Sugar Coated

The world beyond our doors looks delicious, today.
A sugary, white frosting fell during the night and continues to drift down from the sky and stick to every iced surface as little flakes of coconut dusted atop a cake.


Even my deserted garden beds appear mouth watering again, since everything looks like one big frosted doughnut.

Reese was just delighted when she woke up to the surprise, this morning.
If only school had been canceled so she could stay home with us.

Winter has offically begun.
Those who are not fans of Winter say, "Aye".
Aye, Aye, Aye. (<----all three of those are from me.)

I kind of hate snow, but I've been trying to see the silver lining in it, and every year the snow grows on me a little more. Today, the silver lining was easily found when I felt how tickled my daughters were by the sight of the first snow. They've longed for months for the snow to return and stick on the ground. And just like they do when a cake is taking an hour to bake or when we're on a long road trip, they've been ringing my ears since October with,

"Is it time?

"Is the snow coming, yet?"
"When will it snow?"

"When will it be time?"
"Is it time?"
"Is it ready?"
"Are we there yet?", "Are we there yet?", "Are we there yet?"

...
...
...


"How about now?"

I awoke to the wake of destruction caused by my sick day. Aaron did a swell job caring for me and for the children, and even purchased a new vacuum and sucked what looks like an assorment of woodland critters from our living room carpet, and I am very grateful for his service. But it's a reality that the aftermath of any Mom getting sick is always a category 5.

It appears that while I was "snowed" with meds, my home was frosted.
With a mess! A HUGE mess. A Monday House x 10

Toys, clothes, dishes, everything, everywhere, on top of everything. Covered in a layer of everything. Smelling of diaper and fringed with kleenex.

So it would be easy to wake up irritated with the disaster.

But, thanks to the absolute joy brought to my children by the fluffy confections falling outside, my walls are bursting with optimism that today is going to be wonderful.

I think we've all got a sugar high.

And if I've got a frosted mess that is sprinkled with these faces, well then...

looks like that cake is finally ready. Yum.

The world beyond our doors looks delicious, today.

what's the rush?

You know those days when you get to the checkout line and the kids are just done?

Yeah, that happened to me yesterday, and yes, it is the week of Thanksgiving and there were only 2 lanes open at Wal-mart. I stood in line behind a procession of blue hairs, each with a Thanksgiving feast and a too-heavy bag of kitty litter in their cart and armed with a pocketbook of coupons. My kids were crying, fighting, screaming, etc. and the line was. not. moving.



Excruciating.



The best part? I forgot baby wipes. The store near my house is particularly terrible with replenishment, and they've been out of the wipes I use for 3 consecutive weeks. It didn't matter until this week, as I used my last wipe this morning.



So it wasn't really awesome when I got home, realized I'd forgotten the wipes, and had to go scrounge up the "emergency" travel pack of wipes from the car.



I also forgot to buy a new toothbrush, since mine had been dipped into the toilet by Corbin. I'd like to think optimistically and see this as a sign that he will be an excellent cleaner, someday.

But instead, I just think, "Hey! that's my toothbrush, man! What the heck?"



So....back to Wal-mart we went, this morning, where even more people were shopping, and again, we found ourselves waiting in a ridiculously long line. There were several registers open this time, but only to accomodate several more shoppers. I noticed that each line had at least

three blue hairs waiting in it! That's gotta be breaking some kind of record for most old people congregated in the same room since they stopped having Bingo night at Riordan Hall.



Today's checkout line adventure involved a changing of the guard. It took forever. As I stood there, actually feeling the hairs on my head turn grey, I started to wonder if time had frozen, and all of these people were actually the same people that were in line with me yesterday. Oh, man! Look what was going to happen to me, if I didn't get out of there, soon!



When I'd [finally] made it through the checkout and loaded my groceries and kids into the car, a sweet little old granny approached us. But then she didn't say anything.



"Uhhh, hi. Can I help you?" I asked.



"Oh dear. I've really done it this time." she was almost shaking with worry, and looked on the verge of tears. Grandma tears. Can you imagine anything more sad? Grandmas shouldn't ever have to cry.



"What's the matter?"



"Well, I know I drive a Toyota. And I know it is somewhere in this giant parking lot."



