It doesn't get any better....

Yesterday was absolutely fabulous!!! What I would consider to be my perfect day. I can't stop thinking about how grateful I am for yesterday and all that happened. Okay, I know you're just itching to know why it was so perfect....it just was :)
Jubal has started his 4 10hr days instead of 5 8s, so he was home yesterday, and Mel has late start at school every Monday. The day just started out on the right foot, with everybody home and no on in a hurry. I think a good start goes a long way because the day just kept on that path and went smoothly. Jubal and I even managed a nice hour long nap on the couch!!! Just a no-stress kind of day filled with: naps, candle shopping with my daughter Melanie, Running Club (for Mel), play time outside (for Malachi), BBQ for dinner!! and Mel's play practice ended on time. Woo Hoo. Hurray for Monday!! Let's see if the rest of the week can measure up to Monday.

Always behind :)

Well here I am playing catch up again. I keep telling myself "You better blog before you completely forget last week and everything great about it." So, here I am to tell you that last week was just wonderful. So many great things happening all week, but the icing on the cake and my absolute FAVORITE thing of the week! The top of my thankful list: (drum roll please)....

Rocking Malachi to sleep in my arms!!!! He's just getting so big. We snuggle all the time, but I haven't had him curl up on my chest and fall asleep since Marcus was born (at least!). It happened during the eleventh hour of the week too. It was Sat. afternoon, and after it happened I just came out beaming to Jubal telling him how great it felt, and that it was definitely at the top of my grateful list for the week. He's such a handful sometimes that it really feels good to just enjoy him in the quiet, without all his chatter, "cool" punch moves and "YeeHaw" kicks :)

Other noteworthy grateful things:
CRAFTING!!! So much accomplished last week. I'm just kicking craft butt and taking names. I love that I'm making progress on my never ending project list. I made both of the kids cowboy vests, and they are so cute. They each have matching cowboy (or cowgirl in Mel's case) hats. I will have to post a picture, but today's frustration happens to be that the camera is missing. Oh, well.
Also finished making my phone areas organization board and coordinating wall pockets. Super cute.

Let's hope this week is just as productive.

Almost missed it!

Aaaah. Technically I did miss it, but I thought that since today is only Monday, I am not too far into a new week to not blog about last week.
Last weeks things worth being thankful for:
My favorite for the week is probably the Johnny Bregar concert we took the kids to on Sunday. It was our official "Family Day" for the month and we spent the day on Bainbridge Island. First we went to the concert at a cafe there and then had a "picnic" lunch in the car as we drove around trying to find the Discovery Kids Museum. It had moved locations and I was using an old address, so it took a little while, and some driving in circles, but we finally found it. The kids played for over 2 hours and all fell asleep on the drive home. Such a fun day!!!
Honorable Mentions:
Girls Crafting Night, recovering and putting to good use the cork board I've been storing while also organizing all the paper crap on my kitchen counter!, finally making it to JoAnn's Fabric store (and spending too much money, I might add), Mel's spring break officially starting on Friday, and all around good "home" time with the kids :)

First week's wrap-up

So this is the first of my new "weekly" gratitude recaps. I am hopeful that this will be manageable for me and that I can continue to keep a focus on being thankful without feeling like I've dropped the blogging ball :)
So highs of the week?

I think 2 of the things I'm most grateful are the cute items of summer clothing I sewed for my kids. It's not nearly warm enough to wear them, but if I waited until summer to start I might not finish them in time for the kids to enjoy the 2 weeks of hot weather we get, lol. I made Mel a super cute summer blouse with a fun cherry cotton print on the bottom and a cute red/white polka dot on top.

Malachi got a cute pair of longie shorts (with pockets!) out of a robot cotton I fell in love with a few months back. He's such a ham!

I feel super excited about accomplishing these two projects. I have lots piled up around my craft room and in my head, but just finishing a few is something I'm very thankful for.

Other highlights about this week include having dinner with friends we haven't hung out with in a year!!! Ouch, can't believe that much time has passed. We won't let if happen again. We had so much fun. The kids had a great time playing together and the food was fabulous: home brined corned beef with veggies and homemade Irish soda bread....happy St. Patricks Day, indead. :)

Marcus took his first big-boy bath (no baby bath seat or big brother or sister to hold him in the tub). He loved having the tub and all the toys to himself!

....and who can resist the shampoo hair shot? He's a cutie-patootie alright.

Jubal and I also got some mostly kid free time today and managed to tidy the whole house and relax together for a few minutes. It was wonderful! Thank you Lord.

Looking forward to many more things to be thankful for.

Lowering the Bar, lol.

