Summer Fun!

I just realized how incredibly long it has been since I posted last, and when I saw what my last post was about I was reminded that things in retrospect are much less catastrophic than they seem in the moment. I drove through St. Cloud this past week on the way to the cabin and remembered getting lost on my way to Chipotle, and I'm pretty sure I won't get lost again! Getting lost has a way of helping you find your way around.

 

Since it's been a while, and we've been up to all sorts of fun things this summer, I decided that a photo dump was in order. Here are some of the things we've been up to these past couple of months:

 

Okay, so this has nothing to do with summer, but lately Anja has taken to licking her plate clean and this is what often results.

We're on our way to the pool in the backyard, and Anja's in charge of carrying the floaties!

Fun in the pool (yes, I know the pool is a strange shade of yellow, but the kids don't care, and it won't hurt them)!

Auntie Kristen came to visit for almost a week. One night included the kids' first s'mores!

I think they were a hit!

The little one was happy with her plain graham cracker!

For the week of the 4th of July, we headed out to my family's cabin. The weather was gorgeous and the water was uncharacteristically calm, so we took advantage of it! My brave little 2 year old decided that she wanted to try tubing......

.....and skiing....maybe next year.

Tate loved playing on the beach building things and occasionally cooling off in the lake.

My sister and her kids were there too, so we had lots of fun cousin time.

Speaking of fearless little girls, Anja loved the water! This is why she is strapped in her booster seat outside in this picture. It worked great to keep her contained for a little bit so we could relax for a while. She's a lot of fun, but at a difficult cabin age.

Waiting for the parade to start on the 4th of July.

Tate apparently thought that the wait was a little long....

.....but well worth the wait!

No, Anja didn't go sailing, but Norah and Tate did! Tate informed us yesterday that he doesn't want to go on the sailboat again because he was afraid it was going to tip over. We'll have to try it again next summer to ease his fears (and hopefully not confirm them!)

Anja and Daddy!

Ten years ago, Ana came from Brazil to stay with my family and go to school here. She came back to visit for 10 days, and was out at the cabin with us. It was so fun to spend time with her again. It was like having a second sister for a while. This was also the first time that all 14 of us have stayed at the cabin overnight. I'd say it was a success, aside from a few crabby kids every once in a while, but who doesn't have that on occasion at home, right?  

 

We're planning a camping trip at the end of July with the other side of the family, so I'm sure there will be more photos to come.

 

Not Just an Ordinary Day

This morning I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. My patience was thin and my kids were testing me, so I decided we needed a change of scenery for the day. I packed up the kids and headed to St. Cloud where I had pictures waiting since February to be picked up. I thought we could go to the mall, pick up the pictures, play at the indoor play area (since it's April 9th and snowy), get some groceries and lunch and head home.

We did indeed find the pictures waiting for us, and headed over to the play area. There was a little boy playing too who looked to be about 5. At one point I saw Tate fall off of one of the play things (that he had worked really hard to conquer), and then noticed that 5 year old on top of where Tate used to be. I thought that maybe he had pushed Tate off, but since I didn't see anything happen, I figured I'd let it be. A bit later, Tate was standing on top of a hollow log. This time I watched as this little boy came up and hit my son in the legs trying to knock him down - twice. I don't know about other moms, but I get mama-bearish at times like that. Since his parents were in a place where they couldn't see what he was doing, I told that boy to knock it off (okay, I said it a little nicer than that, in a way a 5 year old would understand, but I felt like telling him what I really thought. Don't forget that I woke up on the wrong side of the bed.) As we walked down the hall after leaving, I practiced with Tate how to be respectfully assertive in a situation like that. I don't want my kid to be the one who's always picked on. That was Tate's life-lesson for the day.

From there, we decided that lunch was the next stop. Since I had a craving for Chipotle yesterday, and we don't have one of those in our town, that is where we I decided we'd go for lunch. I had a general idea of where it was, but wasn't super confident in how to get there. Nevertheless, we headed out on the streets of St. Cloud, only to arrive at Chipotle about 30 minutes later. Was Chipotle actually 30 minutes away, you ask? Why no. Actually, it is about 3 minutes away. When I was thoroughly lost, I called my mom in Apple Valley who graciously looked up a map of St. Cloud, along with the Chipotle's address and guided me there. Who says you don't need your mommy when you're 32?

