*How during 99% of meals, Jude will say to me, "Thank you for making this food for me, mama!"
*Ezra loves to rub his hands along arms. He even slides his hand up sleeves to feel arms.
*Hope wakes up at 6:30a each day and does not complain about it. She gets breakfast and out the door by herself most days.
*Our work schedule (the hubs working one night, me working the next... no days are off b/c one of us works every.single.day) is wearing me out. We have been at it for almost a year, and although I will probably kick myself for saying this later, I can't wait for the hubs to work a "normal" hours job.
*Jude loves to climb into Ezra's crib and they bounce and laugh at eachother. Ezra is super tough and if J bangs into him, he just gets up and laughs.
*Jude has been saying to me, "Mama, can I be the boss of Ezra??" (I always ask him who the boss is... Mama!) I tell him he can be as long as he is a nice boss.
*Hope loves the new youth group she is going to and looks forward to it. She also started playing the clarinet this year and is very good only a month in!
*Judah pronounces Ezra, "Esh-rah"
*The boys are sleeping well in a shared room. They sleep through the night MOST nights! The only draw-back is that Judah wakes up Ez around 6:30a each day.
*Ezra has almost all his baby teeth-- he just needs he 2 lower 2 year old molars.
*We are planning on spending the winter doing touch ups on different things in our house so we can hopefully put it up for sale in the next year or so.
*We are on a very tight budget and it's super annoying but makes me appreciate any extra money we make.
*Judah takes the cushions off the couch or chair most days. He props them up next to his bed and calls it his "Holy Spirit Water Slide" (NO idea where that came from!!)
*I'm teaching 3's at church once a month and really like it.
*Hope is getting tall and is growing out of all of her clothes! We will be able to share clothes soon!
*The hubs is growing a massive beard-- partially for hunting, partially just to see how it looks.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
Growing fingers
Today is a toasty one.. filled with bike rides and running, cleaning, Costco, free samples, grandma buying us lunch, J going to the bathroom on his shorts and underware on accident in the Costco bathroom, home for naps, dinner of green beans from our garden and spaghetti, book reading, staying inside beacause it is so incredibly hot out, heading to Culvers to get together with family, and quick bed times once we got home.
Today after their naps, the boys were sitting on my lap reading books with me. After I was done with the book, they were touching eachother's hands and poking at eachother. At one point, J picks up E's hand and says, "E, I like your little fingers!" Then he touches E's middle finger and says, "And you grew this one big!!"
Saturday, June 9, 2012
when i'm sixty-four
My favorite band has a song that has a line, "will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm sixty-four?" (beatles) Tonight the hubs and I attended his grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary dinner. As we were watching videos of their kids (the hubs' dad and his siblings), I was thinking that the time of life we are in right NOW is the time of life we were watching on video of them 50-60 years prior.
I don't know why I have been so nostolgic lately. I just know that the here-and-now are the sweet years that we will look back on. They are the penny-pinching, no sleep-getting, give-out-at-least-one-spanking-a-day, open-mouth-kisses-from-babies, kids-calling-you-awesome-for-just-cutting-up-watermelon kind of days. I could not be more in love with these days. On the flip side, these days are exhausting, but that is what makes them so great.. when you look back in a few years, you think how great it is that you made it through! :)
I cannot wait for the memories we have yet to make. I cannot wait till our wedding anniversary when our kids are their with their spouses and we can have such a fullness of heart at the thought that THESE are our desendents and MY, how God has been with us and shown himself through the years.
(also, I WILL still need him, and still feed him when I'm 64 :))
I don't know why I have been so nostolgic lately. I just know that the here-and-now are the sweet years that we will look back on. They are the penny-pinching, no sleep-getting, give-out-at-least-one-spanking-a-day, open-mouth-kisses-from-babies, kids-calling-you-awesome-for-just-cutting-up-watermelon kind of days. I could not be more in love with these days. On the flip side, these days are exhausting, but that is what makes them so great.. when you look back in a few years, you think how great it is that you made it through! :)
I cannot wait for the memories we have yet to make. I cannot wait till our wedding anniversary when our kids are their with their spouses and we can have such a fullness of heart at the thought that THESE are our desendents and MY, how God has been with us and shown himself through the years.
(also, I WILL still need him, and still feed him when I'm 64 :))
Saturday, April 28, 2012
owls, and gnomes, and toadstools, oh my!
Since our littlest little just turned one recently, we had a birthday party for him today. It was supposed to be last Saturday, but due to a awful case of the stomach flu that made it through 4/5 of our family (I got skipped somehow, wahoo! Still had to clean up after the others, but wasn't sick while doing it!) we had to reschedule it to this weekend.
