Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real

PRETTY

The other morning there was gorgeous dew on the grass, and I just had to get out there with my camera to capture it!  I'm continually amazed by the beauty that's all around us, if we just slow down to really see it.

HAPPY

 My little man is 3 months old already, and is all smiles these days!  How can you not be happy at the sight of this little chubby little beaming face?!

 

 FUNNY

We wanted to crown our little statue of Mary for the month of May, but were having a hard time coming up with something suitable to fit her head (this statue is only about 5 inches tall).  Later in the day Adam came running up to me proclaiming, "I found the PERFECT crown for Mary!  Let's use Megan's beautiful ring!!"  So, yes, our Mary statue is now donning a 5 n' Dime plastic children's ring.  I agree, it is pretty perfect. :)

REAL

If you can believe it, these slimy nasty-looking things are REAL, though they look like something straight out of a horror film!  AND they're allllllll over my backyard right now!  They're a fungus called Cedar Apple Rust.  They're currently inhabiting my cedar tree, making it look like it belongs in an orange grove!  They're actually pretty fascinating to learn about.  They take 2 years to complete their growth cycle.  Google away if you have a minute!

Gah!  Sooooooo gross!

Shared with:

What Heaven is Like...

{Luke's drawing of the gates of heaven}

I overheard the boys talking to each other the other day. They were discussing what heaven must be like. I got the biggest kick out of their little conversation, and just had to share it:



Adam: We're gonna play FOREVER and EVER up in heaven when we die.



Luke: Well, there aren't any toys up in heaven, but that's ok 'cause we'll be grown-ups and grown-ups don't really play with toys all that much.



Well, there you have it! In heaven heaven you apparently get to play all the time. But just not with toys. :)

Motherhood:Warts and All!

Lately my daughter Megan (now 18 months old) has been all about the picture books. She looooooves to identify things she recognizes on pages, which generally speaking, is the most adorable thing ever. However, sometimes she...ahem, takes a few... shall we say liberties. Let me provide a few examples:

"Daddy!"




"Adam!"




"Luke!"

Totally cute, right? And we all have a good laugh at these. But then there's some pictures that are just um, well a little harder to find the humor in. Let me clarify:

"Mommy!"

(Note the label below the picture to get an idea of where this is going. Yeah, it gets worse. At least this granny has a somewhat youthful glow!)




"Mommy!"

(Ok, I've aged another 30 years in this one...but keep reading!)


"Mommy!"

(Ack! This lady has got to be at least 100 years old!!!! White perm. Stripey apron. None of it good. But wait! The best is yet to come!)


"Mommy!"



Yeah. That's right. A TROLL. Megan thinks Mommy

IS. A. TROLL.

Well, Megan, I'm choosing to blame YOU and your sleepless nights for any resemblances I bear to grandmas and creatures of the night!

(P.S. Just kidding, Mommy still loves you. Even though you think she looks like a club-swinging monster. With warts. And bad hair. And flies swarming all around. And we won't even discuss what appears to be hanging out of the back of that loin cloth.)

And can I just say how completely unfair it is that Kevin gets to be handsome, young, rugged ax-swinging L.L.Bean flannel shirt donning cool guy?!

Aaaaaaah well...sometimes ya just gotta laugh at the weird moments that occur in a house full of five-and-unders! We trolls, er...moms make our own fun, don't we? Just thought I'd share a bit of the wacky laughs we've been having this week. And now back to my regularly scheduled club bludgeoning...it's almost dinnertime. ;)

The Psycho Zone!!!

We all have our days when things start out fine and dandy...everything's running smoothly enough, kids seem pretty happy. But then, IT happens. Suddenly before your eyes your sweet and precious little cherubim sprout horns and flail pitchforks (and where did that goatee come from?!). The orderly house you fastidiously maintain appears, without warning, as if a Tsunami has swept through. The faint sweet peals of joyous giggles like music to your ears turn into cacophonous whines and thunderous thumps. Bumps. Screams. CRASHES. IT. HAS. HAPPENED. That inexplicable little phenomenon we moms don't often acknowledge or dwell upon...

You're traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That's the signpost up ahead — your next stop, the...

PSYCHO ZONE!!!!!!!!!

That's right, you've officially broken outside of the boundaries of reality and entered a strange new land. Though moms don't often speak of their journeys to this land, the road is well-trodden and deeply familiar. The trip is never voluntary, yet we walk. Alone, we walk. The path is a veritable wasteland of littered toys, dirty dishes and spilled milk (And, yes in the Psycho Zone moms actually DO in fact, cry over spilled milk).

The destination? A warm bath, an early bedtime and a nice massage. But will you ever get there? Mwahahahahahahahahahaha...perhaps. But only after painful hours of child-induced peril. Be brave, oh fellow sojourner. And take ear plugs. :)


Below is the transformation from a regular happy enough normal (ok, well, I don't know if I can go so far as to say normal!!:p) mom, into a mom who has entered the Psycho Zone.



