summer time summer time sumsumsummertime

So I am officially OKAY.  NOT BAD.  DOING REMARKABLY WELL.  This weather is amazingmagicalbeautifulneatosuperdeduper and I find myself not wishing that the entire universe would curl up and die.  Seriously - daylight ROCKS.

Something else that rocks - being able to run out of the house at any given moment without the process of putting layer upon layer of clothing onto 3 children.  Ug, boots, coats, underwear... it's just plain miserable.  Not now!  Slap on some shoes, let's go!

I've turned into my mother - I am almost giddy at having a few extra hours in the morning for chores, walks (that's actually one of the chores on my list), leisurely violin lessons, and the general NOT rushing out the door-ness of summer.  I don't have time to do my own chores because of baby being a baby who pends most of his time rolling over and being horrified at being on his face and a Dude who needs coaxing and threats every now and then, I mean -  2 full weeks of making his bed and he still cries every time because he just.can't.do.it.  

But I don't care!  Because it's summer!  And I get so spend non-rushrush time with my mini-humans who I really, really like!  They play in the sprinkler every day without supervision!  Watch Bill Nye and eat popcorn every afternoon!  Read books for hours! Whatever we want!  It's summer!

We really, really need to A. Move somewhere without winter and B. Move somewhere with school that starts 2 hours later.  And the older they get, the more I feel like a real mom who can do real activities like those things they have in Family Fun magazine where are the neat, well-dressed, racially diverse children laugh merrily while playing group games outside and no one is freaking out because someone else's turn was 3 microseconds longer than theirs.  And in a few more years when Thing 3 is out of the running-away-from-us-at-every-opportunity phase (still waiting for the Dude to pass that one) we can go on an actual vacation!  I feel so alive!!!!

Oh, and this happened:

My parents are back from China!!!  And mom is coming to visit for two whole weeks!!!  There are not enough exclamation points to describe the giddy!!!  I mean, I'm exhausted from all the full-time mommying but the mommying I do is so much awesomer than the mommything I've done in the past that I still feel oodles better than any day off in February!!!  BECAUSE I'M NOT COLD AND BURIED UNDER 10 FEET OF SNOW!!!  ALL THE HAPPY THINGS!!!!!

That is all.  Off to have another kick-butt summer day!

quidditch

You're welcome!

lest you think i was exaggerating

crescendo

Remember how the first time I was pregnant, the husband got laid off?  And I had to move to another continent in my last trimester?  And then the second time I was pregnant, the husband got laid off?  And I had to move across the country in my last trimester? It was this loud sforzando when it felt like the bottom fell out of our lives that slowly faded in a diminuendo until we found the new normal, many months and months later.

The job scare was before I got pregnant the third time around, so despite feeling sick and trying to raise two kids, I was thinking I'd gotten off easy this time.  9 months of pregnancy went by with me holding my breath until I finally started to feel cautiously optimistic - but then there was this February night 3 weeks before my due date when our little family was asked to drive through a wicked snowstorm all the way from our town to Madison just to hear these words:

"We'd like to extend a calling for you to be bishop."

PLOT TWIST!

We drove home slowly - what with snow pelting our windshield like we were in hyperdrive (Star Wars reference ftw!) - and tried to take it all in while the kids blissfully argued in the back seat about who had more fruit snacks.

I'm starting to realize that the hard stuff is just beginning.  It wasn't a loud clap of thunder, but a small growl that keeps growing louder.  Now puleeze, I am NOT complaining here.  With extreme amounts of service I have felt extreme blessings and I am not one to sneeze at those.  I'm just realizing this time my usual pregnancy-challenge was a few months later than my previous two and it's going to take a while more to find that new normal.

I'm trying to figure all this out and be introspective because I need to find the new normal STAT.  It doesn't help that it's summer and I spend all day with the kids and because of the bishop thing, I also spend the evening alone with them too several times a weeks.  Oh, and last Saturday.  And next Saturday.  But I'm not complaining about that - I'm really not.  I have a front row seat to this amazing refining process the Lord has when we are giving a mountain to climb. It's amazing to see the husband grow as he gets some serious spiritual muscles, and his capacity to love and serve others is expanding exponentially.  It's not a easy process, but for those willing to take on a challenges the Lord gives us, it is so worth it.

What I AM complaining about is that just ONCE I would like one of those stationary babies.  Those younger children who are content to sit back and watch their siblings race around and lazily decide to walk well after their first birthday.  And the signs are pointing to another child who starts running away from me at 9 friggin' months.  The stress of wildly active children is going to send me to an early grave.

Thing 3 has been rolling over for a week and keeps ramping it up - rolling over onto his face and being angry until we have to right him and he IMMEDIATELY rolls right back OVER AND OVER or he just keeps rolling so I have to be constantly vigilant, trying to keep the Dude from accidentally stomping on his head as he runs circles around... well, everything.  How is this happing this soon??  I read tons of stories of babies who lay there content and happy for months and get around to walking in their own time.  Not my humans.  They want to make my life infinitely more difficult as early as possible.

Is there some way to slow these things down?  I mean, does having awesomesauce kids also have to involve them being tiny spaz bots?  Why are they EXACLY LIKE ME only way smarter??

I blame the husband's genes.

instamaybe

I haven't posted any Instagram pics in 2 weeks so to catch up I'll just post a few highlights.

I can't control what order they are in on my phone, but they consist of images from our ATL getaway, my gig-ness, the adorability of my human offspring and a pictorial list I'm making of how we're spending our summer days. In no particular order, here is my peculiar life lately.

reality check

You guys, I have been incognito frito because I was in Georgia playing the Scottish festival we play in June (we got invited back for year 7 next year!!) and it was wonderful.  I played my violin, recorded another flippin' album in far too little time, smiled a ton and laughed even more.  I came home feeling renewed, happy, and human again - okay with living next to all those cows in the middle of nowhere.  I got my refill - a good dose of life as I used to live it.

And then I find out there's a activity at church have to go to tonight about female incontinence.

WELL PLAYED, UNIVERSE.

I seriously need to poke the entire state of Wisconsin in the face.