Joys

Today I'm thankful for...

Rain- it cooled everything off and it thoroughly watered my new hibiscus plant that probably would have shriveled up and died due to my neglect.

Little artists- Lilly and Syd painted some pretty awesome pictures today. A colorful array of rainbows, self-portraits, kangaroos, and birds' nests. I'm glad their creative juices were flowing.

A clean air conditioner- it took me three days, but I managed to scrub, vacuum, and bleach all of the dust and mold out of it, just in time for the weather to cool off! I'll feel much better about breathing in the air it'll be blowing out the next time I turn it on.

My friend Tara- she always makes me feel better, even when she isn't trying to.

Prayer- spilling out all my worries and anxieties to my Heavenly Father helps me feel so much better.

Mani-Pedi parties- the girls and I soaked our feet in warm water with fizzing soap balls, then I gave them foot massages with fancy lotion and painted their toes and fingers. It was a belated Mother's Day activity- a 'thank you for letting me be your mom' celebration. Fun!

Liam's lost ba-boos- he has two pink ones left and we couldn't find them anywhere all day yesterday. I found them both last night, but since he and I survived a 24-hour time period without one, I decided to just keep the trend going. Might as well get the inevitable over with as soon as possible. Day 2 went well also. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Hopeful reminders- I like it when friends finish their residency programs, become board certified, move into fellowships, or enter the world of attending physicians. It helps me remember that residency won't last forever and that there is a light at the end of this [long, sometimes dark and lonely] tunnel. I know it'll go by fast and that someday, somehow I'll actually miss these years.

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). ;-)

Good Moms

I found this in the dollar bin at Target the other day. If you could see the mountain of dishes in my sink and the endless piles of laundry scattered throughout the house, then you would think that I was an absolutely amazing mother with blissfully joyful children. Which, of course, I am...and I have. ;-)

Barrack Academy Field Trip

I got to hang out with Lillian and her kindergarten class on their field trip to the Barrack Academy this afternoon.  With each change of the season they've visited this Hebrew Academy (a Jewish day school for grades 6-12) in Bryn Mawr in order to learn about nature and how its affected by the change in the weather with the different seasons.  Today was the spring trip, but it felt more like summer.  The giant thermometer read 92 degrees when we got there!!  I don't think it was actually that hot (I think it sat out in the hot sun a little too long), but it was definitely in the mid-80's....hot enough to make me wish I put some sunscreen on my neck and bright enough to remind me that I need to get a pair of sunglasses! :)

I had a fun time riding on the bus with Lillian and 40 other kindergarteners, and watching her plant marigold seeds, draw a beautiful picture of the spring landscape, feed goldfish in the pond, go on a little nature walk, and learn about different habitats.  She's a fun girl to be with, and I'm grateful that she wants me to chaperone her field trips.  I'm even more grateful that I was able to do it, thanks to my wonderful friend Ruth who watched Sydney and Liam for me while I was gone.  

Some photos of our afternoon:

Lillian and her classmate F, on the bus on our way to Barrack!  F is a quiet, but very sweet little guy.  He was in my  chaperone group.  Totally random note- the kid in the background has his finger in his mouth to wiggle his VERY loose tooth.  He did it the whole way there and back and I was worried that he would wiggle the tooth right out and we would have a big bloody mess in the back of the bus.  He had at least three toothless gaps in his mouth, which led me to believe that he was a tooth wiggling expert. Despite his best efforts, however, the tooth stayed in for the duration of the trip....thank goodness!

Scooping dirt into her cup to plant marigolds.  The girl on the far left is W- she was the other kid in my little group.  She was not very impressed with the whole ordeal.  She kept trying to jump ship and join another group.  Not on my watch, missy!!

Observing nature and learning about habitats.  Lillian is third from the left. The guy standing in front of them is their "teacher"....a local high school student.  He told the little group of kindergarteners that animals live in habitats and that we have habitats also because we're animals, too.  This confused most of the kids.    

Feeding the fish in the pond.  Each kid was given half a piece of white bread.  Some of them broke the bread into huge chunks and threw it all in at once.  A few other kids broke off teeny tiny crumb-size pieces and threw them in one by one.  At the rate they were going, we would've been there forever if we didn't make them throw in the whole piece so we could go to our next station.

Summer landscape photo that Lillian took during the nature walk.  The kids were supposed to use their school-issued iPad to take photos, but Lillian's was dead.  Her teacher forgot to charge it. :-/  I let her use my phone instead.

Little artists, busy sketching the landscape foreground and background- that was the assignment, anyway.  Most of them just drew whatever the heck they felt like.  For example, Lillian drew a whole row of pink flowers (there were none in sight), and one little boy drew a picture of "a man dying of sweat." LOL!

Bus ride on the way back to school.

Day 1

I'm tired and my brain doesn't have the energy to write anything witty.  I just wanted to confirm that the kids and I survived Day 1 of Bobby's trauma rotation.

Why is that a big deal, you ask?  Well....Bobby left early this morning for a hospital in Baltimore where he'll be working for the next three months.  It's only two hours away, but that's far enough to prevent a daily commute, especially for a guy who normally only gets five hours of sleep every night- you can do the math on how much time that would leave for him to sleep.  We'll probably see him every other weekend here at home, and on some special weekends I'll load the kids up so we can stay with some friends who live in the Baltimore area and we'll hang out with Daddy there as much as we can.  I keep thinking to myself that the time will go by fast, just like his previous three-month rotation did.  I also keep telling myself that by the time he's done this one in June, Lillian would have finished kindergarten, Liam will be a year and a half old, and 2013 will be half-way over.  The best part is that we'll be another year done with residency, with only three more left to go (and only six months away from being half-way done!)

To briefly sum up the day, it was a good one, but a little on the emotional side.  Lillian had a tearful break down after our Tango (video chat) session with Daddy tonight.  We said hello, good night, had a bedtime prayer over the phone, then Bobby sang the kids a song while they were in bed.  As soon as I hung up Lillian buried her head in her pillow and started wailing.  Then Liam started crying, too.  I relocated Lillian to my bed so Sydney could have some peace and quiet.  Thank goodness that girl can sleep through anything because Liam made up for the silence of Lillian's absence.  After getting Lillian's big blue bunny to cuddle with and reminding her that Daddy is only a couple of hours away and that we get to see him this weekend and that we were very fortunate to be able to talk to him and see him on the phone tonight, she calmed down.  What I really wanted to say was quit complaining about it because some kids don't get to see their dads (and/or moms) for months on end because they are entrenched among terrorists in foreign lands or out at see on a Naval military ship....or away at any other number of locations that are thousands of miles away with no cell phone signal.  We are pretty fortunate to have him so close and to have easy access to talk and video chat with him.  For having him be away, it's not too bad.  Not that I would choose for it to be this way instead of having him here, but it could definitely be worse.

Other highlights of the day included getting poked in the eyeball by Liam (totally inadvertently, but nearly 15 hours later it still hurts, is slightly swollen and keeps watering...time to see a dr??).  Also, Liam stuck his hand in the trash can (several times...got lucky enough to fish a few things out) and then stuck his hands in the toilet water.  EWW!!  We were invited to a friends' house for family home evening, where we sang songs in German, learned about Christ's resurrection, and enjoyed cherry and apple danishes.  So many friends have already been so supportive of our situation.  I'm truly grateful for them.

One day down!  Bring on the rest!