A lot of confusion and a couple U-turns later, the kids and I made it to the restaurant. Tate loves tacos, so I knew it would be a hit with him. I excitedly told Norah while we waited in line that I would get her a quesadilla just like the one mommy made yesterday. We made it through the line, found our seats, set down our food and my sweet little 2 year old says, "ques-dilla?" Yep, this mommy forgot to get one of her children any food for lunch. I looked at the line, and realized I couldn't wait in line while my kids sat at the table by themselves, so I got her started on chips and some of the pork from Tate's taco. The line never did really go down enough for me to make a quick trip up to buy my daughter some lunch, so she went without her quesadilla. But you know, she never brought it up again while she munched on food from Tate's plate. Thankful.

One of the benefits of getting lost is that you find things along the way that you didn't know were there. On one of my wrong turns in my failed efforts to find Chipotle, I stumbled upon Walmart. I silently said, "Thanks, God for helping me find Walmart, 'cause I want to go there after lunch," so when all the kids were strapped in after our delightful meal, we headed to Walmart since I now knew where it was.

You know how there're signs on the bathroom doors in stores that say, "No merchandise beyond this point?" I broke that rule today. What's a mom to do when one child says in the middle of her shopping trip, "Mom, I have to poop." You bring the other two kids and the cart into the bathroom with you. That's what you do.

Then, there's that glorious moment when you discover half-way through checkout that you don't have your wallet. Searching, searching. Relief! You have the checkbook! Problem solved, right? Wrong. The cashier says that she needs to see my ID in order for the check to go through. Ummm....that's in my wallet that is more than 50 miles away on my kitchen counter. "Can I call my husband so he can give you a credit card number?" "No, we need the person present. I'm sorry, without ID, there's nothing we can do." The manager then tells the employee standing next to her to get a cart so he can take my food and re-shelve it. At this point, I am trying not to cry while I gather up my things and my children and make my way out of the store without my food. Meanwhile, my son is repeatedly telling me, "Mom, I want our stuff back." "Mom, where's our stuff?" There was a kind woman who saw my tears on the way out of the store who asked if I was okay. I assured her that yes, I was okay, just thoroughly embarrassed. I know, someday I'll be able to laugh. But not today. When we arrived home, my husband assured me that everything was okay, and he went to the local grocery store to pick up the food we needed for supper.

A potty accident and a spilled cup of milk later, the kids are in bed and my eyes are tired. Through it all, I'm pretty sure God's got a lesson in it all for me (and maybe for the Walmart employees who were probably a little uncomfortable when their customer walked away crying. I'm guessing it doesn't happen every day.) All I have to say is this:

Tomorrow is a new day.

Time to Wake Up!

I love it when I realize a lesson that God is teaching me. The big lessons are kind of obvious, and the smaller lessons are a little trickier to spot. I'd like to say that this was one of those lessons where I was so in tune to what God was doing that I noticed a detail of my life that He was working on. I can't. This was one of those biggies, and I am SO thankful for what He has done for me.

God woke me up.

One Thursday morning, I tearfully told Mike that I really didn't enjoy my life. I love my husband and my kids, and I'm doing what I always dreamed of doing, but I just didn't enjoy my life. Somewhere along the line I had begun to see my life as one long to-do list that was never fully accomplished. I would get irritated when I tried to work on my never-ending to-do list and my kids would interrupt my efforts. It stressed me out when my house was messy (which is pretty much all the time with a 4yo, 2yo and 1yo). I got frustrated with their constant demands on my time.

We were having a leadership seminar at church the next night that was exactly what I needed to hear. One of us needed to stay back with the kids, and in God's orchestration, we decided that I would go and Mike would stay home. The video we watched was of Priscilla Shirer. She talked about our tendency to be discontent with life, constantly waiting for that next thing. Maybe you're single, and you think that life will start being great when you're married. Maybe you're married without kids and you begin to think, "Oh, life will be great when I am holding that baby in my arms." Then you have kids and you might think that life will be better when they're out of this toddler stage. I could list more, but you get the idea.

