Tough Decisions. It is what being a parent is all about.

It is easy to type it but not so easy to live it. As a parent we are constantly having to make tough decisions that will shape the lives of our children forever. Decisions that most likely are wrong and will result in us having to pay exorbitant amounts of money towards counseling at a later date, but decisions nonetheless.

Here we are, Robb and I, blessed with the most amazing children and our job is to try to shape them into adults that will love God, love others, love themselves and who will contribute in some way to the society around them. The same society that is all the while working against us.

That said, we have been very blessed to be able to surround our children with people that love God and that love them. From family to babysitters to church family. One of the hard things about surrounding them with so many people that love them is that sooner or later they are going to have to experience the loss of one or more of these people. For a parent, that is one of the toughest things. The loss might not be a death, but maybe just seeing someone less frequent.

I pray continually for strength from God to get through the tough times as a parent and guidance in making the hard decisions. I need the strength that I can only get from him so I can continue to show my children His love through everything we do. What an adventure we are on.

April's Question of the Month

As a mom, I have many titles. One of these is laundry queen. In honor of my most recent laundry issue as previously posted, I thought I would ask a laundry question to all of you out there who have opened the washing machine and wondered what happened. The question for this month is, "What is your favorite laundry related story?" I look forward to hearing.

Men and Laundry - a continuous struggle.

My mom walked home with me tonight. For those of you who don't know, I try to walk home from work at least two days a week. It is 4.5 miles with a large portion of it uphill. Great exercise and has helped me to loose some of those unwanted pounds that seem to circle around my midsection ever since having a baby. My stomach still somewhat resembles a map but it is getting closer and closer to a flat road map as opposed to a globe.

Anyway, back to my story. My mom and I had just gotten home and Robb and my dad were tearing apart a rototiller that we had borrowed from a friend to do our garden. They were trying to figure out why it wouldn't stay running for any length of time. Having a ton of laundry to do, as is the constant case, I thought I would switch it over. I opened up the washing machine and started pulling out clothes. There was a couple of the girls nice dresses, a pair of Robb's work jeans, a few towels, a bright red tablecloth, some of my underwear, some of Robb's dirty socks . . . The washing machine was full to the brim with all sorts of stuff. Now the fact that it wasn't sorted was one issue, but what was even more frustrating was that the machine was so cramped full that everything we removed was still dirty. Pants with caked on mud. Oh, and did I mention the white blouses that were now a faint pink tint?

As I can feel my blood pressure rising I try to stay calm and I gently ask Robb, "Honey, did you sort this laundry?" He exclaims yes, as if what he really means is "I can't believe you are even asking me that." Really? I don't think so. I think he just tipped the laundry basket upside down over the washing machine, lifted it off, pushed the laundry into the machine, added soap, squeezed the door shut and turned it on.

He still denies it but in order to make my life easier and save our clothes it has become necessary for me to sort all laundry before it is done. As is often necessary, I praised him for his help and kindly asked if in the future he could please only put laundry into the washing machine that I have already sorted. He just went back to the rototiller.

Is it hard being a mom?

You have to picture the situation to fully appreciate the question posed. Over the last couple weeks we have finally been able to get out in our yard. Our goal for the summer is to further turn our current yard of mud/dust into grass and flowers and such so that next winter we aren't dealing with this

Step 1 was to purchase gravel. We can now check that off the list. Between the gravel we purchased and the gravel Robb got for his birthday our parking area is a lot dryer when we do receive monsoons of rain. Next step is to build a wood/tractor shed along our property line. The only problem with getting right to that is the area is currently filled with trees, blackberry bushes and all sorts of other thorny yuck. A little over a week ago I grabed the keys to the tractor and went to town demolishing the underbrush while Robb cut everything up and burned it. The area is gradually coming to be and we are very excited to get up our shed as we now have a big hole in our barrier between us and our neighbors. That in itself is another blog post.

Then this last weekend we got down and dirty. Time to rototill the garden. We rented a large rototiller and Robb went to town on our garden plot while I worked my way around the fence line. This would have been a lot easier if I had the pulaski that we have had for years. However, it met its demise the previous week so I am hammering away at the dirt with a pick ax that weighs more than the dump truck load of gravel we had delivered and comes to a point. Every time I hit the ground I just make a little hole. It didn't seem very productive so I was slightly frustrated to say the least. After hours of that I finished up and moved on to making pathways out of concrete blocks. The blocks were placed and using the tractor I began filling them all in with dirt. I promise to take some more pictures this weekend to show you all what I am up to.

