Double Digits

I tease she is now two complete handfuls. In truth, she is sweet with a side of sassy. She has the eye roll, the "whatever" and stubborn streak of her sisters before her.

She finds joy in most everything and is enthusiastic about all adventures from checking out a new park to exploring the creek. She never shies away from an opportunity to express herself creatively.

She is a good friend, sometimes too patient, and still needs empowered to have her voice heard appropriately. She is kind, generous, and often oblivious to negative under currents of her peers; a trait I pray she continues to hold through adolescence.

Sensitive about mistakes and not measuring up in the eyes of those she looks up to doesn't hold her back but often leads to tears of frustration. She is growing in her ability to identify exactly what she is struggling with as she sometimes cries. Her heart is just that tender. She is a treasure for sure.

Happy 10th Birthday, Kate Bug. 

Friendship

I am at the end of week two of sick kids and I am faltering. We literally prayed Kate would pull it together to make it through Erin's graduation and Mother's Day last weekend and whereas she is still being medicated to control congestion and allergies, she is functioning. Ty spiked a 103.1 temp Sunday night and is still quite sick with hand foot and mouth. I do not love hand foot and mouth. My little friend Anna says she doesn't like something this way and it sounds so much more pleasant than the words in my head at the moment.  Ty is not able to eat, the mouth numbing suckers are no longer effective and even drinking water is painful. Ty does not love hand foot and mouth either. Let's be honest, Ty isn't the most cooperative child on a good day. Add illness for five solid days and what you have is a grumpy, whiny disaster. This may describe me as much as him at this point. 

In true Anne fashion, popsicles were delivered today and promises of an alcohol run were made too. We debated the merit of using a frozen pina colada  to numb his mouth, but quickly determined it was not sound medicine in today's culture even though I am here to tell you my parents would have done it in a minute. I distinctly remember a pacifier in a glass of wine at some point in my childhood. I swear parenting was easier before all these "helpful" parenting advice columns. But I digress.....

During my sanity check with Anne, we chatted about how my parenting as evolved from the days of matching dresses on my first two complete with hair styles and shoes that were appropriate for any given occasion to the mess seen daily in my house now. I shared the story of Erin choosing her best dress with jewelry and curled hair for picture day in third grade and this year I didn't even know it was Kate's picture day! She wore a messy bun and old tee shirt. I am mom of the year obviously. So in addition to Anne calling me every time we are facing severe weather because I refuse to watch the news and never have the TV on during the day, she now has to let me know when my kids should look like children with parents and not homeless people discovered on the side of the road. Being my friend is apparently a heavy workload and I owe her chocolate often.

The reality is that I am blessed to have a few very close friends I know love me inside and out, despite my flaws of which there are plenty.  They are the people I call when I need to hash something out and know my husband can't listen as long as my girlfriends do. He likes to quickly fix things and they know I just need to talk. I think in general, this is simply the way it is in marriage so God gives us girlfriends to prevent us from driving our husbands crazy. On this list, I have a few friends and can't imagine my life without any one of them.

Anne's popsicle run demonstrates the other aspect of friendship I value most. Genuine concern for each other's children is vital if we are going to invest in one another. We love our kids and our friend's kids. Period. If you mess with one of these kids, you have a host of momma's ready to step in. Sometimes that looks a lot like talking a mom off the ledge of which she is about to jump and other times it's supporting her through prayer, hugs, tears and research. I have googled some of the strangest things in hopes of finding something helpful for a friend and her kids. Friends will do whatever it takes to make a positive difference in a difficult situation.

So I don't know if you have heard, but parenting is hard work; gut wrenching, heart breaking work. My friends have cried with me, celebrated with me and supported me through a very colorful life. I pray I have been as invested in theirs. Other than relying on God for the strength to endure some of our challenges, my friends have helped carry the load. I am grateful and blessed to be supported by incredible friends.

