Brian’s heading home.  He’s got a long journey ahead of him, and I don’t expect to see him until the middle of tomorrow night or Tuesday am.  His race went well today.  He finished 71st in the huge main group sprint, and ended up 55th overall.  I’m sure he’ll post more details on his website when he gets home.

We had a quiet day with church, lunch at Brian’s parents, and a big long naptime.  Unfortunately, though, Analise woke up from her nap blazing hot.  Her temp shot up to almost 102 in the next hour, before she finally gave in and took some Motrin.  She rested on the couch and a pile of blankets all evening, and I let the kids stay up to watch Cars for the umpteenth time.  Everyone went to bed easily, and I’m following soon, hoping there’s no more sickies to deal with during the night. 

Life continues quietly here. We’re still – always – missing Brian, but he’s doing great in Massachussets at his big race… all the gory details on his cycling blog: http://toonecycling.wordpress.com. But we’re one day closer to him coming home on Tuesday!

Analise was at Toone’s last night (lucky for me… she was up at 5:15! Josiah slept in until almost 6:15.) Josiah and I got up and out of the house early for a long-anticipated trip to the farmer’s market. We’ve not been in town on a Saturday in weeks and weeks and weeks, and I’ve been itching to go. Unlucky for us, it started raining soon after we got there, so we were WET. But we got some tasty stuff! Now if I could only figure out what to do with it all…

• fresh organic tomatoes (though I didn’t get avocados, this Avocado Basil Mayonaise would be tasty on my tomatoes! or on anything, as I could eat guacomole every day)
• 3 herb plants – basil, dill and parsley (I’ve made Cottage Cheese Dill Bread before… It’s so yummy! Definitely need to make it with my fresh stuff!)
• cherry tomatoes (Yum – this chicken dish would be tasty with the tomatoes and basil!)
• yukon gold potatoes (I’m thinking these Cracked Potatoes would be tasty! and I could use my fresh parsley! Or these are another version…)
• baby cucumbers  (Any suggestions??)
• fresh Chilton county peaches (What should I do with these??? I love peaches!!)
• (And I thought about sweet potatoes… I really really wanted them, but Brian doesn’t like them, and they were only selling like 4-5 together. And it was raining hard when I was thinking about them. I wish I’d gotten them so I could make these fries! I cannot tell you how much I LOVE sweet potato fries and I LOVE garlic fries, so these would have to be so delicious!)

Analise came home and we headed off to the MOVIES! We’ve never taken the kids to the movies. But a Thomas the Train movie was showing, and so we met Kim, Lauren and Anna there. We were super early, and the clerk chuckled when Kim asked if it might sell out. We settled into the theater 20 minutes early, all alone, and the kids did laps around a couple rows of seats, munching on M&Ms and popcorn. A few other parents and kids did show up, but it was a small group. Our kids did wonderfully. Josiah was the one I was worried about, but it was his naptime. I’d thought to bring his pacifier, which tends to quiet him down since he only uses it for naptime/bedtime. When I offered it to him, he slouched over in his seat, and I eventually pulled him onto my lap where he snuggled quietly, half-asleep for nearly the whole movie. So sweet.  I love snuggling with my little guy.  The girls were up and down and up and down a few seats away by Kim.  I had it easy, while she kept them under control. But they were very good, and we had a great time!

The kids were asleep before we got home, and we took big, fat naps in the quiet Saturday afternoon rain. All in all, it was a nice relaxing day!

Bedtime is too early for the fireworks around here, besides the fact that Analise would probably be scared of the noise. But we had a great dinner with the Toones and danced with Uncle Sam waving our flags. And we made our own fireworks craft! Hope everyone’s had a great restful holiday!

Compared to last year…

If you asked me what my favorite daily read was – after I named all my dear friends and family who I check in on far more often than they know – I’d point you to Rocks in my Dryer.  I found this amazing blog a couple months ago after clicking through some links, and now it’s one of my favorite places to go.  Just this evening, I sat down to find a couple of my favorite posts to share, and I’ve been completely drawn in by her witty stories, quiet faith, tender thoughts, and honestly fall-off-your-chair-laughing mom moments.  So without further ado, here are a few that I laughed and cried over tonight…

• On her son’s VBS daily offering challenge
• Hilarious thoughts on a recent plane trip she took
• As she’s learning what the motherboard on her new computer does…
• Squirrels and pacifiers… who new??  (Seriously, one of my FAVORITE posts EVER… we’re going to be doing this with Josiah’s pacifiers in a few years!)
• Live blogging a tornado, which I posted before
• Glimpsing God’s heart on a stormy night
• And lastly, a very poignant reminiscience of loss, which many mothers can sympathize with.  Warning.. have a kleenex handy.  This one tugged at my heart, as I had a miscarriage just before we became pregnant with Josiah. 

