Keepin' it real...

Well, I decided it might be time again for some more 'real-ness'...

Sometimes when I am in conversation with people about the various things going on in my life - church, homeschooling, flower business, and various other things - they make the comment "I don't know how you have enough time!". Well, the reality is, I don't. I just make choices. Not better or worse choices than anyone else, just maybe different than what others would pick. We all have the same 24 hours... you, me, the president and the pope. (I don't know why I picked those 2 other than they are two high-profile people who I figure have a lot on their plates! And maybe because the boys are learning about the church in the Middle Ages, and we have a new president...) Anyway, I think when people make that comment they are asking how I "get it all done". Here's the answer... I DON'T!!

Each day there are things that don't get done, and most often, it's stuff around my house. I look forward to the day when I won't fear people dropping in unexpectedly - but this ain't that day! I love having my house all cleaned up and cozy - candles burning and something freshly baked - ready to be hospitable. I really LOVE doing that...and I think I used to do it more, but at this point in my life, that's something that I now have to plan for and work at! (Let me clarify - you're always welcome to just 'drop in', but you have to realize you do so at your own risk!)

My house is what I like to call 'functionally' clean... I try to make sure the upstairs - at least the 'public parts' - living room, dining room and kitchen - are tidied daily. But that usually happens at the end of the day. If you show up unannounced around mid-day, you are likely to find dishes piled in the sink, toys strewn about, school books, papers and art supplies EVERYWHERE. Bedrooms generally get cleaned up on the weekends, and in between...well, just don't open any closed doors when you come over, okay? The floors get mopped...maybe every couple of months, though sweeping (which I'm told is correctly called "vacuuming" by others not from this particular part of PA) happens somewhat regularly, especially since the addition of Maggie. Dusting? Hahaha....yeah, let's not really go there. The downstairs - which is family room/school room/mud room - well, that pretty much always looks like it just blew up.

The thing is...I really don't feel that there is anything I can do to change all of that at this point. It's where I'm at, so I'm really just pretty resigned to 'go with it'. This is a season of life. From what I'm told, there will come a day when I will wish for little sneakers and toy trains to be picking up. I'll think back fondly on sippy cups piled in the sink and scattered school supplies. So, rather than wish them away, I'm just gonna accept and appreciate them, and ask you to forgive my mess if you happen upon it. And one day, I hope to have a beautifully decorated, always clean and inviting home... but for now, could you settle for just functionally welcoming? Thanks...

I'm just keepin' it real.

then and now...

Well, I just thought I'd show ya'll a little Maggie update... I think it's pretty funny, and amazing...


In just 3 months..."then and now"


Problem is, SHE still thinks she's the same size she was then!!


She makes me crazy, but I love her...I guess...on most days...

Wii are really out of shape

These post-Christmas weeks have proven to me how badly out of shape I really am. Between my new Dance Dance Revolution game, that has inspired me to return to my 'dance' workouts, and our new family pastime of Wii (only purchased because Todd got everyone to agree to put all their Christmas money together to get one, and it took us weeks to actually find one in stock somewhere!), I am finding myself rather stiff and sore! Bowling, tennis, boxing and dancing are doing me in! How pathetic!

Really, it's all good. I'm not complaining. But it is kind of sad for me to admit that the ONLY way to get me to exercise is to convince me it's not that...it's really a game! If it feels like work, forget it! If it feels like fun, I'm in! It's all in the mind, I tell ya...

people and yogurt and babies

Heard this this morning while the boys were eating breakfast:

Luke (while eating yogurt): "God gave this to us!"

Seth: "No, he didn't..."

Luke: "Yes, he did! He dropped it down for us!"

Seth: "No, Luke. He made people, who made yogurt, and that's how we got it. He made people, and animals, and put babies in ladies bellies! Isn't that wierd?!?!"

Luke: "Ohhhhh. Yeah."

hearts and hair

Wanna know what else is new around here?

Well, a few weeks ago, the boys got mohawks...




