Life At The Circus

I’ll be honest.  When I think Memorial Day celebration, I typically think cook outs and swimming pools.  This year being 9 mths preggo, we didn’t really make any big plans for Memorial Day weekend.   Scott grilled for us several times and even got out this smoker and cooked a chicken for Monday’s dinner.  We went to the park, did a few things around the house and basically took it easy all weekend.  It was perfect.  So, my plans for Monday included sleeping in, eating sticky buns, perhaps a trip to Target in there somewhere and smoked chicken for dinner. Then, I talked with my 6 yr old son. Me:  Guess what?  Daddy doesn’t have to go to work on Monday. Son: Why? Me:  Because it is Memorial Day Son:  What’s Memorial Day? Me:  It is a day we remember the soldiers who gave their lives fighting for our country’s freedom Son:  So, what are we going to do for Memorial Day?  Are we going to go dow...

In honor of Memorial Day, I thought I’d repost this post from Jan of 09 in which my son first learned of the ultimate sacrifice many of our soldiers make for our country.  As we were discussing what Memorial Day was this week, my son asked what we were going to do to celebrate.  “So, are we going to the memorial in Annapolis then?”  I realized that sadly, Memorial Day typically comes and goes without much thought at all to why we have the day off.  It seems to mark the beginning of summer and swim season and white shoes, but all to often we forget to pause and reflect on the reason for the holiday.   May you take time today to give thanks for the soldiers who gave the ultimate sacrifice on our behalf and for those who are fighting today willing to pay that sacrifice should it be required. A Deeper Understanding JANUARY 24, 2009 [ edit ] in Weekend Thoughts Last week in church the pastor gave an illustration in which he mentioned the number of Americ...

Sometimes in the chaos of finding baseball gloves and missing cleats, in the midst of grocery shopping and read alouds, sometimes if your not careful, it is all too easy to miss the point.    In the midst of doing so many good and important things, you can neglect to focus on the main purpose of it all.  I recently had a the opportunity to read and review the book One Million Arrows by Julie Ferwerda.  The book is based on the vision of a man named Dr. M.A. Thomas (Papa) whose vision for ministry is based on Psalm 127:4-5, “Children born to a young man, are like sharp arrows in a warrior’s hands.  How happy is the man whose quiver is full of them.”    Papa’s vision is that of “one million arrows for God—one million children gathered, sharpened, and launched to make an eternal difference in their communities, cultures, countries, and even the world at large.” Julie encourages and challenges her readers to embrace the mission as parents.  ...

I’ve already confessed quite a few of my fashion fashion fo paws for you here on the good ol blog.  Why not add another to the list?  (I’m really just secretly hoping that Stacy and Clinton will come whisk me away and give me a brand new ward robe to enjoy with my post baby body… ah, wouldn’t that be nice)… But, back to reality… I am afraid that perhaps I know where my daughter got her bold fashion sense from. Tonight after baseball practice my husband lovingly said to me, “Honey, I really don’t like those pants.”  “I know,”  I replied, “But, I don’t have a lot of options these days…”  “but honey, you wore them in public.”  “Yea.”  “But they are really, um… loud.”  (here is where visions of 80 year old Crystal walking around with purple hair and a bright orange hat pop into my head)  I laughed it off and told him not to worry, with only a week left in my pregnancy I doubt I’ll wear them again. I then said, “Hey, you should take a pi...

Each year the Blue Angels perform a show at the Naval Academy in celebration of commissioning week.  Taking the kids to watch the show has become one of my favorite Annapolis traditions.   They fly so close you see the pilot!   Scott says I have to point the crazy small distance between the wings of the first plane and the cockpit of the next – They do corkscrew loops in that formation!   This one is my sons favorite.  They head for each other so fast you are sure they are going to hit.   These three capture the gist of Scotts favorite trick.  In the one below each plane goes on to do a full 360 loop and they all end up right back where they started. The whole show is incredible (and free).  We all love the tricks and Scott is always sure to mention what an engineering feet the jets are.  While I have to agree the jets play an integral part, my favorite site isn’t in the sky.     

I love pictures.   I’ll often find myself just staring at the screen saver on our laptop as the pictures scroll by.   These two blasts from the pasts crack me up every time they pop onto the screen.  They were taken on two totally different occasions, thought it appears my son was approximately the same age in both.  It also appears that his red striped shirt was his bully apparel.  Does he not look like the kid who would steal your lunch on the playground?  He was one scary 18 month old, huh? Visit here or here for more picture fun.

Sometimes I watch my husband as he fathers my kids and he just takes my breath away.  I love the way he can explain to my son in terms he can understand how just about anything under the sun works.  I love the way he pulls the kids aside and talks to them about respecting their momma.  I love when he takes one of them with him to church when he has deacon duty so they can have  some special one on one time while he unlocks the church classrooms.  I love watching him out on the soccer field or the baseball field as he assists their coaches and helps guide the team.  I love the way he carefully and gently combs the knots out of my girls hair.  I love the way he makes up goofy love songs for the kids and I and belts them at the top of his lungs around the house.  I love the way he tells them their Bible stories with such excitement and enthusiasm that it seems the characters jump right out of the pages.  I love that he makes spending time with...

