Grateful for the gift of today

Life is short. I've learned that all too well over the past 12 hours. God has gifted us this moment and maybe a few or many others here on earth, but all we have is this instance, what we are living RIGHT now. I hate to admit that I take these moments for granted all too often. Those opportunities to sing another lullaby, do another round of Eskimo kisses with Elyse, "mushy" kisses with Ace, or lavishly pouring on the words of affirmation while snuggling with my Big Guy, but I do.

And then, our sweet 6 year old friend dies in a tragic, freak accident and those moments I sometimes gloss over become invaluable and absolute treasures. Bedtime prayers, family routines/traditions, horsey rides, hugs, laughs - all gone!

Sweeping up the mountains of crumbs under the kids' chairs for the third time today, I started to get frustrated and I felt my patience thinning. Then, my perspective changed. I praised God for the crumbs. For the beautiful children who bless my heart every day and make those crumbs and messes.

Lord, thank you for today. Thank you for the crumbs. Thank you for the noise. Thank you for the endless laundry. Thank you for the Chaos amidst the Order. Thank you for the days we've had and for however many days we have ahead. You are my hope. You are our comfort. Help us to number our days and live today the way you intend - to love fully, to forgive fully, and to worship you fully.

Eilmes Quotables

I know, it’s been a ridiculously LONG time since I’ve blogged!

Let’s just say my bonbons and soap operas are keeping me far too busy to even begin thinking about blogging. Actually, I do think about it often, but I just don’t do it. Daily something is said or done in this home that makes me think, “that has to be blogged.” Unfortunately, on most things, too much time has passed and this 33 year old brain can’t remember something that happened 15 minutes ago, so those funny moments were probably only funny for that one moment and never to be thought of again…

So, in hopes of having some laughable memories for years to come, here are some of the recent quotes heard in our home:

Earlier today, Elyse was in the bathroom and hollered her usual, “Will somebody please wipe my bottom?!” Before I could move or even speak, Ace spoke up from around the corner and said, in a very dry, witty tone, “Of course, I’ve been waiting for you to ask me that all day.”

Clearly he’s heard the sarcasm in his father’s response to that call one too many times! It was just too comical.
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On Monday morning, Elyse was all dressed for ballet in her pink tights, pink leotard, pink ballet skirt, and the pink sweater to top off the outfit. She started walking down the stairs, holding onto the railing, and said, “Mom, I just looked in the mirror and I really do look beautiful!”
I sure hope she always sees that beautiful girl when she looks at her reflection.

Right now, she knows the truth, that she is gorgeous and perfectly made in the image of her Heavenly Father. We try to remind her daily that it’s her heart that makes her beautiful, but as we all know, we live in a society that looks so much at girls’ outer beauty. It’s such a hard habit to break, even when you are consciously trying not to focus your praise on physical appearance when chatting with little girls, an opening line all too frequently is something like, “wow, what a pretty dress,” or “you look BEAUTIFUL today.” It is just ingrained in us.

At least for now, Elyse’s vernacular regarding her beauty is that she is beautiful because of the heart God gave her, the way she loves others, and “because it’s red.”
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As a mother, I generally try to correct my kids when they say something grammatically incorrect, incorrectly use a word, or incorrectly pronounce a word. However, there are a few things I just don’t want to correct in Elyse these days. She likes to pretend she is an Air Force and/or Seahawks (good thing they have similar colors) cheerleader, so she talks about and plays with “plomploms” a lot. They also get to use “plomploms” in ballet occasionally!
(Due to my lack of memory: To be continued…)
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Over Christmas break, we were all sitting around the dinner table eating and chatting. For some reason the kids wanted to play the quiet game. What's weird is this was at a time that I was LOVING the conversation and the chatter. It was fairly calm, controlled, and sweet, so there was no need to "shush" people, but Elyse really wanted to play. So, they all collectively said, "Ready, Set, Go!" There was silence for about 20 seconds - possibly a record in our house. Then with a huge grin and twinkle in her eye, Elyse very quietly (and seriously) whispered, "I think I'm winning!"

With that, the silence ended and mass laughter and hysteria broke out.

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And the best quote we’ve heard around the house lately…drum roll, please…

Ace: “Dad can you tell me the story of how you fertilized my egg?”
(I don't think this needs anything added to it…)

Celebrating 235 Years of Freedom

 

We had a wonderful, low-key, family celebration today. This is a view from our roof.
We are so blessed to live in this country and we are so incredibly grateful to all those who have and continue to serve.

Bear Creek Nature Center

Yesterday the kids and I headed out to Bear Creek Nature Center for a little education at the center, a picnic lunch, and then a hike to follow. The kids loved the nature center with all the hands-on learning. I think we all most enjoyed the honey bee exhibit. They were fascinated with the process and I loved reading that female bees are the only worker bees...I guess that goes for most species...

We had a great time and we were so proud of Elyse for walking approximately 2.5 miles only "half whining," as she told Daddy. She really is not our hiker - YET, but we've been very encouraging and she did wonderfully yesterday! Ace kept telling her how proud he was of her. It was very sweet. Here are a few photos of my outdoor adventurists.

I think maybe we've FINALLY hit a new milestone - a photo of all three of them with natural smiles, and only one "take!"

Watermelon

Nothing says summer better than huge slices of watermelon and the Ronald McDonald red smile to follow.

Car frenzy

Recently the boys have started sounding like what I would expect 14-year-old boys to sound like. They seemingly became quite obsessed with cars overnight.

Ace constantly points out every single sports car he sees. However, he thinks anything with a LARGE muffler, or better yet, two large mufflers, is a sports car, so his definition can be quite amusing at times. He's even bent down low, while walking through the grocery store parking lot to check out each car in the row to decipher whether or not they are indeed "true" sports car.

Isaac's excitement, on the other hand, comes from Jeeps.

Elyse, having to follow her brothers' lead, has shown some new-found excitement for cars, as well. While all 5 of us were driving in the car together the other day, Isaac saw a Jeep that caught his eye. There were lots of "cooool's," "awwww's," and "that's what I'm gonna drive's" coming from the far back seat when he was abruptly interrupted by his little sister with a very passionate and serious injection.

"I'm going to drive a MINI VAN!!!!"

There is no hope in attempting to imitate or replicate the excitement, idolatry and inflection in her voice that came from the back seat for this super cool and wished for car, but just know that had I been drinking something at the time, I am certain there would have been beverage bubbles bubbling out my nose!

So glad to know she thinks we're driving "in style!"

A new smile

Last night Ace came up to me while I was getting the last of the dinner on the table and said, very excitedly (no surprise there) and seriously "Mom, mom! How do you like my new smile?...Chubby cheeks!"

In the short pause between his initial question and the "chubby cheeks," he showed me this "new smile." The pride and seriousness of this crafted and practiced new smile that (in his mind) showed off his cheeks, was oozing from his face. So I knew, however difficult it was, I had to contain my laughter!