Therapy is back session

It's time to revive the gratitude blog and its therapeutic qualities in my life. So here goes...

Today I'm grateful for...

1. The miracle of life. Camila Jeanne is one month old today. It has been one of the most difficult, sleep deprived, hormonal, and self-doubting months of my life.  At the same time, it has also been so filled with love, humility, and amazement. I thought that by kid number four I had most things figured out, and I honestly didn't expect things to be too terribly difficult.  But this little one has thrown me a big fat curve ball that I wasn't expecting. She teaches me something new every day, and I'm learning a lot about myself and my capabilities. Despite all the challenges, both physical and emotional, I am certainly grateful for this little girl and the blessing she is in my life and to my family.



2. Paul Cardall and his piano. They have helped many of us fall asleep when sleep
was desperately needed over the course of the past few weeks.

3. Bobby's patience. I've been on a bit of an emotional rollercoaster. I'm grateful that he's able to help me endure the ride.

4. Drawings and love notes from Sydney, hugs and "I love you's" from Liam, and Lillian's care and compassion- she has been helping with things like doing laundry, reading with Sydney, packing her own lunch, and holding Cami for me.



5. Pink blossoms on the trees outside our house, and the way they make a carpet of pink when they fall onto the sidewalk.

6. How Lillian still likes to fall asleep in bed next to me. She's growing up so much, but it's moments like this that remind me that she's still my little girl.

Michael Jackson and Tacos

Tonight I'm thankful for...

1. Michael Jackson dance parties with neighborhood friends.

2. The way my kids devour tacos and how Liam gets sour cream on his nose.

3. Holding hands with Lillian while I sing bedtime songs and she drifts off to sleep, then giving her 3 squeezes to say I-Love-You and getting 4 squeezes back to say I-Love-You-Too...our secret little code we've been doing for years.  She's still my little girl.

4. The way Sydney will eat an entire bowl of cherries, and then inevitably have diarrhea later, but how that won't stop her from eating another bowl of cherries tomorrow.

5. My house.  I have to remind myself how happy and excited I was to move into it three years ago.  Now that we are very settled into it and we've had time to examine and experience every crack and flaw that it has to offer, I have to still be grateful for it.  It's a huge improvement from where we were before (in terms of both space and location), plus it's on an awesome street, and I know I won't live here forever (just one more year, in fact...not that I'm counting down or anything).  So even though it seems like clutter piles are EVERYWHERE and toys are spilling off shelves and laying all over the floors, and sometimes I think I'm going to explode from the chaos that is housed within these walls, I am still grateful to call it home.

6. My malfunctioning endocrine system and the anxiety that it causes.  I'm not actually grateful for this, but I am grateful for my improved ability to identify it, recognize it, and realize that it's not a normal way to feel.  I do not take my "normal days" (which hopefully are more often than not...) for granted, and I've learned to recognize those as well and to savor in the ease and joy that they bring.

Tigers and Kitties and Native American Princesses...Oh My!

Today I'm thankful for...

1. The view out of my bathroom window.

2. When my kids call me "Mama."

3. Face painting!  One of my neighbors painted the kids' faces today.  She is always painting her two little girls' faces and she offered it to Lillian, Sydney, and Liam.  They jumped at the offer and sat completely still while she worked.  Liam was a tiger, Sydney was a pink kitty cat, and Lillian was a Native American Princess.  So cute!

4. Bobby sitting next to me on the couch.  He's been on call today and other than a few hours at the hospital to take care of some things, he's been able to be with us.  We had a great BBQ dinner and he helped get the kids to bed.  He's been able to dodge a few bullets by taking care of phone calls that did not require him to go to the hospital.  I really hope he'll be able to get a good night's rest to start the week off well tomorrow.

Grateful Sabbath

Today I'm thankful for...

1. My Savior.  Because of Him I understand that I am a divine daughter with an invaluable sole.  Because of Him I can reach for perfection and become perfected in the process.  Because of Him I don't feel fear or despair when I remember my family members and friends who have passed away.  Instead, I feel a comforting peace and hope in the belief that death is not a dark ending, but rather a beautiful, bright beginning to a new phase of our existence.  Because of Him I know joy.  I know love.   I know.

Easter is over, but this is still a very powerful portrayal of Christ and what he did.  For you, for me, for all of us.  It's only 2 1/2 minutes long, and it's definitely worth watching!

