Ommm…

About a month ago, I was asked if I would teach a couple of half-hour yoga classes for an activity at church on February 2nd.

Now, let me explain why that, in and of itself, was a humorous sentence.

I used to teach a yoga class at a local women’s gym. I was never TRAINED or CERTIFIED to be a yoga instructor. As a matter of fact, I had never done yoga until I started doing that very class at the gym.  I just did it long enough that when the other teacher decided she didn’t want to teach it anymore, they asked me if I would want to take over. So, in my ever-so-qualified state, I proceeded to teach that class for about two years.

Then, I was in a really bad car crash.

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Five Minutes. Flat.

Sometimes, I am astounded by just how quickly the world can fall apart around me.

Violet, while showing slight improvement, is still quite sick (although still completely adorable).

By the time she woke up this morning (after a very fitful night of what we will REFER to as "sleep" on the couch with me), her poor little face was crusted in snot. And as she was feeling feverish, I decided to put her in the bathtub. She likes being in the bathtub and being sponged off while she isn’t feeling well. She will actually start to fall asleep on her little bath cushion as the water trickles over her. But when I go to take her out? Absolute fury. From the time I lift her out of the water until I finally have her dressed and in my arms, she is TICKED OFF.

So naturally, as I laid her, wrapped in a towel, on the floor in the hallway to get dressed after her bath, life fell apart.

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Life as the Canvas for Snot Art

You know how you can usually tell how a person’s day is going just by looking at their face? Forget my face…you can read my week by looking at my shirt.

People, black cotton is an amazing canvas for six-month-old snot. (That would be snot FROM a six-month-old, as opposed to snot that has lived on my shirt for six months. I’m behind in my housecleaning, but not THAT behind.)

My children are sick. All five of them.

 

Read more at Grimm Realities…

In His Head

One of the most rewarding parts of being a parent is watching your children develop sophistication and maturity. But that’s not nearly as fun as watching them develop a sense of humor. And after countless painful attempts at crafting "knock, knock" jokes, ("Knock, knock." "Who’s there?" "Pineapple." "Pineapple who?" "Pineapple unintelligible muttering that leaves me wanting to claw my eyes out." And that was one of the better ones.) Noah has finally found a form of humor that works for him. Practical jokes.

The foundation was laid back in September. My mother had gone to our local historical society’s garage sale fundraiser. At one point in the afternoon, I looked outside and noticed two short legs hanging down from the chair-swing in our tree. The back of the swing was facing me, but I could just barely see a hint of a hat above the top of the swing. The strange thing was, it looked like someone was SLUMPED OVER in the swing. And all of my kids were inside, so it wasn’t any of them.

I decided to go out and investigate. Which freaked Noah out because he was seriously afraid that there was someone DEAD in the swing. I was a little more rational and checked it out.

 

Read more at Grimm Realities…

Part of Something Bigger

I sit here, staring at my screen, knowing that what I’m about to type is a horrible contradiction. That, in some ways, this entire website is a horrible contradiction.

For a very long time, I have been struck by the idea that, as women and mothers, we sell ourselves short. We look around us and, instead of seeing the wonderful, amazing things that we do, we just see all that we HAVEN’T accomplished. The ways that our friends and neighbors do better than us. The goals we haven’t reached. The impossible ideals that we have failed to meet.

When I was a kid, I decided to write down my ideas of what would someday make me a good mother. I wish I could find the journal that I put it in. All I can remember now is that I wanted to start teaching my kids the piano from infancy so they would learn it just like they learned to talk. When Noah was born, I did try to put that theory into practice. And you know what? Babies don’t do scales. Unless they are prodigies. And mine aren’t.

 

Read the rest of my explanation for moving my blog at Grimm Realities…

On the Move

No, I haven’t dropped off of the face of the planet. Instead, I have been working on a project. Come visit me at my new website!

www.GrimmRealities.com

I promise, I even put up a new blog post!

Comment when you get there. Let me know you found me. Let me know what you think. I have plans for my little corner of the world wide web, and I want you all there with me!

~Katie

Happiness is a Fabric Sale

Today, I am thankful for:

1. AWESOME deal on fleece at the fabric store. Only $2.99 per yard instead of $9.99! My kids have wanted Snuggies for quite awhile now. I am going to make them their own for Christmas. And since the fleece was so cheap, I got some to make them for Sean and I, too. I bought sixteen yards of fleece, which should have been $160. By the time all of the discounts were done, I was out the door for $45. Woo Hoo!
2. Finally finding a suitable fabric to make the overcoat for Violet’s blessing dress. Yes, my daughter is almost four months old and we haven’t blessed her yet. And, yes, it is because I haven’t made her dress yet. Bad Mommy!
3. I know that I’ve said I’m thankful for my internet friends recently, but today I’m specifically thankful for Tami. Our little kitty is quite sick and we’re really worried about her. Tami facilitated a quick text message consultation with her veterinarian husband this evening when we were trying to decide whether or not to take the kitty to the emergency vet. Thank you so much, Tami and Shad!
4. Seeing the kitty perk up, eat, and get on Sean’s shoulder this evening. She’s still definitely acting really sick, but that was an improvement over how she had been acting. I really hope that she is doing better tomorrow.
5. Having the perfect weather to go out and find the perfect Christmas tree today. And finally finding one that Noah and I could agree on since he was so dead set against the one that I initially picked out. Funny kid.

