Clouds and Rainbows, oh yes and a bit of VBS

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This was the only picture I took of the kids at VBS Thursday.  

Thursday night, I had a much needed chiropractor appointment AND massage.  Much needed. 

The Massage wasn't entirely relaxing either.  My muscles were in such big knots, I actually was sore afterward from her doing her dance, or digging her elbows in, or whatever medieval torture was going on in my back and shoulders.  Not relaxing.  Good, but not relaxing.   When it hurts like that, I can't help thinking about what the little old lady on Neverending Story used to say, "It's got to hurt, if it's to heal."  Yeah.  Story of my life. 

At least it was a pretty day outside.  

It looked like Toy Story clouds.  I love the clouds in the background and on Andy's wall in Toy Story.  

If I ever took up painting I would paint clouds like these.  

See, so bright against a dark blue sky.  Le Sigh. 

I did get a nice break from VBS-ing on Thursday evening.  

I had my adjustment, my massage, and I met Kathleen for drinks.  

You'd think after almost a week of seeing each other every day, we'd be all caught up.  Not quite.  

Of course, I didn't drink, I had water.  I wanted to clear out all the goo the masseuse had stirred up. 

Then we went to pick up our little yahoos.  On my way home, I saw a rainbow through the trees.  I saw it, and the kids didn't.  So I chased it.  Yup. "I'm always chasing rainbows." just like the song says.  Only I'm not.  I feel like I yell at my kids more than I stop and just chase rainbows with them.  I feel like I get so frustrated, I've been consciously trying to make better moments with them.  Less yelling, no spanking.  The big boys are really too old for that.   It's been hard.  But it feels like, more often than it used to be, that moments come along where they are good, and we all get along.  And they laughed at me.  They thought I was crazy chasing the rainbow.  Chris started to get upset when I blew right past where I should have turned to go into our neighborhood.  Yeah, it was nearly 9 o'clock at night.  And Yeah, we were all blithering.  But the sun was out, it wasn't going to hurt anyone to go chasing a rainbow to see where it was.   

Turns out it was raining over Eagle Creek Park.  

There's something lovely about a rainbow over a cornfield.  

If you look closely, it was lining right up with the our local Catholic Church's steeple.  How's that for a sign?!

I love fields in Indiana.  Guess I'm just a Midwestern girl at heart.  

This one was my favorite.  

I loved to see the rain, the sun going down behind me turning the rain clouds different colors, and the rainbow.  The kids didn't seem to mind as much either...after we found the rainbow.  Maybe we need to go chase a few more. 

Over the Hump of VBS

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Ah my sweetie pies.  

These kids actually Slept.  Sam and the twins took over Chris's room, but we had to move Chris to Sam's, on account he was being too chatty when everyone was ready to sleep.  The kids did great.  No one fussed, or had to leave in the middle of the night.  Breakfast was mostly eaten.  It was great.  And easy.  Totally could do that again.  And we just Might!  

I fully intended to go to the store, to do productive things, but we're just so tired.   We all want to rest.  All of us needed our naps.   All we're doing this week is VBS, and at the same time, it's such a late night for the boys, that our mornings, all any of us want to do is just Chill.  And not go anywhere.  I guess, by Wednesday, I should have learned to just be ok with that.  But I think it took me all week to learn that it was OK.   

I got to spend my picture taking time with the preschoolers. 

Though, my favorite pre-kindergartner was sitting on the lap of his crew leader most of the time.  

I did get him to pose sweetly for me, plugging his nose.  The line was something like, back in Jesus's time, people didn't bathe every day, and they would get stinky  and dirty, especially when they traveled.  So his class got their feet washed, which is just one of the most honored things.  Even in this day and age, it's even more a sign of great love of someone else to reach out and wash their feet.  I remember working as a CNA in the hospital when I was in college, and I had this elderly gentlman, John, sadly one of my regulars.  He didn't sleep well at night without his wife around.  I would find him walking down the hall, bare backside in the breeze.  It was funny the first time, even the second.  But as I said, he was a regular.  One night, his feet were bugging him.  I had time, one of the perks and blessings of working in the middle of the night, I could stay and chat with someone if they felt a little chatty.  I offered to give him a footrub.  We do footrubs on each other all the time in my family.  He had never had one.  Married for 40-50 years, and had never had a footrub.  Oh my, I had to take care of that.  He relaxed enough to finally go to sleep.  That night anyway.  I wish I could have given him a footrub every night to help him sleep.   But his illness ended up getting the better of him.  I cried that night too.  I still think of him (and some of my other patients) often.  I liked that job.  The only thing I couldn't do anymore is lift people.  And unfortunately, that's a big part of the job.  Maybe I'll go back into a hospital when I grow up.  Maybe I'll just be a baby holder.  My babies are getting so big.  

