Thankful Thursday

I don't know what it is about this week, but I am feeling overly grateful for just about everything I come across.  Maybe it's the long overdue sunshine we're finally experiencing, maybe it's that David is going out of town soon so I know I'd better soak up him and his help, or maybe it's all the Thanksgiving decorations surrounding me reminding me to be thankful.  Whatever the reason, I can think of worse ailments from which to be suffering.  

Here is this week's list:

1.  My nephew James, whose birthday was Monday.  We had a great time celebrating him at his party on Sunday.  My favorite part was when he ran up to David, grabbed him by the hand, and dragged David away to do the inflatables with him.  :)  He loves his Uncle David!  We are so thankful for this big brown-eyed cutie pie.

2.  A day date!  About a month ago, I told David that it would make me incredibly happy if he took a day off when Audrey and Luke were in school, took me out to breakfast, and went Christmas shopping for the kids with me.  Luckily his workload is such right now that he was able to give in to my wish (and his history with me is such that he doesn't even blink at my wanting to Christmas shop in early November.)  We had to do some serious schedule searching to find a Tuesday or Thursday that worked, but today came together and off we went.  We ate a delicious country breakfast at a local spot I'd been wanting him to try and then hit Toys R Us, Target, and Toys R Us again to pick up a couple of things we were on the fence about the first round through.  We drove through Dairy Queen to have ice cream for lunch and then picked up Luke.  It was as fun as I knew it would be!  

3.  Little hands in mine.  As I mentioned, we have finally had a much-needed break from the rain and have spending a lot of time outdoors enjoying it.  As I was walking the kids off of a playground and back to the van one afternoon, I held their hands.  I guess I don't do that as often as I once did because I'm usually just out with Luke and, when I have both kids, we spend most afternoons and evenings at home.  What was once very common struck me in that moment as something rare and, more than that, fleeting.  I squeezed their little hands tight in mine and silently thanked God for the moment.  

4.  Leaves falling like snow.  It's beautiful to drive or walk through a "leaf blizzard." 

5.  Gilmore Girls!  I've started re-watching the series.  Due to mommy brain, age, or both, I honestly don't remember most of what I'm seeing, so it's like watching it for the first time.  The quick-paced diatribes that Lorelai does can sometimes get irksome, but I do love the show.  

Enjoy your Friday & weekend!

A Woman's Work is Never Done

I had an epiphany the other day that I'm almost embarrassed to admit.  I'm pretty sure this is one of those things that everyone else in the entire universe has figured out and I am the very last person alive to come to this realization.

You ready for this earth-shattering, mind-blowing lightning bolt?  Here it is:

I will never be totally and completely, 100% caught up when it comes to household management tasks and home improvement projects.  NEVER.  

I may get close.  I may widdle the list down to just a handful of items.  But I will never not have a list.  At least not while I have kids living at home.  But probably forever.  

For a long time I thought this was because I had small children.  Then I blamed it on work and not having any spare time.  Finally I realized that, nope, this is just how it's going to be.  By the time you cross off three things at the top, four more things get added to the bottom. Sometimes you get a lull in life when you can focus on the list, but then sickness or holidays or something else happens that returns back-burner stuff to the back-burner and it boils over to unmanageable proportions in the time it takes to get around to it again.  When I let all of that sink in, my reaction wavered between surprise and defeat.  

The individual tasks themselves aren't difficult or overwhelming:  Clean out this closet, catch up on those photo albums, shred that stack of papers, organize that drawer, touch up paint in these rooms, write that card to so-and-so, get quotes and schedule this repair, etc. etc. etc.  It's the combination of all of those tasks that is just so frustratingly insurmountable.  

But don't worry.  I don't prioritize these things over what truly matters in life.  I have enough wisdom in me to recognize that a list like this is very superficial and inconsequential.  I know that my kids are only this age for so long and that the spots on the carpet and the unorganized drawers and the unfinished albums aren't worth sacrificing time with them.  Nor are they worth what's left of my sanity.  I realize there are better things to spend my time on and much more important people and causes that I should put energy towards.  I understand I have to prioritize my time and chip away at the ongoing list as I'm able.

I get all of that.  Really.  

But man, it sure would be nice if for only five minutes I could collapse on the couch and think, "There.  Finished."  The thing is, I guess I've finally realized that when I utter those words the next ones out of my mouth will be, "Well hey, Peter!" as I'm ushered into the pearly gates.

October 2015 Recap

Coming off of the Timber Trek craziness in September, I really wanted to make October a month of downtime and fun.  I recently heard somewhere that you should allow yourself as much time "off" as you were "on" for a specific project.  While I think that's way too generous, I do very much believe in working hard and playing hard and I'm happy to report that I was pretty successful in chilling out this month.  

Some updates and highlights:

• Audrey had follow-up blood work labs for her Celiac and, praise the Lord, the results were amazing.  When she was first diagnosed, her tTg level was 125.  (It's supposed to be less than 5.)  She is now at a 4.  FOUR!!!  And there are no signs of any additional autoimmune issues.  I called David at work and had to lead with "These are happy tears!" before I sobbed my way through the update.  More than that, she has gone from the 2nd percentile in height to the 10th percentile in just six months.  Just awesome.  Though we knew the diet was making her feel better and she seemed to be growing, having concrete evidence was such a relief.  We are now in "maintenance mode" (meaning we keep up the strict gluten-free diet) and will see her fantastic doctor annually.  

