Christmas Memories with the Babies

Christmas has come and gone. Another year of memories made. Christmas is like that. One always remembers Christmas. It is usually not the memories that we anticipate having, but the wonderful spontaneous memories that we make. Take Christmas brunch for example. I purchased or rather had Eric purchase fresh roses for the table and I pre-made a Christmas Breakfast casserole to eat altogether for breakfast in the dining room on my beautiful Christmas dishes while recounting blessings of the past year. I have actual Christmas memories of doing just this in years past with Laura and Kristen, but now we have 3 additional children, 2 spouses, 2 young grandchildren and 3 dogs collectively. Instead, we ate standing up in the kitchen at all different times, taking turns to watch Lucy or hold Wyatt so Laura and Kristen could eat. I'm not sure where the flowers were and I don't even recall blessing the food before we ate! Instead Jason read the Christmas Story from the Jesus Storybook Bible to Lucy before opening gifts. We listened too.

Dinner was late also but spectacular with my first ever beef tenderloin and Laura's amazing Southern Living's 5 Layer Red Velvet White Chocolate Cheesecake for dessert. That child of mine loves a challenge! We did make it to the dining room and even went around recounting blessings of the past year. Better late than never!

The same held true for the Christmas Eve service. I neglected to register Lucy for childcare so she sat in the service with us on the second row for maximum exposure. Somehow Laura and Jason armed with a  bag of tricks and genuine creativity managed to amuse Lucy along with the leftover juice in Laura's communion cup. I feel the Lord will understand and forgive her. Laura later said that she immediately started strategizing which distractions to take out when, saving the best treats for the sermon portion of the service. Lucy was heading over to wake peacefully sleeping 4 week old cousin Wyatt, when the service ended just in time. Whew! Exhausting for Laura and Jason, but a wonderful Christmas memory to have our newest family members with us in the service. And Lucas did great lighting the Advent candle.

I discovered it's handy to have people of all ages and lots of them around to entertain the babies. Lucas and Lucy deepened their affection for one another as he holds nothing back to amuse his little niece. He never tires of entertaining her and she never tires of being entertained, the perfect combination! I did nab some alone time with Lucy to play a fun game of peekaboo with her and give her a bath while everyone else went to a movie. Afterward, with her sippy cup of milk, she relaxed with me while we watched a bit of Pretty Woman. Is that bad? Regardless, a memory I will treasure.

Busy Little People

I recently spent some time with my 28 year old daughter, Laura and my 17 month old granddaughter, Lucy.  Taking care of toddlers absolutely falls into the same category as childbirth in that one forgets how exhausting it is to keep up with these busy little people. My advice stands, have babies in your twenties! Laura is pregnant with her second so she is taking this piece of advice to heart. You also look fine during this decade without  make-up which is a good thing because you do not have time to apply any. Laura carried her make-up bag from place to place with no chance to put it on all day. And I was along to help with Lucy!

The day got particularly interesting when Lucy was awakened from her nap in the car at Panera Bread and let us and everyone in line know exactly how she felt about that. On the way out, we saw that there was a drive through! This is good information to have for the next time we have a sleeping toddler in tow and need to get lunch.

Forgetting how fast a toddler can get herself into precarious situations, I turned around in my kitchen only to find Lucy had climbed half way the stairs and racing to get to the top when I went to got to her. Later, I found myself actually painting her tiny fingernails bright orange to entertain her, much to the horror of a woman in the baby department at Target. I can't believe I'm that grandmother! I just hope this woman didn't see Lucy face down in the Target parking lot possibly eating something while we were trying to adjust her car seat. I do hope I get another chance to prove myself worthy of taking care of Lucy, now that I've had a chance to rest up.

He Doesn't Know

The world comes to a stop when a new baby is born. Ok, maybe just my world came to a stop when my grandson Wyatt was born on 11-12-13, pretty cool birthday! Since he came into the world, the sun shines brighter, the sky is bluer, the air is cleaner. The beauty and miracle of this tiny new person coming safely into our family takes my breath away. My little grandson doesn't know how many prayers have been prayed for him.  He doesn't know how much he was wanted and how much he is already loved. He doesn't know that God himself knit him together in his mother's womb. Instead, he spends his days peacefully sleeping and dreaming as he should. So many prayers were answered when he drew his first breath and cried his first cry.

I'm so blessed to be able to share his first few days of life with my daughter and her husband. Watching my daughter read nursing books while nursing her son warms my heart. Wasn't it just yesterday when I was nursing her? The sweetness of my son-in-law making pumpkin spice pancakes for my daughter for breakfast is pure love. Feeling the warmth of Wyatt's little body in my arms as I hold him is absolute bliss. I don't even mind the smell of Pine Sol as I clean their bathrooms! I don't mind at all. Sometimes God's goodness is almost too much.

The Iron Maiden

My son is going through a difficult time right now therefore I am going through a tortuously difficult time right now. Never having had a son before, this puts me squarely in uncharted territory. I can find no rhyme or reason for most of the things he does. I find myself asking," Why???" many times a day with this one.

