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.

More Science Fun

To add to the scientific fun going on around our house these days, Mike got a turkey this weekend. Sunny was excited to see the thing, but both of us told Miss Mouse that she did not have to go see it, watch the, ahem, processing of it, nothing. We repeated ourselves again and again....to no avail! She was not going to be talked out of looking at that turkey. Apparently a deer is off-limits for her to see dead (per her decision), but she seems to have little compassion for turkeys. So, Mike cut up his turkey with his two girls standing on a yard chair watching him from a safe distance (Miss Mouse told me, "That knife is SHARP! We have to stay away!"). Not only did Miss Mouse find it interesting to see the turkey whole; she soaked up a whole turkey anatomy lesson and came in telling me that, "Turkeys eat their food, and it goes into a little bag first before it goes to their stomachs." A decent five-year-old understanding of a turkey's crop, we thought. She then added, "This turkey hadn't eaten anything today; Daddy knew that because his bag was empty. Daddy said the turkey was out looking for girrrrrl turkeys!". I'm thinking that's about as far as that lesson needed to go at this point.

Friday night we drove to the edge of town and watched a jake and a tom turkey get mad at eachother over a bunch of hens. The girls thought it was hilarious to see the two males get "all puffy"; they thought it even funnier that they were getting all puffy to fight over their "girlfriend turkeys".

To top it off, we have a piece of turkey skin sitting in water in our fridge just waiting for us to examine it with a magnifying glass as soon as I can psyche myself into doing that, and it is there because I asked for it!

We ate the half of the turkey tonight. Num!

Science Lab

We've become a regular science lab around here. Who would have ever thought? I can answer that: no one who knew be pre-children. I'm guessing I struck pretty much no one as the ant-gathering-type for one.

Yet here I am with two little, tiny, ant-gatherers! Much to their Daddy's relief, we did not bring the homemade ant farm into the house. They froze to death securely on the front step. (Psssttt...The girls don't quite "get" that when I dumped it out the other day, I wasn't dumping our whole load of live ants....).

They really were fun to watch while they lasted.
Miss Mouse was pretty proud of this project. Ask her how many legs an insect has. Go ahead. Ask her.

Sunny turned out to be an ant-gatherer extraordinaire.

Miss Mouse had her turn, too, of course.

Because outdoor science activities seemed a bit, oh, "tame", I needed a bigger challenge. We moved inside and began to study cells and cell division (preschool-style, that is).

Our hypothesis: The yeast mixture left on the counter would multiply more rapidly than the yeast mixture stuck in the fridge. Obviously we were right, but this is pretty exciting stuff when you are three or five! We also found out that even though the refridgerated yeast mixture, which just happened to also illustrate the need of living organisms for 1) shelter, 2) food, 3) air, and 4) water, did recover and begin to grow. Miss Mouse was pleased that "her" mixture had recovered and "caught up" to Sunny's.

Because yeast is so darn fun to work with and so very yummy to sniff at, we did another yeast project. The white balance on this photo was soooo bad that I had to give up and turn it black and white. Blah. Anyway, that is a yeast mixture in the bottom. Miss Mouse sat and watched it for nearly half an hour as it bubbled and frothed its way to the tip-top of the bottle. The pink balloon on top got very "puffy" (that is the technical term, of course!), and she was incredibly impressed with how the yeast made it all the way To.The.Top.

The girls agreed the most fun part of this project was when I went to clean it up. I did point it toward the sink, wondering if it would explode from pressure release when I took the balloon off......and it did. All over the sink, all over me, all over. I smelled like really bad, old beer, always a great smell for someone four months pregnant. When they had collected themselves, the girls pushed me straight into the bathroom to clean myself up!

Well, not wanting to have the girls have all the science project fun, I've started what look like a few science projects of my own. First, there are my grow-lamps in the living room, working hard to raise three types of tomato seedlings, some mini bell pepper seedlings, a few passionflowers (Miss Mouse's pick for "her" garden this summer), and a plethora of lupine (Sunny's pick). The card table takes up a good chunk of our little living room, but other than that, it's a generally carefree project. Carefree as long as the weather kicks itself into high-temperature gear for me to transplant when we need to, that is.....

That project didn't quite seem messy enough, so I have endeavoured to start some sourdough bread. It probably isn't surprising that I am attempting this from scratch - as in, no yeast in the starter at all. I have what looks like a yummy recipe that a friend secured for me, but have I tried that one (which looks easier and more likely to succeed?)? No. No, indeed. I have a pot of rotten flour and water on my counter that I am treating as a "pet" for the next few weeks to see if it will really develop into the yeast-like starter that bread needs. So far, my attempt at bread with it has flopped. For Tolkien fans, it turned out as cram. I would have been okay with lembas, but cram? I was not pleased. It was especially terrible day-old. Very sad. I will, though, give it some more time. It's a fun little experiment, other than that Sunny tells me every morning as I throw out half and feed it fresh "food" that "Mommy, that smells like puke!". I'm not sure there is much hope for this science project/pet.