 

 

Dear Santa

Tonight before bed, Noah sat down and wrote a letter to Santa:

i wunt to get you a tom tom for my Dad

the tom tom is a gps

OK, so he got a couple of words out of order and it is missing punctuation. Only one word was misspelled, though.

The important part, of course, is the incredible thoughtfulness. If you remember, almost five months ago, Sean’s car was broken into and his GPS was stolen. We still haven’t replaced it. We haven’t even been discussing replacing it that I can remember any time recently. So for Noah to sit down on his own tonight and write Santa a letter asking him to bring Daddy a new TomTom? What can I say? I have an awesome kid.

 

Today, I am thankful for:

1. Noah’s incredible thoughtfulness and his desire to do for others. He really does have a good heart.
2. A day off. You would think that the weekends would provide that. Not so. Saturdays are usually a manic effort to accomplish all the things that would be too difficult to do during the week with five children. And Sundays? Wrestling five kids through three hours of church doesn’t exactly feel like a day of rest. So to have a day where Sean was home, I didn’t need to do school, and I wasn’t even half tempted to go grocery  shopping? Lovely.
3. My steam mop. Just because it is cool.
4. The fact that Eli is suddenly speaking in complete sentences (and counting to eleven!). It is just so much fun to hear what is going on in his mind. Turns out, he’s rather hilarious.
5. The fact that I don’t confuse the need for human contact with being a vampire. Sorry, I was just watching 20/20. And you know what? There are some really crazy people out there. So I’m thankful I’m not one of them.

Giving Thanks

Today, I am thankful for:

1. A wonderful day in a house full of family. And LOTS OF KIDS to entertain my children for me.
2. Tons of family members who wanted to hold and interact with the baby. And the fact that Violet didn’t scream at them when they tried.
3. That Noah got to see his cousins’ new brother (who isn’t actually related to him—it’s complicated).  He came running to me and said, “Mommy, Conner is so cute! He’s BLACK!” Lately, the fact that Noah looks different from us has become more of an issue for him. I don’t think that it is a horrible issue, and we have talked about it, but he still makes comments about not looking like anyone else. I think that seeing that his white cousins have a biracial brother like he is maybe made him feel like his family was a little less odd. (For some reason, the fact that he has two Asian cousins in an otherwise white family doesn’t seem to make much of a difference for him.)
4. My education. Even though on some days I feel like my brain will come seeping out of my ears if I am subjected to another episode of SpongeBob Square Pants (oh, WHERE did my resolve to never allow that drivel in my house go???), I am so glad that I had the opportunity to stretch my mind and earn a degree.
5. My support system. Not only do I have a lot of people in my life who I know are there for me, I have a lot of people who I may never even have the pleasure of meeting in real life who respond and support me here. I especially felt that back in January when so many of you offered prayers and well-wishes after our car accident. It was just amazing to know that you all knew what had happened and were wishing us well before we even got home. Really, really amazing.
6. My country, my religion, and my freedom to freely practice my beliefs as I see fit.

‘Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving…

Today, I am thankful for:

1. Actually getting some school work done like I had planned to today.
2. Being asked to bring something super simple (a veggie tray) for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. So I have already cut all of the veggies, made three dips, baked two pies (because I CAN, darn it), bought four cans of cranberry sauce (after Sean’s grandma told me she had it covered since she bought TWO cans—we are expecting about FORTY people for dinner), and have stuff for cream peas tomorrow (I’ll be the only one to eat them, but it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving for me without them). See? Easy.
3. The fact that I’m not the one expecting about forty people to descend on my home tomorrow. I get to descend on someone else’s. So, no obsessive cleaning for me.
4. $2.99 sweet potato pie at the grocery store for dessert tonight. Warm up for tomorrow.
5. The fact that things went well for my husband in court today. We have been battling a lawsuit for about two years now. Basically, the original landlord of his old office space decided to sell the building to another guy on land contract. When the new landlord let the place fall to pieces and disappeared, the old landlord foreclosed on him. He has since been trying to get money out of us to cover his butt for his poor decisions. It would be like if you were renting a house and the mortgage company came after you when the owner didn’t pay his bills. So, yeah…two years of paying a lawyer $200 an hour makes me grumpy. But things went so well in court today that our lawyer said he would do our appeal for free if things don’t go our way because he feels that confident that this should finally be over. So, yes, VERY grateful.

 

I’m off to spend the rest of the evening with my husband…something to be truly grateful for. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving tomorrow. And don’t forget how blessed you are.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a goodnight.