Lake Effect

For 2 and 1/2 days I sat still. I sat still and was quiet and read a book whenever I wanted. I ate way too many Peanut Butter M&Ms, Buffalo Blazin’ Doritos, drank oodles of Diet Coke and Sugar Free Grape Kool-aide. There was lots of time to talk and there were lots of things to talk about and because there was only me, Kitty, and Libby, we grazed for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

3 chick flicks. We watched 3: Leap Year (entertaining and completely free of sex), 13 Going 30 (an awesome, delightful classic), and Dear John (mixed reviews on this one- but we unanimously loved Channing Tatum).

It was so hot that we only sat on the dock for short periods of time and we spent the majority of our time on the porch, reading or talking while we sat in the rocking chairs or on the porch swing or inside watching movies.

We went to bed every night at a reasonable hour (11pm) and woke up each morning between (8:30am and 9:00am).

The lake house was wonderful, just like last year. It was delightful to take time to be quiet, and watching the water was lovely and soothing. It was awesome to be with good friends, who also happen to be my sisters-in-law! I love that the people that I love to spend my time with are also the people who are aunts to my children and the people that I see each summer at family reunions. I feel lucky and grateful that I feel as comfortable in Ernie’s family as I do in my own!

Camp Nonny

My blogging will be sporadic for the next 10-14 days, as I am currently on vacation- with a varying schedule (and internet access) and all that entails. At the moment we are at my parents house in Conyers, Georgia and the kids and I are having a fabulous time. My mom has done a wonderful job preparing for our visit. Monday ended up being a slow day for us, which was great since we drove all day Sunday and the kids were happy to just relax at Nonny and Poppy’s house on Monday. Sylvia’s kids have been in Day Camp this week, but we’ve been able to have dinner all together every night.

Tuesday was awesome, Mom and Dad took us all to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and the kids and I had a wonderful time. The highlights for me were the Children’s Gardens, the Edible Gardens, and the Canopy Walk. You always know it’s going to be fun when the website recommends that the kids bring their swimsuits! After the Gardens, we took a couple hours to rest and then we all went to see Toy Story 3.

Today was the day that Emmaline was waiting for. It was Art Day. She has waited months to show Nonny that she’s an artist too. Mom gave each of the kids clipboards at the Botanical Gardens, so that they could sketch things that were interesting to them, in preparation for Art Day today. The kids had an amazing time working at the easel today and their artwork looks great!

Tomorrow I’m off by myself to the lakehouse with Kitty and Libby, but while I’m gone my Ernie will get here, the kids will be eating pizza at Sylvia’s house, the older kids will head to Fernbank to look at the stars, and laughter will happen. Cousins and grandparents make life wonderful!

Easy Peasy

My horrible migraine aside, today has been easy peasy. Traveling and visiting with older kids gets better every year and this year, it’s simply become easy. Yesterday on the drive up to Atlanta, we had very few stops. There were no tears. The kids even slept.

Today was a good transition day and the kids all played well with their cousins. Tomorrow is the Botanical Gardens.

We’re happy to be here and happy to be together.

Modern Conveniences

The many, many things that I tried to get done today. Apparently yesterday was a tease and not repeatable, so instead of being hugely productive- today I was only normally productive. At several points during the day I did consider though, how much more impossible my tasks today would have been without my modern conveniences. So a gratitude list for some truly amazing appliances:

• my vacuum cleaner
• the washer
• the dryer
• the unforgettable dishwasher
• the carpet cleaner (which, unfortunately was needed first thing this morning)

Thank you, my dear appliance friends, today would have been impossible without you.

Done List

I had a to-do list this morning, that is now my Done List.

