Glimpse

If you have ever (I mean, how could you not) want a GLIPMSE into scripture reading at our house...today is your lucky day.

Last night. 8:00. We all gather in "the green room." I pass out scriptures and have everybody turn to the page. Like always, James and I are the only ones who follow directions. We scold them to do it or else. We finally give in and do it for them.

Jake is wandering aimlessly around the room looking for something to do. He is already bored. We haven't even started. We scold him to either choose mom or dad and sit down. He hesitantly chooses mom. He lasts about 30 seconds. He gets back up and walks around. He is scolded again. Meanwhile, Naomi is prancing back and forth between her dad and mom in her pink and green sundress. Luckily she is wearing underwear. She twirls and laughs and taps her dad on the shoulder as he is trying to read. "Just a minute," dad tells her and continues to read. "O.K. Sure," she says and then taps again. And again. Apparently a second is the new minute. It must be important. It's not. She just wants his attention. I think she really wants him to tell her how beautiful her prancing is.

Without her dads attention she continues to raise her dress over her head and shouts, "underwear!" Not just once.

Jake is still aimlessly walking around the room. I sternly tell him it is his turn and he growls and makes his way slowly over to my side. I point to the verse. I hear a groan. He starts. And than stops. Apparently he hates scripture reading. He walks away mid-word. We both sternly tell him the consequence if he chooses not to read. He comes over to me again. He looks at the verse. Is he going to do it?

Uh, nope. Not tonight. He walks away again. We remind him that he will not get to choose a story tonight. I guess he doesn't care. Oh, well. We just lost one. Naomi we really never had. So we move on to William. Only to find he hasn't been following along. "Uh, where are we again?"

Now I groan. Seriously?

He looks at his verses and starts crying. "I want the longest verses. Are these the longest verses. I have to have the longest verses." His mouth is wide open as he bursts into instantaneous sobs. We pause for a minute so he can count the lines. He must have the longest.

By this point Jake is out of the room. Naomi is still prancing tapping on our shoulders and showing us her Dora underwear. William has calmed down and is satisfied with the longest verses of the night.

Sadly, I am not quite sure what we read about. But we read. Can't wait for tonight.

SNOW DAY(S)(S)(S)(S)(S)

We are wondering what the record is for the most snow days in a school year. I woke up this morning to a phone call from the school district. Just like I did on Tuesday.

I scrubbed the toilets. Vacuumed. Broke up fights. You know, the usual.

We finally decided to brace oursleves and take to shoveling. Just so you know...I am so tired of shoveling our ginormous driveway. The snow today felt extra, extra heavy. My back was killing. The kids finally went inside. I continued to chip away at the massive damage.

I finally retreated inside with a headache without having accomplished the whole driveway. I never do that. My dad always taught me to finish. I just couldn't. Good thing I came inside.

The moment I opened the door, I noticed a strange smell. Oh. It was an experiment of lime juice, chicken boulion and a Costco size container of basil leaves. Smeared all over the kitchen. And the dining room which I had just cleaned. It was amazing. You have to give your kids props for being able to be so destrctive in such a short period of time. My kids will take any of your kids on in a battle of destruction. Bring it on.

I cleaned up the mess and put some noodles in boiling water for lunch just in time to hear William scream "What the HELL are you doing?"

I could tell he knew what was about to happen when I rushed to the bottom of the stairs and looked up at him. He was in shock. So was I.

An hour later we both recovered from the incident. I am now sitting here on the computer trying to lose myself in my writing as toys, bats, and various plastic objects skin my head in an effort to kill a brother. Oh, and I am taking intermittent brakes to dress and undress Barbie.

Go Away Snow.

The chaos is incredible. But for some reason I am so happy that I am the one who gets to be home on Snow Days. I couldn't imagine missing this excitement.

Oh, and William just came in and said, "Ah, mom, I think I am going to go for the 8th Article of Faith this week."

"What a great idea," I respond. What a turn of events. That's our life in a nutshell.