2. BBQ picnics outside on our front porch.  For dinner tonight Bobby grilled his famous chicken and I made our favorite lime-cilantro rice with pineapple (recipe here at Our Best Bites...SO good!).  Bobby also grilled up some teeny-tiny potatoes (real name) from our neighbor along with sweet peppers.  Eaten on a paper plate with the sun on my face, it was the perfect meal!  The kids picnicked on top of the slide while the neighborhood kids lingered around waiting for them to finish so they could have a turn at our new softball-on-a-string batting tee.  After meal time, the neighborhood batting practice session was in full swing (no pun intended).  We sure have some sluggers on our street.  One of my neighbors told me a story about her very first babysitting job when she was 13.  She was watching a little 3 year old.  They were outside in the yard and he had a batting tee like ours.  The first hit he made off the tee sent the ball flying straight through a window in the house!  Imagine that for your first babysitting job!  I didn't ask if she ever babysat for them again.

3. Barbie's new couch.

Barbie is lounging in style.  She doesn't have any kids with messy fingers and leaky sippy cups, so she can enjoy the luxury of white upholstery. :)  I found a really easy tutorial online. (thanks, Pinterest!) All you basically need is an empty tissue box, fabric, tape, and a hot glue gun.  A 4 year-old assistant helps, too.  Sydney sat in my lap during the project, directing where the hot glue should go, giving design advice, and holding fabric in place.  The pillows were entirely her idea and she came up with the designs.  She even helped sew them together!  It was so cute to watch her little delicate fingers work the needle.  I think she has more pillow designs in mind, so the Mom Factory will have to get back to work soon.  The next Barbie furniture project might be bunk beds, so stay tuned.  We're furnishing Barbie's mansion piece-by-cardboard-piece....Barbie has been struck by economic hard times like the rest of us, plus she likes to upcycle her recyclable goods. :)

Christmas and Halloween in May

Liam just finished crying himself to sleep...poor guy.  Tonight is a good night to list what I'm thankful for, so here goes:

1. The small, pink flower petals that keep falling off the trees and whirling all around when the wind blows.  Everyone's yard is a carpet of pink petals and the sidewalks are lined with piles of little pink confetti.  The girls like to pick up handfuls of petals, toss them in the air, and watch them fly around and land in their hair.  They squeal with delight each and every time. It's kind of magical to see pink petals falling all around like snow.  Love it!

2. The way Liam wrapped his little arm around my neck when I held him and sang bedtime songs tonight.

3. The Free Library.  I love, love, love getting books from the library.  We walked to the local Philly branch after Lilly got off the bus today.  We originally went to get a movie for our "movie night," but I ended up with a bag-load of books as well.  Walking into the children's section is like an addiction for me.  I see one book, then another, and then another and I just can't resist putting it in my bag and taking it home for three weeks.  I'm so grateful that it's a free service (even though I often pay my dues in the form of late fees...although I'm doing much better this year!!)  I can't wait for the day when I can afford to stock my own home library full of wonderful children's literature.  I'm so thankful for the talented writers and illustrators who share their talent and enrich my family's life with wonderful stories and beautiful art.

4. Preschool.  There's nothing like herding together four 3-4 year olds for a fun topic about days of the week, months of the year, and the number 2.  It was a whirlwind this morning, but super fun to watch them learn and explore!

5. My wonderful neighbors.  Many of them know that Bobby hasn't been around much.  I was chatting with one of the other moms this afternoon and as we were leaving to go back into our houses she said, "By the way, you are my super hero."  When I asked her why she said that I always seem so calm and patient with my kids even though Bobby is gone a lot.  It was very nice of her to say, but I hardly feel like a super hero.  My house is basically trashed with dishes, toys, laundry, and a dirty bathroom.  We've been having movie nights almost every week (even on school nights!!) and the kids have had a lot of pizza, chicken nuggets, pancakes, mac 'n cheese and hot dogs for dinner the past couple of weeks.  We're sort of on survival mode, but we're surviving pretty well.  In fact, if it weren't for the kids to keep my company and give me something to focus on, then I know I would be much lonelier and a lot worse off.  Bobby's schedule definitely stinks, but I know plenty of people whose husbands have to be a lot farther away for a much longer amount of time.  I feel pretty lucky to have him only a couple hours away, to see him (either here or there) every weekend, to have awesome friends and neighbors, and also to have supportive extended family close by.  I told my neighbor that if I can find joy in this part of our journey, then I'll be that much more capable of finding joy at other points in our journey as well.

6. Eyelashes.  I'm sitting here at my [cluttered] desk and in front of me on the wall is a bulletin board tacked with a few of Lillian's works of art that she made for me.  As I've been staring at them, I noticed that Lillian has given everyone in the drawings amazingly long eyelashes!  Look closely and you'll see purple eyelashes on the butterfly, pink eyelashes on the blonde girl [Lillian] at the bottom, and neon orange lashes on the girls on the purple card [which Lillian made for me during 'play time' at school today...my second card in two days, I feel so loved!]  I love Lillian's artistic style and attention to detail...everyone's eyes are blue, too!

