this weekend was fantastic for several reasons. chiefly among them…j came home after a few weeks away! it was a GORGEOUS weekend, after a dreary rainy week.

i just love being together as a family on the weekends. why do they pass so quickly, though?

here’s our weekend in iPhone photos:

l to r, top to bottom:

1.first time the babies ever kept sleeping after we brought them in the house! 2.stretching before our family walk. 3.sadie sleeping on daddy after a bad dream 4.blue moon with an orange slice at forsyth park. 5.j+all four of his girls- oh how his life has changed! 🙂 6.the greening of forsyth fountain 7,8. girls+j in bed earrrrly a.m. 9.drink for baby, drink for mommy. hee! 10.lucy+mama 11.my new bag came from gussy sews! 12.bigs reading to littles 13.treasures from the resale shop 14.me and my girls at forsyth fountain

 

and just because this might very well be my favorite iphone photo of all time…i have to share it in full size:

i can’t even put into words how happy this makes my heart. they were over the moon he was home. when he first comes back from a trip, they just can’t/won’t leave him alone. it’s awesome.

i hope you have a beautiful, blessed monday!

xxo

 

i know i’ve talked about this before, but it’s something i think about pretty regularly.

how when you are a mother, a wife…it’s easy to lose yourself in those roles.

sometimes when i am asked about who i am, i say i’m a mother to four girls, i’m an army wife…and i am those things. of course i am those things! that is my daily life right now. but who am i?

independent of jimmy, independent of harper, sadie, cate and lucy. what makes me me?

these days i feel like i’m mostly mommy. i hold babies, change diapers, change clothes, settle arguments, soothe the tears, bathe, clean up spit up, answer a million questions, clean, do dishes, pick up dirty clothes, do laundry, go grocery shopping, read, organize,pay bills,open mail,vacuum, wipe down counters,hang up clothes,make beds

on repeat.

i had someone email me and tell me i wasn’t in enough of the pictures on my blog. and that i should take more pictures with me in them so that one day it didn’t seem that i had an iphone/camera for half of my face.

and i had to laugh. not because it hurt my feelings. because it’s true. but it’s just the way it is.

because there is no one here to take my photo! i don’t have the time to set up photo shoots or get someone to come over and take photos. i have a husband that is gone more often than not…so this is my reality.

i’m always holding someone. someone is always attached to me, part of me.

 

if i went out to have cocktails with my single friends, or my friends without children, could i be witty anymore?

could i talk about something other than my girls?

if i could actually have a real conversation, one that isn’t interrupted every few sentences, could i form a coherent thought?

do i still have a sense of humor that doesn’t stoop to the level of a four year old?

i think so.

i think i remember who i am under the mommy and wife suit of armor.

i’m the girl who got kicked out of her high school math class repeatedly for talking too much.

i’m the girl with two different color eyes.

i’m the girl who was the high school mascot. nerd alert!

i’m the girl who was in musicals and plays, because she is a huge extrovert.

i love jeans.

and reading. i can devour a book in one night. or i used to be able to, at least.

i have a size 10 foot thanks to my feet growing with each pregnancy!

i love flea markets

i hate cilantro.

i love hip hop, even though it’s not half as good as it used to be.

i snort when i laugh and i have a scar between my eyes from when a boy threw me over his shoulder in college…and then proceeded to drop me on the concrete. drink much?

i love wine

i hate broccoli

i cry at the drop of a hat

and embarass myself entirely too much.

i make friends easily but have a hard time finding people to form friendships with.

i grew up baptist, and have visited all types of protestant churches as we move all over the country.

i’m HORRIBLE at math.

i talk quickly, read quickly, craft quickly, do everything much too fast.

i have met jenna bush. she was lovely.

i used to win contests all the time. especially on the radio.

i talk to everyone. i make friends on airplanes, in the elevator.

i laugh a lot. if you are funny, you will win me over.

i am loyal.

i am still that girl.

but better. because i have four little people in my life who are making me more joyful, less cynical.

and one day, i will be me again without all the other stuff. and i’ll miss it. i’ll miss the mundane.

so i try to remember that as i trip over the toys and catch myself. because when i look up, i catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror. and i’m still that girl.

 

happy friday!

xxo

 

 

 

that women…well some women

feel the need to make everything into a competetion?

i really truly don’t get it. is it to make others feel inadequate? is it to validate themselves?

if you were to see a struggling mama feeding a baby a bottle, why would you say “oh, i breastfed my babies exclusively until TWO. a bottle NEVER touched their lips”.

i never know what to say to things like that.

“yay you?”