Step 1 : A regular happy enough day

Step 2: Hmmmm...something isn't sounding too spiffy up there but it sounds mostly under control....


Step 3: Ok, ok...now what was that sound?! It sounded oddly like something breaking....


Step 4: Alright, alright, alright, that is definitely NOT what "quiet time" is supposed to sound like! Enough is enough!!!!!!!!



Step 5: You are now entering the PSYCHO ZONE!!!!!!!!!!! (You do not pass go, you do not collect $200)

There's room for one more!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mwahahahahahahahaha!

So by now you might be wondering WHY ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH I would voluntarily post these truly awful pictures of myself for all the world to see. And to that I would answer because there's this really fun contest going on at a blog I follow: We Are THAT Family. The author, Kristen Welch just wrote this book:


The contest is to make your best "Don't Make Me come up There" face. And I knew I had to set aside every last shred of dignity and publicly post my truly awful mad face!! I just HAD to! And, after having a TERRIBLE evening with my kiddos, I felt inspired to write about the PSYCHO ZONE!!!! Hope you enjoyed it. :)

By-the-way, this is my "classic" reeeeeeaaaallly realllllllllllly mad face that my sister and I make whenever we're telling stories to each other. It always cracks us up. It makes me look like I'm 80 years old and someone needs to throw me from a proverbial train. But hey, I'm not above a little public humliation for entertainment purposes. ;) (OBVIOUSLY.) And while we're discussing bad photos these are ALL really awful. (Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that I took them myself at 11:00pm by the dim blue light of a computer screen could it?! Nah.)

Top 10 reasons why I love homeschooling

1. (After this past January I decided this one must make the top of the list!) No snow days!

2. Can stay in bed until whenever I want to. Ok, so not really seeing as 11:00 might be a tad too late for the kids liking lol! But, there is at least some wiggle room in this area.

3. We get to go on field trips whenever we want! No lines, no fuss, no waiting during weekdays!

4. My boys are truly the best of friends. They play together so beautifully and I'm convinced that this is in part because they are with each other just so darn much.

5. Things like baking cookies and holiday decorating are actually learning activities! What's not completely awesome about that?!

6. We can stay in our pajamas all day and no one minds or even knows the difference. (Ok so this list makes me sound like the biggest in-bed-all-day-slob on the planet, but hey, that's cool with me.)

7. We get to explore to far away lands, become pirates, fight space aliens, rescue damsels in distress, slay dragons and travel through time-- all without leaving our doorstep. Everyday.

8. Days off and vacation time is completely up to us!

9. We get to pick whatever we want to learn about-no deadlines, no tests, no stress and no boring lectures.

10. Each and every day I get to hug and squeeze and smother my kids with kisses allllllllll daaaaaaay loooonnnnng (even if it drives all of us crazy lol!).

Can't Help Lovin' That of Mine

One of the really wonderful things about living with someone is that you get to know all of their quirks. Okay, I know, I know-- this is also one of the really um, challenging things about living with someone! Well, this post is actually the marriage of the endearing with the er... less-than-endearing aspects of Kevin and me respectively. (Lucky Kevin comes out shining and I just end up looking like a big ol' slob! But that's ok!)


I have a confession to make: I'm...what one might call a bit um, "dish challenged." Sure, I do the dishes what feels like ALL-THE-TIME, but I admit that I do have an ever-so-slight tendency to let them pile up just a bit first. (I choose to blame homeschooling for this, but feel free to draw your own conclusions.) I'm gonna go out on a limb with this one, but I'm guessing my dish-challenged ways are not at the top of Kevin's love list. But, like a good husband most days he just goes about his own business, refraining from mentioning the mounting clutter emanating from the general direction of the kitchen. However, every once in awhile he breaks down and washes them himself (reason #1 why I love him!). But here's the funny quirky part (reason #2 why I love him!):
before he does the dishes he TAKES A PICTURE OF THEM FIRST.

That's right. No joke.

Without a single word or mention, while no one is in the room Kevin finds the camera, points it at the sink and *click.* Dirty dishes forever preserved. A slovenly still-life for my eyes only. (Occasionally there's even a few different angles and zoom shots to choose from!)


Fast forward about three days later. I turn my camera on to see what little cherubimic pictures I've captured of the kids and--what before my eyes do appear--but a Michelangelo of Mayhem! A Picasso of Putridness! A Degas of Disorder! A Renoir of...you get the picture. With this single act Kevin speaks without volumes saying a word. The message is loud and clear: "I was here. I did the dishes. You're welcome. You're a dish slob but I love you anyway." It's not a hostile message, no silent subdued rage (reason #3 why I love him!). Just a silent little reminder from him to me, that he was there and he helped. And every time it makes me grin ear to ear. Not only because of the help he provided which I so desperately needed (although this is a very valid reason!) but also because he is just so wonderfully weird. And he's all mine. :) Aaaah, that's love folks. I mean, who needs roses when I've got dirty dish pictures, anyway?