No Pressure

We experienced our first fall break this weekend.  It was full of really happy moments.

I'm realizing that school puts a lot of stress on our family- pressure to get up and moving so we can be out the door at a certain time.  Pressure to keep Leah interested in school (school hasn't been too challenging for her yet since she is only there for 3 hours every morning, which is mostly reading time... and her teacher told us she was reading at an-end-of-1st-grade-level during the first week of testing).  Pressure to keep Emma on a nap schedule that keeps her happy and rested, while also being able to pick Leah up from school at 11:30 every day and occasionally running other errands, visiting teaching, seeing friends.  Pressure to have quality teaching/nurturing/energy-releasing moments with Adam every morning while his sisters are at school and napping (but, oh! only one child to entertain means the potential for getting so much done!).  Pressure to get as much done in the spare pockets of each hour so I can focus more on my kids.  Pressure to keep the afternoons enjoyable/enriching/educating/entertaining so I don't feel like maybe school really is a better place for Leah than home.  Pressure to get a good meal on the table every night so Jason doesn't come home to a half-gnawed PBJ that has been cast aside on the kitchen counter, and there is no time left in the day for me to cook something decent because our nights are filled with dance class carpool, piano lessons, gymnastics, date night and FHE.  Pressure to make sure that my kids are regularly bathed so none of them are labeled the stinky kid at home, school, or play.  Pressure to get the kids into bed at a decent hour so we can get up and do it all again the next day.  Pressure to (again!) cram as much work/me-time as I can into those few precious hours before I fall into bed, gearing myself up for another full day.  Pressure to remind myself how very grateful I am for all the things that I don't feel as much stress or worry about- money, health, safety, finding a job after graduation...

Okay, so maybe all of that pressure isn't so much school-induced as it is motherhood/life-induced, but still.  It was so nice to let that pressure go, even just for a few days.

We started fall break in our jammies.  The kids heard popping popcorn and sneakily appeared in the kitchen, not sure if we would shuffle them back to bed like we have to do on school nights.  Thanks to fall break, we just invited them to join us in a game of speed Scrabble.

We continued the fall fun the next morning in our jammies.

We had some school friends over for a cookie-decorating lunch date (one of the major downsides of half-day kindergarten is that Leah misses out on social time with her friends).  I haven't seen Leah that excited since her last birthday.

But first Adam and Emma had to help me make the cookies.

And they were happy to help sample the completed product.

We hosted date night, went to a service project at a local Boy Scout camp the next morning, a birthday party in the afternoon and a Halloweenie Roast in the evening.  We had a delightfully regular Sabbath day.  We ate more cookies and carved pumpkins (Halloween related pictures will be getting their own post).

I wanted the final day of fall break to be full of fun.  We headed to Mary Lou's for donuts this morning before the sun was up.  The kids were so excited to be out first thing- in their jammies, no less!  When we pulled out of the driveway there were still stars in the sky.  We watched the sunrise and saw a beautiful full moon as we slowly made our way over to the best donuts in town.  And seeing Daddy for breakfast!  What a treat in itself.  Then we dropped him off at school and headed home.

The kids were thrilled to spend the entire morning in jammies- we read stacks of books, played a witchy game of "Room on the Broom", and watched cartoons.  

We made skeleton crafts, had a tasty lunch and played beauty shop.  Emma Grace took two naps.

We ended the day with dance class, a quick dinner and a Family Home Evening treasure hunt.  It was a happy, happy long weekend.  When I look back on this weekend, I will remember that it was happy.  I was laughing, smiling, and playing with my kids.  I still did 4 loads of laundry today, prepared, served and cleaned up several meals, and even did some closet organization for the kids.  I still responded to pressing emails, did the dance carpool, and had to get after kids for not responding to requests the third, or thirtieth time.  But we all laughed, smiled and had fun the whole day, the whole weekend long.  The pressure was off.

Now I just need to figure out how to incorporate those happy feelings into the back-to-business days of our lives.  Or maybe the break from all that pressure is what makes these moments so special.

The Waiting Place

These last few months of graduate school are starting to remind me of a Dr. Suess poem- 

You can get so confused

that you'll start in to race

down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace

and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,

headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.

The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or a No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite

or waiting for wind to fly a kite

or waiting around for Friday night

or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake

or a pot to boil, or a Better Break

or a string of pearls, or a pair of pants

or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.

Everyone is just waiting.

I would add to that.... waiting for another chapter of the thesis to be written, or a real estate agent to be met.  Waiting for a chance to visit Iowa again, a house to be bought or a season to change or a new couch to be purchased.   Waiting for that highly anticipated degree to be earned!  