When thinking of themes for E, I had a thought that we should do something kind of woodsy. I ask my friend Miss B what she thought, and she said, "toadstools and woodsy for sure!" Since E was born on earth day, it seemed pretty fitting.
When thinking of themes for E, I had a thought that we should do something kind of woodsy. I ask my friend Miss B what she thought, and she said, "toadstools and woodsy for sure!" Since E was born on earth day, it seemed pretty fitting.
I found tons of ideas on pinterest and had a lot of fun putting together this little party to celebrate our special boy! With help from many, many people, we had a place to hold it that was big enough (grandpa and grandma f!) a wooden cupcake stand (daddy) wooden slabs cut from a tree (grandpa a!) I made lots of things such as the burlap banner and tiny toadstools out of playdough that I painted. I think part of the fun in making things was that every time I worked on something for the party, I was thinking of my boy and celebrating him. I have celebrated him a lot over the past few months! :)
The menu was pizza, greek salad, fruit salad, chips, pickles/olives, pop, and cake with icecream. After the party on the way home, I was thinking about how our family and friends love our boy (well, all our kids, really) and how they are SO blessed. This may sound cheesy, but I couldn't help but think about how Mary "treasured these things and pondered them in her heart". I kept thinking about how everyone loves, supports, smooches on, and dotes on my kids, and I treasure that. A great way to love a mama is to love her kids like your own. We had so much fun, and we think E did, too. (He went to town on his cupcake and it was gone quickly!)
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
things I know are true.
Things I know to be true;
1.I know... when you are a mama and you leave the house for some peace, you will miss your kids when you leave and feel empty without their presence in the store. You will spot "equipments" on the side of the road and point it out to no one in the car, and even half turn around to see your son's shining face, only to realize you are by yourself. When pushing a shopping car and there are no babies to be hugged in the front of it, and no necks to be kissed and no eyes to point out the lemons and the lobsters to, you will feel like you are missing a piece of yourself. You will wonder "Do mamas that see me still know I'm a mama, or do they just think I'm some girl who has yet to know the loveliness of a mid-store melt-down. Do they think, "oh, she should just wait!"? I know to be true the fact that my children are me, and I am them, and I am upset that some day, I will still be them, but they will try not to be me.
2.I know to be true the fact that anything-- icecream, water, a grilled cheese, steak... All taste better when someone else prepares/brings it to you. (maybe it's because of the love sprinkled on top?)
3. I know that I could-- but yet do not get near the amount of sleep I should. I love the quiet and the still of the the night and the endless possibilities of what I could do. Drink tea? Have some icecream without anyone else snitching? A little bit of the internets? New Girl on tv? Sewing?
4. I know that if you took a shirt and put it in a store, 5$ would seem like a STEAL! If you took the same shirt and put it on a table at a garage sale and stuck a piece of tape on it with the same 5$, you would feel like you are being Ripped.Off.
5. When your first kid has their first birthday, you think, "Well, that seemed fast but yea, I guess a year HAS gone by." With your second, you literally have to go back and look at pictures of the year because there is no way that your little baby with a head full of hair that loves to fall asleep on you is now a one year old (who still has a head full of hair and loves to fall asleep on you.)
6. I know that if you drink milk and then fill that same glass with water that "milkity" water (as H put it) tastes awful.
7. Doctors might know the best thing to recommend, but they do not always know what is best for my family.
8. I know that although I want to move out of our too-small-for-us house, I will miss it incredibly when we are gone. I will miss the sidewalks and the neighbors who know us well enough that they can tell when my boys get haircuts. I will miss our green grass and the trees that provide shade, a climbing spot, and even leaves for us to rake and jump in. I will miss our yellow living room and all the memories that were made here. I will miss our front porch that is my favorite summer place to be. Coffee, the hubs, and a rocky front porch chair. I will miss the wood floor and how underneath the new countertop where no one can see, my initials are there in power grab. (I won't miss the fact that the entire house has two very small closets and also the no dishwasher situation. and while I'm at it, no a/c. )
1.I know... when you are a mama and you leave the house for some peace, you will miss your kids when you leave and feel empty without their presence in the store. You will spot "equipments" on the side of the road and point it out to no one in the car, and even half turn around to see your son's shining face, only to realize you are by yourself. When pushing a shopping car and there are no babies to be hugged in the front of it, and no necks to be kissed and no eyes to point out the lemons and the lobsters to, you will feel like you are missing a piece of yourself. You will wonder "Do mamas that see me still know I'm a mama, or do they just think I'm some girl who has yet to know the loveliness of a mid-store melt-down. Do they think, "oh, she should just wait!"? I know to be true the fact that my children are me, and I am them, and I am upset that some day, I will still be them, but they will try not to be me.
