Exhausted.

Throughout my six and a half years of parenting, I have come to realize a few things; at the top 

of that list is that this parenting job is hard. Hard, hard, hard. 

Rewarding and wonderful and fulfilling? Yes. And hard.

One thing specifically on my mind this week is that although having babies and littler
kids is physically exhausting,once they move out of the physically exhausting stage you move
 on to the mentally exhausting stage. The stage I/we will probably be at forever now, huh? 

Sunset from a few nights ago...I was so happy to see the sun go down, to know the day was nearly over, quiet time was near and the chance for a new and better day tomorrow.

The arguing the talking, the questions, the explaining, the whining, the teasing, all of it,

 day in and day out exhausts me. And sometimes gets the best of me.

It's been one of those weeks...not terrible, nothing out of the ordinary, just exhausting. 

The kind where I am repeating myself over and over, cussing under my breath and fantasizing about running away from it all--if only for a weekend.

I suppose you didn't come here just to hear me whine though, huh?

So what have we been up to this week, anyway?

Well, today we knocked another one off of the Summer List, I think we are making a
pretty good dent in our list so far.

We tie-dyed t-shirts today; red, white and blue. 

It was messy and I didn't have gloves so I'm thinking my hands might be permanently stained red...

but it was fun and we did make some cool shirts.

We made one for Eric too and I might just tell him that I made an appointment for us to all to

 get family pictures taken this weekend in our matching shirts...hahaha.

 I can't wait to see the look on his face, I know he will be panicking on the inside.
What else?

Ice cream.
The kids cannot get enough ice cream and popsicles in this weather.

 I don't blame them, I don't get real hungry for ice cream myself until summer hits.
Dilly bar anyone? Yes, please.

Happy Friday to everyone, hope you have a great weekend!
Now tell me, what your plans are for this big holiday weekend...? 

It is supposed to be super hot and humid here with a little chance of rain, fingers crossed that
it doesn't affect the fireworks. I love fireworks and probably look forward to them even more than the kids do. We are also looking forward to cooking out, spending some time at the cabin...

and I'll be hanging with these crazies all weekend while trying to hold on to my sanity:

Lord, give me strength.