Thankful November: Day 9 (only a little late)

Sometimes it's the little things that make you feel like you really got something done.  As a mom, my kids ask me to do a lot of things for them, and while I say I'll do them, and have every intention of doing them, so many times those things are left incomplete ... or worse, not even started.

But recently Mollie asked me if I could help her bring a little extra light to the cabinet she was using as a Barbie apartment, and I actually followed through on it!  

It didn't take long and it wasn't difficult, but it made her day and that felt so good.  Just a simple strand of fairy lights and sticky tack/poster putty did the job wonderfully.  

As much as I hate to admit it, completing projects is often elusive for me, so seeing one through to the end, no matter how small a project, is a really great feeling.

Thankful November: Day 8 (super duper late)

I know this is two days late, but it's important to keep up with things so I'll take you back a couple days and keep this brief.

The 8th was a bit of a rough day.  I started the morning out with a panic attack*, an experience I find particularly exhausting.  It's a difficult way to start out a day, but I kept moving and breathed through it.  And I came out the other side tired, but still here, still ready to move forward with the day.  We worked on moving things around on the porch to make more work space for Bryson's work-from-home office, and soon I'll have things moved around so the other half of the room will be the ultimate reading space for the kids.

Ultimately, I kept going, and for that I am thankful.






* For more information about panic attacks and anxiety attacks, visit this link.

Thankful November: Day 7 (super late)

I almost forgot to post today, but I remembered right as I was shutting down my computer for the night.  Whew!  

Yesterday was my 39th birthday, and I got to spend the day with these three awesome people.

 I also got to enjoy lunch and apple pie with my parents and my sister at their house socially distanced in the garage because the weather was crazy nice for the first time in my life on my birthday.  They made me feel so special, and we all had such a good time!

But most of all, I get to be 39 years old.  I am grateful for every single day on this earth.  I don't feel old.  I feel lucky.

Thankful November: Day 6 (a bit belated)

On a mission to get as many leaves raked up as I could before my birthday, I set out yesterday with rake in hand and went to town on the massive amount of leaves scattered across our yard.  Eventually I worked out a system using the kids' sleds to haul leaves from the front yard to the back, and I was able to get the front yard taken care of in about two hours.  Then I spent about an hour raking the backyard into two piles: one giant long one that stretches from the bottom of the hill to the top and one big squatty pile at the bottom of the hill.  

 It felt so good to get all that done!

Thankful November: Day 5 (late again)

I had it in my mind to post this yesterday, even made sure to take pictures of it, but here we are ... a day late again.  Oh well, it's the effort that counts, right?

For those of you who have not had the pleasure of experience the visual feast that is our yard in the fall, here is just a sample of the crazy fallen leaf cover we get every single year.  (And this is just the front yard.  Believe it or not, the back is twice as crazy.)

Leaf removal is one of my main fall stressors.  (Just ask my poor sister yesterday ... she heard the rant and watch me twitch as they flew over the house and into the front yard.)  Since we are having unseasonably warm and, more importantly, dry weather, I thought I would take it upon myself to try sucking up the leaves with my ... we'll call it a reverse leaf blower, or RLB for short.  I don't often get to use my RLB because by the time I actually get to the leaves they've been sitting on the yard for a while, getting wet with each passing day whether it be by rain or dew or even snow.*  

But yesterday afternoon the leaves were dry, my resolve was firm, and I went out into the yard and sucked up a bunch of leaves.  This isn't even all of them.  There was a huge pile to the right of our garage I sucked up as well as some in the landscaping.  (But I think I am the only one really geeked about all these pictures, so I'll just post two.  You get the idea.)

 To make a long story short, I am grateful to have gotten at least part of the leaf mess taken care of yesterday.  Did I get incredibly sore from my efforts?  My body says, "Yes."  Did the RLB make an incredible mess all over the driveway, my clothes, my hair, the air, etc.?  Oh my goodness, yes.  I was trying to blow the crushed leaf dust off the driveway when my father-in-law was coming back from his daily walk, and as he walked over the hill near our house he said the cloud I was producing made him think something was on fire.  And I'm not entirely sure the leaf dust is going to come out of the jeans I was wearing ... only a good run through the washing machine will tell.

But I got a lot of the leaves taken care of and the crushed up leaves took up a lot less room than just dumping them over the fence in the back like I usually do.  Okay, maybe that picture is worth posting.  Hold on ...

Pretty impressive, right?!  All those leaves fit into that tiny little bag!  But because of the giant mess my RLB made I am going to switch back to regular raking (or leaf blowing) for a while.  

This is a long post about leaves.  I'm just so grateful I got a bunch of them taken care of yesterday!

* Fun fact: I often have to deal with the leaves after it has snowed because I have procrastinated taking care of them.  The procrastination often leads to some pretty intense guilt on my part, but I recently learned that procrastination is often attributed to anxiety, which I have in spades.  Knowledge is power, so I'm trying to take it easy on myself about this now, but that's not always the simplest thing to do ... particularly when you struggle with anxiety.  Anyway, here's an article about it to expand your knowledge.  Enjoy!

Thankful November: Day 4 (finally on time)

I finally did it!  Day 4 is on November 4th!  I digress.

Today's bit of gratitude comes from an unexpected cleanout of one area of our basement.  Baylor needed a dedicated space for his art class (long story), so I got to work and turned this ...

... into this.  For a few years now I have been wanting to turn this area into a craft room, and it finally happened.  The areas outside this picture are far from perfect, but for now there is a really nice area to do crafts (and art class)!
 

