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Is it crazy to move for weather?

This morning I woke up around 6 a.m. and realized we hadn’t taken our garbage to the curb – so I slid on some flip flops and walked quietly outside to do that. The sun was rising, the birds were chirping, and the morning air in my lungs made me feel so happy and alive. There are few things I love more than being outside as soon as a new day breaks!

It was already 65 degrees out, and I decided I simply had to get out for a walk. I walked two miles at 6:30 a.m., no head phones, just me and God and the birds and sky, and the sounds of the neighborhood waking up. It was such a glorious way to start my day.

Tonight after dinner the kids were playing at the neighbors’ house and I wanted to be able to hear them, so I brought my computer out to our back deck to get a few things done. And again, I just reveled in being able to be outside, finally.

When I look ahead to our impending big move, that’s what I’m most looking forward to. Being able to step outside each morning every single day of the year.

There are reasons besides weather that makes Arizona appeal to us – the landscape; its proximity to a lot of really cool places; its political climate; year-round baseball and the fact that it’s the home of Brewers spring training.

But the weather? That is still probably the biggest factor.

There’s so much sunshine. Months on end of perfect – like, perfect – weather, when much of the rest of the country is under snow and cold.

I get that some people just aren’t that affected by the weather. And that others in fact love winter and all that it brings.

But as I’ve grown and evolved over these past years and become more and more determined to live the BEST life I possibly can in the time that I’m here, I’ve slowly come to the conclusion that this cycle we go through every year here in Wisconsin is just NOT something I want for myself or for my family for the rest of our days.

We eagerly await summer all year – and then it’s over in the blink of an eye.

Even when it’s here, it still rains a lot of the days, and then some days are so humid it’s not at all enjoyable to be outside then either.

Fall comes and it’s so beautiful – until it’s cut short by snow, or rain and cold. And then the holidays are here, which makes us temporarily forget the bad weather. But then come January? The heaviness comes. Knowing that the next 4-6 months will just be … horrible. The dead zone of the year – every dang year.

And again – I know not everyone feels that way! But I do.

It’s also true that when we DO get those rare perfect days in the spring, summer or fall, we APPRECIATE THE CRAP out of them. And there is something to be said for that.

But I just want more of them. And I promise to appreciate them.

Early this year, I started saving winter-focused statuses that come up in my Timehop. There were quite a few of them – especially 9, 10, 11+ years ago! It’s funny, because even as I stopped lamenting so much on social media (because hey, I was running a business here now, and I didn’t need to be spoiling it with negativity!) the feelings actually got worse, not better.

I think having kids really amplified it. It’s tough keeping kids cooped up so much of the year. It’s tough BEING cooped up with kids so much of the year! It’s no fun sitting at a fall soccer game or a spring baseball game when it’s 40 degrees and rainy.

So – are we crazy to leave all the people we love in search of better weather? I think some people absolutely think we are. And I respect that, but I also disagree.

It’s sad to leave our loved ones – very sad. But they will always be our loved ones. We’ll still spend wonderful quality time together, and in between, we have technology. They’ll have a fabulous new place to visit in the dead of winter, and we’ll come home to visit, too.

I think when we look at our life long-term, and our kids’ lives, and their kids and so on, I think living somewhere warmer and so beautiful will be delightful for us all.

Could I be wrong? I sure could be.

But life is short, and we only get to live once – and I want to find out that answer for myself.

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AZ Bound!

I’m dusting off the old blog to share some news today, and hopefully to document this journey we’re about to embark on!

So, our house – the house that, in my last post on here, we’d only recently moved in to! – officially went on the market today and … we’re moving to Arizona!

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I know. It’s a little crazy. But we are REALLY excited!

I mean, we hope we’re moving to Arizona in the coming months.

Our house needs to sell, and the world needs to at least somewhat open back up. But – we’re taking it one step at a time and moving in that direction anyway!

WHY? is the big question everyone asks.

No, it’s not for a job transfer, and no, we don’t have family there!

The short answer is that we want to escape the cold and gray of Wisconsin and put down new roots as a family somewhere warm. And Arizona it is.

The far longer answer and the story of how we came to our decision is below, if you’d like to read it!

Dave and I met in 2001 when we were both 19 years old, and since pretty much the day I met him, he’s made no secret of the fact that he doesn’t like living in Wisconsin and would prefer to live somewhere warm. I always brushed it off, thinking well, bummer for you, buddy, because this is where we live. This is where our family is. And this is where we’re building our life.

So build our life we did.

We got married, got jobs, had kids, and moved from Muskego to Shorewood to Greenfield to New Berlin. In 2016 we moved into our current house thinking it’d be our forever home, or at least our home until our kids were grown.

But over the last year or so, we’ve both found ourselves feeling … unsettled. It’s hard to explain. But we both felt it.

In the fall our basement flooded because of a power outage and sump pump failure, and it was a multi-month project getting it back to normal. And we both think that that was the start of this idea turning into something real.

We realized that while we love this house (me especially – I simply love this house) we didn’t want such a BIG house anymore, and all the maintenance and upkeep it required.

But the idea of downsizing here, in a place where our kids are cooped up so much of the year every year, was really unappealing to us.

So we started really examining our feelings and what we wanted for our future.

We both REALLY dislike the cold and snow and wet and gray.

For years I told Dave oh, it’s not that bad, we get plenty of months of nice weather!

But really, we don’t. It’s a few, if we’re lucky, and then it’s back to hunkering down and surviving another winter. And for many people, that’s just fine. But we’ve both come to the agreement that we don’t want to live in that cycle anymore.

Now, I’m going to tread lightly here, because obviously nearly everyone we love lives in Wisconsin. And many love living here, or at least like it enough to not want to leave.

But the things is – God wired us all differently. He wired us to want and need and long for different things. And we don’t love living here. We love our PEOPLE, but we don’t love the climate or overall location.

Now, some may think it’s silly to move for weather, but I don’t.

We all know how sunshine makes us feel. It does something to us as humans – to our bodies, to our mental states, to our spirits. It makes us feel more alive, happier, and more motivated to accomplish things. It calls us outdoors. It makes us more active.

We are active people. And we just want to be outside. We want our kids to be outside. Every day. We want to go for walks and bike rides and hikes – often.

But do you know how HOT it gets in Arizona?! people ask.

Yes, of course we know that. It gets HOT, HOT, HOT.

Do I know how we’ll handle the heat? Nope, I don’t.

But do I want to go and find out? I absolutely do.

And what I keep saying about the heat is this – in the morning, it’s not as hot. In the evening, it’s not as hot. And there’s air conditioning, and a pool in the backyard, and yes, we’ll just have to avoid the outdoors for most of the day during those scorching months.

But it’s not much different than having to avoid the outdoors for 6+ months here! Though the difference is there’s still sunshine, and there’s still the mornings and evenings to be outside.

I can’t really describe it, but over the past six months, my heart has just completely opened up to the idea. I don’t even know where it came from or when exactly it started.

For so many years, it was a HARD no from me. Not because I didn’t want to live somewhere warmer, but because I just couldn’t imagine moving away from family. From everyone we love and everything we know.

The thought was unbearable, and in some ways, it still is. I certainly have moments when I think what are we doing? How will I handle this? Especially being so far away from my MOM?

But it comes down to what we truly want for our lives, and for our kids’ lives.

I’ve always been so jealous of people who were born somewhere warm and beautiful. And Dave and I have long talked about the generational chain – how you live somewhere because you were born there, and then your kids are born there, and then their kids. Even if it’s in a cold and crappy place that doesn’t make you happy – you stay because your family is there.

We started to realize – why not us? Why can’t we be the ones to break that generational chain?

It won’t be easy, I know – but then our kids will grow up somewhere warm, and their kids will be born somewhere warm.

Unless of course we decide it’s not for us and we come back! 😉 And that’s the beauty of life – you can always change course. I’d much rather do things and have them be wrong than always wonder what if, ya know?

And, well… I don’t think we’ll dislike it. I think we’ll probably love it.

