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Laughable Moment(s) #8

Sleep walking, Sleep talking. We have certain family members who have become quite good at this. Throughout the years, I've learned to tell when they are awake or asleep. I can even tell dear hubby, "You're asleep, lie down" and he'll say "OK" and lie down and never ever know we had just had a conversation!

One of the most memorable sleep talking times that involved hubby happened when I was eight months pregnant with B-Boo. I was hugely pregnant and sound asleep. I was awoken at 3 am one morning to my husband yanking the covers off of me, straddling my belly and urgently telling me not to move, that there was a spider on the baby. I was frightened to death! He then proceeded to *catch* the imaginary bug, smash it and then lay back down beside me and fall asleep. At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to wake him up and clobber him a good one for giving me the scare of my life, but once I regained control of my breathing, I was able to laugh it off, realizing he was sound asleep, and try and get back to sleep myself.

Another famous sleepwalking moment happened when the Smart One was around four. We were coming home from some event and were bringing home pizza with us. He wanted pizza, but fell asleep on the way home, so we put it in the refrigerator and put him to bed. A while later, we were sitting at the kitchen counter talking, and sleepy head walked in and headed straight for the refrigerator.

We thought, "Wow, he really wants that pizza!"

He opened the refrigerator door and stepped up into it and proceeded to open up the pizza box. In the next second, we realized that he thought he was in the bathroom and was urinating in the pizza box, in the refrigerator! We still laugh about that one to this day!

The most recent sleepwalking case happened last night. We had finally gotten the kids to bed and I was attempting to fall asleep. I've been suffering with bronchitis for six weeks now and was finally given some strong cough syrup that was supposed to "knock me out"…not so. Anyway, I'd just started dozing around eleven, when I heard a bang from someone falling. The bathroom light was on in the hallway, so I asked out loud,

"Are you ok?"

A girl's voice replied, "Yeah."

I continued dozing for a few moments and then realized I hadn't heard a flush and the light was still on, so I got up to go check on the Drama Queen. She was sitting there with her pants around her ankles, staring into space with a glazed look in her eyes. The only problem was that she was sitting on the edge of the bathtub with her bare fanny hanging over the tub!

I asked her if she had fallen into the tub. "Yeah."

I asked her if she had gone potty. "Yeah."

I didn't have my glasses on, so I couldn't tell if she'd gone in the tub or not, but I put her on the toilet and proceeded to clean the tub. By now she was awake and realized her pants were wet. From the way they were wet, it looked like she'd fallen into the tub onto something wet. Hmmm. I retrieved some clean underwear and jammies for her, got her dressed, and promptly guided her back to bed.

…and these, are the nights, of our lives.

There will be singing in this house!

The Drama Queen loves to sing…she sings all day long, every day, when she wakes, when she sleeps…she sings so much she doesn't even realize when she is singing!

Hubby said to me the other day, "She's stopped singing."

The past few weeks have certainly been days of chaos as we try to make adjustments and appointments. We need to have the music back. She has a big solo coming up and so we asked her to sing it for us. It took a few tries, but finally, she opened up and sang her heart out!

She's still not singing as much as she used to, but we're working on that. You see, we've discovered we have another child in the house who loves to sing almost as much as the Drama Queen. We've also discovered that in the midst of the chaos, singing, or even just listening to music seems to calm. It's the one time when the fighting stops and the teamwork starts. It's a time when we can focus on Him and just pour our hearts out and be who He wants us to be. When we can focus on something greater than what we're going through in that one moment.

So we will sing! Sing we must! We will sing when our hearts our broken. We will sing when we think we just can't do our homework. We will sing when we are happy. We will sing for fun. We will sing as we get ready for bed. We will sing on our way to school and we will sing on our way home! We will be a house that sings, and we will get through this for sure!

Laughable Moment #7

Having a four year old sure keeps us on our toes! We've been working hard to teach him the proper way to do this and that…things like brushing your teeth, putting your shoes on the right feet, putting your dirty clothes in the hamper, etc.

Last night, I was trying to get him ready for bed. We've been working hard on having him dress and undress himself. It had been a long day and we were near the end. I showed him how to get his pajamas out of the correct drawer and then asked him to take off his pants. I remember vaguely thinking that I ought to show him how to pull them off from the feet so that they won't be inside out, but before I could say a word he just dropped himself to the ground and started shaking…more like convulsing!

