More Rain Than a Hurricane

 It rained hard last night and all day today and it is still raining and blowing tonight. We have bigger puddles than we had during hurricanes. Josiah woke up at 6:00 this morning. He heard the rain and said, "Mommy, we can still go to Caleb's house even if it's raining, right?" I assured him that we would still go to Caleb's house and tucked him back in bed. The rain hasn't kept us home, but it sure has made me want to curl up on the couch with a book and a blanket. It is a freezing cold rain.

I had a couple of silly children who wanted to explore the puddles. Their mistake was that they went running into the above puddle which was well over their knees. Their boots filled with water and they were immediately freezing cold. This made Josiah incredibly mad.

Aliza is 7!

Aliza was one excited young lady today. From the moment she woke up until she went to bed tonight she could hardly contain herself. Here is my 7 year old daughter!

This is her very excited smile. Which I see a lot of.

This expression...I wish I saw more of it. It looks so calm, so thoughtful, so...mature...
 I do love her excitement. Her enthusiasm. Her ceaseless chatter. Her thoughts and questions.

It might as well have been Christmas morning. There was no peace until Aliza got her presents from Mommy and Daddy. (We tried to ignore the 2 year old that got woken up too early and who cried (loudly) the whole time Aliza was opening her presents.) Aliza's face says it all.

And then I told her where she, Mommy, Grandma Karen and Aunt Brandi are going in a couple weeks. I'd say she is excited!

Daddy assembled Marie's bed. It is gorgeous! (Purchased at Christmas in an amazing sale...)

And both of her dolls got tucked in.

Aliza wanted to spend time with Mommy on her birthday. She wanted to eat at her favorite restaurant, Panera Bread. We had a lovely lunch with animated conversation. Marie and Kirsten joined us and Aliza faithfully fed them while she ate.

We stopped at a couple stores and then had dessert at Aliza's favorite dessert place, Tutti Frutti. "The girls" as Aliza calls her dolls joined us as well as Aunt Laura. Of course Aliza insisted on taking yogurt home for Josiah too.

Tonight's dessert was Lalaloopsy themed. Strawberry cake with strawberry icing so it would be pink!

As you can see she still has the excited smile! And when I tucked her in and asked her about her day, she said "it was a fabulous day."

Joy Dare:: February

90. Giggles
91. Fire Never Sleeps by Jesus Culture
92. Feeling safe, alone, in my house at night
93. The IRS sent a letter saying we overpaid business taxes?!
94. Time alone with my boy
95. Found a thank you note from Aliza to Grandad taped on his desk.

96. Two peas in a pod

97. Aunts that paint fingernails and toenails

98. Calls from 2 high school friends
99. Gramma had successful hip replacement surgery
100. A hard working boy

101. Found the gift that will make Josiah's birthday perfect.
102. Evergreen trees
103. Brisk cold air
104. Sunshine to play outside at Grandma's house
105. 11:30 Made a meaningful connection with a lady from Bible study
106. 2:30 Sat on the couch and visited with Laura while holding a still-waking-up Anna
107. 6:30 Supper around the table with my family
108. Candle burning on the stove
109. After hours medical care
110. Late supper with my husband while the children watched a DVD.
111. The gift I bought Josiah has more function than we were originally told!
112. Witnessed Mom and Dad taking communion together.
113. Laughter: Josiah as he sloppily kissed/licked me.
114. When picking up pizza the cashier noticed my hands were full children and insisted on carrying the pizza to the car for me.
115. Valentines made

116. A sink to wash dishes in
117. A washing machine that holds big loads
118. Chrissy helping me try some new healthy eating recipes
119. Mud pies and tea parties on the porch

