My Christmas Bell Wreath is still hanging on our front door. I see it when I drive up and immediately forget it once I walk inside.

My Sunday Paper sits on my porch until the next Saturday. (I only get it for the coupons) Why does it sit there? See above.

Two of my kids are up and around right now, on this fine Saturday morning. I'm making this post on my phone, in my bed.

Recently I pulled the sheets off my bed to wash them after someone had an accident in here. I have yet to replace the sheets. I don't know exactly how long I've been sleeping directly on the mattress.

I may have leftover cake for breakfast when I get up. And bacon. Cake and bacon. (And coffee)

I had some work done on my car yesterday. I asked the mechanic guy if he liked the tape holding up my bumper and he said, "Hey, if it's good enough for NASCAR . . . ". ( I <3 Arkansas)

Guess we have to buckle down and do three classrooms of Valentines this week. Not my fave.

Steven asked what I wanted for Valentines Day and I said I wanted to see the new Die Hard movie. I'm so excited.

Amber had the most awesomest idea to post a picture of something you love every Friday in February. I did not do it last week, largely because I'm a rebel. But this week I'm totally a follower.

My Love picture this week: Oliver!

I love when he gets up in the mornings. I go get him out of bed and he's so happy and bouncy and calling me Dad!  It's like he thinks Mom and Dad are both interchangeable words for your parents. It's all very confusing. But cute.

We woke up to a happy day. Steven’s birthday. What’s it like for a father of 5 boys to turn 35? I don’t know, you’ll have to ask him. I made the special cherry chocolate birthday cake last night so that he could enjoy it today. We put a candle in it and sang Happy Birthday before I loaded up four of the kids to head off to school. (Dad has to watch all the kids all by himself this evening, the Birthday evening, because Mom has to work )

Isaac was wearing his new shirt with a super hero cape attached. Just having him walk around with it on put a smile on my face and a pep in his step. If you need a confidence booster, wear a cape. It’s magic for everyone.

As we neared time to go, then it got a little wonky. People take forever getting in the car, they fight about who’s touching who, Oliver cries because he’s the only one left home alone and he so wants to get ready and GO off to somewhere like his big brothers do. He brings me his little shoes and I have to tell him no and he’s sad and I’m sad to leave him. It’s all very sad.

Then, as we’re driving to school, the perfect storm of emotions arrives. A song comes on the radio, Where were You When the World Stopped Turning by Alan Jackson. (FYI I have a love/hate relationship with that song. Sometimes I love it sometimes I just can’t stand it) Today, as it came on I saw in my rear-view mirror the tops of three little heads in a row, riding to school and a head right next to me in the passenger seat all level with mine. I get a little choked up driving to school, it’s not the first time, either. It’s weird being the only woman in a houseful of men and boys. When you have those random teary-eyed moments, they just look at you like, huh, what’s up with her? And then run off to do whatever they were doing already. I was stuck remembering the horror of a tragedy from 11.5 years ago, hearing the line, “Did you just stay home and cling tight to your family Thank God you had somebody to love?”. I wished I could just turn around and take them home. Wished I could have this day free from our other responsibilities and obligations to just be together.

But, like many other times I’ve been overwhelmed with that desire, we continued on. I wished them a “Terrific Tuesday” and told them I loved them as they piled out of the car, and don’t forget your lunchboxes and backpacks, and see you later! Dropped Isaac off at his preschool where his teacher took me aside to tell me Isaac had a new best friend, Mackenzie. I knew, he’s talked about her pretty much nonstop. I remembered that these people here, they love him.  The boys’ teachers at their schools, they enjoy having them in class. They love teaching them and sharing with them. They loves school and their friends.  I may not get to love on them all day but those people I left them with will get to.

They’ll go home to their dad and they’ll have a fun day. Probably they’ll argue and fight and it will be generally crazy but it’s cool.

Then we’ll do it all again tomorrow.

This last weekend, we spent the day at the home of a couple that are our good friends. We had all the boys, and luckily, their house has lots of open spaces. The boys ran around a lot and in general enjoyed the merriment of having indoor room to run. In addition to space, there were dogs! The boys love dogs. They had two chubbyish chihuahuas and their roommate had two dogs as well. I have no idea what kind.

The adults had started playing a game (Dominion), and the kids were just generally frolicking from room to room when we heard Oliver really start crying.  He had been laying in one of the dog beds, (why are kids always into the dog beds and bowls, and etc.??) and the dog owner of that bed took offense to it and bit him on the hand.

The dog was up to date on all of his shots, so we just took care of the bite and watched it closely. And the dog was put outside for the rest of the time we were there.  It is healing up nicely today, in case you were wondering. Everyone was wondering if this was going to make Oliver afraid of dogs. The surprising thing, it did not. He was back playing with the other dogs in no time and seems to be no worse for the wear.

