days of nuwanda

MI beaches are beautiful even when it's cold

We were in MI last week w/ my parents over spring break, and of course we were wondering why we usually find ourselves heading NORTH for spring break, but oh well. :) It wasn't too cold and didn't snow, so that's something. We visited our favorite beach--our little piece of heaven every July 4th for fireworks--and found it to be just as beautiful even though it was about 40 degrees. And no, we did not stick our toes in the water. Our lips turned blue just standing next to the water; standing in it did not seem wise. :) I do love my Michigan!

Some kind of Valentine's Day

This post is not for the faint of heart, so I won't hate you if you stop reading right now. Nice, cutesy posts will be back tomorrow. 

Well, Hubby and I had some evening plans for Valentine's Day--i.e., the kids going to a sitter and us doing something special--but things were interrupted when Harrison woke up Tuesday morning feeling bad and refusing to eat. If you know Harrison at all, you know that he doesn't turn down food EVER unless he's very ill, so I knew it was a sign. At 10:30 that morning he asked if he could go to bed, and he slept for almost 4 hours. Another bad sign. But when he woke up, he seemed to be feeling better; he was running around and being goofy but still wouldn't eat. Daddy thought he was just fine; Mommy wasn't fooled. 

We opted to skip our original plans b/c I didn't think it was fair to any babysitter to watch a child who had been sick earlier in the day and my gut told me Harrison wasn't really better. Hubby still wanted to go out to eat, so we packed everyone up and headed to a fave Mexican grill. We made it thru the meal just fine, though Harrison had nothing to eat again, and then things got ugly.

Puking is an awful affair no matter where you are, but in the midle of a restaurant on Valentine's Day no less?That's really bad. Harrison walked over to me as I put my coat on, with a face that I knew very well, and said, "I'm gonna barf!" And for some reason I did what I always do, what my instincts tell me to do--I put my hands out! Now who on earth puts their hands out to catch puke? Me. I have no idea why. Only this time my hand was closer to his face than it should have been, and the puke literally hit my hand and splattered up into his eyes and all over his face. Oh yah, mother of the year right here! It was like something you see on America's Funniest Home Videos, only it was real and all over us and smelled awful! Some very sweet people came over w/ piles of napkins, and the hostess literally went to work right away cleaning the floor. Then I looked up to see this poor family next to our table had just received their plates of food. I have no idea how they were able to eat. We cleaned up little guy and high-tailed it outta there. 

As we drove home, I said to Hubby, "So this is where 11 years have brought us?" and he replied, "At least it was pink for Valentine's Day!" Sure enough. The only thing Harrison had all day was red Gatorade, so guess what color everything was? :)

Sometimes I wish for peace-n-quiet and a boring day once in a while, but I really wouldn't know what to do w/o the excitement of our kids.They keep me grounded. Like barfing on me. There's nothing like someone barfing on you to bring you back to reality. :)

Lots of love

Funny how siblings go from fighting/kicking/screaming at each other one moment, to all kinds of loving/hugging/kissing the next. I still remember those days w/ my Sister, and it's fun seeing it in my kids. Well, the loving part is fun, not the other. Thankfully I get to see lots of the love. Grace and Harrison asked me to take some pics the other night, and I happily obliged. Most of the time they are best friends. :)

Silly Sentences

I found this Very Silly Sentences game at TJ Maxx the other day and knew the kids would love it. You go around the board, collecting parts-of-speech-cards and see who can build their silly sentences first. Sounds like something a dorky English major came up w/ to trick kids into learning the parts of speech, right? Hey, watch it--I was an English major! But yes, it's a tricky way to teach while kids are having fun and don't realize you're pouring knowledge into their little brains. They LOVED it and beg to play again and again. It's a win-win. :)

Here are the sentences we made. The kids took pics and asked me to blog them b/c they were proud of their work...er, I mean, their game.

Sunset over snow

The kids and I spent a few days visiting my parents in MI over Christmas break. It was a wonderful time w/ Grandpa and Grandma. We had a dusting of snow, which was nice, since our Christmas in Indiana was anything but white. More like dreadfully muddy. 

Sis and I went for a drive w/ Dad, just the 3 of us going down these little back roads that Dad knows by heart, and as we rode, chatting about this-n-that, it took me back a bunch of years.....when Dad would occasionally pick us up from school on payday and take us to get burgers and we'd get those little mini Coke bottles--a rare treat--and feel like we were a million bucks hanging out w/ Dad. We got laughing and joking at our little insider jokes, the way we've done since we were kids, and I stared out the window, feeling 12 again, in a good way.