120. My sister swaps babysitting time. Just enough for a coffee break.
121. The presence of mind to sit an extra moment and pray. To thank the Lord that he is here with me. In my tiredness. In my mess.
122. Anna insisted that I pick her up. Then insisted that I rock and sing Jesus Loves Me. It almost undid me. I chose to live in the moment.
123. A long hug and tears.
124. Dear friends who will pray at the drop of a text
125. I feel the love of God when I show my children love.
126. Aliza told me that she prayed to tell God happy valentine's day, that she loves Him and that she knows that He loves her.
127. Afternoon at Mom's to make doughnuts
128. Found: bedroom floors and the floor of the car
129. The energy for a productive day
130. A check in the mail--that has been long in coming
131. Great big snowflakes
132. Little girls excited about new hair clips
133. Tucking Anna in her crib for the last time.
134. Working with Jeremy to rearrange bedrooms
135. Normal TSH
136. A plan on paper
137. The girls fell asleep on their own tonight
138. Hanging snowflakes

139. Grace to show hospitality
140. Forgiveness
141. Lots and lots of new library books
142. The bigs are playing and the little is sleeping. I took advantage of the moment and scrapbooked. Revives my soul!
143.  Our Moms who pray
144. Thankful tears
145. Know we are right where we belong--not overcommitted
146. Cheesecake!

147. Road trip with Mom and Janell
148. Conversation with a cousin
149. A day to scrapbook with extended family
150. A husband who lets me get away
151. Falling asleep--alone--when I wanted to and sleeping without interruption
152. A hot shower
153. A bagel for breakfast
154. Listening to my uncle's sermon
155. Anna coming to me asking to sing
156. Children big enough to help
157. Forgiving myself
158. Lego project with Josiah
159. Another late school day due to grocery shopping and lots of play time
160. Sunshine after rain
161. A big puddle to splash in on a kinda semi-warm day
162 Renee squeezes her eyes shut when she lays in my bed to take a nap
163. Lip syncing singer in the backseat of the car
164. The birthday boy falling asleep in my arms
165. A sister sharing her brother's joy

Josiah is 5!

I'm pretty sure I've been more excited about Josiah's birthday--and HE was pretty excited! Josiah has wanted a John Deere Gator battery powered ride on for a looong time. Long as in I tried to get one for his last birthday. Josiah has talked about saving his money for this toy that retails at Wal-Mart for a whopping $350! He has asked how many monies it would take to buy it. He has been convinced that his Grandad would buy it for him. I have told him that it just costs too much money. He has seen said Gator in Wal-Mart and admires it every time. My Mommy heart has wanted to just buy it for him because he has pulled on my heart strings so many times. I gave it another try earlier this month as his 5th birthday approached. I put an "in search of" on a FB page called Second Hand Sweetness. There was no response, but maybe a week later someone commented that they saw a Gator listed on another FB page called Eastern Shore Trash N Treasure. I got so excited I could hardly think straight. It was less than half an hour before the I had the deal secured. $75 for a working Gator that Dad only had to make a few adjustments on. My Dad picked it up for us, stored it at his house, fixed it up and delivered it today.

Here's how it happened! Josiah has had a child's confidence that he would get a Gator. He didn't know when but he was convinced beyond a doubt that he would get it.

When he looked around Dad's truck and saw it, he couldn't tear his eyes away, but he didn't say anything. That was the biggest smile we got.

Then he grabbed my leg and hung on. Really tight.

We walked over together.

It looked like he was going to cry. He wouldn't talk and wouldn't touch it. I thought I was brilliant to make Aliza the videographer. Kept her busy and made her feel important!

Grandad showed him how everything worked.

Finally we asked Josiah if he could move the Gator because it was in the way of Grandad being able to get out of the driveway.

And he was off. Like a pro. No problem steering. Even used reverse perfectly.

And then I started crying. Rivers streaming down my face. I was feeling so thankful that we had this opportunity to make our boy's dream come true.

"Look! I have a big John Deere tractor on my shirt too!" (Yup! Mama made sure of that, my boy.)

We finally were able to coax a few smiles.

And he was off with his sister. They played and played.

