It was the best day ever/It was the worst day ever

My oldest child loves to rate the day by those two phrases above.  He's been doing this for years now.

Yesterday was the worst day ever because he stubbed his toe REALLY badly (seriously, the entire base of this toenail is purple right now).

Today was the best day ever because I turned on the water hoses out front and let them spray them as high as they wanted for a pretty long time (although things went downhill quickly when I would not agree to buy the one Lego ninja he wants that can only be found on Ebay apparently... anyway...)

Pretty much any little good or big bad thing can make or break the entire day.

According to him.

I started thinking about what makes it a good or bad day for me and I realized it is of course, my own decision to decide.

It could be that it was a bad day because I just woke up in a bad mood or did not feel so well or because the kids spilled something eighteen times or I yelled too much and now have to forgive myself.

It could be that it was a good day because no hardly any fights broke out between the kids and I was in a good mood and feeling thin-ish and lunch was tasty for all and there were even more than normal amounts of hugs and kisses.

But really, no matter what happens throughout the day, it can be turned around.  It CAN always be good.

And honestly, I've had a hard time getting out of the mentality that it is HARD to be with my three kids by myself all day (and sometimes night).  But what is up with that anyway?  Yeah, it's hard at times, no lie.  No one said raising kid was located on Easy Street, now did they?

And sure, there are days when there is too much fuss over whatever.  That's just the way life goes with three younger children.

But I'm trying to make more best days that worst days because I owe it to their memories and mine too.

So today, I did not get upset about the 3 spills I cleaned up.

What's the point in that anyway?

And instead I delighted in their giggles and smiles as they ran through the sunny "rain"...

Abundance

A friend of mine and I split a 12 week share of CSA (community supported agriculture) from a local farm and besides the beets and too many leeks to use, we've been enjoying it quite a bit.

Yesterday I posted this picture on Instagram and twitter because I was not sure what this was.  I assumed it was in the broccoli family but had never seen it before so...

Turns out the farm newsletter calls it ramonesco cauliflower but many people told me it was broccoflower.  Either way, it's pretty tasty.

Tonight I made squash with fresh basil and leeks and baked it with olive oil and mozzarella and parmesean cheese.  SO. GOOD. And and a super happy smile comes to my face just knowing that all the the produce came from a local farm.

The farm also gives us a lovely bouquet every week and these zinnias were just begging to be photographed.

Do you buy local produce at all?  If not, you should try.  I promise it tastes better... ;)

About this photography thing...

I grabbed my camera the other morning after sitting on the back porch with my coffee.  K came through the door to join me and I noticed how beautiful her eyes shone in the morning light as she approached me.  I couldn't resist taking her picture for the bajillionth time.

At one point I switched the dial to "Auto" just to see what would happen and the flash activated, I assume because it was somewhat dark in the house and she was still inside.  I got two pictures of her with the flash and it was so interesting to me how different her eyes looked in those shots.

I kept snapping, but this time not in auto, and I captured her gorgeous baby blues again, as well as a bit of her attitude.  (But that just comes with the territory lately...)

with flash - oh that smile!  

without flash - don't you just want to smooch that face?!

This weekend I had a photo shoot and I was a little nervous since it was with someone I know, but she is more of an acquaintance and so I do not know her kids that well.  Her youngest is 19 months and frankly, he was a bit hard to "catch" or capture, shall we say.  And her daughter's personality did not really shine until we went to the play area at the park where we met.

I'm telling you all this and writing it out for myself to remember, that right now, this can still be hard for me at times.  I do not get ALL the technical stuff of taking photos.  Sometimes I just wing it.  And someone reading this may say, "Well then I would never want you to take my photos" and that is fine.  Everyone who does this is in their own place.  I know the basics I feel I need to know to get decent photos and I have Light Room and Photoshop on my side. ;)

But it is still intimidating and overwhelming for me at times and just like any artist, I start to doubt myself and my abilities and I think and wish and feel I should be better.  That I need to be better.

So I am not sugar coating it at all.  I'm still learning and experimenting and filing away tidbits from all of my experiences and the beautiful people who are trusting me with their memories.

And I would like to thank God that I am finding my way in this photography journey in the digital age and that it is quite easy to hit the "delete" button. :)


p.s. I won't even get into comparing myself to others because, well. WOAH.

If at first you don't succeed...