Thankful November: Day 3 (I'll be on time one of these days)

I had every intention of posting this last night, but the kids were interested in watching the election returns and were up later as a result so it didn't happen.  

Yesterday's walk was amazing.  I know I'm wearing a hat and coat in this picture, but the weather was really beautiful and unseasonably warm for November.  And that sun!  Couldn't beat it.  

Plus, I was out with these two.  Everyone was happy.  It was great.

 

Thankful November: Day 2 (a day late again)

I feel a little better about this one being late because it was for a good reason ... our power went out yesterday afternoon for just over 3 hours.  And, ironically, that led to a whole bunch of good things.  I was in the grocery checkout line buying a week's worth of groceries when it went out, and my mom was awesome enough to let me put all my refrigerated and frozen foods into their outdoor fridge/freezer.  My sister gave my husband and I a gift card to a restaurant we love, so we used that and got ourselves dinner.  I got to see this awesome sunset while picking up said food.

And I had these three lovely people to come home to.  

 The kids had never really experienced a nighttime power outage like this, but they made the best of it.  And all of us said electricity was something we were glad for at dinner ... nothing like a good power outage to remind you of what you've got.

Here's hoping this is the last late day!

Thankful November: Day 1 (a day late)

I think I can safely say this year has been difficult for everyone.  At the beginning of the pandemic lockdown, to help my family focus on things that were positive, I asked everyone at dinner what one good thing was for that day; in no time it morphed into all the good things about that day.  I'm happy to say we still do it almost every single night.  Answers range from "you guys" to "my chair" to "getting all my school work done early today" and everywhere in between.  And, at least from my perspective, these moments to focus on the good have helped us through the hard times.

In keeping with that spirit, I thought it might be fun to rev up the old blog and post a month's worth of "good things".  

So here's the first one ... a day late.

A week or two ago, I somehow got the kids to start taking daily walks outside with me.  We haven't gone out in the rain yet, but yesterday we made our first trip out into very cold, snowy weather and it was such a good walk!

End of Summer and The First Day of School 2018

This summer, the summer of 2018, has to have been the fastest summer I have ever experienced.  It flew by so quickly, likely because we packed it full of so much fun.  The last Sunday before school was no exception.  We had breakfast with my mother-in-law in the morning, then after a little fun at home we headed to my parents' house for lunch and swimming.  

The kids were determined to make a slide into the pool as we've done in previous years, and my dad came through with some modifications to make it stay put.

Every year on the Sunday before school starts, I take the kids to school and practice our drop off.  It helps all of us mentally prepare for the first day, and this year it had an added bonus of strategically preparing us for the first day.  In our school district, fifth grade is a move up to the middle school building, so for the first time the kids will be attending different schools.  Baylor had the brilliant idea to have Bryson come with us so we could simulate the drive to school without Mollie, which he probably thought was more for him but really worked out to be a great preparation for both of us.  Mollie wasn't sure where her line was going to be for the morning, so after we practiced dropping her off, Baylor showed her where it would probably be.  They are so good to each other!

We then practiced dropping Baylor off, with Mollie and Bryson following behind in Bryson's car, and that is when things started to sink in a bit for me.  Which is why there aren't any pictures of our time at his school practicing, even though we stayed there for a bit longer to let the kids try out the playground.  I just needed to hold it together, so pictures fell by the wayside.  Our evening went well enough, all of us feeling a little more prepared for the next day than before, and the kids went to bed without too much worry.

Then Mother Nature hit ... a couple big thunderstorms rolled through, waking up the kids, dropping sticks and leaves all over the house, and eventually knocking out the power to a few of the schools in our district.  So, at 5:50 a.m. on Monday morning, we found out the first day of school had been cancelled.  The kids and I were upset; we had gotten all prepared, and they had actually gotten excited about the first day!  After a morning full of meltdowns and indecision, we ended up going to my parents' house for lunch and a swim; it really helped us take our minds off the huge change in plans and got out some energy.  An afternoon appointment, dinner, and showers followed, and then it was time for another night before the first day of school.  Oh, and to make things even more interesting, it was our 13th wedding anniversary.  Needless to say I experienced a full gamut of emotions last night.

Then all of a sudden it was the morning of the first day of school.  The kids got ready so quickly, and we had plenty of time for pictures!  Baylor picked his favorite t-shirt to wear on the first day.  (Seriously, it's his favorite.  He wore it on the last day of third grade, picture day in fourth grade, the last day of fourth grade, and a million times in between.)

Mollie picked one of her current favorite dresses and had me put a small braid on one side of her hair.

We dropped off Mollie first, and all our practicing was for naught ... she had to run straight in the front door because of all the rain.  Luckily, she's amazing and took it all in stride.

Then Baylor and I made our way over to the middle school.  At first he commented on how he missed Mollie, but I redirected him to the book he had been reading and we talked about The Odyssey and how it compares to Percy Jackson the rest of the way.  Once we got there, we figured out that we could either park or just do a drop off, and he opted for parking and me walking him to the door.  The principal greeted us and gave me a reassuring nod and smile after Baylor went inside.

Then I got in my car and started crying.  It's a first day of school tradition that I apparently cannot go without.  I cry partly because I miss them during the day when they aren't here and partly because I worry about how their day will go, if kids will be nice to them, if they'll get along with their teachers, etc.  It's hard to let go and entrust their care to someone else, but I know it is good for all of us.  And now I get to look forward to hearing all about it at the end of the day!

Have a wonderful day!