InstaFriday

Happy Friday friends!

If you’re new here, every Friday we share the stories behind the filtered pictures.

Join us?

(I’m jeannettg on insta if you want to follow)

I took Henry to the library a couple of weeks ago and saw this on the shelf.

I was pretty sure I was the last person in the Universe to have read it, but from the comments on my insta pic, lots of you haven’t either.

While I don’t connect with certain things she says or believes, I will say that Elizabeth Gilbert is a great writer.  GREAT writer.  All in all, I truly enjoyed the first third of the book when she spoke about her trip to Italy, but I sludged through India and am having a hard time finishing Indonesia.  Ashrams and ancient medicine men aren’t really my gig.

But you know what?  I still like reading things that I know aren’t perfectly aligned with my own belief system.  I think it’s good to stretch yourself and feel that tension.

My girls have long loved princess dresses and often ask to wear them.  But this last couple of weeks Jill has been insisting on wearing SpiderMan.  It’s really quite a sight with those big bulging cotton muscles.

She had an appointment the other day and protested wildly when I tried to take it off and get her into something more socially acceptable.  But then I thought “If a four year old in pigtails can’t wear a Spider Man costume and purple glitter shoes to a doctor appointment, WHAT IS THE POINT OF LIVING????”

She was a hit.

The usual.

This week has been WEIRD.

Long story short, my big kids have been at my mom’s all week.  Which means I’ve had exactly 50% of my children for several days.  And Jill goes to school four days a week…so there’s been times I’ve only had ONE CHILD.  Soooo weird.  (Also Andy was out of town and working late most of the week.  So I had only the company of my two non-verbal children.  And I may or may not have been losing my mind.)

Tess offered to watch the Porkchop for a while (which apparently translated into parading him around San Luis Obispo to her work and the workplaces of all her friends).  So I snuck off to do some writing in the cuuutest coffee shop in all the land. (Seriously, click that link.  And then swoon over the pics.)

P.S.  That’s a salted caramel milkshake.  Not a coffee.  Because I’m totally like that.

Then I got my semi annual haircut.

And by semi-annual I mean, like once every two years or so.  I’ve been to so many different salons over the years.  Everything from Fantastic Sams to the fancy places where everyone wears all black and I’ve always left underimpressed.  So I hate going because it’s so expensive and I just have about 100 other things going on, and frankly, if I have an hour to myself, I don’t typically want to spend it making small talk with the chick cutting my  hair.

But my hair was looking JANKY.  The ends were so nasty and brittle.  Something had to be done.

For the first time EVER, I left the salon super impressed with my cut (really, it was just a trim, but she did such a good job blowing it out and styling it…and ironically, Andy was out of town so my good hair day was UTTERLY WASTED) this is the first place I’m planning on going back to.

Also, I took a picture of this really cool chandelier that looks like a giant nest, except that in the photo it looks like it’s made of the hair the girl lopped off of me.  It was really cool in real life.  I swear.

First, let’s stop and look at this face.

He slays me.

Every moment of every day.

I’m a complete sucker for this boy.

And now this face.

The caption for this insta was: “Words with more than four letters escapes me.”

Alternate titles:

Owen was here.

Thank you sweet baby Jesus it wasn’t waterproof.

This is what I get for pooping.

You know what this week has taught me?  (Besides don’t poop when the kids are awake.)

Henry and Lucy help me out A TON.  I never realized it.  They are in no way responsible for their younger siblings (I mean, they are only 6 & 4), but they naturally keep an eye on them for me.  Lucy often gets Owen down off of furniture.  Henry fills his cup with water.  And they often yell “OWEN ALERT!  OWEN ALERT!” which is my cue to come running because some kind of debauchery is going down.

Without them here all week?  MY LIFE HAS BEEN 100 TIMES HARDER.  These two literally cannot, under any circumstances, be left without being actively stared at for more than 1.3 seconds.  I wish I could convey to you how serious I am about this.  I don’t even mean be in the same room as them.  I mean you have to be STARING INTO THEIR LITTLE SOULS or they get into trouble.

Also, please note that Jill is an accomplice in this situation.  I now keep my mascara in the top drawer.  Becuase the Porkchop clearly has a thing for mascara.  But Jill got it out for him.  And was sitting there happily being painted or brushed or whatevever they thought they were doing.  BECAUSE SHE’S UNDERCOVER NAUGHTY.

And then I felt like the biggest heel in the history of the known universe.

It occurred to me that I should probably get myself a PO Box a few months ago.  It was on a whim (I was at the post office mailing out Team Jilly shirts), and then I promptly forgot about it.

Suddenly, on February 13, I thought I should go check it.  Actually, no.  I remembered I had it.  Because I saw the key and spent five minutes wondering what it went to.  And then I thought I’d should go check it.

I figured it’d be empty.

YOU GUYS.  This perfectly purple personalized princess castle had been in there since DECEMBER 17th.  It was even wrapped in Christmas wrapping.  And had a hand written note.  From a reader.  One of you.

I felt horrific.  I still feel awful.  She probably thinks I’m the world’s biggest, most ungrateful jerk.

But Joann, I promise I’m not.

I’m just the world’s biggest FLAKE with a horrible memory and it’s any wonder I’ve been trusted with the very lives of four other humans.  (Although my ability to do even that has come into serious question this week.)

Throwback Thursday.

I die.

{pssst…I’m giving away 5 copies of Notes from a Blue Bike.  Last day to enter.}

Link up your Instagram account below (for example, mine is http://instagram.com/jeannettg). I’m not talking about linking up a blog post, but your actual Instagram account. (although you can totally link up your InstaFriday post too if you did one.)
If you link up, follow at least 2 other people who linked up. (I will too!)
The idea? You get to follow cool people from this community (my favorite) AND you get a few new followers yourself!

***NOTE***: for some silly reason, you can’t select a photo using this method of linking directly to an instagram account. If you see something about a 500 error, it doesn’t mean it won’t work, it just means that it can’t find a picture to link to. If you have a photo you want to use for the thumbnail, click the “Upload from computer” or “Direct Image URL”. Otherwise, you’ll just have the blue frog thing as your image. Which isn’t nearly as fun as seeing your smiling face.

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jeannett

I'm a mom to four. A wife to one. I believe in story. I love telling you about mine and would love to hear yours. There's really no sense in wasting our suffering and not sharing in each other's joy. We're all in this together...even if it doesn't always feel like it.

@jeannettg

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jeannett

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