Taking The Ordinary out of Extraordinary...

**Warning-this is my attempt at being Philosophical

Have you ever thought about...
Ordinary: to be regular, normal, run of the mill (my definition)
Extra: more, plus some, to be in excess of (again, my own definition)

Extraordinary: to most people and common acceptances of this word; it is said to be great, extravagant or super-duper.

Does that even make sense? To be more normal? To be in excess of regular-ness?

I for one want to take the ordinary out and start living more EXTRA!

For the last 10 months, I have been anticipating trying not to think about one of my dearest friends moving out of state (in 4 weeks). Her little family of 5 is moving 9 hours away to pursue an incredible new opportunity.
So...to make life with more EXTRA, we are cramming as much time together in this summer as possible. We have celebrated her birthday, I have kept her kids for a day, she is keeping ours a couple of times, we are having a good-bye BBQ (lots of kids, food and slip-n-slide fun) and we are planning a couple more girls night dinners and shopping days.
And to add to the EXTRA, her new geographical location will become a new, fun place to visit and vacation with the kiddos for spring breaks and summer weekends.

EXTRA: we had new family pictures taken and the pictures of the boys are incredible. I love our photographer and the job she does. Her country farm setting (and I ordered way too many pictures but I can't help it) is blending beautifully with my new and old decorating style I am trying out in the new house.
*The friend from above helped me plan my entire picture wall, Pinterest style, and once the pictures I ordered come in and the wall is complete, I will post some pictures on here.

EXTRA: J and I took a mini-vacation and couple of weeks ago and went out of town for a couple of nights. We didn't go far or do anything overly great, but we enjoyed a couple of nights with no kids. I did convince beg J to go zip-lining with me and he gave in, once. It was not the normal harness style, but more of a ski lift chair that took us up the hill backwards and then rushed us back to the starting point at somewhere around 43 MPH. It was a blast and I did another 2 times without J. Each ride only took about 50 seconds (I recorded it once on my phone, while clutching my iPhone with a death grip so I wouldn't drop it in the lake I was flying over).

EXTRA: J and I will also get one more kid free night this summer; July 4th. We are going with some friends of ours to a nice dinner at a resort in a near-by town and then staying to watch the spectacular fireworks display. Of course, there will be outlet shopping before dinner!

EXTRA: I am going to make myself enjoy the next 8 weeks until school starts back. I am going to be less harsh and ridged. I am going to loosen up and have some fun with these boys. I am going to be okay with a house that isn't always is almost never a clean I am happy with. I am going to finish decorating my house (I know we have lived here 4 months and that I have only hung pictures in the last 4 days). I am going to spend far more time thanking God for all the little blessing in life. I am going to continue to love my job and try to be less high-strung about the little things at work that irritate me. And finally, I am going to love my husband more deeply and less critically.

Its all these EXTRAs in life that I am going to use to make life more and in excess and far less ordinary.

Being less ordinary,
MommyShelle