Chaos
Where there is ruin, there is hope for a treasure. - Rumi
-
By The Numbers
3 – Number of meals I prepared, consumed and cleaned up 5 – Number of small people who were bathed by me 39 – Number of tiny sunflower seed kernels that Mosely spilled when she dropped the container she was holding while trying to illegally climb up onto the counter 16 – Number of ears of corn that were shucked this afternoon 6 – Number of blood curdling screams that Mosely released after falling/scraping her elbow/ being splashed by hot corn cooking water/ being chased by Magnus/ not being able to open the door from the outside when her hands were full of dog food bowls/ expressing her displeasure at…
-
Friday Morning
Yesterday morning I broke an unwritten Keigley household rule. I turned on the television first thing in the morning. Let me ‘splain. Because Wilder had eaten breakfast off his normal routine, Kevin had already left for work before I was able to take a shower. I really wanted a shower. “Hey guys? Who wants to watch Curious George?” You might call it poor parenting – I call it buying a half hour of my life. My aspirations actually reached beyond the cleansing shower. I had just purchased some eyeliner (don’t tell Riley!) and I wanted to experiment. While in Virginia Emma had given me brief instructions on applying eye liner.…
-
Last Night
This photograph was taken last night at 10:22 p.m. Wilder was crying. Bergen popped out of his room (note the time again, please) to see what the dishwasher was doing and to offer his four year old assistance. The cell phone was beeping to let me know a text was arriving. The oven timer was screeching telling me the blueberry muffins were ready. All of the laundry in our home was clean in anticipation of our Virginia journey. (Please acknowledge with me the miracle that this feat is.) There was not even one dirty towel to soak up this mess. I think using clean towels and having to do another…
-
This Boy
This boy was shopping with his family at Hobby Lobby, searching for great Father’s Day gifts for an artistic dad. His sweet, calm, beautiful mother was patiently waiting for several pieces of art work to be framed. This little boy really needed to use the bathroom. Accompanied by his older sister, this young gentleman approached the public restroom facilities. At this particular art and hobby store, the bathroom door was located directly beside the emergency exit door. The little fellow anxiously reached for a door handle. A shockingly loud noise reverberated throughout the entire store. Apparently, this little guy had accidentally tried to open the emergency exit instead of the…
-
Mudlicious
Funny story. It had been raining all day and the sun didn’t come out until after dinner. With both mom and kids anxious for some time spent outdoors, I went against my better judgement and answered in the affirmative when four small faces requested permission to play outside. Yes, four. I even let the little Willow join her siblings for some big time play time. What with all the torrential downpours all day, it wasn’t exactly their fault that the most exciting adventures awaiting outside were discovered at the bottom of a mud puddle. I mean, they are children after all. I let the play go on as long as…
Keep Reading . . .
May’s Grove Giveaway
five finds friday (if, in fact, it actually IS friday)
This Age.
-
Maybe
So maybe I just didn’t keep up with laundry as well as I should have this week. And so maybe Piper Finnian is wearing the pajamas that she wore last night, because they were conveniently lying beside her bed where I conveniently dropped them (I mean wisely placed them) this morning. And so maybe Bergen just went to bed wearing swim trunks and a t-shirt. And maybe Mosely went to bed wearing Bergen’s Batman underoos, Bergen’s almost-too-small-for-her running pants and Bergen’s little boy white undershirt. And so maybe London is sporting a more classic pair of Bergen’s underwear – the whitey-tighties. Maybe tomorrow I’ll do some laundry. Or maybe not.…
-
In Case You Were Wondering
This is Piper. Someone, we can only assume it was a person under four feet tall, gave this not-yet-two-year-old an open box of Cheerios to look at during breakfast. I had to use the restroom during our breakfast. Silly me. Why can’t I just plan a little better? (And why does every bad/mischievous/injurious/disobedient/dangerous event occur while I am trying to spend two and a half minutes using the restroom anyway?!) I returned just in time to hear the sound of Cheerios cascading from the box to the table, to the floor, to the tiny space between the table leaf. Before I could clean up the mayhem, I heard Otto Fox…
-
I’m Not Making This Up
Today . . . . . Piper wore a tiny, tiny ponytail in her hair – Pebbles-style. It was unnecessary. But it was cute. Bergen came running into the house this morning carrying a dead bird. “Hey, Mom – I found a dead bird,” he announced. This was also unnecessary. And not cute. Riley had to receive five shots at the public health department for her upcoming adventure to Kenya. The facility was ugly, windowless and depressing. The nurse acted as if the two of us had single-handedly, purposefully set out to ruin her day. I hope if our government ever decides to choose universal health care they can figure…
-
My To-Do List
I like lists. (And the photo of Mosely has nothing to do with that. I just think everyone should look at my kids more often. ) As a kid I made loads of lists. Lists of my favorite names (I was collecting them even back then.) Lists of my favorite books. Lists of places I liked to eat, places I wanted to visit, stuff I liked to collect. I had lists of my stuffed animals’ names and everyone I could remember having ever met. (Seriously.) I typed my lists out on my cool Smith Corona typewriter. I loved that little piece of technology. All this to say, it is no…
-
Rule Breaking
Before I had children, I had a lot of good ideas concerning how to raise small people. Now that I have children, I guess I still have some okay ideas about what SHOULD be done, but my theories have not always aligned with my actions. We have broken a lot of our own self-imposed Child Rearing Rules. And it seems like the more kids we have, the more rules we break. At London’s first birthday party she was offered an organic, sugar free tower of stacked, neutral-colored “cakes”, consisting primarily of carrots and wheat germ. At Piper’s first birthday party she had a tower of box-mix cake layered with pink…
-
This is My Day
Everyone was playing happily outside. It was so nice and quiet inside. I should have known better. After all these years and all these kids . . . . I should have known better.
