Clean it up, the house and the 'tude

In an effort to get myself out of the funk I've been in lately, I kicked myself in the pants and got to work around the house. Laundry going, dishwasher going, coffee maker going (well, that was more of a bonus than "work"), I search around for a good Spring Cleaning Checklist and printed it off.

Then, I proceeded to get busy with other things that weren't on that checklist. Still being productive projects, I'm not going to beat myself up about it, but ohmygoodness my attention span is so low.

What did I do, you ask? Well, I painted the last corner in the living room/entryway. That's big, y'all. My hubby is a perfectionist when it comes to everything painting, so he typically doesn't let me do it (poor me, right?) but lately, he's been so swamped in work/home projects that painting has been pushed out of sight on his to do list. 

Not on mine though... :)

So that's done! Not as good as if he had done it, but good enough.

Also, I took apart and cleaned our disgusting vacuum. Ever since he helped clean up some of our old dog's messes, it smells like...dog mess. 

It's not pretty. I so hope what I did to clean it helped, because as I was taking it apart, I noticed that it has a few features that I never even knew about that would be really really nice to use. This project took over an hour. Have I mentioned how badly I hope doing this helped?

With that wall painted and the vacuum (hopefully) ready for business, I'm hoping to tackle that huge long cleaning checklist and pray that the busyness keeps me from being too gloomy. 

Snap out of it, self! <--- a="" br="" day.="" hasn="" helped="" i="" it="" much="" multiple="" myself="" nbsp="" t="" tell="" times="" what="" yet...="">

Audrey says

The first one! She's talking more and more, and it's time we start documenting it. Mostly, we get cute little one or two word phrases, like "Uppy! (Up please)" or "Mo Mikka! (More milk)", but we had a winner the other day when my parents came inside after just getting back from an errand.

Papa: Is anyone here? Who needs a hug?!
Hear the crickets chirp as the big kids continue playing, totally oblivious. Grammy and Papa started walking down the hallway towards the voices in the bedrooms until they heard little running footsteps from the dining room followed by a little voice yelling, "Me me me me!"

Girlfriend loves her hugs and kisses. She loves to pucker up at an unsuspecting family member and often times they come in sets. You don't just get one kiss, you get four or five. It's possibly my favorite part of life right now. It's that good.

Josie says

She says a lot of funny things, but I've been terrible at writing them down. Here are a few from the past couple of weeks.

Josie, walking up to the lfb while addressing Audrey over her shoulder: "I'll ask {him}, Audrey." 

To the lfb, who had been playing quietly by himself: "Are you happy? Say: I am! You're married to me now! Come on, we got married." Then she took his hand and dragged him down the hallway, his face showing his lack of excitement the whole way. I have a feeling that marriage is doomed.

After a man came to buy a few chairs we had sold via craigslist, Josie was very concerned.
Josie: Where did our chairs go??
Me: That man bought them from us so he's going to take them to his house.
Josie, after thinking quietly for a while: Can we move it back in here? Now we won't have ANYTHING left...
She continued to ask us if we could put a chair over there (the entryway) and if we could have those chairs back, no matter how many times I showed her that we already had a new chair for the old chair's spot. She was very concerned...

While driving one day.
Me: Josie, how high can you count?
Josie: Um, no thank you... What?? Now, she has manners?
Me: Oh...ok, you don't want to count?
Josie: No, I'm learning about the road.
Me: Well, I can help you..? One...
Josie very loudly to speak over me: Road road road! Snow snow snow, road road road!
I'm not nearly entertaining enough.

She's figured out that all injuries feel better if they get kissed. After hurting her finger one day, auntie was determined to make her feel better.
Auntie Lara: Josie, can I kiss your finger?
Josie, speaking mournfully: Yeah... can you just take it off?

Generally speaking, she doesn't have too many words or phrases that she just can't figure out, but we've had a few lately that have had us in stitches (behind our hands of course, so that she wouldn't see us holding back the laughter).

We have a book called "Commotion in the Ocean." She calls it "Da - Ka-ma-shun in Ocean" no matter how many times we say it slowly.

We go to a small group once a week called "Missional Community." She is usually pretty excited when she's mentioning it, so it comes out like "Mishadee amudadity!!"

One of the bible songs she's picked up is Fisher's of Men. All day long, you will hear her saying "Bisherament! Bisherament, Bisherament!" Even when I pointed out that the song is about fishing (no, I realize what the point of the song is...), she nodded enthusiastically and repeated "bisherament! Follow me, bisherament!"

Later today, I'll be posting the very first Audrey Says post. Aren't you excited??

Weather = 3, Sarah = 0

When it's even remotely nice out, you will find us bundling up to get outside. The weather has been unpredictable and it seems that I've lost my ability to prepare for it. 

One day, we headed to the park with coats, hats, and boots. We got there and realized that we didn't have any gloves or mittens. I told myself that we would play for a while and then head home, earlier than I had originally planned. Remember that kids don't feel the cold. They just see the fun. They are not very responsible... As we stayed there, though, I realized that it was a lot colder than it had seemed when we were at home. So the lfb got to wear my gloves (so lovely with his camo boots), Audrey had mittens of her own (do I get points for one out of three kids?) and Josie got to wrap her hands in a blanket on the way home. Parenting win.

Another day, while the lfb was at school, I decided to bring the girls on a long walk, opposed to the usual "around the block" walk that only takes about fifteen minutes. We bundled up. It was intense. Gloves, mittens, scarves, boots, hats, coats, sweatshirts under coats, even a blanket. After going only a block, we had stripped almost all of it off because even sitting perfectly still in the stroller, the girls were hot. March weather continues to be a mystery to me.

Yesterday, we went back to the park (I have a feeling many a story will take place in this park since it's so close to our home). Surrounding the playground equipment is what appears to be a pond. Don't be fooled though, it's just an overflow of melted snow. We all had rainboots on so we walked right through it to get to the raised playground. The big kids couldn't believe how much fun it was to walk through all of that water. It was at least six inches in a few spots, so they went nuts. Seeing that they had those lovely boots on and we were only a block from home, I let them have at it. I mean, the joy on their faces! So much water.

I was assisting Audrey on the steps and slide (when did she get so big?? She only needs me a little bit here and there. Cue the tears.). I looked back over at Josie to see her dipping her gloves right in the water. Nooo! It wasn't warm. It just wasn't frozen. After a stern conversation about not freezing to death, she resumed. I told myself that we'd have to go home a little earlier so she wouldn't get too cold.

Then she fell, one knee completely in the water. Guess we'll go home even earlier. I tried to get as much of the excess water off of her gloves and pants, and she continued on, not letting a little freezing water deter her.




Less than two minutes later, she fell down again. This time, she soaked everything. I think I saw it happen in slow motion. The girl was soaked. I guess we're leaving now. We ran to the stroller, loaded up, threw the blanket over the freezing cold Josie, and walked as fast as one can walk pushing a double stroller home.

Our lfb was devastated to leave, but I assured him we'd continue playing outside after Josie changed clothes.

And that is exactly what we did. She warmed up immediately and we played outside until hubby got home. It was so great. Our plain old driveway with a train attached to a string and our umbrella stroller was enough to keep that grinning from ear to ear.

Anticipation for the nicer weather is raging over here.

I have a "Josie says" post in the making and it's a bit of a doozy. Stay tuned, friends!