looky looky

look what i won (!) last week in round one of leigh and gray's giveaways! hey, that rhymes. seriously, though, i'm psyched! pippa is gonna be one adorable girly girl decked out in her pinks and browns. and anyone who's ever seen my daughter knows how i feel about pink and brown. L-O-V-E.

i must admit, there is some fierce competition for these goods because this stuff is so adorable and fabulous, so to all the ladies whom i beat out (jess and glory...love you), better luck next time! oh...no wait...i meant...sorry? (no, that's not it either...hmm) ;)

so you've GOT TO hop onto their site and check out this weeks giveaways. like i mentioned last week:

"you can help them (adopt from ethiopia) and win AMAZING (many hand made) items in their giveaway fundraiser. for every $5 you donate (super easily through paypal) you get one entry towards one of the many different giveaways on their website . all you have to do is donate, then comment under the giveaway you like with your name and some way to contact you, and you're in the runnings!"

good luck!

boy, that escalated quickly

i mean, that really got out of hand fast.
it jumped up a notch.

seriously, as i wrote that last post, all positive and upbeat, guess what my son was doing upstairs?

oooohhhh, playing with his poop*. which, i don't know if YOU knew this, but poop is actually mud for ATV's. yeah, that's what i just learned. so if you play in it, and put your toys in it, and get it all over your carpet, and use an entire box of wipes and a couple diapers (because why not?!), and then put yourself in the tub and sit in a few inches of poo water, it's TOTALLY fine. it's just mud.

*for you newcomers, you might want to read this and then this to catch you up to speed on eli's GI issues. it will give you a little context ;)

so, elias' poop is not normal poop, we've discussed this. but my friend beth had to walk into my house to borrow a shirt right when i discovered what my son was up to (rather than napping). tslk about trauma-TIZING. she won't be having kids for about a bazillion years, now.

WHY?! why can't this kid just SLEEP when it's nap time?! i'm REALLY trying to look at the bright side today, but poop fest 2009 is just...
not...
cool.

i mean, what, am i wearing THIS?

why i love today

(just real quick. i HAVE to finish this laundry and do these dishes immediately. or i might have to move out. which would be complicated.)

1. my husband. who encourages me to skip taking care of the home and just have fun with the kids. he's so supportive and encouraging, you might puke in your mouth a little. he was worth that 6 year wait ;) so we went to winslow farm in norton to pet some animals, and then had some lunch together. more on winslow farm later. i have a video that is gonna kill you. for real. i'm laughing just thinking about it...
2. my kids. who are adorable and adored, and make me smile more than they make me frustrated. good thing. elias really like to make me laugh these days, so he pulls out some of the most hilarious one-liners- movie quotes, you name it. every day is something new...
3. for an awesome God. who gets better and better the more i get to know Him. i'm really blessed, and really grateful, and really...just...glad. being a mom teaches you a lot about what it must be like to be a Creator. hear me out. we create these small people and we have to teach them, and discipline them, and love them, and show them grace. this can be taxing as a human, but for God, it's easy peasy, lemon squeezy. it's just His nature. He doesn't "work on it" or "learn about it", HE just IS it. and i know sometimes i totally must frustrate my Creator, the same way my kids can frustrate me.
4. for seasons that change. you know i'm a summer gal, but fall is my next favorite, so it's a smooth transistion for me ;) looking forward to big sweaters, tall boots, hot coffee, apple picking, autumn leaves, and our wood stove. bring it onnn...

grease monkey

this story is a perfect example of why mothers don't have extra time. bear with me...

after our play date with lee, cadie, and jax this morning, i dropped by my mum and dads. he had back surgery yesterday to fix a herniated disc (one of like, five), and decided he wanted to come home...today. typical. but elias and piper do a good job cheering him up, mainly because they are slightly obsessed with him, elias especially, so we stop in to say hi real quick and get home in time for naps.

after we get home and i have the kids in bed, i hear some banging and crashing in piper's monitor, which is a clear indicator that elias is doing some rearranging in his room next door, ie, not napping. so i head upstairs to investigate. when i open his door, i see every (every.) toy in his toy box emptied onto the floor (in their place? a pillow and a blanket. he likes to sleep in there...), i see piles of books in his bed, but i don't see elias.

