Day 3: Twenty Questions

Wednesdays are my long day--- Joe goes into work late, so he stays late. And this summer he's been taking a Wednesday night comic book class (I love him for that!), so my Mama Shift is a long one. So tonight for a blog post, I'm just going to whip out twenty questions and twenty answers. First ones that come to mind. Just because it's easy and I don't have to add images. 

1. What are you watching these days? 

Lots of Family Feud, as has been established. Steve Harvey is the best host yet, in my opinion. I've been watching Under the Dome on Amazon Prime. Loved Call the Midwife earlier this summer. Trying to catch up on SYTYCD. Just started watching "Scandal" about 15 minutes ago... we'll see if it sticks. I tend to watch 2-3 episodes of something then forget to keep watching. 

2. What is your guilty pleasure these days? 

Oof. So many. Triple-dipped toffee bits. I discovered my Whole Foods has them (!!!) after only being able to find them sporadically at a small little candy shop back where I used to live. So it's been easier to get them and WAY easier to eat too many. 

Any sweets, honestly. Chocolate chip cookies from McDonalds. 

Letting my eyes drift closed while Quinn takes his morning nap and Lucy watches Sesame Street. 

Popping by HomeGoods to see if they have anything new from my "Want" list for this new house. 

3. What are you proud of?

Getting things hung up on walls. Not done yet, but I've made a good start. 

Noah loving kindergarten so much already, and getting right into the groove there. 

The times I manage to take all three kids out on an errand and it goes smoothly. 

That I've only bought one tub of mini pb cups from Aldi this time around. Post-Lucy, they were my number one addiction and I vowed not to repeat it. (Never mind I replaced them with other high-calorie things. oops.)

4. What are you unhappy with? 

I'm not happy with my physical appearance since baby #3 came along.  I have not felt this much lack of physical confidence since I was a tween. It's sad and I want to feel better about myself. 

I'm not happy with the possibility that we have rodents in our garage and our basement. Turns out that with every new encounter with rodent pests, I develop an ever more finely-tuned sense of fear and dread about it all. I am not handling it well. 

5. If you could take a week's vacation alone somewhere, all expenses paid, where would you go? 

I'd probably go to Italy, get a small apartment for the week, and just wander, treasure-hunt in shops, nap, eat good food, and take photos/write. 

6. If you could take a week's vacation with only Joe, all expenses paid, where would you go? 

Ireland. Scotland. Wales. London. Hold hands and stroll and take photos and talk and take naps together back at our rooms. 

7. If you could take a week's vacation with the whole brood, all expenses paid, where would you go? 

A Disney Cruise. Sounds like so much fun, and like something we'd never actually ever be able to afford. 

8. What is your current "project"?

Oh I have a million, as usual: I'm working on a "mish mash wall" in my dining room--- one of those walls with photos and art and a few other misc. pieces, all kind of random but seem to fit together somehow. I don't want to be TOO spontaneous with it and ruin it, so I just put something up a little at a time. 

I want to sew a bedskirt for Quinn's room, but I'm second guessing my fabric choice. 

I need to order my 2011 Blurb books of my personal photos, but I keep waiting for a better coupon than the current 15% one. 

I'm beginning to try to learn studio lighting, and it's scaring me to death. 

9. What grosses you out?

Rodents in my life. 

That I just ate potato salad for my late-night snack. 

How the outside garbage cans smell permanently of poopy diapers, thanks to our baby kids. 

Sticky kitchen floors. 

10. What do you want to change?

My hair. I gotta cut it. I know--- some of you are really liking this length, but... ugh. I can't. 

My weird bad lame current food habits. 

I want to smile more with the kids. Not be so laser-focused on keeping it all going smoothly  that my face only has a look of concentration and focus on it, and no smile. 

I want to find a way to go to bed at 8pm at least one night a week. Seems impossible. 

I want to want to run/walk. 

11. How's the new house working for you?

It's already home. I can't believe it, but it is. I love it. I love so many things about being here. We're just fitting into the spaces and creating new rhythms and routines and lust relaxing into it and living here. Even with a few random setbacks/quirks (plumbing stench that needed repairing, bathroom remodel, possible rodents, and now the garbage disposal isn't working), I do not regret being here in the least. 

