House Unseen: Help A Sister Out

Did you know that 6 months from today is Christmas? 

How would you like to be a part of a very early Christmas gift/baby gift/help-a-blogger-out gift?

I thought so.

You've probably heard of Dwija via Cari. At least, that's how we met.

Well, life has recently handed Dwija a whole lotta lemons and as always, she's still servin' up lemonade.

Cari, seeing the need to help out organized

Operation Laundry Room Recovery. 

She's thoughtful like that.

If you feel inspired to help and donate, Dwija will reap the rewards of a more functional laundry room. Which the girl desperately needs with a houseful of laundry and sweet kids to tend to.

You can go here (the Donate button is under 'Thanks Everyone') to donate through Paypal or contact Cari (cari@clan-donaldson.com). You may donate through next Sunday.

Even if you cannot help financially, I know Dwija, baby and family appreciate your prayers, so send lots of those her way as well. 

Hello, Electricity! How I Missed Thee

39 Hours without electricity can teach you a lot.

Like how ill prepared I am for natural disaster.

How often I wash the girls' hands and face with the quick turn of the faucet.

Laundry and dishes seem to stack up faster.

The house becomes a wasteland of desperate dirtiness.

My kids are more resilient to coping without it than I thought.

There are still plenty of other things to be done without electricity, especially when there are branches/sticks to pick up and a garden out of which to clear debris.

Or how grumpy I get when there isn't the convenience of electricity flowing throughout my home.

A reminder that I am human and quite clearly was not designed to live in a different time era. My unwashed hair that was doin' its own thing was a testament to this truth.

Lastly, I take the power and workers that keep it coming to my house every day, for granted.

Stay tuned for photos from our Great Staycation last week, 

aka The Fun Before the Storm.

**By the way, if you live under a rock like I did for a few days, Kim Kardashian had her baby girl last week. We can all rest easy now, can't we? Dare we hope we don't see any more about that woman? That was the longest pregnancy EVER. Of course now she and the Kanye will just monetize on their baby 'North'. Oh joy. 

Weekend Wrap Up: Father's Day

It's just too heard to chose a few photos from such a great weekend, so I'm just going to plaster them all here in one post and be done.

It was a good one. You know, one of those that you wish you could just do over, but make it last way longer? I think it was the summer sun, the family time and just good old honoring dad kind of stuff that  made it extra wonderful.

Just Me And My Dad

Saturday morning we met up with my parents at their new favorite restaurant, a nice local establishment, with excellent food. 

Nothing like starting the weekend celebrating dad with some food, right?

No clue why Gianna is into bringing her pillow and random stuffed animals when we head out the door lately. Hence, they get captured in memorable photos like this one:

After Mass on Sunday morning, the kids had plans of making breakfast. They got some help from me, but we tried our best to keep daddy out of the kitchen. They even cooked for two extra mouths since we had grandpa and grandma over for breakfast too.

My Cooks

Card from the Kids

Thanks to Pinterest, I found this simple print off that I had Lily and Jonah fill out for their dad. A nice personal gift to add to our store bought ones, but also memorable keepsake too of their thoughts on dad.

Our Mr. Incredible

When the temperature decided to hit well into the 80's, we decided water was in order. The lake is still a bit too cold, so we pulled out the kiddie pool for the little girls. The big kids decided to join in and asked to have their floaties inflated, just because they were new and all. Clearly, the pool is not big enough for the floaties, but we like to pretend.

Pool Kids

Notice Gianna in the last photo and this one? She held that expression almost the entire time, she had such a blast! She'll be easy to please this summer with the kiddie pool.

Poolside Freezies with Dad

For fun, we also pulled out the slip and slide for the big kids. They just couldn't resist taking the girls on it. Gianna knew better and wouldn't trust them, but Margaret, well, she's still gullible. She did seem to like it though.

Warming up with Dad

There's always time for a smooch with mom too.

Is this summer?! I could do this relaxin' thing all.day.long. All.summer.long.

After a picnic supper on the porch, we topped off the day with root beer floats. Minus the whipping cream and cherries, since I  someone forgot to buy them. Ah, well, we enjoyed them just the same.

By day's (and weekend) end, we could all agree that it was a very good day indeed.

