Twas a special Valentines Day full of yummy things to eat, paper cards with *I Love You*, and excited little kids. Brady treated the day like it was Christmas...every part had to be special. We started the day with buckwheat pancakes and real maple syrup...strawberries and blueberries. Yum - O. And yes...I made them heart shaped...a task easier said then done.
The night before I cut out paper hearts and hung them...Zac surprised me with a bouquet of sweet smelling white roses (we set one aside for Trin - she is OBSESSED with flowers.) 
They're so beautiful...makes me want spring even MORE seeing fresh flowers on my dining room table. We surprised each kid with a little box of chocolates and a special card. I've already packed up the cards they made for Zac...I have high hopes of keeping them forever. Brady's was so sweet with just the words "I love you" on the inside that he wrote all by himself. Trinity's card was so funny because I had her tell me what she wanted to say and then I wrote it. Well...without any prompting from me...these are the sentences I had to write...she kind of just took off and didn't want to stop."Daddy, I want you to buy my puzzles."
"Daddy, I want you in my heart." (hmmmm...getting daddy confused with Jesus possibly?)
"Daddy, I want you to stay with me."
"Daddy, I want you to play with me."
"Daddy, I love you to hug me."
"Daddy, I love Brady."
And then of course on the front I had to write "I Love My Daddy" in big letters. So sweet - another one of her obsessions...her handsome daddy. I loved how this year our day was so focused on the kids and our love for them and telling them about why we should be kind and show love to others....it was nice not just having the *romantic* focus - all in all....another way God uses kids to make you a less selfish person. :)
The weather is gorgeous this week...yah for finally being able to run around outside and watch sunlight stream down on my babies. Nothing like a little vitamin D for the spirits. Our dishwasher came in a big box which has been THE hang out spot for Tristan and Trin...funny how just the simplest of things is so inspiring to little kids....they usually prefer boxes and pill bottles to their toys. The show Extreme Makeover Home Edition is in a town about 30 minutes from our house redoing a home for the SWEETEST family. I'm so thankful that out of ALL the weeks they could have come...God made it THIS week with THIS weather!
Awkward hug...but still so sweet. They play (well, Trin plays this game and Tristan just stands there and does what she says) where she walks away and then runs towards him with her arms open wide for a hug and cries "oh, it's been so long...i missed you little buddy" and then they hug and giggle...and then repeat the process about 22 times. Trin and her imagination keep me laughing on a hourly basis. The other day I went into her bedroom and she was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling all forlornly. I asked her what she was doing and she said in the most dreamy voice "oh mom, I would love to be loved forever." I told her that she WOULD be loved forever and she looked at me with those big blue eyes and said "yes...but if I don't want to be loved I will just make some people sad." I hope that I'm not included in "some people."
And before I sign off....just need to post some boring pictures of these two beauties. So nice to have something so very new and CLEAN. I've decided after much thought and some persuasion from others that I probably don't want stainless steel in whatever home we actually end up STAYING in. I do love so much the way it looks...but with 4 kids...I don't want to spend the next 18 years or so stressing over fingerprints and smudges. Our microwave is stainless steel and it always looks so dirty.
Anyways...I ran my dishwasher last night and all the dishes came out super clean...for the first time in five years. I usually would end up re washing a third of the dishes in our old dishwasher...most of the time I would just do them by hand. I know dishwashers are a convenience that aren't totally needed but I SO love having one. I'm starting to figure out that convenience isn't always a bad thing...for some reason I have always thought that convenience equalled laziness or something....now I see that for me right now with ALMOST 4 kids under the age of 5....it is nothing but sheer peace of mind. I remember loving to stand at the kitchen sink with my hand submerged in warm bubbly water...watching dishes come clean...it was de stressing. But now...being able to load up that machine every night and push "start" - It takes SO much stress off of me.
Awkward hug...but still so sweet. They play (well, Trin plays this game and Tristan just stands there and does what she says) where she walks away and then runs towards him with her arms open wide for a hug and cries "oh, it's been so long...i missed you little buddy" and then they hug and giggle...and then repeat the process about 22 times. Trin and her imagination keep me laughing on a hourly basis. The other day I went into her bedroom and she was lying on her bed staring at the ceiling all forlornly. I asked her what she was doing and she said in the most dreamy voice "oh mom, I would love to be loved forever." I told her that she WOULD be loved forever and she looked at me with those big blue eyes and said "yes...but if I don't want to be loved I will just make some people sad." I hope that I'm not included in "some people."
