My Life...daily reflections

Summertime and the living is easy

Two times in the past two days I've had a friend of mine react in shock and a bit of jealousy that as of noon I was still not out of my pajamas or removed from my couch, coffee and laptop. Both were equally dismayed when I admitted I'd gotten up after 9 a.m.

What is the deal you may ask? After all, I am the mother of two children under the age of 8. Well, let me explain. About a year ago, I laid the law down on my kids waking me up early on days when there wasn't a required reason that I leave my bed, ie school, doctor appointment, someone bleeding internally. It simply made no sense to me that while my kids were early risers (because they are early going to bedders), that I should have to get up the same time as them simply because I'm Mom. I generally stay up pretty late to have a good amount of alone/quiet/time with hubby time. So getting up at 6 a.m. when I don't have to makes me rather edgy. I'll do it when I have to and am quite used to getting little sleep and functioning. But, as I said...when I don't have to, I see no point.

I'm a light sleeper so once I hear a child stir I pretty much am aware of my surroundings, yet can doze comfortably with one ear poised for trouble. So, on weekends and during the summer, they get up and I sleep in. Yay!! That means breakfast is later, so lunch is later, which means I stay in my pjs longer and generally the whole day follows suit in the non-schedule department. Yay!

I figure since summer break can be quite trying on a poor parent, it's the least they can throw me to keep me sane for the six weeks of noschool. Ruby is off for one week during the summer, so I have both girls home. Not so much in the yay category. They play ok, for a while (15 minutes)...then the bickering, screaming, biting, fist fighting and general "Calgon take me away" moments begin. Today started off on one of those "get away from me!" themes, but ended up being a "sissy, come play with me" outcome. Yay!

It was actually, dare I say, extremely comfortable outside...mid 80s and virtually no humidity. The girls played on the covered area of our deck, under the ceiling fan for most of the day. I kept the screen door open to keep an eye on them as I puttered around. It was divine. We ended the day with me laying in the hammock, them swinging and then a hand-holding walk around the block before bed. Sigh.

I wish every day the weather could be like today. Perfect. Tomorrow will probably be back to "start sweating the instant you walk out the door" humidity. At least I have today to hold onto for a while...until they start that dang bickering again over who grabbed the last grape popsicle.

Here's some shots of today, which to me epitomizes summer and little girls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On another note, I took a couple of shots today of a corner of my house that I rarely, if never, have shared before on the net/blog. I saw the challenge somewhere and the inspiration struck today for some reason. So, I present...

 

My laundry room. This area is right inside the laundry room, as you come in my back door. It's where we keep all that stuff you must have when you come and go...the piano lesson bag, the backpacks, raincoats, shoes, brownie vest, keys, sunglasses and according to season, various hats, coats, gloves, etc. I love this spot. This is the kids side, obviously.

 

And this is mine and Dave's spot...which is filled with my new favorite purse (the whales), totes for outings, Dave's hat for sun, grocery bags, his whitecoat generally too goes here and in the winter...all that wintery stuff you'd expect. Too, you see here a new dog leash and collars awaiting their new owner, our new puppy coming next week!

And lastly...how we capped off yesterday:

 

Our glass top patio table suddenly, for no apparent reason, shattered yesterday afternoon. Fun, fun to clean up. Now I'm in the market for a new table since replacing the glass costs more than the entire dining set did!!

The day before it looked like this...ugh.

Gangster government

I try not to be political on this blog, but this video warranted being posted because it says EXACTLY what I feel is happening in this country by our government!

If we don't stand up as a people, this once great nation will be forever changed for the worse!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXyhKXUP7PM

Miss ???? (Help Internet!)

 

Meet the newest member of the Jacobs family...a 9-week-old Cairn Terrier named Celie.

She'll join us at home after July 4 when we come back from a mini-vacation. I'm sure there will be PLENTY of posts about this new addition, so stay tuned.

EDITED: After a couple of days of saying Celie over and over, we discovered that the girls couldn't say her name very easily...after a couple of times it came out "Silly", not Celie. So, back to the drawing board.

We have literally had all of our friends and family helping us go through dozens of names. It's been like trying to put together a charter for the United Nations, I swear. As of today the working name was "Piper". I even put that name down on the puppy training lessons we signed up for.

Then we told Dave our final options, which included Zoe...to which he scrunched his nose and sent us BACK to the drawing board!!

As of now we have three names on the plate, which seem to be finalists (she says very skeptically).

Please, Internet, give us some help here will ya and vote on your favorite!

1) Roxy

2) Tilly

3) Winnie

What a father is

Today is Father's Day. Well, for at least the next 40 minutes it is. I am not writing this post at this late hour because I forgot it was Father's Day or because I am a procrastinator. I am writing it because I had the desire pass over me to put into words what a father means to me.

