Jamaican me Crazy!

Steven and I were married for 10 years in March and decided to take a big anniversary trip - I put it off until September so I didn't have to rush weaning Mary Jo, plus I wanted to be sure she was sleeping through the night before I left our Moms to deal with that for a week. I felt like I prepared for the trip the entire month - I did lesson plans in advance, made freezer meals, pulled out the kid's winter clothes. Sometimes vacations with little children (even when they don't travel with you!) feel like they're more trouble than their worth - but this one was NOT! We're kinda boring, I guess, because after looking online at some other all-inclusive resorts we just decided to go back to the same resort we went to on our honeymoon - which is still absolutely wonderful. The resort had grown about twice as big as it was when we went 10 years ago but still had the same open, peaceful feel. Here is a picture of the outside of our unit, there are several of these with about 12 rooms a piece. 

 Here is the inside of the room - I love the open windows and private balcony - and maybe the maid service more than anything else. Something I don't think I cared about as much 10 years ago - but someone making up my bed and tidying up my room not once, but TWICE a day? That's paradise!  

Neither one of us are very good at selfies - this is the best Steven could do. It was sad to leave the kids and I had some dear friends praying for me to keep my anxieties at bay, but we quickly remembered how to enjoy each other's company again without the many distractions of every day life. For the first time in 13 years (since he started working) Steven actually turned his phone off. He didn't get an email, text, or voicemail for almost a week! He and his phone really needed that space. And I enjoyed his attention immensely!  

 I really am such a foodie - I got excited about every meal. I worked hard to get my weight down for this trip then went and ate whatever I wanted for 6 days - thankfully the scale was more merciful than I was expecting when we got back. The food was absolutely delicious - I don't think I felt hungry the whole time we were there (we just ate the next meal because it was time to :)).  I counted up the number of meals I normally prepare, serve, and clean up in a typical day at home and was so thankful for the break. This is a picture of dessert one night.... cheesecake I think? It was just such a pretty arrangement!

Ten years ago we were there in April - I of course had been tanning some so I wouldn't be pasty white at our wedding, Steven had not. So, of course,.he got an awful sunburn on that trip and had to go to bed early one night with sun poisoning. I guess I was being nostalgic but I was a little skimpy with the sunscreen for myself the first couple of days on this trip and I got pretty pink on my back - add that to a jellyfish sting and I was miserable for a few hours. One thing they still have at the resort is a lot of activities available at no extra charge, one of them being a Sunset Catamaran Cruise. Steven remembers wearing this same shirt on the same excursion 10 years ago. What a cutie I married. 

This was our view - it really must be one of the most beautiful beaches in this world. I couldn't help but marvel at the awesome power of our Lord, the colors he gave us and the amazing views, it's hard to capture in pictures. 

This was my favorite place to be. With a book, of course. Then when it gets hot you can take the white squishy seat off and float on it in the ocean or pool. It's just perfect. 

We met some nice people, enjoyed playing raquetball (I'm terrible), ate way too much, talked about how much has happened in our lives in the past 10 years. We are so thankful for the blessing of marriage - that God saw fit to bring us together all those years ago. I think we're more in love than we were 10 years ago (sorry to get mushy).   

I can't possibly post without talking about the kids - they did great and were well taken care of by their grandparents (all 4 had a part, and Aunt Leslie! It takes a village with this crew). If not for family I couldn't have left them, so thanks especially to our Moms! We were able to Facetime with the kids a few times which was great to get to see them, and they see us and where we were. The little 2 did not understand, I know, and David has been a little unhappy with me since we got back. I tried to show him some pictures today and he just threw the phone down. Hopefully they'll understand one day that a marriage needs time, too. And he wouldn't be here without ours! I'm getting back in the groove of everyday life - missing the maid and the food from Jamaica. The maid and cook here is just not very good. :)

Goodnight!  

The End of an Era...and the beginning of another?

