First and Last

 Maggie had her first (and probably last) dance recital this past weekend.  I only took pictures during the dress rehearsal the night before, so that I could be fully present for the actual recital.  Sadly, Maggie has decided that dance isn't her thing and she'll be trying something new during the next school year.

I am so NOT a dance mom, but I really enjoyed the recital and the little bit of hype that surrounded it.  Maggie's favorite part of the recital was killing time with her friends while waiting their turn to perform!  

 Of course, a cheap plastic trophy and flowers from your dad are also nice.

Maggie received her first trophy when she won "Clubber of the Year" in her AWANA class a couple of weeks ago and she was thrilled to add another trophy to her collection.

A Little Brain Dump

I feel like the past 6 weeks or so have been so crazy and so many things have happened in our lives.  From the death of Mike's mom to Maggie turning six.  I decided the best way to document some of the stuff that we've had going on is to do a recap.  Is there any other way that I'll be able to look back in a month and remember what happened?

• Turning six was lots of fun!

According to Maggie, this scooter is "the best gift ever because it's a dream come true".  Nana rocks!

• We celebrated our first "Homeschool Field Day".  Both girls LOVED it and wanted to do it again!  It was quite a production getting 130 kids organized by age and gender and rotating them through all of the events.  My favorite thing was when the girls played tug of war!
• Maggie had her first dance pictures taken in preparation for her recital and the end of her first year of dance.  They had pictures taken at the dance studio and they wore the outfit for jazz and tap.  I decided to take a few in her ballet outfit too.  I'll be taking some in her jazz outfit at some point because I have very little faith in the picture (singular) that the photographer took.  I paid for "10 edited images" and she snapped one picture so fast that I don't even know how Maggie was posed.  I guess I'll get one image edited 10 different ways.  I have no idea!

Ellie cried and wanted in on one picture!!

• Maggie has finished first grade and started most second grade work.  We are doing another year of first grade math, but in a different curriculum.  She does well at math, but gets very stressed out if she doesn't understand a concept immediately.  I am hoping by going through another year of first grade math she will gain some confidence.  We are doing several lessons a day since we're at the easy stuff, so she'll be in second grade before I know it.  Another beauty of homeschooling!!
• Ellie has started preschool "work" at home!  I have attempted this before, but didn't stick with it.  She'll be doing some of the basic things that Maggie learned in her three year old preschool class and hopefully more.  I asked if she liked preschool and she said, "Yes! It's ottsa fun!!"
• We had hoped to send both girls to summer day camp at our church, but Ellie's camp is at the same time that we'll be at the beach and Maggie's camp has become an overnight camp.  After a discussion, we determined that none of us are quite ready for that.  Maggie thought it sounded like fun, but said that three nights away would be too long unless we would come and stay a couple of nights.  Maybe next year we will all be ready!
• And did I mention that Maggie lost her first tooth!?

That gets me caught up on the past few weeks, I think.

Right Now

I write a lot, but it's in my head.  I think about the things that I want to remember (like yesterday when Ellie said, "Look, I'm just like a little rolling pin." as she rolled across her bed!) and the different things that we have going on from day to day.  In the end, there are too many other things that keep me from writing (or typing).

Maggie lost her first tooth a couple of weeks ago and (finally!) learned how to ride her bike without training wheels last night.  She is six and I homeschool her and I wonder how in the world that happened every single day.  We have taken a couple of weeks off from any school work (but we learn every single day) and will start second grade next week.  The break has been nice, but Maggie thrives when she has work- and her behavior is much better!

Ellie is such a mess!  She is so funny and sweet and she doesn't put up with any junk from her big sister!  She has really shown me what a sponge children are.  Most of the "bad" stuff that she does, she learned how to do from watching her sister.  She seems to be strong-willed like Maggie and she also has the same sweet spirit.

I cannot believe that Big Daddy and I will celebrate our 12 year anniversary in June.  I cannot believe that we got married so young or that we are getting so old!  I'm happy to say that our marriage has lasted longer than the appliances that we bought the first few months of our marriage.  We replaced our washing machine in January of 2009 and just bought a new dryer this week.  So, our appliances died before we did!

