SHM.

I have been a stay at home mom for almost 5 years now and while in the scheme of things five years is nothing, it is the longest job I have ever had. Here are my thoughts so far.
1.What I love about being a stay at home mom.
-I can stay in pjs all day if I want.
- I get to see every milestone big and small in my kids lives.
- I get to go to the grocery store when it is virtually empty.
- I get to answer all of of my kids questions about life, Jesus, and people- that is pretty amazing.
- I get to spend most of my days at home.
- I have gotten to experience friendship and community with other moms that I could not otherwise.
- I get to kiss, snuggle, tickle or just sit with my boys anytime.

2. What is challenging about being a shm.
- doing the same thing most days.
- lack of adult interaction.
- the weight of responsibility to mold these little people.
- being with the same little ones all day every dy.

3. What I have learned by being a shm.
- PBS kids is the best thing created.
- a sucker from heb and a little apple juice can cure any ache
- mcdonalds is always a bad choice
- it really does fly by.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Doggone days of summer.

Shoo weee- it is hot. I feel like every July I am so done with summer but I think I started feeling that way in June this year. So what have we done to fight the heat? Not much. Well that is not entirely true. We had lots of visitors in June which is wonderful and tiring. We go to the pool a few times a week. We have play dates a few times a week. Other than that, not a lot. More tv than I want to admit. Lots of games on the iPad. I am trying to do. Some light school work with Keller, notice I said light. It gets boring and I get down. I try to keep my head up and remember that fall will come but day after day of the 100's takes it toll. I look forward to September but then my always pragmatic husband reminds me that it does not really cool off until late October. Thanks babe.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Swimming with the trolls.

My big boy completed his second round of swim lessons and I am not talking about let's have a good time and float on noodles. No no. This is 4 year old swimming lesson BOOT CAMP! I love it. Joy and Allison have been teaching swim lessons for a thousand years and have probably taught millions of children how to swim and as a parent of one those, I am grateful ( like my exagerations?)
He was a champ last year, I mean did everyting they asked, never cried, which is saying alot for boot camp swimming. This year I thought was going to go without a hitch as well until two days before the last day. I picked him up and he was BAWLING. Joy told me he hit a wall, was starting to fear when she was making him swimm to farther than he was comfortable with. She said just to encourage him and she knew he would do better the next day. I was not so sure especially since on the way home he was crying his eyes out telling me he never wanted to swim again. " But what about getting your water rockets when you graduate?" " I don't want ANY water rockets. I never ever want to swim!" Oh dear. We talked off and on about it all evening long. We told him how we are all scared of things and we have to conquer our fears, how important it is to learn to swim,etc. Nothing was working. James told him that night in a last attempt that the deep water was like a mean troll that the brave Keller needed to defeat.
So the next day he was dropped of without any fear, so far so good. I was anxious the entire 45 minutes before he returned to the car. Lo and behold, here came my precious boy running down the driveway with a huge smile on his face. Joy said he did awesome, far exceeded where he was just days ago. Music to my ears. The next day was parent day where we all get to come and watch. I was almost brought to tears several times out of pride. I felt pride last year but more because my little guy was such a character and fearless. This year it was because he had a very daunting fear that he faced and overcame. After parent day, my friend Luci called me and told me that she wanted me to know she heard Keller telling the other children there were trolls in the water. So one conquered his fear, the rest were overcome with it. Oh well.

Grand Canyon with vulnerable pictures.

I hate every single picture of myself from our trip to the Grand Canyon so promise not to leave any snide comments about how awful I look and please keep thinking I am cute, k?
O the trip to the GC. What i have said is that there was nothign neutral about this trip, it was both magnificent and hell. The amazing moments I would not trade. Seeing the Grand Canyon for the first time is exactly what people say it is- there are no words. It takes your breath away. When we first got there we were all just taking it in and Keller turned to me and said, " Mommy, I wish I could dance on the Grand Canyon." Wow. He said it better than anything I could have ever said. Sounds funny but there was something so right to what he said. It engages your senses in a way that you just want to take it all. The other plus to our trip was the wonderful time we had with family. Brian, Fukuko and the kids live in Hong Kong so we only see them once a year. Such sweet time connecting with them and a time that we will cherish forever. The downside....
-Riding in an RV for 1,000 hours with four children one of those being a 2 year old.
-Sleeping in an RV and having my children wake up at 5am and no one else wanting to wake up until 8am.
- The RV leaking diesel fuel on the trip back. Having to ride for 5 hours trying to make it to New Mexcio with all of the windows down so we did not pass out from the smell of diesel.
- Spending the night in New Mexcio which is WACKO because the RV was no longer driveable.
-Packing everything we had on an RV onto a 15 passenger van including four children and 4 adults. This was the low point for me.
Do you see a trend with the negatives? RV!! Next time, I will be flying and spending the night in a cabin or better yet a hotel!
And YES, we had our kids no leashes.
- Pa

G turns 2!

Well this has been a long time coming. We have not had a computer for months so I have had a heck of a time uploading pictures from ipads and iphones.
SO our baby boy turned 2 on March 12th and we kept it pretty simple. Birthday breakfast with a few friends and family. It is crazy looking at these pictures because they are the last ones at our old house. The last birthday we ever had there. We started packing the next day. No sadness, just sureal when a season ends I always reflect for months even years afterwards.
We love our Bubba G and cannot imagine our family without him. He is such a gorgeous child with so much spunk and personality. We love you G and are so honored to be your parents!

A list

Borrowed from Kelly Harp's blog.

Listening: Bethel Live.
Reading: The Gift of Imperfection by Brene Brown.
Eating:Organic fruitmroll-ups, like 3 a day.
Drinking: lots of ice tea.
Watching: Army Wives and bawling at every episode
Enjoying: the Y pool with my two little fishies

Well, that was short lived.

If you know me you are not surprised that I make unreachable goals and fail to meet them. Oh well. I have not blogged for two days and the emotions I have felt are as such- guilt, freedom, pensive, ashamed,regretful- you get the picture. So I have decided to tweak my goal. First I had to realize what stood in my way of my first goal before I make another. A few things contributed to this.
1. Keller.
2. Graham. They take it out of me folks and having no preschool or mothers day out is taking a toll.
3. I have stories and anecdotes that could be shared daily but I started feeling pressures like, well I shared a serious one yesterday today has got to be funny or people will think I am depressed.
4. Blogging on an iPad. While this is a nifty gadget and a great mothers day present, it has proven to be more difficult to type on at length and very challenging to share pictures.

New goal. Blog often. No time commitments just a commitment that I will be more consistent and intentional.
Thanks for grace.