Well, this week, he found himself face to face with Iron Maiden aka, the school principal after being overheard uttering the refrain of "Yo Mama" about someones mother. In his version, he is defending me from some unkind   words said about me, but that is beside the point.This expression does not go over in a Christian school environment. The principal gave him an assignment that he was to bring home for us to sign before going on his class field trip the next day. The assignment failed to reach me and in fact I knew nothing about the incident until the phone call the next day when she did not  receive it. Her consequences were swift and perfect. He would not be joining his class on the field trip and this was before even speaking to me about it! Instead, he would spend the day with her in her office. I LOVE this woman! In this day of wimpy politically correct principals, she is the personification of brave and wise and awesome! Not only that, she prayed for the consequences to teach my son. Lord, let it be so! She then encouraged me with stories about her own difficult young son who is now grown and doing well. What? The Iron Maiden had a difficult son!

My son has been completely mum about his reflecting time with the principal which I understand was filled with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Again, I don't know why exactly he has not shared his experience with us. Does he want to keep this special time just between the two of them? He did produce the note the next day for me to sign moments before I was to take him to school. That I get. I would be rushing to get them out the door and not have time to deal with it.

I suspect my humbling time is not over. He's only 10 years old! Thankfully, God is faithful to put people like the Iron Maiden in my path to help and encourage me just when I need it. For that I say,"Thank you God".

Glamour Shots

The long, detailed email regarding the tribute page for my 8th grade daughter's year book that I would need to put together came earlier in the school year. I filed it away until this past weekend when my daughter reminded me that it was due just 2 days later! This was a project that had I not completely forgotten about, I would definitely have procrastinated doing it. This project would require creativity of which I possess none and time to sift through digital pictures of which I have even less. I pulled out last year's year book to get some ideas and the pages ranged from ridiculous glamour shots to awkward family photos!  Where is my good best friend with her awesome scrap booking skills? No where to be found! I was clearly on my own except for super duper tech support for transferring the pictures to a CD.

In the process, I went down my digital memory lane on my laptop as I saw with my own eyes in pictures the transformation of my daughter from an unsure almost 8 year old when she joined our family to a beautiful, happy 14 year old. When did this happen? Or the better question, how did this happen? I was reminded again of the amazing miracle that God has done to make us family. I love seeing her beautiful smile that I get to see often these days.

I did the best I could with the page and she was so grateful that I completed the project on time, she didn't even mind when I told her I used a picture with her hair in a bun and no make- up! While it isn't the most glamorous picture, it is a precious picture to me of my happy daughter.

Perks

While it may seem that re-starting the clock on raising children is a lot of work, it certainly is. It is not however without perks.We enjoy playing golf and have two very youthful playing partners. This accomplishes many goals, not having to be paired with strangers while we perfect our golf game and having a high energy, not to mention eager, caddy/ball boy. Our daughter has found an unexpected use for golf greens, it's perfect for practicing cart wheels and walking on your hands! Our caddy is unusual in that he loves it when our ball goes into the water as it gives him the opportunity to use the telescoping ball retrieving club. We do have to occasionally discipline our playing partners out on the course for golf etiquette like being careful not to whack your sister in the face while rushing to get out a club. I can do without this perk. I'm hopeful that in a few short years they will remember our patience with them as they play golf with us. Of course then we will have another perk, getting to drive Golf carts with those special Sr. Citizen flags that let you drive all over the course instead of using push carts. There are always perks!

To sell or not to sell

I'm not sure how this happened exactly except that what I pictured in my mind's eye is vastly different from reality in regards to owning a lake house. When we made the decision to purchase our lake house almost 4 years ago, I pictured watching the beautiful sunset from the deck while sipping a glass of white wine or enjoying lunch on the dock while watching boaters demonstrate how easy wake boarding is. Reality - maintaining and cleaning another house except with inferior 1970's appliances and cooking for my growing family in a miniature kitchen. Reality - we can none of us wake board and believe me we've tried.

Still, I keep trying to create the beautiful image in my mind or at least a beautiful meal like my ridiculously talented friend Greta does in her sleep. I purchased fresh flowers and a tablecloth and color coordinated napkins for our 4th of July weekend and admit that the added touches made the meal feel more special. For Labor Day,we purchased a large red umbrella so that we could sit out on the swim platform in the bright sunshine that we get in the afternoons. We are all about protecting our skin from the sun for all different reasons I might add. We have everything from brand new baby skin to aging skin to protect here!

I spent the morning preparing a grilled chicken taco salad from the Pioneer Woman website which has the most fabulous food pictures if you ever need inspiration to cook. I gathered everything we would need to eat our lunch and took it down to the water. It wasn't what I would call relaxing as we were watching Lucy, adorable 14 month old granddaughter would not tumble into the water. Meanwhile our 9 and 10 yr. old children were negotiating exactly how they would be jumping off the swim platform. The adults were making the best of it and enjoying the delicious salad when a gust of wind sent the red umbrella that was on a 100 lb base falling on it's side. Jason, who was seated Indian style on the platform grabbed the umbrella with all his might at its base to keep it from falling on someone. Thankfully we were able to upright it. Did we learn from this, not a chance. Ever the optimistic ones, we left it up only to have another gust of wind come, this time toppling it completely over right in front of Laura, Jason, Lucy and Roxy our dog, who were swinging on the porch swing! Well, Roxy made a run for high ground. Laura and Jason were too tired from chasing Lucy around all day so didn't move at all. We did put the umbrella down for the day.

Still haven't come to a conclusion on whether to sell our quirky place. Yes, it's exhausting and things hardly ever turn out like I plan but somehow it's worth the trouble. In the meantime, we have purchased bolts for the big red umbrella.