tiff

Does Just Being Alive Ever Get You in Trouble?

 

This is an e-mail I found in my in-box tonight from Audrey.  What she is referring to is the screaming coming from upstairs as Tom and I are downstairs yelling for the children to get in the car so we can go out to eat.

Audrey's e-mail:

i did not do any thing to Jake i was just alive and ready to go to Pei Way!

Okay, this is hilarious to me!  You gotta think of this from a kids point of view.  It has to feel like sometimes just breathing is enough to get you in trouble!  This sums up the frustrated life of a 10 year old girl who has to deal with a whiny little Mamma's boy of a brother!  I feel your pain Audrey!  I am known to get myself into trouble with Daddy for things such as - singing the same line of a song over and over,  boldly announcing,  "the thing is" and then not saying anything else, or perhaps it's even the little bewitched thing I do with my nose about 100 times a day!  Oh my list of annoying trouble making habits could go on and on.  Only thing is I don't have the excuse  of being 10 and still learning how to breathe without getting in trouble, I should have this figured out!

I had to post this picture of our ode to Snow White as i think Audrey feels like life is handing her a poison apple right now!

 

Lilly Belle!

 

Isn't she a pretty thing?  (said in my best Southern drawl) I needed some puppy love right now as I am really missing my Sam.  He is staying in Winnie with Paw Paw, who I am certain is loving him like crazy, but I still miss the little rascal!  So here is a picture of the most lovely little Yorkie girl we know - Princess Lilly Belle!  She belongs to my PFF (Professor Friend Forever) and combined they are an irresistible combination of charm and love and sunshine and all things happy and good!  Yes, they are hands down the most charming, sweet, adorable Southern Belles you will ever come across!  Their radiance will make you happy to be alive.  You can't visit these two and come away without feeling their sunshine.  And you really should try to visit them, your life will be changed in the most sparkly of ways if you do!

Upside Up!!!

 

I was not having the best of days. Unexpected news changed an oh so normal day into an uh oh day.  So I'm in the bathroom crying and Jake comes in and does this contortionist thing on my stool and says "Mom, you got to keep your upside up!"  This is a favorite phrase of his.  Instead of noticing when something is upside down, he will point out when something is upside up!  He could see that I was certainly upside down and needed a little pep talk.  All will be well.  So much to be thankful for...my cup runneth over. 

We are packing up our home and getting ready to put it on the market.  I have done very well with this until Tom took something sentimental off the wall and then I lost it.  But that little something can go with us wherever we end up!  The key word here is wherever "we" end up. As long as our little crew is together we can hang in there and wait for sunny weather!

He sleeps so well because he knows he's loved...

I rarely remember lines from movies, but from the first time I heard this quote from the movie Gladiator it has stayed with me always.  I cried when I heard that line spoken for the first time and I cry every time I've thought about it since.  In the movie it is spoken in reference to a sleeping child who lays in the sweet slumber of one who knows they are loved.  This scene in the movie just does me in because I didn't sleep so peacefully as a child.  My parents divorced when I was very young, and I had a childhood filled with longing and hurt and an unexplainable emptiness.  With the death of my parents marriage, everything I knew about love died too.  I felt nothing for many years and spent most of my youth searching for something I really knew nothing about.  It wasn't until Audrey was born that the hollow in my chest was filled and all my questions about love were answered.  It all came clear what I should have been feeling for all these years but was unable to reach by myself.  Love is something that is shared and you simply can't experience love without someone giving you the gift.  If I am ever proud of anything, it is that my children will never go one day without knowing they are loved and cherished by me.  I can't go back and make the child in me understand that she too was loved, but I can go forward and love my children until my heart bursts.  So when I tuck my baby Jake in bed at night and look down at him sleeping that beautiful peaceful sleep, I think to myself he has all he could ever need... he has my love and that is why he sleeps so well.

Not Giving Up....

Today is ash Wednesday and it is Christian custom to give something up, but that just doesn't work for me right now.  Instead I'm adding something to my life.  Not that there aren't plenty of things I should be doing away with in my life...let's not get into that, okay Mom!  Here's the plan for my lenten season...I am going to go steady with my husband.  If you are one of my children you may want to stop reading, as this will sound disgusting and mushy and ooey gooey lovey and you won't want to picture us this way!  Yep, I have a major crush on my husband and I am going to make sure he knows it!  So get ready honey, there's a lotta lovin headed your way!  Not that he needs or wants more from me, but life with kids can make you more focused on whose turn it is to give the kids a bath or who needs to fill the water bottles in the morning than the needs of your sweetheart.  Ash Wednesday is to remind us of Jesus' sacrifice for us, so I am choosing to sacrifice for my husband.  This won't be hard since he is pretty easy to love. 

