DITL

Day in the life posts are much more fun with pictures.  More fun, and less...well, probably boring to most people!!  Definitely someday, when everything legal is decided and I feel ok with posting pictures.  For now, this is a word-journaling DITL.

It's amazing that the whole addage that "life is 90% attitude and 10% what you make of it" seems to be quite true.  I hate that dumb phrases like that often ARE true.

I determined this morning that today was going to be a good mommy day.  I think it started off good when I was getting the boys out of their morning showers, I was getting Carson diapered and dressed and he was giggling as I tickled his cute baby belly.  I don't remember what I started babbling to the boys, but I told Justin that someday they were going to marry wonderful girls and have cute babies that were just as cute as they are.  Justin laughed and said, "There will be SO MANY babies since there are three of us, Mom!"  I told him yes there would, and that Daddy and Mommy will be so proud of them.  His giant grin as he thought this through is something I want to keep in my memory.  Oh, I love that boy.

I got the three boys ready, and then we went to get breakfast going...to which Justin discovered we didn't have any clean bowls.  I really rebelled the last few days and had quite a pile of dishes going.  I hate dishes.  I miss Adam helping with them, it really broke up the chore monotony.  I think somedays I just CAN'T do the dishes, and apparantly, I couldn't do them for the past 3 days.  But anyway, I was able to find a couple other bowls stashed away for their cereal, and started to work on the dishes.

I talked on the phone to my mom and mentioned during the phone call that I had completed a load of dishes.  She asked how in the world I was able to talk on the phone and wash dishes and "didn't I get a crick in my neck?"  I informed her that it was easy not to get a crick in my neck when my dishes-washing was periodically interrupted by keeping an 11 month old out of my dishwasher, from attempting to climb up on the dishwasher.

We got ready for the gym.  Spencer has really been enjoying the gym daycare and I'm forever grateful to a certain someone for helping me make it to the gym.  Going to Body Pump and rocking out for an hour has been just what my body has needed.  It's nice to see progress.  Adam was a little "all or nothing" when it came to the gym, and I'm determining that my body is not like his--either fit or not.  There's definitely an in-between area.  And I'm ok with that.  Interesting that it's taken me this long to figure out what is "ok" for me.  Anyway, great workout and great stretch today.  Ahh.

Brought the kids home and got to work on cupcakes for tonight's Cub Scouts Blue and Gold dinner.  Glad to have learned some great tips from Stacy (the cupcake/cake master) earlier in the month.  Wow, how much more cute and EASY it is to pipe frosting on cupcakes.  Oh yum. (And, after a last minute decision not to make blue and yellow frosted cupcakes, Justin told me in the afternoon, "It's ok Mom, they're already blue and gold--the lemon cake is the gold part!"  What a smarty, I hadn't thought of that.  Good job Justin, you made my day!)

Helped Shannon count Campbell's Soup labels for the school.  What a pain, but I was so glad to help, it made me feel useful!  But cool that so many people send them in every month.  Good stuff.  I felt very "Mommy-like" helping with this.  It's all about the little things sometimes.

Early day.  Didn't forget.  Got Justin on time.  Whew.

Spencer and Carson crashed on the drive home from school.  I was determined to catch a nap, so I carefully placed Spencer on the couch (this NEVER works) and brought Carson in from the van and left him in his carseat.  I wrapped up in our big fuzzy "heart" blanket on the other couch near them.  Adam loved that blanket.  Oh, it's so toasty.  I'm glad I made it.  Anyway.  Got a 40 minute nap, all of us (minus Justin), yay.  Gone are the days of hoping to sleep for 2 1/2 hours.  If I get 40 minutes, I'm more than happy.

Justin did homework, played with legos, read some books.

We oohed and ahhed at Carson trying to walk.  He cruises faster than I remember the other two boys, but he will only do a few steps before chickening out and sitting down.  I realized that he's been mimicking everything that the boys and I do.  When I try to get him to walk and I go to sit on the floor and hold my hands out to him, he sits down too.  When Spencer yells about something, Carson yells too.  I noticed that C even yells something that sounds similar to Justin's name.  Probably because he's used to me yelling up the stairs to Justin for something.  Ugh.

I tried not to yell too much today.  Really.  I was hoping I would be able to count on less than one hand.  But that was a failed attempt.  Between the boys making guns out of legos and other random toys...and breaking a few other toys today, it just wasn't on the "capable task" on the to-do list.  Oh well. Tomorrow is a new day.

Went to the Blue and Gold  Dinner.  I was struck with something as I sat with the Vacanti's tonight.  I felt very much a part of their family as we sat with them at dinner.  Each of them helped navigate my children, helped get dinner and all.  And I really, really liked that it felt so "at home."  I'm identifying that feeling that I get periodically when we are with certain families in our ward, and I'm grateful for that feeling--a feeling like we aren't a bother, that they feel very much like we're just an extention of their own families.  It's sort of as though it's a pat on the back like "everything WILL be ok."  Very grateful to them, I enjoyed chatting with them, my boys love their boys (and their sweet daughter) and seem to mesh right in.  Love that.

After putting Spencer down to bed (after a spritz on his pillow of lavender linen spray...funny, I actually think something in that spray smells like Adam's deoderant that I like, not sure what it is?), I got Carson ready for bed.  He's started pointing at things the past few days.  He's also taken to muttering "Da-da-da" anytime he wants something, gets himself stuck when he's out cruising around, or at other seemingly random times.  Tonight we wandered by pictures of Adam and I told him to say night-night to Dada.  He pointed and laughed at the pictures of Adam and said "Dada."  Then he waved.  I'm determined to help this boy know his daddy.  Something in me thinks there's some way, somehow to accomplish this.  I just haven't quite figured it out.  For now, we just talk about Adam in daily conversation.  "Would Daddy want you putting that toy in your mouth Carson?"  "Are you minding your Momma like Daddy said, Spencer?"  "Justin, would Daddy think that's your best work?"

Carson didn't like his bottle of milk as I tried to feed him before bed.  I started to wonder if I put a scoop too much of formula in it.  I would give him the bottle and he'd just dribble milk and laugh at me, like I was a goofy mom and what kind of weird stuff was I trying to feed him!  I determined after he drank about 4 oz. that I must've...so I added more water and he was fine with it.  Oh, poor kiddos.  It's amazing that we all make it in this world, really.

Three loads of laundry since the kids went to bed (I figured that it's one thing to be out of clean dishes...that cups would do for cereal if we were THAT desperate....BUT that laundry was, well, a must.  Clean underwear, well that's just downright important!).  And now I'm off to read.  Which will probably be for about 5 minutes before I crash.  I wish I had more energy to get something of use in that noggin of mine, but reading just puts me right to sleep these days.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring for this mommy....