wrapping it up

May always comes as a hurricane around here. It's predicted to be wild and crazy, but there's not really a way to prepare for it. We just hunker down and try to stay afloat. But unlike a hurricane, it is fun. Exhausting, but fun! And since today was our last day of the school year for all of us, I better go on and get JK down in the record books, because summer starts tomorrow!!

JK is just a sweet, sweet  year for our boys! The school they attend has a special area for JKers and is so nurturing and truly bonding for all of the kiddos! This year for field day, we headed to a family farm! The entire JK was able to go fishing, ride horses, plant sunflowers and partcipate in traditional field day activities! What a fun-filled day! I'm so thankful I was able to take the day "off" and head out to spend field day with Charlie. It was a treat!

 And as a JK wrap up, Charlie and his friends had a special program filled with sweet songs about the year and all they learned!

 

 Thank you Mrs. Anderson for taking Charlie under your wing and for a wonderful, loving Junior Kindergarten year. We love you Mrs. Anderson!

thankful perspective

I've heard lots of different coughs during my adventures in mothering. The dry cough. The cough that produces all of the yuck. The incessant cough and more. But in all of my 7.5 years of motherhood, I had never heard the "barking seal" cough people talk about. . .until last night. Around midnight. My first reaction was, "Are you kidding me? No, of course! Chad is out of town, and things always happen when he's gone!" I started thinking about how I was planning on dropping Miles at his Parents Day Out tomorrow because I had to take Way downtown for a hearing test at LeBonheur and how this was going to interrupt my plans. My expectations. You may remember my word for the year from this post! Clearly, I'm still working on it! But, God! Praise be to the Lord for giving me perspective and wisdom at that moment when I needed it most!

With Chad out of town, I easily could have panicked, but I didn't. I grabbed our handy little pediatrician guide, that our doctor gives us when a new baby is born, and read up on Croup. I turned on the steamy shower and went to get Miles, who was a sad little thing! That cough truly is a barking seal cough! We cuddled, in the dark, steamy bathroom for 20 minutes and I loved it. I hated that he was miserable, but I loved that he just wrapped his arms around me and laid his sweet head against my chest. He felt safe and content and I didn't want to be anywhere else. I had nowhere else to go (except sleep) and I was thankful! An opportunity to cuddle my little one, who's often busy running to keep up with his older brothers, was given to me, and Oh!!

This morning was wonderful too! I ended up not having to scratch Way's appt., but nervously charged forward with my 3 youngest, and we all survived his hearing test with no meltdowns! It doesn't always work out that way. Hardly. I was thankful. And, though one of Way's little ears, still doesn't have a big enough canal to hear, his other ear hears wonderfully! I'm told we just need one ear for speech and hearing. Not ideal, but we have one ear that is working! I am thankful!

I am also thankful for LeBonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis. They've been with us through neurological tests when Luke was a baby, tubes and adenoid surgery for all of our boys, eye surgery, and all kinds of heart testing for baby Way. Not to mention how they've helped so many of our friends! I am thankful!

And, I'm thankful the Lord doesn't give up on me and keeps on teaching me. . .

"The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." Proverbs 16:9

FYI--finding a way to say yes!

I was recently told that there is no one on earth who carries around more guilt than a mom. Amen! I wish I could say I didn't carry guilt around, but OH, how I do! I'm not quite sure my hubby gets it, but I know you moms out there do. It's hard to say "No" to the barrage of questions we get daily, especially the, "Mommy, will you play with me?" question, which is always as I'm feeding a bottle or making dinner or just trying to get the laundry going. Sometimes I'm able to drop everything and do so, but sometimes not. And saying "no" to the 597 other questions hurts sometimes too. I want to be able to be more of a "yes" mom and I feel guilty when I'm not.

So I've been trying to plan some fun activities and be a little more whimsical and flexible. Who cares if we don't eat right at 6? So what if everyone is not in bed on time? (Although my main reason for sticking to those is because attitudes start heading south, if you know what I mean.) Anyway, yesterday comes along and I was beyond thrilled to take my boys to our local strawberry pickin' patch. It's a tradition we've had for 6 years now! They had no idea we were going, all they knew was we had a surprise coming! I was pumped! They were ecstatic and kept trying to guess what it was. So I pick the boys up from school and head home to feed Baby Way before we head out to strawberries. Great! Everyone grabbed a snack and had a potty break while I was feeding Way, and once we were done, we all went to pile into the car. Except, I forgot my keys.In the house.With the door locked. I ran around checking every door praying one of them was unlocked. Nope. I had a very mini-meltdown saying "Oh man!" and "Oh, no!" a bunch before I realized I had to keep it together for the boys. I didn't have my phone with me to call my hubby to rescue us either. The boys started to get really bummed out, saying, "This is the worst day of my life!" and thankfully, the Lord calmed me and helped our perspective shift. It wasn't raining, it wasn't 105 degrees, it wasn't 40 degrees, we just finished feeding Way, everyone was fed and really, all was A-okay. We talked about if it had been the opposite and we decided to play some games. We played basketball and 4 square--making up our own rules and even though, I was bummed to not be able to do our "fun" activity, I was able to say "yes" to swinging and basketball and tickle monster, etc! What a sweet lesson to be taught!

