the 4 o'clock blahs

the little girls kinda follow me around all day, understandably. so if i am doing laundry upstairs, they usually will alternate between "helping me" and playing in their rooms. yesterday, my little type a addie did this. she also took all the contents out of 2 of her drawers so she could do her "laundry." i told them that before naps we were going to clean their rooms, but then i figured we'd have to do it after naps anyway, so why not wait? we waited, they helped, all was well. except for that book that came apart from it's binding resulting in an extended time-out for both. i've already taken all the toys out of their room (hence the playing with shoes and clothing), do i really need to take all the books out too? one more torn or broken book and i think i'm gonna have to. :(

this little lady uses the potty a couple times a day now. this is a great improvement (despite the disgruntled picture) because she used to never want to use the potty. right now i can handle one accident a day. after that one accident, we switch to diapers. one day we made it all the way to naps, so yay!

this boy has been so sweet and good. he's been quick to help, reading a ton, and really happy. we had a ginormous bag of documents to shred, so i came up with the bright idea that we should try to burn them, which he happily agreed to do. probably won't be doing that again, but at least the shreddables are out of my hair.

(ps - i hate paper clutter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

this girl's been getting pretty crabby in the evenings. and by that time of day, mama's already feeling worn out, so add to that a crabby baby, dinner needing fixing, little girls wanting attention, big kids wanting attention + drive time, friends picked up, tv, add to that the ensuing messes, diapers, etc and evening over here have been pretty ugly. and my poor husband walks into that every day. and lately i have been only too happy to unload on him as soon as he walks in the door. soooo trying to work on that!

#overwhelmed.

(i like to keep up with the kids and the hashtags. ;)

when laney finally did settle down, and after the rest had left for scouts and church, i was able to get my flowers put up. just looking at them makes me happy. :)

and those flower pots there? they used to be an ugly 2-tone brown and i've wanted to spray paint them (have i professed my love for spray paint yet? cause if i haven't yet, i love spray paint!!!)

forever, so i finally took the time yesterday and i think they look great!

after the familia got home, christian and i went for a run. training for that 5k, which makes me feel pathetic that i have to train for it, but whateva. and then i even got to take a shower with no little one's/big one's wanting/needing me or coming in to interrupt me.

joy.