Priscilla went on to say that we need to wake up, and see what God is doing in the present, instead of sleeping through it and waiting for the next season of life. I realized that this was just what God needed to tell me. Then in God's way, He put me in a discussion group with women who had grown children. The first discussion question was, "Have you ever had a season of your life that you slept through?" Before I had said a word, every one of those women said that they felt like they slept through the years when their kids were young. With tears flowing down my face, I confessed that I had been asleep and God was waking me up.

I got home and told Mike about it all. God was waking me up! I am so grateful! Life is so much more enjoyable with my eyes open! I can see what God is doing in my kids, and don't get so annoyed at their antics. I am more present with them, able to live life instead of dreading my to-do list that constantly hung out in the back of my mind. I still have moments when I recognize that I am beginning to sleepwalk, and in those moments I pray that God would wake me up.

I don't share this with the blog world to have you think, "Oh, poor Melissa. I had no idea you felt this way." Instead, I share this to shout out what God has done in my life. It is truly a transformation in the way I view my life and I am so grateful for what He has done. I also think that there may be some other sleepwalking moms out there who might need a little encouragement. I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. Maybe you're not a sleepwalking mom, but you are sleepwalking in the stage of life you are in. Take heart and know that God can and will wake you up and help you to SEE the ways He is at work in your life. They're all around you. It's time to wake up and start enjoying them.

March in Pictures

It's been a while since I posted, so I thought I would update with some photos from the month of March.

A day in our house wouldn't be complete without a wrestling match with Daddy. It started as a Tate and Daddy thing, but now the girls like to get in on it too. When Mike comes home from work, some of the first words he hears are, "Daddy, can we wrestle?!?!"

 

I know it is strange, but our kids often eat crackers for breakfast. On this particular day, Tate was eating a Triscuit, when I heard, "Mommy! I made where we live!" I turned around and sure enough, it's the state of Minnesota!

It's always fun when the kids are playing well together, so I thought I'd snap a picture and capture the moment. Really, they play fairly well together much of the time. It's fun to see their different personalities when they play, and when they try to work things out when they aren't getting along perfectly.

Somebody had a birthday this month, so Norah got to go birthday shopping with Daddy and Tate was so excited that he helped Daddy wrap my birthday presents. He told me, "I wrapped the watering can!!!" I tried to act surprised when I opened it.

 

Anja's new favorite pastime is climbing the stairs! She thinks she's pretty great when she gets halfway up with no one noticing!

I remember wearing neon colors when I was growing up, and when they went out of fashion, we never thought they'd come back. Well, low and behold, here's my daughter showing off her new outfit - neon yellow, complete with matching neon yellow socks.

Did I mention she likes to climb?

Tate's current favorite things is Larry Boy from VeggieTales, and he draws him whenever he gets a chance.

When Norah got out of bed, I started getting her dressed, but couldn't stop her before she ran to the living room in her undies to find her Easter basket. I'm a believer in capturing moments how they happened, so here you go folks. This is what Easter morning looked like at our house before we headed off to church to celebrate the Resurrection of our Savior. We have fun with the colorful eggs, but always remember that the real reason we celebrate is because Christ paid the ransom for us so that we can be free from sin's bondage. Praise God! May we remember and celebrate Christ's gift to us every single day of the year.

The cousins came over to celebrate Easter with us. They had fun with an Easter egg hunt in the house. Since there are still a couple inches of snow on the ground, and it's windy and cold here, indoors was our only option, but we had fun! Happy Easter!

 

Husband Envy

Wives, have you ever looked at someone else's husband and thought, "I wish my husband would _______ like her husband does?" If you have done that, then you've suffered at some point from what I am calling "husband envy." Again, I noticed this tendency to compare ourselves with picture perfect comments on social media and wish our husbands would be, or do something that they currently are not. Don't get the wrong idea here; I am in no way condoning bashing our husbands so that others won't envy them! We need to always respect our husbands, especially in public. Then the task is to not envy other wives when they speak well of their husbands. How do we keep ourselves from doing that?