• Folded 8 loads of laundry? Done.
• Created monthly financial report to review with Ernie?  Yep.
• Returned library books? Dropped them off way before they were due.
• Picked up dry cleaning?  It’s still hanging in the back of the van.
• Got a hair cut? Yes and it’s adorable (of course :))
• Canned pickles? I cannot wait to taste them in a few weeks!
• Cooked and canned blueberry jam? I salivate just thinking about it. 
• Homemade salsa with garden tomatoes?  Fresh and fragrant is the best way to describe it, using alliteration of course.
• Cleaned the kitchen 3 times? Um, yes. Thank goodness we have our new dishwasher.

Done and done.

Now- it’s on to tomorrow for packing and cleaning so we can leave on time for Atlanta on Sunday.

Tonight’s Dinner

We had dinner guests tonight, Mike Jones and his wife. Here was tonight’s menu:

• Grilled Pork Chops
• Sautéed Okra
• Steamed Zucchini and Yellow Squash
• Cherry Tomato and Fresh Basil Salad
• Penne Pasta tossed with Pesto and Cream
• Garden Tomatoes, sliced
• Blueberry Cobbler with Whipped Cream

The okra, zucchini, yellow squash, basil, cherry tomatoes, and large tomatoes were all picked from the garden this morning. The pesto was homemade and I made it a few days ago using basil from out of the garden. The blueberries I used in the cobbler were given to Ernie yesterday by a woman at work who picked them out of her yard.

Everything was fresh and so, so delicious. The okra was my favorite. Best thing about tonight: the kids ate all their vegetables without complaint! 

Heart Squeezes

I typed up a very benign email to my sister in law this afternoon, in response to her request for my kid’s birthdays so that she could put them on her calendar. The funny thing about it was that as I typed each child’s name and the corresponding birthday, I thought my heart would break because I love each one of them so. Just typing those wonderful “dates of significance” made my heart squeeze.

September 27, 2000:

Ernie was born. It was fall- but still warm in East Tennessee. I remember that I nested obsessively before Ernie was born and because of that compulsion I made a tablecloth that I finished a few days before I delivered him. That tablecloth is in a lot of the pictures we took in those first few weeks. Ernie was big (9lbs 1oz) and looked exactly like his dad. He was cute and sweet and despite being completely overwhelmed by my first newborn, I remember feeling a lot of awe and wonder regarding his perfect little fingers and toes, his perfect little body and being surprised that he already had such a distinct personality. I also remember feeling as if I had already known Little Ernie my whole life. There was never a “getting to know each other” time period with him.

August 23, 2002:

Nigel was born and it was still HOT outside. Nigel’s delivery was the easiest of all the kids. Ernie and I got up very early in the morning because Nigel was a scheduled induction and we were supposed to be at the hospital at 6am. I have a clear memory of struggling to get into the bucket seat of Ernie’s BMW M3 at 5:45am in the driveway of our house in Tennessee and seeing the sun starting to rise on our way to the hospital. Ernie’s mom came for the delivery and so she was there with me and Ernie when Nigel was born. Nigel was a gift and a joy. He was sweet and little, and love his heart, he had red hair at first that eventually faded to blond. Nigel was my baby that spent the first two weeks of his life sleeping on my chest. I suppose he just didn’t like sleeping alone.

 

May 3, 2004:

Labor with Emmaline started about Week 30 and then just kept on until I finally delivered her in Week 39. I started into heavy contractions on May 2nd in the 3rd hour of church on a 5th Sunday- which meant that Ernie was conveniently sitting next to me during that meeting. We rushed to the hospital after church where the contractions stopped a few hours later. Luckily they let me stay the night at the hospital and the next morning they broke my water and Emmaline was born around noon. Emmaline was such a little thing, she was my smallest baby: 7lbs 10oz. It was still chilly at night when we brought Emmaline home, but the bulbs were in bloom. She was excellent at nursing and an absolute delight to dress up. I remember being shocked at how feminine she looked to me compared to the boys. I had always assumed that newborns were essentially gender neutral in their looks, but Emmaline proved me wrong.

