Just a Barrel Full of Laughs

Life is just a barrel full of laughs around here. Mostly. The boys are as carefree as ever, and their cheerfulness and childishness keeps me young. I hope we never forget these golden days of summer and afternoon “swims” like this one!!

Yes, these golden days of summer, and these imaginative playful little boys of mine. Oh my, they keep me busy and they fill my soul with sunshine.

I’ve really needed that sunshine lately too. We’re well into Day #15 and I’m suffering a major case of the dreary weary’s. (if you haven’t heard of the dreary weary’s, you should check this fun children’s book out from the library. Fun book.) Anyway, I’m pushing past them as best I can, praying and trusting in God for help, but I’m feeling pretty wiped out.

It’s hard to know how to handle the wiped out feeling. Stay busy so I don’t sit around and mope. Or sit around and mope… and drink Starbucks. So far, it’s been the former. And truth be told, I haven’t really had a choice. The whole staying busy bit doesn’t take any effort. This whole week we’ve had non-stop all day scheduled events/happenings.

Part of me just wishes I could just sit around and mope. But I’ve discovered that even my attempts at downtime in this single parenting/house running household of mine are nigh impossible. I opted out of our weekly play date, (which is typically considered downtime itself—time at the park with friends, lunch out, happy kids etc) so that I could just stay home for once this week… and sit around… doing another hour of school time with the boys, mowing the lawn, changing furnace filters, cleaning the kitchen, and making FRG phone calls. You know, sitting around type stuff. Noah knows all about it, don’t you, Honey?

But in my failed attempts at relaxation and my overwhelming dreary weariness, I’ve found myself meditating on 2 Corinthians 4:16-18.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

I have felt lately that I’m outwardly wasting away, that my body is weak and tired (despite getting good sleep and exercise), and that my troubles are anything but “light and momentary.” But this verse helps put things so wisely into perspective. An eternal perspective. This life is HARD. There are tests and trials on every corner. Keeping up with all the busy-ness of life and trying to do it all for God’s glory. It’s not easy, Baby! Even if the smiles on my kids faces might tell you otherwise. It’s draining. It takes a lot out of you.

But… it’s temporary. It’s but for a moment. And it’s achieving an eternal glory that far outweighs the trials, the work, the trouble, the effort. That far outweighs them all. What a beautiful promise and hope to those who are weary.

It’s such an encouragement, I might just go find a big blue bucket full of water and jump in myself.

 

*If you don’t hear from me for a while, it means I’m stuck in the bucket. Please help.

Faces

I’m browsing through recent pictures of Noah and found some that I just absolutely love.

But now I ask you…

…am I a mean old Mom that I truly can’t decide which picture I like best?

My dear, dear, Noah, every look on your face is precious to me.

Playing hopscotch

Isaiah learned about playing hopscotch from a friend at church and asked me to help him draw one.

So I did.

And then I showed him how to do it.

He became a professional (just like me, of course) within a few tries.






Then he decided to just sit an color chalk on the driveway for a while. At which point we both noticed the
casualty’s of playing hopscotch in bare feet and with blue chalk.





Completely unaffected by the fact that his feet looked blue and un-oxygenated, he said, “Mom, can we make a hopscotch with green chalk next?”

Sure thing, Isaiah.

Everyone loves…

a slip ’n’ slide? Don’t they?

Isaiah and I spotted this incredible Lightning McQueen slip ‘n’ slide when we were out running errands a few weeks ago. It’s a bit more hi-tech than the ones I had growing up—this one has an attachment for the hose to fit into and  a built in sprinkler.

Initially, the boys just wanted to crawl down the red carpet and feel the gentle spray of water (although I guess Josh didn’t really think it was that gentle and kept his nose plugged—haha!).



Then they wanted to grab the water.



And taste the water



And just plain old watch the water.



But then the play really got going.







And being the child at heart that I am… I joined them.

I mean, someone had to show them how it’s done!!

In all honesty, I had at least as much fun as they did. Oh my, it was so fun. I felt like I was 5 years old again, and as carefree and excited as I ever could be. I loved every minute of it.

And I only have a few bruises. So I’m sure I’ll join them again.

I really do think that everyone loves a slip n slide.

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Q-tips

Four little, five little, six little Q-tips…

Seven little, eight little, nine little Q-tips…

But just ONE little Q-tip boy!

 

And for the record, it was more than 10 little Q-tips. More like 750 of them.

Why do they make such big packages of  Q-tips anyway? Sigh. Being the frugal gal that I am, I shoved the Q-tips all back into the container despite the protests of my husband and insisted that we use them anyway.

What’s the big deal? I asked him. There’s nothing wrong with using wet, sucked on, lint covered Q-tips.

Ball Popper

Birthdays are a big deal in this house. At least to the boys and I. My husband doesn’t care too much about them, but he humors us and spoils us rotten anyway

But the boys and I… oh yeah, we’re all about birthdays. We love talking about cake and icecream, about parties and balloons, about presents and wrapping paper. It just gives us all shivers.

I don’t think it’s necessarily greed or discontentment that spurs us on, although that could certainly be part of it, but I think we mostly just love presents and surprises.

