The Puddles

My sister took this photo in November before Ben’s surgery.  She managed to get some great photos of every one but . . Ben.  As you can tell from this photo, Ben was not interested in taking photos that day.  She took some great pictures of the girls but Ben’s best photo is with his back turned.  I was planning on getting prints of each of the children to hang in the entry.  I am pretty close to using the photo with Ben’s back.  We’ll see.

I am reclaiming the house from Christmas room by room.  So far only Madie’s room is left, and that one may take me the rest of the week.  In the process of my reorganization I have misplaced my camera.  I put it some place safe.  Where? I don’t know.  But at least it is safe.  Until then.  I thought I would post some of the pictures that Debra took earlier last year.  She and David are really good at taking pictures (of course, they do own a photography business).  I am thankful that we live so close.  Now if only my children will cooperate.

After rereading the last few posts . . . I sound depressing!  The only good parts about them was that I had fun with the kids.  That’s good . . .  but still.  So the sun’s rays have encouraged me to rethink my family and to be grateful for the positive.

Here it goes . . .

1.  My husband can fix anything.  I did  not realize how many husbands out there will not even attempt a household project.  My husband does it all with glee in his voice. He is installing my new double oven today.  And he’s excited about it!!!

2.  Did you know that Ben has grown almost an inch since his surgery?  True.  He did this after his last surgery as well.  He is healthy and growing like a weed!!  Also, Ben is very willing to come and give mom her daily dose of hugs from him.  He takes all of his medicine like a champ and never complains when I wake him up at night to give him his nightly dose.

3.  Madie loves to serve the Lord.  She actually filled out the time and talents sheet at church and asked some of the adults at church to help her figure out what all she could volunteer for.  If she was strong enough to hold the cross without dropping it, she would acolyte.  She gets upset if she doesn’t get to take communion and loves to sing songs and follow the liturgy in worship.  How many 8 year old children do you know that are like that??!!

4.  Ainsley is . . . well Ainsley.  She shouts my name when I come to pick her up from school and jumps in the car with gusto.  She absolutely requires snuggle time everyday and gets upset with me if she doesn’t get it.  She is independent and loves to do everything herself.  She wants to be like her big sister in every way and would rather clean Ben’s room than her own.

5.  My children all love to do “beauty shop.”  Don’t laugh.  At night when you are reading books to them they will come and put lotion on your feet and hands, brush your hair, massage your shoulders, etc.  In return the children end up getting three times as many books read to them (because who wants to put an end to that).  So if you are ever watching the kids . . .

The sun is out today.  The sky is blue. My curtains are open and we are letting the sun’s rays try to reach every corner of this dark house.  My family is happy and that is what is most important.

Where is the sunshine?  We could all use a good dose of it.  Chris is blah. The kids are blah.  I am making coffee at 4 in the afternoon. Blah.

After actually arriving at church when Sunday school started made the morning go well.  Everyone was dressed and ready to go.  The kids all had breakfast before we left the house and they took their medicines on time.  The puddles all enjoyed Sunday school today and were excited about going to church. Until . . . most of the people who sit behind us in the second row at church were missing.  Ainsley and Ben were sad.  It was really hard for the one person who was there to compensate for the entire row of people who dote on (or should I say spoil)  my youngest puddles. Ainsley was begging me to let her go to some of the other people who were there but sitting further away who she knew would love and hug on her.  But there was so much guilt that was swirling in my head . . . I can’t let my children make that much of a disruption at church.  I am the parent, therefore I should keep her sitting still with me.  How do all of the other mother’s in church keep their children in line? (Because of course, I can only hear my children be disruptive.)  So Ainsley left me for the nursery, right after the children’s sermon.  I enjoyed church (especially the music and of course the sermon), but we were all glad to get home.

Today was the kind of day that you just want to curl up on the couch with hot chocolate and watch tv and read the paper.  The kids all did that for a while.  Madie made one of her crafts that she got for Christmas. She enjoyed stuffing the bear and decorating the clothes.  Ben went outside to go play and wait for his friends to come out and play with him.  Now two of the three are outside enjoying the crisp winter air.  Only one is sad because “I’m too little.” I say she is just right.  She is the perfect reason for me to quit what I’m doing and a perfect size to cuddle on the couch with.