We were outside the other day, blowing bubbles and making chalk drawings (see previous post) and I had the idea to try to do one of THOSE pics.  You know like the ones where someone draws a scene with the chalk and then puts a kid in it?  Yeah, that.

And I just want to warn you all right now, it's NOT good.  But I'm still going to share it with you anyway.  Because it kinda makes me laugh and I think it will you too.

First of all, I drew the picture in about one minute.  And I had K lay down in whatever she was wearing, which was not "rain appropriate".

Also, we have a very old driveway here, it's not nice, clean cement (although Tim did power wash it recently), and it has cracks.

Lastly, how are you supposed to pretend to be holding an umbrella while laying on your back?  Especially when you are two?

So, I tried.  And we may try again, with more forethought.  Surely "practice makes at least better than this", right?

Sometimes, it's just as hard as it looks...

Summer is almost here and I have mixed feelings.  On the one hand I am happy to have a break from making lunches every morning and getting kids to school by a certain time, but on the other hand, I will miss the routine.

I am most happy to not to have to help with homework for a while, as I know it will be two-fold and even harder, come August.

I cannot wait for us to go on vacation next week but I know that week will go by way too fast! (trying not to think about that).

My kids have been a bit extra challenging lately.

Yesterday, we were just trying to leave the pool and it took us no less than 20 minutes to make it to the van.  I was carrying a huge bag of towels and two floaties, and a friend (who has just one child) was walking with me in awe.  She could not believe all the goings on of my kids - losing a flip flop, tripping over a floatie, begging to get back in the pool after clothes were changed.

And me taking deep breaths and just SO ready for us all to be strapped into the van and the air conditioning blowing on my hot face, with all the kids behind me, riding home.

Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed by the stuff that goes with and time it takes and words that have to be said and are not listened to, just to wrangle three kids.

I love them fiercely and in a way that cannot be explained to those who do not have children.  But it doesn't mean they do not get on my nerves sometimes. ;)

So Summer is here, and it will be a busy one.  But my plan is to keep taking lots and lots of deep breaths and enjoy my growing children as much as I can.

It's the best plan I've got.

 

The Bob

On Saturday afternoon she looked like this:

And then by Sunday afternoon (and Tuesday morning, second photo) she looked like this:

She never leaves anything in her hair (that headband only lasted a little bit) and after the "self cut" she gave herself last month that is taking FOREVER to grow back out, I figured I would give her some style.  And maybe things will even out over the Summer.

My only regret is I think I aged her by about 6 or 7 years.  Oh well, at least I'm pretty sure this style fits her sassy attitude lately...

p.s. HOW much do you LOVE that outfit in the last photo?!?!  I double dog dare you to check out Lolly Wolly Doodle on Facebook and not want to buy something.

"The Bronx is up and the Battery's down..."

I was looking at the photos in my Instagram feed early Sunday morning before getting the kids ready for church.  As my finger scrolled through, occasionally hitting “like” and making a comment here or there I came across a photo of the New York City skyline and my finger immediately went to “like” it.  I did not even have to read the words below.  My brain immediately said Like.   

Tim was gone for something for work and all the memories of our trip together last December flashed through my mind like a slideshow of wonderful.  And then I thought how much I would love to be there again.  Now.  How a stroll through Central Park would do so much for my soul.

There’s just something about THAT city, you know?  All the life and movement and constant everything.  SO many people there with SO many different lives and dreams and accents. 

The photo also made me think of a couple of my favorite bloggers that live there, Jessica and Illana.  And when I think about them and how they are raising their children in that amazing, hustle and bustle-y place I think, “Why couldn’t I do that too?”  But then I think, there is no way this suburb girl could move her family there and survive.  But Jessica did. She is.

Other times I think what if I had gone there years ago, like I dreamed of, to go to fashion school.  What if I had made that life changing decision?  Well, surely, everything in my life would be different. 

My first trip to NYC was in college.  I drained my savings account for a trip there before my senior year.  It was actually a class I took and we had to work on projects while we were there and I almost got lost the very first day, while touring St. Patrick’s Cathedral.  I was in so much awe of it all and after we were done watching STOMP, off Broadway, I simply didn’t want to leave. EVER.

I remember calling Tim from the payphone on the first floor of our hotel not too far from Times Square and beaming on the phone about how much I loved “this place”.  We’d only been dating for a little while and I remember missing him but thinking how I would love to just up and move there.

But of course I did not.  I stayed “home” and married the love of my life and all things happen for a reason. 