7. Daddy's stuffed ducky.  A long time ago I gave Bobby a stuffed animal duck.  I can't even remember when or why I gave it to him...I'm sure he remembers.  Anyway, he took it with him on his two-year mission to Riverside, California and he had it with him every day.  It's had a lot of lovin' wear and tear over the years and now it's starting to lose some of its stuffing and it's missing an eyeball.  Irregardless, Sydney has taken a special liking to it.  She carries it around with her and cuddles with it at night.  Daddy must've recently talked to Sydney about his duck, because almost every day this week she has told me, "When I miss Daddy I can cuddle with his ducky because he had it with him every day on his mission."  The way she says it in her sweet, tender little voice is so cute.  I'm glad Bobby held onto it for so long.

8. I was about to publish the post when I read the title and realized I never explained why it was Christmas and Halloween in May!!  Lillian picked Barbie's Christmas Carol for our movie night selection, then she chose a Diego book about bats saving a Halloween party.  We had a full range of seasons and holidays today.  Thankfully, both the movie and the book are from the library and will have to be returned soon (another perk about the library). ;-)

Today I'm thankful for...

1. Reading stories in bed with Sydney before afternoon "quiet time" while Lillian is at school.  Sometimes we read in Lilly's bed because it's so cool to use your big sister's stuff when she's not home.  Shhh, don't tell!  :)  Recently, Sydney has started to lick her pointer finger before turning the pages of the book we're reading.  It's so cute because it's such a grown-up thing for a little girl to do.

2. How happy and smiley Liam is first thing in the morning.  He usually makes it into my bed some time during the night, so when he wakes up at 7:30 he's right next to me.  He always has a big smile on his face like he's excited that it's a new day, and he looks thrilled to see me.  It's such a wonderful and refreshing way to wake up.

3. Waving goodbye to Lillian on the school bus.  Sydney and I always wait on the sidewalk after Lillian gets on the bus so we can wave as she drives away.  The bus's windows are so tinted that sometimes I can't see her at all, so I'm just waving and smiling blindly, hoping that Lillian can see me. Today, however, I could clearly spot Lillian sitting in the middle of the bus and we were able to make eye contact.  She waved enthusiastically with her face up against the window until we couldn't see her anymore.  I waved back, just as excited as she was.  The image of the big smile on her face, and the way she turned around in her seat so she could see us and wave to us longer is engraved into my mind.  It made my heart leap for joy.  I know she'll probably outgrow it some day, but I will thoroughly enjoy it while it lasts.

4. Banana bread.  My lovely neighbor baked some today and brought some over for us.  It's delicious!

Today I'm thankful for...

1. Play dates.  Lillian was invited to play at her friend E's house.  She met E in her preschool class last year and they are totally BFF's.  Their friend K was there, too, so it was three times the charm.  Lillian was SO excited about her play date all week long that she told EVERYONE she met about it.  I think the whole neighborhood knew about her play date today.  Shortly after I dropped her off I got this text.  Princesses, indeed!  Thanks, E and K for making Lillian's day awesome!

Princesses!

 2. Close calls.  We've been lucky the last couple of days- Sydney and Liam in particular.  Sydney's little tricycle is on the porch.  The porch is two steps up from the yard, sidewalk, and little garden bed below.  She was riding her bike around the porch while I was inside when I suddenly heard her crying.  When I went out to investigate, I saw Syd's legs sticking up in the air over the side of the porch!  She had accidentally driven off the edge, right into the flower bed.  She escaped the accident with only a little scrape on her arm and a bruise on her leg.  She got pretty lucky in more ways than one- she narrowly missed falling down the hard cement steps and she landed in a way that didn't cause too much trauma like knocked out teeth, banged up head, or broken bones.  Now she is a very cautious tricycle rider.

This morning Liam almost took a nose-dive off the bed onto the hardwood floor.  He was laying on his back wedged between two pillows while I was in the bathroom getting his bottle ready.  Bobby was brushing his teeth and I was letting the water run, waiting for it to warm up.  Bobby gave me his two cents and said he never waits for the water to get warm, he just serves up a cold bottle to Liam and he still guzzles it down.  I was slightly annoyed by him sharing his opinion on a matter that I felt quite experienced with.  However, I was getting impatient and tired (it was 5:00 in the morning), so I just mixed up a cold bottle and headed back into the bedroom.  I saw one pillow shoved to the side and Liam scooching on his belly at the edge of the bed, with his head peeking over the side about to careen down to his doom!  I did an Olympic leap across the room and grabbed him before he toppled over the side.  That's the last time I trust him to stay put on the bed...and he'll probably never get a warm bottle that early in the morning again, it's just too risky.

