The view out the window of our rental car in Seattle was cloudy, and it sprinkled. Hey! Is that the Space Needle?!

Then we drove 90 miles north and caught our first glimpse of  the town that would become our future home. My first thoughts were, This is the kind of place you visit on vacation. Pinch me, please!

Cloudy, cool and beautiful…

Could this really be our new home?

Then there was a whirlwind day of interviewing and sightseeing before my husband received THE  JOB OFFER. We sat in our hotel room looking at each other, asking ourselves if we were really considering a move across the country. We prayed, listed out all the pros & cons for our family and made our decision. I think it took all of 5 minutes. It was clear to both of us that this was where God was leading us and not just because of the pretty scenery

In the morning, we flew back to Michigan to pick up our girls who had been staying with my sister’s family, then we traveled back to Wisconsin. I spent the rest of the summer downsizing, cleaning, and packing while my hubby worked his new job from home and flew out west a couple of times for work  and to scout out places for us to live. This process took much longer than we thought it should, but in then end, God in His perfect timing led us to the perfect place for our family.

The front of our new home.

One year ago today, we ended our cross country roadtrip the 2,000 mile trek with 3 kids, 2 adults, and 2 cats crammed in a car and arrived in our new home. Well, technically, it was Sept. 21st, but I’m counting it as today, because it was also a Wednesday.

Our trusty road trip vehicle

One year ago, we arrived at our new home, were greeted happily by all our cul de sac neighbors, and ate Quiznno’s sandwiches using moving boxes for a dining table.  Then we decided to walk the girls over to the church on the corner that also just happened to be hosting their first night of AWANA for the year.

Our girls the day we left our old house in Wisconsin.

A year later!

What a difference a year makes!

We are overwhelmed by God’s blessings.

So you’ll google “homemade lemonade” (since you’ve never made it from scratch yourself) and find the perfect recipe for young do-it-yourself-ers. While you’re surfing the net, the kids will find some pieces of posterboard left over in the back of your closet and ask you for a sharpie. You’ll find one in the junk drawer which will remind you that you need to clean and organize your drawers. Meanwhile, the kids will get creative making signs for their lemonade stand without arguing and decide to attach one to the side of the wagon.

When they go to the garage to get the wagon, they’ll notice the wagon is dirty and ask you where the rags are so they can wipe out the dirt. After rescuing your best kitchen dish towels, you won’t be able to remember what you were doing before the interruption. So once the wagon is clean, you’ll load all the kids into the hot car and drive across town to the grocery store to buy lemons, cups and ice. While you are there, you’ll think, “It’s a great day for a cook-out!” and also buy fruit, hot dogs, buns, and all the fixings.

When you get home, you’ll give your kids the lemons and watch carefully as they cut the lemons in half. Then you’ll step back and watch them make lemonade. One girl will do the juicing, one will do the pouring and stirring and another will go pick some mint leaves.

While they are working, you will go to the garage and find the cooler so they can keep the ice and lemonade cold. You’ll notice it’s a little dirty so you’ll want to wipe it clean before giving it to the middle child. When you come back to the kitchen, one girl will be slicing a lemon and putting the pieces into the pitcher and another will be dropping in the mint leaves.

You’ll take a moment to bask in their pride and sense of accomplishment at doing everything without your help, then watch as they load their goods onto the wagon.

You will wave goodbye as they pull the wagon around the curve in the cul de sac and set up their stand on the street corner.

Then you’ll go back into the kitchen, survey the lemon-scented mess and think to yourself, “It’s beautiful.”

But seeing the dirty dishes will remind you that you should probably clean up before making supper. Then you’ll remember that you don’t have to clean up yet since you are going to grill hot dogs. So you’ll decide to sit down and relax for a moment instead.

When you sit down, you’ll think about sending a text to your husband about the lemonade stand but realize that your phone is at the other end of the house. When you get up to find your phone, one of the girls will run in with exciting stories about customers who left “tips,” and how everyone said their lemonade is the “yummiest. ever.”

For some reason, this will make you think about checking the mail. So you will find your mail key and walk to the mailbox. While you are opening your mailbox, you will spy your husband walking home from the bus. You will want to give him the quarters in your pocket so he can go buy some lemonade.

Then you will walk back home and grill supper. The kids will be having so much fun by this time that they won’t want to come home and eat. So you will make them a plate of hot dogs and take it to them. When they see the plate of food, they will be glad to see you.

And when one sister returns the empty plate to the kitchen, you will send her back with ice cream sandwiches for them all.

