"Mom'ing" in the Summer

You know it's summer, because this blog has been neglected. With both kids home all day long, my days seem to leave little to no free time for myself. Even with my days a little busier, I still feel like my kids are having a little too much screen time for my liking. But things like laundry (oh, the never ending laundry) have to get done whether my kids are home all day or not. So some days, I spend 3 hours folding and putting away laundry (I'm not even kidding y'all...3 HOURS), and my kids get a free for all when it comes to screen time. It's called balance, right?

Summer is always an interesting time for a stay at home mom. I feel like it's a true test of our abilities as a mother. Are we truly capable of caring for our school aged children all day long without completely losing our minds? I can answer that for myself. No. I'm not capable.

 I lose my cool with my kids more times in one day than I am willing to admit out loud. I oftentimes find myself at the end of a very long day wishing I would have been a little more "fun", a little more "grace-filled", and wishing I wouldn't have been so hard on my kids. Let's face it though, in the heat of the moment when my kids are fighting with each other, tattling on each other, and whining to me about being hungry or bored or whatever they are, it's really tough for me to not be completely overwhelmed. That's usually when I lose it, and I'm not always proud of it. Praise the Lord for grace and mercy, amiright?

The other day, I did manage to stop myself before saying something unkind to my children. I got in my bathing suit, and just lounged in our pool for 20 minutes while I gathered my thoughts. Once I was calmed down, I felt more in control of my erratic "mom emotions", and in turn was more more pleasant for my kids.

Sometimes, you just need some water, a floppy hat, and some quiet time to gather your thoughts.

Oh yeah, our pool is finally finished! Hallelujah! It literally feels like it took forever, but the pool company finished it just in time for summer. The temperatures are averaging in the 100s these days, so it's a nice reprieve from the heat. It also gets my kids out of the house and off their screens, so that is also a nice added bonus. My backyard is also slowly coming together as a nice place for me to hang out. Shout out to Nick for tirelessly working and building things for me.

I don't want to ever hear from Nick that I don't help maintain the pool...

Not sure if this little boomerang video will even load, but if it does...

I got a TON of compliments on this striped one piece bathing suit. I got it several years ago, and thought I lost it. But through moving and unpacking, it mysteriously appeared out of thin air! These days, I am enjoying rocking a cute one piece more often than a two piece. I'm trying to teach my daughter about modesty, and it's hard to be doing that when mama's hanging out of her bathing suit all the time. 

A few months ago, we got 6 baby chicks that are now hens. We named them Opha Mae, Dixie, Lydi, Kimchi, Presley, and Aggie. One of them (we think its Lydi) laid her first egg this week! We're excited for all of our hens to start laying. We are going to be using the opportunity to teach our kids about entrepreneurship and giving!

This is me and Lydi (the suspected egg layer)

I started a new devotional this week called "Children--A Gift and a Responsibility". It's a free devotional I found on YouVersion, and so far, I am really enjoying it. It literally takes me 5 minutes a day, and let's face it, during these summer months, even just 5 minutes with Jesus can restore your sanity.

There's a lot I need to blog about and catch up on. Nick and I recently celebrated our 11 year anniversary, and got to do some really fun things here in Yuma. I think that's what I'll post about next! Other than that, I hope summer is going well for everyone. I thought I'd end this blog with a quote that I found this week on Facebook that lade me chuckle...

"Don't worry about me. Worry about your eyebrows."

When Being a Stay at Home Mom Feels Unimportant

SIX days until Christmas. How did this happen? It was literally Thanksgiving like a week ago, right?! I thought I'd do a better job keeping up with this thing, but based on my last post, I have failed miserably. I feel like our family has been non-stop for the last month! Between Christmas shopping, weddings, kids class parties, working out, and being a wife, life hasn't been very generous with extra time for me.

It's actually shocking at how busy I am despite the fact that both of my kids are in school during the day, and I don't work. Every time I go to the nail salon, the nail lady ALWAYS asks me, "you off work today?" I always answer with, "I'm a stay at home mom", to which they reply with a judgmental tone, "what do you do all day when your kids are in school?"

It shouldn't bother me, but it does. I think I tend to compare my life as a mom now to my former life as a Marine, and that is a dangerous slope to go down. My life's purpose has changed drastically in the last 5 years, and there are days when I dwell on my former life as a career woman that led our nation's finest. My current life consists of volunteering in my son's Kindergarten classroom with a bunch of kids who don't wash their hands, but constantly want to touch me. Oh, and being the doting "trophy" wife to my wonderful Marine hubby (insert sarcasm).

Does this mean I wish I was back in the Marine Corps? Absolutely not. I love my life. I love being able to be so involved in my children's lives and in their schools.

 I love walking into my son's classroom to volunteer and see his face light up at the sight of me. 

I am fully aware at how blessed I am to be able to live a life where I do not have to work to provide for our family. I love baking and cooking goodies to send to work with my husband for his Marines. I love having dinner ready as soon as my husband walks in the door from a long day's work. But this life is so drastically different than just 6 short years ago that I still have days when I don't feel "important". I hear this is a common feeling amongst veterans that are finding their way in civilian life after service.

