Not Enough Hands

Some days I feel as though I will never catch up. If I could clone myself, I would. At the very least, I'd grow a few extra arms.
As you know, raising a family is not easy.  And while I don't feel my family is large, it is more challenging than it was when it was smaller. There are many days I wonder what I am doing. Am I doing a good job? Do my kids get all the attention they need? And then, the wake up call comes and I realize why I am so grateful I don't have enough arms to do it all.
My kids always step into take care of each other and fill the gaps I can’t. They give more to each other than I could ever give even one child.

When I see my kids helping each other and even doing ‘my job’, I can’t help but think it is making them better people. Selfless and caring.

And to me, there is nothing more priceless than the bonds my children are forming with each other.
 
Sure, there are plenty of fights at my house.  And I lose my patience far too often. There are days I’m not sure I can do it all (and many I don’t) but then, one of my kids will turn my day around and remind me it is all good.

'”Mom,

Tomorrow I need you to take a break. Go somewhere fun and relaxing. Go as long as you’d like. I’m going to set everyone straight. When you get home it will be sparkling clean! Thanks for all you do! I love you so much!

Love,

Hailey” 

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

*Just in case someone is thinking it’s all roses here, just stop by unannounced sometime and you will be set straight!

Never Cry Wolf

“OWIE! OWIE! OWIE!”

This sound has become too familiar at my house lately. Nathan plays outside, gets ‘hurt’, and comes in screaming as if an appendage has been severed from his body. 10 out of 10 times nothing is really wrong with him, so I have learned to ignore it. As you can imagine, I was slightly annoyed today when his cries woke me from my nap.

I heard Randy talking calmly with him, but the crying continued, so I got up to investigate. When I saw Nathan laying on the couch, there was no visible blood, and I questioned what had happened. Then I saw this:

“WHAT IS THAT?” I asked

“A stick.” was Tyler’s calm response.

A stick, sticking into Nathan’s head.

The kids love to pile the leaves on the tramp and play in them. It’s better than jumping into a pile on the hard ground, and we do it year after year. They had been playing the the leaves, and Nathan fell, being impaled by a hidden stick. Tyler, being quick-minded rushed him into the house to his dad (who isn’t desensitized by the wolf-crying.)

I held him still (which is a strong indication of my muscliness…) and Randy performed the operation. Check out the size of this thing!

I can’t help but think: If he had been wearing his helmet, this never would have happened.

I Should’ve Known.

My week started out like this:

And it went from there. 

Nostalgia

I became a little nostalgic yesterday as Emma and I took a little walk down memory lane. I had a PTA meeting at my old elementary school. It was the first time I had been inside, probably since I left 6th grade. I must admit I got a little choked up as I relived some vivid memories in my mind.

I saw the 3rd grade room I learned my multiplication tables, and where we played "Do you know the Muffin Man" so many times that year.

I walked past the room in which my mom and I made 'swish and swash' every week before school.

My fourth grade class where we made time capsules and clay ornaments. Where my science teacher gave me a Jolly Rancher when I got the hiccups, and everyone was jealous!

The drinking fountain where Eldon kissed me...ewww....

I watched the kids in the cafeteria and remembered all the times I had pretended to drink my milk just so I could go to recess. And the Christmas program where I stood on the risers and sang "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth."

The stairs where we stood in line for school pictures and they always combed our hair and made it look worse than it was before.....but we got to keep the comb. :) Then there was the room across from the cafeteria where a small group of us, led by my own mom, read from the Jr. Great Books.

My 1st grade classroom where my teacher wore a blue dress with tiny flowers on it the first day of school. And my friend Elizabeth and I traded shoes and touched a pig's nose- making the front page of the local paper. She taught me to be funny there, too.

And the library where I presented my Free Enterprise Fair and took a babysitting class after school.

My kindergarten room where I shared a cubby with "Janelle" who was in morning kindergarten. And my teacher played the accordion as we sang "She'll be Coming Around the Mountain" and I wore my Strawberry Shortcake backpack.

I couldn't help but think maybe that is where Emma should go to kindergarten....if I send her at all.

Yo Mama

Jokes have been flying around our house ever since the campfire game we played in Arches. It was a song that Casey picked up at camp that goes like this:

Stay on the sunny side- always on the sunny side,

Stay on the sunny side of life 2...3...4...

You'll feel no pain as we drive you in sane,

If you stay onthe sunny side of life!

(and then someone tells a joke and everyone chimes in...)

Ohhhh.....Stay on the sunny side...reapeated over and over, hour after hour. It really is a lot of fun!