Well, now that it's March I think it's obvious that I need to lower the bar. Blogging every day? Complete joke. Every couple days? Still laughing. I think I need to set my goal at once a week. Oddly, I spend a LOT of time on my blog dashboard, but I spend the time reading other peoples blogs and never posting on mine. I think I let myself get too pressured about what great I'm going to write. I am always thankful, but I don't always feel up to posting about it. I think that I am going to try to post the "Greatest 'Thanks' Moments of the Week" instead. Let's see how that goes, and that also frees me up to blog anytime about anything else. Much more freeing.

Keep it simple

Yesterday was a crazy day with a full house of children (my own plus my neice and nephew)! Thing I'm most grateful for? My husband suprised me and came home an hour earlier than I expected him!!!! Love that. :)

Crabby to Fabby

Well maybe not completely fabulous. In fact if you asked my husband, yesterday probably never got fabuous, but that's more my fault than anything. I woke up way to early and couldn't seem to shake my crabby attitude. As I was getting ready to turn in for the night I thought to myself that there was surely nothing I was thankful for that day...but wouldn't you know it, I thought of something. My super bad attitude and crabby outlook forced me to take the boys out of the house becasue I just couldn't handle being inside anymore. Once I got the two boys loaded in the car I had to think of somewhere to go. It was cold, but it wasn't raining so I opted for the park. I figured Malachi could definitely burn some energy. Marcus is too little to have any real fun there but I thought he might enjoy the swings.

 Boy did he! He loved it, and it turns out it was the part of my day I was most thankful for.

 If I hadn't been so crabby to begin with I might not have taken him...not that I want to make a habit of crabby days. Just goes to show that even the yuckiest of days has a bit of glitter in there somewhere.



Super cute aren't they?!



Shameful...

1 month! Shameful, I tell you. I can't believe it has been so long. On one hand time is flying by, on the other it definitely feels like a month has passed since the last time I posted. I do have a post started 2 weeks ago that was never finished, much less posted. To sum the last month up, things have been up and down. The post started 2 weeks ago was the begining of my upswing back out of my low. What I had begun to talk about in the post is my NEED to stay positively focused and thankful for something all the time. I catch myself really falling into a bad habit of negative focus and "woe is me-isms." However, I am now feeling much better and very excited about new ventures. I feel there is so much to fill in from the last month, but I'll try to stick to the highlights.

One of the biggest highlights of my month was making a pair of tights for my daughter's 18" doll. Seems silly, but they came out SO good, PLUS I made them using a pair of her leggings that had been stained from a cocoa spill and the knees had been ripped up due to a fall at school. I adapted the pattern for a doll using Made by Rae's tutorial for baby tights.



They came out PERFECT...so much so, that I left the doll (modeling her tights, of course) on the kitchen counter for a week. Made me smile everytime I looked at them. Honestly, this is close to the most exciting thing I accomplished over the last month :)  (can you tell I am proud of them, lol)

One of the other big things going on for me right now is the quilt I am making for Malachi's new "big boy" bed. We have transitioned him into a twin bed (it's been a few month's now) and his bed is lacking in the comforter dept., so I decided to make him a quilt. I took most of the month of Jan. to decide on the fabrics, but it has all been picked out, and is now in the process of being cut up and pieced together. I will share pics. as the project progresses.

Sewing and crafting are making a strong push back into my life. I think it might be fond memories of my mom, always busy crafting with me and my sisters. I love making things for the kids, and have been spending far too much time reading other craft/sewing blogs and tutorials. It's a nice outlet for me. I was in dire need of a hobby anyway, so this is perfect. The problem right now is trying to sew with small children underfoot. It's a slow going process, and frankly, it's very frusturating at times.

The hardest thing for me right now is that I don't feel I am getting enough "me" time, and I am definitely not getting enough sleep! Any "me" time I do get or might be getting this week really needs to be spent sleeping, and I hate that!

Okay, re-focus. What am I thankful for this weekend? Yard sales! Jubal, the kids and I went to 2 yard sales yesterday. I love yard sales and we haven't been to one in a long time. Found the kids some great clothes for a quarter an item and Jube scored a few guy things too. Plus it was nice to have a stress free family outing.

Laid back Saturday

Well yesterday was super laid back. I mentioned that Jubal and Malachi went to get hair cuts and they both came back looking really good :)



He was so well behaved!



After. Isn't he just the cutest?!





