O.k. so in a totally unrelated note to this post...I hope it was clear in my previous post about maternity fashion that I was the late one in getting my stuff together, not Alicia!  Upon asking her to help me with that post she was perfectly prompt in sending me her pictures and info right away and it was totally my end of things that ended up taking forever.  So...I hope it didn't come across the other way around.  Sometimes things make perfect sense in my head because it's my thoughts and my fingers typing and then when I read over it later I'm like.....Hmmmm.....so.  Just wanted to set the record straight on that one.:)  A big thanks again to Alicia, for helping me out!  I hope you all were able to check her blog out and leave her some love.

   And now on to more important, life-and-death matters.  (kidding)  I need to find a rug for our master bedroom, and while I usually thoroughly enjoy shopping, there are a few things that will plummet me straight into the vortex known as the great World Wide Web for a shameful amount of hours, scouring the depths of the internets in hopes of finding just the perfect one.  Strollers, diaper bags, gliders, rugs....o.k. so a lot of things.  It is a wretched habit that I hope to be set free of one day.

   But in the meantime?  Selecting something of significant value or cost takes me F-O-R-E-V-E-R and by the time I have made my choice, I have probably seen hundreds (no exaggeration) of similar products and they all start to blend together in my mind and I start to go a little crazy.

It's just all a little bit silly, really.

  In my defense, I think it is because I like to be frugal and thrifty, and so spending a big chunk of money doesn't come easily for me.  That is why the decision is mulled over, contemplated, compared with others, reviews are read, ratings are checked, sales are searched for, and coupon codes are hunted down with vim and vigor.  And still, sometimes I just end up getting nothing and waiting around for no apparent reason before beginning the whole tedious process over again.

Like I said, it's rather ridiculous.

   So when we started re-doing the master bedroom and I knew that switching to wood floors would mean I would need to shop around for the right area rug.....part of me panicked just a little bit.  I know, first world problems, right?   I mean....I have pregnancy brain and two toddlers and 1,000 other things to do right now and the last thing I feel like doing is melting my eyeballs with 70,000 thumbnail images to sort through on RugsUSA.com.

So that's where you come in.

   I have put together a vision board (ha!  Not really, but the closest I could come to one) of a rather vague representation of what I like in a rug.  Some of the items are really similar and some are completely and totally unrelated so.......I suppose your guess is as good as mine?

   I guess my taste in rugs is sort of all over the board except for a distinctive bohemian/urban flavor?  I have no idea really.  So give feedback if you like, or send me a link to a completely different one that you think I would like, or just ones that YOU really like, etc. etc.  It'll be fun.  And this way, I can let all of you do the shopping for me!

Just kidding.  Or am I?

Happy hunting!
 

It's far from finished, but here's just an itsy bitsy sneak peek of what we've been up to lately....

   Well, mostly my husband really.  He's done most of the heavy lifting (literally and figuratively) but it has been a group effort.  We are currently remodeling the master bedroom and it has been a slow, grueling process at times, but it is so fun to start to see it all come together and take form.

   People always talk about those crazy nesting urges, and usually I'm about 3 1/2 months behind everyone else, but this time around the nesting urges are striking before the 3rd trimester, if for no other reason than I already feel like I'm getting huge and I don't want to be bending over this much 2 months from now. First and foremost on my list was our master bedroom, although I would love to do the office and girls' room and guest room as well.  Ha.  We will see what we have time/motivation/energy/sanity for before baby comes.

This is what it looked like when we moved in:

They roll up their sleeves and dive in.

   Armed with cute little aprons and great determination, they set out to help me make dinner.  And although adorable, this mini kitchen crew effort usually results in one, giant mess.

   The ingredients rarely end up precisely where they should, and often a few extra ingredients are thrown in.  The sugar spills and creates a crunchy, sticky film that immediately attracts the ants, and their little hands, so determined to get those dishes sparkly clean, slosh sudsy water up and over the sides of the sink and into puddles onto the floor.  Eggs crack and ooze, flour dusts every surface and little buttery fingerprints leave their mark on the cupboards.

   And let's be honest, often (o.k. basically all of the time) I am tired and impatient and I just want to get the marathon of dinner prep and clean up done and over with as quickly as possible so I can enjoy my cup of coffee in peace.  I want to chase my little ones into a different room and focus on my work and not have mini people at my heels.

But when I posted this image last night to Instagram, this was part of my caption....

