First Official Day of School - Blog of the Day #3

Normally I would say that someone who posts three times in one day obviously has too much free time on her hands. I do not, but I'm posting anyway! I will be gone Friday - Monday, so I guess I'm making up for my upcoming absence.

My son started school today. Granted, it's only preschool, but I realized on my drive there this morning that I have officially entered a new stage of life. From this point on our schedule will revolve around school days, school vacations, and summer breaks. Never again will we have the same freedom that we've experienced the past four years.

Thankfully, the first day went great. He had a wonderful time and is ready to go back. If he only knew how many days of school he has to look forward to in the next 14 years!

Here he is, proud to be wearing his new backpack that nearly consumes his entire body.

You Know You Live In A Small Town When... - Blog of the Day #2

This morning I hauled myself out of bed at 6:00 to go into town to run (which, by the way, I think I am only still doing because I now have it posted on the Internet that I run...thanks a lot for the unsolicited accountability) .

On my way into town there is a one mile stretch of highway that apparently is the best place to walk and/or run if you live here. It was still very dark outside, which only increased my awe at the number of people that I saw walking and running as I drove down this road.

I began to count - one....two, three....four....five.....six....my high school choir teacher...two people I used to go to church with...my former coach....the parents of one of my best friends from elementary school....

Yep, it's official, I have lived in this town WAY too long.

A Moment of Panic - Blog of the Day #1

Yesterday as we were driving home in the van, my four year old son made a declaration from the back seat: "I wish I were a girl."

A myriad of comments and reactions raced through my mind, but before I let something fly out of my mouth, I turned around to look at him.

I quickly realized the reason for the comment. He had one of my hairbands -- the kind that look very cute on teeange girl athletes to hold back their hair, but that 30 year olds only wear to workout when no one is looking -- and he was attractively positioning it on his head so all his hair was standing on end.

"I wish I were a girl so I could wear these."

So many comments that could be made at this point...but I chose, "You wouldn't like being a girl, honey."

"Why not?"

Again, so many possible answers...."Well, you hate to have your hair touch your forehead, and girls have long hair, remember?"

"Oh yeah, I guess I hadn't thought of that."

WHEW.

Bedtime Conversation

Last night I was doing the tucking in and bedtime prayer routine with my four year old. I was praying that he and his little brother would always have a great friendship. This is what unfolded after the prayer:

Him: "I will always be the big brother, right?"

Me: "Yes, you will."

Him: "Until I become a daddy."

Me: "Well, even when you become a daddy, you will be his big brother because you'll always be brothers and you'll always be older."

Him: "Really? Are you sure? I don't think so."

Me: "Yes, even when you grow up, get married and live in your own house, and be a daddy, you will still be his big brother."

Him: (with tears welling up) "But I don't ever want to move to my own house." (I knew this had to be coming some day...)

Me: "Oh, honey, it's okay, when you get older you will want to be a grown up and live somewhere else."

Him: (tears streaming rapidly) "But I'll never want to live somewhere else. I never will."

Me: (biting my tongue) "It's okay, sweetie, you won't have to live somewhere else until YOU want to, okay?"

Him: "Okay (sniff, sniff)"

I just wonder, will that come back to bite me 15-18 years from now??

Following in Daddy's Footsteps...

10

My brain is not functioning today. Between going to bed very late, storms starting 10 minutes later, and the boys crying 10 minutes after that, I didn't fall asleep until 4:00 a.m. Of course, being up in the night did not make the children feel a need to sleep in. So, in order to post 10 Things today without a lot of brain power, here are 10 Things I will do before next Friday is over.

1. Spend at least three hours trying to figure out what the four of us will wear for family pictures without having to purchase anything (stomach in knots the whole time).
2. Take family pictures (and then wish I would have purchased something).
3. Go out for lunch with my parents and brother.
4. Meet with our financial advisor.
5. Keep the books for a season opener volleyball quad.
6. Babysit twice.
7. Go out to lunch with wonderful friends.
8. Send my oldest off to preschool for the first time.
9. Pack for girls Labor Day weekend away with three other wonderful friends.
10. Wait for friend #1 to arrive at my house. Travel with friend #1 to pick up friend #2 in no man's land northern Kansas. Travel with friend #1 and #2 several hours to Illinois to stay with friend #3.

I wish #11 could be arrive in Illinois at friend #3's house, but unfortunately, I don't think that will happen before next Friday is over.

I'm Flying Away

My day to day life has been routine lately. Wake up, feed the kids breakfast, clean-up, try to clean the house a little bit, get lunch, clean-up, NAPTIME (yes!), feed the family dinner, clean-up...you get the idea.