And before I sign off....just need to post some boring pictures of these two beauties. So nice to have something so very new and CLEAN. I've decided after much thought and some persuasion from others that I probably don't want stainless steel in whatever home we actually end up STAYING in. I do love so much the way it looks...but with 4 kids...I don't want to spend the next 18 years or so stressing over fingerprints and smudges. Our microwave is stainless steel and it always looks so dirty.
Anyways...I ran my dishwasher last night and all the dishes came out super clean...for the first time in five years. I usually would end up re washing a third of the dishes in our old dishwasher...most of the time I would just do them by hand. I know dishwashers are a convenience that aren't totally needed but I SO love having one. I'm starting to figure out that convenience isn't always a bad thing...for some reason I have always thought that convenience equalled laziness or something....now I see that for me right now with ALMOST 4 kids under the age of 5....it is nothing but sheer peace of mind. I remember loving to stand at the kitchen sink with my hand submerged in warm bubbly water...watching dishes come clean...it was de stressing. But now...being able to load up that machine every night and push "start" - It takes SO much stress off of me. I'm actually considering being done with cloth diapers. I hate that decision just because I'm SO very conscience of the savings (yes...even after water and detergent I have saved TONS of money) and of course the landfill (I'm a big time into recycling) but I'm just kind of tired and would like to devote more time to kids and other responsibilities and less to things like...well, washing dishes and diapers.Also, I have to keep the dirty diapers in the laundry room and they kind of smell...and now the laundry room is Tristan's room. I've been using disposable with him for the last few months and I HATE buying them but love not having that extra load of clothes to wash everyday...I do at least one or two loads a day WITHOUT the diapers. Thoughts?
7 comments:
Sounds like a wonderful Valentine's Day. Trinity's card is too cute!!
About cloth, if you still wanted to save a little bit of money, you could part time cloth diaper....just a thought. But, I totally get the convenience thing. Sometimes it's a matter of sanity. I tried cloth diapering Sophia (Levi was in cloth until with moved here), but it was just too much to do in the midst of renovations. The constant renovating causes so much extra work that I just couldn't keep up with the diapers. I plan to put her back into them when renovations slow down. I say, do what works for you and your family.
my strong opinion is do what you want to do about diapers.
i love disposable diapers.
i make no excuses.
if you choose disposable then
don't make yourself feel badly
about it.
the important thing is a healthy
happy mommy and baby.
Your oven and especially the dishwasher look marvelous!!
I agree a hybrid is a great idea that saves the emotions of feeling guilty and saves you time with washing to 1/2 time. The ultimate is to go cloth all the way, but I am a busy mom who works full time and I just have to choose a balance for my sanity. Just be happy with whatever decision you make:)
It was so fun and encouraging reading your blog today.
About the diapers, when we were in boot camp the first time we had to keep our diapers in a pail filled with bleach water. That sure kept the smell down. It didn't make for less wash, but at least the room/house didn't smell like stinky diapers.
This info is totally free and without any pressure whatever. If you want to switch to disposable diapers, that's fine with me. I'm with Madeline...whatever works for you, go with that.
Love you! :-)
Wellll....since I only did cloth for like 10 seconds, I say do disposables and save you hair (cause you may pull it all out if you don't just do it!) The whole cloth thing didn't make me feel more organic because of the way you had to wash, soak all that, a lot of chemically soaps would be in the cloth anyway (at least that's how I felt, I'm sure some would argue). I love my chlorine free diapers, and they really fit our lifestyle, we don't spend enough time just at home to do only cloth, so....Yeah, just sorta rambling on about it, but you know how I fell about....ahaha. Where are you anyway?! No post in like 5 days or something?!
Wow, your post was very brave. I almost feel like I should never mention that I use disposable.:) haha...but it is each moms perogative and although cloth may be the way to go right now I applaud your changing if you feel it is time. Just a thought for you though, if you join amazonmom.com than you can get diapers pretty darn cheap and if you sign up with subscribe and save you get them cheaper and you can manage your account for how often you want diapers, sizes etc...If you get Parents magazine there is also a 20% off coupon for amazon mom in them so that makes the diapers a super, super good deal. :) Enjoy doing whatever you do! Your roses are gorgeous by the way.
Leanne
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