This is the year...

I started looking back at the last (almost) 6 months and I got discouraged by the feeling that we have "not done anything" this year. Knowing very well that this is not actually the case I decided to take a closer look and note some of the things we have indeed done, big and small.

This is the year...

1. We looked down at our hands and truly admitted that our thumbs are not even the slightest shade of green. 
As a result we drastically reduced our flower bed in the front yard, replacing the large patch that has been meant for nice and colorful flowers a much smaller patch with some green and white striped grass, oh and our lawn grew a couple of feet too. We no longer try to convince ourselves and others that we are able/willing to keep a nice and colorful flower-filled patch in front of our house staying nice and flower-filled. Just trying to keep the stripey grass and the new patches of lawn from dying was an accomplishment in itself. Also, we hired out lawn guy back so now our lawn gets mowed and our hedge and palm tree get trimmed on a much more regular basis and we are all much happier as a result of it!


2. Our oldest daughter graduated from Pre-K. 
Ok, so personally, I think that the whole concept of doing a full-fledged graduation for 4 and 5 year old kids is a bit over the top. Maybe this is grounded in how I grew up or based on the fact that the whole ceremony turned into a somewhat stressful event for my daughter and one she clearly could have done without. Nonetheless, we did still partake in it and it did still mark the end of her year in pre-K. We now have a little girl, who is not so little any more, who will be going to Kindergarten in the fall!

3. Our youngest daughter got registered for pre-school.
Our energetic, fun-loving, firecracker of a 3.5 year old will be at "school" 2 days/week in the fall. What is mamma going to do with two whole mornings with only 1 child at home??? She is so ready to get out of the house and get into a classroom and get to have a teacher and classmates and she cannot wait to learn everything big sister has learned.

4. We made our master bedroom into a half office/half master bedroom.
We are known for moving our bedrooms around. It has gotten to the point where my sister says we play musical bedrooms....it's kind of true. So just after Christmas when our son was almost 7 months old we decided it was time to move our bed out of his room and into the office (the original master bedroom) downstairs. We created a sort of half-wall room divider with a shelf and made one side a designated office spot and the other the master bed room. We like it and it works!

5. We made our master closet into a half nursery/half closet.
We have a 3 bedroom house and it has plenty of space for the 5 of us, or so one would think.... The thought was always to have our girls share one room and let little brother get the other room. Well, let's just say that nobody was sleeping well with that arrangement so we played musical bedrooms once again and moved each girl into a separate room and put little brother in half of our master closet. Ok, don't go off imagining our boy in a pack'n'play tucked under a rod full of hanging clothes in a dark closet with a sliding door, that is now how it is. To ease everyone's mind, it is a good size walk in closet with a light and an a/c vent and it is big enough to have him on the one side and all our other stuff on the other side. And the best part....everyone is falling asleep easier at night and overall sleeping better through the night!! Yay!

6. We did not spend a dime on our credit card.
We made it our goal to not spend any money on our credit card this year, and though most certainly not an easy task we have succeeded so far and we hope and plan to make it out the rest of the year too!

7. We realized how lucky we are to have family and friends who care and step up to help us when needed. 
We realize we are very lucky to have people close to us who were willing and able to help us when needed. Thank you!

8. We celebrated our baby boy turning one!
I know everyone says this but I truly cannot believe how fast time has flown by! I feel like it was just yesterday that I held him in my arms for the first time. I feel like I blinked and when I opened my eyes and looked down there is this goofy, brown-eyed, seven-toothed, dimpled, bushy haired little boy standing in front of me pointing and saying mamma. I am afraid if I blink again I will have to look up to look into the brown eyes of the goofy, dimpled, bushy haired young man standing tall in front of me. 

I am certain there are a lot of other big and small things we have done that I have not pondered at this very moment, but once the year is coming to an end maybe I will take another look back and reminisce about those then. Now I plan to put the past aside and wait and see what the future holds. Here is to a great second half of the year!