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Callie, Nate, & I were working on science – plants for C & DNA/Heredity for N. Anders was playing outside. Next thing you know…
A – “Cat emergency!! I found a mouse & tried to get it. It can run faster than me!”
Upon closer inspection, this was no mouse, but rather a baby mole.
Soon after, while we were out looking for leaves to study various leaf patterns/veins, etc. to make leaf rubbings with (not an easy task this time of year), we came across this laying in the middle of the yard with three & a half eggs in it…
It’s been there a while (cold) so I’m sure no bird will hatch, but oh the hopes & dreams of three little would be bird parents!
Callie took her egg up to her room immediately & made a cozy nest out of her pencil box on the windowsill. When I went to go take pix, she said, “Mama! Be careful! Don’t shine a light in it’s eyes too much. That’s my baby bird! Oh, I hope it’s a girl bird. She’ll love this pink box!” and on & on she went.
Nate, on the other hand, informed me “One of the eggs exploded already. It had runny white stuff in it. Hey, let’s look at part of the shell under the microscope & test it’s DNA!” grabbing the scope & working away on it.
We’ve identified them as red winged black bird eggs. Makes sense. We have plenty of those around here.
Nate & Anders promptly set up a “mole emporium” for the baby mole while Callie dreams of all the fun she’s going to have with her baby bird. I’ve warned them of what will probably happen to all of the above. But they’re so caught up in the excitement of spring!
Before I could finish this post, the mole gave up the ghost & the kids buried it. See the little marker Nate made for it in the lower left corner? And Anders has a nursery rhyme CD blaring up in the room for the baby bird’s enjoyment. Callie has found a worm & put it in a container to keep beside the egg to feed when the bird hatches.
Bluebells along the fence.
Our “burning bush” by the entry door.
My wild violets are back!! They faithfully come up under our pantry window every year. I love, love, love ‘em!
Spring flowers are the best because they just show up.
Unfurling greens. These are Lily of the Valley, as my dear aunt reminded me. They will soon have loads of little white bells all over them. Beautiful!
Trillium on the way.
The lilacs are coming! The lilacs are coming!!
Summer is calling.
Here’s Nate in his new baseball uniform…
Play ball!!
Every time, right before a new baby comes to our house, I get this ridiculous mommy guilt. It’s hormones because my mind knows these guilt feelings are stupid. I know how great a new sibling in the family is – I’ve only ever prayed God would give my children more! But it seems each time, I have some moments of sadness over stupid stuff. I write this out so I remember. So I can tell Callie & my daughters-in-law someday that they are normal & I totally understand.
Right before Callie was born, I remember crawling into bed for a nap with little Nate & just crying, knowing full well this new baby would be one of the greatest things in Nate’s life forever, yet feeling I hadn’t spent enough time cuddling him yet, letting him know how much I loved him & how special he was. Heavens! Do you know how much this little guy had been gazed upon!? He was the first grandbaby on both sides & we lived in a foreign country where EVERYONE “ohh”ed & “ahh”ed over him wherever we went. Yet I still had those feelings, as irrational as they were. I felt like my special one-on-one time with him was slipping away, never to return.
The biggest thing I remember about Callie was taking her upstairs to our room on her first birthday & nursing my sweet little girl for the last time. I love nursing, but we had decided one year is enough & was a good time to end it. By that point with us, they are only nursing for fun (snuggle time) anyway. With Nate, being the first, I just nursed because I always knew that’s what I wanted for my children. But with Callie, I had come to know how special that bonding time that comes with nursing is & sat with her & cried that it was over already.
Now with Anders, the child God has given me the most time as my baby so far, it seems the guilt is coming from, oddly enough, mostly the first two! So often lately I have thought back to when Nate was a baby & realized how unique he was & at the time I didn’t have a clue or relish those uniquenesses because he was my first & I didn’t know it was Nate…I thought that was babies. Does that make sense? Like the awesome way he, at mere days old, would stare up at me with those huge blue eyes & make me feel like I was the center of the universe – greatest Mom in the world. I thought all babies looked at their mommas like that. But now I’m realizing, he had a special way of doing that. (He still does actually – when I tuck him in, he often tells me I’m a great Mom, no matter how crummy a day it’s been. What a guy!!)
I feel really badly about Callie because I didn’t get that much snuggle time with her before Anders came along. I can’t really remember snuggling with her at nap time like I did the other two even though I’m sure I did. That makes me feel horrible! But, I do know she’s the one of all the children so far, being that she’s my girl, will have lots of special times together just her & me as she grows up.
