A Mother's Mission

My mom came across this article and thought I would enjoy it, which I did and thus am sharing with you all.

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts/motherhood-as-a-mission-field

Ironically, as I was reading this, I was getting frustrated with Noah, who kept begging to be held, with snot dripping out of his nose and spit up on his clothes that I will now have to wash.

My Superhero

The kids were playing contently together the other day...

...let us just take a moment to bask in this sentence.  They were playing contently together.

...okay, moving on.  They were playing together, pretending to be superheros.  At one point I heard Abby say, "I'm Ironman and I'm going to iron you!"

Well, what else would Ironman do?

8 Months

What happened to my baby boy?  I thought I had a few more months of our last being in the baby phase.  Apparently, Noah thinks that he has to be just like his older siblings, so he is racing to keep up with them.

He started crawling a few weeks ago.  The first day, he kind of inched around.  After that, he just took off.  No army crawling or butt scooting-just typical crawling.

Terrific.  Now I actually have to baby proof.  That was a lot easier to do when it was just us.  Now I have to watch out for all the other crap that the kids get out.  Caleb wants to play Toy Story memory every day-the problem is, he never remembers to put the cards away.  Noah has chewed on so many cards that Caleb knows which ones are which-little cheater.

It seems crawling is not good enough for him.  He stands up at anything he can get his hands on.  My personal favorite is when he stands at his piano (set at a height at which he can sit) and gradually pushes it across the room.  It is pretty funny, until he eventually remembers that he is eight months old, falls down and cries. 

Noah is also going through a rough teething time.  His first two bottom teeth have made an appearance, but I think the upper ones are hurting him.  He normally naps well, but has been waking up early out of almost every nap, lately.  I blame it on the teeth.

Or on the fact that the older two kids are now home all day.  He did start waking up early from naps about the same time that school let out.  Hmm.

Changing his diaper and clothes is like trying to ready an octopus.  Arms flying everywhere, body wiggling over in an attempt to get to something more interesting.  I have tried raising my voice to get his attention, but it only results in his cute giggle and dimpled smile, leading me to laugh. 

I guess I understand his laughing at me-hearing someone say "No Noah" does sound a bit silly.  Should have thought of that before naming him.

Even in the midst of losing sleep and hurtful teething, Noah is still a pretty happy kid.  What a blessing.

Summer Break

During the toddler years, I heard other moms of school-age children complaining about summer break.  I remember thinking, "Why have kids if you just want them in school all of the time?"

Somehow I know have a bigger appreciation for what they were talking about. 

Honestly, I love having them home all summer.  There are just a few things that I could do without.  For your fun reading, here is my list of the pros and cons of having the kids home all day every day for three months...

Pros:
The joy of having the kids around
Summer vacation
Lots of playing outside
The kids get to play together
No driving back and forth to the school
Able to stay home and get caught up on housework
The kids can sleep in
The kids make up adventures in the backyard
No more homework
No packing of lunches and snacks
No fighting on early bedtimes
Running around in the sprinkler

Cons:
The kids are always around
Long car ride to the beach for vacation
Constant applying of sunscreen
The kids end up fighting together
Driving back and forth to the park, waterpark and playdates
The house only stays clean at night, while everyone is asleep
The kids never sleep in
There is a steady stream of sand, dirt and water being tracked in from the backyard
Being constantly begged to play board games over and over again
Hourly requests for food
By the time the kids go to bed, it is past my bedtime
Finding wet bathing suits under the bed

Oh well.  Even with the negatives, having them home is a joy.  Lots of memories have already been made and I am sure there are lots more to come.

Our Messy Weekend

Forget spring cleaning.  Every bit of it that I have accomplished in the past few weeks (and it was not very much) has been thrown out the window.  I no longer see the point when random things like this weekend happen.

Let us start with the van.  As previously posted, I recently cleaned it out.  However, the very next day ruined all of my hard work.

I bought groceries.  It was a lovely trip, since I was able to shop BY MYSELF.  Moms, you totally get the luxury of it.  I was able to think, pay attention to all of my coupons and the sales, and read the tabloids while waiting in line instead of entertaining a baby and ignoring the begging from the older two.

Apparently, my smart thinking and paying attention to detail was left at the store.  I somehow left one bag of groceries in the van.  In Noah's carseat.  To be found 24 hours later.  In 90 degree weather.  The contents being:  yogurt, hot dogs, crescent rolls, and butter.

Oh, the butter.

First of all, I was so mad because every item in there (apart from the butter) were bought with great coupons.  Secondly, why could it not have been the bags with cereal or toilet paper?  No, it had to be the cold items.  Seriously?

As much as I hated to throw everything out, I could not risk poisoning my family to save a few bucks.  The worst part of it is the carseat.  It now smells like butter.  I have washed the outer part in the washing machine, I have cleaned the plastic part, and have sprayed everything with Lysol.  Yet, it still smells like butter.

