10 Year Annie-Very-Sorry

Today, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the Rock and my 10 year Annie-very-sorry. I have been blessed to be married to my best friend for ten years, and tonight I was promised a great night out without interuption from children or Rock's cell phone (and if you know him at all that is a rarity).

When I was ready, we walked out the door where my darling husband had arranged for us to ride in style. I was greeted by a black streach limo and our limo driver John. From my parent's house we drove to a favorite restaurant, Ti Amo Italian Restaurant, where I had a steak that I could literally cut with my fork, and an uninterupted adult conversation over a meal.

Then we spent the rest of the evening driving around town looking at Christmas lights, with a quick stop at a favorite ice cream place about the middle of the tour. All in all it has been a terrific anniversary. I promise I will post pictures of the limo when I get back to our home and I can upload them.

Home School Humor

Home Schooling families have their own brand of humor. We relish in the "weirdness" that makes us unique. Here is a video that was sent to me by my friend Sunshine at Raw Life.



Make sure you have your sound on, and have a great day.

You better not pout...

It has happened. I have caved. I have never sent out Christmas cards before. My Mother never did so I never have, but this year the Rock and I decided that we needed to do so. This past September was the first September we did not move in the past three years, and we have lost touch with some friends who still think we live in Northeastern Oklahoma. However, that was three houses ago.

Now, if you have children you know how difficult it is to get one good group picture. You can always get a good picture of them individually, but trying to get four pairs of eyes on the camera, four faces looking in the same general direction, and four children not whining about being finished is nearly impossible. All I can say is "Thank goodness for digital!"

I finally got a decent shot of all of them

But this one was my favorite...
I will admit that I used the first one for the card, but I really wanted to use the second photo. I mean those kids are gorgeous, and isn't that just the cutest pouty face you have ever seen?

What important thing happened today?

As long as I can remember I have been asked that very question on December 7th (Pearl Harbor Day) and on June 6th (D-Day). My Father has made sure that my brother and I, and now our spouses and children, remember that history and the events that shaped it are important. Of course it doesn't hurt that our family is steeped in military history for at least the last 3-4 generations.

I grew up believing that it was important to remember and honor the men and women who died on the battle field and the men and women who served in the armed forces so that I could be free. I was raised to never think cliche' the phrase, "Freedom isn't free." My Husband and I teach these same ideas to our children, we tell the same stories, and visit the same museums and sites so that the memories of these soldiers and sailors will not be forgotten.

Today let us thank God that we live in a free country. Let us thank God for the Men and Women who fought, and for those who fight still. It is important to remember, lest we despise and dishonor those who gave up everything they had so that we could have everything.

The Warrior

My Warrior is the consummate almost three year old boy. He is loud, and rambunctious. He gives his mother heart attacks, by jumping from the back of the couch. He is constantly on the move and is into everything. He takes down his big brother, and almost takes down his Daddy, with a tackle to the knees.

He is also your stereotypical little brother. He always wants to play with his big brother and sister, and is included in their play, usually. He also gets into all of their things. Princess’s dishes and dress-up clothes get strewn around the room and/or house. Professor’s Legos get broken down and his “Treasure Box” gets rifled through.

He sings all the time, and has since he could make a sound. We have video of him singing his own songs, with drum breaks and hand claps included, that go on for up to fifteen minutes.

However, he is my sweetheart. He still wants his Momma’s undivided attention. There have been times that he has taken my hand and pulled me to the glider insisting that I sit and sing to him. More recently he has been known to tell me, “Baby J need go bed,” when he thinks it is his turn for Momma’s attention. He loves his baby brother, but isn’t about to give up his lap time.

Yes he is a handful, but I’m so much happier with my hands full.

The View from Grandma's Chair

Sometimes I think my Mother has lost her marbles, gone off her rocker, and is generally insane. This Thanksgiving was no different. My family of 6 made plans to be at my parents house the weekend before Thanksgiving and stay until the next weekend. My Mom was thrilled that she was going to have four of her Grandchildren in her home for ten days. Then the Grandma came out. She decided to go get my nephews on Monday so that all six of her Grandchildren would be there, and they could play together.

