- Hello Friends
- I know it seems I’m not much of a friend lately
- I know
- I’ve basically ignored my blog, and any form of outside life, for a year
- And I’m trying not to feel I’ve ignored my family for a year
- I try to put God first and my Family next
- And I think you know what little monster took up the next portion on the priority list (www.candiceandrus.com)
- And in the middle of it all life happened!
- And the blog got neglect
- So here I am in this conundrum: I am a year behind in blog posts.
- I want to blog all of that.
- I don’t want to bore you.
- I want to be up to date.
- I just want to be caught up!
- I’ve been screaming to myself, “I just want to be caught up!,” for a long time now. Let’s say, 30 years.
- Yeah. 30 years.
- I think I’m gonna have to accept that is not gonna happen.
- I think I’ve blogged about this before.
- SO...Do I blog from a year ago so that I have notes about our family photos and events in record, and I can then be amazing one day and finally print my blog?
- OR...Do I blog the most recent.
- I am thinking I am going to start blogging recent and go backwards, and see if I ever get back to where I left off.
- Yeah. I think that would be good.
- Remember how I bought a camera to take amazing photos of my kids? That was my goal.
- Well actually, my goal was to one day have someone look at a picture of my kids on my wall and say, “That is a great photo! Who took that?” And be able to say, “Oh. It was me.” Then I would have felt like I arrived. I would have felt like it was a good enough photo that it came off as a professional and someone I paid and that person was actually asking who took it and feeling like it must have a been a professional, or someone worth paying. WELL…
- When I pulled my camera out of the box and that night suddenly had a business, I kind of lost that dream. Everyone knows I’m trying to be a good photographer now. So that goal isn’t gonna be possible.
- Still. If you ever want to come to my house and like one of my kids’ photos and ask me who took it, I wouldn’t mind.
- I really wouldn’t mind.
- So I want to ask you something.
- Since my house and life is constantly in a state of entropy, sometimes I say to myself, “If I just had a basement that was a toy basement and full of toys, then the kids could play down there, I would never clean it up, I would never feel bothered by the clutter cause I wasn’t looking at it, and then I could shut the door and life would go on! The kids would go down there, entertain themselves, and no clutter for me!”
- But lately I’ve been thinking, I just don’t think so!
- You see, kids like toys, but I’m pretty sure that the one thing they like more than toys is mommy and daddy’s things. SO...my thought of having a toy room that stays in one place and I can ignore I just don’t think would happen.
- Sure they’d play down there, but then wouldn’t they eventually and often want to be around mommy and daddy and come back and continue to destroy the non-toy things?
- Yes.
- I think so.
- I’m gonna have to start walking around the house with blinders on.
- I think I’ll order the blinders right now.
- Blinders or not, I know the pitter patter of little feet won't always be here.
- And then I'll miss it.
- And then I'll be kicking myself for ever minding the clutter.
- It's just that, why pick up the clutter in one place as the clutter in the next place is presently being created.
- I've decided that a once a day pickup is right for me.
- Otherwise I go around in circles all day picking things up.
- Might be a good workout.
- Still.
- I think it’s obvious that since I’m posting about this, that my life basically feels like it's in a constant state of destruction.
- One second Hadley is coloring the tile kitchen floor with Lightning McQueen markers that were put high and far away from her reach, yet there she is, even so, coloring my tile with them…
- Another moment Trent is taking a ballpoint pen and writing Hadley’s name on her chest and writing his own name on his scalp.
- (Which I discovered this morning while combing his hair.)
- Oh look! There it is on Hadley's scalp too!
- Have to laugh.
- Another moment Hadley is dipping her dolly’s head in the toilet and saying, “Baby needs to go potty!”
- Another moment Trent is wearing the DVD Case Jackets on his arms like swimming floaties.
- Another moment, well, every meal moment, Hadley is drinking milk from the sippy cup, spitting it back out on the kitchen table, and writing her name in the milk then slurping it up.
- And these moments go on every waking minute.
- That brings me to my next point, and this is a very important point!
- The other day, Tim and I were at Costco forgetting, as usual, that we weren’t multi-millionaires
- (Costco is a budget-destroying entity.)
- And we finally made it to the snack section after filling our cart to the max and Tim basically risking his spine in order to push it
- And I saw these little puppies:
- The Clif Kid ZBar. A Clif Bar for kids!
- So there I am thinking to myself, Sweet! Here is a healthy snack I can give my kids when I’m in a pinch or they need some sustenance before dinner! Surely it is chuck full of vitamins and minerals and protein!
- So I buy them.
- I put them in my overloaded cart, and we pay the points.
- Then I go home, and I’m reading the label, and it says, “Energy bar for kids on the go! While they’re playing sports or just hanging out!”
- And I think, “WHAT!?! Energy bar!?!”
- I have clearly made a mistake.
- “Do these people not know that every waking hour of every minute of every day, the end goal of ALL I DO is to get energy OUT of my kids?!???”
- Clearly THEY have made a mistake!
- Isn’t that the life of every parent? To get the energy OUT!
- So I raise my eyebrows and tell myself, these I am taking back!
- Yet in a pinch the next day, I give Trent a bar just to give it a try, as a special treat after Soccer Class.
- Ha!
- He ate the bar at 10: 30 A.M.
