A Day in the Life of a Hummingbird Mom...

Write about real life, they said! Write about the things that are part of your everyday, they said!

Ok, here goes!

Today's Schedule (bare-bones edition):

• 8:00am - Greyson starts school
• 8:30am - Nick starts school
• 8:30am - I start work...AFTER stopping for a quad-shot latte to get me through the morning. (I should NOT have stayed up watching that movie last night!)
• 12:20pm - I have a dentist appointment across town, then back to work
• 2:30pm - Greyson gets done with school (Papa will pick up, thank goodness)
• 3:15pm - Nick gets done with school (Papa picking up)
• 4:00pm - I'm done with work and get to kill time until...
• 5:30pm - Nick has to be back at school for a Showstoppers performance at the BHS Open House
• 6:00pm - Open House starts - I'm staying for this, so I can meet Nick's teachers, etc.
• 6:10pm - Greyson has taekwondo - Daddy will take him after we watch Nick sing (stay tuned for a video)
• 6:45pm - Taekwondo ends
• 7:00pm - Nick has driver's ed - Daddy will drop him off
• 8:00pm - Open House ends - now I get to kill more time until...
• 9:00pm - Driver's ed ends

You guys. Seriously. This is not a joke...this is my life. I left home at 7:30am this morning, and won't get home until 9:30pm this evening...and this is what the majority of our days look like! (Thursday's are probably the "worst" day for being busy, because not only does Nick have driver's ed from 4-6pm, Greyson has soccer practice AND swim lessons that overlap each other, which means he misses the last 20 minutes of his soccer practice so he can take a 25 minute swim lesson - thankfully soccer happens in the field connected to the aquatic center.)

When I named this blog, it was an inside joke between an old friend and I - he used to call me "Hummin'bird" affectionately after watching how busy I keep myself. Sometimes I wonder if that might have been a self-fulfilling prophecy...but I'm ready to SLOW DOWN now!!

We are so lucky to have grandparents and siblings close by to help with transportation and child care as needed...I can't even imagine how we'd make it all work otherwise. But seriously...

I need a vacation.

Hmmmm... Almost 3 years later...

Aaaannnddd here we go again.

After a lovely lunch date today with my sister-in-law, who has been patiently waiting for the right time to discuss this, I have been challenged to start blogging again. I love doing this...love writing about my life...but who has the time?! In true hummingbird style, I am a busy lady with not a lot of time left in the day to breathe, much less blog, but I'm going to give it a try...again.

This isn't intended to be a money-maker for me. It started as a place where I could direct my friends and family from all over so that they could see what is going on in our lives. I had (please note the past tense reference) planned to be very diligent about getting in a couple of posts per week, just enough to share with those I care about without overwhelming them with the Clark Family shenanigans. Yeah, that worked out.

Three years later, here I am again. I'll try to be better about posting more often...even if it's once a month, that's not too bad...right?! For now, I'll leave you with a few pictures of my family from this last summer and our "vacation" to Southern California and Disneyland (and Sea World... and the San Diego Zoo... and Legoland...you get the picture).

XOXO 

Being A Mom Is Hard...

Sometimes when I wake up I feel about 80 years old. I look in the mirror and and am quickly reminded that, while I'm not 80 by a long shot, I am not the 20-something that I used to be either. I'm not as young as I'd like to be, but not as old as I could be. I have my children to thank for that.

I'm a Mom. It was a choice I made 13 years ago with the unexpected pregnancy and then birth of my oldest son. It was a choice I made when I married my husband and embraced his daughter as if she were my own (even though she lives 200+ miles away with her mom). And it was a choice I made as Shannon and I tried for two long years to conceive Greyson. And not once have I looked back and regretted those choices!

HOWEVER, there are times when I wish I could lock myself in my bathroom and cry and scream and hit things out of sheer frustration and helplessness! There have been times where I would have gladly traded one of my children in for a new Jeep (not really, but still). There are times when I get home after working an 8-hour day and all I want is quiet... instead, all I get is chaos. Running away isn't an option, but sometimes just getting away from it all would be a treat.

I have gray hairs that I'm not ready to embrace. I have bags that have taken up permanent residence under my eyes. My "baby weight" is still not gone (not that I've done much of anything to get rid of it). I have laugh lines and crows feet. I have wrinkly fingers and mildly flabby arms. (Thank God the hubs loves me anyways!!)

I'm a Mom.
I'm a short-order cook (much to my chagrin).
I'm a chauffeur.
I'm a house-keeper.
I'm a drier of tears (sometimes even when I'm the cause of said tears).
I'm a kisser of owies.
I'm the world's best hug (in their eyes, anyways).

I'm not the best mom in the world, but I'm theirs. And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Snow Days

For those of you who know me...I mean REALLY know me...you'll recall that I. HATE. SNOW. Like, really hate it.

It's my personal opinion that snow should stay in the mountains, where people who love it - like my husband - can go to play in it. It should NOT come down the hill to town where people who do not love it - like me - have to continue to function normally.

Driving in the stuff...no thanks. Even with the Subaru that Shannon continues to remind me we have...nope. And playing in it...ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND??? And yet, I have boys. Boys who love to play in it. Boys who were beyond thrilled to look out the window this past Sunday morning and see it not only covering the ground, but dumping out of the sky. Boys who stood at the window asking excitedly, "When can we go play?!"

I was recovering from the stomach flu. Shannon was directly in the throes of that nasty bug. And the boys wanted to play in the cold wet white stuff. So I said ok.

