squash.

Yesterday was a beautiful day in our neck of the woods. We had no fire scare and we actually had a little bit of rain in the midnight hours! *Praise hands*

The cold air is starting to move in again after we had a little break from our 'snow storm,' but today the whole sky has been covered in a haze and we are supposed to have some freezing rain on Super Bowl Sunday and possibly snow early in the week. 

We spent the day making fake spaghetti and having dance parties in our kitchen to the Bee Gees radio on Pandora. I am continuing the tradition of dance parties with my own children- just like I used to throw them in my room with my sisters. 

Then I made a massive grocery list and Damien helped me cut coupons while Owen napped. And by help I mean shred my coupons so I have to go back and re-print. Thanks for the help, scootch. After I realized I was getting nowhere we switched to stamps and crayons and made pictures of Gru and the minions from Despicable Me. 

I cannot wait until spring is actually here and the boys can run around in the backyard and not be so cooped up! Damien has so much energy and never ceases to amaze me. Just when I think he is about to crash he gets a recharge from a sip of water or a bite of cracker and he is at it again for three more hours. 

It has been one of those days where the last thing I want to do is cook dinner- I would rather eat cereal. Fortunately for me I don't actually get to do that anymore since I have three other mouths to feed. But the new favorite food around here is spaghetti squash. Yummmo.  

I remember the first time I ate a spaghetti squash. I was 10, and my Pa was showing me how to make and garnish this giant yellow thing that didn't look appetizing at all. He let me shred the inside of it though and in return I had to try a bite. It was delicious. But everything Pa used to make was delicious. 

It's the perfect meal for us. Damien can help prepare it by shredding the 'guts' as he calls them, and it is so good for us! We are a pasta loving family so this is definitely a good substitute. 

We ended the day with a quick trip to Target and Damien fell asleep on the way home- 1 me 0 Damien - and a little FaceTime with my mom and sisters.

That's all for my little weekday recap. A little all over the place, but like I have already told y'all, the whole point of this blog is to keep my loved ones connected to me. 

God is good. 

Enjoy.

 *making spaghetti*

send up a prayer

We have had some wildfire action around our city the past few days due to weather conditions-- this photo was taken this afternoon from my porch (and those are not clouds).

I thought it was something a lot farther away from us but it turns out it was contained only about 2 miles south of our division! 

Scary! 

Hopefully nothing starts up again tomorrow! 

a not-so-snowy snow day

I know that all around the country there are cities that have had inches upon inches of snow, which has caused deaths and other terrible accidents as a result; however, here in Oklahoma we experienced our own snow day which turned out to be not so snowy after all. 

Last night JJ and Damien were watching an episode of Little Bear-- a snowy episode-- in anticipation for the snow that was supposed to hit the metro area. In the episode duck and Little Bear have a big snowball fight and build snowmen while galavanting around in the powdery snow. As the episode came to a close Damien expressed how excited he was to build a snowman tomorrow and have hot chocolate with the "white stuff" on top. 

Enter snow. And a disappointed Damien.

A pretty pathetic snowfall if you ask me. 

Damien spent about 5 minutes looking at the sprinkling in disbelief and utter disappointment. I so badly wanted to somehow produce an abundance of white powder for him to have a snow ball fight in. As soon as he knocked on the door to come inside he looked up at me and said, "let's say a prayer that we get more snow." What a genius and innocent idea. So we began the prayer with Damien leading, "God, please give me more snow so I can have a snowball fight. Thank you. Perfect." 

Instead of snow, our prayer was answered with radiant sunshine which melted the snow within about 30 minutes of Damien coming inside.

Not that I enjoy the snow, because I do not. But I really hope Damien gets his prayer answered before spring hits. 

Since we weren't able to enjoy the snow we had our hot chocolate with the white stuff and loved every sip of it. 

While this little scootch was his cute little self.

motherhood musings

This past Sunday at mass we had just came back from communion and were kneeling quietly in our pew when all of a sudden Damien started speaking outloud, "Don't you ever say, I just walked away, I will always want you." Now to some this may mean nothing, however we know it to be the lyrics to Miley Cryus' song "Wrecking Ball" and the next lyrics Damien will belt out are, " I CAME IN LIKE A WRECKING BALL, I'VE NEVER HIT SO HARD IN LOVE..." 

Mortification. 

I wish someone would have come hit me with a wrecking ball.

Not that I completely care, but everyone is starring at us and more importantly judging why we would ever let our child listen to a Miley Cyrus song enough times to know the chorus.

I calmly smiled and explained to Damien with my loving (death) stare, that the wrecking ball song is inappropriate to be singing in Mass. His response was ever so loud, an echo of "mom! I want to sing wrecking ball!!" filling the sanctuary and giving several teenage girls a good laugh..

By this time the closing prayer had ended and we patiently waited for the priest to exit so we could swiftly make our way out of the church and let wrecking ball find it's proper home - behind the closed doors of our car. 

There really is nothing more humbling than a bright toddler, especially one who speaks his mind in all the wrong places.

But I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

recap

As it is Monday, I thought I would do a little recap of my weekend. 

Saturday I hosted a small baby shower brunch for my dear friend, Braden, as she is expecting her second this next month and it's a girl! She has the most adorable son ever but I thought it would be fun to do something a little girly! It was a small shower, only about eight of us, and we did a 'brunch' with mimosas, a waffle bar, yogurt parfaits, and egg quichès which were delicious! 

     waffle bar and mimosas not pictured

After the party had gone we spent the day with Braden, her husband David and son Eli while enjoying BBQ from a small joint about 5 miles north of our house. It was an afternoon well spent in the company of great friends. 

Sunday we did not quite make it to the morning mass (Ahem! That never happens ...hehe ) after I had spent the evening cleaning up the house, mopping and getting my house back in order while JJ played the 'jumping game' -something that involves being thrown on the bed- with the boys. 

Instead we had a chocolate chip pancake feast and used the gorgeous afternoon to sand down an old dresser I am converting into a TVconsole. We also planted 'gofer food' as Damien called it (which is simply gopher bait)- hopefully we will get one of those little buggers. We then went to the 5:30 pm mass and ended our weekend with dinner out and promptly headed home to put the scootchies to bed, which did not go as smoothly as anticipated. Ah, the joys of parenting. 

All in all it was beautiful weekend filled with friends and glorious weather which we enjoyed every minute of! 

about me

I'm Hope. I am the worst phone communicator of all time. I've started this blog as a way for my family to "check me out" every once in awhile when they are not sure if I have fallen off the face of the earth or was caught up in an Oklahoma tornado. Enjoy.