We’re still hanging in here.  Yesterday was 100% better than Tuesday.  Good sleep makes all the difference.  We were busy, too, as Analise had school, Josiah went to Grandma’s to play, and I got to run around doing errands all by myself.  Lovely.  Listening to my own music – a brand new Passion CD, God of this City – instead of "Signing Time with Alex & Leah" on repeat, over and over and over again. 

I found a big box from RedEnvelope.com on my front porch.  It was the anniversary present Brian had ordered!  What a surprise!  It’s this beautiful frame set – wood frames for the contemporary wooden 5th anniversary gift.  We’re pretty bad about gifts for each other… usually we just get ourselves what we’d like and tell each other, and we’re both pretty pleased with that.  And since we’d been to Atlanta on our own and Memphis with the kids, I wasn’t expecting a gift at all.  But this was so unexpected and beautiful… I’m so thankful!  Now to find some beautiful photos to put in it…

It was Wednesday, so my dear sweet babysitter Abigail came to watch Josiah while I headed out for our small group.  In lieu of our normal Life Group, we have been having bi-weekly prayer and praise times.  It was such a refreshing time! 

Anyway, today’s going fine…not such good sleep last night, but we’re doing ok.  Analise has her 4yo check-up at noon, and she is FREAKED out.  It’s going to be a rough time, as she has to get a shot or 2.  But we’re crafting a few little 4th of July things, so maybe that’ll redeem the day for her. 

Yes, it’s me again. Just some random thoughts from a weary mom.  It’s been one of Those Days.

Brian and I were up late last night doing things to get him ready to go. Of course, right as we were drifting off to sleep around midnight, I remembered I had all the money in my wallet and he had none, so throughout the night that thought kept coming to mind. Analise was up once, around 3, jumping loudly out of bed, throwing her door open, throwing our door open, jolting us awake. I took her back and laid with her for a few minutes.

Then Brian’s alarm went off at 4:20. I needed to get up to put the money in his wallet, because I figured he’d forget it in the 4 seconds it would take him to walk from the bedroom to the living room in his bleary-eyed state, with his mind solely thinking of coffee and cereal. I did go back to bed immediately, though, praying in my half sleep that somehow the kids would sleep through Brian’s departure. Amazingly, they did, though Josiah thought it was morning at 5:45. I tossed a couple toys in his bed and told him it was absolutely NOT morning yet. Analise came to my bed at 6:15, and finally Josiah started loudly throwing things out at 6:30.

We were all grumpy from the moment we got up. Analise was full of tears and dramatics for various things off and on all day. We visited a friend down the street so I could talk about MOPS leadership things. Analise told me later they weren’t being very nice to her, but while we were there she was in tears several times. Josiah prowled their house looking for things to climb on and knock over. Except for the cute moment where he got down on his belly and laid nose to nose with their sweet little chubby 5-month old. He was talking to her about something. Not a very good meeting.

I decided we all needed a break, so we hopped in the car for Chik-Fil-A. Lunch and an hour of the crazy playground was a good answer for my frazzled morning. Amazingly and in spite of the bunches of kids, we didn’t have many teary moments, except for Josiah getting run over by the big kids a couple times. I had to laugh as I sat there watching mom after mom walk into the restaurant with 2, 3 and 4 kids in tow. How many others were there just counting the minutes until naptime like I was?

It’s nice to know I’m not alone 🙂

Naptime was a just the wonderful respite we all needed. There was the usual post-nap grumpies by all, but when I finally gave up trying to get things done and sat down and played puzzles and games, everyone was happy. And now, it’s bedtime. I’m determined to get a good night’s sleep so that at least I wake up in a better mood tomorrow!

So Brian left this morning at 5am for his week-long trip to Boston for a bike race.  It’s a pretty big event, and he was invited to ride with another team.  There’ll be lots of details on his cycling blog soon, I’m sure.  He’s driving up with a couple other guys, but most of his expenses are being picked up by the team, so this is really a low-cost race trip for him.  Sweet!

