You are currently browsing the monthly archive for June, 2009.
I’ve been saying all week that it feels like my to-do list is longer than my day. Mostly this comes from the things that make our summer days busier– playing at the beach and with friends, preparing for and participating in all kinds of weddings, and the fact that amid all that wonderfulness, there are still household chores to be done, children to be taught and trained and to laugh and snuggle with, cookies and muffins to be baked, ( i mean, i guess i don’t hafta bake, but you know how much i love to) dates to go on with my husband, and then sometimes i just flop down on the couch and watch Wipeout and laugh till my guts hurt, and then wonder if i’m terribly immature. I think you get the general idea. Also i’ve started working part time (more accurately, part- part- part-time. It’s editing and it’s at home after the kids are asleep= perfect for me).
So this explains what’s keeping me busy. What else is going on?
We’re still looking for a house. Our townhouse is under contract (thank you, Jesus!). But after putting offers on four houses, we have still not bought one. The last one we found that looked promising was under contract before we even got to see it, which just made me laugh. We’ve prayed for clear signs each time, and we have received just that, so for that we are very thankful. It feels like when i was pregnant and overdue with each of the boys, and had gone from thinking, “Any day now!” to, “Okay, it’s never going to happen.” And in that way, it makes me laugh and feel hopeful that after enough false alarms, sometime we will buy a house.
In prep for moving someday, i’m sort of casting my eye around the closets and stuff, and thinking, “What do i love enough to pack and unpack again?” I realize I have potential-seeing eyes, because i keep a lot of things based on what i could do with them someday. Many of those things are getting the ol’ heave ho: baby food jars i might use for a craft with the kids, the stack of magazines i was going to go through and cut out my favorite pics, the broken toys i might fix, the running clothes i’ve had since high school with elastic that’s gone all brittle with age… all that stuff. It is good.
We’re preparing to head to camp with youth group. Brian is speaking there, and the rest of the Few crew are along for support. Both to support him, and because we need the support of Daddy, rather than being without him for four days. Seriously, you should see how these kids flip for Dad these days. Oliver saw him arrive home from work the other day, and did the old, “Hey! My dad’s home!” only to see Brian then walk away from the house (to check the mail) and wail “Oh no! My Daddy leaving!” It’s pretty sweet.
I’ve been reading some great books on parenting. Part of me thinks, why didn’t i look for this stuff earlier, and part just thinks, better now than ten years from now. A few I’m loving are Toddler Wise and Preschool Wise (Ezzo), Don’t Make Me Count to Three (Plowman), and Heart of Anger (Priolo). All of these are SO helpful at translating Biblical principles and words into life with small kids, which i’d felt pretty overwhelmed about since reading Shepherding a Child’s Heart (Tripp) back when Stella was a baby. A great book, but a lot of it left me feeling, at the time, like “okay, now how do i explain the Bible to a ten-month-old again?”
Last week I got baptized at church, which was exciting and great, and i’m going to have to save the rest for later. There is just too much going on in this post and my brain already, which is also why i’ve gone ahead and saved all the stuff about the kids for next time.
I am not a morning person. This is not news to anyone, really. I sort of thought I might grow out of my night-owlishness with age, or with a kids, and certainly I thought with three kids I’d be up with the sunshine and happy about it. Not the case.
Asher is up with the sunshine, and happy about it. For a time, he’d eat and drift back off to sleep. This ended the very day he began really crawling. Now, as soon as he’s up, he’s ready to move. He usually wakes up between 6-6:30. At this time, I am out cold, so Brian retrieves the babe. After I feed him, he crawls up on his daddy’s chest and basically says, “Ok dad! Time to play!” Brian is (obviously!) a morning person, so they get up, and Brian reads and studies while Asher crawls around playing with toys or inspecting specks of dirt on the carpet.
Stella is usually up as soon as the clock in her room reaches 7:15 (though occasionally as late as 8:00,) and Oliver starts yelling soon after that “Mom, I Awake! I Ready Breffust (breakfast) Mom!” So by 7:30, we’re all up and there’s coffee left in the pot for me (thank you, thoughtful husband!) and the kids watch a show on PBS while I figure out what day it is and what’s for breakfast. Perfect, right?
Right. Except that, since he is such a morning person, Brian is very productive in the morning, and loves to schedule meetings for bizarre times like 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. What is up with this? But there are other people who actually agree to meet at these times. He loves it. I, uh, do not. Generally, I still attempt (unsuccessfully) to lull Asher back to sleep at that 6:30ish time. After accepting that it’s just not going to happen, I lie on the floor for ten minutes or so, which Asher thinks is hilarious, and then begin to gather my wits, which is important since I need to be prepared to outwit three quick and clever kids all day.
Yesterday, all three woke up as Brian was leaving at 6:45, and all three woke up crabby. Stella had lost TV privileges for the whole day, which left me feeling like I was being punished. I asked Stella if she knew what sort of attitude she was choosing, and she answered “A bad one.” Yes, sweet one, that’s true. I explained (again) that even when it is very difficult to have a happy heart, and when we want to be crabby, (like, for example, a four-year old who refused to fall sleep until midnight. Or like a mommy who does not like getting up early with fussy, clingy littles,) we can still choose a good attitude. “Mom,” she asked, “Did ya ever have ta choose a happy heart when ya didnt’ feel like it?” I know exactly how you feel, I told her.
I had “Hotel California” stuck in my head. I must have heard it somewhere and not known it, because suddenly there i was all afternoon, croonin’ away, “Mirrors on the ceiling…. pink champagne on ice.” And i just couldn’t shake it, all the while thinking, gah! anything but this!
Then i walked into the grocery store. Over the speakers, turned up to an abnormally high volume, blared “MMMBop!”
k, so maybe not “anythign but this,” afterall.
