Belts, Blasted Belts

I feel as though I’ve been a little behind this week and I’m going to blame it on the coffee.  Actually, lets point the finger at the real culprit – the Super Bowl on Sunday.  That devastation set quite the mood in and of itself, so when we awoke to no coffee Monday morning….well you just knew the rest of the week might have a few hiccups as well.  I did later find some coffee Monday morning, but it was gross.  Not down right horrible gross, but gross where it smells normal and you continue to drink it because it mostly tastes like normal coffee.  However, the whole time that you are drinking it, you are saying to anyone who will listen, “This is just horrible!” Yet there I was on Tuesday morning, still saying, “this is horrible!” while drinking my second cup.  If I do nothing else tomorrow, I will go and buy new coffee.

So Tuesday, while on day two of my bad coffee, I checked out Mattie’s Home and School folder only to find that she had received a dress code violation.  I was completely baffled!.  Really?! I mean, I am a stickler to the dress-code, to the point that even back when they didn’t really give a care about what types of shoes the kids wore, Mattie always had her navy and white saddle oxfords.  She would beg me for Sketchers Twinkle Toes, which to be honest, just ran a little to glitzy for me.  But no, you have to wear what’s in the handbook even if you were the only one wearing it.  What Mattie doesn’t realize is that I planned to dress her in a uniform even if her school didn’t have one because they just seem so easy and yet but together and no fuss.  So anyway, back to the violation.  Apparently, it’s a pretty big deal to dare to come to school minus your belt when wearing pants.  I’m not going to lie, my first thought was being annoyed.  I’m not really sure that its even worth the time to sit and fill out the violation slip when a child has done something like forgot their belt.  It’s not like her pants were the least bit droopy or anything.  If anything she should get a violation for them being slightly high waters.  A violation from the fashion police, yes, that would make sense.  The other, not so much.  Another example of Mattie (and I’s since I’m the one who dresses her…literally, I put the clothes on her body in the morning…judge me if you want to it.) and I’s loyalty to the dress code is that one day, I realized that her school dress code approved shoe had a big hole in it and she couldn’t wear it.  I wrote a long note addressing it and apologizing for not being better prepared with a back up pair, so she wouldn’t get in trouble for wearing the wrong shoes. We also went out and bought two pairs of appropriate shoes so as to never be in that situation again!  Because I take these things seriously.  So to get a “ticket” for not wearing a belt just kind of blew my mind a little.  Let me state for the record really quick that Mattie’s bought-from-the uniform-store-approved belt just fell apart in my hands when I went to put it on her that day.  It may have had something to do with her reenacting an Egyptian whipping a Hebrew slave when we were having worship earlier in the week….with the belt playing the role of the whip.  But really, I would think those uniform grade belts would stand up to a whole lot more.

So I wrote a note, apologizing for the belt and explaining that I hadn’t made it to the uniform store across town to get a new one.  Part of me wanted to say, mainly that it really doesn’t matter a hill of beans right now on my plate of priorities, but I didn’t.

So Mattie has been sporting the plaid jumper look all week while we wait it out for Amazon to send up a new and approved belt that will hopefully arrive on Monday.  Which is great because I don’t want to iron any more little white shirts.  I would however like to ask the power that be, about these dress code violations – I couldn’t help noticing that one of the boxes to check as an item of violation is “skirt too short” .  There is a little girl in Mattie’s class that wears her jumpers more like tunic tops, rather than dresses.  In the warmer months, when she runs and skips, you can very clearly see her little shorty shorts underneath.  By clearly I mean, crystal.  And in the cooler months, she often wears these slightly apricot colored leggings underneath her plaid tunics.  These leggings aren’t the mandated color for leggings and they also make it look (from a distance) that she has no pants on at all.  So to that, I would like to know just how many dress code violation tickets she has received.  And once the violator has been notified of their naughty deed, how is it then enforced? Just curious….

