I'll Take Less

"I'll take less if more means having less of you." Mindy Gledhill

I was talking with Tj the other night, okay I'll be honest I was whining about how frustrating life seems. It seems like I can either keep up with the housework, laundry, meals, dishes, etc or I can spend time with the boys taking them to play dates, parks, riding their bicycles, etc. It's either one or the other. And that to me is frustrating. I don't function well in chaos (although sometimes to look at my house you wouldn't guess) but I also feel this clinching in my chest every time I realize that starting this fall Joel will be gone half of every day. It's frustrating and heart-wrenching feeling like I've taken the last several years for granted and trying to make the most of what we have. Maybe I'm being dramatic (Manda dramatic, you don't say!) but I just love these boys so much and want them to be able to look back on their childhood and remember more than mommy just always washing dishes or scrubbing bathrooms. I want them to remember me playing with them and knowing that I love them. Here's my question to all of you supermommies that I'm lucky enough to call friends; how do you strike the balance between what you have to do and enjoying your time with your children?

On a less sober topic here are some pictures of the last little while.

With Valentine's Day just around the corner I decided to do a craft with the boys. I know that some day in the not to distant future crafting with Mom will be so not cool. I found these cute hearts on Martha Stewart and decided to give it a go. You can find the full instructions here. I did basically all the prep work and then for Family Home Evening we cut them out.

Vance was so excited to be able to cut ALL BY HIMSELF.
The ones that he cut were definitely all HIS. =)

Joel showing off his work.
He is actually quite good with the scissors.

I love this picture of Tj. =)

Nama and Pa bought these cars for the boys probably two years ago. You shake them to give them power and then they crash and make lots of noise. The boys LOVE them! It's amazing the lasting power of simple-albeit noisy- toys is.

Vance continues to LOVE his bicycle. Joel will ride his but Vance would live on his if we'd let him. He loves to go out with Tj and ride to the park or ride circles around the alley behind our house. Joel will sometimes join in but Vance is always up for a ride.

One of their favorite games is Tj the tire eating monstor.
Basically Vance has to ride as fast as he can away from Tj
so that his tires don't get eaten. Tj also taught him chicken.
Awesome!

Tj's already had to lift the training wheels for Vance.
I predict Vance is riding training wheel free by his birthday.