At home the jokes consist of mostly the same knock-knocks repeated over and over.....until tonight at dinner. There were a few, "Why did the cow cross the road...." and the like.

And then Nathan added his own original:

"Yo mama is so cool, she doesn't take pictures of anyone!"

Hmmmm...I don't know what bothers me more: the fact that Nathan has heard a 'Yo Mama' joke, or that he considers me uncool.

52

The view from our campsite as we pitched our tent

For four years, we have planned on camping at campsite 52 in Arches National Park. Not that there was anything spectacular about #52, it just looked like a nice spot. But camping inside Arches takes a lot of forethought (something us spontaneous people don’t do.) We got our reservation back in March and looked forward to our trip all summer.

We packed up our handy dandy Thule trailer with all our gear and headed out a couple weekends ago. As we pulled into our campsite and unloaded our things, I looked around. The thought came to me ‘I am home’.  Arches is one of my favorite places to be. It just feels like home.

The kids love climbing the rocks and exploring the sandstone creations.  Something about the surroundings there beckons us. The kids sense it, too.

With no distractions, we are able to focus more on each other and less on things that don’t matter.

The first full day there, Randy took us on a 7 mile hike to see Double O Arch and what we thought was an arch we had never been to (turns out it was a big, tall, disappointing rock.)

                                                       Yeah, it’s neat and all, but when you’ve

                                    coaxed 6 kids that far, you kind of expect something grand.

This was no small feat with six little ones in tow. To make the feat even more amazing, let me add that the wind was blowing fiercely and rain visited us off and on the entire time.

                                       What? You’ve never seen a family of 8 hiking in ponchos?

                                                                Seems perfectly normal to me.

Furthermore, remember Nathan’s middle of the night purging? Well, that wasn’t the end of it. It was accompanied by a lovely bout of loose bowels. And more vomiting the first night in the tent.

Yeah, that was a first. Tyler and Emma didn’t want to be left out and they each took turns in the tent, as well.

Maybe it was the amazing full moon we had…

While our trip was short, we did see most of our favorites:

 

Landscape Arch

 

Double O Arch

….Complete with a Snap Happy Hungarian posing my kids and exclaiming “YES!” when he captured the shot he wanted. Why is it when a Japanese or European tourist wants to take pictures of your kids, it ‘s amusing. Yet , if an American tried that, you’d find it creepy?

Boom, Boom, Fiya Powa!

 

Balanced Rock

It’s our tradition- we like our version better…

 

Sand Dune Arch

 

The Windows

Emma enjoyed the view from Randy’s shoulders. I had hoped she was still my baby and could fit in the backpack, but she hated it and quite frankly, looked a little awkward in it….sigh…

 

 

Double Arch

I waited in the car with a sleeping Emma.

 

And my very favorite arch- well worth the hike (which the kids were FANTASTIC on, by the way…)

 

Delicate Arch

(or as Hailey calls it, ‘Cowboy Arch’….so Nathan had to dub it ‘Pirate Arch’.)

            

We saw several small lizards (and surprisingly, only pulled off one tail…)          

And a frog…

The kids had fun around camp and Hailey and Tyler told Hannah all about the Arch Monsters that live in arches. ;)

   

The fire is Casey’s favorite place to be and he has become an expert fire starter. We enjoyed many nice meals because of him (and Randy’s cooking…) But something new to this trip was the Utensil Art my children created. They’d melt their plastic utensils over the fire and lay them out to form made-up words. Never-ending fun, I tell you!

When Casey wasn’t tending the fire, he was sanding some eyeballs for his Grandpa Frank.     

Sad to leave, but some ice cream at the Moab Diner helps….

And we definitely couldn’t leave without visiting “The Sand Hill”.

After a long ride, we arrived- exhausted and somewhat sad. Until the next morning, when I was greeted with this:

And I realized- I am home.

A Father’s Love

Randy with hours old Nathan.

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I don’t wake up in the night. Everyone told me once I had my own kids, I’d wake up. Nope. Not even with a screaming baby next to me. I know, sad, right? At our house, it has always been daddy who gets up with the kids (love you, Randy…)

Last night, however, something woke me: Nathan’s   screaming and kicking. The poor kid had climbed into my bed and was in severe pain with a belly ache. I rubbed his tummy and tickled his back for over a half hour. I got him some medicine and talked to him calmly. I offered a heating pad and snuggled him close. But nothing worked, and his pain persisted.

It wasn’t until he switched to daddy’s familiar  side of the bed that he finally felt better. After Randy soothed him for a few minutes, Nathan lost his dinner all over Daddy’s pillow.

…….Love you, Randy.