Weekend Adventures

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there. ~Barbara Bush

What a gorgeous last few days.  Sure, we had a little much needed rain here and there, but for the most part the weather was spectacular for me.  Not overly hot, but tolerable heat, and heat that made all of us want to get out and explore a little more and take advantage of.

And despite being a full time farmer now, and not usually knowing the difference between a Monday and a Saturday as we work every day of the week, for some reason it did seem like an extended weekend to me anyway.  I'm sure that was because the two big kids were off of school Friday and again today and having their presence around the house made it "different".  A LOT LOUDER but different.

To anybody who knows me, my kids are my world, and despite the fact that I am a lot of times dragging butt by roughly noon or thereabouts from getting up so early I made a point of spending some extra time with them this weekend while they were off of school and doing some things together. 

Jeff has been busy at the farm doing field work that he hasn't taught me how to do yet (notice I said yet), so we planned some of our days around bringing him lunch to the field.  And it is a given that anytime we bring lunch to the field you can expect us to have to hang around for a little bit so Luke can get a tractor ride for a little while.  But you know what?  It is worth it to see the look on his face every time he is sitting in Daddy's lap on that tractor.  His smile is ginormous!!!

So what did we do for entertainment?  Well, we found some real cheap entertainment within walking distance from our house (although we chose to drive down there this time), we headed to the lake!!!

I know a lot of people rip on the lake and how dirty it is and what not, but I don't care, I think we are very lucky to have this so close by and to be able to just walk or ride bikes down there on any given day to break up the monotany of our daily routine.

Zach and Luke took advantage of the gorgeous weather immediately and didn't waste any time getting into the water.  I am not a water person really and would much rather hang out on the beach and just "observe" and relax a little.

Sam's idea of being at the beach is text messaging the entire time, but isn't that what every 14 year old girl thinks she needs to be doing these days?!  Ugh! 

In-between texting her and I did manage to have some good conversation so I suppose it wasn't all that bad.

I love to sit back and watch my boys interact with each other.  Even though they do fight occasionally, it is obvious that little Luke really looks up to his big brother and just loves to hang out with him.

And Zach was a gracious big brother and let Luke (with the help of Mom) bury him in the sand.  Luke thought that was cool as all heck!!!

It was nice.  We went early before it got too hot and before it got too busy with people.  It's a lot easier to keep track of your kids when the beach and water is emptier.

I dipped my feet in the sand and the water.  It seemed cold so that was all the farther I ventured.

Instead I decided to sit back, relax and take in all the sights around me.

Sorry...I just couldn't help it :)

I hope all of you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend and wanted to end this by giving a shout out to all of our service men and women who are serving or have served for our country.  The sacrifices you have made for our country are unbelievable and for that I am extremely grateful.  God Bless every single one of you always!!!

Exhausted by Blessings

Count your blessings.
Once you realize how valuable you are and how much you have going for you, the smiles will return, the sun will break out, the music will play, and you will finally be able to move forward the life that God intended for you with grace, strength, courage, and confidence.
Og Mandino

Wow!  I am E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D to say the least.  What a crazy weekend!!!  I don't know that I can possibly remember every detail of this weekend, but I can tell by the way my body feels and how my energy level is dragging that I obviously had a busy one.

I can also say, as I sit here typing this, while hearing my 3 1/2 year old grunting on the toilet roughly 10 feet away, that I had one of those weekends where I felt extremely blessed although there were moments of stress as well.

Saturday morning started with chores at the farm and then I rushed out to get home and take Zach to his soccer game in town, my Mom had already left with Sam for hers in Elkhart Lake.  Thank goodness I have mastered putting my hair back in a cute little pony tail twist thinger or I would never get to any of these events on time.

Zach had a good game, they won 2-0, but of course when he scored his goal of the game I was on a long walk to the porta potty at the soccer field with Luke and missed it.  Never fails.

Immediately after the game the boys and I headed home, Sam was dropped off soon after by my Mom and after they showered from their soccer games we headed off to run some errands.  Today was not one of our better days when it came to running errands with Luke.  He had me a tad ticked off before we even ate our lunch at the Pizza Ranch, but thanks to the help of the other two kids we managed to calm him down and Mom down and went on our merry way.

Next we ventured to the Hobby Lobby to pick up craft "stuff" to make a school project for Zach this weekend (like we needed anything else to do right?).  As my day would have it, they didn't have everything I wanted to make his project so we are now going to improvise and make do with what we found instead.  Sounds a lot like the story of life if you ask me.

At this point, I seriously was losing my patience with this defiant son of mine and nixed even attempting to go grocery shopping with him for fear I may completely lose it in front of a million people and well, we just know that wouldn't be good.  So we headed home for a little while and then headed to the farm for evening chores.  Didn't finally stop moving and sit down until darn near 10 pm Saturday night.  Ugh!

Bring on Sunday's plans....

Our first born, Samantha Joyce, was confirmed today at our church.  The same church she was baptized at 14 years ago when I was a newby to the whole motherhood thing and had so many life experiences to take part in yet.  It honestly seemed like this day was so far away a few years ago but all of a sudden it is now here and gone.

I confess, I sat back and watched her while taking pictures, along with her friend Treylee that she has grown up with at our church, and my heart was filled with a sense of pride and I gave myself a little pat on the back for how she has turned out so far, at the same time there was a part of me that was sad inside.  Sad that she is so grown up already, sad that I can't hold her in my arms and rock her to sleep anymore, sad that in a few short years she will move on with her adult life and possibly never look back.  Tears are building up in my eyes while I type this.