I realized today that this week of my life is momentous - not sure if that's the word I'm looking for, but it will do. Steven makes fun of me for my nostalgia, but I couldn't help but shed a few tears today as I nursed Mary Jo for possibly the last time. Unless the Lord overrules medicine she is our last baby, and after a collective 64 months of nursing - and just over 8 years straight being nursing OR pregnant (sometimes both), part of me cant believe its over. It's been such a sweet time, an exhausting, rewarding, snuggly, tearful, but absolutely wonderful time. I count it as such a blessing that I could birth these 4 babies and spend countless hours nurturing them at my breast. But I'm also ready, in a way, to end that era - because hopefully, I started a new one this week.     

I started homeschooling Sadie and Eli on Monday, and it has been quite the adventure. I was prepared as I could be, but I still didn't know what to expect. My Mom was here the first two days and I tried to tell my Dad that I needed her as my assistant, but it didn't work. She went home Wednesday and I was on my own. Eli, surprisngly, did great. He seems to love his work, especially playing with the math manipulatives.

David thinks he's one of the students, which is great. He usually sits there and colors while I'm teaching, and for the most part has handled the transition well.

Part of me couldn't believe they were sitting there doing their work - I just had to take pictures!

Mary Jo has mastered making the biggest mess possible at my feet- my housekeeping has definitely taken a hit this week. The kids are participating more in the daily chores but simply being here more, all together, makes it messier than when we are gone most of the day. 

Thankfully we can run out for some recess when needed.

And most, well some, of the week they were fully clothed.

We had some pool time,

dress up time

a little rebellion here and there....but overall I am thankful to be able to try this new venture, as overwhelming as it is at times, it has already shown some sweet rewarding moments. Sadie was the most excited about homeschooling, maybe a little too much, because there was nowhere to go but to be disappointed. She told me Monday night that I was mean - I reminded her that one of her teachers that she had was once called mean, too, but ended up being a great teacher. She responded with "You're NOT great." I took the punch fairly well and realized that she will take some time to see me as her teacher, not just her Mom, even if I'm never "great" :) 

So as I close the pregnancy and nursing chapter of my life I am opening a new one - I thought nothing could be more exhausting or fulfilling than those years but I've been sleeping pretty hard at night - and I'm seeing some promise that these years will be ones I'll cherish just as much. As for Mary Jo, she seems to have changed her drink preference, anyways :) 

Water, Play dates, and "Reawy Big Fishies"

Well my Mary Jo has taken a turn for the better - she now loves the water! While we were at the lake with my parents she just flipped the switch - which was a little scary because she suddenly didn't want any help wading in chest deep lake water...warranting a life jacket despite her protest. Speaking of the lake - we had such a relaxing few days, Church Branch will always hold a special place in my heart and I'm thrilled that my kids are making their own memories there!

 Last week I had strep, Steven taught VBS all week, I killed the car battery one night by leaving the keys in the ignitioin all day (it had been awhile, I was due for a blonde moment involving cars), but by the weekend we were all recovered and ready to play. This week has been much better - we had many fun playdates. 

Here we are at a Splash Park with some friends - I love these places - no one can drown, it's free, and a good excuse to pack a lunch and eat outside! The kids loved it, too. :)

The next day we packed a lunch again and went to see a sweet friend of mine - we've been friends since we were our children's ages, and it's always immediately comfortable hanging out with her. She is due any day with her 3rd so we had plenty to talk about - and the kids had a blast at her neighborhood pool.

My Eli isn't quite the social butterfly Sadie is, he likes other kids but takes quite a while to warm up - whereas Sadie is pretty much instantaneous with her friendships. We've hung out with another family that's going to be in the same homeschool co-op and Eli certainly likes the little boy but they just kinda play next to each other. It will come, I guess! He so sweet, so it makes up for it. 

Sadie is Ms. Social, as you can see. She's pumped because she's had a little friend her age on the street this week - once again they're immediate friends. Below is her favorite school friend, one that we plan to keep up with even though Sadie's not going back. We made quite the painting mess, and probably picked my "fanciest room" to paint in - but it was worth it to see them having fun!

