Among all the tasks that I conquer throughout the day I must say laundry ranks right up there with cleaning vomit off the carpet, actually laundry and dishes…actually all of my chores. Sadly, I must admit that I have still been unsuccessful with getting my husband to agree to a sister wife for me. (I know! I thought he would be all for it!) The fact that he isn’t keen to the idea, is I suppose, a good sign, but nonetheless I would love to be the wife who went to work andcame home to a clean family and clean home, with fresh baked cookies and a glass of wine upon my entrance…sorry had to bring myself back from dreamland…

To mommy,
     i wanted to write you this letter to tell you that i love you. 

So I was going to do a video post this morning but my 3 inches of grow out, the crater on my cheek from an emergency self-inflicted "surgery" last night and the fact I'm just not going to shower today all lead me to write instead.

The other day my oldest, Sawyer, was having a rough day. He had gotten in trouble for watching a youtube video that was strictly prohibited by the youtube Nazi... (me).. When Soy gets in trouble it pretty much ruins any chance of having a decent day, so as he was stomping around saying, "I'm rude, you hate me," no amount of explaining how untrue those words are would sink in.

He came to me when he had calmed down a little and asked me to spell the title of his favorite youtube series, Tales of Disaster, which are consequently great survival videos made for kids who live in areas affected by volcanic eruptions, earth quakes and tsunamis, anywho let's just say we are covered if anyone of those three natural disasters strike southern oregon. So I wrote down the title, but then turned the paper over and wrote him a letter... it said:

Dear Sawyer, 


I love you so much. You are kind, you are amazing! God created you to be special. He will use you to do great things and help so many people. 


I am proud of you!


-Love-
Mom


I was focusing on helping him read the letter instead of watching his reaction. As he read his words got very short and choppy .. he does that when he's getting ready to melt... so I looked over ready to correct him and realized he was sobbing. Like a big gut sob... he wrapped his arms around me and told me he loved it. I was shocked... I had no clue a little note could mean so much to him. But then I thought about how even a short email of encouragement brightens my day and gives me a little burst of energy and self confidence. Why don't I realize my kids need the same thing. I tell them I love them and I am proud of them ALL of the time.. but sometimes it's the small unexpected words that give us the nudge we need to change our attitudes and perspective... whether we're 7 or 37. It was such a great reminder of the mom I want to be and the absolute POWER my words and actions have in shaping my wonder boys...

Just in case you're new around here I thought I'd introduce myself.... I'm the scattered crazy Earth Monkey Mom Lindsay:) And this is my family. My kids never have clean faces, my house is usually a mess and I always have 3-15 loads of unfolded laundry sitting on my couch. My family just received an Extreme Home Makeover and it's crazier than ever here! I post on Fridays and we're glad you're here and we hope you'll stick around... More than anything we want you to know that none of us have it all together... and wether your kids are 40 or 4 you're not alone in your journey through motherhood!

...It all started innocently enough.  Kind of like they all do I suppose. A little glance here, a lingering touch here.  Occasionally I would change my route just to be near, and I found myself beginning to linger longer and longer in the presence of my new love.  I have become almost obsessed, I day dream in the shower, lose sleep at night dreaming about the potential....This is a total secret, but I even pretend to be doing dishes at night and sneak out the back door just to get a fix!!!  I am in love and it feels good!!!
  

this is part of my booth...I love this place!!! ;)

a door that I found and put chalkboard paint on!  LOVE

a cool old cart that I topped with wood and painted !

You see, it's easy to lose the passion in life when it is filled with cleaning pee off of walls, breaking up fights, laundry, endless cooking and cleaning.  Its easy to forget who you are as a woman, an individual or someone who just might have a passion for something (you forgot what that was years ago!)  Well my new love, has reignited it all.  It has reminded me that I do love to do something for me, that I can be inspired, and that life can be fun.  OK, Ill stop there, for all of you that think I sound like I was miserable and that I hated my life, that couldn't be farther from the truth!  I LOVE my children, my hubbie and my life so much it hurts, its just that its easy to get lost in it all...now that we have that straight...


Find your passion mama...maybe it's not paint, but maybe its writing? Flowers?  Cooking? Running? Blogging, horses, music or leading women's groups!  But darn it, go for it!!!!  Take that big step that kinda feels like jumping off of a cliff and go for it.  Your family will be better off for it, your husband will love your new energy and you will have a renewed excitement!  I want to know what it is that you love that you have let go...what do you need to start up doing that will give you some passion??? share it with us would you?????

Blessings to you!!! GENA you can find more of my fun stuff at Silver Nest Designs

I was listening to a podcast a few weeks ago about how to stop being offended by others, it's probably the most thought provoking amazing teaching I've ever listened to. Right smack dap in the middle, the guy started talking about the little oompa loompa accountants living in our brains. No, I'm not a part of some weird cult :) He was talking about keeping track of wrongs. I, of course, have a head full of these vindictive little trouble makers and let me tell you... it gets me into a lot of trouble.

