April Chaos

Things are BUSY. The house littered with cleats, baseballs, giant gym bags filled with sparring gear. There are nights when the kids are eat dinner in the car between practices. This past week we had 14 games/practices/sessions in 6 days between the boys. The spring is full with school events, volunteer work. Music lessons and rehearsals, after school clubs. It's a lot. Too much. 

It's raining heavily today, games cancelled, I've gained back 5 hours and it feels amazing. The kids are enjoying some unscheduled relaxation time before heading off to birthday parties. Right now I should be writing up the volunteer schedule for Science Day and making another signup genius. Or work on something artistic before I use up all my creative energy. Maybe bake a banana bread or organize the garage sale items in the basement because the town yard sale is coming all too soon. 

But  I feel like I've earned at least a few minutes here to write a quick update (Hi!) and reflect on the insanity of April. I dropped an entire carload of toddler stuff at my sister's house this morning from our attic and every square foot regained feels like an accomplishment. A weeks worth of teacher appreciation gifts were acquired during errands. My to-do lists are a mile long - I don't think that's going to end anytime soon and I am enjoying this unexpected break.

Inside the house in April, we did things! But now I need to photograph them which requires cleaning and good light and TIME. We updated Matt's room. New art that isn't for a baby nursery and reflects his interests. I drew most of it myself over the winter. We repaired a ceiling crack, painted his ceiling navy blue (just like Oliver's room) and restyled his bookshelves. Oliver's room also has new custom art. I repainted the downstairs half bath navy blue because it really needed a fresh coat of paint (and the dark blue looks SO GOOD in there). I've been meaning to do it for a year. We also repainted the upstairs bathroom ceiling after making a minor repair. The kitchen ceiling is untouched but next on our list. 

Outside... I prepped the garden for planting, but haven't done any planting yet (first weekend in May!). I have trays and trays of seedlings ready to finish hardening off this week. There are so many dahlias sprouted in the greenhouse. I bought a bunch of beautiful, earth-friendly native plants from a plant sale I ran for the boy's school recently and planted them in landscaping gaps in the yard (hopefully they do better than some of the other things I've planted). 

I'm still mulching the backyard, but I'm more than half done with the big pile. I really wanted to be done with it before May, but between the schedule and the weather it's a miracle I've gotten as far as I have to be honest. One big thing in my favor though is that the garden beds have needed very little weeding - the result of all my consistent mulching efforts the past few years. If it wasn't pouring right now I'd probably be outside mulching (OR at baseball!).

We have not touched the inside of the garage yet, but will have to get into high gear soon because it has the pool equipment, the flower pots and summer toys tucked inside. I have big plans to deliver the best of the outgrown toys to my sister and sell the rest at the yard sale. The patio furniture at least is set up and we are hoping to have the pool go up in the next 1-2 weeks depending on the weather. Lots to do and very little time to do it! 

This phase of life is crazy... but it's also beautiful and amazing and we are embracing it. Even though we are exhausted and overwhelmed sometimes, they are so lucky to have so many opportunities that it's hard to fit them all in. We are cramming as many fun things into the spaces between as we can. Sometimes it's big stuff (like day trips), sometimes it's little stuff (like homemade pizza on a family movie night) and sometimes it's in between (like friends over). I think my biggest issue right now is that I'm not taking enough pictures, I'm not documenting enough of the fun... but I'm absorbing it and it's keeping us going in the middle of the chaos.