It's the Thought that Counts!

It was a busy morning. Too busy for me to get in the shower. Well, that's pretty much every morning. For some reason, I put off the shower until I have to, unless we're going somewhere. Which means I'm usually surprised, make that mortified, when unexpected visitors show up. The poor UPS guy. But that's another post.

On the morning in question, I had dressed the girls and sent them outside to play. I was doing chores when I heard two little soprano voices yelling, "Mommy, we picked you some flowers!" These bouquets often consist of a raggly-taggly bunch of wildflowers, with the clods of dirt still hanging precariously from their roots. So I pasted a thankful smile on my face and mentally searched for an appropriate container to put them in water. I looked and the door and gasped in horror.

These are the flowers they picked.

That's right. NOT wildflowers. These are groomed, very meticulously I might add, in the backyard adjacent to our backyard. I often see the elderly woman out weeding, pruning and basically loving these plants. She even covers them at the threat of frost!

But my daughters loved me so much, they thrust their little hands through her chain-link fence and picked me a flower. It makes my heart melt.

But we did discuss boundaries that day.

And I'm still waiting for the knock on my door from that little old lady.

Planting Trees with the Expert

At the cabin in Newkirk, Poppy James is the resident expert on all things green. Except boogers. When it comes to planting, he is a genius. This land of plenty is where all things wonderful and canned come from. In addition to a traditional garden, Poppy James grows and grafts fruit trees. Who better than this to help the girls plant their free trees they received from Lowe's on "Free Tree Day"? Not me. I managed to kill the live money tree that was at our wedding reception at this same cabin. I'm pretty sure that killing a money tree is just unforgivable. But, I digress. We managed to talk Poppy James in to planting these three little saplings. The girls helped. Or, just got in the way. You decide.

Look how hard we're working! (OK, It's a little scary how McKenna has worked out this cheese-factor)

OK, we'll let Poppy James do the hard part.

No, Poppy, I think you should dig the hole over here.

Again with the cheesin' for the camera. Sheesh.

Now, I ask you. How helpful can one child be when she's standing on the spot Poppy James is trying to dig up?

Whew. That was hard work. It's a good thing Granny keeps plenty of Coke around.

Amen, sister. I'm beat.

Easter Weekend

We are privileged enough to have a cabin in Branden's family that is available for our use. Down in Newkirk, OK sits a little two-bedroom cabin that Nana and Poppy James Langley keep fully stocked, clean and ready for whoever wants to get away for the weekend. Traditionally, we spend Easter weekend at this cabin with everyone. This year was no exception.

In my sister-in-law, Lydia, I have found a kindred spirit. We're planners. We're caretakers (both of young and old). We're bossy. We're efficient. And when you get five families together for a holiday weekend, planning and efficiency are required. Long ago, the family learned to let us do what we do best.

For this year's holiday weekend, we (and by we, I do mean myself and Lydia) decided to go to church on Saturday evening instead of rushing around Sunday morning. This was a FANTASTIC idea! We went to church, had a late supper and put the kids to bed at a reasonable hour. Then, Sunday morning, we were able to have an Easter basket scavenger hunt since we weren't running off to church. Here is a small sampling of the fun that ensued.

The first clue from the Easter Bunny. Adysan has taken the time to get dressed and fix her hair. My girls couldn't be bothered.

The next clue is discovered out by the Outhouse. The working outhouse. You'd think that the Easter Bunny would have better taste than that.

Headed to the big red barn.

Read it, read it!

You can see that Daddy/Uncle Blake and Daddy/Uncle Branden chose not to get dressed either. Seems Adysan is the only one that's got it together.

Next clue!

Whoo hoo! Found it in Poppy James's garden.

I really hope nothing was unintentionally unearthed in their excitement. The Easter Bunny (Mommy) might be in some real trouble.

Whew! This is a tough hunt. I need a ride!

The Loot!

The idea of the Scavenger Hunt was originally met with skepticism. However, based on the fun these guys had, I think this is a new tradition! 

Misnomers

It has recently come to my attention that parents often re-name, or rather don't bother to correct a mis-name of, common things. For example, on the rare occasion I find myself in a Target, I get a Starbucks. If my children are with me (and able to consume cow's milk), I purchase them a kid-sized steamer. This is merely a dressed up hot chocolate. McKenna has forever believed that this is coffee. I've never had the energy to argue with her. She will walk through the aisles of Target, sipping her small-person-sized-logan-plastered cup and say, "Mommy, I just LOVE coffee!" Oh, the looks of reproach I get. But they'll get over it.

A good friend of mine was sharing a misnomer with me today. She allows her daughter to have the Halls Defense drops that are basically hard candy-ish vitamins. She's never corrected her daughter's assumption that these were cough drops. When her daughter opened a grab bag from a birthday party to find strawberry hard candies, she yelled, "Oh goody! I got cough drops!" It's the little things, people.

