a working day

today was a good day. 

a good, working day and nice end to a kind of 'bleh' week.

and a very 'bleh' night last night. i had a bad mommy night. i know they will come, but just knowing that doesn't make them any easier to take. how come parenting, and disciplining in particular, are so easy for me, and black and white, for the 2 and under crowd. but when it comes to the big kids, forget it! very little seems black and white there. it's almost all gray. i'm sure that's part of my problem, more needs to be black and white. we are in need of a serious family meeting and the setting of some new rules and the re-setting of some not-so-new-rules.

anywho, the rest of the week was kind of 'bleh' because we just got back from vacation and i gave myself full license to take it easy (code for be laaaaazy) all week to ease myself back into the swing of things. i maintained things all week, instead of improved things.

at any given time, i have a list a mile long of things to do, and another, equally long list of projects that need to be done. some projects are started, some not at all. for example, i've got my half done photo collage wall and my 7 full gallons of paint in the garage that i have yet to use.

today was good.

now there's only 6 gallons left.

matt was away for his navy weekend so i decided that today we were going to work. i layed down the law for the big kids and told them that if they wanted to do anything today, they owed me some working time. in exchange they would get paid, get permission, and get a ride to the fair tonight.

and they were so, so good! alexis took the babies to the park for 2 (two!) hours before naps, while christian mowed the grass, helped me prep the entryway for paint, and vacuumed. 

it was pretty rad.

i thought painting the entryway would be quick. yeah, not so much. i did have to take a break to put the babies down for their naps, take lexi's friend home, go to the store, (including a quick stop by bath and body works for a super cute free tote and 3 free items!) make pasta salad for tonights bbq, and do the laundry.

here are ma' paint shorts. 

everyone has 'em, right?

they started off as honeymoon shorts.

(meaning i bought them ((along with a few other cute outfits)) special and saved them to wear on the honeymoon).

but then matt hated them. 

so when we bought our first house and started painting everything in sight, they became paint shorts.

i think there's paint from every room we've painted on these bad boys.

 before.

 ugly scuff marks from the ugly, builders grade paint.

ugly.

 after.

 it came out waaaaay darker than i thought it would. am i ever gonna get good at choosing paint? at this point, i'm thinking no. either way, it's better than it was before. and maybe in a few years i'll muster enough willpower to re-paint it. we shall see.

 anyways, the kids continued to help all throughout the day. i, of course, got behind on myself. the bbq started at 5 and by 5 i still wasn't even finished painting. i didn't make it to the beach till 6, but it's all good. i dropped the big kids off at the fair and went to the bbq. even though i remembered to bring my camera, i didn't take any pictures. in my defense, i did have both of the girls by myself. even though sweet katie took frankie to the park and kept her most of the time. and even though sweet joseph took addie down to the beach and i just got to sit and visit with good friends. i couldn't be bothered with pictures. 

so there.

(in case your wondering, matt got home late and thought a quiet night at home ((washing cars and fertilizing grass, i swear that boy cannot sit still!)) sounded better than a fun bbq). 

 and that was the good end to a 'bleh' week. :)