Sure, butter smells great.  Like movie theater popcorn.  But, when it continually sinks into Noah's clothes and makes him greasy...not such a great smell.  I will be looking online today to compare prices on carseats.  My little mistake of leaving one bag of groceries in the car will cost us the price of food and a carseat.

On to the rest of the weekend...

Nick stayed home with Noah yesterday while the rest of us went to church.  We had a busy day ahead of us and needed him to nap well.  Noah, not Nick.  Although, it might have been better if Nick had just napped all morning.

He decided to clean out the fishtank.  The problem started when the light dropped into the fish tank, causing the light and the pump to stop working.  As Nick continued to work with everything, more drama occurred.  This is the text that I received while exiting church...

Tammy, I just destroyed the top of the shelf in the dining room, dropped all of our wedding cards in the fish tank, broke the aquarium filter, broke the radio, shorted the circuits and basically killed the fish.  How is your day going?

I was then left with the dilemma of staying away from the disaster, or actually calling him back and coming home to help.

I chose the latter.

Turns out, the top of our china cabinet fell, which is directly over the fish tank.  It is an old piece of furniture, but free, so whatever.  The bad part is that our stereo is on top of it, which is now sitting on the table, awaiting my attention to see if it is beyond repair.  Our wedding cards have been sitting in the same basket for nine years, also on top of the china cabinet, to keep safe from sticky fingers.  Now, about twenty of them are drying out on the kitchen counter, after falling into the fish tank.

I love the irony.

After much trial and error with circuit breakers and plugging things in, we finally found the reset button on one of the outlets, and it fixed the entire wall.  The pump is now running, the light is now on, and the fish (by some miracle) are still alive.

All of this happened in one weekend.  No wonder we are so tired.

At least one good thing came of this...we were able to read some wedding cards and remember with fondness who was there to celebrate with us nine years ago.  I will not tell the guests who exactly ended up in the fish tank, but if it was you, your card is now seasoned with extra memories from our marriage.

My Dirty Van

Now that school is done and carpooling is over for a few months, I decided to clean out the van. 

It was lots of fun.

I expected to find a few wrappers here and there or maybe a lost toy.  And I did.  Next to lots and lots of things that I never wanted to find.

Let's start with the bread crumbs in the backseat.  Not just on the seat, in the cracks of the seat or on the floor.  But, also piles on the side of the van, in the cupholder and on the arm rest.  Apparently, when my daughter is eating a sandwich on the way somewhere, she leaves the crust there and neglects to tell me or throw it out when we reach our destination.

Seriously, Abby?  Just throw it out of the window and let the birds eat it.

Moving on to the wrappers on the floor.  Not just on the floor, but underneath the seats and in storage pockets.  My favorite place to find wrappers?  Under the back seat, perfectly positioned so that I cannot reach them from under the seat or from the back of the van.  They just sit there, mocking me.

Now this one was one of my favorites.  A half-eaten sandwich from Caleb's carpool friend.  Want to know what happens to an uneaten peanut butter and jelly sandwich after it is hidden for awhile?  No, you do not want to know.

I also found some random things that had been missing.  A marble from Hungry Hungry Hippo.  Some of Nick's baseball hats that he is always looking for.  McDonald's toys.  The Three Amigos DVD.

Sure.  Okay.

And of course, the crayons.  I found some melted ones which immediately went into the trash.  I also discovered some artistic work by my precious preschool riders.  I had caught them in the act of drawing on the windows a couple of weeks ago and immediately shut down that project.  However, I discovered that their handiwork extended to the walls and ceiling in the back of the van.

Terrific.

I made Caleb clean the windows (which of course he found fun, thus making the punishment worthless), but I am still at a loss as to how the crayon is going to come off of soft material.  I may have to break out the magic eraser and give it a try.

My van is now clean (as clean as it will ever get after living in it for five years) and I can now enjoy riding in it without wondering where that smell is coming from.

I know I am not alone.  Thankfully, I carpool with two other moms who have similar looking vehicles.  I think we find comfort in knowing that none of us is perfect or a super-mom.  We do know super-moms, though.  While driving for a school function, two of us had students who looked around, turned up their noses and made comments about how dirty the vans were.

Clearly, they are the only children in their family.

Now, on to the summer where I am sure my van will stay perfectly clean.  Vacation, camp, King's Island...all of these adventures will leave my van looking spotless and new.  And after that is soccer season and school-what a breeze.

Creativity

I have never been one to come up with creative things for the kids to do. 

When Abby was a baby, I remember visiting a friend who had a daughter that was Abby's age now.  I walked into her living room, and there was a string tied across the room, with decorations hanging from it.  Her daughter was finding her inner artist and decorating the house.  I remember thinking, "Wow, I do not have the energy for that part of parenting."

Thankfully, my children have learned to be creative on their own.  My cozy "reading room" loft is now their art area.  And, judging from the video here, they find adventure in something as simple as a box.

While Nick and I were hard at work, putting together our new gazebo for the backyard, they decided to make an airplane out of the box. 

My hope is that they will continue to work together and get along this well all summer.

I am sure that will happen.