Summer Days

It's funny the things I remember from my childhood. As a military brat, mine are widely varied. For instance, I remember seeing kangaroos while we were stationed in Australia. I just remember the dusk time jeep ride past a radio tower, and seeing several kangaroos around the base of it. I remember a trip with my parents to the store where I got to pick out my own lunch box! One of the metal ones with the thermos inside it. It was a Precious Moments one, I think. I remember playing on the playground when we lived in Mississippi, and horseback riding, and I remember our neighbor made Smurf tapes for me. Tapes, imagine that. I remember digging up acorns with my Mimi in Florida and tossing them out into the water. I remember a lovely, satiny, full length, purple robe that my Nonnie used to let me wear when I spent the night with her and how I loved the way it billowed out behind me (for of course, I never tied it!). I remember this closet at my great-grandmother Rush's house that had a curtain for a door and was piled high with quilts. Nifty place to 'get'. I remember making chocolate covered Oreo's with Mama Sue. I remember making this extra special flavored ice cream at my great-granddaddy Bergman's house. Mmmmm. Still my favorite ice cream flavor. I remember riding my bike around in the rain and coming home drenched and wonderfully happy. Most of the memories are from summer months.

Summer transforms the world somehow. Days are longer, hotter, lazier, and packed with new ways to entertain ourselves. At least as children, it would seem. But I have found a neater way to enjoy the summer and all its wonders. Through the eyes of my kids. For all that I remember from my childhood, and all that I have forgotten, it is much more fun to experience it with my children.

Recently, we have had the chance to let our kids do some of the things that I hold so dearly from my own childhood. Praise the Lord, rain finally found a path to our neck of the woods. A nice steady rain in the middle of the day. The kind you play in! We were outside with the kids loving the smell, the sound, the fact that our scrawny little trees (sticks in the ground) were being watered from above rather than our water hose! Joshua pulled Thomas and Sarah Grace around in the wagon as it sprinkled on them, then he pulled me and Thomas around, and Sarah Grace jumped back in for good measure. The kids seemed a tad surprised to be turned loose in the rain, but soon got over it and enjoyed themselves.

Thomas asked about an umbrella, and we managed to find one for him. He was quite the gentleman as he escorted Sarah Grace around the yard with the thing propped back on his shoulder so that it really shielded them from, well, nothing. But they were happy. Then Sarah Grace found out that a girl slips down the slide much faster in the rain! Neither of them were to sure they liked the sensation of speeding down the slide like that, and only tried it once each. They contented themselves on the swing and by 'hanging'. Elizabeth was perfectly happy to just hang out in someone's arms and watch all the commotion. She occasionally even let out a sweet little laugh!

Thomas sporting the over-the-shoulder umbrella look.

A close up shot of a very content Thomas.

Sweet faced Elizabeth.

Thomas hanging out.


Sarah Grace enjoying the wet grass between her toes.

It also occurred to us to make ice cream recently. We started the process kind of late in the afternoon (think 6pm) and as Joshua nor I had ever made ice cream before (aside from 'helping' our own parents), we chalked this one up to a learning experience. I managed to find a super easy recipe that I can recommend as a super easy recipe but not the most original taste around, and mixed it up for the ice cream machine. Joshua layered the ice and rock salt and we plugged it on up. Let the spinning begin. After about an hour and a half of mixing, I suddenly realized that I had forgotten to add the vanilla to the mix! We agreed that it was not too late and that I could simply just add it in and let the machine resume it's thing. I measured out the correct amount and went to put in in the cylinder, but as I took the top off, I realized that we put too much mix in the thing. It was over flowing. So, I took it all and dumped it, this time with the vanilla, into a gallon sized ice cream bucket that we had on hand. I mixed it up with a spoon for a couple of minutes and we decided it would be for the best to make milkshakes for the night's enjoyment. It could freeze into ice cream overnight in the freezer!



The kids were super excited that the 'ice cream' was finally ready to serve. There wasn't even too much grousing about having milkshakes rather than the planned ice cream. They had patiently waited and watched as the mixer spun the cylinder round and round, and were quite ready to taste this treat.

Summer is here, and my kids are really getting the hang of all the wonderfully fun things that this special season brings with it.

And, no, my dearest Lora, neither of them are wearing pants. I beg your forgiveness of all my harassment towards you and your pantless wonders. We are so there.

Rub-A-Dub-Dub...

...three kids in a tub!

Yesterday, in an effort to abort the afternoon chaos, I tossed Thomas and Sarah Grace in the bath tub. After they had played contentedly for nearly half an hour, I went to get them out, only to find they did not want out. This is a small miracle at our house because neither of them particularly cares for bath time at the moment (a moment that is stretching into its second month, now). So, I grabbed Elizabeth and washed her in the tub with them. Thomas was eager to assist by holding her and Sarah Grace was all to happy to help wash her. In a moment of accelerated heart rate, I snapped a picture or two of my three kids sharing their first bath together. (excuse the dim and grainy pictures, if you will. I forgot the flash)

Elizabeth was actually laughing here, and just after the shot, Thomas sat her up straight. With thinly veiled panicked prompting from Mommy, of course.