Now, when you go from having four children to having six children all at once things can get interesting. All the kids are good kids, but they are kids none the less, and they require all the cajoling, pestering, and care-taking that all kids require. So, you would think that two grown women would have no problem feeding, dressing, and caring for that these children take. About day two I was beginning to feel the drain. It was 10:00 am and I was still in my pajamas. It had taken us three hours to feed, clean, clothe, and set to play the six youngsters, and my oldest two actually do most of that for themselves. I was tired, cranky, sleep deprived (the baby still isn't sleeping through the night), and looking for a third or fourth cup of coffee. I was cantankerous and thinking that my Mother had surely lost it, but she was in Grandma heaven.

The Residence of Grandma Heaven

Two Grandparents, Three Sons, Two Daughters, Five Grandsons, One Granddaughter, and Three Granddogs

Grandma Heaven has all the business and hustle of my life, but all of that work is done in joy and happiness. Grandma Heaven becomes happier the more family there is that needs her care. Grandma Heaven comes equipped with a resting place for Daughters and Sons. It has a prayer closet for every member of her family, and advice that comes out of the lips of one filled with loving wisdom she has gleaned from that closet. Grandma Heaven sees past all the harriedness and work, and sees the joy, love, and promise that comes from that work. Grandma Heaven fortifies her Daughter's soul to know that the God given work of Motherhood is never over, and that this work is worth more than any treasure this world can offer.

Giving Thanks

So, I had this big profound and poignant post about Thanksgiving and what it means to me that I was composing in my head. I had planned to post it yesterday, but my nephew woke up that morning with an ear ache. Which ment that all plans to spend Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house became tentative.

My Mother took him to the urgent care center, and found out that the poor little guy had a very bad ear infection in one ear and a not-quite-as-bad-one in the other ear. He was running a temperature, and just didn't feel very good. We decided that for his sake we would just stay here. My brother and sister-in-law and a family friend were on their way to the house, and we were going to have Thanksgiving for 7 adults and 5 children.

PANIC

All we had in the house to fix for Thanksgiving were two side dishes, and suddenly I was going to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. While my Mother was getting medicine for my nephew, I began making a quick menu. That was pretty easy. Then began the search for recipes, the making of a grocery list, and the shopping for a complete Thanksgiving feast the day before Thanksgiving. I was back at the house at 3:00 pm, and by midnight:30 I had all of the side dishes prepped for the oven, the pies (made from scratch) baked and waiting in the pantry, and the turkey defrosted and in the oven for a slow cook.

Now, I am not necessarily going into all this detail so that you can marvel at my Housewifelyness, but to tell you I had a blast doing it. Although I love my extended family, I was so excited to get to prepare this particular meal for my family. There is something about all the planning and preparation that I just love. My mother and husband tried to talk me into making Stove Top stuffing and buying pies, but I really wanted to make it all from scratch. Yes, I am insane. I did buy the pumpkin pie, but the apple pie I made all by myself.

Dinner was a hit, and we spent all day today in each other's company. Just our immediate family relaxing and enjoying each other. I was all proud of myself for what I had accomplished with this meal, and then God began to work on my heart. I really began to think about what was important and the things for which I had to be thankful. I began to realize how ungrateful I am, that today is the only day that I dedicate to being fully thankful the Almighty God. I had an extravagant meal to prepare for my family, but there are families today that went without food. I have a warm home and bed to sleep in, but there are families that tonight will wonder where they will find shelter. I have my family, but tonight there are people estranged from their families or without a family at all. God has been so good to me. He has given me so much. He has given me excess, but I complain, argue, and ask for more. My heart was broken with the realization of my own pride and selfishness, with the totallity of my own depravity. The thing for which I should be the most thankful is for the salvation that God has bestowed on me through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Without Him, I could do nothing,
Without Him, I'd surely fail;
Without Him I would be drifting like a ship without a sail.

Without Him, I would be dying,
Without Him, I'd be enslaved;
Without Him, life would be hopeless, but with Jesus, thank God, I'm saved.

Jesus, O Jesus, Do you know him today? You can't turn him away.
O Jesus, O Jesus, without him, how lost I would be.

