Smoothie Lover

I would have made her a smoothie long before now if I knew how much she would love it!

Coconut milk blended with frozen raspberries and blueberries, a touch of agave nectar and a squeeze of lime.

Yum!

What We're Reading

It's not easy coming up with bedtime stories to please a 3rd grade  chapter-book-reader and a kindergarten emerging reader, but the series we are reading right now has them both DYING of suspense and excitement!

I've been saving it for years, literally.  The store that I bought it from no longer exists these have been gathering dust for so long.

But when Ben and Molly (and even Jack eavesdropping) made it through A Wrinkle in Time and The Last of the Really Great Whandoodles (twice!) I knew it was time.

Here's a hint...

It's The Chronicles of Narnia!!!!!

I have chills just thinking about it.  About how this was the first story EVER that moved me to tears from just WORDS on a PAGE.  I don't even remember how old I was.  Eight?  Eleven?  Sixteen?  But I'll never forget Aslan and the sacrifice he made and how it rocked me to my core...and I'm so beyond excited that the kids are into the story as much as I was.

This is the set we have

I'd never read The Magician's Nephew before, and it was the perfect place to start.  The kids went bananas over crazy Uncle Andrew and evil queen Jadis and smart, sure Polly and Digory the boy who reminds us of another boy or two who struggle with self-control.

And now we're 3/4 of the way through The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and I hope I can hold it together through the tough part that I know is coming.  Especially at this time of year when I wear my faith on my sleeve and thoughts of newborn babes-in-mangers and ultimate sacrifices are on my mind.

I've promised the kids that when we finish (next week maybe?) we will have a big movie night where we watch the movie and feast on Turkish Delight.  Who even knew what Turkish Delight was when I read the book originally?  Now, thanks to the internet, we can not only look it up, we can BUY it right there with a click or two!

Doesn't it look delectable??!

Ben is seriously beside himself about the Turkish Delight - 

he does an excited dance every time he mentions it...which is often!  

Oh how I love bringing out the bookworms in these little people!

Portillo's Chocolate Cake

Yum.

He cut this slice all by himself.

Ear Infections Stink

Poor sweet baby has been asleep in her (detested) car seat for almost two hours! I need to go into Walmart and shop for her birthday party, but she needs the sleep so badly I won't wake her.  

I took my own 30 minute siesta and have been making phone calls to order the food that I won't be cooking because I've been busy playing nurse all week.  

Dear Maeve on the eve of your first birthday party

Sweet Maeve,

I had so many intentions when I planned your first birthday party. I wanted it to be the perfect celebration of you and your first year.

I intended to make you a beautiful slideshow with a montage of the video 'conversations' you and I have had each month, and I wanted to take all the special pictures of your milestones and do something special with them around the house.  I wanted to make your baby book, and highlight so many special moments.

But instead, this week when I had blocked off time to do all those wonderful things?  Instead of that I held you and I rocked you.

I held you and I rocked you all through the night while you cried and couldn't settle down because your nose is stuffy and your chest is congested and your ears hurt.

I laid awake with you on my chest, gently patting your back when you stirred, and keeping your head elevated as you wheezed and snuffled and gagged and puked.

Instead of staying up late making you a fabulous slideshow I comfort nursed you for hours and hours and hours, and made the rounds from glider, to bed, to swing, to crib, and back again.

 

Instead of printing out all those adorable photos and putting them up on a clothesline documenting your first milestones, I slept with you in the crook of my arm where you threw up all over me and all over my bed, requiring a middle of the night shower for both of us and three loads of laundry the next morning.

Instead of making the wall art that I envisioned, I did laundry, and washed your hair and changed your pajamas and kissed your head and let you pinch me and hit me and cry on me in frustration.

So even though your birthday party will be fabulous, it may not have all those little details that I had dreamed of.

But that's okay with me because I'll have lots of months and years to print out the pictures of the memories of this first year, but I only have right NOW to soothe you when you are unsoothable, to shush you to sleep when you wanted to scream, to nurse you when you could hardly keep anything down, to love you when you need to be loved by your mama.

Because in the end, that's what all this motherhood business is about. And I thank you for reminding me of that simple but important lesson with your sleeplessness and puke.

There are still two weeks until your actual birthday and maybe I'll get some of those little slideshows done, or maybe I'll spend some more time blogging with my two thumbs on my iPhone while you rest on my chest, like you're doing right now.

 

I sure do love you little one.

Boo!

In preparation for my last baby's FIRST Halloween, I spent approximately 3,472 hours looking at costumes online.  In the end, I chose the path of least resistance (or most procrastination and indecision?) which was the nearly free costume that fell into my lap at Gymboree while I was buying Christmas hats.

She was the sweetest little witch in Naperville!

Ulia and I started Halloween early with a parade at church with the moms group we've been dabbling in.  October's presentation was about photography.  They had me at hello!