However, several days ago my husband came home from work and told me that he would be traveling to England on a business trip in November. "Great," I thought, "An entire week of being home by myself. No one to help with baths, reading stories, or tucking in. No one to help if the little one cries in the night or if I just need a 10 minute break."

His next words shocked me, "Wanna go?"

Huh?

So, the discussions started. Do we leave the kids for that long? Could I get my passport in time? Can we afford it? What's the responsible thing to do here?

Responsible or not, we decided this may be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So, I'm making arrangements, paying insane amounts of money to expedite my passport, lining up babysitting, and getting incredibly excited about this trip...

Except for the airplane ride. If there would be a way to get there without having to fly, I would be much happier. My husband is going to spend the entire 9 hours of flying with me regretting the very second he said, "Wanna go?"

Bizarre Words Said Today

An hour and a half ago I was trying to get the boys and the stroller rounded up to go into town for a walk with my mother. The four year old was torturing the 1 year old - again. In my frantic race around the house I said to my 4 year old: "Don't hurt him, we are about ready to leave."

Like it would have been okay to hurt him if we weren't leaving??


On the way home from the walk, my four year old got quiet in the backseat (which is odd). Pretty soon he said, "Mom, do you know what I wish? I wish grandma and grandpa could be part of our family." Of course, I said, "They are part of our family, honey." To which he replied, "No mom, I mean a part of our family as in live with us all the time. There is enough room in the van. Grandpa and Grandma would fit any time we would go somewhere."

Now wouldn't that be fun?


Thirty seconds later he said, "Do you know what else I wish? I wish that nobody had a broken toe, or if someone did that it would be you or my little brother." Not knowing exactly what to say to that, I replied, "Well, that doesn't sound very nice, but why do you wish that?" He said, "Daddy shouldn't be the one with the broken toe because he gives the best giddyup horsey rides."

Of course, I can't believe I hadn't thought of that.


I tucked in my 4 year old five minutes ago. He just walked into my room with tears in his eyes. I was sure he was going to tell me for the 100th time this month that he heard another scary noise and just couldn't bear to be in his room alone. Instead, his wavery voice said, "Mommy, when I go to preschool will I have to have swimming lessons too?"

He is going to be in therapy for years over his swimming lesson trauma.

I think I might too.

The Value of a Mother

Once a week I babysit two little girls, ages 3 and 4. As a result of this arrangement, my 4 year old son ends playing a lot of "house." Sometimes they are mommy, daddy, big sister, and little brother (my 1 year old); sometimes they are all brothers and sisters; and sometimes they have bizarre mixtures of family roles. They get really into this activity by all giving themselves new names, jobs, etc. I'm trying to take the stance that this will NOT make my son more of a sissy, but will form in into a sensitive, caring man...at least I hope so.

The other day this foursome walked out of a bedroom looking quite forlorn. They had blankets wrapped around their heads like scarves, were each carrying one stuffed animal, and were pretending to cry. They were repeating over and over "We are so poor, we are sooooo poor."

I asked them why they were so poor, fully expecting some extravagant explanation about how they did not have any money to buy what they wanted.

Instead they said, "We are soooo poor, we don't have a mommy."

Well, there you go. For all the times we mothers feel like we don't know what we are doing, like we are the worst mother on the planet, and that we are ruining our kids forever, I guess we should remember that in our kids eyes, we are what makes them rich.

Blessings to all mothers! You are priceless.

Tubing

Here are some tubing photos from the weekend. This is my husband and my cousin having what we call "tube wars". The goal is to kick the other person off their tube first.


Here I am riding along leisurely with my husband. This was my first tube ride, so I told him I'd kill him if he knocked me off the tube.

And now we've switched tubes. I think this is me screaming "Hoollllyyyy Crrrraaapppp!"

And here is Zach getting ready to take a REALLY slow ride behind the boat.

This is what he thought about it.

10

Wow, it has been a long time since I have sat in front of my computer. Since I missed Friday, I'll recap "10 Things" I've done since my last post.

1. Cooked all day last Wednesday. Literally, I mean ALL DAY. Last Sunday I said yes to doing a food swap with two other people. Three hours later my extended family from Illinois called and said they were coming for a four day weekend. This was all great, but extremely crazy!
2. Cleaned like a mad woman on Thursday until the company arrived (oh yeah, and babysat two children all day too. If "overcommitting" is a disease, I will be dead tomorrow).
3. Took family to the restaurant my brother manages and had a great time relaxing with everyone...when I wasn't chasing my one year old around the restaurant.
4. Spent large amounts of time calling stores to see who had tubes left in stock. Apparently not many people are looking for tubes in August.
5. Drove almost an hour to get two tubes for our lake outting the following day.
6. Helped served dinner after a beautiful small family wedding ceremony.
7. Played many, many, many games of Rook. Only went set once - that's pretty good for me!
8. Went tubing at the lake for the first time ever (and have sore muscles to prove it).
9. Discovered that a two piece swimsuit is not recommended for tubing wrecks.
10. Said goodbye to family (sniff, sniff) after planning next summer's trip to Beaver Lake.