hmm.

i see that my door is closed, so i walk into my bedroom to find him pretending to be asleep in my bed. always a goof. i ask him if he wants to take a nap in my room, which is a rarity that evokes much excitement, so i proceed to tuck him in. i head back downstairs and remember that i'm cooking italian sausage for dinner. right. probably want to pay attention to your dinner, michelle. i give the sausages a turn, throw in some laundry, and head upstairs to make sure elias is quiet. i hear him talking to himself so i open the door to find him sitting on the floor next to the bed

covered.

in.

aquaphor.

and when i say covered, i mean covered. ev-er-y-where. slathered. his legs, his arms, every part of his body not covered by clothes is coated with a nice thick greasy layer of aquaphor.

i look at him with my "if looks could kill/choke/throttle/etc." stare, and he doesn't even flinch. or skip a beat. he just looks at me matter-of-factly and says "mom- i JUST had surgery."

oh, my fault! i didn't realize that people are typically coated with a thick layer of grease after "surgery". but thanks, elias, for the enlightenment.

sigh. kids...
and THAT is just ONE example of why moms are busy and exhausted. because of grease monkeys.

(note: soap alone is not an adequate adversary for aquaphor. next time maybe i'll try gasoline...)

i smell good

i walked into eli's room tonight to tuck him in and say goodnight, per the usual after dave reads him a story. he's at the age where he gets creative with requests or conversations to make bed time last as long as possible. i climb into bed next to him (he sleeps in a double bed, so there's plenty of room for snuggling) and he says "mom, i like how you (s)mellll" and i said "thank you" to which he replied "your welcome." i love this kid. what a total confidence boost after my much needed shower today. hahaha...

i proceeded to tell him that i like how he smells, too (which is very true- a mix of nappy breath, pee, dirt, and boy, with a splash of watermelon shampoo). he pauses, smells his hand vehemently, and says "i (s)mell like trees!"...

and then he tries to pick my nose.

ahhh, i love boys.

we love african babies

no, but seriously, though.

and not just african babies, but babies from all over the world who need loving parents to take them into their home and love them to bits and bits. my lovely blogger friend, leigh, and her husband, gray, are raising money to adopt a baby from ethiopia. you can read more about them here.

here's the fun and fabulous part- you can help them and win AMAZING (many hand made) items in their giveaway fundraiser. for every $5 you donate (super easily through paypal) you get one entry towards one of the many different giveaways on their website (check out the goods! and there's so much more on the way in the weeks to come!). all you have to do is donate, then comment under the giveaway you like with your name and some way to contact you, and you're in the runnings!

james 1:27 says "religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

there are some people who don't understand adoption (which puzzles me- what could be more sacrificial and Christ-like than bringing a child into your home? but some people are just ehh), and i said to leigh- 'what better way to care for orphans than to bring them into your home and raise them as your own?' i know that God is pleased when people open their homes to care for others and just love them. and that's real.

so their story stirs my heart, and if you are looking for an opportunity to help or support a worthy cause, check out their giveaway and start donating! just don't add entries to any of the things i want, okay? ;)

look familiar?

1. my house is not always clean (the fact that i have to even say that indicates that i may have some issues)

2. however, when it is in this unclean state, which is quite regularly, i want to crawl out of my skin or run away or freak out. for real.

3. it's impossible to keep a home clean when you have children who's chief aim and purpose is to mess it up, pee on it, and leave a literal trail of wreckage in their wake

4. i hate when people see my house messy because i simply can't have it that way. makes me anxious. but because i can't have you all thinking i'm june cleaver or some other psycho, i made this video (and proceeded to start 92339 loads of laundry while dave got his hazmat suit on to do the dishes. have i mentioned that my husband is amazing?).

check this out:

look familiar? (say yes, say yes...)

tea time...or pee time?

so i'm cleaning the toy room the other night and i'm looking for these magnets that go to something i wanted to hang in the kids toy room for their artwork. i had let elias play with them (my first mistake) and can't find them anywhere. i'm thinking "did he eat them?...did piper?...are they stuck to something random somewhere?..."

