A Place to Start

It's been a great place to start.  A great place to learn.  A great place to build relationships.  A great place to experience how to get to do many different types of jobs.

I'm feeling the need to move, though.  That restless feeling like it might be time again.  It's getting stronger and more insistent.

I'll miss the people.  I'll miss the relationships.  I'll miss knowing how things work and where things are without even having to think about it.

It's different this time.  Something is different.  We don't understand the same things.  We don't believe in the same ways.  I'm getting more stubborn and less tolerant of your views and I can tell you have just as much tolerance for me.  In order to keep the relationships that have been so long in the making I think it's time for me to find something new.

But it was a great place to start.

Doing . . . not a thing.

A friend once told me that her most favorite thing to do with her kids is . . . absolutely nothing. A night where there are no practices, no obligations, nothing but children running in and out of the house playing and making racket before dinner. I thought she was absolutely crazy. But we did that tonight. We did nothing. But play outside and sing inside and eat chicken nuggets and tater tots. And listen to the giggles of three adorable children that belong to me.

And then there were three . . .

I thought at one point that I was done with having kids. I had my girl, and then my boy. They were both healthy, cute, smart and I felt very blessed.

As my youngest got older, though, I felt like it might be fun to have just one more.

Boy was it.

Of course he came four weeks early and made my water break in the middle of car rider line. This was after ten weeks of steroid shots to make sure that he stayed put in the first place. He then proceeded to spend 18 days in the NICU, like his brother, to keep us on his toes. When we did get to bring him home he came with caffeine, zantac, and an apnea monitor. And I had thought that my life had gotten a little too calm. He sure switched it up for us.

Now, at sixteen months, I wouldn't change a thing. He is verbal, independant, bossy and totally adorable. We love him. He gives his sister someone to mother and his brother someone to play trucks with. And he keeps his parents on their toes every second of the day. We wouldn't change a thing.

He sees you when you're sleeping . . .

Christmas season is here and with it comes the inevitable questions about Santa. Is he really real? Does he really live in the North Pole? How does he get to every house in just one night? The questions are endless, and hard to answer sometimes. Fortunately for us, Santa emailed both of my children in which he explained some of his holiday secrets and encouraged them to keep behaving their best to avoid the 'naughty' list.

Fast forward to this weekend. My kiddos and husband and I were hanging out, watching some reality tv together. And, as inevitably happens, someone lost. So my oldest looks at us and says 'well, that sucks'. Now, we don't really allow that kind of language from our children so it surprised us a little that that particular phrase popped out of her mouth so readily. We explained to her that that is not acceptable language, and that we expected to NEVER hear that come out of her mouth again. She ran to her room, crying all the way. After a little while I went to check on her and she was STILL carrying on. I explained to her that it was fine, she had already apologized, and as long as she promised not to talk like that again we were good. But still she carried on. What in the world? I finally got out of her that, no, it was not fine. And that it wasn't our discipline that she was worrying about, it was Santa's. 'Because, mom. You know . . . he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake . . . now I'm gonna be on the NAUGHTY list!' Man, that man really wields some heavy power in this house! Too bad his power is up in 12 short days!

Ceiling Fans

We love Christmas lights in this house. Well, okay, really we love anything to do with Christmas at all. The cookies, the lights, the holiday season. We love it all. I've always wanted to take my kids to see a huge light display in our area, but we never seemed to have the time (or the patience) for it. It's quite the haul from our house, and then you have to wait in an enormous line to see it. But the other night I decided that if I was waiting for the perfect opportunity it might never come. So. I bathed my kids, got them in their jammies, packaged up some cookies and we were on our way. There was fighting and bickering along the way. And I'm sure there was a loss of patience by me also (I was driving by myself, with my kids, in the dark, to somewhere I hadn't ever been before. This increased my stress level GREATLY!).

But then we arrived. And the Christmas lights were amazing. They had snowboarding animation. A 'river' that ran through the display. Santa arriving in a helicopter. They had carousels, Christmas trees, and any and all conceivable kind of lights that you have seen in the Christmas season. Definitely worth the trip. Especially when your kids proclaim from the back seat that 'this is the best night EVER'. Awesome!

Christmas Lights

We love Christmas lights in this house. Well, okay, really we love anything to do with Christmas at all. The cookies, the lights, the holiday season. We love it all. I've always wanted to take my kids to see a huge light display in our area, but we never seemed to have the time (or the patience) for it. It's quite the haul from our house, and then you have to wait in an enormous line to see it. But the other night I decided that if I was waiting for the perfect opportunity it might never come. So. I bathed my kids, got them in their jammies, packaged up some cookies and we were on our way. There was fighting and bickering along the way. And I'm sure there was a loss of patience by me also (I was driving by myself, with my kids, in the dark, to somewhere I hadn't ever been before. This increased my stress level GREATLY!).

But then we arrived. And the Christmas lights were amazing. They had snowboarding animation. A 'river' that ran through the display. Santa arriving in a helicopter. They had carousels, Christmas trees, and any and all conceivable kind of lights that you have seen in the Christmas season. Definitely worth the trip. Especially when your kids proclaim from the back seat that 'this is the best night EVER'. Awesome!

Giving

My husband went to a football game today, so my children and I had some alone time together. Being the good mother that I am I figured that we would do all of the seasonal stuff that they had been wanting to do for awhile. Gingerbread train, making ornaments to give away to family members, stuff like that. So we walk into our local Wal-Mart to start our seasonal fun and I see the angel tree. Great idea, I think, we can talk about the reason for the season AND help out someone in need. I grab an 'angel' that matches the sex and ages of my kiddos and off we go. They had great fun helping pick out special gifts for their angels, and I fielded a couple of good questions from my daughter about when they got to write their 'angel' list (I think she was a little disappointed when I told her that we didn't need to fill one out for herself and her brother) and why they would need to be put on the list in the first place. I really thought we all understood why we were doing what we were doing, and was proud of my kids for doing such a good job of picking out presents for their 'angels'.

That is, until my son saw me drop the presents into the angel bin. Then he totally and completely lost it. Right there in the front of the wal-mart. Crying, screaming, clinging to the wal-mart sack. Asking to have HIS toys back, the ones that he loved the 'very best'. Hmmph. Well, maybe next year I will have to be a little clearer with him about the 'angel' tree!