Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day started Friday afternoon when Adriana gifted me with a cake she baked at school just for me. I was on the phone when she came off the bus, so she ran the cake to her room and “hid” it on her dresser. When I walked back in the living room she signed “Quiet” and pointed to her room. Super sweet! Until Monday when Adriana dug through the trash for the remains of the cake and ate it…causing me to pull Lucy off the tee ball field and race home to intervene (David was still at work and Avery was baby sitting). Nothing like a good story to go with the gift 😉 That’s my girl! LOL

Sunday morning, the kids & David made me bacon (by the way David, might want to follow up on clean up, I discovered the wide open leftover raw bacon just sitting in the deli drawer. The gift that keeps on giving 😉 I really did adore them bringing me breakfast in bed!

By far my favorite thing about kid cards is their hilarious interpretation of things. I adore that Lila wanted to give me a “beatfest” in bed! I’m so glad she settled on breakfast instead.

That girl made me SIX cards!

Lucy’s picture stole the show. She drew this picture of the two of us at the bottom of my card. I said, “Why are we naked?!” Lucy vehemently replied that we were not naked, but in fact, wearing “peach colored shirts.” I die.

 

The middle girls went to church while David and I attempted to recover from the previous night. I know, shame on us! After church, we rewarded our resident babysitter with her payment of choice, before heading out on our adventure of the day.

 

I’ve been wanting to go strawberry picking for at least three years now, but we never got around to it. I made it well known that was my Mother’s Day wish this year. It did not disappoint! We had so much fun and I’m certain it would not have been the same experience had we had a bunch of little ones.

I will say, it was harder on Adriana than we anticipated. The strawberry field are narrow and uneven and that doesn’t lend to easy navigation for Ms. A. She tolerated the trip okay, after all, food was involved 😉

I cannot even handle that face!

          A gentleman offered to snap a family photo, bless him!The kids enjoyed picking strawberries, but what they really had their eyes on was the extensive playground equipment. They had the best time on the tire swings and huge tubing slides!

i love this picture so stinkin’ much!

Oh man, this picture kills me. I asked Adriana to join in the silly photo and she took that to mean, please knock Livie over and pose in her spot. Liv was not amused…but her mama was!           Excellent memory making day. It’s still weird not having Taylor around (he had to work and his phone is on the fritz, so I got a FB message), but I’m learning to adapt to our maturing family circumstance.

A Tour of Last Week’s Common Use Days

If my title doesn’t make any sense, you didn’t read my last post :p

So, just because I didn’t hit “publish” doesn’t mean I didn’t blog right? *sigh* Darn time, pace yourself! Geez.

I was ever so on top of things Tuesday, we even went to the grocery store before preschool.

cutie on aisle two

Teacher Appreciation Week even trickles down to the preschool crowd at times! This delicious cupcake (I ate the green one ;)) started a sweet tooth craving that could not be contained until we’d hit up two bakeries AND baked a from-scratch pound cake…from Tuesday to Saturday!

as good as they look

 

left to right, Adriana’s pound cake, bakery purchased lemon pound cake, brown sugar pound cake made by me, and bakery cupcakes!

No worries, I haven’t abandoned my efforts to lower my cholesterol, the pound cake I made, I froze into servings for small group; Adriana’s cake and the bakery pound cake are still nearly untouched in the pantry, but the cupcakes? Um. I ate 3 1/2…in two days. #stillhuman

Jude’s therapy schedule wasn’t the norm last week (started new bi-weekly OT sessions, plus a make up speech session on Friday), which was fine by him because he is simply enthralled by the new spring decor outside.

 

he had to touch every one

On Thursday, I sat in during Jude’s speech therapy. It’s incredible to me how hard he works to produce sounds that I say without so much as a thought. Often, therapy becomes the norm and I forget just how much effort is involved for my little guy.

silly face during silly speech game

While on the subject of effort, sweet goodness, Lucy’s new reading level just might be the death of both of us. The books are far longer…her attention span far shorter, and my patience just about non existent! #isitsummeryet

homework time

Lila’s new glasses came in last week and it’s going to take some time to get used to seeing our little princess with her new accessory! She cracked me up when she first put them on, declaring, “Woah, I can see!” I remember that feeling!

pretty in pink

 

I love this pic of Livie & Lila!

