Stephanie Howell

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This is the time in my life when I am ridiculously busy.

Everyone I know is ridiculously busy. It’s the season of carpool lines, sports, ballet, gymnastics. It’s the season of “blink and you’ll miss it”.

There are grocery trips, loading the girls in and out of the car 293480238 times a day. There’s the neverending picking up and putting away.

The cleaning itself is a constant battle I can NEVER win. I feel like I run the dishwasher 91382048 times a day.

To do lists, notes from school, coupon cutting, budgeting, forgetting to budget, stressing, more laundry, kissing scrapes and wiping away tears.

Breaking up fights, making up beds, picking up barbies.

Sometimes I feel like Jimmy and I are ships passing in the night. A bump here, a nudge there.

A silent grin or grimace over the heads of the girls…a telepathic conversation might be the best we get until they are all in bed.

Falling into bed at the end of the night because we are just.so.tired. Waking up with little bodies climbing all over us, just as tired as we were the night before.

And guess what?

This does not make us special.

EVERYONE IS BUSY.

It doesn’t mean you are better or more important than someone else because you are busy.

Here’s when I think busy becomes a problem.

When it becomes a badge of honor. When it makes you treat others in an unkind way.

When you use it as an excuse to not make eye contact and not interact.

When you use it to make yourself sound important.

EVERYONE IS BUSY.

It is a gift. It means you’ve been given LIFE.A full-to-the-brim life. A life that doesn’t stop.

A few years ago we had a neighbor. I really liked her. She was loud, outgoing, and funny.

I soon realized that every single time I saw her she’d tell me how busy she was.

Once at the grocery store as I opened my mouth to talk to her? She RAN by me with her cart yelling “sorry! I’m SO BUSY!”.

Every time I saw her on her street, she’d bustle by…the words “I’m so busy!” wafting on the breeze.

And you know what? It made  me feel unimportant.And it was rude.

I stopped trying to talk to her.

Another friend I knew a few years ago constantly backed out of every plan we had.

She’d call the day of or text…saying she was just too busy to make it.

Over and over.

It made me feel insignificant.

I stopped asking her.

People glorify busy.

They use it as an excuse to cut you off in traffic. In line.

To talk on their cell phone all the way through checkout…with no eye contact, no thank you.

You see…they’re busy.

“Busy” can be a power trip in a funny way. As if the busier you are, the better mom you are? As if telling people constantly how busy you are makes you sound super important?

Listen here. We are all busy.

But life is too beautiful to be spent running by,yelling you are busy, making someone feel insignificant.

Life is busy.

And beautiful. And sometimes you have to MAKE yourself sit down (right in the mess of it) and enjoy it, instead of picking it up.

It is always worth it to stop and have a conversation with someone. It is always worth it to look at your children when they are talking to you. And to respond.

It is always worth it to get off the phone and say thank you.

Your busy-ness? Does not make you better or different. It gives us something in common. It makes you like every other woman, man, parent, adult out there.

It’s not an excuse or a badge or a medal.

It’s life.

S

Happy Monday Y’all! I hope your weekend was wonderful!

Our was crammed full with joy, it really was. I wanted to share a few photos with all of you!

Oh, and before I forget…there is an awesome Kiwi Crate sale going on right now.

40% off your first crate! Thought you might want to know! 🙂

Okay, here’s what we did this weekend.

an easter egg hunt with our awesome neighbors:

A trip to the Cliff Walk with Uncle Chris and Aunt Anna.

The water was amazingly beautiful and it felt like spring. I even found the perfect spot for a 10 year anniversary photo!

Egg Dying

Lots of laughs

Hair Drying and Dinner Making

Sweet messages from Sadie

Playground Trips

The Howell girls dressed for a classy egg hunt on Easter.

No spotless and perfectly matched Easter dresses for us…this is how we roll.

yes. the babies are using plastic beach pails for their baskets.

Told you.

CLASSY.

Anniversary Flowers

And the perfect anniversary. The aforementioned awesome neighbors took all of our girls for the evening.

Champagne, dinner out, and alone time. The perfect way to celebrate 10 years.

There was even a rainbow when we were getting ready. Good sign, yes?

for those of you who asked, the dress is jcrew factory and the necklace is from francesca’s. 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Love to you all!

xo

s

and it was absolutely beautiful. but this southern girl is longing for flip flops and warmer temps.

review so far:

halfway through proof of heaven- very interesting.

finished these girls- easy read, chick lit, really liked it

started ice cream girls.

It may not be as organized or fancy as a lot of rooms i see online.

But i’m way happier with less. I’m not overwhelmed. Everything has a place. That works for me.

Worked on spelling with Harper. She really struggles and we have to practice a lot.

Disclaimer: I’m a former teacher, I know spelling isn’t considered a benchmark for many.

I’m not stressing her out about it.

We just think it’s important and have really been working on writing+spelling with her this year.

We had Family Reading Night at H’s school:

Harper lost her first tooth:

I caught up on Project Life:

I looked back at project life from last year and realized that this time last year:

1. jimmy was deployed

2. i started my job with MME.

what a year it’s been!

Lucy practiced her faces:

also-

Harper started her first week of ballet/dance- and loved it.

Sadie had to stay home from gymnastics as a consequence for sassy behavior.

We caught up on the last 2 episodes of The Following.

We watched The Wizards of Waverly Place movie for family movie night.

I watched Tim Gunn and Elmo on Sesame Street. Hard to tell who was more excited…me or the babies.

Sang The Wheels on the Bus 91284301820 times.

Thought about cutting my hair like this.

Watched Undefeated. LOVED IT. Like…really really loved it.

Cleaned only to have the results immediately reversed.

Swore that I’d never clean again. Gave up briefly.

Couldn’t stand it and started cleaning again.

That’s it!

Next week is big. We have Uncle Chris and Aunt Anna coming to visit…

And next Friday is our 10 year anniversary!!!

The weekend after that is my brother’s wedding.

WHEW!
xoxo

S