I now have the sewing machine that I have wanted for so long.  I have made pillow covers and curtains for Maggie's room.  In just a minute, I'm going to work on a couple of little tote bags.  My sewing machine makes me smile!!

six years in the making

 Today is Maggie's 6th Birthday!!  She had dance pictures taken on Monday, picked out her new bike that night and was a riding machine on Tuesday!  

And today...she is six!

The most unintentional of breaks

I made the decision a few weeks ago to document a little more of our daily lives and it has been harder to find the time than I could have imagined.

We were looking forward to having last week as a "Spring Break" and taking a trip with Big Daddy. He was scheduled to be in Pennsylvania and have time off, so we were planning to take the girls to New York City (one of Maggie's dreams) and to the Pennsylvania Amish country and a few other sites. Big Daddy's mom was hospitalized on Wednesday, April 4 and he came home the next evening. We visited her in the hospital and I discussed her condition with her nurse and we knew that the situation was not good. After several bad days and a couple of good ones too, she passed away last Tuesday. Thankfully, we were all able to visit the night before and Big Daddy and I , his brother and father were all able to be with her when she passed away.

Maggie understands and is doing very well. She has never been around Big Daddy's parents on a daily basis, so I think the loss doesn't seem as real. Ellie knows that Grandma is gone, but of course doesn't quite understand. When I told her that we were going to see Grandpa last Wednesday, she said "and Grandma will be there too". I reminded her that Grandma was sick and in the hospital and that she had died. Maggie took it upon herself to explain everything to Ellie, which helped quite a bit. Ellie casually mentioned that Grandma was in heaven yesterday.

Awesome Randomness

The weeks just seem to fly by in-between posts these days! My days are full with housework, schoolwork and little girls to play with and then the evenings are for playing outside or cuddling on the couch and watching a movie. After the girls are in bed I can usually be found folding laundry or pretending to be a vegetable.

• Sometimes I feel like I am lacking in the friend department, so one of the happiest parts of the past week was when I went to our former town and had lunch with my awesome mommy-friends, A & K. I feel blessed to have great on-line friends, great old friends that I know I could call if I needed anything and only see once a year, church friends that I teach beside of and homeschool mom friends that understand me in a special way, but my mommy-friends are SO special. Even though we are an hour apart and only see each other on average four times a year, these may be my bestest friends. Of course, A was the first person that found out I was expecting Ellie (after me!) and she also gets the first call when there's not good news. She can always make me feel better and she always offers to do anything. She called me during my first day of labor with Ellie and she was the first person that I called minutes after Ellie was born. K and I facebook each other messages a lot, but we don't talk that often. She is a little older and much more level-headed than A or myself. Just this afternoon, she called to give me some bad news about her family and I called A. When A found out that she had cancer, I immediately called K.
• I have started craving plain water again!! SO exciting! There for a while I was drinking lemon in my water, but I'm back to drinking LOTS of plain water. My friend A gave me a monogrammed cup for Christmas and I love drinking out of it!
• Maggie & Ellie have become Bath & Body Works junkies! I have quite an assortment of lotions and body sprays (every one of them gifted to me by friends) and they love to "get ready" everyday! My old favorite is Japanese Cherry Blossom (Ellie's favorite) and my newest favorite is Coconut Passionfruit (smells like the beach), a gift from my friend K. Maggie likes Be Enchanted (from A) and Cotton Blossom (from Gammy Gladys).
• Maggie is participating in a daily Bible study that our church starts at the beginning of the new year. At the end of the year they have a little reception for all the particiapnts that completed it. We usually do our study after Ellie is in bed, but she occasionally is in the room. Tonight, she grabbed the Bible and said that she would "read Maggie the lesson and teach her the word of God". Then she threw out "Moses" and "leader" and :obey" before finishing her version of a lesson.
• Maggie read Anne of Green Gables a few weeks ago. I bought the book months ago and was saving it for a time when she had finished reading some of her other chapter books. We took turns reading it aloud and she read several chapters without me. She has also read it aloud one time. She loves The Happy Hollisters, Junie B. Jones and The Hardy Boys, too. (Yes, she reads extremely well for a 5 year old!)
• Maggie has three loose teeth. I think two of her bottom teeth will be out before her sixth birthday next month. (She is excited, but I'm not sure about having a child with permanent teeth!) The other tooth is one of her two front teeth. The dentist has already prepared me that she will need some dental work. She has a really small mouth and even her baby teeth have become crowded in the past few months.
• I had thought (and hoped) that this would be the year that Maggie requested a birthday party where we invited friends. I was prepared and had several fun ideas, but she requested family again. I have and will always let her choose who comes to her party. She chose "Olivia" for the theme! This delighted me! I was worried that she would choose something really tacky (Ha!) and just so tickled with Olivia. I still haven't bought the original Olivia book for her, but I picked up one of her other favorite Olivia books today. We LOVE that pig!
• Ellie is trying to decide between Olivia and Toy Story for her birthday in June. She loves playing cowgirl with her hat, horse and boots!

