groundspeed

Moms

I have a mom and then I got married and I got another mom.

And then I decided that a skinny little Darth Vader breathing boy was meant to be my son and I became a mom. 

And then this skinny little bald boy got dropped off at our house by CPS and I became a mom of two.

And then I got knocked up so nine months later I became a mom of three.

Fast forward to now, and I'm a mom of three active, wild, fun and silly boys.

It's nice to celebrate all these steps, isn't it? Today I got to do just that with all of these people. (And a few more.)

Blessed.

Easter Weekend

Matching shirts:

Egg decorating:

And counter top staining:

(not really, it cleaned up fine)

Pretty eggs:

(The swirls are melted crayon - the vibrant dye is just good 'ol warm water and vinegar and food coloring - stuff we had on hand, no need to buy any of the store packages)

Candy and treats for breakfast:

Like the little cookie basket? It was this, sorta. I just skipped the coconut because I hate the texture of coconut flakes and I used mini Cadbury eggs because I also do not like jelly beans. I made a zillion of 'em for our church breakfast (and a hashbrown casserole).

Because no, Easter basket candy was NOT the kids only breakfast. Our church does a big pot luck breakfast before the Easter service.


And a hunt. Where Toby couldn't decide... Do I want these eggs or not?

Oh, ok...

And then apparently, the day was all about the food. Because after church we had a light lunch that included Resurrection Rolls I had the kids help me make. No pictures of this, but you should still know because A. They were super yummy and for that alone a worthwhile new tradition and B. Blue has been going around saying, "Marshmallow Jesus melted." So now that sentence won't be so confusing when you hear him say it.

Then I took a nap and Kevin watched some golf and the kids were entirely neglected.

But we managed to get it together and unearth a new batch of clean shirts for dinner at the Dolphin Bar and Shrimp house.

My mom let me pick the restaurant AND paid. And then I go and post this goofy picture?

Ok, here's a better one:


Yes, of course there was also a church service in the midst of all this. But it's all church, isn't it? Celebrating life. Celebrating blessings.

Oh, Death! Where is your sting? 
Oh, Hell! Where is your victory?
Oh, Church! Come stand in the light.
Our God is not dead, He's alive! He's alive! 

(From Christ is Risen, a song by Matt Maher, that we sang at church Sunday morning)

Good Friday at the Beach

Psalm 8

¹ LORD, our Lord, 
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!
  You have set your glory 
   in the heavens.  

We HEARD the waves while still walking up the sidewalk, long before pavement gave way to sand. And then... Red flag. High tide. We weren't sure how our beach day was going to work out.

² Through the praise of children and infants 
   you have established a stronghold against your enemies, 
   to silence the foe and the avenger. 

The kids enjoyed dancing in front of the waves but even later in the day when the tide receded and things smoothed out, Kaden was too scared to get in the water. He'd heard and seen the strength of those wave breaks...

³ When I consider your heavens, 
   the work of your fingers, 
the moon and the stars, 
   which you have set in place, 

Meanwhile Kevin fully enjoyed God's handiwork.

⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them, 
   human beings that you care for them?

Big waves. Small man.

 ⁵ You have made them a little lower than the angels
   and crowned them with glory and honor. 

This troublemaker? A little lower than angels? God IS gracious. :-)

⁶ You made them rulers over the works of your hands; 
   you put everything under their feet: 
⁷ all flocks and herds, 
   and the animals of the wild, 
⁸ the birds in the sky, 
   and the fish in the sea, 
   all that swim the paths of the seas.

And brothers. Because here Toby has his brothers under his feet.

 ⁹ LORD, our Lord, 
   how majestic is your name in all the earth!

Yesterday it was animals. Today it was ocean, surf, and sand. There have been times in my faith walk when my intellectual side has leaned toward atheism (just being honest) but in creation... I can't imagine it all occuring by chance. Surely this beach, yesterday's peacock were the design of The Artist.

And if I accept a Master Designer, then I can accept that He is perfect, and I am not, and there must be a bridge to overcome that gap.

Today, more than any day, I humbly acknowledge Christ's sacrifice in creating that bridge. 

