August 29th - 30th, 2020: Painting till the cows come home

I forgot to mention in my last post that on Friday night we also prepped our master bedroom and bathroom to be painted! So basically ALL day Saturday Adam was painting. I always just tackle the kids and keep them out of the way so he can paint, but this time around I did end up helping some and gave him a couple breaks! I forgot that rolling is honestly pretty fun so now I regret not requesting to do more of the rolling in all the other rooms of the house. 😂

As a side note, Adam passed some gas at one point during the day and it did not smell too pretty. Eventually Maeve called out, "Stop stinking!!" 😂😂

After the kids went to bed, while I was doing some of the rolling, being the sweet husband that he is, Adam decided to go to Crumbl cookies to get some cookies for us -- well, really for me -- he's trying to lose weight after all. So I got to take a break and indulge before finishing my portion of the rolling. Those cookies always hit the spot. Some are for sure even more heavenly than others, but I've yet to try one that isn't good. 

We finished all the rolling sometime after 11pm I think, but literally we were still up till 1:30am putting our room back together. We got so slap happy and it has been a long time since we've both been up that late together working on something. Even though it was work, it was fun to do it together and laugh about everything as we got more and more tired. 😂 At one point, we were talking about something Adam hadn't gotten done and even though it was completely unrelated he said "yeah, well.... coronavirus!" 😂😂 We both got a good laugh out of it and talked about how eventually it's totally going to be a thing where people will blame literally anything on coronavirus - it's totally gonna be an excuse in the book for any and all to use!! 😏🤭

While we were putting our room back together, I was also going downstairs a bunch to help Luna, one of the dogs we watch every weekend. Poor girl has a bacterial infection and she was not acting like herself. She kept whining to go outside and I think she was maybe avoiding going poop because she didn't wanna make a mess on herself and her poop was kinda runny because of her infection. She's a Pomeranian with long hair and she had gotten some poop remnants in her hair earlier in the day that I hadn't noticed until they were dry... 🤦🤢 I think that was also bugging her. One of the times I let her out, she was just went and plopped down right next to our van and just stared at me. Pretty sure she was telling me she wanted to go home! Poor girl. So it kinda honestly worked out that we were up late dealing with all the painting/clean up because she would have kept us awake till 2am anyway! Such a crazy, so not typical night!! 

There have been some distractions during writing this post and it's getting later than I hoped to be finished with this post, sooo I think I'm gonna stop here even though I was hoping to write about Sunday as well. I figure as long as I'm writing some each night, I won't ever get too far behind so ya know - that's the goal. That's the story of my life these days: being behind... 😅 Aren't young moms always behind?! There's always a lot that I need to/hope to/want to do and not enough hours in the day to ever fit it all in! I was just listening to a podcast episode from Jody Moore about the power of "me too" and how if we can find other people in the same boat as us it always makes us feel better. Which I find to be so true! I know I'm not the only one out there that feels like there aren't enough hours in the day, so that brings me comfort and gives me the ability to embrace it and just keep chugging along doing what I can! 🤷‍♀️

Here's a few pics from the day 👇

She's getting really good at loading on the lipstick and blush! 😂

Bear made herself right at home on Adam and I just couldn't even handle it! Soooo sweet and cute. 😍

Sometimes I just have to sneak pics of the kids sleeping... 😍

Love her arms! 😍😍

Until next time, peace and blessings. ✌️

August 28th, 2020: It's Friday, Friday...!

What a weekend! It has been a busy one, that's for sure. Because of having my family zoom call tonight though, I will only talk about Friday in this post since it's getting late. 

I have always loved Fridays and would say that it's my favorite day of the week. As of the last 5 or 6 months, Maeve has realized the beauty of Fridays as well and has also deemed it her favorite day of the week. It is really cute to see how excited she gets anticipating every Friday - she usually has in her mind what special outfit she will wear, what favorite breakfast and lunch foods she will eat (cause no question about it, dinner will always be potstickers! 😏), and now we've developed a new tradition of watching a movie together (with Rowan too) after school on Fridays. So she also gets loves  thinking and talking about what movie we will pick - all that said, I must say, now I especially love Fridays! Considering I already did and now I have a little partner in crime who really gets excited with me. The movie nights are fun too cause it's a big deal - lots of popcorn and tootsie rolls! Go big or go home, am I right? Even though last Friday we watched Zombies 2, she couldn't help herself and wanted to watch it again. 😂😏 Adam laughs when I complain that she usually sticks to the same movies all the time instead of picking a new one every time because I used to be queen of watching my same favorite movies all the time. Sooo I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and I have myself to blame for it. 🤷‍♀️

I should also mention that on Friday for preschool, Rowan was in heaven exploring an applesauce sensory bin with scoops and spoons. We even dyed the applesauce pink and he went to town and got applesauce all over the place (including himself) outside. Sometimes it's better when I just walk away and let them play because every bone in my body would have been wanting to intervene and and maintain the mess. I just can't help myself, so outside away from my line of sight is the best way to go. Kids gotta be kids ya know! 

Before bed, Rowan was cracking me up though because as per usual him and Maeve were way too energetic running around like crazy wild animals, but he kept running into Maeve and basically body slamming her. 😂 He'd immediately bust up and laughing and so would she. And for a hot minute they did that on repeat. Crazy kids!! 

I suppose that's all I got, so here's a couple pics from Rowan's applesauce fun and a video of Nolan and Zoey that I got. Forever besties in the making!

His hands were completely covered! And he definitely had to get a whole new outfit after going inside. 😅

August 27th, 2020: Sparkle

Yesterday Rowan discovered the game Farkle and since he thinks dice are pretty awesome, he plays a very simplified version of the game but calls it "Sparkle" 😂😂 - I couldn't help but laugh when he said to me "I wanna play Sparkle" this morning. Kids always mess up words in the funniest ways.

This morning I went to the dentist again to get my new and improved crown for my front tooth that that didn't turn out well the first time. I was skeptical this time around and I had reason to be. They didn't get it right again! 😩 Another hour spent at the dentist with nothing to show for it. Pretty sure next time I go in even if they finally get it right I'm going to ask for some money back. It's one thing to not get it right the first time, but also not the second time?! That just ain't right. 

I did preschool with Rowan today and he just was not going for one of the activities as it was written. I have a feeling helping him learn is going to be a bit more of a headache/complicated than it is with Maeve. That boy has a mind of his own and it's pretty hard to ever convince him to change his mind about anything when he already has an opinion one way or another. 🤦

I also dragged the boys to Kroger around lunch time because I have sore throat right now and I needed the crappy Ramen noodles. They might cheap garbage, but man they taste pretty good and it was soothing for my throat! 💪

Life with Rowan during the day is allllways the same. He has two puzzles he is obsessed with right now and if he's not doing those with me, then he is constantly riding around on his police car. He lives on that dang thing! And from time to time he will stop and show me every sticker on it and explain to me what the stickers are showing in great detail. 😂 And then he'll yell "okay, the light's green!" and zoom off. Gotta love 3 year olds. 

