Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

breakfast

Saturday smiles: Rise and shine edition

A morning in our house. All times are approximate.

5:35 a.m.: Boy child walks into bedroom. “Mommy, I need breakast.” (He leaves off the “f.”)

5:37 a.m.: Mom staggers to the kitchen, blindly grabs a box of Life cereal and a bowl, pours cereal and milk, offers a spoon to boy child, who evenly distributes his cereal into the milk. Mom smiles at his preciseness then staggers back to bed.

5:45 a.m.: Boy child wanders back in to bedroom. “Mommy, I need more.”

5:46 a.m.: Mom shuffles back out to the kitchen, refills the cereal bowl with Life and milk. Back to bed.

5:50 a.m.: Boy child returns with whine in his tone. “Mommy, you gave me too much!” Dad intervenes and asks if boy child would like to crawl into bed with Mommy while Dad gets ready for work. Boy child crawls into bed. “On Dad’s side!”

6:10 a.m.: Mom sneaks a peek at boy child, who has gotten quiet. His eyes are closing and opening slowly. Mom wonders if maybe a few more minutes of sleep are in the cards.

6:12 a.m.: Boy child rolls over, points a finger at Mommy’s nose and says sweetly, “Hi, Mommy.” He repeats this three times, each time getting closer to sticking his finger up Mommy’s nose.

6:15 a.m.: Boy child is fully awake and begins rolling around on his side of the bed. “Stinky feet for breakfast!” he giggles as he puts his feet in Mom’s face. Mom pretends to sleep, to no avail.

Sometime between 6:15 a.m. and 6:30 a.m.: The girl child has awakened, used the potty and is changing the toilet paper roll. She brings it to the bedroom as an offering, having told her Dad, “It’s never been this hard for me.”

By 6:30 a.m. we are all out of bed, gathering in the kitchen. The girl child is slathering cream cheese on her mini-bagels. The boy child insists he’s still hungry. Dad is eating breakfast. Mom is in desperate need of a shower.

6:50 a.m.: The coffee’s on. The kids are fed. Dad is almost out the door. Now it’s only 12 hours till bedtime. And you wonder why I drink coffee?

keep calm and drink coffee

 

Saturday smiles: Uh, what day is it again? edition

I know it’s Sunday now, but I spent most of the week plagued by sickness of seemingly every common kind. Needless to say, the week was kind of a blur. I didn’t eat much of anything for three days. (Apparently that’s my new weight loss plan because I lost 3.5 pounds this week!) A lingering hacking cough has me wondering if I should leave the house for church this morning. (I promise to cover my mouth and take cough medicine!)

So smiles this week? Let me jog my memory. (Think The Princess Bride when Fezzik jogs the albino’s memory. “I didn’t mean to jog him so hard.”)

Maybe the biggest smilemaker this week was learning that I was one of 10 winners in the adult age group of the Lebanon County Library System’s annual poetry contest. Yes, you read that right. I have to read it again from time to time, too. I’m not sure I’ve ever entered a poetry contest before or what compelled me to enter this one. The prize is winning and having my poem published with the other winners in a book the library is putting together. I can also attend a poetry reading of the winning poems in May. Totally crazy but a bright spot in my week.

Isabelle watched Mary Poppins for the first time and gave it four thumbs up. We’re working our way through Disney movies after visiting the world of Disney. Next up, at her request, is The Jungle Book. I love her passion for stories, in book or movie form.

Breakfast with friends and watching the kids take over the Chick-Fil-A play area because they were the only ones in there. They actually played together pretty well, which seems rarer and rarer.

Outside time. I’m learning that the more space in which my children have to play, the less likely they are to get on each other’s nerves and fight. Hooray for nice weather the past couple of days and in the days to come!

Corban and I read a 100 words picture book one night when his sister had gone to bed early. I would point to a picture and say, “Corban, what is that?” He would reply, almost every time, with, “Um, I’m not sure. It’s a frog, actually.” So hilarious.

Not hilarious is the fact that I’m sure this boy is going to land us in the emergency room for the first time. Because of him, I’m needing to acquire the skill of getting blood out of clothing (he plays hard) and yesterday I learned that the little flap of skin that connects your mouth to your gums is called a frenulum.  I know this now because he tore his after he hit his head on something in the living room. I freaked out. Phil googled it to convince me we didn’t need to go to the ER. He seems to be healing just fine, though when I ask him how his lips are, he says, “Not good yet.” That didn’t stop him from eating everything on his plate for supper last night plus an extra helping of frozen yogurt. Some things only sons can teach you, I guess.

I wish I had some pictures from this week, but it was not a very picture-worthy week. (Actually, I have a few but I’m too lazy to share them this morning.)

Keep smiling!