Friday, May 29, 2009

Happiness Is . . .

. . . getting the Prince back to sleep after he woke up from a puny nap and having the Princesses content to soak each other outside! This happened simultaneously people!!!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Yep, She's Homeschooled

So Princess #1 comes to me this morning and tells me that she's figured out that I've been pregnant for 3 years of my life. She thinks that that fact is pretty cool. Inwardly, I'm crunching the numbers and feeling a bit nauseous. I ask her how she figured it all out and she says by doing math.

"You know Mama, 9 times 4 is 36 and 36 divided by 12 is 3, so that's how I found it out!", she says with a sigh of satisfaction.

"I'm glad that you found a practical application for your math.", I tell her, thinking that maybe today there will be a smaller battle of wills over the importance of arithmetic.

Saturday, May 23, 2009

My Life (for now), With No Apology

This is a little poem that I discovered when Princess #3 was a baby, and it always brought life with a new baby back into perspective for me. Now with 4 children, I find myself repeating the last stanza almost as a mantra to keep myself from getting too down on myself for all the "stuff" in life that is not being kept up with now that the Prince is in our midst.

It's hard to get perspective when there is so much that should getting done and so much that absolutely has to be done and stressful trips to organize and plan and and and. However, as my mentors advise and remind me, this time with a baby and even young children will be done so quickly and then gone (except for the daily baby-fit or two). And when it's gone you won't remember how clean the house was (or not, in my case), it will be the memories of time spent with these little blessings that linger.

If you think that I'm being selfish, lazy, a bad housekeeper, and am spoiling my baby as I rock and care for him instead of the house too bad. He's my baby and babies don't keep.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

- Ruth Hulbert Hamilton

Friday, May 22, 2009

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Theology-Princess Style

For some reason this morning Princess #3 was asking what color I thought God's hair was. I told her that I didn't know since the Bible doesn't give us those details. And then she springs this on me that I had to share . . .

"Oh well, at least we know what color Adam's hair was.", she says.

"How do we know that?", I ask.

"It has to be brown because he was made from dirt."

Can't argue with that logic!

Saturday, May 09, 2009

Princess #1 is 9!!

Well, she's one year closer to the double digits. Pretty crazy for me to wrap my mind around. In a lot of ways, I still feel like her baby-hood was just the other day, and then I catch a glimpse of her and the girl-woman she is becoming and it makes my heart stop! It's too fast, I'm not ready!

It's been an interesting year for her. She has loved the fact that she is a big sister. Again. And she really is a tremendous help with the Prince. She prefers to be the boss (shocker!) and control the way the scenarios are being played, but she can also be really sweet and play along with those pesky little sisters too. Her school year has been challenging for her. No longer can she whip school out to the Queen's satisfaction in the time it used to take her and that has frustrated her. But she has hung in there and is doing well!

I'm proud of her. She is beginning to blossom into a young lady that is pleasant and fun to be around. She remains very empathetic to those around her, loves to make gifts and cards for anyone she can, and is willing to help out wherever she can. I'm so glad that she is my daughter.

Happy 9th Princess! We love you.