more from our hike...

snacking alone

 

there were treasures discovered at every turn

 

brody said this looked like his halloween costume (a bat)

 

Ladies and Gentlemen....... I give you, The President.

 

As voted on, by the student council of Madison School, you are looking at the student body President for the 2008/2009 school year.
He was very excited.
This Presidency wraps up his years at Madison, precluded by general student council member, and Vice President last year.
We are so proud Isaiah, so proud.

Fun at the Smith house

Monday there was no school.
So, the kids (excluding Emily, who was reading her second book of the weekend), made up this game.
It consisted of running and jumping into pillows and blankets.
Good times at the Smith house.
Good times.

 

 

 

 

Fall.

I love fall. My favorite colors. My favorite weather.

 

Sunshine and cool days. Warm houses. Hot coffee. Pumpkins.
Candles. And candy corn. Yes, definitely candy corn.

 

Wide Awake

i know i spoke a while back about being in a state of waking up. like i had been in some sort of a sleep like state for too long.

much has happened.
and i am wide awake.

and longing to go back to sleep.

because sometimes the reality of truth is too much to take. too much to look on with open eyes. because sometimes i wish that i could close my eyes, and let the reality in my dreams, be the reality in my days.

this world is broken.
and seeing that for what it is, makes me want to close my eyes again.

stole this from a friend....

"Begin doing what you want to do now.
We are not living in eternity.
We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand
and melting like a snowflake..."

Francis Bacon, Sr.

--

"I suppose that since most of our hurts come through relationships so will our healing, and I know that grace rarely makes sense for those looking in from the outside."
-- Willie Paul Young

Technology

The boys are playing in my room...
Micah is currently hosting his Web show.
Brody is his assistant.
A Web show.
Seriously.

Football

 

Wouldn't be a fall weekend without it.
We won. 14-8.

The kissing bandit

Today when the kids got home from school, Isaiah wrote me a note (because I was on the phone), that said:
Mom, Micah was kissing a girl in the bus line.
Seriously?
When asked about it, he said, "She kissed me first."

 

It was really difficult to look into these eyes and explain how it is not okay to kiss our friends.
And no, nose kisses are not okay either.
And I don't care that she was a first grader.
Life is never boring with Micah around.

Swing!

 

car conversations changing world views

the other day in the car, when brody and i were heading off to preschool, he was pointing out letters that are in people's names. birdie drive = b for brody, and so on.

somehow we got onto talking about last names. he thought it was very cool that everyone in our family has a "S" in their name. so, he started listing off everone's name. emily smith, and you are a smith, and micah smith, and dad is a smith, and hannah smith, and isaiah smith, and then he said something that i didn't understand.
i had to ask him three or four times what he was saying.

walker smith.

he is a little boy in liberia that we sponsor.

and brody includes him in our family.

what a small, small world it just became.

Bad morning.

I vaguely remember Micah telling me he got to bring home the Author Bag as I was running out the door to take Isaiah to practice.
I remember saying, what does that mean?
And I remember Hannah saying that he got to bring home a book, to read, and then write his own story with the pens and paper in the bag. The story could just be pictures that he could explain in school.
Good.
Hannah, can you be in charge of that while I am gone? (I know, I'm a bad Mom)
She gladly agreed.

So, this morning, while I was gathering all the Author Bag supplies, so that he could take them back to school, the very next day, like he was supposed to.... while I was feeling so good about remembering all of this, I read the very small note that was attached to the notebook.

The note said.... and please send 24 snacks back with the bag the next day.
WHAT?

So, I think fast... there is a package of break apart cookies in the fridge in the garage, not sure how long they have been there, but I don't really care. I open them, and there are 12. Perfect. Cut them all in half, and threw them in the oven. 14 minutes to cook, and 16 minutes until they have to leave for the bus stop. He might be running with hot cookies, but he can handle that. So I throw them in the oven.

Then he says... yep Mom, we have 33 kids in our class.
WHAT?
The note said 24! Micah are you sure there are 33? Yes Mom.

Scratch the cookie idea.
Grab the tub of whole grain fishies.
Pull out 33 snack size ziplock bags and start pouring.
I didn't have quite enough, but upon deeper inspection, there was a couple of ziplocks of fishes in the pantry. So I threw those in. (I know, bad Mom again)

Micah still wasn't dressed, so I yelled for him to get dressed, and I am not exactly sure at this point what he wore to school. I was too busy shoving the bags of fishies into his backpack with the author bag.

But I did hear him say, as he walked out the door,
"Oh, I forgot. We do have 24 kids."

Please...

Tell me this isn't a foreshadowing of life at 15.

 

Are you kidding me? *edited below*

 

This is how the kitchen looked when I got up this morning.
For some reason I ASSUMED that the person who did this to MY kitchen, was going to clean it up.
I was wrong.
And he is out of town now, so I can't even yell at him.
So I had to clean it up.
And blog about it.
I feel better now.
*he called, and about halfway through our phone visit, he said, "Oh, and sorry I left the kitchen a mess, I fell asleep."
I said, "I forgive you, I guess, but I DID blog about it."
He said, "Well good, people will know I cook."
Uh yah, I am sure that is what they will take from this. :)

A Boy Pile

 

ghosts of the past

have you ever had one of those days, where you are going along in your life, perfectly happy, and then, BAM, out of the blue, you are reminded of a time, a place, or a person, from long ago, that maybe wasn't the best time, or place, or person?

it almost feels like you have been accosted.

so strange really.

how you can not think about something for what seems like forever, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, it is there again.

yuck.

it has been a strange day.

