My Girl is Growing Up while I'm Gaining Some Perspective

Her rough delivery left us both black and blue.
We weren't sure she would make it; her APGAR was 2.

13 years ago, she would not eat, making me so uptight.
Now she eats most everything in sight.

11 years ago, bath time could be a battle.
Now her showers take so long the pipes rattle.

10 years ago, she was all about princesses and pink.
Now she collects sports gear and cleats that stink.

8 years ago, she loved reading to her Build-a-Bears
Now she writes fiction and cooks meals she shares.
 
6 years ago, American Girl Dolls were her favorite toy.
Now special needs ministry brings her such great joy.

3 years ago, gymnastics consumed her time.
Now she flips for Christ; in whom her thoughts sublime.

Last year, she matured, both inside and out,
Now she leads with more faith and less doubt.

Strong-willed, compassionate, brave, and bold
What words will describe her as her years unfold?

#GrowingUp #FirstBorn

Freezing Birthday Weekend for the Oldest Member of Our Household

My husband is only 21 days older than I am, but he knows how I like to tease him for being older during those brief three weeks.  So today it begins again as today is his birthday!

I don't think he spent his birthday weekend quite like he could have hoped, though he loves spending time with his kids.  He and our boy went to a campground near the coast for the Y Guides Spring outing, and the weather turned bitter cold on Friday with lows in the 20s each night and highs in the 40s.  That makes for some rough unheated, uninsulated cabin camping.  Even so, they tried to enjoy all their outdoor activities.  Highlights for my son were the gnome hunt, collecting hundreds of fireballs, biking, and riding the zip line.  This zip line, however, runs over a river which was icy cold this weekend.  That brave little boy insisted that he and his dad both drop into the cold water from the zip line to earn a polar bear claw, so they experienced a degree of cold I have never known and hopefully never will.  The love a father has for his son is a beautiful thing as it drives a man to make great sacrifices for another, but I'm wondering if it doesn't make the man a little crazy too.  :-) Here are some pics from their frigid weekend.

I could not possibly recount all the ways my husband has sacrificed for our family, for he puts us before himself on a daily basis.  He does the same for others, and he is such a wonderful gift. (That makes gifts #1000, so I have now completed my 1000 gifts project, but may I never stop recounting all the blessings God places in our lives even though His presence alone should always be more than enough.) 

With those thoughts  in mind, I posted the following birthday wish to him on social media today.

When I first met this handsome guy, he was only going to be in town for two days before finishing his spring tour with the USNA glee club and then heading back to the USNA where he was a plebe. I didn't think I would ever see him again, so I asked him for a photo by which to remember him (no smart phones or selfies back then, kids), and he gave me this picture. Even though we rarely spoke over the next 8 years, I thanked God for him and prayed over him whenever I saw this senior photo which I kept on or in my desk. 

Now I don't need a photo by which to remember him, for we are one, and when he is not next to me, my thoughts are constantly with him. Today, he celebrates another birthday, and as I have done for the past 23 years and as his kids have done since they were old enough to pray, we are thanking God for the gift of this wonderful man. Happy Birthday!  (Read our full story here.)

"We always remember you when we pray and thank God for...you. When we pray to God our Father, we always thank him for the things you have done because of your faith. And we thank him for the work you have done because of your love. And we thank him that you continue to be strong because of your hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. " (1 Thessalonians 1:2-3)

 My daughter was apparently very excited about his birthday.  Waking up to find professional looking signs designed and printed by my daughter to distribute around the neighborhood, school, church, and basically the entire town inviting people to our house for a surprise birthday party for her father in which there would be food, live music, and dancing on a date & time she chose was quite a surprise indeed. She even generously shared my personal email address under the RSVP. I do love her heart for hospitality, and she knows how much her mama enjoys having guests over, but even so, asking permission first is usually better than seeking forgiveness later. And while she is an extrovert who thinks the more the merrier, the birthday guest of honor may have a different preference, especially after spending the weekend in a tiny cabin surrounded by 16 guys.

