Day at the zoo...

 We took our first trip to the zoo today since Sienna was born, and it went surprisingly well.  Especially considering we were there for 3.5 hours!  I was amazed that the kids lasted that long and Sienna was really enjoying it for the most part.  Of course she was awake the entire time.

 I told Reese to make a fish face for this huge fish...pretty funny!

This week must be my lucky week for self-inflicted injuries.  Chalk that up to lack of sleep/multitasking with three kids all demanding something at the same time???  I sliced my toe and half of the toenail off the other night on a sharp metal piece I ran into when it was dark.  This morning I stabbed my arm with a meat thermometer.  The verdict:  I am well-cooked....hahaha...yea, I know...not really that funny.

Completed projects

I finished a quick project this weekend for Sienna's room...a little banner from scrap material I already had on hand.  Score for a free room embellishment.  It makes me happy just looking at it!

 I had already painted letters for her name a couple months ago...so nice to feel like I can still finish a little project every once in a while!

The Pursuit of Cleanliness

 With a baby who literally takes two 20 minute naps a day, on a really good day...(and one of those often in the car)...it is virtually impossible to get much accomplished around the house.  Maybe more veteran moms have some suggestions for me, but tack on two older kids and it feels like I'm playing a game of Risk...(back in the days when I used to have time to play board games)...a game that seems like it will NEVER end.

 It feels as if I am one tiny Clean Warrior, armed merely with a swiffer and some Clorox wipes, fending off the forces of evil...the never-ending hoards of dust bunnies, crumb monsters and dirt devils.

Dirt seems to  increase exponentially with each child we bring into the home.  It increases even more when nice weather arrives, meaning there are little feet tracking in and out of the house repeatedly throughout the day, bringing in lots of lovely grime onto the floor.

I am a self-professed neat freak...I was not always this way, you can ask my mom...I was not a neat child by any means.  But once I had my own home to take care of, I always had a certain sense of pride in keeping a neat and clean home.  People always told me I'd have to lower my expectations once I had kids...that I'd have to let some things go.  Boy, I should have listened to that advice.  Derrick has taken an "If you can't beat 'em" approach to Sienna, wearing her around in the backpack if he has something he needs to get done and he's on Sienna duty.  It really does seem to work too.  We'll see, if I'm really desperate today, I might just vacuum the house with her riding on my back...

The Sick Prayer

I was putting Reese to bed the other night and part of her routine is to pick a prayer out of her little prayer book that we read together.  She asked me, "Is Carter still sick."  "No," I told her, "he's fine now."  "Well I want to read the sick prayer," she said.  Then she slowly pulled her arm out from under the covers and tapped her elbow a few times with her finger, while knowingly raising her eyebrows.  She had a scab on her elbow from a fall earlier in the week.  I just about died....guess it doesn't hurt to pray for even the tiniest injury!

Fairy Houses

 We took the kids to build fairy houses at the park today.  The author of the book was there to read the story first and show the kids pictures of different fairy houses we could make.  Then everyone went outside to the park with materials we all brought and worked on our houses.  There was even a real fairy wandering the park to give fairy dust to the kids.

Carter with his finished house

 Some of the houses other people built were pretty cool!

Heaven...

 I've been thinking a lot about Heaven lately.  Not in some morbid kind of way...it's just that it keeps coming up in things I am reading or sermons at church or my weekly Bible study.  Heaven has always been something that is very difficult for me to think about at length.  I get frustrated trying to understand something my puny human mind simply cannot fathom and at times, it even becomes scary for me, just trying to comprehend eternity.

 My revelations about Heaven started when I read Uncle Tom's Cabin a couple of months ago.  I was taken by the amount of Biblical references in the book and really drawn emotionally to the characters, particularly Tom and Evangeline, for anyone who's read it.  The parallels of Tom to Christ, and the depth of his faith, even to the point of being beaten to death to save another slave, were remarkable.  But most of all, I was so intrigued by his constant longing for Heaven and the way he could overlook all manner of suffering, torture and extreme pain, just knowing what he had to look forward to on the other side.

Next I read a book called Proof of Heaven which was another incredibly thought-provoking book.  To hear the level of detail of this doctor's near death experience...well, it really stuck with me.

Our pastor is also preaching his way through Revelation right now, so there is a lot of talk about Heaven week-to-week, and what it might be like when we get there.

It is hard to imagine that the world we are experiencing right now, in the day to day, is really only a minute fragment of what really exists out there.  It is hard to grasp a place that we have never seen and that is totally beyond our comprehension.  But the other night, I felt like God put my heart at peace about it as I was looking out the window at some of the beautiful flowering trees across the street.

The stark contrast of some taller trees that still had no leaves on their branches with the profusely flowering trees made me stop and think....this is kind of the way our world is compared to Heaven.  We only have an understanding of the things we see each day every day...we grow accustomed to them, they are our comfort zone.  But beyond this veil, exists a world of the most extreme beauty and perfection imaginable.  It's like the new life of spring in contrast with the dead and dormant trees in winter.  When I think about Heaven in this way, it really does give me more reason to look forward to it.  Who wouldn't want to experience a place filled with so much love and so much beauty and so much perfection, void of any sadness or pain?