- This is what I got:
- We went on a 1 and 1/2 hour drive after lunch time (at least two hours later) to my parents house. DURING nap time. Normally a long drive, after eating a full meal, and during nap time, would put them right out.
- NOPE!
- I got a singing little boy the entire way!
- (Wired.)
- He was singing about the trees he was seeing, about his shoes and what foot they go on, about his seat, about his mom and where we were going.
- He was looking out the window and singing.
- The. Whole. Way.
- And while I was highly entertained, yes I was!, No Nap.
- We get to Grandpa’s house. Not an ounce of tiredness in him.
- For the next hour he ran around the yard and rode his bike in circles and circles and circles and circles non-stop.
- And he just kept going.
- In fact, I wasn’t sure that by 9 PM that night he would even be ready for a rest.
- What’s in these things? Mountain Dew!?
- Hadley had one bite of a bar a few days later:
- Wired.
- So I’ve found a new solution.
- We have 12:30 church.
- Kids get a bar before church!
- Wired for nursery leaders!
- Brilliant.
- Although Hadley was a circus act in Sacrament meeting. (It didn't help we have sacrament meeting last.)
- And that’s the story of the Zbar.
- That is: If you are a parent of a 14-year-old boy who needs energy for his all-day soccer tournament, MAYBE you could consider these bars.
- But for a mom of a 2 and 3 year old who wants to get vitamins and minerals and a filling, healthy snack in their kids between naps.
- This bar is NOT YOUR CHOICE.
- And that’s that.
- I just turned 30 and my body turned to me and said:
- Guess what, you can’t just eat whatever you want anymore and not work out and look the same.
- It's. LAME.
- Today as I was driving home from a trip to the swimming pool.
- AKA A mini-camping trip.
- Which I think we should discuss for a moment!
- Going to the swimming pool is like a mini camping trip people!
- Camping!
- This is me:
- Get the kids pottied.
- Put on swimming suits
- Get hats
- Get sunglasses
- Put on sandals
- Remember that I haven't fed my kids
- Make up a picnic
- Do I have a fruit?
- A veggie?
- Protein?
- Lots of hydration?
- A treat to bribe kids with so they'll eat their lunch (bad parent me)
- Something salty
- Something to fill my own belly
- Put all that food in a pack
- Get the towels
- Get the swimming toys
- Get the life jackets
- Get the purse
- I don't want to take the purse, but what if I get pulled over? Need some money? How do I keep my phone drive?
- Ugh.
- Have to take the purse.
- Can they not just give me an extra copy of my license to keep in each car?
- I think that's a good idea, anyway.
- Find that now I have the pool toy and life jacket bag, three huge towels, purse, and picnic basket, and two kids in my arms.
- I can't get out the front door. Don't fit.
- Get Tim's huge army bag
- Put towels, picnic and pool toys in one bag.
- Have purse too.
- Forget that I, myself, am not dressed for the pool.
- Remember that I will want to get the gross chlorine and water washed off the kids after they swim
- Realize that it will be close to nap time so I might as well get them in their dry clothes after I shower them
- Get dry clothes and underwear
- Get shampoo and body wash
- Remember myself again
- Get my own swimsuit on
- Put on a coverup
- Do I have something to keep my hair up
- Where's my hat in this monsoon that met my house yesterday?
- Which shoes of mine do I not mind getting wet?
- Get sunglasses that fit under chosen hat
- Get one huge army bag and sling it up over should again
- Get purse
- About ready to walk out the door
- See the spilled milk and cereal still on the kitchen table
- That is gonna stink when we get back
- Clean it
- Or don't clean it
- Depends on the level of desperation to get out the door that day
- Decide I am finally ready to walk out the door
- I fit this time
- Lock the door
- Try to convince the kids to walk, on their own, at a reasonable speed since it's blazing hot
- Okay.
- We are now in car.
- Convince children to get in their OWN carseats
- Once again bribe or threaten (bad mom again)
- Do up carseats
- Get in my own seat
- Take a deep breath
- "K! Let's go to the pool!!! I am so excited!!!"
- Drive there.
- Try not to have any kids running into the street on the way in
- Get in
- Sequester my section of pool chairs
- Butter everyone up in sunscreen
- Nose
- Cheeks
- Face
- Body
- Keep Hadley from getting in the pool, the deep end, when I'm not looking (aka, save her life more than once)
- Put on life jackets
- Get toys
- Feed lunch
- Remember to put on my own sunscreen before I'm a lobster
- Now I'm hungry too
- Kids swim
- I eat
- They play
- I'm happy
- They need to go potty
- They play again
- I'm happy
- About the time things calm down it is time to rev yourself up for shower time
- We're pushin nap time here
- Get the kids naked
- Hope the moms in the shower area aren't judging me for letting my kids be completely naked in the public shower
- Whatever
- Find the right water temperature
- Bathe
- Get in dry clothes
- Forgot to get my own dry clothes
- Back in car
- Turn on movie to keep them from taking a car nap before they get home
- And there you have it people! A mini-camping trip every time we go to the pool!
- I am, and you are, mommy of the year.
- And even though this was a lot of work, still, as I was driving home, after I took another deep breath, I said to myself again,
- I have the best life.
- Thank you, Timothy, for giving me the best life.
- And that was 210 things. Not 205.
- Oh well.
Here are some pictures of the sweetest little things I get to look at when I go on a mini-camping trip to the pool:
I feel very blessed.
Posts
