Kid Free Weekend

I so meant to post this early in the week but being gone for 3 1/2 days has put me behind about 3 1/2 days so here we are..Thursday and I'm just getting around to this. When we last left off I was on a plane with a 7 year old and a grandma. I'm happy to report all ended well and the 7 year old was safely reunited with her mother and I'm assuming grandma made it to her daughter. I'm sure hoping the daughter had the "pepsi and pack of cigarettes" waiting for momma cause by the time the plane landed she was ready.

Nana Cheryl and Curtie picked me up at the airport and we headed for Erin's house where she had a delicious lunch prepared for us. I didn't have to fix anyone's plate. Or cut anyone's food. Or get up while I was eating to fix a drink. It's the little things people. We mostly just hung out at E's house Friday. She had the Geek Squad coming over to fix up her wireless network. I was all like "I can be a geek squad..I set up my router with no issues I'm sure I can do yours." Ha. We needed the Geek Squad. Apparently though we got the B Team Geek Squad because she ended up on the phone with the A Team Geek Squad nearly the entire FOUR hours she was working. She kept calling "him" her secret weapon. I was thinking more like her only weapon. Whatever..it finally got fixed and Erin is now happily web-surfing from her couch in the bonus room. We went out for sushi (!) that night and chilled. It's not every day I get up at 5:15am to get on a plane. And travel to Tampa to get to Columbus.

Saturday I got to sleep in (!) and the lazily get ready for the Wedding Shower, which was the whole reason I was in town. E had another friend, Jenna who came into town Saturday morning too for the shower. She was fun and had just seen Britney Spears the night before. She loves Jersey Shore. I knew we'd get along famously. The shower was hosted by Erin's old babysitter and her sister. It was a lovely event and I got to meet some people I've heard a lot about over the years but never actually met. Her mom helped with the decorations and Nana Cheryl is no crafty joke - her table centerpieces were adorable! The cake was OH. MY. GOODNESS. Good. Like if I never eat another cake in my life it's okay because this one was so good good. Fortunately the same baker doing E's wedding cake so we do get to eat it again. She got lots of nice gifts and a lovely time was had by all. We got sent home with loads of food and cake so the plan was to chill at home Saturday night and catch up on Jersey Shore. I know..such a wild and crazy time. There may or may not have been adult beverages consumed as well.

Sunday was another sleep in day (!). Oh the loveliness of getting up when you want. E made us a yummy breakfast casserole and I felt like royalty - sleeping in and breakfast prepared for me? Yes please! We ended up going to see The Help and having lunch with another Bridesmaid and super cool friend of Erin's Mandy. And we went to DSW to try to look for shoes for the wedding. Nana Cheryl and Curtie came to have dinner with us and then E and I went out to Target where I got to look at anything I wanted without bribing anyone to stop touching things they shouldn't. It was blissful. I had to get up at 5:15 to catch the flight home so no wild and crazy partying going on but we did stumble upon a gem of a show: Big Easy Weddings. It's about a wedding chapel in New Orleans and it did not disappoint. The 3 featured stories included a mother running into the wedding shouting "you can't marry her she's your cousin.", a couple who got married in their trailer park and wanted the wedding cake to be in the shape of a female body part and a pub crawl wedding. No..I am not lying.

All in all a super fun and totally relaxing weekend. I am VERY thankful to my husband for holding down the fort at home while I was. He even did some laundry. I know...he's a saint. He even got Jacob transitioned to a bed and worked on potty training. He's a good man. I'm pretty darn lucky.

Is it Ironic

I'm feeling a bit giddy today after spending 3 days ALL BY MYSELF with my bff in Ohio! I have a lot to say about the weekend but I'll start with a little story about getting my trip started. The weekend commenced with me flying ALL BY MYSELF to Columbus. I hadn't been on a plane solo since I worked (so like 8 1/2 years ago) so I was a bit nervous flying - I don't love, love flying. But once I got to the airport and really realized I had NO children to entertain it was all good. Me, magazines, books...all set. I was on Southwest and I had a stop but then onto to Columbus. Since I didn't have to change planes I didn't really pay attention to the itinerary so I didn't realize until I was boarding that we were going to Tampa first. Yes..Tampa FL then to Ohio. Seriously. The flight was fairly turbulent and we ended up not getting drinks because it was so rough. Needless to say I was happy to touchdown in Tampa.