Good news

No braces for Isaiah.
Not yet anyway.
Three teeth to extract.
But then, we wait, and PRAY that his other teeth go where they are supposed to.
And they will, I am sure of it. :)

My football players

 

 

 

 

saturday in iowa

 

 

 

 

Iowa Boy

 

Did you hear about the new pirate movie?

It's rated ARRGGH.

ARRGGH!

Isaiah: Sweet headband Mom, it makes you look like a pirate!

 

Oh Preschool, let me sing your praises!

 

Because in about 35 minutes, I will be eating lunch with my husband, and no kids, in a restaurant.
Seriously. And it is still daylight.
I think this is one of those life changing moments. :)

Brody the Bat

One costume down, and several to go...
Picture day is tomorrow. For 4 of my kids. Nothing like spending a ton of money at one time.

 

This month's project...

Okay, here is the deal:
Go watch read and watch Jody's blog
Isn't this a great idea?
So, I am responsible for size 2T.
If any of you would like to help, in any way, please do.

I am out of words to describe how this is affecting everything I do these days. Out of words.

It is time for action.

soft curves

 

Monday Musing

At what point do you throw away the dish towel?
I mean seriously.
Why do I keep washing this?

 

Strawberry.

Yesterday evening Isaiah had, shall we say, an unfortunate accident.
He decided it would be a good idea (even though I am certain I have told him otherwise on many occasions), to sit on his skateboard and coast down the street.

He began at the corner of our street and the one the pond is on, headed toward the pond. This particular portion of the street has a nice slant to it, though I wouldn't call it a hill. It is about 4 houses from where he started to the pond, at an acre a piece, it was a ways.

His recollection is, that he was picking up a considerable amount of speed, and the board started to shake. At which point, it sort of flung him off (I imagine one of those merry go round things that old playgrounds have, you know, when you get going super fast, and someone eventually flies off from the shear force of the rotation).

He landed, and slid, on his, how shall we say it, butt. Well, not quite, but just below it anyway.

Steve and I were in our room when he came in. His pants were around his ankles, and he was saying, "MOM!!!" Steve and I were like, "Dude, pull up your pants." And he said, "I got hurt. I'm bleeding." and then he turned around.

He has the biggest strawberry just under his right butt cheek that I have ever seen. It is almost a perfect rectangle, and measures about 4x6 inches. It looks like a harvest site for a skin graft.

I won't go into details about the clean-up, or aftermath. It wasn't pretty.

And he definitely did not want to go to school this morning, because the thought of sitting down all day brought tears to his eyes. But I made him go anyway.

And I assured him that football tonight would be a blast.
Actually I think I said something like, "Are you an athlete? Athletes fight through the pain. This is one of those times. You are going to have to suck it up. Grin and bear it. Deal." He replied, "Mom, SERIOUSLY."

So, I think even though I gave him a killer pep talk, I will still let the coach in on his unfortunate accident. But I am pretty sure he will already know something is wrong, as he is walking with a considerable limp.

matters of the heart

this evening, i had one of those moments of clarity. (lately they seem to come less and less frequently)

my heart does not run in parallel paths. it only intersects, or it doesn't.

i either love you, or i don't. i know that sounds kind of harsh, but the reality of it is so true for me. i don't know how to "like" a person, or think that they are "okay".

i am either all in, or i am not in at all.

and lately this has been a struggle for me. i love people hard. whether i let them know or not, i am fully committed to them, their lives, their families.
and it gets a bit tricky when, for whatever reason, the other people's hearts don't love like i do.

i open myself up to rejection. and i know this, but i still can't change it.

there is not grey in my heart.
and i tend to jump too quick.

a part of me knows i need to work on pacing myself. work on guarding myself more.

but even as i type that, there is a bigger part of me that cries out, "what the hell are you here for then? if not to love with reckless abandon?"
so i still don't know which part will win out.

but i do know this, one side will win, because in everything, there is a winner and a loser. there is either yes, or it is no.
light or dark.
no dimmer on this heart.

There was going to be a deep post...

but then I got home, and the USC game was on.
I can't think deep thoughts when I am watching football.

So, I will give you an update on the snack situation.
Everyone made it without any additional snacks, but I must have said, "If it is not in your bin, then you cannot have it." about a thousand times.

Brody ran out first, followed closely by Micah, then Hannah, Emily, and Isaiah (who had two left as of last night).
I think I will change it a bit for Brody, as thinking in the realm of a whole week at a time is a bit much for him. Most likely I will let him pick out all of his snacks, but only put half of them in, and the other half in the middle of the week.
Everyone else gets it.
And it really was amazing how much less was consumed.

Okay, so the real post will come after USC kills OSU.

i'm out

is it possible to be out of things to say?
or maybe i am just doing more internal processing these days.
i feel a bit like this has become just a place to list all of the things i have to do.
i don't want it to be that.

i don't want to be that.

a mere list.

i want more. so much more.

Be still my beating heart...

Look who showed up for an evening visit!

 

Nothing new.

Not a lot of new stuff happening around here.
Steve's out of town (shocker).
Little boys are out of snacks already.
Hannah and Isaiah are both sore from practices.
Emily has finished yet another book.
And me, I'm doing laundry, blogging, drinking an iced mocha, and doing the dishes all at the same time.

See, nothing new.