Fun at the Park (and other random stuff)

It's been life as usual around our house. We have been enjoying the exceptional weather this past week. It even inspired us to FINALLY get our garage in shape after a year of chaos. On Friday I decided enough was enough, so the kiddos and I started hauling all our junk out of the garage and started sweeping it out so it would be ready when Jacob got home. They were quite the little helpers :) We got a bunch of stuff off the ground and Jacob and his dad installed the new garage door opener, so we can both park in the garage again! Jacob is pretty excited he won't have to worry about defrosting his windows every morning this winter-it's the little things, right?

On Saturday, I woke up too early to run my last long run before my race in two weeks. I have actually really enjoyed the training process (not so much the running all the time), but I've been fortunate to have a couple excellent running partners that have made this journey fun. One of them is out with a stress fracture which was devastating for her (and me!), but Melissa and I have powered through and it looks like we're going to be able to actually run the entire race which was our goal from the beginning. We aren't fast or flashy or all that impressive, but we are each mothers of two small children and have committed to taking time out to do something good and healthy and we have come a long way from where we started. Also, Jacob has been wonderful to get up every Saturday morning with Owen and Olivia so I could run with our training group for the past three months.

I needed to run a couple errands on Saturday morning after my run, so Jacob took Owen and Olivia to the park. They were a little stir crazy and needed some fresh air! Owen is good about picking out his own clothes and getting dressed and decided he wanted to pick out Olivia's outfit on Saturday. They both looked a little ragamuffin-ish, but I am too proud of the independence to fuss about fashion (and those who know me well know fashion isn't really my thing anyway). Here's sis in her too big Hogs onesie, Hogs sweatpants, pink Crocs and crazy hair.


Jacob laughed as he described this series to me. He said Olivia kept sliding down these steps exclaiming, "Weee!" at each new level. Apparently the smooth slide wasn't thrilling enough for her. That girl is a hoot and keeps us giggling!


Here's my sweet boy. He is seeming so big these days. And it makes me want to cry that I'm going to have to start telling people he's four years old in another week. That can't be right. I know it's so cliche, but seriously...it goes by so fast! Four years has been a blink.

Tonight as I was walking out of Owen's room after books, hugs and kisses, he said, "I have to talk to God," so I turned 180 and snuggled up next to him as he listed off things he was thankful for: his fan, his light, his A/C vent (his daddy would be so proud), his books, his toys, Mama, Deeda and Olivia (he's usually thankful for all the things he can see right then). Then he asked me what things I was thankful for, so I listed my kitchen (food is top on my list ;), my warm, comfortable house, my car that gets me where I want to go. It was humbling. I've been grumbling in my head about some of the stuff I don't have and tonight I got mad at myself for being so ridiculous. Because I am thankful. And more than that I am grateful. I have exceedingly more than deserve and it was so nice to be reminded how a little gratitude can put things back in perspective. I'm also blessed to have a little boy in my life who helps remind me to focus on what really matters.

I'll have to remind myself I'm thankful for clothes tomorrow as I'm wading through the many layers of clean and dirty laundry that have been neglected all week-yikes!