Loads of Art

Spring Flowers by E

 Love from Shelly 

Giant Easter card

A Collage of Paint by E

Self Portrait 

Thanksgiving Tradition 

Layers of Love

Every night when I tuck the kids into bed, I pull their blankets up to their chins and answer their last questions for the day. Tell them I love them. Say goodnight. And I bundle them up under layers and layers of memories and layers of love.

Shelly sleeps under a blanket that Nana made for me when I was 13, a quilt designed to look like me, a portrait of a girl with her legs crossed, sitting with a book in her lap. Next is a fleece blanket, one that I tied together, hoping it would keep me nice and warm through our long winters. On the very top is a purple bedspread from a friend, handed down to us when her own daughter grew up and moved away.

Elijah sleeps under a blanket made by Grandma Sue, just the perfect size for him. On top of that is a quilt that originally belonged to Archer, one we bought when we were carefully considering the finished look of a boy's room, a boy no longer a baby and now in his big-boy bed.

Archer sleeps under a quilt that belonged to his Grandpa Lou. Occasionally, on extra cold nights, he adds the red fleece blanket that has polka dots in white and green, the blanket given to us for Christmas a few years ago by Denise and Dan, with a note that the blanket would keep us warm after sledding outings.

David and I sleep under a beautiful quilt sewn by Aunt Penny for our wedding. It reminds me of that day when so many friends and family came together to help us create the perfect day. And so many people that have continued to support and love us through all the years of our family growing.

Everywhere I look in our home, in our lives, I see all these layers of love that surround and enfold us. They're there for us to share in the joys and share in the trials. What countless blessings we have!

Secret Plans

There's nothing like working together towards a common goal to unite people...

Dad managed to orchestrate a day of lefse with Grandma and me. We didn't even fully know his plan until the moment when he had managed to hand off the rolling pin to me and the stick to Grandma and then he disappeared. And there we were - Grandma in charge of turning, me in charge of rolling, Dad in charge of catching us in the act.

It was a precious time, thanks Dad, for scheming to get that all put together.

Happy Endings

Recently I took Shelly to a special show at the movie theater. There is a ballet company that, four times a year, broadcasts their shows live to movie theaters around the world. As they perform in Moscow or London  or Paris (where WERE those people?), ballet lovers around the world enjoy the show. When I asked Shelly if she wanted to see Romeo and Juliet, she didn't hesitate for even a second, "yes!" she said eagerly, almost jumping up and down with the thought of it. I secretly wondered if it was a good idea. Romeo and Juliet... Well, we all know how that ends.

On the way to the theater I asked if she knew what the story was about. The thing about ballet is - well, you know - there's no talking. So unless you have an idea of the story line... She said she's seen it before (what?). "Remember, you got it from the library for us Mom." Oh yes, GNOMEO and Juliet. Animated. Garden gnomes. Battles across the hedge between the suburban yards. Gnomeo and Juliet.

I gave her the three minute plot summary of ROMEO and Juliet (she of course already knew all that). I left out the ending. Still wondering if I was doing the right thing, taking my young, beautiful, innocent ballerina to see this tale. We loaded up on candy, popcorn, and a gallon of sprite before heading in to find our seats. We immediately recognized other people we know from her ballet studio. And we settled in for the show.

I only leaned over to explain one or two points to Shelly as we sat there in the dark, enthralled by the beautiful dancers. The show was almost three hours long. Fortunately there was an intermission, but it just kept going and going. A couple more whispered explanations. Finally, the whole thing drew to a close. Tragedy, tears, it was over. An introduction to an Unhappy Ending.

As we walked to the car and I asked Shelly what she thought, she said "It didn't have a happy ending." No, it didn't. "But I thought there was always a happy ending." It wasn't a Disney kids movie where everyone lived happily ever after. Not all stories end that way. "But I thought it HAD to have a happy ending!"

Such is life. I'm still wondering if I did the right thing.



Funny Little Thing

This morning as I was going through the thousand library books on our shelf, I spied two bunnies out the window. They seemed to be friends. Except then one jumped straight up in the air, and landed in the same spot it had jumped from. The other bunny (facing the first bunny, their noses almost touching), suddenly reached out with its front paw and hit the first bunny right across the face! A bunny fight! Or something! The jumping bunny immediately turned and hopped a few steps away. But before long they were face to face, or should we say nose to nose? By this time, the kids are all crowding around me trying to see what I'm describing. Again a bunny hop, straight up in the air. Are they fighting? Are they friends? We didn't see anymore hitting, they both went back to nibbling on the grass.

