Strange Life

I'm going to be short and sweet.  Only 'cause the kids are in bed and the dinner mess is cleaned up, I'm caught up on committee (church) work and I'm exhausted.  I do some babysitting during the week, three days a week I have 5 kids in the house.  Its really going well, my days are organized and we jump from one activity to the next.  They play fantastic and would you believe me if I told you that when you have 3 little ones, two more really doesn't make that much of a difference?  They play great together, and lets face it.  When you do a craft with one or three they still make the same amount of mess;) 

I was smart today, or not.  Once they were picked up I packed up mine and headed to the library, where we found a pile of books and ended up eating eggs for dinner 'cause I lost track of the time.

Wouldn't you know, the kids loved dinner and declared it the "best all week".  Go figure.  It happens that I've discovered you don't need to slave in the kitchen half a day to please little ones.  They prefer it actually if you don't.  Favorite meals for them....pancakes and eggs. 

Back to daycare/babysitting for friends.  Its been a blessing for us, the extra money is wonderful and allows me to send the kids to the dentist without having a heart attack. 

More on that dentist.  Did you know that the one child in this house who is kept away from extra sugar is the one kid in the house with the cavity.  Seriously.  Life is strange.  I believe my jaw dropped open when the dentist quizzed me about feeding my son pop and candies.  I told her he was actually on a very low refined sugar diet.  Meaning no juice, other than water and one half glass of apple cider.  Even his yogurt is plain yogurt with a sprinkle of cinnamon.  And he has a cavity.  

Strange, no? 

Anyways before my writing gets out of hand with the effect of my exhausted state I'm going to say farewell. 

She plays peekaboo.  She also pushed passed me in the babysit on Sunday when I went to pick her up and yelled "Daddy, daaa----ddddd---y, ddddddd-----aaaaa---d-dddddd----yyyy".

Life = strange.....

On turning 28...no 27

Yesterday was my birthday.  I woke up thinking I had turned 28 but my husband kindly laughed and corrected me, I did in fact turn 27.  In a strange way it made me feel as though I turned a whole year younger instead of older.....I kinda liked it :)

Anyways, the weather has been ridiculous and fantastic.  Kids running around in shorts and bare feet.  Me realizing that I really don't have the months of March and April to work on toning my arms and legs before the warm weather hits.  Jacob discovering the joys of hoses and mud. Being a stay at home mom is definitely easier for me in the warmer months, messier ;) but easier.  It allows me to kick kids outside when the noise levels reach to a certain point.  The kids run and play and I'm thankful for a fenced in yard. The kids sleep better, the days are longer, Drew and I have more bounce in our steps.

Tonight Drew took me out for Thai food.  We fell in love with a little restaurant nearby when we were first married.  We don't get many chances to go out, but it makes the nights we do that much more precious.  To sit and eat and hold hands, to converse without being interrupted.  Birthdays always find me reflecting on life.  I'm blessed, so richly blessed.  I look at pictures of Drew teaching Kaylin to play chess, so patiently.  Reminding me the importance of stopping and putting other tasks on hold, in order to teach a little girl who has been eager to learn for awhile.

Who comes home after a long day at work and heads straight to the little feet that are wiggling to be ticked.

And this role as wife and mother, it is a hard road.  One that is met with exhaustion and constant demands.  A role that is often brushed away by others, evident in the way the checkout lady asked me last week "no seriously, what else do you do?"

I am happy, content.  This simple role that I have been asked to fill is beautiful, the chubby arms that wrap around my neck so tight.  The little voices that crawled into bed the morning of my birthday and whispered "I love you Mom".

The giggles of a little blond girl when she's being tickled.  The questions of little ones at the table when we do our devotions.  The difficult days that end with a story and a couch that feels full, when the screaming tempers of earlier seem not so bad.

This life....its really pretty great!

Sunny Days

Yes I'm here.  Alive and partially breathing.  Partially only because when I look around me and see the state of my house I partially stop breathing.   But I'm ignoring that, the sun has been far too warm and the birds far too enticing to be coped up organizing playrooms and such.  Last week the deacons (and their wives) organized our churches annual seniors dinner.  A lot of fun and a lot of work, which explains my  quiet mood this week.  I'm thinking about changing my birthday request to Drew from new clothes to hiring a housecleaner.  Although once I go back upstairs and peer into my closet I'll quickly change my mind.  My wardrobe at the moment screams the I've-been-pregnant-or-with-a-under-one-year-old-for-the-past-4-summers cry, and as I sat watching the kids undertake the transformation of driveway into art, courtesy of chalk, I realized how great this summer is going to be.

Maddie's walking all over, quite independent and easy to handle, the other two have been so busy finding worms and playing tag and blowing bubbles I can even start thinking of projects to do.  Like paint the kids table for instance.  Yes, a different summer is heading this way for us and I'm excited.

I've been working at not hiding from neighbors, but opening our doors wide.  I found myself on the driveway surrounded by neighbor kids ranging from 5-10.  A bit of new ground for us, as our kids were always really too small for anything other than play-dates with parents.  As I watched Kaylin playing tag with kids that were 7-10 I was reminded that she is just 5 and I'm unsure how this works.  Today after dinner was our first night of kids knocking on the door asking for Kaylin to come out and play.  In my mind this wasn't going to happen until she is older, but it is happening, any advise for me?

And I end with this picture - of my littlest who has quite seriously claimed the sweeping chore after dinner.  She cries every time someone else grabs the broom and comes stomping over with her hands open.  I sorta want time to stand still for a little while.....

Celebrating 5 years of Life

We're coming off a crazy two weeks, and today was a home day.  A day of not going out, of having no one coming in.  A day of me getting caught up on laundry and getting my floors to look clean again, a day of me laying in bed this morning with two stacks of books, one stack for Jacob and one for Kaylin and we lingered in our pj's.  Its good to have these mornings.

My oldest turned 5 last week.  She's becoming less little and more big.  And we celebrated.  With fairies on top of cupcakes, pink balloons and streamers, which Drew so carefully hung the night before while I baked cupcakes.

She goofs off when the camera is pointed at her and all our pictures together are of me laughing and her pulling faces.  This is her.  She's a serious little girl and yet, when the camera comes out the clown in her surfaces. 

I'm catching glimpses of change.  When at church I have to look for her, no longer standing by my side but busy with her friends.  Change in September when school starts and we enter into the dress-up days and parent interviews.  

We took her to get her ears pierced over the weekend, our present to her.  Not one tear, she informed the ladies that she knew it was going to hurt a little but she was ready and she was 5 now, so basically grown-up.  It was perfect timing, a little girl who wants a bit of independence and who thrived with the attention of mom and dad and no siblings.  We walked through the mall, pierced some ears and ate some french fries.  And a few nights later, when all the balloons and the streamers were taken down, when the cupcakes were long eaten and the wrapping paper put away she climbed in my lap and whispered "I love you Mommy".

And in that moment she didn't seem so big to me, she was still very much my little girl, and I was reminded to cherish those moments, for they do really grow far to fast.

Enjoy your weekend!