A Captured Moment

I am definitely a sentimentalist. Sometimes to a fault. I have a hard time getting rid of things, because I'm afraid I'll be letting go of memories. I'm so wistful sometimes, it is sickening. So I have to share this captured moment. A picture snapped during such a simple task between father and son. I look at this, and I want to weep. Weep for those days, several years ago when my oldest, Brendan was a toddler. Some days I wish I could just rewind....

Sweet Joy

Ordinary Day

Old truck holding something special

Can't hold back

Must express himself

Explosion of pure joy

Sweet Relief

Quality Time

Since my husband has been working long hours, he has been trying to spend one-on-one quality time with each of the kids. Each child has different interests and values their time with their daddy in a different way. For Nolan, he took him to wash and put gas in his truck. And Nolan loved this! He even "wrote" about it in his journal at school. Alaina is content with riding in daddy's truck to go get ice cream. One Sunday afternoon, Brendan wanted to build something with his dad, so the two of them went up to the lumber store and whipped this up from scratch. Of course, it's nothing to my husband who is a carpenter. But I was impressed, because I could never do this.


Notice the sad eyes because this was taken right before my husband went back to work. Brendan has a hard time every week when he leaves to go back to work. But, it won't be like this forever. There is a light at the end of the tunnel.

On another note, can I just say that parenthood is so hard sometimes! I am really struggling right now with making the best decisions for my kids. It is so hard to know what to do for them. I just pray daily that I make the right choices for them so that they can learn to their full potential and grow up to be the men that God intends for them to be. I know He has a plan for them....I know that full well.

Gas Stations

Okay, I haven't posted for awhile, so I'm dusting off this blog to write about a very important subject in our house these days. You ready....gas stations! Yes, we talk about gas stations all day long here. And we also talk about them in detail when we drive by them. And we drive certain routes to drive by our most favorite gas station which happens to be Phillips 66. The one in our town is deserted and closed and I get to hear about it ALL of the time. Every week Nolan chooses the gas station to get gas at and washes the windows while the gas pumps. Don't worry folks, I have him step away from the toxic fumes. Let's just say it is the highlight of his week! And being the uber cool mom I am, I took him to the working Phillips 66 in a town nearby to pump gas as a reward. He informed me that there was another Phillips 66 in this town over on Iowa street. And sure enough the other day I spotted it. He's an AMAZING kid who takes an AMAZING amount of patience, but he sure does make me chuckle every day!

Summer Woes

We have really done a lot of fun things so far on our Summer break. I love being off with my kids and just enjoying them.... truly I do. However, some days are harder than others. I'm not a Pollyanna, Peachy Keen, Hunky Dorey type of mom, so let me just lay it all out there. They have been fighting like cats and dogs! And fighting kids+more fighting+more fighting=CRAZY MOM. I know it's completely "normal", but by the end of the day I'm at the end of my rope and can't take another quarrel. The other evening I was telling Brendan how tired I was of all the fighting. And he looked at me and said, "We fight all the time." Then he started wailing, "But I still love him!" I am so impressed by these statements. Statements of love that do come out of my kids' mouths. My sister wouldn't admit she loved me until after she left for college!:) Hee, hee. But I do know without a doubt she loves me now. So I just try to focus on the fact that they do enjoy each other even amidst these seasons of fighting. And I have proof...

Organization....or Lack Thereof

Recently my workaholic husband took a WHOLE week off. And during this week he went on a organizing frenzy. In one day he purchased a label maker, binders, and paper shredder. In my opinion, a label maker is a true sign of an organized person. I feel that in a marriage there needs to be lots of compromises. One of the compromises in our marriage has been that he needs to let go of some of the organized clutter going on in our house, and I need to try a little harder to stay organized. Honestly, I just don't think that way. I am a scatterbrain! I can't help it. But I do try. However, sometimes I just don't see things the way he sees them. For instance, we were putting the groceries away one evening and as we opened the cabinets he just shook his head and pointed out the obvious, which I didn't notice. I just laughed and of course, took a picture. Maybe he just faced way to many shelves at the grocery store where he worked as a teenager.....or maybe it's just me.

A New Medium

For our last art project for our art club the theme was, "Something is Missing." I've been wanting to try mosaics for a while now and thought I would give it a try. So I asked my husband to build me a frame for a mirror. He cracks me up, because I always have a simple idea in mind. And being the perfectionist carpenter that he is, he always exceeds my expectations. And he takes my projects very seriously. We make a good team! I enjoyed doing this mosaic mirror for Alaina's room and will definitely be working with mosaics again very soon. And the "Something Missing" is a pattern. I was going to make a picture out of the glass, but the tiles that I purchased didn't cut very well. So I just chose a random placement and I think it turned out nicely. Alaina was so excited for her new mirror and enjoys making silly faces in it!