Vacation to Grandma's (Michael's Parents)

While I went to Portland and Seattle, Michael took our three kiddos to visit his parents. Here is what they saw and were up to without me.

Life's Little Miracles

Yesterday was a crazy, busy day. I didn't quite plan it that way, it just turned out that way. The only things I had planned were a play date with some friends and my piano lessons at the end of the day. Instead, we did that and had a water play date with some neighbor friends, went to the zoo, read stories for over about an hour, and went to a couple of stores. I know it doesn't sound like much, but when I am hauling three kids around who are not usually very cooperative doing any two things is a ton of work.

Yesterday, I had cooperative kids (for the most part) which was a small miracle in and of itself. We experienced a variety of other miracles as well. First thing in the morning, we had snuggles and read stories without disagreements over which stories to read and who gets to sit where. The baby did not scream and cry all day when I was not holding him. We made it out the door in time to make it to the zoo just before admissions closed and we ate dinner at the zoo and were able to play peacefully for about an hour. We did not experience any major meltdowns in the stores we went to, or anywhere else for that matter. I was able to remember everything I needed at the stores we went to, and not remember one last thing as I am walking out the door after checking out. The children cooperated getting in and out of the car almost every time we needed to. All three children cooperated to get bathed all within one hour, which almost never happens. A ton of little miracles after several extremely rough days. (One day the baby cried for an accumulated 10 hours because he is suffering extreme separation anxiety.)

The biggest miracle I experienced yesterday came in a passing comment from a stranger at Costco. I was there just before lunchtime and my kids were darting across aisles to look at things and not paying much attention to me because they were hungry and tired. Some of the other customers were getting frustrated at my absent-mindedness in trying to take care of my busy children and their being in the way of traffic flows. I tried to keep reminding my children to watch out for others and stay out of the the other customers way. At the very end of our shopping excursion I made the "stay out of the way" comment when the children were blocking one more person from going down the aisle and the gentleman turned to me, smiled, and said, "Children are never in my way." With three busy and intelligent children, I usually get very much the opposite response from strangers. His little kindness made a huge difference in my shopping experience yesterday and helped give me a little more patience with my children.

You're probably wondering what any of this has to do with the picture at the top. When Michael and I went on a hike in the desert about a month ago everything was drab and dry. Near the end of our hike we came across this bright yellow flower which reminded me small miracles can happen even in the face of much opposition or the unlikeliness of flourishing. This little yellow flower was much like yesterday because it was a bright day in the midst of much adversity.

One Word Movie Reviews

I was browsing through movie titles at redbox.com and realized I have seen a lot of movies I really liked lately and a few movies that were not as good as expected. I wanted to do a quick review using one word to describe my response to each movie rather than devote a long post to each one.

Intriguing

Puzzling (in a good way)

Awesome

Fun

Ironic

Intriguing

Hilarious

Entertaining

Disappointing

Engrossing

Funny

Fabulous

Unintentional Art

My kiddos love to paint with watercolors and one day I let them paint without help from me. They made beautiful pictures and cleaned up when they were done. Later in the day I went into the bathroom to wash my hands and found these designs in the sink. All my kiddos did was empty their rinse cups for their paintbrushes down the sink and this is what was left behind.

Priceless Encounter

Today one of our many errands was picking up school supplies at Walmart. Walmart's annual school supply sale is going on right now and I can get things like folders for $0.15 and crayons for $0.25 a box, among other things. In the end, we purchased $50 worth of school supplies ($20 was backpacks and lunchboxes) and it only took us an hour to find the things on Benjamin's school supply list. Meanwhile, my kids were running up and down the aisles and bothering each other. Where does the "priceless" part come in? At the cash register.

Thankfully, today the lines at checkout were short. I was emptying my cart onto the conveyor belt and hoping the cashier who had been here a second ago would come back. The cashier was a man in his late 50s and he just smiled at my children, was patient and understanding of my scattered-brainness, and even loaded my purchases in my cart. I rarely encounter a cashier who is kind at Walmart, let alone one who is understanding and helpful on top of that. To me, as the mother of three very busy kids, patience, kindness, and helpfulness in a business is priceless. I wish there were more people like the cashier who helped me today. He totally made my day.

Baby Announcement We Never Sent

Ryan Gideon

Born: October 2011

Weight: 9 pounds

Length: 20 1/2 inches

A Cricket in the House

I am sitting at my computer, working on my morning routine, and I hear a cricket. I heard it all day yesterday and I am hearing it again today. It must be in the house or one of the window screens because I don't recall crickets liking the 90 degree heat of the day.

I have about a million things to do, as usual, and I am sitting here enjoying the sound of a cricket and my children interacting nicely with each other. Yesterday I was able to do some deep cleaning in my kitchen, but the most important things I was able to do included holding my baby and working with my big kiddos to clean the kitchen, pantry, and fridge.

I think I will continue to listen to the cricket for a bit longer and not be so worried about completing my chores because they will still be there later, tomorrow, and even next week. Life continues to move forward.