squeaky clean

I love this feeling. 

It smells of freshness.

 I've been on a spring cleaning rampage this week the last 2 days. (Among about 50,000 other pressing things.) It may take me so long because after each little job is complete, I sit back and look at it for a good 10-15 minutes admiring my work and enjoying the spotlessness. 

Take it in...

Sparkly.

And now, 

not only am I spending valuable cleaning time drooling over my clean bathroom, 

I'm also so into it that I am taking pictures and showing them to you.  Get a grip!

But really, aren't you just a teeny bit excited about it too? 

Admit it.

"maaa-meeeee"

This was a fantastic Mother's Day. This year my kids are at the point where they can form their own opinions and put it onto paper without any help. It was so sweet to see all their notes they came up with. Made me cry, of course. And cry and smile and cry. Such a treasure to me to hear what my children think of me. And I know that Brayden loves me even if he can't say much or write a thing. Every now and then he treats me with a soft and slow"maaaaaaa meeeeeee" and smiles. It's rare and I love it!

Brandt:

"My mom is beautiful. She is terrific & fun. She likes vanilla ice cream. She looks like a beautiful mom. She sounds like a nice girl. She smells like perrfuim. She always is nice. My mom is awsome!"

"1. you love me
2.you're a sweet mom
3.you make good food
4. you take good care of me
5. you help me learn
6. you play with me a lot
7. you buy us food
8.you smell good
9. you practice stuff with me
10. you help me with stuff
11. you make sure I'm smart
12. you're terrific"

"Mom, I love you because you are a nice mom because you care for me and you are a great mom because I was made for you and you were made for me. I love it when we go out to do stuff like going out to dinner or lunch. I like helping with stuff because it's good helping carry in grocries and stuff like that. Love, Brandt Hagblom"


Brooklyn:

"I love love you. I like your talant. you dance good. you cing good. you are cute. you have cute close. I thingk you are smart a lot. your drorly (jewelry) are cute a lot. you are sweet. I like you. your diner is good food. I love you a lot. love Brooklyn" (o's written as hearts and a fancy "y")

"My mother's name is linsy. My mother is great because she tucs me in at night. My mother's favorite food is spugety. My mother is 31 years old. My mother and I like to shop at mols. I love it when my mother cooks me diner for me. so good. My mother's favorite color is blue and green. My mother likes it when kleen my room without asking me. My mother's favorite sport is dance. My mother likes to cook sweet spugety.  My mother is good at danceing rely good. I love you mom so much. you are so sweet. you are the best mom in the world. I love you so much mom. I love you mom a lot akchly so much. your dance are beutful. By Brooklyn"

What happened to 17?

Lindsay circa 1998. 1st apartment. Complete with Christmas lights. Indoors.

 I clean my house.

As I'm sure you all do.

I have come to the point in my life where I linger on the cleaning supplies aisle deciding if I want a mop that I have to buy refills for or a detachable head that I can throw in the washing machine. I test & retest different Pine-sol scents and stare for a while at the eco-friendly products, loving their matte exteriors and lettering, wondering about their cleaning quality or if I'm being sold on the environment, packaging, and some colored water, before tossing some Windex and Softscrub in the cart. Then Brayden & I test out the air freshener sprays. This could go on for quite some time...we ended up with Glade "Water Blossoms." We'll see how that treats us.

Every now & then it hits me that I no longer think like a 17 year old. I find that reassuring depressing interesting?

I also have a cleaning schedule that, to a point, runs my life.  I secretly love/hate it. I mostly find it odd that I'm at this point, where I truly care about cleaning my garbage can.

When I was in college I had a fantastical roommate & friend, Nikki, who cut(s) hair. She is still alive, She is still my friend. And she still cuts hair. P.S. She's moving within 30 miles of me soon! (exciting sidenote)

Nikki and I would run errands together and she made a point NOT to go on the same day each week to cash her checks at the bank. She didn't want to turn into that old lady who goes to the bank every Tuesday. So predictable. (Blegh.)

