Life of a mom

I recently had a friend of mine say that when her littlest one was still at the napping stage, she could send a quick text to a few of her friends and have them go pick up her big kids from school.
That's great. I don't have a 'tribe' as they call it. I never have had one, and anytime I have had a few friends, I'm sure I'm the one who ended the relationship, or chose not to continue being a friend, for whatever reason.

I am lucky that I have my husband, who's a big supporter, when he's not on route as a delivery driver with FedEx - which, right now, is all the time, but I'm thankful he's not an over the road truck driver. I also have his mom who recently took the kids shopping at a farm store, to get some ice cream and to a park, before she was scheduled to leave town for the weekend, but the kids enjoy going out to 'the farm.' My parents are just 4-5 hours away (when they aren't in Florida).

And while we have a church home, and it truly is a church family, there aren't many - if any - people my age. The majority being 50 and above. So, growth groups, or small groups are few and far between, and don't often happen in other people's homes, but just out at the church, which is outside of town, and not helpful, for those of us who live in town. Would I ever open my home to a small group or growth group? Maybe, but I have kids.

For the past few weeks I've been trying to get my 8yo to clean room - it's a disaster. By disaster, I mean disaster! Do not enter, or you might trip and fall and hurt yourself. I have a 2yo who has yet to learn the art of picking up toys when finished with them, and especially not dropping a toy some random place and picking up another thing or toy or non-toy, etc. and then repeating that 5 or more times all around the house. And I question why there are toys in my kitchen, bathroom, etc. odd places.....

Then there's myself, who while, battling depression is taking care of all of the above, I have church obligations, small business owner, work (I have various clients I have to keep happy, plus other part-time work), and volunteering at my child's school, trying to keep my 2yo in cloth diapers as much as possible, so we can save money and allowing her to use the potty when she wants to - but not really potty training - so when I'd rather binge on Netflix shows than clean my kitchen. Please, someone come over and clean my house! Maybe you can see why I don't have time for a "tribe." My tribe is me and my morning coffee - and if I'm lucky a morning or evening at the local coffee shop with a paint brush in hand and a blank canvas in front of me.

I'm an artist, although I'm not sure if anyone has ever called me that. Crafty, yes, but I continually doubt myself and my abilities.

Real Life

Welcome to Real Life.... with a 2 year old.

So recently my husband and I bought a closet system for a wall in our bedroom. Partially due to the fact that we need to sell our house - eventually. Our bedroom only has one closet - keep in mind we have an old house. Doing that finally freed up a closet in my daughter's bedroom - she's only two, but has been in there a few months and I didn't like the idea of her growing up with her dad using the closet in her room when he gets dressed. She uses an old entertainment center I turned into her clothes space when she was a baby and we used it in our room when she was still in there. She's since moved out, but we continued to use her clothes center until we could get my hubby's closet moved out of there.

Photos of painting her room:

This strip of wall was painted a good two weeks before I really decided to stick with the color. 

Before the color was blue and we used it as a sewing room / guest room. 

Before.

After. 

Hubby couldn't keep up with me in Menards when I was walking so fast!

He's so funny! He does the best trim work, though. 

13+ years of marriage (just recently celebrated 14 years)

Almost done.

Turned out nice. 

I love it! It's a warm gray color, so it could be gender neutral. 

Added some purple curtains, some LED Edison light bulbs and a purple bedspread and it's all girl! 

Artwork for the wall - from words from Simply Said, metal sheet and frame from Hobby Lobby. 

I was working on getting the few things he had left out of the closet - some college notebooks with old college papers and notes in them - ha! Didn't know I had those. I thought the children were being well-behaved on the lower level - they were supposed to be emptying the dishwasher (but they got distracted), then they had a snack complete with peanut butter and Nutella and bread.

They moved into the playroom - which I had just cleaned up the night before - when I was in the closet and heard 'wahh.... ahhh... owww' That can't be good. My oldest comes up and says his sister (the 2 year old) hit him in the head with a train accessory. Keep in mind we have a whole rubbermaid tub full of wooden train tracks, accessories and trains. At least he was honest and told me he hit her back. She came up crying and told her 'buppy' hit her hand. She's two, but she can still get her point across, even if all the words aren't there.

I needed a break - and some coffee- and I brought down a load of laundry.
Meanwhile the rocking horse is in the living room (where the TV is), the dishes are still not put away and the train tub literally looks like it threw up in the toy room.


Welcome to real life, with kids.
One step forward, two steps back.
I question myself everyday how I'm going to make this house presentable to potential buyers.

And so I trudge along, getting ready for visitors for RAGBRAI, trying to keep the house clean, while still keeping the children happy. I was able to keep it clean for a few days in a row last week - but that's because either the kids were at the baby-sitter or we weren't here and we had gone to the zoo last Monday as a family.