How do I love thee... Let me count the ways...

I am quickly falling head over heels in love with our new abode. She is open and spacious, warm and inviting. Each time I come in her doors, she greets me with love. Ok, it might not be this way to the average person since when they walk through the front doors they are greeted with stark white walls (that for now I have agreed to leave that way for Jeremiah) and really no furniture in the living room. But to me, she is becoming home, the place where our family belongs.

Some of the things that I love about her are:
*Her extra wide stairways (most are 3 feet wide or so and ours are 4 feet)
*Her plush carpet in the family room
*The fact that you can stand on the upstairs stairway and look down into the kitchen, living and dining rooms and it feels so open
*Her great backyard that is fenced in (though it doesn't seem to keep mangy little mutts inside- he just jumps right over!)
*Her three garage spaces
*Her center island in the kitchen
*All her cabinet and counter space in the kitchen
*Not having to clean out a bagillion toys from the tub to take a shower (since the kids have their own and we have our own!)
*Her ceiling fan in my bedroom with the remote
*The fact that the dishwasher is on a "light switch" up on the counter so that kiddos cannot just start the dishwasher by locking it
*Her back entryway through the laundry room
*Her main floor laundry room
*Her ample windows for natural lighting
*Her disposal in the sink (I grew up with one, but Jeremiah refused to ever put one in the old house, because it was just one more thing that could break- which was true so I didn't fight it)

Now just as in any relationship there are those things that bug you, but aren't "break it" deals and here are a couple:
*Her closet space is not ample
*Her linoleum in the entry way and kitchen are pretty scuffed and gouged up

And well that's all I can think of for now so, I'm thinking- She's a GEM!

Where you at?

We at da new house!

Monday May 24th we took possession of our new home! Here are the kids in the new, empty family room. Jonah and Aphia LOVED running, running, running in circles in the big empty rooms. Jonah asked, frequently, if we could leave them empty so that they would always have a place to run! He's not super thrilled with all the stuff that got moved in. But as for now, the living room sits vitually empty, save for the piano and a hutch and so they can run in there. But that is what our fenced in backyard is actually for!

Here are the kids in the kitchen on the first night. We had a picnic on the empty floor with Happy Meals!

Now real life is setting in... continuing to unpack, organize, rearrange, unpack some more, organize some more, rearrange some more. Plus making sure that everything is set and ready to go at the old house so that we can list it tomorrow! I'll post some pictures of that soon, it looks great and is ready to be SOLD!

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to all who have helped out with our move and transition! There were many, many people who helped out and we are SO GRATEFUL for the help of family and friends.

I am all packed up Mom!

Isaiah is packed up and ready to go! Aphia keeps asking if we can put Isaiah in the boxes that are strewn about our house and so we do!

But I cling to the wise words of my MIL when she encouraged us to still do something fun each day. Or sometimes take time to do nothing at all- which is what this blogging time is to me! Since it's only 10:30 and I've packed 4 big boxes today already.

So here we are at a park in Monticello that we like to go to. We enjoyed grabbing some Taco Bell for a picnic dinner, then having some much needed "down" playtime with the kids.

The next time I post we will be in our NEW HOUSE!!! We are so excited! Jonah asked me if we would be done packing after we moved. I told him yes, we would be done, but then we would have to UNPACK. That can be a much slower process however, that I am really looking forward to doing in my NEW HOUSE!!!

"EYES"aiah

The eyes on this little baby boy just might be the death of me. When he looks at me, I crumble to bits. I am in big trouble.

Day at the Museum

A couple weeks ago I decided to be brave and take all three children to the Children's Museum. Jonah had a two week long spring break and so toward the end, when we were all a little squirrely, we took a field trip!


We packed our lunches and headed to St. Paul for a day of fun! I was really happy with how the day went- I really was not sure how they would all do, but it was great! We left our house just as Isaiah would normally nap and he slept the whole way there making for a pleasant arrival!

We made our first stop to play in the water exhibits, blowing bubbles and playing with the Lock and Dam.

After the water, we headed over to the Dinosaur exhibit- definitely a favorite! I think of Mrs. Teranadon (from the show Dinosaur Train) singing, "I think I'll name you Shiny, Tiny and Don," when I look at this next picture of the kids sitting in a dinosaur egg nest.

They got to dig for fossils amongst cut up, old, rubber tires!

And here's Jones and Phi, sitting on the Trodon.

We ended the day with some face painting. It took ALL day to convince my type A boy to paint his face. And this is all I got from him!

Aphia was more adventurous with picking out colors, but still wanted me to paint it on her.

