Snippets

Instead of doing a bunch of different posts, I thought I'd try and cram it all into one!


Bragging Session

For months we've been planning to redecorate the baby room and make it into a room for the boys. We've been slowly accumulating furniture and supplies, and waiting until Malachi turned 18 months (tomorrow!) so he could occupy the bottom bunk. But as I looked over the calendar 3 weeks ago, my heart sank. Not one free weekend - not even one free day of any weekend - until mid-April. We had all this cool stuff just sitting there waiting to be done and no time to do it!

Last Friday I left for a women's retreat near Mansfield, OH with some friends from the church we attended in Columbus, before moving to Greenville. When I returned on Saturday and went into Mr. Moo's room, I couldn't believe my eyes: my wonderful husband had spent the entire time I was gone (including ALL night on Friday/Saturday) painting the room. On the accent wall, which we had decided to paint Dynaco Blue to go with the "Cars" theme Zekers chose, he had painted Lightning and Mater, using a projector and a picture he found online! He actually called an art-teacher-friend from church, found out what he needed, hauled the kids to Hobby Lobby to get supplies, mixed up all the right colors, borrowed a projector from the library (I didn't even know you could DO that!) and went to work almost from the moment I left until the moment I got home.

At first I was a little disappointed - I'd been looking forward to working on this project together and the mural took me a little by surprise. But then I woke up and realized that: 1) there really is no working on any project together with four kiddos running around! and that 2) he'd sped up "opening day" for the new room by probably a couple of weeks at least. Plus, for a guy who claims he doesn't have an artistic gene in his body, I think he did an amazing job!

We put up the border that was supposed to go around the room (I ordered it online and somehow read "5 YARDs" instead of "5 FEET" - big difference), and voila! I count it a success based on Zeke's reaction when he saw it.

April Fool

Uh, that would be me.

I need to document this story simply in the hope that I will go back and read this before April Fool's Day next year and avoid making the same mistake two years running . . .

I'm not usually big on April Fools Day jokes, but while sitting at dinner I was struck with a brilliant idea. I motioned to Danny to call my phone, which he did. I answered it, had a short "conversation", and after hanging up, explained to the kiddos that AWANA would be canceled for the night.

Now this was no ordinary night. The Sparks (Rachel's age group) were having hot wheels races all night, and the Cubbies (Kari Bou and Zekers) were doing a sailboat regatta and big wheel races in the gym. Zekers had been looking forward all week to the ice cream sandwiches they'd been promised for dessert.

Well, when I made my announcement, Rachel's eyes filled with tears. "Why, Mommy?" she wanted to know. "Well," I kindly replied, "Your leaders are just getting tired of AWANA and wanted a little break." As soon as the words left my mouth, the floodgates opened. I was expecting some whining and some attitude, but not the crocodile tears and wails that burst forth from all three of them! Trying frantically to backpedal I yelled, "April Fool!!" to no avail. The tears came harder and faster, the sobs louder. I felt about 2 inches tall. When they finally stopped crying, and I realized that my genius joke was more mean than funny, I resolved never to pull another stunt like that again. . . . at least not for another year.

Bad Mother of the Year Award

So we then proceeded to AWANA. We have LIFE group after dropping off the kiddos, and our 2 babysitters rode with us and helped take the kiddos into the church. Malachi almost ALWAYS stays with Danny in the van, but this time he wanted so badly to come that I got him out and he toddled in, holding hands with one of the girls. We ran the 3 kiddos to their rooms and were heading back out to the van when I realized . . . he wasn't with us anymore. Oh no! We ran back into the church and split up. He wasn't in the auditorium or any of the Sparks rooms. Just then, Susan, the Cubbies leader, came around the corner with him. Apparently, he'd decided he was old enough to be in Cubbies and was busy coloring with the "big kids". At this point I truly wished for a hole to open up underneath me so I could disappear into it. It hasn't happened yet, but I know the day is coming when we'll leave one or more of them at church on a Sunday . . .


Silly and Sweet

This morning was too sweet NOT to photograph. Malachi is definitely ready to sleep in his own bunk bed. He climbs into Zekers' all the time and pretends to sleep (for about 3 seconds). This morning he was running around the house naked, as usual when I try to change his diaper, and crawled into bed with Zeke, who wasn't quite awake yet. Everyone ended up in the same bed after a few minutes - some in PJ's, some half-dressed. They made this jumble of sleepy, laughing little faces that made me smile and grab the camera. I love these moments.

I got brave and let Zekers pick out his own clothes this morning. He was off to a great start - shirt and pants actually almost matched. And then he decided to complete the look with his favorite tie. So this is how we went to Bible study. He put this tie on just after breakfast, and I believe it's still around his neck. Oh, how I love my sweet, silly family!