My Grandma

My Grandma passed away Saturday morning. I wish I had written down my feelings when my Grandpa passed away and didn't want to have the same regret. Alzheimers is a horrible, horrible disease that seems to take the very essence of who you are long before it should. However, Alzheimers also made her not as aware that her other half, my grandpa was missing the last 3 years. I have so many memories, memories that I had forgotten I had until the past few days. I can remember as a girl at the farm in the kitchen hearing Paul Harvey come on the radio on WGN, I HATED Paul Harvey as a kid, couldn't stand his voice and now since I live here and listen to WGN, whenever I hear Paul Harvey I smile.

My grandma always had a giant scrap bag of fabric kept upstairs in the bathroom cabinet for some reason. My sisters and I would use them to make barbie clothes or try to make barbie clothes. I remember only being able to watch one "program" a day when we stayed at the farm and her shooing us outside. I guess I'm like that with my kids too! I remember her letting us cut flowers from her flower garden that was on the side of the barn, we made arrangements with them and put them in the flower show. Taking us to the community pool in the summer. I get compliments on my cinnamon rolls but they don't even compare to hers. You can't even imagine how badly I wish I had her recipe.  I was cleaning up the girls room tonight and found a doll quilt she made for Lily when she was born. 10 years ago I wasn't as sentimental as I am now, I didn't treasure that the way I do now. Now, with my own kids I'm starting to see how fast it goes. I remember ham for just about every lunch she fixed for when grandpa came in from the fields, strawberries with half & half for dessert. Shucking corn and being squeamish about all those little black bugs. Giant snow drifts, snowmobiling for the firs and only time with my grandpa. Planting evergreens, one for each grandchild on the far side of the farm.

The past few years I've prayed and prayed for my Grandma to be at peace, now she is and she's with my Grandpa. My Dad said that Brad Paisley song "waiting on a woman" is what he thinks of..in the video there's a man sitting on a park bench in Heaven, just waiting. This morning I thought, Grandma probably got Grandpa his coffee like she did every morning and as he expected. It's so funny because when I was much younger and knew nothing about marriage I used to think "how dare he expect his wife to get his coffee, grandma should tell him to get it himself" and now I know how wonderful it is to show you love your husband by serving him, taking care of him.

I hurt for me, I really hurt for my Dad. When Grandpa died, there was still Grandma to focus on but now it's the finality that's hard. I hope to take the girls by the farm after the funeral, I would love to have a few pictures of them there even if they don't get the history, I do.

Haley's FIVE!

Haley's FIVE! She glad to be five but don't ask her if she's excited to go to kindergarten, she'll tell you a quiet "no". Here's her polar bear and the fish he's about to eat.

Here's Harper & her backpack full of mittens. Why, you ask does she have a backpack full of mittens? That morning there was BIG DRAMA because poor Harper had no mittens, none and she was so upset. I said, "you may want to check your cubby" and she did. And she found about 10 pairs of mittens.

Hmmm...this looks like a noose but it's actually my sewing measuring tape that was being used for a leash. There are now knots that may never come out.

Haley got strep throat for her birthday, she was actually excited because she knows you get lots of iPad time when you're sick.

Haley's sheep cake...rough looking sheep but there aren't a lot of tutorials on how to make a sheep cake

This child LOVES shoes so she got a few pairs of dress up high heels just her size

Doesn't everybody wear high heels with their pajamas?

Haley & I tried out the new coffee shop in town, she made the mistake of taking a big sip of just about boiling hot chocolate

Sweet sisters sitting halfway patiently through Lily's basketball awards

Another week, another 4 trips to the Pediatricians office

God has His hand in everything as He is constantly reminding me, I was a little disappointed our weekend in Indy didn't go as planned but then after coming back early I knew He had worked it all out. Lily woke up with a fever the next morning & got worse throughout the day, if we had to drive back as schedule, she would have been miserable. Round 2 of strep was moving through the house. Got her diagnosed Tuesday, started on meds. Jason went to Dr. Tuesday & got his meds. Wednesday afternoon, my friend was filling in for the school nurse & Harper had visited her twice not feeling good. Took her in, STREP.  Got her meds, she was home Thursday and then Thursday night Lacy started feeling sick. Took her in Friday morning, STREP! Haley is really stuffy but she's had two strep tests and they've both been negative. Really hoping she's feeling better for her big birthday this week.

Again, I had to adjust expectations as we had lots of fun stuff planned for the weekend that just didn't happen. When Lily & Lacy were little, I really struggled with things not going as planned, kids getting sick, MY expectations of what should happen but didn't. I'm certainly not perfect but it's progress.

Of course Lily is trying to one up her sisters as she always does, "Wasn't I the sickest Mom? Didn't I have the highest fever? I've been sick the MOST right?" We just kind of look at her blankly when she says things like that.

Harper funny from a few weeks ago, she had a friend over and was giving her the grand tour of our house. The guest room is always warm during the day and it attracts ladybugs so there's always at least a few ladybugs on the carpet. So Harper describes the room to her friend, "This is the room where the ladybugs go to die"  I can't wait for her friend to repeat that to her mom.

Our Super fun, super quick Indy trip

We've been planning a family weekend trip to Indianapolis for the past few months & the girls have been SO excited to spend the weekend with their cousins. Unfortunately, the weather cut our weekend way too short but the girls had a great time while we were there. Except for the sleeping arrangements, we've made a family decision that we just can't do 6 people in a tiny hotel room anymore. Harper sleeps like a wild animal complete with animal like noises, grunts and flailing limbs. While I love my children, love being with them, I very much need my 8 hours AWAY from them each night.  

