Strawberries & More

Sunday afternoon strawberry picking,
right in my very own middleofnowhere town.
About 10ish minutes away from my house.
It was lovely and yummy.

On the way home we had to yield for sheep and donkey crossing.

That blurry animal is a donkey.

Saturday Morning

Easter 2012

Sweet Spot

I’ve had a hard time with the children the last week or so.
Bad attitudes, selfishness, disrespect and disobedience seem to be in never ending supply.
There are sweet moments to be sure but right now the challenges overshadow the sweet moments.
And tonight I was exhausted.
I was running on grace/fumes. And my two year old didn’t nap this afternoon. And my onetruelove had a rare work meeting tonight.
By God’s mercy and grace I got the boys bathed and dressed in pajamas without much incident.
But then Nolan went to hide under his crib.
And Luke followed at breakneck speed.
But he didn’t duck down far enough and BAM!
His head banged the crib and then crying and then cuddling and crying.
But do you know what happened?
Nolan walked over and plopped down beside us and ordered me to bow my head.
He covered his eyes and said, “Dear God, help Lukey. Amen.”
He gave Luke a kiss and then climbed up on something he shouldn’t have been standing on.
Balm to my weary soul.
And a call to carry on.
To keep on.
A sweet spot here and there in this life because they are
always interrupted.
Desperately trying to remember that the real sweet spot is
eternal life.

Snake!

*photo taken from upstairs playroom

Luke spied the snake at the table while he was finishing lunch. I was upstairs putting his brother down for his nap. A lot happened...transfer of information, phone call to Fairs, boots on the boys and outside to hunt for it and apparently I called the snake stupid. Stupid is considered filthy language in our house and man oh man have I been repenting of that all afternoon.

Pedal

Nolan pedals for the first time.
I predict that by the end of summer I won't be able to keep up with him!

Dance to the Beat!

I love this video of my husband and children.
After dinner.
Faris playing the kid drum.
Boys dancing.
Having a great time together.
And then a little life.

Bird House

I move through the day thinking what a funny post that would be or that I should tell you this or that. But when I sit down it isn't funny anymore. Or the this or that sounds more like complaining to me and I'm so sick of people complaining. Have you noticed how quick we are to complain? Wait...am I complaining about complaining? I should stop.

Here is the important work I've been up to...

Condiments...can they be considered a daily serving of fruit or vegetables? I'm busy trying to figure this out. Strawberry jam and ketchup...strawberries and tomatoes...see??? Meals seem to go smoother with condiments in the mix. Plus they ask nicely for. Now mind you, they eat it straight from the spoon or their finger. Who cares about dipping food in it. Who cares about this anyway. I'll stop.

I'm also trying to figure out why nap time/rest time seems to be so laborious for everyone involved. Is it really that hard?

Here is a little video of Nolan that I've been watching all the time. I think it is hysterical and I don't even know why.

See. Wasn't that funny?

International in the Middlfeofnowhere

Hugging my sick boy, I said he would feel better after a good night of rest and that his medicine was working on fighting his germs and telling them to get out. Can you imagine what that little four year old said to me?
“Sort of like the people in Libya fought Gadhafi and told him to get out? So I can say get out Gadhafi germs?”
Separately, I almost cried when I saw that next week is the last episode of Downton Abbey. I’ll be so sad to see it go. Aren’t you loving it? And aren’t you loving this post? Gadhafi and Downton Abbey all in one.

Mothering

I might need to stop listening to NPR around my four year old. At first questions about Gaddafi were cute. Now they aren’t so darling. Although we did have a nice geography lesson this morning…this is where we live and this is where Libya is and wow look at that ocean. Now he is starting to ask me
about Iran.

At preschool yesterday that same four year old inspected the mole on one of the moms helping in classroom, gave her a shot and told her he needed to cut it out. Yep he sure did. There was something or other about needing to make an appointment at the front desk too.

My four year old can pronounce the names of dinosaurs so well that I secretly hope he doesn’t ask me to read the dinosaur book at bedtime because I’m tired of him correcting me because he is so clearly exasperated by me.

There were a lot of things I didn’t know about mothering when I was blessed by this job. For instance, I had no idea I’d become so adept at waste management and so inept at managing clothing.

My two year old hurls his body in all kinds of directions and sometimes I shrug it off (think: wow, who knew you would bounce off that like that and thank goodness you thought it was funny) and sometimes I scream bloody murder (think: YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO JUMP ON FURNITURE AND YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO JUMP FROM COUCH TO OTTOMAN TO COUCH TO CHAIR TO CHAIR DID YOU SEE HOW CLOSE YOU CAME TO FALLING OFF THE EDGE OF THE COUCH?!!)

Tuesday at preschool another mother asked me how I managed to always look so together. I told her that it was a slippery slope to sweat pants and a minivan and then another mother screamed “it so is!” and we had a great conversation about getting dressed and people wiping snot on you or pulling at your necklace and shoes with heels.

Last night Luke told me my dinner was so good that his heart was melting and I was an angel. On the spot I vowed to get him the ridiculous toy he wants for Valentine's Day. Nolan too...because I'm sure he said the same thing in his heart, he was just busy shoveling in my amazing dinner.

Confidential to Nolan

It's 6:16am and you have been awake
for the last two hours. Even now I hear
you playing and banging around in your crib.
You are happy. No yelling and crying.
Just one question...What is your strategy for the rest of the day?

Upgrade

Somewhere in December I got an iphone.
Stop laughing.
Me, the girl who didn't even know how to check her voicemail on her old cell phone has an iphone? Yes, I do and I love it.
(before getting me the phone my wise husband did ask me if i thought i could handle it. it was a fair question.)
coolest thing about the iphone apart from how easy it is to check voicemail?
pictures.
check them out.

Athletic Shoes

I’m more tired than normal today.
Jet lag tired on top of about a
week and a half of warp speed life
and this morning I was feeling the impact.
I still showered and did my hair and got ready
before 7am because you know I’d have to be
half an inch away from the hospital before I
neared that slippery slope of sweat pants and a minivan.
Anyway…
My boys were dressed and ready to get in the car.
Our bags and snacks were ready for the car.
I needed socks and shoes so I headed to the closet.
I put my hand on my sock drawer and for the first time
I can remember I really wanted to wear athletic shoes.
You see, I was dreading our morning. I had to take both
boys with me to the grocery store this morning. Happy to take one
kid with me to the grocery store but both of them? NO THANK YOU.
Together in the grocery store is really my own personal torture chamber.
I’d rather sit in a doctor’s office waiting for one hour with both my sick children
before I took them to the grocery store together.
Crazy exhausted + grocery store + two boys = desire for athletic shoes.
So you know what I did?
I marched myself over and slapped on some bling and dangly earrings.
I whipped out some cashmere socks and slipped on some boots.
Not today slippery slope.
Not today.

And then I was at the grocery store.
With a four year old who wanted to help which
then made the two year old want to help.
Quick.
How long does it take a four year old and a two year old
to open those plastic produce bags?
Answer: Forever when you need to put something in it and a split second when they want to put it over their head.
Yes that was my two year old screaming at the checkout
line. And yes that was me letting him scream and not
giving in. You see he disobeyed me and I had to draw the line and so I’d rather him scream in the checkout line than let him get away with it. I’m trying to raise a man, not a grown-up boy.
And yes, the manager of the Chick-fli-A recognized us at the grocery store.

I still win today slippery slope.

Winter Sun

We snuck away between Christmas and the New Year to Puerto Rico for a little fun and sun. I offically love Puerto Rico as a vacation destination for our family. And it was fun...until my newly minted two year old busted his chin open on the frame of the hotel bed.