I hate the waiting place.  There is so much that is just out of my hands.  One of the hardest things about being a supportive graduate student's wife (or a soldier's wife, or an entrepreneur's wife, or any kind of supportive wife at all) is the fact that all you can do is support.  You can't make the money or earn the degree for your husband.  You can support, encourage, and push them out the door again and again, but you just can't do it for him.  At the end of the day, he is  in the drivers seat, and you are helpless only to watch from the passengers seat.  There is a lot of trust, patience and love that comes with being in a supportive role.  

There is so much life ready to be lived while we are waiting for the Next Big Thing.  And that's what I focus on while I'm waiting... and waiting... and waiting...

NO!

That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape

all that waiting and staying.

You'll find the bright places

where Boom Bands are playing.

There has never been any question that graduate school was the right path for our family.  We've been very happy and very blessed in graduate school.  But the next chapter is on the horizon!  We're so close, and the waiting place is a horrible place to be- no time left to make new friends (someone actually said to me the other day, after I suggested that we get to know each other better, "Aren't you moving soon?").  No time to join the PTA, no time to rearrange my furniture or swap out our outdated family pictures for our fancy new ones.  Because we're so close.  We're just waiting.  The Next Big Thing is right around the corner.  I just don't want to miss out on the next four months of living because I was stuck in the waiting place.  Now how to make that happen... 

P.S. Just in case you think we don't know that Iowa is the 3rd least cool state in the United States (trumped only by Kansas and Nebraska), we know.  Oh, do we know.  More often than not, when we tell people we are moving to Iowa, we hear crickets.... and get frozen smiles that remind me of that scene from The Singles Ward when the missionary declares, "I'm going to Boise, Idaho!"  Why can't they grow corn somewhere awesome, like NYC or Seattle, California or Virginia?  Oh well... we're going to Ankeny, Iowa!

The Brain

Adam has started showing a real affinity for numbers.  He likes to do simple computations in his head, loves to count, add and subtract.  I was explaining a simple addition problem to Leah during her math lesson- "There are 5 ants and only 2 apples.  How many more apples do we need to draw so each ant can have an apple?"  This is something she has done many times and usually gets right, but before she had a chance to answer this time, Adam shouted out "Thwee!"

When I tucked Adam into bed tonight, he gasped and said, "We didn't do math too-day!"  From day one, he has pulled out his workbook to study right alongside Leah during math time.  And it's starting to show!  He was playing on starfall.com today and found the math section- he was completely engrossed in the addition questions they asked- "If Ruby has four oranges and picks two more oranges, how many oranges does she have altogether?"- and consistently got the answers right.  I know, I know, small genius.  I just love watching those little cogs turn.

And to give letters a fair shot, we played a late-night game of team Speed Scrabble to kick off fall break tonight.  Adam pulled an "R", Jason asked if Adam had any favorite words that had the letter "R"
 in them.  (His favorite, favorite word to spell is his name, which wouldn't quite work.)  So he thought for a bit and said, "Children's Museum!"

We like to play "Would you rather..." to learn about our preferences.  While sitting around the table munching popcorn and M&Ms, I said I loved the snack, even more than popcorn and fudge(!).  So we asked each person, "Would you rather have popcorn and fudge or popcorn and M&Ms?".  Adam had the best answer of all- "De Disney Cwooze."  Well, I'd rather have that, too.

And what a better place to post a picture of Adam dressed like a girl than in a post all about Adam?  He was very proud of this fancy get up, much to Jason's chagrin.

Fall Fun

I keep forgetting it's nearly the end of October because the weather has been so nice.  We've had many fun and low-key afternoons at home enjoying the weather.  We were home without a car one Saturday afternoon, and discovered a tiny pumpkin patch in our own backyard!  The kids had a great time choosing their favorites, gathering up a basket full of gourds, and hauling them into the house for decorating.  I contributed to the fall fun by making caramel apple scones. Yum.

A few days later we raked up a pile of leaves and jumped, and jumped, and jumped into them, buried ourselves in them, and tossed them at each other.

Today I wheeled the kids around the yard in a leaves-filled wheelbarrow.  They thought it was fantastic.  I love the simple moments of happiness that we've been sharing in the backyard.  No computers, phones, or TVs beckoning us, no dishes to clean, toys to pick up, math or penmanship lessons to plug through... in these sweet moments, we're just enjoying each other and the beautiful fall weather.

Inflation

Thanks to the book Caps for Sale, my kids love to wander around the house shouting, "Caps (or pumpkins or books or muffins) for sale!  Fifty cents a cap (or pumpkin or book or muffin)!"