Bryce had started asking for one back in the spring, but he was having some 'attitude issues' at the time, and we had told him that until we saw a change in that, there would be no crazy hair cuts. After some time we had seen a very marked improvement, but when he asked again it was just too close to Christmas-picture time, and I told him I'd really prefer he NOT have one in our family pic that we sent out in our holiday cards. He was gracious and let it drop. After Christmas it came up again... "Mom, I've worked on my attitude, and Christmas pictures are done...NOW can I have a mohawk??" Well, I really had no reason to say no, so I got the clippers and shaved it for him; of course Seth immediately wanted to follow suit, though with a bit of difference (he wanted his down, while Bryce wanted his up).

While I really do not like the mohawk (and have voiced that to both the boys) I learned something that I've considered a valuable 'nugget' from the pastor at our old church. One time he told us, during his own sons' teenage years, that this was his philosophy: as long as his boys hearts were right and they were walking with the Lord, they could pretty much do whatever they wanted with their hair...even if it mean it was green. However, the minute they displayed a rebellious heart or other attitude problems, the 'reigns' would be pulled in and the hair went back to 'normal'. I thought that was a really wise way to approach which issues were 'hills to die on' and which were battles that really didn't matter. As my boys ask to try various crazy things - be it fashion or otherwise, I often am reminded of Pastor Barry and his sound advice.

However, to be honest...I can't wait for them to get tired of them and let me shave them off!! :/

try this again...

OK, so the Christmas slide show is back up. Just scroll down if you'd like a glimpse into our holiday.

to and fro

Today for Literature Bryce had to read some poems. One of them that we were reading together was about robins building nests in apple trees. One of the lines referred to the robins flying "to and fro". We were supposed to read the poem twice, and both times Bryce read that line "go flying to the fro...". The first time I let it slide, thinking he just misspoke, but the second time I figured he was missing something. I corrected him, saying it read "to and fro", not "the" and asked if he knew what "to and fro" meant. He said, "I figured the writer has an afro, and wanted the birds to make a nest in it".

This, my friends, is how far the English language has come. It took me a few minutes to get my laughter under control, and explain the whole thing to him...which resulted in us all cracking up together. I guess, if you really think about it, who, in this day in age, goes "to and fro" moreso than wears a "fro"?!?!

We had a repeat of the fits of laughter tonight at dinner as we relayed the story to Todd. I have a feeling we're gonna get a LOT more laughs out of this one!

love/hate with technology

I had posted a couple cool slideshows, but somehow, through some technical difficulties messed them up. I know what I did, but it's gonna take a while to fix...so I'll have them back up as soon as I get some time to delve into the abyss called technology! Sorry!

Christmas '08

I should've done this a few weeks ago, I know. Oh, well; better late than never!

sisters

ears

This morning Luke came and crawled into bed with me and exclaimed "Mom! My ears are bigger!!" I dutifully looked at his ears and asked him why he thought his ears were bigger. He said very matter-of-factly "Because I'm this many now!" (and held up 4 fingers). Well, they do say that your ears and nose never stop growing...I just never knew it happened overnight and on schedule with your birthdays!

Happy Birthday Lukey!

Well, tomorrow (really, today in about a half an hour) my baby turns 4! I can't believe it...where does the time go?? It seems extra hard for me, knowing he's my last and there's really not much 'baby' left. Looking at these pics made me all 'piney' and wanting another...no worries...it passed quickly, (and medically not possible anymore...at least, a good percent chance it's not possible!!)

Anyway, here's a few shots of my cutie when he was a baby...and such a big boy now!!! (If you want to see the slideshow full size, click the show posted here, and when it takes you to the Picasa page, click the word slideshow. Huge pain in the neck...hating Picasa at midnight...oh, well - sorry!)

Lukey

resources for kids

If anyone happens to be looking for some great Bible resources for kids, I have a few that my family is loving right now. Well, let me re-phrase that...some that my BOYS are loving... They are part of a series from published by Zonderkidz (through a whole division, from what I can tell, called Luke 252) and they are really great; I can't wait to get some more from the series for them.

You can check out this and other stuff geared specifically toward boys at the Luke252 website.

