The Cunningham Family: Around Here: Week 32 2025

{August 3rd-9th}

Please enjoy this animal yard complete with:
grass, a fire hydrant, pee puddles and poop. Haha!

Tell me you have teenagers
without telling me you have teenagers.

Before & After
(the trim isn't finished yet)

Celebrating... Hadley's second birthday. We sure do love our sweet little kitties. Maggie is more timid. Hadley is more feisty and completely unafraid of our dogs.

Starting... the week with chores on Sunday, which for me included grooming the dogs (brushing them and then vacuuming then), followed by vacuuming the entire downstairs which was covered in dog-hair tumbleweeds.

Laughing... at Carly's creativity. She made a little potty yard for her Barbie pets, and it cracked me up. She took a green piece of construction paper, set a little plastic fire hydrant on it, and then drew little pee puddles and poop bits all over it. Where does she come up with this stuff?!

Signing... up for a mini photo shoot for the family for Christmas cards in a couple weeks. I am absolutely thrilled because it was affordable ($200 all in); nearby (in our small town on the photographer's property in front of her sunflower field); and short (only a twenty minute session which my children & husband will all be grateful for!). If you haven't done it yet, do it. You'll be so glad to have updated family pictures, plus a cute reason to send out Christmas cards. And, if, like me, you have a senior (or two), this may be the last time they are in your family pictures with just you & them, no partners or spouses. (Isn't that crazy!?!)

Finally... feeling like I'm catching up around the house. We've been on summer break (impossibly) for six weeks already and it has taken this long to get my feet under me, so to speak. I have been spending time journaling, decluttering, tidying the house, making summer time instagram posts, reading and blogging. It feels so good.

Attending... an administration mixer with Josh which, I will be honest, made me really nervous! I didn't have any reason to be, but I feel like there was pressure to make a good impression on his behalf, and these are a lot of really smart, well educated people, and I felt maybe a little bit of an inferiority complex since I've been a stay-at-home mom for the last fourteen years.

Enjoying... watching Carly's creativity in making clothes for her barbies out of balloons and random scraps of fabric we have. She even did a little sewing (with my help) to make Ken a t-shirt. (I taught her how to make a pattern.

Noticing... after a month and a half of my kids being home that teenagers.are.messy. I could just walk around cleaning 24/7, I kid you not. It's the worst!

Chatting... with my counselor about disagreements I have with Josh. I tend to have very black & white thinking, so I was worried that ignoring something that bothered me was avoidant. But as we conversed and she asked me some clarifying questions, she helped me realize that ignoring some things that bother me is just what being married requires sometimes. Now, I shouldn't ignore things that are a ten on my "Does This Matter?" scale, but I can ignore the ones, twos, and threes. I can take a deep breath and move on; write about it in my journal; or even occasionally complain about it to my sister, and those are all healthy ways of not sweating the small stuff. Just like I desire (and need) grace sometimes, he deserves the same. And it doesn't have to mean I am not standing up for myself or that there's something broken in our marriage. Living with other humans can be hard. Nitpicking and arguing over every tiny thing would only make it harder.

Doing... a puzzle, and I have to say, that finally made it feel like summer. I love the way a puzzle slows time for me and forces me to slow down. Do you like puzzles?

Learning... about aphantasia. Wyatt asked me in the car, "When I say "apple" do you picture an apple?" and I said, "Yes??? Doesn't everyone? Do you not?!" Instantly I was curious what he was going to say. He started to tell me about a TikTok video he saw about a phenomenon where some people (like Wyatt) hear a word and they do not picture the said object. This is called aphantasia. There are levels or grades of aphantasia. Wyatt's is the most severe. He pictures nothing. As we kept talking and I did a deep dive on it, we discovered that Josh also has aphantasia, and that in addition to not picturing things when people talk about them, they also do not have a running dialogue in their head. I cannot imagine the peace that I would experience if I didn't have a reader board in my brain constantly narrating what I was thinking, going to do, or doing. Fascinating. When I told Wyatt about my inner dialogue he goes, "That sounds exhausting." Hahah! I felt so validated!

Spying... more dahlias opening and showing me their colors! We have the best variety this year we have ever had! It's so exciting!

Taking... Carly to see the orthodontist and getting the great news that she only has three months left! She will get her braces off October 1st.

Enjoying... a playdate with my mom and niece Daphne when they came to play for the day with Carly and me. They played so well, and it was a very chill day.

Relishing... a rare rainy day in summer and spending it catching up life on the blog. I love how cozy the rain makes me feel. I think part of it is because I grew up on the west side where it rained over 150 days per year. (Compared to where we live now, where it only rains 60 days per year.)

Begging... for help. My teenage drivers steal and lose chargers like it's their full time job and I don't know what to do! Josh even bought a box to go over our plug in so they couldn't steal the chargers from the kitchen, and they UNSCREWED THE BOX AND STOLE THE CHARGER!!! What the heck?! So before we left on our trip, I found the charging cords and put them back along with a note discouraging them from doing that again. It is so frustrating to not know what to do to stop them from doing it. I find that every month or two, I just have to log on to Amazon and order more. It's like the matches for their socks- WHERE DO THEY GO?!?

Considering... buying the book Mind Your Body to learn more about engaging in JournalSPEAK, which is a specific method of journaling that can help you release trauma (and therefore pain) from your body. It sounds really promising, and I am ready for this fibromyalgia to hit the road. If I do end up buying it and trying it out, I'll be sure to keep you posted.

Watching... The Hunting Wives and holy spicy! It is incredibly entertaining, but be sure you don't have any little eyes around!

Snuggling... Carly as much as I could in the few days leading up to Josh and I's anniversary getaway. She misses us both so much when we're gone. She makes it really hard to leave!

Celebrating... our twenty-second wedding anniversary on Friday the 8th. Our anniversary and our children's birthdays always feel like an impossible puzzle to my brain. How does it feel both exactly that long, but also much, much shorter? Like when I think of our engagement photo shoot (in 2002), it definitely feels 20+ years ago, but when I think of our wedding, it feels like it was a couple years ago, not 22.

Making... the most of our two night getaway (my mom came and stayed with the kids) and reading, journaling, writing, and watching tons of HGTV. I needed this time of not being needed more than I think I ever have in my life. We haven't gone out of town together in over two years and it's been a long two years, let me tell you.

Walking... on the beautiful Richland waterfront, which is where our hotel was located. Our room had a balcony, which was the coolest thing ever, and I told Josh that I think that balcony as ruined me for regular hotel rooms.

Enjoying... dinner at Olive Garden, which Josh and I loved when we were dating and which we don't have in our town. It was so nice to enjoy some good food and quiet conversation where no one asked me to get the ketchup or interrupted us.

Comparing... a picture I took on our honeymoon while washing my face with Clean & Clear facewash with a picture on our anniversary trip of me washing my face with Clean & Clear facewash. I may or may not feel those 22 years... but I certainly look it! She's not that fresh faced twenty year old any more, that's for sure! Hah!

***

This was devastating to read.

Reading this before Logan was diagnosed would have hurt my brain.
It still kind of does hurt my brain. Haha!
But knowing what I now know about ADHD, doing MORE actually
helps his brain focus. So we got him a five speed car. We let him
listen to music when he's doing homework.
Fascinating.