Yesterday for some strange reason, our power went out 3 different times. Once, while everyone slept and the other two times at the precise moment I had food in the oven, clothes in the washer and Pinterest up.
The second time it happened, GoGo came flying out to the garage where hubs was inspecting the breaker box. She throws her hands up and yells, "Is This Like the End of the World?!"
Yes, the Rapture is upon us.
I had never heard of such an event as the Rapture until I moved to NC. I used to see these bumper stickers when I lived in Winston-Salem, that would say THIS CAR WILL BE UNOCCUPIED IN CASE OF RAPTURE. I had absolutely no idea what that meant. Come to find out, it is the End of Days when folks are literally sucked up to Heaven. Maybe that is dumbed down too much, but it's the basic idea.
So where GoGo got this end of the world stuff, I have no idea as we are ffaarr from Evangelical Christians. Although we did make it to Mass today, where after about 45 minutes I realized my fly was undone. Very Holy, indeed.
Anyway, if it is the End of Days, they surely are pretty ones.
Even Walks With Purpose got in on the mud action.
Notice GoGo's sundress - she is such a warm weather girl.
Bubble Spill
Paper Airplane Wars, complete with Secret Messages
It is wet here. Very wet. And a bit chilly. Our backyard is a soppy mess.
But D and his buddies still found it in them to build a pretty awesome fort. Out of nothing but our discarded Christmas tree, some limbs from a dead tree and some pretty fantastic imaginations.
D begged me to go see it this morning at 8am. I was still in my jammies. Actually, I still am as I write this.
But off we trudged in our boots, through the mud and in the rain, to behold The Fort.
And it was so worth it.
The Long View.
The Window. And table and chair.
Entrance.
Cozy, no?
I love how it's just branches laid together just so...no nails, rope or any other material holding it up.
D's bathtub tonight will be so incredibly gross but I know he's having a great time right now.
My girls are watching Sleeping Beauty, curled up in blankets on the floor together.
I am in my jammies, doing my chores.
A good rainy day, home from school. Even for a Monday.
That may be because we were out of town that weekend and our kind neighbors cleaned up the mess before we got home.
This time, it was me out there on a ladder at 7:30am grabbing toilet paper off trees.
Kind of makes me want to go Joe Pesci on someone's butt.
And I totally sound like my father now but it was a school night! And late! And what parents let their kids out that late when there is a 7:30 bell waiting for them in the morning!
God, I am getting old.
Meanwhile, the kids are inside due to weather and so we broke out the arts and crafts box.
GoGo's portrait of herself and her Little Sis - I love the arrows indicating exactly who is where.
D has started an Idea Notebook - someplace where he jots down Lego building ideas, fort plans, building concepts. I totally dig the Time Portal.
He doesn't come by such organizational skills via his mother.
I love that he still makes things like this - some kids his age are so into a sport or dressing head to toe
in a particular brand or their Ipods that they don't really seem like 8 year old boys to me. To me,
boys at this age should be dirty and too tired from having Nerf gun battles around the neighborhood
to care if they are in Under Armour or not. If this makes him a bit nerdy now, so be it.
I want him to be young and untouched by as much crap as possible for as long as possible. That
will all come soon enough for him. I am not naive enough to think he won't some day start to care
about brands, etc. He already recognizes he is one of the few kids we know without an Ipod
Touch. Oh, the humanity.
The other night at dinner the kids were playing "Telephone" and trying to teach Walks with Purpose
how to join in. Gogo whispers something to her and WWP grins and yells to D, "You Have a
Girlfriend!" So D, to get back at GoGo, whispers to WWP and she yells out "GoGo poops in her
pants!" And now, we are rolling.
Yesterday was WWP's first official classmate's birthday party - tractor themed. She loved it and
talked about the cake all the way home. That's my girl.
Today looks like another weather induced indoor-day so we'll be using our imaginations around
here. Filling up Idea Notebooks, building forts and playing, sans Ipods.
1. We had a great road trip to Atlanta this weekend. We are fortunate enough to know some good people down there who are "forever" friends.
2. I am ready for either snow or 70's. This in-between is getting on my nerves.
3. We have more trips scheduled soon and I love me a good road trip.
4. Walks With Purpose has been telling me all about her "famiwee". It consists of Dommie, her bruddah, GoGo, her sistah and her Mommy and Yadi (Daddy, not Molina).