3. NO cavities!  Lillian had a check-up at the dentist this morning, and for the first time since she started seeing the dentist, she didn't have any cavities!  Wahoo!  All the brushing, flossing, and fluoride is FINALLY paying off!!  Here's my proud girl (and a proud mama behind the camera):

Lilly's holding "Mama Fox" that she got from Ikea for her birthday.  It was Mama Fox's first trip to the dentist, and Lillian helped her not to feel afraid.  I have a sneaky suspicion that Mama Fox helped Lillian not feel afraid, either. :)

4. Birthday money.  Bobby's mom sent Sydney a birthday card this week with a very generous monetary gift tucked inside.  While Lilly was at her play date, Syd and I hit the toy section at Target to spend some of her money.  She calls it her "happy money"...I think she means "happy birthday money", she just forgets the birthday part.  But, heck, it is HAPPY money! :)  She made a b-line for the little shopping cart as soon as she set her eyes on it and her opinion could not be swayed against it.  She pushed it around the store next to my big cart for the rest of the trip.  She couldn't wait to get home to use it.  She's already been on quite a good number of shopping trips.  Our cupboards will be well-stocked.

 

5. Liam's grabby hands.  He tries to grab everything around him- my keys, my dinner plate, my hair, my nose, my phone, the girls' shirts (and their hair), my shopping list...  As soon as he gets whatever he's reaching for into his little hands, he sticks in straight in his mouth and drools all over it.  Today he tried to grab my camera.  But I was too fast!

6. Boys in a princess tent.  Sydney and Lillian convinced the boys across the street to play in their pink princess tent.  They didn't seem to mind the various shades of pink all around them.  They were fascinated with opening and closing the flap on the door and leaning against the sides so the whole tent tipped over- very boy-ish behavior.  The princesses of the castle put the rowdy boys in order.  Our next door neighbor said he would have to hire knights to guard the castle. :)

7. Bobby's forgetfulness.  He forgot to bring his change of clothes with him this morning.  He had to go right from the hospital to a meeting at a fancy-shmancy restaurant in the city.  So I got to meet him by the Art Museum to hand off his clothes to him.  We got to see him for a few minutes, which was nice, especially for the kids since they were all asleep before he got home.  On Monday night we got a lucky visit from him, too.  He was on call, so he checked with the ER before leaving to make sure there weren't any pending cases that would call him back to the hospital.  It's a 45 minute drive and he would rather stay and wait to take care of something than make it all the way home only to have to turn right back around.  The ER said there was nothing so he came home.  Right before he walked in the door his beeper went off for 2 cases in the ER that needed his attention- clearly no one had actually checked in the ER to see if there was anything that could call him back.  He was quite annoyed about it, but we both were happy for the chance to see each other before he had to go back.  He had time to eat some dinner in the bathroom while I gave the kids baths, help with pj's, and do family home evening with us.  Since it's a long drive there and it was already getting late and he had to be there at 5:30 the next morning, he decided to stay the night at the hospital.  Even though he was gone the rest of the night, I'm grateful that he got to see the kiddies before they went to bed and that we were able to spend some time together as a family.

8. The mouse in our kitchen.  There is a brave little mouse running around in the kitchen.  And the dining room.  And maybe (probably) elsewhere throughout the house.  We want to catch it and dispose of it (sorry animal lovers), but tonight its appearance was helpful.  Bobby has to stay up to study and prepare a presentation for tomorrow.  He was starting to fall asleep at the table when the little rodent ran out.  The wild goose (er, mouse) chase that ensued was enough to thoroughly wake him up.  The little sucker escaped, so the chase is still on.  I will be making a trip to Lowe's tomorrow to buy some big sticky traps (again, sorry animal lovers).

Today I'm thankful for...

1. Sydney's sense of style.  Yesterday she wore her flower girl dress (very poofy and fancy) with "halloween socks" (orange and black stripes) and her pink princess tennis shoes.  She tromped around the neighborhood in this outfit, holding up her dress as she hiked through yards and scaled porch steps. Today she insisted on wearing her pink rhinestone sunglasses.  I love her fashion independence!

2. Wooden spoons.  It entertained Liam for a good chunk of the afternoon!

3. Home-made Italian pizza, made by a real Italian.  Our neighbor is from Italy and he is quite a chef.  He let me sample a [large] piece of his pizza tonight.  Home-made wheat crust with home-made tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese and fresh sliced tomatoes- delizioso!! 

4. Friends to watch TV with (Sydney is saying 'look at THAT, Mom!'- they were watching Ice Age and I think it was the part when the big mama t-rex was trying to get them, or some other exciting scene).

And friends to swim with.

5. Silly Sisters.  I had no idea this photo was on my camera until I uploaded them to the computer.  The girls must have gotten a hold of my camera when I wasn't looking!  Lillian is getting pretty good and taking one-handed self portraits!