As far as guilt over Anders, it’s mostly just that I haven’t done the preschool fun stuff with him I did with the older two. But, I also know that I started plenty early with the other two & Anders is not “behind”, despite my lesser efforts with him. Also, he has the other two to listen in on lessons, so he has experienced in some ways more than the older ones. And to top that off, the reason he hasn’t done playdough, paints, etc. like the others is because he has proven to be completely untrustworthy to do those things without being a nut!! So sorry, Buddy, no guilt there.
Guilt. It comes with motherhood. Sometimes it’s real, but you have to know that often times it’s just hormones. And right before the next child joins the family is one of those times the guilt comes flooding in, at least for me. Just keep telling yourself what you know is absolute truth… this new baby will bring more joy & love to each & every member of the family. But know you’ll find something new to feel guilty about with this one when the time comes. It’s normal!!
Just dumped my digital pix to find a few new ones I hadn’t taken. Thought I’d share & see what you think…
Don’t you love the stage when they’re too little to know how to get away with things? The same boy the other day was sitting on the… well, you know. He likes to do this with the door wide open so he doesn’t miss anything, mind you. Out of the blue, he gives me those earnest eyes & says, “Sorry, Mom.” “For what!” “For dropping your exercise gloves in the toilet.” As I went to go find them, I asked if the toilet had been clean when this happened & he assured me it was. When I found them right where I had last left them, they were bone dry. Apparently, his vicinity had brought a guilty conscience at not letting me know about the incident yet. Lately he has been using my gloves to pretend he has batting gloves when he bats with Nate. At least I know he’s honest!
Time for a few new quotes heard around our house. This time, it’s the boys who’ve had some zingers lately, so I guess I’ll call these “Nate & Anders-isms”…
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Anders: “Mom, is it tomorrow?”
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Nate: (trying to explain a little hand held toy a friend of his had at church) “It’s like a play station in your hand, but with excellent graphics…you know what graphics are, don’t you Mom?”
M: “Yes, I think I now what graphics are, Son.”
N: “No, I just thought you’d think ‘violent’, like graphic content. It’s not that.”
Just mere moments later, working on Study Island…
N: “Mom! Something’s wrong here! It won’t let me answer! It opens a new mozzarella window every time I click the answer!” (meaning Mozilla)
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Anders: (singing his heart out on the bar stool beside me) “I love dis girl…who’s next to me!”
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This morning, I awoke to Anders staring at me. He snuggled up into our bed, stuck his arm up next to mine, & said, “Look, Mom. We have the same arms!” (I often point out our similarities. This one, however, goes no further than that we both have skin & bones as far as I can see. That and a hinge in the middle called an elbow. So, yeah, I guess we have the same arms.)
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A: “MOM!! Nate hurt me!” (yelled up the stairs – didn’t sound really hurt at all.)
M: “I’ll be down in just a minute.”
A: (to Nate, rather loudly) “Mom said she’s gonna paddle you when she comes down!”
Now that’s what I call a loose interpretation.
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Nate & Anders , enjoying a TMNT video together including busting all the great moves on each other, numchucks swinging, plastic sabers clanging, etc.
N: “Anders, you are not so bad, ya know that? You are not so bad.”
A’s response: (in a sing-songy voice) “My bottom stinks!”
Such a bonding moment. Brings tears to the eyes, doesn’t it?
Pretty good day, if I do say so myself. I think it helped to write out the list for all to see. Most of it got done. You can only imagine my dismay & sorrow when going to start the dreaded oven cleaning job, discovering only about an eighth of a can of oven cleaner left. Bummer!!! Guess I’ll have to put that on my grocery list & leave to do another day. Shucks. And even though there are a couple other things left (C needs to Magic Erase yet & the wall heater didn’t get de-linted), MOST of it got done & there were even a few extras snuck in there along the way (the china cabinet got thoroughly wiped out & I talked to a few friends who called, snuggled with the young ‘uns a bit & even took a brief nap. Hey. some things just have to be done.) It feels good to get the list whittled down a bit.
Tomorrow is another test day. And Club. Keith’s project is closing in for his class & hopefully will be giving him more time by the end of the week. He’s seeing the light at the end there. It’s been a long winter & it’s nice to have spring here. Hey, the first of our tulips popped it’s color today! More to come in upcoming weeks.
Seeing as I come from a long line of procrastinators (with a strong work ethic, of course), is it any wonder that I earmarked today as a “major cleaning day”, complete with a hefty list of projects, only to find myself sitting here an hour into it glancing over blogs? Just taking a “tea break”.
