Life As We Know It...: Phew!!!!.....How Do I Do It?

The past two weeks have been so packed full. I love time packed full of busy, fantastic, productive, motivating, physical, family, and friends moments. The downside of all that is time flies by quicker than ever and in a blink you turn around and everything is piled up waiting again. It is such a vicious cycle of fun, adventure, routine, and hard work. I complain about it all the time, but I honestly thrive on it. I would be lost with a dull moment. Thankfully, I have very few of them. February started off with school, basketball practice, project day (project #4, I might add...), and Zach turning 13 years old!

I will start this post with "Project Day". It was my friend, Misty's turn to get a project completed at her house. So, the task at hand was painting the spindles of her beautiful early 1900's stairwell. They had to have three coats of paint. So, she painted the first coat prior to me coming. I helped her with a second base coat. Then, we applied a brilliant white, high gloss finish. They turned out beautiful! Lunch was a delicious curry chicken salad sandwich. Yum! So fun to spend time with such a good friend while helping each other with tedious chores that neither of us enjoy doing alone.

Project Day (Project #4, Stairwell Spindles)

February 4-6th, 2016

Wow, my first little boy turned 13 on this day of this year! I can't believe how tall he has shot up in the last year. He is only maybe three inches shorter than me now. He has the red headed temper, the lazy bones and attitude of a teenager that I'm not enjoying, but underneath all of this revolving into teenagerness he is still my sweet little boy. He just doesn't like to appear that way sometimes. It is real difficult for this mother. I almost cry every time I think of how much he has changed both physically and otherwise. Well, I do cry a little. lol Well, we had basketball practice after school so not the best evening for celebrating. Instead, we had snow crab, shrimp, potatoes, and corn for a Birthday dinner on Friday night. Saturday, we had two basketball games, came home to get ready for the Valentine's Ball that night. Zach sold candy grams at the dance. Wyatt was crowned "Prince" of 4th grade!

Zach Turns 13!

Zach is 13!

White Chocolate with Macadamia Nuts

Valentine's Ball!

February 7th-Zach's Birthday Get-together and Superbowl

Today, I tried to catch up on a few things around the house. We had to leave somewhat early in the afternoon to pick up one of Zach's friend (Jesse) for an evening of fun at "The Zone". His other friend (Kyle) lives in Richmond and was coming with his parents to meet us there. Kyle and Zach are soccer buds from a few years back. "The Zone" is an indoor laser tag facility with a clip and climb area where anyone 48lbs to adult can climb various obstacles. They also have a laser maze and an indoor playground, arcade, and cafe. It was an awesome evening! We made it back home in time to see the half time show and last half of the Superbowl. We were cheering for the Carolina panthers (which lost). They played against the Denver Broncos. It wasn't an extremely fun game to watch because it was mostly field goals and strong defense. I wasn't at all impressed with the halftime show or the commercials. Overall, the fun had at "The Zone" was the highlight of the evening!

The Week of February 8th....A VERY busy week!

Monday, February 8th-Chris worked on truck. I worked on catching up the housework from a busy weekend. Monday night we had basketball practice. The week also involved me volunteering to be the one filling out candygrams that had been turned in all week for the SCA (almost every evening this week was spent working on this task). Tuesday, was my Museum Council meeting at Betty Gwathmey's house. Always pleasant. It was nice getting to hear some of the history behind some of her heirlooms. Tuesday, we had a storm move through and ended up getting some snow overnight. Wednesday morning I took kids to school, came home and gathered things out in the snow for my floral arrangement for Garden Club, put branches to soak and cedar branches in the sink. I showered, made a quick lunch, and headed to the museum to set up for the Garden Club meeting to be held on Thursday. I went and picked up the kids, made dinner, assembled my floral arrangement, made my salad dressing, filled out a stack of candy grams for the school, and FINALLY went to bed. Thursday, dropped kids off at school, gathered everything needed for my Garden Club meeting and headed out the door. I ended up winning 2nd place and Most Creative of Show on my artistic Valentine botanical "Free Form". I received a 1st place on my cedar branch. We had hot tomato soup, salad, sandwiches, and cookies for our lunch and beautiful Valentine's Day decorations all around. It was really nice. The boys had an early release day. Zach stayed after school, but Wyatt came back to the museum to help me with clean up. Then, I had parent-teacher conferences with four teachers. I had made chicken and rice in the crock pot so the boys and I went home and grabbed a quick bite before heading off to basketball practice. Friday, was project day. Misty came to my house and we caulked the crown molding in five rooms. We also did touch up paint on the rooms that I had painted first in the house and had a made a bit of a mess with because I used leaky tape. Wow. What a difference! Talk about exhausted on Friday night though. Today, was two basketball games. We won one and lost one. I did a little clean up or more like....get it back together stuff in the house. We also went to our neighbors house this evening for a bit to help them get their new wifi printer and phone connect to work. Still feeling a bit exhausted! Maybe I will be lazy tomorrow.....doubt it though. Oh, I should also mention....Baby, it's cold outside!!!! Expecting snow after tomorrow.