7QT: Happy April Takes

1. I have been flying solo since before dawn on Wednesday morning. Husband is off in Las Vegas for his annual conference. In years past (like for as long has he's had to go to this event) I have either tagged along and left kid(s) with my parents, or I just went to my parent's house to not be completely alone for an extended period of time. But this year, Husband is able to come back earlier and doesn't immediately head to a big retreat for work, so we stayed home and life continued as normal.

2. I have been up to some projects for Husband's birthday and I would LOVE to tell you about them, but he reads this blog and therefore writing about them would ruin the surprise. Kind of handy to have several days to pull off a surprise! But just know that I have been keeping busy while he's been gone and I am totally excited about it!

3. Do you ever fall victim to the trap of buying presents that you would like for your spouse? We are pretty bad about this, so I really hope he likes his gift! Because I really do and when I invented this idea it really was for him! In defense of myself just a minute: I did ask him like 50 times if there was anything specific he wanted.

4. Today was M's very last art class of the year. We have so enjoyed going to art class, even when I haven't been particularly excited about going in the morning. Today's crafts were butterfly themed and since I have been very lax at sharing art pictures here I will go ahead and do that.

5. I don't know if I have ever written about my love for pineapples before, but I love them. They are a sign of southern hospitality and apparently I should just move to the south. I have a pineapple in every room on my main floor and one in my flower bed too. It all started with a pineapple cookie jar I got at the church garage sale in 2008. There were two matching jars and I have one and so does my brother. Then I slowly started accumulating them. I love that they are on trend! My Scentsy warmer pineapple is my current favorite because it's adorable and also makes my house smell like pineapple! We are ordering pizza tonight because I am way not a martyr, and I am totally going to get my pineapple pizza. If I was really nuts I would tell you that I am wearing pineapple pajama pants... I may have a pineapple problem.

6. M has been super duper into listening to music lately and her top contenders are "Shake It Off" and anything from Moana. So there's a lot of that in my life lately. I dreamt Taylor Swift last night. But the radio killed it this morning and played the Backstreet Boys. Which, speaking of, they're in residence in Vegas right now and Husband refused to go and Skype me in. Lame. He went to see Cirque instead which I suppose is still awesome. 

7. The *grand-parental* Easter Bunny sent the kids the game Zoo on the Loose. I am really surprised how much they love playing it and the learning that is happening. It's for ages 4+ and M can't really focus for the whole game but she does a great job at the beginning. C can read most of the words on the cards and is getting pretty good at an educated guess of what the words he doesn't know are. I have not been pushing reading on him but this summer if we work at it a bit, he will be a reader! He is SO close. 

Have an awesome weekend! Hope you get to do something fun. 

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to you! My kids are deeply disappointed that it is no longer Easter. And, I know that it's an octave and all that but it's the secular hunting for eggs and baskets they would like to repeat, not the Mass so... whatever.

We did have a great little Easter. Saturday was spent in preparation cleaning the house, watching the new baby giraffe and having some fun family time. We went out for a pizza dinner which was fun and wonderful then came home to dye our eggs.

It was fun and no one lost their temper, but it was kind of a comedy of errors. Let's just say that I am glad I insisted that everyone be in play clothes. Every single one of us spilled some dye, from the adults with some tsunami like waves to the kids full on cup emptying. But in the end only one egg was lost (by a two year old) and everyone was happy with how they turned out. 

The kids also drew pictures for the Easter bunny. Which were quite cute. Husband helped tape the pictures to the back door so he would be sure to find them. 

We do a combined tradition at our house. Growing up, we found a hidden basket of goodies. Husband grew up hunting eggs. So we hid baskets that had two books, two tsum tsums, (referred to as "little guys" in our house) some Reese's eggs and a little extra candy sprinkled in. Then the kids looked for 20 eggs each filled with jelly beans, M&M eggs and Reese's peanut butter rabbits. This basket picture is staged. They did not have eggs in them when the kids found them, nor were the goodies so high because #ihateeastergrass. We totally added some plastic grocery bags under the liner to prop up the stuff for the picture. 

Everyone loved Easter morning! 

We went to our normal 11:00 Mass. It was crowded but not crazy crowded. We got there a half hour early and someone had already camped out in our spot. So we were like three rows back from normal. Frustrating for me because getting my spot is one of those small victory competitions in my mind. We also missed our row by about 25 seconds for Holy Thursday. (Which was the only part of the Triduum we attempted with the group.)

But we made it through Easter with no real problems. There was a little girl in the row in front of us and she was not a good influence on M who is our problem most of the time. She was eating crackers so we of course had to bust out our "talking during the consecration" crackers WAY early. Overall behavior gets a B and I will take it!! 

C's shirt is untucked because his pants were too big! They were an elastic waist but not adjustable waist and we had to safety pin them so they would stay up! Luckily the shirt covered it! I may have to take uniform pants into a tailor depending on the pants I can find. 

Anyway, that was basically our Easter in a nutshell. I hope you had a wonderful one!