Soon I will have no excuse except to get up from the warmth of our cuddle and to get dinner finished.  At least I had the foresight to put a pot roast on in the slow cooker.  The smell of the roast cooking has only added to the perfect cuddle-on-the-couch, do-nothing kind of day.  I feel somewhat like Scarlet O’Hara when she says, “Tomorrow is another day.”  I will pray for sunshine and that the growing list of things to accomplish before school starts doesn’t get too much longer.  Today is a day for cuddles.  I’ll work on that list tomorrow.

Yes. And today was the day.  After a rough start this morning, I threw in the towel and gave up trying to accomplish anything productive around the house and just play.  So we had a kid focused day (minus the dinner*).  The first day of the year was spent trying to accomplish great things, but by the end of the day it was all about having a good time.  (Minus the dinner.*)  We invited the neighbors over for a twilight party. No, I don’t mean the movie by the same title.  A party where friends come over and you do all of things that you normally do at a slumber party except sleep over.  So we played games (Twister. Way funny!). Dressed up in all sorts of costumes (at one point Ben and Sonijha were stealthily creeping up the stairs armed with weapons, badges, and binoculars). Ate as much popcorn as we could consume and watched a movie.  All in all a good night (minus the dinner*).  Madie cried  when everyone went home, but Chris assures me that it is because she didn’t want everyone to leave.

Chris took Ainsley with him to fix someone’s computer, so the older siblings had the benefit of not having the younger sibling around to impede on their play.  Very important at 6 and 8 years old.  My laundry is still not done nor is the numerous other chores that needed to happen, but in the end everyone is happy.

*Special note . . . It is New Year’s Day. So dinner is sausage, sauerkraut, and black-eyed peas. The kids hate it every year and yet I force one bite of each item before they leave the table.  I have eaten this meal every Jan. 1 for as long as I can remember.  It is our family’s good luck for the new year meal.  I always thought that it was just my family, but apparently it is a southern tradition.  Trust me.  Finding black-eyed peas in Ohio and Nebraska for ten years had been difficult.   But I’m too scared to break tradition.  (What if what I thought was a bad year really turned out to be a good year?  And I only found out because I didn’t do my good luck meal this year.)  Chris says I need to remember my Christianity and to not rely so much on luck and to pray more.  Sure.  I’ll add it to my resolution list this year.  Just one more thing that I need to remember to do. ” Knock on wood” that I’ll remember to do it. Shoot.  I need to throw some salt over my shoulder to get rid of the bad luck for forgetting to not rely on luck . . . Oh, I give up.

Today . . .

1.  While I was showering and getting dressed, Ben and Ainsley decided to go outside to the driveway and play without telling me.  “I just wanted to see my neighbors. I didn’t leave the driveway.”

2.  Ainsley threw her entire plate with silverware in the trash.  By chance, I looked in the trash can and found it.  She says to me,” I didn’t know I wasn’t allowed to put my silverware in the trash.”

3.  Madie, Ben, and Ainsley got out Daddy’s new tire pump to “play” with.  They broke Daddy’s last one.  “I didn’t know that I couldn’t play with it.”

4.  All of them including the neighbor kids decided to tie a bookcase (the plastic kind that just connect together without screws) to the playhouse and use it haul a child up to the top of the playhouse.  As I was standing in the doorway and saying,”Get down. Somebody’s going to get hurt.”, the bookcase broke. A child fell.  And somebody got hurt.

It is only 2:00pm.

Ainsley is refusing to leave.

We went to the Houston Children’s Museum today with Gordon and Aunt Debra.  Despite the horrific crowds (!)  we had a great time.   They went to Kidopolis, climbed the two-story Power Tower, visited the TotSpot, and enjoyed a Kid’s New Year’s Noon Celebration. The museum had a “ball drop” at 12:00pm.  They had a Dixieland Brass band lead the kids in a parade and then helped with the countdown at noon.  Ben and Madie went with me to the courtyard for the countdown while Ainsley, Gordon, and Aunt Debra stayed and played at the TotSpot.  We got to the courtyard early so we had the perfect view of the bandstand and balldrop.   It was so much fun.  We didn’t get to do everything and the sea of people was continuing to increase even after the balldrop, so we decided to leave after spending the morning there.  Really Aunt Debra and I decided that it was time to go.  The kids were so mad.

