few gracious people responded, but guess what?  Their pieces didn't work.  There had to be an answer.  I wasn't going to lose hope.

Days passed and Little Man started asking when he would be able to jump again. I told him soon enough, knowing it was going to take a little divine intervention for the trampoline to go back up in the 'soon enough' time frame.  Being just a bit desperate, I told Little Man we should ask God to provide us a way to put ours back up.

Within hours, my former boss from a daycare I worked at while in college responded to my facebook plea. She said she had a 14ft frame that she was tired of moving around when she mowed.  We could have it.  SAY WHAT???  Steven picked it up and we are now back in business!!!

You know, God never ceases to amaze me.  Just like the ring experience, I was blessed from a circumstance (in this case a job I took) from years ago.  All I have to say is God cares for us and our children far more than we could imagine.  He is interested in the details of our life.  He is in the business of blessing us.  Heck, he's even in the business of trampolines, and we couldn't be more thankful.

How Grilled Chicken Improves My Life

Surely I am the ONLY mom who has a crazy busy life.  I assume the vast majority of you readers sip your morning coffee in utter silence if you choose and eat bon-bons each and every afternoon as you watch your children not only clean, but detail every corner of your home.  No?  This isn't how it goes down at your pad?  You also have a crazy busy life?  Ahhhh, then my grilled chicken will improve your life as well.

I'm not going to sit here and pretend I invented an idea that will revolutionize the world in a way we have never experienced, but I do think this may shave some time off your dwelling in the kitchen.  Are you ready for it?  Grilled chicken.

How is grilled chicken going to help me out? you ask.  Well it's not so much the chicken, but how you go about it.

First off, have you heard of Pinterest?  If not, I strongly urge you to NOT join if you value using your time wisely.  However, if you like to live in dreamland and peruse information and how-to's for all facets of life, then yes, check it out.

Now, once you find yourself in the Food and Drink section of Pinterest, then you will undoubtedly find many different ways to marinate chicken before grilling.  Like...

Garlic Mustard

Key West

Cilantro Thai

Grilled Island Chicken

Honey Spiced

Those are just a few to start with that have a little different flavors for your taste buds. 

You might still be wondering how grilled chicken is going to save you time, but alas, I'm about to share.  Most folks have a down day in the week. For that day have a few bags of chicken thawed.  At our house, I only need two bags to kick out four meals.  I divide the breasts into four large ziplock bags, each with a different marinade (sometimes I just do two marinades depending on what I'm using the chicken for), and allow the breasts to marinade for a couple of hours (at least).  

Then I throw it all on the grill at dinner time.  We go ahead and eat dinner off one of the marinades.  This meal is almost always just a regular breast not used in other recipes and  a few more time consuming sides.  I do this because it's my down day and I have the time to crank out more elaborate meals.

After we have completed our family dinner, I deal with the other chicken breasts.  Usually, these breasts get sliced or diced to go into other meals for the week, or frozen for future use.  I use that meat for chicken to toss on large dinner salads, OR to throw in an Italian or Thai dish, OR to use on a sandwich, OR to use with fajitas, OR..alrighty, you get the point.  It gets used.

Basically, I do all the chicken grilling on one night. It saves me so much time later in the week.  Again, not a head spinning idea, but it helps me nonetheless.  Maybe it will help you.  Or maybe I'm just a loon.  Don't answer that, m-kay?