Look Into My Crystal Ball

Tonight when we were out running errands we picked up milkshakes for both of our children. We arrived home before they were quite done, so the kids sat at the dining room table to finish them. My eldest was finished quicker, and popped the lid off of the cup in order to take advantage of every last bit of ice cream. My youngest still had a fair amount left, but followed my eldest's suit by removing the lid, and promptly slopping ice cream all over the table. Exasperated, I turned to my eldest and asked, "Why did you have to do that in front of her?" Savoring the last mouthful of ice cream, my eldest replied, "Mom, I cannot predict the future, how was I supposed to know that she would copy me?" Coming out of a six year old's mouth, this wording highly amused me. Let's disregard the fact that the rationale was VERY weak, and my eldest knew it. I simply said, "In matters of your sister, let's suffice it to say that you can predict the future, because everything that you do she will try to do as well. End of story."

Feeling Melancholy

I am having a melancholy day. I feel slightly cheated, because the weather is so beautiful, but I can't seem to reconcile myself to feel as cheerful as the day beckons me to be. We started the day off with our last church service in the church building where I grew up, was married, and had one of my children dedicated. Next week we begin writing new chapters in our new church building, but I am really terrible at letting go. I suppose it didn't help that my dad and best friend spoke during the service to talk about what our church, the people, not the building, meant to them. It just made a flood of memories run through my brain today. My parents and I followed up our lunch out by going to Hospice. A woman, that has been a friend to our family for years, and has been more family to me than some of my biological relatives, is losing her mother at the ripe old age of 92. Her mother's health has been declining for a couple of years, and while you begin to expect the end at some point, it doesn't really make it any easier when it comes. The beautiful day seemed a little mocking as our friend and her sister sat in a room literally waiting for death to come. Her mother "rallied" a bit at our arrival, saying her first words of the day and offering a couple of small smiles, especially when her daughters announced that her boyfriend, my dad, had arrived. Even at death's door, she is trying to keep her sense of humor, even if she doesn't have the energy to really show it. As for our friend, she has spent so many years of her life, entrenched in caring for her mother, that I am not sure how she will cope once her mom is gone. She has literally put her own life and needs on hold for her mom, and while it would seem this is a valiant course of action, I worry about not only her grieving her loss, but trying to put a world back together for herself. The last bit of the day, my husband and I decided to take the kids and enjoy some outdoors time. We went for a walk on our local bike path, and found that much of it had been exposed on nearly one entire side to the neighboring highway. Not exactly, a scenic walk. Many of the trees and bushes that kept the highway hidden last year, had been removed, presumably to reduce acts of crime. It was too secluded apparently with all of the trees, so now that it is open to the highway it is supposed to deter unlawful things from occurring. It just made me feel sad. Anyway, that is why I am melancholy today. I haven't really cried, maybe that is what I need to purge it all out of my system, but crying usually isn't my way. At least not until I stuff so much down inside that I can't hold it in anymore.

Sick for the Weekend...Again

Well the weekend is here and we have a sick little one, again. Fever, headache, but as of right now a negative strep test, which shocked the doctor. A throat covered with white pockets usually is a pretty good indicator of strep, but we will see what the long test reveals. If that comes back negative, and the throat and fever still persist after the long weekend, we move on to blood work. I guess mono can make a throat look like this as well. I am less than thrilled about that possibility, and while I don't relish the idea of dealing with strep again, at this point it seems the lesser of two evils. However, we have dealt with strep a lot around here with our youngest, and if it persists, we need to determine if our little one is a "carrier" which would require a fairly strong and "nasty tasting" (doctor's words) antibiotic. If for some reason, that didn't take care of the strep bouts we have been facing then we would probably need to look at having tonsils removed. We will receive a call tomorrow afternoon if the longer strep test comes back positive. Meanwhile, we are treating the symptoms and dealing with a very pathetic little one.

Horseplay

Tonight my husband was giving my youngest a horsey ride on his back. As he clumped along on all fours my youngest was shrieking with laughter and saying, "Giddyup! Move Horsey! Move!" I said, "Doesn't your horsey have a name?" My youngest smiled sweetly, and said, "Yes, it is Nelope!" I said, "Penelope?" And my youngest nodded vigorously, "Yes! Nelope!" I looked at my husband, and said, "Well, get moving Penelope." I could tell he was less than thrilled with the name selection. After all, the name Penelope doesn't exactly conjure up images of a bucking stallion, does it?