Anyway, I am hoping in the new year that I can finally get this blog updated to match my "not so new anymore" domain name. I thought of switching it over to Wordpress, but I'm pretty happy and comfortable here on blogger. My content is not changing, and this is just a little side hobby that I have, so staying here just seems right. I will probably post a "year in review" post towards the end of the month before 2019.

If you want to see what is going on in our life, just follow me on instagram @semperag_blog

Hope everyone is having a stress free and cheerful holiday season!

Here is our 2018 Christmas card (front and back)

Thanks to Shutterfly, of course!

My Life In Bullets

I haven't had much to blog about lately, because honestly, I'm just slooowly counting down the days until next week when we get to see Nick.

I've been trying my hardest to fill the days with meaningful activities to keep to kids busy, and to help time pass.

I've failed at that.

Monday and Tuesday were the longest days of my life, and I woke up this morning saying to myself, "It's ONLY Wednesday?!"

So here's just a couple bullets on life this week.

*I had a toothache, so I went to the dentist. I found out a root canal I had done by Naval dental is failing, and it looks like the tooth may have to be extracted. Thank God it's my 2nd molars, and no one really needs those anyways.

*I knew having a little boy around the house would be so much more different than having a girl, but it's proving to be much more challenging than I imagined. Mattis is an explorer. He wants to touch, feel, and look at EVERYTHING. My house is not baby proofed...yeah...I need to get on that.

Here he is watching his big sister play outside.

He desperately wants to be able to run around with her...poor guy.

*I get so lazy with doing Dannika's hair in the summer. Most of the time, I comb it, and stick a head band in it. I actually decided to do something with it yesterday.

*I am weaning Mattis off the boob, and hope to be totally done by his 1st birthday. Mama needs her body back to herself. I am actually pretty freaking proud of myself that I lasted a year breastfeeding. I only lasted a month with Dannika. We are down to one feeding in the morning, and one feeding at night. When we cut out the day time feeding, he was one unhappy little dude. He started sucking on anything and everything that resembled a boob....poor kid. He's fine now though, and I don't think he even remembers that he used to get the boob during the day.

He was like this for the first two days...

*I was starting to feel a little sluggish with my work outs at the gym lately. I think I'm so mentally ready for Nick to come home that I can't really focus on anything else. But I can proudly say, I have not missed a day, and on Sunday, when it rained, I didn't let it stop me! I usually run on Sundays, but since it was raining, I did at HIIT work out in the living room, and I am still sore today.

Car selfie before the gym!

So there y'all have it!

Maybe something awesome will happen this week that I can blog about.

But unless that happens, this is what ya get!

Happy hump day!

Cry It Out & Mom Life

First, let me just start by saying....

Today is Dannika's LAST day as a 4 year old!!!!!!!!!!!!

To commemorate this special/sad day, here is her last week as a 4 year old...

Get ready for a sentimental post tomorrow...

 

This week has tested me and challenged me as a mother.

With Dannika in VBS (Vacation Bible School), it just threw off our whole routine.

And by OUR whole routine, I mean Mattis' routine.

Add that on top of the fact that he regressed in his night time sleep habit.

Right after Nick left, he started sleeping and waking up at night like a newborn.

I thought he'd "get over it", and I'd have my champion night time sleeper back.

But no.

This week, I decided to go for my "go to" method...

Cry. It. Out.

Dannika cried it out....

Even after a series of judgmental moms told me it was mean...

(The same moms who made me feel like a bad mother for not breastfeeding my daughter...yeah...you know who you are.)

But after a few nights of crying it out, Dannika was sleeping through the entire night.

And after two nights of Mattis crying it out, he slept through the night last night.

He woke up genuinely a happier baby.

 

I am a firm believer in the Dr. Ferber method of sleep training.

Today was the last day of VBS, and as happy as I am that Dannika has been having such an amazing time and experience, this mama needs a break....

That is until Monday when she starts dance camp.

Did I mention that we signed her up to continue doing gymnastics throughout the summer??!!

 

I give full props to my mama who raised my sister and I while working.

I don't know how she managed to work full time AND shuttle both my sister and I to dance, piano, violin, cello, practices for school activities, and Kumon (google it).

I guess this is my new "mom life".

Here are some pics of "mom life"...

Perfectly content at Target with an empty Starbucks cup with ice in it...

I was so exhausted yesterday afternoon, that I decided to just throw both kids in the kiddie pool while I sat in a lawn chair just "supervising".

Oh, this little guy got his first bloody nose.

He fell face first when he lost his footing while pulling up on furniture.

I kinda felt like a bad mother for a minute because I didn't freak out.

My reaction was, "yay buddy! You got your first bloody nose!"

Then 2 hours later after reading too much Google and Yahoo answers, I decided to call my neighbor (a nurse) to make sure I didn't have to take him in to the doctor.

