WHAT IT'S LIKE

So, if you've ever wondered what it's like to have four kiddos four and under running (or laying) around, I'm here to tell you about it.

It's like having a four year old sneak into your room at first light and check to see who is awake.  She and her lambie climb into bed with you.

It's like having a two year old come and crinkle their granola bar wrapper at your bedside asking for it to be opened.  I still always have to remind her to thank me.

It's like having ravenous twins who haven't been fed all night long and desperately need to eat.  The snooze button, aka the paci, stops working.  Though, to be fair to them, they did sleep all night.  Way to go, Violet.  Let's keep up this trend.

It's like walking out to the couch and seeing what looks to be the trail of a slug across the middle couch cushion.  Upon investigation, Bella informs me that she wiped her snot in a line, because she didn't want to use a tissue.

It's like having Lily running to me and telling me that Bella hurt her.  Again.  All while both are wailing.  About mostly nothing.  No blood, no foul, girls.  Some people need thicker skin around our house.  And also - stay away from Bella.  How many times do I need to tell you that?

It's like not going more than 10 minutes (dare I say 5?) without having someone screaming/crying/whining about something that I need to address.  My brain feels like mush from all the stimulus and distraction.

It's like having two babies that both think they all of the sudden need to eat every two hours.  They are currently quite adamant on this point.

It's like taking a shower and having a crying Bella come in to say that she's hurt.  To prove it, she smears blood across the glass shower door, which does create quite the gruesome effect.  I finish my shower as she continues to cry about the blood, and I clean it and get her a treasured band-aid.  I remember not to make the same mistake as last week when I cleaned Lily's tiny flesh wound with straight up rubbing alcohol.  Cause I am a terrible mom sometimes.  John was a little on the horrified side when I told him, and he reminded me that I should have used hydrogen peroxide.  I may have mentioned before that my brain feels like mush.

It's like realizing that the whole time I was in the shower, William had been screaming in the swing, instead of napping as I had suggested.  Sometimes people have to scream around here.  As soon as I got William settled in his car seat, Violet started to cry.

So that was this morning.  It's not always like this, but sometimes it is.  This is not the hardest thing that anyone has ever done, is doing or will ever do.  Not by a long shot.  In the history of hard things, this probably doesn't hold a candle.  But, there are certainly frazzling moments, and I have a feeling I will look back on this time and season and think that it really was crazy.  When you're living it, you just have to put one foot in front of the other and do the next thing.  Dress the next child, change the next diaper, fix the next meal.  Or in my case, pick up the next meal from CFA.



I'm sure it doesn't help that September has arrived, and as I was telling John and my friends yesterday, it feels like once September starts, you jump on the fast track.  The activity ramps up, the responsibilities ramp up, and the fun ramps up.  It is great stuff and stuff that I believe God has for us, but there is a lot of it.  There are days that if I take a down moment I feel like I am wasting time somehow and not getting something done.  That's a bit of a frantic feeling that I am going to have to fight through.

So I need God's help more each hour when days are like this.  Which is right where I want to be, though I may not always feel like it.  That's what it's like around here.  And it's all worth it.

THE THING ABOUT FRIENDSHIP

All of my life, I can honestly say that I have been blessed with some of the best friends possible.  Friendships are such treasured things to me.  They make the good times that much sweeter, and they make the hard times that much more bearable.

This fall I am starting to lead a group at our church for other moms.  It occurred to me that this will be the first time in quite a while that I will have to really step out and try to connect with some new women.  This is daunting to me for many reasons.  I feel terrible at small talk, and I feel like I ask stupid questions.  I don't like pretense, but some level of it feels almost inescapable in the beginning.  I want to skip the "get to know you" phase and be straight in the "we all know everybody's stuff and love each other just the same" phase.  Unfortunately, there is no short cut.  Like most good things in life, you have to put in the time.

And here's the thing I've observed about friendship along the way - at the end of the day, you become friends with who you spend time with.  Granted, it helps to have some basic commonality, and it helps when you "click."  But, even when you don't "click" with people right away, you can still become best of friends, just by shared experiences and especially through a shared Jesus.

In high school, I had a group of girl friends that were amazing and that I adore to this day.  I can't believe that I got to do life with these women during that critical part of our lives, and I am so proud of who each of them are today.  Looking back at it all, I can see how different we all were in so many ways.  We had varied interests, skill-sets and even varied friends outside of our group.  But - we all had Jesus, and we spent time together.  I went on mission trips with most of these girls at one time or another.  There were long summer days spent waking up at noon, heading to Sonic and then laying out at the pool.  There were school dances.  There were sleepovers.  There were school projects.  There was Mole Day.  (I didn't realize this wasn't a big deal everywhere until sometime in college.)  We knew each other's families and stories, good and bad.


(Side note: I'm not sure if I felt fashionable in my polo and khakis or not.  Probably I did not think much about it.  I wouldn't consider myself the best dresser then or now.)

All those shared experiences formed bonds that can never be undone.  And, I think that is the trick to friendship.  Doing life with people.  Making it a priority to be in community.  I saw my parents do this from the time I was young, and it stuck with me.  I am so thankful they modeled that for me, and I hope that our children pick up the same thing.  God did not want for us to walk through life alone.  He made us to need one another.

