Swimming in a Sea of Humility

The kids and I went to the pool today. Here’s what I brought for two hours of water fun:

a cooler with snacks, paper goods and lunch

a large thermos of lemonade

a large blue innertube, already blown up

a smaller yellow baby innertube, also blown up

a red bag large enough for me to crawl inside, zip up, and take a nap. It contained sweatshirts for all, swim diapers, regular diapers, changes of clothes for three people, goggles, two kinds of sunscreen, three towels, the essential contents of my purse (cell phone, wallet, etc) and a 32-oz water bottle

I went to college about 30 min from the beach. I remember grabbing a book and a towel and leaving for the beach about 5 min after I decided to go. Sigh.

An Ordinary Day

I know much is always made — especially around Mothers’ Day — about how many jobs moms do and how much they would get paid if they put their mothering skills to work outside the home but yesterday really plumbed the depths of even my vast ocean of knowledge…we began with a lunchtime discussion attempting to explain the Holy Trinity, which I can’t really do even with adults (“Mom, if Jesus comes back to earth for us, then He won’t be in heaven anymore…”) Thankfully, by the time we were done, he didn’t have the energy to ask about the rapture, which is what kicked the whole thing off. Then I had to explain broken legs, how they happen, how they’re fixed, what a cast does, etc. Timothy told me his friend’s dad broke his leg and in the course of conversation, I realized that he thought the whole thing had broken off and the poor man was left with one leg. Phew. We wound up that evening at an Irish music concert in the park where I had to explain bagpipes — countries of popularity, how they work, how to use them. When Alexis is old enough to ask questions my answer to everything is going to be “I don’t know.”

As we were leaving the concert in the park, Timothy got mad because he wanted to stay and play longer on the playground. He started yelling, “I don’t want to go! I didn’t have any fun! I want to play more on the playground! I didn’t like listening to music!” and when I pointed out, “You looked like you were having fun listening to the music. You were dancing around with your sister,” he said, rather haughtily,”I was not dancing because I was having fun. I was dancing because I thought other people would like to see it.”

Minivan Momma

ok, I wrote this a few weeks ago and I thought I lost it and it suddenly appeared in my drafts today — so here’s what’s been happening with us:

Well, we finally bit the bullet and bought a minivan. It was inevitable, really. With a third kid coming in Sept, there was no way we could all fit in the XTerra. Sadly, we had to trade in Chris’s car, which means we no longer have matching XTerras, either. It’s actually a very nice van — a 2003 Chrysler Town & Country…light blue with leather seats. And — the best part — a little button on my key chain that opens the van doors automatically. I love the new millennium.

We took our new car on a road trip to the mountains the day after we bought it. It was in the 80’s here so we decided to head to a lake in the mountains. I guess I had visions of hanging out by the lake, enjoying a sunny afternoon over Memorial Day weekend, picnicking with the kids and the dog and taking a nice walk. We got there and the lake was still half-frozen and there was snow on the ground. Needless to say, it was freaking cold. We had a windy picnic lunch (fortunately we did have our winter jackets to put on over our shorts and tank tops) and headed back for the warmer, lower elevation. We stopped at a cute little town — Evergreen — on the way home and had coffee outside. They had free horse-drawn wagon rides through town so we all went…one of those things we would have thought was hopelessly cheesy until we had children. I think Alexis likes the idea of horses, but actually riding behind them made her a little wary. All in all, just a pleasant afternoon together.