the best of 2013

Happy new year!

mommy guilt and other things i've been up to.

Hey there!

It just dawned on me that I used to have a blog.

Once upon a time I would take hundreds of pictures a day with my big-girl camera,

and post on my blog near daily

and keep a grand record of our days.

Now I'm doing good if I get the breakfast dishes put away by dinner time

and don't fall asleep on the couch by ten.

The crazy level has amped up quite a bit over here,

but all is well.

This is my first stop every morning.

My in-laws gave us the Keurig they've never used.
It makes me very happy.

Life is crazy now,
but once soccer ends in a few weeks I know our lives will quiet down a little.
But I'm always sad when soccer ends.
Saturdays during soccer season are really my favorite.
Especially games with skies like this.
Isn't that the best soccer weather?



A couple of weeks ago Gary and I had a Saturday when all three kids were at
a birthday party for the day.
Instead of our usual date at Home Depot to do house stuff
we hopped in the car and drove to the beach.



It was just the two of us.
We stopped at several vintage pop-up shops that I'd had my eye on,
grabbed lattes together,
and sat on the beach watching the surfers.



We still like each other.
It was a good Saturday.

Someone has been taking cooking class every Wednesday afternoon after school,
and someone thinks it's pretty much the best thing ever.



I've realized that baths that don't require a hair-washing are my favorite.



One of the realities of going back to work is that
I've been dealing with a fair amount of guilt lately.
I missed Avery's field trip to the pumpkin patch...
I'm not volunteering in the kids' classrooms like I used to...
Riley was home on his birthday but I had to work.
Mommy guilt is an evil thing.



How did this guy turn twelve already?
If the mommy guilt wasn't making me emotional enough,
I looked through his baby pictures yesterday.



Oh, time.
Why must you be so cruel?

But time is good, too.
Because this afternoon, after the busiest week I can remember,
we spent two hours at the park and they played.
They laughed and ran and I sat on the bench and watched
and felt no twinge of mommy guilt.



It was a good day.

life these days, and a house tour.

Life these days is...

.up early

.shower

.coffee

.unload the dishwasher.  quietly.

.make breakfast

.wake up kids

.rushrushrush till everyone is out the door

.work

.teach latin to 120ish little people

.hand sanitizer.  repeat.

.home for homework, soccer, piano, drums, guitar.

.dinner

.clean up

.make lunches

.{didn't i just do that?}

.bed

.do it again

Yikes.

I'm so tired!

We're still adjusting to our new normal over here.

But, there has been stuff other than the above, too.

Also life, these days:

...dentist appointments

{why doesn't my dentist give out cute glasses?}

...homework.

OH THE HOMEWORK.

Junior High is crazy.

...falling in love with a pair of nude flats.

...pot roast dinner,

courtesy of my mom.

Coming home from work to the smell of dinner cooking is the best.

...a sick kid.

yay, back to school!

...waffling in my grandma's waffle iron.

...praying she wants to be a singer when she grows up,

and not a sinner.

...monkey barring around.

...sunset watching and being in awe of the Creator of it all.

It's been a good couple of September weeks.

And, if you're interested, Heather from Life Made Lovely 

asked me to do a home tour over on her Home Made Lovely series.

It's here, if you want to go have a look.

I even cleaned my kitchen for the occasion.

Happy Friday, friends!

Life these days is... up early coffee unload the dishwasher (quietly! don't wake anyone up) put out breakfast

home made lovely.

Hey there!
I'm Keri and my blog is Forever Folding Laundry.
It's so nice to meet you.
I'm honored Heather asked me to share our home here.
I'm happy to have you come in and take a look around.
It's always fun to peek in someone else's house, right?

I'm a wife...a mom of three...and a Latin teacher.
{i know.  latin??}
We're kind of a busy bunch,
so when we're home I want it to be a place of comfort and relaxation.
My desire has always been to keep a home where people didn't feel compelled
to remove their shoes and tip toe around, afraid to make a mess.

I also want people to walk into a home that's interesting...
I love a home that your eyes can't take in in just one glance.
I appreciate little surprises here and there.
That's the place I have tried to create.
So...come on in.
{and, while you're here, let's play "just how many times can the animals photo bomb?"}

When you walk into our home you walk into a large hallway,
which can be a challenge to decorate.
Our entryway is quirky,
but I like it.
Everything except the yellow paint, that is.  That's on its way out.



The antlers are from Michaels.
I decoupaged them with fabric.
My husband is not their biggest fan, but I'm okay with that.
The "Home is Where You Are" is from Urban Outfitters,
and the partial California map from an old atlas.



I think of our front room as my room:
I read my Bible in this room...sip my coffee alone here...hide from the kids here.
{that's totally true.}
This room makes me feel peaceful.


{i'm in the middle of painting...can you tell?}

Plus, I can look across the hallway and see the beautiful built-in bookcase
my dad made for us.
I think of him every time I see it.
Also...I love books.  I can't wait to add more.



Further down the hallway is our dining room.
Even though we don't eat here much,
I love this room.
It's just a room that makes me happy.
And my dad made the hutch, too.





But, if I'm being honest, the picture below is how it usually looks.
My stuff is usually spread out all over the table.
It's my favorite place to work.



The kitchen is really where most everything happens.



We cook here...eat here...talk here...do homework here...pay bills here....







And Avery does some serious art here.
Art supplies in a Coca Cola crate?  Meg Duerksen's brilliant idea.













The couches in our living room are light.
I know this freaks a lot of people out,
but I don't worry about them because they wash so well.
God bless the inventor of slip covers.





That stick-thing on the right is a bunch of dead blooms from an aloe vera,
sitting on an old typewriter desk.





{the animals are up in my grill all.the.time.}

Our guest room makes me happy.
Sometimes I walk by and see it and just want to take a nap in here.





Upstairs is colorful...personal...and, I hope, relaxing.



The hallway is a combination of the kids' artwork
and lithographs from Pixar films.
This room houses the wii, so of course the kids are up here a lot.



I found the map on ebay.
The couch is from ikea.
{white, again.  i know...crazy.}



My dad made the entertainment center.
Are you getting a sense of his awesomeness?

Finally, since my blog is Forever Folding Laundry I guess you need to see the laundry room.
I almost cleaned it up before I took a picture, but you might as well see it as it usually is.


I searched for lockers on Craigslist for months and months.
Finally I found a high school that was getting rod of their old lockers from the boys locker room.
Score.
Each of our kids has their own locker and we keep their sports equipment there.



Hooray for no more "Mom, where are my cleats?"

So...that's pretty much it.
I hope you enjoyed the look around.
Come visit me again at Forever Folding Laundry,
or @foreverfoldinglaundry on instagram.
{and thanks, heather!}

balance.

So...turns out when you go and get yourself a jobby job a lot of things fall by the wayside.

Like your blog.

And dusting.

This summer will forever be etched in my memory as

"that summer when I went back to work and became a crazy person."

Or a craziER person, as the case may be.

I am trying to learn how to do it all:

be a wife and a mom and a teacher and a person who can manage to

get all three kids to soccer and music and still buy groceries and clean the house

and do the laundry and plan lessons and exercise and wash my face at night

and feed the animals and take my vitamins.

So far?

I'm not doing so great.

And did I mention that I've only been back to work for a little over a week?

Yeah.

This whole life/work balance thing is going to be tough.

So, if I'm not here much,

you can probably guess why.

I hope the kids remember this summer not as the one when mom

sure did let us watch a lot of tv so she could get work done,

but the one where we camped and ziplined and cheered for the Giants

and grew crazy inches taller

and swam and swam and swam.

Thanks, summer.

And the craziness begins....