#100HappyDays2018: Day 4

Day 4: Traveling with these two monkeys is never dull. They are burning off steam after a gymnastics competition. (throw back Thursday post)
#Dastroyah
#DTStrong

#100HappyDays2018: Day 3

 

Day 3: Homemade Kombucha! Dan loves kombucha and once we figured out how easy it was to make, we started brewing our own. Dan likes his fruit flavored, so we put some frozen fruit through the Magic Bullet and viola, fruity kombucha.

#100HappyDays2018: Day 2

 #100HappyDay2018 Day 2:
I took a walk last night as the sun was about to go down and was reminded anew of how much I love the view of the Organ Mountains from the end of our block. Beauty is everywhere, we just have to stop rushing around for long enough to notice it.

#100HappyDays2018: Day 1

 Day 1 of 100 Happy Days: This year I happened to get snapped while kissing on Dastroyah and since there is rarely any photographic evidence of his existence, I am thrilled to share* this darling snap of my favorite oldest biological Man-Child.
Since he detests having his photo taken and despises social media even more than photographs, this is a treasure for sure. 
 

I know the whole point of this is to pick something that makes me happy, but this is like crazy, over-the-top, super extra happiness right here.

*Posted with his permission.

It's the Little Things: Day 147

 

I want to focus on the good things this year.

All the things people get right.

All the times that everything works out just perfectly after we assumed disaster had already struck.

All the times that the right word was spoken at the right moment.

So, let's celebrate those little moments together, shall we?

• It's a lovely hour and a half long chat with your bestie after she calls to announce that she's just dropped her daughter off at my house. The last one we lived in while we were in IL. #ItsASmallWorldAfterAll
• It's using and enjoying Wal-Mart's free grocery shopping app so I don't have to wander through the grocery store on a holiday weekend. Plus, it helps me avoid impulse buys...or snacks to keep my shopping 'helpers' happy. 
• It's having friends and family to celebrate with for the upcoming Memorial Day holiday. That's not a little thing, but something to appreciate for sure.
• It's getting a new bookshelf at the LFAL office so we can bring in more books to add to our lending library. 
• It's having an overdue convo with Dan after a compelling sermon by Pastor Dennis in regards to our marriage and how we can improve it. Good stuff.
• It's having another stellar week of community group. I'm loving our study by Rick Warren- '40 Days of Love', a study based on a book called "The Relationship Principles of Jesus" and also the topic of our current sermon series. 
• It's getting a phone call announcing big news from my daughter-in-love. No, they are not pregnant, but it's still big exciting news that will be made public in the near future. Sometimes, secrets are fun.
• It's keeping the counters clean and dishes done this whole week again. 
• It's another fun, late Game Night. Adam learned how to play 7 Wonders, we all laughed ourselves silly over Bananagrams and Farkle, and then once everyone else was gone, Dan, myself, Pat and Nathan played Golf until like 3:30 in the morning. Eek! 
• It's a friend that wants to you come play paper with her and when you are too busy, she brings it to you at a more convenient time. 
• It's being invited to Little Miss's birthday party. DT and I had just been talking about her this week.
• It's a friend that wants to set up a toe-nail painting party and checks with you three times to make sure the time is good for you so you can attend. 
• It's a working lunch on a Saturday with your sister and nephews while admiring your new bookshelf, filled to the brim with books.  
• It's a nephew that comes early to Game Night to share dinner, help set up and to squeeze in some extra visiting time because he's moving away soon and won't be able to attend anymore. 
• It's your sons knowing that they can bring home friends without first asking for 'permission' and that their friend will be welcomed without question or reprimand. It's satisfying to know that our children know our home is a safe place for not only them, but for their friends that are struggling at home. 
• It's a friend that you can truly talk to about your life. Not the perfect soundbite options you post for FB fodder, but the gut-wrenching, brutally beautiful, bittersweet, take-your-breath-away moments. Everyone should have a bestie like my Lizzie. 
• It's the truly simple things, like cutting my own boys' hair. It's a happy little time every few weeks when we get to chat, just us. Or when I pop my head in their room just to say hi and end up chatting for 30 minutes. It's when they wander into the kitchen and start helping make a meal while we are laughing together. 
• It's paying off your ridiculously high library fines so you can start checking out books again. (Some day, there will be a plaque in my honor for all the fines I've paid. I just know there will. LOL) 
• It's a high capacity washer so that even know I've only done one load of laundry this week, it will only take me 2 more to get caught back up. Phew! 