So why Arizona?

Arizona has always been it for Dave – probably because the weather couldn’t be much more opposite from Wisconsin. Also because it’s a baseball mecca, and where his beloved Brewers have spring training, so we’ll always have that fun connection to home.

And while we want warmth, we don’t want the humid, heavy, wet warmth that comes with so many states. We’re sick of wet! Give us dry.

Obviously I had to go there first to see if I could picture myself living there. And yes, it’s a big decision to make from just being down there once, but I could just tell. I’ve been to a lot of states, and while I love visiting them, I couldn’t see myself living there. But I can picture living in Arizona very clearly.

Another factor is that neither Dave nor I has ever lived more than 45 minutes from where we grew up. We both stayed close to home for college; neither of us studied abroad in college (one of my biggest regrets in life); and we didn’t travel all that much before we had kids because we didn’t have the money to do that yet.

So while many people have the adventures young and then move back home, I guess we’re doing it the opposite way. We missed out, and we’re ready for that adventure now.

We both have jobs we can work from anywhere. Our kids are at really good ages to move. And it’s a good market in which to sell our house.

We just feel like – why not?

When I first started opening my heart to it, back in January, it felt like such an insane idea. Like, could we really do this? But now that we’re here, it feels very real, and not so insane.

Once that happened, though, the next month or two was fraught with absolute anxiety and worry for me. I had trouble sleeping, and a constant battle raged in my head. It was pretty awful, honestly. I just knew what it would do to those we loved, and I felt such pressure about making a decision that was likely right for us but that would also impact so many others who had no say in the matter.

Our families were in disbelief at first, and it didn’t go well when we first told them we were considering it. 

It hurt to feel such resistance from those we love, but we (I) also understood it. I’d be sad, too, if my child and grandkids were moving far away.

Thankfully, over time and through this forced-separation situation we find ourselves in, our families have made some peace with it.

I have some guilt, for sure. But I also feel very strongly that it’ll be ok, for everyone. More than ok even.

We’ll get back for Christmas every year, and hopefully each summer, too. Arizona is a fantastic place to visit and I anticipate we’ll have plenty of visitors! I hope my parents and their spouses will want to come down every single year, and hopefully Dave’s parents, too.

Our visits won’t be as frequent, but they’ll be filled with making awesome memories together. And in between, we’ll have technology to keep in touch.

When I visited with Henry in March and my friend Stevi (who grew up in AZ and has lived there her whole life) drove us around, I just looked around in awe everywhere we went – surrounded by mountains, and so much sky above, and so much beauty everywhere. I kept saying “people just get to LIVE here.” She said my reactions made her really appreciate even more where she gets to live.

And we’ve gotten down to the nitty gritty details, too. Taxes on a similarly priced house in Arizona are about 1/3 of what they are here. That difference is a big chunk of my travel fund each year!

And our area in Wisconsin gets, on average, about 90 totally sunny days per year, and about 190 with at least some sun. Arizona gets about 300. If we stay there, and if we live another 50 years (hopefully more!), that’s more than 5,000 extra sunny days in our lifetime.

So that’s that. The mountains, sunshine, cactuses, palm trees, wide open sky and warmth are calling, and we’re going to go see if it’s the life for us.

We’ll settle in the Phoenix area, likely in Chandler, renting first and then buying when the time is right. If our house sells quickly, we’ll likely be moving right after the 4th of July holiday. School is more year-round there, and it’s set to start July 22 in Chandler – though I’m not holding my breath that that’ll be happening. So who knows when or where our kids will go to school, but we will figure it out!

When we do make our journey down, we’re going to drive first to Denver and stay a few days there to break up the trip and to have a little family vacation. I couldn’t be more excited to show my kids the mountains! And to visit there again myself, as it’s been since 2007 that I’ve been there! Then on to Phoenix we will go.

I’m also just so excited for how close we’ll be to so many places to visit. The Grand Canyon will be at the top of our list, and San Diego, and Disneyland, and about a million other places in Arizona, California and New Mexico.

This whole experience has brought us closer together as a family, too. We’re all sharing in the excitement, and in the dreaming about what life might look like once we do this big thing we’ve been talking about for months. I think Ben and Ellie can’t fully grasp it all, but they’re excited. Henry is the one I’d worry about, going into fifth grade already, but he’s really excited, too. Sad to leave his friends, but confident he’ll make new ones. He loved it down there when we went, and I’m really glad I brought him along.

It’s fun to think about what will lie ahead. Our future house, future schools, future church. The people we’ll meet and who will become part of our lives. The experiences we’ll have, the trips we’ll take. It’s all so unknown, and full of potential, and exciting.

I pray it all continues to go smoothly – we’re going to keep taking it one day at a time!

Day in the Life: Summer 2016

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The date is Friday, July 8, 2016.

Dave and I are 34
Henry is 6 years, 9 months
Ben is 4 years, 5 months
Ellie is 22 months

5:47 a.m. My day begins with Ellie whining for me in her crib. We’re in the rising-before-the-sun stage with her – three for three on that – and this is actually better than some days. Of course, she’ll randomly sleep til 6:30 sometimes (even 7 a.m. once!!) but usually it’s well before 6 a.m. I bring her into my bed to snuggle, and within about five minutes she’s saying “show” “show” from behind her nuk.

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6 a.m. I bring Ellie downstairs and she’s saying “hungry” so I make her a waffle and pour her some water and get her all set up on the couch. Little princess always insists on a blanket, her lambie and her nukie, though we’ve been attempting to keep the nuk solely for car rides and bedtime now that’s she’s pushing two years old. We’re successful about 95% of the time, and today I take the nuk with me and put it in the cupboard in the kitchen.

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I turn on the TV and Dave must have been watching the news before bed because that’s the channel that’s on, and the first thing I see is “5 police officers killed.” I went to bed having just heard the news of what had happened in Dallas, but I hadn’t seen any coverage yet. Ellie doesn’t protest as I watch a few minutes of the coverage before turning the channel to Sprout for her so she can watch the shows she likes – Little People and YaYa and Zouk.

There aren’t really words for what a heavy, heavy heart I have as I go back upstairs. I just can’t believe this is our reality these days. Shooting after shooting. Such hatred. It’s terrifying and just completely heartbreaking.

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6:20 a.m. I go back upstairs and lay back down for a minute, having plans to shower later in the day when Ellie naps, but then I decide it’ll just be easier to get it done now. I get back up and head into the bathroom. When I emerge from the shower at 6:28, I hear Ben’s up and I say good morning. Ellie climbs up the stairs, crying for her nukie and throws a fit on our bed when I tell  her no.

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Dave’s in the shower now; I head back downstairs and get Ben some cereal and Ellie some yogurt raisins that she’s pulled from the pantry. I pick my battles with this one. I get ready upstairs – put on makeup and blow-dry my hair – with various interruptions, mostly from Ellie. She insists on being in the bathroom with me while I get ready, and like always, I’m thankful that I don’t have to do this every morning like I used to! She puts contact solution in her eyes, and she reaches for her toothbrush and dumps all of them on the floor. She flushes the toilet for no reason – heaven help me. I put on a wrap because I’m going to Florida next week and would like to do two before I leave, if I can remember!

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7 a.m. Henry gets up and I kiss him good morning. He’s my favorite in the mornings since, at almost 7 years old, he’s finally learned how to really SLEEP at night. Falls asleep fast and sleeps all night til 7 most days. Alelujah! I come downstairs and pour myself some coffee; Ellie brings a book down and insists I read it to her – an American Girl Itty Bitty Baby book, which is one we never really read together. We settle onto the couch to read.

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7:20 a.m. We kiss Dave good-bye before he heads to work. Henry takes our picture.

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Ellie is in RARE form this morning. I’d blame it on her early rising, but she rises early most days but isn’t normally the bear she is today. I threaten her with an early nap several times and she always says “noooooo!!” and stops crying for a bit. Henry asks for my phone and goes outside to take a picture of the “accepted offer” sign in our yard (yay!) and then of course takes some selfies, too.