Since there was no swelling, bruising, or strange behavior, we were cleared.

I trapped him in our living room because I had to get some things done.

Unfortunately, the living room leads directly to the playroom where all the fun things are at...

We've done lots of Jam Time days.

I prefer taking the kids here instead of an outdoor park because Mattis can freely crawl around.

It's a great life I live, believe it or not...

 

A Grateful Life

Yesterday was insanely busy.

Dannika started vacation bible school at our church yesterday.

It starts at 0845 every morning and ends at 1215.

After dropping her off, I rushed to the gym to work out.

After my work out, I had to rush home, put Mattis down for a very short nap, shower, eat something, wake Mattis up against his will (nightmare), and head back out to pick up Dannika from church.

As soon as we got home, I had just enough time to fix her a quick lunch (that I made her scarf down), feed Mattis, and we were back out the door for gymnastics.

By the time we made it home, I was exhausted from just getting Mattis in and out of the car (in the heat), and shuttling Dannika around all over town.

Poor little guy didn't get a good nap in all day, which meant he was SUPER cranky all day.

Pretty much, he cried and screamed every time he was in the car (which was practically all day).

Did I mention he's teething?

By the time I got home, I plopped down on my couch after turning on the TV for Dannika feeling exhausted.

After reflecting on my day, and writing a letter to Nick, I realized how grateful I was for my life.

If I were still a Marine, I wouldn't have the opportunity to shuttle my kids to things like vacation bible school in the mornings, pick them up, take them to gymnastics...etc. etc. etc.

I'd either have to rely on other people or shell out some bucks for a nanny.

These are things I used to dream about when I was on active duty.

I remember a day at work when I wished so badly to just leave, pick up Dannika from daycare, and take her to the beach because the weather was so nice.

Then I started feeling resentment towards my friends who were stay at home moms enjoying the day with their kids.

So here I am...

With the life I used to dream about.

And as exhausting as today was, I'm grateful.

I wouldn't change a thing, and I'm extremely grateful that our family is in a position to where I am able to stay at home and enjoy my kids....even when they're being "difficult".

Ready to take on the day!

Gym locker room "selfie"...cause I can...and no one was in there...lol.

Today was the first day she was on the narrow beam.

I'm so impressed at how much more confident she is on the beam than she used to be!

The extra lessons are paying off!

 

On To Week 5!

This week seemed to fly!

I think just having Emilee around the house to hang out with, talk to, and just have an extra set of hands has made a world of difference in our little lives!

We've spent some time just hanging out at the park....

Playing ball with Mattis...his favorite past time.

On Saturday, Lt Brown drove up from Connecticut to hang out with us for a day.

Although, Mattis ended up being a terror on our mini golf outing, Dannika had a blast playing with the girls.

I'm grateful for such good people in our lives!

Cause who doesn't like Sponge Bob ice cream on a hot summer day?

My "good morning" selfie that I sent to Nick this morning.

On days he has libo, and gets his phone, I try and make a bit of an effort on my outward appearance.

He sees me most days after he gets home from work in my "mom gear" which consists of work out clothes, pony tail, no make up, and barefoot....in the kitchen (you can laugh, but that's how I am).

So since we hardly see each other right now, I put my best face forward :)

Just reminding him that he's got a "smokin' hot" wife at home...lol.

I've had such an awesome week just hanging out with the kids, doing as little as possible, and hanging out with Emilee.

We are going to be getting ready to go on a trip to Syracuse to visit my brother in law, sister, and niece soon, and we're all really excited.

I hope everyone had an awesome weekend, and got to be surrounded by awesome people like I did this week!

Cheers!

Finally

It feels like Summer.

The temperatures are hot, Dannika is out of school, Summer activities have started, and life is about as peachy as it can get.

 Our "week 3" countdown treat was a trip to Sunshine Farm's ice cream stand in Sherborn, MA.

They have some of the best home made ice cream, and they have TONS of flavors.

It's always a special treat for us.

Dannika got their "moose tracks" flavor in honor of Nick (it's his favorite flavor there).

For the next two weeks, we have a house guest staying with us, and I've decided to call her my "temporary nanny".

Meet Emilee.

She's a senior at MIT, getting ready to go to her final OCS increment in July to become a Marine Officer.

I know her through the NROTC program in Boston through Nick.

When I found out she was planning on "couch surfing" for two weeks before she left for the summer, I offered her a room and a 4 year old roommate (Dannika).

I'm glad she came!

It's nice to have another adult around the house to talk to, and the kids love her.

And she brought Dannika this gigantic lollipop...

Definitely won her over.

We went on a play date yesterday at my friend Rachel's house.

These next 3 photos of Mattis' face are priceless...

Dannika felt like such a "cool kid" being the oldest one at her little brother's play date. 

Ball pit!

Seriously...this play date had everything.

Little man chowed down on some watermelon.

The day was exhausting.

She fell asleep while doing her "sketches" last night in her playroom.

And lastly...

Dannika's first official dance photos are in...

So cute!

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!