Anyway, he took my laptop, which will actually be good for me.  I’ll have to go downstairs and use his computer when I really need/want to, instead of the too-frequent email/web checks throughout the day when my laptop is in the middle of the living room.  And I probably might be blogging more, so that I don’t call him 10 times a day and make him look like the guy who can’t get away from his wife.  I know he wouldn’t mind talking to me whenever I call, of course, but I’m trying to let him have this time to himself.

I hope the week goes quickly, though… after a really long, exhausting day with the kids, it sure is quite and lonely here now that they’re in bed!

After I shared some of my favorite random links, Corrie asked to see what I read regularly.  Since I’m embarrassed to post the whole list, and you’d be overwhelmed and not get to appreciate ANY of them, I decided I’m going to start posting one link a day.  Hopefully, that’ll let me share more of them, and you won’t be distracted from whatever you’re supposed to be doing. 🙂  Not that you’re supposed to be doing anything other than reading our blog, but let me tell ya… I’m always in the mood to click-click-click, especially when I’ve got laundry to fold!

I, of course, love mom blogs, especially if they’ve got fun, easy, crafty, creative ideas.    Gourmet Momma on the Go has all that… and it all involves food!  Let me highlight just a few of the favorites..

• Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream Bowls
• Blooming Snacks
• Alphabet Biscuits
• Her whole collection of Alphabet Snacks
• And a fun section of Book and a Snack ideas

Lots more awesome ideas, but I don’t have time to post them at the moment bc it’s naptime here, thankgoodness.

Well, at least *I* am home for good.  Brian’s off to Boston on Tuesday to race with another team in a 4-day race.  He’ll be gone for a week, and we’ll miss him TONS.

But our weekend trip to Memphis was great fun.  Brian got 7th today, and he finished up 8th overall for the weekend.  The $$$ didn’t quite pay for the trip, but that wasn’t the point.  We had a fun time with our friends.  The kids enjoy race weekends infinitely more when they’ve got people to play with.  Besides Lauren and Anna’s company, we met 2 girls from Missouri, and the 6 of them played happily – VERY happily – for 2+ hours today during the races.  It was fabulous.

After the bike race, we enjoyed a fun lunch at Red Robin with an old college friend of Brian’s.  Bert and his wife, Stephanie, were wonderful lunch companions in spite of our exhausted and overwhelmed kids.  Poor Analise collapsed in my lap when the waitstaff brought out balloons and an ice cream sundae and sang to her.  She was so tired, she didn’t know what to do with herself. 

After celebrating Analise’s birthday several times in the last 6 weeks, she woke up today and asked, "Am I 4 now?"  "Yes, dear," I replied, "you are finally actually 4."   (She loves to use the word "actually".  It’s so cute.  Who’d expect a 4 year old to be saying, "well, no, actually, I don’t know where Josiah’s train is."  Huh!)  We’re having Brian’s family over for dinner tomorrow for the LAST celebration.  I’m going to make a nice fluffy pink cake and let her toss all the pink and purple sprinkles on it she wants 🙂

I can’t believe I have a 4-year old.  Where does the time go? 

Beautiful family photo by Corrie Haffly. 
She’s taken photos of some of the best moments in our lives!

Four years ago we were beginning a long, long day. I don’t remember much of it, but I know your Daddy was stressed and tired. But at 10:35pm, you burst into the world and all was well. We’ve all grown so much since then!

Right before our eyes, you’ve grown into a joyful little lady. Singing, dancing, imagining, laughing, loving, always up to something. You’re full of wise analytical discussions, and I can already see whispers of your Daddy’s super-sharp mind in your questions.

Of course, you love to ride your bike. You’re disappointed to find out that there’s no kid’s bike race when we’re at one of Daddy’s race. But you dive right in with your cheerleader attitude as we watch Daddy go round and round… "Go, Daddy, go! Go, Daddy, go!"

You love an audience. If there’s anyone around for you to talk to, you’ve got to be telling them about Dora or lately, of of Josiah’s latest mis-adventures. And when Josiah’s hurt, I’m never sure who hurts more – you or him!

Of course you’re into princesses now, which I find so appropriate. You love to find a willing partner to wear the tiaras, dress-up gowns, glass slippers and play with Belle or Ariel.

Analise, my sweet girl, we love who you’ve become. We pray everyday that you’d continue to grow in grace and wisdom. We’re so thankful for the surprise blessing that arrived just as we started our 2nd year together. May this be a year full of fun, learning, loving and grace.