Saturday, June 30, 2012

Funky Town

I'm totally in funky town.  As in I'm in a MAJOR funk lately.  I love a routine.  I love a schedule.  I love some me time.  I love to sleep.  My kids also love all of those things (they just don't realize how much they love sleep yet).  And we aren't getting much of any of those this summer.  And that makes me funky.  Or grumpy... or both.... if there's a difference.  I'm not sure if my kids are actually more obnoxious during the summer or if it's just my irritability that makes them seem worse.  Jason agrees that they are being more annoying than usual.  I really think it's the lack of routine.
I admit, toward the end of school, I was begging for summer!  I was tired of packing lunches and getting Adelaide's backpack ready.  I was tired of carpool and waking everyone up.  I was tired of the busy run here and there life.  I was ready for some rest and relaxation.  Well, folks, summer hasn't held rest or relaxation for us!  I knew it wouldn't, but I was ready for some slower mornings.  Which we do have.  But those slow mornings have been full of whining and threats for them to go back to bed because it's not 7:00 yet.
Today is full of birthday parties.  And Jason's on call.  You know what I want to do?  I want to be happy.  I've spent the better part of the last 4 weeks being grumpy and tired and just downright aggravated at times.  Today I want to relax and be happy.  I want to at least try to enjoy my children.  I want to remember that they're little once.  I want them to see that I'm glad they're here.
Don't get me wrong.  I love them.  I even like them sometimes.  But, let's face it, the daily woes of parenthood are tough.  I'm tired of being a referee.  I'm tired of saying the same thing every day (note thursday's post about writing on the walls).  But raising kids that are fun to be around is hard work.  I'm thankful that I had a good talk with a good (new) friend yesterday that shared the same feelings.  I'm not alone!!!
Anyway, I'm sharing this with you because I want to be accountable.  I'm sorry if you've been on the receiving end of my yuck.  I'm going to try to do better.  And please don't copy and paste this into an email when school starts and I'm crying for summer again, m'kay?  j

*on a side note, I have't been to the gym in approximately forever because of vacation and sick kiddos and VBS and Jason's training for a marathon (that doesn't actually have anything to do with me not going to the gym other than I'm jealous that he's super in shape and I'm dumpy... still)... and I know that  my lack of sweating (other than because it's really hot outside) is one big reason why I want to slap everyone around me... I do plan to change that today.  YMCA, get ready... I'm comin' back!

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Things I shouldn't have to say

I have had some major heart to heart moments with my kids the last couple of days (not really heart to heart as much as my hand to their tails) because after our camp excursion, we have been home for two days.  We are rarely home.  I like to get out and so do the kids... and we rarely stay home all day.  We don't always do something elaborate, but we usually get out to go to the park or the library or something... so staying home leads to a lot of bickering and drama.  Yesterday, while I was folding mounds of laundry, the girls were playing upstairs.  They came down BEAMING at what they had done. The conversation went like this:
Adelaide: MOM!!!  We recorded our height on the wall!!!!
Me: excuse me, what!?
Adelaide: Come see!!!!
Me: muttering, please tell me you didn't write all over the wall
Yup... they wrote all over the door facing that is at the top of the stairs... not even the back of a closet door or somewhere inconspicuous, but somewhere totally obvious!  With a ton of crayons... they marked a huge line and their whole name.  I wasn't happy.  Even if they did see this on the "muffets" they should have asked me before writing on the wall... a known offense.  I sent them straight to their rooms (by pointing because I'm a yeller and I knew if I started speaking, it was going to be a yell).  I came downstairs and while blowing smoke out of the top of my head, I prepared a bowl of soapy water and took 3 rags upstairs.  I'm all about reality discipline and relating the consequence as closely to the offense as possible.  So, they were told to use good, old fashioned elbow grease to wipe all of those marks off the wall.  When they were up there for too long discussing who was going to wipe what and wringing out their rag again, I walked to the bottom of the stairs and told them they should get busy because it was 12:30.  Rest time is at 1:00, and they still hadn't had lunch.  If they wanted to eat lunch before rest time, they should probably get to work instead of arguing over who was using which rag.  Adelaide got busy!  After a good amount of time and effort wiping the marks off the wall, I carried up my magic eraser.  The marks came right off.  I didn't want them to know that there was a magic eraser.... I wanted some hard work to go into it first.
After all that and a long discussion about asking permission first before you do something like write on the wall (even if it sounds like a good idea) and taking care of your things (i.e. your house)... I was wondering if Julianne even got it.  
At bedtime, I was talking to Julianne about our house rules... I try to do this every night while I'm rocking her.  She normally repeats after me, "Obey mommy and daddy, don't hurt yourself and don't hurt others."  Last night she repeated all of those and then added, "and don't write on the wall."  
Yes... please don't write on the wall.
I also had to tell them that I don't have to tell them why I'm driving a certain way.  They will always say, "this isn't the way to target" or "you should pass that guy, why did you turn when the light was red."  I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT YET!  This is not drivers ed and I shouldn't have to explain to my four year old why I'm taking the backroads to Target or that I can turn right on red.  
We've also had discussions about interrupting and manners.  Adelaide truly believes she's grown... and Lucy thinks so, too sometimes.  I don't have to tell you who I'm talking to on the phone... I am not going to stop my conversation to talk to you about what I'm talking about... you are a child and you get A LOT  of my attention... so you have to wait.  

