Drinks and Quality time.

As many of you know, I'm a mother of 3 very energetic and crazy boys. Time for me is precious and very limited when it comes to things I want to do personally. After a crazy week Val and I NEEDED ( can you sense the urgency of that?) to get away from everything, unwind and have some girl talk. We hit up the local 'Red Lobster' and ate and drank till our hearts were satisfied.

most yummy food ever!

This is Val.

 I often feel like I don't do enough for my boys, that the time spent with them is not quality time. I have set it in my mind to take at least 30 minutes from my day to spend with each individual child and spend another hour with all 3 of them doing something fun and enjoyable.

It was play day in Aiden's room.

 So far I have noticed an improvement in their overall attitudes and I get more smiles now ( AWESOME!!) so maybe there is something to this quality time,huh? I just hope I remember to bring my camera out .

reading books are a fav in this family.

Things that make me lose my mind.

My husband

Dinosaurs

All my projects

Eating MISO soup because I can't sleep.

kids eating things off the floor.

THE END.

Legos and Guns

 LEGOS and GUNS. What is it about those two that appeals to boys? They build grand "daddy dragon mansions", planes, submarines, "ak40s" and turbos... They save mom, kill mom and rescue poor Indian children from communist while traveling through the jungle, no wait that was my grandmothers childhood story.

A Computerworld columnist writes:

There are a couple of truisms: Lego just goes on and on, and on… and, when it comes to guns, boys never really do grow up.  Some comments posted on the Brickarms forums: “I want human-sized Lego weapons”; “As a child, I always wished that Lego would come out with some grenades for my dudes to throw at each other”… and so on in similar vein.

Here's a snippet called Fathers & Sons from the Wall St Journal:

I can't shake the sense that boys are supposed to become manly. Rather than neutering their aggression, confidence and desire for danger, we should channel these instincts into honor, gentlemanliness and courage. Instead of inculcating timidity in our sons, it seems wiser to train them to face down bullies, which by necessity means teaching them how to throw a good uppercut. In his book "Manliness," Harvey Mansfield writes that a person manifesting this quality "not only knows what justice requires, but he acts on his knowledge, making and executing the decision that the rest of us trembled even to define." You can't build a civilization and defend it against barbarians, fascists and playground bullies, in other words, with a nation of Phil Donahues.

 Everyday they talk about saving the world and mom from doom. They talk about being like daddy, diving deep in the ocean and using guns to shoot the bad guys. Often I find myself encouraging these rough manly attributes and although that is a quality woman look for, we look more for those that are respectful, have pride, honor and courage.

My husband  thankfully has all these attributes to instill in the boys. These are things they will learn as they grow, through trial and beatings  errors but for now they need to enjoy this part. CHILDHOOD... because as we all know, it goes by too fast.

I do love watching them build castles, guns and the lot.

Apple-Oat Cookies

INGREDIENTS :

3/4 cup Butter
1 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Packed Brown Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
2 Eggs
1 3/4 cup All-purpose Flour 
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Salt
2 cups Old-Fashioned Oats
1 medium Apple, peeled and shredded ( about 1 cup shredded)

 1) Heat oven to 375, use a cookie mat, parchment paper or cooking spray on cookie sheet. In large bowl, beat butter and both sugars on medium speed until creamy. Beat in vanilla and eggs, scraping the sides until blended.

2) In medium bowl, mix flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. gradually beat flour mixture into sugar mixture. Stir in apple and oats. Onto cookie sheet, drop dough be rounded 1 inch scoops, 2 inches apart.

Plays jeopardy music in head....

3) Bake about 9-10 minutes or until edges are LIGHT golden brown. Cool 1 minute; remove from sheet and cool on rack.

These are the most moist delish cookies, there is no way you will mess these up. If you do...there is no hope for you, j/k

Military Family Pictures- T Family

I have the wonderful privilege of knowing this family. I have never felt so welcomed and loved as a person, as a friend, as a military wife as I feel with this family. The "T's" have been through a LOT over the past year but have come out stronger.

They were great sports during this very cold day, our conditions outside dewindled with each passing minute. I had a wonderful time shooting this family.

:)

Foot steps walked so many times.

She drops him off at the pier but takes him with her always

Thanks guys :)

The Burnout.

The burnout happened, you know the burnout. When you add one thing after another on your list of To-Do's, you become so over whelmed that you HALT...STOP...QUIT... doing everything on your list. Well I got to that point already in the year.

My back went out just around the first of the year, I used that as an excuse not to do anything. When I say anything I mean anything, it's been a struggle to even get up the muster to really OCD ( as friends call it) clean my house the way I like besides the daily need-to clean.

Slowly I'm making my way back into the 'super woman' role, that woman who loves hearing " I don't know how you find the time to do all this,amazing". I'll admit, I LOVE to hear that, it drives me to do MORE actually. I've learned recently that my love language is 'words of affirmation' tied with 'acts of service'....I suggest anyone looking to learn better communication, go to www.5lovelanguages.com . back on track Kim,back on track....

So anyone who knows me, knows I like a challenge. I've recently become a fan of quilting. I've been working on a fantastic one recently and in true Kim fashion, I've found the next quilt inspiration. It's called the Cathedral Window quilt.

Picture - Hyena in Petticoats.

isn't it BEAUTIFUL?! I think I've fallen in love with this style quilt. This will be my Feb project :)

Getting back on track is the hardest part, you get into a habit of slacking and finding that motivation is hard. Instead of making excuses I need to just DO IT. Today was a good start, just keep it up Kim, keep it up.

What do you do to get motivated? or Who motivates you?