The Puddles

Wow. Busy is the word I would use for Tuesday.  4 hours of sleep and then going, going, going for 18 hours.  Long day.  The zoo was so much fun.  Just getting to hang with Ben was a blast.

I have to say that the children are behaving really well . . . so far.  Not too many disaster or none that we can’t handle.  No hospitals. No fire dept. No 911 calls.  The children are relatively fed, bathed, and dressed.  So far, so good.

We all miss Daddy, but our days are so full of stuff that before you know it Daddy will be home.

So far so good.  Busy and tiring.  It is 1:30am and I’m still cleaning and working on laundry since I will be at Ben’s field trip all day tomorrow and more Girl Scout training all evening (I don’t think it ever ends.).  Still trying to play catchup from the weekend garage sale.  I am so tired that I think the dishes will have to wait until the morning.  I have to have some energy to walk around the zoo all day tomorrow with all the other kindergarteners.  But I am really excited about going.  It is going to be a ton of fun!  Bonus . . .  I get to hang with Ben all day!  Who needs Europe when you have my smiling precious boy telling me the best stories ever all day long!!!

I am tired.  Down to the bone tired.  We are finally home from the church garage sale where we raised money for the youth to go to camp.  The good news is that we raised all the money ($3400 from the garage sale alone) that we needed for the kids to all go to camp!!!!  The only downside from this experience is that I got to see a side humanity that I don’t care for.  Some of the people who came to buy, just don’t live by the same set of rules (like trying to cheat by switching price tags) that I thought everyone lived by.   But in the end, I am thankful that they came and bought items.  It means that camp is paid for and everyone gets to go!!!  So I just have to keep looking at the positive.

The whole garage sale was a whirlwind.  I was especially grateful for all of the people from church who just showed up to help because they thought we might need it.  I couldn’t believe that people just do that!  Wow.  Truly, they were sent by God because at the moment that they came it was very useful and welcomed.  There were so many people who helped.  Many who dedicated hours and hours and hours to get this project done.  It is so great to work with people like that.

So . . . I am tired. My children are tired.  I was watching Gordon tonight and the only way I didn’t fall asleep was by constantly talking to him.  He was a doll, as always, and he thankfully talked back to me. He knew Aunt Katherine needed the conversation to stay awake.  That . . . and he and I shared some ice cream together (Just don’t tell his mom.).  It is always fun when you get to spoil.

Time to get some rest.  I am rambling.  My kids do it . . . where you keep talking so that you don’t fall asleep.  So it must be time to go to bed.

I walked outside to find the children sitting on the swing set eating their popsicles.  They were absolutely quiet.  Not a peep.  I could hear the music faintly coming from inside the house, but nothing else.  I asked if the children liked it quiet like this and they just shook their head yes.  For just a moment (or for as long as it took to eat their popsicles) it was so quiet and still.  Not even the birds were talking today.  I guess everyone, including nature, needed some peace and quiet just at that moment.  I think that I will go back outside and sit for awhile with some cold ice tea (my popsicle equivalent) and absorb the quiet.  I think that it will do me some good to fill my bucket with serenity.

Quote from Ainsley, age 4.

Do you ever drive through your neighborhood at night and see the lights on in the window and wonder what is going on inside?  Drive by our kitchen window on any given night these days and you would see three children and their mom dancing wildly.  Some might think . . . what are those crazy people doing? Are they religious fanatics?  Drugs?  Hippies?  Nope . . . the kids have really taken to turning up the music and dancing each evening.  They take turns dancing in front of the stove so that they can see themselves.  They love it!  But it must look odd to the neighbors.  I don’t care.  I’m here to impress my children and not my neighbors!  So if you are ever in the neighborhood and you catch a glimpse of us in the window . . .

