the real me

so...i have been wanting to do this post for a while now. my sister keeps sending me links to these amazing moms who blog about their lives as mothers who: cook organically, make everything from scratch (clothes and food), reupolster or paint old furniture to save money, clip coupons, make charts for their daily chores, have daily crafts projects to do with their kids, teach their children to read and write before the age of three, have weekly trips to the library to pick out books to read for the week, have their own home business to help out money wise, grow their own veggies in their beautiful garden.......

i have been getting pretty depressed reading all these blogs...i have decided to have a blog protest...in honor of my protest, i am showing you a day in the life of the vickers' household...beware, you will see no homemade crafting here!!! the above picture is my laundry room right now...i HATE laundry (is it really that hard! it is not like i am going out to the river to beat the clothes on a rock with my homemade bar of soap, then take them back to the log cabin to hang the wash on the clothes line) why is it so challenging for me?

here is my homemade dinner that i threw in the crockpot this morning...pretty good planning i thought (patting myself on the back), but when i was doing some more preperation for our dinner...this crockpot meal was grossing me out!! and i was really in the mood for....
PIZZA!!! what do you think happened to that lovely homemade dinner that i spent good money on at the store......in...the...trash!!

this is a typical early morning, mid morning, lunch hour, early afternoon, late afternoon, bedtime routine....i have no tinklings of guilt letting my kids watch tv, and they watch alot of tv...and i don't feel guilty about that. you may also notice they are watching spongebob, which i told myself i would never let them watch...but the stomach churning laughter from them melts my heart...and i give in (it doesn't take much to get me to give in).


i very often find remnants of candy and other cracker, granola bars (does that count as "health food"), sticky gooey messes that i am not even sure what it was by the couch and on the floor aroung the couch throughout the day...you may wonder why i am finding them after the consumption has already occured...that is usually because i am either on the phone, computer, or watching a movie or reading a book somewhere else in the house while the consumption is taking place....no planned craft time, quiet time, reading books time in this household (that would mean i would actually have to put some effort into something)

some more fun facts:

* the boys usually fall asleep on the couch watching.....wait for it.........TV!! i always think the later they fall asleep, the later they will wake up in the morning (although this has not worked yet, in five years so far...but i keep on trying and hoping)

*we rotate three meals in this house: tacos, spagetti, and tri-tip...the rest of the days include cereal, mac and cheese, and frozen waffles!!!

*my idea of quality family time at home is watching a movie together and not watching seperate movies in seperate tv's in the house

*my three tv's in the house are rarely OFF!

*your lucky to get your tidy-whiteys laundered, but don't even expect them to go back into your drawer

*i will read you a book (but you might have to ask three or four times)

*my standard answer to "can we watch......" is YES!!

*if a button falls off a shirt....yikes! you either have to wear it without buttoning it...or it gets thrown away

* i do have coupons, but rarely pull them out of my wallet to actually use them

* if a bowl has been in the fridge for a looooonnnngggg time and is really moldy, i will throw the whole thing away and not even mess with trying to clean it...my mom always asks me "where is all your tupperware??"......secrets out!

so if anyone else is in the mood for some blog protesting....bring it on!! i have to go put the boys in their bed since they are asleep on the couch...and then i will probably watch a movie!!!!!

Be Still and Know that I am God

What sweet memories were made this weekend at our church family camp. The boys were literally running everywhere they went...I was trying to catch up in flipflops.

After talking about fishing for two days and practicing their casts into the grass at home.......the long awaited TEN MINUTES of fishing was all that could catch their attention when they saw the paddle boats go by and they HAD to go on them!!

I have memories on this exact swing when I was 4 and 5 years old (pictures to prove it too). I have been coming to this camp for 34 years and now I get to bring my boys. Thank you, Travis, for knowing how important this is to me and for making it important for you too!

Too much activity...you would think he was sleeping in the afternoon here, but no this was about 10:30 in the morning...does that tell you anything about the activity level?
This is how Luke was absorbing the words of wisdom imparted from our good friend Ben who was the speaker at camp....maybe upside-down brings it to the heart faster??...if you see me sitting upside-down in church next week.........

Going up the mountain into God's creation is always so refreshing, it allows me to put everything else aside it this crazy life and focus on the real reason we were put on this earth...to praise the Lord and be with Him. Be still........

Oh Nelly!!

Would you like to know what i have spent the morning doing...

cleaning up after i have cleaned! Huh??? I had just fininshed cleaning the boys bathroom when not an hour later....i walk by to fing this. Oh nelly!!!!

at least they are trying......

Just Hangin Around

The boys were playing awfully quiet the other day...so I went to check on the mischief being had...this is what they were up to. Hanging all their stuffed animals from the slats in the bunk beds...when I walked in to see, they were soooo proud of themselves. They actually kept it like that for two days (unheard of in this household, I usually set something up for them like train tracks that take 15 minutes to set up and is destroyed in 2 minutes).

To have that imagination again...and to fing joy in the simplest things...Lord, give me that joy!