*Find the positive things about your husband. Your husband may not be perfect (he's not), but he has many endearing qualities about him. Have you ever noticed how when you focus on the negative, all you see are the bad things? The same thing applies here. If you focus on the positive, you are bound to start seeing more things that you like.

*Be a better wife. Maybe that's a harsh way of saying it, because even if we try harder, we'll never be perfect, but my point is this; scripture tells us not to judge someone for the speck of dust is their eye when you have a log in your own (Matthew 7:3). Jesus also told the Pharisees that whoever had no sin could throw the first stone at the adulteress (John 8:7).  So our husbands are not perfect, but neither are we. So before we can point out flaws in them, we need to work on our own lives first. Last week I read through Proverbs 31, and while I don't think I'll ever be that woman, I realized all the areas where I fall short and can improve. As a whole, the woman described there is a hard working wife. Do I work hard? Not always. She "rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household." I'm sure she had to work a lot harder to provide food for her family than I do. Maybe she had to rise before the sun to grind the wheat and bake the bread. All I have to do is open up my drawer and pull out my pre-sliced bread from the grocery store.

*Spend time in Scripture. Apart from being a better wife, we need to spend time being refined by our Maker and become a better person. As I've realized my need to spend time in the Word, and done it, I've craved it more. A bonus was when my husband noticed that I'd been spending more time with my Bible open, he greatly appreciated it. Becoming closer to God can only bring you closer to your husband.

*Be genuinely happy for the wife with the awesome husband. This is a hard one, but if we are happy for the good in someone else's life, then it is impossible to be envious or jealous. The opposite is also true. If jealousy and envy rule our minds, then we'll never be genuinely happy for anyone else because we'll always want what they have.

*Encourage your husband. A few months ago, I was listening to a radio program about women who wish their husbands would spiritually lead their households. Nagging your husband to lead your family in devotions, or even join the family for church is not going to go very far. In fact, it might take you in the opposite direction. Instead, the speaker on this program advised wives to look for an area of strength in their husbands and build him up in that area. Saying something like, "I really appreciated it when you __________," will encourage him to do that specific thing more often, but it might also encourage him to step up in other areas that you never expected. Also keep in mind that it takes ten positive comments to undo one negative comment, so don't hold back. It might feel awkward at first, but a little encouragement will go a long way.

Did you notice that fixing the sickness of husband envy has little to do with changing him into the husband you wish he was and more to do with who you are and the way you see things? All of these things come with a caveat though. You can try really hard to do the right things and be a good wife for your husband, but if you are constantly trying to be good for your husband (or any other person for that matter), you'll always fall short. Seek a closer relationship with God and you will grow as a person and a wife.

Mommy Envy

We've all done it. Compared ourselves with other moms. It's so easy to do when you read a Facebook status, look at a cute idea on Pinterest of something some other mom did with her kids, or read one of the many many blogs out there. You look at other moms and assume that they have it all together; that this picture of the smiling children doing a fun activity is the way their days always go. We wonder why we can't be a super-mom like she is.

It is so easy to fall into the comparison trap. Sometimes comparing can be helpful because it brings perspective (like reading that a friend of mine has kids who wake up at 4 or 5 in the a.m. makes 6:30 seem like sleeping in. It really would have helped my mood if I would have remembered that this morning!), but often it brings discontentment, or dissatisfaction with the situation that God has us in. Paul writes to the Philippians saying, "Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me" (4:11-13). Whatever situation we face, we need to rely on God for His strength. Yes, even in the times when life is going exactly the way we like it. Especially then; because in those times we run the risk of becoming prideful and thinking we can do it without God's help, and pride is a very dangerous sin. It is the root of a lot of other sins. (Proverbs 8:13, 16:18 and 29:13, Mark 7:22, and 1 John 2:16 are some verses that tell us what God thinks about pride in case you want to look them up.) And in the times when you are challenged beyond what you think you can handle, know that we serve a God who has overcome the world! That is an amazing thought. He never loses the battle; He always wins in the end, so whatever my battle is He can give me the strength. The other day when my patience was wearing thin, I was very aware that I could not do it on my own. My words miraculously came out of my mouth calmly instead of the impatient way they played in my head. I thanked God for that moment, because I had every intention of snapping at my kids.