Our daughter wanted to make her daddy a birthday cake, so I laid out a bundt cake pan and the dry ingredients on Friday night and went to bed.  She was baking when I got up Saturday morning, but we were surprised to see how small the cake was after baking.  When your daughter makes a lemon pound cake for her daddy, and it looks more like a 1/2 pound cake (or a doughnut), you start to wonder how much of the batter she ate in the process.

I think the recipe she ended up using called for a loaf pan instead. Oops!

We told him that she put a lot of effort into making sure the cake had 50% less fat, 50% less sugar, and 50% less calories (in other words, 50% less cake) per slice. lol

In addition to cake, he has been receiving gifts from family members throughout the month and lots of cards including one signed by all my students who think he is the best ever after all I've told them.  The girls gushed over how well they had heard he could sing and over his smooth dance moves.  One guy drives the exact same car my husband previously drove (silver, manual transmission, Acura TSX), so he mentioned his great taste in cars.  One student even called him a "stud", and most said they really wanted to meet him.  I loved their comments.  I hope my husband did too.

The boys didn't miss much around here while they were gone.  We spent hours cleaning milk my son must have spilled in the refrigerator that left a horrible stink. I literally worked from 12 noon until 3am on lesson plans while my daughter played, read, went door to door raising money for the Stop Hunger Now project, created more freaky images she will regret some day....

....and created psychedelic back handspring videos like this one.

Oh, and I did take a break on Friday night for a mother/daughter yoga party with my favorite girl.  If we ever get serious about our workouts, however, we cannot invite Muffin.  She tends to get in the way. :-)

Spring Break Musings

Two weeks of spring break should provide new teachers with two full weeks to catch up on lesson planing, right? Well...spring break is over, and the only thing close to lesson planning I've done is fill out an NCAA bracket for our stats class pool. I have, however, slept (a LOT), relaxed, served, played, cheered, visited, and completed every spring project on my list (such as purging every room in the house, coordinating major construction projects, completely catching up on scrapbooks, getting family members to our DC, dentist, and GP, hosting guests, celebrating & shopping for 11 birthdays this month, completing & filing our time consuming tax returns, cleaning baseboards, and even lining & reorganizing drawers). I've done anything and everything but school. I love these students with all my heart, but it is normal to take a "break" from the books when given the chance, or am I the only one with priorities so backwards?

Parenting Observations & Kid Quotes

With the kids home with me for two weeks, I had the opportunity to make more parenting observations and overhear their funny conversations.  (Gift #990)

You know your kids are beginning to empathize with you as a parent when they tell you, "We're going outside to get our crazy out."

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You know spring break has taken it's toll when Muffin is outside of her pen keeping watch over the kids who have put themselves into time out inside the bunny pen.

Muffin was introduced to a fan for the first time that day.

I was reminded of how photographers will use a fan in the studio to make the model's hair look like it's blowing in the wind. With Muffin, her ears just blow out to the side like the wings of an airplane. She does like the cool air blowing against her back side, though.

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Prayer should draw us nearer to God, so I find it ironic that our kids got into an argument over whose turn it is to pray first.

"..and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be your servant just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20: 27-28)

True, dat!

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Whenever I serve something quick and easy for dinner, the kids are complimentary and leave few leftovers (especially if it is something unhealthy and/or processed). But when I spend hours creating a new recipe from scratch, I usually hear comments like I heard over spring break:

From the kids:

• "Did you sneak fish into those enchiladas? It sure doesn't taste like chicken."
• "It's too spicy. It doesn't look right. I can't eat this."

From my husband:

• "I like it, and since I love my wife, I will eat it all, thank you very much!"

I can't cook, but he still loves me anyway!  (Gift #991)

 ‪

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While cleaning, I found more evidence of how different girls are than boys, especially when it comes to written expression. Note how each signed a card for their dad.

