Oh man, our fruit trees weren’t looking so good. It seems the summer heat wasn’t too kind to the little guys, we knew something was wrong, but wasn’t sure what, so Ben scheduled a consultation with Tom Spellman from Dave Wilson Nursery to come check out our trees. The consultation was a little pricey, but it was well worth the money to know what was going on and to make sure we were doing things right. We were so nervous that all the money we invested into replacing the soil for good drainage was going to be a waste and that’s what might have been causing the trouble with our trees.

Thankfully, Mr. Spellman said our soil was good soil, though he is a firm believer in native soil, so that’s what we will use for the raised beds we will be making soon. Whew! Glad to hear that was not money wasted. Next, he said most of the trees looked good, but 5 would need to be replaced. Whew! That’s not too bad either because I was dreading if all of them had to be replaced. He did say we should have put mulch down (and also gave us a good recommendation for what type of fertilizer to use), which we didn’t due to busyness, but Ben immediately ordered some and put it on a few days later. Actually, Ben ordered so much it’s literally everywhere in our yard. Lastly, he said our trees were sunburned and that a little paint on the trunk would protect them.Therefore, Ben painted our trees. We think it looks a little funny, but we wanna protect them, so we went with Tom Spellman’s suggestion. He is the pro after all! It may look like Ben is painting the trees with ice cream, by the way Salted Pretzel Caramel is bomb dot com, but it’s actually just latex white paint diluted 50% with water.

Tom Spellman pointed out other places in our yard that would be good to plant more trees. Ben had originally thought these spots wouldn’t be ideal, but since we like going with the pro’s suggestions, Ben is already plotting and planning what trees he’s going to get next! Actually, he just texted me and he ordered some sort of mites to put in the backyard because these bugs will be good for our plants, and so our garden learning continues…

The girls all slept at my mom and dad’s on Friday night and it was so they could have their turn to celebrate Brave’s birthday with her. I didn’t mind because that meant Ben and I would get a quiet evening together. We dropped off the girls, my sister snapped some pictures of us on our way out, and then on our way to dinner, Ben said, “Your face is tense.”

I replied, “I’m just tired.”

We had a yummy dinner at our go-to date place, but much of the time Ben kept telling me that I wasn’t myself. He was doing most of the talking and I was just kind of there. I’d chat back, but I guess I wasn’t my normally “bubbly-self,” as he would say. The afternoon hadn’t gone as planned in my head and I felt I didn’t utilize my time as wisely as I could have, it got to me, and I kept dwelling on it and that just made me frustrated and tired. To add to that, I was frustrated that the girls’ room was upside down (again!) and it just had been gone through! He kept telling me to just brush it off and I was trying. I wasn’t mad at anyone particularly, but I think I was just mentally exhausted.

No matter if you’re a working mom, stay-at-home mom, work-at-home mom… it’s all hard! One group may argue that the other group may have it easier, but any way you slice it, there are pros and cons to all of those choices, and no matter what category you’re in, it can get pretty darn challenging at times. I know for me personally, how much I pray and spend time growing my relationship with God, directly affects my view of motherhood and how I handle it. Sometimes after serving a cup of O’s for the 11th time, I just want to yell, “You go take care of it yourself!” Maybe I have once or twice before!

I love all of this (maybe not all the messes so much and the constant bickering), but yeah it drains me too. My kids put me on this amazing high (like here) and sometimes they just make me so exhausted I want to crawl into bed and come out when they’re responsible adults. I know it will get harder before it gets easier (4 teen girls at the same time will make this stage seem like cake!), but if somehow a cup of ice cream almost every night makes these days a little bit more manageable, then by golly, I will relish that cup of ice cream each night!

Here’s to being plain tired sometimes and using ice cream to get me through! Anybody with me on that?!

btw- the dietitian husband would never approve of eating to cope with stress. ha!

This week it’s not a picture from my instagram, but our photo booth pictures we took at the fair! I seriously love these so much and I think I plan on going until we can no longer all fit in that little booth. Until then, we’re going to keep trying hard to squeeze in. True is on Ben’s lap, and Soul is on True’s, then Glow is on my lap and Brave is standing in the front. Look how cute Glow’s face is in that last frame of the family one… she looks a little bored! HA! In the black and white strip, we had to be quick grabbing each girl for her kiss from mommy and papi (that was a little crazy trying to go so fast all cramped in the booth), but we loved the result! These little strips of memories are so special to me.

