Week in My Life: Day 7, Sunday & Some Lessons Learned

{Once a year, I take time to document my life for a week. I was inspired by the ever-gracious Melissa from Adventuroo. The idea is brilliant, really. I so rarely document the nitty gritty of life and while there’s no way I can do this every month, I can swing it once a year. I hope you enjoy the snapshot as much as I enjoy documenting the good, the bad and everything in between. Read here for day one, two, three, four, five, six and seven.}

Sundays are usually reserved for my “what I wore Sundays,” but today you get a touch more. 

We all woke up late, hazard of having yet another kid with a fever. Luke and John Paul are a-ok, but now Clare work up feeling junky. Um, I really need this fever to vacate the premises. We have family pictures tomorrow! We barely made it to Mass. This is what happens when you live 1.8 miles away. We ended up leaving right after Communion (a usual no-no in our book) because Clare was feeling so bad. She came home and went straight to bed and slept for nearly three hours. I’d say our early exit was warranted.

Here’s the outfit. The skirt is no stranger to the blog, but I do love it, so much. I giggled as I walked out the door and remarked to Scott, “Only in Texas do you wear a wool cardigan and pair it with summer wedges.” He gave me a blank look which told me that he had zero idea what I was talking about. I love that man. In fact, he’s making a guest appearance. His outfit is all from Dillard’s. Thanks for humoring me, honey.

Skirt/Shirt: noVae Clothing
Cardigan: WHBM
Shoes: Crocs
Jewelry: James Avery (necklace); Charming Charlie (earrings)
Baby bump: 13 weeks

After Mass, we got to work on preparing for this week’s 4-H County Food Show. Both the boys (thanks to my awesome Mom) already had their dishes prepared, but they still needed to do some serious studying. And, the county show is also having a Spooky Desserts Contest, so they were busy making bloody brownies (grotesquely delicious) and monster cookies. My kitchen was a hot mess.

We had just enough time to scarf down lunch and get Luke down for a nap before all the 4-Hers from our club arrived. We were doing mock interviews and everyone had to make their dish. It was a great trial run and I was SO proud of each of them. It’s not easy to answer hard questions from adults and look like you’re having fun! I know they will benefit, for years, from this experience.

After the crew left, we did some more studying, homework and housework. Because John Paul had felt under the weather and Clare was feeling stinky, we opted to skip John Paul’s usual lacrosse practice. What a bummer. We were all really looking forward to seeing him play, too. We also cancelled our original plans to go trick-or-treating at the Chi Omega house on the t.u. campus (Aggie speak for University of Texas). We went last year and loved it. Everyone was super sad to miss.

As Scott prepared dinner (I love it when he does that!), I got started on laundry, the kids picked up the gameroom, practiced music and we had a few wheels fall off. Chalk it up to middle school, high parent expectations and some really tired kids. Someday we’ll learn that 4pm on a Sunday is a bad, BAD time to practice our perfect parenting skills.

We enjoyed a great dinner, some really funny best and worst’s, showers and a quick bedtime. Tonight, we hosted our sponsor couple from church. The SC program is one that pairs a married couple with an engaged one and we mentor them through ten hours of marriage preparation. Our talks cover everything from sex and money to communication and family of origin. We share it all. It’s always a humbling experience and a reminder that our marriage needs nurturing. We’re currently hosting our tenth couple and I’m happy to say that all those couples are still married!

After they left, Scott and I looked at each other and both said, “let’s go to bed.” What a week. What a life! Thanks for hanging with me. I’ve loved your comments, your suggestions, your questions and your sweet words. I really do have the best readers on the planet.

Lessons Learned
You know, last year when I did WIML, I was surprised at what I learned after documenting our life for a week. In most cases, it was fascinating, and in a few cases, very humbling. Here are my take away’s from this year. I’d love to hear if you have any looking from the outside, in!

– Organization makes our life less stressful. For the most part, we use the systems we have in place and they keep us from forgetting things. Well, sometimes not a kid, but they do work.
– I need to get up earlier. Perhaps it’s part pregnancy, part laziness, part I’m not a morning person, but on the mornings when I get up with the kids the morning never goes well. Too much yelling, too much fighting, too much drama.
– Wasting time with your kids is important. Even Pope Francis encouraged married couples to do just that.
– Aggie football makes all things better.
– Finding the balance between work, play, motherhood and marriage is always a little tricky. No day is perfect, but I’m still sticking with my mantra that I want to be a better mom tomorrow than I was today. It’s all about the baby steps.
– Sometimes a trip to Buc-ee’s is all the doctor ordered.
– We’re doing a decent job of eating well, but I’d like to see us eat more whole foods, less processed ones, and to shop the perimeter of the store more than the interior.
– Meal planning saves my sanity.
– Middle school is killing me.
– Date days are divine. We need to do more of those, even if it’s just lunch. Scott and I are partners and if we don’t nurture our relationship, everything suffers.
– A sense of humor, caffeine free Dr Pepper and a good friend on speed dial keeps you off the ledge.
– I need to keep getting in the pictures with my kids and I need to take more of Scott with them. Those are the photos we’ll all cherish someday.
– What struck me most about chronicling our days were how different my children really are. In pictures I know they look related, but I was able to really see their individual talents, interests and personalities. Even though fever messed with the week’s plans, it sure was awesome to spend that time with the kids.
– Life in a big family is busy, but fun. I hope I didn’t scare anyone away from this life of ours, because it is something pretty beautiful. There’s always a playmate, always a buddy, always an adventure, always some laughter just an arm’s reach away. We didn’t get HERE overnight. It took time. I pray that our family is a witness to the beauty of life, even with all its warts.

Thanks for following along and letting me yammer. I hope each of you takes a moment to document a week in your own life. If the interwebs aren’t your gig, journal it. A year from now you will chuckle, tear up and say a prayer of thanksgiving you did it.

Pinky swear.

I’m taking some days off this week, but I’ll be back very soon. There might even be a lovely before and after on a recent home improvement project!