Written last night on 2/25/15

Michael will return from his most recent Chicago trip in approximately 30 minutes and 20 seconds.  Not that I’m counting the minutes… or seconds.  After this last trip, my children’s tributes at my funeral will not include them never remembering me raising my voice at them.  At least they’ll still be able to say that I loved them like crazy.  He is coming home to freshly ground wheat homemade bread and a key-lime pie.  I couldn’t justify spending almost $4.00 per loaf for the best-tasting whole wheat bread at the store so homemade bread it is.  The pie is a peace-offering to the kids for having to deal with their overwhelmed mom the last few days.

Last night was Jonathan’s Scout Court of Honor.  He earned his Wolf merit badge and is advancing to Bear-woohoo!  I figured it was important enough to be there that I’d brave it with the younger kids who have just gotten over being sick.  As soon as the meeting started, Gracie, who hadn’t coughed all day, had a coughing fit lasting throughout the whole pledge of allegiance as well as a few before and after for good measure.  We continued the meeting with James on my right side, Ryan on my lap and Gracie hugging me on the left.  About five minutes after that Gracie and Ryan started their little “I’m tired and must have mom’s lap and no one else can share it” phase which I really thought they (at least Gracie) had grown out of.  I picked one up in each arm (every so often that weight lifting pays off), took them out before causing a scene and we spent the rest of the meeting in the car while Jonathan and James had fun.  I missed getting my mother’s pin for the same reason I missed it when he got his Bob Cat.  Maybe next time Michael will be home to help with the younger ones and Jonathan will get the chance to award me a pin at a Court of Honor. 

I took Ryan with me tonight to get the mail.  He gave me a hug and told me he loved me.  We looked at the moon and counted stars and I had one of those sweet moments where I realized what a special little guy he is and how good it felt to just hold him tight.  We got the mail and headed back only to run into James who was being a ghost and scaring us by running after us down the cul-de-sac and into the house.  Jonathan was working on a Power Point about Jupiter.  I made him go to bed because the other boys wouldn’t go to bed without him and he was a good sport.  I held Gracie in the rocking chair, cuddled with her in bed (one of my favorite things to do because she’s naturally a great cuddler) and told her a princess story.  The boys got a J1 and J2 story.  Ryan got the Boom Dee-ada song which he loves to sing.  He kept getting out of his bed, jumping around the room, opening the door and any other mischief he could get into.  I threatened him with the lonely, cold bed downstairs and started to take him away when James, feeling bad for Ryan’s impending doom, insisted on giving him a hug good-bye.  The hug must have made Ryan realize this was serious stuff and he promptly told me in his sweetest voice that he was ready to “be nice”.

Gracie says she wears herself out by chasing the boys so much and insists on being held a lot.  Since she isn’t a baby anymore it seems like it is getting to be a little much.  She also doesn’t eat very much.  Since she has a slight heart murmer, I wanted to verify it isn’t a heart issue that is making her less energetic than the boys so we saw a Cardiologist in San Diego today.  Ryan joined us to be a “helper”.  She told the staff all about her little brother and his likes and dislikes as any good older sister would.  She was really sweet and such a little doll while Ryan kept me on my toes.    

Although my thoughts and prayers are consumed with urgent need right now, I still want to make note of the sweet and simple goings-on around our house.  So here are a few:

I was in and out from Saturday morning through Monday night with family, church and extended family responsibilities.  Michael was a trooper and ran the household well, including taking care of the kiddos for Jonathan’s birthday on Monday and baking a delicious carrot cake and cookies with his helpers.  Just so I feel like my day-to-day mundane work is a significant contribution, I will note that it required a full day’s worth of focused, diligent cleaning to get the house back to normal.  Michael and I both had a little chuckle when he said he started a load of wash and had to remember how to do it.  It’s been a while…like say, ten years?

Jonathan’s 9!  I love that kid more than I can possibly describe.  He’s strong, bright, funny and pretty darn sweet too.  Who would have thought that all-consuming, crying, chubby, baldy would be such a wonderful, funny, wild-haired, selfless kid?  I offered to pay him to babysit for a half hour and he said he’d babysit but wouldn’t accept pay.  Granted, he did get two dollars from the “tooth fairy” after losing two teeth on Tuesday at school.  I’m not sure if they sent him to the nurse’s office once or twice because he came home with each tooth in its own little treasure box.  James heard all about the missing teeth on his way home from school and was super jealous.  He just can’t wait to lose his first and is certain one of his teeth is loose, he just forgets which one it is.  Michael is used to being greeted with tackles of affection when he gets home so he was already on his knees waiting for the little people to come and attack when he got home the other night.  Jonathan gave him a big hug and picked Michael up off his knees to show he meant it.  Nothing like your newly-turned-9 son hugging you in the air to bring a smile to your face.   