So this is the picture of Ainsley refusing to leave the museum.  Debra took the picture.  She took a lot of fabulous pictures.  We threatened and conjoled and she still wouldn’t come.  She finally just didn’t have an excuse anymore.  Aunt Debra went and scooped her up.

It was a good day.  The kids got to celebrate New Year’s Eve early.  Ben got to go out for his first big excursion, besides church.  All in all a good day.

That’s what Ben calls his cardiologist.  Ben’s pediatrician explained his heart problem by comparing it to plumbing problem with his heart.  That his heart still worked but that we need a plumber to go in and work on his heart so the water will flow better (sounds weird but it worked for him).

So we saw the cardiologist and there is good and not the best news.  First of all. . . look at his awesome chest!  The scar is healing nicely.  By the way, he will show anyone his scar just ask (although I prefer that you don’t ask before we are walking into the sanctuary on a Sunday morning.  Tucking his shirt back in is hard!)  Second . . . she said that he sounds good.  She thought she heard an additional heart murmur while listening to him (like his aortic valve may have started leaking again), but she concluded that she believes the murmur is just a residual sounds from the resected membrane.  The sound went away when he laid back down.  I don’t understand it all, but that is what she said.

The not so good . . . on two different heart medications his blood pressure is normal.  So she asked us to try to take him off one of his medications today.  We did and his blood pressure went up to 115/70 (good for an adult. not good for a kid).  She wants it below 100.  We will try again in a few days.  I hate that he is still on so much medicine.  He is still on five different prescriptions.  Only two for the heart, but still.  He has developed pretty bad acid reflux over the summer (like he would throw up after lunch or breakfast.  Just throw up and then go outside and play!) So he is on an acid reducer and two allergy meds.  He needs them all but . . . yuck!

Now I have saved the best for last . . . BEN GETS TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!!!!  I don’t know who is more excited me or him.  He has to wait two more weeks for his sternum to heal but then he gets to go back!  He also gets to play outside for recess and run in p.e.   I think I want to cry.  He gets to be normal for a time.  He has no restrictions except he can’t carry his backpack for two more months.  I’ll take that restriction.

Happy Birthday, Madie!

Kamryn and Madie being monkeys! How close that is to reality!

Not to be left out. . . Ben!

For those of you who don’t know, Madie has a half-birthday party in the summer.  Madie always wanted to have an outside party with a pinata.  But that is near to impossible to do that in December in Nebraska.  So we started having a friend party for her in the summer and a family party in December.  This year she decided that she wanted to have her birthday cake with her cousins.  (Of course, she wanted her presents on the day of her birthday.)  She had to wait until Ben could be with people again, so we had to wait until Christmas Day to have her birthday cake with all of the cousins.  She wanted an ice cream cake (I use to think that mothers who didn’t bake their own child’s birthday cake were pure lazy.  But now I realize that sometimes it is out of necessity and I am often thankful when one of my children elect to have a store-bought cake.).  She picked it out and it made her very happy.  The day ended well for her and for the rest of us too.  It was a good birthday and an awesome Christmas.

Gordon and his daddy having fun

This is exactly how I feel about family sometimes!

We spent Christmas morning at our house and then headed off to Grandma and Papa Grace’s house for an afternoon of Christmas fun with aunts/uncles/cousins/grandparents. We all had a really good time hanging out with family.  After going, going, going with Christmas stuff, I am ready to relax and enjoy time with them.  Chris is always completely exhausted by Christmas Day.  Not only from the number of worship services but from the unpleasant dramas that the holidays brings out in families.  It is hard to be a pastor sometimes.  So it is nice to just hang and be amongst family.

We especially love getting to see all of the cousins.  From the teenager down to the toddler, they are always fun.  My kids always like having other kids their age to ride bikes and to play with.  I think that the teenager has a rough time of it.  But I’m so glad that she toughs it out to be with us.  It is sweet to see her get older and more gorgeous every day.

I didn’t catch many pictures of the day.  But someone helped me out by grabbing my camera and snapping a couple of photos for me.  Thank you, Aunt Michele!