Another book we are about to delve into all together (this one even has Kate on-board) is this:
It's called "Believing in Narnia: A Kid's Guide to Unlocking the Secret Symbols of Faith in The Chronicles", and it not only explains much of the symbolism, but also challenges kids to dig into the scriptures themselves to find the correlations between the various parts of the story and the 'story' of God's love and sacrifice through Jesus. It seems really neat and I can't wait to start reading it with them.

charades

The other night for 'family night' the kids decided we should play charades. It was quite amusing, but watching Luke was downright hilarious. He basically pulled out every super-hero move and pose he knows and just kept doing them. We kept shouting out names, to which he always responded no, for about 5 full minutes, then suddenly he would randomly 'go with' someone's guess. The next time it was his turn he did the same thing. This time, in the middle of it, Todd asked Luke if he knew who he was trying to be, to which Luke responded "no". We all practically rolled on the floor laughing...he didn't even know what he was doing - he just thought it was a chance to have a captive audience for a display show of all his cool moves!

3-year olds really can be such fun!

Keepin' It Real

Well, here it is...my first "Keepin' It Real" post - where I'm going to air a little bit of my 'dirty laundry' to you...and this time, I mean that literally!

Laundry has always been (well, at least since I've had kids) this monster that I can never seem to tame. I always have mountains of laundry somewhere...sometimes it's dirty, sometimes it's clean, but it's usually piled somewhere.

(Now, let me reiterate - the point of these posts is giving you a glimpse of the 'real' me, which is, admittedly, hopelessly flawed. One might ask why I would do this. It's because there are things is my life of which I am ashamed and would love to keep hidden from anyone's knowledge so that they will not think less of me. However, I've discovered that to some degree, most of these things keeps me bound in some way. So, in order to remove any hold that they have, I'm just gonna drag 'em on out into the light, for all the blog-world to see! And, hopefully in the process, make you feel a little better about whatever your struggles are, as we all have our own 'issues'!)

So, as I was saying... Laundry - it's always lurking behind the closed doors in my house. Actually, I can keep up with my own personal laundry, and Kate and I either combine ours, or she does her own, as does Todd. So really, it's the boys' laundry that just overwhelms me. There are just so many little socks and boxer shorts and grass-stained jeans! And when the boys 'clean' their room, everything gets jam-packed into one tiny hamper, which seems to vacuum-pack it all. (And when I say everything, I mean everything...last week I pulled a Nerf football out of the basket that I was loading into the washer!) The result of that is that I rarely actually get to the bottom of the hamper...the clothes on top tend to just keep getting re-washed and worn. (So if you seem to see my kids in the same clothes over and over, you now know why!) However, last weekend, I finally got caught up (well, mostly anyway) on all the laundry in the house. There are still a few baskets of clean stuff to be folded, but the only stuff in the hampers at this point (to my knowledge!) is what has accumulated since Sunday.

The real 'shame' in this post is what I must here admit: when I got to the last load of the boys laundry - the stuff that had been vacuum-packed in the bottom of the hamper - included a few final shorts and tank tops! Yes, it's true...that shows just how long it's been since I made it all the way to the bottom.

Todd was somewhat appalled when I told him. He just can't imagine what my problem is, I guess. He's often mentioned to me how "growing up, his Mom always had a 'laundry day' when all the laundry got done that day, every week...". That's seems like a great plan. Really it does. I don't know if it's my own retardation or if it's the sheer number of people and things I'm responsible for the care of, but laundry just simply takes a backseat here. If everyone in the house has something clean to wear, there's a clean towel for everyone, I'm movin' on. Admittedly, they may have to dig a clean pair of jeans out of a washbasket still sitting in the laundry room waiting to be folded, but the fact is that there are generally more important and pressing things to be done! No one's going to die or flunk the third grade if I don't get every last t-shirt washed this week...or next, apparently! :) So, while I really am trying to get better at this...I just have to be okay with not beating myself up over it. And now you know...should you peek behind my closed laundry or bedroom doors, this is the reality of what you might find.

Hey, I'm just keepin' it real.

new and fresh

As you can see, I've made some changes to my blog. I determined that, while I don't like serious life changes, like moving or relationship changes, when it comes to visual things - like blogs, furniture and decor, etc., I need LOTS of changes!! And thanks to some fellow bloggers I've now got some super-easy ways to keep things here at 'crocuses' fresh and visually stimulating!