Because I was still unwell, I stood just inside my sliding glass door while those two bundled up boys went to town in the snow. A foot deep, mind you...Greyson was in it practically up to his waist! And it continued to dump. Not just snowing, but DUMPING. I did go outside a few times in my jammies and slippers to take a few pictures, because what good is snow if you can't take some pictures of it? Plus, the boys were having so much fun. It was torture trying to get them back inside, but I needed to sit, and Daddy (who had tried for about 10 minutes to go out with them) was not in good shape. With the promise of more later (I never said HOW MUCH later), they came inside...all red cheeks and runny noses and icy fingers and happy.

Sadly, another trip out to play was not in the cards for them on Sunday. I just wasn't up to it, and while Nick at 13 years old would have been fine on his own, I wasn't about to let him take Greyson out there unsupervised...too many reminders - some not so gentle - to "stop throwing snowballs at your brother" didn't give me much confidence in that scenario ending well.

Then next day, however, the snow had finally stopped falling, and we were left with a foot of snow in our backyard and a "bluebird" type of day to play in. And since Mom and Dad were both feeling significantly improved, guess who got to go out and play too?! And you know what...??? I actually had fun!!

We built a "snomily" - five snow people in varying heights, one for each of us. Mom had hair (tree branches), Daddy had a beard (again, tree branches), and Greyson had a twig sticking up out of the top of his head. And Nick, dear sweet boy, made it so that the "Nick" and "Brooklyn" snowkids were hugging!

AND I ACTUALLY HAD FUN!!! (Wait, did I already say that?)

I took pictures, because...well, if you know me at all, you know that documenting that moment in time where I actually enjoyed the snow with my kids was of the utmost importance.

And now...I think I can give skiing with Shannon a try. I just need to make sure I have the right gear, but I think I'll be a bit more open-minded about a trip east on SR-542 to Mount Baker. There is hope for me yet! :)

XOXO

Let's Try This Again...

Hahahaha!!! I should have know better than to try blogging!! It's been over 2 YEARS since my last entry...now that's just sad!

Obviously lots has happened in the past 26 months. I've changed employers. Shannon has promoted. Nick entered Middle School and then turned into a teenager (when did THAT happen!?), Brooklyn started school, and Greyson - well, his short little life has been full of "firsts" and "new" and such.

Shannon's dad still lives with us - in fact, we've recently completed the construction of an in-law apartment above our garage, so he now has his own space. And slowly but surely, we are finding the bottom of our house again too.

Goals:

One of my goals over the next few months is to find a "writing style"...something that I have long dreamed about but never been able to pinpoint in myself. I read other blogs - women just like me, with young families and jobs - and have always been so jealous that they are able to find all the right words to put their thoughts down with. I may be good at getting my thoughts down in print, but they are far from eloquent. Most of the time, it just feels so good to get the thoughts out...so that I don't have to stew on them anymore. But there are times where I have an epiphany and think to myself "Wow, that was really good" and then five seconds later I forget it in the process of dealing with another crisis (most often involving my children).

Another goal of mine - something I've struggled with for the better part of a year now - has to do with my eating habits. Last year for Lent, I decided to "give up" gluten...something I had often thought about trying but had just never done it. I managed to stay on task through the Lenten season - no cheat days at all - but once Easter was behind me, even though I was feeling amazingly better, I let it go. Oh, I still tell people I'm "mostly gluten free," but to be honest, I've given up caring. And I feel like crap.

My naturopath also told me that I should give up dairy. If you've ever tried this, you know how hard it is. Yes, giving up cheese is difficult, but now you throw in the whole readings labels thing...ugh!! So I stopped caring there too. It wasn't until Nick's doctor told us to cut all dairy out of his diet (to try and get to the bottom of his ever present stomach pains) that I realized just how miserably I am doing at this "no dairy" thing.

So my goal - with you holding me accountable (all 3 of you who actually read this blog at this point) - is to start eating better.

And start exercising. What's the point of paying for a gym membership if I don't use it. And how can I seriously complain about my weight and the fit of my clothing if I'm not doing something about it?

There you go...a new start to my blog, and a new start to my health. And sooner than later, maybe it'll all start to come together.

XOXO

Thanksgiving Week 2011

Well, as I suspected, finding time to keep up with a blog is going to prove difficult at times. Life at home with an infant keeps a Mama on her toes, so I'm going to have to work extra hard to keep this going.

This will be a bit of a ramble, so bear with me. I'm still trying to figure out a flow to this whole process...

It's almost Thanksgiving!

That means Nick is almost 11 (wow!), Brooklyn is here, Shannon's birthday is right around the corner, and the chaos of the holidays is upon us! Pulling down Christmas decorations so we can put up the tree while Brooklyn is here, coordinating with family for Thanksgiving and birthday celebrations, and this girl here is already exhausted just thinking about it all! Add to the mix the fact that I, in my infinite wisdom and new mama brain, signed on to be Nick's room mom at school... yeah.

Just for giggles, here is my list of things that need to be done this week (in addition to work, of course)...

1. Finalize plans for Nick's school Thanksgiving party - in and of itself, not a huge task, except that approximately half of the class will not be there, so finding volunteers to bring food for the kiddos is proving a difficult task.


2. Coordinate with my mom for Thanksgiving dinner.


3. Facilitate the decorating of the Christmas tree. (Last year was the first year I've ever had an artificial tree in my house, and although it's definitely NOT my preference, it does make the whole process a bit easier...and I don't have to worry about cleaning pitch off my new hardwood floors.)


4. Dentist appointments tomorrow for both Nick and I... just cleanings, but still...


5. Spend as much time with that baby of mine as possible... I go through withdrawals by the end of a workday.


6. Pull coordinating outfits together for Shannon, myself, Nick, Brooklyn, and Greyson for our family pictures next Sunday...this means shopping...ugh.

I know there is more, but for the life of me I can't think of anything else at the moment... but you get the picture... This is me, doing life Hummingbird style.