Good McLean Fun

I must apologize to my faithful two followers of this blog, I haven't kept up with my monthly posts, and I am sorry. But lucky for the masses that are just dying to hear from me, I had it on my mind to ignore the laundry and dishes tonight (not so different from every other night) and instead light some Marshmallow Fireside candles from Bath & Body, hit up Michael Buble's Holiday station on Pandora, and post. Rolling into the fall has been lovely. I have already experienced some beautiful weather here in Vero, been able to cut the ac off and let the breezes blow through the house, simply dreamy. We are in a good routine now, Luke and Juliette just finished up their soccer season, Juliette takes a dance class once a week around the corner, and Luke is ready to plug into a scouting group now that soccer is done. They also get to go to a cool church class on Wednesday nights which they seem to really look forward to, and I have started going to chur...

It comes to my attention that I don't really have the drive to write on the blog as much these days. It may be a seasonal slump, or perhaps I was using the blog as a sort of hobby for myself--journaling my emotions and thoughts as they came, writing when bored. But I'm so distracted with establishing our new lives here in Vero that I have forgotten to document some of those very exciting and conflicting emotions. I am, of course, missing the familiarity of things in Key West. Building new relationships takes time and effort, and it was just an easy part of our lives before... But overall, it's just peace, excitement, even unbelief that we're actually on our own, in our own space. I am so blessed, I am careful to give God credit for His blessings, and yet, like most humans, I can find myself feeling insecure about who I am, and exactly what I'm giving back. The following post is a little glimpse into my mind and heart concerning my role and my "career", ...

It's happening. After five years of living in Abuela's house, up to 10 people, after adding three children to our family, God's giving us our next adventure. I am moved to tears as I retell how it came to be. We've been on and off again looking for a new job opportunity for Ryan all these five years. There were more than a few times when we found a job opening that I thought, "This is it, the timing is right, this is where God wants us."-- but it never worked, and quickly we'd get distracted by our everyday lives to keep the search going. As the tension of so many adults and children under one roof mounted this past year, we knew we needed to be aggressive about the job hunt this summer, and we were more desperate than ever to have our own space.  Ryan applied to about 7 engineering firms, and we were thrilled to hear back from two of them within a week. Interviews were set up. In one day he interviewed in Orlando and West Palm Beach, and both intervi...

My heart yearns for a place of our own. I see homeowner announcements and get so excited with the idea, that could be us someday! But for now, I live with my 4 children, husband, mother, father, sister, abuela, a cat, and a dog. I have my BS in Shared Space, with a masters in Lost Privacy and Sanity.  I find peace in the car though. I am also not bombarded with everyone else's success in the car. But yesterday I found it quite funny on God's part that He would have me arrive late to drop off Juliette at school, to find her teacher wandering the hall looking for an adult to witness her purchase of a new house--across the country. Her and her husband. Just the two of them. She was so happy I walked in right then, to come in and witness for her.  I was in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, I signed my name, smiled sweetly and said congratulations! The irony was wonderful. I had to lol and then sniffle back a tear as ...

Lincoln and Jackson are sleeping through the night, for the most part.  They are 19 months and in a size 4 diaper, weighing in at 28lbs. They were at one point recently waking up because they'd pee through their diaper, and that was no fun, changing clothes in the dark trying not to wake up the other guy. Lately we've been doing double diapers, which works like a charm. Also bonus in the morning, I just have to slip the wet one off and the other is already in place. So they wake up at 6:30ish, usually happy, but thirsty. I change diapers, get them some milk, put them on the carpet, push play on a baby Einstein dvd, and crawl back into bed with the hopes that the world will dissolve and I can go back to sleep for 2 more hours. This usually works for about 15 minutes. Ryan is usually gone by 5:30am four days a week, delivering newspapers to local hotels for an extra $50 a day.  In our minds that is our way of demonstrating gazelle intensity, a phrase...

I had a scary reminder today as to why I chose Mediocre Mom as my blog name. Most days, if we don't have time for a walk, I put Juliette and the toddlers into the car to pick up Luke from school at 3pm. We drive the 2 minutes it takes to get there, and I park very illegally in the loading dock area for the cafeteria, because it's right next to Luke's classroom and I can leave the car running and walk up to his classroom door without ever having to take my eyes off of my car or travel more than 10 yards from them.  It's a huge blessing that his classroom is situated in this way--last year I had to unload the stroller and all 3 younger ones because his classroom was deeper inside the school. I'm getting to the scary reminder... When we get home I pull the car up right in front of the house, unload baby #1 and older two kids get out on their own. I open the front gate and plop Jackson down in the grass, closing the gate behind me. Older two let themselves into th...

Every mom is different, our bodies are different, and we have different experiences with pregnancies, deliveries, and recoveries. But let me just be real and pretend like I'm not blasting this all over the world wide web. After 3 pregnancies, the last with twins, my belly will never be bikini worthy again. At least not without plastic surgery. Some moms just have to work hard, work out, and it all snaps back into place. But for many of us, the stretch marks and saggy skin are here to stay. After the first two kids, my skin was relatively unchanged, and after some dieting I returned to prepregnancy weight and appearance. But after the twins last year, my skin elasticity gave up on me. I carried those boys to full term, and they weighed 6lb 9oz and 6lb 5oz. They are beautiful and healthy. I was so proud of all that my body had accomplished, and sort of hoped for the best as I started eating healthy and nursing them. But I've been back to my prepreg weight for almost year, and...

So many people in this world have less living and personal space than I do. Granted,  I don't personally know any of them, but I've seen pictures of tents in Africa and I know I've got it made in the shade compared to them. So I am ashamed when I have burning desires to own my own home, to have a McLean kitchen that I can organize, a closet with McLean items only, a living room with pictures on every wall of our lives together. What is wrong with me? Who cares?? So I live with my husband and FOUR children in my GRANDMOTHER's home. So there are 4 other adults who live here besides us, for a grand total of TEN human beings in one house...no big deal! Why can't I get over it???? I'll tell you what I think. I think it's because what I have isn't normal.  Most people when they start families of their own, they have a small space of their own.  Wherever they live, wherever they're growing their family, they have their own space. Even if they ren...