It reminded me of how Thomas and Elijah went out to play a couple weeks ago and I looked out the window to see them both up in the tree.  The same tree Elijah fell out of a couple months ago and broke a couple bones.   I was so glad to see I didn't have to make him climb it again, he did it of his own volition.

How many times as adults do we fail at something, and then swear it off? Never doing that again. Once burned twice shy.   I've got to say, that's no way to live. We could take a lesson from Oliver and Elijah. (although Oliver should probably stay out of dog beds . . . .)  Failure doesn't have to be the end of something. It is just a step on the way. I've failed at a lot of things, personally, professionally, academically, and so on. I don't want everyone to know about all my failures, who does? The reality though, is that failing is a part of growing. No one really does something perfectly the first time they attempt it. In fact, in order to get really good at some things you have to practice and practice and keep trying after you keep failing.  Failing is how you learn to do it right. It's how you make progress.

“I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot, and I missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
– Michael Jordan

I'll leave you with this cute picture of Isaac and Sophie, from my Sunday school class. Sophie likes to boss Oliver around and she gets really mad when he doesn't do what she says. This week she was SO good at sharing and being sweet, I told her, Sophie, "You are such a good helper today!" She replied I am!? and she grabbed Isaac right next to her and hugged him big.

That's like Going Rogue, in case you were wondering.

*As I pulled out of the driveway to take the kids to school today, I saw that I still have my Christmas Bell Wreath on the front door. Oh well.

*I worked out today. At an actual gym. It was my first time. I liked it. I wore my shirt with the Superman S on it for inspiration.

*Speaking of my first time, I pulled out a gray hair for the first time yesterday. Yikes.

*I've heard a song on the radio three times now that I love and as of yet I cannot find it in itunes. That makes me sad.

*Tomorrow is sibling preregistration at the preschool Isaac goes to. Oliver's birthday is past the enrollment date so next year, for the first time in like 6 years, we won't have a child at that preschool. I'm kind of sad about that. I love those people.

*I made two dozen lemon cupcakes yesterday evening.  At this time they are more than half gone.

Have you ever heard that saying about kids who are growing fast, "You should put a brick on his head!"? I have nothing really to say about it, it just popped in my head as I was looking at Alex this morning. He had a dentist appointment so we spent some time together hanging out.  I looked over at him in the passenger seat and thought, that kid is huge!  He's not a "little" boy anymore.

His dentist appointment was fine, if you were wondering.

Yesterday the boys were playing outside. They were fighting. They call it "training". Basically this means they just tussle around in what they perceive to be an athletic fashion. If you're up for a chuckle, it's just the thing.  Especially when they're wearing a getup like this:

Apparently tucking tshirts into windpants makes me laugh. A lot. He had no idea I was taking this picture because I thought that was funny. Poor kid. You may have noticed he's wearing a Jurassic park shirt. He got that for Christmas. He went to put it on right after he realized the paperback copy of Jurassic Park arrived  in the mail. He promptly read 3 chapters, then changed into this shirt and went out to "train" with his brother.

On the way to school Alex asked me if it was possible to "train too much". I said, "First of all, what are you training for?? I have no idea how to answer that question."  I imagine this training involves something very Napoleon Dynamiteish. Apparently that wasn't the right answer because he just changed the subject. Kids are funny.

Tomorrow, my sweet little ray of sunshine, Isaac, will turn 5. Yes, 5!  Maybe it's just the season for nostalgia in my house or something but I can't believe this little Birthday is upon us! There was a period of time when we thought he would be our last baby. We believed it so much we just called him "baby" half the time and when we found out we were expecting again we had to break everyone of calling him "baby Isaac".  Even his brothers had taken to it.

He is a little ray of Sunshine. In fact, I often call him that, my little Sunshine. He's a happy boy, he loves school. He can read. He goes to preschool two days a week and has the job schedule there memorized. He can tell you what his job will be today and what it  will be the next time he goes and what everyone else's job in his class is. He's a smart little cookie.

Let's be honest, I work a lot of hours outside the home, and we've got a lot of stuff and people inside the home, so in a very real way, ALL the birthdays sneak up on me. I tend to be a last minute planner. There's not a lot of elaborate parties (who has the money for that anyway??) with lots of invitees and so on. I hope that one day, the gifts we gave and the cake we had as a family will be just as fun for them as any big ol' party would have been.

I can't believe it's been 5 years since I was bringing little baby Isaac to work with me. The blondie of the family. The once-baby of the family but now middler. The boy who loves cookies so much he could eat them nonstop forever. The little sunshine.

