Natural History Museum

Enjoy these photos of a recent trip to our local science museum.  It was very well done and we all enjoyed it!  I love seeing the exploratory look on little one's faces.

 Notice the look on this little boy's face?  He said "scared."  The see-through floor was creeping him out.  That's why we need sisters to come to the rescue!

Graph

An Outfit (or Two, or Three, or Four) Keeps the Fashion Police Away

....and keeps the laundry fairy busy!

This little girl LOVES skirts.  When I ask her to get her pajamas on she changes into a different skirt!  She has a meltdown the size of Alaska if she has to wear pants for some reason (like the times we've gone sledding).  My sisters, who spoil me and my kiddos, are so naughty.  One of them sent a bunch of cute outfits (and of course her dear aunt knows of her prediction for skirts) for her birthday last month.  They have already gotten some good use.  And they are always styled very creatively, without Mom's help (if I try to help or suggest it creates meltdown conditions too).

 Any time the camera is out of course little brother thinks it is aimed his way!

The "pajamas" of the day.  And she is getting tired by now of all my skirt documenting.



Do your kids dress themselves in creative ways? 

When to Aim Higher and When to Let it Go

Okay, so, enjoy these photos of my oldest kids trying out this girl's new bow and arrow that she got for Christmas.  I took every ounce of mom-willpower I had to force myself to go out in that bleepity bleep bleep cold snow (it was hovering around 0 degress F) because I knew just how badly she wanted to try it out!

Turns out, it was much harder than she thought, much more fun and addictive than I thought, and just about exactly what my son thought it would be.  I marched out there ready to help them shoot safely and when I strung the bow, he laughed and told me I was doing it wrong.  Then he proceeded to fix it for me, show me how to shoot it, and show me up several times with his skills (cub scout camp, I love you).  Little cute girl wants to practice some more when it is warmer and when we can find the arrows after we have shot them!  (Just to be sure, I was supervising the whole time)

So this goes right along with another area I want to focus on this year.  I have been thinking about the Supermom Syndrome, and how detrimental it can be to being the best mom I can be, ironic as that sounds.  I will explain.  I think the Supermom Syndrome is negative because it implies that somehow one can have it all and do it all, that something really impossible is possible.  One woman said being a mom is like trying to knit on a roller coaster (here) (just a heads up-- this article is not "G" rated).  I have blogged about this before, I know, but I think that perfectionism and perfect are polar opposites.  Perfectionism requires everything to look perfect.  But being perfect requires sacrificing something good for something better-- perfect balancing of priorities.  In many ways the more perfect one becomes, the less perfect that person's life will seem to be on a superficial level (some ways, hang with me, here).  For example, in her search of being a better, more perfect mother, a woman may set aside something she is doing to listen to a child's story, play a game, or teach someone how to make a bed, tolerating the bed-makers mistakes rather than doing it herself.  She may let little hands help bake the cake, even if it turns out a little lopsided.  Or let that un-mopped floor go just one more afternoon so she can snuggle on the couch and read a story.

Another part of my goal for this year is not only self-evaluation and seeking grace from above in overcoming my weaknesses, in order to be a better and better person and mother (even if they are baby steps, mind you), but also to offer more forgiveness in return.  While I'm thinking about things I can work on, getting that reset for myself, I'd also like to hit the reset button when it comes to those I love.  I'm not so good at letting go of little hurts and resentments, I tend to mull them over too much.  So asking and offering that reset each week, that is what I want to do.  Including, forgiving myself!  Because we all know I wouldn't have 50 million resolutions each month if I were perfect already.  Knitting on a roller coaster, right?

Originally I thought of the saying, "know when to be more, and when to let it be."  But in honor of my little arrow shooter who is an example of grit and perseverance in this family, I'd like to make a little more Merida-like saying:  "know when to aim higher, and when to let it go."  Because being a good mother is pretty much the most important thing I feel I personally will ever do, I want to continuously try to be better, in the right ways.  The ways that really matter, and not in being a perfectionist.  So letting go refers to both forgiving and letting things go, and knowing when something doesn't really matter, and letting something give way for something more meaningful.

Oh, and speaking of awesome and supermom and giving yourself a break, see this beautiful article.

A Little Sunday Action

I don't post very often about our Sunday activities.  So here is a little Sunday action.

 
One fight started on this day because the little girl in the photo, who rigged this up all by herself without my knowledge (we had watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the first time the night before), was ordering everyone else around like servants and wouldn't share the "throne."

The kids love to sleep all-in-one-room on the weekends.  This boy lugged his whole big, heavy mattress into the girls room, where I found him, asleep (this photo taken the next day).

