Sweet Summer

Fresh cut grass, warm sunshine, flowers, palm trees, coastal breezes, the YMCA, being footloose and fancy free just a few things things I have been thankful for lately.

Sweet summer.  As much as I was dreading it, we are having an amazing summer.  We have been super busy so nobody has really had time to be bored.  I usually try not to cram my schedule so full that I feel like I am hopping from activity to activity but I have kind of done that with swim team, soccer and invites to spend time with lots of dear friends lately.  Accentuate the positives, kids are really good and tired at night, definitely fewer games of whack a mole going on at bed time.

One tired little Mama after a hard day at the pool...

Anna and Brynn have had swim practice every morning and I have been impressed with our little family getting to the YMCA on time and it has proven to be good for all of us. There is something comforting about being up early, the smell of chlorine and being out in the fresh air.  I work out while the girls practice.  The other day Aubrey told me she wasn't going to the nursery she wanted to work out.  Maybe some day girlfriend!

Anna and Brynn had their first swim meet last Saturday and let me tell you I am hooked.  What an awesome sport to watch.  I was so nervous for them and they did great.  First and second in their heat in freestyle in their first ever swim meet.  I know I am facebragging.   It made me want to be a dorky mom and get a swim mom shirt with their names on it.  I was that proud!

We have been swimming with friends, gone to the movies, played in the sprinkler and already consumed countless $1.00 ice cream cones from Sonic and coke slushies from the gas station after soccer games.  I think I have gained 20 pounds "cleaning up" my kids dripping cones.  FYI cleaning up a cone is when you lick all around the cone to prevent the drips. Picture perfect summer.

We are getting ready to go to Ashland, KY my hometown next week to visit the grandparents and have a wedding shower for my baby sis, Sarah.  I am already planning activities for the car, 12 hours...sigh... and trying to get all the laundry complete...another sigh.

We started a new chore list around the Kneisley nest.  Little girls are helping scrub bathrooms, run the sweeper, empty the dishwasher and put away groceries.  I am loving all the help.  Brynn informed me that she is a slave.  Poor child. 

June has passed by ever so quickly.  Our family has some big events coming up over the next week.  Ben and I will celebrate 12 years of wedded bliss and I will celebrate my 36th birthday.  Hard to believe I am going to be 36.  I remember when I thought that was really old.  Oh well, maybe I can write a couple blogs about life lessons learned in my 36 years or myths about marriage, the perfect title could be Perception and Reality;)  Next week should prove to be good writing material. 

I told Benji he never smiles for pictures this was the result...

I don't have the perfect family. I don't have everything figured out. I am just trying to find the good in life, the positive in everyday occasionally mundane situations and taking time to stop and savor moments with my family.  The beautiful, blessed life that God has given me.  Notice I didn't say unstressful, or not tiring or tidy.  Certainly not words that are in my vocabulary this week.  But we sure are having fun this summer.

Sorry my blogs have been lacking lately.  I really have enjoyed running around with my kiddos and going to bed early.  Hope your summer is everything you hoped it would be. 

Last....

Last day of school.  Summer break.  This means a few things to me.  First, time is passing ever so quickly in life.  Even though the days seem soooo long, the years are passing by too fast.  I know I am going to wake up and they will be driving off to college.  This scares me. 

Secondly, I was going to say not having to be out of the house by 8am.  However, being the intelligent person I am, I signed my children up for swim team and practices are Monday-Thursday at 8am.  Yeah.  I  know.  But looking on the bright side...at least they don't have to be perfectly coiffed and fed.  We can eat after practice right?  My friends swear I will love it.  I either will love it or I will want to shoot myself in the head.  (I heard Caroline say " Shoot me in the head"  yesterday and I cringed.  I might say that often...  Most of the time I don't really mean it.  Most of the time.)  But I digress.  So I guess number 2 is that there will be no homework wooo hoo and our schedule will be more relaxed. 

Number 3.... I am terrified at the thought of having all four children home all summer and entertaining them.  There I said it.  I see these Mothers that talk about summer break and how they can't wait to do fun things with the kiddos and I wonder if I'm crazy or a bad mom but I would be lying if I didn't have a little dread.  I know I am going to have four children home all day messing up my house and asking for snacks, fighting and standing over my bed at 6am inquiring what we are doing today.  Little scared I tell ya.  Usually it turns out fine but some days are rough. 

