Where Am I And Who Are All These People Calling Me Mommy?

I remember my cousin Becky saying that to me once. That sometimes it felt like one minute she was 12 and thinking about what color to paint her fingernails, and the next minute she was standing in the kitchen of her own home with multitudes of little children swarming around her, all asking for a hundred different things at once.

I feel that way a lot.

Usually every day or two I think to myself that I need to blog about this or that but don't get around to it. And then there are moments when one of my sweet little children will do something so funny that I find myself thinking that I HAVE to blog right away before the funny little thing is misplaced in the jumble of gray goo that I lovingly call my brain.

Today Elizabeth asked me if she could use my hand weights because she wants to "build up her muscles so that she can conquer the monkey bars". Sure, use them all you want I say. Elizabeth, being the teacher that she is, immediately gave Elaina the smallest set of weights so that she can "get tougher too". As she handed them to her, she made the observation that not only are they Elaina sized but that they also match her outfit. It's always a plus to match your exercise equipment, I would say.

A little while later, after Elizabeth had left Elaina and I to fend for ourselves and also coincidentally the next time that I unglued my eyes from the computer screen, I turned to see that Ella was now holding the weights, flailing her arms wildly about while singing her little heart out to a mixture of show tunes from Annie and The Sound of Music... wearing only a hooded towel. I guess she's trying to bring new meaning to the phrase 'dance like nobody is watching'.

In other news, we are moving. And yes, we are crazy. For the kids and I, it's only been 10 months since we last did this. Help.

Oy.

"William, please wear your black jeans to school today."

45 minutes later, as soon as Will jumps in the car as we leave at the last possible minute that we can and still have him be on time:

"Will! I remember specifically asking you to wear your BLACK jeans to school today! Why are you wearing those ones instead?"

"Well, mom, you said 'please wear your black jeans'. I thought that saying 'please' really made it more of a 'suggestion' than a 'requirement'."

Ha

"Steph, those cornbread muffins that you made tonight for dinner were really good."

"I'm glad that you liked them."

"No, I mean they were like really, really good. Like the best ones you've ever made."

(I'm laughing a little by now) "Dear, for the very first time in our almost 9 year marriage, I made the muffins from a box and not from scratch."

Clarks Are Kind

Pat, I know this will be hard for you to read, but my kids aren't perfect. They are very good most of the time, it's true. And they try extra hard when their Manga is around to "be even gooder" as Ella would say. But sadly, sometimes they fight. Sometimes they are what we in our family call "rudey".

Very often I sing some of the lines to "Let us oft speak kind words" when they start bickering with each other. Whichever kids are fighting are sure to roll their eyes, and whichever kids are not fighting are sure to join in with me in my singing to the "rudies".

Ella no longer needs me to help her with this. She hears Will and Beth fighting and she is off in a flash singing at a semi-deafening volume: "Peak all nice words to eek udder, ack home eeder ever you may beeeeeeee!"

Oh Ella, I just love you forever.

Dear Ella, You Are Only Three.

My mouth literally fell open when Ella asked me "Mom, can we talk about what I should do when I get to go on a date?" yesterday. She is obsessed with becoming a mommy and so we've talked about that enough for her to know that she should be married first. And in her 'I-need-to-know-every-detail-of-how-this-is-going-to-happen-right-now' mind (hm, wonder where she gets that from...), it makes total sense to her to be prepared. She understands that there is a process, that there are steps to be followed to reach her end goal. That, I admire. The fact that she wants to be prepared for DATING when she is only THREE is what just might give me a heart attack.

Ben Is A Cowboy Poet, And He Didn't Even Know It...

To my wife on Valentine’s Day
Nine years minus 38 days we have been together
Good and Bad days we have withstood the weather
I watch you sleep in the moon glow
But have learned not to wake you or you will blow
We fight and we yell, kiss and hold hands
It doesn’t matter that I’ve lost 3 wedding bands
We are tired and strained, our kids are all strange
You’ve made a good home out on the Range
You're kind and you're sweet, you’re my greatest blessin’
But you got me, so God must want you to learn a lesson
You are the mother of four and teach them to choose the right
It’s my genetics not you that make them all fight
You’re grumpy in the morning but I don’t mind
I know you’re faithful, caring, and really quite kind.
You’re a great wife, I love you my Darlin, I really really do
I am excited for tonight, tomorrow, next year, and the following 2 million and 2.

Oh Ella.

Beth: "Mom!! Ella hitted me!"
Ella: "Yep, me hick her. It knock my fault that she made the wong choice!"