Vida. Risa. Amor.

Sometimes it's the small things that can make a difference in a day. And sometimes there's a lot of rollercoaster emotions that can happen throughout the week. And sometimes you look back on the past weeks and days and notice another busy month quickly passed by. I think there's a quote somewhere about how sometimes things happen "in three's", but I've been seeing things happen in "G's" or "C's"....keep reading and you'll get what I mean...

Every so often there's an occasional free half hour or so I find time to read a book with my feet up out on my back patio and soak up the Arizona sunshine. My life's theme song was written by Sheryl Crow: "I wanna soak up some sun, wanna tell everyone to lighten up..." I like the quiet and the chance to be still and to be warm since it's been raining more than usual here this month.
I am re-energized with Sunshine, Silence, and happy-ending Stories.

Because of the busyness of life or my lack of energy or interest, I have also gone a few weeks without regular exercise and instead grab an "occasional" chocolate out of heart shaped boxes when dashing the kids out the door. The floor of my van now has a layer of grass and mud and wrappers all over it since I'm regularly taxiing the kids to and from practices and games. My van still chugs along despite the tons of miles we've put on it and I'm fine to drive it until it dies, but we must be getting close to the end of it's existence since it squeaks, shakes, clunks, and leaks gas and oil. Valentine clearance chocolates & Vaccuuming are my therapy for my my Van Issues.

February has also been the month for:
Garage sales, Girl scout cookies, and Games.
Dish-washing sink clogs, Dating discussions, and Dollar DVD's.
Cell Phone time-outs, cleaning, and coupon bargains.
Power rangers, Popcorn, and Party-planning.
Happy hour dates, home-work supervising, and hair styling products.
Milk sippy cups, Monopoly winning dreams, and mixed emotions.

It might be too hard to sum up in just 3 words what a day, or a week, or the entire month of February 2010 was like for us...

But if I did, I might just have to say it involved
Tantrums, Teenagers, and Trouble...and one extra: Tiredness!

I have never questioned myself as a parent much as I've had these past couple months. It's been interesting figuring out fair boyfriend guidelines, cell phone texting time-limits, hang-out times after homework, soccer club commitments, friend issues, appropriate face-book statements, and the importance of being honest. The biggest challenge has been figuring out what exactly are fair rules and then what works for consequences when rules aren't followed...(at least the dishes are getting done!) There are so many new gray areas we haven't even covered yet, and I worry if I don't stay two steps ahead, I might overlook something important.

I care about my kids so much and I've decided that I'm okay if it makes me less of a cool Mom that I want to know where my kids are, who they're with, and what's going on in their lives. I get that it's important for teens to prefer to be with her friends in this time of their lives, but I'm also trying to remind my daughter to figure out a way to balance that out with all her other priorities such as homework, soccer, church, and family....(and then when she figures it out, to let me know the secret because I have a lot on my plate too!!) This season is busy and there's usually no choice but to keep on going.

We've talked a lot...maybe too much....but we talk. We've talked up until midnight with both our heads leaning over the edge of my bed that our hair reached the floor. We talk to and from soccer practices, in between a few good songs on the only 2 acceptable radio stations. We talk at Chili's during her school lunch hour. We talk in my bathroom when she's looking for a better hair product. We talk at 10:30p.m., in between crunchy bites of cereal. We talk after church, (not before). We talk over mocha lattes or tropical smoothies. And when we can't leave a conversation happy, we just hug and say I love you anyway...or just take a break.

We talk, and we listen, we cry, we laugh, and we learn, and she keeps growing up...we both do actually. I've learned it's not always the most important thing to have to be right and do all the talking...and it's sometimes better to be quiet and just listen and give them the opportunity to share their heart with you. Sharing involves trust, and I hope I have the strength to always remember that. I'm the oldest in my family as she is, so I'm reminded it can be a mistake to go too hard on every issue.

To everything there is a season...and in 2 weeks she'll be only 4 years away from being 18!! My baby ruckus is growing up too fast!

Well I'm officially finished. I think. The girls now have the room of my dreams for a grand total cost of only $60! Two walls were painted turquoise blue, and the others stayed a lime green. We traded the black furniture for white with the boys dressers and whatever else needed to be white I sprayed with spray paint, and the added touch of hot pink on the drawers with silver knobs adds a neat detail. I found hot pink and turquoise comforters on clearance at B.B.&B., and with coupons they came only to $24 each and included a pillow sham and even came in a cute bag made out of the same material. The girls were awesome about going through all their drawers stuffed with doodly-doos that were basically gathering dust and then donated their unused stuff to the garage sale pile. Even though they have a bigger bedroom than the boys, they use much more lotions and potions and hair straighteners, so in order to make it work, a lot of their "kid-stuff" had to go, like some stuffed animals and a "few" Jacob posters...(of course they hung up the biggest and best one on their closet door). I was so surprised when we, I mean I, was done to see how much more space they actually had compared to when they had their own rooms. My absolute favorite piece in their room is the Unicorn and Lion painting my Aunt Helen painted on my baby crib that we've saved all these years....the colors are beautiful and it just so happens my daughters love unicorns as much as I did at their age. They're always amazed and maybe shocked when they find out we have similar tastes in common.

The girls are getting along for now but I noticed Josie took the time to label her jeans since I was making the horrible mistake of mixing them up into Lanie's drawers. And though they're not drawing lines on the floor yet, there's still the occasional issues of what's "yours, mine, and ours". So that brought me to my last part of this project: the empty downstairs bedroom. I knew there would be times when they would have both of their friends over and they might want spaces separate from each other, so without waiting too long for the upstairs paint to dry I pressed on to painting the downstairs room. I'm pretty sure my kids were bored of the painting clothes I was living in for a week and concerned when they saw me chugging up and down the stairs saying, "must keep going..., must keep going..." (To best understand my mentality, watch the episode of Friends when Monica redecorates the apartment and is up until midnight making sure it gets done). The furniture in the downstairs room is still a bit of a mystery, so for now a temporary table is set up for crafts and the extra computer is tucked away in the corner. We're on a bit of a budget so until we get inspired at IKEA's clearance room or discover a fantabulous garage sale find, we'll just wait. And we all know how much I like waiting.

I whipped an orange at my husband the other day. I didn't just throw it, like, ha, ha, I'm throwing an orange at someone....there was some serious and ridiculous rage behind that throw. I envisioned that orange bursting into a thousand pieces off of the back of his head and claiming the victory of my well aimed toss, but I really hadn't had much time to brush up on my food fighting skills this month. Obviously I missed and each time I pull out of my driveway, I have a daily reminder of that failure as it's splattered in a thousand pieces of peels all over the street instead. It really didn't help that he was laughing hysterically at me as I was chasing him around his car before I took aim. My husband and I have been through a lot together and of the 17 years I've known him I can honestly say that was my first time at attempting to throw an orange at his head. Fatigue, thoughtless words, and stress were building up between us and though whipping an orange across the street probably wasn't the most attractive moment of my week, it sure felt good. Raising toddlers and teenagers is hard and adding longer work hours means it's rare for us to find time to be just the two of us. Ironically we went out on a "happy-hour" date just 10 minutes after this moment and after he knew I winded down he just kept kissing my hands and telling me how much he'll always love me no matter what I do or say. Ugh. God has interesting ways of reminding me the importance of humility and showing me what a better half he has blessed me with.

I love this man....but orange is still a good color for him....