Maeve showed me this picture that she drew at school and I just couldn't help but laugh when I saw it. Apparently we all have REALLY long hair now in her little eyes!!! 😂😂👌

Tonight after dinner we went to Home Depot to look at paint swatches so we can paint our master bedroom and bathroom. Brought some home and should be able to paint this weekend after I solidify a color tomorrow. I have it narrowed down pretty well and I'm excited - I think it will look great! 🙌 We also stopped at Burger King cause my throat just needed a cold milkshake. And man, did it hit the spot! 

That's about it for today. And today marks day 47,493,764 that Rowan has not eaten one bite of dinner. I am on pins and needles waiting for the day that that kid will be willing to try new things. I will likely drop dead when it happens. He wants to be like Maeve in soooo many ways, but for some reason seeing her eat all sorts of different stuff has had no zero effect on him. 🙄 Heaven help me! 

Peace and blessings. ✌️

August 26th, 2020: Bye, enjoy your shower!

Whyyyyyyy can't Maeve make decisions anymore?! I ask that, but really, deep down I know the answer. Anytime it's time for her to think about anything related to school, her emotions are heightened and all she can think about is missing me. I'm sure it's harder for her to think clearly, so in that flustered state why should I expect her to easily be able to decide what she wants to wear to school? Man, this morning was another rough one getting her ready to go and I've resolved to be more understanding and loving and stop myself from getting impatient too quickly. It is not helping a dang thing and I know that! The poor girl just needs extra love during this emotional transition. Her whole world has been rocked to the core, so I need to get on her level and give her a little more grace. Parenting is not for the faint of heart, I tell you. 😰 I'm hoping and praying for smoother days ahead and patience that comes easily.

All I really have to say otherwise is... 

1. When I went upstairs to take a shower today Rowan said to me, "Bye, enjoy your shower!" 😂🥰

2. Rowan insists his grapes be cut in half lately. Yesterday and today I didn't get to cutting them quickly enough and Maeve said, "I know what to do!" and proceeded to bite each of them in half for him. 😍😍 Call me crazy, but that is about the sweetest thing that I've witnessed as a mother. Especially because I have done that so many times for each of my kids between 1-2 years of age. She is a special one and Rowan is lucky to have her! 

3. We played Spot It tonight as a family before the kids went to bed and almost every single time Rowan would just immediately ask me what his match was, and if he didn't, he would just call something out at random and lay the card down even though what he said did not make a match with the top card. 😂🤦 We really should have just been a team, but he brought some good laughs with his shenanigans. 

4. I deep cleaned the living room rug again tonight. I sure love my rug, but it gets visibly dirty so quickly and I hate that! But I'm at least glad we've got a carpet cleaning vacuum now to take care of it as often as I want to.

And now for some pictures of Rowan and Nolan when Rowan kept asking to hold him. They are quickly becoming good little buddies now! There was lots of laughter from Nolan during this play time. 😍😍

I'm not sure why Nolan's thigh looks so incredibly huge here... 😂

I think this is my shortest post to date! 😲 

Peace and blessings. ✌️

August 24th-25th, 2020: It's not today yet

Why do school mornings have to end up so chaotic sometimes? It's frustrating when it wouldn't end up being chaotic if your child would just go with the flow and do things in a timely manner. Thirty minutes should easily be enough time for Maeve to get dressed, get her hair done, and eat breakfast. BUT it's not enough time when she can't make up her freaking mind about what she wants to wear or what she wants to eat. 😫😫 Yesterday was actually fine in that department, but towards the end of our allotted time I was rushing to feed and change the baby and accidentally forgot to put her lunch in her backpack. Ugh. Adam called me when I was already halfway to the school and I did not have time to turn around without her being late, so he had to bail me out and bring it to us. He was that total weirdo walking through the carpool line... 😂😂. In hindsight, I guess I could have just dropped it off at the school myself a little later in the morning, but I didn't think about that in the heat of the moment. Today was cupcakes and roses when Maeve decided she did not like any of her clothing options that had pockets (necessary for holding her picture of us that she takes to school so she can look at me during the day when she gets sad 😂🥰) and could not pull it together and just pick something. Then she also could not decide what she wanted for breakfast and at that point she certainly didn't have time to be indecisive. 🤬 Then to top it all off, her picture of us was supposed to be sitting on our entry way table for her to grab on her way out and it wasn't there. We did not have time to find it, so ironically all that agonizing over what to wear with pockets was for nothing. Those dang pockets meant nothing now. 😫😭🤬 Cue the extra tears (she started crying from the minute she woke up both mornings because all she can think about is how much she will miss me... 🤦🥺) and cue my sanity slipping away to a far faraway place never to be found again. So yeah. School mornings are just loads and loads of fun right now!!

As for yesterday, things mellowed out after dropping Maeve off. It was an exciting day for Rowan though because he got to start his very own preschool. Last week, when I told him we were going to start a preschool soon together, with all the excitement in him he said "For just me?! Not Maeve too?! Yaaaaaaay!" 😂 The poor sweet boy is sooo excited to get to do something on his very own for the first time ever. I'm grateful for the one on one time with him and I know he's going to learn so much! He is already blowing me away with the questions he can answer that I didn't think he'd be able to yet. We're learning all about apples for our first unit and he's soaking it all up! 

During some down time after we finished up his preschool activities, I asked him if he wanted to play in his pool out back. He responded, "No... I want to play in it today, but it's not today yet" 😂🤔 He is such a crack up with all those terms. Someday he will use today, tomorrow, and yesterday correctly - in the meantime, I'll be laughing. 😂

The only other real exciting thing about the day to mention is that while I made dinner, Adam took apart the rest of the pallet wood and reconfigured it to make a sign for our front porch. We got some ideas cooking up for what it will say. It should turn out fun and cute in the end!! He also took it upon himself to repaint portions of our front and back door on the inside that needed some attention, so they're looking nice and white again.👌 While he was doing that I was watching more of The Help to help get myself out of the bad mood I was in that I mentioned in yesterday's post.

