All in a day

I wrote this last week but didn't want to publish it because it felt like complaining...Now I want to publish it just so one day I can remember how full a day was "when they were all little".



He left before seven.  It was dark and quiet still.  I started then with the laundry.  Load one of a total of five today.  (Two loads were linens which makes it easier).  Breakfast for all five was done by 8.  I did remember my own breakfast today which helps.  I really do forget it often in the mix of trying to fix breakfasts while unloading the dishwasher.  We dressed, did our chore of cleaning the kids' bathroom and the hall bathroom and started school a little late at 9.  We read history, did Bible and poetry all together while William toddled around the room (escaping twice out the open backdoor...Mommy wanted fresh air).  Caroline and Henry then did their math and phonics and grammar while I went back and forth between them.  I listened while Henry read.  We took a morning break of snacks and time outside....during which I rearranged outdoor furniture and somehow got a little nutty and decided to mow the yard.  I couldn't find a broom to sweep outside and had to make it all look better somehow.  Then we came in and I made three lunches while the big two were able to make their own sandwiches.  The dishwasher was emptied and reloaded in the midst of all that.  I put the baby down and then listened to second grade reading aloud.  Then it was rest time....Did I forget to mention I have been moving around the laundry, folding, as well as loading the back of the car for a trip to Goodwill?  I sat with coffee for at least thirty minutes.  I did talk on the phone at some point, but I always move or clean while talking because it is great to have a distraction while getting your work done.

Vacation was two days ago.  I don't know how to not be numb when moving this much.  It was so nice to not do and think of a thousand things at each moment of the day.  I even had room for new thoughts, new ideas. Re-entry into the life of a family of seven seems to be dangerous.

Gift Giving

John Mac "walks to the beat of his own drummer", or at least a drummer I don't know and Brandon isn't familiar with either.  We are always curious and surprised by his different ideas or ways of seeing things...consequently we never know what he will do or say, or what will excite him.  He is a mellow and gentle-hearted fellow, so most days there are only little glimmers of his interests and ideas.  The picture above is of him on our hike last week;  he sat down to take off his shoes (he wanted to hike barefoot to feel the dirt better) and then he just started playing, forgetting we were all hiking ahead of him.  This weekend he went to the birthday party of a friend and I saw him get really excited....about gift giving.  I watched as he jumped up and down saying, "Pick the blue package; it's the one from me!".   Now honestly, when I give gifts I often don't want to wait and watch them open it....Much less recommend my present to them.  Will they like it? Did I pick the right thing? Will they think I spent too little or too much on them?  (can you spend too much?)  The tension takes the joy right out of my package.  But John Mac was thrilled to give his friend Stuart a gift he was excited about.  It was a good reminder to me of the real beauty and simplicity of gifts....something you like and you want to share with a friend.  This week...it was just the joy of a jet plane and getting to share it with someone who should love it just as much.  Hope I get to have the joy of unfettered giving again soon.  

April

So the days seem to be so full and busy....Halfway through April and I have hardly a recollection of it. So far, we have...

Travelled to Williamsburg without Daddy to visit friends....

Eating frozen yogurt in our old hometown....

Celebrated a three year old birthday with Hannah! Pink everywhere and cupcakes with sprinkles for everyone!A new favorite dress-up outfit for our joyful girl....

We have played in the sprinkler during unusually warm weather....

Visited the ball field to watch friends play baseball....Planted flowers, sowed seeds....
And we even made it to the strawberry fields to pick with friends...

Not a lot of rainy days for us so far in April. But lots of good play.

A typical lunch....