Life is so full of little blessings, happy moments, and beauty. If we only take the time to look at it, we will realize how rich, and how deep and how sweet our lives are. Take a minute to look around. 

What's on YOUR little things list today?

100 Happy Days 2018 Starts Tomorrow!

Hi friends! I'm wanting to document some happiness around here. Life is sometimes hard, and often feels rather uphill-both-ways-in-neck-deep-snow blah blah blah. So to combat that feeling, I've decided to join the 100 Happy Days Challenge. Starting on May 28th, I will be doing the challenge. It's a great way to focus on the positive in our lives by noticing something that makes us happy each day for 100 days. Easy, right?

I chose May 28th, because to me, summer starts then. Memorial Day is official kick off weekend of summer. So from Memorial Day until approximately Labor Day, I shall be documenting something that made me happy that day. I'll be posting on FB and also here. I'll be using the hashtags #100HappyDays, #100DaysOfSummer and possibly #TheManCrew as well. And probably #100HappyDays2018 because I LOVE hashtags and because I want to be able to sort out which picture belongs to what year. 😁

If you want to play along, and I hope you do, you can join the challenge by heading to www.100happydays.com and signing up. You can choose your start date, your favorite platform for posting pics, and even choose a custom hashtag if #100HappyDays doesn't suit your fancy. Hope to see you there and here!

And Just Like That...Another School Year Is In The Books!

Friends, we are done, we are done, we are DONE! Mr. T and Slick have completed their best school year ever as of yesterday and now it's time to let the good times roll. Our 180+ days have been completed, we've MORE than accomplished what we set out to do this school year and they both have grown by leaps and bounds over the past 9 months.

They finished their 3 Rs with "Aunt Jodi Mom" this week and all that's left to complete is a few lingering Teaching Textbooks lessons. They will continue to read and work through DuoLingo over the summer but their formal lessons for the 3 Rs are complete.

As for their MFW curriculum with me, we are switching to "Homeschool Lite" which will be a short lesson or two every other day until we wrap our curriculum, which should be well before Jodi and her boys take their vacation in July. In the afternoons while Jodi is teaching classes at the office, the boys and I will head to the newly created 'teacher's lounge' and do a little work. I'm pretty excited about it.

To the boys, I say, "Well done, sirs! You have worked hard and accomplished much. Enjoy your well earned rest."

As for me, I've already brought all our extra books home, just the MFW core is left at the LFAL office, and the homeschooling shelves in the lounge are looking light and airy.

Best. School. Year. Ever. 

I love Blogging

I just wanted to pop in and say that I LOVE Blogging. 
Even if no one but me ever reads it...it doesn't matter. I have spent several hours over the past few weeks following links from one old post to the next and I'm having such a delightful time prancing down memory lane with myself. Blogging is one of the few creative outlets I allow myself outside of the kitchen, so it's glorious to be back at it again. Thanks for sharing the journey with me, my friends.
#NoLongerAPlateSpinner
#BloggerLife
#MemoryLane

It's The Little Things: Day 141

 

I want to focus on the good things this year.
All the things people get right.
All the times that everything works out just perfectly after we assumed disaster had already struck.
All the times that the right word was spoken at the right moment.
So, let's celebrate those little moments together, shall we?

