First Day Recap and Daddy Birthday Parties

Well, she survived.  

I have to tell you, I held my breath walking into preschool on Wednesday afternoon.  I was so nervous that Rachel refused to go to the potty or threw a crying fit or had a horrible time.  There were a couple of moms standing at the doorway chatting when I walked up.  I overheard the teacher talking about the kids working with scissors so I glanced over her shoulder and saw Rachel, sitting quietly at a table, not doing anything.

Oh no.

And then she looked up and saw me...and smiled...

Ahhhh!!  Sweet relief!!  Once the teacher realized who's mom I was, she told me Rachel had a great day, although they weren't sure she could talk until she saw Elizabeth on the playground and went crazy.  (Sounds like her.)  Elizabeth's day was pretty typical for her and she got rave reviews from her teacher.

We talked about their days and new friends and then set out on our secret mission.  We had big fish to fry...it was Daddy's birthday.

We were making our plans on how to celebrate that morning when Elizabeth asked how old Daddy was.  Doing the math, I couldn't believe he was turning 39, making it ten years ago that we celebrated his birthday together for the first time.  Life was so busy then (ha!), with the college kids getting back to campus and school starting.  We hadn't been dating long, maybe a couple weeks...way too early to know how someone celebrates their birthday.  (You know what I mean...is it no big deal or is it a national holiday?  You never know!!)  So I asked him if he wanted to go out or did he want me to make him a special dinner?  He thought they would be practicing late and said he could just stop by afterwards, which worked out for me because we had practice too.

I ended up being pretty late for some reason that I can't now remember and walked in the door with nothing prepared, which I sheepishly admitted when he called to tell me he was on his way.  "No problem," he said.  "I'll be right there."  Ten minutes later, he walked in my little house with two cartons of ice cream and toppings and we celebrated his birthday with ice cream sundaes and watching TV on the couch.  I was mortified that he bought his own birthday treat, but he didn't seem in the slightest bit upset and told me that he just enjoyed relaxing and chatting.

Oh, I was smitten right away!  ;)

Fast forward waaaay into the future and three kiddos were excited to celebrate with him and we definitely weren't stopping at ice cream!  

Caleb and I met Scott for lunch at one of our favorite little restaurants that doesn't care if you trash the tables.

After picking up the girls, we ran to the fancy store (Stein Mart) to find him some presents, which, much to the chagrin of Elizabeth, did NOT include a Hello Kitty watch.  Then we went to Publix to get balloons and a cake.

The balloon tradition started not long after we moved here.  We had very little extra money and no little friends to make a birthday party special.  So Scott walked in the door of Elizabeth's 2nd birthday with two $2.99 balloons...the mylar kind with a character on it and they were instant hits...for a week!!  So now, at every birthday, each kid gets to pick out a special balloon and it normally still lasts a while.  

The nice lady at Publix agreed with the girls that Daddy would LOVE two princess balloons and Caleb got Toy Story.  We shot home, wrapped presents, decorated the house and they played and colored as I got dinner going.  During this time, I asked Rachel why she wasn't cutting with scissors with the other kids.  She just kind of shrugged at me, so I said, "Rachel, if your teacher asks you to cut, then you need to do what she says."  She paused for a minute and then looked me in the eye and said, "But mom, she said we didn't HAVE to and that we could color instead.  I already know how to cut."  WHOA!!  A fully sentence and not a hint of crying??  Yes!! (cue air fist pump!)

Then came the really important part...practicing jumping out and yelling surprise.  (This was right in Caleb's wheel house, in case you didn't already suspect.)

Here they are, keeping "look out" for Scott to get home.

I'm sure YOU'RE not surprised that it was a wonderful evening and we celebrated 39 years well.  Today, revealed another day of preschool and we were better prepared for the routine and had everyone's "bap paps" ready (Thank God!).

And then today really marked the first day of quality time with just me and my son.  Wednesday was so chaotic that we weren't really home much together.  So today, he broke me in by walking right in the door from the Y, running in the kitchen and pointing up at the refrigerator like, "Here!  Can I spell it out to you any more woman??  Cook me some lunch!!"  

"What??  I was huuuungry!!"