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The little kids ask for chocolate milk so I make them some, easy on the chocolate. The kids go back and forth from upstairs to downstairs and back again to grab blankets and pillows so they can jump off the couch – their annoying new favorite thing to do, and I allow it because, well, there’s not much room to play in our current house! Once we have nice furniture and more room to actually play – no way, man.

I check Timehop and see that I did my summer DITL on the same day last year – the day we had our inspection on the house we ended up thankfully not buying. Funny that we’re on almost the same exact timeline this year – this time with a house that I think, God willing, IS meant to be!

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I ignore the kids awhile and sit in front of the TV and watch more coverage from the night before. I break down crying in my coffee, and then turn the TV off.

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The kids fight here and there and my coffee hasn’t kicked in and Ellie’s still being just a bear. Henry’s upstairs attempting to take his mattress off his bunk bed (I’ve just changed his sheets) so they can jump on THAT and I tell him no WAY. Ellie has removed her diaper. I live in crazy town. When she cries yet again for seemingly no reason, I decide to put her down for a nap – it’s like 9:15 a.m. I close her door and prepare to hear her wailing for awhile, but she actually quiets right down and goes to sleep. Probably just happy to have her beloved nukie.

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I come back downstairs and cut up a cantaloupe while I cook my breakfast. I sit in the living room and eat it in front of a few minutes of Live with Kelly. I miss Michael.

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I’d told Henry he had to wait til Ellie’s nap to play video games, and lucky him, she’s taking an early one, and I want some peace, so I let him and his bro play some video games and tablet. Last weekend (4th of July weekend) we had a 5-day technology hiatus, which was really nice for all of us – though man, parenting is easier with electronics to keep them busy!

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I do some internetting – Facebook, and then I pay an infuriating library fee, since I know we’re going later and I don’t want any fees on my card!

Long story short, I checked out Anne of Green Gables a couple weeks ago when I saw it in the kids’ section because my BFF is obsessed and I’ve never seen it. I watched 45 min of it the night I got it, and when I went back a few days later to watch more, the disc was just GONE. Vanished. Not in the XBox, not in any of our DVD cases, not in the toy room, the cupboard, on the bookshelf – NOWHERE. So I had to pay the fee for losing it – $29.99!!! So maddening, especially when I could buy it for half that on Amazon AND since I didn’t even get to watch the movie!! Darn kids. No more movies from the library.

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10:15 a.m. Ellie wakes up after an hour-long nap and is in a MUCH better mood now. We snuggle on the couch and open up Snapchat to send Auntie Kate (Dave’s sis) a snap. Her husband is a cop and I’d texted her earlier to let her know we were thinking of them. This honeybee filter is new and it changes your voice and it’s hilarious. (Video)

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We go downstairs to get laundry and bring it up to my room to fold. Ellie alternates between messing up my laundry and making a mess in her closet. She really is quite the mischief maker.

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I tell the boys to turn off their games and everyone gets dressed for the day.

They head into the kitchen and ask for their daily Chew – Henry doles them out today – and I tell them to clean up the sun room. They do, and then we play and clean up the rest of the house before I make lunch around 11:30. The mail comes and Ellie gets a new pair of sandals that I’d ordered from Old Navy. She insists on putting them right on and keeping them on – they’re super cute!

I make PB&Js for lunch for them and a taco salad for me, since we had tacos last night and have some leftover meat. I give Ellie pretzels after she expresses that she does not like Sun Chips, but then she throws them on the floor and later stomps on them and makes a big mess.

The boys eat their whole lunch so they each get three Starbursts for dessert. Ellie is mad that she doesn’t get any, but she didn’t eat her lunch. I hear her in the kitchen as I’m still eating – she got herself up on the counter and is trying to get her OWN Starbursts. Naughty!! I tell her if she eats more sandwich and grapes, she can have a Starburst and so then she eats what I tell her to.

I sweep up the mess while the kids play.

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The neighbors are having a rummage sale down the street and I told them we’d stop by, so that’s where we head after lunch. I grab a $20 and Henry grabs his own $5 bill. They’d asked if I wanted to participate in the sale, but unfortunately I’ve taken three HUGE loads to Goodwill over the past month so really have nothing left to get rid of!

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We peruse the sale and chat with the neighbors and the kids go in the backyard to play for awhile. A half an hour later we walk home with a set of magnetic building toys, a paper shredder and a pair of Menards carpenter pencils, all for a whopping $5. I borrowed Henry’s $5 bill, and when we get home I give him a $10 instead – his five back plus five for his allowance. We try to give him $5 every two weeks for helping out around the house, but sometimes we both forget! It had been awhile, and I didn’t have a five to give him so it worked out. The kids play with the new toys and we try out the paper shredder, and then I tell them it’s time to head to the library. We need to get there and get back so that Ellie can take another nap.

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1:30 p.m. We head to the library and spend probably 40 minutes there, playing and picking out a bunch of books – mostly beginner reader books that Henry can read to us. We’d probably have stayed a little longer than we did, but Ellie decided to poop so we had to get outta dodge.

2:30 p.m. Back home, we read a Berenstain Bears book together (after I change Ellie, of course!) while Ben turns on the “sports game” (Kinect Sports) since it’s his turn for the XBox. We put a sticker on Henry’s reading chart after he’s done reading me the book. I tell him he can watch some YouTube videos during Ellie’s second nap. This is admittedly a day that’s heavy on the electronics – usually we limit it to 1-2 hours total, but today is probably slightly more! Eh, whatev.

2:50 p.m. I put Ellie down for her second nap. She naps almost two hours this time. Normally she just takes one 2- or 3-hour nap in the afternoon, but the two naps today worked out well since we have plans for the evening that will keep her up late!

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I spend Ellie’s nap time drinking iced coffee and doing more internetting – reading and watching news, scrolling FB, posting to our team page, reading Julia’s DITL, doing some money stuff, since June commissions posted today (whoo hoo!) and I want to figure out what we’re going to save where. I fold more laundry, and then put together a little welcome packet for my newest distributor, Elizabeth, who I have plans to have coffee with the following day.

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5 p.m. We make pizzas, as we always do on Friday night, and I have the glass of wine I’ve been looking forward to all day. I just have one since we’re heading out shortly after Dave gets home from work. We’re heading to a church festival in Kenosha to see a Beatles tribute band with my Dad and Barb and Al and Kris.

We watch Star Wars The Force Awakens with our pizza, and Dave gets home around 5:30 (earlier than usual today, traffic must have been light!) and changes his clothes and eats some pizza. We get the kids ready, I change my clothes and we head out around 6:15 p.m.

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7 p.m. We arrive in Kenosha and find a parking spot a few blocks from the church. Dave had driven since I’ll drive home, and I used the time to make some collages for this post. It’s a gorgeous summer night.

The crowd is very diverse and the police presence is noticeable and I’m definitely on edge walking into the festival after all that happened in Dallas the night before. I have my three precious kids with me and the last thing in the world I want is to put them in any situation where something bad might happen. I try to ignore the feelings and just enjoy myself, and once I get past the uneasy feeling, I do have fun. And I find myself wanting to just hug people, since I know a lot of them must be a bit on edge, too, and yet all most of us want is to just live our lives in peace.

We find the fam by the stage, and then we venture out to walk around the fest a bit. We buy some tickets and the kids jump in a bounce house for a good 10-15 minutes, then they play a few games and win prizes like suckers and fruit snacks – and an annoying musical instrument for Ben. Henry asks for a snow cone and I tell them we’ll get some a bit later.

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The band is supposed to go on at 8 p.m., but shortly after 8, they announce that “George” got stuck in bad traffic because of an accident and won’t be there until closer to 9. What a bummer! The band ends up not going on til 9:25, and we’d been planning to leave by 10, which didn’t leave much time for music.

