The Love Notes Continue...

These affirmations from one to the other, I hope they continue for a long long time.

 

Archer slipped this napkin into Shelly's lunch box this morning.

Their friendship is blossoming before my eyes. I love how they laugh together, make up games with each other and constantly stick together as they ride their bikes around the neighborhood or roam around the yard looking for their next adventure. Its truly a beautiful thing to see growing, right before my eyes.

Picture Perfect

I used to have this vague picture in my mind of what my home would look like when I grew up. Clean floors, for one. Walls without scrapes and dents and broken corners. Those things weren't in my picture. My picture looked something like the inside of a magazine.

White everything? Not in MY house, not now with kiddies around!

It's taken me awhile, but I've come around. I've grown up. Opened my eyes a little more to the pictures around me, in real life. Not in a magazine.

Before kids, we NEVER had anything on our fridge. Pictures belong in frames. Mail put away somewhere. Nothing stuck to the fridge with magnets.

Before kids, we didn't have gouges in our walls.

We didn't have love notes everywhere we turned.

We didn't have new drawings of hearts and stick people families every single day.

And now, we're daily presented with little love notes from our kids to us. I find them from one kid to another. Stuffed in corners of the furniture, stuck to any wall that will accept masking tape, attached to any surface within reach. Drawings big and small placed in front of me on my desk as I try to get a little more office work accomplished but am derailed by red-crayon-drawings of balloons and hearts.

My idea of a picture-perfect home has changed a bit. The fine art on the walls is no longer something I'd find in a store or a magazine. Its already here, in every room of our home, carefully and lovingly created. And without ever planning the design, our home has ended up picture perfect after all.

So Predictable, Soooo Good

Just now, a second ago, I had a moment where I was soooo glad that we are where we are right now, right in this moment. Predictable. Schedule. I know what to expect and what's coming next. I know some people would say that maybe this isn't a great place, maybe I need to stretch out and let things be unpredictable, get involved with something that requires more faith. But here it is - I need this right now, right this second. And today, God gave it to me, to us. Shelly had gymnastics this morning (right on schedule), Grandma Sue called us to discuss making salsa and we invited her over for dinner. It was unexpected, but not a big thing, not a bad surprise. It was nice to have her over. And tonight, after the kids went to bed within an hour of the "scheduled bed time," it felt perfect and I felt at peace. Tomorrow I'll argue with them over whether they REALLY have to take showers. The day after that we'll start the week again and we'll have all the predictable daily life trials of getting to school on time, doing homework, and everything else. But tonight, predictable, scheduled, expected, feels so good. SOOOO good. I can expect the kids to sleep through the night, I can expect them to feed themselves breakfast in the morning (or help each other get something to eat), and there's just a little less pressure to always be on-call, go go going. I'm so relieved to be where we are right now. And yes, some people would say that I'm leaning too much on my own schedule and not enough on faith, but I know the truth, and that's this - our little schedule is one of the tools God has given me to get through those other things, like the homework battles and the never ending work and all the other stresses that come our way each day. I lean on our schedule, on our predictability, and faithfully count on God to use that schedule, that predictability, to keep us moving forward. Thank you Lord, for redeeming the time, for showing us how to spend our time and giving us time to rest when we need it most.

My Superpower

Today I discovered my superpower. Or one of them, anyway. Prioitize.

Shelly was not feeling well, I picked her up from school and she spend the afternoon in my bed watching cartoons and defending herself from E climbing all over her. She asked constantly, "When will Archer be home? Its no fun being sick." She need her playmate. Finally he came home. But stayed outside. And when I told her she wasn't allowed to play outside, because she was sick, she cried long and loud. I powered through. Don't give in on this one, she's sick. Make her stay inside. She thought she was feeling better. But then she couldn't eat supper.

We retreated to my room again and as Archer worked on his homework she again tried to rest while the toddler climbed all over her. Suddenly she started crying, writhing in pain, and I didn't know if he'd attacked her or what. Except... She sat up and projectile vomited ALL OVER MY BED. And her brother. More crying and yelling ensued, and I kicked into my super power mode. Prioritize.

"Get him off the bed!" I told Arch, pointing at E, I picked up Shell and rushed her to the bathroom and sat her down next to the toilet. I ran back to my bed, hoping to clear it off before anything sank in too deep. E still crying, now wandering around saying his version of "towel." (Sounds a lot like "owl" actually.) Shelly crying over the toilet. Archer searching out a towel for his little brother and me rolling up sheets, blankets, unfolded-previously-clean laundry into a big bundle to deal with later. Throwing pillows to the side to try to spare more damage. And now back to the bathroom. Put Shelly's hair up so its not hanging into the toilet. Find some more towels. Strip her down and stick her in the tub for a bath.