My biggest baby had a different crew leader, a high school boy, who is the youngest of 3 boys in his family too.  He and Chris got on very well.  I'd love for my boys to end up like any of those boys, they are so kind and sweet, and it was so sweet to see them snuggled up together.   It's not very often that Chris is in a snuggly mood.  Those are my favorites too.  

  

Jacob was doing ok when I walked by in the nursery.  He was spacing out in Miss Laurie's lap.  He's getting too big too.  Being almost content in the nursery.  Then he saw my camera, and lost it.  Oh well, I just had to snag him for the rest of the evening.  He's a bit of Mama's little snugglebunny too.  And that's pretty ok by me.

Over the hurdles of VBS

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On Tuesday, we still had VBS. All week long Baby.  I was so exhausted Tuesday.  I didn't think I was going to make it through the week.  I walked into VBS thinking, you know what?!  If this stupid computer doesn't do what I want it to do.  I'm going home.  No wait, I'm going to leave all my children at church, and go have dinner with My Husband!  I was mad after the miserable failure (or at least I thought it was) of Monday night.  I did not have Faith that it was going to work.  I didn't think they'd give us the password we needed for my photo card to work with their computer.  Or for it to work with Eric's computer, and for his to work with the church's.  It's very confusing, but let's just say, I did Not have Faith in the system.

Silly Mommy.  

So I went around taking my pictures.  

I was in a snit.  I'd dropped off Chris at karate, then forgotten my phone and my master list, so had to go home, resulting that I didn't get dinner.  Sam ate cereal bars that I happened to eat in the car.  I made Chris a peanut butter sandwich for after karate, which I don't think he ate either.  Not eating makes me grumpy.  Having computers not work the way I want makes me grumpy too.   

But taking pictures of kids...well, that doesn't make me grumpy.  

Pharoh's heart was getting soft.  

I took my pictures, and Christopher was being enchanting playing the games.  It was rainy, so the games were indoors, but Chris is so enthusiastic.  Even when he's not winning, he's still got some great energy.  

It's hard for me to be grump watching these kids have such a good time.  

It's hard for me to be a grump when I see these crew leaders just being so great with my kids and everyone else's kids.  

Chris was supposed to hold my Jesus sign for one of the powerpoint slides.  I told him, Hey Kid, Stand Up!  Stand Up for Jesus!  So he did. ;) 

And Eric set his computer up for  me, and he was actually able to rig it up so I could load my pics onto his computer, and throw it on the public drive, and access it (and work with the pics) in the sanctuary to get my power point present to work.  It worked!  It wasn't easy, it wasn't the most smooth system.  But it worked. And when it was done, I had about 20 minutes, Eric ran for Taco Bell for us for dinner, and we were able to cram down some food.  Taco Tuesdays. :) 

When my show was going, we were out in the narthex.  The little kids in the nursery were out for a walk, and when Jake saw us, well, he was Ours.  So he spent the Closing running around the empty halls.  He adored all the jungle decorations.  

Jake's favorite decoration was the balloon tree made by our friend Jeanine.  

Sam and his crew were meanwhile having a Fabulous time watching Miss Lori do some crazy cooking in front of the church.  Crazy.  I think she was trying to make a cake using coffee, salsa, and baking soda, and it sounded gross.  But I know that in real life, Miss Lori is a wonderful cook.  

For the end of the evening, we got a special treat.  We took all the Julius girls home with us for a slumber party!  Well, the twins stayed overnight. Their first time!  Em got to play with us for a while.  There was craziness abounding up until bedtime. Apparently, the twins were so excited, they told Everyone they saw that they were coming to Cathy's house.  I love having girls in the car, it's an entirely different dynamic for me.  Their chatter is so much cuter than boy fighting.  It makes me want to go , Oh, let's talk about boys and painting our nails! ;)   Of course, they chatted about VBS, and crazy Miss Lori's cooking, which was pretty fun too.  

