Remembering...

It's Wordless Wednesday !

Patience Is A Virtue

It seems the theme of our house-building project is Hurry Up & Wait. To catch you up to speed on recent events, here is a handy bulleted list of what's been happening:

• We submitted our house plans, etc. and applied for a building permit.
• We found that we needed to start over with our house plans.
• House #1 was too big (i.e. too expensive).
• We had completely *new* house plans drawn up by the architect.
• We found out the septic design that the septic designer made was put in the wrong spot (by the designer).
• We had to have a new septic design made by the same people.
• And pay them more money.
• Which really ticked me off.
• We had to resubmit the *new* houseplans for a building permit.
• We need to get all new bids for work on the *new* house.

The good news is that I really like the new house plans. And even more than that, I like that we can (probably) afford this one without having to sell vital organs. Or live in the garage.

So, depending on how long the County drags their feet and holds up our building permit, we could hopefully be breaking ground by summer. Which would be great. Which would also involve us moving to a rental house closer to the actual property in order to keep a watchful eye on things. Which would be a hassle but could save us a couple hundred dollars a month. Which would totally be worth it.

For now we sit and wait for our permit and start figuring out how much the *new* house will cost to build. If patience is a virtue, I should be a saint by the time this is all over.

Moments for Me

Tammy at My Life has started a new weekly challenge called Moments for Me. The premise is that we, as wives and mothers, need to take some time to nurture ourselves. To focus on our needs and desires and work on our own happiness. It's so easy to get lost in the maelstrom that is caring for small children and tending to our family's needs and forget about the dreams and desires that we carried long before we carried our children.

I willingly and whole-heartedly threw myself into motherhood when Sam was born. Being a mom was a lifelong dream and I embraced it with everything I had. Three years later Zoë joined our family and I again immersed myself in the joy of mothering. She was a much needier, clingier baby so even when the old needs and desires started to resurface, I had to push them aside for the sake of my girl.

But now I'm ready and able to start refocusing on ME a bit more. It'll be a challenge to change my way of thinking, to start being a bit selfish again, but I think the benefits will be great. If some time to myself makes me a more happy, relaxed wife and mom then I owe it to myself AND my family to steal those moments. And that's not meant sarcastically. I grew up with the example of a mom who dedicated every waking minute to her family and it only made her UNhappy and probably resentful. Alot of what she did was out of necessity, but she also chose to deprive herself of even small things that could have brought her great happiness. I just don't think living the life of a martyr benefits anybody. I want to be a good example for my kids, showing them that I value myself and care enough about them to want to be the best wife & mom I can be. And that there's alot more to me than just those roles.

It wasn't a big deal, but on Saturday I stole some moments to just sit and soak up the sun. That alone improved my mood and energy level. The kids were playing on the deck with me and listening to them chattering happily combined with the warmth of the sun on my skin was absolute heaven.

Pancakes & Fire Trucks

This morning the local fire department hosted their annual Pancake Feed down at the station. It's a pretty good deal: $12/family and it's all you can eat of pancakes, ham, eggs, coffee and orange juice. Plus you can buy raffle tickets to enter in a drawing for dinner with the firefighters. They come pick you up in the fire engine and make you dinner at the station. How cool would that be?

After filling our bellies, we headed outside to check out the fire trucks and ambulances. What cooler thing than to be a kid and get crawl around inside real fire trucks and check out all the gear?

Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but I think Sam is going to make one extremely handsome heroic firefighter someday.


Zoe was fascinated by the seatbelts and I could hardly get her to look up to take a picture. Every seat she climbed into, she had to fiddle with the seatbelts. "I'm a safety girl." (Name that movie.)

She also tried her hand at pushing buttons. Something that, as her mother, I can confirm that she has a knack for.


Just look at that face poise! He's a natural, I tell ya.

Flashback Friday

Last year we went to visit the tulip fields for the first time. Even after all my years of living in this area, I'd never been to see them. I remember it was a rather chilly & windy day, and Zoë's boots kept falling off. Because it was Spring and it had recently rained, there were lots of puddles. Which meant the kids were naturally drawn to them, so we left the fields rather muddy and wet. But the tulips were gorgeous and to see hundreds and thousands of them swaying in the breeze was truly spectacular. I decided right then and there I would have a similar flower garden, just maybe on a smaller scale.

Since the forecast is for sun tomorrow and temps close to 60° (a virtual heatwave!) we may try to head out to revisit the tulip fields. Now that I have a fancy schmancy camera, I'd love to get some pictures, not to mention some fresh air and sun on my face.

Psssttt...

The sale at The Children's Place is still going on, only now things are 50% off! And the 15% coupon from Wantnot.net is still good. Today the box of goodies that I ordered a couple weeks ago was delivered and it's such cute stuff! Plus the pants that I ordered for Zoë were too big so that was my justification for rushing right back and ordering MORE. The selection was a big limited, but I still found some good stuff. I definitely could have ordered more than I did, but I restrained myself.

This time I ordered her two more pair of jeans (24 month size this time), a long-sleeved shirt and a pair of shoes, along with two pair of pants, two shirts and a pair of shoes for Sam. All for the bargain price of $47.46.

Just wanted to pass along the deal!

The Blahs

I've got a serious case of the blahs. I'm in some kind of unmotivated, slothful, lazy, uninterested, uninspired FUNK. I think a large part of it has to do with the weather. I'm pretty sure I get SAD every winter. Not *sad* as in boo-hoo, but SAD as in Seasonal Affective Disorder. When the weather is gray and cold for days weeks months on end, and there is no bright sunshine to bounce off my retinas, I seriously turn into a grizzly bear. I just want to eat, hole up in my house and be left alone. And if you know me outside of your computer, you know that's not typical Kate-ness.

I hate feeling like this. My brain is going at Warp III with all the things I want to/need to do, yet my body absolutely refuses to cooperate. I have projects that I could be working on while I'm stuck indoors, new recipes to try, closets to organize, things to do with the kids and yet some days showering is my big accomplishment of the day.

And it's frustrating to no end because I'm in the middle of my six days off from work, and yet I've done NOTHING. My brain can't even hardly decide what to make for dinner, much less find the motivation to leave the house to do something constructive. Boy, but when the sun comes out, I am a whirling dervish of activity and energy. There is a drastic difference between Fifty-second-Cloudy-Day Kate and First-Sunny-Day-Kate.

Long story short, I.NEED.SUN. And SOON.