A quick little interjection here, I know you all have been wondering and those of you who haven’t you should be.  How am I doing with my Pennies for Parks goal?  I need $140, a measly $140, not even a full $150, to reach my goal and it’s still almost a week before Valentine’s Day.  For those of you reading this possibly for the first time, Pennies for Parks is a little fundraising project that my family has decided to do in lieu of birthday gifts for Miss Lila’s first birthday.  Parks is a little boy who belongs to a friend of mine from high school and college days.  In September of this past year, he was diagnosed with leukemia and spent his first birthday in the hospital receiving chemo and other equally horrible things.  I have wanted to do something for him and his parents to let them know that we were thinking about them for a long time, but nothing seemed quite right.  Also, my little “donation” didn’t seem like it would matter a whole lot.  But if I could get others to donate with me, we might be able to send off enough to actually do something.  Sure, I knew that we weren’t going to be able to cure him or even pay for a week or day of his care, but maybe we could pay for a week of the care of the family’s pets at the dog boarding kennels.  I have upped my goal about 3 times now because the people in my life have been so incredibly generous to this little boy who is a complete stranger to them.  I have also felt incredibly humbled by the realization that when we open ourselves up to be of service, even in the tiniest little bit, what God will do with that.  I have done nothing, its been the goodness and kindness of others and God making those dollars multiple.  Really, I look at the checks and dollar bills and it just brings me to tears.  And as happy as I am with what has transpired, I’m still going to put it out there for you guys to maybe give more.  Because who doesn’t want to be a part of something bigger then themselves? Again, here is the link to Parks’ caring bridge site should you want to check him out, make sure he’s real and all.  Real and darling! If you go, make sure and check out all his pictures, he’s precious.

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/parksthurmond

So the other day, I decided it was a great time to do a 12-month photo shoot with Lila.  I had it all planned out, she has a navy blue sailor dress just like the one that Mattie wore in her 12 month pictures.  Precious, right?  And for each of their 12 month pictures, Mattie and Reese have both posed with this little, white rocking chair.  You can see where I was heading with this can’t you?  I was totally going to recreate Mattie’s pictures thus tying together this perfect little trifecta of 12 month photography wonder.  I will save all the drama and show you that this:

…..is about as good as if got.

Because most everything else looked a little like this:

This is just down right pitiful. Who can be that upset over picture-taking?

So not happy!

A Few Celebrations And a Little Defeat

Happy Monday Everyone!

Oh what a weekend we have had.  So Mumsey and Poppy arrived at our house late Thursday evening.  This is what Reese spent most of the day doing before they arrived.

Just sitting here in my rocking chair waiting for Mumsey and Poppy

Where are you Mumsey and Poppy?

On Friday, we got up and around, then Reese and Poppy headed off to look at some Reese and Poppy stuff.  I didn’t even ask where they were going, just gave them a little hand drawn map to the nearest Lowe’s. Mumsey, Lila and I headed on an adventure of our own to see what we could find at some of my favorite thrift stores.  There’s something magical about a thrift store in a different city.  Maybe it’s because you’ve never been there before, that you feel like no one else has either and its full of possibility.  Anyway, I always like  going to a new one and Mom appeared to share my excitement.  I suppose that’s where I get it.

So happy Poppy’s here!

Sabbath, we were supposed to be celebrating Lila’s birthday in her little Sabbath School class.  I was all prepared with her Mumsey-Made “Lila” embroidered dress and the big girl camera to commemorate this big occasion.  And then we walked into church and I saw that her class was dark with the door shut.  Before I even got a chance to ask what was going on, I got a text from a friend telling me that the person who was supposed to be teaching wasn’t feeling well.  How did she know I was standing in the foyer confused?  I forgot to ask her about that later,how she knew I was standing there and all, but the text went on to say that “teacher” wasn’t feeling well so she has closed up shop early so as not to contaminate the children., However, instead of leaving and going home to feel better and not share her sickness, she took her probably also contagious toddler into the mother’s room and they just hung out there infesting it with all sorts of germs for those already weary mothers and small children and babies with impressionable immune systems.

