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As a mother of four, multi-tasking is a way of life. And during a typical day it all usually escalates during dinner time. I’m usually found swirling around the kitchen chopping, boiling, microwaving and stirring all while helping with homework, quizzing for spelling tests and settling a quarrel or two.

In the summer, it eases up a little that we don’t have official homework and we don’t have such an exact time schedule. But we still have to eat by a certain hour or the walls come tumbling down. So I can still be found swirling around the kitchen, I’m just usually in my swim suit and cover up.

One such summer evening, we were actually down at the lake enjoying a full day of boats, sand, water and of course, tractors while Daddy-O was up in town at a meeting.  That was our last evening at the lake so after an early dinner we were packing and driving up to town.  Packing bring’s its own challenges as my “helpers” typically unpack things that I’ve already packed.  So in the midst of all the normal dinnertime busyness and lake trip packing I was doing the dishes and I over heard Fletcher sharing his train of thought… (this is where having a more extraverted child is helpful because you get a glimpse inside their brains to hear their inner thoughts!)  …as I heard him say “I’m going to put my jello in my pocket!” almost as if it were a song.  I paused from my rinsing and scrubbing and wondered, “Did I just hear what I think I heard? Did he just say what I think he said?”

And low and behold, YES! He had actually successfully put his orange jello into his pocket! You see, I have this “special family recipe” for what I call, “Pick Up Jello”. A friend’s mom used to always make it to bring to the lake and she called it Knox Blox, the box calls them Jigglers, but it’s basically extra firm jello that you can pick up and hold in your hand and it wiggles.  “Watch it wiggle, see it jiggle…” ok, forgive me, but it was such a catchy slogan.  Anyhow, Fletcher evidently hadn’t finished his jello with his gourmet dinner of jello and hot dogs and he decided since we were packing to leave that he would just put his jello in his pocket and take his to-go!

Oh, to be a newly three year old boy!  You never know what you’ll find in those pockets!

See the orange squish? 🙂

As the old saying goes… when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.

I’ve always been an optimist, a half-full kind of gal. Most the time, that is.  But for the most part, I’m able to see the silver lining. The rainbow through the storm.  In fact, I’m teaching my children, (at least I’m trying!)  that you have to choose to look for these bright spots in life.  Being that they’re still relatively young we talk about “Are you an Eyore or a Tigger” as in, do you choose to be downcast and dreary like Eyore or are you upbeat and bouncy like Tigger.  When it’s all said and done, it’s a choice.
So yes, sometimes, we even need to choose be thankful for the lemons that life gives us.  And the one thing in life we can control is how to respond. It’s not always what you’re given, but what do you do with it that counts.  So add a little sugar, a little water, maybe a bit more sugar, stir… and enjoy!

Summer is finally here!  Puffy white cloud days are my favorite! And we’ve been fortunate to be having several of them so far this summer! We’ve been swimming nearly every day since we opened our pool. We’ve had friends over to splash around with us, too. I’m very diligent about managing kids in the pool and though I don’t count heads like my mom used to (and still does at the lake, or parking lot or anywhere!) But I have this mom-sense, that I just can tell where my kids are. I use all my senses – I obviously watch them with my eyes, but when you have four and you’re in the pool helping the youngest stay afloat you can’t always watch them from a lifeguard chair so I also heavily rely on my hearing and listen for them to splash, come to the surface and breathe.  If one slips out of the pool and disappears for a moment, I usually know that they’re behind the bush taking a pool potty break – an advantage of all boyz and a private backyard! But I still ask them to tell me where they’re going so I can keep them on my mom-sense radar.

The other day, I needed everyone to get out to take a potty break and Kiefer just quips, “Why don’t you  go potty over there?” I had to explain that Mommy’s don’t go potty by a bush unless we have to!

Anytime we get out of the pool, for a potty break or our favorite, an ice cream break! I always make everyone get out and sit on the deck.  When Carter and Kiefer were little, I’d close the pool every time we got out. But I’ve relaxed a bit and try to rely on them to help me shepherd the little ones and keep them on the deck while I go inside.

