Here It Comes

May 31, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

There are library books strewn across my kitchen table and bottles of nail polish in the living room.

Babies have been put to bed all over the house and the kiddie pool has just been emptied of it’s suntan lotion scented water–all over the deck.

We drank all the sweet tea yesterday, but there’s some adults-only lemonade left.

I think it’s summer.

Today is our first official day with no camps, no post-planning, no daycare, no grandparents. Just me and the girls.

And the Tinsley boys because we went to Jazzercise and then graced Wendy’s in our workout clothes because Mary Lynn and I are cool like that. Well, sweaty, really, but who cares?

It’s summer.

Madelynne at Jazzercise Camp

Time for the babies to sleep.

While we’ve been anticipating it’s arrival, we’ve also been planning for how we’re going to incorporate me back into a stay-at-home position that I haven’t occupied since Madelynne was smaller than Amelia. So here’s a look at what we’ve been up to….

This is all the junk we took out of the office so we could take down our existing furniture and replace it with some sleekly modern IKEA finds. This picture scares me even though all this isn’t still in the living room.

This is Madelynne and Mimi sorting all her kindergarten papers for her portfolio.

This is the old desk….I forgot what it looked like under all the clutter. Do you want it? It’s for sale.

And this is the other desk that was “mine”. Not really. Really it was another place to gather clutter. We’re working on that.

And this is Joshua putting the baby to sleep after a long day of furniture removal and assembly. I think it’s sweet.

No, there’s no picture of the new furniture. You’ll just have to be surprised. Or wait until tomorrow because it’s current state is fantastic for Imperfectly Perfect Wednesday posts.

Where Did Summer Go?

August 7, 2010September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett2 Comments

It’s officially over. According to the school calendar that is. Summer….where did you go?

Oh, that’s right. You went to Harbor Island where the girls got a quick beach fix and Amelia learned to hold her head up like a little turtle.

You invited Hailey and Audrey to visit for a week at Saddle Ridge Ranch.

You taught Madelynne and Belle to swim and Amelia to roll.

You celebrated Daddy’s big 3-0 and Amelia’s first cereal.

You got your Twilight fix with Eclipse and the big girls (but no pictures)!

You camped at the lake even though it was hot, hot, hot!

You celebrated a special anniversary with special friends and a special night of fancy dinner and the fancy Fox Theatre (but again, no pictures).

You panned for gold and gems and bought Daddy a truck.

You stole the Munchkin scene in The Wizard of Oz for two weekends in a row.

And in between you found time to go to the dentist (not so fun), work out at Jazzercise enough to earn flip flops (pretty fun), tube the “mighty ‘Hooch” with Aunt Brooke (lots of fun), and play with your friends at the water park (the most fun).

And while all this was going on, you were letting my girls get bigger right before my eyes. Now those pictures from early June show preschoolers with shorter hair and shorter legs. This week they became school girls ready for Kindergarten and Pre-K, independent and a bit sassy, but still sweet and lovable. They may have darker tans, longer hair, and more inches between their shorts and their knees than Daddy would like, but they’re still my little girls.

And I already can’t wait for next summer!

summer

Random Acts of….Staycation

July 19, 2010September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

Last week Joshua stayed home with us all week. Originally, we would have probably taken some sort of vacation, but in the interest of economics, we decided to have a “staycation” instead.

Well, our staycation definitely cost more than a week at the beach, or even Disney World, but in the long run will be a better investment.

Here’s what we did: camped at Lake Hartwell, visited Dahlonega’s Gold Mines, viewed some “wildlife”, and culminated the week with a big purchase for Daddy.

I think Joshua’s favorite part was definitely the big purchase.

It’s a truck. A great big Ford F150 Super Crew Cab that will seat all three girls across the back seat. That makes me happy.

It has a/c and is cool. Literally and figuratively. That makes Joshua happy.

I should mention here that if you missed my list on how wonderful my husband is you don’t know that he primarily drives the Honda Civic my parents bought me in high school.

It’s 20 years old and has no air conditioning. It’s tiny and old and doesn’t say “cool dad who needs to haul lumber home to build his girls a treehouse”.

So instead of ending our staycation with a trip to the water park, we cooled off in south Atlanta via Ford a/c. Works for me!

