Took this shot on Easter weekend as I started my 6th month.  My 7th begins this weekend and I can't believe it!!!  Enjoying this season, feeling the baby kick a ton, and praying for good sleep from here on out! 

Tangled

I remember reading a book by Dr. Laura (not my normal kind of read, but, still, I found it to be a good book on parenting) and she made an interesting observation about quality versus quantity time.  She argued that while quality time is, of course, the most important, that time is hardest to "force".  So, if you don’t have the quantity of time with your children, you may miss out on many quality moments.  Does that mean to spend every waking moment with your child?  I don’t think so, but it sure makes me glad to have many, many, many moments with them so that I experience some of their most special ones.

I think this is the way with lots of other things, one of them being writing.  Every time I sit down to journal – privately (in my notebooks) or publicly (in my blog) isn’t necessarily insightful or clarity-inducing.  But, the consistency of doing it helps me have a better opportunity of landing on something.  Quantity often allows for quality to rise to the top, maybe??

That being said, today’s blog is just part consistency and part scrapbooking.  Not necessarily anything profound here… but, an idea hit me in the face. Literally. 

 We had a joint birthday party for the McBabies at the end of the year since their birthdays are only a few weeks apart.  It was Tangled themed since we all love the movie and since I have a crush on Flynn Rider.  McBaby #1 and I braided a ridiculously long Rapunzel hairpiece that still often hangs off of our banister as it has this week (which was exactly what hit me in the face).   I make  an effort to place very few rules about the braid so they don't get any ideas... ("don't hop over the edge on your braid guys!", "don't put it around anyone's neck", they've come up with a few others.)

Here's the invitation.  The male lead in the film is "Flynn Rider".  It worked out perfectly that McBaby #2 could be "(McLau)ghlin Rider".  In retrospect, I wouldn't have put that line break after "come for a joint"... haha...

And like every good party, someone ends up stripping down to their skivvies!

Non-cheerio people

Well, the McBabies eat them.  They love them for snacks and wouldn't be opposed to them being a part of breakfast, but they would riot for more food.  I'm not sure if any of you share this experience, but my kiddos LOVE breakfast.  I mean, love like if I were to take them to the Omni Hotel Easter Brunch, they would make the place go in the red.  Our day normally consists of a big breakfast, a snack or maybe even 2, a decent-sized lunch, a long nap, and then they hardly ever eat any dinner.  Maybe a bite or two, but it is such a battle that I've decided to just thank my lucky stars that they eat pretty well the rest of the day and try to get those couple of meals/snacks nutritious and balanced and take whatever I can get at dinner.  This also makes eating out and evening family functions easier because I don't feel like there is a ton of pressure on dinner.  Don't get me wrong, there have been days lately where I question the whole philosophy and try to force McBaby #2 to sit at the table until his peas are gone, bribe him with ice cream, or sneak something into his mouth. He is Mr. Mellow until dinner comes around and he can flex his will.  That makes both of us, I suppose.

So, breakfast involves commitment and a huge mess. It involves getting veggies in eggs, veggies in smoothies, veggies as snacks, etc.  Today's breakfast was a fairly normal one and involved a skillet, my KitchenAid, a sauce pot, my blender, the toaster, measuring cups and spoons, servingware, and the ingredients.  Here was the ingredient list:

* Again, we're talking about organic ingredients...

(For the Scrambled Eggs)
3 Eggs
Milk
Butter

(For the Oatmeal)
Steel Cut Oats
Water
Brown Sugar
Cinnamon (good for the stomach btw)

(For the Toast)
Artisan Bread
Butter

(For the Smoothies)
1 cup fresh strawberries
1 banana
1/2 cup frozen blueberry/raspberry/blackberry medley
1/2 baked sweet potato
1/2 cup whole milk greek yogurt
4 Tbsp ground flax meal
2 cups milk

Getting all of this out and then, yikes, cleaned up daily often feels like such a chore to be honest. But, a simple bowl of cheerios wouldn't help me meet my nutrition goals for them/us.  So, I guess I feel it's worth it. Most days, I at least get the plates put in the sink and the food put away and then we head out for whatever activity is planned and I pick it all up during nap time. Right as I'm thinking through and prepping dinner... like the shampoo bottle, rinse, repeat, rinse, repeat...

FYI, I set a timer for an hour before they can have their snack because they would graze the entire morning if I let them and I've recently decided that I can't spend quite that much time in the kitchen.   Today's snack was apples and pretzels.  Again, we left and didn't take snacks along so as not to "ruin" lunch.  Lunch was grilled cheese.  Then those kiddos went off to sleep and I had the most important meal of the day.  In a rampage to find some leftover piece of chocolate from the kids' Easter basket or Halloween or something, I found that McHusband bought ghirardelli chocolate chips at the store the other day.  Oh. my. yum.  Some addictions are better than others, right???

