Celebrating Lucy

Lucy, ready to come home from the hospital, March 2007

Lucy, ready to rock out to her new iPod, March 2015

This weekend marked our Lucy's 8th birthday. We've enjoyed watching her grow from a tiny baby into a sweet, tender-hearted girl in what feels like just mere minutes. As most parents can attest to, "time flies" and all of a sudden their little ones are no longer so little. While Lucy is still "little" (don't tell her I said that!) it is amazing to me to watch her personality grow; her sense of humor coming out when she is finally comfortable and has warmed up. It's takes her awhile to do that, to get comfortable around new people, but once she does she is silly and loves you with her whole heart. She is sensitive and good to her friends. She loves her big brother enormously; this I hope she continues to hold dear to her their whole lives. What a great team! She loves animals and books and music and dance. She loves baking cookies with me, loves watching her brother navigate through Minecraft worlds, loves reading and kayaking with her dad. Honestly, she's a pretty great kid!

This weekend we had a birthday party for her at our  house. (her idea, I was totally committed to taking her and her friends OUT to bounce, or play, or paint, or skate...)  She wanted an art party so we made our plans and had 11 of her friends join us for painting, sand art, yarn sculpture and scratch art fun. And of course cake! It was another joy to watch her play with her sweet friends that afternoon. These girls are so great and I loved listening to them talk about their creations. The paintings were on framed canvas with acrylic paints. Animals, monograms, fireworks, rainbows, and sunsets were featured on their paintings. Beautiful!  Her friends gave her wonderful gifts with the best homemade cards! We ate "big yellow cake with pink frosting, 'Lucy' in cursive with white frosting and white flowers and candles" along with ice cream. They giggled, they told knock-knock jokes, they sang and just enjoyed being together. A great day for being 8!

In our family, the birthday person gets to choose The Birthday Dinner plan. Adam chooses something different every year, but it is often someplace for seafood. Lucy, however almost always sticks to Noodles & Co. for mac and cheese, and always with family invited. This year, like with her party, she wanted to stick close to home. She wanted to invite her grandma and she wanted her Godparents. And she wanted BREAKFAST. Her plan was lovely: Butterbraid coffee cakes, fresh fruit and yogurt dip, mini muffins, bacon and sausage, and scrambled eggs. Great plan, quick and easy to prepare for mom, and who doesn't love breakfast for dinner???  What a great night with her friends and some of her family together! I am so thankful to God for placing her in our care, thankful for her friends and our family, thankful for Michael's art supply coupons, and for Mark and helped me bring this little girl into the world. Love you honey. Happy Birthday Lucy!

Coffee Connections

     I met with a friend, and former coworker of mine, for coffee this morning. She has also recently left teaching after many years. The events that led to her decision to leave the classroom were very similar to mine and she and I decided to meet in order to talk about the transition, or troubles with transitioning, to become the stay-at-home mom. I've shared some of my own struggle in a previous post, and it was really nice to talk with another mom going through the same transitions. It was great to be able to share our new found freedom, and talk about our kids (favorite subjects right?), but what I loved most about this time together was two things.

     First, we thought we were weird to be feeling anything but thrilled to be home during the day, not working. It was nice to know I wasn't the only one and to have someone to talk to about it. Secondly, and most importantly, talking with her today just reinforces to me the importance of having another person to connect with and share your common interests with. Getting to know someone better over coffee is a great thing! I am going to continue to make coffee dates with those I want to catch up with, friends that I want to reconnect with, new friends that I don't know as well as I would like to, and those that I love whole-heartedly, but haven't made time for lately. To listen and be heard. 

closure and answered prayers

I've been praying for a particular need for quite some time. Over a year in fact. I've asked my small group bible study to pray, my church exec team and those that participate in a larger group prayer circle...all to pray for this need. I prayed specifically; for this need to occur in order to tie up loose ends and put closure to a painful part of my life. I know that God has His own timing, that things don't often happen as you think they will happen. And as is often the case, your answered prayers don't end up the way you think they will. My prayer, after over a year, was answered last week. A year later, not my timing. Without details, without information, , not like I expected. Without hoopla or drama....the prayer was quietly answered.
And I feel sad. I thought I would feel happy.

Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful the prayer is answered and the wait is over and we can move on and we can have-----CLOSURE. But when an answered prayer leaves you feeling bittersweet about the rest of the picture, you get back down on your knees and start praying new prayers for the rest of your needs. It's very clear to me that God does answer my prayers, maybe not how I expect or when I expect, and maybe not even with "yes" as the answer. But I will continue to move toward Him to get answers so I can grow and move on.

Top Ten Movies I Want My Kids to See

There are great movies being made everyday that I will enjoy taking my kids to see. But there are loads !!!! of movies out there that they would never, ever choose to watch on their own, that I think every kid should see. There are a few on this list that we have shown them recently, but this is the work in progress list...in no particular order.

10. Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
9. The Ghost and Mr. Chicken (1966)
8. Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang (1968)

7. The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964)
6. Singin' in the Rain (1952)
5. The NeverEnding Story (1984)
4. The Princess Bride (1987)
3. Harvey (1950)
2. The Love Bug (1968)
1. Oh, God! (1977)
There are too many others to list here that are "must see's": Star Wars series, Ghostbusters, Bad News Bears, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Benji, Pete's Dragon, the original Tron.....a long list for sure. Maybe you're looking for something new to try with your kids. What are your family-friendly favs that I shouls add to my list??

Lost Arts

I live in the midwest. It gets cold here during the winter. Not "it's a little chilly I'll get a sweater cold", but freeze your face off when you go out to get the mail cold. Cold enough that my dog collapses when she goes out to the yard. Cold enough to call off school, but even too cold to go out to play in the snow because the snow has turned to ice. So we're home today from school, entertaining ourselves after being home for 2 weeks for Christmas.

One thing on my "to do" list today was to help my son finish his thank you cards. He's one of those "lucky" kids to have his birthday fall only a week after Christmas. With his birthday came presents. Wonderful gifts from wonderful people who know him so well that as each gift was opened it was very clear how much time and effort was taken by his friends to choose just the right thing for Adam's interests and hobbies. I was amazed at the variety of gifts and at the perfect choices for my son's personality. Such care and thoughtfulness!! Writing thank-you cards is something we have always done in our house. Since the kids were babies and couldn't write yet, their scribbles on a note written by me were sent to those who took the time to celebrate them in some way. My kids know that this is something they will be doing when they receive a gift. Not that they ENJOY it really yet :) but they do know that I will help. Today we sat down to write and at 11 years old Adam wrote his own messages. I addressed the envelopes for him and sat with him at the table so he would have company. On occasions like birthdays where there are many gifts we might break down the list into smaller sessions to lesson the "I'm missing out on something somewhere else!" factor. I've found that writing thank-you notes, and any other kind of letter actually, is something of a lost art. With texting and email the handwritten note has almost totally disappeared. But who doesn't love getting mail? That break from junk mail and bills to find an envelope addressed to you in handwriting you recognize.

But there's another lost art. Handwriting. My 2nd grader came home from school yesterday very excited about what happened in school. Super excited. Jumping up and down excited. Nope, not a school pet or extra recess. "We started learning cursive mom! Like big kids!" She was thrilled to be learning how to read cursive handwriting and write it. Many schools have done away with cursive saying it is old-fashioned and unnecessary when we have computers to type on, spell check, and texting.

I love writing letters. I love writing them in my own handwriting. I have saved letters from my grandmother that passed away many years ago, her own handwriting so easily recognizable to me and harder to read as she got older, but continued to write. Letters from my dad, my husband, my preschool aged kids, cards from my mother, letters from high school crushes and letters from family or friends who have both healed and hurt my heart. These letters are proof that someone has taken the time to sit down, and think about me in some way. Someone took time from their busyness to put me in their thoughts for longer than a text, longer than a commercial on tv, more than a box to check off the "to do" list.

So although it is a lost art, we will continue to write thank you notes to show appreciation and grateful hearts for people who took time to think of us. We will write them in our own handwriting and maybe someone, somewhere is saving one of our notes in a special box on their dresser. Like I do with mine.

Quiet.

They went back to school this morning and the house is quiet. Last night I did everything I could do to make the morning rush go a little more smoothly. The laundry was done, they had their clothes laid out, backpacks were cleaned then filled with folders and library books ready to return. Can you hear the washer and dryer? the kids arguing about putting their clothes away?  shouts of "I can't find that book!" I had shopped for lunch supplies and we found all the hats and mittens we knew we would need for the cold snap that came overnight. Can you hear the sounds of groceries being put away in pantry and cupboards? the slamming of closet doors and complaints of lost mittens? After a slight delay getting the van to go (the doors were frozen shut! Hello winter temps at last!), we were off and they were on their way back to school after two weeks of a really wonderful Christmas break. Hear the sounds of an ice scraper on my windshield, the beeping of a partially open/closed van door that is frozen!?

And now...it's quiet here. I know many moms are super happy about the words "back to school" after a long Christmas break. And I admit I am super eager to be able to clean a room and have it stay clean for the day. I've read the Facebook posts since Christmas Day; so many complaints of the mess, the kids fighting with each other, the lines for returns, the "I'm bored Mom" complaints amidst piles of gifts received just a few days before. But I have to say that even though I experienced some of this myself, (didn't I just comment about wanting a clean room??) I really enjoyed having them home with me. Hearing their laughter as they played, listening to the girl sing to herself, listening to the boy's constant "would you rather" questions, ("would you rather be in a car with a bunch of girls that love you and hate each other, or hate YOU and love each other?"), listening to her reading Ralph S. Mouse, listening to his loud music and efforts to train the dog to roll over. And now it's quiet.

I'll enjoy the quiet a bit for sure. And I will most likely treat myself to a manicure this week, watch some DVRd shows, crush some candy, and other things for myself. But I will also be really happy to meet them at the bus stop and hear the stories of their first week back after so long away from school. Quiet gone again...thank goodness.