Summer Moments

It's mid June and the summer schedule has a rhythm to it. The first two weeks were torture. The third week I over analyzed how to get over having no routine and how we were going to spend our time together.  Then week four happened, and I had a nice breakdown and Austin's whining turned to a puppy dog wimper (much more tolerable), and Molly's attitude towards Grant tapered from every 30 seconds of tattling to every 10 minutes, Grant has gone from teasing each sibling incessantly to just teasing each one for brief moments throughout the day. Heidi, she still demands and hangs on my hip! Heidi has made this summer much more challenging then summers past. I've never had four children who walk and talk and hang-out with me all day every day. On this introvert, forced extrovert, personality of mine it has made for some adjustments in how I keep my brain from spinning out of control. 

Soaking up the moments that my kids give me during a day gives me moments of clarity in my mind. A new perspective. A gift amongst the challenges of training them to be kind, respectful, appreciative, and not self-centered. The moments are what we get as Mom's, so it's best to lock them in memory and treasure them....

Molly finishing and enjoying and being excited about "The babysitter's Club," book series! A moment to treasure! Yep, the 1988 version, which we found in a closet in my mother's house. I get to hear about Dawn moving to town, and Stacy moving out, and the Phantom caller that had them terrified! My excitement cannot be written. I am one happy Mom over my daughter loving the girls in the Babysitter's Club. She is pushing herself to a new level at dance, as she is now a "big girl" in her dance group filled with 3rd and 4th graders. She looks for every opportunity to ask for a sleepover. And goes into a grieving process when separated from her best friend for more than two days. 

Austin is three and like most three year olds, he is always giving me moments in my day, make me laugh out loud moments. He hollered that there was a booger on his finger. When I instructed him to get a kleenex for it, he told me he would wipe it on the wall. He proclaims he is not little, he is not three, he is four, he does not need to take a nap, he whimpers like a puppy, and rubs his cheek against mine when he wants affection. He lays on me and watches how long it takes Heidi to notice, cause he is all boy and boys like to tease. He knows that Heidi Mae is super jealous of any one besides her touching me. She screams and pushes him and he cuddles up closer, loving the fact he can drive her crazy. He found a best friend this season. Every baseball game of Grants came with Austin wondering out loud if his best friend would be there. I got the chance to meet his "best friend's" mom. When I mentioned how old Austin was her eyebrows raised in surprise. Austin had not become best friend's with her four year old son, but her six year old son! The feelings weren't one sided. This six year old boy also talked about Austin. So, my three and a half year old had his first playdate. A playdate with a six year old boy. The kind of playdate where Mom drops and leaves. It only happened this way as Grant is friend's with the "best friends" other brother, who happens to be the same age as Grant! (that was hard to follow!)

 

 Grant was an easy baby and toddler. I remember this when I spend all day with him and watch him interact with his siblings. He is still my easy kid. Easy to please. He is easily content. He doesn't whine. He doesn't complain. This makes him sound perfect, which he is not, he does do all those things I listed, in small amounts! He emptied the dishwasher the other day, without asking. I hugged him so tight he winced in pain. He wants to change Heidi's diaper. He answered the ENT Doctor's question if he wanted anymore siblings with a, "yes, I would like her to have another baby." That surprised me for a moment, but then I thought, he is my least selfish kid. The middle child who often gets lost in the chaos, but he's okay. He loves to love.  

Then there is my baby. My baby who isn't a baby anymore. My toddler who fits the "baby of the Family," role perfectly. Textbook last child. She hangs on my hip, screams at her siblings when they cuddle with me, and sneaks up to her room to find binky's that aren't allowed outside the crib. She insist I be in the pool with her. My shadow. I won't have a two year old for long, so I endure the demands from her. 

I only get 18 summers with each of them. Not very many in the grand scheme of things. Amidst the meltdowns and tattling and sibling rivalry I grasp hold of the sweetness that they bring to my day. I remember how thankful I am I get to be their mom!

