Numbering My Days

A couple Sundays ago our pastor started a new series...I wish I could tell you all the ins and outs and points and subpoints to his sermon.

I can't...

cuz you see, I got hung up on a verse that he pointed out...

So hung up in fact that it has stayed with me...day in and day out...now I am at the point of purchasing a canvas and painting this verse to hang in my office b/c I feel like God is wanting me to remember this..

and remember I will...

forget you dead brain cells...I WILL get this into whatever is left of that mass of mush sitting on my neck!

Psalms 90:12 "Teach us to number our days so that we may gain a heart of wisdom"...

Mamarazzi translation: "Teach us to recognize how few our days are and savor the moments so that we will spend our time here just as we should!"

I haven't necessarily been "savoring" lately...I'd like to call it more "surviving"...

Now, I know that as a mother of 3, sometimes survival is all we can hope for...amidst the diapers, laundry, whines and cries, picking up after everyone, playdates, cooking meals, trying to get a shower and MAYBE getting our hair dry before we have to shove everyone out the door...

But, I'm also realizing that all of a sudden, my eldest one is nearly NINE...

Nine years have come and gone...in nine more, she'll graduate and be out of my house...

I don't want to smother her, or over protect her, or cause her to say, "geez mom, lay off the kissin and huggin' already"...

well, okay, I don't really care if she says that or not b/c THAT I'm NOT stopping...EVER...

however...

I want to be more purposeful in my parenting, meaningful in how I spend my moments with them, and then stick those memories into my heart and pray for them with all that I've got in me...

So today, after I failed miserably with ALL of the above...due to messy rooms and whining and relentless nagging and arguing and crying...I finally said ENOUGH...yes, they need to learn to keep their rooms clean, but before the sun sets on today, we will NUMBER today and MAKE IT COUNT..

And so, we headed out for a scooter run before bed...

and I savored my girls and my husband laughed at me while I ran after them all with my camera...here are a few of my "memories" from my numbered days!

My baby...(yes did a little photoshop action on these shots...) She's growin' so big!

Here's that almost 9 year old...the sun was just setting and reminding me how little time I have and how I just love her soooo much!

ohhh, and my middle peanut...she's so easy to love...and I pray I don't just skip over her b/c of it...

here's Munchkin sayin, " Okay, now SOP...everyone SOP...now I GO!!"

heading down the pike...

car comin'

And we headed home...read books...kissed them all goodnight...and praying for another day to spend with each of them!!!

I was awakened at 5:30AM to the sound of someone shaving and the shower running on the anniversary of the date of my birth. (which happened to be yesterday in case you were wondering---which, knowing that small detail obviuosly makes this post more relevant)

Which is also why I didn't post yesterday--taking a birthday hiatus...

"Ummm, you take LOTS of hiatuses"  (is that a word? may have to google the plural form of hiatus--perhaps hiati?  dang, that looks a little like Haiti...good grief, I'm completely off track...do you see the trouble blogging causes me?  THUS, the hiatuseseses...and yes I'm aware that I take many!)

Where was I?

Blah blah water running blah 5:30AM blah blah

Yes, so I call to Italian Stallion in my most gracious & pleasant morning voice...it's like the sound of angels I tell ya...

So I called, "What the heck are you doing up at 5:30 IN THE MORNING?"

To which he sweetly comes over and kisses my head and replies, "Well, Happy Birthday sweetheart, I have a breakfast meeting, just go back to sleep."
(this in turn makes it hard to be upset that he has awakened me from my dream of Hector from Electric Company and some Ape people who wanted to go to Kids Camp, but I wouldn't let them because they were more like vampire type of Ape people and I was scared that they'd eat the children) WHAT IN THE WORLD am I eating before bed that gives me these strange dreams...alas, I'm off topic again...

Needless to say, I couldn't get back to my dream, but I did fall back asleep and completely missed my wake up time of 6:30 where I get up and run and loose inches around my waist while watching infomercials about Hip Hop Abs and Bare Minerals...

*chirp, chirp*

Yeah, you're not fallin' for that are you? 

I basically dragged myself out of bed and crawled to the shower to possibly get my eyes to function properly around 7am when I hear my husband's voice calling me from the bedroom...

What?  Wasn't he gone by now???

THAT'S WHAT I WAS THINKING!!!  So I quickly jumped out of the shower and thought, oh goodness he's completely forgotten something and he's going to be late and good things I skipped running this morning b/c I'm going to need to darn a sock or something...

but NO...

There in the doorway stood my husband, with a take out bag from Panera and a venti Starbucks...for ME!

"Happy Birthday!"

I asked, "I thought you had a business meeting?"

he nodded

I replied, "I AM your business meeting???"

he nodded again!

I was giggly for the rest of the day!!!