Let me just say here that this particular teacher is an odd duck, and really, none of this is out of character at all for her, just frustrating to the rest of us.  She later came and told me  that there was a problem with Reese and I better get in the women’s restroom right away.  W e had sent Reese out of the service to get a drink and he hadn’t been gone long at all. I walked in to find Reese , safely tucked away in a stall, happily chatting to my same texting friend and also going to the bathroom.  All was fine.  I’m really not sure even now what the fuss was all about.  And one more little tidbit to share, the last time I had to step out of church with Lila to try to get her to go to sleep, I went into the Mother’s Room where I expected it would be dark and quiet.  Dark it was, but quiet not so much.  This same woman decided that the person who was performing Special Music wasn’t doing an appropriate job.  She actually said, “Here I can help” then turned down the speaker that allows us to hear what is going on in the sanctuary.  She then took it upon herself to sing the song herself in the same volume of singing voice that I imagine she would use if she were up front singing for Special Music.

Back to the original story though, one would imagine that if you were sick you would just leave, especially after you had relinquished yourself of the duties that you had previously had for the day.  But she and her sickness stayed all through church and even now I am confused as to why she didn’t just go home.  She even came to church dressed all casually as though she planned to just lay on the foyer couch and have a good old-fashioned sick day.

I hate that I didn’t end up taking any pictures of the kids and Mumsey and Poppy at all that day, with or without Sabbath School birthday celebration.  As I have said before though, sometimes the picture-taking gets forgotten when you are having a great time.  And having a great time with my parents, I most certainly was doing.

Saturday night, Brandon took Poppy on a date to see a movie and the rest of us stayed home prepping for Lila’s big birthday brunch the next morning.  Its funny, when I was very little and then not quite as little, but still younger….I would always hop up on the counter whenever my mom was cooking and chat.  I was never a whole lot of help in the kitchen, but I was company.  And Saturday night, in my own kitchen, after a while I found myself perched on my own kitchen counter tops chatting again to my  mother as she did all the work.  And between you and me, I think she rather liked it that way.

How Mumsey spent most of the evening cooking

Sunday Morning….the big day.  I woke up at 4:45 from having a dream that people started coming over at 8 instead of 10 and they were bringing friends from work and other random places and eating everything in my house.  In my dream, it was only 9 and I was already driving to Kroger to buy more food.  I didn’t really sleep good after that.

Lila’s brunch was wonderful though. I do think our neighbors were a little scared that we were starting our Super Bowl party early when all the cars started showing up at 10 in the morning.  I’m sure a few sighs of relief went out when the cars then began leaving about 2 hours later.

Playing with Mums

Mr. Stephen assisting Lila in her walking skills

Friend Ms. Trisha and the cutest little piece of boy, Jack

Sweet friend Finley who we have on close baby watch. I am kinda disappointed nothing happened during brunch

As I said though, the party was great.  I am thinking that we might make it a Lila tradition to do breakfast every year.  I mean, if you are going to have two parties right on the heels of one another, you need to make them completely different so people will want to keep coming back.

The spread

A few of our party friends

Lila eating Auntie Jessica’s scarf and posing with Ms. Neely

Silly bacon maple donuts that found their way to our vegetarian birthday brunch

 

 

Another thing that I will definitely continue is the donut as the birthday cake.  It was perfect for Lila!  She could pick it up and cram her entire little fist through the hole then wear it as a bracelet while she ate it.  And ate it she did!  That little girl had no problem taking down a full size chocolate purple sprinkle donut and I expect that in a few years, she can be comparable to her mother in donut eating.

Happy Birthday Dear Lila Bird

Carefully tasting

Getting into it a bit more now

Full Fists of donut goodness

Practically wearing the donut at this point and in a sugar coma

 

The girls had a great time playing with Debra:

The “big girls” eating donuts and doing up Debra’s hair

And all the kiddos enjoyed doing a little painting.  Thank you so much Ms Holly for bringing us the painting shirts from your classroom!