And I could go on and on with more randomness, but I think I'll just go to bed!

And then two weeks passed

I had every intention of doing a better job at keeping a record of our lives, but we have been busy! The weather has been extremely warm (and even hot on some days) and we have been trying to enjoy it, so we took our first zoo trip of the year. We have been blowing lots of bubbles, drawing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk and "painting" with paintbrushes and water.

I'm trying to decide and order Maggie's supplies for second grade. I'm also planning to start a formal preschool curriculum with Ellie. Those two things alone have occupied me nearly every evening after the kids are in bed.

We went to see a production of "Charlotte's Web" with part of our homeschool group from church. We really enjoyed it! Ellie kept saying, "I want more movie". I think we'll be going to see more plays in the future.

Big Daddy took last week off of work and we took "Spring Break" from school. He had lots of school stuff to keep him busy, but it was nice to be together in the evenings.

Maggie says so many funny things to Ellie. Tonight in the bathtub Maggie complained because Ellie stuck her hand under the body wash bottle first. Maggie thinks that she should be first because she was born first. I reminded her that they were both special for different reasons. She said, "Hey, Ellie. You know I'm special because I was born in a different way? They had to cut Mommy's belly open, get me out and then sew her back up. They thought I might die. But I didn't." Of course, I was about to cry! Then she said, "Mom come show us the line where they got me out." Sweet thing just had to ruin my moment!

And that is it. There are tons of other things, but that's all I have the energy to share tonight.

Q: Why on Earth do you have a blog???

A: I have no idea. At first, it was to document a pregnancy, but I'm just not sure anymore.

I've come to realize that sometimes I act like my mom acted when I was little. Of course, I had no idea that my sister and I were nearly driving her crazy or that she loved us so much that she could burst. I didn't always realize that she was doing SO much on her own because my dad was working long hours to provide for us all.

In other words, I HAD NO IDEA HOW HARD THIS MOMMY-THING COULD BE. I also had no idea that it was worth every bit of the work, drama, tears, prayers and headaches. Oh, the headaches.

One day, I hope that Maggie and Ellie will be able to look back and know who I am right now. Writing a journal would be ideal, but blogging seems a little more realistic.

I still have my mom and I often call her when the crazy is happening and apologize for things I did in my childhood. All of my grandparents have passed away and I often wish I knew more about different parts of their lives. Anyway, I want Maggie and Ellie to have this part of who I am (and who they are, too). Crazy and everything!

I have said before that I'm not a scrapbook person, so this is it. I hope to blog a little more often, but we stay pretty busy living our lives.

Little ways that say I Love You

To say that parenting has it's ups and downs is an understatement. To say that "single"-parenting while your spouse is away for weeks at a time has it's ups and downs is even more of an understatement.

Big Daddy left on Sunday, February 12. We decided that he would leave for the airport at the same time that I left with the girls for church. We were going to take him to the airport, but then Big Daddy and I decided that it might be too much for me to try to carry two crying, kicking, heavy girls to the car after he had boarded his plane. Goodbyes to Daddy can be hard.