Doesn’t David take awesome photos?!!  She is having a really good time.  A good time dancing!!  She tried to do my death stare at the ball to see if that would stop it, but of course it didn’t.  I give her an “E” for effort.  Eventually she figured out that she had to physically stop the ball in order for the ball to stop rolling into the goal.  She only ran off of the field about a dozen times to get hugs from mommy and from her friends.  She would hug and, most of the time, then run back onto the field.  If she was mad because someone wouldn’t let her have the ball after she chased after it, I would have to “place” her on the field to get her to play again.  She didn’t understand win/loss or point/goals, but she understood when a boy took the ball away from her.  Darn him!!!!  Chris and I just laughed and clapped for an hour.  It was hilarious and fun to watch.  It brought a smile to everyone’s face watching that game.  Who could get mad? (Well there were a few parents who chose to go down that road, but we didn’t.)

Two rabbits in the blue bonnets.

I am up trying to get one more load of laundry done, finish some church work for tomorrow, clean the kitchen, prepare for the week, do a little more computer work and wait for Chris to come home.  So much to do.  Luckily the bewitching hour hasn’t come yet . . . that would be at 1am.  It can all seem overwhelming at times.  The list is long but time is short.  The kids did help clean up their rooms (to some degree) today and worked on the playroom (with a threat of the trash man taking away the stuff left on the floor).  Patient is a rare commodity around here.  Both with myself and amongst the kids.

The sweet news is that all of the kids are having a slumber party in Madie’s room tonight.  They are camping out on Madie’s floor.  They have been looking forward to it all day.  So cute!  Ainsley has an electric candle (the Christmas candle that you place in the window) by her head for safety (she says).  They all made pallets on the floor with their favorite pillows and blankets.  They look so small and sweet snuggled on the floor all together like that.

Well . . . the bewitching hour has come.  I am going to switch the laundry one more time, wipe down the counters, take the trash out and call it a night.  The morning will come too quickly.

There are two things in the sporting world that I was never fond of growing up.  Sweating and balls.  I hated to sweat and balls always ended up hurting me (broke my finger picking up a basketball).  Hence the reason that I decided to be on the swim team (I am sure that you sweat swimming, but nobody knows about it!!!).  I digress.  This weekend my children sweated hard for their teams and gained many bruises from being wacked with balls (both soccer and baseballs).  Even my Ainsley finally decided to become aggressive and go after that ball.  When she wasnt’ primping for Uncle David and his camera, she was actually running after the boys who were two heads taller than her and getting the ball away from them.  Awesome!!!!

It has been a busy day with all of the games and other activities, but we are chugging through it all.  I think that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  In June?  Maybe.  Until then, each Saturday we will be having fun watching the kids play their games.  Telling them to “just brush it off” (for when they get whacked with the ball) and “man up” (to Ben when the pitcher hits him in the shoulder with a baseball.  I told Madie to “man up” and she looked at me funny).

By the way, I beginning to see the wisdom of encouraging all of my children to join the swim team.  It may take all morning for a swim meet, but you are in one place. You set up camp. You walk to the pool to see the race. You go back to your “set-up” to wait for the next race.  And most importantly,  all three kids are involved at the same pool on the same day.  Driving the kids to all their games on Saturday morning has taken on a Herculean effort with many hands on deck.  I am having to call in favors and promise favors to others just to accomplish it all.  This is when moving closer to family has its benefits!! Thank goodness for good friends and family.  I think that I might just make it through the end of this sporting season.

Check out Uncle David’s Flickr page to see all of the awesome pictures that he has taken.  Including Princess Ainsley’s game yesterday.

The day has been long.  School, Girl Scouts, soccer practice, and now dinner/home/bed.  The ickiness of the world tried to creep into our” neck of the woods” today.  There was a lot of overwhelming sadness this morning as we feel for those people who hurt today.  Turning it to God is hard.  The faith of a child makes the path to God seem so easy.  My three children are in the kitchen this evening (while I fix dinner) with the ipod plugged into the speakers blasting the music and dancing.  Dancing with a true and free spirit.  This pure love is a joy to see.  It would brighten the devil himself today.  So enough wallowing.  It’s time to dance!