The Puddles

We have been surrounded by sickness lately.  So far only Ainsley and I haven’t had the stomach bug.  I pray it stays that way.   Today everyone returned to normal.  Kids went to school, and adults went to work.  Thank goodness.

Last night we took the kids to the movies (we saw Wreck It Ralph. Very cute movie.  We’ve been quoting lines all day.) as a last hurrah.  It was a great way to end the holiday week.  Thanksgiving is over and the Christmas season has begun.  And we celebrated that transition by going to the movies!  This morning we drug everybody out of bed and sent them off to school.  The routine felt good.  After the kids got home, it was homework, violin lessons, grocery store, dinner and then . . . decorating the tree.  Chris made hot chocolate.  I started our favorite Christmas movie (“Prep and Landing”), and we got to decorating.  It was fun. Then finally it was over and the kids went to bed.

It has been a good couple of days.  It is a great beginning to the Christmas season.

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Grandpa turns 90 in December but since we were all together,we decided to celebrate at Thanksgiving.  Mom said we had to light all of the candles.  So we lit all of the candles.  That of course caused the icing the burn.  The whole cake was on fire.  We had to have everyone help blow it out before the smoke detector went off.  The Puddles made cards for Great grandpa and Ainsley gave him one of her paintings.  It was a nice birthday.  Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

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It was a wonderful day.  A day spent with family and lots of food!  We went more traditional this year.  Meaning . . . the Texans were playing, so all of the men were in the living room and all of the women were finishing up dinner and watching the kids!  But no one complained.  The game was a little intense for me.  It made me nervous, so I was happy to hang out in other places.  The cousins play together so nicely.  Although poor Taylor is sooo much older (senior in high school) that I think she has graduated from the children’s table.  All of the cousins actually like each other, so they keep themselves well occupied.  Papa and Grandma Grace have lots of bikes/scooters to keep everyone pretty happy.  The Puddles look forward to these events at Papa and Grandma Grace’s  and are always sad when it is over.  There were tears because they wanted their cousin Kamryn to come and spend the night at our house.  (It is good she didn’t come.  Madie ended up sick with a stomach virus.)  We are all looking forward to Christmas!

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First off, Ben got a stomach bug.  This bug got him good.  It was so bad that he slept on the couch and I slept on the lazyboy. He was thrashing around so badly from the stomach pains that we couldn’t even have him sleep in our bed and I refused to sleep on the floor of his bedroom.  So the compromise was the living room.  Ben’s pains were such that it was really happening in the evening, night, and early morning.  When the sun was out, he did better.

Ben has been working on his presentation at the family party for weeks.  He was so excited to share the poem that he had written.  But then he got sick . . . We told him that as long as he was fever/vomit free for 24 hours that he could go.  We thought we were in the clear and then early the morning of the party . . . he got sick . . . again.  Poor guy.  I emailed the teachers and let them know we weren’t coming.  They emailed back and said if he wanted to come after all of the kids had gone in order to share what he worked on that was ok with them.  After much thought . . . we said yes.  I picked up Madie from school.  Grabbed Ainsley from her class and all five of us came to Ben’s Family Party.  It was great.  Ben did such a wonderful job.  He was so proud and he had a reason to be.  He put together a slide show with voice over.  He wrote a poem about his mom (it is going on the wall of my office!).  He was so proud of it all.  We were glad we went.

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Ben is singing in the choir this year at school.  It is an after school activity that we has been going to every Tuesday.  Last year he declared that he would never do it.  But he had a change of heart this year and signed up!  It takes some fancy driving in the afternoon for me to pick him up, but he is enjoying himself.  The group sang at the Veteran’s Day program again.  They did a great job and I did take some great videos.  I’m working on getting that uploaded.  Next year if he says yes to choir it will be a little easier because Ainsley will be in it too (she has already said yes) and I can pick them up together!

