Attitude is Everything

Don't you hate it when your parents turn out to be right after all.

I'm spending a Friday afternoon at home with the boys. The first in a long time. I've had a busier summer than expected that ended with a two week class in Atlanta, followed by the start of the fall semester. Corrie finally gets a long stretch of time to work on the last chapter of her dissertation.

When it's 100 degrees outside, these afternoons can be very long, especially since Ezra doesn't always nap. Staying inside the house all afternoon gets old, but if we try to go somewhere else, Ezra will fall asleep, taking a late nap which then throws off bedtime.

This afternoon, however, it's been pretty easy. The boys are relatively happy and Ezra's not to cranky (yet!). But I think the biggest difference in this day than others is actually ME. Not me in the sense that I'm a super-parent and able to keep my boys happy, but me in the sense that my attitude or mood is in check. I have a tendency toward crankiness too (shocker! I know), especially when I am tired and lack a lot of good alone time. My crankiness results in impatience and an unwillingness to be understanding or creative when interacting with the boys. I am very conscious of my attitude today, and I am making sure I stay positive. The result is a conflict-free afternoon (so far), and even the boys are in good moods. (I could write a whole other post about how kids' moods reflect our moods.)

Right now, I'm writing this blog post. Ezra is outside playing by himself...oops, I think he just climbed up on top of the lawn mower…

Where was I…oh right. And Isaiah is "recycling" using his recycling truck. I'm sure in a few moments I'll be asked to be bad guy to Isaiah's super-hero, but that's OK. It's easy to be bad buy when you're in a good mood.

ahhh, spring

Wow. What a winter!

I've not blogged in a while. I could write up all the reasons why I haven't blogged, but let's just say I've had a crazy winter. Which leaves me to say, ahhh spring.

The weather has broken in Macon. The cherry blossoms have bloomed, the grass has had it's first cut, and we are planning what veggies to grow this summer. (Probably heirloom cherry tomatoes.)

And with spring comes baseball. Or in our case "wee-ball" (t-ball).

Isaiah is playing for the first time. While we've always played a bit in the backyard, there's a little more to it when there are 10 other boys you have to share the ball with. There's also that thing of trying to teach the fundamentals. Eye on the ball, glove on the ground, step and throw, run hard, always hustle, etc.

The first couple of practices were rough, and the first game wasn't much better. But this past week, Isaiah's team did pretty well not creating a pile-up on top of every ground ball. Wee-ball is really just about having fun anyway, and I enjoy the fact that there's no competition involved yet. The boys just get to play. And the parents get to help, teach, and laugh. A lot.

Saturday

It could not be a more beautiful day; 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

We did some projects around the house today. One of which was building a birdhouse. So if you see any homeless birds, send them our way.

The Morning Drive

A few mornings a week I drive Isaiah to his preschool. Sometimes we never speak, but sometimes we have some pretty in depth conversations. This morning was one such conversation (as best as I can remember):

Isaiah makes spitting noises.

Me: What are you doing, Isaiah?

Isaiah: I'm just pretending to spit fire like a dragon.

Me: What color is the fire you're spitting?

Isaiah: Ummm, it's purple and yellow and green and blue.

Me: Wow!

Isaiah: Yeah. It's lots of colors because he's a striped dragon. He has lots of colors.

Me: Can I roast marshmallows in your fire?

Isaiah: NOOOO!

Me: Why not?

Isaiah: 'Cause that's dangerous. You can get hurt!

Me: Oh.

Lesson Learned Today: Don't roast marshmallows in multi-colored dragon fire, you can get hurt.

Road Trip Essentials

Sorry I've not posted in a while. Right now, it's Friday after Thanksgiving and I'm at my parents' house in VA. I've been road tripping the holidays since I was in college, and though I do get tired of the driving sometimes, I think I've come close to perfecting the art of the road trip. There are certain things I always do when preparing for a road trip (which I probably get from my dad).

First, it's always a good idea to start a road trip with a clean vehicle. I didn't wash the van, but we did clean EVERYTHING out and vacuum it really well. We also vacuumed the car while we were at it.

Second, you have to be sure to pack all the right things. Aside from clothes, toiletries, etc., we have to be sure pack food, snacks, and different forms of entertainment for the boys. We like to limit the amount of TV the boys watch everyday, but when it comes to road trips, we're a little more lenient. After all, it's nice to be able to drive at lease 3 hours at a time before stopping.

Here's a picture of Isaiah, seemingly in a trance from watching a couple of hours worth of Winnie the Pooh.

Third, when driving with small children the food may get eaten, the videos may get old, and the trip is not over yet so other forms of entertainment must be discovered in order to survive the last leg of trip. The other day, Ezra decided to nap 20 minutes before our scheduled stop, so we kept on driving. Corrie was driving, so I moved to the back of the van to prepare our lunch, but also to help keep Isaiah occupied. This is where I recommend having an iPhone. Isaiah and I watched some videos of our recent trip to the zoo, looked at pictures of silly things we had done at home, and also took a couple of silly pictures ourselves.

Finally, no road trip is complete without a flat tire. This happens to be my first flat tire in all the miles I've driven over the years, and thankfully, the tire went flat in the driveway overnight after we arrived.

And there we have my quick guide to road trip essentials. Happy Thanksgiving!

I am here.

October Baseball

In case you missed it on facebook. here is Ezra dancing during our post-game celebration of the Braves making the playoffs.



Don't stop believing!