A surprise for Symantha

On Wednesday, I put a note in Symantha's lunchbox telling her I had a surprise for her after school. Hailey and I picked her up (Addison went to Grandma's), and Symantha tried to guess what the surprise was. I told her we were going somewhere that rhymed with "chair", and for the next 10 minutes the girls said everything EXCEPT "fair"! They finally guessed fair, and Symantha knew exactly where we were going because she had been asking to go the Puyallup fair ever since her school had given her a free admission ticket last week. We met Amy Jo at the Super Mall, and headed out for a fun evening!

The first ride of the night was the swings...

Then we discovered this "Let's Pretend Farm Time Tour" where the kids wore costumes and become part of the show. Hailey was a sheep and Symantha was a horse. They got to make their animal sounds into a microphone and be a part of a fun little show.
My favorite part was when they chose Amy Jo to come on stage with a rooster around her neck to join the show. She also got to do the chicken dance with them. LUCKY HER!!
We ate tons of food, walked all over, rode the slide (Amy Jo has an awesome video she took herself while going down with Hailey!), and rode the scrambler (which Hailey proceeded to giggle hysterically while yelling, "I love this ride!!", while Symantha felt a little sick).
On our way out, we stopped at this big contraption that you could use drumsticks to hit and make all different sounds. Hailey is so sensitive to loud sounds - this is one of many pictures I have of her covering her ears in some form or another over the years. We were cracking up, as she tried to play while doing this!
They were pretty tired towards the end, and we indulged them with piggy back rides most of the way back to the car. That and the promise of a warm scone once we got there! It was a good time, despite the usual craziness of the fair.

Finding the balance

A couple of days ago, I spent most of the day cleaning the house and I worked very HARD. It was very clean at the end of the day, and I was happy with that. But it got me thinking, how I wasn't really a very good mom that day because I was so focused on cleaning. And then, because I had worked so hard, I was like a Nazi making sure everyone cleaned up after themselves for the next few days!

It is probably just my season of life, but I feel like I can only be really good at one thing at a time, and something is always getting neglected. Each day, I am either...

a really good housekeeper

a really good wife

a really good mom to these sweet girls

a really good teacher

a really good friend

or a good servant, daughter, sister, planner, memory-keeper, organizer, or a whole bunch of other roles I could list off.

I am constantly trying to balance my life and do it all well, and it gets so frustrating because I CAN'T! I used to feel like I had it all under control much more than I do now. And since I am such an all-or-nothing kind of person, I end up just giving up some days and the house stays a disaster or the kids watch a little too much tv.

If I could have a perfect day, where I accomplished everything I wanted, it would include:

*Quiet time with Bible Study and prayer in the morning
*A great workout
*A clean house
*Time to scrapbook, blog, memory-keep in some form
*All emails answered
*Good, healthy meals prepared
*Time to play games, cuddle and spend time with the girls, without feeling like I have so many other things to do
*Friend time to chat and catch up
*Laughing with Derek, time to hang out and talk together
*Organizing some part of the house
*Checking all the other random things off my to-do list
*Going to bed at a decent time, feeling good

I know there are not enough hours in the day to do all of this every day, as much as I want to. So, that is when I have to choose my top priorities and be ok with everything else not being done as much as I would like. I have read all those poems and email forwards about how the dust will wait but the children won't, etc. etc. and I know that is true! But in real life, the cleaning, laundry and so on DO have to get done, so I just have to keep working at finding the balance the best I can. I am blessed to have all these hats to wear, and I am thankful for each one, even though sometimes I get just a little overwhelmed.

Hello, Routine... We've missed you

Summer is fun, and I've loved it, but we are sooo in need of getting back onto some type of schedule and routine. Thank goodness Symantha's school finally started after a two week teacher's strike. Hailey actually got to start her preschool class first (which made Symantha very sad, unfortunately). Here she is on her first day...

And with her buddy, Landon. This is the first year I haven't been Hailey's teacher, but she had no qualms about being with Miss Suzy and Miss Lori.

Then, Symantha started school just yesterday. She was SO excited and was dancing around the house when she found out she got to start finally. She wanted to choose her clothes and put her bag by the door right away. Here she is all ready to go...

And checking out her new desk and who is in her class. There was a whole lot of, "Oh Mom, there's so and so!" as we walked in. I think the big cheesy smiles say it all (which are so toothless, and I LOVE that look!)

And as for getting back into routine, I started my third year of teaching the 3-year-old class Thursday and Friday mornings at Joyful Noise Christian Preschool, which is at our church. This year I am blessed to get to work with one of my best friends, Sara, as my co-teacher! So excited about that.

And as for this little cutie... well, she just goes with the flow of the rest of the family's routine. During preschool, she is either at Grandma's, with me in class, or at various friends' of mine who are nice enough to hang out with her for a few hours now and then. Next year, she will get to be in Mommy's class...not that I am rushing anything!!
It's only been a few days of adjusting back to scheduled life, and it feels good. However, just wait until next summer, when we are in school late to make up for missed strike days, and I'm sure I will be longing for those schedule free days once again!

14 years together

Last weekend, Derek and I celebrated 14 years of marriage! Our actual anniversary was August 26, but that was a Wednesday, which means Youth group for Derek. So we celebrated on Saturday by going to Seattle for the day with NO CHILDREN. I love them and all, but I so love time alone with my husband, where we aren't focused on parenting... I love that we still have so much fun together just hanging out. 14 years have flown by, and it's easy to get caught up in kids, work, ministry, and overall busyness. But we have always made our relationship a serious priority and I'm glad that we both agree how important that is. I had always tried to imagine what it would be like when I was married for 10, 15, or however many years... I couldn't fathom! Thank goodness it is WAY better than I ever could have imagined, and I feel so blessed by our shared life together.

Almost Kisses

Hailey was reading some books with Addison and I got the camera out to take a picture. Addison LOVES Hailey (or as she calls her "Hayeeee") and always wants to be with her. Hailey tried to give Addi a kiss, but they didn't quite meet up....
So after reading for a minute, Addi tried to give Hailey a kiss, but she wasn't ready for it...
Then when Hailey tried to kiss her back, Addison was already done... they just couldn't get their timing right, but it sure was cute:)

Blackberries (not the kind with buttons)

For the past few weeks, there have been an abundance of blackberries all around our house. The kids have been picking them and eating them at will, and it is very difficult to keep Addison away from them.
I often find her looking like this...
And I try not to think of the bugs or bad berries she may have put in her mouth. So I try to wash a bunch and give them to her in a cup, hoping to satisfy her lust for the blackberry.

But soon she is back at it... oh well. They will be gone soon enough.