I know... I know...

My 14 year old needs new furniture and her room painted. She is in bad need of underwear and summer shorts that fit. My boys want more fishies in their tank, and their armoires and dresser drawers are full of clothes that do not fit. My little one currently shares a room with all of my scrapbook and photo stuff plus only half of her room is appropriately painted the "very Lil" raspberry pink that makes it so... well... Lil (it's early - I'm not clever yet).

But... I am too busy getting laundry done, keeping dust bunnies from interfering with floor play, throwing together a protein, a starch, a veggie for dinner every night (still not clever - my apologies :-), and... getting everyone to school, to sports practice, to their respective spring events - athletic banquets, school dances, baseball camps, etc. (not to mention playing the adventure game outside with Milo in which I am "Mary" and he is Indiana Jones - or Lil's pretend play with horseys and mermaids - or Enzo and his books - or Olivia and all her girl stuff :-) to even begin the fun stuff (what I'm calling the "to do" list above). Hubby swamped too as we both have a lot going on in our respective career corners - getting the house spring ready (it, too, needs to be painted - our room is a mess - our yard is yukky - garden needs to go in soon, etc.).

Sigh. Too much on the ol' calendar these days .... ;-). Though... you can see from the photo that we were at this pace way back in October AND had not tackled the above "list", which existed back then as well! Plus... I'm sleepy. Lil has been restless at night - telling me she's "scared" when she wakes. Usually, I end up fetching her milk, turning on the TV, sitting on the couch with her until she sleeps again. NOT ideal in terms of parenting tips (but, I ask you - what is IDEAL at 4 in the morning??? My eyebrows are raised here... you just can't see me ;-). I do have one good parenting tip, however.... Have always been a Cheerios fan, and... now have ventured out a bit and tried their "fruity" version as well as their chocolate offering. Pretty good - still nutritious (whole grain) - still low sugar (comparatively).....

Thankful for a couple of things - First and foremost that one of Enzo's kindergarten classmates, Catherine, who has been sick ... is on the mend and feeling better (the class created get well cards for her yesterday - which reminds me, I am thankful for his teachers - thinking now of Mrs. K, who sent my Olivia "we miss you" Easter greetings from the whole class when we had moved away and were feeling sad - always thinking how Mrs. W helps my boy this year, and... Mrs. E's good intentions :-). And... just to show that I'm still into spring, busy schedule and all, I'm thankful for raw sugar snap peas (you know how I love my raw food :-) - in fact, check out this upcoming local raw dinner event at J'eet Cafe - could be interesting...) because they taste like spring and I can eat them all day because they are non-fat and tasty. Thankful, too, for my cousin's new baby, Ellis; he was born earlier this week and is a welcome addition to my Dad's side of the family after a bit of a difficult run lately... knee injuries, surgeries - other annoying, nasty stuff.... Thankful, today, that my little ones have noticed all the flowers blooming - on our tree out front - as we drive on our way to do daily errands - want to read books with me, play in the rain together....

I feel a bit like Sesame Street.... today's post was brought to you by sugar snap peas and the color raspberry pink ;-).