Ella-Kathryn had a playdate the other day with one of her current BFF's C. They met at AWANA this past year and really, it's ridiculous watching the two of them together. Oh well! EK had gone over to C's house a few weeks back, but with illness, their travel plans, life, well, it's taken til this past week to get them together. Here she is waiting for her friend...who was not due to arrive for another hour! Her daddy informed her it would be a while before she got there, but EK insisted she was just fine where she was thank you very much. In reality, it didn't last. After about 20 minutes she gave it up and went on to

play, but it was cute. The bad news was that as soon as we finished eating lunch, C's mom called and informed me that there was a possible tornado headed our way! Yikes! Thankfully it all died out before reaching BV, but still, a freakin' tornado:) Sorry girls - time to go home!

Here's my lil' man at the pool. Thankfully he loves the water and playing/splashing around. However, it is amazingly difficult to take pictures when I'm there by myself with the 3 kids. Jack and Ella-Kathryn are fine on their own (jack can swim and EK wears this awesome suit with built in flotations thingies) but still. Get Will out of the water. Go get camera out of water proof bag. Get Will back in the water. Try to take pictures while not getting camera wet and/or allowing other children to drown. Get will back out of water. Put camera back in bag. UGH! So here's one pic and that will be it for while people. Sorry.

Struggle

I have reconnected with so many old friends via facebook- well they're not old, we just haven't seen each other in a long time- and it's been great. One such friend has been blogging for years now and I have had such a good time getting reacquainted with her via her writings/photos. I'm not yet caught up to the present day in her life-in-writing, but she has made me laugh, smirk, wince, and think. One thing that I cannot get over is the commonality of motherhood. Not that we are all one-in-the-same moms, or that we're interchangeable (spare parts sold separately), rather that we all seem to vacillate between feeling strong, capable, and sure of ourselves and our parenting skills only to have some small human being throw our worlds completely upside down and turn us into doubting piles of blubbering insecurity. And in this, I find comfort. I am not the only one navigating a time old world of raising children, only to feel that I am the only person EVER to have raised a child. Know what I'm sayin'? When they are your children you get the feeling that surely no one has ever encountered "x" problem. I am no stranger to calling parents/friends/neighbors to say," What am I to do about...." But at the end of the day raising these little people is my (well, Jeff's too) job. A job that I am blessed beyond measure to have and one which I am truly thankful for ( I can say this now since it's been a "good" day so far).
Ok I jinxed myself, Will just had a mini-tantrum because I wouldn't let him have my cell phone and proceeded to hit me -timeout crib buddy.
So, my other "issue" (I am using way too many quotation marks in this post) is what to feed my family. As per the Jeff health issue, his eating habits/meals have gone completely into the realm of chemicals, sugar-substitutes and other items that I do not want the kids nor myself to ingest. Other than that the main problem that I face is the cost of eating organically. I have the "dirty dozen" list in my purse, even though I have it memorized by now, and dutifully try my best to buy only organic produce, whole wheat preservative-free breads, nitrite-free lunchmeats, organic peanut butter etc. Now that it's summer it's certainly easier with the farmer's markets open, but still, I cannot in good conscience spend half of our weekly grocery budget on organically grass-fed beef. Anyway - I know it all comes out in the wash and that we are doing our best and our "all things in moderation" theme for life will continue to prevail. It's just hard - the daily choices we face as parents: will this truly scar them/make them better people/be honoring to God?
In the midst of this angst-ridden (read sarcastically please) post I am making my lists and checking them twice for our trip to FL in 3 days. Yes I am going to willingly travel for 17hours alone in a car with my 3 children, whilst almost 30 weeks pregnant. Anyone care to join me in crazy land? We hit Sams on sat purchasing all things sugar laden and carbohydrate - animal crackers, gummy animals, juice pouches, goldfish crackers (the box did say they were natural and whole grain!). I'm quite sure that there is an eating disorder in one of my kid's futures, as I will be offering food for any of the following emotions: anger at not being at our destination in a child-friendly time manner; sadness at not being able to get out of carseats; frustration at sibling for breathing too loudly/not sharing "the toy that I was looking at to play with"/not agreeing on a movie to watch/fill-in-the-blank sibling issue; downright sorrow that Daddy cannot come with us and cannot join us for 2 more weeks; discomfort b/c sun is somehow shining on child's face regardless of strategically placed sunshades on windows; you get the picture.
Pray for me/us/others on the road during our travels:)
PS - I had to buy another maternity bathing suit - ah joy. aNd I am one of those women who love being pregnant and don't mind parading my ginormous self around - usually. This go round I can honestly say that I am done. Now. Yes, with 12 weeks left. I feel huge (writing this with maternity tank top riding up over my bump and maternity gouchos advertized to fit through all stages of pregnancy slipping down to my nether-regions) and am physically hurting (back/butt pains). TMI-sorry. I know that I will rue the day I ever wished this baby here so soon, but I can't help it...yes I can. I will go put on my big girl panties ( and boy are they ever big these days) and enjoy the rest of this time with baby boy safely tucked inside until he's ready to come join the insanity that we call our family.

