Perspective. Round Three.

Welp...this morning, my two largest Hoolies were supposed to be hopping into the car with Grampy and Grammy Quint and heading up North for a few days of winter fun.  And early tomorrow morning, my two littlest Littles were supposed to kick it over to Grampy and Grammy Trundy's house for two nights....and tomorrow morning after the drop off, my Largest Love and I were supposed to go away -- by ourselves - just us -- for a belated Valentine's getaway of two nights to a sweet little Inn in Freeport.

However...
You know, Life happened.
Or in our case -- more puke happened.
We are currently on round three of this awesomeness.  Three.

We were good.  We were better.  There had been no puking for three days, and so we ventured out.  We went to a couple of parties.  We went to church.  We had people over.  We went to a bounce house and played.  We went.  We saw.  And we eased back into society.....   And now Kaden and London are both sick again.  Did we just pass our germies around to about 500 people...or did we get exposed again from somebody else?  Who knows.....

But, regardless, here we are again - round three.  So, needless to say, while our babies are still sick, we shall stay home and do our best to get this plague under control.  Instead of dressing up cute for my man and ordering out at a fancy restaurant...I'm here in my sweats, hair thrown up high, with a feverish baby permanently attached to my hip.  Instead of sleeping in until we feel like waking ourselves up...we'll sleep with the door open and stay half awake to make sure we make it in time to whoever needs us most in the night.  And instead of letting someone else clean up for us and do all of our dishes....we'll re-sanitize every inch of our house, and get those puke pots cleaned up for another round of glory...

Of such is this season.
And it's okay.
We'll set up a tent in the basement for the boys who are bummed about the change of plans.
We'll assure the biggest boy that he is more important than a hotel.
We'll baby the Baby, and we'll take turns with the snuggles...
We'll trade shifts in the night.
And he'll bring home pizza for dinner.
We'll take deep, cleansing breathes - and we'll keep our perspective.
Because what good will it do to complain?

And I'll still count the gifts, and I'll still live the joy...
Because this - right here - is my Life.  And it's good.
These are my Loves...and we walk it together.
And there are far worse things than a passing little sickness...

And in the grand scheme of things - it's just a weekend away - and we will reschedule.
Here....we are rich.  Today we are full...
In life and in Love...and with Him by my side...we are full indeed...pressed down and overflowing.

And..."An occasional burst of praise, in the midst of years of complaining, is not what is required.  Songs on rare, sunshiny days; and no songs when skies are cloudy - will not make a life of gratitude.  The heart must learn to sing always...Thanksgiving has attained its rightful place in us, only when it is part of all our days and dominates all our experiences." ~ J.R.Miller The Thanksgiving Lesson.


Post Sickness Celebrations!

After approximately 3 weeks of living with the Plague with a Capital P...we had ourselves three solid days without vomiting or any other sorts of other explosiveness, so I figured it was time we did some celebrating!

I LOVE loving on my family on Holidays that come with fewer expectations, than say some others.  I know that Valentines Day is commercialized...but my kids don't have the "gifty" expectations that come with Christmas - or even their birthdays.  All I told them the week before was that I love Valentine's Day because I LOVE loving on them...PLUS, Valentine's Day is Grammy Quint's birthday...AND they were coming to spend the weekend with us!  So, how much cooler and awesome could the weekend be than that?!

We were healthy.
Loved ones were coming.
A friend was even going to come to spend the night!
Those three things alone make life worth living!  Ha!
It's the little things, man, that make life Epic.

And so...
The boys and I lived in the kitchen for a few days - cooking and making messes together...making cards and little gifties in secret....planning a fun menu with all of Grampy and Grammy's favorite foodies...throwing up a decoration or two here and there...and we just had ourselves a good old fashioned:  "Happy Late Birthday to Grampy, Happy Valentine's Birthday to Grammy, and Happy Plain Old Valentine's Day to the Rest of Us!"