October 15, 2007

It was the middle of Fall in Northern Kentucky when Max was born. The leaves were amazing and since our house was on a wooded lot, every window in our house had an amazing view of red, orange, and yellow leaves. I spent a long Sunday night in labor at home and when I went to my regular doctor’s appointment on Monday morning I was dilated to 4. My contractions, of course, had stopped which was why I never called and just went ahead to my regular appointment. The doctor stripped my membrane and told me that within the hour I’d be in labor again. He was right. Max was born at 10:15pm. Ernie delivered him. When we checked out of the hospital, Ernie drove us home on a chilly, overcast day. Max came into our family and made everyone love him. It’s a gift that he has. 

 

I certainly didn’t start out being a particularly sentimental mother. I was too busy feeling overwhelmed and overtaxed in the beginning. However, the gratitude and the wonder have grown over time and now I am not sure why I couldn’t see it so clearly back then. Motherhood is a gift especially made for Rebecca Smith. I needed these 4 little babies to help me be a better person. They are all of them, wonderful, witty, and unique and watching them grow up is a joy.

Busy

It has been busy, busy, busy. Hours in the garden, hours at the pool, hours cleaning the house, hours listening to Max cry (he is cutting his molars).  It’s been busy. The garden has taken a massive amount of weeding. I shucked, blanched, and froze 3 dozen ears of corn yesterday. I have picked pounds and pounds of tomatoes, that I am now putting in freezer bags to be canned at a more convenient time. I made some homemade pesto with the basil from the garden, and have incorporated the pesto into last nights meal and also tonight’s. Zucchini and yellow squash are in abundance. I am finding lots of uses for okra. The kids are eagerly awaiting the watermelon and cantaloupe that are just a couple of weeks away from being ripe. Dinner tonight included the most delicious Tomato, Pesto, and Parmesan Tart. Way too much butter in the tart, but oh, so good.

On the schedule for tomorrow:

• canning pickles
• going to the gym
• cleaning the kids rooms
• laundry, laundry, laundry

The kids and I leave for Atlanta on Sunday for our two week vacation. The kids keep asking me every single day when we get to leave. We’re all looking forward to seeing family again!

Wiggins, Mississippi

Wiggins, Mississippi: Population 3,849

We had a great day today in Wiggins. Ernie was on assignment to speak in church there and he asked me if I would be the other speaker (when Ernie goes to the smaller towns, he is asked to bring his own youth speaker or other speaker). I said, of course! So we got up earlier than usual this morning, packed lunches, and drove an hour to be at church with Ernie. It was so fun to go to church with him and it was really good for the kids to see how the church functions in small areas as well as bigger areas.

I spoke on Tithing and Ernie spoke about Consecration and giving our whole heart to the Lord, instead of holding back a part for ourselves. There were 54 people in attendance and we all sat in a medium size room with folding chairs for our Sacrament service. The air conditioning wasn’t working so it was warm. Warm enough that the very elderly lady who told us that she usually freezes and covers herself with a blanket, told me that she was “perfectly comfortable at church without her sweater” for the first time in a long time. Everyone else, of course, was dying.

It was definitely worth it, though, to be together as a family. I felt at home in that small town. Several women came up and hugged me after the service, which I really liked. All in all it was a very uplifting Sunday and it was a joy to be together as a family.

After the Storm

Here’s what it looks like, 30 minutes after being 100% inconsolable and throwing the worst temper tantrum ever:

Just in case you were wondering. Max woke up 3 hours later and was perfectly pleasant. 

And just in case Max is embarrassed by this blog post at some point in the future, I am including this note:

Dear Max,

I still have days like this too. Just ask your Dad.

Love, Mom

Vampires are Forever

I’ve toyed around with making a t-shirt like this for a long time, and when I found this deal on CustomizedGirl.com I knew I couldn’t pass it up. I designed it, I bought it, and it arrived today.

I’ve read Twilight, of course. And for me there’s never been any question of being Team Edward or Team Jacob, because I am so clearly married to an Edward. So here it is folks:

It says: My Edward is named Ernie

Tacky? Maybe.

But perfect for sleeping in!