After the fiasco that this morning turned into, the rest of the day remained lowkey until this evening before bedtime. Poor Maeve struggles in the morning knowing school is quickly approaching, but then also struggles at night knowing she's going to bed only to wake up to another school day. She really doesn't hate it once she's there and is always excited to talk about it once she's home, but she still acts like she dreads going just because she can't handle missing me. I think this heightened emotion must make it hard for her to think clearly and make decisions because getting her to decide tonight what she wanted in her lunch for tomorrow was like pulling teeth. 🙄😫 Pretty sure tomorrow I'm not saying a word about it and just putting it together myself. I need some simplifying! 

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself cause I have a couple gaps to fill in from the day. I learned during preschool that Rowan can officially identify an A in a sea of letters, so that's awesome. He had fun counting apples and eventually had to pull some cars in and count those too. He just couldn't help himself. When the love is real, the love is real. 😂 

Maeve got home from school and as per usual, she had most of her lunch still left. She always eats the rest right away after going in our house. I had surprised her with some fruit snacks in her lunchbox and she had saved those too, so when Rowan saw them I decided to let him have a pack too. He started to get antsy and it became clear he was waiting for Maeve to open hers so they could eat them at the same time. 🥰 But then Maeve said, "Hold on Rowan, I have to eat everything else first, because I have to eat the healthy stuff before I have sugary junk. I can't just eat garbage food!" 😂😂👌 You tell him girlfriend. She has certainly picked up on the importance of eating healthy food from Adam and I, that's for dang sure. We're doing something right!

She also cracked me up today when she referred to me as "girl" - I wanted to clean her ears out and she said "hold on girl!" 😂👊

I think that's about all I got. Now I'm just wondering how many more mornings it will be that Maeve wakes up in immediate tears. 🤔 I'll just be happy when this all blows over and she goes to school like a pro!!

Here's some pics.

Always watching Daddy work! 😍

Love those pretty eyes looking back up at me after I feed him! 😍😍

Maeve has chosen to play Hide and Seek as her after school activity with me before it's time for me to make dinner and such. She told Rowan to hide like this. 😂😂👏 Nailed it! 

Sorting apples yesterday! 

Peace and blessings. ✌️

August 23rd, 2020: Ceiling fans and spilled flaxseed

I almost skipped writing today because I was in such a bad mood tonight after putting the kids in bed.... 😑 But I'm here now at the end of the night after some relaxation to decompress and remind myself there are still things to be happy about in this world and in our house. 😂 I got started on dinner later than I wanted to, which means we ate later than we should have, the kids were taking forever to eat their nightly treats, and everyone needed baths/showers. So when all was said and done it was later than I wanted them to be getting in bed and then it occurred to me I forgot to make Maeve's lunch for tomorrow after we finished dinner. I asked her what she wanted to bring and girlfriend could not make up her mind in a timely manner and I was losing patience!! So downstairs I went in a bad mood only to remember I still had dishes to do and a living room to pick up. 😩 Sooo there's that. Once all that was taken care of, I just needed to veg for a bit. Buuut let's rewind to Sunday. 

I have to say that the beauty of having a dog is being able to take a piece of dog food out of your baby's mouth and put it directly into your dog's mouth, with said dog being more than happy to still eat it. 😅😖 That being said, I suppose not having a dog in the first place would eliminate said baby being able to get into dog food.... So really I guess I should retract my initial statement and just say forget I ever said that. 😂🤦

Which brings me to my next point... Nolan is always trying to eat EVERYTHING! I am so not used to this because my other two babies were not big on putting stuff in their mouth. But here I am now literally finding all sorts of junk in Nolan's mouth on a daily basis. It's a miracle he's still alive and hasn't choked to death yet. 😰

After doing our home church, the kids were playing house downstairs while Adam and I were dealing with putting their ceiling fan back together. Which as a side note, is the biggest pain in the butt, by the way!! The amount of arm strength needed to get it situated and then try and screw it back on before it falls out of place again, only to have to redo the situating about 10 times before you actually get it put back together is out of this world. Not to mention we kept dropping screws by accident while on the ladder and then couldn't ever find one of them. Moral of the story is do not EVER take apart a ceiling fan to try and figure out if something is wrong with it yourself. You're welcome. 

Aaaanyway, while we were doing that, both kids came upstairs and Maeve got my attention and said in the most robotic announcer type voice "Excuse me, there is some poop downstairs. Rowan found some poop in our home. Can you clean it up please? Thank you." 😂 And she referring to dog poop, by the way. Zoey's favorite spot to poop if she does poop in the house is always underneath the piano near where they play house, so they keep me well informed. 😏 During this Sunday, edition of playing house they were transforming themselves over and over into who knows what, but I kept hearing them yell "transforming!" while throwing themselves on the ground. 😂

I made 2 loaves of chocolate chip banana bread after our ceiling fan fiasco, one for ourselves and one to deliver to a lady in our ward that needed a pick me up. While measuring out the water for the flax eggs I was making, I accidentally dropped the bowl of flaxseed and dumped ALL of it in the sink.... 🤦🤦. Ironically 2 seconds later, Adam also dropped a measuring cup on the ground. We are just that in sync, that we are even clumsy at the same time...! 😂 

While making said bread, I noticed a sippy cup of Rowan's just sitting on the kitchen floor. So I said, "Hey Rowan, if you don't want the dog to lick your milk cup, you shouldn't leave it on the floor." His response was, "Um, you can pick it up." as if he needed to give me permission to move it. 😂 Little does he know, I had already moved it cause I'm just that nice of a mom. 

After dinner, Maeve and I were talking about what she could put in her school lunch and I told her we were out of apple sauce pouches. I then mentioned that it probably wasn't a good idea to put some applesauce from the jar into one of the little tupperwares we normally use for her lunches because we had learned the hard way that they don't seem to be leak proof with liquidy stuff. 🤦 After I said that though, she rubbed my arm and with a very concerned and gentle look, said "It's okay Mom. I believe in you!" 🥰 Oh my haha... she is truly such a sweet girl sometimes! And with that comment, she easily onvinced me that we could try it out one more time and see if it wasn't a fluke the first time. 

Last but not least, Rowan's newest thing he does when he dribbles just a little bit in his undies is say, "I peed and then I dribbled" 😂🤔 - he's just a wee bit confused by those definitions. 

