The Beginning of my 33rd year

I am from family.
From volunteering and leading.
I am from a hard-working dad and a hard-mothering mom.

I am from Home-cooked meals.
From Grannie’s Casserole and Shepherd’s Pie.
I am from encouraging words and the “B word.”

I am from Three sisters.
From playing school and pulling hair.
I am from an embarrassing blow-up at mom’s 50th birthday

and thankful for the best relationship with my sister because of it.

I am from church.
From singing in the choir and acolyting.
I am from Extended Family and ugly church politics.

I am from family traditions.
From traveling and family reunions with the Malone crappy singers.
I am from the talkative Malones, and the loud Tilneys.

I am from road trips.
From the reoccurring saga of the breaking-down scout and drawing imaginary lines along the seats between my sisters and I.
I am from parents with a solid and loving marriage and yet parents who argue about nearly everything.

I am from the outdoors.
From pooping in the woods, not latrines and from no-campground camping.
I am from rustic cabins at Soward Ranch and experiencing God in his creation.

I am from bedtime prayers.
From The Giving Tree and Keeping Christmas.
I am from Hallmark Hall of Fame Sunday Night Movies and 80’s cassette tape mixes.

I am from “The World is Your Oyster.”
From “Under Promise and Over Perform” and “Don’t Ask Permission, Beg Forgiveness.”
I am from “The Only Thing You Can Change is Change Yourself” and “Attitude is Everything.”

I am from 9 years of ballet and an injury to end it all.
From one LONG 6th grade year with Dr. Redding and surviving high school with my fellow Happeners.
I am from Romans 8:28 and experiencing God through living the tough life with friends.

I am from passing notes.
From Jazz Band and singing duets with Lisa.
I am from Anne Murray, James Taylor, Billy Joel, and Kids Incorporated.

I am from memories.
From stills recorded on film and those recorded on VHS.
I am from memories written and memories yet to come.

I wrote this for an exercise we did on MOPs Ministry Team last fall.

"Beautiful"

The other day after Elyse's bath, I set her on my bathroom counter, as I always do, so I could dry her hair. Once it was dry, I told her to stand up and look in the mirror. She did. Her towel fell off, and completely naked she smiled really big and said, "Beautiful!"

Isn't that the truth! Beautiful! It seems simple and silly, but in a world where women (and her mother) struggle with their body image, I was ecstatic to hear her say that about herself!! We stood there together and said, "God made me Beautiful" over and over again, making up hand motions. She thought it was the best game ever!!

What a wonderful moment and a good reminder for me, even though most days it is so hard to believe when I see my reflection.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:14

A Sense of Humor at my Expense

These days, Austin is without a doubt, my easiest. Those of you that have known him from day one, or anytime in his first two years are probably shocked to hear me say that, knowing that he was a very "challenging" baby for two whole years. He screamed bloody murder for the first 4 hours of life, took a deep breath, and basically continued that way for the next two years.

All that to be said, he is in a fabulous stage now. A real joy. Elyse, however, is hitting that "busy" and potentially whiny stage. I am not allowing her to be whiny...she's going to have to bypass that stage, as our house already has a whiner and is plenty loud! :-)

Isaac, is definitely my biggest challenge right now. To the outside world, he is still fabulous - we hear he's the most considerate of his friends, extremely helpful, thoughtful, blah blah blah! At home, however, we are seeing a completely different kid. His attitude is so negative and he's always whining. No matter how much fun we have as a family, he inevitably is disappointed by something. It's exhausting.

Now, in addition to displaying a "DRA" (Dirty Rotten Attitude) via his words, he's now begun rolling his eyes!
Seriously??! He's FIVE!

My family may now be putting together what the title of this post is all about...

A little history:
I was always a good kid in school. A real people pleaser. A good student. Teachers always liked me. Until, that is, my 6th grade year with Dr. Redding!
In hopes to not make this a dissertation-length post (although it could be, due to the emotional scarring...) long story short: I supposedly rolled my eyes at her and was sent to the Principal's Office because of it! I say "supposedly" because if I actually rolled my eyes, I did it at Chris Allen, who was piece-by-piece eating his notebook paper. (Who wouldn't roll their eyes at that?!) Needless to say, it was a traumatic day/week/and year for me. All because I had an eye-rolling problem.