I feel like that old-check-cashing-on-Tuesday lady sometimes. But I also find it difficult NOT to be. Right? School schedules, baby naps, garbage day, my cleaning schedule....truly, I'm kind of bored just making this list. You know it.

It's cool.

I like life. No, I love it.

I just find the little changes odd.

Sometimes I just get an itch to break out of my homework at 4:00, baths at 7:00, snacktime at 2:30, little routine I've got going on here. Who has to plan snacktime for crying out loud? But you & I both know that it must, in fact, be planned out. For good reasons even!

Sometimes I want to pretend I'm 17 and think about how my tan line is coming along. Sometimes I want to be 31 and think about how my tan line is coming along.

I just find it odd the things I think about now. I spend a lot of time thinking about these things people!!  Along with "Is that the best place for the hooks to go for the coats, or would over here be better?"

Seventeen-year-old me would be like, "Seriously?"

She might even roll her eyes and think I am lame sauce. Yikes!

She is so over me.

I've got to think of a way to make her proud....


Reasons I'm happy I'm not still 17:

(Just a few that stood out to me as I was searching for a photo from that time.) 

• I have since discovered volumizer & root lifter.
• Digital cameras.
• Finally figured out the eyebrows now, I think.

Nothing makes me happier

than to hear my husband playing with my kids in the other room, focused on nothing but them, or to see him snuggle my baby boy & rock him when he cries.

Speaking of those kids...it's crazy hair day at school today. Brooklyn giggled and could not believe she was leaving the house looking like this! They both felt pretty silly and the only thing that kept them from turning back was the promise of a candy from school if they actually braved it out.

wax museum

The 2nd grade read biographies and then had to do a report on a person of their choice. They had to research that person, write a report, memorize it, dress as their chosen person, and present their memorized report to their class. Brandt chose Bear Grylls, the guy who does the TV series, Man vs. Wild. While researching together with him, I realized just how amazing he actually is. Really just blown away.

The day Brandt did his report, I took his clothing items to his class & watched him present it. This is his report:

I researched Bear Grylls, the adventurer & survivalist.

He got his nickname "Bear" when he was a week old from his sister. His real name is Edward Grylls.

When Bear was 8, his dad gave him a picture of mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. He set a goal to climb it. He did when he was 23 years old & was one of the youngest to ever reach the top. This was only a year & a half after he broke his back in 3 places when his parachute failed.

Bear has killed a 6 foot alligator with  only a stick, a knife, & his bare hands.
(after he said this sentence, he paused with a smile on his face to let that fact sink in.)

Bear has set 3 world records. One of them was crossing the North Atlantic Ocean in only a raft.

Bear was in cub scouts as a boy. Now he is the chief scout of Britain. He is the youngest Chief Scout ever.

I think Bear Grylls is awesome because he never gives up & always finds a way to survive.

Yep, I cried. "Neil Armstrong" made an appearance to the class that day as well. About a month and a half later, the 2nd grade put on a wax museum of all the Biography subjects. They dressed as their researched individual and when the button was pressed on them, they gave their report to all of the parents who came to see them. Nana, Mom, Brayden, & I went to see them. We saw Hannah Montana, Michael Jordan, Betsy Ross, Thomas S. Monson, Pablo Picasso, Sacajawea, & Thomas Andrews (to name a few of MANY). They all did a great job!

Brandt a.k.a Bear Grylls

homework

Put backpacks away
Wash hands from school
Eat snack
Show me your homework folder
Read 20 minutes

(in the bathtub if you must)
Practice spelling list
Review math problems
Anything extra?
Go play

Fun Run

Brandt & Brooklyn went back on track and in that same week had a fun run with their school. Every day surrounding it was perfection, but that day was not so much. Luckily, it did not rain as the weatherman predicted. But the wind was crazy!

Brayden & I went to watch the beginning and close to the end. He behaved wonderfully, and so did I. :) At the beginning, they were pumping the kids up with some blaring tunage while they waited for the police to setup along the route.

Turns out I'm a TOTAL softie for kids. All of them jumping around so excited, dancing like crazy to the music, yelling and screaming and giggling while they waited for the signal to get ready to race. I cried. Yes, I said I cried. That many kids, having the best time, without anyone telling them to be quiet or sit still, that's good stuff.