First off,  I can't relate to what having a father is like because I never had one growing up. My parents divorced when I was three, and my father lived in another state and never took part in my life. I didn't really speak to him until I graduated from high school, when he surprisingly showed up at my graduation. We tried in vain to have a bit of a relationship for a few years. It never really happened. He died about six years ago.

So, as a daughter, I am at a loss as to what a father is. I have no clue as to what a father is supposed to do or be or how much he means to a child. I can give you loads on what NOT having a father means, but I'll save that for another day. Needless to say, the lack of a male figure in my life growing up as a girl didn't give me the most positive outlook on men or marriage or becoming a parent even. Imagine my shock when I fell in love with David and found that I had a desire to not only marry him but to make him the father to MY children. Whoa.

Dave had a father growing up. In fact, I've documented how close he was to his dad recently after his death a couple of months ago. When I met David this difference between us...him having a father he was close to and my complete lack of one...was a troubling issue. We were young and our perceptions and experiences were starkly different in relation to this fact. His father knew about my childhood and seemingly decided that he would try his best to act as a father figure to me. It wasn't too shocking when I rebelled at his advances of parental guidance. But over the years, I became very fond of Clyde, grew to love him dearly and think of him very much as a father figure. I could trust him. I knew he cared for me and only had my best interests at heart. I could rely on him. He taught me what it was like to have a father.

When Dave became a father I knew, from what I'd seen of his own dad, how he would be. I knew he would not be perfect...that he'd falter and be clueless or thoughtless at times. But being a mother myself was the only thing I needed to make those things pointless. I was not perfect, I faltered and was thoughtless. I still am! What I saw in Dave was true love and devotion from the second Sarah was born. There was never a second of doubt in my head that I could rely on him, trust him, and know he would care for our daughter.

There are few things in this world that will bond a couple more than having a child. I recall those first few weeks with Sarah...the unknowing, the fear, the frustration, the overwhelming awe and love. And David was the only one I shared it with...all the good, the bad and the ugly of it. He is the ONLY one who knows JUST how much I love and care about these children of ours...how I would crumble into a million pieces if something bad ever happened to either of them.

When Sarah was diagnosed with diabetes four years ago, David and I felt like we would just die with fear for her. The countless hours of both of us crying and confiding to each other about our concern for our daughter is just mind-numbing now to even think about. A moment I will never forget until my dying day is Dave's reaction to the nurses having to draw blood from Sarah in the ER at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. She had never so much as had a cold in her three years. The hospital was overwhelming to her and scary, yet she was being so sweet and interactive with everyone...until they had to hold her down. Dave was behind her. I was in front of her, trying to soothe her. I looked up to see my dear husband crying uncontrollably...the fear and anguish more than visible on his face. I could feel it in my gut. As a nurse walked him away to try and comfort him, I thought to myself then, "THAT is what a father is."

My girls ADORE their daddy. They talk about him as if he's a superstar. They tell him constantly how much they love him...like him...think he's cool or cute or smart. But they also get VERY frustrated with him and annoyed by him and, well, fed up with him. Just like I do, lol. So us three girls have a very deep mutual admiration (coupled with annoyance at times...he's known for being an antagonist) with David. For years friends of mine would be completely perplexed about my relationship with David. He and I fought so much. We bickered and picked at each other ALOT. Yet, we were all over each other and completely unable to be parted for more than a few hours at a time. I would try to explain to no avail. The complexity of the relationship simply was not explainable!

 

But now, with my girls, I can SO relate. They know JUST what I mean about their daddy...the mixture of complete adoration he compels mixed with the...other bits. Sometimes we sit and just talk about Dave, about how much we love him or miss him or think he's aggravating. I'm SO very glad I have them to talk to about their father. I LOVE hearing them talk about him. It makes me think of what I missed out on growing up. I so hope it adds to their lives a richness and love that I never had. Dave has no idea just how important he is to them. But I do. I never knew it before I met him and witnessed him with the girls just how big the void was that I had not having a father. It wasn't obvious until I saw it through my daughter's eyes just how much they love their daddy. Now I see just how much I missed and am filled with a mixture of sadness, resentment and gratefulness that my children don't and won't, hopefully, ever know of such a loss.

So, by meeting my sweet, yet irritating at times, husband, I've had my definition of father created...expanded...embedded. I am more than thankful for that. I am blessed.

We love you Dave. Thank you so very much for opening me up to what being and having a father is. I don't think you will ever know just how much it has meant to me and always will.

I love you.

Period of adjustment

The first week of summer break after our vacation was a bit of a transition. I love my children, don't get me wrong. But going from a regular routine, where Sarah is gone every day for a set amount of time and Ruby is too, to one of them being home all the time and the other home more too...well, there's always a bumpy adjustment period.

