Exhausted...

This mothering gig is just plain exhausting. Like haggard, no makeup, stained t-shirt, slumped shoulders kind of exhausting.

Yesterday, we had a play date in the a.m., and I noticed a tire very low on my way home.  I stopped and put some air in it, and we headed home for lunch.  By the time I got home, I knew the tire would need some attention.  Big Al came home about 5:00, took off my tire, and ran it to the tire shop.  The tire man nicely smiled (I'm totally envisioning this since I didn't actually go) and said, "Buddy, you need a new tire." 

Thus, today Big Al spent his time trying to find me some fairly inexpensive tires (4 of them, because you can't just replace one-sheesh), and I spent my day trapped at home.  We played outside this a.m., rode bikes, went for a walk, made lunch, did some laundry, read books, played Candy Land, played Hungry Hungry Hippos, played outside some more, played downstairs, made some supper, drew on the sidewalk with some chalk, played our ABCs on the computer, played a little WII, took baths, read more books, and said prayers.  Alex was home for a grand total of about 20 minutes before he ran back to work some more, and I am just plain whipped.  I'm not sure if it is the being trapped at home part or the part where I have done this gig all by myself for 2 days now as Big Al has been busy at church and work. 

My blessings are that it is 7:19 p.m. and both children are silently sleeping in their rooms.  I have an episode of Bunheads to watch and about 25 pages in the saddest book I have ever read to finish up.  Alex is back at work, and I'm ready to call it a day and start again tomorrow:-)  Perhaps a little bit more positive and revived!

Week in Pictures

We had a busy week this week.  We went to the zoo twice, had the 4th of July, Discovery Center and lunch out with Dad, and then the big North Pool on Friday.  I have learned this summer, that my children crave experiences.  While toys are lovely, they really don't play with them.  Rowan wants to go see and do things, and Isla just wants to be outside doing anything;-)  Alex even took the 5th off of work, so we were even more excited to add Dad into some of our fun.     

The kids through Alex's mirror in the back of his truck. 

Rowan's "thinking" face!

I ended up with several Starbucks gift cards this year from my students.  We treated the kids to some Strawberries and Cream, and they DEVOURED it!  Do you see Isla looking at Rowan's~

Isla and I before church on Sunday!

Alex built Rowan a desk so he can work on his ABCs on the computer.  I still need to paint it, but he loves it!

Rowan has been working through an ABC book this summer. We are working on letter "K."  He can currently write his name out!  I can't take the credit for that, though.  That was totally Mr. Troy!

The kids played in the pool!

Sweet girl!

Ornery Boy!

Isla wore a tutu one day!

I roasted beats for the first time ever.  It was interesting!

Alex went with us to the Discovery Center.

Our big guy!

Alex helping Isla scoop beans!

The tire course!

Rowan was dipping his apples in ketchup at lunch-GROSS!

Notice Isla's foot on the dinner table!  She eats like this.  It certainly doesn't look comfortable.

The police car provided a good entertaining hour for Mom one morning.

We went to the zoo with Grandma and Grandpa on Saturday.  Rowan was showing Grandma the ropes of the playground.

Pure delight as Grandpa caught Isla at the bottom of the slide!

The penguins were SWIMMING! 

Isla petting the kitty;-)

Feeding the goats!

Bucket List Update

Summer 2012 Bucket List

1. Swimming Lessons for Rowan- Done! We made it to the pool once this week on one of these 105 degree days.  If you asked Rowan, though, he would say it was a bad pool trip as he experienced a flip on the lazy river:-) 


2. Science Camp for Rowan at Discovery Center- Done!

3. Vacation Bible Camp at SWUMC for Rowan and I'll volunteer as well.-We have a meeting on Monday about leading my Tadpoles and then the following week is camp!



4. Camping as a family-this is out of my comfort zone;-)Dreading, I mean waiting:-),  for this experience.  Still a couple of weeks out!  The only positive I am seeing in this experience will be the company.



5. Read 6 books for pleasure.- Done! I read another book this week titled, Belly Up.  It was a young adolescent book about a hippo that dies at a zoo, and a young boy who goes on a mission to solve it.  It was cute.