In lieu of a traditional birthday cake, on Friday evening, we let everyone build their own tortes with cut up cake, brownies, strawberries, pudding, melted frosting, reese's cups, and homemade whipped cream.  Everyone had their own little fluted glass which made things feel more festive and special...and everyone got to be their own artist...which my boys thought made things a lot more fun, as well!

The boys had a friend spend the night on Friday night, which has kind of morphed into a spontaneous yearly tradition, of sorts.  We never have sleepovers with friends, so this was pretty special.  We played a few card games at night, and then the boys crashed to the basement to play some of their own games, listen to Adventures in Odyssey, and just visit with each other all bundled around each other in sleeping bags and bunkbeds.  I find little boy conversations hilarious.  And I find Micah to be darling.  He lives with one, very calm, very sweet older sister.  When he comes to our home, he is a celebrity and is just about practically mauled during the entire duration of his stay.  He has zero breathing room, and he is such a good sport about it.  I literally have to remind my guys to give him some elbow room.
In the morning, I made Mom her favorite lemon poppy seed scones with lemon curd, and I had a few fun surprises set out on the table for the boys when they came upstairs.  Nothing expensive, nothing amazing...just a few tokens of love and fun.  I have never bought them those individual boxes of fun cereals before, so they thought that was pretty cool.  And I also gave them each their own solid candy heart.  I love how tiny, little things can turn an ordinary day into something fun and special.  I also love how many times I just said the word fun.....

After breakfast, I broke everyone up into teams to play a bunch of Valentine Minute to Win It games.  We played Large Ones (meaning us oldies) versus the Littles (meaning all of the Hoolie boys).  We played "Face the Cookie" where they have to get an Oreo from their forehead to their mouths; valentine heart stacks, valentine candy corn stacks, mad libs, word searches, unwrap a hershey's kiss with mittens on and eat it relays, sucking up valentine m&m's through a straw and dropping them into a bowl....all simple, mostly candy themed games, courtesy of Pinterest... in which my madre and my padre were super cool sports, as usual...and in which the Littles beat us by one. measly. point!  No prizes -  just the satisfaction of beating us fair and square.

We had a Valentine's High Tea for lunch -- minus the soup, which I believe comes with a true Tea.  I made homemade soft pretzels and chocolate chip cookies - more of mom's fave foodies...and then we had just a bunch of other simple foods:  egg salad sandwiches, strawberries and chocolate, crackers and cheese, sparkling cider, etc.  It's amazing how a little tablecloth, $2 cider, and sandwiches with the crusts cut off of them make things feel more special and festive.

Micah left for his house shortly after.  Mom and Dad headed downstate to visit my little brother, as well.  And we kicked it off to church where we rescheduled services to try and escape the crazy blizzard that was predicted for the following day.

Something about mixing things up, and having things at a different time with kind of last minute planning to get everything thrown together made things feel completely different. It was a blast, and I kind of loved hanging out with so many of my favorite people on one of my favorite days.  Afterwards, we got a super quick bite to eat on the way home together, and on the drive home all four kids fell asleep in the car.

The day was packed.
The day was full.
It was sweet.  It was special.
And little boys fell fast asleep with love tanks overflowing...


Cooking in the Kitchen.

From the time each and every one of my babies was old enough to sit up on their own, I have always, always, always had them in the kitchen with me.  I love cooking with my kids, and it's one of the ways that we have always bonded together.  Music blaring, them helping to measure and stir, me heaving deep cleansing breaths when the stirring gets over the top "vigorous" and all of my dry ingredients fly into the air......

It's our tradition.
London's been sick this week.  She put her boots on and crashed right here.