Alright, I'm outta here cause I'm falling asleep. I'll leave you with this pic of Nolan proving that he pays no attention to anything in his way when he's crawling around, the little booger... 😂 

Peace and blessings. ✌️

August 21st - 23rd, 2020: Livin la vida Costa

Another weekend in the books. And an EXCITING one at that thanks to my discovery that there is a Costa Vida here in Tennessee!!! 😲🤯🕺I was craving it on Friday and had the thought of checking to see if either Cafe Rio or Costa Vida had opened a new store closer to us and what do ya know!! I was shocked to find out that there one opened in Spring Hill 4 months ago and it's only 30 minutes away!!! Hollaaaaaa. Life made! 🙌 We would have gone that night if it weren't for Maeve and her whole world crumbling at the thought of not having potstickers on a Friday night. I even proposed the idea to her on the way home from school just to see if going out might sound more exciting to her and she started crying and said "Don't you know you can't suggest that Mommy?! You know we have potstickers on Fridays!!!" 😂🤦 I don't think her response would have been quite so emotionally charged if she weren't still overwhelmed by being away from me for so many hours because of school. Her emotions are high in general right now! BUT I think we are turning a corner because even though she cried again leaving the car on Friday morning, her teacher sent me a message saying she entered the classroom tear free so she managed to pull it together during her walk to class! 🙌🙌 It was definitely a relief for me to hear that. 

Anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's rewind to Friday morning:

I hit the jackpot on Thursday and Friday morning because for the first time, they started letting some cars unload in the front of the school for drop off and I got directed to the front BOTH days, which means there is no line to wait in. 🙌 Who knows how often I'm going to get lucky moving forward but it's nice to know it will at least happen sometimes! I do think it was a blessing both of those days because showing up 15 minutes early to class gave Maeve a chance to get her tears out before the school day really started. 

Rowan earned a new beach toy the night before that he can play with outside with water and he LOVES it, so he was playing with that for a while in the morning after we got home. Eventually he wanted to switch to playing with it out front instead and when I asked him why, he said, "There's a bug out back so I can't play out there because it might crawl up my leg and do something." 😂😂 The generality of that statement cracked me up. 

While I was feeding the boys lunch, Adam called me to say that his boss let him leave work early!! Hollaaa. So he ended up showing up around 1pm which was nice because it meant I didn't have to drag the boys with me to pick up Maeve. A win for them and a win for me so that I could have some peace and quiet by myself. Maeve was quite excited to see the empty car and fknd out that Daddy was already home! 

After school, we got her school reading program set up. She's supposed to spend an hour on it each week outside of school so she got got her hour in. Then we had our beloved potstickers dinner followed by movie night! We watched Zombies 2, which I hadn't seen yet. Those movies are honestly just as entertaining for me so that was a win! 😂🙌 The kids loved getting to eat popcorn and fruit snacks. 

The best part of the night though was picking up some Crumbl cookies after putting the kids in bed. The flavors this week were Oreo, Cinnamon pretzel, Chocolate crunch, and Reeses Pieces and they were 👌👌 - let me tell you!! I attempted to watch The Help with Adam sitting next to me on the couch doing something else on his phone - he wasn't really interested in seeing it again - but I fell asleep after 15 minutes. I reattempted on Saturday night and you guessed it... made it through about 15 more minutes before falling asleep again. 😂🙈 My name is Megan and I have a problem. 

Saturday:

Adam went roofing in the AM. While he was gone, I enjoyed a cuddle session on the rocking chair with all 3 kids full of hugs, kisses, and lots of cheek squeezing - poor Nolan couldn't catch a break between both kids and I but he takes it like a champ. Maeve also thought she was so hilarious to tickle all of us, especially since I am very ticklish. 😂 

Later in the morning, Maeve and Rowan were on pretend phones with each other and Rowan pulled up to her on his police car and said, "Excuse me, my wheel is broken so I need to go to the battery station... Bye bye" 😂😂🤔 - then Maeve helped him "put new batteries in" - these kids and their wacko imaginations!! 

I got to escape to Hobby Lobby after Adam got home to pick out stuff for our DIY bathroom project with our pallet wood. We officially decided what we wanted to do with it and Adam got his part done with the wood, so I had fun picking out flowers for flower arrangements to go inside two mason jars that will eventually get glued into the wood to get hung on the wall above the toilet. But first, I need to paint the jars with chalk paint and I went all over kingdom come to try and find cottage white chalk paint and they didn't have it in stock anywhere!!! Such a freaking bummer. 😭 It's going to be so cute when it's all finished and I am anxious to see the finished product!! Hopefully I can get my hands on some this week. 

Which brings us to the most anticipated part of the weekend..... hitting up Costa Vida for dinner!!! We pulled up and asked Maeve if it looked familiar to her at all from when we used to go back in Texas (they actually opened one there too while we lived there and Adam won free Costa Vida for a year so we went every month that year! 🙌), but she said no. Then Rowan chimed in and said "I remember eating here" 😂 - what a sharp memory for a 2 month old, which is how old he was before we moved away. 😜 Man, that sweet pork really does hit the spot eeeevery single time. SO. GOOD. It's so good that even though I have to eat it cold leftover since I get the salad, it still tastes good enough cold! So I thoroughly enjoyed getting a second meal out of it on Sunday for lunch.

For the sake of time, I'm going to stop here. 

Here are some pics from Friday and Saturday! 

Nolan kept making this facial expression on Friday and it was cracking us up! Rowan is finally starting to give him more attention now that it's just the 2 of them during the day. 😍👏

❤️ these cute boys! It's too bad Rowan's eyes are a little funny in this pic otherwise it would be total gold. 

We were able to capture Nolan's silly face in a video and it is just too good! 👇👇

Of course had to document our excitement at Costa! I was actually just gonna take a selfie, but Maeve saw me and jumped in and is killing it with her excited face and peace sign 😍😍

Maeve's basically saying it for me... peace and blessings. ✌️

August 19th - 20th, 2020: Tears for days

Oh boy. Today was a doozy. But first, we have to talk about yesterday. By some miracle, the boys and I made it out the door early enough to go to Costco before picking up Maeve from school. So far during this pandemic, samples have been pretty nonexistent aside from handing out individual prepackaged kinda stuff. But yesterday, I noticed a bunch of sample tables were set up, but it was so bizarre because as I got closer to each of them I realized that all I saw was a plate of food being showcased from behind a plastic barrier and that was it. I'm not really sure what the point of that is other than seeing what the item looks like when it's cooked...? Seems kinda pointless to me to display and pay a worker to just stand there next to it doing nothing. 🤔 It was weird. But I did score a pack of ramen, so that was kinda cool. I am all about freebies! 🙌 