6. Run 3 times a week.- Ongoing.  Still a bad week in this dreaded heat.  Hopefully, with this cold front, I will run!

7. Go on 2 dates with Big Al.- Done!  We went to a wedding last Saturday together.  It was beautiful, and we were with great company.  I always love watching people declare their love for one another in front of all of their family and friends.  It is just so sweet and romantic.  They had a photo booth at their wedding.  Alex and I had some fun in it;-)

19 Month Isla Hope

Isla turns 19 months old tomorrow.  It has flown by, and I thought I'd write down some of her highlights.  It is so amazing how different children are from each other, and we are seeing that more and more in her!

Isla Hope at 2 weeks!

Isla Hope at 6 months!

Isla Hope at 9 months!

Isla Hope at 1 year!

Isla Hope at 15 months!

Isla Hope 19 months!

Isla is our talker.  We are in awe at the number of words she has at this stage of her life.  Here are some of her most common phrases in our house:-)

"I wan a snaaack!" (This is code for I'm hungry~)

"Ouch!"

"Eww!"

" Mommy!"

" Daddy"

" Dixie!"

"Milk"

"What's that?"

"Go!"

"Row!"
"Bubbles!"
"Hi!"

Nodding our head yes or no is a great communication tool with her.  She easily answers questions and responds to our directions in this manner!

She is working on her last 4 teeth this week before she gets her 2 year molars.  She has an entire set of baby teeth, now!

She mastered the stairs this week!  Can I get an, "Amen!"  We are so excited to take down the baby gate to have access to our basement!  We finished it since she was born, but we really haven't had a chance to easily access it since she has been crawling!  We are quite excited at this milestone.

Look at me!  "I can do stairs, Mom!"

Isla is my sleeper, and she always has been.  She will consistently sleep from 7 p.m. until 7 a.m.  It is lovely, and she can sleep through just about everything.  Can I get a "Woot!"

Rowan loves her and is quite protective of her, but they are certainly starting to ruffle each others' feathers.  Isla screams if she doesn't get her way, and Rowan simply relents;-)  He has learned early it is just easier that way.

She's sassy, but quite happy.  She loves to be held, and I love that about her.  Rowan was never really a cuddler, but Miss Isla would spend her whole day on my lap or hip if I"d let her!

Festive 47th Court Fun

Our neighborhood had a little party on the 4th!  (I must edit in how amazing our neighborhood is-really!  They are the kind of people I would be friends with even if I didn't live right next to them;-)

We decided about a month ago to rent a large waterslide for all of the kids.  There are 17 kids in our neighborhood ages 10 and under.  They are going to grow up being best friends, and they are really just fun to watch.  Everything just kind of fell into place after the waterslide.

We had tents for shade, because it was stinking hot, and a misting system set up to keep us as cool as possible.  Our little Rowan was in the slide from noon until about 8:00 when we started fireworks.

We smoked some meat and everyone brought side dishes for dinner.  I didn't get any pictures of the food, but it was a ridiculous amount!

Here are the highlights!

Miss Patriotic!

Rowan armed with the neighbor boys!  Do you see his delight?

He lived in this pool!

Do you see the stress in Isla's eyes;-)  She enjoyed the party, the people, and most of all the juice box!

Sassy had to watch the big kids play!  She just couldn't quite hang with them.

The kids loved to chase parachutes.  This is my favorite picture of

 Rowan from the night.

SpArKlErS!

This boy loves "Firecracks!"  That's what he calls them, anyways.

Dad started letting him light some with supervision, of course!  He loved it!

This was about 11:30.  He was one tired little boy who had a whole lot of fun~

It was a fabulous day that ended with a great show of fireworks in the cul-de-sac.  When we were all done with fireworks, we looked in the distance, and we were able to see the majority of the lake fireworks from a neighbor's driveway.  They were fabulous, and it was a great end to a day filled with great friends!

Darby Financial Advice 101

I had three people email me about our financial goals in the last two days or ask about Dave Ramsey.  While not an expert, I will profess the greatness of him until the end of time from our experience with money.  Really-it is that life changing.

