Running the Race

Last Tuesday we registered Miss Mouse for her first "official" kids' run. She had done a track fun-day last spring, but this is a real one, in my opinion (whatever that is worth!).

It wasn't until Wednesday that we realized Sunny had her heart set on the run, as well. With Miss Mouse, we wanted to wait until she was five. We sensed that a run would be an emotional experience for her, and we wanted her to be ready for that before tossing her in. Sunny? Well, Sunny had just assumed that because she had done a "training run" last week, that she was going to get to run, too!

Mike's first and only question was: Can you still sign her up?

Thankfully, we could. Apparently, Sunny had assumed that when we registered Miss Mouse and collected her shirt and race bag and everything, that she herself was registered, as well, and just didn't get all the fun stuff to go along with it! Poor critter!

They were both incredibly excited on Thursday. It was a wild afternoon of excited Mice.

Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Dick were able to come in, so that was even more exciting - spectators! 

The spectators were very prepared, too, holding a balloon for each girl (in their favorite colors), but I guess Miss Mouse (who ran in the 5-6 year old category with her Daddy) was too focused to even notice them!

Sunny, on the other hand, nearly collapsed into Grandma Kathy's arms on our loop back to the starting line. I would have carried her had she asked me to, though I know a lot of parents say they refuse to carry even their three-year-olds, but she never asked me to pick her up. We walked most of the way, but I was so proud of her for never asking to be carried!

Both girls did great on the 1/2 mile run. It was 90 degrees, so their pale little cheeks were bright red by the time they crossed the finish line. But it was a fun time overall. It took Sunny a few minutes to decide whether she had enjoyed the whole experience or not. It was sort of sad for her, I think, to be split from her big sister and to have only me to hang out with (and hang she did - onto my hand with an extremely tight grip!). I, however, thought it was the cutest thing I had ever seen to be with little Sunny trotting along beside me.

Miss Mouse, as I said, was very focused the whole race. Mike said she ran the whole thing and got her "anxious" look on whenever someone in front of her was blocking her stride. He said it was a definite teaching experience as he taught her how to look for a space in the other runners and then run past them. He also said that it was, indeed, an emotional event for her, so we were glad to have waited with her (and glad to have let little sister go a couple years ahead of schedule.....after she had picked out Miss Mouse's nailpolish that morning and watched Miss Mouse swim in the afternoon, it would have seemed so sad to make her watch one more thing that she wasn't allowed to do!).

This youth run has definitely gone on Miss Mouse's list of "things I can't wait to do again next year"!

Popsicle Surprise

We had Bible study tonight complete with a yummy rhubarb dessert. The girls chowed down on pork roast, buns, seven layer salad, carrots, and rhubarb. It was all over Sunny's face by the time she was done, and we caught Miss Mouse licking her plate.

As we were enjoying our meal on the host and hostess's patio, the girls and I, with our finely-tuned ears, picked up the sound of a fake calliope. That could mean only one thing.

The.Ice.Cream.Truck.

We listened to it drive by the street in front of their house for 10 minutes or so; we listened to it go behind the house on the street behind for another 10 minutes. The girls were like excited puppies, but true-to-form, they were polite and kept their wiggles under control.

And then.....

We turned onto our street on the way home.....and saw.....THE TRUCK.

Does anyone else think Miss Mouse has a sort of half-crazed look right here?!

At first, I tried to say "no" because we'd already had dessert, and the truck will come again this summer.

But then Miss Mouse ran down the driveway and started waving at the truck, which was conveniently parked near the house south of us where four kiddos live.

So, figuring I say "no" often enough that neither Mouse would have truly fought me on it, I gave in and dug out a five-dollar bill.

Victory for the Mice!

Miss Mouse grabbed the money and began holding it high in the air, waving it at the truck. Honestly and truly, I nearly peed my pants. Our neighbor came out and said it was such a fun event to witness. Mike whipped out his cell phone and started videoing. I have no idea where Miss Mouse got the idea to wave the money high in the air as a way of signaling the ice cream truck, but I'm glad she got the idea somewhere because it was the most hilarious thing I've ever seen in my life!

The popsicle eating commenced. I thought about having them put them in the freezer for another day (like one where we had NOT just finished a massive piece of rhubarb-sugar?), but it wouldn't have been nearly so much fun. Thankfully for their teeth and my budget, the truck doesn't come often over the summer, and they really are very good at accepting my "no" when they've once had an ice cream truck treat. We'll probably be lucky to get one more this whole summer just with the timing of the truck and us being home and available, and that's fine. But it is sooooo fun when it happens!

Sunny was a little timid at first. Those popsicles are cold!



She got over that pretty quickly, though.

Miss Mouse obviously had no qualms from the start. At five, she's now an experienced popsicle conniseur.



This is Sunny being so happy she is giddy (and looking a little bit like Auntie Laura's first grade picture, no?).

Actually, what she's laughing about is how she was chilly and was saying that she wished she was a bear with "furry, furry hair". I then pointed out that if she were a bear like Paddington, she would have a hard time washing up. That began a long kiddy-discussion on who would bathe Paddington if he did get sticky from a popsicle. Miss Mouse though Jonathan and Judy while Sunny was "sticking" with Mrs. Bird. Can you tell what we do after lunch each day? Hint: We read half a chapter of Paddington, and both girls have fallen in love with him and his misfortunes.



Miss Mouse got some sticky-droplets on her skirt, but other than that, she made it out fairly unscathed.

Sunny, on the other hand, ended up in a bit of a stickier situation, reminiscent of Paddington Bear.



