Very un-Martha

I saw a giant book of "keeping house" at the hardware store during one of our near-daily trips. It had tips for how to keep your home tidy, and advised that your appliances are the "furniture of your kitchen. You should treat them as such". I do find myself lounging with my head in the fridge sometimes...
Waking up this morning, I find my house to be very un-Martha. The furniture in the kitchen is covered with crumbs. Everything seems covered in crumbs. I think the laundry room furniture is full of wet towels, strangely. There is a copious amount of brightly-colored plastic sprinkled liberally through each room. My youngest child decided that he loves to devour books. Literally. Ergo, our house is also full of tiny pieces of wet, masticated cardboard. Each room has a theme of disorder that can't quite be tamed.
The giant book is tempting me. If I just had all those excellent tips, I'll bet I would find the time to treat each room like the important part of the home that it is. The book, I'm sure, must have all the answers. It was a GIANT book... calling me toward the perfectly ordered pantry, a kitchen that has clean furniture, everything in its place.
I would go out, right away and get it but there is no room on my bookcase and I have NO IDEA where the baby stashed my car keys. So, I remain, very un-martha.

Joys of Remodel...

So, we love our house again. It turns out all these tiny, insignificant things that "don't really bother us" really bothered us. We have the best contractor ever, and he has put in new french doors, a new back door, a new kitchen window and overhead lighting, and he has trimmed all of our windows and door frames. It is so lovely! Money is always a stessor, as is wondering where to draw the line. The dust and noise and power tools lying around the house are exciting... (Isaac is drawn toward danger, inexorably). But, with all that, last night I sat down on the couch and looked around and felt invigorated and at home. It made it a bit nicer to get up at 5:30 this morning with the baby, too. At least (though dusty and a bit disordered) the house looks pretty. Pictures coming soon... as soon as I can find that darn card reader. I know where it USED to be...

Sleep!

I haven't had much time to post lately... or, more accurately, I haven't had much mental acuity to post! Those living with small children will understand the bone-weary tired that comes with it. Isaac is 7 months old now, and still waking up several times a night. We have tried everything that we can think of. Just when we think we've got it everything breaks apart.
Today at Fred Meyer Braeden kept saying "this is my cheese. My double decaf cheese. Cheese is made out of a special kind of decaf milk." In my haze I just said: "Yep. That's right". I didn't even laugh!
To make things more interesting, we are remodeling our house. We love the changes that we are making, but everything is dusty and moved into unexpected places. Just when my brain only works on auto-pilot things are changing!
As you know, it all goes by so fast. I'll tell you, it better! :)

Another cute quote...

Last night in the car, Braeden had this to say:
"Hey, I know where butter comes from."
Me: "Where?"
"It comes out of the heads of magical butterflies."
So now you know.

Welcome Alexa Mae!

My baby brother and his wife are parents to little Alexa Mae. I am so proud of them, and so happy to be an auntie to this little one. Welcome to the world, Alexa!

Happy Mother's Day

The night before Mother's Day I was really hoping for a little more sleep than usual. Isaac has been getting up at all hours for about a week, wanting me to nurse him back to sleep. I have been doing that but getting increasingly tired and desparate for rest. That night he woke up every 2 hours. He was unsettled and fussy and tough to soothe. It felt like I had just gone back to sleep when he was up again. Finally at 4:45 he woke up and I nursed him to sleep looking forward to a couple more hours of rest before Braeden got up. I set him down (ever-so-gently) in his crib and he woke up instantly and started crying. I started crying. Wandered back to bed where I fell face down on the mattress and cried. David gently went to get our sobbing son and let me sleep for a little while. When I got up at 7 Braeden was up and cranky (his sleep, too, has been impacted by this loud baby of ours...). Isaac (who is usually quite happy and alert in the morning) was very edgy and difficult to hold or soothe. What the heck? This can't be Mother's Day... I want a DO-OVER.
Later in the evening, after a difficult day or cranky tempers and lack of sleep (all around) I snuggled up with Braeden. No matter what the situation, Braeden is a champion snuggler. The best around. So we snuggled up on the couch under "orangie" (the mother blanket to his most precious of all loves, greenie). He was softly stroking my arm and he said:
" Mommy you are so pretty and I love you."
I said thank you and gave him a kiss. He replied:
" I told you I love you because it's Mother's Day. I love you."
I said, "Did Daddy tell you to say that?"
"No."

And David solumnly swears that there was no coaching involved in that interaction. I guess Mother's Day was wonderful. An to top things off... I got 8 (YES, 8!) hours of sleep last night. Ahhhhhh, motherhood.

Busy...

We had Jonathan and Julie over for dinner last week. As I sat and talked with Julie, who has been at home for awhile while she looks for a new job, she shared that she had been baking homemade yeast bread. We talked about having the time to do some of the things we always want to do like gardening, baking and knitting. I want to make sure that I enjoy this time home with my babies as much as I can... so, to that end I am endeavoring to try my had and making our home cozy for all beings and fun for me. I have made jelly, build a mossy-rock wall in our front yard, replanted flowers, baked bread (and muffins, cookies and scones!), tried to use new ingredients for cooking that I have never tried before and I am trying to convince David that we want to raise chickens. (No luck on the chickens by the way...) All new little twigs and twine for my nest, and what a splendid treat!