from there to here

we were just about to dive off the cliff and take a tumble into insanity

friends, we were so desperate....my husband resorted to an oven mitt wrapped in clothesline pulling a laundry basket and approximately 70 pounds of children around the house

it was like....c'mon mother nature.  we're so over this...we need a break from all this inside silliness

one can only take this trip from the kitchen to the living room so.many.times

and when J tired of the craziness they wanted ME to pick up where he left off...this is always how it goes...he gets them started on some sort of INSANE game that requires actual strength, then turns his attention to espn.com and i'm left with three little chickens clucking at me for "just one more"

half a trip around the house left my hand without circulation, BEGGING the Lord for mercy

He must love me because three days later we kicked all hats, coats, gloves (and anything reminiscent of winter) to the curb and spent the day on the driveway

our garage is freshly swept and organized

and we discovered that little missy messy has mad skillz in the areas of rolling and catching

heavy, clunky winter boots have been replaced by their lighter, sassier rain-version...

...our driveway is an ocean and we're covered in liquid dirt.

it can only mean three things, people

#1 my children will now have sufficient fresh air to make them drowsy by 7:00 pm

i realize that this blessing brings with it a curse:

buckets of mud tracked through my basement several dozen times a day, but i'll trade the latter for the former as it means i might just get to watch THE VOICE with my husband in peace

#2 my days of playing slap jack and crazy 8s have mercifully come to a grinding halt

#3 bust out the grill...i'm done cooking

j is now the man of the supper hour

it sounds to me like happy is spelled:  s-p-r-i-n-g :)

icicle boogers

i formally take back every nice thing i ever said about winter

the sparkles and glitter have worn off

i just broke a frozen booger off my baby's nose.

the kids are not fighting like cats and dogs...they are fighting like tigers and rabid wolves.

i've wiped enough noses to go through two boxes of tissues...since  7 am.

i've read the same three books five thousand times.

i had a dream last night that when the littles weren't looking, i took one particularly beloved dvd, dropped it in the driveway and drove over it so many times that it was ground into powder

i'm sorry, but i just cannot feign enjoyment over one.more.cup. of pretend anything

the dog won't go more than 4 feet from the house to do his business, which has left a lovely arrangement of rock hard turds just inches from where i step to get the mail

the sun is shining her fool head off, but she's a LIAR because the thermometer tells the real story.

it was minus 9 when we went to school...2 hours late today.

my students are apathetic (so, in other words, normal)

and whining has reached record heights - so good are these children at it that we may just declare it worthy of becoming an olympic sport in this home.

my girls need some fresh air.
and a park.
for the love of pete, they are climbing everything!
as in, every single thing.
tables, beds, chairs, lamps....the middle console in our car.

two days ago our second-born asked for grass for her birthday
while the first-born reminisced about when she was "little and wore sandals"

speaking of sandals, don't even get me started on wardrobe.
i'm sure that come next october, i'll be all..."ooh, i can't wait to wear my cozy sweaters and jeans again, la te da"
but right now, i look in my closet and want to barf.
everything is brown, long-sleeved and ugly while my flip flops are smiling at me from their hibernation under the bed and i'm thinking i need them like i need air.

just today sweet peach's face looked out from behind the barren snack cupboard and asked why we don't have any crackers or peanuts.
sorry, angel.  dollars previously earmarked for snacks have now been reallocated to pay for heat.
i wish i was joking.

i can't even enjoy a good, old-fashioned eskimo kiss from my 2-year-old since it now comes with a mandatory side order of snot, thank you very much.

we're verging on insanity.

enter the hero of this story:  my friend, laura, who made me a HUGE batch of monster cookies yesterday

i'm not too proud to admit that in an attempt to keep the wheels on, i took the ziploc baggie from its home on top of the refrigerator (where they remain staunchly hidden from my children)
and locked myself in the bathroom.

don't worry...i was duly disciplined for my irresponsible behavior.  exactly 11 seconds into my cookie binge, i saw little fingers slipped under the door and quiet little voices coming from outside asking for dozens of idiotic things...like water.
my garbled, "just a minute" through mouthfuls of delicious peanut butter, m&m and oatmeal resulted in louder and louder requests which crescendoed into high-pitched shrieks, waking the baby.
i quickly ended my "alone" time by wiping my mouth on my sleeve and chugging a glass of water to cover any evidence of chocolate on my breath.
upon opening the door i found the dog had chewed a potholder and three polly pockets while the children had now stopped with their demands only to be found "boosting" each other to the kitchen sink to get fistfuls of h2o.
don't worry...there was hardly any mess to clean up.

the bottom line?
here's what winter in minnesota looks like when you've gone stark raving mad:

i guess if the flowers won't bloom outside, she'll resort to a garden in her hair.

Lord, forgive my grumbling.
i call as my witnesses previous blog posts as evidence that I did, indeed, enjoy the splendor of your creation which is winter.
however, the fam and i would be oh so grateful if you would quicken warm winds in our direction.

march is on the horizon....as in, 2 days away.