So a few weeks ago, the boys were talking about birthdays, and Josh (3yrs) said,

“Oh Mommy, for my burfday (birthday), I’d like one of dose (those) ball popper fings (things) with the air blower fings (things).” (we’re working on his “th’s”, can you tell?)

Not completely certain what he was talking about, Josh was kind enough to point it out to me the next time we were at Wal-Mart. I quickly noted that the ball popper “fing” was definitely a cool contraption (at the bottom a fan blows air that pushes light weight balls up the center cylinder. The balls go flying into the air and then drop back down, land on a slide, and come back to the fan to start the cycle over again. Very cool). But I also noted the toy was targeted as a play thing for 9-18month olds. Joshua seemed to note this at the same time as I did (seeing the baby on the front of the box) and he all of a sudden exclaimed,

“MOOOOOM!! I KNOW!! We can get the ball popper for Noah’s burfday! He’d love it. I know he would!”

And since I’m one that loves buying gifts as much as receiving them… AND since it touched my heart to see Joshua’s look of joy and excitement as he imagined getting Noah the BEST TOY IN THE WORLD, I agreed. The fact that it was the last one AND in the clearance section because the box was squashed may have played into it too.

So we bought it.

And we gave it to Noah on his birthday last week.

Fun and smiles like you wouldn’t believe.

 

And yes, Joshua is actually politely covering his mouth in one picture because he is laughing so hard. Oh man. I love these boys.

And since I’m sure all you fashionista’s were wondering, yes, I do let my boys dress themselves. And yes, their favorite colors are red and orange. And yes, yes, yes, they almost always wear their two favorite colors together.

Sigh.

Holes

I knew that the holes would be inevitable.

Ever since my first, second, and third pregnancy ultrasound’s revealed ALL BOY, I imagined holes in the knees of pants and big old patches sewn on top.

And what? with the crawling, pushing, breaking, driving, hauling, building and all the other “knee-walking” activities that go on in a little boys world, it’s not a wonder that even those good old Levi’s can’t keep up. Is it?

What I didn’t expect, was that it’d happen to my jeans too.

But… considering all the crawling, pushing, breaking, driving, hauling, building, and all the other “knee-walking” activities that I perform while keeping up with my brood of boys… it’s not a wonder that mama’s jeans can’t keep up with it either.

However, regardless of my sore knees, and the holes in my pants, I wouldn't trade all the crawling, pushing, breaking, driving, hauling, building and all the other "knee-walking" activities for a hundred pairs of new jeans.

Perfect Photo Opportunity

Well, it seemed like the perfect photo op to me anyway… obviously Noah had other thoughts.

Ruffles and Lace

While some of you may have read the blog post title and immediately assumed that I was announcing a pregnancy...

and a pregnancy of a baby girl at that.

This post is about just the opposite (well, not exactly the opposite-- I am NOT pregnant and NOT PREGNANT with a BOY either. So don't get excited, Mom!)


The ruffles and lace refer to the fact that almost every pregnant gal I know is having a girl. And after a brief calculation (not counting my own little Noah because he was already born when we moved to the South), I determined that our church has had 8 baby girls in a row, with the next 2 pregnant gals also expecting girls. That's a lot of baby girls.


So, last week, I went to a baby shower for a little gal due in April. Tons of pinkness, purpleness, and everything sweet.

Prior to the shower, I went shopping for a baby gift, and thought it would be so much fun to peruse the aisles and hunt for girl clothes. I was certain it would be an enjoyable experience.

But let me tell you. It wasn't.

It was SO hard.

Sigh.

I'm sure, like my husband, that you are thinking that it was so hard because I want a girl so badly. But actually, it's the opposite again.

Sure, I'd love to have a girl and a daughter. But I'm so happy and content with my boys, I don't spend (or waste!) my time longing or dreaming of girls. I love my boys. I love that God has given them to me. And I'm wholly content to trust Him in determining the gender of our baby's. Boys or girls.


Shopping for ruffles and lace was hard because I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS DOING.



I've been picking blue and green onesies and overalls with matching Bob the Builder shirts for so long that the girl clothes overwhelmed me. I kept finding myself asking, "do kids really wear princess shirts? and "are all those ruffles really cute, or if I bought this would everyone frown and say, "ugh!"

Then I found the colors overwhelming. Though I am a woman who likes to look feminine, I rarely wear pink or purple. So while I shopped, I gravitated toward boy colors, or at least gender neutral colors, because pinks, purples, and mauves, just don't go. I mean, do they? Do they really?

And what's worse, you know how they always say that girl clothes are so cute? I found myself walking right past the frilly dresses and instead pulling out sweater vests and corduroy pants on the rack next to them. SO much cuter.


As I said, it was a hard shopping trip. Utterly distressing. I was completely out of my element. I had the hardest time finding good girl clothes, and even when I did finally make my purchase, I wasn't sure I'd picked the right things.


When I told my husband about it later, he just laughed at my furrowed brow. I think I completely surprised him too.

"Well," he said in an encouraging tone, "at least I know that if we do have a girl, you two won't spend hours shopping together."

Yeah. So funny, Honey.