We made it back just in time to pick up Maeve and she made me laugh a couple times telling me about her day. She used the phrase "I'm pumped up" and then actually realized it wasn't what she meant to say, but it was funny to hear because we never say that in our house! She's clearly already picking up new lingo from school. 😂 She also was mentioning one of her classmates and said "she's so cute, she was wearing all pink!" - it was kinda funny to hear her say she thought one of her peers was cute. I didn't think it would be as early as age 5 that a kid would start noticing/talking about looks. Unfortunately, then she told me something that was pretty depressing because I was not expecting to deal with this kind of thing yet, but apparently 5 year olds are already capable of being pretty mean. 😔 She said that at recess one of the girls whispered in her ear to tell one of other girls that they couldn't be friends with her anymore. Sadly Maeve didn't think about how that would be mean to say and just fell to the pressure and said it to the other girl. But then this other girl responded by saying "I'll fight with you if you won't be friends with me. So either we fight or you tell me you'll be my friends" and at that point they both agreed to be friends with her. I'm sorry, but what?!? Why on earth would any little 5 year olds be saying terrible stuff like that to each other?? It was pretty disturbing to hear and I kinda couldn't believe my ears. Of course we had a chat about how no one can ever make her say anything to anyone else that she doesn't feel comfortable saying and it's up to her to choose to only say kind things to others. I also told her she should always be kind to others no matter what, but if others are not being very kind she does not have to keep playing with them. Sheesh, who knew we'd be having conversations like this during the second week of Kindergarten?! So disheartening. 😟 

I also learned yesterday that Rowan knows that 7 o'clock is when he is supposed to get ready for bed and the words "it's not 7 o'clock yet" actually came out of his mouth. These kids just keep getting smarter before my eyes without any effort on my part in some areas. They're like little sponges absorbing all sorts of stuff and it's crazy! Today Rowan even took it upon himself to conduct his own little telling time lesson because Maeve is working on it right now. He's certainly ahead of the game - but if Maeve is doing it, he's in! 😂 More power to ya boyfriend. 

Today I had to experience one of the saddest moments ever. I did all I could yesterday to talk Maeve through her sadness and even printed out a picture of her and I for her to take to school to look at whenever she started to feel sad in hopes that it would help her. I was hoping this would keep her from starting the day off super sad, buuuut she still broke down before getting out of the car. I tried to cheer her up in the couple minutes I had, but she was still crying when she got out of car. I give her props for being willing to get out of the car still despite her sadness, but I haaaaated having to drive away from her seeing her look at me one last time with tears in her eyes still. 😭😭😭😭😭 There is nothing worse! Talk about ripping my heart out. It was so sad and I just hated that I had to leave her like that. I definitely broke down after I looked away and kept driving out of the parking lot. And I also broke down a few other times after that randomly just because of thinking about it. 🥺 It's no picnic dealing with the transition of sending your kid out from under your wing. It will be so good for her eventually, but I just hope we get there sooner than later!!!

Anyway, after dropping off Maeve, I finished my work out and then the boys and I stopped by Kroger for a few things because I wanted to make these breakfast bites and needed more Cheerios for it. I also thought of a few more school lunch ideas for Maeve and I wanted to pick up that stuff. I made the breakfast bites after getting home and they are so good! They may or may not be dangerous... I find it's easier to overdo it when you are dealing with bite sized stuff. It's so easy to keep popping them in! 😂 We'll see how long they last.

Other than that, I do have a couple funny Rowan quotes to share from the day. He was playing a game at one point where he was throwing blankets over himself and falling to the ground underneath them. He kept saying "I'm splashing them!" 😂 but then he also said in reference to falling on ground "it doesn't hurt my butt, but it feels good a little bit." 😂🤔 Not exactly sure why it would feel good, but who knows! He's crazy. He also got mad at Maeve tonight when she was messing with the vacuum and he said very passionately "it's not a toy to mess with Maeve, it's a vacuum!!!" 😂😂😂 - I certainly say "it's not a toy" about a million times a day in reference to all sorts of stuff so it's no surprise where he picked up that one. 😏 

Oh and how could I forget! I decided to give Nolan a shot on our little police car for the first time - he loved it and Maeve had fun pushing him around. There if something about a tiny body on one of those things that is just so stinking cute. Naturally I had to take a video.

And with that, I'm outta here to finish cooking up some clothes. Just add some oxy clean and they're a real delicacy. 😂

Peace and blessings.✌️

August 16th - 18th: The woes of Kindergarten

It's pretty rare I miss writing on a weeknight, but I didn't write last night because we had a video chat with the missionaries and I also happened to have a really bad headache, so once that was finished I just needed to relax and not use any brain power whatsoever. Sooo here we are with lots of catch up to be done. 

Sunday:

It was a day. We lived. We breathed. We did church. The end. 😂 But really, I have almost nothing to say about it because I was feeling especially lazy that day for some reason and couldn't bring myself to do much more than read The Help whenever I could get away with it (which I just finished today 🙌 - a fun, yet sad read. Some of the women in that book were just so cruel and I couldn't get over it.). Yeast has been out of stock at Kroger so I wasn't even able to make bread, but truth be told I was feeling too lazy anyway. 🙈 I told myself I was going to work on some ironing and treating stains on some clothes instead, but again.... the couch and my book was calling me and I had to listen. 😂😂 Also, now that I have a child in school I myself am feeling that sense of dread on Sunday night that another week is starting that I used to feel when I was the one in school or had a full time job. Is that a thing to feel that as mom when you're not even the one in school?? 🤔 I guess it's because I know there's a reason that I absolutely must wake up early and it's up to me to get us all out the door on time and through the carpool line all by 7:30am. It is a dang good thing I got in the habit of waking up early several months ago on my own volition, otherwise it would be truly awful. 

Monday:

I feel like weekdays are often all so similar, so I don't have too much to say aside from some funny things that happened. I sat down to eat breakfast with Rowan and he said "Now we're both eating dinner!" 😂🤦 The poor boy gets them all mixed up. Doesn't matter how much I clarify, he still mixes them up often. Later, I was taking him potty and he said to me "When my penis turns big, I will be big!" 😂🙈🙊 I don't know what it is, but he does seem to talk about his penis a lot. Not sure if I should be scared about that or not.... 😅 Anyway, throughout the day, just like the week before he continued to randomly ask when Maeve was coming home or if it was time to pick her up yet. Poor little dude misses his buddy! Oh and here's a good story to remember... I was in the shower and had put Nolan in the playroom with all the doors closed so he could play - he was fed, recently changed, and I knew he would likely stay happy the whole time. In comes Rowan to my bathroom and he says "Mommy, Nolan pooped everywhere!" 😱 To be honest, upon hearing this, I was skeptical because Nolan doesn't often have blowouts anymore, so I asked him if he was sure it wasn't just spit up and he said yes and claimed that he was getting it all over the place. So there I was, forced to stop midshower for fear of what I might find - I mean, I had to know it wasn't a total poop disaster getting worse by the second - and of course, it ended up being just a contained spot of spit up. Stinkin Rowan! It was orangish so I guess I can't blame him completely for thinking maybe it was poop but it certainly didn't get all over the place. 