Mommy Has Senioritis

Kate came home with a rubric for a project due May 14th about two weeks ago. She was pretty pumped about this little assignment and was certain we needed to go to The Home Depot to get wood, paint and whatever else she came up with to create a model of a local landmark, Polly's Freeze. The assignment was to depict a local landmark with creativity and lots of detail. She envisioned us helping her carry in a heavy and giant replica. I talked her down and we were going to tackle this with graham crackers and icing instead; think lazy mom's version of a gingerbread house. Except we have a lot of life happening around here these days and my ability to focus is lacking. We talked it down further and decided some photos glued onto poster board would suffice. As I was uploading said photos onto Walgreen's site, I noted a 30% off poster discount and found myself creating the silly project in under five minutes. Kate was pleased and Walgreen's had it ready within the hour. The mommy is done. Really, really done. We will take our 28 possible points for handing in a completed, creative, neat project and move on. If teachers want giant replicas, they will have to hit me with it in August.

This was my first Mother's Day with Erin living out of the house. She ordered something to be delivered to me because she didn't know if we would be together given how much else was on our plates this weekend. She did show up though to use our washer and dryer. Lauren stopped at the grocery on her way home from a friend's house with flowers for me and my mom which was very sweet. Kate drew me several pictures and created a poem too. Ty started to color me a picture "but it was boring". And after I went to bed Mother's Day night, this was emailed to me:

Dear Mom,

Thanks for being my mom and not someone else's. If I had a different mom, I'd punch her in the face and go find you.

I was going to write you a long, heart-felt letter, but I found this on Twitter and thought it summed up what I needed to say better than a long corny letter would. Love you.

Makenna=

My mom and dad spoiled me with a new tea I enjoy sampling every time I stop in Teavania and a bath bomb from Lush. I am looking forward to locking out the entire family to enjoy both. Just kidding. Sort of. 

Mother's Day weekend was full of family, laughter and kid-centered fun. It was as it should be, I suppose.

Erin's Day!

Erin graduated Suma Cum Laude from ATA College today. She enjoyed her graduation, her college experience and loves the job she landed as result of her internship. She was selected to be the student speaker for the commencement ceremony. The documents on her phone would not load so she had to wing it on stage and of course, handled it with enough humor and grace no one suspected anything. After correcting the president of the school on the pronunciation of her last name, she thanked Jesus Christ, Starbucks on Hurstbourne and Google for helping her get where she is today. She talked about friendships made, hard work and the time someone threw up on her while she took her impressions. She thanked her dad for coming in to let her practice taking dental x-rays despite his root canal the previous week. The crowd appreciated her and of course we couldn't be prouder of her accomplishments.

Greg's parents drove in for the day to celebrate

My parents made a weekend of it and we also celebrated Mother's Day

Justin brought his grandma because Erin adores her. We think she's pretty sweet too. Justin's parents were in Mexico so they didn't make it.

Someday I will have the technology know-how to pull off uploading videos to our blog so we can keep treasures like our baby speaking at her own college graduation.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

Happiness is a chubby baby in a hat.

Three year old Devyn spent another week in Disney. I am fairly certain she'd live there if given half a chance. While meeting Alice of Alice in Wonderland, the first thing Devyn told her was that I made her eat a mushroom once. Alice was horrified and declared "Sherri is awful". I will likely be hearing this in the future because  Devyn forgets nothing. For the record, Devyn was curious about the mushrooms on my plate so I encouraged her to try one. I did push a bit because she is in a dietary rut and refuses to try new things. I built it up as an adventure and she did eat one slice of mushroom. She said she liked it but declined another. I do insist everyone eat at least one serving of all green veggies though. I am awful like that.

Anna helped us consume two watermelons in four days.

Anna noted my hand was raw and inflamed again. She insisted I go to bed, watch Mickey and eat muffins so I would feel better. Hands down, this is the best medical advice I have ever been given.

Ty ran to get me this morning and insisted I come see the sunrise with him. He was so excited about the pink ball coming up over the trees. I said something about the sun saying good morning and he whispered in response, "I think it's God".

Only serious landscapers wear slippers while mulching.

