Star Struck

I'm a stay-at-home mom. A housewife. A home maker. What ever you want to call it, you get my point. Thrills in my life consist of a clean kitchen, no laundry to do and finding a great deal at the grocery store. So you'll have to forgive me that this afternoon's events gave me a bit of a thrill.

There is a movie being shot here in our little ville. I can't say if it is a major motion picture or anything but it does have a big name or two starring in it. Yesterday I got a knock on the door with a woman informing me that they would be doing some filming at the home around the corner. There was also a possibility of some filming taking place on our street. She wanted to know if they could shoot the exterior of our home. Sure, why not?

Of course, I was curious about the filming that was taking place. Not brave enough to walk down the block and attempt to do some star-gawking. I was in the midst of menu planning and creating my grocery list (Friday night fun!) when Jaron requested for me to close his blinds. His room is in the front of the house and I couldn't believe the sight I saw out the window. Lots and lots of kids outside playing. Adults milling about talking. Ummm, this is very atypical of my neighborhood.

Being curious, I spotted my neighbor/friend Rachel across the street. I quizzed her as to the memo I missed. Apparently they were going to be filming in the street soon and anyone who wanted there kids in the movie could have them outside playing. Ok, I'm up for that. Thankfully I was decently dressed and Russell accommodated my request to get out of his pajamas. (It's been a thing lately for my kids, to get into their pjs at 3 in the afternoon.)

Well before too long we were outside watching a camera crew make their way down our street. And they made their way down our street and into our yard. And there stood Ben Afleck. In my yard. Yep, about 12 feet from me. Should I say that again? Ben Afleck in my yard. Eliza could have cared less as she tooled around our driveway pushing her lawn mower. I was amused about how my kids had little reaction to the small mob of people and cameras and other movie thingys as they crowded our yard and then into our driveway.

And five minutes later they were headed across the street and away. It was pretty darn cool.

Look hard at that picture. There is a ball laying in the grass. That's where he stood.

Standing at the ball looking toward where me and kids were by the garage. A picture can't capture the closeness.

Before long I was back in the house changing a blowout diaper, dealing with a toddler tantrum, and then nursing a baby on the couch looking at my toy and book strewed family room. Life goes on.

By the way, he looks like a pretty normal guy except he was wearing make-up.

Smashing Pumpkins

A few weeks ago, I asked my kids to forgo a trip to the pumpkin patch in lieu of a trip to Aldi to pick out pumpkins and a treat. And it worked! Which I was so glad it did for a few reasons. One of which, we have some super nice and thoughtful teenagers in our neighborhood who one evening thought it would be great fun to swipe all four of our pumpkins and smash them. I'm so incredibly happy that I could provide entertainment to them! And I know that teenagers are about the most thoughtless human beings on the planet, but gosh, I wish I could have had a little conversation with those guys. Because it was incomprehensible to my little people as to why someone would take their preciously picked pumpkins and ruin them.

Anyway . . . thankfully Aldi sells pumpkins cheap. Our first round of pumpkins were $1.99. My second round was $2.99 each but HUGE. So worth the money.

Clark and the kids enjoyed (maybe a relative term) carving pumpkins the other evenings. I happily ran an errand to the grocery store, observed, and worked on roasting the pumpkin seeds. A few shots of the evening, although missing was a shot of all the dishes needing attention. Lucky Clark got to do those while I worked frantically on preparations for preschool the next day.

Eliza really tackled cleaning out her pumpkin. Although at one point she got a hold of the carving knife and was going to town on it. She sure is determined to think she is capable of a lot more than she really is!

This is what Afton did for a majority of the evening until she got tired of "chilling" and requested my attention. Hopefully she doesn't feel bad in not getting her "own".

As for now, the pumpkins are safely perched on our back porch to avoid the greedy hands of those teenagers again. Maybe they'll get a second round of smashing in after Halloween.

Siblings

It's fun that I've captured two different but equally cute sibling moments today.

Sisters.
Smiling and holding hands.
(Sorry Afton I had you in something so non-girly.)

Brothers. Sharing a bed, a pillow, a treasured blanket . . . and sweet dreams.

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And I'm including a recent darling photo of darling Afton to appease a grandparent or two.
(It's late, I'm tried and too lazy to do a separate post.)

Knowing

This is Afton.

I mean, really, this picture just captures her.
She exudes happiness and joy.

In her eyes.
In her smile.
In her face.
Her whole body.
It just pours out of her.

She is only 5 weeks old and I can't wait to get to know her.

In the same breath, I feel like I already know her. How do I explain that? I feel like I recognize her. And I am reminded that she is as beautiful and lovely and joyful as I see her now. (Minus that horrible infant acne!)
I'm overwhelmed with the privilege of being her mother.

And I am joyfully, excited with the opportunity I have, of being her mother.

Back in the Pool

I took up lap swimming six-weeks after Eliza was born. I made quite an entrance apparently because I caught several people eying me. I was surprised that so many guys would find my post-pregnancy body that appealing. After a 30-minutes swim and down to the locker room to change I realized why I was being checked out. The posterior of my swimming suit had worn extremely thin and I was giving anyone who bothered to look a nice show. Oops.