Somehow I don't have any cute pictures of David this time - but tonight I had the cutest conversation. I told him we were going to camp tomorrow after church, so he said "I don't want to go to church" (I used to be shocked and upset when my kids said things like this - now I just take a deep breath and pray this is just childhood honesty). I said "Well buddy, we go to church because we love the Lord Jesus, so we're going to worship Him"

D - "Yeah...because God made me" 

A few minutes later he said "Did God make that light?"

I said "Yes" (Again, in the past I've tried to explain how God made the things we need, then gave us the brains and abilities to make things like lights, but that would be wasted on a three year old mind, so I said simply "Yes, buddy")

D- "Did God make a fishin pole?"

Me "Yes"

D- " Did He make the fishies?"

Me - "Yes, sweetheart"

D - " Did He make the reawy big fishies?"

I tried to divert the conversation at this point because he's had an irrational fear of sharks lately so I didn't want his thoughts to go there right before bed. He's at such a sweet stage and I love to see his little mind working, and hopefully some tiny seeds of faith taking root! On that note I'm heading to bed, its an early morning for me tomorrow with church, followed by a week of camp.....

35, Skyland, and Smith Mountain Lake

My family is finally finished with our birthday season, it ended with my birthday on June 28th (and starts with Mary Jo on February 12th). I feel like birthdays are all I've blogged about recently but... 'tis the season! On the actual day we left for vacation so a couple of days before Steven took me out to dinner and a movie - we splurged on food at our favorite dinner spot - the Melting Pot - then went to the $2 movie. I'm halfway to 70 - you do the math.

We took our annual trip to Skyland Bible Conference - at a new location this year in Bluefield, VA. It's basically our Harrell family vacation and it is such a blessed week. The speakers were great, the kid's program is always so sweet, and the slip-n-slide was a huge hit. Here's David with his fun grandpa - he eventually got brave enough to go on his own (David, not Benne:)). 

Here are Eli and Morris - the little ones didn't weigh enough to go too fast so it was really the perfect slide.

Steven met this little boy at the park and invited him to come out to slide - he came with his great grandpa who was one of the original Rocket Boys! 

We brought the big 3 scooters to ride and they were a big hit - there was a great common area they could ride around on (plus about 10 other kids that had the same ideas and brought their scooters).

I didn't see Sadie much - she is so social that she was always running off to play with someone - but here she is with her cousin and some friends learning to play Bananagrams.

One of the biggest blessings of the week is the children's program, and not just because it allows me to listen to the messages. These sweet people are so dedicated to the kids and put so much time and effort into teaching them about the Lord. Below is David's little class performing for us the last night. He mainly just sat up there and smiled, unlike Eli, who surprised us all with his passionate singing. I never captured it with my video camera but we will never forget Eli singing "The Blind Man" song - our aloof, usually quiet child came out of his shell, to say the least, and belted it out Stevie Wonder style. I laughed until I cried, literally.

After some recovery time at home and another week of swim team - Steven took the kids to Roanoke to Grandma Wina's house. We spend the next day at Smith Mountain Lake - she has a beautiful piece of property there with everything fun you can imagine.   

This, to David, is the "vroom vroom for the water"

Last year I showed Sadie my favorite way to swim as a little girl - put the life jacket on backwards (like a diaper) and run and jump in. Try it, you can't do it without laughing! She begged me to swim with her that way and I did- I'm a little old for it at 35 but I couldn't turn her down and it's still fun to bob up and down in the water. Plus you don't have to touch the bottom so other than the embarrassing fact of how I look it's really a win-win.

Steven's grandpa built this cool boat house years ago before he died, equipped with a bathroom and mini-kitchen. The kids were fishing here, right next to the boat, when Eli looked up and said "Why do you have a boat in your kitchen?" Gotta love him. 

Here is Sadie fishing. They actually caught a few, before the fish wised up and stopped biting. 

Mary Jo isn't so sure of the water, but she liked the boat ok. She is one independent little 17 month old. All 17 pounds of her thinks she can handle this life on her own. But at least she's polite - she's learned to say thank you .."tank two" Supposedly the kids have gotten her to say "shake your booty" as well, but I haven't actually heard that one. 