After we had our session and paraded properly through the building, I decided to try and use some of the tips they taught us.  Really, it was just an excuse for some natural light pictures, because those indoor pics above were not cutting it for me!

Ahhh, much better.  Even with Maeve's "I smell something funky!" face

All Cameron needed was a smartie and he was all smiles for Auntie.  That's because he's a SMARTIE!

More sourpuss faces from Maeve and I have no idea what was going wonky with my shirt, or my lack of eyeballs (where ARE my eyes disappearing to, I'd like to know?)   

Ah, but this one below is PERFECTION!!! 

A week or two later, the real Halloween came, and Cameron came to join us there too!!  We are so stinking lucky to have a cousin practically down the street.

I give you, Cleopatra, a dapper Fox, and Herobrine

Maeve was passed out in her crib and Jack disappeared before the camera came out to go trick-or-treating with his 6th grade buddies.   He dressed as Slenderman in his black dress suit and red tie over a white morphsuit.  Don't ask.  I was just happy there was no blood or gore invovled!

We sprayed Molly's hair with black hairspray and I did a little hocus pocus with my liquid black eyeliner.

She felt like a queen, that's for sure!  But I was a little surprised at just how MATURE she looked!  I could almost see the tween in her eyes.  (Of course I scrubbed it all off as soon as the clock struck 8pm!)

Here is our hero Herobrine doing the Halloween equivalent of a forehead smack because Mom insisted on JUST. ONE. MORE. PICTURE!

But I couldn't help myself, I mean seriously, are these people cute or what? 

Finally it was time to get the show on the road!  

Did I mention it was a veritable MONSOON outside, until two minutes before these pictures were taken?

 .

Indiana and southern Illinois postponed Halloween until the next night, but not Naperville!

The show must go on!  Thankfully there was a 45 minute break in the weather.

Just long enough to get down our street and back.

I was so tickled that the kids got to trick-or-treat with Uncle Paul!

Daddy didn't get the memo, and came out 20 minutes later with a cooler filled with adult beverages.

But this wasn't that kind of year.

This was a "grab your umbrella and pray" kind of year.

At least the pumpkins looked good.

L to R are Molly's cat, Maeve's Maeve, Ben's spooky guy, and Jack's Minecraft Creeper

(clearly, this year was all about the video games...but again, at least there was no gore!)

I couldn't resist - Maeve's two bottom teeth are so cute, I needed to memorialize them.

Molly nearly had a stroke when I told her that with 48 hours before Halloween and a father who was away on business, our jack-o-lanterns needed to be SIMPLE.  This is as simple as she could get and still survive apparently.  Much better than the hand-carved BFF tribute she'd originally envisioned with multiple layers of carving.  (this is what happens when your kids know you're crafty!)

My hand was so tired by the time I got to Jack's (he couldn't go near his because he has smell and touch aversion issues to raw, juicy pumpkins) that I didn't even bother to cut the top off.  I figured the dangling stringy pumpkin bits inside would add to the creepiness of the Creeper.

I had Ben draw what he wanted me to cut right on the pumpkin.  He did, I cut, and he proclaimed it PERFECT!  Well, thank goodness someone was pleased...

Ben was not pleased with his costume though.

It took a few houses before he would finally admit that he could not see a thing!

Off came the box-head and down the street went Ben, no worse for the wear.

Maeve finally woke up!

All the kids were off trick or treating, so I parked her at the open front door with the stash of candy to hand out.  I had a feeling she'd be so enthused by all the pretty treats that I could stand on the porch and get a few shots in before the last light of the day vanished.

I was right.  She loved it!

Still has no idea there's actually something TASTY inside all those crinkly, colorful wrappers. 

She loves them just the same though!

The kids came home, the skies poured down, and I was left with half a bin of candy because it was such a dud of a night.

As I explained to a very disappointed Molly...

you can't win 'em all!

But secretly, this was my favorite Halloween since we moved here!

Totally low-key thanks to Mother Nature.

Kids had about fifteen pieces of candy each instead of 20 pounds like usual.

Everyone was in bed by 8:30.

And Marc and I sat down with those adult beverages to relax.

Aaaah!

Musings from the Trenches

I try to pick up the house every night before bed so that we will wake up to a clean slate and start our day from a place of order and serenity.  

And yet every morning between the hours of 7 and 9, the place gets wrecked like a demolition site.  It honestly looks like a tornado ripped through, and takes at least another two hours to put back together.  I'm not laying blame here, because it's a team effort, this wrecking ball of ours.  

I'm just saying that 

it's CRAZY.

But what's EVEN MORE CRAZY??

Every day, after Maeve and I put Molly and Ben on the bus and come home to start our day, *IT SURPRISES ME* as if I've never seen such a thing before in all my life!  I shake my head in disbelief, utter some startled noises and go pour myself a cup of coffee to try and figure out what the HECK happened.

Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.

Every ding dong day.

Crazy, I tell you.