My nature is not to be confrontational... I'm a stuffer... a stuffer who keeps track of all offenses and wrongs and then one day over the smallest stupidest thing I will blow like an uncontainable super volcano. I have been know to pull out offenses from years past once I start to spew... let's just say it ugly, nasty and wrong on so many levels.

I don't know why I'm like this... I HATE this about myself. The past few weeks I've been really trying to stop keeping track and I've realized I'm worse than I thought... I not only keep track of the bad... I also keep track of the good. I want to make sure I repay good for good... not because I'm a good person, but because I don't want to owe anyone anything... (says the girl with a home the community gave her... eeekks!) It's exhausting, it's joy robbing and it's hurt so many of the people I love most in the world.

Last monday night I had an event up here ... it was the one my mom was talking about on Wednesday... I looked at all of those women willing to step out of their comfort zones... willing to take a step and try to grow... willing to lay down judgement and insecurities and it spurred something in me deep down.

Things like Fight Night... or spilling my guts aren't really that hard for me to say yes to... so what may seem like being fearless is actually just a lack of filter or social graces on my part. What's hard for me.. what makes me squidgy and scares the bageebers out of me... is letting go of my lists. I can't imagine emptying my arsenal of how I've been wronged... because if I do... I will have nothing to defend myself with... I will truly be vulnerable and open to hurt and humiliation. I wonder though if opening myself up , as scary as it sounds, might be my next step in saying Yes to what God has for me. There is something powerful about choosing NOT to be offended, by choosing NOT to keep score. It sounds free and empowering and exciting... but also scary, scary oh and did I mention SCARY!!!

This whole idea of going fearless (a personal choice I've started another blog about) doesn't work if I only choose to go fearless in the safe places. Fearless means fearless, boundless, and free to live and be the woman God created me to be... So today I am saying YES to evicting the chubby little accountants that live in my brain. Anyone want to join me?

I recently attended an event made up by a diverse group of young women. As is my usual, I was the oldest cow there and maybe that was why it was all so awe inspiring. These women were Christians, non-Christian, stay at home moms and professional women. Their purpose for being there was to be ignited into being ' ALL they could be'.......for Jesus. It was a call to let down their guards with one another and just be genuine, raw and real. To feel safe in a circle, a sisterhood, of women who just wanted to lift each other up and encourage one another. I was awed I think because when I was a young stay at home mom it was long before the inventor of social networking was even a babe in arms. Mine was a generation of hoping for the best when facing the challenges of parenthood and marriage. There were a few books out there to read but I don't remember reading them. And as I took it all in last night all I could think was how scary. How completely intimidating to answer a call to let your true self be known to a peer group of strangers.

I think  a lot of people may not know that Earth Monkeys was originally started as a "green" baby gear company. We started a blog as a way to reach out to other moms going through similar phases of life... and of course as a free platform to market our bibs. Well bib production took a while and our blog was actually up and running 6 months before our product hit the shelves mmm webpage.

I think we both fell so much in love with all of you and the therapeutic stress release of writing and finding out we are not in fact crazy and there are other moms going through the same thing, we didn't do the most bang up job of actually marketing our super cool, eco friendly on the go baby gear.

Does this sound like an infomercial??? Well wait there's more! Did you know:
* Our Bibs, Paci Packs and Porta Pads are made from 100% recycled plastic bottles.
* All of them are light weight and fold up into small pouches that hook to your keys or diaper bag.
* We actually have a patent for our bibs... yeah baby! You can't get them anywhere else!
* The have to be THE MOST affordable green baby gear on the planet... ranging from $2.99- $3.99 each!
* They make amazing shower gifts!
* They are an amazing way to replace disposable products in your diaper bag.

This photo of my hubbie with Chris Powel has NOTHING to do with my post... But it caught your eye and it makes me forget that I am sad ;)  hehehe...GENA

This was it...the sign that gave me hope, up until the pictures of rentals started rolling in.  You see what I realized is that moving from a house that I love, one that I designed every square inch of is proving to be hard on the ticker (as Tim McGraw would say!)  I truly  want the only standard of my new home to be "where my family is" and of course a big yard for them to play in so mama don't loose my mind, but for real, I'm  thinking I might be just  a bit more picky.  So today, I am making a list of what I DONT want my next house to be (don't worry Im not gonna sound like a whiny baby!...Welllll, maybe ;) )

1) I don't want blue turf style carpet or pink either for that matter...its out there people!


2) I can't do 8' ceilings with small windows...maybe I'm a little claustrophobic??