Poor Grandma. Who knows how long she'd been looking for her car. I thought I was exhausted, after waiting in that forever-of-a-line with my crying kids, but at least I'm young and healthy. She'd been standing in a line, too, listening to the same kids whining, and then she'd searched the parking lot over, and couldn't find her car. She was embarrassed and tired, and just wanted to get the heck out of there. I cruised around the parking lot and located her car (she was way off in her search, btw), she thanked me, and the day continued on as normal.

* * *

Last night, I couldn't get a hold of my friend on her cell phone, and I got really antsy. I wanted to see if she'd like to catch the 8pm showing of Harry Potter, and it was 6:45. What if she didn't call me back? It's a cell phone. She should answer it, right? I found myself actually worried that something was wrong, since she didn't answer her phone right when I called. It was only 15 minutes before she called be back, but in the meantime, I thought of 10 reasons why she wasn't answering, and had almost decided to do the movie another night.



Look at how impatient I've become.



Our society is so full of instant gratification, that it put me over the edge just to stand in line to buy groceries. Just like I can get online and watch my favorite shows at the click of a button, instantly download a song I want to listen to right now, I want to snap my fingers and be at the front of a line to get my groceries. I don't want to wait for anything anymore. I've even caught myself telling my girls to "hurry and get your shoes on", "let's go, let's go, let's go...hurry and get in the van", "hurry and get buckled quickly", "hurry and get your jammies on", "hurry and finish your dinner", "hurry and brush your teeth (and should that really be rushed?)", granted they can really be slowpokes and they do get distracted easily, but I say "Hurry" way too many times in any given day. What's the rush?

What is so important that I need to put my kid into a panic over putting shoes on fast enough?


All of these old people at Wal-mart, they were buying tons and tons of food. Huge turkeys, appetizers galore, pies, enough booze to cure any amount of social discomfort caused by family togetherness. No doubt, they are preparing for their incoming families.


Uhhh...Shouldn't their kids be taking care of that? I mean, if you're old enough to lose your car in the parking lot, and have difficulty remembering what kind of car you drive, you probably shouldn't be driving at all. You should be home, in a plastic covered barker lounger, having your feet rubbed by grandkids, while your own kids prepare Thanksgiving Dinner.



It's no wonder all these people take their sweet time in the grocery store. They are tired! They probably rushed their kids around and hurry hurry hurried everyone to everything for years, and for what?There's got to be a time when it's ok to just kick back, and enjoy the time in your life when you don't have to do anything, or be anywhere. Looking at all those tired grandmas buying turkeys today, It's clearly not when your hair is blue, so when is it? Does it end with childhood? My poor kids don't even have that, the way I rush them around.



This week, I am grateful for time.

Time at home with my children. It won't be long before they have places to go, and people of their own to feed. And I'll be the one alone in a parking lot, trying to find my "silver Toyota Avalon...or is it white?"



I will not rush my children, this week. I will let my kids be kids and they can take their own sweet time doing all of their little tasks...even if it seems like it is taking them forever.

Because as hard as I try to speed up time to pass over an undesireable phase, or freeze time to capture a tender moment of perfection, turn back time to remember a simpler day, or slow time down because they are growing too fast, I know it can't be done.



So, I will "exercise my patience", this week. Rather than rushing and hurring, I'll try to remember that what feels like is taking forever isn't forever.

I will not be in this grocery store line forever.

My kids won't be this age forever.

It will not be impossible to find the other shoe forever.



I will enjoy the wait.

