Thoughts

My brain has friends.
Its friends are thoughts.
They are practically inseparable.
Night and day, it seems like every minute there are thoughts
swimming around inside this brain of mine.

Yesterday I was sitting in the rocking chair, gazing out the window
at the trees blowing in the wind and watching the dark clouds rolling in.



Then I looked at my surroundings......
Myles was half dressed eating out of a box of crackers, there was a mountain of laundry
on the couch that needed to be folded, not to mention two baskets full in my bedroom, a hamper full (plus some) of clothes needing to be washed and there was an array of stuff
on the living room floor. Then I thought about the scene in the kitchen.
A sink full of dishes needing to be loaded into the dishwasher.




Then I looked down at this little one.


And I silently chuckled to myself and thought if only the me
of pre-kids could see this.
I used to be pretty anal about a clean house, an uncluttered house, a "no mess" house.
When I cleaned I wanted that fresh clean scent and when I vacuumed I wanted to see the lines in the carpet with no foot prints.
I know that sounds silly. I would start in the corner of the room and work my way out, and then I didn't want anyone setting foot in it for a while just so I could bask in the vision of my carpet full of vacuum lines but not footprints.
And the pre-kid me thought that would certainly never change even when knew I would be a mom someday.
Well, I am happy to say that I have changed.
So as I rocked my wee one to sleep yesterday afternoon,



I thought back to a poem I used to read every time
I would go over to my best friend's house.

It goes something like this......

I hope that my child, looking back on today

will remember a mother who had time to play.

Because children grow up while you are not looking

there are years ahead for cleaning and cooking.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

She's up in the nursery blissfully rocking.

Dishes are waiting and bills are past due.

The shopping isn't done and there is nothing for stew.

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait til tomorrow.

For children grow up I've learned to my sorrow.

So quiet now cobwebs and dust go to sleep

I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

So, while I still like a clean, as in disinfected, house

I know that the kids have clean clothes to wear, and that

as long as there are some clean dishes in the cupboard

the dirty ones can sit and wait til all my little ones are fast asleep.

I would rather have my kids remember the time I spent with them,

then the fact that we had a pristine, nothing out of place house.

How sad it would have been for me had I not changed. Thinking about it, I am sure I would have thought, once my kids were grown and gone, that I would give anything to see little foot prints in my carpet rather than vacuum lines.

Forgive my ramblings, but I just thought I'd like to share some of the

thoughts that swim around in my head.

Now that Elsa is walking she loves being on the move.
Chris and I were laughing the other day while watching her.
She walked into the kitchen, and then back to the living room, to the kitchen, and back to the living room again.
She wasn't really "going" anywhere or doing anything in particular. I think she just likes the fact that she can walk.
And she loves carrying stuff around.
She was carrying this bonnet around the other day.... all over the house.

This reminds me of Holly Hobby.

Hello "bright eyes!"


I just love that wisp of hair that sticks up.

The kids and I went on a school field trip the other day. A mother made the comment of how she just wanted to touch that wisp of hair sticking up because it brought back memories of 14 years ago when her daughter had hair just like it.

I told her to go for it.......you could just see the memories in the mother's eyes as she ran her fingers over Elsa's hair.

These were part of her pajamas

she enjoyed carrying around the other night.

When Chris comes home from work Elsa waves her hand to him and says "Dada!"

The other day when Chris got home there was music playing, and he sat down at the table. Elsa waved her hand to him....it is kind of a backwards wave so it looks like she is beckoning him to come to her. She called out "Dada" and waved again and rocked back and forth like she was dancing. So he got up, came over, and picked her up to dance.
She was in heaven.

As I promised a few weeks ago, this is Ben and Stacey dueling each other.

Rhaevyn got her tetanus booster today. Such a trooper. She got it in her left arm so she could still go to her fencing class tonight.

Here is a little video of Myles in his Jack Rabbit class.

Fraulein

This is one of my favorite dresses from when I was a little girl.
My Aunt Donna brought it back for me from Austria when I was a baby.
It is precious and is something I look forward to handing down to my girls when they have children......many years from now.
Now all three girls have worn it and had their picture taken in it.

Okay, okay, enough, enough!

I'm done..........ba-bye, mommy.

Out of the Mouths of Babes

So, the other day I had the local PBS channel on.

Charlie Rose was interviewing Nancy Pelosi.

I left the living room to go make lunch.

Myles came into the kitchen after watching a few minutes of the interview and says to me......

I am getting a new hairstyle.

On a different note, Miss Elsa is walking more and more everyday.

I can't believe she is almost one. That just can't be, can it???

Last, but no least, the girls had their talent show for Achievement Days at church. You may remember that last year poor Rhaevyn wound up in tears when she had to stand up in front of everyone an then tried to explain that her talent was baking.

This year we tried to prepare her in advance, and she practiced what she wanted to say. And it wasn't her in tears this year. It was me. Yes, I was so impressed with her. She got up in front of everyone and explained a little about fencing. Then her and Chris did a few minutes of fencing for the audience. She was great. Sorry that I don't have any footage, but I didn't have any extra arms/hands to hold the camera.

Aeva played a piano piece and did great, no mistakes. All that practice paid off.

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend!

