Mother's Day weekend

 For a period of more than 10 years I was not a fan of Mother's Day. Not that I didn't love my mom and want to honor her, but I kept wondering for the first several years "Am I ever going to get married?" (a prerequisite to becoming a mom) and then for the first six years of marriage "Am I ever going to become a mom?". What felt like my first Mother's Day was the one in 2008 when I could feel Nadia kicking my ribs. Since I lost my first baby in 2005 I had technically been a mother for 3 years at that point, but it didn't feel real until 2008. That Mother's Day in 2008 was a little surprising for me because I thought Paul would do something to make it a special day for me, but upon discussion after the fact I found out that he didn't think I was a mother yet because I hadn't given birth. The last eight years Mother's Day has been SO much better because my arms are no longer empty. I am eternally grateful for the three miracles which the Lord has given to our family. Yes, there are still moments when I long to give birth one more time, but most of the time I have come to terms with the fact that our family is complete.

I thought that Mother's Day would immediately become this really happy day for me, but my association with it has still been tinged with the grief from the past. This prompts me to spend time every May praying earnestly for those single women who long to be married and have children and for those married women struggling with infertility and longing to become a mom. Although the pain of infertility has been replaced with the joy of mothering three precious gifts from God, I have not forgotten what it feels like to be waiting and wondering if that day will ever come. There were several moments in church today when I found myself inwardly cringing at how other women might be feeling. For example, when the choir met for prayer prior to the first worship service, the music pastor asked all the mothers to come in the middle and then the men were to gather around and place hands on us and pray for us. I know there are women in the choir who aren't mothers, and I cringed as they were lumped in with the men. If this had happened during my years of struggling to conceive or adopt, I can guarantee tears would have been flowing down my cheeks.

Also, I began to realize that Paul associated Mother's Day with a day he would give his mother a card and gift and didn't think of it as a special day for me (and it's true I am not his mom), and since our kids are still young, that usually meant nothing really happened out of the ordinary on Mother's Day. This was also due in part to the fact that we were usually on vacation over Mother's Day weekend, which meant Paul was even less likely to run to the store and buy a card. I thought when he saw all that I did for him for Father's Day it would give him ideas for how to celebrate Mother's Day (having the kids make cards for him, preparing him a special breakfast and dinner, giving him a gift, etc.), but that didn't happen.

So this year I decided to be very direct. I remember last year asking for him to have the kids make me cards for my birthday, but it didn't happen. Most years I asked him to have the kids make me cards for Valentine's Day (and I would help them make him cards), but I was in Maryland this year on Valentine's Day. I didn't get cards from the kids for my birthday this year (hopefully soon they'll be old enough to do this on their own without needing Daddy to help) so I decided to be very specific and yesterday asked that the cards be made today and gave specific time frames when it could be accomplished. Nadia and I did some yard sale shopping yesterday morning and during that time he helped Oliver and Ian each make me a card. Then later in the day I printed out some questionnaires  (similar to ones I had the kids complete for several years in a row for him for Father's Day) to have them complete for Grandma (Paul's mom) and myself. He worked with Nadia on her cards while I gave the boys a bath. I absolutely love the cards and questionnaires that they completed. I will save these for years to come, and I'm hoping this can become an annual tradition.

He asked me this year if I wanted a gift. I appreciated that offer, but since money is tight (as we have no idea when we will be able to sell our house and our house does not match up with the salary of his new job that he is starting tomorrow), I didn't want him to spend any money on me. I said what I wanted was to be able to shop at the mall by myself. It has been many months since I experienced that luxury. I love my children to pieces, but I find taking the three of them into JcPenney to be a downright stressful experience. I went to the mall armed with five coupons and found some great bargains - some Christmas gifts for nephews, clothes for Ian (and Oliver in the future), and two pair of earrings for myself ($9 total for the two pairs). I hadn't bought myself any new earrings for several years, so that was a fun splurge. I almost ended my shopping excursion with an ice cream treat from Dairy Queen, but as I realized one treat costs more than a gallon of ice cream from the grocery store, I opted to go home and bake a batch of lemon bars instead (yum!). While the kids and I were in Sunday School this morning, Paul made a trip to CVS and bought cards for his mother and myself and also bought me some candy.