We won't count the leftover honey-baked ham that was eaten at 9:15 this morning, after our second child had already had two bowls of cereal. Instead, lunch began at 10:40 this morning, when our oldest daughter was hungry and asked for a peanut butter and honey sandwich. This instantly brought our three year old daughter into the kitchen with a request of a peanut butter and honey sandwich as well. While I was preparing these two sandwiches, the baby motioned and made LOUD utterances for peanut butter and bread....so I placed him in his high chair for the first time with peanut butter bread and grapes. This was about 11am by the time I had made it to his peanut butter bread. Now, the eldest was done and had moved on to her school work, but the third child in our family realized he was hungry also, so he came and asked for a sandwich. At this point, the baby was done with every bit of the peanut butter bread, and all the grapes and strawberries I had left, so I cleaned up his face and got him out of the high chair. While the third child was eating, our three year old daughter who had finished her sandwich asked for some applesauce to eat. While trying to scrape applesauce out of a jar, I caught a glimpse of the baby climbing onto the counter out of the corner of my eye. He was trying to reach blueberry bread I had made over the weekend, so I realized he might still be hungry. Back in the highchair for round #2 with blueberry bread, a large piece. Not a lot of applesauce left for the three year old, so when she sees me making pizza tortillas for the six year old who is now hungry for lunch, she wants to eat some plain pepperonis. I make the pizza tortillas and once again clean the baby and the highchair....this time there are blueberries smashed into his shirt and I realize there is a lot of old fruit under the cushion of his chair, so I take off his shirt, clean off the chair and remove the cushion to wash it with the shirt in the laundry. As the last lunch person is finishing off tortillas, the baby starts to motion and point to the extra piece of pizza tortillas. Sure enough, he wants a slice of the pizza. Once again, a trip to the highchair. This time it must be reassembled. Pizza tortilla is cut into bits and he is eating alone in the kitchen as everyone else is done. It is now 12:15. I clean him off for a final time and take dirty cushion to the laundry.

Have I eaten yet? No. Do I want to be in the kitchen for any reason right now? No.

This is what we'll have to do later today.....

Bad Words

C: Mom, Henry just came into my room and said the "F" word.

Me: What's the "f" word?

C: Farted. He said farted.

Me: oh.

TIME for a change....

The days have been full lately. iPhones, just six days old, found in the bottom of a potty. "Check engine" lights on in the car, and then back off. Clothes that suddenly don't fit on children and piles more to be stored or given away. Meanwhile there is always a pile in the laundry room, always dishes in the dishwasher and always someone who needs "something else to eat". So I took the picture above today, when I looked down to check the time and realized I was wearing two watches. It's not that I am that time conscious...I have no meetings to go to, no appointments to make. It's just that I have been that overstimulated by life lately. Don't you love the little messages that life sends you when things have been too full? Better to listen to the little signs than let them grow and morph into ones that show up in more pronounced ways. Looks like Momma needs some downtime!

This is a fun picture of Hannah at the Children's Garden near our new home. It is my new favorite outing for us during the week. Sand for little ones, big play houses for bigger ones, and lots of benches for the biggest one to sit on. Plus creeks and woods to explore on trails not far away. And here is a recent picture of William. Do you see the determination in his eyes? He has recently learned the word "no" and he says it with a strength that tells me we will get to deal with a lot of things "head on" and quite soon too!

Sugar and Spice

I think I might want to be a seven year old girl again. It has been so fun to watch Caroline and her friends lately; they are so lovely in their work and play. Seven year old girls seem to enjoy their beauty, regardless of who they are or what they look like. It is not competitive in spirit, simply fun and expressive of the excitement they have in being able to be a girl. Nail polish, new braids, a sparkly shirt....they are all simply fun new things to enjoy, and they are glad to share and tell each other of the fun new thing they have discovered in the world of beauty. Girls this age are also very nurturing. They adore small babies and stop to coo at them, or ask to hold them. They think that being a mother is a high calling and they constantly mimic it in their games. They are not pretending to be business CEOs or accountants or even doctors as much as they are pretending, and maybe even arguing over who gets to be "the mother". And there is such beauty in their friendship as they play! They run to see each other, hugging and often holding hands without a thought. They write notes to each other, make art for one another and dressing alike is a great treat. Caroline is seven and a half right now. She is writing letters to friends near and far away almost daily, giving away lollipops to her siblings for Valentines and she is most excited about a planned trip to the American Girl doll store with her parents for her birthday. She adores her baby brother and is patient with her two year old sister in a way any mother would want to be herself. She giggles with her friends and is so glad to be "playing family" with them, or "country house". And I feel so lucky to watch it all. I know this beauty will have to change and transform, but even on dark days, I will know that it is there.