Uncle Tom's Cabin (or at least that's how I remember it)

When I was growing up, my parents were super-intentional about carving out the time and money for family vacations.  I don’t remember there ever being a summer, in fact, when we didn’t go on vacation.  We were, some years, even on vacation for two weeks at a time.  Though we always had everything we needed and plenty of extra things too in our life and home, we weren’t rich – it wasn’t that taking trips like this were without a heck of a lot of planning, I’m sure.  While we went to beautiful beaches along the Wisconsin shorelines, we normally ate packed lunches and ordered waters or split meals if we went out to eat.  The point is, my parents made it happen because that special family time was a priority and worth the effort.

Believe me, now as a mother, I can appreciate the massive amount of work and stuff traveling with young children entails.  I now cringe at the memory of Dad and us 3 kids in the car ready to pull out honking at mom inside the house and giving impatient “c’mon Mom, what the heck are you doing in there?s” or the ever-famous “don’t forget the kitchen sink/snowshoes/insert-best-ridiculous-item-here Mom!”  (Sorry Dad, but I’ve jumped ship and sided with Mom on this now!!)  By the way, this post deserves my repeatedly adding “or at least that’s how I remember it” since I was a kid…

It is insane how much sh crap stuff comes along with us on vacation and how much careful deliberation it takes to (a) remember the vitals, (b) include the things that will just make life easier, and, then, most importantly, (c) get it to fit in the car. 

Some other interesting things that should be mentioned:

• Entertaining children in the car (without individual TV/gaming systems and pre-packaged snack packs) – now when I was young, seatbelts were a normal part of riding in a car, but on vacation, we slept/played/ate on the floor while in transit.  I think it’s safe to say that most people operated this way.  Things were different back then.  I’m not saying it’s not fantastic that we have more information now for safer travel, but I am saying that I’m certain we kids weren’t strapped in 5-point-harnesses for hours on end.  We had a blue astro van – does anyone else remember those 90’s versions?  We had 4-60 air-conditioning for much of the drive.  That means 4 windows open at 60 mph (well, maybe more like 4-75/80 with Dad driving…don’t get me wrong, he’s an awesome chauffer and could be the live version of a global GPS).  The sound in the van on an interstate was much like sitting in the back of an airplane right next to the jets.  Crazy loud.  And if you even considered trying to close one of the sonic-boom-decibel windows that opened and closed on a flippy-latchy-thingy, you knew you were at risk for losing at least one finger with the speed-defying intensity in which they snapped shut.  Kinda the whole would you rather be blind or deaf age-old question?  Or at least that’s how I remember it.  I also remember one time smelling chocolate chip cookies from the front bucket seat and later realizing upon crawling to the very back (at least 20 feet behind me… or at least that’s how I remember it) that my brother had broken into the homemade chocolate chip cookies Mom had made and was sitting in a lawn chair – yes, in the back seat – eating them up.  That’s how freakin’ awesome that car was. A lawn chair!  And, now come to think of it, that’s how freakin’ awesome my mom was for packing up enough crap to sustain us if we were stranded on a desert island and still find time to make homemade chocolate chip cookies for the trip.  My other favorite memory of road trips was spending gobs of time with my Dad giving us song titles and pitches for which harmony part we were on.  We would spend hours singing songs and making up harmonies.  Sometimes hymns.  Sometimes folk songs.  Sometimes the ever-popular “Diarrhea” song which we could come up with about a million phrases that rhymed and fit the song.  Or at least that’s how I remember it.

• Figuring out naps and new schedules – I know from memory and from my folks saying it now that schedules and naps weren’t thought of in a structured sense like ours are.  This is neither good nor bad, just what we each have done, but no matter what, kids, adults, everyone is affected by road trips, driving, sleeping in new places.

• Packing daily lunches

• Taking the freaking time to apply repeated sunscreen (did we even do that when we were little?)

• Saving up the money for the trip

• Etc
  
  

Perhaps what I love most about thinking of these vacations though are the little things that were surely specific to my family.  If you know my parents, you can attest to this truth that they know no strangers.  I’m fairly certain that I have always enjoyed this strike-up-a-convo-with-anyone way about them and my sister has taken more of can-I-hide-under-a-rock-now-you’re-embarrassing-me stance.  For instance, visit any one of a myriad of our go-to restaurants around town and my mother will know most of the wait staff and management by name.  My dad can pretty much see any Indiana license plate and, from the numbers (letters? something else?) and tell you within which county a person lives.  This combo of knowledge and willingness to be chatty with strangers means that we could not go very many places without meeting people and finding mutual friends among them.  Or at least that’s how I remember it.

So when we went to this old schoolhouse-turned-candy-factory in Door County, Wisconsin, we made fast friends with Uncle Tom, the elderly owner.  One thing led to another and before we knew it, we were upstairs, above his candy store, where he lived all sitting around his family room singing songs while he accompanied us on his organ.  Then, we were coming back to see him every year.  Or at least that’s how I remember it.  It wasn’t really called “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.  It was “Uncle Tom’s Candies”, but I think I called it that being that the renown novel had such a close name.