Well, Tuesday was one of those terrifying, spit second, “Oh My Gosh!” moments!  I’d been inside passing out ice cream treats to the little hands through the kitchen “ice cream shop” window, as is our custom. They were all on the deck enjoying their treats, as is their custom!  I joined them and we sat on the deck to get a little sun. When they were ready to get back in the pool, I said “Just a second” and went inside the kitchen to throw the trash away. Literally TWO SECONDS later I came outside and saw three of my four boyz near the edge of the pool and Fletcher was bobbing up to his eyeballs right off the steps of the pool with this look of panic as his mouth and nose were under the water.  It’s a moment I’ve had nightmares about! I started screaming, “Help him! Help him! He needs help” I think because the other boys were closer to him that I was, but I wasn’t really expecting them to help him. I then proceeded to try to walk on water to reach him and I ran into the shallow end of the pool, torquing my right ankle as I hit the bottom.  I got to him in a splash and lifted him up and he was fine, thankfully!  I exhaled and said out loud, “Thank you, God!” And I’ve been thanking God every minute since.

It only takes a second. But we all learned a valuable lesson.  I need to continue to be diligent about closing the pool when I go inside and Fearless Fletcher learned that he only knows how to swim when he has his life jacket on.  (I also learned not to take it off when we have our ice cream breaks!)  I talked to them all about the gravity of that moment and it’s one I hope we never forget, though I wish I could erase that haunting visual from my mind.

Now the remaining pool days that we have will be an even heightened mom-sense.

Griffin Doodle in the pool (or poodle?!)

Big Guy Carter struts after a dive

Fearless Fletcher peers over the edge (life jacket on)

Fletcher doing his pool dance

Singing and dancing

Griffin’s on the run

Griffin jumping in the shallow end

Griffin swimming steadily with life jacket on

Kiefer mid air on a potential belly flop

Kiefer’s all smiles and no teeth this summer!

Carter goofy mid air!

Big splash on his “pencil dive”

Here comes Kiefer!

Big splash!

Little ones lined up when the ice cream store opened

Griffin

Fletcher

Carter & Toothless Kiefer

Is it hard to eat a popsicle without teeth?

All on the steps (K, C, G & F)

Which way?

Kitchen Island – BEFORE – or should I say, DURING!? Teacher Week

Well-a! Kitchen Island After a little Mommy Magic! (more like a lot!) To be framed for future reference that this countertop was once actually cleaned!

 Here’s a look at a few of the gifts we gave our teacher…

Monogrammed jewelry box I made for our teacher

Inside pictures of each student glued to rocks – “YOU ROCK!”

Her classroom with the dance lights going to surprise her first thing in the morning

Lights going on the ceiling!!

A hand made crayon wreath – more Mommy Magic! 🙂 (With my magic wand, my glue gun!)

More Magic- paper flower bouquet! Too cute!

A Giving Tree over flowing with Gift Cards! Gotta love Pinterest!

It doesn’t take long for a two year old to make a mess… I’ve known that for quite a while now.  But usually when they’re harnessed in their car seats, it’s more challenging for them to be destructive. More challenging, but not impossible.  

It’s been one of the wettest springs in history! With more than 8″ of rainfall in the month of April! That said, it’s been a very lush, long spring with tree blossoms lasting longer and spring peaking later than usual.  The wet weather also means that a mom has choices to make: Does she deny her family of food so she doesn’t get wet grocery shopping in the rain? Does she break down and buy mini umbrellas to help shelter her young from the storm?  Well, in this case – no and yes.  We went ahead and went grocery shopping in the rain and while there, I bought them umbrellas.  For about an hour it was the best $6 I’d ever spent.  Then, being boyz, they did what they do best and the umbrellas broke. Oh well, it brought some joy to some little hearts for a little while. Mine, too. 

Fletcher giving his new Thomas “Bumbella” a whirl

Kiefer not staying very dry trying to squeeze under Griffin’s Spidey umbrella… shows me how big he’s getting!

Picture perfect! Carter playing under my rainbow umbrella!

Griffin being Griffin. Now you see why his didn’t last. “No Griffin, it’ s not a sword, it’s an umbrella”

Kiefer playing with my old red umbrella, a better fit…

He’s trying to be Mary Poppins and seeing if he can fly with an umbrella!

