Balance

I love this art by James Christensen-- it's called "The Responsible Woman."  My mom had a print of this piece when I was growing up, and I remember thinking that I wanted to be the woman in the painting.  I love the way she is carrying so much, yet she doesn't look tired or frustrated, but just carries on with her head held high.  And I love that, even with all of her heavy load, she still thought to wear red shoes.

I'm imagining what The Responsible Woman would look like if she were me-- cut off all of that hair, subtract the dog, add a computer, some balls and Legos, and two more boys (I imagine Gordon would be trying to swan dive off of my backside)-- I don't know if I keep up the steadfast look as well as this woman does, though.  My picture would probably have me gritting my teeth, just trying to get through the day. 

I've decided that I'm tired of whining about how busy I am-- it's nothing new to most of my readers, who are also extremely busy!  If you're like me, there are so many things you want to do in a day, and you tend to get discouraged if you don't get to everything.  I'm trying to rid myself of that discouragement, though, and just try to be happy with what I did do-- and look forward to tomorrow.   

I'm working on delegating some of those extra things-- I "hired" two fabulous people from my Creative Team, Heidi and Debbie, who will help me with some of the promotional and administrative work in my digital design business.  You might have noticed Heidi's Sneak Peek earlier today-- she's doing a great job already! 

I'm also delegating some housekeeping duties to Tom and Gordon with a job chart.  Their rooms get ridiculously messy in such a short time-- and it's time to crack down on that little problem! 

And finally, I'm delegating my guilt, harried-ness, and general whininess to anyone who wants to take them.  :)  Wish me luck!

Party, party, party

We had a wonderful Halloween week filled with costumes, parties, and way too much candy!  I'm still recovering!

Countdown to Halloween

This time of year is so much fun!  Halloween festivities are everywhere, so we're taking advantage with a week-long celebration.  We kicked off our fun plans with a trip to the pumpkin patch on Saturday morning.  It was kind of chilly and windy, but this is Idaho and we're used to a cold end to October.  In fact, I'm pretty sure it's going to snow by Halloween.  Psh.

Pumpkin patches are so much more fun than just picking up a gourd at the grocery store.  The boys loved tromping through the rows of pumpkins, while Neil had a great time being pulled in the wagon.  Everyone had a stipulation for the type of pumpkin he wanted:  Chris likes a huge one for his annual large-mouthed jack-o-lantern (see below) and he likes to have a handle; I like short, fat, round ones; Thomas wanted the first pumpkin he saw; Gordon required a pumpkin that was "all orange, no green"; and Neil wanted a "baby".  Lucky for us, we hit the jack-o- jackpot!

You can see how windy it was by my Trump-inspired comb over!

 

 A pumpkin is no good for Halloween until it's carved, so our next festivity meant a lot of work for Chris, and a lot of fun for everyone else.  Chris loves carving pumpkins and readily volunteers to do all of the dirty work-- including carving the boys' hand-drawn faces.  Gordon drew three faces, while Thomas drew one face, then a bunch of other stuff.  My pumpkin isn't pictured, but Chris punched out a bunch of little holes in the pumpkin and I put white Christmas lights in them to make something that looks a bit like Cinderella's coach.  So fun!

 

 We started the week off just right today by making caramel apples-- yum, yum, yum.  I'm a purist when it comes to caramel, so I made my own (no Kraft here!).  The boys dipped their apples in assorted sprinkles and toffee bits and they turned out so tasty.  I think a new Halloween tradition was born.  

Mmmm... Baking!

The older boys are at school and the youngest is fast asleep (ah! I love it when they still take naps!), so what's a girl to do?  Bake, of course!

We got Boo'd last night-- a fabulous tradition that makes me just love our neighborhood all the more.  Today, of course, it's my turn to make some treats and pass them to three unsuspecting families.  That part will wait until tonight, when I have pint-sized accomplices, but today, during my quiet time, I'm doing the baking.

You know I have a penchant for peanut butter treats, so I stuck with my favorite theme and made the Reese's Chewy Chocolate Cookies from the recipe found on the back of the peanut butter chips bag (and at the Hershey's site).  Oh yum.  It's a good thing that I'm giving most of these away today because otherwise, I'd eat the whole batch myself.  I love how they're almost Halloween-y, too, with the orange and brown.  Delicious!

Soccer Mom

That's Soccer Mom with a capitol "S".  Somehow, last Spring, when I signed Thomas and Gordon up for Fall soccer, I managed to check the wrong box in the "are you willing to be the coach?" section.  Actually, I don't think I checked the wrong box at all-- I think no one else volunteered either, so they just picked the first person to respond to their e-mail!  Whatever happened, I'm coaching a U6 team, the "Rockets", and I *mostly* enjoy it.  I'm pretty sure I would enjoy it even more if Gord could have played more than 1/4 of the very short season!

Since I have never played soccer, and don't know much beyond the rule that you can't use your hands, this has been a real learning experience for me.  Here are a few tips I've learned for the soccer mom/coach:

1.  Offense, Defense... whatever.  In U6, as long as your kids are all kicking the ball in the same direction, you have a good thing going.  You'll notice in the picture above that this isn't happening at this point in the game!  I've yelled, "The other way!  The other way!" at pretty much every game.  Ha!

 

2.  Don't EVER forget the water.  Despite their seemingly endless amounts of energy, five-year-olds will actually drop like flies if they aren't properly hydrated.  They will also whine the entire time.

 

3.  Even though you have a bag with enough balls for everyone, after a couple of practices each player will have picked "their" ball.  Trying to give the wrong ball to the wrong person is not a good idea.

 

 4.  Coaching your own kid is both really fun and kind of tricky.  You can't play favorites, and you also can't be harder on your child than anyone else.  The good news is that you can take your own kids out for ice cream after the game, and that pretty much ensures that you'll be their favorite coach ever.

5.  Two-year-olds are especially cute cheering on the sidelines.  This one loves to say, "GOOOOO!"

6.  No matter how hot, tired and thirsty they are after a grueling 32 minutes, a cheer for the other team, high fives and "good game", and, most importantly, treats from one of the parents will restore all of their energy and team spirit in no time!

One more game this Saturday-- and I'm going to try to get more action shots of my cute Gordon.  

GOOOOOOO ROCKETS!!