Malachi is so adorable when his hair is trimmed and you can really see his face. We just spent the day putzing around. Melanie stayed the night with Grandma & Grandpa, so it was just me and boys for the first half of the day. Grandpa Dean came by and picked up Malachi and took him and Melanie to play at the McDonalds playland (with their own food snacks, of course) Jubal and I took the opportunity to go shopping at Sunny Farms, which is not something you do with 3 kids. Anyone who's ever been there knows that store is not laid out well for the volume of traffic they have. You can barely get 2 carts down the aisle...and some aisle's you can't! Was nice to shop leisurely there. Got lots of good salad makings and also the ingredients for Tom Ka Gai. I'm super excited to try making it. Jubal LOVES it and orders it everytime we go out to Thai. We'll see how it turns out. All in all, another great day and I think the grateful highlight was how much love Malachi showered me with yesterday. He just adores me! I love it.

Another great weekend....I think so.

I'm excited the weekend is here, especially since we have very little on the "to do" calendar. We are expecting a visit from friends Sunday night, but other than that we have no other plans. Jube and Malachi are off getting their haircut this morning, a nice Father/Son bonding time. Malachi was really excited to go to the "Big-Boy Barber Shop". He always looks so cute when he has his hair freshly cut. It was getting really long and I felt bad for him because it always looked like his hair was poking him in the eyes.



Before - front



Before - back.



What have I been thankful for the last few days?

Well, it seems Thursday has become such a blur that I can't even remember what we did :)

I do recall that Jubal and I turned in early, and I'm always thankful for more sleep.



Yesterday was a really nice day around the house. I've been keeping up with the house (cleaning, laundry etc.) so I was able to play with the kids and do a puzzle. I'm so addicted to puzzles that it's rare I get to start one. I can't start one unless I know I have the time to finish. I did an easy 550 just to curb the jigsaw craving. Felt great!

Today promises to be a relaxed day of casually getting things done. It's my "No stress weekend" commitment to myself and Jubal. To date, this year has been awesome. I feel like I have had a really positive outlook and low stress. Plus, I look forward to the next day! I feel extremely blessed.



I'm more committed than I look

Well, it would seem that due to my lack of posts lately that I am not as committed to this venture as I may have seemed. Half true. I have been great about thinking in a "grateful" light, but I'm not so great at posting every day. Once again, it's time to play catch up.

Monday 10th - extra late start for Mel at school today due to snow and ice. Very thankful we live within  walking distance and that Mel got to hang out at home with us for an extra hour. Was looking forward to my Monday night "me" time, but was a little short sticked because of snow. Did however get to do some shopping without kids...who doesn't love that?!

Tuesday 11th - Super tired. Marcus is not sleeping well at all due to teething. Tuesdays are babysitting day. Had my nephew plus my own two boys all morning. Boys were great though and I was able to do some crafting for niece's upcoming birthday. High of the day? Watching Despicable Me as a family and finishing b-day present for niece. Two thumbs up!

Wednesday 12th - Jube took Marcus for part of the night. Poor man is SUPER tired, but I am SUPER grateful for the sleep. Thanks honey. Wednesday date night. Woo-Hoo. Spent the day cleaning house and patting myself on the back about it. Whole day was perfect! In general, just thankful for today.

Dropping the ball already.

Crap. I'm barely a week into the new year and I'm already falling behind. Didn't blog for 2 days! I realize though that this won't be the last time, so I'll just accept that raising 3 kids is enough of a chore by itself and I won't always be able to post. Kind of worked out though because my Fri, Sat, Sun thanksgiving is that I am most thankful for this Fri, Sat, & Sun. It was SO relaxing. All in all just a fantabulous weekend. Jubal and I hardly ever have a weekend with nothing to do, not that we really had nothing to do, but we had so few committments. It was wonderful. I got the boys' room cleaned and organized, designed a quilt for their beds, took Mel to a doll club meeting and went to a friends birthday party. Not "nothing" but certainly not the kind of things that lead to stress. And the icing on the cake...SNOW. Yep, snowed for most of the morning. It just makes everything seem more peaceful and makes it so much easier to do nothing. Aaaah. Hope we get another stress free, movie watching, nap taking weekend soon.

Aaaaah. Clean spaces.

I'm full of gratitude today. Day started rough...got so little sleep, with both the little boys in my bed, that I darn near cried when it was time to get up. But I kept a postitive attitude and my day shows it. Very grateful for M.O.P.S. (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers). Went to the meeting today and enjoyed adult conversation with other moms, plus Malachi LOVES his class. He thinks it's his school, so he insists he take a back pack and sign himself in. It's so cute! Also, super thankful for my super clean room. I think it's the first time the top of my dresser has been cleared off since we moved in last Jan. It looks so good in there right now. I love it!

