Lately in Windom (August 2021)

Love these crazies!

We started the month with a little birthday celebration for Mark at the gravesite. Yellow cake with chocolate frosting and some McDonald's and lots of fun acrobatics from the kiddos.

Love this little lady and her bear bear!

How on earth is she FOUR?!?


Brushes for days! I can't even remember now who got me the NAKED2 set from Urban Decay, but LOVE it!! Thank you!!

I play around with contouring with this super easy palette I found at TJ Maxx - kinda fun, and super easy.

She had this whole little set that went with the "Birthday Princess" shirt, but she refused to wear the sequin shorts and headband, and refused to wear the actual shirt on her birthday, so...that was worth it lol

I swear my kids end up with the weirdest hand stuff. Had to take Cashel in, as peroxide and light gauze and triple antibiotic ointment wasn't helping. Got a prescription cream and also tried to keep the dang gauze on to finally clear it out.

She was so excited to open her gifts!

All Kinsley wanted for her bday was bunk beds, so...here they are!

I mean, not that anyone actually gets to open all their gifts by themselves on their birthday lol

On a rare occasion, I get to sit back and put my feet up in the evening once the kids are in bed.

Four year pics in the back yard with my little lady.

This right here was the turning point this month. It was when I decided that my time was more important and it was time to make some changes.

Also, this. This is what I was feeling like on the inside, even if I was smily and bubbly and all those things on the outside.

I'm beginning to enjoy dating my big kids a LOT more than the little ones. Mainly because we actually go on real dates lol

The kids LOVED the county fair this year!

The kids were ALL about getting to try to dunk their favorite guy - Mr. T!

A little jousting action for the bigs lol

My typical summer look

They are CRAZY, but they are also MINE!

Laser tag at the fair - the bigs were old enough to play, and they were so excited!

One of MY favorite parts of the fair lol

My new favorite, though: These pulled pork nachos...out of this world!!

It's typically pretty obvious when Cashel is in need of a haircut lol

The boys went fishing with Grandpa Kent a couple times this summer, and the boys LOVED it!

Initially I thought it'd be easier to only have the little two to go shopping at Walmart, but I learned quickly that it's probably more difficult because I can't just sic the bigs on the littles to keep track of them. Oy!

Freezer corn time!!

The words, "How much are you going to pay me if I do this" actually exited this one's mouth. I mean...wow! It was definitely like pulling teeth this year.

I left the littles with my friends Matt and Trisha for a few hours while I took the bigs back to school shopping. I NEVER take them back to school shopping, so I did not anticipate how much it would cost to buy them clothes for an entire year. MAN! These guys are EXPENSIVE!

Cashel had to have his lessons separately (and private) this year due to scheduling conflicts. He thoroughly enjoyed being able to have Jordyn all to himself.

Healthy as a horse at her 4 year well child check!

This guy as well! It was a tinge early for his 8 year well child check, but I didn't want to have to come twice.

I'm gonna blame the nachos for the results of my health in August. Eeek!

THIS! If no one ever again says I'm "amazing", it'd be too soon!

I did a little experiment to see how much better the sleep would be if I used my CPAP machine. It did seem to make a difference after a few nights, but truthfully, I felt MORE tired, so I opted to stop using it again.

Chiro appointment for this one!

Goodness do I ever love me some Jil time!!

Safe bet if you ever are required to order for me: I always get fish tacos if they're on the menu.

Also, my summer go-to drink is a mojito!

Sometimes we go out and stay up late and have a blast. Other times, we eat WAY too much food, feel gross, and get coffee and stroll on the waterfront.

Little miss taking the sidewalk by storm!

Many liberties for this guy this summer. For the first time ever, he got to go the next block over, and let me tell you, although I know I've got to let them venture out at times, it definitely left me feeling a tinge more anxious.

My bed has been the best movie watching spot for these two for a long time .

The AWANA kick off party thrown by our dear friends the Hockels was a blast! This was the day we first told our church family we were moving, and it was a little bittersweet.

When it downpours, Cashel takes the opportunity to get his shower in lol

Yeah, he didn't actually go out on his own, but he thought for a short bit he would lol

She's always observing, learning, gleaning knowledge and wisdom. She's always watching for what NOT to do.

My taxes have been a mess for a LONG time at this point. Throwing in Mark's diagnosis and subsequent disability diagnosis and requirement to burn through all his retirement left me pulling money (apparently the wrong way) from retirement, and leaving the IRS with a thousand red flags, so I'm very hopeful that after 3 years of insanity tax-wise, that this coming year, it'll be a whole different ballgame. As of the date I'm actually writing this (the end of January 2022), the audits for 2018 and 2019 are now finally resolved, but 2020 is still up in the air.

It's a long story I don't want to get into, but let's just say our Palisade is now steel graphite and not white.

They just.keep.growing! Kendrick was THRILLED to turn 8 this year, and also thrilled to have this awesome t-shirt!

It's probably a bad thing, but one of the memories I'll keep forever of these kiddos is how into tornado watches and warnings they would get. Like...CRAZY wild! They'd all work together to get to safety, drag every doggone blanket or pillow they could find into the bathroom (which, of course, meant a fair amount of laundry the next day), and all the squeals and pleading for me to be safe and not go looking for the "tormato" outside lol

We're still trying to find this kids' niche in sports. This was his 3rd year of baseball, and he's still not quite sold.

This was Ryan's first year, and I'm not sure it's his thing either, honestly. i thought he was loving it, until I went to the showcase, where I saw him basically sitting down everwhere and listening to no one lol



Batter up!

Man, did this ever give me some deja vu! (And yep - that was Kendrick Mark was carrying!)

This too!

Annnddd...this one.

These brothers...

As much as I absolutely love my new house, I sure miss this view at my last one.

Anyone elses' kids end up breaking their toys before they really get to even use them much? ::sigh::

I signed up at the end of the month to start 6 training sessions with Tauyna at River Valley Fitness. This was what she gave me for goals, and let's just say it takes a LOT of intentional effort to eat 178 grams of protein in a day!

Nite to Unite in Windom is always a favorite for us!

Finally got this little lady in for her first haircut...in hopes to even out those crazy bangs before family pictures lol

I feel like the theme of life from this point on is basically "all my sweet friends who I never see anymore" lol I was doing some house hunting in Mankato this particular evening, and I got to grab some supper with Ann and Missy, whom I just love like sisters! They were some of Mark's support team at his facility, and I just...I adore them!

This was a LONG time coming! I had an accident the previous June that had been lingering a really long time. It had been eating away at me for over a year, so to get this final notice was HUGE for my anxiety level!

Our new back yard!!

My big kid loves to cook with me!