But on this side of the cross, it's not such a solemn day. There may be the dark skies, heavy thunderous waves... but they give way. The skies brighten.  The sea calms.  The beauty reveals. 

I know. I've seen.

In nature. In my life. In the life of my kids.

So this solemn day was not so solemn. We played at the beach. We lunched at the Jensen Beach Mulligans. We napped and watched Star Wars. I shopped for our church's Easter breakfast and worked on vases for table decorations. Preparations... 

THE day of celebration for Christians is almost here!

On the Hunt

Blue's class had its Easter party and egg hunt at a park near the school. Toby and I joined up for the fun. We left the house a little before 9am and didn't get back till after 12pm. That's a lot of park time! The teachers had numbered the eggs 1-12, and then handed out egg trays that were numbered, so the kids had to hunt for one of every number and put it in their trays.  There were also a bunch of unnumbered eggs for the younger, tag-a-long siblings to find.  Of course, Toby didn't get the concept that he was supposed to only be collecting the eggs without numbers, but I just followed along after him and scooped out the eggs he wasn't supposed to have set them back out.  Because they had specific numbers to find, it turned out to be quite the hunt!  And since it was with bigger kids (4 and 5 year olds) at a playground, some of the egss were placed in funny places - I had to laugh when I saw a kid climbing a rock wall to get at an egg placed at the top!

So... here's the photo dump.

Before the hunt.

This cracked me up.

Is there an egg at the bottom of that slide, Toby?

At this point I think he still needed an #8 and an #11 :-)

All done!

"Hey guys, sit side by side at the top of the slides and I'll take a picture." (Fail)

Party Phase Two - chowing down!

The majority of the class left around 11am but 1/3rd of us stayed and played, and ordered pizza for a second round of eating, and played some more. Towards the end Toby wouldn't leave my side, seated in the shaded pavilion.  When he laid down on the concrete ground and closed his eyes for a second, I finally took pity on the boy and announced to Blue it was time to go.

Tonight Kaden is having a friend sleep over because of a teacher work day tomorrow, so we'll all be off to the zoo. Then Friday, with Daddy off work, we're going to the beach.  

Busy week of fun. Expect more photo dumps :-)

Food Pun Valentines

Food puns became the theme of the boys' Valentines for some reason this year.

Blue's read, "Life Would Be Unbearable Without You," and it's attached to a bag of Teddy Grahams.

Kaden's read, "Love You to Bits!" and it's attached to bag of Ritz Bits.

And then Blue's teachers, Kaden's speech teacher, and Kaden's principal are getting $5 Starbucks Gift Cards with a note that says, "Hope your Valentine's is a LATTE fun!" (Here's the front and back)

Our one exception to the food puns is that Kaden's teacher is getting flowers in this vase I made (colored pencils glued to a tea can).

Valentine's Play Date for 4/5 Year Olds

Whew. 

I'm tired. :-) I was up late prepping for today's play date.  

10pm ish. Starting the mini cupcakes. One down, 3,271 to go. (Give or take.)

11pm ish start cutting brownies. Decide they need to cool longer. Go write a blog post... 12:30pm finish cutting brownies.

But now play date has been survived enjoyed AND the house is clean again. (The dishwasher hums as I type.) 

We invited the whole class and out of 14 kids we had 10, plus moms, plus Toby, plus three other siblings. 

It was a party!

I made lunch and planned for two craft moments.  Rain threatened but held off long enough that the kids played and ate oustide for the first hour or so.

The menu: strawberries, cherry tomatoes and red pepper slices (wanted to be heavy on the red foods), cucumber sandwiches, heart shaped pb&js, heart shaped brownies, mini strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, and red and white candy. I wish I'd taken a picture of the entire spread but... I didn't. 

See? The middle plate is candy in mini cupcake holders:

(red and white jellybeans and gummi bears)

Happy eaters:

Then they played in the back yard:

And then we made bird feeder hearts. I had cut out hearts from cardboard and the kids coated the hearts with peanut butter and then dipped them in bird seed. Then we looped a ribbon through and hung them in our tree.