• It's a week FULL of activities, all of them good. 
• It's trying out my new MoviePass for the first time. 'Free' movie, plus I like to go to the flickers alone. It's a little time just for me. 
• It's sleeping in until almost 11am (completely unprecedented for me) after a super late and tons of fun Game Night on Friday. 
• It's helping a friend, mostly by keeping her company, while she packs for a move.
• It's Taco Tuesday with friends new and old. Amy and Jimmy are in town to visit Johnny and it was great to catch up.
• It's celebratory ice cream with Ricky and Judah on Wednesday to shout hooray for sleepovers again.
• It's Nathan graduating!! Class of 2018, baby! 
• It's ending up at the cool kids table at the grad party on Friday. Dan and I sat down, and Nathan and the boys all came to eat with us and boom. For a few brief moments in time we were cool again. 
• It's a lovely visit with my Sister-Girl Karen, it's nice to be in the groove again. 
• It's a beautiful new glass container to brew my kombucha. Dan REALLY is enjoying having it around all the time. 
• It's starting a new study with our community group and everyone was participating.
• It's a BBQ with friends on Sunday to celebrate Naomi's 75th birthday, and winning the party games. 
• It's knowing that there are only FOUR days left of school. I think I'm as excited as the boys. 
• It's a fun video chat with 'Shua, Lauren and Caden. He wasn't sitting still for me to read to him tonight, but he was scampering about and chattering away like a little chipmunk. He tried to say "Love you" to me tonight. *melting* I love that naughty little Punk. 
• It's the hubster saying that I don't need to cook tonight and we will just eat leftovers and that is one less thing for me to do. Yes, please. 
• It's keeping the dishes COMPLETELY finished and making sure the counters are clean every night before I go to bed. Waking up to a clean kitchen is the best. 
• It's creeping ever closer to my #HotMess challenge goal of creating a scrap-booking counter for myself in the SOC room. I actually cleared some counter tonight. 
• It's waking up early on a Monday morning to have time to complete several chores and still have time to be ready to head into work and get the week started right.  

It's the Little Things: Day 134 ~Mother's Day Edition~

 

 I want to focus on the good things this year.
All the things people get right.
All the times that everything works out just perfectly after we assumed disaster had already struck.
All the times that the right word was spoken at the right moment.
So, let's celebrate those little moments together, shall we?

• It's the best Mother's Day ever! Thanks Man Crew!
• It's Dastroyah coming over early in the morning to make us ALL breakfast.
• It's a few hours of peace and quiet all to my happy little self while the men went off-roading.
• It's a lovely chat with my mom while we were both enjoying some peace and quiet. 
• It's board games and laughter...and perhaps a little shouting and gloating ;)
• It's everyone helping to get the pizza made so we can watch movies together. 
• It's taking a peek on FB and sending other mamas blessings. 
• It's delicious pizza and funny movies. Oceans 11 and 12 were watched and enjoyed. 
• It's feeling SO proud of my gentlemen savages. Not only did they pick up the Mother's Day traditions on their own (Dan's family doesn't celebrate it and I felt selfish teaching the boys to celebrate me when they were littles), but they asked me what I wanted and then they delivered. Their wives will be blessed someday by these skills. 
• It's a text session with some of my best mama friends where we spoke words of blessing to one another.
• It's being blessed by the young men my once very small boys have become. My active parenting years are coming to a close in a few short years, but then I'll have decades to enjoy the fruit of my labors. 

 

What's on YOUR little things list today?

I’m THAT Mama...

     So, it turns out that I’ve become THAT mama...the one that just says whatever comes to mind. Despite my mother’s years of faithful training in the delicate arts of being a real lady, I’ve lived with all these men for far too long to believe that men are capable of picking up subtle hints. And so, I am learning to speak up for things that are important to me. 
     Case in point: last night The BIGS asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day and I appropriately said they didn’t need to get me anything. Cue them rolling their eyes. They asked if I wanted to go out to lunch or if I wanted chocolate or flowers or whatever...and I kept saying that I didn’t need that to feel loved or appreciated on Mother’s Day. Upon further reflection though, I decided I DID want something from them, and so I just sent out this text. “I changed my mind. I know what I want for Mother’s Day. I want to play board games all afternoon with the tv off, and to make pizza and watch a movie together in the evening, with no one using other technology devices. 😁 What are the chances of that happening? Talk to the brothers and let me know if I should have pizza ingredients on hand. Yes, Alex and Nathan count as brothers, but don’t get them in trouble with their bio mamas. Love, Mama K” 

     Oh goodness, I have NOT waited until I am 70+ to just blurt out whatever I want to say. Oops! And well, NOT oops. People are not mind readers. Isn’t it kinder to let people know what you want from them, expect them to do, etc. instead of letting them guess? Anywho, I’ll keep you all posted on how Mother’s Day goes. Traditionally at The Man Crew House, Mother’s Day is just another day, but now that The BIGS are old enough, they are taking on the challenge of honoring me for themselves. I’m not going to say I don’t love it, because I do. Hopefully someday, little brother will pick up the banner. And when he does, I’ll be right there, telling him exactly what I want, because a real lady doesn’t leave a man guessing. 