Start of Summer 2014

The first week of summer 2014 is behind us! What a crazy long week!!! It is always such an adjustment to having the big kids home. Molly and Grant getting in the groove of being around each other all day. Austin going from playing alone all day to having his best friends home makes his 3 year old little mind think they should play with him 24/7.  We definitely have a life filled with activities, and beautiful, sweet moments.

Elizabeth Gunn and Kate Jarznka are classmates of Molly.
Molly enjoys the sport as it's filled with lots of moving around!

Nanny's house has so much to do. Austin's favorite thing...throwing rocks in her pond.

My kids! They look like teenagers laying out. Austin is hiding under the towel trying to get warm.

The Olly's are awesome!
Srping Concert 2014

Many baseball games for Grant meant I needed a 'bag of things to do."
The little ones do so well at these games. It's a place they end of using their imaginations and just run around being carefree kids.

The first week out of school had Molly spending many hours at Dance rehearsals. I got to have Grant as my only big kid. Bike ride to the park had me huffing and puffing as I pulled oversized toddlers in the bike trailer!

Grant is a natural athlete. Baseball is what he loves, but soccer is something he enjoys too. It's an easy active sport.

Mother's Day 2014

I'm struck today by the weight a mother carries. The deep fear of wanting our children to love us, while we instill and build their character. I carry the weight of what the future holds for them. As I balance loving them and enjoying them with the daily challenge of correcting poor choices, teaching respect, giving consequences for disobedience. I do all of this on my own knowledge of the differences in each of their personalities. I hug them close and see them as little, but am reminded that they are growing quickly and my time with them is short. I pray for them, but wish I could spend more time earnestly praying God protects them. God holds their future and I beg Him to give me a glimpse, but instead He gives me peace and assurance that He chose me as their mother. That is enough for now. 
My love for them is unexplainable. My joy that God gave me all four of them pours out of me in all different ways, tears and laughter and heaviness and appreciation that I am not alone in this journey. I am so very thankful that these four are mine, but they belong to Jesus. What a wonderful Mother's day gift.

Brave Women

Relationships are complex. There will be some that will come and go based on the season of life. When you are within that season you don't necessarily see what the relationship is bringing in terms of changing, growing, stretching you. If the stretching, growing, and changing is positive then you lean in and pull a little tighter. You hold it closer and gleam what you can from the impact the person is having in your life. 

When you become a 'grown-up' you start to understand that friendship isn't just something that you invest time into because 'you like the person.' When time is precious you have to evaluate how your spending your time and with whom. If there is something I'm learning as I get older it is that the people we surround ourselves with and spend our time on should be those that encourage us to fix our eyes on what is loving and kind and not what "I want," but what God would want.

 It overwhelms me that my thirties ushered into my life the most amazing women. Just ask yourself, do I have women in my life who encourage me? Do I have a woman who can be honest with me?  I have an amazing group of women who encourage me to fix my eyes on the one who knows me best, Jesus! Those are the ones I call my friends. 

There are lots of great things that come with being a mom. One of the best, the friendships that come out of the friendships your children form! Missy and I first encountered each other in the Preschool line pick-up. Then to dance teacher/dance mom questions, to talking about how we want the dance hours our girls spend not only focused on their scorpion technique, but on their character. Sharing little bits about our lives in the quick moments we pass our daughters off on each other. Then one day you realize that this person has words they share with you that change how you perceive others, in a healthy way. The way they trust God and pray over every choice they make is one you admire. You want to be around them more, cause you hope that the courage they possess will make you brave too!

This is what I want my kids to grasp when it comes to the people they surround themselves with. Do they bring out the best in you? Are you proud of who you are after you have been with them? 

I also want my kids to know that no one is perfect. Each friendship is unique and brings something different to your life. All the women in my life bring a "best" to my life. Each one is a bestie and a best friend, because at this season of life my time is precious and I don't want to waste a minute. I want my time to be where I'm doing my best, and when I screw it up, cause I will, then the best comes out of trying to make it right.