Carefully painting bird houses

JP is very focused

And the part I am sure you are the most curious about, the Pennies for Parks……well, let me just say that I sat myself right down and cried about the amazing work God has done in the hearts of the people who have read this blog the loved ones that attended Lila’s brunch.  My goal was blown away like a little leaf before the weekend even arrived and I have set more goals just to watch them crumble. This has all just been so touching and I know that the money that has been donating, God is going to continue to multiply before it finally gets to Angela, Jonathon and Parks.  We still have until the 14th if you feel like maybe you might want to be a part of this.  I have raised my goal, but I’m not going to share what the number is.  What I am going to share is that you all need to help me raise $225 to reach it.  I think that’s pretty doable.

And lastly, though it pains me, I have to mention this.  This is a photograph depicting the happiness that was going through my house during Sunday afternoon football about 2 weeks ago.  Happy Happy Happy, right?

Uncle Chris doing his happy dance

Oh the blurry chestbumping man embrace of victory for the niners

 

Alas, I have no pictures to share of any sort of happiness felt regarding football this past Sunday night.  We still believe in you 49ers, our girls have bows made in your colors for Pete’s sake, we are fans.  But we are sad.  Brandon is actually in mourning and still isn’t ready to talk about things quite yet.  Last night while crawling into bed, exhausted by the fatigue of a long day and heartache, he reached over and took my hand and said, “Now I understand how you felt during the last race of the Chase, K.” Yes, sweet Brandon, you do.  And eventually it will get better though I still can’t go back and talk about that last race without it getting to me.

Thankfully, there is always a new season.

 

Prayers and Blessings

So I would like to start this post off by saying that we are already almost at my goal of $1,000 and we haven’t even had Lila’s party yet!  What in the world?  I am just standing back and shaking my head right now about what generous people I know.  I have been so moved about how willing, some of you as complete strangers, to dig EXTREMELY deep into your pockets and give money to this little family.  So would you like an update of the total?  Is it driving you nuts?  If you are somewhere that you can do a drum roll, this would be the appropriate time because our total so far is………….$847! What do ya think of that?  And here I was hoping to make $300 and was going to be pretty excited about that.   So with that, I’ll be raising my sought after goal to $1500.  I am hoping that will also be blown away.

 

I have been reminded over the past 24 hours that life is hard.  Not just the challenges that we face, the bad time, the defeats, but even the happiest moments can also be emotional and sometimes hard to process.  Just all of it, you get from one point to another, you barely catch your breath and there’s a new obstacle.  Some of these challenges are easy and just require a little muscle…others feel impossible and in the end, they prove to be impossible and not everyone comes out of them.  Again, even some of the happiest of times, experiences can be so challenging and draining….and then there are the times when they are happening simultaneously that really give our hearts a workout.  I have so many things to praise God for today.  And when I look at the whole of my life, the good would definitely outweigh the bad.  But there are some ugly things lurking in shadows, shadows that I didn’t realize were so close.  There’s nothing that can be done about these shadow lurkers today.  And for today…(tomorrow could easily be a whole different story), I am going to let them just stay there.  I am also going to choose to celebrate the good things, that my littlest will be blowing out her birthday candles in the morning, that Brandon’s favorite team is playing in the Super Bowl, that my parents are here visiting me, that another dear friend has shared that she is expecting her own “Little” in August, and that another friend is starting a new step on Monday to get that much closer to becoming pregnant.  There are so many reasons to celebrate.

But all of these feelings, the scary and happy and just everything that is a part of living on the old earth, have made me think of the lyrics to a song that just seems to sum of everything so perfectly:

“Blessings”

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
And all the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your word is not enough
And all the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not,
This is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if your blessings come through rain drops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near

What if my greatest disappointments or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

No matter the twists and turns of this life, no matter the laughter or the pain….if it gets us closer to Him then it should be worth it.  Because with Him comes the promise that there is another time and another place (thank you Sandi Patti) where things will be perfect again.  We won’t have to share our happiness with sadness.  We won’t have to worry around each bend what’s waiting for us.  I long to be able to hold my children and not, in the back of my mind, worry about what sorts of awful things are they going to be exposed to, experience, hurt through.  That I can just hold them and enjoy the moment for the beauty that it really is.  That no mommies will have to blow out birthday candles with their babies in hospitals praying that this isn’t their first and their last.