 There are really two avenues to take if you want to learn more.  One is to go to Financial Peace University at a local church.  This is a 13 week course on Dave Ramsey's philosophies of money.  We have not been, but I have heard amazing things about it.  The second is to read the book, The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey.  This is what I did, plus a whole lot of looking around on the web to see what I could find to help our uninformed little money spending rear ends;-)

http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20608003,00.html

One of the most important changes we made was a budget.  I know, I know.  People hate budgeting!  Our problem was if there was money in the account, I would go buy stuff.  Or better yet, we used it as a permission slip to go buy stuff;-)  There was lots of guilt on my part when it came to buying things for myself.  I would always use the excuse, "But we really could use _________."  A budget changed our thinking, and it helped me get over my guilt of buying things for myself.

Here's how it works.  First you list out all of our liabilities that you pay every month on the left-hand side of a spreadsheet.  In our world, these are things like our mortgage, daycare, church, preschool, electric, water, student loans, life insurance (you should have some-especially if you are a one-income household,) savings, etc.  Then you place your paychecks across the top.  Now comes the number crunching.  You must determine which bills come out of which paychecks.  Of course, due dates are kind of important here.  You cannot take out more bills than the paycheck, though, either;-)  If you plan to use the money to pay bills, you must account for it on the spreadsheet.  If you have extra income, for example dependent care reimbursement, you must decide if you are going to use it as budget income or not.  If you need to use the money to pay bills, by all means, put it on the spreadsheet as an income.  We don't include that money in our budget, so for us, we simply put it in savings. 


Once you have paid ALL of the bills, then you must have money left over.  If you don't, well, I'm not sure how you are going to eat;-)  We do a cash system for our discretionary spending.  In short, we made categories for what we spend money on outside of "bills."  Our categories include: groceries, household, Alex (fun money), Jolie (fun money), Rowan, Isla, Dixie, gifts, eating out, medical, and gas.  We take out cash at our paychecks, and that is what we have to spend for the pay period.  At the end of a pay period, if we have any extra cash, we throw it in a jar for Christmas spending!

Here is an example of our budget with some fictitious numbers.  (There have to be some secrets!)  The only difference in ours is the fact that I only get paid monthly.  Therefore, we only have 3 paychecks, while some households would have 4.

 

	Pay 1	Pay 2	Pay 3	Pay 4
	100	100	100	100
Church	-1		-1
House		-1
Preschool		-1
IRA		-1
CJ Online		-1
Jolie Student Loan 1		-1
Alex Student Loan 1			-1
Allstate	-1
Home Phone	-1
Cell Phones	-1
Westar	-1
Kansas Gas	-1
Topeka Water			-1
Netfix			-1
Life Insurance	-1
Daycare		-1	-1	-1
Savings	-1	-1	-1	-1
Total Expense	-8	-7	-6	-2
Total Left	92	93	94	98
Disposable Income
Gas (Non-cash)	0	1	1	1
Groceries	1	0	1	0
Household	1	0	1	0
Target	1	1	1	1
Rowan	1	0	1	0
Alex	1	0	1	0
Jolie	1	0	1	0
Isla	0	1	0	0
Gifts	1	0	1	0
Dining Out	1	0	1	0
Medical	1	1	1	1

 Dave Ramsey professes a 0 budget.  That means that every single penny of your hard earned money is accounted for, and you have 0 money left at the end of the month! 

It works, but it does require some self control!  You can't just go buy what you want if you don't have the cash.  It just doesn't work.  A budget will help you realize where your money is going and how much you actually spend in a month!

There you have it, the Darby financial advice 101;-)

Early Morning!

Good morning!  I woke up this a.m. to a slight profanity from my handsome and already dressed husband.  I of course shriek, "What's wrong?"  He bluntly responds, "It is only 5:45 and not 6:45!"  You see, in our house, it is summer;-)  That means, no daycare drive, no work for me, and quite honestly, few real obligations on my part.  At closer inspection of his alarm clock, we realized a sweet innocent looking little girl changed the time zone, so his alarm went off an entire hour earlier;-)  In the scatter of it all, he also woke me up as well.  Dork!

So, good morning!  We are up and ready to tackle the day an entire hour early!  Thanks, Miss Isla~