50 degrees and a torrent of melting snow flowing through our gutters is officially on my prayer list.
i rest my case.
the end.
amen.

the same 24 hours

i'm about to get riled up

if i hear the phrase, "i don't have time..."

one more time, i'm going to pop

i mean it

i might just punch something...or someone

my students use this LAME excuse almost every day

as if giving them 7 days and two class periods to put together a project wasn't enough

my children say it 

my co-workers say it

but the person i am most sickened by in regards to this phrase is me

it rolls around in my head all day long as i think about things like exercise, books i want to read, friends i want to call, things i want to make, rooms i'd like to paint....the list goes on

and then i get exhausted thinking about them and how i am so burdened by this house, these kids, this job...that i just can't do it all

here's what's true:

i'm busy

i have three kids

a job

a marriage

a home

but there's what's true and then there's the truth.

the truth is...i have the same 24 hours in the day as everyone else

the same 24 hours that Mozart had

the same 24 hours that Mother Teresa had

the same 24 hours that DaVinci had
the same 24 hours that Jesus had

i'm not saying that i have aspirations to write music or run an orphanage

but i do have aspirations to be a good friend, listen well, maintain a cozy home, cook good meals, teach my children to write old fashioned letters and enjoy a list of about 500 good books

the idea that i don't have time is a lie
and when i complain about it, whine about it and throw tantrums about how i can't get it all done...
well, all i'm really doing is proving that i'm a lot more like my 2 year old than i'd like to admit

i do have time

24 hours
every day

no more complaining

these girls are looking to ME as a model of how a woman navigates through the world

and acting like i'm suffering in the midst of blessing is a poor legacy to pass on

today i have 24 hours

tomorrow, too

i have FULLNESS in Christ

and i CAN get it all done

i have time for playing on the floor

and hide and seek

i have time for monster icicles

and dancing to FROZEN music at the breakfast table

i have time for snuggles

and climbing

and bills and laundry and friends and jogging and phone calls and healthy meals and running a marathon and changing the world and plenty of rest

i'm doing it.
i am.

nobody's gonna' stop me ;)

minne-snow-ta

today, we woke up to this...

and this...

and this...

and despite the collective groan heard 'round the state as the Lord added 8 more inches of powder to the mountains we already had, i was a happy girl

true, i'm so far behind with my students at school that it's likely i'll need an airplane to get caught up

true, i'm not looking forward to being in school until mid-June

true, i wish i could gain some momentum with this group of students

this start.stop, start.stop just isn't ideal for learning!

but beauty is in the eye of the beholder, right?

this fall i had a foreign exchange student from guatemala

on his first day in my class he told me he had never seen snow

never

as in...not ever

he asked me to describe it

hmmm.....i was stumped

how can something that we have such an abundance of...something i am utterly TOO familiar with...be so hard for me to describe?

but try describing a snowflake and you'll see...it's not easy

try describing how tiny, delicate glitter falling from heaven piles into mountains strong enough to stop traffic

try describing the sparkles that covered my backyard this morning

try to paint a picture of how it clothes the trees and rooftops

try describing how it gets caught in your eyelashes and makes your hair stick to your face

try finding words for how it tastes...how it feels...how it sounds in the midst of a blizzard

try to explain how sometimes it crumbles in your hands but other times it sticks so fast you can create forts and people and have fights while packing it into the shape of a ball

try to define the way the wind sculpts it into drifts that even the most accomplished artist couldn't and then suddenly vanishes into thin air when warm winds creep our way

you can't do it.  i promise.

a snowflake is a mystery.

and although i'm sure that in a few days when we're back to below zero temps, i'll be wishing i lived in guatemala....

today i am oh so grateful that my snowbabies know all about the sparkly magic of this place

if you're in the market for a cupcake, you can get one at her cafe for only seventy eight dollars ;)

i know i'm in a tiny minority right now...

but i'm going out on a limb and saying that despite treacherous roads and nasty forecasts, i'm happy that i get to be right here, right now in the middle of piles and piles of this mysterious stuff that not everyone in the world gets to enjoy.

happy snow day!

keepin' the romance alive

i came into the kitchen on friday morning to find this

after 8 years of marriage and 3 kids, he's still romancing this lucky girl

as if an x and an o in my toast weren't enough, j then pulled a most heroic stunt

because his students arrive at school almost an hour and a half after mine, he's the get ready guy in the mornings

i stick around just long enough to get their hair done and j gets to spend the mornings making and cleaning up breakfast, dressing our petunias and then hosting dance parties, reading stories and blasting FROZEN music to get the kids groovin' before heading off to day care

he has monumental task of getting all three of them IN their coats, hats, mittens and boots and buckling them into car seats

a few short blocks later, he gets anoher min-workout as he gets them OUT and delivered to bonnie's house

it might not sound like that big of a deal...if you've never bundled up a kid and gotten them in a carseat in subzero temps

but trust me...one of the reasons i love this guy is that i can trust him with such a giant task

back to valentine's day...i was going about my business at school, waiting for the kiddos to arrive when i came up from the office, greeted my advisees and saw j walking down the hall with all the kids and a box of donuts

peach held them out and said something she'd obviously been practicing, 

"donut you want to be my valentine?"

awwwww....go ahead and melt my heart why dontcha?

they also brought FROZEN pictures of Olaf that they had colored and written "you're worth melting for" on ;)

as i smothered them with hugs an kisses

tulip was quick to assert that she'd really love it if i didn't actually eat the donuts, but brought them home so she could eat them for dessert.

i was persuaded to go with this plan when she promised she'd eat all her supper, no matter what it was ;)

when we arrived home we had not one, not two but THREE awesome packages on our front steps.

according to the kids, it was an AMAZING mail day

grandma T

and auntie C

have picked up on the pirate love

and who doesn't love a random mustache straw?

we spent the rest of the night watching the olympics and playing crazy 8's

we're keepin' the romance alive in the wacek house...

but after all the chocolate that daddy brought home from his students,

i'm afraid these kids will never go to bed!

even sparkle got her fill of mini M&Ms

i know we could have gotten a babysitter and waited for hours to get into a restaurant

but i guess these days i'm more of a peanut butter and jelly toast, heart-shaped pizza and donuts for dessert kind of girl ;)