Sunday Enlightenment -Treasuring the Moment Now

Yesterday, Sunday - home from vacation, I was back to my routine of holding babies at early church. This is something I do every summer. I prefer to volunteer my time with the babies, it fits my summer rhythm of low structure. In the infant room there is no curriculum, lesson plans, or prescribed snack time and no structure.

Yes, sometimes they cry, but I love the challenge of trying to get them distracted and happy so the parents can enjoy their time at church.

I love babies, but I am not interested in any more of my own. My love on the other hand, would like more so we could "have more adult children coming home for Christmas some day!"

While I sat there with two little boys who were crawling around, I played with them and talked to them all the while admiring their feet (baby feet are so cute).

I realized how quickly time goes by, I know everyone says it, but it really is true that a baby is only a little baby for one year. That is one Christmas, one Easter and one Summer. I tried to remember my first baby's feet once so small. What I would give for my bookworm's time machine I would zoom back and hold those baby feet once more.

I am reminded to treasure the moment I have now. I will relish the time I have with my thirteen year old and cherish this moment with his big old man feet. The Artist's feet are as big as his fathers, but I will focus on enjoying his sweet spirit and growing responsible nature sprinkled with some teenage angst and attitude.

Hit rewind to three weeks ago, I was at a baby shower and six of the women from church in attendance were pregnant, all due in late July & August. At the shower, it dawned on me that I would most likely miss holding most of these babies because next summer they would be walking and walkers go to the walker room not the infant room. I marvel at how fast humans develop muscle control and change so rapidly in front of our eyes. It is a true miracle.

After early service, I noticed one of the young mom's from the shower holding her precious bundle of joy in her arms instead of her belly. I felt a tug at my heart, does she know what's coming or how fast it will go? Of course not and neither do I. I will wander on in my journey with parenting my tweener and school age child and try to enjoy every stage knowing that before long they will be grown. The physical and emotional transformation goes so fast from baby feet to man feet.

He's only a boy, and yet when I do the laundry, I can hardly tell who's pants I am folding my son's or my husband's.

Shoes for One and All

I love shoes!

One of the few clothing items I really love to shop for are shoes. Yesterday, my daughter needed some new tennis shoes and one thing led to another (buy one pair and get the second pair 1/2 price) and before we were done we had bought shoes for the whole family.

Final count

1 pair for the artist

2 pairs for the bookworm

2 pairs for my love

3 pairs for yours truly

Total = 8 pairs. We did find a really good sale!

Did I mention I love shoes.

Comment on how many pairs you have if you feel like it, it will be a little shoe poll.
My total = 28 pairs, after I throw out two old yucky pairs.

Vacation North - Fun Fun Fun!

Wow - what a trip - we fit in a lot. Yosemite

Our utimate destination the family cabin in Northern California.

We finished with the California coastline on the way home.

Some Things are Worth the Wait

Living in the country on a large property and doing most of the work ourselves means many, many, many projects are never finished. I am blessed to share this country life dream with my husband and brother, two men who can build anything and have a fantastic work ethic and vision.

Over the years we have accomplished much on our land including putting in a five acre vineyard, planting trees and putting in irrigation. They have also built fences, a sunflower house, retaining walls and a stone entry gate. The guys have done a lot of work to improve our lake.
On a grand scale, they built the barn, it is beautiful. Maybe, more beautiful than our house. I was a barn widow for three long years.

So with all this work to do, our little front yard has been largely ignored over the years.

As you enter the property, you drive through the vineyard past the beautiful roses and then arrive at our yard. Our yard however, consists of mostly dirt and a few piles of rocks that make it look more like a construction zone. Once a stranger visited our house and asked if we were the "caretakers " for whoever owned the vineyard and lower land. I have often been frustrated that our front yard was so overlooked. Being a goal oriented girl, I need reminding to enjoy the journey and not get so hung up on the concept of having something FINISHED.

Last weekend, I begged my husband just to move the rock piles so we didn't look like the local stone yard. What a nice surprise when he said, "If I move it, we might as well use it and implement our landscape design."

Sunday afternoon the kids and I rolled up our sleeves and helped my love construct a dry creek bed, complete with stones, boulders and weed fabric underneath it all. The kids and I have continued the work an hour each morning before it gets really hot. We are hoping to finish some of it today! I must admit, I am not traditionally good with plants and don't usually do much of the work outside. I am proud of myself for getting involved.

It sure helps that the kids are older now and can really help.

Timing is everything in life and I believe this experience was worth the wait. The four of us, myself and my three great loves accomplished this together!

Summer in a Glass

Summer Strawberry Slush

6 ice cubes
16 strawberries ( frozen or fresh)
1/2 cup frozen concentrated lemonade*
1/2 cup water

Put all items in a blender and pulse until ice is crushed and ingredients are blended.

*You can use limeade instead of lemonade, but we prefer lemonade.

I make this drink every summer, it is a yummy treat that my kids love. When my big family comes to town, they all request this drink. With 22 people in my kitchen, my blender just keeps going... thank goodness. To me it represents summer in a glass.

"The Best Ham Steak Ever"

These were the words of my love, pontificating about his own cooking talents.

My family and I are all really into the food network. My son actually likes to cook and will often try his hand at new recipes.