Sigh.  And now it's nap time and I'm off to tackle some ga-ross bathrooms.  Have a wonderful weekend, my sweet friends!!  Thank you for all your kind wishes, prayers and texts on Rachel's first day!

First Day of Preschool!

I forgot how much I used to LOVE nap time.

With Caleb being the only napper in the house, the 12-2 hours are now some of my craziest.

"Mama, what can we do now?"

"Mama, can you get this toy down?"

"Mama, can we play on your computer?"

"Mama?...Mama??..."

So I basically keep running on a normal day and didn't realize how much I missed the solitude of a good nap time with no children awake until right now.

Ahhhh...quiet.  Can you hear it?  I'm drinking it in.

Well, except for the new garage door getting installed.  That's a little noisy.  But I'll go into all that next week.

Today, I had to take my heart to preschool.  Now, you know that Elizabeth went last year and she was jacked about going back.  Not a hesitant bone in that child's body, I swear.  But Rachel...

Well, we signed Rachel up because the pediatrician thought it would be best.  She is our shy one, our sweet and quiet one.  She will rarely talk to adults and sometimes not even kids her own age.  And she's never really been away from me for more than a couple hours.  I would be lying  if I said I wasn't nervous all morning, but she was really all smiles picking out her outfit and getting ready.

Ok, girls!  Stand there so I can get a picture of you in your back to school outfits!

Ok, Caleb...You want to get in there too?  Ok, now everyone look at me!  No, stop moving.. No, look at me.  Wait!  Hold still just a second...

Don't squeeze her head off Elizabeth!!

I asked the girls to go to the potty, got my bag on my shoulder and walked back in the den to see them both standing with their backpacks on, holding their lunchboxes, waiting on me.

*tear wipe*

And then Caleb pointed up at me, "Bap pap."

I have no idea why my dad taught him to say backpack at the beach, but somehow it wound into conversation.  Well, now here it was.

"BAP PAP!!"

He wanted to go too.  And was quite insistent on my making it happen.  I ran back into the kitchen, his chubby little feet hot on my trail, and grabbed his lunch box out from under the island.  Happy to have something like his sisters, he marched proudly to the door to stand with them.

And there they were, ready and excited for what was very much the real world for a 5, 3 and 17 month old.  We walked in the school and dropped Elizabeth off, no problem.  Caleb held tight to his "bap pap," and after saying goodbye to Elizabeth (with a reminder to listen and obey), I turned to find a very nervous Rachel standing in the hallway.

Oh, how I know that feeling and how I wanted to take her back to the car with me.  Doesn't being the mom just suck sometimes??  

I smiled and gave her a big hug and we walked the hallway to her classroom and met her teacher.  Much to my relief, she was scooped up in her teacher's arms and told how excited she was to see her.  And then I saw Rachel's slow smile and knew she was going to be ok.  And I thought that I probably would be too...

Until I looked down to see my son staring up at me, expectantly...the one who has never been an only child in the house.  Sizing up his playmate for the day, he turned on his heel, grabbed his bap pap and started running for the car.

So much for being sad!

And now that my playmate is down for the count, I'm going to try to tackle my kitchen...which is still wrecked from making pancakes and lunches.  Happy Wednesday, my dear friends!!  And I'll let you know how the day went tomorrow...that is, if the girls let me use my own computer during nap time.  ;)

Summer Dreams...

It flew by and I wrote nothing.  

I didn't record my kids swimming.

I didn't write about our first trip to the ER.

I didn't tell you about our monster tomato plants or about how I was learning how to paint or my workout designed to get strong enough to do a pull-up.  (Which I can't do ANY!)

I didn't complain and I didn't rejoice. 

And now I'm kind of regretting it because I don't have record of our summer except for the piles of house renovations we were able to get through (and I'll share with you soon...woot!).  

Last week, we went to the beach and, while I didn't feel like I needed a vacation, once I set sights on the ocean, I knew I had been sadly mistaken.  We had perfect weather, stayed in a condo with a perfect walk-in pool, and made perfect memories.  

Me and the crazies!

After a few days, I found myself refreshed and ready to tackle the new season.  Running the beach, I felt so insignificant and thankful.  

Lord, look at all You've created and still you manage to bless my family and me.  Forgive me for all my selfishness and belly-aching and thank you for not only taking care of and knowing the individual needs of all the millions of fish in the sea but me also.