The kids and I didn't get enough lake time so we're heading to my parent's lake house tomorrow in SC. Summer is great fun and is passing by way too fast. Although I'm actually pretty excited about the school year to start - Steven and I have decided to try homeschooling Sadie and Eli this year. It will be a big undertaking but hopefully a good fit for us. Goodnight! 1

David's 3, Sadie's 7, and Summer is officially here!

He's growing up. I can't believe my little guy is 3 already. He is learning to sit with us in church and taking it very seriously, at least for about 5 minutes. His vocabulary seems to grow every day, he is so fun to talk to these days. He remains intense, passionate about swimming, the jeep, and anything that has to do with sugar. He still loves his blue blanket and when he's tired he likes to take his clothes off and snuggle up on the floor, chewing his peanut butter and honey sandwich from lunch. Most good parents would just put him down for a nap. He's finally, fully potty trained (hallelujah!) and every time I have a newly trained child I find myself enjoying our bathroom conversations. I wont share too many details of the dialogue but it usually involves uninhibited fascination with the body parts or the actual contents of the potty.     

For his birthday party (his first real, solo party) we had a pirate theme and once again I attempted a cake. It turned out pretty cute! I'm not getting any phone calls to make cakes for anyone but that's ok, I'm sure I'll get discovered one of these days :).

Suddenly this little girl has come into her own...this picture captures how she feels about life these days. "I'm right here....pay attention to ME!"

We celebrated David's birthday a few days early because on the actual day we flew to Conneticut for my cousin's wedding. Of all times to experience "travel delays" we got to do it on the day of the rehearsal dinner....and Steven was the preacher! Thankfully my sweet cousin is laid back and even though we missed the rehearsal every thing went smoothly.

Here's the beautiful bride. We grew up together and I have so many precious memories - silly skits during our family beach week at Hilton Head, re-enacting "Price is Right" (those videos could be useful for blackmail), hiding her in our car on the way home from the beach (we got pretty far but got worried about the consequences so we turned ourselves in), and some awesome ski trips. She married a great guy - the only negative is that it looks like they're in CT for good - but we liked it there so I'm willing to travel!  

She made all of her desserts at the wedding (they were crazy good) and this one made me cry a little (it says "Grandma DuBose's Caramel Cake") in honor of our dear Grandma - who would have loved every second of Lauren's wedding weekend!

When we got home from our trip it was time for another birthday celebration. My Sadie is 7! We decided not to have a huge party for her this year but I let 3 of her little friends from school come over for the afternoon and that was pretty exciting. They did a little painting and ate ice cream sundaes, then played with her new (used, yay!) American Girl doll.  

These are her school friends at their weekly "C4K" meeting, an afterschool Christian group that was an outreach from a local church. It was such a sweet group and it made me cry to go in the last meeting and see 75 kids from public school singing praise songs to Jesus. One of my favorite quotes from Sadie this year was when I picked her up from one of the meetings after school, she told me "I had a bad day at school today because I had to move my clip down, but then I went to C4K and got happy again because I thought about Jesus!" That's it, baby girl, a huge secret to the JOY in our lives. One I pray she remembers.

So I wasn't sure signing the big two up for Swim Team was worth all the trouble - practice every afternoon after school, trying to get 4 kids to leave the pool then get dry clothes on before riding home in their car seats (the most stressful 10 minutes of my day - once they just rode home naked), but after seeing them in their suits and caps I decided it was worth it, after all. My goal is not to produce any Michael Phelps swimmers but simply to have half my kids be somewhat decent swimmers so I can constantly rescue the other half. It's working pretty well and they love it. David gets to swim in the baby pool every day during practice so he loves it, too. Mary Jo isn't so sure of the water yet but she's warming up. She likes it about 2 inches deep. I have the "Mom tan" going on - my shoulders are brown and the tops of my feet - minus the flip flop lines. Long gone are the days of tan (skinny) legs but that's ok, this is way more fun. I do love summer! And technically it's just beginning..... 