During the ceremony at church her parents, her Grandmas, her Godparents, her mentor from church, the boys (I left Luke in the church nursery for this process) were invited up front to say some prayers with her and we all had to place a hand on her somewhere, and I had tears in my eyes, tears of joy and a little of sadness too.

Where did my sweet little baby girl go?  She certainly can't be this old already can she?  Time just flies by way too fast and before you know it, well, it's gone.  Man, a person really needs to take advantage of every single opportunity they can and savor it, treasure it and if you can hold it forever.  You really can't get these kinds of things back.

So when my kids climb into bed with me (Luke still almost always sleeps in our bed with us), I don't ever kick them out.  There will come a time, and I've seen this with Sam and Zach already, when they won't ever do that anymore, and I'm going to keep them close to me as long as I can.

I end this by saying I am so proud of Samantha and the person she has become.  She has made many of us so proud.  And at the ripe old age of 14 I honestly think she is more strong in her faith and has a better relationship with God than most adults do.

Today was a good day.  This weekend was a good weekend.  I wouldn't trade it for the world.  I'm still exhausted, but it's a good exhausted and I can live with that.  May all of you be exhausted by blessings too.

Hidden Treasures

Motherhood brings as much joy as ever, but it still brings boredom, exhaustion, and sorrow too. Nothing else ever will make you as happy or as sad, as proud or as tired, for nothing is quite as hard as helping a person develop his own individuality especially while you struggle to keep your own. -- Marguerite Kelly and Elia Parsons

What a gorgeous day it is outside today.  The sun is shining, there is a nice steady breeze and I am making sure to take all of it in and reflect while watching my little man play in the sand.

Mother's Day is just around the corner and quite honestly, it is hard for me to believe that I have worn the title of "Mother" for 14 years already.  It hasn't been easy, that's for sure.  But at the same time it has been by far the most rewarding and most important title I will EVER have.

I think about all of the cute experiences I have had the pleasure of experiencing and retelling over the years with each of my children and the conversations we have shared.  The singing, the dancing, the storytelling, the vacations, the school projects, the sports they have participated in, the talent shows they have been in and all of the good times.

For example, the time my dear little Samantha, at the ripe old age of 4'ish asked me the following:

"Mom."

"Yes dear," I replied.

She continued, "Why do I only have one mouth?"

To which I replied, "Excuse me?"  As I thought I misheard the question.

"Why do I only have one mouth?!" she asked again.

To which I replied, "Well how many do you think you need?"

"Three!!!"  she exclaimed.

"Three?"  I said.  "Oh Lord know.  You drive me crazy with the one you have."  I stated with a smile on my face.

I mean seriously.  Where and why would she even ask something like that?  It's not like she saw other people walking down the street with three and she thought she got ripped off or something right?  I'll never forget it.

Being a Mom brings all kinds of hidden treasures on a daily basis.  Some maybe not the kind of treasures you may really want to find.  Like the stain in your rug, the marker on your wall, or the phone call from the school principal (we've experienced all of these through the years).

I did find some cute hidden treasures this morning when doing my laundry however.  When opening the clothes chute and taking various things out of it underneath the pile of laundry were these.  I think I know who happened to put them in there and it made me smile instantly.

Our dog's toy football

A toy baseball

A toy basketball with an empty paper toweling roll in background

An empty milk container

So, after finding these wonderful surprises Luke and I headed outside for our daily walk to Burmeschs for an ice cream cone and then headed next door to the park for a while.  Oh sure, I could've been doing other things in the house as the good Lord knows I never seem to get caught up around here but seriously, what's more important?  A spotless house or spending time with my kids and letting them explore and enjoy the beauty surrounding us.

While observing this innocent little guy just entertaining himself in the sand I thought about other stories of the past with my kids and felt very blessed.  I have three healthy kids, knock on wood.  Three smart kids.  Three individual kids who are different in their own ways but alike in others, and I think that's cool as all heck as I have always taught them to be who they are no matter what other people may think of them.  Dress the way you feel comfortable (within reason of course), be friends with the people the most like you no matter if they aren't the "popular" or "cool" people necessarily, and fight for your dreams and yourself no matter what.  I hope they realize, I think they do, how hard that may be at times but how important it really is. 

And most important, to treat others and themselves as God would want them and expect them to as he truly is the ultimate judge.

Which brings me to the last cute story.

Truth be told, our two older kids have seen the Jackass movies.  I do use the remote to skip certain scenes however that obviously aren't appropriate but apparently they left a mark on our son, Zachary.

A few years back, him and I had a deep conversation about heaven and hell.  And after losing both his grandpas and baby brother he decided his ultimate goal would be to do what God wanted and be a good person (he does struggle with this occasionally) so that he could go to Heaven when he died and see them all again.  We talked pretty in depth about this for quite a while when he was in the bathtub and I was sitting on the toilet (fully clothed) talking to him.  After this conversation he paused for a short while and said:

"Hey Mom.  I bet those guys from Jackass aren't going to Heaven, heh?"

To all you Mommies out there, Happy Mother's Day on Sunday.  You all deserve it.  It is the toughest job in the world!!!  And may God bless you with many more hidden treasures every single day to come.