Speed. I am speed.

East Texas Track Club All Comers Meet in Hallsville

Long Jump- 2nd Place
800m- First Place
400m- First Place

Congrats Caleb. You make me proud.

Just to prove I could

Ever since Nicole introduced me to Ana White and her fab furniture building website, I've wanted to build a bed. I've done a few of her other projects and thought it was time to tackle the beast. I chose this one because it looked cool and the storage could come in handy.

It took a good few hours in Lowe's to choose all the wood. Then I spent the rest of the day cutting the wood and the next two days at Ben's shop building. My SIL Becca helped me begin the building. I finished up alone and along the way learned how to use a pocket hole jig. Scary. I spent another two days filling holes, sanding, and painting.

Overall, I spent about $130 and approximately 15 hours to cut and build the bed. It sounds like a lot but it went pretty fast.


I also wanted to build this cool stool to help Cate get into the bed. It took a couple of hours and Sarah and Becca helped me with that too.

Cate loves the bed and now that we have another full bed, we can fit more guests!!

*The quilt on the bed is one my great grandmother pieced together. She completed the top and I put a back on, quilted it, and bound it. It won't stay on Cate's bed. My next project is a quilt of her own.

Have you pinned yet?

So my latest love on the www is Pinterest.


So awesome.

You know how you see cool things in magazines and tear out the pictures and save them in a notebook for further reference? You can do it online now too. See a picture somewhere and love it? Pin it!

It's a website that allows you to have your own space to save anything you see on any website. It saves a picture of your cool find with the link from the source. Other people on Pinterest can see the things you pin and vice versa, so stuff kinda spreads like wildfire.

I've become quite addicted.


See?

The bad thing is you have to be invited. So thanks to my friend Ralphie, I'm in. And you can be in too. Just ask me and I can invite ya!

It Happened Again

I reflect...

I really considered doing a post yesterday in dedication to my mom just to let her, and the world, know how much she means to me.

I didn't.

Because I'm a slacker.

And I didn't think I could be eloquent enough to adequately convey my feelings.

So...I love you Mom and I really look up to you.

Any who...

After deciding I wouldn't be composing an elegant dedicatory post, I turned my thoughts toward my feelings of motherhood. As in me being a mom.

And this is a little hard for me because I don't think I have the feelings of a typical mom. I know I have been blessed with extremely easy and awesome kids.

But...

I often wonder if the moms who put heartfelt confessions of how much they love being a mom are just making it all up.

Whoa!! I know you're shaking your head now thinking how awful it is that I actually just wrote that.

But each time I read one of those blog posts (I just read three different ones), I feel horrible. Why don't I feel like them? Why can't I just LOVE being a mom? It's something I've struggled with for almost 7 years now.

I just feel like it's a really hard job that doesn't seem to be very rewarding. Sure, it's cool to hear them laugh and see them all playing together peacefully. But sometimes it would be really nice to just be alone. And yes, I do get some alone time. But I feel like the few hours a week I do have, are not nearly enough and always leave me craving more. I'd like to clean the house and actually have it stay clean for the rest of the day. I'd like to be able to fix a meal and not hear everyone complain that they don't like what is on their plate. I'd like to do laundry and it not take the entire day.

SELFISH, I know.

It seems I have a hard time focusing on the positives of being a mom. And I do actually realize there are some of those too. Believe it or not, I have actually improved. I feel like I am much less cynical than even last year. I try to count my blessing. I try to have an attitude of gratitude. But there are times I feel sorely under appreciated. I enjoyed Mother's Day, but it left me wishing every day could be Mother's Day in the sense that I felt somewhat appreciated, when I usually don't. I wasn't showered with gifts or even service. But the kids did seem more thankful that I'm here. I realize they don't understand all that I do for them. I know I didn't understand everything my mom had to go through. And maybe later in life they'll reflect on how much I actually worked for them as their mom.

Right now I'm trying to focus on enjoying being home with them. I'm trying to LOVE having them as little people that I get to take care of. I know it's not the easiest or funnest. But I only have a few years with them. I need to cherish this time and relish it.

And I'm trying.

Really.

Another Hair Clip

I've wanted to make some flowers for headbands lately and gave this one a try. I found the tutorial on Little Miss Momma here though I did things a tad different. I hand sewed the circles of lace to the felt instead of gluing and added a clip so the flower can be interchangeable.