As Close As It Gets

After a ridiculous day yesterday, today was refreshingly redemptive. Really, yesterday would be best forgotten, though honestly it was so ridiculous it was laughable. Almost. The part about New Baby not liking any of the food I ate was not so laughable, especially at 18 weeks, but it wasn't so terrible either. It's only the second day like that of the entire 18 week period. Still. That made for one exhausted Mommy by 3:00 when we had to pack up and take off for swimming lessons.

Actually, let me be more accurate. It was 2:50 that we packed up. We have a loaner car while the main vehicle is in for some repairs. We have to get it in shape so that we can trade it off for something we can all (physically) fit in! Anyway, this loaner vehicle is great except that the key doesn't turn. I had the same trouble in my Corsica in college, so I know that if I yank on the wheel hard enough, eventually something will click and allow the key to turn. We sat at the grocery store on Monday morning for 10 minutes attempting this trick before it worked. Hence, my rule this week is that we leave 10 minutes earlier for every commitment to allow for the key-turning-fight I will need to have with the car.

We got to swimming lessons on time, early, in fact. I responsibly hooked my keys on the key-hook in my purse and congratulated myself for my organizational skills. Ten seconds later, I decided that there was no reason to take my purse in when I was so tired (my purse is a diaper bag with an identity crisis; it's cute, but it's heavy!). It honestly never crossed my mind that I should take it for the keys until Miss Mouse was dressed and showered after her lesson.

Thankfully a kind man named Kevin ran the spare set of keys down to us from the repair shop. When I confessed that I had left them in my purse in the car, he assured me that everyone has done that and that he himself has done that, too. Then he hastily added, "Well, not with a purse! But I've sure left them in the car before." My embarrassment was definitely tempered by his grace and humor.

At the point we finally made it into the car, and after the 10-minute fight to turn the key (Why didn't I ask him to exchange keys with me to see if the other one worked better? Because we were sitting in a parking lot with traffic already backed-up behind poor Kevin, mainly!), I decided we should all go home and tuck in bed before I could cause anymore problems!

Once I got the girls to bed around 8:15, I thought I was home-free. No more food to potentially start on fire in the oven (Miss Mouse doesn't even bat an eyelash when that happens anymore), no more toothbrushes to potentially mix-up (I haven't done that....yet); I just really thought I had "made it".

Then Mike came home. Then we began talking which means I usually play with my wedding ring. And then.....

as I was rolling it around in my hand, it fell...directly behind me....straight into the 2-inch hole where my stationary bike pedal attaches into the bike. If I had tried to do that, it would have been impossible! Mike had to take the side off to get the silly thing to drop out of there. Grrr! At that point, I finally gave the day up and went to bed.

This morning I woke up to this! From the get-go, this day promised to be better. Redemptive, as I said before. Little Sunny wore a pink and orange hair clip to match her bright pink and orange dress. I loooooove these fun colors together, and I looooove that she was a made-up animal called a "picky" that was hiding in a hole made of couch cushions.

When Hubert got tired of fetch this afternoon, Miss Mouse called for a bike ride. I let her pick the directions, so everytime we'd come to a corner, she'd ask me which way took us farther from or closer to home. Guess which she picked every time? She got us pretty much as far away from home as we could get and not head into the river. I'm sure she biked over a mile today. We were on the ride (I pushed Sunny's trike which still needs a new front wheel carriage....mental note: order that tomorrow!) for over an hour. On the way home, Sunny's hands got cold; Miss Mouse had mittens, so she shared them with her little sister. All the way home, the girls alternated wearing the one set of mittens. It was dreamy! Really, this day was something I think a mommy needs - to know that all those discussions about "how we treat our sister" are sinking in, to know that it is getting through when I ask "Which do you think is more important to God? That you get the toy first/longest or that you and your sister show love to each other?"....Just being out together, no Internet, no telephone, smelling the spring, admiring the flowers - tulips and dandelions in equal measure was such a beautiful experience.

This was as close to perfect as it gets.
Our plum tree's blooms survived the terrible wind yesterday and continue to smell deliciously edible.

Those are Miss Mouse's mean-lookin' Puma tennis shoes and blue bat. She sort of reminded me of a cat about ready to pounce on her prey. What you can't see in the picture is the sound of Sunny shouting "Don't pop it!!!". Miss Mouse refrained herself but just barely.

It seems there has been a lack of Miss Mouse pictures lately, but there are quite a few coming up. I'm just saving them for the right time and right post.

Here's to lots more of these gorgeous days!