dudes. life is good. everyone is happy. fights are over. kids are getting along. we love long bike rides at night and riding wiggle cars down the street with kids in laps and dogs chasing us... then trudging back up the hill with arms full and laughter abundant. summer is magic. especially now that some kids are old enough to stay up late enough to enjoy some of the coolness and not all of the dead heat of 5 o'clock. subsequently, the littlest one stays up late too. we are sleeping in, getting really dirty, skipping baths and enjoying moments. we still watch tv. we still play video games. we still have to clean this house once in a while. but really, i have let go of having a perfectly clean house and embraced the realness of something that is full-on lived in. currently there are little blue hand prints on the toilet seat from some coloring that transferred from marker, to balloon, to hands to potty. i haven't even bothered. life is being lived and love is here.

i have been without a cell phone for about 24 hours. and i have felt so very happy. it is so wonderful to not be distracted by the instant technology. i am getting a new phone on monday, but i am really going to try to put it down a lot more. yesterday we spent a lot of time working in the yard. it has been really rainy for the last three or four weeks and it was getting a little boring. reese literally spent the entire day outside with his friends. they hooked up the hose and played with water balloons all dang day. it was awesome. kids from up and down the street came over throughout the day. it was great. jovi spent a lot of time outside too. i love that our kids are getting old enough to play for extended periods of time and entertain themselves. they are getting so creative and so fun. i am really trying to make an effort to turn off our screens and spend more time together and spend more time with free play or doing things that we truly enjoy, not just passing the time looking at apps. i am also trying to become more minimalist. i have always been the type to get rid of stuff and sent it to the DI. but it seems that with our bigger family we somehow acquire more things. or i tuck things into places to get out of the way, but really, i should just get rid of them. i am finding that with less stuff i am happier. i literally got rid of half of my wardrobe a couple of weeks ago. it was so liberating! now all of the shirts i own i kind of love. i am not quite there with the bottoms, but i am working on it. anyway, this is kind of a ramble of a bunch of thoughts. but still.

So lately I have been doing things that haven't been making me feel happy. I have been spending a lot of time on my phone and a lot of time watching TV. Getting annoyed at my kids when they interrupted this "me" time. The thing about it is that I wasn't really enjoying myself. So today we watched TV together for about an hour. This morning. And it was turned off by 10 am. And instead we played. And I read a book. A grown up novel. And we went on a walk when the rain let up. I made my kids play with toys and when they complained of boredom I told them to figure it out. And I didn't let my phone rule my life and it. Was. So. Nice. I made a good dinner and the older two are sleeping over at grandma's  house. Just a little reminder to myself that it is so good for me to unplug. ❤❤❤