I have a confession. The four walls of my suburbus do not often fall into the category of my most engaged parenting moments. The littles tend to talk incessantly, and I tend to answer mindlessly. I turn up the music, look blankly ahead, and just try to make it to the next destination. Recently, as we were driving along something caught my attention. It was so bizarre that I stopped to take a picture on the way home. As we…
If I had all the riches in the world, and perhaps a genie in a bottle, there is no question in my mind the luxuries in which I would choose to indulge. A personal chef. A fabulous stylist. A person to take care of my ironing. (Seriously, I have control over these little men. Why do I keep putting them in so many shirts that need ironing? Not smart, Momma. Not smart.) There is always at least one area of…
Several years ago, it was almost April, and I was driving down the interstate with tears streaming down my face. There were several situations in my life that felt out of control and completely uncertain. Outside, the sun was shining. But in my heart, the storm had rolled in like a small dark cloud, and gained speed until the rains gushed down on me as I wondered if I might drown. As I pulled off of the interstate and onto…
We recently returned from a family vacation to Costa Rica. We were so blessed for the adventure, and while we had to leave the smallest turkey behind, the older turkeys had the experience of a lifetime. While we were there, we wanted to take the boys on an excursion they would enjoy, and sweet Moses did we get a lot of bang for our buck! It was a lovely sunny morning when we walked to the end of the street…
About nine months ago, I made a major career change. After working eight years as a teacher, I decided it would be in the best interest of our family to make a move. Now, I have a trifecta of bosses who are quite demanding. The Senior Executive demands that he be driven everywhere he needs to go, and my other work responsibilities must be arranged around his schedule. My Corporate Boss is, to put it politely, a dramatic food-aholic. And…
My middle. Bless. BUH-less. From the moment he entered the delivery room, my middle turkey made it clear that he was here on his own terms. He spent the first couple of years of his life pretty quiet and shy around others, slowly building up his vocabulary at home. But one day the floodgates opened and he hasn’t stopped since. Seriously, the child talks NONSTOP. NON. STOP. All the live long day. And since I am now home with him…
Yesterday in a period of about ten minutes, I saw my boys take their love for each other from one extreme to the other. The boys recently inherited a battery operated four-wheeler that needs a new battery. After losing its charge pretty quickly, I saw my oldest push and pull his younger brother all over the yard. Now younger brother is no small tart and the four-wheeler is pretty hefty too. So for a solid hour or so, oldest brother…
“Mmm. Love that.” These were my mom’s words referring to my sweet baby boy. “I just love when you pick a baby up, and they stop crying.” It was a thought that had not escaped my own mind just a few weeks before. The third baby. Here is the general cycle I seemed to have noticed. For the first, I felt strangely at a loss, yet confident that I had this mother thing all figured out—it was what I was…
In the first two weeks of June, the two oldest turkeys took swimming lessons. Toward the end of the session we were briefed on their progress and the teacher, who is also a dear friend of mine, cautioned us that we should really watch our oldest. A common mistake in kids is that they tend to venture out, and while they are capable of reaching their intended goal, when it gets close, they stop swimming. They panic and forget to…
Yesterday was the kind of day which I was almost certain may have been the beginning of the apocalypse, and so I decided to celebrate my survival with a pedicure. I walked in, picked out the prettiest pink, put my tired momma feet in the water, pulled up Etsy and got to shopping. A mere 27 seconds later, my world was turned upside down at the arrival of two bouncing little girls. They couldn’t have been any more than five…