This is much easier to do when the people we have in our life who are doing the same. I am amazed and overwhelmed and abundantly grateful for the beautiful, brave women God has put in my life.

Hebrews 13:7-8 
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Leaders to me are people I admire who have shared bits of truth about God with me. I don't want to model my life after them, because I'm unique and my life is my own, but I should mimic their faith! As people change and move in and out of our lives we can always rest in Jesus being our constant.

This is a leader in my life whose faith I want to imitate. She is humble, full of empathy and compassion, she loves to talk about her life and the way Jesus has moved in it, she has been my constant rock on this earth. She is a true model of brave, my Grandmother.

Happy Birthday Grant

March is the trickiest month. It gives you sneak peaks of Spring, but it isn't quite done with Winter. It is close enough to Spring that you stop trying to force yourself to stay positive about the weather. March means you open the windows around one o'clock and rush to close them around six. March means dance competitions, soccer season, and spring break for the kids, and the taste of summer, which brings this pent-up energy out of the kids that drives mother's batty. 

It is also the month my sweet, tender hearted, big brown-eyed boy was born. I will never forget how excited I was over the hospital nursery being full and surgical recovery rooms being full, because it meant I got to hold you much sooner than I had anticipated. This baby was calm, and content, and completely at peace with being out of the womb and rested on my chest. My Grant Mitchel was born 8 years ago today. 
He is the first in the family to pick-up on someone else's pain. He worries about others, deep concern that causes all these confusing emotions to emerge. He cries, but can't tell us why. He will be quick to get angry, but we aren't sure what set him off. He will refuse to hug me or say he loves me, then begs  me to lay with him and wraps his arms around my waist without warning. He is filled with so much empathy and sympathy and questions. I know God has a great plan for those gifts. 
Happy 8th Birthday Grant Mitchel!

Good Bye January

What a weird winter it has been. January is coming in for a close and no snow! I've asked Don if he has felt led to move, maybe he was being prompted, cause I'm not, but it would be great. I'd take Arizona or San Diego. At this point I'd like to live in a State that doesn't land in the Top 5 coldest places in the U.S. A winter that behaves like winter...with snow! Instead, its brown. Blustering wind throwing trash all over my yard. Cold that hurts your face and freezes your nostril hair. Then we get this bizarre Spring weather. Sixty degree day in between record lows. Days that confuse the toddlers and have Mother's hollering at their kids to go outside, because tomorrow it will be freezing!

 Grant decided to not join a basketball team or play on the wrestling team this year. He has been spending a few nights a week at Millard West on the Dive team. This has been fun, but not the energy burning sport my very active boy needs. He comes home from school and bounces off the couch. He tells me "I can't just sit." Austin begs for the kids to go down and run very very fast with music. I make Grant go down for a bit just to get some of the pent up energy out! Poor kids can't even go outside for recess these days. 

Handle Bar Piggy Tails!

 Heidi's extracurricular activity this winter has been Dora the Explorer! She might have an addictive trait in her genes as she is obsessed! Brings me the remote in the bathroom and throws it at me. Puts her hands over her face and cries when I turn it on and it has an 'adult' themed commercial before the episode begins. She says Dora to everything. Did you sleep good? "Dora." Do you want to go bye-bye, "Dora." Let's go get dressed, "Dora." She does try and say Boots. And Swiper...well he gets no recognition. Silly fox is always trying to swipe their stuff so he must be too naughty or scary for her! She got the trio of dolls for Christmas and won't touch Swiper!

January Showcase

The end of January means Dance in our world. January Showcase happens at the studio and it means lots of hours of rehearsal for Molly and rhinestoning for Mom! It is a great break in the winter, getting to watch girls perform the art of dance. I was blown away this year by a few things:
 1. How much the girls bodies change from 3rd to 4th grade
2. How much stronger they dance from 2nd grade to 3rd grade
3. How much effort from the dance teachers at ND goes into building the character of the girls as well as the body! 

Number 3 is the reason I love Nebraska Dance. 

Her sweet bestie... Holly!

