I CAN SLEEP WHEN I DIE RIGHT?

People that write self improvement books obviously do not have multiple jobs, multiple children and an inability to say no because if they did they would realize there is no time to for me to improve myself!!!!!  I mean really! I start my day at 4 am and I still am not done.  Yes I am partly to blame for that because I choose to do what I do but when you love what you do it's hard to say no to things.  Today I went from workout to work to PTO meeting back to work to baseball game to home to maid, chef, organizer, bedtime story reader to communications representative to more computer time to now.  In there somewhere I also grocery shopped, ran errands and explained to Coop why we can pee all over the toilet in the bathroom!  Okay, venting is over and here I am trying to make my 2 minute journal entry for the day.  There are so many things I am thankful for that it is hard for me to just write down 3 per day but I guess eventually I will get to them all.  Today I am thankful for my sister Steph, my good friend Andrea and my job.  Steph and I have been close for years and I always love watching her grow up.  Even as I watch her experience motherhood I love seeing her grow.  She is just an awesome person who makes me laugh.  She knows what I am thinking without me saying a word and she is so supportive.  She is also brutially honest but sometimes we all need that.  I love her so much and am just so thankful that my sister can also be my best friend.  Andrea is another of my best friends.  I met her through our daughters and she is wonderful.  She also makes me laugh and is every definition of a good friend.  She is so giving, encouraging and supportive.  I love her to death and am so thankful that our daughters became friends so I could find such a valuable friendship with her.  I am so thankful for my job for every reason people are normally thankful for their job but also because I find it challenging and exciting.

Coop had another baseball game tonight and I am happy to report he is still undefeated!  These boys rock and I am having so much fun watching them.

SELF IMPROVEMENT

It is June 1st and we are officially 1 full week into summer vacation.  Last week was awesome!  The kids were home with the sweetest "baby sitter" in the world.  This year we decided to have a friend's daughter watched the kids a couple days out of the week so they didn't have to go to Boys and Girls Club every day.  The situation is that Coop is happy wherever he is as long as there is something to do that involves his buddies and a ball.  Raelynn on the other hand has a very different opinion of things.  She doesn't mind being bored she just doesn't care for certain things and one of those things is summer Boys and Girls Club.  Last year was a struggle and I knew this year would be worse so we are doing what we can to accommodate because I absolutely understand where she is coming from.  Therefore we have arranged things so she will only be at BGC for 1 or 2 days a week and one of those days is a swim day which is always good.  Raelynn is also "working" at our old daycare a few days this summer.  I cannot tell you how sweet it is of her old daycare providers to let her do this and she is so excited.  Anyways we have the summer pretty well ready to go.

Coop has had 3 baseball games so far and is currently undefeated.  He loves baseball..........and soccer and basketball and the list goes on.  It is fun to watch he and his friends though.  The boys are really starting to grow up but they still love to cuddle with their mommies so it's almost the perfect combination.  Raelynn had her first horse show of the season yesterday.  It was evident that lessons are really paying off.  We have all knew horses this year so we weren't sure exactly how things were going to go but she came out with 2 Firsts and 4 Seconds so not too bad at all.  I was so proud of her. She has been working so hard and it is really showing.

I am all into these self improvement books lately.  It is a little weird because I am super happy with my life but I think things can always be better so why not work at making them better.  I have stepped up my workouts, I am making sure the food around the house is healthier, I have completely outlined our budget and am working on improving finances and the list goes on and on.  One of the things I read lately that would improve your happiness was to write down 3 things you are thankful for everyday and journal for at least 2 minutes.  I have no idea how long I will keep this up but the 3 things I am thankful for today are Raelynn, Cooper and Terry.  I would not have the life I have without them.  Thankful is a huge understatement to what I feel for having them in my life.

Today was a Monday.  It hardly seemed we had a weekend and I felt like I was playing catch up all day.  However, it was a beautiful day and it did not rain so that was A W E S O M E!  When we got home I made dinner while Raelynn studied for her horse test and Coop played outside with our new neighbor.  It's super cute to watch them.  It's what I have always wanted for Coop, someone right next door he can always just run a play with around the yard.  I love living in Lawrence!

MY LIFE IS CONSUMED BY LAUNDRY............

