the doodlebug.

As I was driving home tonight, exhausted from an already busy week, my eyes were caught by square bales (you never see square ones anymore!) in a field and it took me back to my childhood spending so many summer days with my grandparents on the farm. I remember seeing round hay bales for the first time and being amazed there was something besides those small square ones! Both Johnny and I grew up in rural Monticello (although not meeting until high school - oh, Catholic school boys!) on our grandparents farms.

There's just something so quintessential and special about small town, Iowa life. Some of you might know we nearly moved to the big city of Cedar Rapids/Marion area based on a new job Johnny accepted. At the eleventh hour (after searching homes online that afternoon) he decided it wasn't the best move for us and bless their heart, Spahn and Rose wanted to keep him (who wouldn't, right?). So, after imagining big school life for our kids we now are staying put in Monti…

Want to know my biggest beef right now? We canceled cable and I'm watching Pretty Little Liars on Netflix (seriously, what is the draw to this show? Too bad I won't be watching the 151 episodes!). Anyways, that was just the thought top of mind I thought I'd share!

1. This spring is just flying by. We spent a portion of the evening riding bikes up and down our street, it was so nice out! Anyone could tell the kids had been outside all day with their dirty clothes and dirt streaked faces. I lured them to the bathtub saying they could wash their rocks - worked like a charm. Except for the rocks in the bathtub part.

2. Want to know how to break your mother's heart? BEG her to come to school lunch and then completely ignore her when she's there except to whisper "PLEASE Mom, DON'T come to recess with me." In all seriousness, Roz is 4 and already concerned about these things and I don't know what caused it or how to get her to not be so self conscious. …

Milestone moment: we got rid of cable! Although I'm surviving, I already know I'll miss Fixer Upper on rerun on the DVR. Maybe Netflix will start running it? I can only hope! I do think without the distraction of all the channels we had (and that we paid $85 a month for - yikes) that maybe I'll find a series to watch on Netflix. This evening as the storm began rolling in and the windows were open, we had the Cubs game on. It was a nice change of pace, let alone the fewer options the kids have now! Side note: along with cancelling cable, we also paid off a BIG chunk remaining on my student loan and now just have a bit left that we plan to pay by the end of this year!

This weekend the kids Roz ran in a kids track meet, although she required a bit of coaxing, she did pretty good! I mean, out of three races, she only fell in two :)


The rest of the weekend was a blur: Roz nearly broke her pinky finger, Johnny's truck was broken into and we took a trip to urgent care for an …

Back at it! Except, to tell you the truth, I don't have my list in front of me so I will recall the last few from memory.

5. When my grandma died we were left with a lot of stuff (which may be the motivation behind my minimalism approach lately). If you knew her at all, you know she had a lot of hobbies that she loved to share with her family and friends. One of which was sewing, I inherited a brand new sewing machine she'd just bought as well as mounds of beautiful fabric. Some of the fabric I remember she had used in quilts and projects for me when I was a little girl. Ok, so back to my goal. My goal this year is to begin using the fabric (and NOT buy more) not only to eliminate having SO much but also to share with others my grandma. You guys, I didn't realize you could miss one single person so much. This is my way of thinking about her and making her proud by finally figuring out a sewing machine (all you have to do is follow the instructions - who knew!). So far this…

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been using Lara Casey's Powersheets to outline goals for 2017. As you can see below, I took a photo of the page that actually outlines your goals. Prior to this I answered a series of questions to help me get to this point, it seemed overwhelming but essential. From here I choose tasks from a few goals to break down into daily, weekly and monthly things that help me get closer to completing a goal. It's truly what they say about making small changes consistently equate to big changes. I can't say I've been faithfully looking at this each month, but at least a few times a week to remind myself of things I need to be working on.


So, what's on there you say?
1. Read bible assignment daily and write notes. I definitely haven't done this daily, BUT I have gotten past my fear of publicly learning about God and joined a bible study - which is fantastic! I don't know what I was nervous about. With that said, I do a lot of…

Thursday nights always bring "Girl's Night" in the Russ House. Johnny bowls these nights each week and Roz and I always make plans to do something special. This typically ends up being the same type of night as usual with a few shows, baths and dinner but it's exciting anyways! Memphis asked this morning if he could "be a girl" so he could be invited, too - of course!

In reality though - the kids fought over the same chair, argued over the movie we would watch and then when bedtime came I put Memphis to bed a minimum of six times. It's ok though,  I wouldn't change it.

Here's your Thursday night/Friday Eve quote:
Me: "Buddy, you have to get some sleep so you can grow up big!"
Memphis: "Ok. Leave my door open, k?"
Me: "You got it, dude."

Quiet for five minutes.

Memphis comes peeking around the corner.

Memphis:"But mom, I don't WANT to get big!" Cue alligator  tears. "I want to stay small!"

Oh b…