Beach Days

My body feels exhausted, the kind of sluggish feeling that comes with spending mornings at the beach, meeting up with friends at splash pads and curling up with books in the afternoon to escape some of the heat.  A good tired.  A happy tired.  A thankful tired for a Mom who swooped in and babysat so I could do groceries all by myself.  I caught myself whistling Jacob's favorite song, "rejoice in the Lord".  Fitting.  I've had a week with no daycare, just my three and we've made the most of it.  One more pool day tomorrow and we've donned our bathing suits 4 out of 5 days.

I like this stage.  Don't be deceived by the picture though, there have been plenty of not-so successful outings, one which found us at the beach with friends.  That beach day I could be found rocking  and cradling Maddie like a baby, to discover by the time we got home she had developed a rather burning fever.   She's a bit of a train wreck when sick and looked like this most of that weekend.

Thankfully, this week's beach morning went much better.  The kids splashed in the water and I chatted with my sister-in law.  Kaylin is our water-lover, coming out only when necessity calls, Jacob is rather in between, torn between his want to join his older sister and his love for playing with sand.

This blondie?  She perches herself in the shallow end and just wiggles her little heiny, she's our dancer with a love of hip wiggling.  This is a fun stage, one of working around only one napper's schedule, rather than 3 which was last summer.  This one's pretty flexible and we're making the most out of it.

Jacob has been fantastic.  We seem to have left behind the days of worry we had for him.  When his tempers and anger were always forefront in our minds.  For one, he's simply grown a bit older and is able to tell us what he's thinking, what he wants.  Two, we've put him on a very very low refined sugar diet, and eliminated all red and purple dyes.  The change was drastic and when we grow lazy and give him something sugary and red we're quickly reminded that its not worth it.  I'm not sure what this all means, but we're working on it.  He drinks water and non-sweetened apple cider, his special snacks at birthday parties are chips rather than cake and I've been baking brownies made with beans and applesauce.  I can't fully explain it all yet, but when I've done enough research I'll share.  Right now, its wonderful and even on the bad days, when the temper flares and the screaming starts I can see the light  at the end of the tunnel.

The busy mornings means that my to do list isn't quite getting done.  I have a list of jobs that require paint, my kitchen walls, my bedrooms, but somehow when I look back on these pictures I realize that right now its just not priority.  These days are flying by and when I sneak in to check on them when they're asleep I see their happy, tired little sun-kissed faces and I'm reminded that these days are important.

I'm not great at getting the kids out the door peacefully, I tend to yell and panic and yell some more.  Then we jump in the van, take a deep breath and wipe the slate clean, usually by blaring the music.  At that moment I'm determined that the next time we go out on our own will be better, I'll be patient.  I'll set my clock earlier so I can get everything ready and the kids will roll out of bed to find a breakfast set and the beach stuff neatly packed away.

It doesn't happen.  I end up throwing everything into the van, trying to cram the towels somewhere between the jogging stroller and the giant cooler.  Then I sit in the driveway and run through the checklist, crank the music and drive away.  9 times out of 10 I make it all the way to the stop sign  before I realize that I need to pull a u-turn to grab something else.  Kaylin always sighs and says "mooommmm, you ALWAYS forget something".

But we make it to where we're supposed to, the hectic get-out-of-the house moments forgotten and forgiven.  Although tomorrow I am determined:)  Hope your all keeping cool these warm summer days!