Let the VBS Begin!

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Monday was a crazy day.  

First Christopher had a Riley appt with Mr. Doug at 10.  I know that when I made the appointment, my thought it making it at 10 was that we'd be able to go slower in the morning, than on school days, because we are on summer break.  That was true.  But I didn't think through the fact that I was going with all three yahoos.  Blessedly, Eric opted to accompany us, taking the littles for a long walk and a monorail ride while I took Chris in.  It had been a while since I got to take Chris in.  

On our way in and out of Riley, the kids wanted to pose with Turbo - the speedy snail who makes it to the Indy 500 in the movie Turbo.  We were going to do lunch, but the kids lost their minds.  And we had piano lessons, and swung by the church, and the kids were bonkers. So we went home and the little ones napped.  VBS hadn't even started yet, and they were going crazy.  I was kind of dreading the start of VBS.  But when we went into the church, and saw all the amazing decorations....well, even my grinchy heart grew three sizes.  And I was pumped.

Not as pumped as these kids.  

Sam got to start in his own pre-kindergarten group with his friends, the Julius twins.  

He was excited, and so were they.  They kept saying, I wuv you Caffee!  

I was the official court photographer for the vbs, so when I was making my rounds, I was able to snag a couple pictures of my sweeties playing some games.  I watched Sam play Musical chairs, and he and a friend were doing some trust exercise where they were to hold a ball and walk together to the basket.  It didn't really work. 

I caught Chris playing the game for the 'big kid', which was kind of like a relay race, where they put on 2 crazy different shoes, ran around the tree, and grabbed some candy, and put it in another bucket.  Literally, running in someone else's shoes!  That boy has some enthusiasm.  It was neat to see his friends cheering for him too.  

Seeing the boys play games and sing songs so happy was really the high point of my night. 

I couldn't get the power point presentation that was part of my "job" as photographer to work.  I called Eric, and he couldn't get it going either.  At least it wasn't just me.  Still, it was very frustrating. As the evening was coming to an end, it left me wanting to Drink and Cry, in either order.  

Both my boys somehow schnookered their crew leaders into picking them up. 

i don't know how they do it. 

Yeah, yeah, Cuteness will carry you a long way.  

On the way out of the church, they wanted to stop and say hi to Jesus.  Nothing wrong with that. :)

Squirrel Proof

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For our Anniversary, Eric got me (us) a "Squirrel-proof" bird feeder.  I had my doubts, I must confess.   But while we were gone, Eric put up the birdfeeder out back, in place of my lovely See Rock City birdfeeder.  And I'm happy to say it works.  Sunday morning, we watched a lot of "LBJ"s (Little Brown Jobbies) get some snacks.

We even got some pretty visitors.  We got a chipping sparrow and a nuthatch.  It was very obvious seeing them together, that one was brown and one was not.  They weren't inclined to be too friendly.  But the boys and I were having a lot of fun watching.  They kept wondering if it was the same nuthatch that kept coming back, and I think it may be.  What do we get?  Fat birds. 

Well, while we were finishing up our breakfast, we had a squirrel come out and get close.  Then she ran away.  I think it might have been Miss Whitetail.  We haven't seen much of her at our house, but her very light tail is very noticeable.  I've seen her next door and down the street.  The squirrels like our neighborhood.  Well, as much as I like that pretty white tail (well, almost white), I still don't want squirrels at my birdfeeder.  She was smart, took some seed droppings and ran.  

Someone else wasn't so smart.  

As you can see, the birds can sit on the tiny stick perches, and the seed is available to them.  

But here's the great thing.  Once someone more than 1 pound pushed on that perch...say a big fat squirrel, the act pushes doors down, and the squirrel is shut out!   So you see above here, the squirrel reaches for the seed that is visible. But as he grabs....

Bam!  Shut out!  

Bwahahahahahaha!  

I loved it. The boys and I got such a big kick out of it.  It made my day. 

I think this photo could be an advertisement for it! 

Merry Christmas, Smell my feet

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I'm glad to be home.  

