My Baseball Boy

Last night was Josh's last t-ball game for the year. The Red Devils finished their season with no losses! Okay, maybe no wins either since they don't keep score, but I'm still a proud mama!

Josh did great this season. He seems to do a lot better in the sports that aren't as high contact. He had lots of fun, too, and is sad that he's all done until next year.

Since this is my blog and I am technically allowed to write whatever I'd like, I'm gonna brag on my boy for just a minute. At the end of the game, the coach passed out trophies and a prize bag for each of the boys and said something positive about each boy.

When he got to Josh, he said how well he'd done playing baseball, but then he said the part that really made me proud. He said that if he had a daughter the boys' age, he'd want her to marry Josh. We got compliments all season long about what a polite and kind boy Josh is, and as a mother I couldn't be more proud that the coach chose Josh's character to compliment last night.

Sure, I'd be proud if he were an all-star athlete, but I'm even more proud that he's an all-star person.

That's my boy!

It's Like Riding a Bike, Right?

Somehow I've blinked and it's been almost three months since my last post.

How does that happen!?!

I really do miss the blog world. I used to read and write during my nursing periods with Megan and now that she's a big sippy cup drinker, I am having trouble finding the time in my day to sit at the computer. Somehow, kids need me, chores need me, and life beyond the monitor and keyboard needs me.

But still, I like connecting with friends and family through blogs, and I love looking back at the record I have of all the bright spots God has blessed me with.

So I'm hoping I can hop back on this bloggy bike and pick up where I left off. Hopefully some of you are still out there waiting to ride along with me!

Sweetness

Such a sweet, sweet moment. So sweet that I had to, I mean had to come write it down. I just don't want to forget!

Megan is a little congested tonight and is having trouble sleeping. So I've listened to some whimpers off and on all night, but a little bit ago she just couldn't settle back down. After a couple of brief attempts to comfort her, I eventually had to go in and just pick her up to snuggle.

Oh. my. goodness.

I really don't think there's anything sweeter in all the world than a snuggly, sleepy baby. She just melted right into my arms and laid her sweet head on my shoulder. I just settled my cheek onto hers and whispered in her ear, "It's okay. Mommy's here." She was instantly calm.

It was like everything was just right with the world.

I didn't want to get up and leave! I snuggled with her a few more moments, took that time to pray for her a little, and laid her back in her bed.

So, so sweet. Thank you, God, for that tender moment with my precious baby. I want to remember the feel of her soft skin on my face forever! Amazing.

Remembering Life, Messy As It Is

Oh, dear readers, I'm so sorry that I've once again left you hanging for weeks. Somehow life gets so busy and time just flies by. I've yet to learn the balancing act and figure out how to get it all done. Laundry piles up. Dust accumulates. Blogs go unwritten.

Yet, kids have been loved, school taught, relationships nurtured. I guess that's what is really important, right? Then why do I feel so guilty when the other things go untouched?

Caring for three small children and managing a home can seem so unglamorous at times, yet when I'm old and they're gone and the house is quiet, I know I'm going to miss it. I'm going to wonder, what were those days really like?

Well, one project I've been wanting to do for quite some time now is videotape a day in the life. But again, because laundry often sits around in piles and somehow my kitchen never stays clean for more than 10 minutes, I've been putting it off. Who wants to have caught on tape - forever - their messy house?

Today is different. Today I woke up and said, enough! Today, I'm just gonna bite the proverbial bullet and do it. So what if the house isn't perfect? That's how we live life a lot, so why not have our videotaped day be like that?

So today, every hour or so, I'll be checking in on our family via video camera. I know I won't get all the moments of our day that I cherish, but I'll get some. I'll be able to remember what ordinary, daily life was like when my kiddos were small.

And hopefully 30 years from now I'll look back and smile at the messy kitchen island, remembering instead all the great moments I had with my kids. That's what's important anyway, right?

Let the tapes roll.

Kisses

Baby Megan has started giving kisses! She's so sweet! The only thing is, she skipped right past "normal" kissing, and went straight to the tongue. We're slightly worried, but hope to be able to break her of it before she's a teenager.

Oh, and the other thing? Her favorite person to kiss is her Daddy. Pretty cute.

And can I just say that this next picture totally cracks me up. I caught her in the middle of a blink. She's really not that into kissing.


It's just such a sweet blessing to see how much she loves her family - not only by her kisses, but just how she lights up in the morning when she sees her brother and her sister. Or how she just snuggles down into my shoulder or shrieks excitedly at her Daddy. She is so precious and we're so glad she's part of our family!

That Funny Josh

During school the other day, Josh and I were reviewing ordinal numbers. We had a picture of an oval race track with six race cars going around. I asked him to point to the fourth car, the second car, etc.

Then, I asked him, "This guy right here is in last place and there's six cars racing. What do you call him?" (I'm, of course, looking for the answer, "sixth.")