I told Scott that I felt like I was given a summer time New Years and returned home ready to get into our new preschool schedule and the final house remodeling. 

Oh, and writing.  :)

Speaking of which, this morning, I had the following conversation with Elizabeth as I was fixing her hair.

ERS:  Mom, if I were a mermaid, I WOULD NOT open my eyes under the ocean.

Me:  Well, Elizabeth, mermaids aren't real.  They're just pretend.

ERS:  No...I'm talking about MER-MAIDS.  The kind that swim in the ocean.  Do you think the water doesn't hurt their eyes??

Me:   They're not real.  They don't have eyes.  

ERS:  Ok, I don't think you know what I'm talking about...

Obviously...

Happy Wednesday!

Paint up to my eyeballs

Perhaps you've noticed I've been MIA.  Summer is officially underway in this house.  That means mornings by the pool, afternoons on the playground and days and nights trying to update our 1980's home.  

My hope this summer is to get all the "little" projects completed, like paint and tile, so that only the major, big-ticket items are left.  The problem is that just about everything needs painted and that takes up the most time.  

Last week, we got the walls done through most of the downstairs and yesterday, the last of the dark trim was painted downstairs.  I can't believe how just a little bit of white paint has made such a difference, but I'm in love.

Here is the before.  The wall color was a light tan and the upper trim in this room was dark, along with the beam.

And here is our after.  It's hard to get a true picture of the new paint color, but it is sort of a vanilla color with a light tint of yellow.  It runs through the downstairs, except for the kitchen.  Of course, all the upper wood work is now white and I can't believe how much it has updated the house.

Of course now, I'm itching to get that old gold fan out of here!!  But that can wait for another day.

The upstairs is also being tackled and I have a good friend who's been helping us on all the dark trim.  So pictures to come of all that soon.  My only other hang-up in here is the fireplace.  My friend is in favor of painting the mantle white and the cover black.  What do you think? 

Dreaming of Organization

There are times I get a burr up my butt and decide that This is the day I will get organized, and (cue horn salute) today was (kinda) one of those days.  Ok, only in one small section of the house, but really that's a step up for me.

We decided to come home after dropping Elizabeth off at preschool, instead of going to the Y or the store, which I had previously planned.  It was raining cats and dogs and there was a cold wind blowing and it just sounded a whole lot better to come home and watch Sesame Street and drink another cup of coffee.  I'll let you just guess which sounded best to whom...

So after making a batch of muffins and lunch and putting Mr. crabby pants down for a nap, I decided to tackle two of my biggest issues in the kitchen:  my leftover containers and my pantry. 

Now, don't get me wrong, I have spent plenty of time getting these two places organized.  However, there are three small people, WHO WILL REMAIN NAMELESS, that don't quite care for my system.

Here they are, making mama work to get to the stove.  This was while I was making dinner.  Now, the leftover containers were previously in that white cabinet behind Caleb.

Sine he has been able to walk, Caleb has been fascinated with the pantry.  It seems like every week, I have to move the heavier things up higher so he doesn't pull a can of beans down on his toe.  This has resulted in a ticking time bomb food avalanche just waiting to happen.

Did I take before pictures?  Oh, you know me better than that.  That would take previous thought and planning...two things I have not done since having these little creatures.  But I don't think the end results are too shabby.

Ok, here's the finished pantry with the heavier things up higher and the fun-shaky-but-can't-get-into things on the bottom.  We're going to have to repaint the cabinets...I'll save that sob story for another day...but the inside of this will be done and I bought some chalkboard contact paper to put on the inside of this door too.

This single move is going to piss my son off to no end.  He LOVES scattering leftover containers to all ends of the earth.  But I HATE picking them up and finding dog hair and slobber and who knows what else inside them.  So up they go.

He won't be left empty handed though...look at all those fun things down there to destroy play with!

Has anyone ever started to empty the flour into the canister, only to discover that there's too much in the bag but you already tipped it over so you just leave it there until you figure out what else to do?

Yeah, me neither...

I think it's a sign I need to make cookies...   :)

Happy Wednesday!