Spring Cleaning

All right people. It was 80 degrees hot yesterday. #lovinit! Friday afternoon Husband came home and we headed out to "The Orange Store" *Home Depot* which obviously is the cousin of "The Red Store." *Target* So anyway, the kids were not excited about the fact that it was "a grown up toy store" but we picked up our new lawn mower and rug and they are awesome! We also bought some tulips because I normally get some for Valentine's Day, it's our little tradition but Husband couldn't find any in February.

We also got 12 bags of mulch and got our flowerbeds all cleaned out and tidy. Our city has two free lawn waste weeks in the spring, and today is our last pick up before we pay $5 a bag so we made good use of the good weather! It probably seems so lame to say this, but my yard really makes me happy right now.

The porch project took much much longer than I anticipated. The rubber on the bottom of our old rug had degraded and was all stuck to our floor. But now it is super clean and looks great! I am so excited to be rid of the winter grime and gear! This is just my favorite room in the house with the sun and the breeze and the comfy chairs. It's wonderful.

This is all the positive part of my weekend. The #reallife part of my weekend was that my kids were fairly crabby and overtired all weekend. So much so that we didn't even pretend to bring M to Palm Sunday and she just got checked into babysitting when we arrived at the church. I have zero shame in this. Babysitting rocks and I am glad it's an option on those days where you know it isn't going to go well! 

And now it's Monday bringing all the Monday things, which mostly just means the typical everyday-ness of it all. Fine by me! 

7 Truly Random Things

1. There is a long stretch of road that was resurfaced completely last summer. I have been driving it a lot this week and it is just so smooth, it's almost like you aren't driving. It got me thinking about what an everyday, ordinary miracle driving really is. I mean, we teach 14/15/16 year old teens these rules and then let them out. And somehow, for the most part, people get to where they need to go without a lot of incident.

2. We are looking forward to spring weather this weekend! I have my heart set on some spring cleaning this weekend. I just bought a new lawn mower online for in store pickup later so we will definitely be mowing this weekend. I also got a new indoor/outdoor rug for our three season porch. I have big plans to DEEP clean that sucker. I don't love the new rug as much as the old rug, but it was on Home Depot's Spring Black Friday sale and it was a steal! Never fear, to reward our hard work we have a family outing to Red Robin planned.

3. To kick off this spring cleaning weekend, I just finished scrubbing my kitchen floor. It's a pain but there is something super satisfying and Cinderella-y about cleaning your floor on your hands and knees. Then I cleaned my washer and dryer. (The surfaces and I am currently running the clean cycle with the Afresh.)

4. In true keep it real style, neither kid of mine is currently wearing pants. M had a fit about the pajama pants I put her in before rest so I just took them off and had her sleep in her shirt and diaper only. C wanted to help me scrub the kitchen floor. (He got his own sponge and bowl "bucket" with water only.) And he was mad that his pants were getting wet. I could probably go have them put on pants but... I am blogging.

5. My kids. They don't like anything by their real names. I made this French Toast Bake using regular bread. (Super hard to find a recipe that doesn't call for crusty old bread or fancy bread.) The only change to the recipe I made was adding some blueberries in the middle of the slices. It DID bake up like a souffle. But of course, I know my kids. And they "don't like French toast." But they sure loved "Blueberry Breakfast Cake." It was quite tasty!

6. Can you believe Easter is just a week out?! Oh my gosh I sure can't! We have eggs to dye and baskets to fill. I am hoping the weather is nice because I did not buy tights for M's dress and I just don't want to have to. I am not sure if we are going to strive for the full Triduum or not. I am pretty sure it's going to be a play it by ear sort've thing. Question for mothers of older girls: what do you have your kids wear under their dresses after they no longer come with cute diaper covers but aren't truly old enough to be trusted not to raise the dress over their heads? Though as I typed that out I am thinking buying the tights solves that problem...

7. In my other keep it real item, I am back into a deep relationship with hot fudge shakes. And I wish I could tell you I was going to quit them, but I'm not. I did however buy a gallon of ice cream and a jar of hot fudge to give making them myself a whirl. But seriously. I love them. Like graffiti on the bathroom stall kind of love here. MD + HFS = TL4E

And that, my friends are the random goings on of my life. Have a delightful weekend!

The Dreary-Wearies All Over the Place

Have you read The Pout-Pout Fish?

"I'm a pout-pout fish with a pout-pout face. For spreading dreary-wearies all over the place." 

That's what our weather has been like lately. Dreary and weary. I thought it was all in my head, but we got C's school newsletter for the month and it said that the kids were disappointed that they never had a lamb day. Every single school day in March was not sunny. It was sunny on Saturday, which was amazing, but it was a big ol' April Fools because back to the dreary-wearies we went. 

But this morning! In the car line! The sun came out! And it was glorious. So when M and I got home we went for a walk. We soaked up some Vitamin D and breathed in the fresh air. 