5. D tested above his entire class in spelling - love that boy!
6. GoGo has been begging me to take her to Florida to "see the dolphins".
Observations:
1. Humans are incapable of making a car rider line work efficiently. Anywhere, ever.
An Aside: If you bring your small dog in the car with you and are in a car rider line, please do not pet the dog, brush the dog or feed the dog. These things prohibit you from
KEEPING THE LINE MOVING.
2. Love the sunsets this time of year.
3. This is less than 3 miles from my house. Who knew.
The candor of children sometimes amazes me.
Yesterday at Faith Formation, the kids were a bit wound up. This was our first class since Christmas break and they were full of P and V, as my dad would say. (That's Piss and Vinegar, for the laymen).
We are now working diligently to get them all ready for First Communion.
The biggest deal in the Church, really.
And so my co-teacher is going on about the importance of it all and this, that and the other. Kids are talking amongst themselves throughout her whole speech - about Pokemon, the Steelers loss and shopping at Justice. We remind them about going to Mass and this, that and the other.
Several kids informed us of the following:
"I haven't been to Church since last year." Nice.
"My dad doesn't go anymore." So?
"We only go on holidays." I have been guilty of this during my life.
"We can't go because I have a baby sister." My personal fave.
"If we are here to learn about God, why don't you just talk about Him?" Yeah. Because up to now, we've been here talking about knitting.
I think the road to May's First Communion will be a loonngg one.
As religious as my grandmother was/is, she was/is one of the most superstitious people I know. And therefore, so am I. When we were kids she was all about avoiding black cats as we walked to the bus stop, looking for 4 leaf clovers in grass (which she always found), always walking on the same side of something (say bread and butter if you were separated) and not opening an umbrella in the house.
I don't know if this led to my believing in ghosts at all but I do.
When I was a kid I had friends who believed too so we were Ghostbusters before it cool.
The house I lived in as a kid, I was convinced was haunted. By the same tall, thin man (think a sinister Rod Sterling with the black suit and skinny tie) that was in a recurring nightmare I had for many years. It was always the same as he chased me into my basement and around the corner and THEN...nothing. I woke up. Maybe he was just going to say "You Have Entered the Twilight Zone." Or maybe he was going to Hansel and Gretel me. Or maybe he was just going ask if I'd heard the one about the Priest, the Rabbi and the monkey in the bar...
Anyway, I seem to be a ghost magnet because the first house hubs and I bought had a "presence" and the one we live in now does. At least I think so, I don't have a TV crew coming in yet to film.
Our first house was built in 1927 and people were born there and people died there. It should have had a "presence". The one we live in now is younger than my oldest child so, not so much. But I swear there is something here with me. Doors are open, lights turned on, sounds are made. Doors that I always keeps closed and lights I always turn off and sounds when I'm here alone.
I don't feel scared so much as curious. But when Walks With Purpose and I are playing in her room and she tells me, "Shut the door so the Ghostsss and Monsteresss don't come in", I pause.
Just the other night I was up late watching TV and was coming back down stairs from checking on the kids and I swear to Pete I saw a flash of something small dash by the staircase. This was from the corner of my eye at approximately 11pm, but still.
So anyway, I turn 40 this year. I would never celebrate this birthday or any other one before the actual date. I could get hit by a bus, right? And so I get this calendar in my pack of Blue Moon (how many volumes does that speak) and I see that the actual Blue Moon is August 31st this year. What a great idea for a party, I think. And it could be a pre-birthday party for myself. So I then realize that the 31st is also Van Morrison's birthday. Well. There is my sign, as my grandma would say.
So I am having a bluemoon/VantheMan/Pre-40th party on August 31st and I can't wait.
Maybe I can get the Blue Moon beverage company to sponsor my insanity.
There is absolutely no coherent train of thought in this entire post but that is how my brain feels inside lately. So there you go.
Just the other day I ran through the drive through at the trusty McDonald's and saw 2 moms taking their little people in for what I assume was lunch and recreation in the playzone. I haven't done that in ages, for my older 2 are really too big for that now (sort of) and my youngest one is always doing what the older 2 do, so there you have it.
And I realized I miss that.
Either hot summer days or frosty winter days, where we would meet friends and kill 2 hours over chicken nuggets and ice cream. And the mommies talked and the kids ran wild and I never thought much about it. It was just something we did to "survive" sometimes when the togetherness became too much in our own homes.
Everything seemed so much easier then-the hardest things were potty training, learning to tie shoes, blowing a nose effectively. Now we have bullies and The Jones and homework to keep up with.