BLESSED

A couple of weeks ago I served my last 11:00 service! Last week I was already missing my families and their kiddos - but I know that it was the right decision for our family for now. That being said, I was surprised by my co-servers & director with a TON of diapers/wipes/baby items! It was truly overwhelming! Jeff had to wheel it all out on a service cart!!!!

The closet in what used to be Ella-Kathryn's room, now Will's, stuffed to the gills with baby #4's hanging clothes and some of the diapers we've received.

The armoir, again stuffed to the gills, with baby boy's clothes. The sweet thing is that these are mostly clothes that Jack wore when he was a baby, then were passed on to my sister's SIL, my sister's son, then back to us! Wow! Some are those that were not worn at all by Jack, but were passed on to us from karen's SIL. All in all, amazing:) I know that I will be praising God for this many clothes when I can barely drag myself out off the couch to do another load of laundry after being up all night with a newborn:)

There are more diapers under the crib too! The plan is for Jack and Ella-Kathryn to continue sharing the bunk room until next fall when Will should be ready to move to a big-boy bed. Until then, he will stay in the crib and baby will room-in with us in the pack-n-play. I've always found it easier to have them within arms reach since I'll be nursing. That's the plan. And anyone with kids knows all about well-intentioned plans........

Ella-Kathryn had been too big for her bike for a while now, but being the frugal McDugals we are, we hadn't found the right one via garage sale/craigslist/ebay etc. Finally one came up this past week and we nabbed it! A Barbie bike, pink of course, and just the right size for her. The lady even through in a new set of training wheels that she had bought but never put on. Ella-Kathryn couldn't be happier. I would like to get her a little basket and she wants a horn - yeah just what that girl needs! Another way to be bossy to her brothers. I can just see, rather hear it now. Beep, beep, "get out of my way Jack! Watch out Will!" Lord help us all:)

Last Day of School!

Driving home from school - what's with the mouths wide open????

Will loved his roasted marshmallow, but proceeded to fall in the pile of wood chips right after shoving one in his mouth: tarred and chipped:)

HE ATE A VEGETABLE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!

Our first-grade graduate. Can not believe the year is already gone - he had to work so hard this year and we are super proud of him!

See Ya First Grade! (Ignore my dirty van - we drove on a dirt road yesterday looking for a garage sale - should have been my first clue it wouldn't be anything great!)

Today was Jack's last day of school. We started the day with mini-cinis, bacon, and cantaloupe - one of Jack's favorite breakfasts! Then, Ella-Kathryn, Will, and I surprised him at school with Sonic for lunch. We were running a bit behind and so his teacher had to go grab him out of the lunch line while i was signing in. It was too funny because I could tell he thought he was in trouble as he came walking out of the cafeteria! Just the way he hung his head...poor kid. And yet, why exactly did he have reason to think he was in trouble???? His teacher asked him when she pulled him out of line, "do you think you're in trouble?" He said, "no!" But i wonder what was going on in that head:) Anyway, he was super surprised to see us and told me later that he was so glad that we brought him something because they only had 2 choices today for lunch and he wasn't crazy about either of them. Ha! Then Jeff got home in time for us all to load up to pick Jack up from school. I had decorated the car and Ella-Kathryn and I prepared to ambush Jack with water guns when his name was called in the pick up line. It was hysterical - he started to run away! I had to yell for him to get in the car - you moms know how fast those pick up lines move:) It was really sweet, he just kept saying how cool it was to have the car decorated etc. After school we played for a while then roasted hot dogs in the fire pit along with corn on the cob and then of course, marshmallows. It was a great day - and hopefully the beginning of a great summer break!

****Sorry - I got the photos in first and then couldn't move the text. Darn computers! Certainly not my ineptitude right?

On Friday we ran over to the Harley Davidson store in Rogers to watch these insane brothers and their friend who are famous for their motorcross riding skills and the truly crazy tricks that they do. Jumps, flips, this ball-cage things, you name it, they can do it. After we watched the show I got to meet their mother and just simply said God bless you - I don't know how you do it, I would be a basket case!!!! She said, "prayer." Amen sister!

Here they are in front of the ramps and the cage.

On Monday, Jack's school had their first grade walking trip to a little park right down the street from the school. I had walked back to school from this park almost 2 years ago - the day before I went into labor with Will! Thankfully there were no signs of labor this time around:) I love this shot of EK - she so enjoyed being around all of the big kids and cannot wait to start kindergarten in the fall.

Will, after having slept for an hour in the stroller (what in the world???) woke up, gobbled up his lunch, and then walked all over the park. It was a great day - can't believe the school year is already over.

Can you tell Will just woke up?