The kids get snow cones – yum – and those occupy them for a good long time. We visit with Al and Kris and then go back to our seats before the band comes on. When they finally do come on, Henry and Ellie and I go up in the front and dance by the stage. This makes me feel semi-self-conscious, but it’s a fun time. Ellie is a little star, twirling in her dress and just dancing up a storm.

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10:40 p.m. We finally leave and I’m bummed we didn’t get to see more music, but it’s waaaaaaay past the kids’ bedtime and Dave is d-o-n-e, too. The kids did SO great being up so late, though, and they were actually really well-behaved the whole time we were there. Just a really fun summer evening! They all crash on the 40-min drive home.

11:30 p.m. We put the kids right to bed, the boys still in their clothes. Ellie wakes up briefly while I change her diaper and put jammies on her but then falls right back to sleep in her crib. She wakes up at 5:47 a.m., ready for the day, and I have to tell her no freakin way, little lady – and she does fall back to sleep til about 7:20. Still not late enough but oh well! Ben sleeps til 7:15, Henry til 8.

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12:28 a.m. I’m up waaaaaay too late, even making it past Dave tonight. I’d cleaned up just a bit and posted to Instagram and taken a quick bath. I’m tired!!!!! But it was a really good day with my babes. The next morning we head back out for an excursion to Green Meadows Petting Farm in Waterford with my mom. Another GORGEOUS day and we have such a fun time!! But after three days of activities – zoo Thursday, festival Friday, farm Saturday, I am wiped and it’s time for these kids to have some down time. We lay low on Sunday.

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One month til we move into our new house – our “forever” house, we hope! And we have lots of fun things planned for this month and the rest of the summer. Life is good!!

These are the days.

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Oh, these kids of mine. Growing up so fast I can barely keep up, and yet I’m loving the ride so much it often takes my breath away.

Henry’s in soccer, has his grown-up teeth coming in on top and bottom, is reading like a champ and will officially be a first grader in just one more month.

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Ben is in tee-ball, loves his one day a week of preschool and can’t wait to go to 4k every day in the fall, is a total pop culture sponge, is still obsessed with pro wrestling, and has a crazy knack for making us laugh hysterically, burst with love and then explode in anger all within a few minutes of each other.

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Ellie is talking up a storm, is the most loving, hilarious little girl, and POOPED ON THE TOILET yesterday morning for the first time ever – and yet is completely addicted to her nuks still and insists on a nighttime bottle like a big old baby. I freaked out so much when she pooped that for a second I think she thought I was mad at her, but then she realized I was just excited – it was so cute how proud she was. Girlfriend will probably be ready to potty train by summer, like before she’s even two, which is just nuts to me!

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We’re all eager for summer and all the fun it will bring, and we’re pretty much chomping at the bit for the day when we can move into a bigger house. But life right now is just… so good. These days with young, growing kids… springtime… so much still to look forward to…

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This season of life is just really something special!

The why.

In the past couple of days, I’ve had two blog readers reach out to me via email about my job. Those kinds of emails are always a pleasant surprise… I told someone tonight that a few of my very favorite and best teammates have come that way – as a random email from a then-stranger!

It made me realize that I still have people out there reading this (even if I really only post for Day in the Life these days!) and that what I’m doing is of interest to some of them.

So I just thought I’d share this video here. Take it or leave it. 🙂 But I recorded it this past week … It’s just under six minutes long and I talk about why I decided to pursue network marketing and why It Works was the company for me.

I know it’s not for everyone, but I can’t put into words what it’s meant for me personally and for my life. And for so many around me.

I’ve been timid to share here because I don’t want my loyal blog readers (again, even though I’m a total fail as a blogger these days!) to think I’m trying to “sell” them anything. But I’m beyond that at this point… I see what this company does for people, and I’d be a jerk NOT to share once in awhile. Because I know there are people out there just waiting for something like this to come along, who are looking for an answer…

Looking for another stream of income, a way out of debt, a way to breathe easier, a way to stay home with their kids… a way to make some new friends and grow as a person… a way to get on a path toward being healthy… a way to shake things up, take on a new challenge and have some new adventures. Whatever the reason, I know people are looking.

This is my site where you can see the products and read about the company. My email is enevicosi@gmail.com. If you have ever considered doing something like this, this company is a pretty incredible one to do it with. And being mentored by someone who’s found success is one way to help ensure you’ll be set up for success, too!

Hope you’re having a great weekend. xo

Day in the Life: Spring 2016

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The date is Monday, April 11, 2016.

I’m 34
Dave is 33 (for one more month!)
Henry is 6 1/2
Ben is 4 (+ 2 months)
Ellie is 19 1/2 months

I was due for a weekday this time, and the last weekday I did (in fall) was one when the kids were home with me, so this time I picked a Shelly day. My nanny days are all super different – working at home, working at Barnes and Noble, running errands, going to appointments, volunteering in Henry’s classroom, having lunch or coffee with someone, going to yoga, getting things done around the house, etc. etc. etc.

Today was extra different since it didn’t involve much work or getting stuff done – I spent the day with my mom instead! She was given a “bonus” vacation day this week so she asked if I wanted to spend the day together shopping and going to lunch. Um, yes!

But let me start at the beginning…

Somehow DITL days always bring out the worst when it comes to sleep in our house! The boys have been sleeping great – going down easy, sleeping til a reasonable hour (6:30 or even 7 some days!) (though they do often get up to pee in the night) – but now Ellie is the one waking up at night. It’s usually once a night, and she usually just wants her diaper changed and then will go back down. She’ll often point to the door, meaning she wants to snuggle in my bed with me for a few minutes, which I allow and then take her back to her room.

This night, though? She’s had a weekend of not much napping and is all out of sorts – she wakes up around 1:30 and after some snuggles in my bed, she refuses to go back into her own bed. Every time I try she just cries and cries. So finally we fall asleep together in my bed around 2:30 and I sleep pretty uncomfortably til 5:45 when I put her back in her bed finally.

6:03 a.m. My alarm goes off and I’m TIRED. I’d gone to bed before 10 the night before because we’d just had an awesome but EXHAUSTING weekend, plus Dave and I both have a cold coming on. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been sick and I’m not a fan! I try to get a good night’s sleep, but of course Ellie throws a wrench in that.

I jump in the shower, and think about how rare it is that I actually have to do this these days – rise before the kids and get all ready (shower, hair, makeup, etc.) Usually I can sleep til 6:30 or whenever the kids decide to get up.

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6:25 a.m. I’m out of the shower, Dave gets in, and of course Ellie wakes up. So I’ll have to do my makeup and dry my hair with her at my feet.

6:40 a.m. The boys are up and Dave gets out of the shower – the gang’s all here. The boys are fighting immediately, of course. Ben tells on Henry saying “Henry said he’s going to AL-bow me” and they proceed to have a minutes-long argument about how to correctly say EL-bow.

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6:40-7:20 a.m. I get myself ready, taking breaks to intercept Ellie when she gets into things she shouldn’t – my makeup cabinet, the garbage, the tissues. Dave takes the kids downstairs and gets them all cereal. When I’m ready, I pick out clothes for all of them and bring them downstairs. Get myself some coffee and then we say bye to Dave, who leaves for work around 7:20 each day.

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7:20-8 a.m. I hang out with the kids and Henry gets ready for school. He asks to watch videos on the computer (that and playing video games is pretty much all the kid wants to do these days, but we do our best to limit his time!!) and I tell him he can once he’s all ready, so he hurries to get dressed, brush his teeth, pack his snack and get his shoes on. Ellie occupies herself by “washing” the walls with a baby wipe, an activity she does often.

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I pack Henry’s lunch – pb&j (always), a clementine, some baked chips and a few Starbursts for his dessert. I write the teacher a note telling her I’ll pick Henry up today, and I include my RSVP for the Mother’s Day Tea his class is hosting on May 6. 🙂

The kids play with Henry’s keyboard and dance to the music it plays. Ben asks if he can wear his pajamas and robe to Shelly’s so that he can “be AJ Stiles” (a pro wrestler) and I say fine, so I pack up his clothes in a bag. I do “Superman” on my legs with Ben and Ellie a few times.