When we went to pick up Maeve from school, she told me she got sad during the day and cried some because she missed me. She told me the day felt too long. 😭 I hated hearing this because all along I had been wishing she had half day Kindergarten instead of full day because I was worried about this happening. The novelty wore off and now it just feels like too long to be away from her comfort zone of home! I can't blame her one bit. Now I just have to figure out how to help her through it, because here it is Wednesday now and it's continued to be an issue. 🥺 Her teacher even sent me a message today about it because she was that upset. Poor girl! I am sending her with a picture of us in her pocket tomorrow that she can pull out when she gets sad. Hoping and praying that helps! 🙏 

One other funny tidbit at bedtime on Monday was when Rowan really wanted Adam to come upstairs and I assured him he was coming and he said "but I don't hear Daddy walking!" 😂 - truth be told, he wasn't coming yet and boyfriend doesn't miss a thing! 

Tuesday:

It's interesting how my time feels much more constrained now, even though I've only lost an hour of time between morning drop off and afternoon pick waiting in the dang carpool line. I tried leave myself enough time to go to Costco on Monday, which didn't happen, so then I tried again on Tuesday and and it still didn't happen. I don't know how the morning hours manage to fly by so quickly sometimes. It doesn't help that Costco is 35 minutes away so it's a process that usually takes over 2 hours from start to finish... which stinks. I can't waaait until the one in Murfreesboro opens. So anyway, since I didn't leave myself enough time to go to Costco before picking up Maeve on Tuesday, we decided to pop over to the library to get some books for preschool for Rowan. Books were checked out left and right and we literally only managed to get 1 of the books of the list. What a productive trip! While we were there this old man was hacking up a lung, which was discomforting even from a distance, making me wonder if corona was in the air 😅. To my dismay, next thing I knew he was right next to us with his mask partially off his face breathing over my baby saying hi to him. 😑 He honestly had the voice of a smoker, so I'm sure he was no major threat, but then he proceeded to make blow up a balloon and give it to Nolan - last I checked balloons aren't really the safest idea for an 8 month old and when he asked if Rowan wanted one too, I said "oh that's okay, he can actually just have this one" but then he said "I make extra special ones for older kids" -- at this point, I was thinking who even is this dude and why does he have balloons just sitting in his pockets to give away to small children?! So that backfired and Rowan ended up with a balloon animal shaped like a dog. Super odd interaction, but it's 2020. 😂

I've got one final story that is sad, sweet, and comical all at the same time. After Maeve was home from school, Rowan got mad at her for some reason or another and pushed her off the kitchen chair she was sitting on and she fell straight on her back. She started wailing, and in my anger, I immediately swooped him up and threw him in the bathroom to have a time out. I went to slam the door shut and forgot (like I often do) that Adam's pull up bar was hanging from that doorway, but I guess if you try to slam it hard enough it will knock it off the frame and come crashing down on top of you. 😳 Which is what happened and it nailed me in the head pretty dang hard. So within a matter of seconds, in the moment I'm supposed to be going over to comfort Maeve, now I'm distracted also crying in pain myself. 😂😭🤬 Poor sweet Maeve just starts crying even harder as she sees that I've gotten hurt and runs over to me and clings to me and we're both just crying on each other's shoulders... hahaha. But then that sweet girl said to me, while she's rubbing me, "you're gonna be okay Mommy!! I'm sorry it hurts!" 😭😭 - I couldn't even believe my ears, coming from the girl that also got hurt herself. She is so in touch with the emotions of others and always looking out for people - it's pretty astounding for a 5 year old! I just love that sweet, sensitive girl so much. 🥰❤️

Well, that's a wrap! Here's a few cute pics I snapped of Rowan with Zoey from yesterday.

Peace and blessings! ✌️

August 14th - 15th, 2020: Shoot guns

Ay caramba! Here I go again missing many days. For the sake of my time and this post length, I am going to try my hardest to be brief and just touch on some highlights.

Friday: 

Another school day for Maeve in the books. I figured out that morning that I need to leave by 7am to get her in the building before 7:30am with a few minutes to spare so she isn't late. I'm sitting here thinking about how temperature checks are just a normal part of life now. Entering the school world during this corona business means for us it feels like temperature checks before school kids can go in the building is just part of the process! We've known no different and it likely will be weird when that's not a thing anymore because we will be so used to it. Not to mention the masks. My guess is that we will be wearing masks in public for enough months that by the time we don't have to, we will feel vulnerable and naked without one. It's just all SO weird what can become so normal that is really so not normal. That's 2020 for ya! I can't wait to read about this time in my kids' textbooks down the road.

I digress. This is how my posts get long, when I end up going off on tangents... 🤦. Friday was a big day for Adam at work because they were going to have another meeting with Publix and likely by the end of this meeting they'd know if Publix would be moving forward with them or not. We both prayed before going to bed the night before that they would choose to move forward if it was God's will. I was on the edge of my seat the whole day wondering if Adam might call me with big news or not. I had to call him for my own question at one point and asked if they'd met yet and he told me the meeting was at 2:30. Interestingly enough I was in the pick up line to get Maeve and looked at the clock at 2:34pm. Knowing it was happening in that moment I said another heartfelt prayer that all would be inspired during the meeting and expressed how much faith we had that this could happen through God's help if it was His will. Of course I was hoping and praying it was His will because it would be such a game changer for us financially, but I also knew that whatever was to happen would be for our own good. I couldn't believe my eyes when Adam texted me at 4:30pm saying "omg omg omg thank the Lord right now. I am literally crying in Kroger." 😲🙏😭 I had been praying to have more of a desire to get on my knees every night because for some reason the consistency is so hard for me. I just so badly wanted to get to the point where praying felt natural. Two days after I said this prayer is when Adam called to tell me that Publix called him and how HUGE that was. He also specifically thanked me for getting on my knees the last two nights. I felt right then and there that this was Heavenly Father letting me know he heard my prayer and this is how He was going to give me the desire!! We had something huge to pray for now. Fast forward to the Friday that this happened and I hadn't missed getting on my knees once for that week and half, give or take. I feel in my bones now the true power of prayer and what God can do for me and Adam specifically. It is nothing short of humbling to know He is there and ready to bless us when we are doing all we can to be faithful and also communicate and listen! We said lots of tearful prayers of gratitude that night and celebrated with Andy's frozen custard because we felt the heavens open to us and that custard is heavenly so it was only fitting... 😉😂

On a funnier note, after school, Rowan and Maeve had this insightful exchange with each other:

R: "You're Maeve, so you're not a kid.