I'm sure my mouth must have dropped in horror for a second, but then it turned into hysterical laughter as I continued to watch the little guy! He shook himself all over the carpet shaking his legs and body as fast as he could until he shook those jeans right off! It was probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen! So funny, in fact, that I don't think I'll ever be able to teach him how to properly remove one's pants from one's body!

Happiness

Today was one of those days that you really just want to end. We're on our second day of new school for our niece and desperately trying to settle into some type of regular routine. This morning I managed to get the oldest to high school, the next one to middle school, the niece to elementary school and the other three off to grandma's so I could go get my chest x-rayed. That was fun!

By the time I got back it was time to take my nephew to PreK, fix my two youngest a quick lunch and then head out to pick up the oldest from high school, then B-Boo from middle school, after which I had to go register my nephew for Kindergarten in the fall, then pick up my niece from school, and finally head over to the PreK to pick up my nephew! Whew!

By the time we got home, we had a few moments to fold some laundry, grab a snack and then take B-boo to soccer practice…making it home just in time to get the Drama Queen to her Hip Hop class for 45 minutes of relaxing time for me. NOT! It was spent with a very upset 6 year old who couldn't believe I would honestly make her do her homework and read a book to me. 45 minutes of constant crying later, we finally headed home to put away the laundry we'd managed to fold and try and come up with dinner.

This is about the time we had some friends from out of town show up! Praise God for leftover chili from Easter…it fed us all! We got to visit for a small bit, then I headed upstairs to try and get the two youngest to bed. Honestly, have any of you ever had a day like this? Crazy! All I wanted was my bed, so I grabbed my nephew and took him into the bathroom to give him a visual lesson on the correct way to brush your teeth. We started by putting on the toothpaste and then went into the lesson. That's when it started to get fun!

Teaching a four year old new things can be quite interesting. He watched me closely in the mirror and followed my every move. When we were finally done, I washed my face. That's when the why's started.

"Why do you wash your face?" (To get it clean.)

"Why do you put that stuff on?" (Toner…to make sure it's really clean.)

"Why are you putting that on now?" (To make my face soft)

Me…"Why do you ask so many questions?"

Him.."Why is my face so red?"

Me…"Maybe because you were outside in the wind"

Him…"Nope."

Me…"Ok, then why is your face so red?"

Him…"Because I'm so happy, Aunt Hope."

Me…"You're happy?"

Him.."Yes, I'm so happy."

Ok, so maybe all of this craziness is worth it after all…because we could all use some happiness in our lives, right?

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It Really Does Take a Village

It really does take a village…God's Village. I can honestly say I don't know how we would have made it through the last few weeks if not for the friends that God has provided.

Three weeks ago, my 6 year old niece and my 4 year old nephew came to live with us. It's been pretty tough, I won't deny it, but God is definitely moving. We have received much prayer, encouragement, clothes for the children, and time.  I have one particular friend who has spent her day off, for the past three weeks at my home, taking care of the children so that I could make the various appointments that are needed. She has done my laundry, swept my floors, wiped runny noses and played many games all in the name of good old-fashioned, Christian friendship.

I have others who have held my hand, prayed with me and have been there with me to hand me tissue while I poor my heart out, all while crying alongside me. We've received many phone calls offering to run errands, go grocery shopping for us, etc. I am truly humbled by the amount of love God has poured into us through the friends that He has provided.

Even in the little things, He knows. A few blogs back, I posted about my excitement for our annual Easter Party. Those plans have been put on the back burner in light of the changes in our home. My bathroom hasn't been repainted, my house isn't "spic and span*, and fresh flowers haven't been planted. And then I found out yesterday that the honey baked ham wasn't going to make it's yearly Easter arrival. I have to tell you that I really look forward to that ham! I had to remind myself that I could live without it, the ham isn''t really that important in the larger scheme of things and I shouldn't worry about what other meat I can feed the 60+ people that will be dining with us on Sunday. What is important is that we will be spending the day with the wonderful friends that love us and just want to celebrate this special day in our home with us.

This morning, I received a phone call from one of those friends.  She said that she and her husband had really prayed about what to bring this year, and wanted to know if it was ok if they brought a couple of hams this year. A reminder of how God is amazing even in the little things and how He continues to prove it through the friends that He has provided.

I was talking to someone earlier this week about church. We talked about Pastors who had come and gone, as well as others. But the one constant has been the body; the friends who have continued to be a part of what makes up our church. I think God has done a pretty good thing in our church body.

And so, when I think about that old saying about it taking a village and how I disagreed with it, today I say, it does take a village, only it's God's Village.