A New Discovery

I always wanted to do something big with my life. Find a new planet, discover the cure for cancer, build a cool building, fly to the moon, find a new dinosaur. But the fact is, I didn't do any of those big things that get so much publicity. I did something bigger, something so outside of myself I still feel like I'm climbing a mountain. I had children. I'm not saying that my kids are cooler than your kids, or any of that garbage (of course I think that they are cooler, but I may be biased), or that you are horrible because you don't have kids (that's your choice). I'm saying that in this day and age, in this social climate, it really is the hardest thing to do. To say with a smile on my face and pride in my voice that I'm a Mother. I do, several times a day. Most people just don't understand that some women really want to be moms. We want to raise children, care for them, and love them so much that it hurts. Because of this choice I was there to see those blue eyes open for the first time, a tiny fist reaching out. I watched in happiness and sorrow the first time that my baby walked and then ran. The day that Mr O helped Peaches take her first bikeride is still etched in my memory. Running after them as they race down the sidewalk is now normal. Soon I will be waving goodbye as they walk by themselves. Watching them grow before my eyes is amazing and scarey and awsome all at the same time. It is so much bigger than me, this parenting. I know that I have and will make many mistakes. But I know that I'm doing ok because they love me. After all the tantrums, fights, and sulking those little arms reach around my neck and the world stands still. Because they love me and know that I love them. No Matter What. I love them to the ends of the earth and beyond. They are my children, and I wouldn't miss this for anything.

Something on the Edge

What is it about sleeping children that makes everyone just think. About life, about the wonders that are out there, about how amazing kids really are, and lots of other stuff too. We have been blessed by the presence of two beautiful children in our lives. Mr O and Peaches. Both of them love playing, running, and just the typical kid stuff. Mr O has a way of challenging mommy to think all the time every day. And Peaches is sweet for sweetness sake (most of the time). They each have their own particular personalities, up and down days, and mood swings that is normal for kids of their age. We went through the "why" stage, the temper tantrums (that still crop up occasionally), and the sleepless nights (that also happen on occasion when they are sick). Perhaps it is just that they are so incredibly loud during the day, or maybe it's that they move so fast. But there is just something about watching my children sleep that brings peace to my world. They are so beautiful and innocent. They can do no wrong. Everything is ok, life is fine. Whatever mistakes that were made can be ratified, and whatever crazy schemes that they cook up will be handled. The world stops to breathe. Peace.

The Best

My husband. He really is the best there is. He is a wonderful father to our (mostly) wonderful children and an amazing husband who takes great care of me. One of the things that makes him so incredible is his patience. He waited for three years to ask me to marry him. Three long years of me being very impatient. He wanted to be able to provide for me and our eventual family, so he waited. He is patient when I'm tempermental, turning a deaf ear to the completely crazy things that can come out of my mouth. He is especially patient with the kids. Explaning over and over again how to do something. Showing them again and again how to tie a knot or a bow. Patiently reading a story when he could be otherwise occupied with more intiresting things.

I am the luckiest girl on the planet to have him by my side.

Poetry for life

There is a certain magic quality about swings. The freedom. Wind whooshing beneath your feet. Your hair blowing in all directions. The feeling that seems to come from the depths of your being that you can do anything. Whenever I see someone swinging on a swing this poem comes to mind. My mother had this by memory and would say it to my sister and I as she pushed us on the swings.

The Swing ~Robert Lewis Stevenson

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

Rivers and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside---

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown---

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

The Jolly Green Giant

Green, Jolly, soft, snuggly. Sweaty, sunny, lemonaide, bare feet. Where am I going with this? We reciently put in a retaining wall in the front of our house. It is two feet high and is very nice looking. When we moved in the yard sloped gradually downwards, ending in about a foot of sand and gravel next to the sidewalk. Full of weeds and a round-about drive. It was UGLY. So we spent the time (and a bit of $) towards a pretty yard. One that will last and be fun to play on. The escavating was a full week of long afternoons running the pick-ax and shovel. Putting the retaining wall in was fun. Jon got out his level and some string and away we went. I hauled bricks (they are about 15 pounds each) and Jon set them in. Thankfully we have a hand-truck and that made hauling much easier. That was another week of sweat. Leveling the yard was actually a lot of fun. A huge dump truck showed up with 12 yards of top-soil, uncerimoniosly dumped it next to the front door, and waved goodbye. I got to smell horse poo until we put grass in. With shovels and the wheelbarrow we went load by load and spread the soil over the whole yard. It looked sooo nice! (and that was just the dirt!) Then it was time for the sod. After a month of prep the sod took...One Day. Yup, One Day. My in-laws came up for a week of fun, so we put them to work. We had an instant yard. It is so beautiful! Instead of looking out on gravel and weeds, I now gaze upon grass. Lovely green grass. Soft grass. Grass that we can go barefoot in and not worry about rocks or glass or prickles. Ahhhhh...Amazing what a day can do to change the look of a house.