After another hour, they will probably come home with an empty lemonade pitcher and sparkling eyes as they tell you about their adventure. They will tell you how many people stopped and how they are never going to use a lemonade mix because homemade lemonade tastes way better. When they tell you how much fun they had making and selling lemonade,  and that this has been the “most excellent day ever,” you will be very happy for them. When you find out that they made $24, you and they will be proud.

And chances are, if they’ve had this much fun making lemonade and another warm summer day is on its way, they’ll probably want to do it all over again tomorrow.

Or something like that

It’s a gift.

Today it holds me and Z.

Z.

My independent-keep-on-moving-do-it-myself-never-stop-trying-until-you-figure-it-out baby girl.

She’s growing up way too fast.

I scooped up her four year old body, setting her lightly on my lap. It’s time to learn her Bible verse for Wed. night church. But she’d much rather snuggle. With her eyes and hands scrunched up, she squeezes me tightly.

“Oh, Zhu-zhu. Mommy Zhee-Zhee Wohm.”

This is her nickname for me because I’m almost always warm, especially when she is in a snuggling mood.

Smiling, I ask her for a “‘mooch.”

She gives me several. I return the favor and we giggle.

I read her lesson and look at the verse.

John 15:12.

“Love each other as I have loved you.”

Do you know what that means, Z?

She shakes her head “no.”

I try to think of a way to explain so she will understand. Sometimes the simple answer is the best.

Does Mommy love you? 

She nods “yes.”

Do you love your sisters?

Yes.

Does Mommy want you to love your sisters as much as I love you?

Yes.

That’s how God wants us to love each other. Just like He loves us.

Her nose wrinkles when she smiles, leaning into me.

As we recite the verse together, we seal each word with a “mooch” on the cheek for good measure. And she giggles some more.

I feel her body relaxing against me.

She sighs. “I’m tired.”

I am surprised to hear her say it because she’s usually the last to admit it. I think about taking her to her bed.

When was the last time she fell asleep while I held her? Was she two?

I hum her favorite songs then sing words quietly, moving  the chair back & forth in time to the music. She doesn’t squirm. A squeaky old swiveling chair that rocks can be a pretty awesome thing sometimes.

Her eyelids droop.

I pray her big sisters don’t make any sudden noises.

Her breathing deepens and I feel her weight heavy against me.

As she relaxes, her legs and arms twitch as if to say they aren’t ready for sleeping yet. Her left hand opens slightly and I feel a small something fall onto my leg beneath. Make that two small somethings. Shifting her gently, I feel with my hand between my legs. I hadn’t known she was holding anything. My fingers close on something sticky. I lift my hand to see two jelly beans streaking orange and red across my fingers.  They are covered in sugary wrinkles from being held for a long time in warm, moist little hands.

She sighs in her sleep. A  happy contented sigh that comes from deep inside as I brush the hair away from her forehead with my free hand. I close my eyes and hold these gifts tightly. In one hand, my youngest daughter in all her sleeping beauty. In the other, two sticky jelly beans.

These childhood days will soon be gone.

Will she ever sleep on my lap like this again?

I think about that bedtime a few weeks ago. Her thin cool arms reached for me from the darkness. Slight hands clasped like a delicate necklace in a circle around my neck, pulling my head gently onto her pillow.

“Oh Mommy Zhu-zhu! I want you to stay hee fowevoh!”

As I sit now with my cheek resting on her tousled hair and her warm body against mine in this chair of memories, I feel my answer.

Me too.

Me?

Well, let’s just say this blog has been silent for a couple of months for a variety of reasons.

Because life happens.

Because four out of five family members in our house celebrate their birthdays between the end of January and the end of March. And that’s a lot of birthday treats & party planning.

Thank you Pinterest!

Candles from "somebody's" cake. Don't count them.

What happens when a bunny birthday becomes a Bunny Star Wars birthday.

My sorry attempt at a Tardis cake for the Dr. Who birthday.

Because Daddy worked for 30 hours straight one week and 3 little girls didn’t understand why they didn’t see him for two days. Well, maybe at least one of them isn’t so little anymore as she daily reminds me.

Because “springing ahead” isn’t fun.

Because one of our daughters decided she was ready to be baptized.

Daddy getting ready to baptize "B."

Because all that birthday planning, shopping, baking, homeschooling, enjoying a visit from Grandma who flew 2,000 miles to see us, and a few seasonal colds shared generously left little time for writing. And anyway, who would want to read about all that…ordinary life-stuff?

Or maybe it’s because I have the strange ability to injure the ligaments in two of the fingers on my left hand while trying to get ready for bed quietly so I won’t wake anyone up, but instead whack my hand on the doorknob while changing my shirt and wake up the neighborhood with my howl of pain.

