It was a lovely, rainy, cool fall day here.  Though it’s mid-October, our past couple weeks have been HOT, like mid 80’s.  Analise has had “fashion” problems every morning, and I’m not sure how we’re going to make it through the winter.  She doesn’t want to wear anything but dresses.  She had plenty of summer dresses, and most of the twirled.  But I’ve put away most of the summer clothes, because it’s supposed to be fall, along with the fact that she’s had a growth spurt and most of them are too short.  So we quickly wear out our short supply of appropriate warm-weather dresses before they’re clean again, and then we have problems.

She picks out the winter dresses, like corduroy, denim and long sleeves.  And though it’s fine in the coolish-mornings, by the time she goes out to the playground at noon and it’s 85, she’ll be overheated.  When I pick her up at 1:30, she’s always red-faced and sweaty anyway.  Not going to work.  So I point her towards her drawer of skirts and tops, or I pick out a cute shirt and pants.  No way.  She’s been so upset these past few mornings at her lack of options, it’s hard to believe clothing is causing such a fuss.  Ug.  Maybe fall will come soon so she can start wearing the other dresses hanging in her closet.  And maybe I shouldn’t bother getting her anything that ISN’T a dress for the spring and size 5T.  Unless, of course, she determines she doesn’t want to wear dresses any more.  Then we’d be in trouble!

He’s got big shoes to fill!

Analise, all dressed up to play with the princesses.

I’ll admit… I LOVE Panera.  Their bagels are so yummy, and their sandwiches are one of my favorite lunches.  I usually get a panini with a salad.  But tonight’s dinner was just as good, and cheaper, and at home.

This summer I treated myself (as an anniversary present 🙂 ) to a grill pan.  I’ve enjoyed it for various things, but I hadn’t used it to make paninis!  I used this recipe that I’d sampled at Publix for the Turkey Apple Panini.   It worked perfectly, and the sandwiches were melty, a little sweet from the apple, and a little oniony from the salad dressing spread.  I tossed some romaine lettuce with cesaer dressing and parmesean cheese and added some restaurant-style croutons.  And I’d splurged at the grocery store and gotten some of this V8 Golden Butternut Squash Soup to go with the sandwiches.  Perfect.  The only thing that would have been better is if it hadn’t been 80 degrees outside.  Not exactly a soup night, but I’m sure we’ll do it again soon!  I’m glad I can do Panera at home!

my sleeping babies.  Each night I peek in on both Analise and Josiah before I go to bed.  I check to see that they’re covered, which is silly, because both of them toss and turn so much the covers are probably off minutes after I leave.  Josiah is always on his belly, often with his knees tucked up under him and his butt in the air.  Too cute.  Analise usually looks like she’s been fighting something, arms and legs sprawled out, hanging over the edge of the bed.

But really, the reason I peek in is to see their sweet sleeping selves.  There is nothing sweeter to me.  My heart nearly bursts with gratitude for what God’s given me.  I find a quiet moment to whisper a prayer over them, and to thank God for blessing me with such a joyous responsibility.  And I remember how very very much I love them, in spite of all the messes and grumping of the day.

What a great relaxing weekend!  It started when Brian’s mom unexpectedly took the kids Friday evening instead of early Saturday morning before we left for the bike race in South Carolina.  I hardly knew what to do with a quiet, empty house!  I should have vacuumed… but instead I packed, cleaned up and took care of loose ends before we left.  Maybe I’ll get to the vacuuming this week.  Hopefully.  Maybe…

Our trip to Greenville was heavenly.  Quiet time in the car together, just talking and catching up, listening to our own choice of music.  I had lots of things I was hoping to get to work on with the laptop this weekend, magazines to look at, and a couple books to read.  In the end, I dove into a book I’d picked up at the library, Positively False by Floyd Landis about his win and doping controversy in the 2006 Tour de France, and I finished it in less than 24 hours.  I read lots of excerpts to Brian and we had long discussions about the topic of doping.  Obviously, we can’t get away from cycling!

The bike races were good, and Brian’s got details on his blog.  It was heavenly to be kid-less though we said countless times how many times we missed them.  Greenville, SC is a beautiful town, and their “Fall into Greenville Festival” was going on, in addition to the bike races.  I got to visit a very cool store called Go Fish (where they sell local artisans’ handiwork bought through missionaries all over the world).  Last year I bought several Christmas presents, including my own 🙂 . We enjoyed dinner at a great seafood restaurant last night after the race (and I had to go back for lunch today! A yummy shrimp po’ boy with sweet potato fries).   We went to bed SUPER late (due to my reading and Brian’s 2+ episodes of Man vs Wild) and slept SUPER LATE.  We relaxed at a nice coffee shop this morning.  I got to focus on cheering for Brian and taking pictures instead of dividing my attention between the kids and the race.  We took a short side-trip through Brian’s alma mater of Clemson on his old cycling roads on the way home.  The trip back was quiet and relaxing as I finished reading our book aloud, and we listened to a good message by Frances Chan on Christ-Centered Relationships.

