1.
Thomas (7 months) is pulling up on everything in sight!
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| Batting at Mama's water glass |
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| Peeking at Mama who was lying on the couch resting |
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| Trying to pull the table cloth down |
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| Digging in the garbage can |
Not at this particular incident, but one day, Thomas pulled the kitchen trash can over on himself, falling onto his back like an overturned turtle, knocking off the lid, and finding himself buried under a mound of paper plates covered in maple syrup from our pancake breakfast. Poor boy!
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| Digging in the garbage can |
BREAKING NEWS . . . Thomas can climb stairs! He discovered our front stairs this week, and began climbing them like he was an old pro. I followed behind him as a spotter just to see what he could do, and he climbed like it wasn't even a challenge. What am I in for? He's only 7 months one week old!
2.
Margaret (almost 5) is writing on everything in sight!
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| One of the stories she writes daily in her journal |
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| Labeling her half-bagel saved from breakfast |
3.
Between shoes handed down from the cousins and shoes bought at the consignment store, I rarely buy shoes. But this week, we had some shoe needs and, I think for the first time ever, I braved a store at the mall with all five children in tow to shod their little feet.
I pretty much felt like a Mommy Rock Store to have survived the outing.
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| So excited with new shoes |
4.
Morning Basket Time . . .
5.
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| Friday night restaurant |
When Chris got home from his business trip, he let me (1) lay down with the baby for a half-hour rest, (2) take a walk by myself (okay: I took pity on the 3-year-old who wanted to go with me), and (3) took us out to dinner so I didn't have to cook.
6.
On Friday night, with Daddy finally back from his trip and able to relieve me a little, John and I had our promised "date" of looking through my Grandfather Fred's coin collection, which he bequeathed to me years ago. What a delight it was to look through coins from dozens of countries around the world and as old as one hundred and sixty years! The kids were exclaiming with amazement.
7.
Blogs are funny things. We post pictures of the sweet moments. We don't post pictures (I hope) of the endless tantrums thrown by the three-year-old, or the snarky, sarcastic comments tried out by the older kids, or the Mommy-sized tantrums that plunge her into despair. It's not that a mommy blogger is trying to lie or mislead about this life, but that she wants to be encouraging and share the good times, and to preserve the dignity of her kids, and sometimes herself, during the bad times.
Nobody knows better than me how imperfect I am, how far from the mark of a Good Mother. This week I thought of what virtues I think make up a Good Mother and realized that I have very small amounts of those virtues naturally. I'm relying heavily on God's grace and working like crazy to try to give the family more of what it deserves instead of Just Me, which is who they are stuck with.
For more 7 Quick Takes Friday, head over to This Ain't the Lyceum.
Even though God is providing the Grace, they are lucky to have a mother that is seeks Him, and is willing to accept it. <3
ReplyDeleteI took my kids to the mall a couple weeks ago for some pants needs (and Children's Place was having a $9.99 sale on their jeans), and the way my kids acted at the mall kind of gave me a chuckle. They were in awe of everything, especially 3yo Alice. Obviously, we don't get to the mall often.
ReplyDelete#7...SO true. I do sometimes try to throw in some of the real angst that occurs at home in my blog posts, because I don't want to present some phony, rosy image. There are days...WEEKS...when things are not at all pretty around here, and more often than not, it's me who's causing all the turmoil. This mothering thing is full of lessons.