To check out some visuals of our fun week, visit my Shutterfly site here.

http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · Paynes · summer

Camping in the Rain (in July)

July 13, 2010 Lindsey P. BrackettLeave a comment

It appears that we are the cause. The cause of rain that is. I thought this gift belonged to the NHMS soccer teams because everytime they have a game, it rains. But apparently, we too are a cause. Everytime the Bracketts plan a camping trip, it rains.

Back in May I decided that we needed to extend our stay-cation just a bit and camping was an affordable and fun (and work-filled) way to do this. So, I relied on the trusty National Recreation Reservation Service (i.e. my mom) and booked us a site at Oconee Point on Lake Hartwell. We invited some friends to join us and the Hollands were game. Well, Scott and the girls were. Noelle was pretty sure she’d prefer the Comfort Suites.

I grew up on Hartwell and Russell lakes because my parents are Corps of Engineers and used to take us boating, camping, fishing, all that good outdoorsy stuff I want my children to experience. Plus, Joshua’s an Eagle Scout so I feel like we should spend more time in the woods using those skills.

Boy is camping different when you have to be the one in charge instead of just the one enjoying yourself.

We packed the van (and I do mean packed, we’re going to have to invest in one of the pods for the roof) and left the house in a downpour. It’ll be gone by the time we get an hour north we told ourselves.

Whatever, it was following us. It rained the whole way to the campground and didn’t stop until we were sitting in the car wondering how we were going to unload to get to the tent that was on the bottom and then set it up in the rain.

We finally got camp set up and were eating our dinner of sandwiches when the Hollands arrived around 10 p.m. Scott had no trouble pitching their tent in the dark and we sat around by lantern light and blessed the rain now, since it had cooled down the temps and made sleeping bearable.

The next morning the kiddos were up bright and early (think prior to 7 a.m.). We spent the day swimming the lake, walking the campground, fishing for brim, grilling all sorts of yummy burgers and steak and deer backstrap (thanks, Scott!), and riding on the boat with Corey and Alaina.

My brother gets the uncle gold star this week. He and Alaina came up from Hot-lanta and brought my parents’ old pontoon that Corey has converted to his fishing boat. They also brought Butter, their water-savvy Golden Retriever, and Jasper, my mom’s only-Golden-in-the-world-who-can’t-swim.

We had a good time with the puppies (Scott and Noelle had also brought their basset, Sadie). They chased balls in the water, jumped off the boat, and searched the island beach for prey. Jasper even swam a little in an effort to catch some geese. Corey helped him out by putting the noodle under him. Hilarious!

We weathered a brief shower under the picnic shelter and then headed out on the lake.

On Saturday night we sat around the campfire trading stories about family and alternately yelling at the girls to go to sleep. Sunday morning came early again and Corey is now my favorite sibling because he had the coffee ready when we got up at dawn again.

The Hollands had to head out about mid-day, so we spent Sunday afternoon on the boat riding the new toy Corey and Alaina headed off to Anderson to get and letting Granddaddy bond with Amelia.

Sunday night was quiet once it was just us and everyone had gone. We went to bed early and woke in the middle of the night to….the sound of rain.

Which meant that when we packed up on Monday morning everything was wet and muddy. Typical.

But a good time, nonetheless!

motherhood · summer

Lazy Crazy June

June 24, 2010September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett2 Comments

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was supposed to be able to kick back and relax once school was officially over. You know lazy days of summer and all that.

There’s a reason lazy rhymes with crazy.

It’s because you’re crazy if you think a mother of three is allowed to be lazy.

We have been non-stop the past three weeks. First, it was our impromptu beach trip with Marmee. Then it was running errands, visiting friends, and dental checkups. Next came VBS and our houseguests, Aunt Audrey and Hailey Cousin (this is so she is not confused with Hailey Reed). This past weekend was no down time but here, there, and everywhere as we celebrated Father’s Day with five great dads.

And this week has brought swimming lessons, wellness checks for Amelia and me, more birthday celebrations, and two days of staff development I agreed to so I could make some extra moula to fund all this summer craziness.

Almost makes me wish we were back in school and following a set routine. Almost.

Because as crazy as things have been and as difficult a time as I am having dealing with the “supposed to” of life (more in a later post), I wouldn’t trade this random life.