Although it was chilly during the beginning of Ian's 11:00 am soccer game yesterday, the weather did turn pretty during his game for the first time in 10 days (we were beginning to forget what the sun or a blue sky looked like), and so I went for a 4 mile run (first in 10 days) after we got home from the soccer games, which also felt wonderful. The weather was pretty again today, but due to our busy schedule I didn't have time for a run today. I don't think I'll be able to run tomorrow, but I do plan to mow the lawn tomorrow while Paul is at work.

At one point I planned to go down to Maryland this weekend to be with my mom, but those plans changed. Part of me still wishes I had gone down to help make the day special for her, but maybe the next time I go her immune system will be strong enough that I can bring my kids with me. She had her 5th (of 6) chemo treatments this past Wednesday. The end of chemo is in sight. Whew. Thus far she still does not qualify for surgery (the fluid being drained from below her lung is still malignant for one thing), but we are still praying for that miracle. It certainly wasn't the most pleasant Mother's Day for her as she has been struggling with nausea the past few days. Ironically, Oliver threw up all over the place when we were less than five minutes from home this evening. Thankfully a lot of it went into a trash can I handed him after he started vomiting. This is the reality of being a mom (or dad). There are many really awesome moments like reading to your kids, hugs, kisses, roller coaster rides, etc., and then there are some really icky moments like cleaning up vomit.

Since I didn't go to Maryland today, we went down to Aunt Millie's bakery after church. Oliver fell asleep in the van on the way down. I woke him up around 2;00 to go in to have dinner. Paul's parents, Aunt Marlene from California (whom we hadn't seen in 3.5 years), Gram, Paul's brother, sister-in-law, Brandi (niece), Chris (her boyfriend), Autumn, and James (Brandi's kids) were all there. After we ate, Millie had 20 cupcakes for the five kids to decorate with icing and sprinkles galore. They had a blast decorating and then eating some of the cupcakes. Every day I get to spend with my three children is a gift from God.  I do not take for granted the privilege of being a mom. Thank you, Lord!

AWANA awards and races

This pic was taken at a homeschool picnic we attended last Thursday.

Nadia receiving her third book award at AWANA last week

Plaque for completing her Sparks books three years in a row!

Oliver receiving his Cubbies award

Kids who finished their first Sparks book

This has nothing to do with AWANA, but here's a video I took of Nadia identifying most of the countries of Asia last week. She learned the last few this week (the ones closer to Australia). She has also been reviewing the other continents this week. She can do all of Asia, North America, and South America right now. The next few days she is going to brush up on a few she forgot in Europe and Africa. I am pleased with her accomplishment!

Submarine, Franklin, Liberty Bell, and more!

Today we took our second field trip to the city of "brotherly love." Last month we took the kids to the Franklin Institute (science museum) and Please Touch Museum (children's museum). This morning we pulled out of our driveway at 7:40am. We encountered a little more traffic compared to when we left later in the morning last month, bur it wasn't too bad. We pulled into the parking lot next to the Independence Seaport Museum, which charged $17/ day. They advertised a $7 refund for those visiting the museum, but since we received free tickets with our ASTC membership (saved us $68 today) we didn't request the $7 parking refund. The museum was well done and had many hands on activities. We watched some men building four ships, saw many exhibits related to the navy (including their interaction with pirates), and toured the USS Becuna (submarine used in WWII) and USS Olympia (cruiser used in the Spanish American War). At the end of the day Nadia and Ian said touring those two ships was their favorite part of the day. Ian also loved manuvering a remote controlled boat (you could make it dive down under water, come to the surface as well as go forward.backward, right, and left). Nadia and Ian also really enjoyed getting an electronic tattoo (see pics below of three tattoos). It was interesting watching it "draw" on their hand and then color it in. Of course the whole thing would vanish a few seconds after it was done. Paul and I don't mind that kind of tattoo! One part of the museum focused on simple machines, which was perfect because Nadia just been studying those in science last week! It's so much better to actually use a large screw (to drill a hole in a piece of wood in the museum), pulley, wedge, etc. than to just read about them.