Brandt loves to run and was the first in the 2nd grade to finish.

Brooklyn started out walking & huddled to her teacher, the cute blonde. But she gave up on that later on and ran in spurts along the way.

They got popsicles at the end, which I'm sure weren't difficult to keep frozen! Haha! I froze my bootie right off and wondered when we got home why I had done my hair before going out in the wind. But the little spectator and I had a good time.

Cookie Sale

We made soft sugar cookies with pink icing & sprinkles so the kids could set up a stand and sell them. I think my kids are so cute. They are so particular about where everything goes on the table & how the cookies are wrapped. Brandt was in charge of making the sign. They took turns riding around on a scooter yelling "cookies for sale!" while the other manned the table.

My kids have been itching to do a sale and BEGGING me for the longest time to sell all sorts of things they've rummaged up (i.e. an Uno card). I have refused to let them do that. But cookies I feel good about. And they are dang good, if I do say so myself.

I overheard Brooklyn telling her friend, "You can buy a cookie for a dollar, two for two dollars, & three for three dollars." When her friend replied that she had no money, Brooklyn said, "Well,... you can have zero cookies for zero dollars."

 She's a stickler and she means business.

When we were little, I remember selling stuff in our front yard and putting the coins in a yellow pencil box on which one of us had written "MONEY" in big letters with a red crayon. We turned our bicycles upside down and pretended they were popcorn machines. Those were some good good days.

And I'm so happy to see my kids having one of those.

It is so fun to sit here in my window and watch little kids put their money in a jar and then haul off as fast as their little legs can carry them, SO excited to show their mom their cookie. Kids might just be the best things ever. I love watching them and hearing all their excited voices while they play outside.

What a good good day.

the only child

 My two older kids went back on-track yesterday. The last few days of their break were white-knuckled endurance. Now, I love to have them home-that wasn't it at all. But lately Brayden and Brooklyn are constantly yipping at each other. Oh my good glory blazes!!! My little sunshine boy was like a little dark rain cloud and it made me crazy! I thought, Oh no! He's turned into some kind of a a crazy demanding little squirt that chases after people to hit them yelling "Mine! Mine! MINE!" What is happening?!

And then I sent the older two to school and suddenly Mr. Sunshine was back. Seriously it was like night & day. He smiled, he giggled, he cuddled, he said please & thank you. He laughed & laughed. He said "Mommy" in his sweet little way, and I swear I hadn't heard that for a week.

I was honestly kind of in shock all day long because he had been so different & now he was back. Looks like I've got a little mom-hog on my hands! Haha!

I read recently in a Real Simple article that giving each other a 30 minute uninterrupted focus of our time does WONDERS for our relationships in our families and resolves many behavioral problems. I have been doing my best to give that baby of mine "his" time. But with the others home, it just doesn't seem possible, or I guess just not the same. And it certainly is NOT uninterrupted.

It got me thinking about when Brandt (my oldest) was his age and we had little Brooklyn who would have been 3 months old at that time. And I wondered why on earth he wouldn't behave and it made me crazy! And I kicked a hole in the wall in my crazy state. And then I fixed that hole in the wall. But gee-ma-nee!! Being a momma can give your sanity a good long hard run for its money.

It just made me wonder if I would have had more patience if I had spaced those first 2 out more. Who knows? But then , Brooklyn & Brayden are 5 years apart, so it can't be that. Hmmm. I 'm just thinking today. And enjoying the sunshine from that little blonde boy of mine.

The Great Brain

Brooklyn is required to do a research project for school about anything she wants. She decided to learn how to make bread with me. We used my Grandma's recipe and I taught her what to do just like my grandma taught me at about the same age. She learned about yeast, how to read a recipe, how to knead dough, proper measuring techniques, and the difference between a teaspoon & a tablespoon. She also was very excited to get her hands all greasy and she loved giving the dough a good slap! We had such a fun time together. A good memory that reminds me of a lot of other good memories.

p.s. it is no easy task wielding a camera while teaching a little someone to bake!