On Sunday we go to church, afterward we eat a very simple something prepared by me or a much nicer something prepared by my husband (like the stuff pictured at top) (I see Sunday as my day off-- even though I'm still very much on duty with some things, so if he wants a nice dinner, he has learned that he needs to make it himself).  Sometimes I take a nap, though that can be kind of a joke at times.  We usually watch a religious or a tame family movie like the Sound of Music.  The kids play together.  Sometimes in a little herd.  Sometimes they fight.  But they mostly work it out and are pretty good little buddies.  Sometimes we work on Scouts or responsibilities connected to church.  Our house goes to pot.  Sometimes it takes me a couple of days or more to recover.  :)  In the summer we sometimes go for a walk or a bike ride or a drive or visit family or friends.  We don't work in the yard or do housework on this day, nor do we go to basketball games or social activities or even grocery shop like we would on a normal day.  It might sound a bit boring, but it is a really nice break, a nice refresher.  A well-filler, I guess you could call it.  :)  By the time Monday rolls around, I'm so ready to clean and get back to normal.  It's sort of a slow, easy day, as long as you don't count crowd control at church-- that is a work out.  :)

On this particular day, my son came downstairs after bedtime, holding a freshly pulled tooth, my oldest daughter was already out of bed, playing with the baby-- he would cling to her leg, call her name, or hold her hand each time she tried to go to bed.  They were out of bed, but I realized--  man I'm thankful I have teeth to gather and little arms to unravel around laughing sister legs and a little boy in tight pj's whose little round belly makes me happy for babies.  I have a really good life.  And lazy Sundays can sometimes bring all of that into focus.

How are your Sundays?  Slow or fast-paced?  Do you like to make a fancy Sunday dinner or take the day off?

Gender Neutralizing the Nursery

I know you're not here to look at my house, and I know I don't have the latest and greatest.  So why post about it?  I dunno.  Maybe just because I enjoy some of these little projects and it's fun to share them with someone!  And maybe because I don't normally like gender-neutral stuff, so my expectations were low, which made me really pleased with how it all turned out (especially the curtains!  My first lined curtains and I didn't destroy them!  Miracle.)

Since I took the first photo I have added Ava's name to the wall.

Was going to really blog about this, but don't have time.  Just know that the two books on the top shelf are two of our new favorites.  So cute.

Sweet blanket quilted by an auntie.

For diapers or dirty clothes.

That tiny hand print!

The reason we moved my little four year-old into the nursery is that the littllest two were getting up in shifts all night long each night.  Now that she is by my room, she has been sleeping through the night!

Wahoo.

Does anyone else see making something that lasts, something that doesn't just get undone over and over like laundry and dishes, as a huge well-filler?  Even if its just making a little something occasionally.

Mantras for a Year

For today, just a quick something something.

I've heard several blogging mothers who have chosen a word or slogan for the year.  I like the idea, but you know me, I'm just too wordy to choose just one word. :)

So, I've been thinking about a couple of different things I would like to focus on this year.

The first one I've been thinking about for over a month now.  A mantra I'd like to remember when I'm in the thick of motherhood, in the trenches.  It is:

Compassion before convenience.

And that includes myself!  Because sometimes I need to have empathy for my own self, too.  It is so easy for me to be empathetic toward other mothers.  Maybe they're in their exercise clothes (or even their pj's!) at noon or even maybe at 5pm, or maybe they are a bit frazzled, or maybe their child is throwing a big giant fit somewhere very public and inconvenient (happened to me just the other day!).  From the outside, it's easy for me to be easy on them: I can see that they have a number of small children, or they are still  nursing, or they haven't had any sleep the night before, or they spend a lot of time with their children or helping in their communities, or I know they haven't had a break in a while.  When I see a messy house on one of these women, it is so easy for me to see the big picture-- to pass off all the little nit-picky things that might not be perfect and see all the great and wonderful things this woman is doing.  But when that woman is me, I think-- why can't I keep it together?  Neglecting to see the big picture, which is...turn the mirror around, girl.

I got to practice this little saying last night, with my sweet little six year-old, who was having a hard day.  I can't remember the last time I just held her on my lap, just like I used to snuggle her when she was a baby.  So she sat on my lap and had a good cry, and I smoothed her hair and wiped little tears off her little freckled cheeks and we talked it all out.  And the clocked ticked toward bedtime and then tiptoed past, as if it too were traversing a long, quiet corridor.  But it wasn't quiet.  I had little ones climbing all over me and some whining for a drink and another wanting help with his spelling words.  One more wanted to know why I wasn't spending extra time with her. So everyone got to bed late that night. But it was okay.  Before I left her room for a final tucking in, she reached up and slipped something over my neck.  It was a little stretchy necklace with pied beads in all shapes and colors and sizes.  And soon I noticed that it was glowing, due to a number of glow-in-the-dark beads.  It fit just perfectly on top of the new more fashionable one my thoughtful sister just sent.  She sniffed and wiped her nose on her shirt ( :) ) , and took in a deep breath and told me that she had made it with her friends the other day, but she wanted to give it to me tonight.  I could tell it was a token of her little friendship, and I felt thankful.  And I wouldn't trade that too-late bedtime (or those ornery kids today) and the long lost personal time for the time we had to talk and work things out and learn together in the dark last night.

I have another one, I'll tell you another day.  I'm working on something, you'll see soon.

Love to all.