Fabulous Fall-iday ...

I'm sure I've said it before, but life these days is a series of highs and lows.

Monday - was a low. I started the day out in what Kristina Buckley would refer to as, "debt". Our home had what I refer to as, the "Sunday hangover" ... Messy house with tons of leftover dishes (complicated by a dishwasher that actually dirtied my dishes rather than clean them) and literally mountains of laundry. Well ... maybe not literally mountains, but it was piled easily 2 feet high in my laundry room (complicated by a dryer that is not getting hot - try "air fluffing" your laundry to dry - its been taking HOURS).

Let's just say that by 8am on Monday I had already called Mimi for a pep talk and by 9am, I had phoned my husband in tears. It didn't help that my kids had soiled just about every blanket in the house and had changed clothes 3 times by noon - ummm, more laundry??

BUT - we made it. :-)

Tuesday was my work day and my kids had a super fun day with Sarah Hoxworth and her kiddos providing care. We're going to miss our Miss Tiffany, but the boys LOVE being with the Hoxworths and Tim and I feel really good about it, too. I miss my kids on Tuesdays, but I do feel a sense of renewed gratitude and sincere desire to be purposeful in my vocation of motherhood after spending these hours away from home. I am home 6 out of 7 days - Praise God!

Today (Wednesday) was a GREAT day. I woke up feeling rested as Caleb has had a long (6 hour) stretch between feedings these past two nights. And, on Wednesdays, Tim doesn't have a 6am commitment calling him out the door super early, so I was able to jump out of bed and make him breakfast before he left.

Which meant that breakfast was served at 7:30am - instead of 10am as its been lately. I was feeling so great after breakfast that I decided to get started the triple-dinner I had planned that night for our family and two other families with newborns. I LOVE being able to prepare (and clean up) dinner before lunchtime.

Side note - I had made an 8pm run to the grocery store Tuesday night to pick up some much needed groceries and saw all the fun fall baking items - I LOVE all things pumpkin. The plan for today was to have a total "Mom Day" with the boys, complete with some fun fall activities, then ...

Sarah Hoxworth and sweet Molly stopped by to return Jared's sweatshirt and pick up her phone charger. I talked her into staying and joining in the fall baking and craft I had planned. Woo hoo!

Fabulous Fall-iday fun with friends? Yes, please!

We started out with some yummy pumpkin hot cocoa while the kids colored and I finished preparing and cleaning up dinner for the 3 families I had planned (hippie tacos) ...

After dinner was done and Sarah returned from a quick run to the store, we dove into our baking project - whole wheat pumpkin bread. The recipe said it made one loaf so I quadrupled it as I wanted to make 4 (one for my fam plus the two I was taking dinner to, and one for the Hoxworths). I knew the Bosch could handle it and it did - barely!

Sarah and Molly mixing up the fresh ground flour with the spices.

Jared's job was opening the canned pumpkin and he was

SERIOUS about getting it done. NO - I didn't puree my

own

pumpkin. Sorry to disappoint.

Here's the kids crowding onto the counter to help mix

the

ingredients -

we had A LOT of pumpkin batter

and some

well-floured

kids by the time it was over!

Hindsight 20/20 - 4 x the recipe was a little much - even for the Bosch. I'm not certain all the ingredients were well mixed thoroughly ... BUT - can you go wrong with pumpkin bread with chocolate chips? I think not!

While the bread was baking, the kiddos ate some lunch ...

All together, the recipe yielded (4) 9x5 loafs and 24 muffins. None of which rose very well, but were tasty nonetheless.

After cleaning up our mess, Sarah took the kids outside to start collecting treasures from the backyard to glue on the Give Thanks banner while I nursed the baby. We didn't actually get to do our craft because after our baking fun and lunch, we just plain ran out of time.

Here's some observations from the day:

1. Life is just better when lived with friends: Things that probably would have gotten to me (like ground flour sprayed all over my laundry room or kids into everything) just don't have the same effect when you have another mom on hand to laugh it off with. AND - two moms do a much better job supervising kids for potentially messy projects. There is no way we could have turned our backs on these three for a second during our little project without it getting out of hand. Being able to tag team this morning with Sarah was just delightful. It was such a gift to have her surprise us at the door AND stay to hang with us.

2. A little enthusiasm can make everything seem like a celebration: One of my mantras is that, with small kids its all about the hype and the debrief. Is it a huge deal to have a special drink and bake some special bread? No, probably not in and of itself. BUT - if you add some enthusiasm and laughter, it makes even these simple things super fun. Adding friends and joy to the mix made a baking project into a fabulous fall holiday celebration. Praise God for that.

3. My boys LOVE Molly. I was so happy to see how sweet they were to her. I think having Michael model his big-brother skills on Tuesday afternoon was helpful. Kids need siblings and sometimes its nice to even let them practice on someone else's. Molly loves Baby Caleb and its going to be great practice for her, too, to be like a big sister to him.

4. Making dinner for 4 families is seriously not that much harder than making dinner for one. Right? ESPECIALLY if you can make it before noon. After adding the wheat berries to the taco meat, we had enough for 4 families and sent some home with the Hoxworths, too. I'm thinking I should try to resurrect the neighbor meal swap ...

5. Sleep makes all the difference in the world. Can you survive on little sleep comprised of two hours naps strung together from 10pm until morning? Yes. Are you a much more "together" when you've had 5 hours uninterrupted sleep? Absolutely. I've given myself lots of grace these past few weeks (and so has Tim) and its been great. BUT - I am looking forward to settling into a more normal, and organized routine as Caleb continues to adjust to life with us and us with him.

I say often, that I can only really do one thing on one day. Have you other SAHM's found that to be true? Today was my fun "mom" day. I did mom time with the boys and cooking. Tomorrow, is already booked to be my work-at-home day as I have lots to do on our property management business. Maybe by Friday I can get the dryer fixed and actually have a sorely needed laundry day.

My cute husband with no clean socks would probably appreciate that. ;-)

(Let's be honest, though, the "mom" days - when you just swear off the rest of the things on the list that have to get done and have fun with your kids - those are the best days.)

... just for good measure, here's another picture of Caleb. In this one he is sporting the "milk drunk" look. Check out those rolls he is developing. Don't you just want to squeeze him??