Thankful Anyway Thursday

Ok, I know what you are thinking... when the hell is Kari going to write a post other than Thankful Thursday? Hey...at least I'm trying to stay thankful, right?

My excuse can be summed up in one word - overwhelmed.

I remember back in April (which seems like just yesterday), my friend Marisa asked me if we could get together one weekend in May. I checked out my calendar, and realized that we already had at least one thing going on every single weekend day throughout the month of May. Many days we were double or triple booked, not to mention that every weekday had at least one or two evening activities we had to attend. My reaction was, holy crap, we have absolutely no free time in May. My reaction should have been HOLY CRAP, we have absolutely NO free time in May, I better figure out how to skim some of this down so we (I) can stay sane!

To make things even more fun, life in general outside of all of these activities, has been c r a z y. Work is insane these days. I work in the financial industry. Enough said. Things around my firm are more than uncertain, and everyone is varying degrees of wigged out. We're supposed to learn more about our fate sometime in mid-June. Until then, everyone is waiting. Not fun. Not fun at all. On the home front, it's not a whole lot easier. My sweet little Milly, as I talked about in a recent post, somehow turned thirteen on her third birthday and I'm pretty sure she thinks she's ready to move out of the house - which would actually be just fine with me at this point. Or, if maybe she could at least go out and get a job if I end up losing mine, that would be great. We've been struggling with some "daytime wetness" issues with Seesa, or at least that's the term they use at the Urology Clinic we've finally ended up at to figure all of this out. My marriage is...well, hanging on by a thread at this point. I'm so overwhelmed that I've been letting things get to me that are completely removed from my own life - like the fate of Jon and Kate plus 8. Why the heck am I so upset about their situation? Seriously, there's no doubt that I have no idea what the real story is, because it's all being spun by TLC and the media. Maybe it just gives me something to worry about, other than my own worries.

So, what exactly am I thankful for, you ask? Good question. I'm actually Thankful Anyway. I discovered the Thankful Anyway Thursday post on Holistic Mama's blog. She says, "it's easy to be thankful for the good stuff, can you be thankful for the not so good?"

I'm thankful anyway because I have a job right now, which is more than a lot of people can say these days.

I'm thankful anyway because Milly is coming into herself in her third year of life, and challenging me to teach her how to turn her defiance into self confidence and self reliance.

I'm thankful anyway because Seesa is excited and willing to do the things that the doctors have told us will help her.

I'm thankful anyway because what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. I have faith and I'm certain that if we can work through our struggles, it will make our marriage stronger.

My friend Lisa sent me an email recently called, "Just do the next thing...". It was about an overwhelmed Mom who heard someone speak about the simple concept of doing the next thing. When her emotions would start to run away with her, she would simply ask herself what the next thing she needed to do was. And then she would do it. And then she would do the next thing, and the next, and the next. And all those little "next things" got her through the most overwhelming days.

So, I'm going to be just doing the next thing, while I get though this month and the next, and one of those next things will be writing in my blog - because I miss it, and I miss connecting with all of you.

Thankful Thursday

I originally titled this post, "What we've been up to...", but as I went through all the pictures I wanted to add to this post, I realized how thankful I am for all that we've been up to.

Our babysitter, Anne. Although we had to give her up for the regular

morning gig, we still have her sit for us on other occasions.

It's so great to have someone we can call,

who the kids LOVE.

Time spent with friends. We've done lots of fun activities with

our friends, which is such a joy - for the kids and for ME.

Goofing around with Grace and Hadley,

after a sushi dinner.

Train Town with my good friend Nancy from Sacramento,

and her twin boys, Rhys and Otto.

Children's Fairyland and backyard fun with my girl, Katie

and her girls, Isabel and Grace.

(who are almost exactly the same ages as my girls)

More backyard fun with Grammy and the bunnies.

Preschool field trip to a farm. Can I tell you how hard it was

to explain to my girls why we couldn't bring any baby

chickens home with us?

Seesa's first official rabbit show! She got to try out

showmanship with her lop-eared bunny, "Snowflake",

and her little miniature bunny, "Sweet" won first place in her class.