Silent Songs of Praise

You know how you have moments in your life that you just want to take a picture and keep it in your heart forever?  

That's partly why I decided to keep a blog - so I could capture those little moments at this time in my life and my children's lives.  I always like looking back at actual pictures of my parents and grandparents when they were my age to put bits and pieces together about what they thought and what they were like then.  Therefore, I have to tell you about the mental picture I took this morning.

(If you click on the song, you'll get the full effect of the message.  Especially since I'm listening to it now as I'm writing.)

At our church service, there is a gentleman who is hearing impaired and sits on the front row.  There is a woman in front of him who signs the songs and sermons and I always like watching her because I think it's fascinating how she can sign and remember what the preacher just said and listen to what he's currently saying all at the same time.  I know I would lose focus far too easily.

Not that I stalk this man, but I have always seen him stand or sit and just watch her.

Well this morning, we sang 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus.  It was one of those songs that I can't say I've thought about in about a million years, but once it started, my heart went back to songs with my grandparents and growing up.  

I was already half way to weepy when I looked over and saw the man.  His head was slightly tilted back and he was signing along with the music.  And not just signing...SIGNING!  He was joyously singing as "loud" as he could - signing along with the woman in front of him.  His smile was so large that I could see it even though I was angled behind him and he didn't turn around.  

I have no other amazing insight except just the picture and the blessing it gave me to watch this man singing and signing his heart out.  My heart has been heavy with the news lately and there is even a lot of sadness behind the writing of this hymn from the late 1800's.  I got so much joy out of this open display of praise that my heart smiled.  I'm not sure if the man was singing out loud or not, but I can surely say that Jesus heard him this morning.  

I've listened to a lot of people say this week that the key to keeping faith in the hard times is to remember the good times.  They even advised writing down times of blessings or faithfulness to pull out when things get rough.  So I'll tuck this wonderful man that I don't even know deep in my heart to light the darkness if I ever need him.  And he will remind me exactly how sweet it is to trust in Jesus...

Have a wonderful night, my friends. 

All I wanted to do was cook...

I've been batch cooking for a while now - maybe 3 or 4 months, if you want to be precise.  We subscribed to Once A Month Mom and love their Paleo menu.  For about $70 a year, they provide monthly menus, shopping lists, bag labels and full detailed directions for your big cooking day.  Once or twice a month, I buy a huge batch of food and set aside a day to cook it all, bag it up and stick it in one of our three freezers.

Obsess much?  Three freezers???  Nah...

The reward has been life changing and I absolutely love just being able to pull out a dinner and not having to stress in the kitchen every night.  

 

So normally I do this cooking on a Sunday after church and wind up working all day and into the night.   Everyone gets high stressed because Mama is high stressed and it really doesn't end well.  So this month, I decided to cook during the week.

With my children home.

By myself.

(If you ever hear me mention doing this again, please just take me out of my own misery.)

What I failed to realize was that life and chores don't stop during a week you decide to cook.  And you can't exactly put it to the side because that stuff is going to go bad.  And your children don't stop.  Ever.  

So here was the scene at my house last week...feel free to feel tons better about your own home.  ha!

Starting with the kitchen, this was after I had cleaned so the dishes weren't overflowing from the sink quite as much.  Notice the stack of bags on the chair since I forgot about half a million things when I went to the store and had to make a second trip.

Stupidly, I also broke out the summer clothes that same day.  Which the girls happily distributed all over their floor.

Speaking of laundry, there it is!!  All waiting to be washed.  The dang laundry fairy is fired!!

Scenes from the play room...this was before they got into the puzzles.

I heard Caleb calling me so I had to turn everything off and see what he was into (and by me, I mean "dada").  This is currently one of his favorite games...to climb to the landing and yell for someone to rescue him.  It's awesome, really. 

DADA!!

In the end, I got most of the meals done and what didn't get done, I just put in the freezer.  By the third day of cooking, the kids were going stir crazy so I called it quits and took them outside to play.  Everyone felt better from there on out.

This week, I have to catch up on my house cleaning and workouts, since I let both of those slack last week.  So if you don't hear from me, I've gotten lost in my mess of a bathroom or I've collapsed from too much Insanity.

Or I might be outside pushing swings...you can never tell.

Have a great day my friends!