But there is still a part of me that would find living in New York City, even if just for a little while, would be absolutely amazing.  Anyone wanna rent me their apartment for a year?  I think that would probably do it. 

Good thing I get to go back for another visit in August... :) 

Lego Bounce Party & MEM

We officially celebrated Little G's birthday this weekend at the local bouncy place.  He wanted a Lego party so I obliged.  As per last week's post on less stress, I kept things pretty simple and we had a good amount of kids.

I did make the cupcakes from scratch and I decorated the treat bags by applying round pieces of construction paper to make them to look like Legos (yes, idea found on Pinterest).

Tim actually had a great time "building" the candy blocks to go on the cupcakes.  He's my best helper. ;-)

And I had a bowl of miscellaneous Legos at the table in our party room so before the kids left they either made something with them or grabbed a handful to take home in their treat bag, to play with later.

I also found adorable Lego-like candles at zee French store (a.k.a Tar-jay).

And I did not have to clean my house before OR after this party, so WIN-WIN!

P.S. Please make note of the way my two boys are hugging in this photo below.  I do believe I'm going to crop everyone else out and print a large copy of just them together and put it in their room, so they can ALWAYS see how much the love each other... ;-)  Good idea, right? 

And hey, guess what!

It's  "Miss Elaine-ous Monday"!

ANY "miss elaine-ous" post will do, something from your archives or something brand new! :)

Do you have a post that meant a lot to you but wasn't read by as many folks as you'd hoped? Or one that has great pictures and you want more people to see them? Or do you just have one that you really want to share!?

I'll also choose a random post from those who link up to feature on The Miss Elaine-ous Life Facebook page (please "Like" if you have not already) so even more folks will see a new post every week! Grab the button and link up!  And please visit some of the other linkers as well...












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If you do not post the button, please still link back to my blog, even if you just put a little blurb at the end of you post such as "It's Monday and I'm being "Miss Elaine-ous" over at The Miss Elaine-ous Life!" - Thanks!! Oh and extra bonus points to anyone who puts a tweet out there, that would be awesome too!  Thanks for linking up!
P.S. Thanks to all who linked up last week, I loved reading all your posts!! :D
Also linking up with Mommy & Me Monday since I'm in that last shot... 


Hosted by Krystyn at Really, Are You Serious?

I Would Have TOTALLY dated Jake Ryan...

In high school I was ALL about the rollers for dances.  And by "rollers" I mean hair rollers.  I loved to have my hair CUR. LEE.

And during my senior year there was some drama as to who I wound up accompanying me to my Senior Homecoming dance.  I won't get into all the details but let's just say I had one sorta date (a good guy friend who I later found out liked me "in that way"...) and I dumped him to go with another guy that I was hoping would ask and did.

Oh man, even my family was a bit ticked off at me.

Anyway, bad decision aside (I did still have fun but felt really bad after the fact...) I was all curls and of COURSE, I was a #Senior Hottie!!

(I LOVED this dress!!)

And here I am now, on my birthday this year, sans curls...

And from the categories listed from Liz's awesome contest, I think I'm definitely "Most likely to date Jake Ryan".  I mean I pretty much have the same hair as his girlfriend in the movie!   Which category do you think I fit in?

P.S. I linked up to this last Summer too and my "Bangs" post is one of the most popular of my posts in my sidebar.  You gotta check it out if you have not already... ;-)

"Vintage" Toys

A while ago my Mom gave me some old toys out of "my" closet - you know the one that is in her house that is part of the room I grew up in until I was 18... yeah that closet.

The box she gave me while threatening to toss it included my little kitchen toys that I remember playing with a lot as a little girl, pretending to cook up something, probably for her.

So the other day I was out doing some yard work and putzing around the garage when I found the box and when Katie girl saw the contents she freaked out.

"Kitchen!!" she said.

Next thing I knew I had spread a blanket out for her on the lawn in the shade while she played with my toys...

...and it was SO fun to watch!  Of course now they are her toys and she has since moved them into her kitchen in her room.  And yes, it is just too awesome to see her playing with the same toys I did, so many years ago.

Trading it in for Joy

I lost it the other night.  The Saturday night before Mother’s Day to be exact.

I was on edge all week long, stressing over the million-ish little things that I needed to get done and even one I had already done.  Now tell me, how does THAT work?  Well, turns out one of the things was not completely complete.  So right after I crossed it off of my lengthy “to do” list I had to add right back.