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8 a.m. Shelly arrives and we chat for a few minutes. I ask Ben to pick up his zombies before he leaves and Ellie sweetly tries to help him and he just gets mad at her, which makes ME mad. I hug and kiss my babies good-bye, and then later I feel bad for being mad at Ben when I’m not going to see him all day, so I text Shelly to tell her that.

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8:15 a.m. I comb Henry’s hair and get him his coat, and I hug and kiss him good-bye a few times before he heads out the door to wait for the bus. I wave at the neighbor, whose daughter rides the bus with Henry, and I watch out the window as he waits and chats away. The bus comes around 8:20 and we wave before he hops on. As always, I think ‘there goes my heart’ as the bus drives away.

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8:30-10 a.m. Mom is set to arrive at 10, so I have an hour and a half to make and eat breakfast and get a little work done for the day. I have to tend to the messy house first, so I clean up the living room and kitchen, unload the dishwasher, and clean some unwanted food out of the fridge.

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Then I check social media a bit and make myself eggs, hash browns, sausage and a banana for breakfast. I’m eating as clean as possible these days in an effort to shed about 10 lbs before summer – and breakfast is definitely my favorite meal of the day!

My breakfast is ready right at 9 a.m. – perfect since that’s when Kelly and Michael starts. 😉 I like to watch the first 10-15 minutes on days that I can, which is usually a couple times a week. I eat my breakfast and then sit down at my computer around 9:15.

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I’m hosting an accountability group on Facebook for a group of teammates and customers who are doing the It Works System together, and I do a motivational post on there to start the week. Then I do some coordinating for an upcoming volunteer effort I’m heading up – a group of teammates and I are going to cook weekend brunch at the Ronald McDonald House at the end of the month, so I message all the people who were interested to get a final count before I start assigning food items and planning details!

9:50 a.m. I head upstairs to get dressed so I’m ready when Mom gets here.

10:05 a.m. She’s late. 10:06 a.m. I look outside and she’s sitting in her car talking on the phone.

10:10 a.m. She comes inside and we hug hello. It was my brother she was talking to.

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10:25 a.m. We chat a bit and then hit the road!

10:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. We shop at a newer mall near us, the Mayfair Collection, hitting up Nordstrom Rack, Saks Off Fifth and DSW. Mom’s on the hunt for a spring jacket and buys a cute blue one at Saks.

I’d been at Nordstrom Rack a few weeks prior and a dress I’d bought for Ellie didn’t make it in my bag, which made me really sad. I’d spoken with three employees that afternoon and two of them basically told me well, it’s not here so you’re out of luck! But I took my receipt back today and they found another one in the same size and gave it to me – I was very happy!

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I buy a pair of Sperry Topsider flip flops at DSW, identical to a pair I already have, only in white instead of blue and white because they are SO comfy and cute.

12:15 p.m. We have lunch at Corner Bakery. Mom has a sandwich and soup, I stick to my eating plan and get a chopped salad and water. It’s pretty good, but I would have preferred a sandwich! We sit and eat and talk for about an hour, then head to TJ Maxx.

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1:15-2 p.m. We shop and try on some clothes. I pick out one top to buy.

2 p.m. I go out to my car to call a woman who wants to become a customer (BOGO wrap deal is happening today!) and would rather me take her info than sign up on the site. Fine by me! I met this woman through my last job and we had lunch together probably three times during my time there, and I always admired her so much – a working mom with three kids – two boys in college and a girl in high school – who managed to juggle it all and find success in her career. It’s nice to chat with her again – and whoo hoo for a new customer!

2:10 p.m. I head back inside and look at kids’ clothes and kitchen stuff. I pick out a cute dress for Ellie (I can’t resist!) and a little food storage container.

2:45 p.m. We head home, stop inside the house to drop off our stuff and grab some water, then head out to pick Henry up at school.

3:25 p.m. We arrive at Henry’s school and head into the gym to get him. His class is walking in right as we get there, and my heart bursts when I see his little excited face!

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3:30-4 p.m. We hang out, Henry and mom chat, Henry asks if he can play a video game, I tell him yes but that I’m setting the timer for 40 minutes.

4 p.m. Shelly brings the kids home and I’m happy to see my babies! She tells me that unfortunately Ellie was kind of a monster today, not wanting to nap or eat much. She looks super tired.

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4-5 p.m. We hang out…. I snuggle Ellie, talk to Ben, put my new customer’s info into my website, drink my Greens for the day, have a snack of cashews, raisins and a clementine, talk with my mom some more. She leaves at 5 p.m. after hugs and kisses from everyone.

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5-5:45 p.m. I realize I should have been using some of the time my mom was here to actually prep dinner and get the kids ready for swim class. Tonight’s Ben’s final class, and he’ll be in the water all by himself. The previous seven weeks, I’ve been in the water with him, and I’ve been bringing Henry along too so that he can swim a bit after the class. It’s been such fun to have that swim time with my boys. Tonight the plan is for all of us to go since Dave hasn’t been to one of Ben’s classes this time around yet. (He takes Henry to his on Saturday mornings.) But I’m realizing now that Ellie will just be a nightmare, and one of us should probably keep her home.

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I make the kids chicken tenders for dinner and I grill Dave and me some burgers, which are leftovers from last night. Make some Brussels sprouts, too.

Henry can’t find his swim trunks and keeps asking me to come down to the basement with him to look for them in the laundry pile, since he’s too scared to go by himself. The mood in the house is quite chaotic and stressful right now. Burgers nearly burning, Ellie whining, Henry whining, Ben probably whining, everything a mess, feeling rushed…

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5:40 p.m. Dave gets home and I tell him yeah, Ellie and I can’t come. I’m sad I won’t get to watch Benny during his last class, but oh well. The house is a disaster and Ellie’s going to have to get to bed.

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5:45 p.m. I kiss the boys good-bye and of course Ellie is upset that she doesn’t get to go “‘side” so I tell her to put her boots on and I grab our coats and we head outside for a bit. She rides in the police car and on the big wheel and then we walk down the street for awhile. I push her in the swing a few times – SUPER high! – and she squeals with happiness and also says “brr! brr!” and then we put the toys back in the garage and head inside.

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6:30 p.m. We’re back inside and Ellie’s so tired – I say “let’s put on some music and clean up this house a bit.” We sit on the couch to find a music station – I pick the 80s station – and she snuggles right into me, so I decide not to move for awhile. We listen to one song, then I change the channel to Nick Jr. and Bubble Guppies. Soon I hear her breathing deep and I realize she’s fallen asleep on me.

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7 p.m. I’ve been on the couch under my sweet sleeping baby for a half an hour now and I realize dinner still needs to be cleaned up. During this time I’ve watched Bubble Guppies (ha) and played on my phone a bit. I also took some pics of us and posted to Instagram about the BOGO wrap deal.

7-7:30 I clean up dinner and the house while Ellie snoozes on the couch. The boys get home and tell me about swim class – Ben has his certificate saying he completed the course, and Henry’s moping because they didn’t get to spend much time in the water after class. Apparently you have to be six or older to be in there without a parent, and Dave didn’t have his suit, so Ben didn’t get to be in there after class and they cut Henry’s time short. Oh well – he gets to go to his class again on Saturday.

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7:30 I take Ellie upstairs. I give her a bath almost every night but we skip it tonight because she’s so tired. I change her diaper and put her jammies on, and we skip books for her tonight, too, heading right downstairs to make her bottle. Yes…. Ellie still gets a bottle before bed, at nearly 20 months old. I guess I’ve become that mom who holds onto parts of the baby stage as much as she can with her last child! Ellie still lets me hold her and rock her and feed her a bottle before bed, so I’ll take it! The rest of the time she drinks from a cup like a normal 20-month-old. 😉

7:48 Ellie’s down and I come downstairs to see the boys. Henry wants to look at his new National Geographic Kids magazine, since he sees the sphinx in there, which he recognizes because his class has been learning about ancient Egypt recently. (Seriously, the things they teach in kindergarten nowadays!) We read some really cool facts about monuments around the world.