They hate it when they are all hanging off of the grocery cart and I call out "Babies!  Babies for sale!  Fifty cents a baby!"

"Shh!  Mommy!  Don't say that or somebody will buy us!"

But Adam got the ultimate prize this week when he was sorting through his new piggy bank.

"Quarters!  Quarters for sale!  Fifty cents a quarter!"

How could I resist?  I bought two.

Take Two

 Perhaps, if we had waited a week for perfect fall weather, 

 if we had known the beautiful fall colors would still be so intense, 

if we thought our adorable nine-months pregnant photographer could have traversed the muddy forest, 

 if we had known this park exsisted, 

 perhaps then we would have chosen Murdock Park for our fall family photo shoot.

 Still, we had an absolutely delightful Sunday afternoon scaling tree root covered hills, collecting leaves, searching for woodland creatures

and gathering "coconuts"  (according to Adam, who concluded that must be what those small, brown, round things he found all over the forest floor were called.)

Emma was very, very proud of the coconuts her big brother gave her.

There is something so magical about wandering through an unknown forest, discovering nature and appreciating all of our Heavenly Father's creations.

Especially in the fall, when it seems like the earth is bursting with color just because the Lord wants to see us smile.. 

We're glad that we live in this beautiful world that Heavenly Father created for us.

 And yes, I did take the top picture with our camera's self-timer.  But not without a few trial shots first... 

Without Fail...

One of my children wakes up at 5:38 AM.  Every day.  Without fail.

When my alarm goes off I roll over once more and consider how behind our schedule would be if I slept in just this once.  Every morning.  Without fail.

My heart sinks a tiny bit when that big yellow school bus pulls up and my sweet little tiny marches on.  Every morning.  Without fail.

Emma Grace creates her nastiest diaper of the week immediately after the garbage truck picks up our trash on Friday morning.  Every week.  Without fail.

Along the bathroom vein, Emma thinks that she needs to fill her pants at the library-with-the-world's-crankiest-librarians.  Every week.  Without fail.  Even when she just went right before we left for the library and I left the diaper bag in the car because I thought for certain I wouldn't need it.  Every week.

Jason takes the kids to gymnastics on Thursday nights, and he says that Adam has to poop 10 minutes before his class starts.  Every week.  Without fail.  Must be nerves.

When Emma goes down for her morning nap, I give Adam a choice of things to do while it's just the two of us- play Hi-Ho Cheerio, read books, play with trains, do a craft.... He picks "play on de compooder".  Every time.  Without fail.

When I have somewhere to be at a scheduled time, Emma takes an extra long nap, causing me to either wake her up or scramble to find a sweet friend to come sit with her while I run out the door.  Every time.  Without fail.... as in 3 of her last 4 naps have left me scrambling, and for the fourth one, I just woke her up.

When I look out our toy room window, I am amazed at how beautiful the tree across the street is, and I stop for a moment to enjoy it, for our last fall.  And I feel a little sad (but mostly excited) to realize that this chapter of our lives is about to close.  Every time.  Without fail.

When we share our goodies and baddies/roses and thorns/princesses and dragons/Buzzes and Zurgs (aka- the best and worst part of our days), Leah says, "My baddy was that I missed Mommy while I was at school, and my goody was that I didn't lose a sand dollar."  Every day.  Without fail.

The children's museum is always so, so fun.  Especially when we go with friends.  Every time!  Without fail.

When I have a late night craving for Yorks, Jason jumps at the chance to run to the store to pick some up for me.  And he comes back with ice cream for himself, too.  Every time (which has been all of twice now).  Without fail.

I check on the kids every night before I go to bed.  Every night Adam is clinging to the very edge of his bed, Leah is sleeping with a crooked neck, and I am shocked at just how big they look in their beds.  Every single night.  Without fail.

Family Pictures

Given that our last family pictures were taken when Adam was less than a year old, it has been high time for new pictures for a while now.  If we ever have a family photo shoot that doesn't have some major hiccups with weather, outfits, and cooperation issues, I'll be sure to blog about it.  Until then, I just tell myself that no matter what, in 20 years I'll be so glad to have some pictures- any pictures- of our family when we looked like back when... Thankfully, we had an awesome photographer who worked with us to get these fun fall pictures.

  

 By the time we were coaxing out smiles with fruit snacks, things were getting a little silly.  

After a few (hundred!) family pictures, we packed the kids up in the car while Jason and I got a few quick shots of just us.  

 

And the traditional walking away photo- 

Until next time!