As far as my posting goes, I was sort of lagging in that department by the end of last year. But now that we've got a pretty good rhythm going with school, I'm hoping to be able to return to my hobby of sharing my thoughts with whoever will take a minute to read them!

Last year I started doing 'Thankful Thursdays', and though I often missed it (it's hard for me to remember what day it is, okay?), I like having a theme running somewhat consistently throughout. So this year, for something different, and to challenge myself in an area that would be stretching for me, I'm going to be doing posts entitled "Keepin' It Real" where I make confessions to you about something 'real' in my life. I know that confession is good for the soul, and I also know that things that are hidden lose their hold when they are brought to light, so I figure, why not? I also know that I tend to read the blogs of others and think how they must have it so 'all together', but I feel soooo much better when they share their own shortcomings, not because misery loves company or anything, but because things become less intimidating - people come down off the pedestals - and we can all be more real, knowing that everybody struggles with something, and none of us is any better than anyone else. We're all just living each day by the grace of God.

So watch for those somewhat regular "Keepin' It Real" posts to be starting...and go easy on me - okay? :)

day of rest

I'm reveling in the day today; I got a lot done as far as tidying up around the house so I can go into the new school week (after a long and way-too-busy 'vacation') uncluttered. Straightening up around here actually seemed relaxing to me today. Not sure if it's because I didn't have to do it, or because just being home and getting settled back in felt so good, but either way, it just didn't feel like work.

Right now I'm sitting listening to and thoroughly enjoying the sounds of my family...

In her room, typical for her age, Kate sits chatting away with her best friend (who I love dearly and hope they stay close forever) on the phone.

The younger boys (Seth & Luke) are absolutely cracking up over who-knows-what (and strangely I think there are swords and super-hero costumes involved) while the 'big' boys (Bryce and Todd) excitedly watch the Eagles playoff game. I hope for their sakes that their team wins and goes all the way (would it be too much for the Phils AND the Eagles to both do it in the same year?!?!?!).

And I plan to join them after posting this and, though I really don't understand or care that much about football, I thoroughly enjoy watching and being with them. And in true football-spirit, I think we'll be having wings for supper.

Now this is what Sundays are meant to be like!

sayin' bye to the bug

Man, this new year has gotten off to quite a rough start for us. Our family, starting with Seth, started with a stomach bug on New Year's Day. By the middle of that night, Kate and I had joined in the 'fun'. It seems that almost every family we know has it as well! It was extra-interesting because it happened to fall on the day that we had to do our biggest wedding flower job yet, and my sister/partner has a royally messed up knee, and is basically immobilized. (Or at least she's supposed to be!) We were quite the pair as we worked on Friday, both of us grimacing in pain many times throughout the day and having to regularly take breaks to actually lay down and rest in order to keep on going! But I'm so happy to say that we got it all done, and we owe a lot of thanks to our dear hubby's who helped out so much (especially Joe, since he was actually there all day long AND created a way for us to safely transport our bouquets, as well as did an emergency run when we went to deliver the flowers and forgot the corsage pins! Oi!).

It seems we are all over the bug now, and I've never been so excited to eat something besides Saltines! We had decided last week that we would be canceling church tonight just because we knew most of our church had just gotten completely worn out over the holidays and could use a rest before starting back to post-holiday life. We are trying to really learn the principle of rest, and thought it would be good to encourage starting off the year from a place of 'rest' rather than 'rush'. Now, having had the week we all did, I'm really glad we made the decision ahead of time to cancel. I'm looking forward to spending a relaxing day with my family, getting a little bit prepared to start back to school tomorrow, and in general, not stressing about anything. So far it's off to a good start.

happy new year

I'm not big on resolutions. I just can't keep them, and if I had the willpower to make myself do what I wanted, then I wouldn't have to make resolutions, now would I?? To all the resolution talk, I'm just gonna be real and say, like Paul in Romans:

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.

So, no 'resolutions' for me, just asking for a fresh, large portion of grace to do whatever it is that God asks of me in this new year.

However, I will say that around 10 a.m. this morning, on the first day of 2009, our family was part of a small New Year miracle. "What was it?!?!" you ask? The Clemmer family arrived at our first function of the new year on time!! :) That's a good start...

Happy New Year everyone, and may 2009 be full of blessings for you and yours.