Instead Josh said, "The loser."

We certainly had a good laugh at that one!

Clean Baby

I just found this post saved as a draft from last July and it brought a smile to my face and I just couldn't hit delete. I hope it makes your day happy, too. And just for the record, she still looks just like this only bigger. Still no hair and still no teeth. : )

Planned to post on July 9, 2008 and just never got around to it...

If only you could have scratch and sniff online, because is there really anything that smells better in all the world?


That perfect mix of baby soap, baby lotion, and the God-given natural smell of a baby.


If I could bottle it up, I'd be a millionaire.

Warm Chocolate

It's snowy here. Real snowy.

The kids are having a great time playing out in it. Josh was actually excited to hear that the groundhog saw his shadow. He's pumped that he gets six more weeks of winter to throw snowballs at Daddy! (His words, not mine!)

Here they are lookin' all cute getting ready to play outside...


But the best part of playing outside in the snow is, of course, the hot chocolate you get when you come in! We've had our fair share of hot chocolate this winter, but Sarah never wants to have any. She says, "It's too hot...ow!"

So instead, I heat hers up just a little and call it warm chocolate. She's much happier this way. And it's so funny to hear her come in from outside and say, "Brrr, Mommy, I'm cold. Can I please have some warm chocolate?" (As if it's really a drink!) Too funny!

Enjoy your warm chocolate, girl! You're too cute!

The Glove

We were just having one of those days today.

Major meltdowns over wardrobe choices, food choices, story choices, you name it. Children less than thrilled to obey their mommy. Children more than happy to boss around and fight with each other.

Ugh.

I knew the problem was a simple lack of sleep, as we were out late for a Super Bowl party last night, but still! While I was doing my best to portray patience and love on the outside, on the inside I was going crazy.

That's when I came upon the glove.

It was a simple pink glove (left in the middle of the kitchen floor, of course) that helped my inside to better match my outside...

It's the sign for "I Love You" in American Sign Language. And I think it was a gift from God.

"Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins."
-1 Peter 4:8

It was just laying there as a gentle reminder that even when my kids are driving me crazy, I really do love them so incredibly much. And they love me, too.

I wish I could tell you that everything got much better around here, but I did still have three sleepy kids. The difference was in me. I wasn't quite so frustrated. And that helped me to just approach things so much better. No, the kids weren't allowed to get away with disobedience, because they need to learn how to behave even when they don't feel like it, but our home exuded love today and not impatience.

I'd say it was a good day.

Thanks, God, for the reminder from a glove.

Works for Me Wednesdays - Getting Paint out of Carpet

Yeah, ask me how I know this one.

We’re in the middle of several painting projects, and they’re not going so smoothly. I normally love painting, but lately? Not so much.

We are painting our dining room a rusty reddish-orangish color. Like my technical description? It’s actually called Paprika, but you just need to know that it’s a dark red color. And of course, the carpet in there is a light beige.

It was almost midnight and I had one more little area to go when the dreaded mistake happened. When I went to refill my brush, it fell out of my hands and landed smack-dab in the middle of our dining room. On the cream colored carpet. It was one of those slow motion moments where you know it’s happening and you can’t do anything to stop it.

Now, I must point out that we were not painting recklessly. We had plastic drop cloths down all around the room, but of course the one spot I dropped my brush had nothing underneath it.

But guess what? Here’s my tip to share…

If you take approximately 1 teaspoon of dishwasher detergent (I used Cascade) and mix it with 1 C. of warm water, it will take all your paint stains out! It takes awhile, but just keep blotting until all the paint is gone. Just be sure to work from the outside in, so you don’t spread the color further.

Red paint on the cream carpet? Completely gone! This worked so well for me that even I can’t tell where the paint was. And that’s a bright spot that I just had to share!

Wake Up Calls

In the perfect world, I would get up each morning before my children awake. I'd have time to grab a shower, start my day in God's Word, visit with hubby a little before he leaves for work, and maybe even get a few chores done before the little ones get up.

Most mornings?

My alarm goes off in the morning and I hit snooze several times until either
a. Josh crawls in bed with me or
b. Sarah starts yelling through the monitor, "Mooooommmmy, I'm awake!"

But the other morning?

It was a Saturday and my mom was here, sleeping in Josh's room in his trundle bed. (Enjoying her great accommodations, I'm sure...meanwhile, my dad was at the Hyatt Regency for a conference.) Hubby was already gone to a basketball game and I woke up all on my own.

For whatever reason, when Sarah woke up she didn't call for me. Instead she sat in her bed and sang all sorts of songs. The Itsy-Bitsy Spider. The song from Sleeping Beauty. The song from Land Before Time X. The Wonderful Cross. Even another worship song she must have learned at church, because I didn't know it.

It was so very cute and such a great way to start my morning.

And while I was enjoying my concert through the monitor, my mom was snuggling in bed with Josh. She even said to me that she thought of this blog because that was such a bright spot for her.

