Speed of Light

Wowzers. I apologize for my absence around here, for some reason it seems like the days are just whizzing by at the speed of light. I just haven't had time to write about much of anything. Now that I think about it, I'm not sure if I've even had time to feel inspired to blog, either. I'm still doing all the same ol' stuff, but it kind of seems like this time of year things ramp up again until school lets out and we can finally relax during summer vacation. Am I the only one or does anyone else feel like this?

My flower bed is doing great, I finally got all of last years dead stuff cleaned out and am ready for new stuff. My daffodils are blooming and one tulip. Also the oregano, chives, thyme and marjoram are smelling GOOD. The other day both girls snapped a chive and ate it on the way to the bus stop in the morning. Weirdos.

I'm volunteering still at school, book club w/ Linds' class and whatever Kera's teacher needs help with. I've been working a lot too, mainly cuz I didn't do it earlier. If I did my "work" once a month like I'm suppose to, I wouldn't have these months were it seems like I'm working a lot. It's just that the time gets away from me. Also this new part time from home job takes up some of my former blogging time as well.

I'm still lifting heavy stuff, eating nummy paleo food and making lotion. Not much has changed, it's business as normal around here. I'm not entirely sure why it feels busier, but it is. So hang in there, I'll be back at some point, I'm sure! :)

Irony

One of my light purple crocus made an appearance today.

In other news, I have an ironic short story to share with you.

We all know that any good story has some character development, so let me give you a little background on our main character. Let's name her "Kendra".

Kendra doesn't like surprises, she likes to know exactly what is happening and when. She likes to be prepared for things. She doesn't do spontaneous very well. She's also a stickler for following the rules, she doesn't like to rock the boat too much. She is a mother and loves her children fiercely, she's determined to watch out for them and help them be their best. She doesn't work outside the home, but embraces her "job" as mother. She strives to be involved in her kids' lives, which includes being active in volunteering at their school. Although Kendra is intelligent, and her hair is technically brown, she'll freely admit to having "blonde" moments and her lack of common sense. She gets caught up in her thoughts and imagination which means she's oblivious to what is going on in real life around her sometimes.

Okay, so here's Kendra's story:

One grey and rainy spring day, Kendra woke up feeling tired and run-down. The weather seemed to match her mood perfectly. She got her kids breakfast and drank a couple cups of coffee, but couldn't quite shake the "blah" feeling. She took a shower and got ready to head into the school to help out in her oldest daughter's class, determined to make something out of the day.

It wasn't very far to the school, and she found herself zoning out as she drove the familiar roads through the neighborhood. Suddenly she noticed that she was going a tad bit too fast, which isn't like her at all. She hit her brakes to slow down. She hated it when drivers blasted through the road by the school or even through her neighborhood, it brought out the "mama bear" in her. Then, as she slowed to a stop at the four way stop, she realized the car parked almost directly across from her was a police car. She hoped he wouldn't pull her over for her right turn signal which only worked spasmodically. And, then, to her horror as she made her right hand turn, the lights came on and he pulled up right behind her.

Seriously? She shakes her head and pulls over. 

The officer comes up to her window, "Ma'am, I pulled you over today because you were speeding back there. You were going 37 in that 25 mph zone."

Kendra can hardly believe what she's hearing, "Are you sure? I usually really good about following the limit because my kids go to that school!"

"Yes, Ma'am, that's what I have you on the radar going."

"Really? I had no idea," Kendra admits as she remembers that she was zoning out pretty well back there. She cannot wrap her head around the fact that she is probably about to get a ticket. 

She fumbles through her purse and car for her licence, registration and proof of registration and hands them to the officer. He walks back to his car and she sits there, focusing on breathing in and out. She can feel the tears threatening and she clenches her fists. She will not cry.  She says a quick prayer, hoping maybe God will give her a miracle and she won't actually get a ticket. She starts to wonder how long it takes a cop to write a ticket, forever? She's due at the school like five minutes ago. And now she starts to feel mad.

The police officer shows up again at her window, he's taken off his sunglasses now, "I did have to write you a citation, ma'am, but I did write that you were going 34 in the 25, that will help you out quite a bit. You don't need to make an appearance in court to pay the fine if you don't want, there are more instructions on the back. Do you have any questions?"

"Okay. No."

"Alright, ma'am, have a nice day." 

Sure. she will, this ticket is just what she needed to make her day! She thinks as she pulls away, careful to use her blinker and watch for traffic. She only has a few minutes before she gets to the school, so she steels herself not to cry even though that's all she wants to do. She has to go lead some kids in book club, there's no way she's gonna go in there all red faced from crying, besides she's already late, she doesn't have time to cry right now.

Half an hour later, she's back in her car and looking at the ticket. All she can think about when she looks at it, is how unfair life is. She says it to her kids all the time, but she's living it right then. How is it that she can be so conscientious about following the rules of the road, particularly the speed limit, and yet the one day when she's totally not paying attention to it because she's feeling "blah", that's the day a cop is staking out her route? She feels the anger bubble up in her, she can't believe that she of all people gets a ticket for speeding when she sees drivers speeding through that area and others everyday! Where are the cops when she's being passed in the neighborhood while she's following the limit? Or when she's being tailgated through the school zone?  Seriously, this is totally unfair. 

She ends up crying as she's driving home. She's just so mad that she can't hold it in any longer. She feels bad that she was speeding through the school zone, but she's even madder at the unfairness of it all. She is not about to set food in the court and give anymore of her time to the thing, so she calls the court to find out how much her fine will be and how she can just pay it and be done with it. Seventy-two dollars, that's what her spacing out will cost her. 

Her husband comes home from work not too long after she gets home. She's not sure how he'll respond to it, but when he asks how her day is, she says, "Horrible."

