Parent Watch Day (Patterson)

Today is rained and rained and rained.  It also thundered ... VERY loudly often.  The weather suited my mood perfectly (even, unfortunately, the thunder).  Our day started off wrong ... well, let's back up ... yesterday ended wrong, which bled into starting this morning and starting it wrong and so it went.  I didn't get Kate and Olivia to MMO, and school was less than anything of what I would have intended it to be.

YUCK.  

Just one of those days.

As I sit here right now, the rain is quietly falling outside and children are sleeping quietly in their beds.  Even Richard is sleeping on our bed ... in a very distorted fashion, I might add, but quiet, peaceful.

Richard did come home early today (he worked very late last night and left very early this morning) so that I could take Parker and Patterson to dance.  It was Parent Watch Week for Patterson's class.  I missed the last one, as I was unable to figure out what to do with the other 3 girls during this time.  Anyway, I was thrilled to be there.  First, driving there without the whining of two little ones just up from nap was all too enjoyable.  And second, it was so nice to see another one of our girls flying solo.  Patterson craves attention, yet doesn't know what to do with it once she has it.  She is the middle child ... the "creme filling" as one of the Chapel Childcare workers at Fort Leavenworth used to call her.  Patterson is the child that you want to eat up and strangle simultaneously.  

Patterson ... oh, Patterson ... Patterson is going to have a lot of energy for Christ's Kingdom when the rest of us have nothing left to give:)!

It was a treat to see her and her fellow ballerinas for 30 minutes this afternoon.

Finally, we had just a little bit of school to finish up after dinner tonight.  As I sat with Patterson reviewing her flash cards, and I looked up to see Parker diligently finishing her grammar ... I had one of those moments where I knew my focus for the day and for many of the days this past year has been everything but right.  It was one of those moments where I am reminded of WHY am I teaching them.  Why?  Glen Beck recently mentioned on his show that education is not a right, but a privilege.  What a great reminder.  It is a privilege and it is not just about stamping information on a little ones brain, but impressing God's truths on their hearts.  I don't know if I will ever get back to the teacher I was to Hanson Ellis.  Well, let me correct that .. not to the teacher that I was, but I don't know if things will ever be like they were.  I'm sure the answer will be no.  There is no way they can be and they shouldn't, really.  These are the circumstances God has given me for His glory.  He has created our family and our children purposely for His purposes.  Letting go is so difficult, but moving forward is something I have got to come to grips with.  And that seems so simple, and it is, but it's funny how sin makes everything complicated.  I never dreamed I'd covet my own life:), but essentially, that is what I do often.  I miss so much the way things "used to be" or the way "things were," that I miss the joy of the now.  I don't know ... maybe my life is really as messed up as I think:) ... or maybe I'm just too tired to continue starting over.  I don't know, I don't think it is the starting over that I'm weary of ... but the repetition of the same struggles and the same mistakes in those struggles.  It is so easy to look at the Israelites in the Old Testament and mock the cycle they just couldn't seem to get out of.  Obey God, receive His blessings, forget the blessings He had given them, disobey Him, receive punishment, turn back to God ... etc.  So easy to see it with them and think how silly they were to forget the lessons learned and miss the blessings that they had.  But I am just like that.  

J.U.S.T. like that.

It is quiet and I'm thankful for the quiet.

Richard's home and I'm thankful for that.

Patterson isn't where I'd like her to be intellectually, and she's not as calm or quiet as I need her to be,

but she's learning, she curious and she's happy.  

I'm thankful for Patterson.

God made her to glorify Him and He uses her to humble me not only in difficult ways, but sweet ways as well.

    

   

Our Mermaid

Parker has always loved the water.

I finally gave in and let her try out for a swim team. She's only a week into it and to be honest, I'm a little surprised that she hasn't complained yet:).

I had to trade in my coveted quiet time in the afternoon to take her, but it is worth it to see her "come alive" for her 45 minutes in the water.

Parker, our second born braking free on her own path ...

It'll be fun to see where it leads her.

Our Day

Today really did seem as close to ideal as a Saturday could be. The weather outlook called for a bit of Spring type weather, so we anticipated how we would enjoy a day outdoors. Richard and I had plans to wake up and drive to a high school up the street and run some laps around the track. Richard thinks I'm fast (and I'm probably NOT, but I relish him saying so), so anyway, he wanted to introduce me to running sprints and help me with my speed. Why? I don't know ... what else ya gonna do??? I guess it just spices up the ol' running regimen:). So we wake up and open the front door and are a little surprised at how COLD it was!! We were not expecting the 23 degree temperature that greeted us. But we decided we're up, so let's head out. We hopped in the van, turned the seat warmers on high and headed out. Of course at 6 am the high school was locked up tight, so we headed back to our subdivision and decided to just run some hills. Let me just say, I have NEVER been so cold in all my life!!! I felt as if I was suffocating and I was seriously wondering if my fingers were getting frost bite (even in gloves they were so cold it was painful). But we ran and returned home to little ones waiting at the table for their breakfast ... sweet little faces!! We fed the girls and then had our morning coffee by the fire. Richard made french toast, I made bacon ... then he headed off for his first softball game on the church league and I washed hair, cleaned up and had fun with improving the amount of pullups I could do and then I enjoyed the challenge of crunches with an 18 month old laying on top of me giggling:).

