Summer 2016: slow + simple

Oh this life, I love it and I want it to slow down just a teeny bit more so I have time to just bask in each moment before we are on to the next one. I really do feel fulfilled though, even in the ups and downs, the rushing from one thing to the next. I have learned a lot recently just by reflecting on what God is doing in our lives and discerning what He wants me to do with what He has given me. I've been looking at screens less, reading the Bible and just being with my people more. Doing my best to slow down and simplify life. On "paper" it doesn't look very slow or simple but it can be just by way of shifting our mindset, letting the Lord lead the way and really just saying "no" more often.  

The last two months have been very busy but it was followed by Ben going on vacation a couple weeks ago and it was 9 days of intentional laziness. We just enjoyed each others' company and only allowed a handful of social interactions outside of our household to keep it slow and simple. It was the perfect way to wrap up a very full summer. We are also intentionally kept the rest of this month as quiet as possible as well as we head into a new school year. Malakai just started 2nd grade and Desmond is now in full day Kindergarten. 

Desmond doesn't turn 5 until the beginning of October, just missing the September 1st deadline by 5 weeks. We decided to go through the process of petitioning for him to start school "early" and see how it went. We didn't put any pressure on him or even tell him about it. When it came time for the mandatory IQ test in early July we just said that we told the school how smart he is and they wanted him to show them what he knew. He had a blast doing the activities and answering the questions. I really enjoyed listening to his answers from the back of the room. He had to score in the 90th percentile to qualify for early admission. We didn't get results until a month later. While we waited to hear back we continued to be prayerful over the situation, that if he got in it would be what should happen and if he didn't that we were meant to keep him home for another year of Pre-K.  We were excited for him when he was accepted for early entrance but also a little sad to not have him at home with me all day. I will miss the easy hours of play with Desmond while Aurelia napped, and watching him run across the street to help our neighbor with yard work. I know he has been craving a structure that has been increasingly difficult to provide with baby sister in tow. Des is so ready for school, he has shown it with his eagerness to go and his excitement about it when he comes home.


Aurelia and I have 6 hours to ourselves 5 days a week. I keep saying I won't know what to do with myself. I mean it because it will be a lot of free time opened up during her naps, but also because I have so many things I'd like to accomplish I'm not sure where I should start! Most of all I am just excited for some quality one on one time with my girl. The boys however, I will have to be more intentional about quality time with now. We plan to really slow down weekends when October hits. September is full of family birthdays, or what I like to affectionately call #SeptemberBirthdayFrenzy -Between Ben nearly half of the immediate family birthdays fall in September. When you start counting our extended family that number just gets bigger, which makes for quite the busy time! 

The next 6 weeks are also going to be quite full now that both boys are in fall soccer. We have back to back practices twice a week and I don't even know the game schedule yet but there will be 14 games over that time. I was unloading our minivan at our first double practice earlier this week, filling up the wagon with chairs, waterbottles, toys and a picnic dinner while the boys changed into their cleats and I thought to myself...I have reached official soccer mom status. It cracks me up because it's not really my thing, but it's theirs...so it gets to be mine now too. I love watching these kids discover what they like and what they're good at. 

So I bid a fond farewell to the long days and late nights of summer and hello to the bustle of fall!

Spring Break recap

Monday. It's dreaded for different reasons at different stages of life. When in school I had to get myself psyched up to go to classes after two blissful days of rest. When I was working I had to get myself back in the groove of completing tasks and attending meetings. Since I've been staying home with the kiddos I have to get myself ready to go solo for the majority of the day and the attitude changes that occur in my children when daddy isn't around after a couple days with him here. I still don't understand that phenomenon. Now that I have one in school I have to actually make myself look human and leave the house!

Spring break was a nice break from loading the kiddos up twice a day for school drop off and bus pick up. I was hoping to use the break to gently ease Aurelia in to a different nap routine that jived with Malakai's drop off and pick up times...but that didn't happen in the slightest. She barely napped at all actually. 

We took some time to play outside a little longer than usual. We took a trip to the library to stock up on new reading material. We watched tv before lunch (our usual rule is no screen time until after school). I even went out on the town on a weeknight with just Aurelia and hosted an essential oils class!

On Friday Ben took a day off and we headed to the coast, which was a bit windy but not too bad for Oregon in the spring. The boys have been asking to go to the beach for weeks. My mom came with us (it was her idea to go in the first place actually!). We had coffee at our favorite place, visited with my grandparents, and spent some time on the beach. 

{4 generations}

{attempting an aloof model pose. ridiculous}

{a little better, but they didn't want to stop playing to pose}

Ben played with the boys, my mom took pictures and I huddled up to shield Aurelia from the wind while she dug her toes in the sand for the first time and we watched the boys dig. It was a whirlwind trip but a much needed little getaway. 

The rest of the weekend we spent getting things done around the house/to the car and getting rest for two of the kiddos with colds. By the time we went to bed last night all of the clean laundry was actually folded and put away. I can't remember the last time that happened!

Now today, back to the routine of getting barely anything done before the day is coming to a close. Keeping up with our schedules and the chaos that comes from trying to have a schedule with 3 small children. But I love it. I'll be a little sad when our next break gets here and Malakai will have finished his first year of school, all the kiddos will be a little closer to their first/next birthdays, and our summer will go by in a blur of celebrations as it always does. 

