In the words of Ella and Louis, "Summertime, and the livin' is easy". We are busy and havin' fun!

My Babies

Mother, oh Mother, come shake out your cloth
empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
hang out the washing and butter the bread,
sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
and out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
but I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
for children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.


by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

Tea Time

Sugar and spice and everything nice. Little girls right? How does mine keep getting gashes and cuts, scrapes, burns, and bruises? A couple weeks ago she smashed her face on a thomas the train and bled from her mouth and her nose. Then she bit her tongue when she slipped in the bath, burned her finger on my curling iron, and fell off the couch to win herself a whopping 9 staples in her head. This girl has been in the hospital way too many times lately.

Here's some lovin' for the fathers...

7:02 pm

It just took one hour for Luci to go to sleep. I'm not sure if it's because Jacob wasn't here tonight, or if she really just couldn't live without that one extra song that she begged over and over for. While she was up there she practiced saying 'no' in her meanest voice over and over, said she needed to go potty a million times, informed me that she was 'awake now mommy', cried for her special blankie (which she can't have b/c she peed on it this morning and I haven't washed it yet), etc... what a crazy lady. I love her though, I do. I love the way she stroked my hair as I finally gave in and rocked her til' she calmed down, love the way she tells me I'm the 'bumb' except she really means to say the 'bomb', love the way she eats vegetables dipped in blue cheese, love the way she gives me arm tickles when she's sitting on my lap, love the way she holds my face right next to hers when she has something important to say, love her energy. Just love her.

Eli took exactly 2 minutes to go to sleep tonight. Seriously, what a chill guy. He fussed a little so I knew he was tired. I wrapped him up in his soft blue blankie and he smiled at me. I sang him two songs, layed him down, and left him there wide awake. Went back two minutes later to find him out cold. love him. Love the way he gets excited when we read him books, love how chunky he's getting, love his deep blue eyes, love his cute little noises and the conversations we have, love how he enjoys his bath.

Life is good peeps. later gaters.

Oatmeal??

A new way to eat oatmeal for breakfast. Delicious! Check it out here.

Lessons

Lately I've been learning a lot of lessons. Lessons that probably would have seemed really hard if they were in any previous time in my life. Okay not really hard...maybe just a little difficult. Learning how to balance 2 children, a husband with a job, and my own needs and wants is definitely a puzzle. I have found that I can get by on the basics, like cereal for breakfast, jammies all day, popping in a movie for luci when I'm tired, making frozen ravioli, saving jobs for Jacob to do when he get's home, etc... But I enjoy my life so much more when it pushes me to my limits. When I plan fun adventures, yummy food, when I read good books, have meaningful scripture study, plan interesting crafts and activities, look pretty for my husband, take care of my home, and really soak in every moment with my children.

This is all interesting to me because while I find that I enjoy my life more, I am also tremendously tired at the end of every day, and some moments are really stressful as I try to be intentional in everything that I do. Sometimes it's because I don't plan good enough, or I plan too much. It's hard to fail and have your day blow up in your face. Something my dad taught me though is that, "if you don't get hurt sometimes then you're not trying hard enough". So, I've been pushing myself and praying for strength. Strength to push through the tired moments with a smile on my face, to not complain when I want to , to be okay with the times that I do get hurt. I really have to rely on the Lord, especially when I'm starting to lose patience. You say, "how could I ever lose patience with that sweet little curly haired red head" well, I'm sorry to say that sometimes I do. She doesn't deserve it though.

A few things that have really helped me lately to have perspective in this phase of my life as a young mother are

1. Country Music...yes it's true. They're always singin' about how "you're gonna miss this" you know, when you're kids grow up. It's so true though. My babies are going to be 24 and I'm going to be 50 before I know it.

(She's practically 24 and mothering me already)

2. Other's experiences that have been or are much more difficult than mine. I listened to an episode of Everything Creative on the Mormon Channel yesterday. It was about a mother with an amazing story. She had some really hard things to handle, and yet she did it creatively. It was Episode 7. Listen to it when you have a little while, maybe while you're folding laundry...

3. The Scriptures. We're studying the old testament in Sunday School, and we have a great teacher... Anyway, the children of Israel had some pretty stinkin' hard trials. The women who traveled with Nephi and Lehi too. Bearing children in the wilderness, surviving on raw meat, yucK! Okay, and the ultimate example and heroine to me is Eve. The first woman on earth, no parenting books to read, no internet to look up what to do when your child's temp. is 105 degrees. Not even a mother to call to ask for help. No one to babysit while she ran some errands, or planted her garden. Wow, I really am glad that she did it, and not me.

So, even though I'm tired, I love my life. And I know that I'm doing what I'm supposed to. When I'm intentional about it I feel so much better.