Maggie had her first "I just miss my Daddy" episode on Sunday night. She completely lost it when we finished our phone call with Big Daddy and then she said, "I just can't do anything without him here. I can't do anything at all without him during the day". It was like looking at myself some 14+ years ago when I would finish a Sunday night phone call with Big Daddy. I explained that I used to feel that way when we were dating, but now I had two little girls to make me feel better and explained that being apart was hard on all of us. To make matters worse, we were getting sick, too.

We stayed in all day on Monday and Maggie even asked to miss dance that evening. We were snotty and coughing and all feeling a little lethargic. At some point during the morning, I found an envelope with our street address written on it and opened it to find this:

I might have melted! I never want her to feel like Mommy can't handle things when Daddy's away, but I always want her to know that this is hard for me too. I had written her a little thank you note a couple of weeks ago because she had folded all of the towels, wash cloths and cloth napkins (nearly a full load of laundry) without me knowing. She was obviously touched and then wrote me a thank you note to thank me for the card. She loves the written word.

We woke up on Valentine's Day and Maggie was thrilled to finally give me my present. She had wrapped it (a David Crowder*Band cd) a couple of weeks ago and had been giving me hints about what it was. I opened it and then fixed the girls chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Ellie was playing with static cling hearts on the french doors and then spit all over the door because he heart wouldn't stick. (Yes, it sticks if you use spit!) I scolded her, she apologized and then I got the cleaner and a cloth and she cleaned up her mess. A few minutes later, I had a "delivery" in my bedroom.

And then found this on the easel in the living room.

No day would be complete without some sort of accident. On Valentine's Day, poor Ellie couldn't get her bathing suit (long story, don't judge) down in time when she went to the bathroom. You can imagine what happened. This is the note that I received:

Heart melting again.

We needed more tissues and I really needed VapoRub, so we had to go out and my mom asked us to come by her house so that she could give the girls their Valentine gifts. They each had a snowglobe in their bag. Of course, Ellie decided to put her snowglobe in her backpack once we got home and then she jumped up and down on it. Of course, it broke. Of course, Maggie wrote ANOTHER note.

The rest of our Valentine's Day was spent making homemade pizza and then delivering treats to our closest neighbors. (Both girls started out in bathing suits, but Ellie likes to change clothes A LOT. Maggie was trying on a new suit, but the bottoms were way to big, which explains why she doesn't match. Not that she normally matches!)

Lots of other stuff happened, but we'll just fast forward to this past Sunday. Maggie always has at least three art projects from her Sunday School class and this was one of them:

This is now framed and sitting out where I can see it!

There are SO many days that I feel like the worst mom and I wonder if anyone appreciates anything that I do or if they hear anything that I say. I am so thankful for these little reminders.

Do It Yourself Photo Shoot

I had every intention of taking Maggie and Ellie to have their pictures taken by a professional, but I haven't forgotten the last time we did that. After thinking about what I liked and what I wanted I just decided to do it myself with my cheap point and shoot camera...not my phone.

Ellie wore the Valentine shirt that Maggie wore once upon a time. Maggie wore a plain white t-shirt that she already had. I made both girls red hairbows and they both wore jeans. I wanted some sort of cute Valentine-y prop, but couldn't come up with anything and I was in the mood to take the pictures right then.

I like white backgrounds, so I grabbed the white comforter off of Ellie's bed and put it in the middle of the living room floor. Then I positioned Maggie (Ellie had ran to her room and locked the door) where I wanted her and I stood up and had her look at me.

Ellie wasn't as easy. I had to offer her a Tootsie Pop. Luckily, I had a red one and it looked appropriate for the "holiday". I was thrilled that she left her hairbow in and her clothes on long enough for me to snap a couple of pictures.

I cropped the pictures and then went to Picnik (so sad that they are closing) and did some changes with the color.

All three of us girls have colds, so I'm not sure what we will be doing to celebrate Valentine's Day. Big Daddy is out of town, so we may just have a little movie night.