But what was cracking me up was how happy the boys are to be home too.  On one hand, the whined and whined about how much they miss their friends, crying, and wondering they were going to come stay here for a week.  I'm trying to think when we can swing that.  It would be a lot of crazy, but a lot of fun.  On the other hand, being home again is like Christmas.  They've only been away from their toys for 5 days, but you'd think it had been weeks.   Jacob definitely got some practice moving while we were gone.  He is a lot faster than he was, and I really have to watch him.  I got the biggest kick out of when he broke out his popper on Saturday.  He's not quite strong enough to push it to get it to pop as he walks.  But he can vacuum it in one spot for a bit.  Then he picks it up and walks with it.    Yeah, it was just like Christmas.  

So, unintentionally, I took the boys off their prevacid.  I left their meds at home when we went north.  They slept ok, but they were also blitheringly exhausted every night.   The last night, they both spent in my room.  Sam merped a couple times, and Chris giggled in his sleep.  So the effects weren't too bad.  The last time they went a long time without it, was 2012, fall break, and it was clear in 4 days.  This time, they were tired, but with reason.  So I decided to give my oils a try.   My friend had given me a bottle of Di-gize with just a couple drops in it, so I threw in a bunch of olive oil (because that's the only one we had on hand) into the rest to dilute it, and then took a drop to each boys' feet.  They loved it.  They loved the process of getting a footrub, and they loved the smell of their feet.  Sam stopped walking, sat down and smelled his own feet.  

And he liked the smell.  

I do too.  It's a woodsy, lightly anise sort of smell.  It's nice, but a little odd.  But I couldn't wait until my oil kit arrived, that was going to be Christmas for me. The kids were as excited about "Mommy's new special sauce" as I am.  And they slept well.  I think it's working, not exactly sure what its doing, but they woke up in good moods on Sunday.  They ate second helpings of breakfast, lunch, And dinner just the first day.  

That's historic, right there. 

The Last Day in the woods

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These were pictures I took on Friday morning, on our way to our last drop-off at Day Camp. 

The boys really enjoyed taking the walking "shortcut" much better than driving around.  

Jacob wasn't in the mood for a selfie.  

That's ok.  He did pretty well.  He didn't like that I spent the morning packing up and loading the car.  He would get mad every time I left the house. 

 Christopher received an award from Emily, his counselor, as D.C. All Star for his Joyous Enthusiasm when it came to ....Everything they did.  She said they loved how excited he got about Everything.  That didn't surprise me much.  All I could get out of them was "Day Camp was Awesome!"  Sam got an award too, he was voted "Cuddly Cutie" but his counselor Amy balled up his in his wet swim bag, and didn't present it very nicely.  I got a kick out of the fact that his counselors were named after people they knew.   And they were nice kids, but I didn't like that a. they lost Sam's hat (I mean, come on, he's 5, he's not going to take good care of it like Chris) but at least he didn't come home sunburned, and b. they kept putting paperwork in the bag with wet towels, and the wet towels were soaking their clothes, and c. they didn't make the kids put their clothes back on after they go to the pool!   I'm glad the kids had a great time and all.  But I didn't really feel all that was worth my money or my time.  I get 'VBS is Awesome' too and that's free and I don't have to drive nearly as far. I am sorry that my visit didn't go as well as it does for others at that camp.  Maybe we were just unlucky.  Maybe I just had expectations that were too high.  I don't know.  I decided not to stay for the Massive Camp Bonfire Friday night.  I drove home. 

 I missed my husband, home, dog, and bed.  Although, not necesarily in that order. ;)  This was the longest I'd been away from home since 2012!

What a Beautiful Surprise I arrived to when I got home!  Eric had glazed the countertops in the kitchen!

Eric said he was working on 2 surprise projects while we were gone.  Some things he wanted to work on when the kids weren't around.   He glazed the kitchen (which involved a hefty amount of counter cleanup no doubt!) and built us a Mudroom Boot Bench/locker thing, which I can't wait to use.  I didn't know the counter was going to get so shiny.  We can even see finger prints.  Man, I'm going to have to really keep that badboy clean.  

My first thought was Hey! Wow!  If he's going to do all this while we're gone in the evenings, well, then we need to leave for a week more often! Except for how exhausted, filthy, grumpy, and itchy (and a few other reject dwarves) we were, I don't know if I'll be up for running away with all three alone again for a while.  

This is our "boot bench" he built it himself.  It still needs another shelf he wants to get nailed in near the top, and some hooks for hanging backpack and whatnot on it.  But Zowie Wowie!  I think we're going to get a lot of use out of this.