Home

K woke up screaming in the middle of the night because she thought there was a crab in her bed. do you know what my husband did? no, he didn’t try to convince her in her sleepiness that there wasn’t actually a crab in her bed. he pretended to catch the crab. what a good daddy he is.

now, that and a million other reasons are why i love my husband so.

today, i am choosing to take it as a compliment when all of my children speak to me at the

exact

same

time.

they obviously think i can hear what each of them are saying.

which of course, i simply cannot.

276. all knowing glances
277. a rowdy ruthann drink
278. my dear husband
279. my plugged ear coming unplugged
(even just for a few minutes)
280. progress, progress, progress

i encourage you to make your mission statement.

right now.

we read this prayer from Mother Teresa at church

a while back and it is now posted on my wall.
may i put these words into actions and live by them.

Dear Jesus,
Help us to spread your fragrance
everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be light others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching,
not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force –
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of love our hearts bear to you.
Amen.

For we are to God the aroma of Christ
among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
2 Corinthians 2:15

266. Kat’s blog

267. being a mother

268. having a focus

269. Scripture

270. motivation

(this photo has absolutely nothing to do with this post)

i got to take an unexpected holiday this weekend.
yes, after our family time on saturday, the fun abruptly stopped.
i thought i had food poisoning or the flu.
but it was actually a bad case of mastitis.
yuck.
for any of you who have gone through that… i now understand your pain.

B called my ob to see if i needed to go on an antibiotic but the only things she wanted to prescribe me had penicillin in them. my mother is allergic to penicillin and i figured we have had enough fun with hospitals in the last year and a half to take that risk, so i politely said
“no thank you.”
actually, before B asked for the prescription, he and my ob had a lovely chat about what he was writing now and his takes on the Tiger Woods world. see, my doc went to stanford and met Tiger before he was Tiger. so she’s always been interested in B’s writing.
all while i was resting my head on the toilet.
good times.

thank the good Lord for B.
he quickly rushed outside to carry in
the groceries and children
that i left in the car once we got back from shopping at tj’s.
he held down the fort while i was
“putting my feet up and relaxing”
as my doc suggested i do.
if only it were that glamorous.

also, i thank the good Lord for Auntie B.
she came over in a heartbeat with
plenty of things to help mend me back to health.
the children were well taken care of by the both of them
and soon enough (well, not actually soon enough, because
when a mom is sick, she can never recover fast enough)
i was feeling better.

i do have to say though,
the best kind of showers are where you shed your pajamas,
shower and then put fresh, clean jammies back on.
in the middle of the day.

it was certainly not the vacation i had dreamed of…
but i did get to sleep in my own bed
without having to listen to any baby monitors all night long.
that was nice.
sort of.

261. rest
262. feeling good
263. being rescued
264. not caring what the house looks like
265. catching up on emails

a friend recently asked,
“have you gone on any vacations just the five of you?”
to which i responded
“LE, we have gone out to dinner,
the five of us,
one time… in fourteen months.”
enough said.
yes, that one experience was that wonderful.
but now we can notch that number all the way up to two.

LE with L

we have had to schedule our family time lately.
B’s been working up a storm and life’s just been very full.

so on saturday, we had a deliciously wonderful time at a lovely park

where they have a man-made creek running through it.

B and i took turns hanging out with L on the grass,

while the big kids ran around in their swim suits.

and then…
B and i decided to take the plunge and go out to dinner.
with our three children.
all together.
at the same time.
it was a spontaneous decision… one that could easily backfire.
but we were willing to take the risk.

we went to one of our old haunts,
one of our fav bbq places.
the kind of place where your hands smell like
bbq sauce long after you’ve scrubbed them
with soap and water because it’s soaked into your fingertips.
no matter how careful you were to keep it just on your sandwich.

we were seated next to a family of three
where the one and only child was
happily watching a dvd while her parents ate in silence.
needless to say, we were the focus of the restaurant.
all of the staff was staring at us (not in a bad way) from behind the counter.
for our whole meal.
as B said, “they’ve heard about people having
three kids, they’ve just never seen it before.”

and do you know what? we had a really good time.
like a really, really good time.
all the way through dinner.
i know.
amazing.

this doesn’t mean that we are going to rush out and do it again anytime soon.
no, let’s just relish in what a good experience it was.

256. taking photos
257. looking at photos
258. really, really good bbq
259. hilarious voice mails
260. good family outings

we went for a walk the other day
and K wanted to
push daddybabydoll
in her stroller and
carry babydoll in her “ergo.”
she is one busy momma.
i have no idea where she gets this.

as she was pushing and carrying,
she said (and i kid you not)…

“mommy, this is how i roll.”
yes it is, baby.
yes it is.

251. leaving the house for five hours without any child in tow
(a first since before L was born)
252. coming home to children fed and in bed
253. good, really good conversation
254. lots and lots of new art on my art wall by D
255. driving a very fun and completely unpractical car (until monday)

oh my.

what a glorious sunset.
absolutely glorious.

happy weekend!
we are soaking up every last drop of summer around here.
this includes swim parties,
eating outside,
enjoying the recent calmness of the last couple of weeks
and of course…

putting babies in wipes boxes.

obviously.

246. the shade of pink in a watermelon
247. a cleaned out fridge
248. a cleaned out freezer
249. my new melon baller (thanks, mom!)
250. talking on the phone without any children around

it’s {embrace} the camera day!

i am a part of a message board online for parents of delayed children.
it amazes me that even the most simple question such as,
“how are you doing?”
sparks words upon words upon words.
your heart completely unfolds and you bear your soul.
to total strangers.
but total strangers who unfortunately understand.

check out my new “all about this blog” link at the top.

for the joy of the LORD is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10

241. a mother-in-law who honestly likes to do laundry
242. a mother-in-law who honestly likes to iron
243. swinging in the front yard
244. baking cookies
245. complete and total strangers