I thought about it again today in a different way.  As I was cuddling my little Sienna, just marveling at her and filled with such love for her, it struck me, how much more my God, my Creator loves me and wants to spend time with me in the same way I want to spend time with the ones I love.  To imagine a perfect love, so much stronger than the love I have for my babies...well I can't even imagine that, but it will truly be amazing to be in His presence, surrounded by that kind of love when we get there.

I know this is really deep subject matter for a blog post, but it feels good to put into words these things that have been on my heart so much lately, especially as we are in this special time of year, where we can daily see a renewal of all that has been dead and dormant.  New life abounds, and I'm taking the opportunity to be reminded of what is in store for those who have put their faith in the Lord.  

I'll end with the lyrics to a song I love - He Loves Me by David Crowder:

He is jealous for me
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy
When all of a sudden
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory
And I realise just how beautiful You are
And how great Your affections are for me

(Pre-Chorus)
And O how He loves us
Oh, O how He loves us
How He loves us all

(Chorus)
Yeah He loves us
O how He loves us
O how He loves us
O how He loves

(Verse 2)
We are His portion and He is our prize
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes
If grace is an ocean, we're all sinking
So Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest
I don't have time to maintain these regrets
When I think about the way

Earthquake!!!

I took the kids to the storytime at the Library today and the theme was Earth Day.  So when Derrick got home from work, I asked them to tell him what it was about.  After a slight pause, Reese shouted out, "Earthquake!!"  I just about died.

Ahh, thank goodness for laughter, what would I do without it on some of these long and challenging days with three little ones?  Everyone was so happy to be outside again today...they got completely disgusting in the sandbox this afternoon so I gave all three of them a bath together in the tub for the first time.  (Sienna can sit up now...yay)  Then tonight Carter and Reese were running around outside and got all muddy again...so that was 5 baths to do in one day.  Oh my cracked dry hands are thanking me profusely now! 

In spite of all the extra dirt I do love spring though.  The flowers and trees blooming are absolutely amazing after such a long, cold winter.

Spring has sprung

 We've been making every effort to get outside with the kids these past few days.  And boy are we all glad for the warmer weather.  We've been enjoying some hoops in the backyard, a trip to Soergel's and lots of trips to the playground.  Unfortunately, I think I am more tired out than the kids...how does that happen??  Oh well, we are all just so glad to be done with winter, finally!

The kids are having a blast with Nani here visiting for a few days.  We are all thankful for an extra set of hands to help out, especially with Miss Sienna.  She has finally decided to eat a little more food in the last couple of days so hopefully that keeps up.  She's also sitting up on her own now for short periods of time, and starting to say "dada" all of the time.  Lookout world, here she comes!

Plans...what plans?

Every time I think I've got the whole parenting thing figured out, one, or all of my kids finds some way to throw me for a loop.  I think of something fun to do with them, play it all out in my mind how the day will go...but it never seems to go as planned.  Today was just such a day.

We had another little cold snap here, and rather than sitting around inside for the whole day, I figured a little outing would make the day more fun.  So I loaded the girls into the car to take them over to the mall.  I didn't even really plan to shop...just figured we'd walk them in the stroller and get a snack.  But even that was too much.  Before we even got there the crying began and then it was no turning back.  Sienna cried and cried and cried some more.  People were staring...it was totally miserable and depressing to boot.  We were maybe there for a total of 15 minutes and I called it quits.

I've never felt as humbled as I am when I try to plan out a day and it goes in a complete 180 from what I had expected.  I guess I still have a lot to learn...probably never will learn everything I need to learn...how could I?  This is the toughest job in the world!!!

I'm very lucky my mom is here for a few days to help out.  A couple of extra hands are most welcome in this house full of crazies.  We even finished a project that had been waiting since January to complete...painting our master bathroom.  It had not been painted since we moved into the house, almost 9 years ago!  So at least the day was not a total loss.

Backyard beach

 Well, I did it...I knew it was inevitable, but was postponing since I knew the trouble it would bring.  We opened up the sandbox today.  I know...seems harmless enough.  But two kids covered in sand repeatedly throughout the day...every day...well, it starts to grow old pretty fast.  But sitting there today watching them play and laugh and love every second of it, made the mess well worth it.

Carter's only comment when I asked him if it was nice was that it was too messy.  Then he proceeded to play in it for the next 45 minutes.  I asked him if it was like going to the beach and he said "Yes.  But Mama, I don't like going to the beach.  There's too much sand... and the ocean."  Uh, yes, that is pretty much why you go to the beach...weird kid!

Reese handed me about 20 "pretties" she had to have in her hair this morning...hence the "dreadlocks".  haha

Sienna...the ever waking baby...she sensed I was taking her photo and woke up right away.  sigh...