Anyway, I will get back to it. Before I do, if you got a kick out of the manly contraptions & women drivers pix posted in the past, you ought to go see these. If you have boys (or are married to a man, or work with men), it really is amusing.
To keep myself accountable, here’s my wish list for today…
– clean out the two bathroom fans, wipe down two ceiling fans, & de-lint the wall heater
– dust off fake plants
– spray all windows for bugs & wipe off dead ladybugs from windowsills
– scrub out the ovens!!!! (this one scares me the most)
– straighten pantry (above fridge, bookcase with phone books & cookbooks, etc.)
– take magic eraser around & scrub walls/trim (this one’s Callie’s chore)
– vacuum out all ten heat registers, removing Legos, fudgsicle sticks, etc. BEFORE sucking up the dust bunnies (this one’s been doled out to Nate)
– Wipe down the porch doors
– Cut off all those annoying little sprigs on the bushes (that keep getting longer!) to keep from driving me nuts until the bushes get a full fledged trimming.
– Get some science & language arts done with Callie that should’ve been done last week
– Take Nate to baseball practice on time tonight
Already done today (to reassure myself)…
– spray painted the new cement covers out back
– spray painted Callie’s toy highchair someone gave us last year half painted (it looks SO much better!)
– Started a plant lesson with Callie
– Put remaining three coats away for future use
– Got two loads of laundry going
– Did the dishes
– Read a few blogs!
– Emailed a few friends
- Downloaded a boatload of Rush, Nancy Leigh, & Family Life Today on iPod to keep my mind busy while I work.
Okay, now back to work!! Mush! Mush!!
Okay, I know I’ve linked to this guy twice before, but he just keeps cranking them out! Today, Prodigal John is talking about clapping in church. This hits very close to home for me.
In our church, it absolutely drives me nuts how EVERY time we clap, it is started on the downbeat instead of the off beat. Syncopate, people!! Please! We sound like a metronome. I am almost, but not quite, ready to just jump right in when I feel the clappin’ a comin’ & start it out loud & proud. Somebody has got to take the proverbial bull by the horns on this one before I lose it. John has a way of capturing the funnies! If you haven’t read him yet, you need to read this one.
Sorry to be so out of touch, but lately it’s been mostly schooling, cleaning, & planning for next year. Nate’s tests are this week, so the Study Island push is behind us. We are going to chill out on school this week. Spring cleaning has been at least started (which is half the battle, right?). Screens are clean & back in, being put to good use, windows washed, curtains cleaned & rehung, fridge & freezers scrubbed, etc. There’s only, what? Twenty things left on the list to do yet? One small step ahead each day… And Wednesday Club is pretty much thought out for next year, schooling decisions have been made for the children, as well as Keith’s paperwork filled out to head in whichever direction God leads next year (Kent State Doctoral applications, a possible grade switch in the current school in which he teaches, and a school switch possibility). Keith’s grad classes are winding down & Nate’s baseball practices are gearing up. We’re all counting the weeks, making sure all ends are tied up, before summer break. Spring clothes have been pulled out, winter clothes either given, thrown or stored away, AND, I am slowly but surely realizing we do have a little one coming in about 90 days & there’s old baby stuff to go through, restock, set up, etc. That process has begun with great joy. 
With our church not doing a VBS this year (I’ll be preoccupied with a wee one), I decided to help organize a few backyard CEF parties for whoever in the church has neighborhood kids & wants to party. We will be doing Eric Liddell’s Olympic party (His Best For God – I guess they don’t sell it anymore because I couldn’t find a link to it anywhere) since the Olympics will be gearing up. We’ve lined up a teacher, teen game directors, a couple locations, and are just working on dates, praying about other possible locations, and the little details. It should be an easy & fun summer outreach. Thanks, Mom, for the inspiration!
As far as extended family news goes, my father’s mother was put on hospice last week so our family will be traveling down the funeral road again soon it looks like. Grandma is ready to meet the Lord. She’s tired & doesn’t want any more medical intervention. I don’t blame her, but don’t want to do this again! We’ve had just way too many goodbyes lately. Mom got news she’s to have cateract surgery in both eyes in the upcoming month or so. And, my uncle Harry crushed his foot in a farming accident last week & will probably lose a good part of it. On the other side of the medical news spectrum, Scott, Keith’s good friend with brain cancer has been told it is GONE. Totally! Looks like God has healed him. He realizes it could always come back, but for now we are praising the Lord with this young godly man, his wife, & baby girl.
So, that gives a quick rundown of the goings on around here. It has now officially been recorded for posterity. Oops, the coats are dry. Better go get them out of the dryer & into the storage bins for next winter before my gumption runs out today.
