Untangled hangers

For the first time in my entire life laundry was enjoyable. Yes, I said it. I enjoyed folding my laundry today. Are you in shock? I am, once again. I am in shock at the surprises parenting brings to me on a daily basis. Little reminders that life is short. These surprises really do make me count my blessing and live every moment like it's my last. Cliche, I know. But, these words are perfect to describe a good, even okay, day of what being a Mom is like.

So, I am sure you are wondering what is so great about doing laundry?? I'll tell you.

The mountain of disorderly, wrinkled and tangled clothes sitting on the recliner chair from Saturday starred at me with it's button eyes and zipper mouths. It was taunting me as I zipped around the living room picking up toys left scattered about from the night before. R was helpful in loading and unloading the washer and dryer and hauling a few baskets up and down the stairs over the weekend but I was just to tired to fold laundry. I left it waiting. However, the clothes heaped onto of the recliner were clean. Thankfully.

Due to the fact I really, really didn't want to look at them all evening I dove right in and started folding them. I couldn't bare the site anymore. I brought a pile of hangers out to the living room to hang the hang-ables, which i already had set aside from the sorted piles of R clothes, M clothes, my clothes and E itty bitty clothes. Sounds like a normal, mundane chore, right?

This is when it gets better.

I remembered, as E is ran towards my nice neat stack of hangers: SHOOT! this kid loves hangers. I was just waiting to have to untangle a mess of hangers once she's had her fun. I hate tangled hangers. It frustrates me like losing my keys or wearing mismatched socks.

But to my surprise, instead of grabbing and running E took one off the stack and handed it to me. I took it, hung my shirt and turned and she was ready with another. I took it and hung a second shirt. I'm sure my mouth was hanging open already. I couldn't believe it! We continued on this way until all the hangers were gone AND all the shirts were hung up and my, or should I say our, chore was done.

Children amaze me. If you let them they really do begin teaching you life's biggest lessons.

I love my little helper.

Keep Loving.

Cuddles and Catch Phrase

I almost set my "Wacky Wednesday" header for tonights writing and then I realized today wasn't wacky at all. Today was smooth sailing all day.

E and I spent the day snuggling and cuddling just a little extra as tomorrow and Friday I will be away from her for 9+ hours. To my surprise she was exceptionally cuddly today too. Even Daddy was surprised to catch a few cuddles from both E and M today.

M has been showing affection much more lately, which makes me feel loved and accepted by her. All though I do know she has accepted me for a long time now it is nice to feel it when we haven't seen her for  a week. She walked up to me and hugged me around my waist and said, "I feel like I haven't hugged you in a while." I love her to pieces!

We recently introduced M to the game Catch Phrase. So the rest of our time with her today was spent waving our arms back and forth as we struggled to describe a word/phrase. All of us really get into the game. I think M really likes this new game and is really catching on.

I am looking forward to more M & E (And R) time this weekend!

Keep Loving.

Father's Day celebrated The Miller Way

*Shew* An eventful weekend has made this Mama very tried. I feel like I've been swimming laps, trying to stay afloat all day. But, I have decided an eventful weekend is definitely worth dragging my feet just a bit today.

We have Maddi Wednesday and Thursday through the Summer. When it is our weekend to keep her we will have her Wednesday through Sunday. We are very excited about this, but it takes just a little bit more energy to care for her too. This is not a complaint at all. I enjoy seeing her face more often.

Father's Day was a huge success, if I do say so myself. I might be tooting my horn just a little bit.
Sunday morning started with a trip to Meijer for eggs and oil to go into the fun-fetti cupcake mix Maddi picked out on Friday. I also needed strawberries to go with the layered parfaits I planned for breakfast. So Daddy slept in and the girls and I gathered the things we needed at the grocery store.

Maddi did a wonderful job assisting me in the mixing and making of the cupcakes and parfaits. I was surprised she didn't want to decorate them, so I got to have a little fun with colorful sprinkles. Then we woke up Dad for breakfast. He was all smiles and thanked all of us several times for the fun little surprise. 

Then Maddi and I drew picture clues for our BIG surprise. Ryan had already guessed we were headed to the zoo but he didn't know for sure until he uncoded the pictures we drew. And the smiles lit up his face all over again. I also invited the Evans/Stevens family and The Hardy Boys, which just so happened they wanted to celebrate Father's Day at the zoo too.

And it was lots of fun! HOT! But, fun. The John Ball Zoo has a lot to see. Camels, bears, lions, birds, penguins, alligators, fish, sting rays (which you can pet), frogs, snakes, monkeys....I know I am forgetting a few. I, for some reason, really wanted to see the komodo dragon. I am still amazed by the size of this over grown lizard. It was huge. Edee could have taken a ride on it!

I think we all had a great time. Before we knew it 6:00 rolled around and our group was ready to call it a day.

Making time for special occasions to celebrate the man Maddi, Edee and I love and appreciate and can't live without is definitely necessary.

Keep Loving.