I had thought we would go to Franklin Court (museum located where his house used to be) and then to the Smith Memorial Playground (which is the size of 6 football fields put together), but since it was raining in the morning (even while we walked to the ships), I decided we had better save the playground for another trip. The kids were looking forward to the big wooden slide that you go down sitting on a burlap sack. We will plan another trip to Philadelphia in the fall. We walked to Franklin Court and toured the print shop and museum. The kids really enjoyed the museum's many hands-on exhibits about Franklin, his inventions, etc. In light of skipping the playground we decided to visit the Liberty Bell and tour Independence Hall. Most of the people on our tour were 8th graders from a laboratory school in Chicago. Thankfully it wasn't raining while we were traipsing around the city. The Liberty Bell and Independence Hall sites are free; so the only museum we paid to enter was Franklin Court (also run by the National Park).

This trip also represented our first use of our EZ Pass transponder. This was quite exciting for Paul. I had been to all of these sites before. It was the first time Paul or any of the kids had been to any of those places. The ships and Independence Hall obviously hadn't changed since I had been there last, but the Seaport Museum and Franklin Court museum were totally different (except the print shop was the same) than when I had taken students there previously. We'll have to  take the kids to these sites again when they are older, but we had a great day despite the weather not being that nice today (high of about 61). We left later than planned (hoping to avoid the awful rush hour traffic on the way home), but our change of plans meant we left a little later than planned. So our trip home took longer than we would have liked, but it still wasn't quite as bad as our trip home last month. Also I drove there and Paul drove home which helped me (as last time I did all the driving). We ate breakfast before we left, packed a lunch, and bought dinner on our way home. I'm thankful that we homeschool our kids and can take them on many field trips! Tomorrow night Paul is taking the kids roller skating. It's an outing for the kids at our church. I'll be at choir rehearsal while they are skating. I'm sure they'll have fun!

Favorite Rides

Over the past seven years that we have been taking our kids to Knoebels, the list of "favorite rides" has been constantly changing. Paul and I have had the same favorite ride there for the past 20 years - the Phoenix roller coaster. I have been on many roller coasters in my life (wish I had kept a life list of those), and I would rate the Phoenix in the top three of all the ones I have ridden. Initially our kids each seemed to favor the fire engine, kiddie whip, ball pit, big slide, train rides, and the car ride that goes along a track (instead of in a circle). All of those except the fire engine are still Oliver's favorites. Then once they are at least 36 inches tall the kiddie roller coaster has become a favorite for each of them. That ride no longer is much of a thrill for Nadia, but the boys still love it, and she is willing to ride it with them. The tea cup is another ride they can all ride and all thoroughly enjoy. I wish I could get a video of them on that ride. They just laugh their little heads off the entire time. Priceless. I recall taking our niece Jenna on a tea cup ride umpteen times when she was a toddler (at Six Flags in MD).

Ian's current three favorite rides at Knoebels are the Roto Jets (he rode with Grandma yesterday), Phoenix roller coaster, and kiddie roller coaster. Nadia said her favorite rides yesterday were the Phoenix and Twister roller coasters, Power Surge (she loved going upside down many times), and Super Round Up (stand up for that ride). She had ridden the last one at Del Grosso's last year, but this was the first time she was tall enough to ride it at Knoebels. I think the Impulse will join her list of favorites once she rides it.

One of the photos below is from the Grand Prix on Wednesday night. It was Oliver's first time to participate, Ian's second, and Nadia's fourth. The kids didn't win any awards for design or speed, but we all had fun. My favorite car designs were the crayon, pencil, ice cream sandwich, and bathtub with a rubber ducky. The bathtub was made by one of our neighbors (she's in 4th grade), and she did win one of the design prizes. Her brother (who is 5 and on Ian's soccer team) also won one of the design awards for his car that looked like a slugger/baseball. The ice cream sandwich car won one of the three awards for speed. Ian and Oliver each received a ribbon for completing their books, and Nadia received a plaque for completing all three Sparks books.