We get to Tampa and I decide to move seats. I sit in the second row then leave the plane to get some much needed caffeine before the next leg of the journey. When I get back I find an older lady sitting in the window seat. She seemed nice enough but chatty. I find out in about 30 seconds that this was a. her first time flying in over 30 years. b. she was moving from FL to Ohio to live with her daughter and her 4 grandkids c. she's never left FL before and d. she needed to take some meds at 11:30am. Ooookayy. Then the flight attendant tells us to hold the middle seat for a "UM." A UM?? That's when I see the little girl being escorted on the plane. UM = Unaccompanied minor. And she's who we were holding the seat for. Nice. She was pretty chatty and very generous (she gave me stickers, offered me a lick of her lollipop and one of the 3000 Little Debbie snack cakes her grandmother had packed her). I learned she was 7 and had been at her grandmas for 3 weeks. She was going home to start school and her older brothers called her names. I also found out that 7 years olds in Ohio and 7 years old in NC pretty much like the same things: sparkles, peace signs and iCarly. She asked me all kinds of questions about my kids but I think the one that takes the cake: "What cloud does God live on?" Finally the flight attendant brought her an activity pack that occupied her for about 45 seconds and then she mercifully fell asleep with about 30 minutes to go. Me, solo flight, chatty grandma, chatty 7 year old = irony.

Sometimes They Do Pay Attention

Yesterday afternoon Julia had her first soccer practice (it was totally adorable and except for a small shoe malfunction she had a great time and I'll talk more about it in a future blog post). So Julia wanted "the whole family" to come watch her play. I guess she's been dragged around to enough events that she wanted her turn of people coming to watch her. So she's out doing her soccer thing which left me, Paul, Emma, Lily and Jacob on the sidelines. Paul promptly sat down in his chair and pulled out his phone and didn't move for the next hour. He claims he looked up a few times but whatever. Jacob was fine - he just played around and climbed through the bleachers annoying all sorts of people. The girls however were a different story. They whined the whole time. It's hot! I'm bored! I'm hungry! Why do we have to be here? Take me to the park? For an hour. Fun times. Anyways..finally it was over. So we get to the car and the request was made to get ice cream. Paul and I decided, much to the kids dismay, that we were not getting ice cream..the girls were just too annoying to reward them with ice cream. Well, as you can imagine, this didn't go over well and more whining commenced. But eventually they got over it and all was quiet in the car. Then Lily says this:

Lily: Mom..I think you need to show us grace

Me: What? What do you mean?

Lily: Grace is when you give someone something they don't deserve and well we don't deserve ice cream but you should give us grace and let us have some anyway.

She's been learning about grace at church this month and I was stunned to hear this come out of her mouth. It just makes me so happy to know she does pay attention (sometimes) and that lessons sink in!!

By the way - I didn't give into the ice cream but I did let them have one oreo cookie when we got home..I felt like that was enough grace extended.

Thank Goodness We Were the Only Ones There

It's FINALLY not 100 degrees outside so we took the rare opportunity to go the park this morning with some dear friends that have been on vacation and are finally back. She is also a mother of 4 including one very active 4 year old boy. One thing I learned early on in my motherhood that boys enjoy peeing outside. I have a friend in MA who's son would pee everywhere outside (sorry L but that's one I thing I won't forget about J) including the front yard, the park, etc. And my friends son is no different. Which bring us to today. We're at the park and most thankfully it's just us and our 6 kids at the park. Her sweet 2 year old had a potty accident which naturally sparked a potty conversation. Her son decided he also needed to go and promptly walked over the fence and "peed in the garden." (She said he's picked up some British words including calling all yards type areas gardens - I find that hysterical). Jacob thought this was hilarious. He kept laughing. And then. Then I noticed Jacobs diaper lying on the ground. I get up from the bench and I see him, with his pants pulled down "peeing in the garden." I couldn't decide whether I needed to scold him or praise him for actually trying not to pee in his diaper. Geez....As I relayed the story to my husband via text. He sends back this: Thats my boy. Seriously?