3) I don't want to live in something haunted, or something that even looks haunted for that matter! I mean, it's already someone else's house and I don't want to share it! ;)


4) I don't want a yard that I could personally toss my husband across or one that a game of hide and seek would last all of 3 seconds because we would be standing side by side.  (remember a yard for the kids to get lost in so mama doesn't loose her mind!)


5) I don't want orange, yellow, and purple walls (I love you who love color, I am just not one of them)


6) I don't want 3 stories!!  although...that would mean some rock hard legs; maybe I should re-think that one!


7)I don't want to live surrounded by tick infested scrub oak trees (and potentially even bigfoot)


8)  and last but not least... I don't want a statue of a "devil" sexually doing who knows what to an "angel" in the back yard (yup one house actually had one!)

See, my standards aren't that high!!!!  For real though I am trying to remember that our family makes our home and that home is where the heart is (minus scary stuff) but it's still a big deal for me...It's hard to leave the familiar that I love to move to the unknown, but I am putting on my big girl panties and trying to enjoy the adventure!  Not like this is a big deal to you all, but Ill keep you posted!  Hey, it's a new chance to re-decorate...and thats always a good thing!
Speaking of that, check out my new FB page Silver Nest Designs...it's an exciting thing for me to share my passion for creating with you all (that was a totally  unplanned shameless plug ;) )

As a mom of three crazy crack monkeys boys life is never dull. As I type I am watching my youngest ride his older brother's bike commando and shoeless (that can't be good on the "boys")... I don't know if it's because they are boys or because they are MY boys that they are soo stinking crazy. If it can be spilled it will be, if it can be broken... IT IS!!! The other day I had reached my limit for outrageous destruction by about noon, I was exhausted and just plain nasty that day. I sat down with the boys to enjoy an episode of Super Why when the unthinkable happened. One eye at time I slowly started to fall asleep. I should have just gotten up right then, but I was seduced by the thought of possibly ridding myself of the cup of witch that had been dumped in my lap earlier that day. So, while my kids were in TV zombie mode, I gave in and fell into a zombie like slumber of my own. A few minutes later (well I actually am not sure how many minutes... enough time had passed for me to have a steady stream of drool flowing from the side of my mouth... ahahaha) Anyway, I woke up to glass crashing, apparently a porcelain cancel stick had gotten in the way of boys' real life angry birds game....  It got me thinking about how many times I have been woken up to disaster striking... and usually before 5 am.

Here are 5 ways I never want to be woke up again.... (ya right, sadly this is how we roll:))

1. "Moooooooom I have blood": followed by me jumping out of bed at the butt rack of dawn in a panicked frenzy only to realize Crew has picked a scab and has a pinpoint size drop of blood on his leg...


2. "Mooooom, Thatcher and Crew are making their own steamers, you'd better get in here": Followed by me scrambling for towels because apparently it takes 3 boxes of $3 hazelnut milk to make a steamer.


3. No words... just the warm then cold and very wrong sensation that my bed is wet. Apprently it's not enough to pee in their own beds... it's custom for my youngest to then come in and pee mine as well.


4. Mom... I'm making my own eggs this morning... how do I turn the stove on.. thatcher and crew already cracked the eggs....


5. "Moooom, I'm gonna throw UUuuuuugggghhhhhppppp.... Followed by a raging river of man puke directly over my head, in my mouth and eyes.... not even joking, this is still the grossest thing I have ever ever ever experienced as a mother!!!

OK so maybe these aren't that horrible, but I have a mentioned most days my kids are awake before dawn?!?!?! You would think after 7 years of kids not sleeping through the night and getting up at ungodly hours of the morning I would have evolved into a morning person, but no luck. Without fail every time (aka almost every day), I wake up to chaos not knowing where or who I am and whose children just made the gigantic mess....

To end on a bright note... my boys are amazing... they make me laugh and fill me with so much love and joy it hurts... the other way I get woken up is by them yodeling (the first one up likes to yodel until the rest of the house is yodeling too to show we're awake.) and of course even if he's peed my bed my little guy will roll over put his little arms around my neck and say I wuv you mom... seriously... there is nothing better... those moments cover the mess and disaster and unending bodily fluids... those moments are why I wanted to be a mom and usually thinking about them is what keeps me from eating my children:)

What's the worst thing you've ever woken up to???

Just in case you're new around here I thought I'd introduce myself.... I'm the scattered crazy Earth Monkey Mom Lindsay:) And this is my family. My kids never have clean faces, my house is usually a mess and I always have 3-15 loads of unfolded laundry sitting on my couch. My family just received an Extreme Home Makeover and it's crazier than ever here! I post on Fridays and we're glad you're here and we hope you'll stick around... More than anything we want you to know that none of us have it all together... and wether your kids are 40 or 4 you're not alone in your journey through motherhood!

Supplies/ Child:
- Clear water bottle per child
- Approximately a half bag of rice
- 25+ Random Items
- Super Glue
- Pen & Paper
- Tape {we used box tape}