And for the record, I did get clothed before heading to kitchen table where we sat and enjoyed our breakfast together before the little girlies came tumbling down the stairs wanting to know where THEIR bagels were...to which Daddy came through with flying colors as he pulled out 3 more cinnamon crunches for them to munch on with us!!!

The day only got better...and it's okay that I"m now in my "late thirties"...

at least that's what I keep telling myself!

The Weekend

Well..Labor Day weekend proved to be lacking in the "getting things accomplished" area...

I originally had high hopes...

I thought it'd be fun to go hiking, go on a bike ride, fish with the girls, clean the entire main floor (including the play room) organize the fridge, finish the laundry, wash all the sheets, organize a few of my photos, get in some more labor day sales shopping and possibly go out for pizza...

In reality...we rode scooters in our driveway, cleaned out the garden enough to put together a veggie tray for the fantasty football neighborhood get together, watched exactly 2.5 movies during the afternoons and ate ice cream for dinner!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, that's a weekend for ya...

and so now I'm faced with a lot more "stuff" to accomplish during the week and I've also decided that waiting 7 months to get a hair cut is helping noone!

I've developed a NEW to-do list and it started off by helping in the Literacy Room at the girls' school today.  I'm thankful to say that it did NOT dig deep into my innermost yearnings to get back into the teaching realm...NOPE...had fun sortin' through all those fun resources and books and I walked out of there thankful that I don't have to deal with parent/teacher conferences and trying to come up with 24 individual ways to motivate children that are not my own! 

Once THAT was complete, I headed home to begin the cleaning...bleaching my sink seemed like a good place to start...which ended up being a waste of time, once the quart of pasta sauce fell out of the fridge and splattered all over the floor...because I had to scrape what a could and throw it into "said" sink while trying to mop up the rest...so now we're down to 55 quarts of pasta sauce for the year...Oh the horror! On the plus side...I was able to get my floor cleaned in the middle of it all...kudos!

I made an appointment to get my hair cut...about 4 months too late, but I'm having trouble finding a "style" so we'll see what happens...I may or may not promise to post pictures later...

Tomorrow is a big day for me...gettin' myself to the OTHER side of 35...

I think I may be having some sub-conscious difficulties with this concept in that I had a dream that Hector from Electric Company thought I was 21 and asked me out on a date last night...

and after the laughter from my children, that's about all I"m going to say about that!
See you later!

Sorry it's been awhile...

I've been up to IMPORTANT things lately...

Yep...lots of important stuff goin' on around here...

First I had to...

And then I had to take Little Munch to...

and then I opened a can of spaghettios and...

um...

Okay...I really haven't been all that busy...I SHOULD have been busy...by the looks of my laundry (of which there is a plethera b/c my super incredible washing machine washes sooo much at one time and apparantly, although it IS MAGNIFICENT, it has NOT been programed to actually FOLD and PUT AWAY the laundry) also by the growing mounds in my basement, I'm figuring it will take me about 5 months to actually clear it out...5 months of time that I really don't want to give...and therefore, I've just been laying around my house this week...

I read 3 books...cried in one of them, and the other two just laughed because they were so incredibly predictable and then realized how awesome the author apparantly feels about herself and I just gave up...

I ate an ENTIRE bag of gumballs in one sitting...no lie...I like to chew about 4 pieces at a time and then stick the wad onto a paper towel that is positioned perfectly to my right so that I can set down the wad and pick up 4 new pieces without having to turn my eyes from the pages of the book.

I watched the Count of Monte Cristo and Sherlock Holmes.  I actually read the Count of Monte Cristo in French...as in, it was written in french and I read it that way...the movie made things sooooo much more clear now!  S.H. was okay...I like that sort of suspense b/c it's intermixed with some humor and friendly banter...plus it had Rachel Adams in it and I like her.

I went shopping for my birthday and bought a pair of jeans and a pair of capris and my friend talked me into two scarves...(that really isn't the exact scarf, but it's close...I got the aqua colorish one and a crazy black/brown/red/orange one)  And then...my friend turned me onto these shoes and told me I should get them...and she knows fashion stuff...like she actually dresses herself and she looks nice pretty much all the time and I figured it was my birthday and she MUST know...so I got them...

I went out with my friend and ate cheesecake...I went to breakfast with my youngest and had a delicious Panera breakfast sandwich while she ate her cinnamon crunch bagel...

All in all...I basically lounged around and did nothing but spend money...

BAD BAD BAD Momma!!!  Although I DID get all of the above "stuff" for less than $65 total with all the stored up coupons, gift cards and codes I have been hoarding...but still...I'm usually not that spontaneous with regards to moneys...you can blame it on my late nights of reading and movie watching I suppose...

so, there you have it...my IMPORTANT week is now over and I"m enjoying 3 whole days of togetherness with my hubby and girls!  As things start rolling, I"m sure I'll be back to the regularly scheduled blogging...but until then...just know that I'm having fun munching on chocolate covered almonds, eating gumballs and watching my hips expand before my eyes...