After lunch Richard and the girls (and a friend of Parker's) worked on the zip line project Hanson Ellis came up with for the back yard. It took him until dinner to finish (thank goodness for ACE up the street!), but it was a success. SUCH the Little Rascal scene .. our girls, the neighbors and Parker's little friend ... tons of kids ... some in helmets, some not ... giggling, learning, working together ... daring each other to see who would jump from the highest rung:) ... exchanging homemade friendship rings ... just good ol' fashioned fun. It was awesome.

SIGH ... so THIS is what it is like having a husband home. I am thankful for the work God has prepared for Richard. I am thankful for the heart he has for his job. He is just a couple of years from the option of retiring, yet the other night after a trying day he laid in bed and said "Mary Katharine, my heart is in the Army." Yes, my wonderful, I know. I know. The years of him being gone were so difficult, AND STILL ARE (sometimes I think we will forever be dealing with those years ...) but God wasn't absent then and He isn't now. I wish things could have been different. I do. But that wasn't God's plan. I've always known that, but I'm learning it in more in my heart than in my head as the days go by.

I don't know what the future holds. Richard and I have talked and talked and talked about what to do next ... where to go ... where do we want to go ... where do I want to go ... and then what to do after that, etc. ... sometimes I forget people really do live without moving every couple of years:). Of course I have input, none of you would believe me if I said I didn't:), but ultimately I'm just rambling. For the first time I see my life moving by me so super fast and I just want to enjoy the RIGHT NOW. I don't want to miss even just a second. And why should I? These are the seconds God gave me. A dear, sweet, new friend of mine reminded me today of the old saying "the days are long, but the years are short."

To God be the Glory.

Goodnight!

Still here ...

If you've spoken with me at all over the last couple of weeks or if you've read any of my FB status updates recently, you know that my nights have been consumed with tutoring Richard in his online STATS course.  It is both fun and rewarding to be able to exercise my brain AND to have an intelligent conversation (or just a conversation about something other than issues related to homeschooling and raising five females:)!!) with him.  But I will admit it I've missed having an opportunity to record all the thoughts buzzing around in my head ... and there have been a lot of thoughts.  The photo I'm holding in my hands above is one Momma brought with her when she came last week.  I am always amazed at how there always seems to be a photo here and there that I haven't ever seen.  I don't ever recall seeing this one.  I love it.  I love seeing me in Momma's arms ... reminds me all too much of holding my girls in my arms.  I love the eyeshadow Momma has on:).  We all have those random memories that just seem to stick out in our minds.  One of my all time favorites is of all the time growing up where I would stand in the bathroom and watch Momma put her makeup on.  I remember the green eyeshadow and the purple (and yes, Momma ROCKED these colors!!  I could N.E.V.E.R. be so bold and successful at the same time:)!).  I look at this photo and I wonder what was going on the day it was taken.  We take photos almost as much as we breathe now a days ... it didn't use to be that way.  What was special about this moment that it ended up captured?  I look at this photo and I think about how much life took place after it was taken.  I bet Momma never would have dreamed that the little girl she held would give her five more little girls to hold and love.  I look at this photo and I think of all the photos of me and my girls and all the life that is to be lived until they look at those captured moments and say "I bet Momma would have never guessed ... "

Yes, there is a lot buzzing around in my head and so much of it I've put far greater of an importance on than I need to. 

I am thankful for the night.  I am thankful that I have a chance to climb into bed tonight, albeit later than I would like, and more things left unfinished than I would have like to have left unfinished, but I will climb in bed and give thanks for this day and the rest at the end of it.  I will embrace the gift of rest ... the gift of Richard home with the girls and me ... the gift of life ... both that which has been lived and that which remains to be lived.  I will give thanks to a God who is both the giver and sustainer of that life ... and who is so gracious to me.

4 days of Gran

It is 4:20 in the afternoon here.  School is finished and cleaned up.  Dishes are put away and I just took an apple crisp out of the oven.  

Momma left this morning.  It was so much fun having her here the last 4 days.  We didn't do anything extraordinary, but the girls (and I) enjoyed so much just having her here.  Dinner, painting fingernails, getting hair cut, doctors and dentist visits and trips to Target are just a whole lot more fun with Gran.  Olivia especially enjoyed having someone to follow around while her big sisters and I had school.  She is definitely Gran's new buddy and the first Davenport girl to say Gran at 18 months:).

Okay, my blogging window is up.  Five minutes is about all my girls can handle without supervision.  Richard thinks it's a female thing ... I don't know, I'm convinced they are all out to get me:).

Thank you so much for coming Momma!  Wish you were here to have coffee and apple crisp with me and the girls!

I love you!!

Rain or Shine ...

The rain came today.  But not only did the rain come, Momma did too!  

I can't help but be reminded of a first poem Patterson memorized ...

Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not;

Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot ...

We'll weather the weather, 

whatever the weather, 

whether we like it or not!

We are thrilled to have Gran here!!  

And even if it rains the whole time, their will be plenty of sunshine at 57.

A Preview ...

And the beautiful weather continues!

Sunny, breezy and 66 degrees.

I'm supposed to be cleaning and preparing for Momma's visit tomorrow, but I can't resist the call of this weather! 

My doors are open and the girls are OUT.  

Neighborhood friends are over and enjoying snacks in Fort Kids (our backyard playground).

It is nice and I can't help but feel a little giddy thinking Summer is not too far away.