Now my 5 year-old is rolling his eyes at me! Boy does it push my buttons!
God sure does have a sense of humor!

P.S. Isaac does have his good moments at home, too...

Skiing, Sledding, and Singing - Oh My!

What a treat it was to celebrate our sweet ACE this weekend!! It's hard to believe he's already 4, and yet at the same time only 4! He is such a lover. He's the best brother anyone could ask for, too. Opening his birthday presents he let Isaac open nearly half of them, if not more, and then he referred to the gifts as our gifts. After blowing out the first two candles on his cake, he told Isaac he could blow out the next one. He is just sweet like that! Man, I love that kid - "To Andromada and back," as we say in this space-obsessed household!

Both boys did really well on skis for their first time out. Isaac loved every minute of it. Austin enjoyed himself but at one point told Auntie Megs, "I'd really rather just eat snow." He also told me that he likes skiing, but would like to just ride the chairlift up and down.

We had a great time in beautiful Grand Lake, thanks to a good friend who let us stay at his family's house up there! We did some skiing, sledding, and lots of just "being" together! It was a great get-away!

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Word choice

At dinner, we always try to get the kids to share their feelings about the day - good, bad, disappointing, frustrating, exciting, etc. We also try to get them to share some details and highights. Last night, when I asked Isaac to share more about his day at preschool he said, "Well, there was a little bit of a misunderstanding."
I prodded to get more information, since that was such an ambiguous answer.
He said, "Well, Jaiden and I had a misunderstanding. We almost broke-up."

Okay, at this point, I'm thinking to myself, "This is my 5 year old...where does he come up with this?!" But, I kept prodding and he continued.

"Jaiden doesn't want me to play with Max and she said we wouldn't be friends anymore if I play with Max, so I promised her I wouldn't play with Max for a whole week. So it's okay now."

The language he chose and the content of the conversation were a bit surreal for me, the mother of this five year old, but once he was done explaining we had a good discussion about playing together with all of his friends, rather than leaving someone out.

His same friend, Jaiden, called my cell phone today and asked for Isaac! They talked on the phone for about 10 minutes, to wish one another fun skiing this weekend and to make sure they both were bringing their "texting machine" along. (One of their friends celebrated her birthday at preschool last week and gave everyone little solar powered calculators. Jaiden and Isaac have been "texting, emailing, and calling" each other on it ever since.) Definitely a different pretend use of a calculator than when I was a kid! By the way, some of you might be wondering - Isaac says "calculator far better than Auntie Lisa!

A lesson in sharing and Lent

Well, yesterday, before we headed out to run some errands, I got the kids one of their more favorite snacks - "A mix" - a modgpodge of whatever cereals are in the cupboard, some craisins, and if they're really lucky some chocolate chips. Yesterday, they were really lucky!

"Be careful not to spill your snacks in Mommy's car."
I don't even think I had finished saying that when I noticed ACE had spilled a small portion of his baggy. (I've learned to expect it...) So, in helping him clean it up, I ate a few bites of cereal.

ACE is our sharer. He'll always let you play with his toy, give you a bite of his brownie, and if he's ever offered something from somone (like a sticker from his preschool teacher), he always asks politely if he can have one for his "brudder." It's just who he is.

So, he was happy to share, but was a bit concerned I might have had some of his treasured chocolate. He asked, "What did you eat, mom? Did you eat a chocolate?"

"No, I told you, I don't eat chocolate right now," I responded.

"Why not? Are you 'wergic' [translation: allergic]?"

"No, I'm not eating chocolate so I will think about God more and what He did for me."

"Oh, does He not eat chocolate, either?"

Melting my Heart

Elyse is at such a fabulous stage. In some ways I don't even think it's a stage, I think it's just her personality. Below is a video that captures some of her personality - some singing, some disractions, some eating (yes, I actually feed her...she doesn't have to lick the bowl), and some great smiles and laughs.