I pray that today will be the first day in a life that will be marked by contentedness and thankfulness.

The Princess

Picture a 5 year old girl with enormous dark brown eyes, and blond hair that looks as if it was expensively highlighted and lowlighted. This same little girl has her Daddy’s gorgeous smile and his dimples, a knock-out in waiting, and she revels in pink, fluffy, ruffled, girly things. Over all she is the picture of all things Sugar and Spice, but appearances can be deceiving.

Now, Princess is petite for her age, and she has always been small, but her voice has always been L-O-U-D. Even in the hospital, the nurses would bring her to me and declare that they had never heard a newborn cry so loudly. We never have a problem telling where she is in the house, and I am constantly saying “Please don’t yell at me. You are right here beside me.”

She can also stand up for herself. When she was only about 12 months old she defended herself against her twin cousins who were twice her size, and were trying to take her balloon. She is tough, and I am never surprised when she tackles her big brother for taking her Grandma bear. However, I am surprised that the Professor hasn’t learned to not take Grandma Bear.

She is a little mother. Like all little girls she loves to play with her dolls. Not Barbie dolls, but Baby dolls. She puts them to bed, they take walks in the stroller, or she carries them around the house in her sling. She thrilled my heart when she told her Daddy, “I want to be a Mommy, when I grow up.” When she isn’t babying her dolls, she is mothering her brothers, using a tone of voice that sounds oddly familiar.

She is sweet, sassy, helpful, and totally fun and I love having her around.

Do What?

This was the question asked by the Professor and the Princess when their Daddy said, "Any dishes that don't fit in the dishwasher you have to wash by hand." True to 7 and 5 year old form these two will fill the dishwasher, and then as far as they are concerned the kitchen is clean. It doesn't matter how many times we send them back to the kitchen to finish the job they still stop when the dishwasher is full. My thought was "How sad that my children don't know how to wash dishes by hand yet." Now those of you out there who are laughing at me, bear in mind that though I am not a new parent, I am new to having children old enough to actually wash the dishes.

Now the premise behind making them wash the dishes by hand is not only to make sure all the dishes are clean, but also to make sure they are actually filling the dishwasher. Because as we all know children never try to get out of doing chores. However, this one may have backfired. As they were washing the dishes we were greated with exclaimations of "Cool!" "Wow!" "I want to wash next time!" Ahhh, the blissfull ignorance of childhood. Let's see how cool they think it is in a couple of days.

Bugles Accross America

The gentleman who's funeral I played today was Jeff Hoggarg USMC. How providencial that I would use a picture of a Marine saluting the flag. Other than playing TAPS, I was completely uninvolved with the funeral, but I was honored to be able to give a live bugler to one of our vetrans. Many funerals for our vetrans no longer have live buglers, but instead have tape recordings or MP3 players that look like bugles.

I belong to a group, Bugles Across America ,who is trying its best to put an end to the use of electronic devices to play TAPS. Our men and women deserve to have a real, live person, and this is the mission of BAA.

You can help provide real people to play by letting funeral homes, VFW's, civic groups, and even active military peoples and posts know of BAA. You can also help by telling people who know how to play bugle (trumpet, french horn, euphonium, etc.) about BAA. Let's do our best to put a live bugler at every military funeral. Our men and women deserve the best.

TAPS

My fellow Americans, it is time to stand and salute. Another soldier has gone on to meet his creator. Who is he or she? I don't know. But I will be playing TAPS at the funeral tomorrow. It is a great honor to me to be able to say "Thank You" in this way.

No tune has so profound a meaning when played at a funeral. When those twenty-four notes sound, everyone knows that a soldier who served their country is being laid to rest, and,if they are any kind of an American, then a sense of gratitude will overflow their hearts. These men and women laid their life on the line to protect our country, our freedoms, our lives, and the lives of our children. They either gave the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefields, or they bear scars on their hearts for the rest of their lives. And what is more is that they do it gladly. With fear they face their task, but they look fear in the face and refuse to let it keep them from their duty. Their families give them to us for a time, and many may never receive them home. Their spouses and children surrender them so that we can be free.