How Big?

Here's the conversation that happened over lunch today, this is quite typical of my kids:

Mr O "I'm a Tyrannosaurus Rex Mommy! And I'm REALLY hungry."

me "Ok hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex, eat your food. T-Rex's really like animal crackers."

Peaches, "Really? They like animal crackers?"

Mr O "Yeah, they eat animals for dinner, so we'll just pretend by eating animal crackers." Big sigh of relief from mommy, no chasing cats with knives today. "Mommy we'll share the nice Tyrannosaurus Rex with you!"

"Oh that is so very nice of you! Thanks, I love nice Tyrannosaurus Rex!"

Peaches "I want the pink ones!"

Mr O "Ok, you get the pink ones, mommy gets purple, daddy gets blue and I get green. That way we all get some nice Tyrannosaurus Rex."

Peaches "I like pink"

Mr O "I think that snakes are bigger than a Tyrannosaurus mom."

"Maybe some snakes, but Tyrannosaurus are really big."

Peaches "How big?"

"Bigger than all of us standing on top of each other."

Mr O "This big?" Holding both hands as high and as wide as possible.

"That might be the size of their mouth."

Peaches "Wow. If I had a mouth that big I could eat the table!" Giggles...

Mr O "I could eat a building!"

"How about you be baby Tyrannosaurus and eat your animal crackers?"

Both "ok. Roaaaaaarrrrrrr!" Followed by chomping, open mouth chewing ("that's how they eat mom!"), and lots of giggling.

I LOVE being a mom.

Family

I saw this picture and it reminded me of a few things. What is it about that one word that makes most people think of home made cookies, hugs, too much turkey, and snuggles. Family. It is where we all started, where we end up, and much of our lives inbetween. We call those that we care about family whether related or not. They are people that we love, enjoy spending time with, and can call at crazy times and it's ok. In short: they care back. We have been so blessed by how many people that we are able to call family and that we can spend time with those people. Just reciently we were invaded by some of them. These invasions cause chaos for a short time. Mr O runs in circles and Peaches alternately giggles and hides behind mommy until she's brave enough to say hi. But as time progresses, mom is more and more out of a job. Mr O insists that stories must be read by someone else, Peaches knows that mom just can't put the shoes on her feet quite as well; and mom Loves it! I love being able to sit back and let my beautiful children bask in someone else's love for them. The fact that they have so many people that are willing to do this is wonderful. I wish every child were so lucky.

Just Beautiful

First off: Happy Father's Day!! We had a great day. Jon decided that a good start was Chocolate Lucky Charms, so we were a little sugar high. My sister came over and played with the kids. It was great fun! Jumping, walking, running, and playing with Aunty. Lots of adventure to be had. The kids showed her all the cool things around town. Specifically the Library and the Farm. We saw all the animals, talked to the chickens, and even got to play with the puppies. With Aunty comes some sort of magic. She is able to turn the ordinary into extraordinary. Jumping turned into a giggle fest, walking was racing, and playing took on new meaning with the new water guns! She did eventually need to go home (long, sad, faces) and so we finished the brickwork!! It is now totally done! No more bricks to put in, no more places that need bricks, none! We're done!! It was a good day.

And the song goes on...

Someday I'll be sane. Really. I'm sure it WILL happen, down the road at some point. Mr O opened the back door today to come in with his hand planted firmly upon his head. My immidiate question was "what happened?" "I bonked." Well upon a closer examination his hand was covered in blood as was a good chunk of his hair. Thankfully blood does not gross me out and I ran for a cold (clean) washrag. Upon cleanup it was found to be a smallish scratch that he recieved from a piece of equipment that he had attatched to the trapoline and had yet to remove (I had repeatedly asked). Needless to say, he gets no pity for the resulting goose-egg.