I have to admit, I'm a better Mother when my kids go to school for some of the day.  I need a little reprieve a little break in the action.  Hats off to you homeschoolers.  I think you are awesome.  I am envious.  I could never do what you do. At least I am aware of my shortcomings.

Now, I know we will have some really fun days and we will make some really great memories.  I am already giving myself a pep talk that I want to be patient and fun and that messes don't matter.  I  think I can... I think I can.  I was just trying to make sense of the different emotions that are swirling around in my head this morning as I sent my kids off one last time just until 11:45am barely enough time for me to get myself dressed and back to pick them up.

I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength Phil 4:13.  I used this verse as my theme when I ran a marathon.  It works.  I got this.

So my friends let summer vacation 2012 begin.  Let's make some memories.  See ya at the pool this afternoon!

15 Minutes

Yesterday was a bad day.  My give a darn was busted and I talked to my sisters and mother approximately ten times just in the morning.  I was in meltdown mode.  I am all better today and trying to gain fresh perspective.

This week it has been apparent to me that sometimes I am present but not really present.  For example, Brynn was reading me this VERY long story she had written in her journal this year at school. (She hasn't earned the nickname mouth for nothin...)  I was cooking dinner.  She finished and asked me a question about what she had read to me.  It occurred to me that I had not really listened or heard a word of it.  Her voice was like background noise to my current activity.

It has always been hard with four kids to meet every ones needs.  Especially their emotional needs.  If I am being honest, my kids often are crying out for attention through bad behavior or drama.  For example last night Brynn would not touch her dinner.  She just looked very forlorn and kept moving the food around on her plate.  After her father and I asked her approximately ten times what was wrong with no answer we just gave up.  It was obvious she was enjoying the ongoing attention but I was getting annoyed.  Brynn needs attention I thought to myself and she is getting any way that she can.  How many times do Aubrey and Caroline stand beside me while I am on Facebook and I pay no attention to them....more often than I would like to admit.  Anna often does annoying things like pick at me and slap me on the behind and run away all desperate cries for time and  attention.

I read a blog my sister Stacy posted last week about spending 15 minutes each day with my children of uninterrupted one on one time doing their activity of choice.  Not always easy.  But the author swears that the pay off is big.  Always trying to improve my mothering skills I have vowed to try this. Summer is the perfect time to give it a go and today is day one.

Insert proud mother moment...Brynn and Anna both chose to write in their prayer journals, read their devotional to me and pray aloud together.  It was a precious time.  I got to hear about their fears, struggles, and even suggest things God could help them work on.  For example, helping them walk away when their sister makes them mad.  Anna even prayed for my friends Mother who is in the hospital in ICU.  She heard her father and I talking about it yesterday and remembered.  Sometimes moms, God gives us little winks to know that our teachings and guiding in our children's lives are not in vain.  (FYI they make Jesus Calling my favorite devotional adapted for kids too.)  Activities can also be cooking, tossing baseball, coloring.  The list is endless.  Stacy suggested I let my kids make the list.  They were thrilled.

Last night I put Aubs to bed and the twins and I spent time making their teacher gifts.  We assembled jars of homemade spice rub for their teachers and staff at school.  They were over the moon. 

Supermom cape...

Aubrey and I spent time coloring.  She also sat on my lap and jabbered away.  We talked about ducks and  made animal sounds. I just held her and enjoyed her jabbering away.   Caroline spent the night with cousin Clara last night so we haven't had our fifteen minutes but already I can see how it will pay of in a big way.  Brynn and I finished our little time together and she said, "This was the best thing ever!"  Anna exclaimed, "Mama, can we do this everyday?"  Now, I'm human and I know there will be days that I am stressed and tired and I will be sorry I promised to do this but if I can make myself stop, be still and savor the moments I will be happier.  I am a work in progress especially in the mothering department.

So this summer when days are more lazy and alot slower try and make the time.  I know it's not always easy.  I am challenging myself to do it as well.  I'm in this awesome, amazing, hard, crazy journey of motherhood with you!