I finally gave up on pre packing. We are set to move in 3 weeks and I was going to be so organized by the time moving day hit!
The plan was to get rid of all the necessaries and throw out all the junk that has been cluttering our lives. It was a great plan until I actually picked up something to pack. "I'm sure I could do something with this old salsa jar! It seems such a waste to throw it, and 9000 baby food jars away. Someday I'll wish I had kept them." This is what went through my mind each time I picked up something, anything.
I've decided I need my mother here to pack for me. She will know what's junk, whats good and what I might need later. I'll go sit in the back yard for 2 days until she is done, and enjoy being completely ignorant of all the "treasures" she is throwing away. What do you think Mom?!
Yesterday I'd had enough of being boring. It's so easy for me to get stuck in a rut thinking I can't do anything adventurous without Tyler. My friend Kathleen and I decided to take our kids up the canyon for a hike and marshmallow roast. Kathleen has a 3 year old and a 5 year old boy that Alex idolizes, he teaches her important things like how to shoot bad guys and climb up dangerous rocks. We love them dearly.
It was so fun watching the kids scamper all the way up the trail to Bridal veil falls and then spend an hour playing in the freezing water. There was a slight breeze blowing off the falls and standing there in front of it was like heaven to a couple women living without air conditioning.
After the kids were soaked and freezing we found a great picnic spot next to a playground at Nuns park and let the kids run around while we built a fire and heated up some taco soup. We enjoyed toasted marshmallows, the cool canyon, and great company.
I think there is a special magic that happens when there are multiple Moms (or responsible women) and no Dad's around. There was this great cooperation and multitasking that happened. Usually I go nuts trying to watch my own kids in public, but somehow the two of us were able to keep track of 4 kids on a play ground, next to a river, while tending to dinner over a hot toddler level firepit, and it wasn't stressful at all!
It's outings like these that remind me that I am a competent mother. It's so easy to be stressed out when people are second guessing your moves and mothering techniques all the time. It was nice to remind myself that I know my children, I know what they are capable of, and I know whats worth stressing out over and what's not. Sometimes I put myself in the parenting back seat when I am around other mothers or people who seems to be more confident or know more about what they are talking about than I think I do. I kill myself trying to conform to what their parenting style and technique is, when I need to just own up to how I'm doing it and be confident about how I choose to raise my kids. For heaven sakes I'm around them 24/7, I should be the authority shouldn't I?!
Kathleen has a similar parenting style and our kids get along very well. For the first time in a long time I felt no pressure to intervene at every step Alex took or keep her from looking cockeyed at her playmates. I let her play until she told me she was freezing, run around in her bare feet, and I didn't harp her about eating her dinner. She didn't die of hypothermia or get slivers and she ate everything I put in front of her. I think it was therapy for the both of us. We work better together when we are outdoors.
The garden at Grandma Jakes house is growing and growing!
This is the whole reason I wanted to plant a garden this year, to watch the kids hunt through the leaves looking for dinner and then have them help and see as it goes from garden to plate!
They were a bit more interested in the raspberry bushes.
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