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This was quite the adventure.  Two adults versus twelve girls.  Twelve-middle-school-just-discovering-the-art-of-sarcasm girls.  I came home with a migraine.  Good news . . . the girls thought it was a fabulous weekend.  Bad news . . . the moms (including me) said we need more help next time!!  Usually we do have more help, but most of our other co-leaders were getting camp training that weekend (which is fabulous!!) and we thought we could manage without.  We did manage, but some of the newer girls tested my patience. Most of the girls who have been in the troop for years were awesome, on target, well behaved, etc.

In the end, the weather was awesome, and the activities were fun.  The girls had a great campfire that night and sang camp songs for hours.  We even learned several new ones!  And Madie and I got a picture of ourselves before we even left camp.  Camping with the girls is a lot of fun and it really teaches some life skills that I am often too scared to let them learn at home (cooking). So sign us up, we are going again in the next few months!

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Ben had his first line ever in a music program.  He did an awesome job!  He was so excited.  He had to dress like he was ready for rain.  So after 5 different stores, I found him a yellow rain slicker like he wanted. Plus I threw in a pair of Spider Man rubber boots.  I was thrilled.  (Of course, we haven’t had much rain lately to even wear them for real!).  

He was a gem with his emotions and his smiles!  He rocked the house.  For the morning performance his grandparents came.  At the morning performance we always get better seats.  Usually the evening performance is standing room only by the time we arrive.  This means we get two completely different vantage points for his performance.  Cool.  At the end of the day, I grabbed him to say hello/goodbye to his grandparents.  Then he was off to class.  I went over and pulled Ainsley out of her class in order to see the grandparents.  She was thrilled!  She had an upset stomach before she left for school and really didn’t want to go.  But went knowing that if she did she could see Papas and Grandma.   That helped.  Of course, her day got even better when both of her papas walked her back to class.  That is a good day for both Ben and for Ainsley.

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An early morning wakeup from a seven year old who isn’t feeling well didn’t sit well after two days of the nine year old staying home from school because he is throwing up.  We were suppose to be on the mend from illnesses and the today was to be our catch up day.  Not going to happen.  It is a good thing that Chris has today off.  He is a great help.  We had an activity every morning and every night.  Add sick kids, extra doctor’s appointments for everyone,  doing the “please Katherine can you . . .” from all these different people, staying up late in order to finish work that didn’t get done during the day and Thanksgiving events at school  . . .  and today we needed to play catch up.  But instead we still have a sick kid, we need to disinfect the house, clean out the yucky smell emanating from the fridge, I have to keep working, go grocery shopping (I can’t afford to keep buying milk from the corner store), and go and clean the church (Side note: I am so tired of this chore. I do feel like I am doing the Lord’s work, but I think that everyone at church who voted to get rid of the cleaning crew should be volunteering to clean and that hasn’t happened yet. My team is one person down and I couldn’t find anyone last weekend who would say yes to help me this weekend, so it is me doing everything but the vacuuming.)

I yearn for a simpler life.  A life that is not full of obligations.  Not that I mind some of my responsibilities (being a wife, mother, and employee are awesome and wonderful).  I can’t recall the last time I had time to myself that didn’t include errands.  Life is too busy.  I am fearful that the holidays are approaching so quickly that I won’t be able to slow down enough to enjoy them.  My life is good.  I love my family and the joy they bring to my life . . . but I need to spend more time enjoying them  and less time saying yes to everyone else . . .  or I may miss out on something special.

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“Mom, I need a new chair for my desk,” says Ben.

“Why? Is your desk chair broken?” asks Mom.

“No. I just need a chair with brakes.”

“Ben, chairs don’t come with brakes!!”

His dad and I ask ourselves quietly.  Why does Ben need a chair with brakes?  What crazy idea is he coming up with or has attempted that would make him think that he needs brakes on a chair?

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Ben, the ninja.  Ainsley, Princess Belle.  Madie, Annabelle from the Percy Jackson books.  It was a good year.  We had a lot of fun and even Hank got into the evening and dressed up as Hank the Cowdog.

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