There were a few other exhibits that ranked in the top, but I don't have great pictures from them. Jonah was NOT a fan of the huge Queen Ant in the life size ant farm and Aphia did not want to crawl through the hollowed tree that was a tunnel. They LOVED the "town" that had a bus, grocery store, doctor's office, post office, home, and tv station!

A special hat tip goes to Ann for letting me borrow her stroller :)
You'd think that with three kids, I'd have one conducive to doing something like this. Well I don't. I sold my old regular stroller last summer because Jeremiah wanted a jogging one so he could rollerblade behind it. So I have that and an umbrella type, but the umbrella doesn't lay back and the jogger is not good for manuevering around smaller spaces. Thus my hunt begins for another stroller.

Easter

Easter Fun!

We had a marvelous Easter Sunday! The kids woke up and wanted to immediately look for their Easter baskets. Jonah said to me the day before, "Mom, don't hide it behind the couch, that's too easy!" So I was trickier this year and we had to play the "hot & cold game" for him to find it. It was in the oven. Now this produced a new dilemma for The Sheriff. He knows he is not allowed to touch or go in the oven, so when he realized it was in there, it took a good minute before he worked up the gumption to actually put his hand on the handle and pull it open to reveal his basket! I thought it was quite comical! He is my rules boy 'til the end!

We had carmel rolls and cinnamon rolls for breakfast and went to late church. They both wanted to be in the sanctuary, so we let them. Aphia actually sat better than Jonah did! She ate graham crackers and drew in her new notebook for the entire sermon. Jonah was a bit more squirrely but caught the part where, "That guy [pointing to our pastor] said he doesn't think we're all going to die! [making a point about how he believes that the rapture will happen soon and very soon!]" Then he pointed to him again and waved his finger in the "No, no." way because he uses a lot of "sign language" in church so he is quiet. I told him I'd explain to him later, which I did.

We came home and had Grandma Judy, Auntie Becca and Addi over for late lunch/early dinner. They brought all the food and it was SCRUMPTIOUS! MMMM HMMM! We had an Easter egg hunt in the back yard, which lasted a full 2.3 minutes before they were bored with it. After that round of company left, Grandma Lollie called to see if they could pop over, so her and Grandpa Jeff and Auntie Gina came over for a bit. The kids decided that Easter is a great day to eat too much candy, resulting in a 2:00 a.m. vomiting episode by Jonah. Super fun. And we had an awesome time chatting with the kids about why we have Good Friday and Easter and what it means for us. I love their hearts and their questions and their conversations about Jesus. It's awesome!

I hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend as well!

The shot below is the "monthly" picture. Although I might not be great at posting them, I am good about taking them at the right time each month!

They Call Me the Wanderer

I'm sorry that there have been no pictures on here lately. My internet is sometimes ok and sometimes totally bogus. Lately I've been able to watch "Chuck" on hulu (which I could almost never do before), but I can't upload any pictures to here or Facebook. It gets all the way to the end and then aborts the upload. SO FRUSTRATING!

But that is not the point of this post.
This is. I wander. I am lost. I do not know where to start. I am not mad or sad or frustrated about this (most of the time), it is just the way it is. If you looked into our home, there would be ample amounts of time during the day that you would see me aimlessly walking around. Let me explain.

The other night I had finished up bathing, diapering, and jammying Isaiah. He was playing happily on his bedroom floor and I started to walk out of the room. As I was walking out, I looked back at 2 baskets full of clean clothes and said to myself, "Walk right back in there and PUT THOSE AWAY!" Then thought, "What was I going to do otherwise? I don't know. I was going to go wander around the house because I do not even know where to start with everything." Sometimes I get so overwhelmed with all that there is to do with our house, three kids, a husband, a dog, a yard that I just zone out and wander. I become totally ineffiecient and waste time doing piddly little things instead of focusing, honing in, and tackling big things that need to be done. I spend time lost in the haze. I need to regroup. That is what I have been focusing on today. One thing at a time. Tackle it for 5-10 minutes and walk away. Find another thing, tackle it for 5-10 minutes and walk away.

It has been a good day! I have gotten a lot of stuff done. Today the kitchen and living room don't make me want to hide in a hole. I brought out the children's spring/summer clothes and went through them to bring upstairs and put in drawers. I worked on another fun project that I cannot disclose at this time :) And I wrapped up the laundry... which I started on Monday.

And look at me now, I have had the past 10 minutes to blog. Fun.

It must be spring! This energy and renewed sense of wanting to clean and organize is a sure-tale sign! I even asked my sister-in-law, Becca, if I could borrow her label maker when she comes over on Sunday.

I'm going to go meander on over to flylady.com and then check out some other organizational websites. What does spring do for your mood? Do you get in the cleaning, rearranging, organizing mode? What have you done so far this spring?