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Carter trying to figure out how to lower it…

I grew up climbing trees. Often. I mean, I was ALWAYS up in a tree, either swinging like a monkey or climbing up with a board, a bucket and a rope and I’d make a bench with the board and pull the bucket up with my lunch and a book and I’d enjoy the bird’s eye view of the world down below and pass the endless summer days away.  For these reasons, and countless others, I don’t have any issue with my boyz climbing trees. In fact, I encourage it!  Daddy-O and I giggle that someday when they’re bigger they’ll realize how spindly and small the trees in our backyard really are, but for now, they claim the trees as their own and can often be found swinging from branch to branch. There are larger white pines that line the edge of our back yard along the fence line and below there’s a walking path.   Recently, a friend at church told me he was on a walk and saw our boyz at the top of those white pines! They greeted him and carried on a conversation while 20 feet above the sidewalk!  The visual of the VonTrap family comes to mind from The Sound of Music as they’re swinging in the trees and their father drives below them not knowing whose children they were!

Lately, the boyz have been venturing out to greener pastures, or larger trees, in this case. So, the other day the boyz were playing in the front of our house where there are trees in the round about of our cul-de-sac. Our empty nester neighbor was out doing some spring cleaning yard work and to occupy the boyz he gave them an old waterskiing rope from his garage.  Thanks, Mr. Schumway. Anyhow… after nearly killing themselves trying to make a zip slide between the trees it the front yard, Mama got to thinking and I was on the hunt for some wood or something that we could drill a hole in to make a tree swing.  As I’m gazing around our garage, I’m coming up short. Then a few interruptions later I find myself in our pantry getting snacks for the boyz who are hungry, surprise, surprise. I’m standing there looking around at the shelves and that’s when I spot it – the perfect tree swing! And it already has a hole right in the center of it!  It’s my grandmother’s bundt pan! I already had a bundt pan, but when she died, I collected all of her kitchen gadgets as if the were her precious jewels because to me they were!  She was known for her many fabulous desserts, especially her poppyseed, cream sherry cake with glazed icing, which she lovingly made for countless bridge parties, sewing groups, countless family gatherings and her grandson in law, my wonderful husband was quite fond of it and she would lovingly make one just for him on his birthday or other occasions when she wanted to spoil him and fatten him up a bit.  So I couldn’t part with her bundt pan, but I must confess that I haven’t used it once since I inherited it.  There it sits, collecting dust on the top shelf of our pantry, where it caught my eye..

A few knots later, well-a, a tree swing that I know made my Grandmother proud. I finally used her bundt pan and it brought others so much joy!  And their Mama, too!

See the joy!!??

I often tell the boyz bedtime stories as they’re tucked in snug in their beds. They typically ask (read: beg and plead) for stories from when I was a “yiddle girl”.  Depending on my mood, how tired I am and how long past bedtime we are, I sometimes give in and indulge them with stories I can recall from my childhood…

One such story was about when I was a “yiddle” girl and I LOVED Snoopy the Dog.  They giggle and look at each other partly because they, too, have become fond of the four-legged Peanuts character and partly because they’ve heard this one before and they know how its going to go… but nevertheless, like any good storyteller, I continue and draw them in with waves of enthusiasm, vocal intonations and vivid descriptions….”When I was a “yiddle girl”, my mother made me a Halloween costume so I could be Snoopy the dog.  It was a white costume with a hood that cinched around my neck, loooong black velvet ears that were soooo soft and I wore black shoes as my feet and make up on my nose to make it look like I was a real dog.”  I continue, “That same Halloween, my sister was a box of chewing gum.  It must have been a water heater box or something like that because it was a really big box!  But my mom wrapped it with paper and lined the top with shiny aluminum foil so it looked like the metallic gum wrappers and she made a cut out for her face and arms so she could wear the box to go Trick-or-Treating.  Except one thing my mother didn’t plan on was my sister got reeeeally HOT walking around in that big box so the further away from home we walked, the more holes I remember my dad was carving into the gum package with his pocket knife so my sister didn’t pass out on the sidewalk!  We made our rounds around to all our neighbors and returned with heavy Trick or Treat bags and Sarah survived without severe asphyxia. BUT, the whole night I wasn’t just dressed up like Snoopy the dog – I WAS Snoopy the Dog!  All because my mother went to all the effort to make my costume.”