The truth is, you'll never be super-mom and neither will she (whoever "she" is). Because truly, none of us can do this on our own. We need God to be our strength and our guide. I write these words as much for myself as anyone else. I've realized this in myself so much lately. It's not that my need for God wasn't there before, but my sinfulness and my weakness has been magnified in my eyes so that I can see His perfection and my dire need for Him even more than before.

So remember the next time you are tempted to be discontent; God wants you to be content right where you are and He will give you exactly what you need not just to get through it, but to do it well. Then you can give Him the glory for a job well done.

Christmas in Pictures

 We had a fun Christmas season this year, as I hope you did too.  As I type that statement, I am reminded that Christmas isn't just about fun. It's about worshiping Jesus. Tate and I had a conversation about that one day when we were listening to "Kids Christmas music" on Pandora. I said to Tate, "You know what's sad? This whole time we've been listening to music, there hasn't been a single song about Jesus. They are all about Santa. Christmas isn't about Santa. It's about worshiping Jesus." Tate replied, "So, they are worshiping Santa?" The wisdom of a child! That being said, I hope that your Christmas was more about Jesus than it was about anything else.

After the Christmas decorations went up, we had a little photo shoot in the house to try to catch some pictures that were acceptable for the Christmas card. These are ones that didn't make the cut for one reason or another. 

Love this one of Tate and Norah as it captures a moment of sibling affection. They get along most of the time, but hugs like this often end up on the floor in a wrestling match, and wrestling matches between these two often eventually end in tears.
I tried to use a prop for Anja's picture, but if you can read her mind, she is thinking, "It looks so tasty! I just want to eat it!" We hung the reindeer back on the Christmas tree before it became her afternoon snack.

On Christmas morning, the 5 of us exchanged gifts at our house, left the gifts strewn about the living room and packed into the car for our week long Christmas celebration. Our first stop on our Christmas trip was Grandma Lynette and Grandpa Jim's house for a couple of days. We celebrated with "the cousins" on Christmas day....and of course had to get the obligatory picture in front of the Christmas tree!  

Every year we eat some of the standard Christmas meal dishes like lefse, Swedish sausage, rice pudding, sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes, along with a few other things. This year I made a new Christmas dish. Actually it's an old favorite of my Grandpa's. Fruit soup. Lots of prunes and other dried fruit cooked to mush (well, apparently I cooked it a little too mushy according to Grandpa. Oh well, I'll try again next year). If you'd like, I can send you the recipe so you can try it too!

Have you ever given a gift that was a hit? That was this year with my niece Maddy. This was the first present she opened, and she read it the rest of the day. We had to remind her every time it was her turn again to open another present. It sure doesn't happen with every gift you give, but when it does, it is priceless!

Our next leg of the journey was to Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Gerry's house in Chicago. If you've read my blog for a while, you'll know that we aren't all that fond of road trips, but this year exceeded our expectations. We made it down there in a decent amount of time with relatively little crying (and no puking). 

We celebrated Christmas on Saturday with the whole family. There were lots of presents, good food and good company. 

It's fun to watch the kids play together as they get older. Our niece, Noelle was born in May and Norah was born just 5 months later, so I'm sure they'll have many memorable times together! I've apologized several times for naming Norah with the same first 2 letters, because it gets confusing sometimes! Anja is starting to want to join in the fun too!

For some reason this year we've broken more ornaments than all the other years combined. One included a glass ball that was filled with thousands of tiny red beads. I'm still finding them around the house and I'm sure I will for a long, long time. So, last night as we were all doing our thing around the house, I came around the corner to find Anja tugging at the string of red berries on the Christmas tree. The tree was beginning to teeter and I caught it just before it hit the floor. Several ornaments fell off, but thankfully none of them broke and thankfully it didn't fall on top of Anja. I couldn't get it to stand up again, so I leaned it against the wall and decided to take care of it in the morning. Well, this morning when I went to take the decorations off of it, I attempted to set it up straight again so it would be easier to get the back ones off and this is what happened:

The tree is now all disassembled and ready to be put in the box until next year. It was pretty while it lasted. Our Christmas celebration ended with a bang this year! (Bad, bad joke. I know.)