The day brought back great memories for me of my 4-H days.

I'm so glad they love it as much as I did (do).

We saw this at another 4-H event at a historic state park in our area.

I thought it was beautiful.

Mom's Car vs. Dad's Car

A comparison...

My Car:

• Economical commuter car
• Ability to hold large volume of groceries
• Always stocked with wipes, Kleenex, books, toys, snacks, recyclable grocery bags, pens, paper and a potty
• Spotted with crumbs, half-eaten snacks, random drawings, empty water bottles, wrappers, animal hair, crayons, receipts, kid's jackets, stuffed animals and usually a bag or two of something on it's way to be transported somewhere else
  

His Car:

• Fast and Sexy (those are his exact words)
• Ability to hold multiple sets of golf clubs
• Always stocked with gum
• Spotless

Don't get me wrong. I love my Mommy car. I wouldn't have it any other way. And despite what it may sound like, my husband does actually have the kids ride in his car, he just frisks them before getting in to ensure they are not carrying any substances he does not want to see fall in between the seat cracks.


I'm also guest posting today for Christie on A Lil' Welsh Rarebit, while she is enjoying the beach in Florida. But I'm not jealous or anything.

A happy birds day shout out to my good friend Lish, who hit the big 4-0 today!!! Welcome to the club girlfriend, 40 is the new 30! According to Oprah anyway...the foremost expert on everything, don't you know.

Usually I wake up grumpy, but sometimes I let her sleep in

When I first heard this funny quote in the title of this post, I immediately thought of my little Milly. The day she turned three, she ceremoniously entered "the terrible threes". Oh, didn't you hear? Three is the new "terrible two".

In addition to waking up grumpy almost every day, she's begun fighting us on e v e r y t h i n g. The entire morning is filled with "no" from Milly. Milly, let's go have breakfast. No. Milly, can you show me how you can use the potty? No. We need to change your diaper then. No. Milly, we need to get dressed now. No. One night at dinner, she took a stand the moment she got to the table. "I don't like dis, and I'm not gonna eat it!" She pushed her chair away from the table, and crossed her arms in a huff. We told her that she would probably be hungry later if she didn't eat dinner, and then tried to ignore her. Milly would not be ignored. She kept repeating her mantra, "I DON'T like dis, and I'm NOT gonna eat it!" over and over to her dim parents who were clearly not getting it. After we had all finished our dinner - the rest of us who were actually eating it that is - Milly quietly pulled her chair back to the table, and ate her dinner. Every last bite.

Even her big sister Seesa rolls her eyes at us when Milly gets into one of her toddler tantrums. I usually just shake my head and tell my husband "now you know what it's like to live with you". Even he admits that if his own Mom was still alive, she'd no doubt have a million stories to tell about how he acted the exact same way when he was her age. It cracks us up most days. When we're not going insane trying to get her to believe that the thing we want her to do, was actually her idea to begin with.

Although it's a daily struggle lately to maintain my patience, I'm still incredibly happy that she's finding her voice and growing into herself. It helps that she's SO darn cute, even when she's acting out. And on a dime, she turns it around and just oozes sweetness.

Seesa and Milly in "time out".

Yeah, I really taught them a lesson here, as you can see...

Wine is proof that God loves us, and wants to see us happy

Benjamin Franklin was a smart man (that's his quote in the title of this post).

We spent some rare couple time this weekend. The kids spent a day and evening with their favorite babysitter, and we spent the day in the beautiful Napa Valley - even if it was raining - at a barrel tasting at Nickel and Nickel Winery with my sister and her husband. The winery was lovely, the lunch was delicious and the wine was heavenly.

The timing was perfect, as it's also the thirteenth anniversary of the date that my husband asked me to marry him. That evening after we got home, I spent a few hours organizing all the kid's clothes, then we watched a movie on the couch with some popcorn. Romantic, I know. Which is pretty much what we used to do before having kids, sans the organization of said kid's clothing of course. Ah, memories.