Thankful on a Thursday: flexibility

When putting together my resume years ago I always had the hardest time listing attributes about myself. One that I always used, and felt was the most true is flexibility. I've written before about my ability to adapt to change pretty easily and the over-arching theme of my life this blog has been doing just that.

This week I started a new schedule with watching Henry. We're back to mornings again, which is what works best for us with Malakai's naps and meal times. Henry's parents were able to be flexible enough to work out the dates + times for us. I'm sure we'll just be getting into the groove of this new schedule right about the time that it will change again {late September}. Here's hoping I'm wrong and it won't change too much!

Life with a baby, toddler, {okay, child of any age} requires a lot of flexibility. Yet, as parents we're also supposed to do our best to create a life with consistency + routine. For the first time in a long time, I feel like I'm doing well at balancing both.

Some days we go to Henry's for a few hours, on occasion we're there all day. Others we stick around the house all day. Sometimes we run errands all afternoon, other times we stay in or go on a walk. Yet, every day Malakai wakes up, has breakfast, playtime, lunch, nap, etc, etc at roughly the same time and in pretty much the same order. It's really a great balance, not only for him, but for me as well.

I really value the things that are constantly changing because they keep us on our toes and prevent boredom from creeping in. I also appreciate the things that are predictable about our day to day lives because they keep us grounded. Both are helping Malakai learn about how things work and I really love that.

This week I'm also thankful for...

261. butterflies out my window.

262. love notes.

263. watching Malakai get super excited about a new toy. We just got these fun fridge magnets that keep him busy when he insists on being in the kitchen with me.

264. Ben coming with me to take Malakai in for his 12 month shots. It made it easier for all of us.

265. these boys.

266. silly conversations with Ben just before bed.

267. the positive response from family + friends about my blog

268. belly laughs at a newfound game {spinning in the desk chair}

269. my {mostly} clean house

270. the last few weeks of summer weather

What are you thankful for this week?

lists, notes, boxes, + checkmarks

I love lists. I'm always making new lists, referring to old lists, trying to find lost ones so I can remember what I wrote down so I wouldn't forget...or to prove to my husband that I DID tell him something that he inevitably forgot. Sometimes, lists save my life.

Other times, lists take over a bit.

I have a list for almost everything. Recently we went from one shopping list to two. One is for groceries and the other is for non-food items and sometimes {like right now} the 2nd one has a to-do list on it instead. Every time we run out of something I add it to the shopping list so that when we're at the store next, we won't forget. Except....I usually leave this list on the fridge and sometimes I remember to transfer what's on it to a smaller list.

The newest list is written in sharpie on an old dry erase board. It's a weekly chore list adapted the cleaning plan of another blogger. I like checking things off with my red dry erase pen. Sometimes I get more of a thrill when Ben notices how many of the boxes have red check marks than from actually checking them off..

The list from our move {packing, cleaning, address updates} is still on the wall. Below it is a list of things that need to be done here at the "new" house. Below that is another shopping list of sorts...a reminder for a lot of gifts we had to get or need to get soon for weddings, birthdays, + graduations. This one is very important in avoiding our usual trip to the store just before the event. I HATE doing that!

I also have lists that I make when I read. I jot things down when I'm reading through a magazine; fun ideas, websites to visit later, other things that pop into my head. I'm currently reading through The No-Cry Sleep Solution {more on that in the near future} and am making notes and to-do lists on our plans to implement it's advice.

Often I'll scrawl out quick to-do's in my pocket calendar, trying to keep track of all the events we have going on each day of the week/month/year. I also have a notebook of questions and advice from all of Malakai's pediatrician appointments with a list of things to ask at his next well visit.

Writing all this stuff down is really helpful for my tendency to forget things {that started with the infamous pregnancy brain}. Like I said, sometimes my lists save my life.

However, sometimes I need to stop writing stuff down and just start doing. I like to make lists of what I want done around the house. This is actually really helpful when Ben is also here and working along side me so he knows what to do next {he asks for this kind of help}, but when it's just me I need to forgo the urge to create a list and just get going.

This week- that's what I'm doing! Wish me well...

routine

I've never had much of a routine. My whole life it seems as soon as I start to get into a groove something changes. Within the last couple of years I've learned to expect and embrace the changes. That's where the name of my blog comes from as we're constantly on the brink of something new.

A lot of women, especially moms, seem to have a daily routine. This is something I've only dabbled in, but never tried with much fervor. When I was a college student I grew accustom to spontaneity and quite enjoyed the ability to do almost anything I wanted whenever I wanted. That and the fact that every 10 weeks I had a whole new class and work schedule. It worked for me.

When I "settled down" and got married a few years ago neither Ben or I had much of a regular schedule. He is a musician, which translates to casual and flighty for the most part and had just started a new job. I was a couple years into a job at a college which had it's seasons, but pretty much changed from a desk job to an on-the-road job every few months. Things weren't quite as spontaneous but we still had the ability to do whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted. I indulged in eating ice cream instead of lunch, watching movies uninterrupted late into the evening, heading out for coffee with a friend at a moment's notice, laying out by the pool for hours on warm summer weekends.

Near the end of my pregnancy {this time just last year} I wanted to do less, and just stay around the house more and more. We didn't go to the movies {last night we went to the theater for the first time in 2 years}, we declined the few invitations we received to go out to late dinners, and the most activity we got was walking at least a mile every day in an effort to get labor going. We were still doing what we wanted, when we wanted...we just wanted to do less.