Thank you to all who sacrifice for my freedom. Thank you to your families for giving me your loved one, for sacrificing your joy that I may live to enjoy mine. I praise the Almighty God for you, and as long as I and my posterity live. You will not be forgotten.

It is never cliche' to say "Freedom isn't free." My fellow Americans, it is time to stand and salute. One of our soldiers has gone to meet his creator. Tomorrow, I will play TAPS for one of our heroes.

Utopia Found

Who knew that the fearsom threesome could be calm. Now grant you they get along wonderfully, with only minimal sibling squabling. However, when they are getting along and playing, it is usually done in a general malaise of chaos. But today it has happened, they just sat and played at the school table.

They were coloring, playing some type of trivia game made up along the way by the Professor, and just getting along. I was actually able to sew without having to stop every 3 minutes to tend to some minor emergency. This must be what utopia feels like.

The Professor

What is a mother to write about other than her children? And, while that may bore the sox off of you all, it is what you will have to put up with until my blogging skills increase.

My oldest is the Professor. He is a 7 year old, total nerd in training. Now before you come unglued about me calling my son a nerd, you must realize that around our house Nerd is a compliment. The Professor has been a nerd since pretty much day one.

He put himself on a schedule from a very early age. If he was supposed to eat at 3:00 pm he woke up at 3:00 pm, without fail.

School is play to him. If he isn’t learning it isn’t fun. Imagine a kid who would read an encyclopedia - if I had one for him to read.

He wants to know everything. Really. Literally. Everything. The questions this kid asks are mind-boggling, and really I am getting quite fatigued by either having to find the answers to his questions and/or pretending I already know the answer. By the time he is a teenager, he could quite possibly know everything.

He is the consummate big brother, and takes care of his brothers and sister. This is usually accomplished with a lot of bossing, yelling, and conviction that he is right no matter what.

He is a sweetie, who has a big heart. He hates to see anyone hurt or unhappy. He still cuddles up in my lap to watch TV, and he makes me feel old because he is growing up so fast.

Warm Fuzzys

Baby J melts my heart with his first little smiles. One of the absolute joys of having babies is that first time that they really smile. You just become so excited to see that first real sign of recognition. However, you have to coax out that smile by being silly, or finding the right noise or expression. I thrill when that smile turns to a readily available commodity that no longer requires jumping through hoops to acquire. I love it when, as you are feeding them, you look down and they are smiling at you. Or when you are giving a bath or changing a diaper they simply give you a smile, when they see you they smile, when you simply talk to them they smile. Baby J is moving into that stage, and I am loving it. Talk about a gaga Momma. The camera is constantly at the ready, and I already have about a gazillion pictures that are exactly the same, but they are all different to me because they are all different smiles. And he is soooooooooo cute!!!

All that is required to turn me into a big ol' pile of goo is to see the smile of one of my babies. All they have to do is to look at me and smile, and I just want to give them whatever they want. I think it is because they have these big brown eyes with lots of long dark eyelashes. I also think it is because they all have their Daddy's smile which also melts my butter. If they only knew the power they hold with that little tilt of the head accompanied by a smile I would be in HUGE trouble. So, let's not tell them. Okay?!

Just Little O'l Me

Okay, here is my dilemma; I don't know what in the world to write. I don't really know how to begin, but one must begin somewhere.

After pondering on where to begin the thought occurred to me as more why to begin in the first place.

Do I have something profound to say? I very rarely say anything to profound that hasn't already been said. After all what little wisdom I have has come from other sources.

Do I have something important to say? That would have to be a matter of personal opinion. After all, while toilet training my son is extremely important to me, you may wonder why in the world I would think you would want to read about all the little idiosyncrasies in getting a 2 year old to pee standing up.

or

Do I simply like to hear the sound of my own voice or in this case thoughts? I'd have to say that this is probably the most accurate account of why I would keep a blog. I mean I really only expect this to be read by my wonderful husband, a few family members, and a few friends, and they will probably only read out of politeness - and to catch a glimpse of a picture or two of the kiddos.

So, now that I have rambled on about my philosophy of blogging, let the journey begin. I hope you will all enjoy the ride. Just don't expect me to spell it all correctly.