In Which I Almost Have A Heart Attack

This morning began like any typical school morning. Kids getting dressed, eating breakfast, getting school stuff ready. All was going just swimmingly until I heard this: "Mom..you gotta get upstairs. NOW. Jacob has scissors in his head." Wha..Wha..WHAT?? I'm thinking as I dash upstairs all the while thinking how loud to I have to yell so that my neighbor will call 911 for me. Thankfully when I get upstairs I see Jacob with scissors IN his hair. As in tangled in his hair. Apparently he thought he needed a haircut. OH. MY. GRACIOUS. HE. IS. GOING. TO. BE. THE. END. OF. ME.

Rewind a few minutes...Jacob goes upstairs. I figured he was just getting something for his pockets. You know how he is. He's quiet for a minute which is not extremely unusual. Then I hear him start to cry. Again, not extremely unusual and not blood curling screams..just cries. After a minute or two (or five) I send Lily up to investigate (I know..mother of year) which brings us to : "Mom...you gotta get upstairs. NOW. Jacob has scissors in his head." Apparently Jacob had decided while he was eating breakfast (?) that he needed a haircut. So...he went upstairs to my bathroom and got Paul's clipper set from underneath the bathroom counter. He found the scissors and put them up to his hair to try to cut it. Thankfully (oh so very, very thankfully) he doesn't know how to use scissors and they got caught in his hair before any damage was done. Seriously all this happened in about 5 minutes. I guess Paul needs to cut his hair this weekend. And...so very, very thankful....at least he didn't try to cut his sisters hair. I hope I make it to his 3rd birthday.

So Ready

It was a tough day for my sweet 4 year old. Her sisters started school on Monday so she's been feeling a little lonely for a couple days. And then today, our precious neighbor started Kindergarten which was apparently devastating to Julia. She sobbed all morning because she didn't get to go to Kindergarten and she didn't get to ride the bus. And then she wailed all afternoon in true Potter-girl dramatic fashion about why wasn't she old enough to go Kindergarten and when would preschool ever start again. "What day mommy, what exact day am I ever going to school??" "I am ready to go to school Mommy."

Bless her heart. I'm ready too. This is the preschool break that will not end. Perhaps its the anticipation that Jacob starts too which is dragging out this summer vacation business. Or perhaps it's that preschool ended, the girls still had a month of school, they had their month off and now they are back in school and preschool is still out. I'm really not trying to rush it - once preschool starts it seems like the fall goes by in the blink of an eye and that I don't want to rush it. I think we're just starting to get a little tired of each other and it's just been too darn hot to be outside.

I dd feel a little sorry for my girl today though and I'm sure preschool will be here before we know it. And when she's in middle school waking up at the crack of dawn every day I'm going to remind her how she couldn't wait to start school.

Going Green

If I'm honest, we recycle around this house but until recently that's about as "green" as we got. Sure, I have 500 reusable tote bags (of course..I love a tote bag) I just never remember to actually use them. If I get them from the house to the car I rarely remember to take them from the car actually into the store. But that's a changing...the Potter's are Going Green.

Goal 1. Reducing lunch box waste..I have 2 kids who I pack lunch and snack for almost every day. And 2 more who generally get at least 1 snack a day packed for them. I'm almost ashamed to admit to the number of ziplock bags I've used just in the last year. So this year I'm making this change a priority. I got some Fit & Fresh reusable containers and some cute reusable snack bags (you can see some super cute ones here). So far this is a pretty easy thing and the girls love getting their food in little containers. I just hope they remember not the throw them away!

Goal 2: Cloth napkins. Oh this is fun because I made my own! That's right...Martha Stewart..watch out. I have never sewed but I've been wanting to for years. A couple years ago a sweet friend gave me a sewing machine and it turns out it works great. Thanks to Nana Cheryl who got me started and my awesome neighbor for the encouragement I made my own napkins. For the kids I went to Joann's and picked out some fun fabrics for each of them. For other napkins I bought some fabulous pre-cut 12x12 squares at Michael's and stitched them together. They are a little smaller than some napkins but they work great for us and I LOVE the fabrics.

Goal 3: Remember and use my reusable shopping bags. I've got a couple in the car but I'm going to try to be much more diligent about using them and trying to reduce the number of plastic bags I get.

Starting small with 3 manageable goals. I'd love to at some point get a compost bin - I think it would be great to have the kids help with it. We are planning some really cool "green" initiatives at school this year so hopefully the kids will keep us on our toes at home too. It's good to be green.