She starts to cry again as she explains to him why it's horrible. When she's done telling him the whole story, he asks what her fine will be. She tells him through tears.

It's then she notices that he's laughing. And teasing her, "Well then stop speeding," and "Don't be so hard on yourself, it's not a big deal."

Then, he tells her a story about how he'd been speeding through a school zone the other day on his way back to town. Right about the time he noticed how fast he was actually going, he also noticed a cop and that the cop was looking directly at him. The cop started to flip around to tag him, so he pulled off the road really quick, pulled in behind a bar/restaurant, parked and went in as if he was going in for breakfast. So he got out of a ticket.

And that my friends, is the epitome of irony.

A day in the life of.....

A Stay At Home Mom

To answer the question, "What do you do all day?"

Let me first preface this by saying this post will be like a kid's book: Lots of pictures, not many words.

The first thing I do when I wake up is make one of these:

I actually made one for Erik this morning too since he was awake at the same time.

It was about this time.

The house was quiet,

so I sat on the couch with my latte and took advantage of the peaceful start to the day.

We had the fire on. It was nice.

About 20 minutes later, this little monster crawled up on the couch next to me.

The peacefulness was officially over.

So I went ahead and got my workout wear on.

And brushed my teeth. (I'm sure the other mom's at the bus stop are grateful for this every morning) 

Even though I shouldn't have used the flash on this picture, it cracks me up, so I used it.

Woke up Lindsay and rounded her up some breakfast.

I also fed Kera, I just didn't document that.

Oh look, the breakfast dishes.

I need some more coffee. This time I use egg nog as "creamer" in my americano. Yum.

Then its off to the bus stop.

Except Lindsay had forgotten her snow boots so she ran back to the house to grab them.

She needed them just in case.

We stood at the bus stop for almost 10 minutes before the bus showed up. It's always late.

When I got home, I needed to warm up my coffee, which had gotten cold waiting for me.

Then I checked my email really quick, coordinating it with my planner. Oh look, a Joann's coupon, yay.

And folded some towels.

Before finally getting downstairs to workout about 9:00 a.m. or so.

Can anyone guess my workout video?

Afterwards, I decided to use the special hair mask I got from my hairdresser yesterday.

 It needed to sit on my hair for at least 5 minutes so I figured it was

a good a day as any to finally shave my legs.

And, since my hair hasn't seen much besides a pony tail lately,

I figured I might as well actually style my hair for once.

Then it was time to eat a quick lunch while checking email, blogs and facebook.

Before jumping in the car to head to....

Yvonne's house. She's my friend and we hang out most Wednesdays for a couple of hours. She has a 6 month old son (as well as 2 older kiddos) that I think is adorable. I got to feed him cereal and apple butternut squash today.

Then I drove home. She lives on the exact opposite side of town from me, so this can take a while somedays.

I get home at near 3pm so I grab a quick snack before

heading back down to the bus stop to gather the girls.

Ha. Love how this is upside down. Weird blogger. Anyways, I make a couple of phone calls while eating my snack. (Where's my bench I ordered 2 months ago?!)

Get the girls home and get them....

a snack!

And do some homework.

After all the homework is completed, I have forty minutes or so to finish my beading project and try to entertain a bored little girl at the same time. Big sister has a friend over to play and she is LEFT OUT!

They turned out cute, didn't they? Stay tuned for a little how-to on the boxes. Maybe tomorrow.

Oh, now it is time to get dinner going. Oh, and send Lindsay's friend home.

After her friend leaves she does some crocheting and requires my help to finish off a bracelet right in the middle of my cooking...

Dinner is in the oven. Now, I do dishes.

We eat. Yummy enchiladas and I do, yet more dishes. It's full, start the thing!

Then brush teeth, throw on shoes and head out the door to church.

Turns out Kera and I have matching boots.

Come home from church, take off boots and clothes and put on comfy pj's.

Does any other lady out there love taking off the bra at the end of the day as much as I do?!

Tuck the kiddo's in and grab a cup of tea.

Yay for almost my bed time, just need to type up this blog entry, then.....

Goodnight!

A day in the life of.....

My kitchen

It's Saturday. We sleep in a little, then I make a yummy breakfast since we have time. The girls request waffles.

I do not use waffle mix. I use Betty Crocker's recipe and good ol' flour, milk and eggs. (Plus a few others ingredients)

They are so good. Especially with peanut butter and maple syrup.

Then, because I'm in the middle of being really productive, we eat heated up leftovers for lunch. Today it was Skinny sloppy joes. So yummy.

At various times in the day, I whip one or two of these up. Homemade latte's. My favorite. I very rarely pay money for them anymore. Seriously, when a 1/2 gallon of milk costs the same as one drink from any coffee place and where's the logic?!

Then, because I have a couple almost-black bananas and a small pumpkin, I whip up this wonderful bread. Only we don't do nuts in our baked goods so I threw in a bit of chocolate chips instead. Yeah, it was yummy too.

Erik whipped up this as I was finishing making dinner. There's nothing like homemade, fresh guacamole.

Doesn't it look divine?

And it went perfectly with the Chicken Tortilla Soup that we had for dinner. I got the recipe from one of the various Fitness magazines I subscribe to. It was actually quite good. In it I used homemade chicken stock made in my crock pot. Oh, and the chicken breasts that were cooked in the broth. Not too shabby.

We had some of this, as well. Hadn't opened a bottle of wine in a while, so it was good. We like La Vielle Ferme. It's a really good, inexpensive wine.

Then, we watched a movie and noshed on some of Erik's wonderful popcorn. It's always his job to make the popcorn because he has some trick for making sure all the kernels pop and then he butters and salts it perfectly. Not too much, but evenly spread around. He's our popcorn hero.

How about you? What's a typical day in your kitchen like?