While picturing this you have to realize that I am a get in there type of gal. I am dirt from head to toe and in between all the work in the yard I am trying to get the laundry done as well. A never ending battle. On one of my trips into the laundry room to switch over the laundry, my oldest wanders in from one of her adventures and stands watching me. I glance up every once in a while and notice quite the contemplative expression on her face. Finally she breaks in with the million dollar question "Mommy, is it hard being a mom?"

Wow! How do I answer this question. I mean, here I am probably looking a complete mess. My hair is all over the place, I am covered in dirt, my face is muddy, I haven't showered since the previous day, and she is asking me if it is hard being a mommy...

I think for a minute and decide on the honest answer as opposed to the sarcastic one I may have been thinking. "Yes, sweetheart, it is sometimes hard being a mommy. That is why your daddy and I made sure we were really ready to be a mommy and daddy before we had you." She looked at me with a quizzical look, contemplating the answer and asked, "But you love us even though it is hard, right mommy?" Of course I said "yes" and then leaned over in my dirty state and planted a big kiss right on her little lips. She was extremely satisfied and headed off to play leaving me to finish switching the laundry and get back to my yard work.

Another day in the life of a mom.

Scary Moment

Yesturday our good friend Justin Brauer fell off a lader at work. Didn't think anything of it at first until I heard from Robb that they were going to be airlifting him to Harbor View in Seattle. I have to admit I freaked out a little. The most stressfull was that we had not information other then that. We didn't know if taking him to Harbor View was precautionary or necessary. So we had to wait. Robb finally made it to Virginia Mason Urgent Care where he had been taken and he was already in an ambulance. The helicopter wouldn't be available until 1pm and they wanted to get him over sooner. They had the ferry staff hold the ferry, loaded him up and raced him down there. Robb followed in his truck and got in line at the ferry. Robb said that Justin was awake and answering questions and still being the sarcastic guy that we know. He couldn't remember what happened though and his short term memory was affected slightly as he kept asking the same questions over and over again every couple minutes.

After multiple phone calls we were finally able to get ahold of Jen and let her know that he had an accident and was on his way to Harbor View. We told her that Robb was with him and to call him to connect up with them. A couple hours later I called Robb to get the status of the CT scan and found out that they were releasing Justin. Yay. He still needs a low key couple of days to recover completely, but he is going to be ok. His memory will most likely come back gradually over the next couple days and he has been released to go back to work on Monday. Wow - what a close call. I definitely give praise to God for catching him with he fell and being with him throughout the afternoon to continue and speed along his recovery. What an amazing thing.

My wonderful husband Robert Young turns 35!

We had a wonderful dinner and dessert for Robb's birthday. My parents came over and we indulged on some been buritos with chipotle peppers and then didn't stop there. For dessert my parents had picked up a carrot cake from Liberty Bay Bakers that was delicious.

My family. What an awesome group.

The girls are smiling but really they are itching to break into the cake.

Ellie is ready to get the show on the road and helps her daddy blow out the candles so she can start licking the frosting.

"Ahhh, finally."

Berlin Echternkamp

Isn't she a cutie. Big beautiful eyes even when she wasn't feeling her most top notch. My girls loved playing with her while all us women showered Annelise with friendship and gifts.

Crayola

I wonder what it is about walls and furniture that children are sucked in to draw on them? Over the last couple months we, as parents, have become witness to the damage that can be done. I must say thank you to the many people who have offered their ideas on how to remedy our current situation. I have plans to try some of those ideas this weekend. I quite possibly will be stocking up on Magic Erasers.

The difficulty I am coming to is what to say to Olyvia. I don't want to scar her for life, although the conversation that we did have I am sure will be worth at least a few hours of counseling when she is older. Robb and I were in complete and utter shock. Robb exclaimed from their bedroom, while I am making dinner, 'Jessica, have you seen this?' By the tone of his voice I knew it wasn't good. Grabbing a towel so as not to drip raw chicken juice all over the floors, I headed to the bedroom. We were both in such shock from the amount of green crayon that was all down the side of her pine bookshelf that I almost couldn't contain myself. 'Goodness girl. The bookshelf?' I exclaimed. She just looked up at as with these big blue eyes, her hair casually parted down the middle, letting just enough of her face peak through to be totally pathetic looking. It was very much like that of a puppy dog that just at your favorite Jimmy Choo shoes. Robb was quick to jump in front of me on the punishment line however and exclaimed to Olyvia that all crayon, maker, and paint use would be taken away for the rest of the week. I myself would have gone for eternity rather than just a week, but I suppose that the week is probably a little more realistic time frame.

This morning when she woke up she came to me and said 'Mom, do we need to talk?' And so we did. I exclaimed that I was so proud of her for her writting skills and all that she is learning but that if she wants to practice her writting she will need to do so on paper and for the next week would be doing so with pencil only.