So yeah, no pinning a rose on my nose after all.

I was appreciating 6 teachers, getting birthday party invitations out (kinda late, I might add), helping with school projects, registering a child for kindergarten (late again), running errands for said birthday party, making phone calls and well…

…confirming with my doctor that several weeks of physical therapy have done very little good for the ankle that I still cannot use to run.

I want so bad to run again and as I cried to Tim that night, I told him at least half of my stress lately is because I cannot.  And I have tried.  I just cannot.  It still hurts so badly.

So I had a really good cry and afterward I decided to change my attitude and focus  on other ways to exercise for now.

Such as yoga.  Working my body AND getting some stress relief? Sure, I’ll take it!

There is still hope for my ankle and I am not giving up yet.

Plus, school is almost out and I’m ready for G’s party this Saturday so things are about to lighten up around here.

I cannot wait until my “to do” list says:

“Pack for the beach”

And that is all.

*****************************************************************************************

Tim also said something to me that night that he feels like I do not always appreciate how good we have it.  And he was not trying to be mean, he was just keeping it real.

And you would not necessarily know it by just reading my words here, but my attitude has been in the dumps lately.

Again, with the no running. I know that has SO much to do with it.

And I WANT to appreciate this amazing family and life I have.  Because I really do and it really is.  I have the family I always wanted – an amazing husband and three beautiful, healthy children.

And in the end, they will not care how cute the Lego treat bags were or weren't at their 5^th birthday party.

Because all they really want is for me to be there, with them, celebrating.

So I’m giving the finger to my “to do” list this week and winging it.

Oh and trading stress for JOY.

And yoga.

Happy 5th to my 2nd!

I found out I was pregnant with Little G while we were on vacation in Florida in early September of 2006.

Tim says he knew I was pregnant a few weeks earlier when we went to see my nephew who was born very premature.  I was acting a tad erratic (a.k.a b!tchy) and emotional.

Don't tell the other kids I said this but my pregnancy with him was probably the easiest.  Yes, I was still working but we had a gym at the office and I walked and did yoga during the entire pregnancy.  I ate the best and gained the least amount of weight.

G was born via c-section and my recovery was pretty good.  But let's just say pain meds were my friend.

He latched on in the hospital and didn't let go until he was 14 months old.  He never drank a bottle.  Sometimes I think back on that and cannot believe it.  I remember sitting up and crying in bed in the middle of the night when he was about 6 weeks old and saying I couldn't do it anymore, I was so tired from feeding him all the time.  I also had a nasty bout of mastitis when he was about 3 months old. NO. FUN.

But we made it through and to this day he is my most snuggly, kissy, huggy child.

And today he is 5 years old.

These days he is writing his own name, becoming a pro at being both a little and big brother and continuing to turn heads with the dimples the nurses noticed right away when he was born.

A few weeks ago he was going on about his latest "crush" in his pre-school class and I asked him "What about so-and-so?" (a different girl he had been talking about the week before).  He sighed and said, "Oh Mom, I'm just going to marry ALL the girls!!"

He might be right.  Even the adult ones swoon over him.

But.

They don't live with him.

He is most certainly my biggest challenge (however this last week he is possibly being superseded by his 2.5 year old sister. Yeah.)

I see him growing out of many of the things he has done before, like the whining that used to be his favorite past time.  I am pretty sure he's going to be ready to start Kindergarten in a few short months and although I think it's going to be a big adjustment, I see him thriving there.  And you know, finding even more girl friends.

I decided to do a little interview and I'm sure someday G will love to look back at his own answers.

What is your favorite color?  Blue

Who is your best friend?  Nailah (a girl at school)

What is your favorite movie:  Star Wars (don't think he has actually ever seen a movie, maybe just some scenes from one...)

What do you want to be when you grow up?  A bike rider

What is your favorite food?  Spaghetti with meatballs (I made this tonight so... normally I would think his answer would be some sort of dessert.)

What is your favorite drink?  Root beer

What is your favorite store?  Target

What do you like to do with Mommy & Daddy?  play on the computer

What do you like to do with Ben? play Legos

What do you like to do with Katie?  play Legos

What kind of party are you having on Saturday?  A Lego Jumping Party!!!


Happy Birthday to my snuggly, cute, sweet, talkative, exuberant Little G!  I love you, my Gavie Gavster!!