When I think of all these things, I know that vacation has a special place in my heart because it’s a time of proximity (literally rubbing elbows in cars and hotel rooms) and intimacy with each other that is hard to achieve in many other ways.  It’s a time of swapping stories.  It’s a time of finding little corners of the world that only you and the people you shared the trip with can recount when you’re back home.  It’s a time where year to year you can track progress on who was brave enough to jump off the rock that year, who was little enough to slide down the stairs in the place you stayed every year, who was finally tall enough to ride that ride, who was old enough to remember directions to all of your favorite places around town.  It was a time of creating memories and repeating them with those you cherished most and who were the only other ones in the entire world who could understand both the memories and understand you because of them.  Or at least that’s how I remember it… and certainly why we continue to do it.

Kitchen Before & After(ish)

I believe I've posted before about what a nesting mode I'm in.  I'm sure much of it has to do with McBaby #3 coming, but I've kinda always been one to nest, really.  I've always loved projects, messing around with stuff, getting my hands dirty, and trying to give new life to old crap items.  

This last few months, the big project has been the kitchen.  It was fine before, but it needed wanted (see how I've personified it?) a facelift.  Last summer, we visited McHusband's family in south Texas.  We drove (uh-huh) and the trip home included 30 bliss-filled hours with 2 sick children, peeing (among other things) in cups (being that Jeff is from the edge of the map and bathrooms can't be either found or trusted down there), crying (on my part), and, what led to the kitchen redo, a hutch, table, and 8 chairs stuffed in every nook of the van available or on the top.  Someone has to be white trash, right?  We looked like the Clampetts.  No one in the family wanted McHusband's great-grandmother's farmhouse dining room set.  What?!? We couldn't stand to leave it!  It still has the leather tag on the back with the name of the town where McHusband was born.  The pieces must be at least 75 years old.  

Anyhoo, new furniture meant shuffling the china around and so it began... Being that the blog is about how much of our life centers around the table, I'm happy to show you how the rest of our house has also revolved around a table lately.  Here is where we are in process...

For some reason, the before picture (left) is reversed.  Not sure how that happened??  I don't have a shot without my family in it, sorry.  This is what it looked like when we came to show our family around as we were closing on the house.  As you can see, the after(ish) (right and others below) has new painted greenish/gray cabinets, a new white dishwasher, new white hood, chalkboard wall, floating shelves along wall, new curtain, new tile backsplash, new paint, among probably a few other things.  Here are a few more shots - the top is from the dining room which shows the new table and hutch.  We replaced the knobs on the hutch and added my grandmother's collection of vases along the top.  

Here's a shot from the other direction.  Still need to organize (don't I always?) the desk area and make some curtains, but we added bookshelves to the left and right of the double doors to make a more useful office area.  Found the perfect width at IKEA... gotta love that place.  Here is the backsplash we did... my first real tiling attempt.  It lines the area under the window by the sink and down the long counter too.

Maybe you've noticed how clean my kitchen looks?  If you haven't noticed and think this is normal, maybe we wouldn't make for good friends.  I'll go out on a limb and show you what is normal around here... here is my head chef...

Here is what it often looks like because of my bad habit of starting too many projects at once.  Yikes!  There are cords to be organized, invitations being made, oranges being juiced, crafts being, uh, crafted, stools out for my little helpers, and various other stuff.

But this is my favorite way of all and how many-an-evening is spent.  Here is a shot of family over for a pitch-in dinner.  Full tables, happy hearts.

Back on the Map

I know, I know, I’ve fallen off of the blogger map.  I think I’ve climbed my way back on though!  We have had a rough month with ongoing allergies or sickness.  Nothing life threatening, but sickness means losing sleep.  Losing sleep means going crazy.  At least, in this house, none of us function well without sleep.  This is why we are crazy schedule-oriented with the kids because Jeff and I know this about ourselves – without good sleep we are one step away from jumping off the ledge.

We’ve celebrated some tremendous joys this last month like learning that three of our closest friends are expecting.  Our heart swells in rejoicing alongside these families.  We’ve also grieved some terrible losses over the last month including our beautiful friends, the Kurrles, in which the wife and little son were tragically killed in a car accident.  And we’ve taken time (often at 3am) to question our faith and what it means to us in the midst of all of these highs and lows.  Because there are no answers, no reasons we can comprehend, no clarity to the highs or lows, we are left with a couple of things – an egg game and a train set.  Are you scratching your head?  One of McBaby #1’s favorite things to do is play this memory game that involves eggs, haystacks, and animals.  She’s actually quite good at it.  I’m not a parent who thinks you should let your child win when you play a game with them – I guess I question the integrity in that.  We play games that she gets and she just honestly can beat me… not sure what that says about me…  And McBaby #2 loves the wooden train set that Uncle Stephen has loaned him for these young years.  He loves to tinker. So when we are left puzzled, confused, wondering how to live potentially a long time with so many crazy unknowns in this world and raise our children, for whom we’d give our very lives, within it, we can only do one thing.  Like Moses, we can take our shoes off knowing that our carpet itself is the Holy Ground where God Himself is dwelling among our little people.  Then, we can sit on the floor, turn off our iphones, ignore the laundry to be folded, and thank our lucky stars for moments like these where little wonder-filled eyes look back at us, little hands graze ours as we play, little hearts make big impressions, and little moments are the big stuff.