Life At The Circus

I am convinced that some of the best bonding between my kids takes place after we kiss them goodnight and shut the door.  The policy in our house has been that they can talk in bed (or in their drawers) as long as they are quiet and stay laying down.  (no jumping off the bed or playing with toys) The giggles and chattering drifting down the hall are some of my most cherished sounds.  In fact, it was during one of these “behind closed doors chats” that my son led his younger sister to the Lord.  She told me one day that she knew she was a Christian because she had prayed with her brother one night asking God to forgive her of her sins and be her Savior.  So, naturally, when my oldest son moved out of the room he’d shared with his sisters for 4 years in order to share a room with his little brother, it was a bittersweet moment at the circus. But, I think in the past year since that happened the bond of friendship between the girls has grown.  AND a genuin...

While we didn’t plan it like this at first, Sunday ended up being date day for each of our 4 kids.   Each child ended up with some one on one time with either mom, dad, or Aunt Karen.  Good times had by all! One of the duties of our church deacons is to unlock the church on Sunday mornings.  When Scott became a deacon 3 years ago, he started taking one child with him on his deacon duty mornings.  This served a dual or maybe even triple purpose.  1.  it got him some one on one time with one of the kids  2.   it allowed the kids to participate in serving the church alongside him  (rather than serving at church being something that took Daddy away from the fam) and 3.  it left me with one left kid to get ready for church Sunday morning.    The kids LOVE when it is their turn for deacon duty with Daddy.  They love unlocking their SS classrooms, turning on the lights, and turning on the heat in each room.  They...

Can I make a little confession?  I was going to skip Presidents Day… truthfully, it’s a holiday that I’ve only really given a nod to in the past, no real hoopla.  And this year it falls right before Fat Tuesday and the end of Mardi Gras… Mardi Gras is another holiday I’ve skipped in the past but for some reason this year I decided to educate the kids on New Orleans food and culture as well as jazz music… (I think it’s b/c of these Family Fun magazine recipes )… Anyway, I was all set to celebrate Mardi Gras on Presidents Day this year b/c we are off school on Presidents Day and Tuesdays are crazy busy with school at home, piano lessons, and gymnastics… But, then my son mentioned to me yesterday (after we had already left Aldi’s mind you)  “Mom, didn’t you say you were going to make cherry pie for Presidents Day?”    oh right…. I did…. IF ONLY HE HAD MENTIONED THAT AN HOUR EARLIER WHEN WE WERE AT THE STORE…. so… I shuffled around my Mardi Gras plans… an...

In the midst of all the birthday party and Valentine’s day preparations and excitement, someone suffered from some severe neglect. Excuse me while I attempt to make up with my overlooked and neglected washing machine.   If you don’t hear from me in awhile, look under the pile of clothes… I may have surrendered in defeat!

I love holidays… all holidays… as in Chinese New Year… Ground Hog Day… Mardi Gras…St Patty’s Day… Cinco De Mayo… give me a reason to make a themed meal and I’m in.  I love celebrating life with my family. So, yes… I go a little crazy for Valentine’s Day… even if it is a holiday created by Hallmark…. I’ll still serve heart shaped food for every meal and dress my kids in red. Scott and I went out last night.  He surprised me with flowers and a card and we went out for dinner and a movie, with Ben and Jerry’s when we got home.  It was a delightful evening.  I realized as I was getting ready last night that it was the 15th Valentine’s Day we’ve celebrated.  I still vividly remember our first… when he held my hand for the very first time.  Today we had heart shaped donuts for breakfast… heart shaped pizza for lunch, heart shaped sandwiches for dinner and heart shaped lollipops for dessert.   We passed out Valentine’s at gymnastics and we all wore...

My oldest daughter turns 6 this week. 6 years old. It just sound so old… so, not a baby, not a toddler, not a preschooler, but a… girl.  I spent some time looking back at pictures and videos this past year and I realized that 5 is a significant year.  She grew up A LOT this past year. She started school. She learned to read. She learned to add and subtract. She lost 3 teeth. She learned to ride a 2 wheeler. She taught herself to slide tackle in soccer… totally illegal in pee-wee soccer, by the way, but so completely instinctual for her that it was impossible to get her not to do it. She grew as a gymnast…learning new skills…taking longer classes… She made new friends. As my role shifted from just mom to mom and teacher in this year of her life, I realized I have gotten to know her better.   I didn’t know how much she loved numbers and math and order and categories.  As I think back on her 5th year of life, I’ll remember the winter hats ...

At the end of last year Scott and I went out for a big fun day date.  As we thought back over the year and looked ahead at the new year we talked about things we wanted to do differently in the coming year.  Scott had a few suggestions on the food front.  One was that we eat more meatless dinners.  He was not advocating we go vegetarian…(good thing too b/c this meat and potato loving gal would have surely lasted all of 2 days at best) the other was that we starting eating more fish.  And, truthfully, eating any amount of fish even once would have been significantly more than we’ve ever eaten.  Because, to be honest, I don’t like fish and therefore I don’t cook fish.   I hide behind the fact that since I don’t eat it, I wouldn’t know how to cook it… but truthfully, it’s because the look, smell, and texture disgust me. But, I was willing to give it a try.  Because I love my man. I decided to instill Meatless Wednesdays at our house and to...

More times than not, when I peek in on my girls before heading to bed, I find them sleeping together.  Sometimes this means they are both down on the bottom bunk. Sometimes, it means they are side by side in their drawers (truthfully I find them like this almost as often as I find them in the bottom bunk).  Sometimes they are both on the floor.  (haven’t found them like that in the last 2 weeks) And once, last week, I even found them side by side in the same drawer.  As I peek in on them snuggled up together, it gives me hope that as they grow, they’ll share secrets, slumber parties, and hopefully a life long friendship, side by side….

One day my 4 year old came to me with about 8 pony tail holders and asked me to put them all in her hair.  I was surprised with how cute it turned out and she was excited when she received compliments on it from her friend at church.  After realizing how well it stayed in, I decided it might be worth trying this for gymnastics.    ( this is it after a night of sleep) So, we tried it out for gymnastics that Tuesday.  After their classes, my 5 year old told me she gives me 1 point for her hair that day b/c it stayed in, but was loose at the end.  Her sister however awarded me 3 points b/c not only did it stay in, but her teacher told her she liked it.  And so it began.   It, of course, being, my receiving scores for how I style my daughters hair for gymnastics.   ( because you know there isn’t enough pressure already as a mom…) Each day before class we started allowing extra time when getting ready so I could do something...

As if the sight of one boy playing the piano, didn’t melt my heart enough… 2 boys just turns me to mush