Takin' a break

So I know that I've hardly been at this long enough to say "I'm taking a break"... but there is some stuff going on here that has me thoroughly distracted.  I didn't want you to think that I just deserted and I don't plan to stay away too long.  Hopefully a week, maybe two... until things are either resolved or I am at a point where I feel like sharing more.

Please check back by soon and keep me in your prayers.

it's Friday ... time to quit procrastinating!

So... being that it is Friday, I was going to write a little about fitness (or my lack thereof in recent weeks)!  But I started thinking about how much I've been procrastinating on around here and wondered if that would not end up making a more "productive" post... 

Spring has been refusing to come here on the Palouse, which means that there have been WAY more inside days than I or my girls would prefer.  I am so ready for spring/summer, that I've kind of gone into auto-pilot with regard to my house.  I've been getting the essentials done, but most of those house-improvement and "deep" cleaning projects I meant to  accomplish before the end of winter have not been accomplished.  I know! I know! ... I'm a slacker.

Here are a few:

• The bathroom cupboard - almost two years ago, we started updating one of our bathrooms (the one I used mostly) and so all of my "stuff" was moved into the other bathroom.  The cupboard was never really organized and has become almost unmanageable... it is almost a joke to see what is going to fall out when we open the cupboard door.  The other bathroom is now (90%) finished, so I should be able to clean out the cupboard and move stuff back around!
• The kitchen cupboards - I like to think that I keep my kitchen pretty organized, and it is... but in the deep recesses of most of my cupboards are items that I have never used and probably never will.  Since I have no extra space in my kitchen, I often think how nice it would be to clean these items out to free up some space!
• Closets... closets... closets... - don't we all have closets that need some help?  I have several!!
• Door and wall trim - we still need to get up all of the baseboard trim in the bathroom we remodeled and around exterior doors that we replaced. 
• ... well, there's more, but that is probably enough of a list to keep me busy until ... well, until I get it all done!

So here's my commitment to you... I will post an update on my progress with these tasks each Wednesday... they will be my "Working Wednesday" posts!  Hopefully they will include some before and after photos (assuming I'm not too embarrassed to post the before photos!)

Finally SPRING!!

Well, the girls and I have FINALLY been able to enjoy some spring weather while visiting my folks!!  Yippeee!  This has felt like the winter that would never end - have you been feeling like that?  I'm realizing that kids just love being outside (which I already knew) but didn't realize how simple it was to entertain them while they are enjoying the outdoors! They spent most of the time going up and down the steps on different patios in my parents' yard, walking back and forth across a chain link walkway, or simply picking up dirt and rocks and dropping them in a different part of the garden.  I would love to hear some of your kids favorite outdoor activities! 

Spring Break - and we're headed... "home"?!

While I don't technically have school-aged kiddos, we are still taking advantage of spring break!  My peanut receives therapy from the school, so using this week to go visit my folks means that she doesn't have to miss any of those sessions.  When I was trying to decide if we were going to make the trip or not, I was talking to my husband and referred to going "home"... this led to a long discussion on what he sees as my to loosely used term of "home".

I don't see the problem, I guess.  I've always used this term when referencing visiting my folks... I don't consciously do it, and when I leave there  to come back, I also say I'm going home.  But the hubs... just doesn't get it - "home" should be reserved for this place alone!  I have two comments...

1. He still lives in his hometown, therefore he never really is going back.  His folks also still live here, so of course this place being the one and only "home" is doubly reinforced for him.
2. This dual use of the word is not unique to me.  My sisters also do the same thing.  Maybe it's a family thing, I don't know.

So... I'm curious to know, is this unique to my family or do you also refer to other places as "home" when you are headed back for a visit?  I'd like to know!

Sister Chronicles - Volume I

Considering I live less than an hour from my sister and am regularly (at least weekly) to the town where she lives, a visit should not be a rare occurrence!  But we’ve both been busy and so it has been a while.  She was driving back from a vacation and stopped in and spent the afternoon here!  YAY me!

My little sister is my best friend!  Our adventures started when we could barely walk and have not stopped since.   We were holy terrors as young children – not because we were purposefully misbehaved, but in our eyes the world didn’t exist outside of our games and adventures except when it inserted itself rather abruptly… now as a parent I can understand how frustrating that probably was!! Sorry Mom & Dad!

Anyway, I was thinking about some of our adventures and thought I'd share one of our more infamous ones... growing up we lived about 12 miles out of town and a 1.5 miles down a country/gravel road.  It was an unusually hot spring day and we had been outside playing.  I’m guessing we were 4 and 3 since neither of was yet in school.  We were hot and terribly thirst and decided that we desperately needed a soda pop – which is unusual because pop was not something we had often or should have thought we were entitled to… but for whatever reason, on this day, it was a must have! So, we decide that we would walk into town (12+ miles!) to buy this pop.  Without telling Mom, we slipped away from the house and set off on our trek.

A little way into the walk, we remembered that we will need money in order to buy it.  Our solution – we plan to stop at the neighbor’s house on the way and ask for the money.  We continued walking and after what I’m guessing was about a half mile, my sister was getting tired.  Reality interjecting itself… I convinced her that we needed to keep going or Mom would catch up with us.  This worked for a while, but she was getting more hot and tired (she was only 3!).  I started bullying her into going on by telling her that we’d stop and rest and get some water when we got to the neighbor’s house for money.  

We were about one mile into our trek when my mom came barreling down the road in the car.  She had been frantically looking for us for the last half hour and had stopped only because she had to pick up our older two sisters from the bus.  Her recollection is that her anger did not even phase us, in fact, it did not even register.  I was so mad at my sister because it was her fault Mom caught up with us and she was so mad at me because all she had wanted was to stop and rest a while.  In the end, we got some water back at home and did not get a pop for a VERY long time.

Please Lord… no antics like this from my two girls?!  *sigh*  I think I’m doomed! :) 

My first blog hop!!

Let's see if I can do this according to directions... I've never been very good at following them! :)  I found this while searching for different Mom blogs and it seems like a great idea!  5 minutes for Mom started this several years ago and it seems like it is a hit!!  Check them out, the little I've perused their blog, it is full of great information!

My name is Renee and I am a stay at home mom of two little girls who are the light of my life (currently 3 and 18months). I am married to the absolute best man that God could have chosen for me and am living my dream on the beautiful Washington Palouse!   Our lives revolve around farming seasons, family, basketball (my husband's passion), and anything outdoors.  Although my three year old might tell you her life revolves around Curious George... but we're working on that!

I started this blog... well, I've started and stopped it several times, but in the last week I made a commitment to stick with it, so here I am.  I created this blog to share my mostly up but sometimes down journey of being a mom, farmer's wife, runner, woman of faith, and, as I said in my title, everything in between!!  I am not the most creative soul, my background is in mechanical engineering and software consulting/project management so I can't guarantee that you will find lots of crafty tid-bits from me.  HOWEVER, I am realizing that I need to have some creative outlets for myself besides my kids and so am finding myself drawn to try more crafty (and to me scary) projects that I've never tried before.  I will definitely bring you along on those journeys!!

Needless to say, as you can probably tell from the above paragraph, I'm still in the process of figuring out what my "blogging identity" is, but have been thoroughly enjoying the process.  Thanks so much for stopping by, please leave a comment and I promise I will give you a visit back.