AND Then she said....

   A bedtime routine has never been my strongest shall I say....asset when it comes to my parenting skills. I have been known to read story after story, after story to my kids late into the night never establishing an actual sleep time. I figure we home school so what difference does it make?

This strategy worked well for our other three....

But now we are in a dilemma.....Mary Elizabeth, not only likes to read in my bed she does not want to leave my bed....EVER!

Sleeping with this beautiful child is like sleeping in a tea cup ride.

Let me see if I can explain...She is not one of those cuddly types who just snuggles right in and doesn't move.

NO! Not at all!

To start off with....She likes her head on my pillow to get as close to me as possible.

How sweet you say.....Ya, sweet....

But she flips

and she flops

and she turns

and she spins all through the night.

I can hear you ask...."Why don't you just move her into her own bed."

Which is a very good question....and we do.

We really do...

BUT!

She comes back....

The party just never ends!

Our night time routine is almost like a Conga Line...........We go back and forth all night long.

The other day, I sat her down and I had "the talk" with her....

I told her,  I just couldn't do it anymore. I told her she was to hard sleep with her and sometimes it  just felt like she was jumping on me all night long.

AND 

"Starting tonight, she just had to stay in her own bed without me."  

This train ride was over!

She listened intently.

She gave what I said a lot of thought.

She even slept on it for a little while.

When she woke, she said to me....."Mommy, I loveS you."

and I said to her....

"Liz, I loveS you too."

Her response....

was an innocent....

"Then why can't I sleep  WHICH U ? "

and I said........sigh...with a smile...."You just can't."

I'll let you know what happens.

The Human Spirit

Remember Joe? Remember the story I told you about the night he was almost killed?

Joe worked hard to be one among the living again........The past two years he has not only worked hard in accomplishing the everyday aspects of life...He worked hard to move forward and make positive changes.

As of today, Joe is a High School Graduate. He passed his test with flying colors.

Funny thing is now he is talking about going to college.

You GO JOE!!!

We are so proud of you!!!!

Sometimes a little bump on the head is good for the human spirit.  

I don't know about you, but, I think we should all have cake.

My Little Boys

This is a picture of the backs of my "Little Boys" and our Priest, Father Theo.

The backs of Stephen, Matthew and Father Theo...In the cowboy hat.

We were at a church party and Father Theo was teaching the boys my young men how to line dancing.

Every time I see these guys standing with grown men I am in awe and I wonder;

 "When did they get so big?".

And

"Where did the time go?"

When I see them from this angle...I think WOW! with a big grin and IT cracks me up every time.

It's not all about THEM

I don't think I told you we had a little company this past week.

My Aunts, cousins and cousins daughters came down for a little visit;

Bringing with them lots of joy, laughter and Anthony.

Aunt Joan

These aunts are my father's "little" sisters and two of triplets.

Among the many things I loved about having Aunt Jean and Aunt Joan here was seeing  

my father's smile again on my Aunt Joan's face.

I never realized it before but this time "IT" took my breath away.

Aunt Jean

I again saw Aunt Jean's kind, gentle nature. But this time we watched as she endured a serious illness. But, she never complained....just like someone else I know. 

In both these woman, I saw their big brother Billy and one of his best qualities....I saw

in them how he would take his time and listen patiently and talk to people from the family no matter the age, size or order of importance.  

I saw how they enjoyed playing in childish games,  

allowing the smallest be the leader of the biggest chains.

I saw how they relaxed and laughed at themselves.

There were songs sung with the greatest emotion followed by dancing in the dining room.

The weekend just flew by.

When it was time for them to leave we were all a little sad to see them go.

Today, as I post and think of these warm, wonderful woman, I think about what makes them so special:  I think what makes these woman the generation of these woman so special is ... 

Everything is just not about them.

Just a "Little" Birthday Party

July started off with a great big BANG!

No pun intended...It DID!

Now everybody knows that homeschoolers never socialize...

Or at least that is what they tell me.  

But, you see....Brian had a "little" birthday party that he shared with his buddy Phillip.

Brian and Phillip were both eight within days of each other.

Just like little boys do, they both wanted to have a great big birthday party. 