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8 p.m. Upstairs to brush teeth and do books – we read more of the magazine, and I read Ben one Dora book. I take a pic of Henry on his bed pretending to read a Minecraft book, since he needed to bring a picture to school of him reading at home. I was a day late on that assignment, oops.

Henry asks Dave what he’s wearing to bed later, since he wants to match. (They both have red plaid pj pants, and Henry wants to wear his and a white undershirt on the same days Dave wears his to bed! So cute.)

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We tuck the boys in by about 8:15, give them hugs and kisses and then head back downstairs. 8:15-10:15 p.m. Dave and I plan to watch an episode of the show we’re watching right now (Catastrophe on Amazon Prime) but I tell him I’m going to get a few things done first. I exchange text messages with an Instagram follower who ends up signing on as a customer about an hour later. Nice!

I chat with a few friends on FB messenger, and then I realize my friend Lauren is hosting a Zoom meeting tonight at 9 pm so I decide I should probably hop on, especially since I didn’t really work much today! I log into Zoom via my phone for this one, though, rather than on my computer, so that no one can actually see me (ha) and so that I can begin typing up this post while I listen to her. Multitasking at its finest.

I get a good chunk of this post done, and the Zoom is done at 10. Do a bit more chatting, then close my computer at 10:15. Oh, and I eat some apple slices with peanut butter because I’m hungry.

10:15-10:20 p.m. I tell Dave well, crap, we didn’t get to watch our show AND I’m doing a terrible job tonight of sticking to my resolution to get to bed before 10:30! I always stay up way too late and I’ve decided to start making a conscious effort to get to bed earlier – it was going well til tonight. I give him a kiss, take a selfie with him and then head upstairs.

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10:25 p.m. I take a bubble bath, make a collage of the day and post it to Instagram (it’s tradition, after all), check on my kids, then psst Dave up to come tuck me in.

10:50 p.m. Lights out! I’ve taken some nighttime cold medicine and it knocks me OUT. Good thing Ellie sleeps ALL night, 7:30-6:30! The boys both sleep til 7:15 a.m., which is late for them. Ben’s up once to pee around 1:30 a.m., and I am just out of my mind groggy as I get up with him and walk him back to his room.

I’m still groggy feeling when the alarm for Dave to get up goes off at 6:20 a.m., and I lay in bed til Ellie wakes up, then bring her to bed with me for a bit. We head downstairs around 7 and a new day has begun!

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And since these DITL posts are really the only time I blog these days, I like to give a bit more of an update for my future self to look back on! The weekend before this day was a really awesome one – we went to Chicago with Andrea and Jim on Saturday so I could get her her Louis Vuitton bag for promoting to Presidential Diamond recently, and we had a lovely dinner out after. Then Sunday was Amanda’s baby, Vivian’s baptism, and I was honored to be named her godmother. Dave and the kids joined us for the luncheon afterward.

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As for life in general… We’re all ready to be done with winter and welcome the warmer months, finally. The boys are wrapping up swim classes and now we head into soccer for Henry and tee-ball for Ben.

We’re not moving, again, since we really do have to wait until I have two years’ worth of income with It Works to show. So August is the earliest we can make a move – we’ll see if we do that, or if we stay put even longer! We’re anxious to get out of our 1,300-square-foot starter home, but we know we’ll find our next (hopefully forever!) home when the time is right.

Henry loves kindergarten, and I can’t believe the school year is nearly over. Ben has loved being in 3k, too, and I kind of wish I would have enrolled him 2 or 3 days a week instead of one, but oh well. It was a good opportunity for him to at least dip his toe in the water! This coming Friday we get to take home the school’s pet hamster, Dit Dot, for the weekend. We’ll see how that goes!

I have some travel coming up – I’m going to New York City in May for a weekend with my mom and brother, and then in July I’ll head down to Florida for a few days for an It Works corporate event. I have a fun retreat lined up for October, too. Then the most exciting travel plan is that Dave and I just booked a week-long trip to St. Lucia in November for our 10th wedding anniversary! I am SO excited to think about spending a week in paradise with my hubby. It gives me huge anxiety to think about leaving the kids for so long and being that far away, but hopefully I can get past that! We have three sets of loving grandparents and a wonderful nanny who will all take turns holding down the fort with our three kids, so hopefully all will go smoothly!

Henry and Ben’s interests have stayed mostly the same – Minecraft and Battlefront (Star Wars) for Henry; wrestling for Ben. Henry has lost four teeth now, two on the bottom and two on top.

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Ellie is changing constantly, and her personality is becoming more animated and hilarious by the day. She is still the happiest, most good-natured little person, though she definitely shows us her sassy and stubborn side more and more, too! She’s noisy and rambunctious and tries real hard to keep up with her brothers. She’s TOUGH and she scares us with how daring and rowdy she can be. She’s also super girly, though, playing with her baby dolls and carrying around purses and bags and wanting to put my Chapstick on all the time. Her hair is getting soooo long and beautiful, though we still need to keep it pulled back 100% of the time or it’s just in her face. She’s completely addicted to her nuks, wanting one in her mouth every second she’s at home. We need to break her of that habit soon, I know! We all just love her so darn much, though – two years after first finding out her gender, I STILL feel that excitement and giddiness over having a GIRL! Our bond is something very special!

With that, I’m off, probably til summer DITL, but who knows! Excited for all the fun that spring and summer will bring!

Day in the Life: Winter 2016

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The date is Sunday, January 24, 2016.

I just turned 34.
Dave is 33.
Henry is 6.25.
Ben is almost 4.
Ellie is 17 months.

I was due for a weekend day this time for DITL, and this day was one where we had no plans set up.

6:30 a.m. I’m up with the three kids, as it’s Dave’s day to sleep in a bit. He did the grocery shopping last night, and the boys are excited because he’s gotten them each a “muffin in a cup,” which sounds to me like it’s basically giving them cake for breakfast, but they’re actually not so bad for them. We make them in the microwave right away and I think they taste pretty bland, but the boys like them.

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7:30 Coffee is made and I make us all breakfast – eggs, sausage, hash browns. Henry’s been bugging me to set up his fundraising site for his upcoming Jump Rope for Heart event, so we set that up and make the first donation, and he’s excited about the prizes he’s already secured.

8 a.m. Dave gets up and come downstairs. We hang out awhile and then I go upstairs to take a shower and get ready for the day. The kids come up to visit me a few times.

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9:15 a.m. I make Ellie a bottle and get her down for a nap.

9:30 a.m. I have a conference call with an It Works teammate and a few of her new distributors who live down in Florida. I give them a bit of training and answer their questions; they all seem very nice.

10:45 a.m. Henry and I leave together for church. We found a church through a friend of mine, Amber, who’s also an It Works teammate (she and her husband DJed our wedding!)… I had been watching her post about it and had been thinking about giving it a try for months, and Henry and I finally went the night before Christmas Eve and LOVED it. This is our third time back, and Amanda (the BFF) and Vivian (the most beautiful baby ever, 1 month old!) are joining us this morning, too.

11 a.m. We get inside and chat with Amanda; Henry meets the baby, and we grab some coffee and hot chocolate. Amber finds us and we all go in together to find seats.

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11:05-12:05 The service is wonderful again, I just love it. Beautiful live music, a wonderful message from the pastor about forgiveness, and communion (which they only do about once a month, I guess.) After it’s over, I hold baby V for a few minutes (LOVE HER SO MUCH) and then we head out of the auditorium. Amber introduces us to the pastor, and we all chat awhile. We hug Amanda and Vivian good-bye and then head back home.

12:40 p.m. We’re back home and Ellie is still napping – more than three hours! Girlfriend is going through a growth spurt for sure. She wakes up within about five minutes of us being home, so that was good timing! Dave and Ben just hung out and played some video games while we were gone. Give her piggytails on top of her head today instead of her usual ponytail, since her hair is still in her face a lot of the time – this style suits her well, I think!