It was Christmas morning, the year was 1999. Steven and I had gone to my Mom's house for the holiday. I was late. Not to my mom's house, you know, for my "special monthly visitor". (TMI?? Sorry!) I had already taken a test a couple weeks earlier and it was negative. They always say you should take the test first thing in the morning, so on Christmas Eve, Steven and I drove around looking for some place OPEN so we could buy one. Finally, we found a Walgreens. I woke up first on Christmas morning, hopped off to the bathroom to do my business and saw the positive result. I went back over to Steven and shook him. "Hey, hey, I'm pregnant!!!"  He rolled over and mumbled to himself, "Congratulations".  Then I heard his snoring. A few minutes later he sat up and said, "Wait, did you say you were pregnant?!"   I'll never forget it. We didn't have cell phones and texting like we do now so I went off in search of someone to tell. I found my sister, Amy. I showed her the stick, and with her being 7 years younger than me she just looked at it and said, what is that? What does it mean? I'm pregnant!!  It's funny how you remember stuff like that.

That Christmas was 13 years ago. Later this year my baby will be a teenager. Yikes. I can't believe what seems sort of like last year has been that long ago. I know I'll feel that way again at the other milestones. It's just crazy to think about.

This weekend, Alex went to his Grandparent's house for the weekend and when he came home he just LOOKED taller. You know, how kids do that sometimes. They just look BIGGER than the last time you saw them even if it was just a day ago.  So we went to the wall where we do our height measuring to check it out. Sure enough, he was taller than I am. I'm only 5ft and 1/2 inches tall, so it's not like it's a major achievement. For us though, it was a milestone. A part of me will always see him as my little Alex. The only Christmas present I even remember from 1999.

Around our house, there is no lack of imagination. I’m not sure how it started or exactly how we fostered it in our children, but our kids do a lot of playing “in their heads”. Don’t get me wrong, we still have probably too much t.v., video game, computer, and ds time, but there’s also a good bit of time where good old fashioned sticks or light sabers are utilized. Climbing out back, playing with the dog, running around doing who knows what are all common sights to see.

When our oldest son, Alex was little, he would go off to his room and pretend. His speech was barely discernible at the time, but his sound affects came out loud and clear. BAM! SWISH! PSHAW!  When the bad guys took a hit, everyone in a 3 room radius knew it. My mother in law started calling it “swishing” because he would literally SWISH by you.  He didn’t care if you saw it or heard it as long as you stayed out of his way and let him play. All of the boys do it in their own way, a couple of them now do it more than the others. If you ask them what they’re doing they’ll just say, “Oh I’m making up a story.” or something like that.

The other night I looked around and realized 3 of the boys were “swishing” all totally independent of the others. Oliver is only 2 and yet he gets up and goes and swishes because the bigger boys are doing it too. It was kind of loud, actually, the whole scene. At the same time, it was cozy. I liked that they were right in front of me doing it. I didn’t mind that whatever they were imagining cut a path right in front of what I was watching on t.v. I realized one day they’ll be too old for it or they’ll be moved out. There won’t be any swishing in the other room or down the hall. The house will be quiet.

I think I’d rather not think about when the swishing stops. It’s one of my very favorite things.

Steven has taught me many things in our years together. How to argue really loudly, the value of procrastination, how to laugh more, how not to take myself so seriously, how to play D&D, (yeah, I said that) I could go on. He's pretty good at theology too. I've learned a ton from his studying, which is really the way to go, in case you're wondering. Have someone else study stuff and then they can teach it to you. One of the things that he's always saying is in reference to us talking about a situation others are going through. I have this habit of deciding that I know what someone elses intentions are. For example they will have said something and I interpret it in some kind of negative way. I'm not gonna lie, I'm usually right. (snicker) He'll say, "That's not really putting the best construction on it." And of course, I'm like, what a party pooper you are! In all fairness, I've heard him stop what he was saying and say, well, "I'm not putting the best construction on that." 

It comes from Luther's Small Catechism. Luther states in his explanation of the 8th commandment:
(Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor) we “should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything.”

This is pretty dadgum good advice. It also takes not bearing false witness against your neighbor up a notch. It's a little bit harder to put a good construction on something your neighbor said or did than is to simply not lie about them.

(Does anyone else mentally picture a neighbor as someone who lives next door? No? Just me? I can't help it, my mind takes it very literally)

Anyway, it's just bouncing around in my head lately. After much thought I've decided that this is pretty much the same thing as "attitude is everything" which was my high school band motto. Seriously, it was. Our practice tshirts said that on the back. Your attitude about people and situations often determines what you do about them. If you think supportively and positively about people and situations, you act accordingly. However, when you think negatively about something you also act in accordance.

Maybe my goal for the year could be to put the best construction on 2013. You know, think positively about the people and situations that show up. 

Let's practice. In the picture below I could say, this is right before I snapped my finger in the mousetrap John was trying to tell me how to set while I was blindfolded and he could not help me. OR I could say, this is the time I learned how to set mousetraps and now I can set any mousetrap anytime, no problem.

Ha. You get the point. Also I got to use a picture that really had nothing to do with this post.