Definitely half empty

I woke up last night at 3am and at 3:30am, when sleep still proved elusive, I grabbed the phone and called Kitty in China. Because hey, a 12 hour time difference better be good for something! I enjoyed having a nice long chat with Kit and then I decided that since sleep wouldn’t be happening I might as well get up.

Which is how I ended up deciding that I might as well do the bills. (Flat out depressing in the middle of the night.) Which led to pondering the new appliance in my kitchen and the likelihood of other appliances starting to die which led to me deciding that maybe it was time for me to see if I could find a little work from home to pad the budget a bit. Back in Kentucky I had a really delightful contract job working as a genealogy researcher for MyGenealogist.com. I worked 10-15 hours a week and did research at the State Archives and got super handy with viewing microfilm. The pay was especially helpful when Ernie’s salary was reduced due to the economy and I found out that I really enjoyed genealogy.

Because of these middle of the night musings, at 10 o’clock this morning I sat down and took a look at my resume. It was nothing short of depressing. I haven’t worked since September of 2008, my bachelor’s degree is starting to look dated, and how do you prove your competency to someone else when you have no way to demonstrate it, besides a mortgage and 4 kids?  That reflection made me feel helpless and a useless to anyone outside of my own home. (Dramatic, I know- but I was tired, and that always makes things worse).

I’m not going to lie, the lack of sleep plus the resume review put me in a frame of mind to crawl back into bed and stay there all day. I am absolutely a glass is half full person 99% of the time (in fact I am bouncing back as I type this). But every once in awhile, I have to wallow in my misery for a bit and have myself a good pity party. Thank goodness the kids were understanding and that my Ernie will be home in the morning.

Highlights

• Emmaline put her face in the water and actually tried to swim this morning during her swimming lesson.
• Nigel didn’t cry when his hot dog at Sonic came with chili cheese on it. He calmly asked for another one.
• Max napped with me this afternoon and insisted on sleeping right next to me with his hand on my arm.
• I took a nap today.
• Ernie IV got off the computer without complaint when I asked him to.
• I made gumbo tonight and I am in love with it. Seriously. I had to make myself stop eating it.
• The new dishwasher ran two loads today and it works great.
• My Ernie comes home tomorrow night :)

For the last 5 hours…

For the last 5 hours I have been installing a dishwasher.

What’s that, you ask?

Did I really attempt to install a dishwasher all alone? With 4 kids running around, begging to play with the tools and wandering off with needed parts?

Yes. Yes I did.

And after 2 trips to Lowe’s- first to get a water hose and connector, and then later on go back to get a longer water hose, plus an additional clamp to replace the one that Max walked off with- here it is:

And here’s the mess that I will not be cleaning up tonight.

Ernie is out of town- which was the catalyst for my becoming an appliance installer- and when he called tonight he told me that he is proud of me for figuring all this out. I’m pretty proud of myself too.

FHE

In anticipation of the kids who are getting baptized in the next few months, our Primary Presidency held a special Family Home Evening on Baptism at the Painter’s house tonight. There were 4 families invited and while we were sitting in the living room, I looked around and I counted 18 kids. 18 kids!

Anyway, it was a really fun evening and the highlight for me was when they gave Nigel his own beautiful fluffy white towel with CTR monogrammed on it, to use the day that he is baptized.

Nigel is so excited to be baptized- he talks about it a lot and I can tell that he is ready. Nigel is a deep thinker and he is very sensitive to the world around him. He tries hard to be good. He still tells me that he is “trying to change his life”.

I love that sweet little Nigel boy and I’m so glad that he is mine.

Conflict Resolution

Today I taught a really great lesson in Relief Society on Conflict Resolution.

Best tidbit from the lesson:

When people complain, what they really want is comfort.

Thank you Ensign September 1977 issue for the wonderful article containing that advice.

If you give a girl a paint chip…

It started with some clearance comforters at Walmart. I mean really- who can pass up soft, solid colored microfiber comforters for $11 a piece?