Harder Than I Thought?

I think this venture is going to be harder than I thought. I definitely need the accountablility to focus on positive thinking, and so far it's working. I spend all day thinking about what I'm most grateful for...I love that! However, I can see that overcoming my "I'm too tired to blog" laziness is going to be the challenge. Oh, well. I'll just have to push myself to do it, or start ending my day earlier :)
Today, I am most grateful for my youngest sister. She is always so busy, yet she never ceases to give of her time to me. She came over to watch the kids so Jube and I could go on a date and have "us" time. I didn't even ask her. I mentioned my babysitter dilemma and she jumped at the opportunity to bless us. Thank you. Since Jubal is still under the weather all we did was take care of some errands, but it was nice not to have to drag the kids along. Plus, Melanie (who was the only kid still awake when she got here) got the added bonus of  "Auntie Bonding Time". Suprisingly she didn't milk it too much. I got a call asking if Mel could stay up past bedtime to hang out some, and since I know they're time together is special I said yes. When I got home about 40 minutes later, Mel was already asleep in bed and my sister said that while they were playing Mel said "Well, I should probably go to bed. I have to get up early you know." Too funny. She is always begging us to stay up late!

Laidback Tuesday

Technically it's already Wednesday, but I'm still on Tuesday time. On Tuesdays, I babysit my 6 month old nephew from about 7:45a to 12:30p. My youngest is 7 months old, so I think Tuesdays give me a small taste of what it might be like to have twins. That being said, Tuesdays are also a BUSY day for me. Seems when one goes to sleep the other wakes up, when one starts eating the other wants to eat, and of course, when one cries the other one starts in too. So, crazy Tuesdays. Well, not today! Today I'm most thankful for the easy going attitude the babies had. They seemed to be content with whatever it was they were doing all morning. Even my 2 year old managed to stay out of trouble for most of the morning! Everyone was laidback enough that I was able to create this blog after breakfast. "Yeah!" for happy babies.

Playing Catch Up

Since it is already the 4th I have some catching up to do. So I shall recap the "thankful" highlights of the last couple days.

Jan 1: My hubby, Jubal, insisted that while he was home I use the time to take a nap. I hate napping, I love the idea of napping, but always feel like part of my day was "wasted" when I nap. I typically wake up feeling refreshed, then look at the clock and start getting upset about how much I could have accomplished in that amount of time. Well, turns out the 2 hour nap I took was the thing I was most grateful for that day, so...thank you honey.

Jan 2: All in all a pretty relaxed Sunday. Grocery shopping, went to church, lunch at home with the family. Probably most thankful for the time at my parents house though. Went over for nothing more than a visit and had a nice time relaxing and watching a movie. For my family, that's saying a lot.

Jan 3: Jubal's sick. Allergic reaction again. Looks like Will Smith in the movie "Hitch." Doped up on Benadryl and home in bed. Oddly, that's what I'm most thankful for. Glad he is able to take a day off work and spend it taking care of himself and catching up on all the sleep we're losing with 3 kids. Was tempted to wake him up at one point and have him help me with the boys, but I refrained and still managed to get a LOT done. Plus, I got the bonus feeling of pride for accomplishing so much and not disturbing him. :)

It all started when...

Since the infant death of my second child in 2006 I have been battling with depression. Understandable that depression would come with the grief process, but I, and those around me, assumed it would eventually pass as I phase from one part of the process to the next. When my second son, and third born child, Malachi, was around 7 months old I finally sought out help for post-partum depression (PPD) . Then as I felt myself feeling better and getting a handle on my life as a wife and mom, I found out I was pregnant again. With Malachi just 21months old, my fourth child, Marcus, was born. Things began to spiral out of control for me and when Marcus was 7 weeks old I began seeking PPD help again. For the first time in my life I was taking meds, and I wasn't sure how I felt about it. Eventually, I felt better enough and tired enough, literally, from the side effects that I allowed myself (without dr. consent) to take my meds every other day instead of every day. That being said, I pretty much just forgot to take them regularly at all and therefore quit taking them all together.
*DISCLAIMER*  I am in no way suggesting anyone change their dosage or quit taking prescribed meds without their doctors consent. That's just how it went for me.
Without my meds I feel fine, not entirely like I remember myself, but close enough. Close enough that family is suprised to find out I'm not on meds anymore. All of this has lead me here because I realized that one major component of the old me is still missing, and that is the acceptance that things could be worse and I must be thankful for what I have. Hence the saying "A Thankful Heart is a Happy Heart". So in 2011 I vow to be grateful for something everyday and this blog is my accountability to that. Here goes....