One moment, beating up our brother. The very next, opening up the scriptures.

I love my life.

I Never Imagined...

Naomi and her best friend Hannah Banana dancing in our living room


I was sooo excited when the ultrasound tech gave me the sign that we were indeed having a girl. My mind flashed forward to dainty clothes, beautiful pigtails and innocent kisses.

I actually left the doctor's office and headed straight to the mall. My first girl shopping adventure.

I now realize that I never needed to.

There is no need for beautiful bows and dainty clothes.

But there is definitely a need for patience, laughter and naked bums. You see, we have another child who does not enjoy underwear.

We have a daughter who refuses to let you even BRUSH her hair. But it is so strange. She is as girly as they come. And yet, not so much...at all.

I posted the close up shot because her hair is driving me crazy. I have a bowl of adorable clips, flowers and bows. They just sit there. Because, you see, if I actually body strap her and put these little trinkets in her hair, she rapidly pulls them out...with a whole chunk of her fine, straw-like hair. We just don't have that much hair to spare. So, we don't bother.

As for the clothes. She chooses her own. I have surrendered.

The other day I took her to read to Jake's kindergarten class. The girls all noticed her outfit.

"Why is she in her pajamas? Why is she wearing slippers?"

What was I supposed to tell a group of 5 year olds?

I felt like saying, "Cause she's a pistol...what do you think?"

I instead replied that she is just a silly goosehead and we are not sure why she is so crazy. They laughed. So did I. What else do you do?

Here's to my strong-willed little angel. My adorable little girl who rules our house with an iron fist. A typical two year old. I'm patiently waiting. Waiting for the bows. And the clips. And the matching outfits. Someday maybe.

OuTloOk

(we LOVE our costume box)

One of those weeks...

A random incident put life into perspective. Very random. I almost landed myself in a courtroom testifying against a neighbor. I couldn't take it. I actually was worried. For my safety and that of my children.

All week I was sick to my stomach. Scared. Of everything. One of those times where you wish with all your heart that you could easily exchange your fear with your faith. But for some reason, your faith keeps coming up short. I couldn't help it. No matter how much I prayed.

And than one night, I walked into my room to see this.

And I felt completely at peace. This is all that matters. And suddenly...everything was right with the world.

Another day my 5 year old called me into the kitchen. For some reason he couldn't wipe the smile off his face. He got into the freezer. And the fridge. And the cupboards. He made me a caramel sundae. Just for me. And guess what? You can't see it, but with the caramel he wrote, "I love you". Just for me. How could I possibly think that life wasn't perfectly, astoundingly PERFECT!

And than today...a long, cold, boring Saturday. We decided that we weren't going to let the weather get us down. Not this week. We bundled up, got in the car and went to the hospital. We paged our dad and told him we were there. It was going to be a special daddy lunch in the hospital cafeteria. We waited, rather impatiently in the hospital hall. I spotted our tall daddy walking down the long hallway. I excitedly showed the kids.

They were off. Three little loves ran down the long corridor and threw their gangly arms around their daddy. And I could see it. I swear I did. His smile was just as big as theirs.

And then I knew. The world is good today.

And I am very, very grateful for terrible, no good weeks. Cause guess what?

When it's over...the sun never shines brighter. And today, a cold, dark, boring day in Akron Ohio...the sun never shone brighter.

(p.s. so my dad sent me a valentine today and told me that he loves reading my blog but he didn't know that i was such a dramatic kid. i think i have become much more dramatic over the last three years. it's been a little rough. hence, i tried to make this entry extra dramatic. "the sun never shone brighter" don't you think it's perfect! i think he's going to love it. hey...if you've got it...you've got it!)

Bad Sign?

FYI: The child does not come with the house. Negotiations accepted.



Do you think it is a bad sign that we decided to put our house up for sale in the middle of one of the worst winter snowstorms in years? Please pray it isn't! Our second snow day in a row. Suffice it to say, I paged James at work and told him to pick up pizza for dinner. I'm exhausted!