After kissing my kids goodnight, singing them their lullaby, and closing the door, one of my favorite parts of the day is listening to my kids talk and giggle as they drift off into dreamland. Having them so close together truly has been a blessing in so many ways.  However, I have felt really guilty during the summers when I seemed to always have an infant in my arms and thus, my poor boy did not learn to swim.  2 years ago Scott took my son to a parent and me swim class.  My son was 4 and was by far the oldest in attendance.  While other kids, much younger were jumping off the sides of the pool, practicing going under water and learning to blow bubbles and kick their feet, Scott spent the entire class on the side, convincing my son to put his feet into the water.  He made huge strides by the end of the session,  but it was glaringly obvious to Scott and I that we had let him down and we had a lot of work to do in getting him used to the water and ...

Last week at church they gave an advertisement for our upcoming Vacation Bible School.   I was a few minutes late so I missed the announcement.  When I sat down my son said, “I do not want to go to VBS this year!”  I couldn’t figure out why.  My son said, “It’s not going to be anything like last year… it’s an adventure camp.”  Figuring he must have been intimidated by the adjectives they used to describe it, I told him it is going to be really fun. “No Mom,” he said, “you don’t know, they said this is not your Mom’s VBS.” At this point I had to chuckle.  Having not heard the announcement, I could only surmise what they said and just had to laugh at how their clever wording and advertising completely turned off my very literal 6 yr old. I am now working very hard to overcome the pulpit announcement and convince my son that it will be a lot like last year and even though it’s not your Mom’s VBS, and therefore I seem to have no expertise with wh...

I had a dream last night that I accidentally opened the envelope and found out we were having a girl. If your wondering how one can accidentally open the envelope, it’s actually not to hard to do b/c yesterday I was cleaning out some papers to be filed and saw a sealed blank envelope and thought, “What is that?”  Thankfully, before opening it, I saw the name of the sonogram office in the corner and realized what it was. Back to the dream….I felt so sick to my stomach as I had to tell Scott we made it till 2 weeks are left and now I knew.  It was awful. I was so glad to wake up and realize I am still clueless!!  I can’t imagine making it this long without knowing and then having found out like that. Now for the game…here are some preggo shots of me in each pregnancy.  See if I carried similarly or differently.    Place your bets as to what the newest circus member will be.  You can even place bets on the size if your feeling so inclined....

For the past 3 years the kids and I have gone to a local strawberry farm to pick our own berries.  It is a tradition I cherish.  We are suburbanites.  We don’t even really garden.  But, I love for my children to get some real life farm experiences.  I love for them to walk down the rows upon rows of plants. This year my son really went to town.   He’d scamper ahead down the row and come back with a basket overflowing with red berries.   He didn’t want to stop, “Please mom just one more basket!” I love the joy and satisfaction they get from “working the land” themselves.   In addition to watching my children take in the farm life, one of my favorite parts is just eating berry after fresh berry on our way home.  You can’t buy berries like this in the store.  They are truly delicious!  I love taking the kids to pick our own produce because we always come home with so much more than just delicious, fre...

In an attempt to make oral reading more fun, I gave my son the option of picking any location in our house to do his reading time.    He chose my closet. Would not have been my first choice, but no worries, to the closet we went… I brought a pillow for me to sit on as the floor isn’t so comfy for this 9 mth pregnant momma.  My son looked at me and said, “Hey, how come you aren’t sharing that pillow with me?”  I informed him his toosh could handle the floor and we then stuck a few pillows in front of us to make it more fort like.   He was a bit put out by the fact that he didn’t have a pillow to sit on but accepted it none the less.   I am reaching the end of my pregnancy and my body seems to be reminding me of that fact more and more each day.  Bending over, sitting, standing, sleeping, all of it comes with increased discomfort.  I often feel like a ginormous whale as I attempt to heave my belly out of bed or off of the couch....

By the third time around, one would think that a gal would have the whole labor thing down pat. One would think…. About a week or so before my due date, I started having contractions…nothing super painful, but enough to make we wonder, “What if this ends up being it?”  This time around the van was vacuumed well in advance, so no early morning trips to the gas station for Scott to clean the car before heading to the doctors.  BUT, we didn’t get a good shot of my belly towards the end of the pregnancy.  ( Seems I’ve discovered there is always SOMETHING to stress about right before having a baby ).   So, at 3am I woke Scott to tell him I was in labor ask him to take my picture.   Yes, I was freaking out that the contractions would turn into real contractions and by that point I wouldn’t feel like posing for a cute preggo belly shot and then this poor child would be the only one without a picture in Momma’s belly. So, I brushed my hair, changed c...

We had really good intentions, I swear. We got the envelope in the mail and when it came, I remember Scott perusing it and saying, “We must mail this in soon.  We can’t forget to do this.”  And so I did what I do with all of our important papers and I put it on the counter so I wouldn’t lose it and so I’d know right where they were. Yea… so that plan was slightly flawed… surprised, huh? Come April when I couldn’t find those papers anywhere, I called the Census Bureau, like a some what responsible American, to give them our info over the phone and to make sure we weren’t adding to the crazy cost of the census by making someone come to our home.  I answered every single question over the phone and I am sure it took twice as long to answer them over the phone as it would to fill them in the day the papers arrived in the mail.  But, I was doing my part to make sure we were counted. 3 weeks later the kids and I are upstairs… my son is reading to me from his ...

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My daughter sleeps with so many animals, pillows, dolls, and blankets in her bed, that sometimes when I go in to kiss her before I go to bed, I can’t find her.  One night I thought I saw her and then realized I almost kissed her cabbage patch doll.  Can you find her in the pile?  It reminds me of the old Where’s Waldo books. Here’s a closer look… there she is! Guess not much has changed from this picture taken a year and a half ago !