The Planning Begins

Well summer is upon us, and the planning for Vacation Bible School is moving ahead full force. I spent two hours this evening working on lists, registration, and emails to volunteers, and this is just the beginning of the big push. VBS is being held in June this year, and while I am glad it is being held earlier in the summer, there is so much going on at our church that it is a bit of a crazy time...we are in the process of moving into a new church building. On the up side we have had a much easier time getting volunteers to help us out this year, and many more stepping forward to help. Last year, we had holes here and there in our schedule, and we needed people to come in to help for one day to fill those holes, but this year we have so many more people willing and able to commit to the whole week that we may actually have more people than we actually need. Don't get me wrong, we can still find plenty of places to put people to work, but it is a nice change of pace to actually have excess volunteers. We are also blessed to have real quality people working with us. It is always a bonus to be able to give the jobs to the volunteers and let them run with the details. Some of the volunteers truly amaze me with their ingenuity and thrifty ideas. Anyway, this year things seem to be running a little smoother, of course, that could simply be because we (my friend and I that are directing the program together) have one year under our belt, and have had the benefit of making a lot of silly mistakes and planning errors last year. I suppose there is plenty of room for new mistakes this year, but at least working as a team it allows for a slightly smaller margin of error, because there are two of us to remember details and divvy up the responsibilities. I will stop short at calling us old pros, but I think at the very least we both have more confidence in our organization abilities than we did last year.

It's Spring!

Spring green that is. I just received my brand new laptop today. I am very excited. For over a year my working computer has been in the laundry room, and while there was enough room for it in there, it certainly wasn't super conducive to writing, blogging, or spending much time at all on the computer. This is my Mother's Day/gift for helping my husband through his MBA program present. It was a longtime coming, and practicality says that we should have spent the money on other things, like house projects that never seem to get finished, but my husband says that I am always sacrificing for the family, and it was time to do something for me first. Who am I to argue with that genius logic? So now I am blogging from the comfort of my own bed, and that can't be beat.

Mother's Day

I don't have any huge hopes or aspirations for Mother's Day. My requests are simple. I want my husband to reattach a cool air return vent cover to the wall in our kitchen. It was taken off probably three years ago, and I can't take it anymore. It has been propped up against the wall, and it falls over repeatedly. Then the kids try to stick their feet down the vent, which is not clean, and it has just gotten to the point that it annoys me. I am tired of trying to tell them to leave it alone, and I am tired of picking up the vent cover and propping it back up in front of the gaping hole only to have it fall over again. The screws have been lost, and the wall has crumbled a bit where the original screw would have fit, so it will require some effort to reattach it, but really is it that hard? Another thing I would like is well-behaved children, but really, what mother doesn't hope for this on Mother's Day? We are on the right track for that I think though. They have really been improving the last few days. And lastly, I would like a really good back rub. I have a very bad back, which was aggravated/caused by a car accident that I was in 11 years ago. Over the years, my husband has put in many hours rubbing my back, I am sure, but it has been a long time since I have had a really good back massage. So these are my Mother's Day wishes, nothing grandiose, but for the most part grandiose isn't my style. Here's hoping your Mother's Day wishes are granted too!

Hitting the Limit

This week we have pretty much implemented a "no more television than one hour a day" rule for our kids. While we do monitor the shows they watch fairly closely, we felt like it would be in their and our best interests to heavily limit television time. It has been amazing. After four days of this new regimen, the behavior habits of our children have vastly improved, less fighting for one. Which was somewhat surprising since our kids don't watch violent shows. The fighting isn't completely gone, but it has dramatically decreased. The general disobedience, has decreased as well. Ironically, while it is common knowledge that television is pretty much a waste of time, it amazes me just how much more we accomplish without it. It just seems as though there are more hours in the day. This new routine hasn't been without its bumps in the road though. The kids have complained quite a bit (at least the first two days), and learning new habits has been an exhausting task for all of us. However, everyday the attitudes improve significantly, and the decision has been a worthwhile one.