Ty and Ashten

Isn't this great?

Things I never thought I'd hear myself say

"Boys! Motorcycles do not drive on kitchen counters."

75 seconds later:

"Ty why are you standing on the counter? Get down."

10 seconds later:

"Jack if you sit on the toy motorcycle you may break it."

45 seconds later:

"Noooo!! Austin, do not eat the spare key! That's probably what happened to the last one..."

20 seconds later:

"Austin, put the key down."

3 seconds later:

"Ty get off the counter."


Austin just hit toppled over and is crying. This post has to end.

Can you take care of that for me? Thanks.

I'm in the kitchen preparing supper.

"Hey Mom," Jack calls me as he walks from the playroom and headed to the bathroom, "Can you watch Austie and get any chokers out of his mouth if he tries to eat pieces from the castle set?"

"Uhh, sure. Are you going to the bathroom?" I ask? [I'm honored that he trusts me with this responsibility.]

"Yep, I'll be right back, don't let him choke."


uhh... that was odd. For some reason I feel like the child here...


And when he finished his business, Jack ran right up to Austie, squeezed his cheeks and checked inside.

Really? You don't trust me? I'm his mom for pete's sake. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that Jack does 90% of the prying Austin's mouth open and removing canon balls.

maybe.

What can you say?

For the past week I've been thinking a lot about Mother's day.

It has come to mind when I'm standing over the kitchen sink, pulling clothes out of the washer and changing diapers. What do I do for mother's day? What do you say to the woman who spent years of her life serving your physical needs?

What do you say?

I dig chokers out of the baby's mouth, put a band aid on a scraped knee, kiss a hurt forehead and think "How many times did she tend to our scrapes and bruises?" I read books; books about cowboys, about dinosaurs, about the earth. I read to them about their creator, their savior, their only hope -- just like I was read to.

Arguments are settled, correction is given, discipline carried out, tears, hugs and lots of Kleenex. I am reminded of my stubborn heart and the many spankings I required. It would have been much easier to ignore the need. Look away, pretend you didn't hear the hurtful words coming from an ugly heart.

Trips to the park, a visit to the zoo, race tracks outlined by chalk on the driveway, sunscreen application, extra laundry, wet footprints on the would be clean floor

...remind me of...

Flying kites, trips to the farm, picnics, the fort, beach towel hideouts, water parks, vacations, ice skating, homemade bread and butter. I never considered the behind the scene work that went into each special thing we did --until now. She had to consider the babies nap schedule, the three-year-olds access to a potty, stroller accessibly, she had to remember diapers, EpiPens, hand wipes, sunscreen, paper plates, shoes (because we sure didn't) hair clips, first aid gear, seat belts, snacks and sippie cups. -and that was just for a trip around the block.

At night my tired legs remind me of a woman who had two loads of laundry washed and oatmeal on the table before I woke up. Clothes on the floor after bath time makes me think of the many times I heard, "Go get your clothes out of the bathroom." and "Hang up your towel." and "Wipe up the water that spilled outside the tub."

Many many reminders. Much much training.

Such love.

And.

I have no words for her. No words can repay her.

And yet we have this day.

This day where we are supposed to sign our name to a canned message, lick a stamp and now we're all even.

A thank you can't do it. Yet often it sits there as our compensation to a woman who gave her sweat, sleep, tears, love and the last four bites of her dinner to us. Labor was the easy part.

So how do I repay her?

If she devoted her life to loving, playing, enjoying and leading her children to Jesus, what better (and none harder) gift to give her, then for me to do the same with mine.

Reputations

We have a reputation around our neighborhood.

Everyone has one right? Yours doesn't have to be bad, it could be good, but it's definitely something. People have an opinion of their neighbors. For example we have the quiet neighbors, the reclusive neighbors, the fun neighbors, the loud neighbors and the neighbors whose kids never wear pants.

I'm not sure but if I were to have to guess what our reputation is, I'd guess: the junky neighbors, or the psycho-gardening neighbors, or the inattentive parent neighbors, or the garage door's open all night again neighbors

Any of those would be accurate.

Apparently Ty has a reputation of his very own.

Today I was informed by a neighbor (who will remain nameless) that her husband (John) looked down at his dirty-faced daughter and said: "Hey Ty."