2.I know to be true the fact that anything-- icecream, water, a grilled cheese, steak... All taste better when someone else prepares/brings it to you. (maybe it's because of the love sprinkled on top?)
3. I know that I could-- but yet do not get near the amount of sleep I should. I love the quiet and the still of the the night and the endless possibilities of what I could do. Drink tea? Have some icecream without anyone else snitching? A little bit of the internets? New Girl on tv? Sewing?
4. I know that if you took a shirt and put it in a store, 5$ would seem like a STEAL! If you took the same shirt and put it on a table at a garage sale and stuck a piece of tape on it with the same 5$, you would feel like you are being Ripped.Off.
5. When your first kid has their first birthday, you think, "Well, that seemed fast but yea, I guess a year HAS gone by." With your second, you literally have to go back and look at pictures of the year because there is no way that your little baby with a head full of hair that loves to fall asleep on you is now a one year old (who still has a head full of hair and loves to fall asleep on you.)
6. I know that if you drink milk and then fill that same glass with water that "milkity" water (as H put it) tastes awful.
7. Doctors might know the best thing to recommend, but they do not always know what is best for my family.
8. I know that although I want to move out of our too-small-for-us house, I will miss it incredibly when we are gone. I will miss the sidewalks and the neighbors who know us well enough that they can tell when my boys get haircuts. I will miss our green grass and the trees that provide shade, a climbing spot, and even leaves for us to rake and jump in. I will miss our yellow living room and all the memories that were made here. I will miss our front porch that is my favorite summer place to be. Coffee, the hubs, and a rocky front porch chair. I will miss the wood floor and how underneath the new countertop where no one can see, my initials are there in power grab. (I won't miss the fact that the entire house has two very small closets and also the no dishwasher situation. and while I'm at it, no a/c. )
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
luck o' the irish
One thing the hubs didn't know about me before we got married was that I love me a good parade. I think that being a mama has only amplified my love for parades and crazy people walking around. It's almost telling my kids, "look at all the crazies dressed up for st. patty's day! they are being themselves, be yourself!" ok, maybe a stretch but holidays and parades give an excuse for not following everyday social norms.
For example:
The man in the kilt
The dog owners with their dogs that-- I kid you not-- were bigger than me. They were pretty much small horses.
The ability to wear multiple shades of green and not be looked down upon because you do not know how to match colors.
Wearing an orange wig, ok! Wearing green pj pants, ok! Wearing piles of green mardi gras beads, ok!! All of this out in public, you look fabulous! How festive! OK!!
All that to say, on saturday the hubs and I took the boys (H was with her mom) to the st. patty's parade. Dressed in green, we first hit up a local restaurant and then parked ourselves by the road along with tons of other people looking for a good time. J was pretty nervous throughout the parade and kept wondering if fire trucks were going to have loud sirens. :) Baby E just waved his little irish flag, tore the flag, watched a little parade, and just took it all in. He was a wonderful little parade-goer, and believe it or not, this was his 5th (at least) parade. See, I told you I liked parades!! :)
Thursday, January 12, 2012
the snowball effect, melted.
*It all started in the middle of the night around 3am. The littlest little fell out of my bed onto a pillow. He wasn't hurt, but was rudely awoken by a fall and a plop on the pillow. (1 hour and 15 minutes later I fell asleep.. he was awake and ready to play for a good hour and 10minutes after the pillow plop.)
*5 minutes laterr I am woken up by H. "Mom... I can't sleep". "Me either..." I whispered back. "Kids keep waking me up!" (I am not at my finest in the early morning hours)
*1 hour later I am woken up by H coming down the steps to the bathroom.
*45 minutes later she tells me she threw up
*10 minutes later at 6am J wakes for the day. MOM! Tv? Breakfast? Can I have milk? I sent him back to bed and he stayed there for about 20 minutes, after which he threw beans from his texture table all over the room.
*The hubs got home from work around 745a and walks in the bedroom and tells me that H does not have a fever but is covered in a rash... hives. I go up to her room and bring her some benadryl. Half hour later, her hives are half as red, an hour later and they are completely gone.
*Throughout the day, J is cranky and refuses to pick up the beans all around his room (bring in the timeouts and the stern voices) and baby E is a crank from teething.
