Happy spring! We are starting to get blossoms and buds on our trees and bushes. We even had temperatures in the 70s over the weekend. Most of the forecast for this next week is low 50s with constant rain so I'm going to bask in the last day or two of sunshine we have. Nothing crazy to report from our week. Jared has a really nasty cough that he can't seem to kick. I can't remember a winter when he's had so many annoying little constant sicknesses. Jack and Alice are great and adorable. I thrifted my first giant original painting. It's not signed and the frame is seriously awful (plastic that looks like fake orangey wood, nailed right into the canvas). But the painting itself is really lovely. It's moody earth tones of a river winding through a forest and reminds me of Granite Falls where we live. Eventually I'll get it reframed and it will live in our entryway. Anyway, here are some pictures from our week:
^^Alice blowing a kiss in her adorable new spring dress on Sunday
^^This girl could be a comic book character. Me and Jared spend most evenings laughing about her adorable little quirks. Every sound she makes is so funny. It's a slurp, or a grunt, or a howl. She always pushes her lower lip out and to the side. She LOVES music and dancing and spinning. My favorite is when she squeezes her eyes shut, tilts her head up, and pretends she's singing passionately along with a song. She loves putting on accessories and shoes. She's very independent and particular at meal times. She doesn't want her food on a baby dish. She wants it on the same grown-up dishes and utensils everyone else has. I love when she's been off playing with Jared and then when they're coming back downstairs together I hear her shouting, "Mama! Mama!" She loves books, but only wants us to read her favorite one or two. I'm sure I've shared all of these before but we just love her so much.
^^After school backyard picnic on a sunny day.
^^She nestled right into this laundry basket and wanted to be pushed around.
^^Swing life still going strong
^^Over the weekend Jared took the kids to the zoo with his parents while I caught up on my to-do list I'd gotten quite behind on. That was enlightening in itself. Most days I put around 5 things on my list and then I'm frustrated that I'm never able to get caught up on the list and feel like I can never relax because I'm trying to play catch-up in the evenings. Well, even when my whole family was gone ALL day, for like 11 hours, and I was really productive that whole time, I was still only able to cross 6 things off my list (we're not talking about cleaning or laundry--we're talking about the summer camps to research and emails to draft and pictures to hang and Utah trips to plan). It was a wonderful day but a bummer to realize, "Ok. A realistic to-do list on a normal day for me is probably one with 2 or maybe 3 items on it (not including cooking/cleaning)."
It's tough when there are constant things to take care of for Jack's school and extracurriculars, my calling, home organization projects, kids' constant clothing rotations, summer plans, Jared's job hunting items of business, etc. etc.. Not to mention the constant stuff like laundry and cleaning and meal planning/prep. It's like--how can I ever get caught up if I only have time for 2 to-do list items in a day? Seems like I'm just going to get further and further behind forever? I know this is everyone's struggle and there are way worse struggles to have. I just find myself wondering "HOW" when I talk to other young mom friends and they mention they've already read 18 books this year, or that they like to knit or are starting a cinnamon roll business on the side, and by the way they all have even more young kids than I do. HOW. Probably just prioritizing different things. I probably could spend a lot less time on home projects, but they make me happy. Anyway. Didn't mean to take that tangent but on that note, I'd better go figure out how to tactfully work, "Great Google Reviews" into Jared's resume we're updating after he spoke on a community panel about fentanyl prevention this week (way to go Jared!).