AND

They wanted to invite all their home-schooled friends to help celebrate the festive occasion.

Because they are bright and creative women, the mothers of these two guys thought it would be fun to have the parties together. 

One GREAT big BASH!!!

One full day of Fun for everyone!

Lots of Fun!

 

AND 

More Fun!

Phillip and Brian

These guys had a Fourth of July party of a life time.

They played games.

Swam

Everyone came.

 

Strangely enough...for a group that does not socialize...

There were over 35 people at this "little" birthday bash.

All the kids had so much fun! 

 They are  already talking about whose party is next and can we do it ALL again tomorrow.

True Happiness

July 7, 2010

Is when you turn Four and everyone you love celebrates. 

Black and White Magic

At sunrise this morning, I woke up to a small hand rubbing my arm

...whispering...

"Mommy...Is it time?"

"Is it my birthday? Am I four?"

I answered in a soft "YES, my sweet" "Your Four today."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~ Her answer ~

A soft, gleeful...."YES!"

and she feel back to sleep in my arms.

Punkin It's Black and White Wednesday

Do you remember these?

The pumpkins...not the little girl...I am sure you remember her.  She is the subject of most of my photography. This is mostly because my older children are getting bored with me always "snapping" while I say "wait...I'm not done...one more".

This is the picture my cousin Anne took the weekend of "the funeral".

Remember I told you my other cousin Jen filled my parents house with pumpkins and mums that weekend?  

I think Jen bought 17 small pumpkins and 5 large pumpkins that weekend. I remember she told me she bought that many because of  symbolism....One large pumpkin to represent each of my parent's children and one small pumpkin to represent the grandchildren. 

I can't remember how many mums she bought that day or even what the significance of the mums were but I know we she bought a load of mums ......maybe it will come back to me one day.

I do remember, I didn't want to go with her to the store but she insisted. She convinced me she would be dreadfully lost if I didn't go and she would never find her way back.  

Which was not true...She had a GPS and she lived in the area for years before she moved to California.

I figured out on the way home that day she would have been fine. I was the one who was in danger of being dreadfully lost ...and thankfully she was wise enough to see it.  

Jen filled the house with colors of happiness with warm browns, bright oranges and beautiful yellows.... pumpkins, candles and mums in every room. The house looked beautiful that weekend. Just the way our mother and father loved it. 

Back to the reason for the question.....Do you remember these?

Well?

When it was time to get rid of all those pumpkins our mother didn't quite know what to do with them: 

 So these guys

Matthew and Stephen

 took these guys

Brian and Alex

with hammers in hand, along with all the pumpkins out into the field by the compost pile.

AND

They smashed them! 

They had a ball!  hitting them, smashing them, throwing them and watching them explode.   

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then the bees came.

and the compost pile started to flower.

and you know what happened next...

Look Jen!!!

We're growen punkins BABY!!!

Stevie Wonder

Well, it has been awhile since I last sat down to post. Let's just say I had to take "a little bloggy break".  I think it was Father's day that had me all in knots. There were so many things I thought of posting and then I just couldn't.

You know it has been hard moving on...but we are doing it. We are doing it with his spirit always by our side.

However, those thoughts are still on hold and that is not what I came to talk about with you today:  

Over the past 15 years I have been privileged enough to live with a boy I call my son, Stephen. Stephen is a giver. He is worker. He is a doer. He is smart. He is gentle. He is kind.

Stephen is always fixing things.  

He is always helping, always pleasing.

It has always been the same, since the time Stephen was a just a little guy he would jump right in there and work... side by side anyone who would allow him too.

Grandpa and Stephen working on the pool pump... June 1997

With his green sippy cup tossed to the side, even at two years old, Stephen has always been eager to learn, to study, to help.

With his greatest teacher by his side......He learned.

He studied...He helped.

Now it seems he has the patients that has been past on to him from his teacher. While his little sister takes any opportunity to sit by his side Stephen patiently allows her to help...and he teaches, he waits, he helps, and then like he was taught... he does.

If "it" is broken Stephen will fix it. If you need help Stephen sees it.  Somehow, he just  knows. Standing over 6 feet 4 and still growing, this son of my mine, with the heart of a lion is truly a wonder.

May he never change.