First they sit up on the counter beside me.  Then, they transition to sitting up on a stool beside me, until they've grown tall enough to stand down on the floor right next to me.  It's been fun watching their growth throughout the years.  We have had many a Math lesson in this room, teaching them to read measurements, or to learn how to double or to half a recipe to suit our cooking desires.
Kaden's been sick, too.
My goal has always been to have all of my kids become self-sufficient in the kitchen.  Not only do I want them to be able to cook an egg in a pinch if they're starving and Mama is unavailable for Maid Duty, but I also want them to grow up being comfortable reading a recipe, kneading a loaf of bread, using the oven - you know, all of those sorts of things that will make their wives rise up and call me Blessed.
Jesse hasn't been himself, either.
Well, as of late, my two youngest boys have become very imaginative and creative in their "cooking" desires.  Every Saturday morning, they watch Recipe Rehab on T.V., and this has sparked some creative juices to flowing, and so now for the past week, every single day of life they want to make a creation in the kitchen.

My Jesse is my Artist.  He really sees no need for following other people's ideas.  He likes to march to the beat of his own drum, and he likes to cook to the "words" of his own recipes.  He is in his glory when he is creating - full on Joy written all over his face - so I am trying to let go of a few of my kitchen reins and give him a little more cooking freedom.  A graduation of sorts from being Mama's Sous Chef and Right Hand to the Big Cheese every once in awhile.

I'm trying to be more of a "Yes" Mom.
This seems like an area where I could do this.
And as long as I can keep some semblance of control on the sizes and amounts of ingredients, the biggest negatives I see are:  an Epic kitchen mess (which he has been told he has to clean on his own), a few grocery dollars lost down the drain for the recipe Fails, and a few more grey hairs sprouting on the head of this Typist....
One of Jesse's "blender recipes" See the blender in the middle?
The drawings all around are of the "ingredients."
Sometimes, when I feel like being Awesome, I give him total and complete freedom to create.  This scores me awesome Mama Brownie Points even if I do lose a few more sanity nerves. Typically, I let him do this if he feels like creating some sort of treat.  His go-to method of operation is to raid the cupboards for any sort of snacky, treaty food -- throw it all in the blender with a bit of milk or yogurt, and usually it doesn't come out half bad.  It's hard to make something taste wretched if every ingredient going into the blender is junkfood.  Various versions of "milkshakes" we call these creations.  Why, just the other day we enjoyed a:  marshmallow, oreo, banana, peanut, vanilla, honey, applesauce, cinnamon Flurry of sorts.  Not half bad if you could get past the grit.
Well...
Now that he has his blender creations "mastered," he has wanted to move onto greater things such as Muffins!  He's drawn up some concepts, he's written a plan, and he wanted to fully execute a batch of awesomeness for the family just last night.

And, so here's where Mama's reins started to pull in just a wee bit.
I proposed a "blending" of our recipes.
This one was his.
(Actually, since writing this post, he has told me that this is actually his ice cream recipe....My mistake)

We had to have a bit of a sit down chat about first learning the basic essentials of baking before going Hog Wild in Creation Mode.  We talked about wet and dry ingredients, about ratios and how all things are not equal.  For example, if one were to do equal parts flour to equal parts baking soda the result would be disastrous.  He listened - albeit reluctantly - and agreed that "even though this way wasn't nearly as fun or as creative," he would go along for the ride in our first real baking lesson together.
 WHAT?!  Measuring cups?  That's no fun...
Seriously?  We read ALL of those words on that page?  Well, that's boring...
 
We combined our resources and "rehab-ed" a written recipe, so to speak.  Mine didn't call for bananas, but Jesse's did, so we added them.  His didn't call for vanilla, but mine did, and he was cool with that.  He had never heard of a "streusal topping" before, but he thought that was pretty cool.  I never thought of blueberry yogurt, but figured it couldn't hurt anything...

It was a creation!
Well, then, Ransom wanted in on the plans.
And he wanted his recipes to become part of supper plans, as well...
Somehow, I managed to convince him to add "pizza dough" to his collection so that we wouldn't have to do yet another brand new creation of glory, and he was fine with this plan as long as he could do all the measuring, all the stirring, and all of the kneading...

