The final post (but not necessarily)

I was told a few days ago that I should have done one final blog post about why I quit blogging. So here it is.

Aside from the lesser reasons (it was seeming like a lot of steps to save smaller picture files to upload, likely I was just getting lazy, and school age stories aren't as funny as toddler stories), I also wanted to provide more emotional protection for my kids once they started school.

Toddler stories are funny and most people enjoy them. Readers got a good chuckle, I got a creative outlet along with a way to preserve stories that I would likely forget later, and my kids were never in any harm of being embarrassed nor picked on because of them.

But, once they started school, I didn't want stories floating around about their antics, shenanigans, and vocabulary mishaps. I didn't want to knowingly put something out there that could make it back to a classmate and turn into a reason to ridicule one of my kids.

Will this decision mean my kids will never ever get picked on? Absolutely not. But one of my many roles as a parent is to protect my children and create a safe haven for them in life. And I no longer felt that having a blog allowed me to also maintain that safe haven.

So, from our family to yours, thank you for hanging out with us during the tired baby years, the funny toddler years, and into the school years.

Remember when

Remember when I used to have three little bitty kids at home all day?

Remember when I used to blog all the time?
Yeah, I hardly remember either.

Glad we have that all cleared up

I'm sitting at my desk. Laura, who's been asleep for an hour and a half, comes out. She's fast-stepping in place, rubbing her tummy, and trying to tell me something. "I have. Aloo. Some. I need." I ask her if she needs to go potty. I ask her if she's already gone to the bathroom. I ask her again what she needs. Finally, I pick her up, carry her back to bed, and tuck her in. I sit back down at my desk. A minute later, I hear little footsteps again. "What do you need? Who's up?" I get up to go find the source of the footsteps and again find a fast-stepping, tummy-rubbing, confused Laura. I asked her what she's up for. Stepping. Rubbing. I say, "how about you go potty, and you can tell me while you're in there." I carry her to the bathroom. She looks at the toilet, pulls down her jammies, and starts to sit down. "No! Sweetie pie, you need to open the lid first." She looks at the toilet in a bit of confusion, then opens the lid, and nearly lifts off when she starts to go. I asked her if that's what she was up for. No response. I carry her back to bed again, tuck her in again, and she's asleep again. Although I suspect she was never really awake, just like every night when she gets up to go to the bathroom.

Even more

I just melted a little bit when Evan said, "I'm sorry, Mom. I don't have my listening ears on today." I gave him a huge hug and told him thank you for letting me know. I also told him that I don't have my remembering brain on today because I had already forgotten that I'd just asked him to do something.

This whole scene made me love him even more. Plus, I now know that he does listen to teachers in school because I don't think the term "listening ears" has ever been used at home.

Happy Spring!

Are we maybe, finally done with this

and on to this?

Happy first day of Spring!

New hair experiment

I saw a picture online this weekend and thought it would be fun to do with Kendra's hair. However, I didn't think about how it would work differently with darker hair (not as much contrast in color) nor with curly hair (little frizzies cover up the woven part). So I came up with a solution to try and make it a little better for darker, curlier hair.

The inspiration:

The execution: 

The solution: 

Hopefully this will stay put for the rest of today and tomorrow. There's now too much time invested in it for it to only be a one-day hairdo!

Blizzard hail

Today, we're in a blizzard warning. It had been a blizzard watch, then a winter storm warning, then a blizzard warning. But, while we waited for the blizzard part to show up, we had a good ol' thunderstorm. In February. In Iowa. With hail. Lots and lots and lots of hail.

This is how hard it was coming down, right about the time the kids were supposed to be coming home from school for their 1 p.m. early out. Yes, it looks like rain, but it's not. It's all ice. Hail, I would assume. That or we had a sleet storm, complete with thunder and lightning.

I didn't think to take a picture of the driveway after it was over, so this was about an hour and a half after it stopped. Laura is very excited by the pond under the evergreen tree. She's really hoping it freezes smooth so she can have her own ice skating rink. 

After taking that picture, I decided I should go shovel the driveway and sidewalks before it all froze down and got snowed on. I've never shoveled tapioca before, but I'm guessing it would be very similar to shoveling this: 

Shoveling was also quite unsuccessful since there was so much water with it, so I quit after doing a halfway acceptable job on the sidewalks. But it sure was fun to scoop and throw all these little ice balls!

(You can click on this picture to see it a little larger.) 

For now, our rain is done, our thunder and lightning are done, our hail is done, and we're waiting on the snow and wind. Happy Big Weather Day, everyone!