Joyfully Weary

I could on and on about how wonderful our library is. Their collection is amazing. There is no limit to the number of books I can check out. I can renew books online - I still end up paying late fees but it's not nearly what it could be. They also put on amazing programs and events. This past week they held a celebration for Hermione Granger's birthday. This worked out perfectly for our family because our older three kiddos have started to fall in love with Harry Potter... the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree . In fact, spoiler alert, we are all going to be HP book characters for Halloween.  Little Lady is going to be Hermione, and she has started to see her as a bit of a role model. It's kind of a great fit. Not only does Little Lady share some of her physical features but their personalizes are also quite similar. Like Hermione, Little Lady could easily be a Ravenclaw or a Gryffindor. She is smart as a whip. Even though she won't turn 7 unt...

Being a parent is so draining yet so fulfilling. It's full of stress yet also full of humor.  I feel like many days I'm on a teeter-totter. One moment I'm ready to send them all up to their rooms so I can have a bit of space and quite and then next I'm laughing at their silly shenanigans and pulling them close for a long hug.  It's not always easy but I do love being their mom. They make me smile and laugh...they melt my heart over and over again. 

I wholeheartedly agreed with parts  of Jen Hatmakers article,  "What Would My Mom Do" . I think her words,   " A good parent prepares the child for the path, not the path for the child. We can still demonstrate gentle and attached parenting without raising children who melt on a warm day. " are so wise. I think kids need freedom. They need lots of chances to explore and chances to fail. I also strongly believe that kids need lots of unstructured time; time where nobody is there to  entertain them  but their imaginations.  So many of the words in this article and many of the articles like it are full of good thoughts. Thoughts that I think mothers need to hear: we don't need to bubblewrap our children, it's ok to tell them to go play, our purpose as parents is not to just entertainment them, etc . What bothers me is that in order to make this point there seems to be a need to bash the activities that are bringing another mother joy.  J...

Last week I met a mom friend and her kids at one of those inflatable play places. When we got there we were the only ones in the place so we let our kids have free reign of the two rooms. We walked around watching the kids and chatted as they played. A couple of our kiddos talked us into going down the big slide. Our kids were having a ton of fun and were obeying the rules. an old picture, from a previous excursion After being there for a little over an hour and a half we sat down on a bench to talk. We noticed that a few other families had started to come in. It was now a little past lunch time so we gave our kids a five minute warning. Then we started talking and lost track of the five minutes. All sudden a dad came up asking if we had a boy wearing green. My boys were in purple and yellow so I said no and didn't think anything of it until a couple minutes later when the dad became visibly upset and shouted "I guess that little sh*t is here all by himself!" It w...

These three bring me so much joy. They challenge me and push me to the brink of frustration...but they also have the sweetest smiles and the best hugs. Plus they make me laugh with their eccentric creativity and silly observations. Big Buddy about ready to introduce Mini Man to the Harry Potter audiobook: "This story is awesome literally awesome!"  "I don't like bright chocolate, I like dark chocolate!" shirt: target ( similar ),  jeans: gap ( similar ), boots: target ,  sweater: target, shirt: ( similar) ,  pants: gift ( similar  or similar ) We were discussing spider-man and how great power comes with great responsibility. Mini Man's response: "God's given me a great power, the power to hold on to people!"  After asking me to zip his coat:  "you are the queen of zippers!"  shirt: hand-me-down ( similar ), vest: hand-me-down ( similar ), skirt: gift ( similar  or similar ), tights: targe...

I've debated about sharing difficult/awkward stuff like this on my blog, but this past weekend when talking to a friend, she laughed and sighed, "I am so glad my boys aren't the only ones." My kids are amazing and I have complete faith that they are going to grow up to be some pretty outstanding adults. There are times though that parenting them is hard, and just simply a struggle. see they are amazing...when I look at this picture I'm convinced I'm the most blessed mother in the world.  One such area is my boys aversion to using the toilet. I kind of thought I was a bit of a rockstar parent, all my children were potty trained by two and half. It wasn't a struggle, we didn't follow any programs, it just happened. Then I started discovering urine in drawers and corners.  In their defensive, we live in an old home, so we only have one bathroom and it's on the second floor. Their playroom, on the other hand, is in the basement. I partly blame Je...