It's the Little Things: Day 128

 

 I want to focus on the good things this year.
All the things people get right.
All the times that everything works out just perfectly after we assumed disaster had already struck.
All the times that the right word was spoken at the right moment.
So, let's celebrate those little moments together, shall we?

The past few weeks have been frustrating for me and I'm finding that I'm being extra critical not only of myself, but of anyone with whom I interact. Now that I've stopped to think about that, I'm wondering if it's directly correlated to the fact that I've slacked off of intentionally looking for the good and the beautiful. So, to answer that question...

• It's DT's room finally getting clean. Woot! (If you've ever met a 12 year old, you know how big of a deal this is, LOL)
• It's having plenty of leftover tamales from the night before, so you not only have something quick and easy to eat, but you also don't have to cook tonight.
• It's getting back to blogging after last week's Screen Free Week adventures.
• It's spending an evening just hanging out with family, blogging, reading, and laughing together.
• It's going to be at a reasonable hour, so I can get up and do it all again tomorrow.
• It's enjoying my roses every.single.time I go outside. 
• It's having a fun planning session about names and styles when PattyCakes comes home with a hat that says "MeYeR Crew Garage" and wants everyone to get matching hats. 
• It's reaching out to a friend that's hurting. 
• It's having TIME to invest in people instead of always being so busy that I just hoped other people would reach out. #NoLongerAPlateSpinner
• It's finishing my 10th book this year. I'm still behind on my goal, but less behind than I was recently, so PROGRESS!! I love progress. 

Screen Free 2018 Wrap Up

We made it! We did it! We survived! Wooty Woot Woot! DT thought for sure on a few occassions that we was about to die, but we pulled through and lived to tell the tale.

This year was a much bigger success than last year for sure! With school still being in session and being at work with Mr. T each day, the days were pretty filled. Mr. T was playing along with SFW during the time DT and I were at the office each day so that made it more bearable for them both. Legos were played, robots were built, much handwritten 'mail' went back and forth...and we played every board game ever created...at least 3 times. LOL! Lego Club at work, Community Group, Game Day at work followed by Game Night at home helped fill some of the gaps. We had one faux pas. On Wednesday when I went to have dinner with Karen, I knew Daddy would let DT watch TV, so before I left, I said he could only watch educational movies, so he pulled out his Magic School Bus boxed set and started working his way through those. I am using a screen often enough at work these days that I was glad to not have a screen in my face all evening as well, although I did miss FB. I probably checked my email more often than normal, but not a large amount. I did read a book, play all the games, have time to cook better meals and be more prepared for Community Group and Game Night because I wasn't distracted by my phone. I'm calling SFW a huge win for this year.
How did you fare?

No Pants Apri 2018: That's a Wrap!

 

I am not trying to reinvent the wheel on this blog, so I'll just quote my own thoughts from last year's NPA farewell. I hope that's okay with all of you, my dear friends.
     "Goodbye, No Pants April! I hugged my favorite jeans with glee this morning like a long lost friend before slipping them right on quick as greased lightning. I put on my 'Its the Little Things' tee shirt, and felt like myself again, albeit a less fancy version of myself than I've been sharing lately. For me, the best part about the end of NPA is not having to take my own picture eleventy billion times every day." 

 
     This year, I will add that I'm going to attempt to wear a skirt at least once a week, and that's in addition to when I wear one to church. I'm also trying to get back in the habit of wearing make up a few times a month, so perhaps those two things will coincide often.
     At any rate, I quick recap of a few of my fave snapshots from this year's NPA and we will call it d-o-n-e for the year.
 

   

Buh Bye, NPA! See you next year!