How to Help with Harvey: A Suggestion

It's strange. The last big devastating hurricane was Katrina. And it all went down right around the time my grandmother passed away. And I was in my own little grief bubble and didn't really realize it was even happening.

So now here we are with Harvey and I am also grieving, this time not in a little bubble. I want to help out the people of Texas but I wasn't really sure what to do. At the same time I am trying so hard to find a way to honor Ann and her life. Even though I never got to see her, hold her or talk with her outside of the womb doesn't make her life any less. So I was pleased to find a way to do both!

The Texas Diaper Bank needs diapers and wipes. (For babies, toddlers and those adults in need.) It seems like such a simple need, but man have you ever run out of diapers? Or been caught without one on an outing?

The Texas Diaper Bank is accepting donations on their website but they also have an Amazon wishlist, so you can just send them diapers via Amazon directly. That's what I did. It feels good to do something tangible and know that I am really helping some little bum stay clean and dry.

These days I am feeling pretty small in my world. Death and destruction have a way of putting you in your place you know? I want to help fix the sadness going on with my BIL and SIL. But I can't. And they don't really need anything and they specifically don't want stuff. But donating diapers in Ann's honor, that is something I can do.

If you are looking for a way to help the people of Texas, might I suggest the Texas Diaper Bank?

The First Day of School and more.

I had a post up yesterday but I took it down. It was rash of me to post it. So here is the updated, more well thought out version.

I had kind of been dreading it, the first day of school. It's all on me, but I was having some regret that we weren't going to kindergarten.

But the first day came anyway and C was so excited. He was happy.

It's a weird change going to school in the afternoon but slowly we'll adjust. Luckily I had the foresight to start eating lunch at 11:00 a few weeks ago so that part wasn't an adjustment at least. I have set some alarms on my phone for enough time to go pick him up every day. Just until it gets to be a normal part of my routine.

Dropping him off in his classroom was good. He told me that he would miss me. Then I asked him if I could give him a kiss or if that was too embarrassing. "No mom, I want a kiss. That's not embarrassing." Yep, I melted into a puddle of goo right then.

It sounds like he had a fun day. One of his favorite friends from preschool is in his class and he made a new friend Elliot. So all in all I am feeling much better about the whole thing. Especially in light of what else our family is going through.

Our niece Ann was born still last night. It seems so unreal to type that. But it's the truth. A horrible miserable truth.

Here I was Thursday pitying myself that my wonderful kid wasn't going to be in kindergarten and in fact I get a whole extra year of him to myself mostly. And my SIL was finding out that her baby didn't have a heartbeat. Perspective that takes my breath away.

This world is a crazy place, full of ups and downs. My boy had a wonderful first day of school. And for that I am thankful. We all need more joy to counteract the sorrows.

We're Back!

We got back from vacation last night. We pulled in at 10:00 PM on the dot. We were dead tired but we unloaded all the bags into the house. Then brought our sleeping kids inside, got them into pajamas through their dazed tears and tucked them in.

Today has brought a lot of laundry and reflection. It was the perfect vacation. I booked this trip in June of 2016. That gave me a heck of a long time to plan and dream about it. And it was everything I wanted and needed it to be.

It was my kid's first trip to Walt Disney World and also their first journey on an airplane. I haven't been to Disney since April 2014. And that was only for the day. We hadn't really done Disney since our honeymoon in 2010.

(Forgive me for reposting the same pics from insta. I need some more time to properly blog about the trip in it's entirety. Laundry does not clean and put away itself you know?)

Monday we spent the day at Magic Kingdom on our 7th wedding anniversary. We were so happy be there together on our special day and share it with our kids for the first time! 

Tuesday we spent the first half of the day at Animal Kingdom. My kids played in the boneyard for an hour and we just rejoiced at their fun. We set very realistic expectations for ourselves which was a good plan. 

We found ourselves at Epcot on Wednesday, which was lovely. It is my second favorite park for sure and C is definitely my child because he loved it too! 

Thursday was another fun day at Magic Kingdom and we got to do Enchanted Tales with Belle in our special shirts! C even took a picture with Belle even though he was not in the story and pretty much hates costumed characters. (He tolerated the princesses.) 

Our last park day on Friday brought us back to Magic Kingdom and it was the most perfect and magical day ever. My heart was filled with love and Disney Magic, probably enough to keep me going until we can go back. (Which we are already discussing!) 

I will definitely get on top of writing up a more detailed blog post(s) about our trip. I was nervous bringing my kids at 5 and 2, since I have never been to Disney with kids before. Even when I was younger my brother was 6 or 7 I think when we went. But it all went pretty darn good. 