Now if we go to Chik-Fi-La, my older 2 will take Walks With Purpose in the playzone but they aren't really playing themselves. They are monitoring the situation for WWP. This stop for them, is usually one on the way to a friends house or an activity.
My kids are still young and already I am missing things like McDonald's playzones.
Jeezus, Mary and Joseph...what will it be like when they are teens?
Anyway.
It's January. It's supposed to be cold. My kids have been praying for snow, like we had last Christmas.
Instead, yesterday was about 70 and sunny. We grilled burgers and dogs, for the Love of Pete.
And it was great.
GoGo, Warrior Princess
Epic Battle.
The Hunt.
Pondering in his newly made Fort.
Going Down.
Zip lining across the backyard.
My kids were filthy yesterday evening, having played outside for the better part of 7 hours. They caught lizards, played in a fort, had a Nerf battle, ziplined, chased a puppy and hung with friends.
Looking forward to many, many more days like these.
This morning when I got Walks with Purpose dressed for school, she twirled around and said "Look at me, Mommy! I am beautiful!"
I smiled, hugged her and told her that Yes, She Is.
In the car she put on GoGo's sunglasses. She noted that I too had sunglasses on.
Then she said "I am beautiful and You beautiful too, Momma!" She wore the biggest, sweetest smile.
I almost cried, amazed at her innocence and sweetness.
Just the other day I read another mom's blog about whether or not she should tell her 2 daughters that they are pretty. I had to think about that one for a while. Of course if my girls are playing dress up and get all glammed up, I tell them they look wonderful.
If they ask, I always affirm them.
I call them cutie pie, beautiful and my D, I call handsome. But usually those are pet names just loosely tossed around. I don't go out of my way to tell any of them that they are physically beautiful (even though I think they all are) because I don't want them to get all wrapped up in that. I tell them how important is to be pretty on the inside, the way we treat one another is more important. I tell them way more often how creative and smart they are, and how they can do anything they put their minds to.
Pretty Is As Pretty Does, as my grandma told me more than once. And I don't recall being told I was beautiful or pretty very often growing up. But I often got the lecture about beauty being skin deep and what was on the inside counting more.
Did my family do me a disservice by this? Dunno.
The point of this woman's blog was to say that if she doesn't tell her girls they are beautiful, who will? She also tells them the same stuff my grandma told me but her idea about affirming her girls now, at home, so they don't go looking for it elsewhere later has stuck with me.
I think all three of my children are absolutely beautiful and yes, I am a bit biased.
Mothers are supposed to be.
I just think I may share this opinion with them a bit more, going forward. I don't want them searching for something later that I could have given them for free at home.
I think most parents try to give their kids a better life experience than they had whether that means more material stuff, more love, more time. I want my kids to look back and wish they could be kids again some day, not be thankful they have escaped. And if that means talking about the pretty a little bit, then so be it.
Just celebrated another year with my little people. We did a progressive party with some friends in our neighborhood and it was way fun. Fireworks at the end and ALL three made it past midnight. Thank God for sugary treats to keep them energized.
Walks With Purpose has really started talking, observing and commenting so much more. It is hilarious sometimes. If it's remotely dark anywhere-outside, in the bathroom, in the hallway upstairs...she reports that "It's DARK, Mommy! We need fwash-wights cuz I can't see a fwing!" She loves to wrestle and will ask "You Ready??!! Get Ready!" as she jumps on you. She is obsessed with bandaids. She sings at the top of her lungs constantly and will sometimes theatrically throw her arms out and shake her head as she belts out Frosty the Snowman. I Adore her.
D is enjoying his new basketball goal from Santa as well as his other goodies. He is learning the "Purple Haze Chord" on his new Fender, courtesy of his uncle and mommy. He doesn't want to take lessons, because of course he can teach himself. He gets that thinking from his mother, unfortunately. We want to do everything and do it ourselves and then, bummer. Reality sets in. So he will be taking a lesson or two just to get started and we'll see how we go after that. He would make such an incredibly handsome rock star...
GoGo got a karaoke machine from Santa, which is just what the rest of the family wanted. Every surface in our house and any moment in time are good for a dance routine, in GoGo's world. Except.
The other night we were watching some movie and while the credits rolled, some cheesy 80's dance song was on and I was doing my Best White Girl Overbite.
A small hand on my right stops me-"Not this Time", GoGo tells me. Well.
So. I hope we take lots of road trips this year, jam a lot, enjoy the company of friends and stay healthy.