And so, those jeans that I just purchased...well, let's just say that not moving off the couch is not helping my jean size...so perhaps a size exchange will be in the near future...dang!

Mad Hatter Tea...without the "mad"

So, my mother in law has always had a special attraction to tea parties with her granddaughters.  She likes the proper etiquette, the fancy dishes, the chatting around the table in ladylike tones...

I haven't necessarily "acquired" these polished refinements...although I DID go through a little class about "ladylikeness" back at church in the 80's...and so it is a special treat to have tea with Nana...

She usually plans one tea per year with all the granddaughters and this was Little Munchkin's first time to attend...I can't begin to express to you the excitement which was barely contained in that spunky, 3 year old body...but after she donned her Sleeping Beauty dress and her princess, light-up, musical shoes...she announced that she was ready and we should all be on our way...

The girls had a lovely time and my Italian Stallion and I had a little lunch date...

Nana had every detail covered...

There was something special about bringing a baby picture too...she had the table settings all set up with baby pictures of herself and of her sister-in-law who had traveled from PA for the special event.

and, I gotta say...doesn't this cake look scrumptious???

yep...all those details...even down to the HAT MAKING

this stuff turned into this:

everyone made their own...

What a wonderful afternoon for my girlies...

And now they get to come home to mom and slurpin' chocolate milk from a crazy straw, whilst eating nachos from a plastic bowl...I'm thankful that they're learnin' some manners somewhere:)

I made it...

I made it through today...

The girls got on the bus, they waved, they had big smiles...

I cried...

I cried some more...

which caused Little Munchkin to cry...

and then we ate some gummy worms...because really, SUGAR HEALS ALL THINGS!!!

It's me and Little Munch this year...we're buddies...and so I had to purchase her some "buddy shoes"...the ones that say, "Mommy needs you sweet precious little girl...love me forever and never leave me on a big yellow bus and go off into the world without me...okay?"

And so, I got her these:

Yes...they are LIGHT-UP, MUSICAL, PRINCESS shoes...I can't believe I purchased them (in my sane mind), but in my over pathetic, sappy, only have one little girl at home mind...these are soooo sweet for my baby!!!

Judge me if you must...but we are dancing to some pretty cool musical shoes and if we turn off the lights, it's like disco central!!! 

Go Mama, go mama...

hey p.s.  if you want to feed into my insecurities and boost it a bit...hop over to ctphotomemories and browse around...I've had a few photo shoots lately and they've been fun...(I know, it's a shameless plug)

School Starts Tomorrow

Did you read that title correctly?  It said,

"School Starts Tomorrow"

I'll let that sink in a moment.

don't let the sniffling and gulping and pitiful sounds of me crying in the background disturb you...

We're ready...we've

met the teachers
purchased all our supplies
found a semi-new to new/clean outfit to wear in the morning
bought all the school lunch stuff like granola bars, carrot sticks, cheez its, oreos, 3 x 5 note cards so Mommy can write a little note every single day of school and hide it in the lunchbox for them to lovingly open and read each day around noon while mommy watches the clock and thinks that they "may" be reading that note at THIS VERY SECOND...

*I think I'm loosing it*

I'm not normally this pathetic...

no really...I'm not...

I'm going to blame it on the fact that I've gained about 5 lbs this summer due to my overload of Pepsi, starbucks, and all things Cheesecake Factory...this in turn has caused some major hormonal balance swings which can only be the direct cause to my hyper sensitivity to my eldest daughters heading to school FULL TIME for this next school year.

I suppose I ought to get ready for these new "seasons" of life...anything CHANGE related scares me half to death...it gets me into a tailspin of worry...b/c I don't just thinka bout this year...I start snowballing into when Munchkin will be heading off to school full time and then what will I do b/c I don't know if I can handle going back to teaching and how will they ever have a nice wedding and afford college if I don't do something and what if I become a crazy mother who stalks their children at school or worse yet, I become the president of the PTO and have secret dreams of speaking from a podium about the evils of twinkies and the blessings of box tops???  HEAVEN HELP ME!!!

I will awaken tomorrow morning and make my children their chocolate chip oatmeal pancakes.  I will get them dressed and ready and scurry them out to the bus stop.  Little Munchkin and I will cry and wave as they get on the bus and head off to their brand new school with Mac computers and smart boards...things that I have no idea bout and I will just keep breathing in and out and take Little Munch out to breakfast and on a date to get new shoes for the first time in her 3.2 years of life and then we'll play and wait for them to return home again in the afternoon. 

And that's it folks...
as I said...

School Starts Tomorrow