First there was Man Vs Food, but then there came Dad Vs Food. It was Andrew’s birthday on Friday, and Andrew and I were in San Fransisco for a few days while Grandma and Grandpa were in charge back home. The boys helped me make a card and said, “Mom, make sure you take a lot of pictures.” I did! We ordered a Kryptonite” Sandwich: a large sandwich filled with 13 ingredients (including 5 different meats, 2 whole avocados, and appetizers including mozzarella sticks, onion rings and jalapeño poppers) and weighing in at a total of 4 pounds. Andrew ate half… I picked almost everything off the other half and ate the lettuce and cheese. In this challenge Food was victorious over man.

It’s that moment when you just know that you know. The moment when you are sitting there minding your own business and BAM it hits you. This is what I am here to do… this is what I am supposed to be when I “grow up.” The calling becomes a purpose and the purpose a become a drive. Then life happens, and the focus is shifts. I am careful to say shifted and not lost because in the back of my mind it sits and waits. Yet, in the sitting and waiting it begs to be remembered and in the persistance of memory it starts to nag, but the nagging begins to feel an awful lot like guilt.

What if you know your purpose, but ignore what you are supposed to do? Sounds like I am wrestling doesn’t it? Yep, I am.

I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to baking. I want my cookies both to taste good and to look good. Over the years Andrew and I have tried many recipes for chocolate chip cookies: the one on the back of the nestle package, Mrs. Fields, and my grandma’s. I can’t make my grandmother’s cookies taste the way she could… but my sister can, so I needed to find a recipe I could call my own… Jen’s famous chocolate chip cookies — the kind my family swoons over. It has been a long search, but I would like to declare it done! They look and taste like they were bought at a store but they weren’t. I made them!

I know I shouldn’t throw stones… I misspell things all the time. Yet I expected more from a professional publication. Andrew has been off playing with Legos at Robo Storm camp. His first camp was in TRF and the media never got called because someone didn’t do their job. The next camp was in Bemidji and the Pioneer spelled his last name wrong. I e-mailed the writer… can’t they get it right? This camp is in our own city and the Herald got his last name wrong again, plus had the incorrect spelling of the company they will tour.

Andrew spends a lot of time and gives all he can to make these camps great for the kids… I just wish they could spell his name correctly when they are giving credit to him. I probably shouldn’t be worried because if someone really wanted to track him down they would figure it out, but it still bothers me. It is just another one of those pet peeves!

It has been eight weeks in the making. We are 97% done. and there were many set backs and challenges along the way. We still need a mirror, shower door, picture above the towel bar, two drawer fronts on the bath cabinet, hook for towels outside the shower, and a TV. Yes, this new bathroom is going to have a TV. My father-in-law was rather put off by the whole idea. No, I don’t need a TV in the bathroom, but sometimes I do things because I can.

Andrew finally gave me permission to stand back and smile, and then he said, “I don’t think we deserve to have a bathroom this nice.” To that I said, “Well, maybe you don’t but I do!”

We did 95% of the work ourselves. We did everything besides mill the fixtures and cast the porcelain/fiberglass. Andrew made beautiful cabinets (I helped), and it was my design. Some of my design features he rolled his eyes at, but I think I finally got my Zen I have been looking for.  Drum roll please.

Let me remind you of what it started out like:

Ewh… carpet…pink curtains and a tub/shower I had to sit down in… Lots of storage though!

Here is the same view I have been showing you all along… I am standing in the doorway. It is the same place as the photo above. Yes, it is hard to believe that is the same bathroom! Let’s take a closer look:

Yes, relax… something I can do now that it is almost done!

 

 

Noah is driving and Adam is wondering if it will ever be his turn to drive. My parents were right; it doesn’t get any easier, the challenges just change. They aren’t so little anymore, and I miss the footed pajamas. I miss the “mothering” I could do since they couldn’t help themselves. I know at 12 and 9 they still have a lot to need me for, but somehow it’s not the same. I don’t change diapers, or give them baths. I am no longer allowed anywhere near nakedness, and sometimes I can’t even get them to open the bathroom door when they are brushing their teeth. With their independence comes my confusion about what I am supposed to do. Yet, on second thought they sure do have a lot to learn, but are certainly on their way to becoming young men.

Here I sit on the last day of June with little to show for accomplishments. It seems all of my days are just to get me through to the next day. I thought summer would slow down instead of speeding up. It is very warm out today — the humidity is high and Andrew wants to run to town for ice cream.

No bathroom update last week since we were gone and it was truly a mess I would have been embarrassed by, but I will brace for a photo on Monday week 8 of our remodel.

I thought about relaxing today, but every time I reached for a book there was something to clean or a child to help, or better yet laundry to be folded. Maybe I have to change my priorities and as long as I am relaxed who cares about the dishes. Unfortunately it sounds like a good idea, but it will never be my reality.

July is a busy month — I am back in the classroom, we have a family anniversary, and we are off on a vacation with no kids.

Bye bye June, hello July!