How is your 3 legged stool setting?

 It all started at the church when we took a questionnaire about how balanced our 3 legged stool is setting:

Leg #1- work

Leg #2- home

Leg #3- house of the Lord

For leg #1: work, I answered the questions with my boys and schooling them in mind.

Fast forward a few.

I'm frazzled. The days are escaping me. I'm doing this and that, getting things done, enjoying my boys, but just the bare minimum. Not excelling. Not thriving. Not feeling like I'm doing the best of my ability and focusing on the task at hand.

Enter this week.

I started the day normal. Got up. Showered. Fed S. Checked emails. And then I felt the need to turn the computer off. It was 8am. Just turn it off and focus on the job at hand.

I'll be honest. It was hard to do. It's my escape. My means of being with the outside world. If a thought hits me, I can go and immediately find it, buy it, get lost in it. Hence, the frazzled, lost day.

But you know what? It was very freeing. I'm calmer. My kids are a blessing instead of interrupters. I'm able to focus instead of being and doing whatever pops in my head. 

I've had jobs of all different hours: morning shifts, evening shifts, overnight shifts. And jobs of all different descriptions: baker, stocker, customer service, secretary. For each one, a different thing was required of me. In this season of my life, I have a bare minimum 8am- 5pm job. It's a non-stop run, run, run kind of job. And it requires full focus and my all. I need to balance my 3 legged stool.

So. With that said, with the computer now officially off every week day from 8am to 5pm, this is what happened this week :)

I had the privilege of playing 3 games of Hi Ho Cherry-O with my gentlemen. These weren't just any games, though. This was the first time they did it like "big kids". Focused. Counted their own berries. Did what the arrow said to do. 3 games. This is a mile stone. My boys are growing up (*tear*).

 S has been taking some steps off and on for about a month now. But this week he decided to get serious and is now walking about 1/2 the time.

 We've had these swings for a long time now. But this week, Z figured out how to pump! He is so excited and I have to admit I'm proud and relieved- one less to push :)

 The yard is still under construction, but I have to post a few sneak peeks :) Z going off some sweet jumps:

 J enjoying the first sit on nice green grass:

 and S helping me throw crab grass away :)

new bikes!

We had bought a Razor scooter for Z for his birthday, but boy was that a crazy experience! Way too fast for these guys! So I returned it & C was finally onboard with me: get the boys a Strider bike (even though it's not what they want) so they can learn how to balance & ride a bike. I knew once they got it, they'd love it- it was just overriding their wishes at first. 

So anyway, Z used his birthday money (thank you!) & got himself a yellow one & J used his birthday money from last year (thank you!) & bought himself a green one :)

 The ramp was immediate. The knee & elbow pads were bought today (birthday money also- thanks again!) after a few chunks were taken off. And the cape? Well, it's just an extension of normal play :)

great day for swimming

My boys are water babies thru & thru. As you can see, they pretty much jumped right in,

got a feel for the water,

& took off swimming

& that's with very little prior experience. We haven't been to a pool since my birthday & before that, I'm pretty sure it was when I was still pregnant with J.

I'm pretty proud of my boys & the progress they made today. They had a lot of fun & learned a lot, too =]

boys

Even though my boys can be extremely frustrating (like today when Z deliberately cut his shirt & while he was doing time on the couch b/c of it J deliberately cut his shirt, too), & scary with their play:

I'd have to admit seeing their bike assembly brings a smile to my face & fun to my yard =]

tuesday's ten: in & out

1- My friend gave me a whole lotta willowy tree starts which I planted this week along our imaginary fence... Char says they look really sad but I'm encouraging them daily to look happy =]
2- J was playing on the front porch while I was reading on my bed (Char was "on duty") & we enjoyed a few moments of hide & seek- between the curtain =] I'm not sure how he got so dirty... :}

3- I went yard saling with Char's mom on Sat, bought a quilt hanger, came home & had to rearrange the house because of it =]

4- Here's our new computer desk/area (compliments of Char's mom as well =])
5- I also rearranged the kitchen & dining (1 thing always leads to another!) so here's the improved dining area (tea pot & micro incorporated in).
6- If you look closely (but not close enough to see the mess!) in the corner by the tree, you'll see the quilt thingy, plus the rearrangement of the couches- I'm enjoying having it all open & the little table for use as a foot stool =]
7- Auntie Amber & Uncle Eddie gave the boys John Deere's while we were in MT to which the boys found it necessary to expand on: tying things to the back & towing them =]

*Z: towing the frog
*J: towing the train's caboose

8- Zeke happened upon a praying mantis last night! I'm not sure why, but these ugly insects are so cool!

*I like how the mantis & Char are leaning alike...*
*the boys checking it out*
*Char moving it off the house to a bush*
*home sweet home*

9- This morning Z comes running to me in a panic about a bug in the house... it turned out to be the praying mantis again... in the house, dead looking...apparently, Z didn't appreciate it being in the house & he took action. :{ But as soon as I touched it, it grabbed hold & is now safely back in the bush. :}

10- Because of the sightings, we decided to do a spur-of-the-moment class on Praying Mantis' which are pretty strong insects... and if I find it killing my hummers, he's out of here!

(cool clip on mantis')

May 26 {shall we try again?}

{part 26 of BW fun!}

Yes, this cool dude is attempting the potty once again... but this time Mommy is more ready and he has a better grasp of English, bodily functions, & reward systems. I'm thinking this time is it =]

my pistol

I can think of many names to describe my Jeremiah, and 'pistol' is probably close to the top of the list. We are in the testing stage of our relationship & he reminds me constantly to keep on top of things or he will. "Life" describes him also- look in his eyes & you will see an eagerness to learn & to live. Tonight he was elated to figure out how to open the front door:

As a side note, he loves eating cereal & in particular slurping the milk out of the bowl... (this time a cheerio tried to escape =])

why oh why did I want my way?

Isn't the house looking great? So clean & white =] It truly drove me crazy last week not being able to help with it.

Within minutes of arriving, the boys are into everything creating a distraction & noone able to truly focus on the job at hand. And then by the end of the week, both boys came down with colds/allergies so we just stayed home. And I was on the verge of craziness. All I wanted to do was go and help get the work done. So I whined and complained and moped and felt sorry for myself because I was "stuck" at home... nobody had much fun. Sorry boys.

Slowly I'm learning to live on God's timing & peace along with ridding myself of selfishness (this one will be life-long for me!).

But today was beautiful. The wind finally calmed. All our allergies cleared. The sun was out and warm. So I packed up the boys and we went to "the house" as Zeke calls it.

Grandma scraped the inside patio windows.

Charles enjoyed lunch and time with his boys

who enjoyed being outside & around all kinds of fun tools.
And we did get a lot of work done =]
I myself scraped the west side windows & I'm feeling it! From my head to my toes I hurt... which made me wonder while I scraped & my muscles burned: "why oh why did I want to help??" =]