Family photo 2013

Family photo 2013

Monday, May 20, 2013

Warning: Your Eyes Will Grow Weary Reading This Post

Oops, I forgot to blog last week. And for a few days before that. The last several weeks are a bit of a blur.

We've been heavy in construction mode around here with Roberto el constructor doing his largest house project to date...and the man is no stranger to big fat home projects. This puppy required an entire month of vacation from work (yipee!) exactly 2x the money we budgeted for it (ouch!) and 12 to 14 to 16 hour days, from light until dark, every.single.day.of.the.week (zzzzzzz). And, in true you-can-never-really-plan-for-these-things-with-any-real-accuracy fashion, it's still not finished. It was Mr. Weather's fault. Sending that rascally moisture to ease a drought the way he did with snow first then rain, caused some significant delays. So although he's back to work at the kind of work he actually gets paid for, The Builder will continue to plug away on nights and weekends, and I'll continue to solo parent, which will continue to blur my eyes...

Stryder's birthday was May 9th. Jayla set this table for him using left over supplies from her great grandpa's 90th birthday party in April. Yep, sweet sweet girl. (See the moulding around the windows? ↓ That's part of The Never Ending Project. One of my favorite parts!)
The Birthday King. Because you can never wear too many hats at once.
Giving a pirate ship cake my best shot. Have I mentioned I'm not crafty? And that my lack of ability includes clever, cute & crafty cakes? Only about 10,000 times? I keep attempting the whole bake then cut then frost process just to show my babies that the depth of mommy's love knows no bounds. They see my strain, the sweat brimming on my brow. They observe my single minded focus. They witness the powdered sugar splattered all over my clothes. They hear the *bleep* in my vocabulary, and they know one thing to be sure: My mom must reeeeeeaaaaaaaaly care about me to put herself though this type of wicked turmoil producing me a birthday cake she found online in the Land of Dreams otherwise known as pinterest. I must be special to her. (Jayla made the treasure map and the coins.) 
The boy was happy enough.
We shared a party with some of our favorite friends whose daughter's birthday is May 9th also, at the church with bouncy houses. Fun, fun, fun for the kids! No resulting trips to the ER meant fun, fun, fun for the moms too!
This poor girl gets told she looks like her mother EVEry place we go. I mean it. Especially in the place we spent last weekend - Garden City, KS - where people knew me at her age.
Opening his gifts from the boys at the party.
The whole group.
I wanted to hide away in my room for Mother's Day, watching one episode after another of my new found favorite show Call the Midwife on my iPad, but I mostly planted the garden instead. Did I tell you Bobby was up to his eyeballs in re-siding and painting the house at that point? He offered to take the day off, but I told him no need to waste his precious, ever tick tocking hours of daylight. I would put on my farmesty pair of flip flops and get the crops in the ground so we could feed our 7 hungry mouths come harvest time. Homesteading, it's not for the faint of heart.
I did get showered with a homemade array of colorful goodness....
 ...AND made from scratch by Jayla including the crust lemon meringue pies. She even zested the lemons. That girl. She is something ELSE.

I was touched looking at all the facebook photos of mothers on that day. I thought often of what beautiful, beautiful creatures mothers are. Their hands busy with labor, their eyes lined with smiles, their arms willing to embrace, their mouths rich with wisdom, their hearts filled and overflowing with affection and adoration and care and commitment toward their children. Old or young, heavy or thin, rich or poor, they are all so very precious. No matter how big they get, to her little ones, is no one like their mommy.

Motherhood turns women into warriors. It draws out the fierce and firery and the soft and nurturing all with the very same stroke of love. It is a gift beyond measure.
When we went to the place everyone tells Jayla she looks like me to celebrate a wedding of a dear friend I met on the first day of kindergarten, Sarah, and my nephew, Ian's graduation from high school, we did a lot of this:
And this:
And when we were tired we did this:
Ian with his host of much shorter cousins:
Me in my $3 (yes! $3!) dress I wore to the wedding. Um, I am fancy.
Sorry ladies, but mine were the handsomest gentlemen in attendance...
The stunning bride, Sarah with her new husband, Randall. ♥
Me, my $3 dress and million dollar man who danced the night away with his children, winning my heart over and over again with each new song and silly move.
The kids outside the reception which was held in an old renovated barn (which probably took twice the money and time to overhaul...☺) that was cozy and full of rustic charm.
I still have Stryder's birthday letter to write and there is lots I'd like to say about the value of enduring friendship that I've learned through my time spent with the gentle and tender hearted, yet iron willed, Sarah, but alas even a long winded person like me can see this post is far too long. Perhaps,  on another day....

1 comment:

Lindy said...

Not only did the pirate cake look great, my son had the audacity to tell me that it was the best home made icing he's EVER had! After I recouperated from the shock and painful blow of learning that MY icing is not the best he's ever had, I thought I'd pass along the compliment to you. :) Good job!

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