"That fine line thing is a lie"

You know when your having "one of those days"

well I have been having a lot of them. 

Lately I have been feeling super busy and just plain overwhelmed with life. 

I keep trying to cut back (although that's super hard for me) and to take it easy as I try to pinpoint what exactly is making me feel like I'm constantly trying to keep my head above water, and above the stack of dishes and the mountains of laundry.

And then it dawned on me. 

I have 4 kids. 

Chaos is my new normal.

For a while, maybe forever, I will always be counting heads when I am out in public

and I will often be searching for at least one kid who is missing from the count. 

Lunch dates will never be quiet. 

Actually life in general, before bedtime, will never be quiet. 

Trips to Target will not be relaxing. 

The dishwasher and laundry baskets will always be full

and my floors will always be dirty.

And that's ok. 

I love these little years and all that they bring

but they are hard and exhausting.

Anyone who says they are not is lying.

Or only has one kid. Who is grown. 

I read this quote the other day and felt like it perfectly summed up my life right now

"There's a very fine line between enjoying the chaos and barely surviving. Actually, there's no line at all. It's all mixed up together. That 'fine line' thing is a lie."

I'm praying that the Lord would help me to find joy in the craziness, soak up these little years and all the cuddles that come with them, give me extra grace during the hard days, and help me to be the Momma He wants me to be.  

 Because even though motherhood is hard, it is good. 

Very very good. 

We get to nurture these sweet (and spicy) little spirits entrusted to us and help grow them and shape them into the people they were created to be. 

What a big, exciting, sometimes overwhelming, rewarding, challenging task.

gardening

We are such wanna be farmers.
Aaron and I dream of one day having some land where we can have a huge garden, every fruit tree imaginable and maybe even a cow (because every farm has a cow right...ok maybe just a rooster).
But until then we have been having so much fun with our little square foot gardens in our backyard.

We even buit a new one just a couple weeks ago. 

watermelon and corn 

I'd say our brown thumbs are definitely getting a little greener each year. 

Well that and we are getting a little braver and more adventurous.

You never know what works or how it works until you try it right? 

We even planted a ton of seeds this year

which definitely puts us in the category of intermediate gardeners (at least in my book). 

bell pepper, jalapenos, yellow squash, zucchini, cucumbers, acorn squash, green beans, carrots

Here's a look at our first square foot garden. It's so fun to see how it's grown in just a few months. 

Our most successful plants are definitely our zucchini and squash. 

All I need are more ways to eat them. 

We planted a blueberry bush 

and a raspberry vine too. I'm pretty sure having them in a pot isn't the best but there is no way I'm leaving them behind if we ever move (we are just renting). 

Lettuce has also been super easy to grow.
And it's so cool to just be able to walk into your backyard to make a salad. 

Homegrown tomatoes are the best. 

so. so. so. much better than store bought ones. 

so much better. 

One of our first harvests :)
Happy day! 

Our roses and gladiolas are looking good too. 

It' so fun to be able to watch things grow and enjoy the beauty of God's creation. 

My husband caught me trying to take the picture above. 

This is what we call a Mommy workout :)

I didn't think about how hard it would be to get up from that position before I got myself in it. 

Snapshot of our week

Happy Friday everyone!

Here's a snapshot of our week...

1. 2 new chickens...Brownie and Strawberry Shortcake 2. Trying to win free bagels (we heart Bagels and Brew) 3. Coupon loot (all this for under $2) 4. REI used gear sale 5. Angels fan 6. Wedding festivities 7. Declaring war on whatever is eating my tomatoes 8. First no more cast activity 9. Father's day crafting 10. Bye bye stinky cast 11. "Hi Momma" 12. Summer eating 13. Chore charts 14. Rocket ship building 15. Garden harvests 16. Brothers

Fairy houses...check!

Summer is officially here and to make sure we remember to do all of our favorite summer activities we came up with a Summer Fun List. 

One of the first things we got to check off our list was making some fairy houses.

The kids each picked out a suitable container to make their fairy home and then painted and decorated it. 

They were so proud of their creations.
Mackenzie has been playing with hers non stop for a week.
It hasn't housed any fairy's yet but it has hosted it's share of rolly pollies and polly pockets. 

Mr. And Mrs. Osborne

My brother Jeff got married this weekend! 

Aren't he and my new sister in law Bedina cute?

They had the most beautiful sunset wedding on the sand in Laguna Beach. 

And these little cuties got to be the flower girls and ring bearer.

They were sooooooo adorable and had the best time being in the spotlight. 

Bedina spent so much time and energy making everything absolutely beautiful. 

I wish I had taken a million more pictures to show you all of the cute things they did  and fun details (like the candy bar, thumbprint tree, etc.) but in the craziness I only managed to get a few.

My dad and brother made that huge 9 ft. cross behind them in the ceremony.

Isn't it awesome?! 

The cake.

Look at those cute little people on there :)

Check out their giant chalkboard. 

So cool. 

We had so much fun celebrating with my brother and my new sister in law and are so excited for their new life together! 

Jeff and Bedina, we love you guys! 

We are praying you guys have a blessed marriage! 

Wannabe farmers

We finally did it. 

We got our chickens!

Meet Oreo 

and Buttercup. 

They are only one week old and so soft and cute. 

They make having to clean up chicken poop not (as) bad. 

Oh and we pick up our other 2 chicks this weekend!

We got one chick for each of our kids.
Buttercup is Madelyn's and Oreo is Wesley's. 

 The kids are loving the chicks. 

They ask to see them/play with them only about 30 times a day. 

And I am counting down the days (err...months) until I get some fresh eggs :)

Oh and since Aaron and I like to pretend we are farmers we built another square foot garden. 

The first one we made and planted a couple months ago is out of control.
Everything is huge and producing like crazy so we decided to try our luck again. 

I keep meaning to post some pictures of all of our veggies...one of these days. 

If any of you have any chicken tips I'd love to hear them :)

Just call me the coupon lady

I'm a sucker for a good deal. 

Garage sales, consignment stores, Goodwill...you name it. I'll be there. 

There's something so exciting about being able to find a diamond in the rough or a $245 dress (tags still on) for $5. 

 A couple of my friends are couponers.

Until recently I hadn't really done coupons.
I mean we didn't even get the newspaper.

And then my friend (the couponer) told me about this awesome newspaper deal.

You could get Sunday newspapers (that's the one that has all the coupons in it) for a whole year for $10! 

So I got 3 (I told you I'm a sucker). 

And then she told me about another deal where you could get the other local Sunday paper for a year for $1. 

Seriously, how could I pass that up! 

So now I get 4 newspapers. 

Every Sunday.

That's A LOT of coupons. 

Since I get a bagillion coupons every week I considered myself an instant coupon lady and had to do a little research on how to put my coupons to maximum use. 

I decided to assemble a binder to organize and hold the coupons (thanks to the Krazy Coupon Lady for most of my new found knowledge and binder organization).
And thanks to Totally Target, All Things Target, OC Deal Mama and the Krazy Coupon Lady on facebook they tell me what to buy and when to get stuff free or super duper cheap.
It's like couponing for dummies.
And already I have got free toothpaste, deodorant, make-up and a bunch of other things for super cheap.
Next thing you know I'll be on Extreme Coupons :) (totally kidding)