So this pic may not be anything special really--just a random farm field we passed as we rode, as the sun was setting in cold Eastern Michigan in late December--but it reminds me of a rare moment, Dad w/ his girls again, and it makes me smile.

Happy kids, happy mom, happy morning

A princess, a superhero, and a zombie? Oh my!

I'm sure it doesn't surprise anyone that Jacob was a creepy zombie for Halloween. Nor would it surprise anyone to hear that Grace was Cinderella. You're starting to yawn, aren't you? :) My kids are nothing if not predictable in this realm. Harrison was the one w/ all the options, as in a boatload of old costumes to choose from, and he chose Batman. A mighty cute Batman, if you ask me. 

Jacob thinks this headless pic is the best of all; I tend to agree. If you're gonna be a zombie, you might as well carry your head around.

And if you're gonna be a princess, you should have sparkles. Lots of sparkles. 

And perhaps a fur coat...

Batman could hardly see thru this mask all night, but wore it faithfully, just as any real superhero would...

Daddy was a Cardinals baseball player; afterall, they just won the world series!

And I was a chef/baker/woman pretending to do something in the kitchen :)

Our friends had a cookout in their driveway, and we enjoyed warming up by the firepit. 

All in all, it was a great Halloween. And today begins the trading, bartering, scamming, and for us parents, the refereeing of all candy trading. Good times. :) Halloween always makes me feel like a kid. Honestly, I don't feel much like an adult anyhow, but days like this remind me of the innocense of my childhood, and I love creating that for my children. 

Family photo

It's rare to get good family photos anymore. We are together a lot, but it's rare to have another person w/ us to snap the photo, and it's even more rare to catch all 3 kids in a good mood at the same time. HA! Jacob has turned into a camera-snob, refusing to smile at all, which is super annoying for us must-photograph-every-darn-moment-in-case-we-forget-something-terribly-important parents. I've actually realized in the last year, that sometimes I lose joy in the moment b/c I'm too worried about posing for a picture or capturing the cuteness of whatever is going on. I've forced my children on more than one occasion to hold that ridiculous pose or just pretend to blow out their birthday cake candles for 5 minutes, so I can snap 47 photos, in the hopes that one of them will turn our great. What the heck?  It's no wonder they begin to dread the camera. I was really missing the point. So I've been trying to relax and enjoy these precious moments w/ my children and take mental snapshots of these memories that I can enjoy indefinitely.

Last week we headed out to a local farm for their annual corn maze. A family from our church does this every year--a big corn maze plus a bunch of outdoor fall fun stuff. The kids enjoyed a bouncy house, hay bails everywhere, bowling-ball croquet (seriously tough game! Giant mallets & bowling balls make for a workout!), tether ball, corn toss, and of course a hayride that takes you out to the mile-long corn maze. We had perfect weather--sunny and cool--and I didn't realize until we were about to leave, that I really hadn't taken any photos. I had just relaxed and had a good time w/ my kids (and some church friends) and lived in the moment, instead of trying to preserve the moment on film and forcing everyone to don their kodak-moment-worthy smiles. Turns out it was more fun that way anyhow, and the kids were much more willing to pose when I had an idea to sit on some hay bails at the last minute and get a family photo. So our friend Amber took our pic, and I love it. It turned out great. I'd much rather have a few happy photos to look back on than a camera full of smile-or-your-grounded pics that don't mean as much. :)

Recent and random

6 year old princess

I'm slacking on the birthday blog posts this September--not for lack of desire, but for lack of time [insert lame jury duty joke]--so I will quickly say, Happy Birthday, Miss Grace!

 
My sweet girl turned 6 today, and normally this is where I would say something sappy like, "It doesn't seem possible that my baby girl is this old...." but actually it does. In fact, she seems about 8 or so b/c she's learning so fast and changing right before my eyes almost daily. So we celebrate 6 years, but feel like she's been blessing our family for much longer. I can't remember the days before she came along anymore; she's always been part of us.

 
Miss Grace is such a mix of things--sweet, stubborn, kind, independent, loving, confident, thoughtful--and I can't wait to see how God uses her personality. She has a heart for prayer and is usually the one who remembers people to pray for, people who are sick or don't know Jesus. She's very much a little girl and has moments of drama, yet she's very matter-of-fact. I think it's one of her greatest strengths; she accepts things as they are, that and no more. She's more of a doer than a thinker, much like her father, and I admire that, too.

Thank you, Lord, for our Grace Anna!