Ligaments. take. forever. to. heal.

At least they do if you’re a dumbo like me & don’t stop using them like you’re supposed to so you end up re-injuring them. Twice. Or was it three times?

Either way. Ouch. But I’ve finally learned my lesson. I think.

Well, at least until the next time I need to lift a bag of groceries or a pot of water & there’s nobody around to help.

Somebody stop me!

On the bright side, the girls are learning to help out more since Mommy can’t do the “heavy lifting.”

But I wouldn’t take advantage of that or anything. Much.

So here I am today, hen-pecking away at the keyboard to let you know that I am alive and mostly well. But I may not post for a few more weeks while I try to let things heal up the way they should.

So, until next time, carry on!

Unless you’re me.

In that case, you shouldn’t be carrying much of anything.

Good thing I’m not left-handed, eh?

But the Midwest had a very mild fall and not even any snow on Christmas. Where’s the fun in rubbing it in when they had the same or sometimes better temps in the middle of December? I was bummed. Just a little. But I knew the day of winter-reckoning would come. Because winter always comes to the Midwest. Especially in January.

From what I hear, winter finally hit back East, I love saying that, with seasonably cold temperatures and snow. We had a little snow up here too, in case you hadn’t heard.

But we didn’t even bother to shovel the driveway. That’s right. We stayed home, enjoyed the snow, drank lots of hot chocolate, and even used the driveway as a sledding hill. Well I didn’t. Go sledding that is. No need to injure my dignity. Or my tailbone.

We knew that the snow would all be gone in just a few days. So this is me rubbing it in to you unfortunate souls in winter-Midwest-wonderland.

We enjoyed our week of winter. Are you enjoying yours?

All that snow gave him a new ‘do which I think I’ve seen somewhere before…

]]> http://mylittleculdesac.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/frosty-bob-is-feeling-so-good/feed/ 3 mylittleculdesac Frosty Bob Peppermint jamesbrown-old http://mylittleculdesac.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/first-snow/ http://mylittleculdesac.wordpress.com/2012/01/14/first-snow/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:00:41 +0000 Erin Mangum http://mylittleculdesac.wordpress.com/?p=581 Continue reading →]]> It’s been quite a week and a half around here. First, our oven broke. And it took a week for the broken part to get ordered and installed. A week of meals mostly consisting of soup and whatever I could make in the brand new crockpot that I got with a Christmas gift card. Thanks Mom & Dad!  It was especially challenging because I have a pretty tight food budget. And I’d already spent it on the meal plan I made before the oven broke.

The same day the oven was fixed, our clothes dryer broke. So we are now in the trying-to-figure-out-if-it’s-worth-fixing-the-old-dryer-or-should-we-replace-it stage. Meanwhile, our house has become “laundry world.” That’s what the girls call it when all of our clothes are drip-drying from the furniture. 

This has made keeping my new year’s goals a little bit more difficult. You know, the one about me getting everything ready for morning the night before? Kinda hard to do when the dining room table has socks and t-shirts drying on it. So there’s been a lot more wobbling than balancing this week. But that’s okay. I will find balance again.

I’m just praying that no other appliances decide to break. Last night the dishwasher made a strange growly-buzzing noise for a minute when we started to run it. I would probably run around the house screaming for a minute if that happened. Or just get over it and start washing the dishes by hand. You know. Whichever is easier.

Isn’t it funny how extra challenges seem to come your way when you make a goal for yourself? Or maybe that’s just me.

This morning I woke up to shrieks and squeals that reminded me of Christmas morning. The girls were just a little bit excited to see this:

Forget about eating breakfast. They bundled up and out they went!

There wasn’t much, but it was heavy, wet…

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…

perfect for building a snowman!

Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’…

Grammy gave them a “snowman kit” in their Christmas package that they had been desperately wanting to use. But one particularly dramatic child that I won’t name was pretty sure we would never get enough snow. But as it turns out, you don’t need much snow.

 What shall we name him?

[shouted simultaneously]

“Frosty the Snowman!”

“Bob!”

“Peppermint!”

Okay. May I introduce Frosty Bob Peppermint. Mr. Peppermint for short.

I remember when I first learned to ride a bike. Those first few times, the wheels wobbled because I was afraid to really try. Afraid I might fall. I didn’t realize that not giving it my whole effort made the wheels wobble more. Not surprisingly, I fell.  But then, I found my courage. And my balance. Trusted the bike to hold me up & pushed those pedals around, steady and strong. Suddenly, I was joy. Free. The wind blew my hair behind me and I knew that nothing in the world could stop me!