I am still so blessed by friendships.  Having people to laugh and cry with at a moment's notice is not something that I take for granted, because I feel like we have put in the time.  We didn't arrive here by accident or fall into it - we have worked at including people in our lives, and it has been worth every bit.  The Christian life really is a battle, and we are all in some unfinished state of sanctification that will never be complete until eternity.  (our Community group has been going through Romans)

So, I guess my encouragement here would be to find people - people who are available and want to share life.  Being in the same season of life helps, because you can naturally spend more time together doing things you are doing anyway.  Don't discount people that you don't click with right away - at the end of the day, you become friends with who you spend time with.  You come to love the quirks that initially might have been off-putting, and you find that they can love you in spite of your psychosis.  Cause we've all got it.  We are all messy, fallen people.  Life is better lived together.

CELEBRATING MOMENTOUS POOP

Did you like that title?   I used to sort of skirt around the details of potty training, but I've decided - What's the point?  We talk about poop a lot here these days.  Where it should go.  What it smells like.  How big it is.  This is the glamorous life of being a parent.  Lots of poop talk.

Potty training Bella has been infinitely better and easier than potty training Lily.  This is for tons of reasons.  Bella is motivated by having an older sister that is potty trained.  This was all Bella's idea.  I have chilled out considerably between child one and child two and realized that children really do potty train when they are ready.  Not before.  Trying to force it is futile.

Today, Bella pooped in the potty.  She has been going pee for the better part of two weeks, but she has been gun-shy for number two.  I had dangled the carrot of going and getting donuts as a family.  When that didn't seem to be exciting enough, I upped the ante and offered getting to pick out a new "baby doll."  So, after nap time, we loaded up and headed to Wal-Mart.  John met us there to make it extra fun.

Kids all got to ride in what the girls call the "Fun Cart."



After much debate, Bella picked out a set of two dolls.  She was so excited.  John and I also had a parenting moment with Lily where we decided not to let her get something as well.  This was very upsetting to her before we headed there, but that's real life.  You don't always get stuff even when your sibling does.  Lily did a great job while we were at the store being excited for Bella, which we really appreciated.

It was fun to be there all together, though a little crazy.



The excitement was so overwhelming to Bella that it required a nap in the car before dinner.  While clutching the dolls.

After a chinese buffet dinner, we went for the promised donuts.  The girls were on a total sugar high from the dinner Sprite, and then we added sprinkled donuts onto it.

Aunt Rachel came along for dinner and donuts to help celebrate.

Being able to rejoice about the victories is so important to me.  There are so many things that go wrong regularly, and when they go right, when milestones are reached, it is a privilege to make it a big deal and memorable and fun.  Here, John and the girls are "cheers"ing with the donuts.



She is not fully potty trained, but we are making major progress here.  Which is such a blessing.  It was a blast celebrating the momentous poop.  Who knows what tomorrow will hold.

LABOR DAY WKND: HIGHS & LOWS

It was pretty low-key round these parts this past weekend, and I am always glad about that.  There are plenty of high-key times to look forward to and plenty behind us, so whenever we are just chilling, I relish it.  Though I like being on the go as well - I guess I like the freedom to have both in our lives, and I am thankful for that.

Low:  I've been pretty sickly the past week, and it continued into the weekend.  John had some of it too, so we sounded like a pair of sick hackers when we were out on our date night this weekend.  It has mostly been coughing, but I will not be sorry to see the back of this cold.

High:  Friday night we headed to the pool with lots of friends to say farewell to summer and the end of pool time.  Lots of people were able to come at the last minute, which made it a delightful, crazy time together.  (Thanks for the idea and the picture, Court!)



High:  Saturday brought the return of Razorback football into our lives!  I had excited Hogs fans on my hands.  (They enjoyed posing with Aunt Rachel, who we educated about calling the Hogs this weekend.  She didn't know what I meant when I said WPS.)



High:  I got a sudden, surprise visit from a dear high-school friend of mine, and it was so good to see her.  I love old friends!  She also brought her adorable, mini-me daughter along.

Low:  I think after all the excitement of getting back into the fall routine last week, I had a tired Lily on my hands.  She was pretty whiny most of the weekend.  When I was taking a picture with my friend, she said she wanted in the picture, then she didn't, then she did.  And so on.  Here's what we ended up with.

We'll call it Real Life.



Low:  Bella was also exhausted - though, to be fair, she was less whiny.  She did, however, fall asleep at the table, which I never in a million years imagined actually happening.



High:  Saturday night we did Date Night!  We tried out a new restaurant in town, The Fold.  We highly recommend it - it was delicious and vintage adorable!





High:  The girls let us sleep in a bit.  I caught this sweet moment of Bella just after I got up.

High:  I grocery shopped with another adult along.  Thanks, John!  That meant I only had the older two girls to contend with while we wheeled around the store.  It's the little things.  Those little things are actually quite huge.

Low:  It decided to be hot this weekend.  So, when we went running/walking on Monday morning, it took a long time to cool down from all that heat.  But, the babies had fun!



High:  Friends invited us over for some amazing ribs on Monday night.  So, so good.  The guys had a good time talking Syria while holding the twins.



The older kids had so much fun playing together that they protested our departure by barricading the door.  Lily dragged that chair across the house.



All in all, it was good.  And now we are headed full force into fall!  Let the fall fun begin!