*H is able to keep all food down and after I made a call to her doctor it is determined: some sort of food allergy. The dr orders us an epi pen just in case and tells us that H needs to be seen for allergy testing. H eats lunch and goes to school around 1p.
*I take a much needed nap :)
*After nap the hubs is bringing in our new countertop that he is storing in the dining room. He didn't see the light fixture and knocked the counter into it, shattering the light. All over piles of clean laundry.
*After that was cleaned up, I was getting J some milk and spilled milk everywhere.
*The hubs and I decide to blow that popsicle stand, and eat dinner out. I get the ahi tuna on salad, he gets an olive burger. We both a delightfully happy over our choices and as we drive around afterwards, keep talking about how delicious our meals were.
The day was a doozy. If any of those things happened on a different, normal day, it would have been fine and we would have been able to brush it off with just a little annoyance. But on a day when it all happens at once? It's a doozy and it makes me thankful for the days when the most annoying thing is a teaspoon of flour spilled while making banana muffins.
I recently read some quotes on pinterest that said "First world problems: "my phone is across the room and I'm too tired to get it" "I had too much food for lunch and now I'm tired" "I keep trying to text at red lights, but I keep only making greens". When you pile my complaints into a list, it sounds an awful lot like an extension to that list of quotes made up to make people laugh at how ridiculous our problems are compared to the rest of the world. "I had a full gallon of milk but I spilled 1 cup of it on my clothes that I can then throw in the wash machine" "We broke our light, and now we have to go shopping for a new one".
Putting my problems in perspective helps. I am not going to lie and say I was not exhuasted at the end of the day, but today I started the day new and fresh. Lamentations 2:22-24
"22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
As I rocked baby E back and forth before his nap this morning I looked in the mirror and had a thought: Everyone says I will miss this and I probably will, but that does not mean it is not hard in the moment.
*5 minutes laterr I am woken up by H. "Mom... I can't sleep". "Me either..." I whispered back. "Kids keep waking me up!" (I am not at my finest in the early morning hours)
*1 hour later I am woken up by H coming down the steps to the bathroom.
*45 minutes later she tells me she threw up
*10 minutes later at 6am J wakes for the day. MOM! Tv? Breakfast? Can I have milk? I sent him back to bed and he stayed there for about 20 minutes, after which he threw beans from his texture table all over the room.
*The hubs got home from work around 745a and walks in the bedroom and tells me that H does not have a fever but is covered in a rash... hives. I go up to her room and bring her some benadryl. Half hour later, her hives are half as red, an hour later and they are completely gone.
*Throughout the day, J is cranky and refuses to pick up the beans all around his room (bring in the timeouts and the stern voices) and baby E is a crank from teething.
*H is able to keep all food down and after I made a call to her doctor it is determined: some sort of food allergy. The dr orders us an epi pen just in case and tells us that H needs to be seen for allergy testing. H eats lunch and goes to school around 1p.
*I take a much needed nap :)
*After nap the hubs is bringing in our new countertop that he is storing in the dining room. He didn't see the light fixture and knocked the counter into it, shattering the light. All over piles of clean laundry.
*After that was cleaned up, I was getting J some milk and spilled milk everywhere.
*The hubs and I decide to blow that popsicle stand, and eat dinner out. I get the ahi tuna on salad, he gets an olive burger. We both a delightfully happy over our choices and as we drive around afterwards, keep talking about how delicious our meals were.
The day was a doozy. If any of those things happened on a different, normal day, it would have been fine and we would have been able to brush it off with just a little annoyance. But on a day when it all happens at once? It's a doozy and it makes me thankful for the days when the most annoying thing is a teaspoon of flour spilled while making banana muffins.
I recently read some quotes on pinterest that said "First world problems: "my phone is across the room and I'm too tired to get it" "I had too much food for lunch and now I'm tired" "I keep trying to text at red lights, but I keep only making greens". When you pile my complaints into a list, it sounds an awful lot like an extension to that list of quotes made up to make people laugh at how ridiculous our problems are compared to the rest of the world. "I had a full gallon of milk but I spilled 1 cup of it on my clothes that I can then throw in the wash machine" "We broke our light, and now we have to go shopping for a new one".
Putting my problems in perspective helps. I am not going to lie and say I was not exhuasted at the end of the day, but today I started the day new and fresh. Lamentations 2:22-24
"22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.”
As I rocked baby E back and forth before his nap this morning I looked in the mirror and had a thought: Everyone says I will miss this and I probably will, but that does not mean it is not hard in the moment.
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