At the kids museum, pretending to go to China

Is it weird I think this picture is so cute? Well, except for Jason's ridiculous mustache that is finally gone. Haley Mae has really gone from a full on Mama's girl to a Daddy's girl. She even asks HIM to put her little clip on earrings on. 

Haley being a statue

Harper actually being still like a statue, for a whole 10 seconds 

Pretending to scuba dive

The crew on a train car

After touching a REAL dinosaur bone

Pool fun at the hotel, definitely the highlight of the hotel. Grant was anti pool. 

Harper taking care of business

Better than normal week

Our family accomplishments this week:

Lacy has 262 AR points, these are points she earns for reading books & taking comprehension tests on them. Her goal was 69 sooooo I think its accurate to say she went above & beyond. We've tried to encourage the girls with "Newton girls go above & beyond"...guess she was listening!! Lacy has amazing reading skills, not unusual for her to read books at a middle school level. 

Lacy was named "Student of the Month" for her grade, might be due to her "above & beyond" achievements. 

Lily scored her first points during her basketball game (yay!), had a great steal and is really rocking her defense. Pretty sure she doesn't even let the girl she's guarding breathe too hard....

Some funnies this week:

Harper announced at breakfast "I'm going to be a magician when I grow up. It's super easy, all I need to learn is how to work that hat"

Harper doing her Valentines which are caterpillars made out of hearts correcting Haley by telling her, "No Haley, those are antennicals"

We had rented a redbox movie on our snow day & it was nowhere to be found. I told the girls they were going on a movie hunt after school. Lily said, "Why don't you give whoever finds it .50 cents?" I said that's a great idea. Five minutes later Lily says, "I think I might know where it is" runs upstairs and magically the movie was in her purse. She still asked for the money, I declined. 

Harper & Haley talking about how God is their friend,etc. which was music to this moms ears and then I heard Harper say, "God is my best friend because he doesn't argue with me"

Harper after her playdate this morning, "I had a good time but not the best time because she didn't always do what I want"

Pictures from our week:

Because apparently when I say, "No doing glitter on the carpet"  it can mean  "Dump a whole giant container of glitter on the floor" My favorite part of this mess is that I walked in and saw it, pretty much shrugged my shoulders & grabbed the vacuum. This shows my growth as a mother over the past 10 years...messes just don't matter most of the time.

Harper kept finding all these icicles before school on Friday so of course they're now sitting in freezer, I'm not sure why but I like to pick my battles & icicles in the freezer just isn't one.

My sweet grocery shopping, errand running, house cleaning, laundry & everything else buddy. Can't even think about my empty house in the fall without tearing up. Like right now, moving on....

100 days of school celebration shirt, Harper picked out 100 feathers for her shirt and I made the bird which suits her personality perfectly!

Made it to February

Even though I took on a new attitude this winter & am trying my best to enjoy & not just survive the long winter, I'm still glad we're one month closer to spring.

Lily looking way too grown up, caught her trying to wear eye shadow to ball practice. Like I wasn't going to notice the very thick, very dark gray eye shadow???

We made homemade french bread last weekend, Jason's loaf was way more perfect than mine.

Sunday mornings with scooby doo

We try to pray before we pull out of the driveway heading to school each morning. Well, if I'm not so frazzled getting everybody out the door on time that I forget. This is a great one as the girls get older and their friends are more of a influence than we are.

Harper wanted feathers for her 100 days of school celebration shirt soon here's her bird with 100 feathers, she counted them twice so I'm hoping there's actually 100!

Funnies:

At breakfast this morning, Jason was doing something ridiculous to make us all laugh & I gave the girls the advice of "make sure you marry a good man that makes you laugh" and Jason followed up with "But not if he's homeless. If a homeless man makes you laugh, don't do anything"

Picked Haley up @ preschool and asked:

"how was your day?"

"I had a bad day"

Me, "Why did you have a bad day?"

Haley, thought she said, "I was sad"

Me, "Why were you sad?"

Haley, "I wasn't sad, I had a bad day because i had STATIC. In my hair"

Changing the game

Lily started playing basketball in December and it's definitely been a learning experience for her & me. We've spent a lot of time teaching our girls to be kind, serve others before yourself, blah blah blah so when Lily started basketball, it was a little jarring for her I think. All of the sudden, there's pushing, shoving, guarding and going after the ball...and that's what you're supposed to do! Get in there, be aggressive, get that ball is probably not the natural instinct for her but I think it made me realize that we do want to teach them to be aggressive, go after what you want, focus and work hard.

Does she have natural talent like her Daddy? I don't know, I do know she's come along way since the first game but still has work to do. Sometimes she needs to go after the rebound instead of just watching others go after it, still working on getting that ball. Jason tells her "ITS YOUR BALL, GET YOUR BALL".  What's been even more fun that watching Lily play is watching Jason watch Lily play. He is exerting enormous self control by not sideline coaching, jumping up & yelling and commenting on the ref's calls.

After their last win, here's a conversation between Lily's team & their coach. This is an Upward league which means the focus is Jesus not just winning.

Team, "Wow, we won again. By a lot."
Jeff, their coach "We did & that's great but remember that's not the most important thing. We showed good sportmanship & worked hard"
Team "Yeah, but their team didn't score many points at all"
Jeff, "Well, that's true but let's focus on how we were able to glorify God as a team during our game"
Team "We were so much better than the other team"
Jeff, giving up "Who brought snacks?"