• I ran half marathon #5 on the first weekend of the month.  It was the hilliest course I have ever done and also served as an indicator that I'm kinda done with halves for awhile.  I have some ideas of what I might like to try in 2016, but as I write this while I eat my double-chocolate muffin, I'd prefer not to disclose anything right now lest I change my mind.

• I got to take a weekend girls' trip with Kara to Chattanooga and it was so, so nice.  We talked nonstop while we shopped our way around the city and ate delicious food.  It was fantastic to spend all of that consecutive, uninterrupted time with her doing whatever we wanted whenever we wanted.  She's just the coolest and it's so great to have someone to solve all of life's problems with, even if only for a weekend.  I'm already mentally planning next year's trip.

• Audrey had the Monday after my girls' trip off of school, so David took off work and we all went up to Jaemor Farms.  We did the mini corn maze, rode the "hay" ride (sans hay), fed goats in the petting zoo, raced rubber duckies in pvc pipes, played skee ball, and road the tiny pumpkin train.  We picked out two small pumpkins from the patch and then our big one from the onsite market (we have learned from experience that's way cheaper) and ate a picnic lunch before heading home.  It was fun and not insanely crowded, so that may be our new tradition to go on that day.

• We had David's parents over for a cookout and gluten free cupcakes one evening to celebrate his dad's birthday.  We enjoyed the awesome fall weather while we sat out on the deck and enjoyed David's delicious hamburgers.  We are so thankful for Ed and all of the awesome grandparents in our kids' lives!

• I put in some serious volunteer hours at the kids' schools this month.  I spent waaaay too long making piggy cookies for AJ's class's farm day, worked for Audrey's teacher a couple of mornings, worked at and then helped break down her school fall festival, was Mystery Reader in Luke's class, and then helped with his fall festival. (In related news, I have a cold.  Those kids are petri dishes, I tell ya.)  I also put together 45 popcorn hands for their class Halloween snacks.  It definitely takes a lot of time to do this stuff, but I really am happy to be so involved in their schools and support their teachers.  I love having the boys and girls recognize me in the hall and run up to give me a hug or a high-five.  

• David took Audrey on a Daddy-Daugter rock climbing date (her first time) at an indoor place nearby.  She had such a good time and did really well!  Surprisingly, she preferred to be belayed by the machine instead of a real person.  I'm so glad she was willing to give it a shot.  

• We did our annual Georgia Tech game with our "Cobb County friends".  We tailgated with brunch, hit the game, and then all went out for "lupper" afterward.  I've said it a million times before, but I love being with these people who knew us before we were "The Sinyards."  Our lives have changed a lot in the 16-20+ years we've known them and we don't get to see them nearly often enough, but these are some of our most important people.  They'd drop everything to be there for us in a heartbeat if we needed them and we'd do the same for them.  The older I get, the more I realize how priceless that is.  

• Halloween was a blast this year.  The kids were Peter Pan and Tinker Bell.  We carved our pumpkin on Friday night and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".  It was our Pajama-Pumpkin-Pizza-Picnic-Peanuts Party.  :)  On Saturday night, we ate "finger" hot dogs (no mummy dogs this year because I couldn't come up with a decent gluten-free option fast enough) and then met up with the Kirkleys to go trick-or-treating.  The kids did the entire loop of that side of the neighborhood (1 mile) before coming home to sort out the gluten pieces (who knew Twizzlers have wheat in them?!)  They ate a few of their favorites pieces and crashed into bed.  I'm glad daylight savings time started that night, because we all needed the extra hour!

What else?  I had a much-needed dinner one night with Lauren, David and I snuck in a date night (and a date lunch on a weekday!  God bless preschool!), Audrey continued the Good News Club, I finally finished my accent wall project in the upstairs hallway, we continued small group, and I got a decent head start on my Christmas shopping.  :)

Update on the kids:  They are doing great and both enjoying school so much, which makes my heart happy.  They also have been playing together really, really well lately.  (Quick! Knock on wood!) Granted, they have their blow-ups and fights, but they seem slightly less frequent. Or maybe I'm just getting better at ignoring them.  

Luke is still very much entrenched in the super hero stage and Audrey, while slowly growing out of the dress-up stuff, still loves playing with her doll house.  They both love coloring and crafts a ton right now as well as building with Magnatiles.  Luke is getting more and more into "writing" and reading, which makes me very, very happy.  Audrey, of course, is rarely happier than when she is reading quietly by herself.  Their senses of humor are blossoming every day as is their grasp of the art of sarcasm, which I have to temper my excitement about because I know it's not so endearing in a six year old.  

As I said in a recent post, some of the issues are getting tougher, but overall, we really are enjoying this stage of parenting where everyone sleeps through the night and wipes their own behind.  

A couple of quotes from them from the month:

• When taking AJ to school one morning, we had some praise music playing loudly and Luke got caught up and suddenly yelled "HULK SMASH" in the middle of the chorus.  I laughed really hard, which undoubtedly ensures that it'll be a regular occurrence for while.  

• We have started watching Ninja Warrior from time to time and the kids love it.  One night Audrey innocently asked me if I was ever going to be on it.  I'm not going to lie...her Christmas gift budget is totally going up just for thinking that is in the realm of possibility.  

• During her weekend afternoon rest time, Audrey asked me if she could organize her Clue Crew books in number order.  It was a proud, proud moment. 

I had more, but the notes on my phone got erased and this ol' memory ain't what it used to be.  Better luck next month.  

Enjoy the remaining days of fall and this calm before the storm of the holidays!