See. How cute is my tree now?

Then it rained and everyone came inside.

No worries.  The next plan was to make Valentine's for their teachers. I set out paper and markers and stickers and and and... on the dining room table and had white paper covering the coffee table so kids could set up there too.  

But so much for the coffee table set up. Everyone crowded together.

It was tight cozy.

Toby colored awhile in his high chair and then I set him on my bed with his milk and turned on a show. He was tired and starting to max out and I just wanted to give him chill time. It totally worked. After that alone/down time he's been great all afternoon.

Blue was happy to have his friends over. (One girl very excitedly said, "Blue lives in a BLUE house!")

Today was the kids party. Tomorrow night we're having my (very belated) Balderdash Birthday night. (It's a tradition to have people over to play Beyond Balderdash and eat ice cream cake for my bday. AFTER the kids are in bed of course.)

Just a buncha partiers around here. 

A Touch of Valentine

Last night I got out my few Valentine's things after the boys went to bed and what does Blue comment on in the morning? A new bar of a soap I put in the boy's bathroom. Not only did he act excited about this new bar of soap he called Kaden over to see it too. (Who had the appropriate reaction - Um, it's just soap.) I mean, it's not even an exciting scent or color.

We don't have a mantel.  Duh, it's Florida.  Well, I say that but both my mom and mother-in-law have decorative mantels (no fireplaces, just mantels). Instead of a mantel for displaying knickknacks I have this piece of furniture:

My favorite thing I put out is this Valentines picture collage I put together last year.


So this stuff plus Valentines placemats on the table, plus a small Valentine towel in the guest bath and Valentines dish towels in the kitchen. Not exciting but still more interesting than a bar of soap.

Thanks to the kids underwhelmed response I got busy on some heart garland today. A long strand in the kitchen, four hanging in front of the dining room window and more wrapped around the dining room light.

Thank you pinterest for the idea to make heart garland using the different colors you can collect from a paint samples stand in Home Depot or somewhere - so that's what the long one is.  But since the color isn't on both sides I had to glue hearts together (because it turns) and that was extra work. All the other garlands are hearts punched from scrapbook paper I already had where the color is the same on both sides.

As I was hanging things Toby went into the cabinets where I keep all the kids art supplies, got out a coloring book and one orange crayon, brought it to the table, climbed up in a chair, and started coloring.

Um, my baby is acting entirely too big and independent.

Blue decided this was a good idea, got some more crayons, and joined him.

Right under my nose and zero comments on the heart garland. Well, Blue was excited when I stood on the table to put the garland on the light but his comment had nothing to do with the garland just the Mommy table standing. (Because I don't want him to copy this behavior, I told him I was NOT in fact standing on the table. He was imagining it. Think that'll work?)

I saw lots of centerpiece ideas online that use heart candy. I bet THAT would get their attention.

Out With the Old...

We have rung in the new year.  

Here we go.

I'm not making any resolutions because 2011 was not, in any way, what I expected.

My husband now considers green pepper, cucumber and humus his number one snack food and is pretty much a vegetarian.  

Um, WHAT?!

In support of this new found vegetarianism 2011 was the year I began cooking with eggplant (in my veggie pasta spaghetti sauce, eggplant parmesan, and I'm so practiced at baba ghanoush I don't even have to look at the recipe anymore). 

If you know Kevin and haven't talked to us much this year, you think I am straight up lying to you.  

CUCUMBER. KEVIN EATS CUCUMBER. Yup, 2011 = the year of big food shockers.

It was also the year I learned what hives looked like. I still haven't given Toby shellfish since his July bout. But luckily we haven't seen any recurrences. Very lucky since we never invested in the $150 in an epipen that was set to expire a few months after purchase.

In 2011 we ripped out the carpet in the Kaden and Blue's room, and instead painted and sealed the concrete. The carpet was less than a year old, looked great, but smelled like urine. Hmmmm, why could that be? 

An entire week of 2011 was devoted to scrubbing my favorite chair. Again, urine.

In 2011 I walked into Pet Smart and asked what worked best on urine smells. The guy said, "Cat or dog?" I said, 'Kid."