12. What new with your work?

I thought after a few months post-Quinn, I'd be ready to get back up to full-speed with regards to taking sessions... but it's become clear to me that to keep my balance, I need to stay at about half-speed still. Even through the coming fall, usually my busiest season. And though it means less income I can contribute, I am at peace with that. The sanity is worth the cutbacks. And God provides, you know? A small raise for Joe, a surprise order from a client, etc. etc.--- somehow it works out. I fully believe that my decision to be a SAHM is a blessed choice, and if Joe and I dig in and work hard with what we have, God helps us make it all work out. 

When I DO shoot, I tend to feel more anxious prior to a session than I have in a long time--- just because I'm not constantly in practice. But once I'm shooting, I get in the groove and love every second. I'm grateful that I get to take sweet and lovely images of marvelous babies and kids for a living. 

13. What is the hardest part about having three kids?

It is the honest-to-gosh PHYSICALITY of it. And most specifically when I have to do something in a time crunch where each kid needs to be attended to. Example--- having to get all three into the car to take Noah to preschool this past spring. Or currently, getting three of them ready for church and into the car and then into church without losing patience or a shoe or something. 

Getting food ready for all three of them at one time. 

Getting all three bathed and ready for bed without Joe home. 

Anything like that, where two of the three require full physical attendance and the third one requires my full mental attention simultaneously. It gets HARD. Like sweaty forehead, two-babies-in-one-arm-as-you-unlock-the-front-door, strained brain HARD.

14. What is the best part about having three kids?

Oh gosh, every other moment besides those crazy ones. I love how they interact with each other. I love that if one isn't being their best self, I can turn to another one and they'll happen to be in a cute mood and that reassures me and makes me smile. I love how different they all are, in their various stages, but also just their different personalities. I love watching them experience wonder. I love seeing them learn. I love the physical contact of being a mom. I love how it elevates my love for Joe as their daddy. I love a full table and a full car (mostly.) I love it. Love them. 

15. What are five things you want?

a. it to be cooler weather finally. I'm sick of summer clothes and how they show spare tires and chubby arms too well. 

b. someone to come over here and just SHOW me how to set my light settings for a 1-year-old portrait. 

c. two days to just sleep, then read, then snack, then sleep, then read some more. 

d. my kids to be these ages for an extra several months. I'm really liking 5.75, 2.5, and 7 mos. 

e. to be able to sew a few dresses for Lucy. 

16. What is one of your recent "pure happy" moments? 

Either yesterday, when we had to improvise our nap-less afternoon, so we drove to the Magic House and Noah told me to put my current favorite song on ("Hopeless Wanderer", Mumford & Sons) and I did, and both he and Lucy rocked out with me as we drove into the leap-of-faith outing away from home and routine. 

Or today when at Walmart, I let Lucy get a balloon to soothe her grief at not being able to keep Noah's dentist-visit balloon,  and as we rolled toward the check-out counter, the balloon floated to Quinn and bopped him on his head-- and he burst into spontaneous laughter. And then it happened five or six more times. TOTALLY made that darn $3 balloon worth it. 

17. What are 5 blessings in your life? 

a. Joe. He makes me a better mama, and is such a good dad and breadwinner. He's begun working on an MBA. Have I mentioned that? He's always striving for more. And still comes home, lets it go, and is present, REALLY present with us, in the evenings. 

b. my family. My mom and dad came and helped me paint a few walls the other weekend. They are always so good for those things--- moving furniture, painting, packing, unpacking... Among a million trillion other things they do that enrich my life. 

c. Joe's family. His parents worked so hard to help us get into this house and make it our own. They love us and the babies so very much and we are so lucky we belong to them. 

d. God. Forgiving me every second of every day and gently teaching me how to refine my rough edges and get better, be better... Teaching through joy and through music and through the things my children do. 

e. a HOME. This home. Our safe haven and peace of comfort and peace. 

18. Five favorite things right now:

a. big t shirts and yoga pants

b. my two photo walls

c. a lovely and super-functional kitchen

d. finding the light in this new home

e. pink grapefruit hand soap

19. Five favorite songs right now:

a. "Hopeless Wanderer" by Mumford and Sons

b. "The Stable Song", Gregory Allen Isakov

c. "Hey Mama", Matt Kearney

d. Any Alison Kraus, as usual

e. Any Wailin' Jennys

20. What is next? 

Next is proofreading this post, formatting it, then peeing and checking in on the two older kiddos, then falling face-first into bed and hoping I get a good stretch of sleep before Quinn wakes to eat. 

And hey, if you feel like answering these 20 Questions yourself, I'd love to hear from you. Blog it or email me or whatever.... *shrug*

Good night!