I can't hold it in anymore! (a rant on dogs)

Ok, so I have written this post in my head many times, then changed my mind before actually typing it out. But Saturday was the last straw. Please forgive me if this offends you. I am speaking of no one's dog in particular - it's more of a general dislike towards the entire species. I understand that dogs are "man's best friend", a great companion, heros at times, these days they seem elevated to the position of a child, but let me just get my feelings off my chest.
I never had a dog growing up, I don't even remember ever wanting one. We had a cat (which my brother wanted) and I never really even learned how to hold her. I wanted a rabbit and got Opie one Christmas. The first day was good, he peed on my bed but otherwise we were getting along great. I put him in his cage in the backyard and from that point on our relationship consisted of me putting food in his cage and trying not to get bitten. We had a couple cats but I can honestly say I never bonded with them. After Steven and I got married we would run together in our old neighborhood. Several times dogs would bark and sometimes approach us and Steven would continually try to teach me to be calm, not look the dog in the eye, etc, but I failed miserably. The dog can always tell I'm afraid and that does not invoke compassion - only more aggression it seems.
Sadie is not like me, she loves dogs and has always asked for one. Steven really thought I would change my mind but he's known me long enough to realize I can't even warm up to the nice dogs. Don't get me wrong - I am dismayed to hear about animal cruelty, I wish no dog harm (unless he's the one barking and growling at me or has harmed a child), they just don't do anything for me. And hear's my main complaint. I have many times now been innocently jogging or walking down the street when a unleashed dog will take off running and barking at me like I'm a criminal. Oftentimes, thankfully, the owner is near and immediately begins yelling at the dog to come back. Guess what? They never do. Seriously, I have never had a dog obey in that situation. I know, I know, my kids don't always listen, I'm ok with the disobedience. What irritates me the most is when the owner tries to reassure my terrified self that "he's nice", "he's never bitten" or my all time favorite "he wouldn't eat butter off a hot biscuit!" I'm sorry, people, that may all be true but when an animal that is kin to a WOLF is charging at me and growling, showing his teeth, your words are not reassuring. What I would prefer is for you to actually catch your animal and hold onto them while I jog past and smile at you on the public street. Is that too much to ask? I know dogs serve a very important purpose in most people's lives, I just had to share the other side of the story. Check back in 10 years, my kids might eventually wear me down and I'll get all attached and blind to my own little wild puppy. In the meantime I'll be jogging down a different street.:)

Field trips, soccer, and Mother's Day

After my last post I sent Sadie back to school, my little two to Bible Study with Grandma, and Eli and I headed out to the butterfly farm together with his class. To make it even more special I swung by McDonalds on the way there for some pancakes, Eli is such a picky eater but he can flat out inhale some hotcakes. 

Not many more field trips left with this little guy. He told me today that everyone else cheered when they talked about going to a new school next year, everyone but him and Morris (his cousin and best buddy). I have never liked change, either, so it looks like my little homebody might be the same. Or he just realizes that preschool is a pretty sweet place, it pretty much goes downhill from there, right?

Speaking of a good life, this little girl in the middle here thinks she can run with the rest of them. She absolutely adores her cousins, and they're really good to her, too. Number 5 isn't in the picture but he, Sadie, Bennett and Morris are all playing on a soccer team together. Steven and his daddy are coaching, it is a true family affair. 3 of them have goals already so it's been an exciting season! Back to my little redhead, she is really coming into her own, she might be my fiestiest one (how is that possible??). She can throw a serious tantrum and she's only 15 months old!! She is starting to say a few words though and we are loving her little antics. 

Last weekend was 

Mothers Day and it was a sweet time.   Sadie brought home a folder with things she had written about me all week, my favorite was a story called "Supermom" where I came in and killed a fox. Eli made me something, too, that he was so happy to bring me. Four little blessings, they are. They do drive me crazy, tonight I lost it when I had to clean out underpants, again, I do not understand how you do it my cloth-diapering friends. I feel like we will never get there with D, he does well with the first order of business (not the second!) but it's gotten to where I realize he's missing, start yelling and running towards his voice, only to find I'm a minute too late. Poor guy, he's probably traumatized by my ungodly response this evening and will take days to be brave enough to go again. It's been almost 7 years of diapers, several of those years with 2 in diapers. But I'm not complaining (well maybe just a little), these diaper days are sweet. Stinky at times, but worth every minute!