This week’s learned, links, and thankfulness…

Thankful that True and Brave have taken charge of certain responsibilities in the house, but for some reason, when it comes to their room, it’s like pulling teeth to get them to clean it!

Thankful Ben and I got a date night in on Friday.

Loving our Tuesday Dinner Club! So blessed to hear how God has worked in the lives of my friends.

Happy to have this baby shower done and onto planning the next one for Priscilla and Babiekins Mag!!!

Glow is starting to be able to tell me when she goes potty. I cannot even imagine the day I no longer have any children in diapers, but I know it will be here soon enough.

Seriously, this mild SoCal summer is so great.

Thankful my mama had another birthday! Every year she gets older, she looks younger. I hope I get that anti-aging gene.

Okay, so Ben still hasn’t ordered my crock pot because he says from his research all the reviews on a pressure cooker are much more favorable. Any thoughts on crock pot versus pressure cooker? I told him you all have been sending me crock pot recipes, so that’s what I’ve had my heart set on.

Turkey Meatloaf and Mashed Cauliflower. It’s not a particularly good looking meal, but it’s yummy. I made 3 pans full for our Tuesday Dinner Club and I think most liked it. If they didn’t, they were gracious guests and pretended they liked it! The mashed “potatoes” did make them a little nervous because they were all used to the super buttery kind with lots of potatoes, so they were thinking I was giving them soy potatoes or something. HA! They ate that too, so mashed cauliflower can’t be that bad, right?!

Week of  8/12 – 8/16

Monday: Avocado Pasta
Tuesday: Chicken Tagine (if Ben gets me a crock pot in time!)
Wednesday: Leftovers
Thursday: Seafood Medley Pasta
Friday: Pizza/sushi night

Ben’s finally looking into getting me a crock pot! Yay! I’ve been telling him for the longest time that I wanted one, but there weren’t any with particularly good reviews or ratings when he looked awhile back, but I think this time around he might have found a couple. I can’t wait to try it out! I loved the suggestions some of you gave last week and if you have a particularly good recipe to cook in a crock pot, just email me directly because I really would love to try it! Thanks friends!

Like I mentioned here, the photo booth is the main reason we go to the fair. Ben says that whenever I’m ready to skip out on the fair, he would be okay with it, but I just can’t do it yet. I like to keep our tradition going, even if it’s only for the photo booth. We’ve tried a little bit of fair food every year and it just isn’t that good to us. It probably is due to the fact that everything there is pretty much deep fried this and deep fried that, so I’ve given up my grand ideas of eating fair food. It looks better than it tastes, at least to us. The girls have fun riding rides, but with the three of them, it can get costly, so this year they only rode 2 rides, and Brave got one extra one because it was her birthday weekend (and we had tickets to finish up).

I love the view in that first picture so much that I captured it with my SLR and my iphone (see here). I’m so nerdy! And Glow was so upset that she couldn’t ride rides like her big sisters, but that picture of her looking through the bars is just adorable! That baby of mine is a heart melter for sure. She was all about the fair! It was definitely stimulation overload for her.

My favorite time to go to the fair is at night, but we will gladly go in the morning if it means we pay $3 versus $11 (on the weekends between 10-11am). So we went, we took photo booth pictures, watched one show, rode a couple rides and called it a day! Those few hours there were enough for my girls as evidenced by the frustrated face Glow had in the last picture (she was tired!). Nevertheless, I love how my girls always seem to have the grandest time even if we aren’t there very long and don’t do very much! I’m thankful that they’re easy going kiddos. OC Fair, Lord willing we see you again next year! 

We pretty much only go to the fair for the photo booth, and after we take our photo booth pictures, we ask the person manning it if they would take our family picture too. It’s tradition! The first time we ever went was the day before Brave was born, and this year, we went the day before her birthday. I love seeing how our family has grown (and the girls all used to be so itty bitty)!

And comparing to the year comparison I did last year, a few things stand out to me between these past two visits…

Soul is wearing the same dress True did last year.

This year we broke the cycle of being pregnant every other year!

True still never smiles when a stranger is behind the camera.

Ben has carried Soul in the same spot for the past three years!

I happen to be wearing a Shop Miguez necklace this year and last year.

Full post about our time at the OC Fair tomorrow. Anything else stand out to you in these comparison photos?