That’s how it usually goes whenever I face a new challenge. I try. Sometimes afraid. I wobble, maybe fail. But if I have the courage to keep trying, I will find again that feeling of flying. A goal accomplished. Everything feels right in the world.

I’ve never made New Year’s resolutions because by their very nature, they seem doomed to failure before they start. However, this year our family has decided to make a new year’s goal together that can be summed up in one word: balance.  Between my husband working on finishing his PhD and keeping up with a new job, all of us learning to live in a brand new part of the the country, me keeping the house running while homeschooling our three girls, and trying not to worry about money, we have a lot of things to juggle! And some days, quite honestly, we feel like we’re wobbling all over the place and we’ll never get it right. For us, balance means we make small, but (hopefully) significant changes to our daily routine over the course of the year that will help us keep everything in perspective & focus on what really matters.

Here are a few of my small, practical and totally reasonable personal goals for this year that will help me find my balance.

1. Wake up before the girls. Every morning, not just when we have to go somewhere. This means, of course, that I will have to actually get up when my alarm goes off and not a half hour later. You probably already have this one down, but I’ve always been the stay up late and sleep in kind of gal. But this is the year I change that. I read somewhere that getting to the classroom early allows a teacher to set the tone for the day. But no matter how much preparation is done the night before, if a teacher gets to the classroom at the last minute or heaven forbid after some of the kids, then the children decide how the day will go. Since my house is our classroom, I think the same goes here. When I wake up early, get dressed & ready for the day and if I’m really on top of things have breakfast ready with a smile when they get up, I am setting a positive mood and tone for the day. But if they are up first, pull all the toys out of the toy box, or start a massive art project with glitter, scissors and glue while I’m in the shower, I’ve let them decide for me that I will have a stress-filled day.

2. Get (and keep) the kids involved with the daily kitchen chores. There’s only so much a Mom can do in a day. Especially when Mom is also the school teacher. Have you ever tried to prepare 3 meals a day and clean up after while simultaneously whipping up a science experiment, checking English worksheets and getting ready for history lessons (not to mention keeping track of a busy preschooler)? If you are anything like me, something has to give. And around here it’s usually the housework. Except that you can’t leave the dishes on the table or counter for later when the table and counter are where you do school. Well, you can try, but it isn’t pretty. Or conducive to learning. Don’t ask me how I know this.

Each of my three girls now has a daily kitchen job to be done immediately before or after each meal. I assigned their jobs according to age & ability. Yes, even the almost 4 year old. She gets to run the Eureka Superbroom to suck up the crumbs under the table. She thinks this is awesome and so do I since most of the mess is hers & I don’t have to clean it up anymore The eight year old and she would want me to tell you that she’s almost a 7 year old are helping with the table, counter and dishwasher. This means less overall stress for me and teaching life lessons, to boot. I think that’s a win-win.

3. Get ready for morning the night before. I’ve been doing this for a long time when it comes to getting things ready for Sunday mornings. Before going to bed on Saturday night, I have the girls’ clothes laid out, church bags ready by the door, coffee ready to brew, breakfast dishes on the table and all non-refrigerated food items staged for go time. If I’m really on the ball, I’ll even get my shower out of the way the night before. I’m always impressed with how smoothly it all goes on Sunday mornings as we are getting ready for church. I guess I’m a little slow in figuring out I should be doing this every morning. It seems like a small thing, but it makes everything easier and without feeling like the morning is half-gone before everybody is dressed and has eaten breakfast.

I have one more goal that I’m working on this year, but it deserves a post all it’s own. In the meantime, I’ll be wobbling working, slow and steady on keeping these three goals. It should be no worse than learning to ride a bike, right?

Have you set any new goals for yourself this year? I’d love to hear about them!

Remember, this is the girl who screamed, “Winner! Best! Present! Ever!!!” after receiving a multi-pack of scotch tape with her present for Christmas last year.

But you’ll have to take my word on it because we don’t have a video or picture of the moment. Nobody thought to get a camera ready before she opened that present.

She’s never been one to hide her true feelings. That’s what makes her unique and a special part of our family.

I must admit that I had fun building the suspense and leading her on to believe that she wasn’t going to get what she wanted this year. Because that’s the kind of sneaky Mom I am

But I wasn’t being totally dishonest, because I wasn’t planning on getting these for her until I ended up with a gift certificate AND hit a 50% off sale just in time to get it delivered for the holiday weekend. Gotta love that!

This time we had the camera ready. So you can enjoy the I’ve-just-opened-the-best-present-ever-and-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-myself moment with us.

I'm so excited!

...And I just can't hide it!

...I'm about to lose control!

Merry Christmas!