Running, Part 2

I'm on my second week of running. I don't go everyday, so this actually means that I've run all of four times. Two weeks sounds much more impressive, however.

I talked to two friends about how to get started because I'm a woman who likes a plan. One friend told me that her dad always said to walk a quarter, run a quarter, etc. for two miles. Do this for one week and then drop a quarter of walking each week until you are running the whole thing. The other friend referred me to a great website which recommended walking/running a certain number of minutes until you are only running.

When I set out last week for day number two, I realized that I had made it into town with no watch, so I drove out two miles to get going on the quarter plan. I ran my first quarter and thought there is no way on this side of heaven that I am going to EVER be able to drop a quarter of walking. I was going to be lucky to be able to get back to my car.

This morning, however, on day #4, I ran my first quarter and realized I wasn't dying. I kept going and pushed myself to complete another quarter. The plan was working! By the time I finished that quarter I was throwing myself a party. I had the cake ordered and half the guest list written when I realized something: That wasn't the plan. Dropping the middle quarter of walking meant I was still supposed to be running. Seriously? No way, not if I wanted to be alive to see my kids' next birthdays.

I chose that moment to decide that I'm sure the amount of minutes I had run was EXACTLY the plan that the website would have laid out for me.

Tractor Ride

I've been known to be a bit cynical about living in the country and being married to a man who spends A LOT of hours on the tractor in his "spare time" (22 hours this week, but who's counting...).

But, I will take a moment to share one of the really good parts about this arrangement. Tractor rides. Lots of them, nearly anytime my son wants to go. Well, almost anytime. Daddy has to be in the big tractor with the cab, because I'm not fond of four year olds falling off of little cabless tractors. (You can see it parked in front of the shed if you look really close.)

It hit me yesterday that there are many kids in this world who would trade almost any toy to be able ride around in gigantic farm machinery. It's fun for my son and creates memories with daddy that he will look back on fondly. By next summer child #2 should also be old enough to take turns in the tractor riding fun.

Which leaves me with one thought -- It is high time for grandpa to buy a tractor that will fit more people.

Cleaning Frenzy

Here is my new cleaning assistant. He has discovered that he loves to control the spray bottle no matter what the contents - Windex, Bathroom Cleaner, Laminate Floor Cleaner, and the list goes on. I'm sure this is completely unsafe, but it has actually been kind of fun. While there is no way that I am getting done as quickly as I used to, the time actually seems to go by faster. It's nice to have someone to talk to while doing these mundane tasks. He stayed with me for nearly an hour the other day while I mopped the floor on my hands and knees. He stood by me and waited for me to say "go" every time I needed an area sprayed. He was actually SAD when this event was over. Why can't I feel that way about cleaning?

FYI - The goggles were his idea, but I'm actually thankful he thought of it. One less body part to worry about while the four year old handles all the chemicals.

I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. Really, what am I thinking???

10 Things

I have no idea why I am choosing to share this 10 list with any of my friends. Everyone already knows I am a fairly cautious person, but this will put me in a whole new category of wimpy.

Here are 10 things I don't prefer to be around/see/hear. In other words, things I'm scared of.

1. Lightening. My grandfather was struck by lightening years and years ago. That's about all it took for me.


2. Tornadoes. See a theme here? I watched an F5 coming straight for our school bus as we were driving through a town that was destroyed four minutes after we passed through. Again, that's about all it took for me.


3. Snakes. No explanation, just yuck.


4. Flying. It's not that I get airsick, or that I'm afraid of crashing (maybe a little...who wouldn't be?), I just don't like it.


5. Heights. This might explain #4. I blame my father. He's terrified of heights, so it's in the blood.


6. The stomach flu. Okay, "scared" may not be the right word, but I hate it so much that "scared" would almost qualify.


7. Spiders - the big, brown, hairy kind.


8. Needles - I can handle them if I don't have to look.


9. Water in the basement - I've realized that this brings tons of complications you never wanted to deal with and very little hope of ever completely solving the problem.


10. Food that is not plain and boring. I just had to throw this in because I knew if I didn't, I would get comments about it anyway!

There it is. I hope I get bit by the creative bug before next Friday.

Ouch

I went running this morning. I haven't been running in...ummm....years. I think high school might have been the last time I attempted this variety of exercise. It didn't take long to remember why.

I decided to drive into town for this new adventure. My country road has too many mosquitoes, dogs without leashes, and enough holes and washboard bumps to guarantee knee surgery within the month. I chose a neighborhood where I didn't know anyone under 70, but there were still enough people around to call 911 in case I collapsed on the street.

