Hair Cut

Nope.
Not one of the kids.
Me.
It's not drastic but it's a trim and there was quite a bit of hair on the floor.
I must say I love having a sister and a sister-in-law that both cut hair.
They're both amazing at what they do too.
This hair cut is courtesy of my sister-in-law Ashley. She's married to Erik's brother BJ and they have an adorable little girl just two months younger than Miss Moddy. (That's them behind Clayton, Moddy is in the pink.)


Both are very active and it's hard to get a picture of them together.

Anyway...

This weekend while Erik attended his First Responder class I took the kids to the zoo and then to Grammy and Grandpa's house to visit. Saturday Ashley came over and was kind enough to cut my hair and just for fun I thought I'd attempt a few self portraits and show you the before and after.

Before:
(This is, I need to take a shower and put in my contacts "before picture". I thought it might give you a little better contrast).



After:
(Not a huge change, I wanted to keep most of the length and there's just not that much you can do with long hair. So basically more layers, a few more, shorter bangs.)


I like it.
Anyone else try and walk by as many mirrors as possible after they get their hair cut, just to see it?

M.I.A.

Hi.
It's been awhile.
I'm sorry.
I missed you.
Did you miss me?
Life has been happening.
It does that you know.

I've been feeling a little off lately, so I started a 21 day Chaparral Cleanse.
And discontinued my morning cup of coffee.
All at the same time.
Not a good idea.
I thought that there was something seriously wrong with me.
I now think it was some serious detox symptoms.
I'm still going to see a great ND in the near future though, just to make sure my assumptions are right.
I'm feeling much better this week.

I've been reading a lot to my kiddos.
They like it.
I LOVE it.
We just finished Little House in the Big Woods and started Little House on the Prairie. It makes me so happy to read these stories to my kiddos.
And we're getting a little more serious about our other curricular studies. We've been doing great with phonics and learning to read but falling a little behind in oh, math. But we're on track now.

And these are all my excuses for why I haven't been here for you lately.
I'll try to do better.

Clayton has been drawing me pictures.


And Ivan plays horse to Marilyn's cowgirl.


And Hannah continues to fill sheet after sheet of paper with pictures and words.


Lately Hannah and Ivan have become partners in a money making scheme. Hannah has been decorating sheets of paper and Ivan folds them into paper airplanes. (He's pretty good, they fly better than any of mine ever have). They have a whole box and they plan on selling them. My favorite so far is the orange and purple plaid one. I might have to raid my wallet.

It's that time again though.
Time to say goodbye.
I'll see you later.
I've got to go make dinner.
It happens every day and yet still manages to take me by surprise sometimes.

I'll leave you with this darling quote from my darling Clayton, age 3:

"Can I help you make dinner? 'Cause I'm a good man that makes dinner, like Christmas dinner."

Stuff and Things

Does anyone else find it funny just how much stores capitalize on New Year's Resolutions?
We walked into a store on New Year's Day and the "seasonal section" of the store was filled with exercise equipment. And right next to that, storage containers.
Yep, it's the season for storing things we bought but don't have room for, or for storing all the new "Holiday" decorations we want to save for next year but then will discover next year that they are out of style and will want a whole new style.
I'm sorry that I'm sarcastic this morning.
I'm finding more and more that "stuff" is getting to me. Not stuff in the general term of things of life, but stuff, junk, clutter, more junk.
I'm truly loving getting rid of un-needed things. The kids got quite a few toys and things for Christmas so we went through their old and packed up those that we didn't need anymore. And even though we took a u-haul load to Goodwill just a month and half ago or so I already have at least two good sized boxes to take again.
Life runs a little smoother when it's not cluttered with stuff.
It runs smoother because I have time and space to play with my kiddos. I don't have to constantly be pushing aside the stuff to just breathe.
I didn't mean for this to become a rant on stuff this morning.

I was going to tell you that despite a unwilling start, Clayton is now potty trained and waking up with a dry diaper most mornings. Marilyn on the other hand refuses to wear a diaper but is having more trouble going potty on the toilet. She climbed into the bathtub yesterday to take care of business. And the other day she had an accident in her underwear and I accidentally flushed her underwear down the toilet when I was trying to rinse everything out. I'm still hoping they went through okay, we haven't had any back up problems yet.

Marilyn has also been climbing out of her crib. She's gotten quite speedy. Yesterday she refused to stay down for a nap. She had her pants and diaper off and was out of her crib having a tea party with Hannah's tea set within 45 secs. to a minute after I laid her down and shut the door. So I figured if she could be out that quickly I would make it easier for her to crawl back in. I set up the toddler bed and she slept in a big girl bed last night. She got out once right after we laid her down and then slept soundly the rest of the night. She looked so sweet with her little head resting peacefully on her little pillow and her quilts tucked up around her. I would have taken a picture but I didn't want to run the chance of waking her up. She's growing up, the little turkey.

I'm off to wash dishes now. I'm not a big fan of dishes. I mean I like eating off of them, they serve a very important purpose, but our family goes through a lot of them and I still haven't cultivated the discipline to keep up with them.

May your New Year be filled with less stuff and more of what's important!