1/52

As a way to maintain myself on track with everything happening in my/our lives this coming year I've decided to do weekly recaps. I hope to always document on Saturdays what our weeks consisted of but I won't hold my breath to it and neither should you. I've also found a challenge called project 52 which is basically taking a picture a week of the kiddos for 52 weeks and by the end of the year you should end up with 52 portraits for each child. I want to make that in itself an album and I hope that it will help with improving my photography skills and creativity :) I had planned on making the weekly photos a post of its own but for simplicity I'm just going to add them to the end of my weekly posts.  

Here we go, week 1/52:

The year started out being similar to previous years. We slept in and had some good breakfast, courtesy of yours truly :) everyone did as they pleased while I did a some cleaning. Around 4pm we headed over to MIL's house for her traditional New Year Day dinner. This year she had a sea food feast and it was delicious. We hung around her house, had conversations, watched television, and ate some more while the kids played. I didn't expect this day to be full of activities so not much pictures where taken although I should make a mental note to take pictures that capture the moment even if that moment plainly consist of everyone laying around watching tv. 

On Saturday we had a baby shower to attend. After spending the majority of the day launching around and shopping for a couple of hours we all got dolled up and headed on over to celebrate with the parents to be. 

Sunday came around and brought us a three years old. It was AJ's birthday. Like the year before we celebrated it at Kids Castle. We like it there, not many people go and is like having a kid friendly space without the extra charge. AJ wasn't feeling too well but we proceeded with the plans hoping that seeing his cousins would cheer him up. It worked until later that night when I had to drive him to the emergency room as per the on call nurse because his fever was over 103 and his vomiting was of concern. I wasn't pleased with the service at the ER since they only gave him ibuprofen and sent us home without even taking note if his other symptoms. Granted it wasn't even my idea to take him in, it was the on call nurse at the pediatrician office.

On Monday we took a trip to the doctor's office and big brother tested positive for strep, that explained the fevers and his symptoms. But AJ tested negative and had the same symptoms. They were both put on antibiotics and by the end of the week they were both doing much better.

On Tuesday I had a "staffing" meeting for my first foster care placement that took almost three hours. It was heartbreaking to hear the background stories of those kids, it broke my heart while at the same time made me feel good to be helping at least one of them. I know Lito (fake name) is happy to be staying with us and feels part of the family. Whatever we are doing I'm happy that it's working and I hope it continues to work. 

Wednesday included lots of cleaning and laundry doing. Well actually cleaning and organizing has been a big part of this week since I've been off from work. Between the cleaning, cooking, laundry, and sick kiddos I've learned that I need professional work in my life and even more praise is given to moms that are stay at home moms. It is wonderful to be available for your family 24/7 but I don't know if I would be able to do it. Like 24/7 and without a job because you know, like it or not our mommy/wife/homemaker job is 24/7 but having that time away from the home balances it all. At least it does for me and that's why I enjoy working 12 hours shifts since it allows me to be home more frequent. 

Later that night Lito and I headed over to bible study class. Steven and AJ were still feeling under the weather so daddy stayed home with them. 

Thursday was a babysitting day. I watched two of my little cousins (second and third cousins) from 9am to 9pm. Again lots of cleaning, organizing, and rearranging took place. By 8 pm I was drained and when one of the mommas came home I opened up a bottle of wine. While sitting on the couch drinking wine we engaged in many interesting conversations until the next momma and daddy showed which led to more topics, healthy disagreements, and another bottle of wine to be opened. jajaja it was a fun night. Fun indeed ;)

Oh Friday. TGIF could have not been said any better way. I was drained from the week and wanted nothing more than my comfy bed and a quiet home. The hubby was nice enough to drop off the kids at school so I can catch up on sleep and boy did I catch up on sleep. I slept till almost 2pm and feel no shame since that is unheard of in mommy world. When I woke up I felt recharged and managed to complete everything on my to do list for the day. By 7pm we were on our way to a sushi restaurant for dinner but first we made a MickeyDs run before hand to get the kids dinner.  

Saturday marked my going back to work and boy oh boy was my day chaos, so let's leave it at that. 

All in all the week was pretty awesome. Many mornings were spent sleeping in cuddled up on hubby's chest and many nights consisted of drinks and a movie on our couch while the kids slept. I live for moments like this because like I have always said, is the little details that matters most. 


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weekly picture of the boys