Elizabeth, not as openly happy now, but still enjoying herself as the other two cheese for me!

After Elizabeth left the tub, Thomas and Sarah Grace still wanted to play. And they did...for almost an hour!

Ponytail Season

It's generally 90 degrees around here these days. Summer is fully upon us. If you have never been to north Alabama, then you can't fully appreciate the futility of trying to stay cool. You see, Alabama has this nasty humidity that permeates everything. Our air conditioners work overtime to compensate for not only the lack of cool air, but to try to keep our homes dry. Ladies spend more time trying to get their hair to do what they want it to, but when they walk outside, it just falls flat, or worse, frizzes up. (Guess which group I fall into? I look like a lion some days!) My answer to this frustration is, unless I am going somewhere that I want to look cared for, toss it up in a ponytail and go. Most pictures of me during the summer months, which in Alabama start in April and run to about November, show proof on my high school hair do.

I have decided, though, that I am really in a ponytail season of life. If ever there was a woman who needed to have a quick, easy solution, it is one with lots of littles. I qualify. The responsibilities on my plate at this point in my life are many. I would almost say that until the next little gets here (no, not pregnant yet) I have as much on my plate as I will ever have. Possibly more, even.

Caring for three small children is a full time job unto itself. And it's not just about seeing to their every need (notice I said need, not want). Aside from the diaper changing, feeding, bathing, monitoring to be sure they don't somehow kill themselves, I am fortunate enough to be able to stay home with them. That means I get to play with them and read to them and go outside with them. I get to kiss all their boo-boos. I also get to help them clean up their messes and make cookies with them and paint and 'crayon' with them. It is an all consuming gig, this Mothering bit.

Add to that the important issues in life: maintaining relationships with my friends and family, finding time for Joshua and I just to talk and decompress and enjoy each other, being a functioning part of our church body, making sure to spend time in prayer and studying my Bible.

Then the 'fluff' stuff, if you will. Cleaning my home, running my business, keeping the laundry under control, cooking to feed my loved ones (maybe I should file that one under needs, but sometimes we just have to PB&J and call it dinner!). Currently, doing what I can to help my sister prep for her wedding, these things take up precious time, as well. Oh, and let's not forget the hours that must be put towards sleep, precious few that I get.

Count em up and you will see that there are not enough hours in the day for me to be worried with my hair. It is a season of learning to let go of the things that don't matter. If my closets aren't immaculate, who cares? If the floor didn't get vacuumed today, it's okay. I am learning that I don't need two hours notice before folks are allowed into my home. They can come in and step over the toys that the kids bring out every day. They can sit on my sofa, now covered with sharpie from the most recent Sarah Grace art explosion. What counts is not that my home is perfect, but that it is comfortable and inviting. Granted, when your feet stick to the floor, that isn't quite so cozy, but we try to keep that under control.

I am learning to just hang out with my children and get to know them better. And if the ironing waits an extra day or two, it really is better in the long run. There will always be things in my home that need to be done. Even if I take today to clean it from floor to ceiling, at the end of the day I will know I did it, but the kids won't care and all they will remember for the day was that Mommy was to busy to play with or talk to. Besides, have you ever tried to clean your home with two miniature tornadoes hot on your tail? For every thing you put away, they pull out two more. Each! The house will hold. The kids are growing and changing and I don't want to miss it because I was scrubbing the cabinets out. That is not to say that you shouldn't do daily cleaning, but seriously, spring cleaning can wait until Spring.

I am also working to cut out the extra stuff in our home. I am a pack rat, I admit it. But I am a pack rat in remission. I have been diligently sorting and ousting and uncluttering different parts of our home for several months now. This past Saturday, we had a yard sale. It was a success. How could it not be? We sold some stuff, and then immediately loaded up the rest and hauled it off to a thrift store. Success. Out of my house. Honestly, I am resigned to never see my hips fit into those 4's and 6's again anyway. Let someone who can button them have them! Books, movies that we did not want to be in our family collection, kitchen stuff that I never used but had held onto because I might use it one day, extra linens that I had somehow managed to stock up on, furniture that we simply did not have room or use for, gone. Out of my home, less for me to have to maintain. Making more time for me to spend with my kids. Streamlining, some call it.

So, ponytails work for me. It is a quick solution to the long hair that I have. It gives me more time to enjoy the day and relax in the blessings of my children and to be thankful to Him who saw fit to give me those children. The easier things are to maintain, the more time I can spend with my family. Yeah, definitely ponytails for a while.

Goings On

One would think that with the weather getting hotter and hotter, we would be staying home more and I would have more time to regale you with stories of our lives. Not so much, though. We spend more time gone these days than we do here at home, and the blog suffers. It is the only thing. Well, laundry. It's clean, but not folded or ironed or hanging. Mostly sitting around smelling good and stuffed into laundry baskets. But, it's clean, I tell you.

So, here is a run down of our past week or so in pictures, not so many words. But I have some up my sleeve. It's just a question of finding the right laundry basket with the right sleeve in it...