 

and he’s out

We can never seem to make it through the week without multiple trips to the grocery store. Jude’s been battling a wicked cold and needed abundant rest last week. As in, napping every.single.day.   Those colds often lead to ear infections, which officially led to the news on Friday at Jude’s ENT appointment, that he’ll be getting his third set of tubes in the near future (just waiting for the phone call to schedule). Seriously. Poor buddy. His hearing test revealed increased pressure in his left ear (the one giving him such a hard time a few weeks back). Between next month’s endoscopy and this simple surgery, Jude will be looking at anesthesia for the ninth and tenth times. Crazy.
 Saturday was just about the most physically productive day I’ve ever had in my life! HA! Good thing too…given those cupcakes I mentioned 😉 We had our usual volleyball/baseball parent shuffle.
    Then, Lila and I walked 3 1/2 miles on the greenway. Lila was so precious, we took an absurd amount of photos, paused to inspect the flowers, and what was most adorable to me, she reached for my hand every time a stranger passed us. Love my Isabelly boo!  

David and William worked on the patio; which David spent most of the week prepping…and it’s still got more work until completion is official. Much bigger project than we anticipated.  Livie apparently needed a bit extra quality time; after playing catch in the yard (Yes, I do this :P) she asked me if we could walk the neighborhood trail. I couldn’t really refuse my girl! We decided to startle Avery and her friend while they were playing in the creek beside the trail by shouting, “Don’t jump!” It was comical…to me. Avery’s expression just screams, “I am not amused by my mother” doesn’t it?    David and I had a long anticipated date night to see our favorite band, NeedtoBreathe, Saturday night. We were both soooo tired! Ha! But it was awesome and I love when we get time to just have fun together.

concert time!

Another week in the books!

 

Connecting the Dots

Alternate title, Pull Yourself Together Soul 😉

I swear, I’ve been a mental train wreck lately. Moody. Reflective. Emotionally irritable. Restless. Unable to sleep. Sketching circles and words trying to connect all the various dots in my life (I blame this on the last book I read). Then, late into the night yesterday I read a blog post by Kari Patterson entitled “What to Do When the Novelty Wears Off.”

Ah-ha!

I love when God uses others to speak the words I don’t even know I’m trying to say. What she said; the “sluggishness” the desire for something new.

Yes.
Precisely this.

I’m all kinds of burned out on motherhood, trials and the ordinary. I’m itching for a breath of fresh air, a new adventure, a new perspective, anything to take me out of this space of keeping on keeping on. I’ve entered a season of weariness brought on by months (years?) of intensity that I just couldn’t stop. When life out paces you, you have to keep moving. But now that the crisis dust has settled (for now), I’m, well, dusty. Hazy. I’m nearly useless. No spark, no adrenaline to keep me moving ahead. I can’t determine how to walk through regular days.

There will always be “next things” to attend to; especially when raising children. In all my connect-the-dotting, I see so many questions; but none that inspire.

Just writing those words, giving them life, instantly makes me pause. I’m the mother of eight children and I’m lacking inspiration? Do I hear myself?

As if…as if what’s right in front of me is not enough. You know me, my brain goes to song lyrics…again, someone who has said it before me.

“I was hoping You would write to me a message in the stars
As if the stars themselves were not enough”

Ouch. Hi God, it’s me, Katie, the one who forgets it’s not about me from time to time. I’m craving freedom, adventure, restoration, all things new…and I’m staring a life with every available opportunity right in the eyes.

Time to gather myself up and offer my selfish ways back to Christ. Time for me to be thankful for a season of pseudo-stillness. Time for me to quit wrestling with purpose and live the days I’m in, knowing full well that God uses all things; even the ordinary, lackluster, common use days 😉

 Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
~Romans 9:21 NIV

Why are you cast down, O my inner self? And why should you moan over me and be disquieted within me? Hope in God and wait expectantly for Him, for I shall yet praise Him, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.
~Psalm 43:5 AMP