New Floors!

We got all new floors (upstairs and downstairs) over the past few weeks! It meant a lot of schedule rearrangements, corralling children, moving closets and books, rearranging, and now the process of organizing and reintroducing all of our belongings ... in other words, it was a hot mess. However, the new floors look amazing! After 12 years of the original contractor-grade carpet, our house has been transformed. This made me think of the turns happening in my recent history - replacing the tattered but familiar daily walk of a traditional classroom teacher with the new work-from-home and increase time with our kids "floor". It has taken a lot of rearrangement and judicious paring down of things that are no longer necessary (and simply add to the clutter), but the results are well worth it! I know that when the new one arrives, another time of adjustment will begin, but for now I plan to relax and enjoy the new floors!!!

Do Children Have A "Self-Destruct" Gene?

I have come to believe my children might be self-destructive...

Evidence #1: At the beach this weekend (lovely weather, great place to stay) my 3-year-old found a pill in the corner of a room in the hotel and apparently opened it and she said, upon interrogation, she put some in her mouth. (In case you are wondering, I was changing my 2-year old's diaper at the time.) Immediate panic!! After anguished "Should we call 911?!" I decided to call Poison Control first to identify the pill. The very nice lady identified the pill as Detrol - a bladder control pill. While we were on the phone, Aubrey looked at me very solemnly (she knew I was totally beside myself!) and said, "Are you calling the police? Please don't call the police." Where do they get these ideas? If I hadn't been about to vomit myself I may have laughed. Instead, it just broke my heart. "You are not in trouble, honey, but don't EVER pick up something on the floor and put it in your mouth. This is serious." Poison control reassured us that there was no danger, especially since much of the powder was on the floor, but we should watch for signs of dehydration. Crisis over, adrenaline levels declining.

Evidence #2: On the way to swim lessons yesterday, I looked in my rear view (which I have tilted so that I can see the kids in the back) and see my son has unlatched the top harness of his car seat. At the time, I am in the worst possible place to pull over, so I start to look for a break in traffic to move over and pull over. Instantaneously, my son pulls the handle to the door. No worries, right? It is child-locked. Only it is somehow NO LONGER child-locked and the door begins to open. I am chanting, "Don't panic" (but I am panicking!) and begin to slow and pull over into the median - which is big ditch. Half-in and half-out of busy traffic, I park, leap out, and swing the door open to fix his harness, yell "No!" twenty times, and relock the door. As I get back in, I see a police officer has pulled over behind me. Now I am sure I am going to get twenty tickets and have my children removed. But this sweet, kind soul just helps me merge back into traffic! Then, two minutes later, Eli tries it again!!!! This time, though, the door couldn't open (thank goodness!), I had moved to the right-hand lane with plenty of side roads to pull into, and I was able to get out safely. Then I cranked the harness so tight I am surprised he didn't have blue arms when we got there.

Truly, it is only through the grace of God that children make it to adulthood! As paranoid as I am about safety (and I know I can be terribly over-protective), incidents like these slip through the cracks of life - and make me SO GRATEFUL my children are currently able to snuggle into my arms.

A Break from Work

Hooray! Today - and for the next week - I have no online work!!!! I am so grateful for the job, and I enjoy continuing to interact with students and engage in professional development while I "stay at home", but it is INTENSE in the summer session because it is compacted and I plan to RELISH this break. Yesterday we celebrated my last work session with fingerpainting and water play. Today we are going to do a little retail reward. But the big fun is this weekend - a short trip with the kids but NO COMPUTER TIME!! I may even leave my phone off to completely disconnect! I should probably use the time to catch up on home projects, but ... yeah, that is so not going to happen! Best of all - I am NOT having to dread going back to school this fall!!!!!!

Cleaning House

Tying up lose ends is such a satisfying feeling - whether it is the stack of correspondence, a basket of laundry, or pruning your Facebook lists. I always feel better when I can think "I finished!" Heaven, of course, is the ultimate finish line - and so I imagine this feeling must be God's imprint within us - urging us the move forward to the completion of our own journey.

A Girl!!

The newest Day will be a little girl!! I am so excited that she and Aubrey will be sisters - a relationship that I find incredibly enriching personally and for most sisters I know. I do feel a little sad that, with 3, someone was going to be "odd man out"... but I cannot really see trying for a 4th. First, I would be terrified to go for another baby at my age because if there were chromosomal issues I would feel responsible. Second, there would be no guarantee that Eli would gain a brother - he may end up feeling even more left out! Still, I have prayed that God will change our minds if that is what He desires and that any decision to move forward with a fourth child would be made for all the right reasons - and not to gain a brother or sister, not to selfishly enjoy another baby, but because God called the baby to this world. If not, if we are complete as a family, then I hope God will lay this upon our hearts as well. In the meantime, I am celebrating this new little life!!! Every day I wake and tell her "hello!" We have been focusing on names so that this time our little one won't have to wait until the day we take her home to have a name. The naming process, for me, is so serious and important that I really dwell on all the potential pros and cons of each name. We make lists, "live" with the name for a few days, and then revise. The final decision, though, will come when we see her little face ... can't wait!!

A Great Week

This first full week has been so incredibly rewarding! Even the instances I lovingly refer to as "learning curve moments" have confirmed again and again our decision to take a break from teaching full time and stay at home. I realize the hardest part remains ahead, when I go from two running underfoot to three, but I can't wait. In so many ways I can see being a SAHM being more challenging that the teaching/daycare routine, but I am already exponentially happier.

Family

Spent Saturday with the extended family, celebrating Jason's grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary. It is amazing the number of successful marriages in his family! His parents remain close and loving. Both sets of his grandparents provide wonderful marriage models as well. Whenever we travel and see his family, it brings back a little bit of a longing to return to the county in which many of his family lives and he and I grew up. My mother kept the kids while we went to the celebratory dinner (which was also lovely) and we were able to sit and talk. I wish that we could do that more often, although there is a great deal here in Charlotte (like my own wonderful sister and niece, friends, and our church) to keep us here. Isn't it funny how when you have kids you begin to long for the very things you once pushed away?