can't find them. but i open one of the cabinets in eli's little kitchen, and i see a tea cup. grandma nancy gave piper THE cutest tea set made out of tin for her birthday, and there, sitting on the shelf inside the little cabinet is one of these little tea cups.

full of pee.

yes- you read that right. pee.

now my first thought is "how in the WORLD did he ever pee into this tiny tea cup with out making a mess?! and without me KNOWING?!" there was no pee to be seen anywhere around this tea cup. not so much as a ring underneath it when i picked it up. (gross.) and this pee had been in there for a day or two (trust me, it just was). so i was never privy to nor invited to this pee party, which is uncharacteristic, because elias is the kid who's like "guess what i did mom!" or "yes, i hit piper"...secrets and lying are just not his forte.

so i'm puzzled by this pee/tea cup, and i'm also kind of impressed. not that i should be, i should be mad or something, but i was. i was just impressed. and a little mad at the peeing in places other than the toilet. we've been peeing in the toilet for a long time now, so i wasn't sure what to make of the peeing in random things. the thought of it started to make me a lit-tle nervous...

a couple of days go by. still no magnets, which is killing me because i can't stand it when i can't find something. i'll look all day and in every spare moment to find it. but no luck on the magnets yet. so i'm cleaning up again one night, and i pick up the tea kettle and i hear something clanging around inside. i look inside and there i find the three missing magnets...

and some more pee.

awesome. i guess when your mom says "no more water" in the tea set (since it was rusting), you have to find other ways to make believe. and, of course, now i know how he had such amazing accuracy- his pouring skills are fantastic.

anyone for pee time, i mean, tea time?!

no joke

okay. i can't even begin to tell you what happens when i stop writing. i have to "inner" blog, which is taxing on the brain, and then my head gets far too full of raw material, and then i get mad because i can't write it, and so on. somehow just the very act of writing it makes life better, or makes it right, or makes it real. lee and i talk about that sometimes. writing is therapeutic.

so i'm stealing a few of the minutes i've been looking for to write a little something about life. and then move on to more exciting and interesting topics, like the new grommetted curtains i bought for the living room, or that culture blog i'm working on, or the fact that it's september (?!), or about the woven trunk coffee table i just found at target for 30% off and could just spit it looks so good? things like that.

but first, here goes a little of where i'm at his very moment.

basically i've come to the realization over the past two weeks that i've been absent, that working 10 to 20 hours with two small children who require my presence is no joke. or actually, maybe it is a joke. like, funny/ha-ha/madness/silly/i'm a crazy person-type thing. it becomes genuinely laughable how little time i have, not only for myself, but for keeping up with a husband (he's the best best BEST and most understanding ever), friends (if i still have any. if i do, i miss you!), children (love, bathe, feed, clothe, read to, play with [try not to ignore], keep an eye on [or just wait until someone cries], and so on), a garden (water it, weed it, pick it, read about it so you know HOW and WHEN to pick it), a yard (mow it, water it, dig in it [more on that soon]), a house (vacuum, dust, sweep; dishes, laundry, toys, etc to the nth power), hygiene (shower, brush teeth, get dressed, try and look more like a fashion major than a fashion don't), and the such.

whew. it's tiring to even think about it. but all you moms/wives/home & apartment dwellers out there know all about it and live it, too. and we love it, we hate it, and it makes us frustrated sometimes, it makes us overjoyed sometimes. it's life, right? you know, like- i really want to read the in style i took home from the library days ago. really. and that book i found called "the power of less" looks interesting, but i have yet to open it. familiar, right? "i'll get to it eventually..."

i am NOT complaining here, though. not even a stitch. i am BEYOND ecstatic to be working, to have extra hours, and to have tasks that are mind stimulating in any degree beyond reading kids books and playing dolls. as fun as those things are, they are meant for those about two decades younger than i.

so i LOVE work, and i LOVE life, and i feel so SO blessed. truly.

so that's all i have to say about that.

now. on to more exciting things. tomorrow, hear about what elias is into. i'll give you a hint. it involves pee. oh yeah. life is never dull and ordinary around here!

truth is...

i miss you all. just thought you should know.