Peaches contiued to jump on the trampoline. Doing several tricks for me: a seat jump, knee jump and an attempt at a front flip (she landed on her butt). Watching her jump is so much fun! Peaches has strawberry blonde hair (getting pretty long) and it trails behind her as she jumps. Quite entertaining. Her grin and giggle are so contagious that I have to join in.

Onword and Upword

So we climbed a mountain. Not in the literal sense,
but emotionally and behaviorally. On our walk to the park we ate cookies from our cooking spree and talked, giggled and talked some more. Found all sorts of cool things to check out and ran the last little bit. The park was occupied by another little family. Father, grandmother, older brother (probably between 10-12) and small girl (about 3). Mr O did something that he has never done before. He went over to the small girl with the cute curls and began playing. Nicely playing. None of the throwing sand, running circles, "booming" people over, that is fairly typical from him. No, he sat and very patiently helped her build a sand hill in which they planted a stick. Climbed up the play equipment and slid down the slide with her. Generally he was a wonderful boy and gentleman. Something that I know is there, but don't get to see very often. When it was time to go Mr O was most saddened and had to say many goodbyes and blow kisses.

On our way home we were waylayed by a bunch of furballs. The happy yips and giggles mingled well for nearly 45 minutes.

Then it was naptime for the little ones and we said our goodbyes.

Chocolate really can solve the world's problems

Today started horrid. Mr O decided in a fit of inspiration last night to scatter dirt and rocks over the drivers side of the car. Most unfortunate because Daddy needed the car for work this morning, which meant an early morning wash the car by mommy so that daddy would stay clean. Then it was skip breakfast, it's for losers and off to create mass mayhem in the garage while mommy is otherwise occupied in the shower (only 5 min, really!). I rue the day that the aircompressor came into exsistance. Not much cleanup, but a rather wind-blown garage. Then, when the monster mom kicked him outside for a few minutes of peace there was a new sound. The sound somewhere between a snake's hiss and a broken truck. An odd clicking noise followed by a pattering of rain. The engineer had pointed the sprinkler up, mashed it into the ground so that it couldn't turn, and opened up the faucet full-bore. There was a beautiful gyser in the yard, you could have probably seen it for blocks. Needless to say it was swiftly silenced and Mr O retired to his room for a while. All this was before the hour of 10. Great morning, aye?

Peaches thankfully saved the day. "mom, I think it's a good day for cookies." I quite agree. So out came the mixer, ingrediants, and two chairs. four sticky hands set to work measuring, pouring, and giggling as the ingrediants squished together in the bowl. Once things were mashed together enough to suit Peaches and Mr O the chocolate chips were sampled, to be sure that none were poisoned, and then cerimoniously dumped into the bowl. The giggles reached a wonderful level of insanity as we watched them get "eated" by the dough in the bowl. Then the waiting. We did a test cookie and that proved difficult to wait for. 10 minutes is a long time to wait until sampling the goodness that you have created. The patience grew thin. With one minute to go, "it's done!!" Ok, still a little doughy, but cooked enough to pull out. Cooling was another Very Long Wait. Finally, broken in half, four sticky hands passed their still warm cookies back and forth as they were duly nibbled and pronounced..."Mmmmmm."

And that, my friends, can solve any problem.

Just Classic

This morning was typical: kids woke up, changed, and the normal ruckus insued. The only thing that was very very different was the tune that was in my head upon waking up: Bach's Brandenburg Concerto Number 3. That is honestly quite random for me, even though I love the classics.

The kids are your typical wake up and start jumping kind of kids. Mr O and Peaches are so very wonderful! They love unconditionally, teach me constantly about little life lessons, and are usually best of friends. We are the typical family of five (counting the tail wagger).

Yesterday I was caught a little off-gaurd (yes even my kids can do that to me) by a comment made by Peaches. "Mommy. Can everyone come with us when we die?" I then went through the somewhat cumbersome explination that not everyone dies at the same time, and we have to wait, and... But she still had the puzzled look on her face. "So who do you want to bring with you Peaches?" "Tail wagger!" Oooooh! Well, Peaches, I'm not the one that makes those decisions, but I sure hope that he can come with us! Children really make you think!