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We had a big scare this past weekend when my hairdresser insisted I had lice.  So we dumped pesticides on all of us and insisted a friend who had been near us do so as well...threw out all our linens I had just washed, sanitized the entire house, and hardly slept with the sensation of bugs crawling all over us.  The next day, I got a second opinion since we didn't see any nits and could not figure out where we could have gotten it being in isolation so much during spring break.  We went to a certified lice treatment center, and the technician could not find a trace of anything...no bites, egg casings, nothing. Relieved, we resumed our busy schedule.  While in the waiting room, however, my son read that lice prefer clean, sweet smelling hair, so now he wants to know if he can get away with not washing his hair at all this week. Nice try, buddy!

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While driving through a new part of town, I mumbled, "These houses are so big that they make our house look like a hut." Then my 8-year-old said, "Mom, you told us not to compare ourselves with others because it either results in pride or envy but never does any good." So parents, even if your children do not obey your instruction, you know they are at least listening when they call you out on it.

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I am still enjoying my morning study of the book of Proverbs with the kids.  They say the most convicting things (see previous quote from my son about making comparisons). (Gift #992)

Yesterday

Me:        What does it mean to be "proud in heart" (vs. 16:5)?
               What's the difference between pride and self confidence?

Tween:    I know! I know! Self confidence is when you know inside that you can do something.
               Pride is when you boast about it to others.

Me:         Who helps you do that something? Hey Look! They just painted that house bright blue!

Tween:    Mom! How dare you look at house paint when we're discussing God's holy word?"

#‎Humbled‬ ‪#‎Distracted‬ ‪#‎NotaMorningPerson‬ ‪#‎SpringBreakEndedTooSoon‬ ‪#‎SassyTween‬

Today

Tween:       "A gray head is a crown of glory; It is found in the way of righteousness." (Prov. 16:31)
                   Mom, I think God is telling you to stop dyeing your hair."

This verse led into a discussion of the sanctity of human life and how we must stand for both the unborn and the elderly when society treats them as if they are less sacred than anyone else. We talked about how important it is to show special honor and respect to the elderly not only for the wonderful wisdom they can share, but also because they are sacred, made in God's image . We must defend all human life. Then my 8-year-old said, "This world makes me so sad. The way some people treat the unborn and the elderly reminds me of when the pharaoh tried to kill all the male Hebrew babies out of fear the Hebrew people would grow large in number and rise up to overthrow him." Wow! Perhaps, I underestimate the power of a child's mind and need to show more respect for his age as well.

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Haircuts are a dramatic experience for our tween, so last time I took her to the most popular, trendy salon in town where she received a beautiful haircut, but she still cried with each snip that sent a lock of fried, sun-damaged hair cascading to the floor. This time, her most trusted confidant and friend, "Grandma Susan", came to the rescue by cutting her hair at home while Muffin comforted her, and this experience was all sunshine, roses, smiles, and relaxation, even as dark clouds surrounded our home and rain poured from the skies. (Gift #993)

Miracles

The fact that my husband would invite me to go running with him is nothing less than a miracle. The fact that I could even go running at all after the doctor said I would never run again and after 4 years of running restriction is yet another miracle. So, given that I have gone running at least 6 different times over the past few months without back pain and without significant knee pain and that two of those runs happened only because my husband invited me to go with him, what is the probability that God still works miracles? My stats students better know the answer to this one! (Gift #994)

The fact that my expert hair dresser saw lice, and then they magically disappeared is a miracle in my book because she is not the type to deceive me in that way. (Gift #995)  Although she did tell me to never contact her again when I told her the second opinion showed none whatsoever.  I notified her so she would not worry about any risks she may have been taken and so she could bring all the towels and scissors out of quarantine, but she took it as the rudest insult imaginable and will not let me apologize or make things right between us.   Thankfully, I've already found a new hair dresser who is like minded in faith and affordable. 