Now follows the discussion, the kids quoting what they think the bunnies are saying to each other.
Archer "You did it wrong you fool! Not like THAT!"
   "Quit showing off, I can jump higher than that!"
      "Quit fooling around, we're here for breakfast, then we have to get to school!"

And your thoughts? What did the one bunny say to the other?

Positive Thoughts, in Pics

Refrigerator Art

Counting the Happy Stuff This Week

Monday

Today I sent the kids off to school with hugs and kisses and picked them up later with smiles and "how was your day?"

I ran four miles and it felt really good.

I took frequent breaks from my work to chase E around and we laughed until our tummies hurt. 

We had leftovers for supper so I didn't have to cook and barely had to clean up.

There was no homework. 

Archer and I played two games of chess, we each won once. 

Elijah Graham and I played checkers and he made up a rule and claimed, "That's Bampa's rule!" That means the end of any debate over whether or not its a real rule.

Tuesday

Grocery store trip where I told the kids they could each pick one thing for supper. We came home with fizzy grapefruit juice, cheesy potato chips, and watermelon. No one complained about not liking supper.

Bedtime, finally, after a long stressful day and I'm instructing the kids to brush teeth, change into jammies, pick up their toys and "Eli you're getting on my last nerve!" "I want to TEAL your last nerb!" That was it, the icing on the cake, I told him he's a nerb, he called me a nerb, everyone went to bed laughing.

Wednesday

Lunch at the office and catching up on whose kids are doing what now (talking? almost crawling?). A visit to HC.
A nice chat with the other moms as I waited through Shelly's ballet lesson.

Thursday
A quick run when there was a lull in the activity.
A beautiful painting of Flower Forks to remind us that warmer weather is not too far off.
Our last Cub Scout meeting, casual, getting ready for the ceremony next week, a sense of things closing and new things opening. All of the boys had to have an interview with the Cub Master to make sure they know everything they're supposed to know. There were lots of high fives and Scout handshakes as each Scout passed the test.

Friday
A strange game with E where we played with chess pieces some game with no rules where he jumped over my pieces then knocked them off the board. Lots of talk of attacking and capturing.

Saturday

First thing - a run with Dad, OUTSIDE, because we're having a heat wave and its 25 out there! (Yes, I got too hot during the run.)

Archer had a friend over and it was a pleasure to listen to them as they played game after game on the Wii. I know video games are bad, I know the kids should get outside more and have more physical activity. But those two boys were having fun, lauging together and just generally being friends. And that was nice.

Shelly helped me make a bulletin board for motivation while I run, she's so creative and it was great to see her at work. Then we went to the library together where she checked out 10 books and finished the first book within two hours of getting home. Way to go, girl!

Mashed potatoes - we spent four hours in the kitchen turning 24 pounds of potatoes into mashed potatoes, everyone chipped in and we all had a good time in the process. Now movie night, cause we missed it last night. And maybe we'll even sleep in late tomorrow morning. (Yeah right, who am I kidding?)

Sunday

Six miles on the treadmill, felt good to do it but I'd wanted to do more...
Clean up everything cause we're expecting guests, felt good to get the house in order.
Tea time with Mom and Dad while we watched E entertain himself with the plastic food from the plastic kitchen.
Wonderful family meal thanks to David's superior cooking skills, yum!

I did this little experiment over the last week to see how much I could come up with to be happy about. I have this bad habit of complaining about all the annoying things that happen in my day, but thinking about what I was going to list here did help me change my focus and feel better about the passing time. Yeah there were still those tough things, work, housework, squabbles between the kids. But my focus was different, and that was nice. Perhaps I'll try it again this week...

Monday, the sun is shining, I have a loving family, I have lots of things I'm looking forward to this week!

Horticulture Lesson

E and I were taking a close look at this blossom, I asked if he could see the bumps on the petals 

"Yeah. That means when the bugs go in there that just CLOSES UP and the plant EATS them." He's clenching his hand in a fist.

How does it eat them, does it squish them? "Yeah it just quishes them and then they go in there and they're the food. ALL plants eat bugs. They just do that!"

He's now discussing spider aliens with Archer. I asked him about this when he came running past me. "The aliens are in the game, but one climbed up and he got close to Archer's person and Archer killed him when he climbed up. (And he runs off to Archer.) I telled Mom the aliens are in the game." Ahh how little I know. I'm so glad I've got E to explain the world to me.

Snow Day #3