Here's to life...

So, this is what's going on with me tonight - -

I have three kids sleeping, one of which is still recovering (pleasantly) from a birthday this weekend...six years old complete with a garden party complete with flowers and fairies complete with wings...I have a husband sleeping who is still (and newly) recovering from a small motorcycle wreck...complete with a broken thumb and bruised up everything complete with plenty of soreness complete with pain meds complete with a week off of work...I have a trashed house complete with mess in every room except playroom and garage/van complete with entryway where you can't see the floor complete with church bag contents spread all over the place complete with celery in a ziplock bag...I have a stubborn streak in me that pushes off the tired part of me and says YOU MUST BLOG, IT IS MONDAY NIGHT AND YOU MUST BLOG.

And I listen.
Because I like it.

This is what else is going on with me...

My kitchen counter/stove area.
Complete with cupcake attempts since I was supposed to send them into Bethany's kindergarten class on Friday but she was out sick-ish and was supposed to send them in then on Monday but things got a little crazy over the weekend and I didn't so now I really need to get them in tomorrow at all costs.

Complete with first batch of cupcakes.
Recipe involving very little sugar, very little anything bad, and the whole family mixing the batter at FHE. Complete with squash puree. (Jessica Seinfeld cookbook? Yes.) This batch felt pretty great.
Until I realized that the batter didn't make enough. So I tried to get away with really really small servings. Those are on the left.
Then I realized it wasn't going to work. So I put the second half of the batter in so it wasn't wasted and at least I could give it to my family...ran to Walmart, bought cake mix in defeat, came home to realize I had not put the little cupcake papers in so the second half of the batter was stuck in a major way to the muffin pan.
Scraped it all out.

This is the pan ready to have the newly made cake batter from a box distributed.
With the cupcake paper things.
For sure this time.

And here is the cake mix box symbolically resting on top of my cookbook in victory.

Turns out the cake mix still didn't stretch far enough to make cupcakes for the entire class. I have not formulated a game plan yet but this could get interesting.

Texts with my sister...

Me: I fail at kindergarten mom a thousand times over. Tonight's episode: cupcakes for the class.
Katie: No no no. You are EXPERT at cupcakes! Get back in there!

Also, JC was nice and came up to me in the kitchen during my cupcake chaos and told me I was a good mom and that I am doing great.

Wow. I have nice people in my corner. I cease to complain. Let's just hope Bethany feels the same way tomorrow when some of her classmates discover that perhaps their cupcake has been pieced together from some of the small failed ones from the first, homemade batch.
That's just one idea though. We'll see what comes about.

ANYWAY...
let's look over some scenes from life recently...

JC texted me after he left for work one day and noticed there were ducks in the puddles in the greenbelt near our house. Told me if the kids needed to get out, we should take a walk and see them. We were out the door in like, four minutes.
Ducks.

The kids thought they were neat-o.

The ducks did not necessarily feel the same way about them.
See them exiting stage right?

And, the fly-away.

Once we got our garden box ready to go, we were nearly at the end of the time period in which we could get lettuce in the ground. (or...in the box...) So we made sure to get out and get some. It was too late for seeds but luckily we have a nursery just up the street from us that had some lovely transplants ready for us.
Bethany and JC got things nice and loose and ready...

She really enjoyed this, as you can see.
I'm sorry, is that the same child that has been living here for the past six years???
This is a grown-up child.
The one I have is small and still has a chubby baby face.
What. Happened.

Bethany is always very concerned for Scout and that he is feeling included.

James is always very concerned that if Daddy is doing something, he is helping.

Everyone wanted to help get the lettuce planted!

Ben was first.

Champion lettuce-planter.

Wonder where he gets it?

James took great care with his plants.
After a couple of mishaps.

But live and learn.
And smile like this.

I hope this is the beginning of a beautiful gardening friendship!
Bethany and I both have a soft spot for our fruit trees and hopefully this will transpose over to the vegetables and we can spend years of our lives gardening together.
Unless we end up to be bad at it.
Then maybe we'll get pedicures together or something...
But let's aim for the gardening.

Which, apparently, I am very serious about.

Daddy always catches cute pictures of Ben Ben.

And of me, being overly excited.
But I can't help it.
Oh how I have WAITED!

...for this. :)
First plants in the ground.
Here goes nothin!

This amused me one Sunday afternoon.
Ben is very independent when it comes to using the potty. He wants to do everything himself which is GREAT. But...then sometimes since he is three, he forgets things like pants.
And gets distracted from the task of getting them on by Mama's church shoes.

Then, in order to not be discriminating, abandons them halfway up the stairs for sister's boots.
It's a better look for him anyway.

One more thing to add to the list of lovely attributes of this time of year...
The weather warms up a bit and inspires playing hard outside at every opportunity.
Which, sometimes, will add up to a miracle...
One child asleep in the middle of the day:

Two children asleep in the middle of the day:

Three children asleep in the middle of the day.

I just always find it worth noting.

One evening I was particularly thrilled to notice the boys' pajamas.
Batman...

and Spiderman.

The showdown.

I love me some super heroes. I think this has something to do with living with a boy for so long. Well, I mean, I live with a few boys. But I mean the biggest one.
I find myself taking sides in debates about which super heroes are the awesomest and which ones should team up and who should have movies made about them.
(Um...Superman is, by far, the awesomest. By far. That is all I will reveal of my personal preference at this point.)
By the way, the kids are inheriting this fixation. A few weeks ago, we were at my parents' house during the day and my sister, Laura, was talking about someone she knows who is not well-versed in super heroes because he 'doesn't come from the kind of family who would watch those movies/know those stories', etc.
Which is totally fine.
But then, as we are talking about it, she says something like, "He wouldn't even know who Peter Parker is...." and kept talking. But my ears that are trained to pick up anything my kids say, heard James, a few feet away playing by himself on the floor, mutter quietly, "...Peter Parker is Spiderman..."
And that was all.
He just wanted to get that out there into the universe because his little heart just knew it was true.
So, turns out we ARE that kind of family.
I'm okay with it.

Anyway, all is well here...spring is rolling in and I am LOVING it.
I just don't know how I will manage to get anything done when all I want to do is play outside with my kids. I really am quite afraid that the moment may soon come when I throw my hands up and just admit defeat. Stop fighting it. And abandon everything indoors, spend days upon end at parks without number, sit under our blossoming plum tree for as long as the kids will let me and sing to my garden. I won't try to explain that one. But know it has something to do with having three preschoolers who believe there is a song for everything and a hippie heart.

So, wish me luck.
Though in the fight against spring, I'm pretty sure not even Superman could conquer.
(But maybe. Seriously, he's awesome.)