When Susan came over to visit our daughter (and cut her hair!), she kidded me about the state of our garage.  She knows I'm a neat freak (she is not!), so she was surprised to see our garage in such disarray.  All the sledding and winter weather activities plus the cold temperatures made it hard to get out there and organize everything.  I told her my husband had to organize it anyway because he would not like not knowing where all his tools went, but it may take forever for him to find the time, for he doesn't get a spring break.  Then the next day, he purged the garage, so I got my 3rd miracle for the week! (Gift #996)

I love the way my daughter respects, appreciates, and loves the miracle of God's creation, particularly with regard to animals. (Gift #997)

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful:
The Lord God made them all. ‪#‎CritterLover‬

Bunny Happenings
Muffin was asked to serve as a prop for a professional photographer's Easter photo sessions.  As soon as I let her know about her modeling debut, she began primping for the occasion. :-)

We also gave her a bath to help her with the parts she could not reach.  Then I let her "hang out and dry" with  our daughter and the sight of them together was too precious not to photograph. (Gift #998)

Muffin did great during the 7 or 8 photo sessions, and she only tried to hop away into the woods once, and I managed to catch her.  Whew.  It was a gorgeous day and lots of fun for the kids as they played basketball and rode the photographer's zip-line while I help the photographer and took care of Muffin.   (Gift #999)

If you ever see a girl in a dress and barefooted while playing basketball like a pro or a boy on a zip line or shooting hoops in his dress shoes, then you know those kids are probably ours.

Here are some photos I took with Muffin in their yard and in the woods behind it between photo sessions.

Update:  The photographer just posted these photos from that day's spring shoot on her website.  The kids are gorgeous, but that bunny sure is cute, too. :-)

A Week of Celebrating Eleven

Our first born celebrated her 11th birthday this past week, and that celebration lasted seven full days.  After Nana & Pops came up to visit on Sunday, with arms full of birthday presents and a generous offer to treat us all to huge bowls of candy covered yogurt at YoLo, our birthday girl woke up to more electronic and stationery cards wishing her wonderful birthday blessings.

I put together a collage of her over the years, and I spent a lot of time last week thinking about how much she has changed and reflecting on so many wonderful memories we have shared together. (Gift #984)

She requested Golden Corral (I call it the "Pig Trough") for her birthday lunch, so we drove to her dad's workplace and all went together for a fabulous meal.  She ate way too much despite my warnings that she would get sick, and she has been nauseated ever since.  Maybe there is a stomach bug at work as well.   Hopefully, she learned a valuable lesson as well about moderation in all things, but I'm just excited that we all got to see where my husband works and join him for lunch for a change. (Gift #985) I didn't realize when I took these pics that her brother looked like he was trying to swipe her cotton candy.

 

Her birthday gifts were all art themed this year.  That big Santa sized sack was filled with art canvases from Kate, Luke, and the twins.  She received a very nice pencil set from my brother's kids and a huge assortment of acrylic paints from Witt.  Grandma sent a fancy art easel, and friends gave her art kits.  I guess now I need to get her art lessons. This year is the first year out of probably the past five that I haven't given her horseback riding lessons for her birthday as she is too busy with gymnastics team, choir, and drama, but I will have to find her some good art lessons to fine tune this new interest of hers.

At gymnastics, they celebrated her birthday by throwing her into the foam pit and burying her.

She insisted on another slumber party for her birthday this year.  Since we're on spring break, most of her school friends were traveling and could not come, but it was still a fun time with the three girls who came.  

After her birthday on Monday, we told the kids to start cleaning the 2nd floor for her party while I cleaned the 1st floor.  I had the 1st floor clean and decorated with favors wrapped and all the party preparations in place by Tuesday, while the kids accomplished nothing all week.  So on the morning of the party, my husband told the kids, "Your rooms and bathrooms better be ready for our company this evening when I get home from work." He walked in this evening to find "Off Limits" notes posted to the 4 different doors. That's not exactly what he meant.  Real, funny, kiddos.