My love, on the other hand can usually only handle frozen pizza, or one left over recipe from his college days. He has never been the one to cook in our house.

One fateful day in May when school projects were at their peak, after work was really crazy. I had things going on with the vineyard, was on and off the phone with a winemaker, two kids with stressful projects, and a household that was dying a slow and painful death. This was on the heels of my longest day at work.

When my husband arrived home, I announced he was cooking dinner. It was already seven o clock. He looked disappointed and said he could make a quesadilla. I corrected him to explain he had to cook dinner for all of us because we had not eaten yet. The look on his face, as I started barking orders for him to get out a ham steak and some frozen veggies. I gave him instructions, while typing on my laptop about vineyard business and helping my son with his project. I also informed him after dinner he had to help our daughter with her project, while I continued to assist my son with typing.

It was one of those days that I really questioned the sanity of all we try to do. My husband surprised himself and all of us with an excellent dinner. The only trouble was we had to listen to him expound about what an awesome job he had done.

"It has a great texture, and flavor. This might be the best ham steak I have ever eaten."

He was like a judge on Iron Chef narrating the perfect balance of the meal. He was so proud of his basting combination of black pepper, brown sugar and butter.

Thanks to teamwork we all got everything done that night. The added benefit is that now my love is willing and eager to cook "the best ham steak ever" for dinner once a week or so.

I'm so glad it is summer and we all get a little rest from those crazy over scheduled nights.

Why Me Why Not

A Tribute to a Teacher

Last week while having my teeth cleaned, my hygienist shared that her son had joined a speech club. My hygienist's youngest son is the same age as my oldest, so we often talk about our boys. Her son has struggled with writing and has had some ups and downs in his school experiences. Recently his English teacher had told all the students that if they wrote a speech and performed it they would receive extra credit. All the kids had to write their speech for the title Why Me Why Not. To my hygienist's surprise, her son went on to win speech event after speech event. His speech is a wonderful tribute to the power and influence teachers can have over children. As a special educator myself, I loved the speech and asked her permission to share it on my blog. 

The following is his speech, as he wrote it.

Why Me Why Not

I have a learning disability, when I was seven; I dictated this poem to my teacher. 

The title is I am.

I am
A sloth lying around,
A lion that never gives up,
A tiger running just for the fun of it,
A dog that loves his master,
A clock that never stops tick - tocking,
A little light

My mom loved this poem, at first she didn't understand what it meant, I explained it to her. I will explain it to you.

I am
A sloth lying around that's because I am lazy.
A lion that never gives up, that's because I never stop trying.
A tiger running just for the fun of it, I do things because I want to not for something.
A dog that loves his master, that's because I am very loyal .
A clock that never stops tick - tocking, I like to talk I never stop.
A little light , I am really bright .

I really wasn't lazy. I thought I was lazy because everybody told me I was, I couldn't get my work done in school. I had a hard time writing everything. Writing is more like running in circles for me. Try patting your head and rubbing your belly. That's what it feels like every time I write. I have to concentrate so much on writing that I can't think about anything else I try really hard but I never get any where. But I never give up.

One of the reasons I never gave up was a teacher I had, I will call her Mrs. X. When I told her I couldn't do something she believed me. She didn't get mad at me or punish me, she let me finish. Mrs X was the first teacher that didn't think I was lazy she knew I was smart. I worked as hard as I could for her; because she made me want to work hard. Mrs X was nice, she understood me. If she asked a question that I didn't understand she changed the way she asked the question so that I could understand it. She never got mad no matter how long it took me to do something.

I liked being in her class. I liked her when I left her class I felt like I was leaving an old friend. I was sad the last day of school that year, my uncle came by the house and I told him why I was unhappy. He said "your really lucky, I never felt that way about any teacher I ever had". I will always remember her and be thankful to have known her. In some ways a writing disability is horrid, I used to think why me in other ways I'm glad to have gotten to know a teacher as great as Mrs. X so why not?

Summer Time Bliss

Being a full time working mom in the school system, I am so excited when summer is here. I love lists and getting things done (goal oriented). My kids and I love swimming and love days at the beach as well. I also always have many cleaning out projects and catch up projects planned for summer.

Yesterday, was my first official day of summer. I didn't even look at the list. The kids were out of school midweek, and my last day was Friday. It was a glorious day. A friend who I swap childcare with dropped her kids off in the morning and I greeted her in my robe, which I stayed in until noon. The kids were great and they played well all day. We ran a few errands and ended our day at my friend's pool.

Today my daughter and I will tackle her bedroom. We are planning on taking everything out of the bedroom and then slowly going through and weeding out what we don't need and organize.

Did I mention I love Summer.
My favorite things about summer include:

• Lots of unscheduled time.
• Not having to be anywhere in the morning.
• Realizing I am not a domestic failure. ( my house looks really good most days in the summer)
• Beach days
• Pool days
• Pajama days
• Organizing days
• Photo album catch up days
• Road trips with my kids
• Creative projects (sometimes painting)
• No Homework
• Concerts and outdoor movies at the local park
• Long days and late sunsets
• Summer wardrobe .. sandals, shorts, dresses

As Nat King Cole sings ... roll out those lazy- hazy- crazy days of summer.