Now, a couple days of work and then we are planning a couple days of Staycation. Fun things as a family, close to home and return to our own beds each night. Right now that seems manageable and maybe something more later in the summer.

How was your Father's Day weekend?

 I hope you had a great time honoring those special dad's in your life!

WIWS: Newbie Edition

Who isn't inspired by the beauty of everyone's WIWS posts?

Every week I think about it about 20 minutes too late and when I'm back in my grubby clothes 

post-church. *sigh*

But today, TODAY, I remembered before we walked out the door to Mass.

And then I realized that I'm clearly not meant to model. Or coordinate beautiful church attire.

So, I'm all like, I can do this....

Still trying...

Let's try this pose...

This one will have to do, we've gotta get going to church...

Skirt: Walmart (last year); Shirt: Sonoma from Kohl's; 

Earrings: Kohl's (again, SO several years ago last year); Scarf: Old Navy 

And while I was getting the girls out the door and loaded in the van, someone else decided to play fashionista. 

Work it, Daddy!!

When all else fails, show off the guns...

Oh well, it was his day, so I let him have some fun. Photographer: Jonah

Stop over at Fine Linen And Purple and check out all the other WIWS beauties in their finery.

ps...after this go around with WIWS, don't be surprised if you don't ever see me do this again. I just don't rock it like the other ladies do.

Ten on Ten: June

 Hopping back in (because I finally remembered) with Rebekah at A Bit of Sunshine.

One photo an hour for ten hours on the tenth of the month.

Here We Go...

"Don't Bug Me", pretty much sums up any given morning, but especially a Monday morning. 

Big Sister, Middle Sister, time to read sisters. A great way to start the day.

A quick run to Target helped us procure the final Father's Day gift, the kids' choice for daddy. (The shirt, not the Butterfingers. Those would be mine, but perhaps I'll share.)

Time to catch up on some cleaning. This place doesn't clean itself ya know.

More multitasking...reading blogs, running Swagbucks tv and working on my 'real' (aka PAID)  job stuff.

Pre-nap reading with the girls. One or two books most definitely always means a huge stack, right?

One of my favorite times of day. They are just so sweet when they are napping that I almost want to crawl in next to her.

The sun finally came out today. The heavens rejoiced and mamas everywhere in MN regained their sanity. This mama finally got the chance to get photos with the blooming phlox and the tiniest toddler.

"What's that called again? The S-U-N??!!"

When the sixteen month old is absolutely ravenous, it's true what they say: a watched pot never boils.

Never fast enough to get that pasta cooked it seems when it's close to feeding time at the zoo.

Stop by A Bit of Sunshine to see what everyone else was doing on the Tenth of June!

Theme Thursday: GIRLS

When you have two older kids who are a little sick of you always taking pictures of them for like the last gazillion years, what do you do?

You turn to your almost twin girls who don't know any different and click away at all their cute, awkward and candid expressions.

And then you dream of all the canvas art that you could post on your walls just of your kids, but then you'd never be able to pick your favorite because there are just too many.

This is my current dilemma. I've got a wall going up my stairs that could hold a lifetime of great photos and I'm once again thinking about revamping it. Enter Pinterest and a whole slew of ideas it is giving me!

So.many.choices.


Like either of these two I recently snapped:

Hello, ipiccy, I love thee and your easy edits. So much fun to play with my photos and change them up. Again, adding to the difficulty of choosing which photos to frame.

Oh the possibilities!

Catch all the other darling GIRLS over at Cari's today. SO worth stopping over to see the captured beauty of the contributors.

World Priest Day Is THIS Friday

Got a priest?

Got a priest (or two, or three) your family loves?

Want to let him know how much you appreciate him?

Well, then you don't want to miss this Friday, June 7th, World Priest Day!!

(hint: it's also the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, of which I have a particular fondness)

Find a way to let your priest know you are praying for him and thinking of him on Friday.

You can find more information about World Priest Day over here.

A few ideas:

- send him a text on his cell phone letting him know you are praying for him 

- send him a spiritual bouquet of prayers/rosary 

- send a quick email thanking him for all he does for your parish/your family

-have your kids color him pictures (find some over here) or write him a letter of thanks

No matter what you do, I guarantee he'll be glad he was thought of and appreciated. Those wonderful priests need our support and prayers. Friday is the perfect reminder to let them know you and your family give him both.