The microfiber comforters led to the paint chips from Home Depot and Lowes.

The paint chips led to the House Beautiful magazines that Mom left at the house for more ideas.

The House Beautiful magazines led to the internet.

And now, I have projects galore going on in my head.

We moved into our house 1 year ago this weekend and I can tell. Once I hit the year mark in a house, I am suddenly flush with ideas and feel compelled to nest and stamp it as my own. We bought this house from the Robert’s family and I realized that I was still treating the house in some respects, as if it were still their house. I’m ready for this house to be my house.

I’ve picked paint for the kids’ rooms. I don’t have the money to tackle this yet- but I have already mentally removed the tiled countertops and backsplash in the kitchen that I’ve never really liked, and I’m ready to scour blogs, garage sales, and Craig’s List to find the decorating inspiration that has eluded me up until now.

Things I didn’t do

Today I was lazy and it was awesome.

At the end of the day I reflected on all the things I happily didn’t do today.

• I didn’t go to the gym
• I didn’t make my bed
• I didn’t check my bank account
• I didn’t wash the dishes by hand (the dishwasher’s broken)
• I didn’t take the kids to the pool
• I didn’t make lunch for the kids (we went to McDonalds)
• I didn’t get off the couch for 2 hours this afternoon (in my defense, my book was really good and it was raining)
• I didn’t make all the phone calls on my to-do list
• I didn’t actually look at my to-do list
• I didn’t follow my diet (two Krispy Kreme donuts)

My favorite quote from today:

The four kids and I were at Home Depot this morning looking at paint chips for the boys’ bedroom. Ernie kept insisting he wanted black walls (my answer: No.) and Nigel kept offering any color chip that had the Disney logo on it. Then Emmaline started to express her opinion and Ernie piped up again and said that he changed his mind and he wanted teal for the walls and then Nigel started crying because he had no idea what teal looked like. That’s when I announced- over the clamor- that I would listen to everyone but that I would be making the final decision and did they understand that.

And Ernie said, “We understand Supreme Lord Chancellor and we will obey.”

I laughed for quite awhile after that one.

Tupperware, everywhere

Tonight I hosted my very first Tupperware party. Hosting parties is on my list of Least Favorite Things to do, but I wanted to do this one for my dear friend Jacki. So I invited some friends, cleaned the house, and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

The best part of the evening was when Ernie came out and sat down with us. That man can make me laugh! He told jokes and funny stories and had everyone in stitches.

Here are my two favorite quotes from today:

Little Ernie (this morning): So, Mom. I’m thinking about growing a goatee like Pappou (my Ernie’s dad). I found some hairs on my face and that’s what I think I want to do.

My Ernie (tonight): (looking over and asking in front of all my friends) Want to go out with me on Saturday night?

Have you ever?

Have you ever been on the wrong end of a marker?

Because Max was today.

Post Visit Ponderings

The Williams have left the building.

The Smiths are sad.

I had a ridiculous migraine today so the post visit clean-up was minimal. No worries, though- the mess is sure to be waiting for me tomorrow.

I was impressed that Emmaline and Lilly got along so well and that Isabelle seemed to be happy in their company this visit.

Nigel was the kid who felt left out this time. It’s rough when the older boys are almost 10 and 11 and you are still 7.

Max loves his Uncle Dave now, not just his Aunt Sylvia.

We all loved our trip to the beach. Seriously, if that stupid oil spill messes with my beach trips I might sue BP too.

Dave was appropriately impressed with the gravel pit for shooting. Dave, Sylvia, my Ernie, and Isabelle had a grand time shooting watermelons, coke cans, and anything else that might explode.

It’s always fun when Sylvia and Dave and the kids get to go to church with us.

I think that Sylvia and my Ernie share an “obsession” for Big Fish website internet games.

Sylvia and Dave cracked me up with their matching iPads at church, both using the LDS scriptures app.

It wasn’t so hard to say good-bye, since we all get to see each other again in just 3 weeks! I heart the summertime :)