   "I told myself a long time ago that I would try my hardest to never say no to help of any kind.  Changing a diaper, sweeping, cooking...I want them to grow up with memories of our entire home being accessible to them.  A place they were wanted and needed and capable of helping.  Because let's be honest....we all want our teenagers to help but if you only start then it's usually too late."  

 I'm not sure many things frustrate me more than when I hear mothers venting about how their teenagers/young adults won't do anything to help out around the house, but then you take a little jog down memory lane and find that these are the same mothers who wouldn't ever let their children do anything, for fear of them doing it wrong.

  I know of a middle aged mom today who struggles with letting her elderly mother help her with anything, because she doesn't have any fond memories of the reverse.....when she was the child, helping HER mom.

   Think of it......if I chase them out of the kitchen and keep them an arm's length away from all of my projects and to-dos until the day I DO want them to help, they will have no interest in that.  And why would they?  They would have no childhood memories of me praising them for a job well done or thanking them for all the wonderful help they give me, even if the truth looks more like a giant mess and MORE work for me.

   And looking even beyond that, what about when I have gray hair (and hopefully, lots of smile wrinkles) and I desperately want to help them in their own homes?  Decorating, cooking, cleaning,.....but none of my children want me anywhere near their kitchen.  Why?  Because I never allowed them to be part of mine.

    And so I write this, because I want to freeze this moment and use it to remind myself, over and over again, when I'm tired, when I'm weary, to choose the better thing.  When the laundry is so neatly folded and I just want to be DONE and those tiny voice offer to help put some away?  Let them.  Sure, a few piles will end up on the floor.  Sure, the towels will not be re-folded the right way.  But you will rest easy that night, knowing that you invested in your future.  Because you invested in them.

   And they will walk away from that experience, with no memory whatsoever of the dropped socks and panties trailing behind them, but with a glowing sense of pride that they helped mama.   They were needed.  Capable.  Qualified.  Worthy.  Desired.  Valuable.

And I never want to forget it.


 

   Today I am preparing my hearth and home for a very special friend who's coming to visit and I can HARDLY wait.  I am hoping to pack each available moment of our time, and I'm quite sure that as always, the time will pass wayyy too quickly.  Coffee will be consumed, pictures will be snapped, laughter will be heard, and good times will be had by all.  But before all the relaxing and the chatting and the fun, things need to get decent and clean around here.

   Yesterday I made a few meals for a couple of families and it left my house in a national state of emergency.  Also, the central AC which has been chugging along faithfully like the Little Engine that Could all summer thus far, decided to quit on the ONE DAY I would be spending all day cooking.  Perfect.  I always wanted to welcome my friend to a house of horrors and a sauna to sleep in.

My husband (being the heroic figure that he is) texted me asking,

"How could I make your day better?.....Name it."

And I replied (with my usual wit and candor),

"Hire a maid. Ha."

  And you know what?  That's precisely what he did.  And so today I had the help of a dear sweet cousin of his, and we cleaned and mopped and scrubbed and shined and the Heavens opened up and the angels sang when I heard her say those four little words that EVERY woman everywhere loves to hear......."I love cleaning bathrooms!"

????!!!! Who IS this person?  And how did she come to be this way?!

    Regardless of her inexplicable taste in cleaning preferences, I'm choosing not to question it, I'm thanking the good Lord for sending her my way.  And for giving my husband the discretion of knowing when his wife has reached the end of her rope.  Because let's just get one thing straight off the bat here folks, if you ever start to wonder how I "do it all" than let's just play it safe and assume that I'm NOT doing it all.

   I mean, don't get me wrong, I have my superpower days where I feel like tackling the world and I actually get pretty far with that goal.  Don't we all?  We make a monstrosity of a to-do list and one by one, we push ourselves harder and farther until we even surpass our own expectations.

It happens sometimes.

   But then sometimes my whole family suffers a little bit because of it.  Or suffers a lot. Or maybe they don't, and everyone's still fairly ok and the house is sparkling and the car is vacuumed and the to-do list is neatly crossed off, but I'm in the closet eating Nutella with a spoon and sobbing into a pillow.  Figuratively, anyways.  I mean, come on, everyone has their limits.

   So the beauty is found, not in never having weaknesses or limitations or imperfections like we always assume, but in recognizing the ones we have and not continuing to live in denial.

   So today, I'm thankful for friends coming to visit, Heaven-sent text messages, husbands with an eerie sense of timing, and cousins who mysteriously, actually like to clean bathrooms.

What are you thankful for today?