Dimples

My children were blessed with dimples.
They aren't your typical mid-cheek-squishy-cabbage patch-doll dimples, though. They're located in different places, and aren't visible at all times, and I think the thing that makes them so endearing is that the dimples come out with their personality traits. The more personality we get (pleasant or challenging), the more dimple we see.
Reese's dimple is on the right side of her upper lip. When she is questioning something, she makes a face, and the dimple shows up. Reese is a thinker. It didn't take long for Aaron and I to realize that she is smarter and more stubborn than both of us put together. She will make an excellent chess player, as she plans out her every move in life about four steps ahead of everyone else. She is not an easy personality to read, but since I am and always have been an open book, I really admire this quality about her. It brings me total satisfaction when I am able to predict her behavior, not because it makes me look like a better parent, but because it means that I might have a fighting chance by the time she is a teenager. The other day, we were at the pool, and I noticed some people at the other end of the pool starting to pack up their bags. Reese watched them like a hawk, and the instant their children were out of the gate, she turned and asked me if she could go get the tiny chair they had been using. I laughed, because an hour earlier, Reese had asked for a tiny chair, but there weren't any available. So when I noticed these people leaving, I predicted to a friend of mine that Reese would be the first to the chair, even though she had moved on to other interests and was busy playing in the pool. I totally called it. I'm also not a patient person. Like at all. But Reese has no problem waiting until the circumstances are in her favor. While most kids might continue to ask for ice cream all morning after watching you put some in the freezer, Reese will wait until Quincy and Corbin are taking a nap, and THEN ask for some, because she knows she is at better odds for a positive answer. I love her. I love the way she thinks. She is so very smart. She is such a perfectionist, which can be a double edged sword, but I really think that, unlike me, she will discover her need for order much earlier in her life and find many positive ways to make her habits work for her advantage. I have learned so much from my poor guinea pig child. When I see her exhibit an ugly behavior, I can almost always trace it back to my own vices. Luckily for me, even though Reese rarely forgets, she often forgives. I am so glad that she is my oldest, because she allows for a pretty big learning curve. Reese is also a very responsible child. Observations of her interactions with her younger siblings tells me she will make an excellent babysitter and someday a wonderful mother.

Little Quincy has a dimple on the right side of her nose, up near her eye. This is a naughty dimple. It often appears when she is teasing or up to no good...which makes me love it more! Quincy has the. most. contagious. laugh I have ever heard in my entire life. It's almost a cackle, and it explodes from her and fills the room with even more laughter, as everyone in the room begins to giggle reactively after hearing hers. She wrinkles her nose and exposes her dimple when she says something funny (which is often, Quincy LOVES a good joke), when she is saying something snarky, and when she is surprised. She has a HUGE personality trapped in her tiny body and HUGE opinions inside an even tinier voice. But something I appreciate about Quincy is her ability to let things go. Even when 2 minutes before, she would have fought to the death for "the pink plate because I asked first", she can immediately and happily hand it over to her upset sister without another thought if it means peace. She is a good friend. She is a ...um...a... creative dresser, and has a style that can only be described as her own. I do wonder if I she'll end up a "never-nude" someday, and therefore avoid giving her denim cutoffs...just in case ;). Quincy is very gifted to be able to understand sarcasm at such a young age. It is incredible. I know many full grown adults who don't understand it and they don't mesh well with my often too cynical humor. Quincy laughs at everything, especially when people get hurt. It's a terrible habit that I feel totally responsible for passing onto her, but really, is there anything funnier than watching someone walk into a pole at Walmart? No. There isn't. Or how about the lady who's heel broke off her shoe and she slippy slid all over until catching herself on the cart? The kid who wasn't looking when dad hit a pop-fly that came down on his head and took him out? Thank goodness Quincy will always be there to laugh at them with me, or at me, since I am often the klutz that's ramming into something. But as much as she laughs, she will also come work her little loving Quincy magic to calm you and make sure you're ok.

And then there's Baby Corbin's dimples. Right on the outside of his big fat baby cheeks. I love them. These are the dimple I get to see most often, and the frequency pairs with Corbin's ever-present happy disposition. What more can I say about a sweet, bashful, loving little baby? He is a wonderful sidekick. He sleeps well, he snuggles well, we all know he eats well, he is as quiet as I could ever expect a 13 month old to be in church. He plays with his sisters, and he plays independently. He loves to read books, he loves to point out things she sees while you tell him what they are. He mimics, he blows kisses, he plays peek-a-boo and is THE all time reigning champion of the "drop something over the side of your high chair, just so one of the lazy adults in the room has to get up and give it back, then drop it again because they are idiots and don't realize you're totally messing with them" game. I just love watching his personality unfold into an adorably funny little guy. As if he couldn't get any cuter. His mellow attitude gives excellent balance in our over-dramatic home. I just love him so much and couldn't be more proud to hear him call for his Mama every time he wakes up from a nap.

I feel so lovey lately.
I'm so grateful to have a husband who loves me, a lovely home, and my hands, arms, and lap constantly full of little people to care for.
I love my life.
I live for those little children.
I love watching them grow, and I can't wait to see what kind of mark they'll make on the world.
They've already made a dimple in mine.