And finally, after it had all settled down again, I realized what I had done. It didn't overwhelm me or surprise me, what had happened. It wasn't unexpected and although it was messy, it didn't bother me TOO much. (I did have a gag reflex at one point, can't deny that, the mess just about sent me over the top.) But, in a past life, its something that would have sent me into a spiral of "what next?" and "who can fix this?" That past life of no kids and not knowing ANYTHING. Prioritize. I don't want the puke to soak into my mattress. The toddler was a little messy, but the big brother can help him. And Shelly was crying but not puking anymore.

I seriously felt like a super hero for not having a meltdown. And THAT'S what motherhood has done to me. And THAT'S what God has done in my life. When I pray, He answers. The dumbest little things - "Lord, there's not enough time in the day." And then He answers, things get done, there wasn't as much work as I had thought. Or the mess wasn't quite as messy and I had expected. And He's been teaching me to let go of my "schedule" and let life happen. Archer went to bed almost two hours behind schedule tonight. And it didn't really bother me. Its something I would have been so anxious about in the past. But I'm working though that. GOD is working me through that. There are so many ways He can make things better for us, if we just listen. Big things, little things, just slow down and hear. And that's the REAL superpower. God.

(I prayed at supper tonight, "Help us get our work and chores done that need to be done tonight. Help us know what to do next." Not kidding. An hour later He showed up with a little challenge for us all!)

Five Minute Friday: Focus

"FOCUS!" I'm always telling the kids. And yet, its something I can almost NEVER do. Always there's someone tugging at me for attention, food, help with whatever, hugs and kisses and more attention. Almost always it seems like I'm trying to shut out the noise. Why did God design us to be able to close our eyes and shut out the light, but not be able to close our ears and shut out the sounds?

I lost my cell phone and found it where I had left it, plugged in to re-charge. I'm always loosing my shoes. I lost my expectation for a spotless house long ago, and instead just plead with the kids, "Focus!" and do what I told you to do! Daily, now, Archer attempts to focus on homework with a little brother climbing on him and a little sister who never stops singing. Daily. We try to focus on what's supposed to be done, but there are SO MANY distractions. Each other. Toys. Work emails that never cease flowing into my in-box, and can't be answered until after the kids are in bed.

Stealing this five minutes to write this seems almost like a miracle. That I had five minutes to focus on one thing. Always, though, underneath everything else, there is just one focus. Raise up these kids to love Jesus. Keep the household going and raise up these kids to love and care about each other, and others. And if we can just remember that part, everything else should fall into place.

Linking up with Five Minute Fridays

So Far So Good

Our biggest problem so far has been getting the kids to bed on time. And that's nothing serious, just a new routine.

 

Yesterday, when she got off the bus, Shelly ran ahead of me, leaping like a gazelle and excitedly telling me on and on about her day. Now that she and Archer and in the same school its like they're in the same club. "Did you see when... Do you know... Remember how..." Its great to hear them sharing those experiences together, and filling me in a little when they remember that I have no idea what they're talking about.

Archer starting 3rd grade, Shelly starting kindergarten, and E along for the ride

Shelly's first day of 4K

Archer in 2nd grade

Archer going into 1st grade, Shelly not quite old enough for school yet!

Archer beginning kindergarten, Shelly ready to follow wherever he goes

Arch ready for 4K

I sometimes forget how young they are. Shelly talks like she's ten years older than she really is. Archer's always ready to strike out on his own, forging a new trail. And here they go again, forging into a new school year, no looking back.


Today was nothing spectacular, no "going out with a bang" to finish off the summer. We had three major accomplishments.

   1 - The kids' bedrooms got cleaned, furniture moved around a bit, and a bit of junk thrown away. This is pretty major. The kids even kind of helped me. I told them they didn't have to, but they know me too well. They don't help, LOTS of stuff gets thrown away instead of just a little bit. So they helped willingly. Even smiling!

   2 - David finished clearing out one of our vegetable gardens and replaced it with plants, a garden that (hopefully) won't require as much work as the peas and beans did. Oh yeah, and he harvested a big crop of carrots, the little carrot crop that had no hope of succeeding, it grew and grew and now we've got carrots galore. Wahoo!

   3 - The kids "washed Mom's car." Ha! More like played in the water and a bucket of soap for a couple of hours and despite the soap, came in muddy and needing showers. Which they willingly took, because they were freezing from the cold water from the hose and wanted to warm up.

And that was it. Tonight we'll put the finishing touches on our passports, plan big things and pray for the best.

The End is Near

This is the theme that's showing up more and more over the last few weeks, its everywhere, even in the comics in the Sunday paper. The kids laughed when they read what Grandpa had brought for me. But today, when I told Shelly that tomorrow is the LAST DAY OF SUMMER VACATION, guess what she did? She started jumping up and down like the mom in this picture. She was literally screaming and cheering. She's maybe just a BIT excited for school to start? No first day jitters here, just happiness. Praise God!