Monday, June 25, 2012

Where've we been?

Summer is in full swing at the McKeown home!  It's been hard squeezing time in for blogging... so I haven't!  ha!  I'm going to try to get caught up with the Cliff's Note version of the last few weeks.
Jason, the girls and I went to the beach for a week and we had a great time.  I won't call it vacation.  It wasn't much of a vacation for mama, but it was a nice distraction and it was fun for all of us to be together and enjoying time with each other without the normal routines.  I say it wasn't a distraction because there's still all of the cooking, laundry, baths, sweeping... and such that goes along with having a family anywhere.
Here are a few of my favorite shots of our week as a family.
 Adelaide, Julianne and Lucy ready to hit the waves (or just the pool)
 It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Lucy Kellyn!
 Look at those long legs!
 "I was supposed to keep the sand off the blanket?  Oops."
 Lucy is busy making a cake.
 I've heard of chasing a wave, but I think this wave is chasing her.
 My favorite people in the world.
 The kids wanted to dig a hole.  So we did.  That's me... the one that's the same color as the sand.  I DID get a little bit of a tan by the end of the week.... or some more freckles, but I'll take it.
 Enjoying an ipad break
 Fun at the pier
 There were hundreds of sting rays.  
 Jason and Juli
Julianne Ruby is looking like she brought her attitude.

After our fun week of just our little family, Jason came back home to work while the girls and I stayed and played for another week.  My parents came and moved in to our condo and my brother and his family came for the week too.  This was pretty much us staying and participating in their vacation.  They already had this week planned, and I decided it would be fun to stay and let our girls play.  My brother has 4 girls ages 8, 6, 6 and 2... so our girls love to spend time together.
It rained the first 3 days... and the waves were crazy (red flag all week), but we had a great time anyway.  I cooked every night except one and we did the most amazing dolphin cruise I've ever seen.  Seriously, if you are going to Gulf Shores, Orange Beach area, you MUST do the Cold Mill Fleet dolphin cruise.  It was awesome.  My girls had so much fun all week except for a horrendous case of swimmer's ear (Adelaide) Saturday that kept Adelaide completely out of the water until Wednesday.
 Stormy waves
 Shy Lucy
 Julianne, Mimi and Adelaide on the dolphin cruise
 Adelaide, Hailey and Lucy
 Pops and Molly
 Lucy and Julianne watching for dolphins
 Sweet sisters
 amazing dolphins

 highlight of the trip
 Tim, Molly and Julianne
 that is a look of pure joy
beautiful inside and out

Our summer is just getting started.  We just finished VBS on Saturday. We have a girl scouts party in about an hour.   We are going to Backwoods Christian Camp tomorrow (just for the day).  Volunteering at a homeless shelter Thursday night, play dates galore next week, gender reveal party for good friends, Jason has a week of vacation for which plans are still being made, my big girls are going to VBS with my parents in Memphis, I'm heading to Las Vegas for a Scentsy convention, and we will celebrate Julianne's third birthday all before school starts back.  Whew... what a fun "break."  I hope you are all doing well, and I hope to update again soon. 