When my girls were younger and ate like birds, (OK, Madelynn still does) I would supplement their diets with a Pediasure at bedtime. This way, I didn't have to worry about them getting the right nutrition. Turns out, it was a vicious circle. Since they woke up full in the morning, they weren't hungry enough to eat all day. ~sigh~ But I digress. The Pediasures were disgusting! So, I told the girls that they were "milkshakes" and the first few times, I'd put chocolate syrup in. Worked like a charm. Except for the first time we were out of town visiting relatives. They were all ready for bed when they came in the kitchen, "Mom, can we have our milkshakes now?" Hmmmm

But the mis-titled item that haunts me the most is their melatonin. Each of the girls have bad, life-like nightmares, so the pediatrician recommending giving them a melatonin tablet before bed and another if they woke up in the night. Now, I don't love medicating the kids, but I've gotten over my inital fears after years of allergies, asthma and colds. At this point, if I get the nod from the doc, it's all good. So we started giving them melatonin at bedtime. People, it's like a miracle drug! Except, it's not a drug, it's a supplement. That's right, all natural. And it's fan-freakin-tastic! My girls don't have time to cover themselves up after they lay down, because they're already asleep! Love it! But here's the hang up. I think McKenna's hooked. We've started breaking the tablets in halves and fourths on days that they didn't get a lot of rest. Then one particularly tiring day, we skipped the melatonin altogether. McKenna was not pleased. She begged for her "sleeping pill" for a good 30 minutes. I finally told her that when I was finished washing dishes, I would come check on her and if she wasn't asleep yet, I'd give her a melatonin. That little bugger kept herself awake by sheer mental doggedness. Every five minutes, "Mommy, are you done with the dishes? I need my pill!" We should probably work on that terminology before someone submits a complaint.

Love,
A

A Shout-Out to Moms

On Monday mornings, after I drop Madelynn off at school, McKenna and Marek and I go the the grocery store. It doesn't seem like it would make such a big difference to shop with two rather than three, but it does. I think it's an exponential thing.

On this particular Monday morning, I woke up with a croupy cough and no voice. I contemplated skipping school, but Madelynn would have been way too sad to miss the Bike Rally. So I sucked it up, doped it up and away we went! If we're out, might as well get groceries.

After getting Madelynn settled, we headed off to Wal-Mart.

It's odd to me how Madelynn's absence changes McKenna. Without the presence of her older sister, McKenna really steps up to be the helper of Mommy and protector of Marek. I will have to think of ways to nurture that through the summer....

We were wrapping up our shopping in the condiments aisle. I stood there, staring dumbly at the ridiculous number of BBQ sauces available. I mean, really. Two women were standing in the aisle, talking and I was trying to just pick a stupid bottle. One woman approached me and this is how I remember the conversation...

"Excuse me, are these your children?" she asked.
Suspiciously, I answered, "Yes".
"We also have small children and we noticed you have two small children."
"Well, my oldest is in  school right now." I admit.
Turning to her friend, "See, she has THREE kids!" Turning back to me, "My friend is having a hard day today and we noticed how happy your children are, they're dressed and well behaved."
I turn around to make sure that they were, in fact, behaving. It is at this point that I have a coughing fit.
"I also notice you have a cough. Are you not feeling well?" she inquired.
"Well, I think allergies are hitting me hard today." I shrug.
To her friend, "See, she is not feeling well and here she is getting groceries with TWO kids!"
At this point I speak to the friend, "Everyone has hard days, me included. In fact, this is a rare occasion that no one is whining or crying!"
"You see, you're not alone, dear."
So I decide to impart the best advice I have, "Whenever you have a rough day, just grab a Starbucks and put on as many movies as it takes to get to resting time!"
They both laughed and I made a graceful exit, before either of my kids embarrassed me!

That conversation gave me a warm feeling inside and I just thought, it's nice when someone recognizes you're hard work. So I've decided that I'm going to do a better job of telling the moms I know, what a good job they're doing.

But, just to make sure that I'm not gettting a big head, God helps me stay humble. I'm going to share a story with you that I'm pretty embarrassed about (my mother, however, thinks it's hilarious!). Maybe this will help your day by giving you a smile or a little perspective!

I was using our new stroller for the first time at an outing with a good friend at HyVee. When I took Marek out of his car seat, he was asleep. I wrapped him up and laid him down in the stroller. No buckling necessary. As we walked around the store visiting, Marek slept away. We stopped in the baby aisle to talk about the newest, greatest finger foods, Marek started fussing. I gently rocked the stroller to soothe him back to sleep and continued visiting. He started fussing a little more, so I decided it was time to start walking again. I pushed forward on the stroller and hit resistance. I assumed I was dragging a jacket, so I just pushed harder. Nothing. As I leaned around to look, I realized MAREK WAS LYING ON THE FLOOR! He had slid out of the stroller onto the floor and I was running into him with the stroller! AAAHHH!!

I could have run out of the store, bawling my head off. What kind of mother doesn't notice when her baby falls out of the stroller? And then runs into him?!?!? TWICE?

Fortunately, I was with a good friend that knew exactly what I needed. She laughed. And hugged me. And then Marek. And then she made me laugh.

So in preparation for Mother's Day, I just want to tell all of you moms out there that I love and admire, you're doing a great job!

A