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1:30 p.m. We have lunch – grilled cheese, and I have soup, too. We all hang out, play, read books, etc. and after an hour or so, everyone starts going a little stir crazy.

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Dave and I at one point talk about moving out of state, as we often do (Dave pushes for it nearly every day) and he says, “I’ll even move to Colorado.” He knows that’s the only place I’d move if we were to actually leave Wisconsin – which we won’t, since my family is here and I’m not going to leave them. But it’s fun to think about, so I hop on the computer and check out Colorado real estate. I drool over the houses and the mountain views, and I can’t get over how much more you can get for your money there than here. And they have mountains! Seriously wish we could start a pilgrimage and all move out there.

Ellie and I take some selfies after reading her first words book. She starts asking for boob, as she often still does, even though we’re 99.9% done nursing and have been for awhile. She’ll still nurse once in awhile for a couple minutes, and it shocks me that there’s still anything actually there for her.

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Dave takes the boys down to the basement to try out a new pitching machine Ben got for Christmas that we haven’t opened yet. Ellie and I check it out for a few minutes and then decide to run to Target together. We’re not really in *dire* need of anything, but we have a list of things we’re running low on, so we decide to get it out of the way and have a little girl time. I give Ellie a sucker, can’t really remember why.

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3:30 p.m. Ellie and I head to Target, and we take our time meandering throughout the store. We hit up the baby section and I pick her out a pair of jeggings and a couple of shirts, since she could use a few new things. We have diapers and wipes on the list, and they’re both on special – buy three boxes of diapers, get a $20 gift card; buy two boxes of wipes, get a $5 gift card. So I spent like $100 just on diapers and wipes, but hey, we’re stocked up for a good long time!

We need a bunch of random things – the list grew and grew as the trip approached – light bulbs, batteries, snacks, hair product, dish detergent, cleaning wipes; I need a new straightener because mine just died the other morning; stickers for Henry’s 100th day of school project … can’t remember what else. But $215 later, we’re out of there and headed back home. Ellie’s a dream the whole time – she’s just such a delight, I can’t get over it. Always happy and agreeable, and she says hi and waves to people everywhere we go – a little charmer, for sure!

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4:45 p.m. We get home and the boys are all still downstairs playing baseball. Henry gets Dave’s boots on and comes outside to help me carry the bags inside.

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We all head downstairs and they demonstrate to me how to load the balls in the machine. I’m shocked at how fast they come out and I freak out that they’re just flying across the room as Ellie is running around – she nearly gets clobbered! And then of course, poor Benny does take one to the face.

I take a turn and we get a little video, and it’s all quite entertaining for awhile.

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5:30 p.m. We head upstairs to start dinner, and we each get a drink because – well, just because! Beer for him, wine for me, and we’re having burgers for dinner. The kids play/run/fight at our feet in our tiny kitchen as we get stuff ready.

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6 p.m. We eat dinner. Henry and Ellie have hot dogs, Ben has chicken nuggets (because the weirdo doesn’t like hamburgers OR hot dogs) and he declares “this is the best party ever!” which is what he says when he enjoys a meal. I take Ellie’s picture and she blinks, which she finds hilarious, so she purposefully tries to blink and close her eyes as I take more pictures – I get about 10 bad ones of her and it’s quite funny.

They all eat well and winter is dumb (ha) so I declare we can all have ice cream for dessert.

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7 p.m. I take all the kids up to bath while Dave cleans up the kitchen. I rarely do all three at once these days, but Henry doesn’t want to wait so they all bathe together. Before he gets in he slicks his hair back and says he’s Wolverine. He’s the last one out of the tub, so he gets stuck cleaning up all the toys.

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7:15-8 p.m. Bedtime is sort of a fiasco, as it often is. We’re just ready to be DONE for the day, and it’s hard to wrangle everyone. Ellie’s running around when I’m trying to brush her hair, Ben needs something downstairs, Henry can’t find the pajamas he wants to wear. They both want to read different books.

I take a lot more pictures because I realize I haven’t taken as many as I normally do for DITL.

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Ellie sucks down her bottle and asks for another, which is weird! She drinks another four ounces of while milk on top of the five she already drank.

I put her down, but she hears us reading and wants to join, too. While she’s up, both boys take turns crawling onto my lap in the rocking chair and pretending they’re babies. I enjoy the snuggles.

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8 p.m. Everyone’s in bed and Dave and I head downstairs, ready to collapse. He heads to the couch to watch some SNL from last night, and I plan to join him for a bit but then remember a few things I really wanted to get done before our team calls tonight, which are at 8:30 and 9 p.m. (Usually just at 9 but we have an extra tonight!) So I sit down in the dining room with my laptop and don’t get back up again til about 10 pm. Time flies when you’re having fun. 😉 But no TV for me tonight, oh well.

Of course, there are a few interruptions thrown in during this time, too, from Ellie who wants more bottle still, and Ben who just doesn’t want to go to sleep. Signs of things to come this night…

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10 p.m. Take a bubble bath and read my book awhile – Big Little Lies, loving it. Finished What Alice Forgot recently and LOVED that so ordered two of her other books, too.

10:45 p.m. Bed!

And something’s in the air tonight because it’s a ROUGH night of sleep in our house. Which, of course, happens quite regularly, but this night it’s extra bad. All three kids are up at different times, and Ellie’s up for like 90 minutes straight – I finally take her downstairs around 2 a.m. and make her ANOTHER bottle, and we share a bowl of cereal too because hey, I’ve been awake nearly two hours and I’m hungry now. And in the morning, girlfriend feels heavier, I swear! Growth spurt, for sure.

Henry has a bit of a cough right now, and Ben’s having a rough time with some anxiety. He’s always worried about us leaving him, which is very irrational – “are you going to leave the house?” and “you’re going to leave” (as he cries.) If we leave the room, he’ll either follow us or yell “where did you go?!” And at night, if he wakes up, he’s scared to stay in his own bed. It’s not a fun phase, and I really hope it passes quickly.

The following day, Monday, is just a rough, rough day – I’m lucky to say I very rarely have BAD days, but this is a bad day! I send Henry to Shelly’s with the other kids because his homework calendar had said “No School, Professional Development” on it for this day. Which I thought was weird, since they just had off last Monday for Martin Luther King, Jr. day – which was also on the calendar. I should have double-checked with the school year calendar, though, because he actually DID have school.

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I had an appointment at the dermatologist that morning, and my GPS brought me to the wrong place (much further from my house than the actual destination), so I was late for my appointment by nearly 15 minutes, and as I finally arrived, the school called to check on Henry. Gah. The appointment took longer than expected, I had to have a mole removed, which I hadn’t anticipated (yuck), and when I got home, I was just so TIRED and frustrated that I didn’t have the motivation to do anything.

Took a nap, which I hate having to do – hate wasting any of my day! – and when I woke up, I got the sad news that the wife of a man I’ve known a long time and am very fond of had died of cancer, much too soon. Had a good sob about that, and then the kids came home. Just kind of a wash of a day. Was very glad to go to bed early and start fresh on Tuesday.

Aside from the stir crazy Sunday and rough Monday, life is really good in this season of life. Henry loves kindergarten and recently lost his third tooth, Ben likes preschool and is a hilarious, sweet boy when he’s not being super anxious and/or naughty and/or keeping us awake at night, and Ellie is positively a dream boat, as she’s been since the day she was born. I still look at her and marvel at the fact that she’s mine. She’s the sweetest, happiest, most amazing little girl and I LOVE the age she’s at right now.

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I did discuss with Dave on Sunday how it really is quite sad how every year at this time (Jan-March), it feels sort of like we’re only half-living, being cooped up inside, the weather gray and cold, just biding our time til we can LIVE and get out and do things again. Hate that! But I have a trip to Florida coming up next week for It Works’ annual conference (can’t wait!) and then Dave is going to Arizona in March for Brewers spring training with his brother, so at least we both have things to look forward to in the near future!