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Laughing the days away

Just popping in to let you all in on some funny things the girls have said or done the last couple of days. Forgive the bullet points... we are planning to leave for ice cream in a minute!
 Yesterday at the pool Jason and I were sitting by the side and watching the girls (they were all over the pool).  Juli was in the really shallow part of the pool where there was also a young couple that seemingly LOVE the tanning bed. I mean... seriously unnaturally tan.  They were sitting there looking all young and carefree and Julianne popped the guy across the face with a pool noodle.  Not on purpose.... she was just turning around and he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  His whole head snapped to the side like he'd been slapped!  Jason and I both cracked up laughing.  Julianne never knew she hit him.  He shouldn't have been in the kiddie pool anyway. :)
Last night we told the kids we had 2 surprises after dinner.  The first was ice cream... we were planning to go to Bruster's, but it started raining as we left and they only had outside tables.  So, we went to Dairy Queen instead.  When we pulled in, Adelaide saw the DQ sign and said, "Oh, drama queen... I knew it."
We went "crap hunting" last night according to Julianne (aka crab hunting)
Today while playing at the beach, Julianne said she wanted to get in the "ladies' river" also known as the "lazy river."
Adelaide was also requesting an itouch (it's not happening) and she said that a friend of her's in her class got one from T "mobile" pronounced like Mobile the city instead of mobile like mobile phone.
Julianne also declared that crap hunting makes her scary.
Lucy tried to get up close to a sea hull (aka sea gull) and it started flying toward her... let's just say she doesn't take after her mama.  She DID NOT run in place, she ducked and weaved her way away from that bird!
Oh!  And I told you yesterday about the memory verse and Jules saying A friend loves at all the times...  well, this week is Ephesians 4:32 "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other."  Only Julianne says "forgetting" each other... I don't think that's what it means at all.  :)

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Fun in the sun and an easy meal plan for the beach

I thought I'd stop by to share some favorites from the last couple of days in Orange Beach.  We've been working on a pretty relaxed schedule since we got here.  The girls and I are actually staying for two weeks since my brother and his family and my parents are all coming on Saturday.  Unfortunately, Jason has to work for a living, so he's heading back home for next week.  Since we have so long here, there's no need to bust our tails getting up and to the beach and staying there until we are extra crispy and exhausted.  This isn't stopping our early birds from trying to get their worm... they were all up at 5:40 this morning... Lucy was in her swimsuit at 7.
We have been going to the beach or pool for awhile in the morning and then coming in for sandwiches and naps... and then heading back out in the afternoon.  I've been cooking dinner (again, 2 weeks is more than we originally budgeted for, so eating in is much more affordable) and the girls have been bathed while I cook and ready to hit the sack around 7:30.  Lucy was more than ready for bed by 6:30 one night, but we held her off until 7.  :)
This morning Jason suggested we take the girls to the pier at Gulf State Park and it was so much fun!

I'm pretty sure if this giant bird got between me and my babies I would still run... my heart was beating fast just looking at it.

The girls got to watch the fishermen and we saw tons of sea creatures. This guy actually hooked a stingray, but the line broke before he got him pulled in.  I've never seen so many stingrays before!  There must have been 100 of them just right on the surface of the water... and they were probably 3 feet across... seriously beautiful.   Then we saw a ton of dolphins and the girls all got to see them.
There was a purple flag out today warning that sharks were spotted in the water... so this girl is staying far from the ocean (as always).
Adelaide has really caught on to the whole swimming thing this week, thankfully.  The whole jumping in the pool in my sundress wasn't something I wanted to repeat.  She's now doing backflips underwater and we bought her a set of dive sticks and goggles this morning... she's a happy camper.  Lucy also picked out some goggles, but she now says that she doesn't like them, so we'll see how that goes.  She's afraid to let go of her puddle jumper, but is super happy in the water and is content to play with her sisters or just kick around.
Julianne picked out these silly "gobbles"  we will see if she actually wears them.  She was doing her part to share the good news of Jesus at the pool today when she was walking around singing, "Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized in the water, rise up again to walk with Christ and live like you oughta'."  She's so silly. :)