But between my mini-meltdown and our fun playing games, I managed to stop our postman and use his cell phone. So, an hour later, Daddy came to rescue us and let us in! It was quite late, but you know what? We winged it, and headed out to the strawberry patch! I warned the boys we might not be able to do the "fun activity" because it might be too late. They didn't care, they were just excited to see what was coming. And, when we arrived, they were thrilled! It was a perfect afternoon. The rain clouds were moving in, it was a cool 70 degrees and we were all smiles! The boys all told me they had so much fun, and at least for a little bit, my Mommy guilt was erased! Hoping I can hang on to that feeling for a little longer!

I love picking strawberries with you, Buddies!!!

Baby Way update!

Oh my! It's been a bit, since I've written a Baby Way update! So here goes. . .

In the past 3 weeks, Baby Way has gotten 1 tube in his ear (his other ear canal isn't fully formed--never knew this could be),

sorry for the blurry Instagram pic

 and he had his follow up echocardiogram down at LeBonheur (he still has an ASD, small hole, but doesn't need surgery at this point--praise)!

 Baby Way was also baptized, which was the sweetest baptism for many reasons! We will never forget it (even if our minister initially forgot to have us say our vows!)

Auntie (my great aunt), Mom, Baby Way, me

and Baby Way turned 9 months old (though I forgot his 9 month sticker)!!!

 So much packed into the past few weeks! So many memories! Look at that smile, Baby Way! Ohhhh how we love you!

motivating the Monday

FYI Friday--finding ways to make the devil flee

At my wits' end this morning--from an overwhelming, head-spinning week and another to come next week, I could only think about a quote from Martin Luther, that one of our pastors at church shared with us. . .

"I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art that can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology, music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart . . . the devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God.” ---Martin Luther

 And so I turned to my playlist on our computer, to make that devil flee, and cranked up the volume on this song . . .




Oh, how I love music! And, praise and worship music is such a great way to focus on our Lord and worship Him, which truly does, put my heart right where it needs to be! I also love the conversation that it started with Chuckles. . ."Mommy, that's not true. God's love can't just keep going, forEVER!" And even after hundreds of times of telling him the opposite, (because, really, it's just so hard for all of us to imagine that the Lord's love is never-ending--especially when we get caught up in the whirlwind of this life), I was able to share with him again, that it IS true! Our God's love never fails, it never gives up, it never runs out on us! Praise be to God!

Chuckles is 5!

Our sweet little Chuckles! How can you be 5? So little, yet all heart and emotions, and you've such a desire to be big! In fact, you truly are growing up. Even if you are smaller in stature, and even if you have the cutest little voice and adorable way of pronouncing words, your mind and heart keep growing! We love it, Charlie! You may be our best communicator, explaining things until everyone understands each other--what a blessing you are!

Your desired theme for your birthday party this year was Angry Birds, much to my dismay. Why did I not want you to want that? Oh, because it's all grown-upish and I just didn't like the angry part about it. I don't play it, you only know it from Mimi and Grandpa's phones, but you've assured me that the Angry Birds aren't bad--they are just trying to destroy (hmmm) the bad piggies! Ha! Sometimes as a Mommy I want to hold onto control and shelter you from things, but I think letting this go isn't a bad thing, because really, it just isn't something bad in the whole scheme of life and in turn it helps me stay current! ;)

So Charlie, we went with it! You chose an Angry Bird Star Wars themed cake (our cake lady is awesome) and Angry Bird Space decorations.

 

We played a game with paddles and balloons pretending to be Angry Birds and piggies, and we used little discs and balls to knock down Angry piggies too!

Aunt Mary came to party too!

It was a different party for us, your first to have mostly school friends as opposed to family friends---which one day we hope to be the same! This is your first year at this school, so we're just getting to know everyone.You had fun and we are thankful! Thankful for your little buddies celebrating with you and just all around 100% thankful for who you are!

 

And, as per tradition, we had our first snapshot in the morning pic, which I lamented about on Luke's last birthday---isn't quite the first shot anymore, now that you get up and get dressed on your own, without us coming in to wake you! But here it is--your Daddy got up early to go out and surprise you with donuts from our fave donut place! Hooray! You had balloons too and were off to school! But since it was a half day for you, we got to celebrate by going to your favorite bookstore AND have lunch together AND you chose dinner at Five Guys--a fave for sure! Afterwards it was home for more cake and presents---which included a climbing rope (one of your biggest desires (let's forget the trampoline for now) and a new bike helmet--Angry Birds of course, a blue light saber and other fun things from your grandparents and aunt and uncle like golf clubs and Star Wars costumes and more Angry Bird toys!

It was a special day, because you are special Charlie!  Our Chuckles, our cuddlebug, fierce and loving, funny and caring, our 2nd little boy and a such an amazing blessing to us! We love you, Charlie, with all of our hearts! Our prayer for you always, is that you will grow up truly knowing and loving the Lord and shining his light to others. May this year be your best year yet! Happy 5th Birthday!!