More Creations

Here are three new binky strings I just finished.
I have two more in the works and will post those
when I get them finished.

Can You Say Bibs?

I thought I would share some of my new creations.
I was talking to my best friend the other day about my creations
and how I can see all the flaws.
She was saying that when her Grandmother used to make blankets and would mess up she would just say that she had left her signature.
I really like that. Puts a positive spin on it.
So with every bib I sewed today, I just would say to myself, every time I messed up a smidge, "oh, there's my signature."

Bibs, bibs everywhere!

Here is my cute little model.

The Suspense is over......

Chris and Rhaevyn now how the dreaded virus.
Be gone virus......be gone!

Quarantine

This is what I think should be posted on our front door right now.

There is an awful stomach virus going around, and we were unfortunate enough to get it. I started this post several days ago, and, since I don't know when it will get finished, I thought I would just post what I already had on it. I will put the rest of the pictures and videos up next time.

Four down and two to go.......................

I involuntarily started us down the stomach flu path late Monday night. I cannot remember the last time I was so sick. By the time my stomach decided that the little bug had been purged our Miss Aeva took her turn at paying homage to the big red barf bowl. Chris called from work to check on us and could hear that things weren't going so well at home. While I was over the worst, I was pretty much immobile and could barely keep my eyes open. Rhaevyn was doing her best to fill my shoes (which I will say she did an awesome job of!!!!), but she was getting tired herself. She was watching Myles as well as getting Aeva water to drink and emptying her bucket. I think she deserves an award. I am not sure at her age I would have done it. Chris arrived home within the hour....much to Rhaevyn's relief and mine. Elsa had slept until he got home. This is unheard of, unprecedented, a miracle and a huge blessing. By midday Miss Aeva was up and around and looking pretty perky. I ,still, was not so much.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thurs-day all seemed back to normal. Wow, not to shabby I thought.....we only suffered two casualties. The rest of the group made a nice escape from this evil visitor.

The sun was out, blossoms were blooming on the trees, so Rhaevyn and Myles went out to play.

Myles biffed it on the asphalt and came in scraped up and crying. Poor guy has had a rough week. Monday night he biffed his mouth on the arm of the rocking chair. His gums were all bruised and bleeding. Anyway, I ran him a bath. He started complaining he didn't feel so well, but had admitted that he drank a lot of bath water. I reminded him that the bathwater is not for drinking and no wonder he didn't feel well.

I plunked him down in front of some mac and cheese. I think he ate a few bites and told me he just couldn't eat any more since the bathwater had made him feel bad. He went and laid on the couch. We could hear him moaning in on the couch. I was thinking to myself "wow, he is really milking this." Then I heard it........that infamous cough." You mothers know what am talking about.

I had counted my chickens before they had hatched.

Can you see me? It is like a movie playing in slow motion.......can you hear the Chariots of Fire theme playing? I am frantically looking for a bowl and running to the living room....hurdling over clothes baskets, my right arm is stretched out in front of me with the bowl aiming for Myles's mouth.

I missed the first ejection, but caught the rest. So, three pillows, seven blankets, three sets of sheets, two sets of pajamas, four baths, 7 loads of wash and 15 hours later I happy to say that he is feeling much, much better.

I must say he and I had some very interesting conversations over throwing up. He was upset that I would not brush his teeth and was so worried about getting what he calls "moles" in his teeth (holes). I didn't have the heart to tell him that he was probably going to throw up a lot more, and I just couldn't see the sense in brushing his teeth. He kept putting his arms around me and telling me he loved me.

While Myles was going through his round, our wee one caught the bug. I had just finished feeding her, and it was almost 11:00 pm. It was the opposite of Newton's law of gravity......everything that goes down must come up. Chris and I were commenting that we have never had a babe this little ever get sick with the stomach flu. It was the saddest thing to watch her, to listen to her. I just wanted to cry. I think she has been hit the hardest and worst so far. Every five minutes poor girl. Chris said " she's the only one with a smile on her face after getting sick." That's our Miss Smiley. Although that soon wore off after about the seventh heave. After that she was just in a daze and then would just fall asleep between sessions over the tub. Chris stayed home yesterday, which was a good thing since no sleep was really obtained throughout the night.

So, she seems better but is not quite over the bug yet.

Now we catch up on laundry, and dishes, disinfect the house and wait..........two more to go......Chris and Rhaevyn. It's feeling like a suspense movie.

Anyway, enjoy the pictures and the videos.

I will post more soon when we are all well and the attack of the stomach virus is over.

Tootles :)

Last week Aeva drew me some beautiful pictures of planets.

Stacey and Ben came to visit Friday night.


Stacey and Myles are looking at a Star Wars coloring book.

Stacey and Myles and Aeva find Waldo.

Rhaevyn and Chris showed off

some fencing moves for Ben and Stacey.

Then Stacey and Ben wanted to try.

There is video footage of them fencing,

which I will most definitely post next time.

Uncle Ben and Miss Elsa.


Cheese!



Chris put Elsa to sleep after her dinner by massaging her feet.



I think I forgot to post these during Valentine's.

Aeva made theses dipped Oreo cookies at Activity Days.

Myles and Uncle Ben playing duck, duck, goose together.

Uncle Ben and Aeva play the piano together.