No. I was NOT expecting Blue's-defiance-issues-through-urine when I made 2011 resolutions. 

In 2011 I hoped to lose weight (because I'm a girl and I always hope to lose weight) but instead I went on a pill that caused me to balloon up another 15 pounds and this was even with some serious dieting when I first noticed the gain and doubling my walking route. Ugh.

In 2011 I wanted to write a novel. 40 pages is not a novel. (But it is 40 pages.)

In 2011 Kevin wanted us to have dinner guests at least every week. We managed to have dinner guests (other than my mom) about monthly but we also had a Superbowl party, Blue's t-ball party, my mom's birthday party, our small group Christmas party, and hosted Thanksgiving all at our house. We also hosted a number of out of town / over-night guests. Overall, I'm pleased with how often we had friends at our table. 

In 2011 I did more reading than in 2009 and 2010 combined. (Escaping perhaps?)

Ups. (Montana! Panama City Beach!)

Downs. (Transmission dropping in the van. Every time I heard Kaden yell out, "Blue..." The amount I spent on my long-neglected teeth.)

I just went through our 2011 album (it will be my 4th annual, 12X12, maximum-pages-they-allow Shutterfly album) I finished up the Christmas pages and spot proofed throughout before hitting the "order" button. (Got it in tonight for the 40% savings!) And it looked like a pretty friggin' fantastic time. Beach days and zoo days. Pumpkin painting and school festivities. Friends over and baseball. You know. You've seen it here.

So maybe, since we have survived it after all, mostly ups.

As for 2012...

I hope I lose that 15 pounds. (Plus another 5? 10?)  I'm two weeks off that pill and Kevin tells me we start P90X after my birthday cake is gone (dang January birthdays).

Read less if it means I write more. 

Say NO to projects (no pinterest for me) if they take away from writing. (But I do have this great idea for a trail ride/bon fire party for Kaden's 8th birthday in March...)

I hope I don't have to go back to the psychiatrist with Blue.

I hope we are happy in May when Toby transitions from Early Steps to the school board in terms of his special needs services.

I hope Blue learns how to read.

And Toby takes to the new potty seat I bought him today.

I hope we do a better job of getting to know our neighbors.

And for us, there are always trips.

Key West Literary Seminar!

Miami Fragile X Conference!

Kevin's Deportation - we plan to get the whole family back to Texas for a visit.

Hoping and praying for these things, but trusting and seeking no matter what 2012 brings. Because with my crazy guys... you just never know.

Grandma

The boys have only one living great grandparent, Kevin's Grandma. Kevin's mom is Gran and my mom is Oma, so they just call her Grandma and have no concept of the "great" part of it.

Grandma lives in Tennessee but the boys got to be with her over Christmas. Here they are Christmas morning. 

And now I must go back to my laundry and toy reorganizing demands that inevitalby consume the first day back from a Christmas trip.

Merry Christmas 2011

If you haven't already gotten our photo card/Christmas newsletter. Um, it's probably not coming. Sorry. But! Now! Here! Tonight! You can get the pictures and Christmas letter part of that mail-out sans the tree-killing and carbon omitting postal services. Super awesome!!

(I like using extra exclamation points in and around Christmas letters because of the David Sedaris short story, Season's Greetings. If Santa has never brought you a copy of Barrel Fever, you need to have a talk with him... OR! get over it, and listen to this story on youtube: part one, part two.)

Alright, alright... the official letter:

Merry Christmas! We hope you have had a happy and fulfilling 2011.

No worries, no one fell off the dock.

When I write these annual Christmas letters I’m conscious of how to convey the fun! celebrations!! of our year!!!! without glossing over… ya know, reality. So, reality: For the first half of 2011 my world smelled like pee. (Merry Christmas!!!) Somehow a button got pushed in Blue, our middle kiddo, and he just went out of control. He began breaking things, sweeping his arms across a shelf to crash its contents to the ground, and peeing on things on purpose. Every day. Multiple times a day. I was going Out. Of. My. Mind. Blue and I started meeting with a psychiatrist, and after many failed efforts (good job dollars, star charts, putting fun things in the toilet to pee on) either our consistency, your prayers, or Blue’s boredom with the whole thing brought us out of it. By the middle of summer things started turning around.  PRAISE GOD. (Because you surely didn’t want to read an entire letter about bad behavior; you can watch Super Nanny for that.)