M: "No Rowan, I'm still a kid even though I'm big and go to school. Adults do things that are hard and like, good stuff for the house."

Just in case you were wondering what makes a true adult. 😂👏

And I almost forgot this story! After Nolan's final nap of the day, I fed him and then plopped him on the floor. Maeve and Rowan had cars lined up nearby that they were playing with and Maeve happens to glance up and see that Nolan is headed towards them. She shouts, "The baby!! The baby's coming! Hurry! Hurry!" and then Rowan looks up and joins in "The baby!! Hurry! The baby!" and before long all I hear is them hyperventilating repeating themselves over and over, frantically throwing all their cars into a basket. They get everything into the basket just in time and Maeve lets out a sigh of relief and says "We're safe!" and then "Come on Rowan, let's hide and block him off" and before I know it they are plotting and planning on what they can use to block his access to them. It was both hysterical and terribly sad that their poor sweet baby brother was the source of such panic and that their greatest need was to save themselves from him. 😂😭#thirdchildproblems Someday, he will be sincerely loved by them. 

Last but not least, I forgot to mention when I wrote on Thursday that I unloaded the entire dishwasher before realizing that it didn't actually run. And then I reloaded it. So just a word to the wise, stop after you see that first dish that doesn't seem clean all the way and check then to see if the detergent is actually gone from the dispenser to save yourself some time. 😘🤦

Saturday:

Gone are our Saturdays that feel like carefree summer fun. Such a sad reality, but our pool days are over and with that comes the time to buckle down again and utilize our Saturdays to focus more on house projects and the like. This particular Saturday I desperately needed to clean out our van, but also needed to take care of a couple of errands so I did all that while Adam worked on a DIY home decor project for our bathroom with that pallet wood we found. So not the most exciting Saturday, but it felt good to get that van nice and clean again, let me tell you. 🙌 Our Saturday night splurge was these Jones sodas that just happened to be so fun and colorful, so I had to take a pic. 

That green apple flavor brings me back to my first job ever when I was 16 working at Panera Bread. I got to drink it there sometimes for free and it was my favorite. But that berry lemonade is a new one for me and it is 👌👌.

And here are the few funny tidbits from the kids that day:

~Rowan's new favorite thing is to play with medicine syringes in the bathtub. He'll suck the water in and shoot it back out, so naturally, he calls them "shoot guns" 😂

~Maeve has a pretend hair salon kit that she got for her birthday and she found Rowan playing with it. So very concerned she said to me, "He can't play with that equipment!!" 😂😂

~At dinner time, Rowan ate something different from the rest of us (which happens more often than not unfortunately since he's such a picky eater 🙄) and he said "I'm eating lunch" - we tried to correct him and tell him it was dinner, but then he said "no, you're eating dinner and I'm eating lunch" 😂🤷‍♀️ - at that point, all you can do is just nod and say yes.

Other pics from Saturday:

Never underestimate the entertainment purposes of an exersaucer 😂 - now that we have another baby in the house the kids do like to pretend to be babies 😏

I pulled this out of Nolan's mouth in the afternoon. It's from a box. He was not even gagging and I didn't even know it was in there until he smiled so big that I could see a peice of it near his gums. It was honestly alarming to pull it out and see it was that big! 😱🤢

He is nothing but trouble and speeds into the pantry anytime he possibly can! 

He is petting Luna's head here! 😍😍

Rowan wanted to wear a belt to bed. Sometimes I just don't ask questions! He in fact did sleep in that belt all night. 😂

I gotta stop here for now!

Peace and blessings. ✌️

August 13th, 2020: In the bed section

Today Maeve had her first FULL day of school! I didn't struggle yesterday with her being gone, since the half day felt pretty short, but today felt long and I have to admit that I did cry once during the day because I missed her. The house is a lot more quiet without her here and it just feels like less is going on - I'm just not used to it yet. I love Rowan and Nolan to death, but I also love her to death so it feels like a piece of my heart is missing and that's hard. I'm sure with time it will feel normal and all will be well.

I will say that Rowan was being so dang funny today and he helped lighten the mood for sure, so that was a blessing. We'll see if that becomes a new normal now that I have even more time to really focus on just him. He sure is a funny little dude. Here's a list of all the funny things he said today:

~This first one involves Maeve too, but this was an exchange between them on the way to school: 

R: I'm bigger than Maeve and I'm bigger than Rowan 

M: No, Rowan, I'm bigger because I'm bigger and you're smaller 

Some great reasoning there from Maeve... 😂🤔

~On our way home from dropping Maeve off, Rowan said "We will drop Maeve off at home when it's 3 points" which really translates to "we will pick her up at 2:30" 😂😂 

~At 8:26am Rowan and I had this conversation:

R: Mommy, I need candy

Me: Uhh, no

R: Why? 

Me: Have I ever given you candy just randomly this early in the morning?

R: Um yeah, right now, so give me candy

As well played as that was, it remained a hard fast no from me so he proceeded to pull over the kitchen chair to climb on it and see if he could reach the top of the fridge himself (where the candy was) only to find out he couldn't. Then he pulled a stool over that was the same height and still had no luck and was forced to give up 😂😂

~While I was doing some dishes, he ran over and said "Ta da!!!" and showed me a softball and this conversation followed:

Me: Oooh, you got a softball 

R: No, it's a baseball

Me: It's actually like a baseball, but called a softball because it's soft. They made those so younger kids could play.

R (points to himself): Rowan's a younger kid

... 😂😂

~I made pancakes this morning and we had this conversation:

R: Mommy, don't eat all the pancakes because Maeve likes pancakes. 

Me: I won't buddy. You're so sweet to think of your sister!

R: My sister?

... I guess he's not aware that Maeve is his sister 😂 

~I was nursing the baby at one point and he said "What are you doing to the baby?" 😂🤔 I have only been nursing the babe in front of him for 8 months now... 😂

~This might be my favorite one. I looked over to see Rowan had the fridge and freezer both wide open for no apparent reason, but Nolan happened to be gazing into them. We had this exchange:

Me: Rowan, shut the fridge and the freezer dude!!

R: No, because Nolan wants air...!

...It's news to me that a baby could "need some air" 🤣😂😂

~I was making my bed and had just put the baby in his bed for a nap, but Rowan came upstairs and opened the baby's door. I asked him what he was doing and he came back out and said "Oh, I was looking for you! You're in the bed section" 😂😂😂 I just might have to start calling my bedroom the bed section now...!