Here I am as Snoopy the Dog and my sister was the best box of gum  you’ve ever seen! Thanks, Mom!

Here’s the crew, in the car (spaceship, team bus, dog house) on the way to go over the river and through the woods to go Trick or Treating at Grandmother’s houses…

Charlie Brown and his loyal dog, Snoopy

Kiefer – just might get recruited this year! The Colts need him!

Charlie Brown – who continues to refer to himself as “Charlie Brown” in the third person – such as “Charlie Brown wants a cookie” or “Charlie Brown wants to read a book”

Taking the bold first steps to get treats can be scary at first, but then you get the hang of it.

Especially when treats are involved!!

Charlie Brown didn’t get a rock like he does in the movie!

Halloween is out of this world!

Even Fletcher enjoyed his snacks!  (He threw up afterwards, but all in the name of fun!)

Counting and Sorting – all an important task of Halloween

That’s a bucket full of treats

Great expression on his face!! (maybe it’s a mouth full of candy?)

Kiefer’s candy line up

Carter sorted his into categories and put each into ziplock bags-  a MILLION ziplock bags

Good thing his helmet is a useful for storing candy too!

Astronaut Jay, pictured here in his serious astronaut face

The Jay Boyz Trick or Treating Gigi & Papa’s : Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Colts Player and Astronaut

Waiting for the neighborhood parade to start…. watching the firetrucks

Kiefer was so excited he got to wear his costume to school. Here he is pictured with his teacher, Mrs. Huber, whom he asked “Are you a unicorn?!” when he saw her! She laughed and explained she was a princess! 🙂

Carter wore his costume to a class Halloween party. They said he came prepared that the atmosphere was a bit thin in their house.  He won the best costume that was out of this world.

Charlie Brown and Snoopy!!  Charlie Brown wore his costume for TWO Weeks leading up to Halloween. It was SOOOO grimey and sticky but I was afraid to wash it!  He continues to refer to himself in the third person as Charlie Brown.

Finally got Astronaut Jay to smile!!

“But Mom! Astronauts are supposed to be serious!”

Trick or Treat!!

So Griffin turned three.  And about two days later he started acting three.  It’s been brutal. Lying prostrate kicking screaming type fits, crying so hard he melts into a puddle fits, walking away from me backwards knocking into ladies in the grocery store fits, throwing groceries out of the cart fits, refusing to potty fits, demanding a diaper while peeing on the bathroom floor fits…. fits, fits and more fits.  It’s hands on combat in the war with a three year old.  I’m eagerly waiting for him to outgrow this stage.

The other night while tucking him in, which is one of those moments in the day that redeems the others, he requested an all familiar book to me called “I love you”

It goes something like this:

“I love you when your silly and you’re dancing round my knee,
I love you when your brave and from my arms you flee…”

That night, we’d already been reading Dr. Seuss, which always gets me talking in rhyme, so when I was reading this one to him, it kind of morphed into a whole slew of situations from the past few weeks and just kept coming out in rhyme.  Something like this….

I love you when you’re crying and you kick and scream and pout,
I love you when you refuse to walk and you want to be carried about.

I love you when you’re sweet and you want to snuggle near
I love you when you’re crying and you’re soaking me with your tears.

I love you when your silly and you’re dancing round the house
I love you when your quiet sleeping like a mouse

I love you at the grocery store when you throw everything out of the cart
I love you when you kick and scream because I won’t buy you a pop tart

I love you in the bathtub when you play with all your toys
I love you when I wash your hair and you scream and make all that noise

I love you when you push your brothers and make them really mad
I love you when you’re being good and even when you’re bad….

I love you any way you are, no matter what you do….
I love you just the way you are. I love you because you’re you!

When I got to the end, I let out a big laugh and said “Well, that was therapeutic!”

If you can’t beat ’em, kill em with poetry! Or something like that!

This was at the park and I actually got out my camera to capture it…  I love him even when he won’t walk and wants to be carried about.