My kitchen floors were Epic by the time our evening was over...
I honestly love these moments.
I love these times in the kitchen...and flour covered floors are such a small price to pay for all of the whirling and swirling cozy memory making times that we have in here...
Now, we shall do a little more honing of our "recipe writing" skills...
And maybe we have a bit more of ratio and measurement learning still to go before we'll be ready to actually eat most of their "meals,"...

But the creation and the imagination are all half of the learning.
And most of the fun!

And I'm going to save these sweet little recipe books in my box of treasures...
The backwards numbers.
The depictions of ingredients.
The ideas that came from their sweet little imaginations...
Sweet simple savorings.
Sweet daily Joys.
My boys in my kitchen with their Mama.

These are the Days...

Vantage Point.

I'm not gonna' lie.

When today rolled around - day 8 of not having left this house save for 2 shifts of waitressing which do not count as "getting out" to me - with a weekend that blurred seamlessly right back into a Monday because those two days off looked just like all the others this past week with sweatpants, sickness, and snot....


Welp...
When today rolled around with a rousing hacking-up-a-lung cough by a Hoolie in the basement, and a call to the doctor because we just can't get ourselves better...I done gone went and told Monday right where she could stick it.  The same place where I told this up and coming blizzard where she could go as well.

I'm a crabby pants today.
And I have a permanent growth attached to my hip named London.
I haven't seen another living soul for days, and these four small walls are slowly making me crazy.

I'm a pretty good nurse until about day 4, and then my mental faculties start to unravel.
And today is looking like a tangled mess of crazy.
Kaden is dead, London is clingy, and the two middle boys are as sick of each other's company as I am of my own.

A classic Monday.  Throw in yet another blizzard, and we're golden.

And just when I am about to throw in the towel and listen to the sneering hiss of the Enemy telling me that today is a fail before it's barely even begun...that I might as well call it quits on this whole day anyway, because it's surely only going to end in tears....

I bend low and I read:  "I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children...." And "...In as much as you have done it unto the least of these...you have done it unto ME."

And those words on those pages, they slay me...

Whoever takes the lowliest position of these whirling little children...these are the greatest in God's Kingdom.  And this work that's being done -- this cooking and cleaning, and wiping noses, and warming up hot water bottles, and wearing her snot, and hugging her close, and entertaining the ones who feel well while soothing the ones who do not --  this right here in the mucky moments of life that is Motherhood...this is Holy work...with the messy hair, and the unbrushed teeth, and the 3 day old sweatpants right along with it.

It's the vantage point.
It's always the perspective.
My boys.  Reading their blog book.  THIS makes me happy...
"When I was naked, you clothed me.  When I was hungry you feed me.  When I was thirsty you gave me something to drink....and when you did it unto these you did it for Me."  There's nothing much more needy than fussy, sick little children.  And when we can get out of the way of ourselves and our wants and our grumbling...when I can rip my eyes off of myself and my untidy face and hair and clothes I've worn since Saturday...well, then I can finally see it - if I don't miss it for all of my complaining...

"How much larger your life would be if your self could become smaller in it!" ~ G.K. Chesterton

It's true that "all wonder and worship can only come out of smallness." ~ Ann Voskamp
My kids...they already know.
They've been trapped inside with me for days.
They know the smallness that is their Mama.....

And so tonight - when I get the call from work that tells me to stay home because the roads are too bad....well, that feels kind of like a "do over," to me...

Redemption.

And all of a sudden...these four small walls that I was craving freedom from...no longer feel so confining.  And those tiny little arms that are perpetually wrapped around my neck with that feverish little forehead plastered fast against my own....I see for what it really is.  I see Him in her...  And the ones who are crazy will help me with supper...while the ones who are sick will be snuggled.

This is the Holy Here...
These are the gifts of Today.
And this is the Beauty of Now.

I lean in...baptized by You....and Remember.....
Ugly days can be beautiful, too.