serious business

Oh, dear. Let me just say that Peter did not know he was being photographed here, nor was he trying to be funny.

ballpark fun

Yesterday marked the end of baseball season. Sam's team (Homeworks Central) came in third place. They had a great last couple of games and ended the season on a high note. I was completely intimidated by Little League at first. I thought it was going to be super hardcore and serious. While the boys and coaches certainly did take it seriously, it was much more fun than I had anticipated. The coaches did a fantastic job...they had a good bunch of boys on the team...and it was fun to get to know some of the parents, too. Our boy really does love baseball. Not once did he complain about the TWO HOUR games, twice a week (I did, though...:), get upset about striking out or not playing the position he wanted, or seem to mind that most of the boys on the team were heads AND shoulders taller than him. He was in his element. He was like a fish in water. Like a pea in a pod. Like Mom in a Starbucks. :) I got to learn all sorts of baseball lingo, too, like "Good cut" and "Don't aim the ball, just throw it" and "Power T! Teardrop!"...so I can really sound like I know what's going on!

Yessir, I believe this was the first of many summer seasons at the ballpark!

laziness - no, restfulness

Just about every day for the last week or so, I've had something on my mind to blog about. But here's the thing. I've gotten really spoiled with this laptop sitting on the dining room table. It's not ours, but we're "laptop-sitting". It's wonderful, but it just provides more opportunity to be online when I should be doing something else. Anyway, all my photos are on the desktop computer (or still on the camera). While I realize transferring the pics to the laptop is not rocket science, I'm admitting that while I sit on the sofa with the laptop on my....well, my lap at 11:38pm, it really does seem like too big a task. Anyway, Tim says I need a "thumb drive". I still haven't figured out DVRs. I don't know what a thumb drive is. Or maybe I do, and I just thought it was called something else. Does it usually come attached to a string-around-the-neck thingy? I'd ask Tim, but he's sawing logs next to me here on the couch with his earbuds in. We are LAME. All this to say that if I had a "thumb drive", I'd have new posts, complete with photos, just about every day! Hmmph!

Enough of that nonsense. Today marks the end of a season for us....the season of running around/never eating supper together/feeding kids at the ballpark/tag-team parenting. Today was the final game of Sam's Little League (which, by the way, his team won to come in third place in the league...) AND as soon as the game was over we hopped in the car to take Sam to Pine Lake Camp. It's his first time at camp..please pray that he stays safe, gets to know Jesus in a new way, and brushes his teeth at least once. I know hoping for a shower is a pipe-dream, but I threw in the shampoo and soap anyway. Sorry...bunny trail. So baseball is over, Janie and (almost) Sam are done with camp. We can now relax a little. We are now free to move about our summer. We have really enjoyed the crazy season....the kids love their camp, the ballgames were fun to watch, and we are having so much fun watching the kids grow and experience new things. But now we're looking forward to grilling in the backyard. Going to the park to hit balls. Swimming. Camping. Eating popsicles on the front porch while catching lightning bugs and going to bed late and filthy....I mean, freshly bathed of course. Yah, sure, ya-betcha! :)

Last week was one of those in which I was exhausted and in desperate need of a sick day. I didn't realize for a day or two that the reason I was feeling so fatigued is that I was coming down with some sort of bug (and maybe partly because of all these kids wanting me to fix them food all the time :). Anyway, amidst the tiredness I started to head down that mental path where I over-analzye and question and wonder if I'm doing everything wrong and what would we do about this or that in five years. But God spoke to me in a number of ways and reminded me that 1) to not trust Him is actually sin (ouch) 2) that I only need to take one day at a time, and 3) that the life he has given me today is so rich and beautiful and I am MISSING IT by worrying and over-analyzing. As my dear friend Susanna would say...IT IS WHAT IT IS. Have I mentioned that that little phrase changed my life at one point? Deal with today. And be thankful in the process.

I bid you goodnight now. I'm going to enjoy a quiet house for a few minutes (one would expect that at 12:14am..although Tim is still snoring). I'm going to ignore the dishes in the sink, the kitchen trash which smells like death, the tufts of cat hair floating around the living room floor, and the array of legos, blocks, papers, and pipe cleaners(?) which are dispersed in the upstairs hallway.

I seriously just sat here thinking I should really find a photo to post with this, but I'm just too comfy to get up..... :)

a little child shall lead them....

Last night the kids got to bed late due to a long, hot Little League game which meant showers for all boys afterward. It was about 10:30, and I heard post-bedtime footsteps coming down the stairs. Not one of my favorite sounds. I was immediately ready to roll some heads. Until Joe peeked his head down the stairs and gave me the following report:

"Mom, I just wanted you to know that I asked Peter if he wanted to be a Christian, and I told him I would pray with him and he could repeat after me and I helped him become a Christian."

Silence as Tim and I digest this news... Can you just picture the scene up there between those two little beds? I had to stop and really realize that, even if Peter doesn't really understand what being a Christian means, that Joe just had a hand in Peter's early understanding of salvation. It amazes me that a six-year-old boy would even have that on his mind at 10:30pm on a Thursday night. A humbling reminder that God is at work in even the littlest.