It was an awesome weekend that totally refreshed both of us.  I love taking trips and sharing experiences with my kids, but this weekend it was just a great change to be 2 instead of 4 and direct our attentions to each other and ourselves.  What a treat!

A few weeks ago at church, we sang a worship song with the phrase “my life is a love song to you”.   I started to think about what that would look like… if I was really living my life as a love song to the Lord.

What is a love song?  It’s sweet, poignant, tender.  The chords blend together perfectly, harmonies lifting up the melody.  A love song touches your heart, and it gives you a beautiful picture of the loving relationship it describes.

From day to day, I’m not sure I could say my life is a love song.  But over the past few weeks, I’ve been listening to the “chords” of my life, trying to turn them into beautiful melodies for my Savior.  Some days, the harmonies are off, and no one would recognize a love song in the clashing tones.  Most notably, I’ve struggled with Grumpy Mom Syndrome.  Whining kids, interrupted sleep, too much on my plate, and not prioritizing things well are all contributing factors.  I’ve spent a little more time filling up my heart with  God’s word in the morning (or in the carpool line!).  I’m thinking of expressing my love more as I deal with grumpy kids and frequent messes.  My actions to them are a love song… and it’s speaking to their hearts as well as mine.

All this to say I’m a work in progress 🙂

Tomorrow morning, Brian and I are heading out for the last race weekend of the season in Greenville, SC.  Thanks to my lovley mother-in-law, we’re going by ourselves, and I’m SO EXCITED for a quiet weekend.  The kids will have a blast with Beverly (and Tom, but he’s super busy so mostly it’s her taking care of them) and spending the night at their house.  And we are thoroughly going to enjoy a car ride with no Dora & Diego music, no kicking from the backseat, no endless snack requests, bathroom stops anytime we want or don’t want them (our rule is if the kids are sleeping there’s NO STOPPING), and just some time to enjoy each other’s company.

These races were Brian’s best of the season last year, and there’s also a wonderful fall festival going on in Greenville, besides the beautiful downtown and river walk area.  I’m looking forward to it!  We’ll keep you posted!

I had big plans today to get a lot accomplished.  But I, of course, got distracted with picking up the house.  Then I had a friend over for lunch and a Bible Study (thanks, Taylor!!  looking forward to next week!).

This afternoon got away from me, too, but that was because we had some much needed kid-messy-crafting time this afternoon. Man, they love to paint, and I just don’t let them often enough. They were engrossed in it for an HOUR.  Of course with close supervision as I hovered over to keep them from handprinting the couch or my plantation shutters (interesting that I work so hard to get handprints on plates and stuff, but I don’t want them elsewhere in the house.  Hm.  And yes, I could move them away from both the couch and the shutters, but that would be too easy.  And I’d get bored if I didn’t have to hover.  I’m rambling.  Can you tell I’m doing this post late at night? 🙂  )

Anyway, a couple cute photos of my serious little artists.  Josiah sticks his tongue out when he’s really concentrating, but I couldn’t quite get a picture of those moments.  Maybe because they were the moments I needed my hands free to keep him from decorating the wall? 🙂

Analise was very cute as she narrated her picture with each new item she added.  “This is the dragonfly (stamp) going to a party (balloon stamp) in the middle of a rainstorm (lightning stamp) but the sun is going to come out soon… (sunshine stamp).”  Of course, Josiah was narrating, too.  “Wapon da time, da butterfwy… I make a J, Mama!  I make a circle!  Wook!”

I’m very glad Josiah’s learning to blow his nose.  It’s so cute when he pulls a Kleenex from the box and puts it over his nose and mouth and makes his little nose-blowing noise.  We’ve succeeded in learning some hygiene around here!  Now, if only he wouldn’t put them back in the box…

Tuesday the kids were driving me crazy.  They were full of energy, running around the house, yanking on each other’s clothes.  Analise got put in time out twice because she kept not listening to me ask them to calm down.  They were crazy!

As we sat eating dinner, Analise was chatting and told me that they were pretending to be the ugly stepsisters tearing Cinderella’s dress.  Oh!  That makes sense 🙂  Why she didn’t tell me that earlier, I don’t know, but I might have been a lot less grumpy to know they weren’t just trying to drag each other around by the necks of their shirts!

Dinner continued, and Analise took a drink out of her Cinderella cup.

“I be Cinderewwa,” Josiah said. I fought back a laugh at my princess-loving boy.

“I’ll be Belle!” Analise chimed in.

It was Josiah’s turn again.  “I be A-we-wel.”  (that’s Ariel.)

“And I’ll be Aurora!” Analise said.  I couldn’t help laughing out loud now.  Josiah is going to be a good daddy to a little girl some day!