Publix recently opened a new store in our town, and since so many of our new friends here are from Florida and Georgia where Publix stores abound, they were uber excited about it.  I shopped Publix when I worked in Georgia, but I could not remember much about it. I was a bridesmaid in a wedding for a Florida friend who married an IT network administrator for Publix, so he's been telling me how wonderful it is.  I had heard they make great cakes, so we ordered our daughter's birthday cake from the Publix bakery.  When I took the kids there on Friday to pick up the cake, you would think I had just taken them to Disney World with all the excitement in their eyes as they explored the new store and enjoyed the delicious samples galore.  Thanks for the cheap entertainment, Publix.

The party was easy to host with Hungry Howie's pizza for dinner along with a veggie tray I put together in a few minutes and some nabs and sweets.  I used E-vites for the invitations,  our daughter planned all the activities and helped me pick out easy favors, and we prohibited electronics so we would not have to constantly supervise or monitor any texts or online activity.  I'm grateful for a low stress party venue for our tween who is old enough to do much of the planning now. (Gift #986) 

The girls brought gifts even although I specified "no gifts" on the invitations, and our bunny was all about it.  Muffin was so cute "helping" her unwrap the gifts and read the cards.  That bunny continues to add a finishing touch of joy to our family despite the havoc she wreaks. (Gift #987)

 

The girls were highly entertained with creative adventures my daughter made up as the went along, epic Just Dance challenges on the Wii, and a movie.  The girls even let me watch the movie with them, although the fact that a our cute fluffy bunny in my arms who they used as a pillow helped gain me admittance.  I enjoyed hanging out with the girls, and I know my daughter enjoyed having me there.  Having someone else allow and appreciate my presence is a gift I don't take for granted, especially as I realize how much rarer that gift is as tweens turn into teens. (Gift #988)  I have no idea what time they went to sleep, but I was able to get to bed at 1:30am and slept until 9am, so I'm not complaining!  (Gift #989)

 Happy 11th Birthday, sweetheart.  Thank you for all the ways you make us laugh or smile.

Our son wasn't sure how he would survive the invasion of girls, but he and his dad coped by tuning out the noise of the loud, lively, giggly girls all around them and tried to watch the ACC game.  Our son decided to pull for Duke, and despite all the noise around him, he still managed to fall asleep.  Don't worry, my son. Pops pulls for Duke, and I've seen him fall asleep on the recliner during Duke games more times than I can number.  Pulling for NCSU is less boring as you just never know what they might do. (Example - Beating #1 Villanova during the NCAA championship play-offs) :-)

Pi Day

Pi Day, that once in a lifetime day when the date matches the numbers in the ratio constant Pi, took place yesterday, and we were all about it.  Several of the teachers at school sent me Pi Day greeting since I'm now a math teacher at the school.  Now that Pi feels like part of my identity, I had to celebrate it.  So, I began by sharing a Pi tip for all my math and/or coffee loving friends.

On 3/14/15 at 9:25 a.m., some of the Ferocious Fireflies (our daughter's former Y Princess tribe) were here eating breakfast following a birthday slumber party for our daughter, so they all joined me in making Pi symbols with their hands during that significant moment.

Then that evening at 9:26pm we celebrated again with some Pi Day acrobatics. We're not as coordinated as we though, and it looks like my back posture still needs some serious work after carrying those babies 9 months each.  The kids enjoyed our silly fun, though, and I'm thankful for a husband who puts up with our immature ideas. (Gift #981)

Except for the few minutes spent celebrating Pi day, I spent the entire rest of the day filling out tax return forms to determine how much of our pie we will be giving the government to waste this year.  And while our federal taxes went up a lot (though nowhere near as much as they will when the current POTUS leaves the office, for that is when all his hikes go into full effect), our state taxes went down enough to offset the federal taxes. (Gift #982)  Amazing!  Say what you want about our state legislature, but I doubt you'll find many NC state taxpayers complaining about the tax reduction since it leaves more money in taxpayers' pockets to help those who really need it. Or since it's Pi Day, I'm thankful for any policy that helps make the economic pie bigger for everything so that everyone gets more pie instead of shrinking it into nothing via wealth distribution.  I'm so thankful for a break this year at least. (Gift #983)