Thankfully, that didn't hinder me from returning to swimming on a regular basis. I've quickly become addicted to lap swimming. Of course, I've always loved swimming. Throughout the last year and half as I've weekly visited the pool, lap swimming has become an addiction to me. It's my escape. Quiet where I only have to listen to myself. Where I work out my frustrations or my gospel doctrine lessons (although troubling when I come up with something so profound only to lack the paper and pencil to write it down). Swimming to me is better than a therapist and sometimes I think I've needed one!! But to me, best of all, a place of prayer.

I've been away from the pool some 5 weeks. Truth be told, my hiatus started about 10 days before Afton was born due to repairs on the pool. But desperation set in a week after Afton was born. I needed to swim. I was contemplating all sorts of crazy things just so I could swim. I had little patience for allowing my body appropriate recovery for fear that I was going to lose my mind in the interim.

It was so great today to finally go swimming again!! Who cares that my arms were sore in the process. It felt incredible to be enveloped in only my thoughts and water. So peaceful and calm.
And I prayed.

And prayed.

And prayed.

Amazingly, things seem more doable today.

Awesome Afton

With her budding verbal skills, Eliza struggles a bit with the "f" in Afton. Frequently when Eliza says her name it sounds like "awesome". Which, truth be told, Afton really is awesome in all her sweet baby ways. And since she in on the verge of being a month old(!) (and may I ask, where does all that time go??) I thought I would post a few recent photos. Enjoy.

Afton in a wide-awake moment.

A glimpse of her smile.

Afton has been flashing us beautiful smiles since around a week (or ten days) old. She is a very responsive smiler. It's hard to capture babies smiles though. Poor thing, she has to deal with a lot of hand-me-downs and by the fourth child I'm not too concerned if she is in pink. But I do love gluing bows to her head.

Contemplating a Conference talk (see in back ground). I would love to know her thoughts!

Doing her baby push-ups.

Who's that cute baby in the mirror?

This is something I love to see her do. Enjoy looking at herself in the mirror. Since acquiring a real dresser and mirror we took advantage of turning it into a changing station. And she loves it! I wish I had this with my other kids.

Highs and Lows

Let's be realistic here; having four young children is joyfully hard! Although Clark and I feel like we've got the zone defense down pretty well (meaning we are ok handling more children we've got hands for) things are still pretty intensive.

Having a kindergartner struggling with anxiety issues, a regressing potty-trainer, a toddler with periodic tantrums if you do something like change her out of her pjs (thankfully few and far between) and a baby who comes with all the regular baby needs . . . well things are a bit crazy. And in the course of a few hours you can go from really low to really high emotionally. I know that your hormones go a little out of whack after having a baby, but I have to say, this is the first time I've felt this emotional. Maybe it has more to do with everything that is going on that with my hormones.

But today was a perfect example. Jaron was really upset about some things and I was contending with him, attempting to feed Russell and Eliza breakfast, cooking pancakes and hoping that Afton wouldn't suddenly decide she was hungry. After finagling 4 kids into the van, back out again and "walking" to school (sorry, national walk to school day is a bit of a joke!!) and then 3 back in and home again adds to the stress. Then stuck in the kitchen on the charging cell phone making a very discouraging phone call to a doctor while nursing a baby only to hear Russell desperately calling for me to help in him the bathroom. Well, by the time I got in there, what did a find? Poo, a big pile, on the floor next to the toilet. And gosh, that was just grossly the icing on the cake at that point.

What did I do?

Put my child in the tub and sobbed, sobbed, sobbed while I cleaned up the mess. And gosh did I ever feel better. Thirty minutes later found me laughing on the phone with a friend and shortly thereafter, thrilling at Afton's huge smiles and Eliza's giggles.

And that was only until 10 AM. Highs and lows.

Things can be tough. Often time very overwhelming and discouraging. There are days and moments that I think, "I can't do this." I find myself in those times consumed essentially with fear. However, I've been pondering this quote my mom read to me weeks ago.

"I'm taken back to the importance of knowing who you are. If I believe I am the daughter of the power that created the universe, I have more power than I will ever be able to use. Now, if I believe that, then I act in a certain way. Not in arrogance, but in certainty. If I believe that I came here to be challenged and refined, to grow and develop my talents, then I should internalize that. . . . I ask young women to remember the words of the Apostle Paul to Timothy: 'For God hath not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind' (2 Timothy 1:7) If you have a spirit of fear, it didn't come from your Heavenly Father. You need to examine where it may have come from. If you're not in the appropriate frame of mind or if your behavior isn't what you want it to be, then you need to get on your knees and pour out your heart. " Catherine M. Stakes in Mormon Women

I realize in pondering this and Sister Beck's talk I need to be calling on, living worthy of, and acting on the power and direction given to me by my Heavenly Father to succeed in all that I have responsibility for. Even though we experience hard things, disappointment and discouragement I love that we are promised peace, joy and hope when we are successfully living the gospel.

I'm holding onto that as I experience life's highs and lows.