No Fear

Not going to spend a lot of time describing this one - because the picture speaks for itself. Look for the small blob of color towards the top. That's the resident five year-old. That's not as close to the top as she was when I went for the camera. Can anyone say, "YIKES?"

We're in a good place. In fact, we're in such a good place that it's difficult to find something remotely interesting to write today! There's no tragedy. No illness. No sad story. Oh, but there are some fun things!

My hubby has been coaching Nathan's 1st and 2nd grade basketball team this winter. Let's just say that is has been challenging at best! He is a wonderful guy with a passion for teaching kids to play sports the right way. He's all about the respect of a game. He teaches them to run on and off the field/floor, that you cheer for your team when you're riding the bench, you slap your opponents' hands and look them in the eye when you say "good game" at the end of a contest. He has all sorts of good-sportsman type things he's been working on with them. This season he has also had many opportunities to teach them about losing. Actually, every week he gets to talk to them about that! Nathan has learned more from this season of perpetual losing than any season he's played and won. There have been tears, anger, and downright breaking down sessions.

This poor guy plays his guts out every game and has seen nothing for his efforts...he thought.

Yesterday was his last game. Coach went into it just thinking if he could get through one more game, he's move on to baseball season and never look back. You see, he was working with a pretty raw group. He had one kid who would beg to come out of the game and spend his time negotiating with the coach on the sideline instead of playing on the court. Two had great effort and some skill. They shot the ball, played good defense, and were faithful in chasing the guy on the other team every time they stole the ball and raced to the other end to make a basket, again. Then there was the one who didn't have much skill in the way of playing basketball - but he would have been GREAT on the football field. Ahhh, and the last little guy. He is sweet as he gets. But he has no backbone. He sort of floated around the court with his eyes situated just above the heads of the other kids as they wrestled, ran, and flopped around the court. When the season started if he ever touched the ball - which was usually by accident - he would wrap his arms around it and stand hugging it. Whoever had the ball usually formed the head of the bee swarm as all of the other boys chased him around trying (along with the other eight players on the floor) to swipe it from him.

Now it's the last game. Coach is feeling sure he know how this is going to go. Let me tell you - I'm not sure where our team was - but this amazing little team of mini-players showed up. They passed the ball, they shot the ball when they were near the basket, they put their hands UP in defense!! These guys suddenly looked like they got it. I'm not saying they looked like a team of Michael Jordans out there (okay - just aged my self), but they got it. They were smiling and playing hard. Every child but one on our team scored during this game - no small thing!! The one who didn't score was a big scorer the rest of the season - so we didn't feel so bad about it.

At the end of the game I held by breath. The score was 32-20 our favor. I was so excited for those little guys to feel the victory just one time this season. However, I learned during the game the other team had never won a game either. I was scared then that our team would explode in joy, storm the court, tear down the net. How would that make those other little boys feel? You know what? Our boys were respectful in their win! They walked through that line, slapped those hands, said "good game," and then ran to the coach to leap in silent joy. It was beautiful. After the game as I talked with the Coach he expressed a pride in his boys. Not that he hadn't had some before - but now, they were winners! Actually, he said it didn't have anything to do with winning. He was just so thrilled to see that they had learned to work together, play hard, never give up, and be gracious in winning because they know how it feels to lose. A beautiful, beautiful thing.

New Mom Rule

There needs to be a universal rule against mom's getting sick. Sniffles and a minor sore throat - we can do that. But seriously?? How are we supposed to be the mommy when we can't get off the couch without turning white, nearly passing out, or vomitting on our slippers? I spent four days cleaning up after three children with the erping eepies. I took all the precautions. I washed every blanket, pillow, sheet, and towel in the house in hot water, bleached the bathrooms, religiously sprayed every doorknob, handrail, and light switch in the house and every non-fluffy toy in the house. I used "hanitizer" endlessly.
Do you know what I got? I got the slow-cooker version of the creepy erping eepies! Sidenote: My husband got the microwave version and was only sick for a mere 3 hours, then awoke to eat cake for breakfast. A fourth child in the house also got the microwave version and threw up once and uttered just enough complaint to earn an extra day home from school. It's been three days for me and I'm still surviving on jello and 7-Up.
It is so sad to lie face-down in the bathroom floor and realize that your little boys are very poor aims, the area around the toilet doesn't look like the bleach ever touched it, and somehow at that moment you don't even care. That is a sad, sad state of affairs, let me tell you.
I hereby declare that mommies everywhere shall hereunto be immune to all creepy erping eepies from now unto eternity.
You're welcome.

Shaybe - BRING IT ON!!!

I listened to a song on the way home from work tonight and the words moved me. It is by Bebo Norman and goes something like this:

I will raise my eyes
to the maker
of the mountains I can't climb.

I will raise my eyes
to the calmer
of the ocean raging wild.

I will lift my eyes
to the healer
of the hurt I hold inside.

God is awesome and I love how he uses words like these to speak to us, and meets each of us where we are.

Isabelle the Mae

Isabelle the Mae, originally uploaded by grand947.

Does this scare anyone?

Thanks for the cute animal towels, mom!

Twins!

Twins!, originally uploaded by grand947.

I always wanted twins. I guess this it what it might have looked like!

So I got a call at work last night. It was the hubby explaining that Riley had, let's say, deposited her spaghetti dinner all over her bed and floor (off-white carpet that is now off-white and red). How many of you have husbands who are experienced in vomit clean-up? Mine is not. Now, don't get me wrong - I am NOT minimizing his amazing parenting ability or his efforts. However, this is not his strong area. I was an hour and a half from being home and this was going to be all him.
So, he scooped the comforter off the bed and deposited it in front of the washing machine - still fully loaded (the comforter, not the washer). He then cleaned her up and put her back to bed. She's two. She doesn't get to the bathroom to throw up. She doesn't even get it in a bucket put next to her. So, twenty minutes later he was summoned to the room again and promptly stripped off more bedding. In the middle of this he noticed there was also a "deposit" on Isabelle's bed - which is odd unless Riley got up, went to throw up on her sister, and went back to bed. Perhaps she was evening the score from something Isabelle may or may not have done to her earlier in the day.
So, when I arrive home I find Riley sitting in the bed with her daddy trying to talk her out of crying. It wasn't going well. The short end to this not-too-yummy story is that Riley and I watched Letterman and she slept on the ottoman while I dozed on the couch at a not-quite-fully-stretched-arm length away. I spent the night on erp patrol and made many trips to rinse the bucket and bring it back into position. It was a successful night in that we didn't have to change any more pajamas or bedding. Until....Nicholas apparently felt left out and began playing our little game about 5 a.m.
If posed the question laugh or cry on this one - I'm going with laugh because at least it wasn't twins playing this game!

Coffee or Teef?

Coffee or Teef?, originally uploaded by grand947.

I cleaned the playroom today. Isn't it odd how a clean room attracts children like a bee to honey? Sadly, you couldn't see the carpet in this room when I got up this morning. I decided at some point to make it my project for today and I think it turned out quite well! There is a kitchen corner, all of the toys were dumped out of their buckets/baskets/tubs and completely sorted. That is like therapy to me, for some reason! I feel great because I completely cleaned one room in the house, and somehow haven't managed to get out of my pajamas yet. Did I mention that it is almost dinner time?
So, Riley came to try out the "new" room and her first question to me? "Mommy, do you wan coffee or teef?" I chose Teef because it made me laugh.