Sunday after church while Jeremy was busy making lunch and I was distracted texting my littlest sister (choosing a college is very dramatic)  Little Lady got a bit adventurous with the scissors. She decided it was time to move beyond clipping catalogs and trim her own bangs. We tried to be firm in our correction...to emphasis that she was never ever to cut anyones hair again. She was so pleased with herself though that it was hard not to smile.  I'm a bit sad that her hair is now a little wonky but she is as proud as punch. I've caught her admiring her handwork in the mirror several times and if you ask her what happened she will smile and tell you "I cut bangs!".  She pulls it off I guess - still crazy adorable ;) 

I can't remember exactly who, but while I was pregnant with Big Buddy somebody advised Jeremy and I to sit down and really talk about our parenting goals. What were our hopes for our children, what experiences did we want to give them, what values did we want pass on, etc? My knee jerk response was that I wanted to give them everything. But that is just a silly fantasy. Parenting, like the rest of life, is full of choices. You only have time and energy for so much. You have to choose where you want to focus your attention. A little bit later on we heard Pastor James MacDonald share  his family values in a sermon and we decided we wanted to create some for our family as well. We had a couple great conversations but then life got busy and we completely forgot about this goal. Until right after Little Lady was born and I was taking the bible study Entrusted with a Child's Heart (if you are a mom I can't say enough how much I recommend this study , it's packed full of b...

Thursday evening I got a special treat - some one-on-one time with Mini Man. It's the end of the school year at Jeremy's university and he had planned to take the boys to the seniors awards gallery, but Mini Man wanted to stay with Mommy and Little Lady is currently obsessed with her daddy. While we watched the rest of our crew head out I asked Mini Man what he wanted to do and he excitedly replied "make cookies with chocolate pieces!" It's nice baking with just one kid because I didn't have to worry about controlling the chaos as much and therefore he got to do a lot more. I read him the recipe but Mini Man pretty much did the rest all on his own. This did result in flour flying all over the kitchen and a few chocolate chips rolling around the floor, but it was just us in the house so clean up was a breeze. Since it was just us, I also let him taste every ingredient that went into the bowl (except the the egg - i drew the line there)....

Probably the most common thing we have heard, being parents of young children, is something along the lines of "treasure these moments they go by too fast". There is a reason it's said so often - it's true. It seems like just yesterday Big Buddy was born but somehow he's already taller than my waist, reading, and riding a two wheeler. Frequently, in the evenings after the children have gone to bed, I find myself telling Jeremy that I wish I could push pause, to somehow stop time and keep our kids right where they are for just a little bit longer. Unfortunately, kids don't come with pause buttons. So instead we've decided to make an effort to capture our kids on video; to create a record of who they are at these precious stages. I wish we would have started sooner. Big Buddy used to be obsessed with vehicles and had the cutest way of saying "motorcycle". It made us laugh every time. It was something we were sure we would never forget. But now fo...

We've been lucky enough this winter to be blessed with a bunch of great snow days. You know, the ones where the sun is shining, the snow is packable, and the wind is calm. It feels like a crime to not make the most of these perfect winter days so I've made it a point to keep the kids busy outside.  building snowmen shoveling snowball fights spray paint snow * liquid watercolors (food coloring will work too) in a spray bottle fort/tunnel digging As you can see it's been fun, but it's also been HARD! Taking three (sometimes four) kids outside is not easy! Getting everyone bundled up is an event by itself. Once we make it outside, inevitably someone's boots, gloves, or hat starts causing discomfort. It's also rare that one of the kids doesn't decide they are too cold after a few minutes. Lets just say there a lots of reasons to whine and sometimes I'm very tempted to scream at them all to "shut-up and ha...

Before we had children, Husbandie and I talked quite often about all the wonderful things we'd do as parents. One of the things on our to-do list was to have dates with our children. Nothing fancy, just one-on-one time with them, doing what they enjoy. When it was just Big Buddy these dates were easy - we'd frequently pack a snack and walk to the nearest street construction site where'd sit and marvel at the machines. Adding in two more children and homeownership, though, has made finding time for these moment more complex. Don't get me wrong, we still do family stuff, but we also believe it is important to have one-on-one time with our children. Lately I've noticed Mini Man especially has been craving some undivided (and uninterrupted) attention. As hard as we try it seems like he's frequently lost in the middle - too little to fully enjoy what we are doing with Big Buddy but no longer a baby like Little Lady.  So on Sunday, despite the craziness of the weeken...

In our family Santa isn't really a part of the Christmas season. We do not have any strong feelings against Santa Claus, we just decided that he wasn't going be something we included in our family traditions. There are so many things husbandie and I love to do during Christmas time, so our energies simply go elsewhere - there just isn't time left for Mr. Claus. This year, however, Big Buddy started to express interest in Santa so I decided to teach him about St. Nicholas.  The book The Legend of St. Nicholas has been a great resource. Not only did it explain who St. Nicholas was, but a boy in the book (also named Nick) learns from St. Nicholas's example and takes great joy in giving gifts to others.   Every year husbandie and I buy gifts for a few less fortunate children and this year I decided to include the boys. I explained to them that they were getting to be "Santa" for some other children. In order to be Santa though, Big Buddy insisted...