I am so thankful. More soon! 

Things That Aren't Too Exciting on a Thursday

It seems almost inconceivable that I haven't written anything in almost a week but there's been a whole lotta nothing going on here. We've had just some nice normal days. Not going anywhere. Nothing special. Which in between a week away house sitting and a week away on vacation is actually kind of special in it;s own right.

We are at that point where I want to start gathering and packing but it's actually just a little too soon to do that. I am just twiddling my thumbs until vacation. Except you know getting my house clean because everyone knows having a clean house when you come home from vacation is just about the best thing ever.

In a little what have we been up to post... since C hasn't been on an airplane since he was 3 months old and M has never been, we've been watching the TSA YouTube video for kids so they will know what to expect. We've even practiced standing with our hands over our heads for the full body scanners.

Anyway, all the prep is paying off because soon there was a line and all the little people, animals and peg dolls had to go through the metal detector. (Pluto's dog house.) Insert the laugh crying emoji right here please.

We've been cramming in a lot of educational work this week before our trip. By educational I mean just in fun ways of course. M has come a long way with her pen control this summer. Not too shabby for 2.5 I think. She is not going to preschool this fall because she won't be three in time but we are going to start learning our letters and sounds a little. 

In some of the books C reads they have mentioned sheds. Because it's an easy to read word. Only it's kind of a hard word to contextualize if you're five and have never experienced one. So we took a little field trip over to my besties and C's Godmother's house to look at her shed. We also spelled shed with sticks. 

So now he gets that a shed is not as big as a house or garage and full of the tools that we keep in our garage. Hooray for learning.

I am really at a place with C where I question whether we made the right choice on the kindergarten front. He just excelled academically this summer with very little guidance from me. I am not sure exactly why, but Tuesday he rewrote the entire "The Monster at the End of This Book."

He interpreted each illustration in his own 5-year-old way and wrote every single word of the book. He even tried his hand at typography and if the book had red or pink writing, he would switch from his pen to a crayon. 

And yet, even as he initiated his own copy work, I still think all-day school is too much for him right now. So that leaves us where we are. And all this overthinking is part of the reason I need a vacation! 

Okay then, that's what we are up to. Have a wonderful Thursday! 

Friday!

Here we are back to Friday already. I really can't believe it, but I totally can.

We're dog sitting this week. Same old story with that.

In short, my kids are having the time of their lives being pet siblings with "their best friends" and I am over here thanking my lucky stars that we never caved to the cute face of a puppy. We (Husband and I) are clearly just not pet people. A week is about my fill of pet care. 

C has been creating art of the dogs, which is actually pretty cute. And I've been making them share a bed. Partly for them to practice before vacation because they will share a bed there and partly because it's one less room to clean. 

This neighborhood has exceptional sidewalks for playing on scooters so we've been doing a lot of that. When both adults are home we even go on scooter walks because they live on a cul-de-sac. But both adults have to be home because M gives up halfway around and C is a little speed demon so... it takes two sets of eyes. 

In today's edition of random thoughts by Madeline... do you ever wonder about whether you could have been happy learning a trade? I just wonder whether I could have been happy plumbing all day. Anyway, that's not to say I am going back to school to learn the art of plumbing, I've never been mechanically minded. But... it's my random thought of the day. 

Today we got a magical cool front coming through and the high is only 70. It won't last but I love opening all the windows and letting fresh air in. It's the little things! It feels like, well I won't mention it but it starts with an F and ends with all. 

Hello August!

No really, how is it already August? Time is just going so fast!

But that being said... I love August. It is my most favorite month of the entire year!

July wrapped up with a bang. I had girl's weekend this past weekend and it was lovely. I spent the day with a group of friends from college. (All but one were ladies I was roommates with at some point.) It was stellar. We had lunch out and then just a lot of sitting around and chatting, which, is excellent use of lady time if I do say so myself. I don't feel quite as balanced out as I did the previous two years so maybe the travel is an essential part of that feeling. Noted for next summer!

July was also Harry Potter month. I saw this meme yesterday and it just made me laugh and laugh and laugh.

My mom did not think it was funny though.

But that was July. And now we are in August. The month of great births. (Mine. My mother.) The month of hideous birthstones. (Peridot. Gross.) The month in which we will take our first epic family vacation. The month of our anniversary. The month school begins.

August is bringing some great things to us in 2017 my friends. Let's see if it lives up to the hype.