I thought it was pretty cool that before 8:00 a.m., we both enjoyed some bright spots. And knowing that I am definitely not a morning person, this makes the bright spot all the better.

If only I could start every day that way!

Our Wild and Crazy Saturday Night

You know, nothing makes for a better Saturday night than deciding to paint a two-story entryway which leads to a stairwell and an upstairs hallway.

Yeah. What were we thinking?

Well, we actually were pretty smart, if I do say so myself. My dad had a conference in town this weekend and my mom decided to come along and hang with us for a couple of days. Our thinking was that it'd be much, much easier to paint all that if there was another adult around to keep an eye on the kiddos for us.

And oh my goodness, I can't imagine undertaking this project without her help. So, mom, THANK YOU!!!!!!

Here. You can see for yourself. These are all of our entryway. Obviously, we had some serious whiteness going on that desperately needed some color therapy.

Have you been blinded by the white yet? (And yes, that is a basketball goal right by our front door.)

Well, we the good news is we got started today. The bad news is that halfway through, we realized we once again had a terrible streaking problem. (We got three coats into the dining room a couple of weeks ago and gave up after such terrible streaking. We'll have to fix that soon...)

Let me stop here and show you more pics. Here is the halfway through shot...

And here, look closely....see the streaking? Ugh...

So now, we've decided to follow the advice given by all those professional painters. We got primer.

We've spent the last couple of hours priming our walls and over the next few days, we hope to finish up with the paint – hopefully without streaking.

I do admit, this hasn't been the most fun, but I do normally love painting very much, and I really can't wait to have it all finished! I think it will be quite beautiful.

And definitely much more welcoming than all the white!

Don't you think?

Hold On to the Lasts

Have you ever read the children's book by Karen Kingsbury, Let Me Hold You Longer?

It's a beautiful story about cherishing the lasts with our kids. No one needs a book to remind you to celebrate all the firsts - first roll, first steps, first words, and so on. But the lasts? Somewhere along the way, your kids stop doing special things and you don't often even notice until you look back and say, "huh...haven't gotten to fill in the blank for awhile now."

Well, yesterday I may have had a last with Josh and I'm cherishing it in my mommy heart.

He actually fell asleep during his rest time. Yes, he'll be six soon. And yes, he does still sometimes take a nap.

Sarah, my sweet 3 year old, on the other hand? Hardly ever. She sings and plays and needs to go to the bathroom 800 times during her rest time.

Anyways...it got to be rather late in the afternoon, so I went up to wake him up so he'd still sleep at night. I went in his room and softly kissed him and told him it was awfully late and he could get up and go play. He literally popped up out of bed and walked over to his door. Then, he turned around and muttered something to me. I have no idea what he said as he certainly wasn't speaking English.

This is the good part...

Then, he came over and snuggled into my lap and curled up in a ball and went back to sleep. In my arms. All snuggled and warm.

Oh, sweet mommy moment.

It's not too often you get to snuggle with a sleepy kindergartner. It is quite likely I may never again have a moment with him like that. And so today, my bright spot is noticing and cherishing this precious last with my son.

Life goes by so fast. I don't want to wish it away, and I never want to take it for granted! Thank you, Karen, for reminding me to celebrate the lasts, as well as the firsts.

Ten Years Ago Today

Ten years ago today, I woke up absolutely giddy with excitement.

Just a few moments later, though, my mom was in my room saying, "We need to talk."

Apparently, 18 inches of snow fell overnight and getting around town was more than difficult to do. Not to mention, that there were orders from local authority that if you were on the roads for any reason other than an emergency, you would be fined.

This poses just a slight problem when it's your wedding day!

But alas, (did I just say alas?)...no need to be upset. I seriously didn't freak out about any of it! I just called my sweet soon-to-be-husband at the hotel and asked him to go door to door and tell our guests who were staying there to just head to the church - we'd figure it out from there!

I tell you what - no one who was part of our wedding that day will ever forget it! Everyone chipped in and made sure we were able to have our special day! Friends with vehicles that were able to brave the weather headed to pick up grandparents or the grocery store to get the staples - you know, meat trays, cheese trays, champagne. (Did I mention that we couldn't have our reception as planned, and had to throw together an impromptu one in the church basement?) Hubby's uncles used their trucks to dig out the snow plow (yeah, I'm not kidding!) and clear off the church parking lot as best as they could.

All in all, it was an amazingly special day. I don't think anything could have wiped the grin off my face. Our goal was to become husband and wife, and that was achieved.

10 years ago today, I married my best friend.


And the last ten years have been filled with many, many happy memories. Three beautiful children, some amazing vacations, new homes, new jobs, lots of great times together. Yes, some troubles too, but those have only brought us closer together.

Today, 10 years after that beautiful (yet very snowy) day, I am more in love with him than ever before.

And I can't wait to see what the next ten years (and beyond!) bring.