I have been attempting to get a post up here for about a month, I kid you not. First things first — I re-vamped my blog page so that I am now self hosted, which is pretty cool! But this mama of three thing is no joke. I can barely find five minutes to throw the closest pile of dirty looking fabric into the wash, let alone form a coherent thought and type it onto a page.
And that, my friends, is exactly why I need to write this down. So that one day when I look back and think “it wasn’t that hard…” I can read this and remember that oh, it sure was that hard.
Take yesterday for instance. We dropped Pippa off at preschool (she started last week and loves it!), then headed to Costco to buy a ridiculous amount of groceries because with two kids who eat more than the adults, that’s what you do. I remember after college when I could eat on $30/week. Ha! Larkin takes a 20 minute nap on the way.
Unpack groceries in record time and attempt to empty the training potty upstairs before Larkin’s cries reach unbearable, and trip on the bathroom rug sending a potty full of pee flying all over me and everything in a 5 foot radius. Curse profusely and mop up the floor, toilet, etc. as I add another load of laundry to the list.
Go get Pippa from school, eat lunch, and put all three kids down for “naps.” Not really, because the 4 year old won’t actually sleep and the 5 month old will nap for 20 more minutes because apparently that’s all she’s capable of doing. I finally get my clothes out of the dryer, get the hiccuping baby, and on my way to the computer to *attempt* to work on a much more interesting blog post, Larkin spits up on the fly and it lands in my basket of clean laundry.
Dammit.
After nap time I chase the older two outside to play and yet again find myself uttering a phrase I never thought would cross my lips. “Buddy, we don’t lick worms!”
When my husband texts to see how the day is going, I actually reply “good” because compared to the last five it is a good day (LOL!! Right?). And the evening is filled with spaghetti stained shirts, a walk with neighbors, and Sawyer locking himself in his room as 
we scramble around the house to find a key and save the little rascal.
But man do I love these crazy three of mine!
And I do have so many fun ideas to share (kitchen renovation and farmhouse pallet sign, anyone?) if only I can get a chance to breathe. Someday 🙂
Decide how big your sign will be. Mine is going above my fireplace, so I wanted it to be approximately
our playground and cut it to size. You want these to be thin pieces of wood too. Keep in mind that once the sign is complete, all the wood together makes it rather heavy.
6. Sketch your letters first. In pencil. I’ve been obsessed with lettering and hand-lettered wall prints for years, and every time I’ve created a sign like this I’ve relied on fonts found on my computer. If there is not one I’m looking for, I download a free one (just google “free fonts). Type the word(s) in a word document and copy them (for those who are comfortable free handing) OR print out the letters in the size you need, cut them out, then trace them onto the sign. To get the curved look of my Lemonade sign below, you can either use a photo editing software like photoshop to curve the letters or draw a bottom line curve on which to place/trace the letters.
It terrifies me because it’s everything I’ve worked hard not to do with my youngsters, yet I feel the pull of society calling me to enroll my oldest (4.5 years) in summer camp. Or preschool. Or a sport. She’s just 4.5!” says my inner voice. Let her be a child! She will have 13 years to be in school more hours than she plays, to be inside more than she is outside, and to endure waaaaaay more academic pressure than children should. Yet I still feel the lure of a society that values busy-ness and find myself wondering if I’m making the right choices.
You ask how is my heart? Right now it is often exhausted from being in full-time parent mode. But on this sunny morning it is joyous, because my colicky newborn is actually sleeping and my older kiddos are outside inventing games in mud puddles and picking blueberries. And that is exactly where they should be.
Yeah, not much changed in that department.
