sailing

there's a family from our congregation at church who have a sailboat and they invited us to join them saturday on a little sailing trip. so we went. we were so excited to take the kids. ryan and i went on a sailing trip right before we got engaged as a farewell to summer (and to each other, as we were going to be spending the semester apart) so we really built the experience up.

and then the trip got going. and it was nothing like we'd told the children. to start with, there was wind. and wind, if you didn't know, makes waves. and waves make the tiny boat you're trying to sail on rock. a lot. A LOT. like, A. LOT.

there was a moment when i looked over the side of the boat and saw an enormous wave and it was heading straight towards us and i knew that this wave was going to be the wave to end all our lives. and so did ava and seth. and as this wave rushed towards us and we did absolutely nothing to stop it, seth clung to me and cried, "why did we get on this boat?" ava hid her head, clung to her can of pringles chips and sobbed. yes, she was sobbing.

instead of being terrified of this rogue wave threatening the lives of my little family, i turned on my mommy mode and chirped brightly, "it's okay! look! that wave isn't that big! and our boat is so strong! and we'll keep floating!" and my children glared at me. while sobbing. and ryan and i looked at each other and did the only thing we could think of doing: we laughed.

meanwhile: kate stood, in her life jacket that literally doubled her tiny stature, in the middle of the boat and watched everything happening around us. that child is fearless.

some pictures of our trip:

us, the happy crew before we actually knew what sailing was

being walked. like a dog. this is also the handle we used to keep her from falling when she stood during the trip

post boat-trip car-trip. want to get your children to SLEEP? take them sailing.

winter song by ingrid michaelson and sarah bareilles

yeah, i know we're coming up on the last of may and the weather has been 80-something the last few days, but i just found this song and i had to share it. what amazing harmonies! perhaps this winter song will cool us down a little.

uncle michael!

uncle michael came to town for a quick weekend.

it started off friday, when he came over to watch seth and kate while i went to a special mother's day lunch at ava's school. she loved it. she spent the whole time staring at me and giggling. of course, she was way more excited for the father's day lunch the following week, but who in this household isn't more excited about ryan?

while ava and i lunched michael and seth watched avengers cartoons and talked about superheroes. of course.

then everyone wrestled for a little while.

then i went to best buy to pick up my lens (!!!!!) and we went over to grandma and gradpa's for dinner. kate and grandpa in the driveway:

the day ended with lots of races run in the backyard. kate, the slowest one, LOVES to race.

nothing like a little early morning batman

sassafrass

ava's got some a-ti-tude! and it is alarmingly sharp. if she doesn't get enough sleep? well, then you'd better WATCH. OUT. she's got this sigh and this eye roll and this thing she does with her hand that's like a flip and in one, tiny gesture she's telling you that what you're saying isn't worth the time and the effort you're taking to say it.

 

it's exhausting me. i've been sending her to her room to chill out and when you come out, i tell her, let's start again with kindness.

 

and then she's stalking off to her room, one hand on her hip, the other hand doing that little hand flip thing and she's saying, "i think someone else  could use some time to chill out. this isn't just my problem."

 

heaven help me. i must get through the next...twelve years. and perhaps more. because these days just making it to eighteen doesn't actually guarantee you an empty nest. what if we make it to eighteen and she sticks around and that sticking around costs me my sanity?

 

i heard that when one is dealing with awful teenagers, one should pull out a sweet photo and stare at it until they don't feel anything but love for the awful teenager. i caught this one of ava the other day and i think i'll put it up in the house and give it a good long stare when little miss thang gets a little too sassy.

we got our hands on a camera

stop and take a picture

people try to take my picture and i worry. does my hair look okay? is this outfit flattering? the funny thing is, the only time i really think about what i'm wearing or what my hair is doing is when the camera is in front of my face (so i look awful). oftentimes, i shy away from having my picture taken. my mom does that, too. she takes her glasses off, she arranges her bangs, she asks me to stop.

so i do.

but then she had a stroke. and i realized that if she had died, i would only have a handful of pictures. and only a few of those had my children in them. and that was unacceptable. when my mother is no longer with us, i'm not going to look at the pictures we have and wonder why she wore that sweater, why she didn't look better, i'm just going to be plain old grateful.

from now on, we're taking pictures! and we're not going to worry that we look fat, that our face is splotchy, that our clothes aren't cute. we're just going to be grateful that in the future when things are different, we can look back and remember, that in may of 2012 we stopped long enough to take a picture.

also: yay! my mom is home!