Big news

I'm typing this on...

my new computer!!!!

Yahoo!!!!

[If there wasn't a burn ban I would upload a picture of fireworks right here.]

I loved my old one, it just got sick and Mike and I didn't have the medical degrees to make it well. Poor thing.

But now... now! Now I can blog without the thing crashing on me! So stay tuned. I finished my laundry today and put a fresh roll of tissue in the back bathroom. Looks like smooth sailing for me for the next few days!

I'm back

This is going to be a disappointment. Prepare yourself.

I've gotten a little prodding the last few days to hop back on the horse. The more I think about what I'm going to write, I find myself getting nervous. "It's gotta be good," I'll think. "The people want funny, you gotta give 'em funny." I'm imagining some of the hype that surrounded the "This Is It" tour Michael Jackson had planned for last year. "Michael Jackson, like you've never seen him before." That's what they said... ...hoping things don't turn out for me as they did for him. Probably won't though, I don't have the PR guys that he had.

any who.

Where have I been? Well, let's see... I went on a vacation to a tropical island with Mike (who was down on business). Then I came home. Then Mike came home. Then Mike went back to work, and that was when life began again.

Life.

What does it look like these days? It looks like not blogging for one thing. I thought about writing down every single thing that went on during a day, for an entire day. Problem was, I couldn't find time or a pen with which to write it all down. (Someone buy me a decent pen for my birthday.)

Here are some thing that happen often at my house that might keep me from blogging:

I change the toilet paper roll. This doesn't take much time to do once, but when you do it 4 times a week, it becomes noteworthy. I'm glad that my big boys are old enough to handle their toilet business, but the TP required for the task is ridiculous. I'd talk to them about it, but I feel it might backfire. There was a time when they'd wipe but leave the toilet paper on the roll, --Green Peace may salute their conservation efforts, but their mother did not. Then sometimes the white rug in front of the toilet is used in place of paper.

Boys: Use the toilet paper. I'll change the roll.

Sitting down, I've decided is the wrong posture for blogging.

For one thing, the $4 garage sale chair* that sits in front of our computer threw a shoe and was out of commission until the leg and caster were repaired. For a few days I knelt in front of the desktop before deciding I didn't have the knees for it anymore. Another problem with sitting is that any time I sit down a homing signal goes out and the boys immediately end up on my lap, sprawled across my shoulders or draped over my back. Not kidding. It happens. All three of them.

Meal prep has increased lately. Mike's mom got Austin hooked on solid food. I had delayed that as long as possible. I felt it was the healthiest option for him. I can remember several times with the other boys, after they were newly weaned, that I just forgot to feed them. After much whining and crying I'd stop and think, "Now what can be the matter with you... Oh! You haven't eaten today!" (I'd been used to an uncomfortable reminder that it'd been a while since the child had last eaten.) So now Austin's on baby/finger food. Ty's eating more. Jack's doing good as always and Mike's around to be fed as well. It's like a 40% increase on what I was doing during the deployment. And I'm having to be a bit creative to come up with meals that we can all eat. A couple times I've looked down at our food and told Austin, "Sorry Dude, looks like Cheerios's for you tonight."

Laundry. Why bring this up? Isn't this a constant need? Well, yes, except that we've done away with pull-ups for bedtime --the sheets get washed twice a week. And that's only because twice a week is my limit. If the bed gets wet more than that, sorry you're sleeping on 'em. Also Mike's home and bigger people means bigger clothes thus... more loads of laundry. Oh, and our dryer is broken... again. The playroom looks like I took an armload of laundry and just threw it up in the air, clothes are draped over the rocker, the play fence, the train table, the basketball goal...** anywhere that will help it dry.

Seriously, I will have a clothes line at my next house.

Write it down.

The last reason I'm going to give you for not being able to blog:

My studly husband. I'd just rather hang out with him at night then get on the computer. Sorry. But it's true. We've enjoyed sitting on the porch, watching a little TV, playing softball together and so on. It's been great having him back. In fact, the reason I'm writing on here tonight is because he went to bed at 8:00. Poor guy isn't feeling great.

So there you have it. A disappointing post, but the ice is broken, we can continue on with our relationship.

I'll be seeing you again soon.



*I talked the guy down. He wanted $5.

**Yes, we have a basketball goal installed on our wall