Ryan likes to associate his name with Lion.  So now he occasionally refers to himself as a lion and roars to let it be known. 

This morning Gracie whispered in my ear.  She was telling me to sneak her blanket to her without Ryan seeing so he wouldn’t take it.  Ryan felt left out and wanted to whisper in my ear too.  He said something about going to the park.  He gave me a huge smile so proud to be able to whisper a secret to me. 

We are fairly strict about the kids staying in bed at bedtime because otherwise they would be up all night.  Tonight, Ryan was entertaining the other two with occasional yelling and I had to remind him to be quiet and let the older boys sleep.  Later, I heard pitter-patter with occasional jumps down the hall.  Sure enough the little munchkin was out and about.  I sent him back to bed and James yelled from the top bunk, “Did you find our spy?”  Yes, he was captured and put to bed.     

Gracie came into my room this morning sucking her thumb holding her pink blanket.  She climbed directly on top of me to lay down making sure her blanket was just right for a long winters nap.  I told her I had to get going and she replied, “Can I please cuddle with you for one more minute?”  She loves being held and gets away with coming out of her room after bedtime way more than the boys do because she acts so sweet and says she's "just so lonely" all by herself.  

Groundhog Day

Michael conveniently kissed me, held my hand and put his arm around me for the first time on Groundhog Day 11 years ago.  So, every year it is easy to remember the anniversary of our first kiss.  This year we celebrated with a bag of heart-shaped Reeses and a pack of gum while Michael did work on the computer late into the night only to go out of town at 5:00AM the next day…  At least the heart-shaped Reeses and my minty fresh breath pulled his attention away from the computer screen long enough to reenact our first kiss.

Ry-guy

Ryan is such a little character.  He was sitting on the counter helping me butter toast this morning when he dropped bread out of the bread bag.  I could see what was going to happen and told him to stop quickly before the bread dropped on the floor.  He caught the falling bread between his feet.  James and Gracie, watching all this while eating breakfast, were quite impressed with his feet bread-catching skills.  This morning he had a huge grin on his face and regularly looked back as he ran after the older boys, sprinting down the cul-de-sac to school, still in his pjs mind you.  I had to run after him in bare feet to catch him before he went to school with them, waving casually to the neighbor driving by, happy to give them a little insight into daily life at our house.  He likes to sleep with the elastic from the bottom twin sheet tucked in around him.  The day before yesterday I looked in to see how he was doing taking a nap and couldn't see him.  It turns out he had tucked himself completely under the side of the bottom sheet by his bed and was sleeping soundly.  The neighbor kids were hanging out in the backyard yesterday.  We had to leave so their mom came over to get them.  We were talking about how well they had been playing together and Ryan informed our neighbor that he had hit her little girl who recently turned two.  I looked at him, "Ryan, you hit Lila", he confidently said "yes!"  At least he's got the recognition and confession part of making amends down...    

Student of the Month Date

To make up for my lack of a high school dating life, I now have lots of hot guys to go out with.  They even hug and kiss me sometimes.  On Saturday, I went with these two charmers.  We started our date out with two BJs meals for Student of the Month with free refills, which we took full advantage of.  Afterward, we went across the street to the discount movie theater and watched Big Hero 6.  My favorite part of the show is that one of the main girls in it is super tall.  Okay, I don ‘t even remember her name, I just remember she was really tall.   I think the thing I like most about President Obama is that he is married to a tall lady.  I just have a special place in my heart for that.  Anyway, I’m getting off-topic.  The movie was fun.  James had to sprint to the potty in an action-packed part of the movie (those free refills on orange juice probably didn’t help much) so I ran out with him holding the door open to the men’s restroom enough to yell in and make sure there weren’t any creepy people inside.  We ran back in time to get the gist of the scene.  We ended our date with a visit to hold our neighbor’s pet bunny.  All in all, it was an enjoyable Student of the Month outing with two very sweet boys.

Me with my good-looking dates

The Proud Students

Brotherly love

Movie time/"Mom, that's enough with the pictures" time