 

He sure looks cute and normal, doesn't he?

In other, more fun, news: The boys started t-ball/baseball for the first time. Kevin coached Blue’s team and we hosted Blue’s end-of-season party. In March Kaden turned 7 and we celebrated by taking a few friends to see a Disney on Ice show. In May Toby turned 2 and right around his birthday he and I traveled to Chapel Hill for a research study on the brains of kids with Fragile X. Toby continues doing numerous therapies and we’ve added a membership to “My Gym” a kids gym with directed classes for little tykes.

Love those laughs!
In the summer Kaden and Blue went to a VBS and a number of camps, but the best camp, from my perspective, was “Camp Gran and Papa” where they went for a week (with Toby too) so Kevin and I could enjoy a tenth anniversary trip WITHOUT KIDS! We spent one night in New Orleans and then continued on to Montana where we met up with our friends Ryan and Courtney Tucker. We rented a cabin in Red Lodge so we could spend our days hiking around the Bear Tooth Mountains and Yellowstone. We had perfect weather for our hikes, lots of animal sightings but no animal encounters, and a hot tub at our cabin where we watched shooting stars each night.  Perfect. 

In the fall Kaden started second grade… twice.  He returned to the school where he’s been enrolled since we moved to Port St Lucie, but two weeks into the semester we got a letter saying he could move to a school where we’d had him on a waiting list. He’s much closer to home which makes the drop off / pick up routine nicer. Also, he has more church friends at his new school, so we’re pleased with the change. 

How can he already be in 2nd grade?!

Blue attends the same school where he went 2 afternoons a week last year, but now he goes every morning as part of the free Voluntary Pre Kindergarten program in the state of Florida. We love his Christian school and we love that the state pays for it! 

In October we celebrated the wedding of my oldest niece. Blue and Kaden served as ring bearers. It was a destination wedding to Panama City Beach for the Tennessee bride and groom so all the family made a vacation out of it. We were able to rent a small beach house that the boys are still talking about. (When are we going back to that little gray house with the pool and the Wii?) Unfortunately, while en route to PCB the transmission of our van died. Because it had close to 200k miles we chose to sell it without fixing it.  Right now we’re adding to our savings for a down payment on a new van and in the meantime borrowing Kevin’s father’s old car. I begrudgingly became a minivan mom, but now, not two months away from van driving, I sorely miss it!

Kaden just wrapped up spring baseball (two seasons and one camp in, and we’ve seen big improvements!) and is now beginning practice for his first time playing Upward Basketball. On December 1^st Blue turned 5. He had a Kung Fu Panda party at a Martial Arts Studio.  Blue recently began taking karate at his preschool one day a week. He loves it! (Gotta direct that energy somehow.) 

We’ve been through a lot this year watching one of our sons get so off track. It was particularly hard on me because I saw a lot of personal goals go unmet as I poured all of my energy into managing Blue. In September, part of a women’s conference I attended in Orlando, I was able to go to Casting Crowns concert. The lead singer shared about trials he’s been through getting his daughter, adopted from China, healthy. They then went into their song, Praise You In the Storm. I felt like such a whiner! With both Kaden and Blue we knew that even though the adoptions were finalized, their places in our family sealed, that adoption would always be an on-going journey. Blue’s journey hit a bumpy patch (Behaviorally, Blue is underdeveloped and resorts to “primitive behaviors.” Thank you, psychiatrist.) and where was my praise?  (1 Thess 5:18 Give thanks in ALL circumstances.) It’s easier now that we’ve gone on two restorative trips and Blue has improved, but I hope to be better equipped no matter what our family faces in 2012.

And if, between all that news and the family blog, you still haven’t gotten enough Stratton news, we have a guest bedroom! Come visit! Merry Christmas! Happy 2012!! Love!!! Faydra!!!! (and the boys!)