baseball and strawberries

Another fun week at the Hain house. This will be a short post (real surprise, eh), I am getting ready for work as I post. Can I multi-task...sheesh!

Caleb has been out there giving his all with baseball three times a week. He's doing really good and we're very proud of him!

He's proud too :)

He's got an enthusiastic cheer squad!

Katelynn's class went on a field trip to the strawberry patch this week. They had lots of animals too-Katelynn fit right in!

We were able to pick some delicious strawberries to enjoy at home.

couldn't get her out of the box-o-corn!

  We'll be doing that more often :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their week! Now I'm off to work :)

girl's room

This week we painted Katelynn's room. It's all girl now :)

Some pictures:


Before...

After...

if I could hire a hit man for the sick bug...

...I totally would.

This cold/flu what-have-you season has been off the charts in our household. And just when I thought the warmer weather would put an end to the feverish nights and 7 Up mornings, I found myself back at the doctor's office.

This time with a bad case of strep throat. I haven't had this since I was a kid, and I can't say I've liked reliving the memories as an adult.

Hoping after this our score is even with the big bad bug for a while. I know I'll definitely appreciate being healthy more often. Say maybe strolling on the beach somewhere soon....

Beats the stroll to the pharmacy lately.

just write

I have this need. This want. This hunger. To write.

Like breathing I need it to feed my brain. It's my thing.

When I don't write I find myself narrating everything.
"She goes to the store for bread..."
"We will see about the park today..."

You get the idea.

I have always been torn about writing with pen or keyboard...with technology always winning because it's easier, faster, and it makes me feel like maybe someday someone will read it. But then again maybe not and maybe all these blog posts are going into some sort of technology black hole oblivion...in that case, type on I say!

Then I have the need of convenience. Because what every writer can tell you, ideas come fast and hard and if you don't have a medium to use the ideas come and go before you have a chance to give them life. You feel deflated. Let down. I can't count how many notebooks I have stashed around in case something comes at me. When I die my kids will have to sift through all sorts of broken down notebooks with fragmented sentences and paragraphs. Maybe they'll get used someday.

I think I will always write. Can't help it. Maybe I put too much pressure on myself to create best-seller ideas when in fact I'm a short story kind if girl. Or short paragraph. Short sentence. Who knows. All I can say at this point is I'm a writer, and damn it, I'm gonna write.

How's that?

on being a mother

I was initiated into motherhood quickly and blindfolded. Like a spy being captured and released as soon as the captors realized they had made a mistake.

I was 19 years old when I found out I was pregnant. The strangest part being that I was very calm about the whole thing. In my friend's bathroom I looked at the stick and the instant double pink lines and I wasn't shocked. Already I knew.

Caleb was born on a cold January day. Pain that I had never felt before brought me the greatest love I had ever known. But that love brought so many harsh realizations.

I would never be the same again. My body, my soul. It would be forever changed.

The first year was a mixture of beauty and ugliness. Being a "mom" was not natural for me. I was the oldest of three and I knew how to boss my brother and sister around. But this, the defenseless and innocent baby I held was a bewilderment and wonderful thing. I had to get this right, this was a fresh start. A new human, a new soul.

By the time we had Katelynn I fell into motherhood effortlessly. Doing laundry the second we walked in the door bringing her home from the hospital. I got this, I would say. And I did.

The one constant that I have learned through the years is that motherhood is about your own evolving.

As a new parent you are a helpless heap of imperfection. And that's okay.

You make mistakes. You cut nails too short to make your child bleed. You get in a teacher's face when they tell you your kid needs to make some improvements. You don't attend church. You show up late for school pick up.

The only thing I can do is my best. And my kids don't have the "perfect" childhood. I'll be the first to admit that.

But they have parents that love them with a fierce and unconditional love.

I'm a mother.

And that is why I'm here.