My sense of "I'm going to accomplish something today" was high. I thought this was doable because I have friends who run. I think for them this actually means they leave their house, run at least a couple of miles without stopping, and return to their house...in an upright position and breathing fairly normally.

Not me. This morning my brain said, "run!" and my body said, "NO!!". So, I did the run a little bit, walk a little bit, run a little bit, walk a little longer thing. My sense of "I'm going to accomplish something" crashed pretty quickly, but I guess we all have to start somewhere. The muscles in my legs are still rebelling against this new idea of mine.

I had forgotten a few important details about running. Things like it actually matters what kind of socks and shoes you wear, it's better if your hair isn't hanging in your face, and the choice of underwear should not go overlooked. I'll know better for next time, if there is a next time.

The verdict is still out on what I will do when the alarm goes off tomorrow morning.

Help!

Does anyone have any great thumb sucking remedies?

My son is starting to resemble Mater from the Cars movie!

Home Sweet Home

We returned a couple of hours ago from our "vacation." My husband used that word on the way home and we both burst out laughing. I'm not sure why I am even attempting to post anything after surviving the 10 hour car trip, I guess just to prove to myself that I am actually home again. The whole trip really was fairly uneventful, as you will see when reading what qualified as the "highlights" of the weekend.

Here are a few things I/we did while in Illinois:

• Blew a breaker in the hotel - twice - while trying to dry my hair with the hotel hair dryer. The people next door in the breakfast area were none too pleased.
• Spent two hours grocery shopping after two days of traveling.
• Ate a lot of food.
• Shopped for a new shirt and tie for my 85 year old grandfather at 10:00 p.m. the night before the Anniversary celebration. The only store option: yep, Walmart.
• Met lots of old people, served lots of cake, and smiled that, "Thank you SO much for coming" smile for many hours.
• Took family photos with 30+ people - this was a new adventure I had never experienced before. The poor photographer was dripping with sweat by the time he was done with us.
• Ate a lot more food.
• Spent two hours trying to put my boys to bed while the rest of the family played cards in the living room.
• Sang a song at church (with 6 others) with absolutely ZERO minutes of practice time.
• Enjoyed a leisurely lunch with my husband, cousin, and her new boyfriend, and no children!
• Decided (the next night) that kids under five really don't need bedtimes. This way I got to get in on the family card playing tradition.
• Ate even MORE food.
• Said all the sad goodbyes and jumped in the van for the drive home.

Okay, it may not look like it, but we really did have a good time. However, it is good to be home!

10 Things on Thursday Again

Today we are heading off to Illinois for five days of family celebration time - or more accurately stated, two days of driving, one day of preparation, one day of family celebration, and one day of recovery.

Since I'll be gone on Friday, here are my 10 things for the week.

10 Things I'll Do On This Trip:

1. Celebrate my grandparent's 60th Anniversary on August 4.
2. Celebrate my grandpa's 85th birthday on August 4.
3. Celebrate my cousin's 18th birthday, also on August 4.
4. Celebrate another cousin's 19th birthday, you guessed it, on August 4. (Yes, this is the actual date of all these events. Weird, huh?)
5. Pray diligently that my 17 month old begins to like to sleep in his pack-n-play again.
6. Let my kids eat way too many snacks and watch way too many videos to get through both 10 hour days of driving.
7. Spend some quality catch-up time with my cousin, who also happens to be one of my best friends.
8. Answer the question "How much longer?" at least 652 times.
9. Chase my one year old all over, hoping and praying that he doesn't break one of grandma's gazillion ceramic birds.
10. Revel in the fact that I have wonderful grandparents who have blessed my life all these years.

Another New Project

My husband wears a lot of hats: daddy, husband, engineer, system administrator, landscaper (ours), firefighter, farmer, and garbage man (also ours). We are now adding another one - carpenter. He has worn this one now and then over the years since he worked for a construction crew every summer and winter break throughout college. For the most part, I have been extremely happy that he possesses this talent. I have benefitted from this skill in many ways, including a new house he helped build two years ago.

Occasionally, though, I wish he had no clue how to do any of it so we could just hire it out. It takes a ton of time and creates a huge mess, including white dust on every square inch of the house. Reality is, however, if we had to wait until we could afford to "hire it out", it would never get done.

Therefore, we are embarking on another project - finishing what will be the family room in the basement. It's a "work when there is money to move on" project, so this may take awhile. I'm trying to stay positive about the process - which includes a lot of single parenting for me - and focus on the much needed end result.

I'm really hoping I don't end up empathizing with my friend Casey about feeling like Noah's wife, but there is a good chance we will end up in the same boat.