When the other half of our neighbor-couple got home from work and the girls ran over to greet him, I wouldn't let Sunny even set foot on his driveway. She, by that time, was a sticky, dripping mess. A happy-as-a-clam, sticky, dripping mess, she was!

The last bit of popsicle went "plop" right in front of the steps. Maybe we should get a new driveway now....being that it's sticky and all.....(note: our driveway is crumbling and badly in need of repair; this is my excuse to move ahead? hmmmm.....).

What a beautiful evening to sit out, watch two sweet girls eat popsicles, listen to the breeze (wind) in the bright green trees, soak up the robin's egg blue sky, and then to follow it all with a good scrubbing in the tub!

Countdown to Baby!

We're obviously excited to announce that the newest little person in our family will be of the male variety!

Mike and I would have been very excited with either XX or XY news, but Miss Mouse had her little heart set on a brother.

"I already have a sister", she says.

The look on her face when the ultrasound technician let us know his gender was not so much one of surprise as one of "I told you so". It was pretty cute.

We're currently at 21 weeks and counting, so we've passed the halfway point! Forty weeks, here we come!

I'm going to "copy" a cousin/friend and do a little information chart each time I update our Countdown to Baby, mainly because I tend to forget to record things otherwise (though each girl, including Hope, has a baby book stuffed full; Miss Mouse and Sunny each have a notebook where I write them special notes to be read when they are older; and I have a daily "what we did/what the weather was like" diary, just because my Mom and Grandma do/did, and I feel the need now at 32 to start carrying on that tradition; plus there's my prayer journal, and, well, maybe I'm just a little bit of an obsessive writer/recorder!).

Week: 21

Weight gained: 7 pounds

Cravings: Asparagus, salads, homemade baked beans, oranges, grapefruit, lemon water, lime water (This little guy has developed in me the healthiest cravings I've ever heard of! With Hope I craved anything grape, bread, and EZcheese, and though I never indulged that last one, I've never heard of a pregnant mom craving food as healthy as what I've been wanting lately! It's sort of ridiculous, and very much more expensive than EZ cheese would have been!)

Maternity clothes: This little guy also has me in maternity clothes long before I ever was with his sisters! I don't mind it one bit, but I do worry a bit that I'll be confused with a lost whale or something by the time September rolls around! Since this is my fifth baby (fourth to go this far), I'm pretty much okay that my body just sort of "knows the drill" by this time.  As long as I can keep up to the girls, bring on the maternity clothes and the tummy!

Spring Days

We've had some good days lately, some fun days. Days where I've seen the girls show grace and love and not just irritability, territorialism, and argumentativeness. Honestly, do any of those three girlies look like they could exhibit any of those negative things? I can only speak for two of them that those two on the viewers' right certainly can! We've had some good days, though, and they are to be treasured and used as fuel for the days that are more full of, ahem, teaching.



These precious days have shown the love between these two sister-best-friends.

We've been able to take time to breathe, relax, and play together. Don't they both look a little bit like starving dinosaurs ready to pounce on their prey? We had a picnic that day after the girls came running in begging for one. Sadly, my immediate reaction was "no", but when they asked for the reasons why....and I couldn't come up with any.....out we went into the beautiful, bugless, only-moderately-windy, spring day! Too often I look for the reasons why to not do something; these days remind me to look for the ways I can say "yes" to them - to life - to living.

These days where a sweet someone brings me flowers are so numbered, so precious, so fleeting. I wear dandelions in my hair most afternoons, and I can't imagine any hairstyle I'd rather sport.

These beautiful days with my sweet girls (and their friends, who for the purposes of this post all happen to be children of my own childhood friends!!) leave me feeling like a wiggly, overly-excited puppy thankful for the love he is receiving! *Note: It may appear that he is lifting his leg. He was really in the middle of a jump of joy. Really, he was. He lifted several other times soon after this picture, but that picture is Joyful Hubert.

It's like reaching out toward perfection, and just about getting there, stretching with everything you have, balancing the rest of life in the back of your mind while you reach, stretch, and nearly touch it.

Just before it prepares to fly away yet again leaving you with a gorgeous, warm memory of being so near to a right world.

Of course, we can't quite reach that right world from here. We can't reach it ourselves, and we can't reach it in this lifetime.

But....we can catch glimpses of it from time to time. Glimpses of the days where we do what we should (more than on other days), where we react with patience, kindness, gentleness, love, where our family and friends respond in like manners.....

Where the sky looks to be hand-painted blue, the possibly-ordinary-moth-but-the-girls-are-sure-it's-a-butterfly is a most gorgeous little creature, where the chokecherry trees smell so strong you can taste them....

Those days leave us feeling like this. Reaching Heavenward. Giddy. Reflecting the light.
(She's trying to trick that butterfly/moth into landing on her finger.)

And somehow these days, or these few hours or minutes at a time, they give us the light we need to trek on through the dark valleys. While I've been loving on butterflies (moths?), small blonde girls, and flowering trees, others I love have been in black holes of pain and difficulty. This post comes from my processing of two weeks of intense wishing that I could hop right into those black holes with them because I know what it is to be the one in the dark while the rest of the world can still see the butterflies and have moments where they forget about pain.  There have been few times these past few weeks, even as I photographed these many sweet moments, where my thoughts have not been turned toward that particular black hole.   Rather than an evasion or escape from those thoughts, my hope is that I've presented these pictures in a way that shows my thankfulness for God giving us these glimpses of all that is lovely even in the midst of the dark world in which we live.
Thanks be to God that in the midst of our dark, the light, the one light and hope of Christ, will always shine through.