It was short lived, since the clouds are already back, but darn it all if it wasn't exactly what I needed this morning. 

This past weekend was so great. I went to a charity discussion/letter writing on Friday night. We had brunch with friends on Saturday morning. Saturday evening was a date night to C's school Blue and Gold Bash fundraiser. It was excellent and fun to watch people spend LOTS of money while we ate and drank and spent just a little money. We bought a silent auction item for something we were going to do anyway, which makes it the most win/win. 

But I have to get my steak into a marinade so that my fajitas are tasty this evening. So I am going to go do that. I hope that the sun is out where you are and if it isn't and that's bumming you out, I feel you. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

Thursday Thoughts!

There were a few "lamb" days mixed in but I am going on record for saying that March was much more like a "lion." And that's okay. It made it seem more "Lenty." Suffering through the weather and all that. It's just been so rainy here. Luckily, when we were in Minnesota we got M a raincoat and we ordered C one.

Small vent: There are 5 Hy-Vees (grocery store) within our city limits. Hy-Vee has just expanded into the Twin Cities market and oh. my. gosh. they make ours look like garbage. They are the NICEST stores. And they have a clothing boutique with super cute things (M's raincoat) and like a mini Ulta all in the same building. I got some soap and I am loving it. The bath bombs were great and if I had a decent sized bathtub, I would have stocked up! It was unreal how nice this store was.

The clothes area. (Little Girl section.)

Bath bombs in the grocery store!

It definitely makes me want to move (and I can still use my fuel saver!) but also makes me sad for those who will get used to the fancy then head on down to Iowa and get super disappointed by the "old school Hy-Vee."

Anyway, this morning M and I went to "The Red Store" (Target) and we found rain boots to go with the coats. Because, everyone knows from Peppa Pig "If you want to jump in muddy puddles, you must wear your boots!" Only in our case we'll go with rain puddles over muddy ones. I can't wait for C to come home so they can play!

Last night C got to go to the museum with Husband. C earned it by eating his dinner on Tuesday. M did not eat her dinner (not even one bite) so she did not get to go. So we had a girl's night. She took a long shower and then got out for a while to let the water heater catch up so she could take a bath. Then after she was in her jammies, she sat in my lap and we watched Minnie Mouse and read some stories. It was precious. And she smelled so good. Sometimes I am just overwhelmed by how much I love my kids. That was definitely one of those moments.

So those are the little tidbits of the last few days. Not a whole lot to report but life is pretty normal and pretty good. :) I hope your Thursday is a little less rainy than mine but wonderful all the same!

The Conclusion of Spring Break

Today we are back to a normal day. It's our first truly "normal" day since March 9 so that seems crazy. But its nice. C went to school. M and I skipped music class and opted for going to the gas station and doing some laundry. All the real exciting things right?

The tail end of our Spring Break was great too. We spent Thursday morning cleaning the house and then after the mail was delivered we got in the car and headed to Minnesota. Apparently so did a great number of bloggers because the Midwest Catholic Women's Blogger Conference was this weekend too. (I did not know this fact.) And it wouldn't have mattered because we were in town to visit my parents.

Well, no. That is not entirely true. The real purpose of the trip was to go visit my brother at college! We have been trying to get the kids there for a while and last Friday was the day we made it happen. We were running out of chances since he graduates in May! (Seriously, how is that even remotely possible?!)

Anyway, Thursday we went to Minnesota. Friday we went further north into Minnesota to visit my brother. It was wonderful. He toured the kids around and they felt very important to be big college kids. C was especially excited to go visit the Abbey and University Church, which he calls "the bee house." Because he's seen pictures and it looks like this:

From the inside. Not my picture.

From the outside. Not my picture.

From the inside again. My picture. 

We were going to go see the shrine of the martyr-saint Peregrine (not the famous one!) but the lights were off and we couldn't find a switch. Nor could we figure out how to make the motion lights turn on. So... we know he was in the dark room and that was still kind of cool but we didn't see him. We also went to see the famous bible. The new exhibit doesn't open until the fall but it was beautiful and very impressive. 

College was very fun! I was only disappointed we didn't see any of the monks. But that is okay. On the drive back to my parent's house we stopped in to visit my grandpa. He turned 86 last Monday. The kids were ASLEEP when we got there so Husband stayed in the car with them while I popped in for a quick 25 minute visit. Both kids were still sleeping when we did get eventually get back so I am glad I didn't wake them. 

The rest of the weekend was pretty low-key for a visit and we spent the day driving back yesterday. We were all thrilled that we spent Wednesday night and Thursday morning really cleaning because it was so nice coming home to all the clean! We also came back to our first daffodil having bloomed. 

We have some more getting ready to bloom as you can see which I am looking forward to! So that was the tail end of our spring break and I enjoyed it very much. I am excited for the normal week we have ahead of us. It's supposed to be a mostly rainy week here which means that it isn't quite the lamb exit I was hoping for from March but I can handle it. We will probably have to mow the lawn this weekend which is about three weeks early!