the state of our home

Happy Birthday Dad!  (it was a couple weeks ago)  Hope you are having fun on the beach while your grandchildren are being blown away!

I am pretty much just along for the ride these days.  Just coasting along in this life doing whatever.  We have no schedule and not much out of the ordinary going on.  It seems either I look homeless or my kids look homeless or my home is a little too lived in.  But, it's awesome.  It's always a surprise which one of the homeless beasts Derek will come home to.  But, he loves us.

I read this the other day in a book 'The LDS Mother's Almanac' ...'Trying to keep a house clean while raising a family is like trying to string beads without first tying a knot in the end of the string. You can work as hard and as fast as you want, but when you look back at your handiwork to see how nice it looks, nothing's there.'  So, it's just got me thinking about what really is important in my day to day life.  And yes, I like to have a clean house and I would prefer it spotless everyday, but some days, you just gotta let it go.

And this is my most favorite line. 'If there's one thing you'll learn during your mothering career, it's that good housecleaning ideas don't last for long.'  Oh WOW!  Come on, I know every single one of us has had that BEST idea ever.  Yeah, how's that best idea ever working for you?  Not doing it anymore are you?  I know I'm not!

So I'm kind of a mean mom.  Among many mean things about me, I have never made play-dough for my kids.  They have played with it plenty of times at other places, but I hate play-dough.  The smell, the mess, the mess, bleh.  I know, I'm mean.  I guess I'll make it someday, but not until I trust James.  I also don't have any paints for the kids.  I mean, the mess alone, the kids can't handle felt markers (note James' face in the pics) and that is a stepping stone to painting.  But we go to stay and play and what do the kids do half the time?  Paint and play-dough.  I'm so mean, it's all they want to do.  So Rhonda let me in on a little secret.  Paint with water.  Genius.  You give them some colored paper and the kids think they are really painting.  So that is what the homeless kids did today because yet again, we couldn't go out in the hurricane.  And for the record, I as well was homeless, and let's just say I finished the 4th book so the house was very lived in today.  But, as long as the kitchen and living room are clean at the end of the day, I'm good these days.

So I'm too lazy to post the pictures throughout the post.  Here's the homeless children enjoying an activity from their BEST mom ever!

This is funny because he wasn't crying, that is his sheer joy for the camera and also the reason why you never tell your kid to say cheese for the camera.  He is saying it honestly and true with every fiber of his body.

Note the felt lips?!

And I will cut James some slack in the ratty looking department.  He has been sick with the croup since Thursday.  He has the cutest raspy voice you have ever heard, with a bark of a cough.  The other day it was taking every muscle in his body to breathe (that's the night we spent in emerg) but it doesn't even phase him.  He's just the same kid with snot running down his face.  He'll come up to me and say 'neenex?' (kleenex) in his horse little voice.  So he even learned a new word from all the sickness.