Am I the only Mom that feels consumed by laundry?  I mean seriously, how can I do a load of laundry every night and still be buried in it by the weekend?!  Oh yea, I remember now, it's called a girl that changes hourly yet everything she puts on is DIRTY!  I remember my Mom always saying, "Why is this in the laundry, you just wore it for a few hours!"  Now I totally get it.  Today was a completely packed day starting at 7am.  The kids and I headed out early to a strawberry farm to pick strawberries.  It was a lot of fun however it is important to note for next year that 15lbs of strawberries are a lot of strawberries.  After that Raelynn spent the morning cleaning horse stalls and riding Moon.  Of course it was a perfect morning for her.  Coop and I ran errands, cleaned strawberries, picked up the house and of course, did laundry.  We picked Raelynn up a little after noon and ate lunch, ran more brands, clean more strawberries and did more laundry.  We bought Raelynn a phone today.  I had very mixed feelings about her having a phone until a few weeks ago.  Situations arise that make you realize it is super nice that they can reach you anytime they need to.  Sometimes it's to ask you questions you have already answered but they just didn't like the answer, and sometimes it's just to say I love you which to me says, "it's been a long day and I just wanted to hear you voice."  Regardless the reason, it was time to give her the ability to reach us anytime.  There are many restrictions that are going along with the phone but I am so happy she has it.  Coop felt a little left out during the whole process and I feel for him.  He will always be the youngest and the last to get things but it's life and I know how he feels but there are great things about being the youngest too.  Anyway, we had one really happy girl.  So Coop headed to a birthday sleepover tonight and I was looking forward to a night with Raelynn.  It doesn't happen very often that she is home and Coop isn't but by 7pm she had a horrible headache and was in tears.  I am so worried she is starting to have migraines like I do.  It is awful to watch her and it brings back such horrible memories.  I think I started getting them when I was 11 or 12.  They hurt so bad and they got worse the older I got.  It wasn't until after I had Raelynn that I finally received a daily medication that has pretty much stopped them altogether.  Once I can be sure that is what is going on with her I will be seeking treatment for her because they are awful!!!!!  Anyway, she is now asleep, I have received a cute pic of Coop and his friends from the sleep over and Terry is sound asleep on the couch.  Another awesome day is over.  I really do love my life and my family!

Raelynn 's Baby Bunnies

Coop's First Baseball Game

MY SWEET BOY....

My sweet Cooper.  I always say he is the sweetest boy ever but is still such a boy.  He says "I love you" about a thousand times a day.  He says it so often I sometimes think he doesn't even realize it.  This past weekend he says, "Mom you know what?"  This is always followed by "I love you" and sure enough that was what he said.  Then he said, "Mom do you know why I love you?"  I said, "No but I would love to know why you love me."  His response, "Because you show me you care about me every day."  Of course that earned him a big hug and kiss!  He's just so darn cute.  Tonight he was saying his prayers and he always thanks God for our food, warm home, etc and tonight he ended his long list of thanks with, "and most importantly thank you for just a little bit of sugar."  I had no idea that sugar was so important to him.  However, I had allowed him to pack 3 squares of a Herschey's Bar in his lunch tomorrow and that must have been a bigger deal than I thought!

Last night was Coop's 1st Music Program.  30 Minutes or so before the program was to begin, the electricity went out.  Mrs. Bonner, the amazing music teacher, acted as if it was no big deal and just moved the program outside.  The kids loved it.  We were fortunate to have a beautiful evening.  The kids just gathered around and sang and many danced.  Coop usually hardly sings but last night he sang and danced the entire night.  It was pretty funny!  That was followed by a trip to Orange Leaf for what seemed like the entire school was there.  It was so fun to watch the kids with their friends and watching them having so much fun.  I truly feel like we are surrounded by some of the most amazing families.  I love our Deerfield friends!

Keeping up…

Keeping up with this blog is became virtually impossible, and by virtually impossible I mean totally and completely impossible!  My house still remains spotless, meals continue to be on the table in the evenings and the paper it continues to get done, but the extra things like keeping this blog up-to-date are sliding further and further behind. 

The kids are still amazing. Raelynn has started riding lessons consistently now as the show season approaches. She lives and breathes to ride. I remember when she was small and I wondered how long she would stay interested in it. I assumed it was a passing phase but I was seriously mistaken. Her lessons are bringing fantastic results and her determination to be better is wonderful. She now also has 6 chickens and will have baby bunnies soon. She is such a farm girl and we are so fortunate to have family and friends that will house her growing animal family. She is also doing amazing in school it makes us very proud. I am actually quite astonished at how much she's improved and help her focus has changed throughout the year. She cares about school, she cares about her friendsp, she cares about everything she is doing it and it makes me very proud.  Summer is quickly approaching and we're going to have different plans this year. They will spend some time at Boys and Girls Club but they'll also have a girl who will stay with them twice a week Raelynn  super excited about this as she is been wanting  to be done with Boys and Girls Club for sometime now.

These pics tell the rest...

1st Baby Chick

Daddy Daughter Date Night

St Patrick's Day Parade

Baby chick is growing fast 

Raelynn loves Hadley!

She is becoming quite the cook and a huge help to me!

Easter without Coop as he was very sick 😥

Loves her horses.  

Cooper is equally as sweet. He often tells us he loves us almost to the point that I believe it to be habbit rather than really feeling what he saying. But this weekend he asked, "mom do you know why I love you?" I answered "no but I would love for you to tell me."  He says "because you show you really care about us."  These are the sweet things he says daily. Cooper started baseball now and lives for baseball practice and can't wait for his first game. He's so full of energy he's hard to even keep up with. We had a couple bouts of suggested really set him back but he's doing great now I'm back to his old self!

Another tooth lost

The only thing in the world I could ask for would be more time!