Austin has moved into kindermusic with his parents to drop him off kindermusic. Ms. Ann gets thirty minutes of music time with Austin. Thank goodness the boy is better behaved when his parents aren't around! He's gone twice now and proclaims to all of us that "I go music all by myself." I'm not really sure if the boy will care one iota about anything musical. He shouts, "I no like music," when we are in the van. I'm thinking Grant will be my guitar strumming musician while Austin is memorizing Football plays... they are so different!!!!

This is the life. Getting pushed while eating and drinking!

We didn't make this little fairy house! We found it while walking at my Favorite spot-Chalco Lake

Someone was taking selfies with my phone!

Wish They'd Stay Little

I wish my kids could stay little, under the age of four would be ideal. I got cuddles from a sleepy eyed three-year old this afternoon. He held the torn corner of his blankie and dug his head in my side. At dinner he laughed loud after each utterance of the word 'p*^p'. When he laughed Heidi would follow and do a deep loud laugh. It had the table next to us in the restaurant laughing. He slurped down his Dr Pepper so fast he started drinking Molly's. Then informed me he didn't like dinner and he would "no eat pizza." The next sentence out of his mouth, "my belly hurts." That could be due to the fact you drank your soda so fast and you refuse to eat dinner. 

The same dinner had me listening to Molly share every minute of her day at School. She says, "listen Mom, listen to how the day went... we did the pledge, then specials, then reading, then dragon club, then lunch, then recess, then math, then assessment, then technology, then...."  I heard how their school is the best in Gretna because they have eight robots and everyone else has two robots. I heard how one of the boys was not listening in technology, when they got to work the robots, and he hit one with his foot. The brain fell off! Mr. Treaty got pretty upset. He was able to get the brain back on! (Molly does take small breathes between stories, but rarely stops talking).
When she got home from School she came to whisper the update on the wedding news. Apparently Stacy and Henry were getting married today. Molly was scheduled to be a flower girl. Stacy had proposed in class yesterday. I must say they are quite the fast planners. There would be two ceremonies. One during gym, Molly didn't know how they were going to pull that off, Mr. Smith would be the pastor, and the other during recess. Molly shared that she sure wouldn't get married in front of people. She said the whole thing was called off due to the fact Stacy lost the ring. She said Stacy told her it was $112, but Molly knew Stacy was lying because it came out of one of those ball things from a machine. Young bride wore a dress to School today, and apparently Henry was in a tuxedo???!!! The whole School knew about the wedding, because Grant came up to Molly after School and told her he knew she was suppose to be the flower girl!

 Grant got elbowed in the eye at recess. It was 'on purpose,' but he didn't tell the teacher. One of the boys was on top of another boy and Grant jumped in to help! Got an elbow to the eye, which then had him declaring this boy was no longer his friend. It wasn't the pinning the other kid down that brought him to this decision! I asked if it was possible the elbow was an accident, that was a dumb question! On a positive note he got an interception during the recess football game. I asked what an interception was, we threw the ball and I caught it, but it was in the end zone so they didn't get the point. I was very confused, but I didn't dare say anything! "That's exciting," was my response!

I wish they'd stay little. When they beg for tickles. When they hug Dora pajama tops as if it is a beloved pet. When they ask for cereal every 45 minutes and erupt into tears cause you say No. When they exclaim that for lunch they want, "pop, chips, and mac and cheese," as if this is a completely reasonable request! When the poop diaper you left on the stairs disappears it may cause a hesitation to this stay little forever idea. But, I'm sure the smell will lead me to it, eventually or maybe I'm loosing my mind and I did take it out to trash!

When I wish they'd stay little I get a glimpse of a picture like this one. Then I stop and take note. They are still little. I wish they didn't have tears fall because they miss a friend or be concerned about the reading test that day. Then one of them laughs over a story of their friend who's sport bra hiked up over the "embarrassing mark" in front of the whole dance class. A dance class full of girls! Life may be creeping in on them, but they aren't grown up yet!