~I was putting away clothes in my room and Rowan kept asking me to find him. He would hide in my closet every time  and then pop out after I said "Where could Rowan be?!" Before going back into the closet for probably the 20th time, he said "This [game] is called finding people" 😂👏

~One of the times I took him potty, he let out a toot and we both laughed. I said "You tooted!" and he said, "No, that was a fake toot from my butt" 🤔😂

~I was doing my scripture study and he wanted to be my helper by handing me my scripture marking pens when I needed them. You can see below how that went south quickly when he went from being my cute helper to saying "Look at the pens!" and I found them like so in the 3rd pic down... 🤦‍♀️😂

I also got this video of him and I just love it. It's probably one of my new favorite videos.

Two seconds after I stopped recording and he'd nearly finished his cup of milk, he said "this almond milk is grossie!" 😂🤔 

He is riot, that's for sure. Gotta love 3 year olds - they always keep you laughing! 

2 final noteworthy thoughts before I get outta here... 

1. Maeve had a great first full day of school! She said she had no problem getting to her class on her own and knew where to go, so that was reassuring for me, and she also said that she had fun the whole day and didn't ever think the day was feeling too long and that she wanted to come home. So that's also great news! She kept sharing more details with me as the night went on and everything she said was great and she sounded so mature talking about it. 😍 My little girl is growing up!

2. The kids turned into wild circus animals during dinner. They were bouncing off the walls! It was truly insane and the word butt was used so many times that I eventually had to tell them they wouldn't get candy if they said it one more time. Guess who lost their candy? That would be Rowan. True story! 

And with that, peace and blessings. ✌️

August 12th, 2020: Officially a school mom

Oh man! A big day here at the McKarns house. Maeve's first day of Kindergarten! I'm officially a school mom and that's crazy. I set my alarm this morning to wake up even earlier than needed to work out and such and I sweaaaaar it just didn't go off, because I really don't remember turning it off accidentally in a state of delirium. I have been known to do that before instead of hitting snooze, but usually I remember. So unfortunately, Adam woke me up at 6:50am and I wanted Maeve to wake up 10 minutes sooner than that so we were a little rushed. I hate starting off on the wrong foot when it's the first day of something important, so it was kinda stressing me out. We got into the parking lot on time, but of course there were a lot of cars in front of us still looping around the back of the school. I had no idea how long it would take to get through the line and it's so hard to just sit there, when you know your child could technically just open the car door and run into the school themselves. 🤦 So she was in fact late, but it only ended up being by 10 minutes so I guess it could have been worse. Truth be told, because we were rushed and I was too worried about being late, it distracted me from thinking about how I was feeling and I didn't end up crying saying goodbye to her! So that was a major win. I really wanted to keep it together since she wasn't scared, nervous, or sad at all about it. I didn't want my potential sadness to change how excited and eager she was, so luckily we didn't have to worry about that. She gave hugs and kisses to her brothers and me, and she got out of the car and didn't look back. 👏👏

I'm pretty sure I looked at the clock a million times while she was gone, just keeping tabs on the time. 😂 I didn't want to be late again! Rowan did so great without her and just played with cars, told his own little stories to himself while playing, spent some time in the bath just playing with a new little boat he earned, and looked at books. Meanwhile I got to work out, do my scripture study, and make some breakfast for myself. It was a lot quieter without Maeve home, which felt both weird and also kinda nice. Time flew and it was time to pick her up!

The car pool line took 30 minutes to get through and Rowan was complaining that it was taking too long after 1 minute of waiting, so that was fun. He also begged me for the water that I didn't have about 20 times. 🙄 Lesson learned to bring snacks and water or something fun to entertain him with. We've just gotta create our new normal and get in a rhythm with this school life, but we'll get there. Maeve was all smiles getting in the car and she talked about her day like it was great! At first the only thing she said she did was watch Blippi, but eventually I got more out of her later. I'm sure that just stood out to her more because Rowan watches him at home sometimes and she loves screen time. 😏 Right as we were pulling up to our house, I noticed our new letter board was delivered on the door step which was perfect timing because I was hoping to get her 1st day of Kindergarten pics taken after we got home. Unfortunately, it took me a while to cut all the letters off and get them situated on the board, so Maeve started getting cranky that it was taking so long. Sooo she ended up being in a bad mood once I was ready to take the pics and was not really cooperating happily when I wanted to redo her hair and wanted her to put her shoes back on. She kept saying "why does it all have to be so perfect??" and truth be told, maybe I do take it too far sometimes to get everything in order just so I can get the perfect picture. I probably need to be able to let things slide a little when tensions are running high, but it is so hard for me to do that. 😬 I kept trying to tell her that in 20 years she would thank me when she can look back and see what she looked like on her first day of school EVER! She wasn't so convinced... 😂🤷‍♀️ But hey, we got the pictures and no one died so all is well. 👇

Rowan had to get in on the action, holding cars in his hands, because what else would you expect? 😂

I had to take one inside because she was just so squinty outside and I wanted to see her pretty eyes. She's such a beauty if I do say so myself! 

Her teacher sent this one to me that she took at school. Gotta love the face mask! Who knew it'd be the fashion trend of 2020? 😂

Maeve wanted to celebrate kicking off school by watching a movie with popcorn and candy and getting pizza for dinner. So we did just that! In the middle of the movie, things got a little crazy with a pretty intense thunderstorm that came through and we even lost power for a few seconds and had to get the movie going again. We took a break so Maeve could call her Gram and tell her all about school. She also talked to her Grandma before going to bed. Such a momentous day for her!

She was so excited to make her school lunch for tomorrow that she asked me about 5 times if I could help her with it yet - just a little impatient, but her excitement was cute. We got it taken care of after dinner and she was so happy to help load up her lunch box. I think she's pretty thrilled she gets a juice box and apple sauce pouches everyday now. 😂

In other news, our washer was acting funny last night so we had to have a repair man come out tonight and nothing was really wrong with it, which is both a good thing but also kind of annoying to pay $50 for someone to check things out and get it sounding normal again without really fixing it. Oh well, that's life sometimes I guess!

Before I sign off, just a couple little funny comments from Rowan today:

~He asked me if he could jump onto my lap on the couch and I said yes, but then he said "No, I'll hurt your crotch if I do" 😂 - to be fair, he has hurt it before by jumping on me so he's not wrong for playing it safe. It gave me a good laugh! 

~He noticed that his potty seat upstairs had a split in the fabric and he asked what happened. I told him I wasn't really sure exactly how it happened and he said "maybe you threw me on the seat too hard and so I broke it up" 😂😂 - gotta love the little wheels turning in his brain. Sometimes in my haste, he does land on the seat a little abruptly so his logic is honestly pretty sound there. 👌🤣 

And on that funny note, peace and blessings. ✌️