catch the moment 365: week twenty-six

Posted on July 4, 2014July 31, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

OFFICIALLY at the halfway point in this project – I feel like celebrating!

This week of photos represents two very different weeks — the end of a bad one and the beginning of a new, fresh one. If anything COULD go wrong the last week of June, it DID go wrong. Something – no, multiple things, went wrong every day and the week just kept getting worse and worse. Sunday afternoon things started turning around for the better and this week has been great. Thank goodness. Glad to bid adieu to the end of the first half of 2014 and move on to the second half.

Linking up with Mindi, Sarah, and Stephanie — the hostesses of this year-long Catch the Moment photo challenge.

176/365: June 25th. The boys wanted to go swimming but in the midst of our crummy week, I didn’t feel like packing and lugging all our stuff to the YMCA after dinner. They were more than satisfied with the little blow up pool we got for Dexter’s 1st birthday. They had fun showing off their jumps. I think the neighbors enjoyed the show too.

177/365: June 26th. Twenty minutes before I was going to walk into a meeting, I got a call from the babysitter. She said Dexter had thrown up and had blisters in the back of his throat. Nine kids had already come down with Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease that week so there was really no question as to what was going on. He was sick the rest of the night but woke up Friday feeling better. Ryan stayed home with the boys.

178/365: June 27th. After an early nap, Theo woke up late Friday morning blazing hot. He slept off and on all day between temperature checks and Ibuprofen & Acetaminophen doses. When I got home at 2:30 I took Dexter, who was feeling much better outside to play.

179/365: June 28th. Theo’s fever continued throughout the day Saturday. It’s so hard seeing him so miserable. It’s so hard being cooped up in the house. Especially when one kid feels good and is going stir crazy.

180/365: June 29th. Theo’s fever continued through about 1am Sunday morning. He had his last dose of medicine and woke up Sunday fever-free and feeling fine. He had blisters in his throat too so we thought it best if we stayed home yet again Sunday. In the afternoon I decided to clean out my car and the boys enjoyed their little pool again, which turned into making mud puddles!

181/365: June 30th. I kept the boys home one more day from the sitter to be on the safe side and worked a half day. In the afternoon we went swimming with a friend but I didn’t even get my camera out. I realized I still hadn’t taken a picture on my way to Target later Monday night.

182/365: July 1st. Last day of soccer clinics. Thank goodness. They didn’t put forth their best effort, let’s just say that! But we had a decent night at soccer (not their worst!) and went swimming right afterwards.

Not a thrilling week in pictures, but not a thrilling week in real life either. I’d have to say my favorite one from this week is day 176 – Theo making a big splash in a little pool! Which one do you like best this week? Might be a struggle to choose, I know! And not because they are all so fantastic! Meh.

xo,

~C~

sunflower fields forever

Posted on July 3, 2014August 1, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

One of my co-workers has been telling me about her friend’s sunflower field for some time now so I finally decided to check it out after picking up the boys today. It was a little hot and a lotta buggy, but we had fun perusing the beautiful varieties and settled on 7 pretty flowers to take home with us. I thought I had six, but I miscounted — I owe someone $.34! Bonus – it was a quick, fun photography experience.

Theo wasn’t really into it — he was more interested in complaining about the bugs and trying to climb the fence to the cemetery.

Dexter liked helping me choose and snip flowers, then he would put them in the bucket.

Final bouquet. Total cost $2. (And $.34).

xo,
~C~

apparently the week for crappy weeks

Posted on June 28, 2014July 30, 2014 by mommyinthemidwest

Disclaimer: Lots of whining and complaining. My blog, my right.

Anyone still reading this have an extra crappy week this week? The kind where day after day, it feels like hot steamy piles of poo are raining down on your head over and over? Seems like I know at least a few people that have had an extra terrible few days.

Just wondered.

Rather than go into a long list with bullet points detailing the variety of craps I dealt with this week, I’ll just say that it’s got to go up from here. Right after my kids get over Hand, Foot, and Mouth (nice way to end the fantastic week).

This time last year, I was probably crying a million tears into my pillow because this Friday 52 weeks ago was the last day that my boys spent with their beloved babysitter….their original, first, one-in-a-million babysitter who can never be replaced. I love their little Montessori school and I’m excited for Dexter to start attending in August, but things are still…just not the same.

This time last year they probably never would have gotten Hand, Foot, and Mouth.

I miss the closeness and relationship. I miss the details. I miss that I could look at the clock anytime of the day and have a pretty good idea of what my kids were up to. Now I really have no clue what the structure of their day is like. I don’t know if they spend the whole day in front of the TV or if they get along or fight. Just about every day is a “good” day. Which is good, I guess. I just miss the way it used to be. Maybe we were a little too enmeshed with our old babysitter at the time, but it worked for all of us. The communication was helpful most of the time.

Our relationship with her has grown and transformed – now we are friends instead of business partners. I’m glad she and her family are still very much a part of our lives. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t still miss the way it used to be.

I’ve cried more this week than I’ve cried in a year. It seems like something is backfiring, getting canceled, changing, or unpleasantly surprising me at every turn. At the end of the week, I’ve had enough. I’m ready for a change in mojo.

I hate feeling this way. I look around and see summer, feel summer, smell summer. The Spring and Summer months make up my favorite time of year. We have had some really great weeks this Spring and Summer. But this week has taken it’s toll and I’m done.

Bleh. Done with this depressing post. I just had to get it out.