A Day in the Life

A reminder of God's grace in my kitchen.

Hey y'all,

I have not been neglecting you for Netflix this time.

No, now your rival for attention is naps.

Because naps are life. Forget the "power hour" of house chores. Napssssssssssss.

But I am forgoing my usual 9:30 nap (well, I'll get some sleep after I get this off my chest) to tell you about the many events that happened during my trip to Walmart yesterday.

Firstly: One of the most positive was meeting a young mom in the baking aisle. She had a baby that was only a few months older than Mason. She looked frazzled and kept apologizing to everyone around her even though she was doing nothing wrong. I felt like I was watching myself. She asked me if I knew where the vanilla wafers were located. She said she was new to the area and was just trying to "get out" before the baby started getting upset -- an escape feeling I know all too well.So I rounded the neighboring aisle and brought her back some vanilla wafers. I gave her a hug (TOTALLY out of my comfort zone) and I just said, "Me too." I wish I would have given her my number. Or at least gotten her name. Especially since I was given another chance when I saw her loading her purchases just across from me later in the parking lot.
Just know you are not alone, whoever you are, reading this. We're all human. Cut yourself some slack.

(If you're visiting from my Facebook: yeah, I know -- I totally copy/pasted that bit from my earlier status update. #lazy #unoriginal #notime #napsssssss)

(If we're not friends on Facebook and you would like to get little "blog snippets" more often than I get on the actual blog, definitely look me up and shoot me a message about following along: Samantha Thomas. I'm the one holding the baby, obviously.)

One of the less positive things about this particular Walmart run was realizing I'm already raising a man of petty crime in my son.

Exhibit A:

A $2 ornament I found in his carseat after I had unloaded babies and groceries into the car after an almost unsuccessful shopping trip*.

He can't even reach his arms above his head, much less outside of the cart to start this kind of unacceptable behavior, people.

So we all know it must be the Mom Brain that's really to blame here.

*sigh* And alas, it is. After finding it, I realized that was the first item I tossed into the cart on a whim (noooooooo, Sam!! NEVER shop on whims!!) But I put it on top of his blanket cover on his carseat for "safe keeping" because I noticed it was so tiny and I knew I would lose it and forget to pay for it.

Which I did anyway. #majorfail

Include a speeding ticket in front of the babies, my car threatening to die while I was in the store, *and really dancing on the edge as far as being out during nap time goes and it was a pretty exciting hour out.

(Hubby, if you're reading this: I'm sorry about the speeding ticket.

And I'm sorry this is how you found out.)

*goes to change a poopy diaper and put the toddler back down for her nap -- AGAIN*

So not only is my son already taking things that don't belong to him (he'll be into grand theft before he's 10, you just wait and see), but I realized my oldest child is just a tad on the dark side with her humor. Something she may or may not come by naturally.

Notice her reaction to every terrible thing that happened on both Frozen and Veggie Tales Jonah: she laughed. Sometimes hysterically.

I literally have ONE job..... (that really is multiple jobs rolled into one, but eh, who considers that??)

My kids have also been doing their best to hibernate since it snowed.

Not one word about my appearance.
It's called "ain't no mommy got time fer dat".

Not sure how the snow managed to shut down their systems so effectively, but I wish I could harness such power and only use it at nap and bed times, amirite?

Bad Mommy -- she was so tired and DESPERATELY pleading for a nap that was not given, she dumped the laundry and got her dirty blanket to snuggle ON THE FLOOR.

Evidence that I'm failing at the mom thing.

(haha I'm kidding, of course. I no longer notice when they're screaming at the same time, so I'd call that winning.)

His latest mugshot. Watch out for this one, y'all. He'll be taking candy from his peers before I can turn around..

And this is me ending this blog post abruptly with a montage of baby cuteness because:

naaaaaappppssssssssss.

Snow Day

This was his "coming home" outfit from the hospital (you'll see sometime when I finally do a birth blog post). It definitely fits him a little better now; but my mom made it (for Micah) so it's special.