I think being post vacation makes it a bit worse. We go from a set routine, to a whole relaxed routine  over vacation and then back home to the "real" world...the same, but different. We're waking up much later, which is good believe me...but it throws the whole day off. We're going to bed later, which too, throws things out of whack. And then there's that whole "too much" quality time together that gets to us all pretty quickly, LOL.

We'll adjust...and by the time we do it will be time for school to start again.

So this week has been filled with taking it easy...at least two days of me and Sarah not leaving the house and staying in our pjs all day (yay for those days), and hanging outside and running errands etc.

I took a few shots from the week, which also included hair cuts for both girls. It was only the second hair cut ever for Ruby...just a trim. I took photos with my camera phone and will have to post them when Dave is back and get them off my phone for me.

 

This to me just represents summer and little girls.

 

Sarah playing with the "Flarp" we got her in the dollar bin at Target.

 

 

New summer haircut for Sarah.

 

Sarah working on her scrapbook pages about our vacation.

 

Beach 2009, Part III

If you can believe this, I actually took less shots on our vacation this year than I typically do. Why it's turning into three separate posts, I'm not sure. Oh well, I wanted to give the Manley family their own post for the family shots.

As I did last year, I had a photo session with the girls on the deck...actually two of them this year, one unplanned and the other planned. I love what came out of both. I posted some of the unplanned session yesterday in post one...here is the one I planned (obviously with the matching outfits, lol).

 

 

 

  

 

 

And here are the last of the random shots from vacation...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Taken with slow shutter speed...full moon on the water. It was so amazingly bright.

 

 

Beach 2009, Part II (Manley Family Photo Session)

This year on vacation I had more than just my usual suspects to take photos of. My sister joined us for the first part of the week and then our friends Maggie and Jason came down to stay with their daughter Clementine. I always enjoy taking photos of other people besides my "own", though I'm always nervous about the end results...expectations and such.

Maggie and I have been friends forever, so I am naturally very comfortable with her. But taking her family portrait? Well, that was a bit intimidating. I just wanted it to be casual and for the photos to reflect how she is with her family...and for them to feel they looked good in the shots, lol.

The deck on the house we rent has the most awesome light in the late afternoon. I think the metal roof of the house next door acts as a big reflector or something. Our original plan was to go out on the dunes in the late evening and take the shots, but a full day and grumpy toddler made the deck a better choice. Clementine literally had just woken up and was less than excited about getting her photo taken, so these shots were taken very quickly before we all headed out to eat Mexican food and drink margaritas (us, not the kids). I think they turned out pretty good! (She says with baited breath in hopes Mags will feel the same.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beach 2009

We're back from the beach! What a wonderful week. We've gone now for four years to the Alabama shore and each year we say this year was better than the last. Last year we had Dave's parents with us, which was really special. They were slated to go with us again this year, but with the passing of Dave's father our plans were changed. My sister and our dear friends Maggie and Jason and their little girl, Clementine, joined us instead. We had a marvelous time. The weather was perfect. We stayed in the same house as last year. But for a stomach bug right before we left and a sting by a jellyfish (both for me), the trip was incident free and full of enjoyment.

We're trying to get back into a routine around here and jump head long into summer. I've edited a ton of photos of the trip, of course. Here are few of my favorites...more to come in a second post tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adios

Headin' here Saturday mornin! I'll check in if I'm able to snag some wi-fi again. Otherwise, see ya in a week!!!!

It's that time again...

 

It's May, which means it's time for strawberry picking around these parts. For the past four years, we have gone every spring to pick strawberries at a nearby farm. Dave's father, who recently passed away, is actually the one who got us started on the practice when we moved back to this area. He picked strawberries with his wife every spring and suggested we might do it with Sarah when she got old enough.

So, every spring since Sarah was three we have gone with Dave'd dad to pick strawberries. It's always been a very special thing for us, a time spent with Papa for the children that they looked forward to. Needless to say, this year's trip was very bittersweet with his absence. It felt good to go, but it wasn't the same, in more ways than in him not being with us. We generally go picking before we go on vacation and by this time the fields are beginning to peter out...having been picked over for nearly a month. Due to unusually cool and VERY rainy weather, the crop this year is late and immature. We weren't sure what we would find when we got there, but our suspicions were accurate...lots of plants full of small or immature berries. It was nice to be out there with it not in the 90s as it typically is. Saturday was overcast and in the 80s, so the most comfortable weather we've ever gone in really.

The girls are old hands at the picking now and needed very little guidance from us, even with the difficult crop. We picked three baskets full, surprisingly. The girls talked about Papa alot, which made Dave very happy. We also picked up the best strawberry cake ever and enjoyed the newly available homemade strawberry icecream!!

I think Papa enjoyed himself too...I could feel him there with us, reminding the girls to only get the red ones and not the green and to look under the leaves for the big ones! I'm so glad we have the memories of picking with Papa for the girls...and us...and of course the photos. Here are the snaps from this year, minus a very important fellow who isn't visible, but sure was felt.