“congratulations!!!!!”

it’s the strangest thing.

now don’t get me wrong. not all women do this. but i certainly have met plenty who do.

and you know what?

how long you breastfed

or what your baby got on his APGAR

or how long you labored naturally, when i was a wimp who got that horrible epidural…

or when your baby started rolling, crawling, etc. and whether it happened before my baby did those things…

well that is about as important to me as what you got on your SATs in high school.

show me a loved baby, wrapped in adoration, loving arms, tenderness…that’s what matters.

it’s just the craziest phenomenon. one i never really noticed before harper was born, but why would i have noticed it? mommy competition syndrome wasn’t even on my radar yet.

so take me out back and stone me. my babies drink out of bottles. i don’t cook from scratch. sometimes my children ingest things that are not organic. i don’t even KNOW how long the twins were when they were born.

your child might crawl, walk, talk before mine.

you might beat me in the nursing department.

i don’t homeschool. though i applaud those who do, it is not for me. not right now.

i might carry my babies in the carriers sometimes instead of “wearing them”.

they have barbies. and some of their toys are PLASTIC! they don’t only have hand carved wooden, dye free blocks.

but my girls?
are loved. beyond all measure.

and that can’t be beat.

sometimes it’s not necessary to name all the ways you are a “better mom” than i am. sometimes it’s nice to have some mama solidarity. when i see struggling new mommies? I tell them their babies are beautiful. or i tell them they are doing a great job.

or i offer to help.

then i tell them how SMART, perfect, and unsoiled by commercialism my children are. NARY A FRENCH FRY HAS EVER TOUCHED THEIR LIPS!

kidding. kidding.

oh, and for the record…this post is tongue in cheek (no mullets though!!!). so hopefully you’ll appreciate my sense of humor and know that i’m speaking of the “universal YOU”.

mamas UNITE!

i don’t think it’s anyone’s business (except for your children, husband, etc) how you love your children best. i feel like women feel the need to preface “hello” with if they breastfeed or not. guess what? i don’t really need to know! i just want to be your friend. 🙂

have a beautiful, blessed tuesday.

xoxo

s

 

 

 

heard: cate, when you are a big girl…like a teenager or someping, you can walk in the street. you can also take the trash out all by yourself.

and when you are a lady, like mama, you can have lots and lots of babies!!!

seen: the babies holding hands every time they lay by eachother.

heard: mama, don’t you think everything tastes better with chocwate and spwinkles??

 

overheard: “buh, buh, buh…WHAT DOES THAT WORD SAY? I can’t FIGURE IT OUT!”- not harper, but my MOTHER watching superwhy with the girls. hahahahah

 

seen: j recovering with the girls before he went out of town. is there anything cuter than a daddy sleeping in a itty bitty girlie bed?

seen: some seriously awkward sleeping positions.

 

happy friday!

xxo

 

first can i just say how much i LOVE these two?

we have so much fun together and i love stealing away to spend time xwith just the two of them. just us “big girls”! they never fail to make me laugh until i cry.

with that being said, it has been time for a haircut for these two for a LONG time.

sadie is straggly mcgee, skulking around behind her hair and refusing to wear the cute hair clips that i buy her. i’ve been dying to cut that ragamuffin hair!

and harper’s hair had never been cut and it was a mess. brushing it after bath took about 30 tear soaked, scream filled minutes. and at last i couldn’t take it any more.

i knew exactly what i wanted. bangs+a bob for sadie, and a blunt cut for harper.

so yesterday, we made a date of it.

 
the girls were SO excited to go. i mean, i’ve been bringing it up for months. every time i encountered another snarl in H’s hair i’d mutter “ARGH! I can’t wait to get your hair cut!!”.

and every time sadie’s face was obscured under her hair, i’d say “Oh I can’t WAIT to get you bangs!”.

so they were pretty pumped.

i knew harper would do great but i was nervous that sadie would spaz out and end up with some sort of asymmetric bob.

sidenote: how have i lucked out so much that she’s never cut her own hair? weird. i think maybe she just hasn’t thought of it yet.

but they both did amazingly well. although harper kept checking herself out in the mirror in an “aren’t i stunning” way. HA!

and sadie? was VERRRRY “sadie” during the entire process.

and the end results? oh be still my beating heart.

i LOVE the cuts. love them.

but can someone PLEASE tell me this? when did my big girls get so big?

and props to harper for saying this on the way out of the salon (as she warily eyed a HUGE pot overflowing with cigarette butts).

“why in the WORLD does somewhere so ‘ashion have something like this (disgustedly jabbing her finger in the direction of the pot) that is so NOT ‘ashion?”

hahahahahhahah!

happy thursday, sweet friends! xxo