A little bit more

My hubbie had a late flight tonight.  By late, I mean it's past midnight, and it'll still be a few hours before he's home.  A good mother will have had her kids sound asleep for hours, a tidy house, dishwasher running, and getting some beauty sleep herself.  I'm 0 for 4.  Bad score, I know.   

Right at about dinner time I felt my energy crash.  I talked myself into taking a tiny cat nap.  With no husband to have dinner ready for tonight, I figured a twenty minute delay in our evening ritual wouldn't be a big deal. 

It wasn't twenty minutes. 

I was slightly aware of the girls coming up to me at different times with complaints about each other.  When consciousness fully hit me, it was 8:00pm.  With this afternoons' craft project still spread out on the kitchen table, a very messy playroom that had spread to the rest of the house and sink full of dirty dishes, I sighed. 

I really had no other choice.  I knew what I had to do.   

I made dinner, laid out a picnic blanket in the living room, and turned on a princess movie.  We ate several helpings of spaghetti and meat sauce, too much garlic bread, and cupcakes.  Merrylee giggled through the funny scenes of the movie, Anny questioned the meanings of the sad parts, and they both snuggled during the scary moments.  We all (even Merrylee- it was cute) cooed at the romantic lines.  My babies got to bed after 10:30.

Now it's after midnight, and I still have crafts on the kitchen table, a sink full of dirty dishes, and a messy playroom that has spread to the rest of the house.

I really had no other choice.  I knew what I had to do... and you're reading it! 

Happy blogging my friends.  Here's to cleaner houses, hours of sleep, and all the other good things we should be doing right now.  That can all can wait so I can share my thoughts with you.  I'm so glad I broke the rules.  Tonight was all about me and my girls, and I wouldn't have traded it for the world. 

And the mom, with her mom-feet in flip flops of pink,

stood puzzling and puzzling, knew not what to think!

It came without planning.  It came without nags. 

It came without makeup, cellphones, or scrubbing with rags!

And she puzzled and puzzled 'till her puzzler was sore.   

Then the Mom thought of something she hadn't before.  

Good parenting, perhaps, isn't about keeping score. 

Maybe parenting, she thought,

is a little bit more.  

 

Western Beauty

Nine years ago my mom and I flew 2000 miles away from our home, and after a few tearful hugs, she left me in a very different and foreign place- the west!  It wasn't at all like the lush, green, and busy metropolis I was used to in the east, yet I grew to adore the large open skies and grand towering mountains of my new home on the college campus of BYU, in Provo, Utah. 

A few weeks ago we drove back to my first home-away-from-home to visit my sister, who has also left her native east coast land, and made the west her own.  She just had her first baby, and we were anxious to meet little Ryan. 

I felt a nostalgic thrill as we entered the Provo valley, again experiencing a bit of the excitement that comes from leaving home, and experiencing life on your own.  I loved my years spent out west.  So much has happened to me since I first flew over those mountains.  Being there again, I felt like I was introducing my old home to the new me, and my now growing family. 

We didn't get to do half the things we'd planned to do on our visit- but we did get to see lots of friends and family, and enjoy some beautiful sites and detours on our long drive.  It was a lot of car time, but that also meant a lot of family time, and with Daddy gone a lot, we can never have too much of that. 

Our little car has made several cross-country trips, and it drove smoothly for this one too!  The views were perfect, weather beautiful, family precious, and our girls amazingly tolerant of all the carseat time.  Thanks to my incredible husband who spent hours planning every mile so things would run smoothly- they did! I'm sad it's all over.  After 4000 miles of driving, that says a lot! 

To my dear friend, the west, 'till we meet again, and may we have many happy returns! 

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Oh What do you Do

My baby is no longer so.  Merry little Merrylee turned two, and I'm a little behind in posting sweet photos of her special day. 

Both my little ones have their favorite songs they like me to sing to them when they need snuggles in the rocking chair.  Anny's has always been, "Daisy, Daisy".  I know you know it-

"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do. I'm half crazy, all for the love of you . . ."

Merrylee's favorite song is Oh What Do You Do in the Summer Time? It's a song in our church children's songbook.  She fondly refers to it as "Oh What Do you Do".  You can listen to the original version here.  Click on the "words and music" dot on the left, and then hit play.

Inside Out, an acapella band I like, sings a cute version of the song.  I listened to it today on Itunes, and Merrylee ran out of the playroom and said, "Oh! I like that song!" and immediately started hopping around and dancing.  It only seems appropriate that I set her birthday slideshow to said song.

I don't think a little toddler could possibly be more loved than this one!   

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