Summer Fun

We’ve been busy here enjoying the sunshine lately. I think I’ve finally hit a workable balance between play and work, and it’s been WAY more fun for all of us, and has resulted in more “in the moment” times.

This week the blackberries are beginning to ripen, so we spent some time searching out the bushes while father was at work. Oh those kids had an absolute ball, and ate and ate and ate. We still ended up with a ton of berries, and made some yummy cobbler this weekend. I had forgotten how good fresh blackberries taste on cornflakes and milk - oh heaven and such memories from childhood.

We also put together a stock photography set while we were picking - the kids loved it, and had some great suggestions on what all to add. Here’s Berry Pickin’:

Do you ever wonder why God is doing what He’s doing in your life? Fidget makes me wonder that all the time. This child is the most precocious one I’ve met, at least in the art of antagonism. AIGH! I take him to the mall for some clearance sale shopping and he heads straight for the center of the rack, saying “Pick me! Pick me! How much am I?!!”

We went to the Ape Caves last weekend, which was a story in and of itself. But the minute we got down into the darkness with our little windup flashlights he decided there were monsters in there and didn’t want anything to do with it. Halfway through the caves father had to use the bathroom so motored on ahead, leaving me with two children who had to go themselves, and one who was deathly afraid of monsters but equally determined to NOT hold my hand in the dark. Quite a bit of tumbling and quite a bit of screaming ensued. AIGH! (Yes, the episode warranted that second AIGH. Really, it did.)

See, there they are in the pitch black, HA!

And then some fun tonight . . .

Gads, it’s been THAT long?

It’s been a LONG time since I updated here, hasn’t it? My goodness. Life has been topsy turvy on the inside for me lately, battling the missing muse the past few weeks, frustrated by a lack of creative thought. I’ve been in quite the funk, and poor father has had to put up with it. It’s made for some interesting, er . . . moments. What is marriage without patience?

I found this quotation tonight:

It is not physical solitude that actually separates one from others; not physical isolation, but spiritual isolation. It is not the desert island nor the stony wilderness that cuts you from the people you love. It is the wilderness in the mind, the desert wastes in the heart through which one wanders lost and a stranger. When one is a stranger to oneself then one is estranged from others too. If one is out of touch with oneself, then one cannot touch others. How often in a large city, shaking hands with my friends, I have felt the wilderness stretching between us. Both of us were wandering in arid wastes, having lost the springs that nourished us — or having found them dry. Only when one is connected to one’s own core is one connected to others, I am beginning to discover. And, for me, the core, the inner spring, can best be refound through solitude
~Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Gift from the Sea

Solitude, yes. But always including prayer, reflection, and then a forced outing is usually what I need. This past weekend the outings happened and things for the moment are back in line. We’ve been laughing, carrying on, for all is now right again and the muse is back. Where it wandered I still don’t know, unless it got tangled in the strands of sleep I’ve been missing.

And lest we end too heavy, guess what Fidget has been doing?

Tomorrow is Sprinkle’s seventh birthday. Time is flying and I’m off to catch it for the evening!!!

blah blah blah

Kids. They do the craziest things sometimes. Want a peek into our lives?

Last week six year old Sprinkle decided to pick a fight with a fourteen year old boy. Fortunately for us the boy was patient and mature enough to come tell us he didn’t appreciate getting spit in the face, at which point I profusely apologized to him and then spent the next 45 minutes dealing with Sprinkle. Ugh. We then tracked down the boy and he apologized, but good grief!! Can I just ask what our 47 pound child was thinking???!! Today I caught him karate chopping another neighbor boy, all in the name of fun until he caught one back in the mouth.

Have any of you met the Advanage team - those guys and gals from the inner-city who travel the country going door to door selling all-purpose cleaner? Oh my, Keith stopped by here on Friday evening. A very well-dressed, energetic young man came bounding up the stairs and proceeded to lick the straw on his spray bottle cleaner to show us how safe his product was. He got out permanent marker. He bounded down the stairs and removed the oxidation from our van’s headlights. He bounded back up and washed our sliding glass door and started in on our oven. I was tired watching him. Needless to say, Father bought a bottle of the magic liquid for a bargain of $38. (Fannie called the company the next day to return it.) I appreciate this young man’s hard work, and the intentions of my husband but almost forty dollars??? You’ve got to be kidding me. I’m still laughing. No, I should say I wish I were laughing. At least father and I are speaking again, lol. I’m still scratching my head about the guy, though. He commented on having the exact same phone I do - a black chocolate from Verizon. He was out of minutes, could he borrow mine real quick? Sure, how weird, but sure. He typed in the number but didn’t know how to make it call. Hmmm. . . . something strange going on here. . . . I’ve done a bit of looking around the internet about these guys, and found a lot of interesting things.

I’m fairly certain Fidget broke his toe today. All weekend long we’ve been working on the problem with running. Tonight the bookcase got him, and as he’s moaning and crying and I offer to get him some medicine he starts bawling harder. “I think we’ll need a LOT of medicine mommy.” Poor child. Fourth piggy on the right crying wee wee wee all the way home.