Ok, I'll admit it: I've been binge-watching a series on Netflix in my spare time instead of blogging.

But now they've taken advantage of my emotions and devastated me by killing off one of my favorite characters, so I can't even...
Which means:

Hey y'all,

Another confession: When my youngest brother heard that it was gonna snow two nights ago and said he was so excited to play in it the next day, I was a bubble buster and told him it would be flurries at best and not anything that would stick.
Mom asked me if we wanted to spend the night (I was currently trading out vehicles with them that evening as we now have the Volvo back!!!!!!!!) and I snorted and asked, "Spend the night? What for?"

Poor Lexi. I guess she's a bit older this time around.

 All of the above pictures were snapped in a flurry (haha get it?) as at 8:00 the next morning I was shuffling babies out the door to be taken to my parents' on Jacob's way to work -- it did snow, A LOT, and it did stick, and as a result our power was out the majority of the day.

I was on the start to a spectacular day: I got up and did my yoga (all about balance, but you won't find any here, people), swept and mopped all the hardwoods in my house, scrubbed my kitchen down (INCLUDING cabinets and spots on the walls), and started laundry.

I'm telling you, I was feeling like a boss. Proverbs 31 Woman of the Year. "She rises while it is yet night." "She does not eat the bread of idleness."

"When heavy snows (for her area) come, she laughs, for her family is clothed with --"

-- hardly the right kind of gear. Thus you will not see any pictures of my kids and I out enjoying the gorgeous white powder. Nevermind they are smallish and will probably be dragging me out in it next year. At least Katie will.

Random side note: I just realized that I will have two weeks every year where my kids are the same age.

That thought's just a little weird to me, not gonna lie.

Anyway, back to boss lady: yoga, floors cleaned, kitchen scrubbed, laundry begun, power out.

Hubby had been sleeping in (past his usual 5am) because he knew it would be slippery roads early and he hasn't had a good sleep in weeks.
Suddenly he his work phone rang, ending such bliss -- all the bliss, for both of us.
Just as he was slipping out the door (with the coffee in hand that I had made for him. Yup, I even made my husband coffee -- I'm telling you, I was on a roll.) the lights flashed several times in quick succession, and then the house was earily quiet -- no running heater. We both groaned as our good-bye conversation switched from how pretty the winter world was to what do we do now??

In the space of 10 minutes, the youngest started losing his mind over not being held, I rushed around grabbing what we needed to sustain us all day at my parents', and I went to the pink nursery to find a soaked crib and daughter (she's kind of a heavy wetter at night).
"I can't give you a bath right now!! This is all the last thing I needed this morning!"

No zen mommy. And after I was doing so well, too.

The power in the kitchen out.

"Hey, Mom... so it did stick, our power is out, we're on our way, and you told me so."

When we arrived at my parents' rather ungracefully, I walked in to find the younger siblings excitedly fogging up the glass and talking about the snowman they were going to build.

"There's probably not enough on the ground to build a snowman; and it's probably going to melt as you try anyway."

What is wrong with me?? Killing children's dreams -- and two weeks before Christmas, too. This is magical December snow in Mississippi, after all. Geez.

So of course they proved me wrong and built a very handsome snowman that lasted the entire day. 

My brown candycane baby. He's so stinking cute. But this face lies about how demanding and fussy he kind of really is.

...I type as he wakes up grumpy beside me on the couch...

These pictures are today, Day 2, when I finally had time to be that person and take some. I ran outside really quick to "be right back to feed the dog" while Katie was watching some Clifford to wind down for the nap I'm about to go wake her up from. 

I was able to snap a couple before she realized I was doing something fun outside without her and she started to try and climb off the couch (which is a skill we're working on, but don't have down quite yet).

Magical snow in Mississippi in December. Who knows what else could happen by the end of the year? (Like I may actually finish out Christmas cards and get them mailed -- now that would be a miracle.)