Hard Work Equals...

This med school life (or I guess it is 'residency life' now) is not generally miserable for me day in and day out. It is LONG and there are spurts of craziness, but overall it hasn't been that bad (at least not for me...I'm not speaking for Andrew). I look at so many other families where one or both spouses work long hours, others who long for any job opportunity at all, and/or are drastically underpaid, and others who know it will take years to advance in their career (if that is even possible), and I know that our immediate situation is nothing to complain about. We are very blessed. Period. Don't think that I don't realize that every day.

Luke likes to help me out when Cam is losing his cool. Usually blueberries do the trick to turn his mood around. Here, Luke feeds Cam blueberries even though they totally gross him out (see photo below). Ah, my little picky boy and my 'eat anything' boy are quite the pair.

Still, there are moments when I lose all patience and murmur a little. These are (hopefully) short little moments of "why me" that generally take place around 8pm when one or both of my little boys won't sleep and are screaming their little hearts out, the house is a mess, and I know Andrew won't be home until well after 10pm. (and come to think of it I haven't seen him for more than 2 hours total all week). Just a side note: the number 1 rule of residency is never to expect them to be home at a certain time. Sometimes the situation appears even more dire. But then I have a little thought that wipes away my "woe is me" syndrome and makes me feel grateful again. Ready for it?...

HARD THINGS MAKE ME HAPPY

Deep down I know this is 100% true. Is it true for you too? I hope I'm not the only weird one out there. I don't want an easy life. Easy is boring. I like having piles of laundry to fold, a cheesecake to bake for the bake sale, a talk to write for church, flubber to make for the YW camp auction (long story), a house to clean, friends to help out, a bunch of legal cases to update until 2am, that book about child discipline to finally finish, a 5:30am exercise class...the list goes on. Actually, I don't really like having these things 'to do', but doing them and accomplishing them feels great.

A very wise, well-respected Japanese man once pulled me aside (on my mission) and said (laboriously in English, bless his soul) that when he was faced with two choices in his life, he always chose the one that was harder and it always ended up being the right choice. Now, I don't think that includes dumb choices that end up making our life harder...that's something totally different. Nor do I think he meant that we shouldn't take advantage of great inventions or effective ways of doing things that make life a little easier. I think that he meant to not let fear of failure, or hard work, or temporal discomfort, or standing alone, keep us from doing something that we know is right. And generally, the harder choice is the right one. Have you ever noticed that? The best things in my life have also been the most demanding and labor-intensive. The eventual product of these things (not always the immediate product unfortunately) is HAPPINESS.

I'm so lucky to be happy.

I can't even remember how I ended up leaving the flour out. Sometimes my mind is truly out to lunch. I think I probably thought, "oh this will be a good sensory activity...I'll just leave them alone and go upstairs to put the laundry away". Duh. Have you ever tried cleaning flour out the cracks of a wood floor? Two words: Shop Vac. I'm glad they had fun cause it probably won't happen again.




Ready for another 'duh' moment? Drumroll please...

My sister was kind enough to send a HUGE box of toys. We invited the neighbors over to enjoy the spoils and they quickly discovered the joys of packing styrofoam. Turns out there is something harder to clean up than flour....you guessed it! I'm still finding little pieces here and there. I give full permission for more seasoned Moms to give me a well-deserved eye-roll. I know, a rookie mistake.

Confession: I helped them throw it around for about 30 seconds and thought it was pretty fun myself.

I love making waffles with Luke in the morning. We usually make them early in the week and keep them in the fridge to use the rest of the week. He loves to help. It is so fun!

Don't worry about his hands...we don't feed these waffles to anyone else

I promise I tried to prevent him from eating the fingerpaint but my efforts were fruitless. It's non-toxic anyway so no harm done...right?

I'm clearly displaying my finest parenting moments here :)