But what simple things cheer this child up. I handed him a magnifying glass with one hand, held my camera with the other and got the picture above.

Sparkle is reading up a storm. I grabbed one of her books the other night because I was so desperate for something to read in bed, and found the most surprising content. Needless to say, the much needed “sex talk” has now been given. Nothing like a good old library book for fifth graders to prompt that whole discussion. Anger at God, periods and where babies come from to name a few. Now I must say it was handled well, but my issue is that it was handled at all, and not mentioned on the jacket. Still stewing about that one. . .

Other than that, life is jolly. There’s a new stock set in Studio Amy called Wishing - just some fun, dreamy moments meant to inspire. Here are a few samples:

Happy Wishing!!!

Horizonal Headstands

Okay, bad blogger me lately, eh? SO many funny things happen in this house everyday. I wish my computer could just type my thoughts and then let me moderate every night, lol.

Tonight Sprinkle wanted to learn how to do a headstand, so I explained the whole tripod stance to him, then instead of me actually showing him (I’M THIRTY FOUR, you know) I googled it and showed him some images. So off he went to the living room and began his attempts. By the end of the night, we were all rolling and laughing. SOOO funny.

Here’s Sprinkle. Sparkle’s coming next and it’s worth it to stick with this post, lol. (Trust me!)

Whoops, a little too far now . . .

Woohoo!!! He conquered!

And now Sparkle . . . notice her look of horror, most likely mirroring my own, lol.

And this. This totally cracks me up. She was balancing, fully believing she was in a perfect tripod perpendicular to the floor. When she saw this picture she about wet her pants she laughed so hard at her own silliness. (And yes, she’s given permission to post these. She’s at that age where I feel I should now check with her first.)

And all the while father was on the couch watching first Hillary’s then Obama’s speech tonight. Yes, you can tell we were at it for quite some time.

And should I share the story of our coffee pot? Father was convinced it was broken. For about two months, it would only brew ten cups of coffee instead of the normal twelve. Every morning he would stagger to the kitchen, make a pot and scratch his head when the water trickled down at the end to a measley ten cups. So he would add more water. Every morning. Two months.

All the while I watched with a steaming hot cup of coffee in my hand, smiling, wondering why he kept weakening the coffee. Finally the other morning he was about to throw the whole thing out and run to the store for a new coffee maker. And finally I realized what he was thinking, and that he didn’t realize that at about eight cups I would grap a cup and then let it finish brewing. And when that realization dawned on both of us . . . what a beautiful thing to have harmony in the morning after all this time, lol.

We love our coffee pot once again.

Falling Coconuts

I was reading an article this morning, trying to calculate my risk of dying from a falling coconut, and found this statistic: MORE than 2,500 left-handed people are killed every year around the world from using equipment meant for right-handed people. The right-handed power saw is the most deadly item.

So all you lefties - be careful. All your righties, stay far, FAR away from lefties with power tools.

And yes, these are the things I’m doing. I SHOULD be making the bed and answering emails, but before I got close to the bed I had to analyze my risk of dying from falling OUT of the bed, you know. These are serious issues. I’m SOOO glad I didn’t see any sharks in the shower. . .

Tickle Wars

Fidget was playing with some legos tonight when I dubbed it an official tickle fest. See? Here he is all serious and playing so well. . . I love this angle and how HUGE his feet look.

Then he’s beginning to realize that mommy is doing more than just crawling around on the floor with a camera. (Yeah, that’s a normal occurrance around here, unfortunately. . . )

And then a full-fledge battle was underway. . . I think we both won that one, heehee.

One more Video

THIS song brings me to tears every time we sing it at church. One of these days maybe I’ll be able to get through it, but man alive what a challenge those words are to sing. Sometimes there IS pain in the offering, yet we are still to praise.

How Great

What a blessing this has been to me this week:

The Power of Ebay

Oh the power of ebay. The children were being somewhat enthusiastic yesterday afternoon, so I told them we needed a family powwow at the dining room table. (Little did they know we were really going to have a yatzee fest . . . ) Sprinkle was leading the bad behavior pack, so we had a little fun at his expense.

This is the look we got when he found out we were selling him ebay, and the family powwow was to decide what to say about him to garner the highest profit:

And we went on and on . . .

But their behavior was SOOOO good after that, heehee. Then just a few more moments around the house today. I got a new lens this weekend, so have been enjoying the playing with it. Woohoo! Can a nerd have more fun?!

And the “Mom, I LOVE water!” comment is still cracking me up:

And this is just a pretend sweet moment. He was really being quite ornrey about it all:

And that has been my day. Mother’s Day was wonderful - I spent a few hours with my mom and dad, just chatting and talking theology. I’m so blessed to have parents I can do that with. And so blessed by them in so many other ways. I love you, Dad and Mom!!! Thanks for all you do.