As I mentioned before, since we are doing the beach on a budget (sort of... it's still pretty pricey when you stay this long) and since it's  a pain in the neck to take three kiddos under 6 out to eat when there's a 6 hour wait... we are eating most (if not all) of our dinners in this week.  It has worked out really well so far since the kids are tired and we can just give them a bath (Jason does this) while I cook supper and then everyone is in pajamas and hanging out watching a movie before bedtime.  I made a meal plan for this week (and I'm pretty much repeating the same meals next week too, but for more people) that was easy, didn't require a lot of ingredients and would be good for leftovers.  The last thing you want at the beach is something that requires rosemary and thyme... or anything else you don't want to buy a lot of that has to be transported back home.
Here's our plan for this week.
We got here Saturday afternoon (along with everyone else in the entire state it seemed) so we brought in pizza since I hadn't gone to the grocery store yet.
Sunday: we went to church and the condo was being cleaned "again" since it was filthy when we arrived, so we had to stay out longer than lunch... we ate at Live Bait and then  I made breakfast for dinner (eggs, frozen biscuits, bacon and fruit).
Monday: we had sandwiches/ leftover pizza for lunch and I made tacos and quesadillas for dinner with yellow rice and chips and salsa
Tuesday: we had sandwiches for lunch and I'm working on some prep for "chicken stuff" for dinner... this is basically poppy seed chicken without the poppy seeds... Jason started calling it chicken stuff a long time ago and it stuck.  It's just chicken (cooked and cut up), cream of chicken soup, a dollop of sour cream and half a stick of melted butter... spread in a pan and then top with 2 sleeves of crushed ritz crackers and 1 stick of melted butter.... bake at 350 for about 30 minutes.  I'll serve with either peas or green beans.
Wednesday: We'll have either sandwiches or leftovers for lunch and I'm making spaghetti and meatballs for dinner (a bag of frozen italian meatballs, jar of spaghetti sauce and some spaghetti noodles) and then some cheesy bread that I've never made before found here and a salad.
Thursday: Sandwiches or leftovers for lunch and Bacon Ranch pizza for dinner.  I got this recipe from my friend April and it's definitely a family favorite!  It's just a pizza crust (I've done both Pillsbury in a can and Boboli and I think I like Pillsbury better... but you can make your own if you're being fancy), spread ranch dressing on the top of the crust, top with bacon and cheese... pop in the oven until the cheese is bubbly and you're done.  I've also topped with rotisserie chicken and April likes to put fresh tomato on top... it's seriously yummy!
Friday: We will have chicken fingers and tater tots
Saturday we will start over with what we had Sunday this week and I'll do the same meals... that may be boring, but it made for an easy grocery list and it's super easy to cook.
What do you like to cook at the beach??

 I had to end this post with a super cute photo of my two "little girls" playing sweetly together.

Monday, June 4, 2012

This little light of mine...

Greetings from Orange Beach!  I wanted to take just a minute to give a link to something we have purchased that has been working great for our children.  I read about these scripture cards on a blog that I follow ( and I thought they would be great for our kids.  They are perfect!  The verses are short and are easy for the girls to memorize.... even Julianne (2).  They all start with a different letter of the alphabet.  The first one was Proverbs 17:17 "A friend loves at all times"  or as Julianne says "A friend loves at all the times... Acts 17:17"  I'm not sure why she always says Acts, but it's definitely Proverbs.  This week's verse is "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other."  Ephesians 4:32.  I'm loving that when the girls start to bicker, I just say "Ephesians 4:32"  and they say the verse... I think it's awesome!  Julianne was so proud of herself last week when she memorized that verse.  I can't even tell you how many times she's said it over and over.  It's precious.
We are really enjoying spending some family time together this week after a few really busy weeks and I'm really loving my quiet Bible study in the mornings on our balcony... listening to the waves and looking at the expanse of the ocean.  How can you not stand in awe of our Father when you look at the ocean?  It's just amazing.
Here's the link for the Scripture cards if you are interested!  I truly believe in putting God's word into our children's hearts... they repeat everything, so scripture needs to be in their warehouse of things to repeat!