Beautiful Flowers and 'Mama' Shoulder

Beautiful daffodils!  These were some of the first flowers that bloomed in our yard this year.

They are on the table in a glass of water because Graysen picked them for me! :)

They are beautiful, but they need to stay in the yard.  'But they are so pretty, mommy!'

This week I am having surgery on my shoulder.  Sigh.  I do want my shoulder to feel better, but I am not a fan of being at the hospital or having surgery (this is probably fair to say for most people). I also don't like having to rely on others to take care of me.  I am the mom, I take of everyone else.  I have been dealing with this shoulder for almost 2 years.  I have already tried physical therapy and cortisone shots.  My official diagnosis is 'mama shoulder'.  Seventeen years of lugging babies around takes a toll on your body.  

Okay, maybe it's not the official diagnosis, but it's probably pretty close.  :)  

We celebrated 2 birthdays in March.  Ethan turned 14!  Still hard for this mama to believe her little boy is now driving!  Ethan chose to go to The Village Inn for his birthday meal.

Ella Grace turned 9!  She has such a servant heart even at 9 years old. 

She picked Texas Roadhouse for her birthday meal!

Both birthday days were great celebrations of these special blessings in our life!

Yes, Mother, 5 magic beans!

What a great weekend we had watching Ethan starring as Jack in the local children's theater production of 'Jack and the Beanstalk'.  All of the kids in the production did a wonderful job.  Several of our neighborhood kids were also in the play!  What an amazing time for them all.  Amazingly, I was not nervous about watching him (normally I would be a wreck).

As his mom I was proud that he had the lead.  It was only his second time auditioning for a play.  But even more important to me are the strides that I have seen my 'baby boy' make in the last few years.  He has totally stepped out of his own comfort zone and done things we NEVER would have imagined him doing.  When he was younger he would be stifled by his own anxiety, and thus trying new things rarely happened.  He always shied away from being on a stage.  Social aspects have always been the hardest for him.

I guess, in short, after years of encouraging him to try new things he trusted himself enough to 'jump' and he excelled!  As a parent that is wonderful to see.  We take the good with the bad when parenting.  Sometimes when you are in the trenches and the bad is so overwhelming you are not sure those good times are ever going to come.  So when there is a victory it makes you feel like the hard work can pay off.  We are so proud of the young man he is becoming!

Next stop on the theater trail.....tech crew for Alice in Wonderland!

This is Jack!

 This is the beanstalk!

Signing autographs after the show

           The neighborhood gang!

Ethan and Ethan(neighborhood pal)-also the Magic Harp and Milky White!

Medicine cabinets and turning 40

Decluttering continues

One area crossed off the declutter list (DL) last weekend was our medicine cabinet.  This is one of THE smallest cabinets in our house and it had it's own spot on our DL.  Our medicine cabinet was pretty ugly!  It's a small cabinet in our kitchen (next to the stove).  It had morphed and grown into taking space in the cabinet above the stove as well.  Now with 6 kids I could easily argue that we should have lots of items in this cabinet.  But truly, we are just a Tylenol and Advil family (well, maybe mom likes something a little stronger now and then--more on that below in the 'I'm 40, now what?' section).  The winner of the oldest item that was thrown away was a container of Vicks Vaporub that expired in June 1998!  That means that little bottle has moved with us EVERY time we have moved!  Ridiculous!  We had 2 grocery bags full of trash from this small cabinet clean out.

This is the done pic.  I forgot to take a before pic.  But seriously, how much crap could we shove in this small cabinet?  A lot!

40?

Okay, so I turned 40 last week.  Bleh.

I had some wonderful lunches, suppers and Girl's Nights Out too!  I am so blessed to have these people in my life!   

I got some awesome gifts from my family and friends.  

I know these two pics are sideways (I cannot for the life of me get them to flip--ARGH!), but I wanted to show you part of the AWESOME scrapbook my mom and Brynna did for me.  The top pic shows me as a baby and the bottom pic is a funny page they called 'name that baby'.  It's my kids (Brian's too) and you have to figure out which baby is which. I struggled with it!  I guess our kids all look a little bit alike!

You are probably wondering why I would think a ceiling fan was a good gift for my 40th birthday.  Well, we have had said ceiling fan for over 2 years and it was finally installed on my 40th birthday!  I was thrilled! (seriously, I was!)

And this tree picture (I actually got 2) is now hanging in our rec room!  I had told Brian I wanted these a while back at Kohl's (I love trees) and he remembered and got them for me!  I thought he was getting me a blender! (I would have liked that too!)

But I have entered a new decade. Now what?  Well, I already know that aches and pains are more prevalent.  I have been battling a bum shoulder for almost 2 years.  I suppose lugging babies around for the last 17 years will take a toll on a gal's body.  :)   This is where the medicine cabinet comes in!  Mom is allowed to take something a little stronger on bad shoulder days!  Gray hair has been my friend for about 8 years.  I don't think I am ready to let it grow out and have a totally gray head yet.  So for now, Nice N' Easy will remain my friend.  And I wish I had the body of me at 20 back.  I'm not really a vain person, but I would love for my boobs to be back where they started!

I wish I could say 40 years has brought me some great words of wisdom.  Mostly I can just say that laughter is a must.  Tears still happen. Life can be hard. But perspective is most important.  You can determine how your days will be spent.  Will you choose to see the blessings?  I try to each day.  I have a wonderful husband who supports my decision to be at home with our babies.  I have an awesome mom that adores her grandchildren and is intentional about spending quality time with them.  I am able to school my kids at home and choose the religion I want.  I have wonderful friends (old and new).  

What are your blessings?  

Life is short.  

Take the time to count them.