Several hours later, Josiah tripped on a step and hurt his lip and gum. There was some blood and he was really crying. I scooped him up in my lap, snuggled him in, and wrapped usup in a blanket (it was a little chilly today!). It was only a few minutes until he fell asleep. In my arms!! He was just tuckered out. Anna was napping and you better believe that I wasn't moving. I held him a good 45 minutes. And I loved every single second of it. =)

When he woke up and had regained his energy he was back out on his Gator until the battery died. 

Josiah saw this fruit pizza on the cover of Life:Beautiful magazine. He thought it looked so yummy! He was right--it was really really decadent. Brownie crust with cream cheese frosting and fruit. 

When I put him to bed tonight I rocked him and listened to him talk. He talked about his Gator--a lot. He told me again that he knew he would get a Gator one day. He said today was a "great day." I asked him how he felt when he saw the Gator. He said happy. He told me that even though he was quiet he was feeling happy. He told me that he knew how to drive it because Grandad told him how. He said even though he was quiet he was listening. Josiah explained to me every detail of driving it and how the bed tips up and how to steer...on and on. He plans to drive his Gator first thing in the morning. I told him that we can recharge the battery at lunch time and during rest time so that he can drive it in the afternoon again. I have a very very happy boy. I am a very very happy Mama with a grateful heart that has been about to burst all day!

Show and Tell

 I've been laying with my girls at night and I've found that that leaves me feeling like I have a lot less time to myself in the evening. That means I blog the "big things" which sort of defeats my purpose of this blog. So here's a conglomeration of some "little things" that are going on around here.

In a recent weather themed phonics unit, Aliza learned to make snowflakes. Her teacher showed them how to fold and cut coffee filters, then for every correct answer they got to make a cut in their snowflake. Mrs. Walker was making fancy snowflakes! She had trees and hats and other fancy shapes cut in them--I never learned to do that! Aliza LOVED cutting out snowflakes. She cut an entire winter wonderland. Every snowflake was named and was lovingly hung in her room. I believe the snowflake on the left is an attempt at cutting trees.

These two may fight at times, but they are the best of friends and play mates.

 Anna cutting her fingernails--just like Daddy.

 Only a short time ago I could not wrap my head around fitting recycling into my life. It was just one more thing and I just couldn't manage it. I started with recycling only the apple juice bottles and now I recycle all of the our plastic, cardboard, tin and glass. I'm quite proud of myself. About once a month we load up the recycling and take it to the transfer station. I have some good helpers.

I'm not sure that ring toss with the plastic is the most efficient help, but it's help nonetheless.

This is birthday week and it happened that I had to take all 3 kiddos grocery shopping with me. I told them they could pick out a toy since it's birthday week. They totally scored. Their Mother was a complete pushover. Yes, I felt guilty afterwards. Josiah picked out a Lego set. (He still needs help to follow the directions.) We got home. I unloaded a large shopping trip. He opened the legos. Janell dropped off her girls for the afternoon. I put Josiah up on the counter to protect his legos from small girls. I made lunch. I helped Josiah with the first part. I served lunch. I helped Josiah with the 2nd part. I told him to eat lunch. He couldn't. Too excited. I put the girls down for naps. I came back and Aliza and I helped Josiah with the 3rd part. Renee came down and I put her back in bed. Soon after Renee and Anna got out of bed. No nap. I turned Dora on. I thought I was Super Mom. Then it was after supper and there was school to get done. I lost my temper. Severely. I realized that I wasn't Super Mom. I gave myself a time out.

Cleaning up today I found this gem. American Girl doll napping in a tool box. Bed complete with blanket and pillow. Best of play mates for sure. It's great how they integrate boy and girl concepts into their play.

Renee brought this toy with her today. Aliza got hold of it and learned that you can write messages to one of the princesses and they "respond". She was "texting" all day. I was about to get annoyed when I realized that she was working on spelling all by herself--something she has not initiated very often. So I let it go. She thought we were horribly unfair when we told her that the thing was staying downstairs tonight.