The hot topic at our house these days is Christmas. Thomas is bound and determined that Santa Claus is going to come and bring us a Christmas tree. So, not only are we still singing Christmas Carols, the kids are holding out for a Christmas tree. It's got me thinking that maybe we will have Christmas in July! For now, though, here is the Christmas tree that the kids sang around the other day.

We baked cookies as we sang our Christmas carols. Sarah Grace is 'mixing' our dry ingredients. She had a blast shaking that ice cream bucket as she pranced around the kitchen shouting Jingle Bells!

While Sarah Grace was shaking things up, Thomas was carefully stirring the wet ingredients for our cookie concoction. He was very diligent in his work, and very careful as well.

I just couldn't resist posting this shot of Sarah Grace. I have no idea why she looked so fierce, but it makes for a cute photo op!

Elizabeth ready and set to go with her Daddy on their nightly star gazing walk. She star gazes and he Liz gazes, I think. She very contentedly lays her head back and inspects everything she sees on their walks, and enjoys herself immensely. It also helps to calm her night time fussiness. =)

We spend quite a bit of time at church these days. I help out with the nursery and have learned that any day that I need to work there, the kids love to go and play with a different set of toys for a while. Above is Trey (left) and Elizabeth (right) snoozing as their siblings roam around creating chaos and the mommies visit and make plans.

And here are some of the siblings! There are at least three somewhere...

And there you have it. Another week come and gone. Have a great weekend, folks!

Rainy Days

Praise the Lord, we are getting an odd smattering of showers. They just kind of zoom in and zoom out. All blustery one minute and bright and sunshiney the next. If you are local, you know that what I say is true.

My house is a bit like that some days. Recently, we had one of those days where everyone just woke up cranky. Fierce, even. We made it through the morning without any major issues, just a lot of little ones. Don't play in the toilet, leave the trash in the trash can, don't hit your sister/brother, don't hide your PB & J in the couch, don't smear your wet diaper all over the walls. There were a couple of things that are just simply rules. There were a multitude of things that had never been addressed, therefore were not on the rule radar of my grouchy and trying kids (like Sarah Grace helping herself to the left over muffins, only she couldn't get them out of the pan, so she just used her hands to dig in them and leave muffin mess everywhere.)

Finally, nap time arrived. The eye of the storm, if you will.



I have often thought to myself that this is just the way it is for now. This is just one day in a million. When I am thinking like that, I can take it all in stride and pray for wisdom and patience and the day goes well, despite what happens. There are, of course, those days when I feel entrenched in what this season is. I forget that my little ones will soon be so grown that I will wish for these days of little feet and new daily discoveries again.

Yesterday, I went to a friend's house so that she and her crew could follow me and mine to a park for a morning out. She has a six year old daughter, a 2 1/2 year old son, 1 1/2 year old twin girls, and a six week old son. When I pulled in the drive, the kids were all loaded into the vehicle, buckled in, and sitting peacefully. Jen was in the house tossing the last few things into a bag for the morning at the playground, and I was in awe that she had it so together. Then, her oldest daughter told me that she had loaded the kids and fastened them into their car seats. All but the baby, who I helped her with while Jen, (who really does have it together) finished up. I commented to Jen on her awesome helper and her reply was, 'Yeah, she rocks!'

Last night, over dinner, I was sharing about our day with Joshua, and of course, did not forget to mention Jen's wonderful helper. Joshua said that I will probably have one of those in a couple more years time.

He is right. I think about that occasionally, but today, Thomas proved his advancing independence again. He wanted some strawberry yogurt, and I told him it was in the refrigerator in the garage. (thanks to a set of neighbors, we have two fridges!!) He went though the utility area, let himself into the garage, got the yogurt out of the fridge, brought it in and plopped it down. I know this doesn't sound like much, but honestly, when he started doing things that helped to save time and steps for me, he started lending a hand towards my being sane at the end of the day.

You'd think that God had a plan in this whole thing, ya know? The way Thomas and Sarah Grace started sleeping in later just in time for Elizabeth to get here, keeping us awake at all hours of the night. The way my load got heavier, only to be lightened a little bit at the time by Thomas taking on new chores and learning to even anticipate things. He did, after all, promise to never put more on my shoulders than I could bear. He just didn't let me in on the details of how He would make that happen. It is humbling to see how His ways work out.

Random

I know Lora is going to think I am mimicking her. Personally, I think it is just a testament to our alikeness. So, here it is, our week in pictures.

Our newest pass time is watching the birds swarm the bird feeders that now hang outside our kitchen window, and monitoring this little fellow, who visits a couple times a week. Thomas named him Fumper (as in Thumper from Bambi, remember?)

Elizabeth trying to figure out what face I am making.

Elizabeth deciding she does not like the face I am making. Can't win 'em all...

Thomas strikes a sweet pose. He really is this sweet during most moments of the day.

Missed the smile again.

Thomas takes time to read a book to his sisters.

He is so careful to make sure that Elizabeth gets to see the pictures before he turns the page.

Mimi (my grandmother) loving her newest great-grandchild.

Memum getting in some hugs from Thomas and Sarah Grace.

Almost got that smile...

but really only caught the tail end of it. One day...

But not today!