And once in awhile, winter is fun, like a few weeks back when we all went sledding on a sunny winter day!

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And soon it shall be spring again, and time for another DITL …

Til then, blog world!

Henry Oliver at 2 1/2 years old

Henry will officially turn 2 1/2 this week, on April 13. My how time is flying. We’re well on our way to three years old, and it’s funny how that feels both so grown-up and also so little still.

As often as Dave and I say things like “he’s such a real kid now” or “he’s so grown-up” or “he’s huge!” – in reality, he’s still such a little boy, and at times, even very much a baby. We’ll find ourselves getting annoyed at him for crying or whining over something really silly, but then we have to remind ourselves that even though he’s mature and big and so smart, he’s also just a 2-year-old still.

I feel like I’ve come to a realization lately about Henry, and about parenting in general. Henry, as always, is changing by the day, and while many of the changes are awesome, many also are not. He’s sassier and rougher and downright weirder as he becomes a bigger boy, and in those moments that he’s talking rough or doing something naughty, I find myself thinking “where did my sweet little Henry go?” or “who IS this kid?”

But I’ve realized that duh – Henry’s only been around for 2 1/2 years, and for most of that time, he’s been a baby – a sweet, cute, cuddly baby. Now that he’s getting older, of course he’s not going to be that anymore, and with years and years of childhood, adolescence and adulthood ahead of us, he’s certainly going to change time and time again. He’ll always be my Henry, and instead of wishing for that little baby back, I have to embrace the person he is becoming! That’s easy a lot of the time since he’s a pretty awesome kid – but at other times it’s more challenging!

Let’s start with the “challenging” parts of life with Mr. Henry in this update, shall we?

– For as long as Henry’s been around, we’ve often compared him to other kids amongst ourselves and much of the time, he’s come out on top – in our eyes, anyway, since we’re his parents! But truly, he’s so cute and so sweet to others and is just so smart for his age, especially in the talking and communicating department. But I told Dave the other day that we have to face the facts that there are areas in which, when I compare Henry to other kids, he unfortunately doesn’t stack up the way I wish he would.

The biggest issue here is playtime and how Henry occupies his time. Frankly, Henry is terrible at playing by himself – and really, terrible at playing, period. He has SO many toys and yet hardly ever plays with any of them. He instead always wants to be getting into things that he shouldn’t getting into, playing with things that aren’t toys, and hanging out with us and doing what we’re doing. He rarely if ever wants to play by himself, and when he does, it’s for maybe five minutes, tops. I watch and hear about other kids and how they’re able to play trains or trucks or blocks or read books by themselves and I think, yup, Henry has never done that.

Henry is also not very good at playing with other kids. It’s not that he’s mean or anything, he’s just … aloof. Uninterested. Again, he’d rather be by the adults, talking with us, doing what we’re doing. Being annoying, since obviously adults like to talk while the kids play! I’ve seen this quite a bit lately … when our neighbors came over to play when Ben was first born; when we went to visit my cousins and their kids in Illinois last week; and even when Truman was here last Friday, though he did play with Truman (and me) some. But watching Truman occupy himself with trains for such a long time really had me disconcerted – like why won’t my kid play like that? And I was actually a little embarrassed when we left my cousin Katie’s house. Aside from not playing with Jack and Isabel and Anna (until the very end of the visit anyway), he also barely touched his lunch while the other kids ate, and he hardly spoke two words the entire time we were there, either, when we all know that Henry hardly ever STOPS talking. I don’t understand the shy act he puts on with some people when he’s used to being around other people at daycare and when he’s such an outgoing kid by nature.

I know I can’t control how he acts or put pressure on him to talk more and hopefully it’ll come in time, but it’s just kind of disconcerting and frustrating at times. Luckily he doesn’t act that way around our families, and Lori says he talks and laughs a lot at her house, so that’s good.

– Then there’s the nap thing. Whenever I hear my friends talk about their kids’ 3-hour naps, I get SO freakin jealous. I can’t imagine what we’d do with that kind of down time on our days at home! Henry has NEVER napped three hours in his life, and the length of his naps are completely unpredictable. Sometimes we’ll get 45 minutes, other times we’ll get nearly two hours – but most often, they’re usually just about an hour. And more than half the time, he wakes up HYSTERICAL, crying and freaking out for 5, 10, 20 minutes after he wakes up – it’s kind of ridiculous.

– Henry’s two favorite things to say right now when we tell him to do something are “whyyy?” and “I don’t waaaaant to.” He says both in a whiny, whiny voice and it drives us crazy. He’s also a little parrot and we REALLY have to do better at watching what we say around him. He enjoys using the words “crap,” “stupid,” “idiot” and “dumb” lately after he hears us use them, and we have to repeatedly tell him that those aren’t nice words.

– I also mentioned that he’s obsessed with his wiener right now. He’s also started using toilet humor … nearly every day he’ll say things like “I poop on your head!” or “I poop out my butt!” or “I pee in your nose!” or … well, you get the idea.

– He also has these facial expressions he’ll do when he’s being naughty or when we’re scolding him. He crinkles his nose, or he sticks his tongue out the side of his mouth. He looks very devilish when making these expressions.

Let’s move onto the good, yes?

There is so much good about Henry, and much of it is what I touch on every time I do one of these updates. He’s adorable and smart and sweet and funny as heck. I think the development of his sense of humor is one of the greatest things we’ve noticed lately – his comedic timing not only with us but with other people is pretty impressive. He is a constant source of entertainment to us.

– Some of the things he says lately that I just love are “you come WIS me!” when he wants to show us something, and “that’s our FAM-ily!” when we’re all together.

– He can say “la la la” when we ask him to, but he doesn’t use the ‘l’ sound when he should. He says “wunch” instead of lunch, and “Yori” instead of Lori. It’s pretty cute, but hopefully he’ll correct that soon.

– He’s gotten a lot better (finally) at a few noteworthy things as he gotten older … brushing his teeth is one biggie. FINALLY he lets us just brush his teeth without putting up a fight. Only took two years! He also no longer cries when he gets his hair cut. I took him by myself two weeks ago on a Saturday morning and he sat in the chair and followed directions like such a good boy. He wanted that sucker at the end! And he no longer fusses in the car, instead just riding and jabbering away and even closing his eyes and sleeping sometimes instead of fighting his tiredness. Dave reminded me the other day – Henry used to be a beast in the car!! As a baby he’d cry and as a toddler he’d cry and complain. No fun! I hope Ben won’t go through those phases – but I won’t hold my breath. Henry’s also gotten better about going to sleep at night. He’ll still call for us sometimes, but more often than not – and at naptime, too – he’ll just go to sleep like a good boy. Waking at night is another story, but we’ll get back to where we were, I hope. He’s getting used to Ben finally, and he’s been sick with another cold so that doesn’t help, either.

– He’s been pretty great with Ben these past few weeks. He’ll sometimes still ignore him, but usually he’ll say “Hi Benny!” and “Hi buddy!” and go up and give him hugs and kisses. We did have one incident two weeks ago where Henry threw a bouncy ball right at Ben’s head and really hurt the poor babe – the cry I heard come from him was heartbreaking! We got really mad and Henry got a time-out, but luckily so far (knock on wood) that’s been Ben’s only injury from his big bro.

– His favorite TV show right now is called “Team Umizoomi” and it’s a math skills show on Nick, Jr. I find it pretty entertaining, too (oh, how those songs get stuck in my head!!) and I love watching it with him. He calls things out when he’s supposed to (“super shapes!” “pattern power!” “circle!” “rectangle!”) and likes to run up to the TV and point things out. His other favorite show is still Calliou, and he still enjoys cooking shows a lot, too.

I feel like I had a lot more “challenges” in this post than “good” updates, but really, Henry’s awesome and a complete and total joy – it’s just that he’s at an age now where he’s not reaching as many “milestones” on such a regular basis – just honing his skills and talking up a storm and being on the go constantly. He’s curious and active as can be and we’re crazy about him.

Henry is 2 days shy of 2 1/2