The Good Life

People are upset. Everywhere I look, people are upset. It's been almost a week of the non-stop (not-so-friendly) banter. As I watched the inauguration of our new President, I had a lot of mixed feelings. I felt sad that so much negativity was surrounding the transition. I felt so extremely proud to be an American and proud that we are able to have such a strong and united change of power. I felt excited for a fresh vision and new ideas. I felt scared at how easily people are persuaded to believe something with no effort to research or verify information. I felt grateful that we live in such a place, where we can voice our opinions. Out of all these feelings I have been experiencing over the past week, the biggest one is a sense of peace. Weird that I feel peaceful at a time like this, but I totally do. People are putting so much responsibility and expectation on Donald Trump. He is just a man. He's a man just like Barack Obama and George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and George B...

Y'all, this morning was a complete disaster. Ryleigh was up all night with the croupy croup so I woke up tired. It was Colton's first day back to school and he slept in (which never happens). I decided to let him sleep and just wake him up about 10 minutes before we had to hit the door. I thought we could manage to eat a breakfast bar, brush teeth, get dressed and out the door in 10 minutes. We can't. Poor Colton. I rushed him through everything. From the time he opened his sleepy little eyes, I was rushing him. Get up. Go eat. Get dressed. Brush your teeth. Blah, blah, blah. I poured him milk in a "big boy cup" because I was too lazy (and in too much of a hurry) to put a lid on anything and said "don't carry that cup around, you could spill your milk". Sure enough, 3 seconds later I'm yelling about spilled milk all over the living room rug to a sweet little face, standing there in shock that his milk was all over the rug. It wasn't his fau...

I woke up this morning feeling like I could conquer the world, so I took my kids with me to shop for clothes. Yep, I was feeling pretty great until we stepped into the first store. Thankfully we got to Maurices right when they opened so we were the only people in the store. We walked in the door and Colton ran into the rack of clothes because he "didn't see it". I put Ryleigh down to pick up the clothes that C knocked off and she took off running. The nice woman working the store ran block for me and started talking to her, which made Rue very unsure of her surroundings, so she started pulling at her coat and crying. The nice lady then says "oh, do you want your coat off" moving towards her, so she comes running to me. I get her coat off and stuffed in my purse just in time to catch the toboggan that Colton is throwing at me and hear him say "I want to take my jacket off too". I proceed to stuff another jacket and hat into my purse (which already has a...

I love Christmastime. It's absolutely my favorite time of year. I love the decorations and the celebrations and the overall feeling that people genuinely do care for each other. I love how Christmas lights make everything seem so safe and warm and perfect. I love reflecting on the previous year and all the highs and lows that came with it. I do a lot of soul searching this time of year and I get so emotional when I think about the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate. This year has been the most challenging year for me as a wife and Mom. Growing in both of those roles just brings a fair amount of "hard". I know everybody has their own version of hard and while I can wallow in my self pity at times, I can also look at my life and know how incredibly blessed I am. Last Christmas, Ryleigh was brand new (barely 2 months old) and I was sleep deprived and Colton was so terribly sick on and off surrounding the holidays that it all just seems like a blur. This year,...

Have kids, they said. It will be fun, they said. It's the most rewarding job ever, they said. 100% true. It is fun and it is the most rewarding job I've ever had. However, there are also the not so fun and not so rewarding days. I had to take Colton to Urgent Care at 4AM. This dang breathing (or lack there of) mess is about to get the best of him. 103 fever he couldn't shake for most of the night. He has a virus (doesn't every kiddo right now?) that we are praying isn't hand/foot/mouth. Ryleigh has diarrhea, Colton puked all over his bed, I've been snot on and coughed on and cried on and pooped on more than I care to say today. I had to choose between a nap (running on about 3 hours of sleep) or a shower (running on about 3 days of no shower). I chose shower. Mostly because my sheets are in the washing machine and our last set of spare ones bit the dust a couple of months ago (and who has time to think about buying sheets until you actually need them?). So...

I read a devotional this morning called " when relationships feel like obstacles ". Oh how this hit me in such a tender spot this morning because I have really been looking into my relationships (and myself) lately. Am I closing people off? Am I spreading myself thin? Are my expectations too high (or low)? Am I allowing myself to let God work through these people he's placed in my life? Every person, every relationship has a purpose. Sometimes it feels like life would be so much easier if we could just get from one place to another with no distractions and interruptions. Like, for instance, when you're just trying to get across town and you get stopped by a train or a funeral procession or lots of traffic. Maybe, just maybe, there was a reason why you were delayed. Perhaps if you were 30 seconds earlier, you would've been in an accident. Sometimes, like traffic jams, people (relationships) can feel like big interruptions. We're just going along, living our...

I've been wanting to get back to this blog as an outlet. Now that the kids are able to (somewhat) entertain themselves for short little spurts, I'm loving the small pockets of extra time I have to get back to things I love! Maybe I'll even get to start sleeping all night again. A girl can dream, right? So much has happened over the past several months, so I can't even start to play catch up. I mean, Colton's 3.5 years old now and Ryleigh will be 10 months on Saturday. C starts pre-k (fall 3s) in a couple of weeks and Rue is so close to walking on her own. Lots of exciting and not-so-exciting things are happening every day. One of the more exciting things that has happened (since my last post) is that we purchased a camper. We have always loved to camp and though we do enjoy the feel of "tent camping" we also found it harder to accommodate our growing family and all the crap (for lack of better word) that you have to pack for babies. We knew we wanted a...