And speaking of God, Ty has a lot of questions about dying, heaven and God lately. He needed to know from the backseat of the van today how God is in heaven and also in our hearts. Ever explain the trinity to a five year old?

Still Here (But My Sanity Is Questionable)

So my neighbor pulled me aside to tell me how much she enjoys Ty's stories. I always cringe when someone has had unfiltered conversations with my son because he is known for his endless chatter where only God knows what is said. His perception of the world mixed with comments taken out of context has the potential to paint a very colorful picture. Our world is colorful enough, thank you very much. Anyway, this neighbor along with several friends have encouraged me to turn these little essays about my crazy life into a book. I suspect it would be featured in the comedy section rather than the family section but my neighbor titled the book for me. Still Here (But My Sanity Is Questionable). It's brilliant. As for the book, I can't imagine where I would find the time or who beyond my mom would buy it.

I took some additional senior photos of Lauren today. She requested some casual shots with her boyfriend that better represent them than the upcoming prom photos we will be taking in a few weeks. These two are fun and it's refreshing to see her so comfortable being herself around Taylor. We will be sending her two hours away for college in a few months and hope they remain friends even if the relationship doesn't withstand the distance.

Weekend Review

I am exhausted every Friday night. I never have the energy to put kids to bed properly  after a week full of pouring into other people's children and running my home so this is a typical Friday night sighting. The kids crash in front of a bedtime movie. We call it a treat. It simply means mommy gets to go to bed without any drama. The end.

We let Lauren go to Indiana University for the weekend with friends for a bike race. Of course we were concerned about safety but we are allowing her to move to a college campus in a few months so a weekend away seemed reasonable. We needed not worry though, Lauren was sending me pictures of puppies Saturday afternoon. Count on my daughter to find the animal shelter in another town to play with puppies when there's a college campus to explore. In the end, she connected with our next door neighbor and they spent Saturday evening together. They've lived next door to one another for four years and never exchanged more than a hello in passing. They now plan to hang out this summer. I have no words for this. Just why? I have mentioned Jillian frequently to Lauren and always wondered why they were so awkward about getting to know each other. Teens are weird.

We had a really cool experience on Saturday. Kate, Ty and I went with Anna's mom to her preschool to check on the baby chicks they anticipated hatching over the weekend. Not only were three already hatched and dry when we arrived but we got to see two hatch while we observed. It was awesome. Kate was the only one interested in loving on a baby chick and the chick appeared to love the snuggles too.

Happy birthday little buddy.

Last night Greg and I had another couple over for dinner and it was so relaxing we wondered later why we don't do it more often. I think we need to make it a priority in our crazy schedules. It's good to set aside to do lists and just enjoy fellowship among friends. Life is too short to be too busy to relax together.

Dinner for seven again this Sunday was as entertaining as usual. I love the noisy, boisterous chatter of my family gathered around the table. Erin had some laundry to do so we were able to spend a few hours talking and hanging out. It was the perfect ending to a great weekend. 

These were a manager's special at Kroger this weekend and for $3, they made me very happy. I am pretty easy to please.

Fun Friday

I took the kids to the zoo today and was immediately overwhelmed. Apparently it was on today's agenda for several thousand other families along with multiple school groups too. Thank God the kids were awesome and listened beautifully or I may have lost my mind.

Ty loved the Lego turtle and asked for a picture to send to Lauren

The bald eagle was one of Ty's highlights

Each time the sea lion raised out of the water, Anna squealed with delight. It was awesome.

Devyn practiced swinging on every railing. She walked almost the entire zoo which was a big change from a year ago. She is growing up!

As soon as Anna spotted the elephant, she started making trunk noises! So fun.

The Lego sculptures were awesome.

One of my favorites

And as soon as we returned home to meet Kate's bus, we ran outside to play some more.....apparently the thirty minute nap in the car was enough to refuel the little people.

homework on the swing is pleasant enough

Greg would prefer I not allow this. Please, I encourage it! Look at those sweet cheeks!