P.S. Just to keep things real, I have to add this little bit....In my over-analytical-ness, I made sure to talk with Joe about the fact that while a prayer is an important part of making a decision for Jesus, it is the belief in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God and died for our sins that truly makes us Christians. He said he knew that, and also that he believes in Santa. "I don't know why, I just do." (in all earnestness). Okaaaayyy. I guess we'll sort that one out later!

ahhhh.......summer!

another tough guy..

A few Sundays ago, we met Tim's brother's family in Peoria to see a traveling Titanic exhibit. Upon arrival, we learned that the wait time to get in was FOUR HOURS. Just think of standing in line with NINE children altogether for that long. Not even close to comprehensible. So, thanks to Deb's Garmin, we found a nature center that had some hiking trails. We had a great time hiking, finding snails, having cousin-fun. Of course, with that many kids, there had to be at least one injury. And of course, poor Joe took one for the team.

tough guy

This morning, my husband asked me to remove a splinter from his foot. He knows how I LOVE to get splinters out. (I'm quite serious about this. I find great satisfaction in removing splinters. I get excited when my children get splinters. Sick, I know.) His was right on the bottom of his foot - unfortunately not in a calloused area. So I found my choice tweezers (the kind with sharper edges, not those blunt ones - totally worthless), arranged the lighting, and set to work. Though the splinter was visible, there was nothing to grab onto, so I had to do some work with a needle. This is the part I particularly enjoy, although my victims--I mean, patients vehemently oppose this practice. Anyway, my big strong husband - who once shaved off the end of his finger with a wire cutter and wrapped it with electrical tape, who goes to work with broken ankles, and who slides into second base with shorts on - this man squirmed and yelped during the splinter removal process. We decided he wouldn't make a good prisoner of war. The enemy would have no trouble getting him to sing like a canary.

little heart-breaker

Can't you just see the girls swooning over this one in a couple of years? (I'm talking about Joe, not Tim --although I personally think there's much to swoon over in the latter as well) ;)

I love those boys.

kids music

Tim listens to music pretty much all the time. He's got great taste in music, and is always introducing new stuff to us. (For you parents, one of our ALL TIME favorite "kids" albums is called "Slugs, Bugs, and Lullabies" by Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame....absolutely wonderful). So the kids have quite a repertoire of songs in their little noggins. That's great. But there is a band that they seem to have really caught on to called the House of Heroes. They are a VERY talented group of young punks (by young, I mean twenties). Not exactly kids music, though. They play for Christian venues, and they are incredible musicians. I even attended one of their concerts. Aside from feeling OLD, it was great. But my kids sing their songs all the time, and sometimes it makes me wonder if we should only be letting them listen to "Wee Sing Bible Songs".

They are particularly drawn to a song called "If". The following are some of the lyrics: "I could be in love..if..you wore that dress everyday....your beautiful smile and your eyes of gray...if you mine if you were mine if you were mine...a beautiful bird on a line...a beautiful bride of frankenstein...a beautiful drop of iodine....if you were mine, i'd have the world...i'd have the world...if you were mine..."

Nothing inappropriate, really. But Peter sings this song to himself while coloring or playing legos. And Sam, when asked in Sunday School to share one of his favorite songs with the class, chose this one. His teacher later asked if I would help him select a "Christian" song to share next time. Sigh.

Another one is about a guy in love with a communist girl. ????? My children know this song.

Can you imagine peeking in on your four-year-old as he builds a train track, hearing him sing "Red, Red, Baby's a Red, she's blood red, Baby's a Red, the feds said lock her in lead, she's red, but, I love her...."?

Don't judge me. It's how it is at our house. I told Tim to make up for all this nonsense, he has to put "Wee Sing" on his ipod and play it while he's got the kids in the car. That will go over big, I'm sure.

catching up..

(I thought I'd share a picture of our new table - see previous post about selling old table on a whim at garage sale...- I have since stained the top, but have not yet painted the legs..you get the idea anyway. Isn't it grand and sturdy-looking?)

I have spent the last few weeks enjoying my friends' blogs, fully intending to upload some pics and post something new (Tim says I need more pics on the blog...true..I'm just lazy and half the time can't find my camera..). There certainly has been no lack of blog material around here...I've been storing them up in my head. So each night when everyone is finally tucked in and quiet - the perfect time to recall the day's happenings - I sit down for just one or two episodes of the office on Hulu, and then it's all over from there. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's. And more ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's. You get the idea. I've tried posting in the middle of the day, but you know how I have a hard time keeping it short and sweet...and so many distractions...and it ends up all rambling and not making much sense.

LAND THE PLANE, as my friend's husband always says..in other words, get to the point.

So I'm trying to get back in the blogging saddle. It has been an adjustment around here getting used to six rather than four. I don't adjust very quickly. It's always a messy emotional ride. Usually not pretty. And messy. Isn't life just messy? Ours is. Anyway, the adjustment period is settling down. So I'm going to try to get some things blogged so I can look back and be glad to remember the little things.