Just look at this picture - no words necessary here - this is why he's so easy to love!  By the way, the addition of this picture was motivated by Deb!  I do need to post more pics of my husband.  I am not the widow Heath, I really do have a handsome husband, but since Jake is just a smaller version of his Dad, pictures of Jake represent both of the men in my life!

Nobody can do for little children what grandparents do. Grandparents sort of sprinkle stardust over the lives of little children.

In the heat of a good battle with me, Jake has said "fine, I'll just run away."  If he did indeed run away, I know right where to look.  He'd run straight to the front porch of Paw Paw and Maw Maw! They adore their little man and he knows it.  He rules their world when he's around.  It warms my heart to see how special they make my boy feel.   When my Mom and Dad love their grandchildren, they aren't just loving them they are loving me too. 

The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. ~Nicholas Sparks, The Notebook

 

I found these girls on my doorstep today and couldn't get the door open fast enough to let them in!  We are surrounded by happiness and all that is good when they are here!  Don't wait so long to come home to us! 

When I get married....

 

Jake put on his black cowboy boots and said "When I get married Mom, I'm gonna wear these boots but in another size".  Boy is always thinking about the ladies!

The Climbing Tree...

    

A Woman's Right to Shoes!

and not just any shoes mind you... clickety clack shoes!  Girls under the age of ten probably haven't been watching Sex in the City but that doesn't stop them from sharing Carrie Bradshaw's undeniable love affair with shoes!  Carrie and her girls get "shoe drunk" quite often and so do Audrey and her crew!  Anytime she has her girls over, they manage to land in my closet amongst all my shoes and proceed to try on every flat, pump, boot, stiletto, you name it, until they find the most delightful (and usually the most expensive) pair of "clickety clack" shoes I own.  My first response upon seeing these children with woobly ankles abusing my shoes by carelessly prancing around unaware of the scraping and scuffing they are inflicinting on my babies is "not those!  anything but those!  go right back in there and find another pair".  To which Audrey replies, "but Mom we have to have the clickety clack ones".  Now upon hearing the magical words "clickety clack" all arguments cease.  I get this!  I know the only cure for a girl has shoe fever is to find the clickety clack ones.   I too feel the need to strut around making little tapping noises with my feet and feeling oh so glamarous.  Girls must clickety clack, that's what it means to be female.  So next time you see me in my most fabulous heels and they look like they've taken a beating, you'll know they've previously been worn by Audrey and her clickety clacking company!

This is a picture of my favorite clickers at the moment.  I can't seem to get enough of red and yellow shoes, they own me!  Don't look at my feet, just look at the shoes, my feet look creepy in this picture and in real life!  I have old lady feet, but I just use that to my advantage and buy more shoes to cover them up!

Help, my mouth has reproduced!

My nickname as a young child was Windjammer.  The wind was always flapping between my lips. I talked all the time.  I even used to tape record my own voice and play it back to my ever adoring ear over and over.  I'm quite certain when I was just a wee tot my parents probably thought all that talking was reason enough for them to hit the bottle, or work long hours, or whatever else they could do to escape the Windjammer!  I know I drove them crazy with my nonstop jabbering.  They like to laugh about it now that they don't have to endure it on a daily basis.  They say everything you do to your parents as a child comes back to you through your own children.  Well, "they" are right and now my own loose lippped child is torturing me in the same way I tortured my parents 30 years ago!  Somewhere inside I've always know Jake had my mouth, but I've kind of supressed it and tried to avoid the subject and prayed just maybe I was wrong.  He was a late talker, thank you for that God, but as the years went by I could see his ability to talk like his Mamma getting perfected.  Just today I realized he has officially come to be a full blown spawn of the Windjammer.  When I got home at 7pm after being with Jake all day I walked in the door glared at my innocent husband and said "I need a mental vacation".  I just had to transport myself to a place where I couldn't hear the little Windjammer saying things like "what does this button do Mom, Mom, Mom, I wish these seats were heated...Mom, if I start driving I'm going to concrete so hard and not blink, did you hear that mom, not blink one time while I drive because you have to concrete so hard to drive...if I roll this window down and stick my arm out will it get cut off...did you know that blood is black in bad guys...I could cut open a bad guy and show you...I could karate chop a bad guy...but then will I get arrested mom, if they fill out a ticket on you do you go to the judge...I'll be a judge mom and say court is on the session..."

Are you crazy yet?  Good, I'll meet you in the nut house!

Show and Tell... All Your Mom's Secrets!

Jake said he couldn't decide between these two choices for Show and Tell this week:

1.  A wine stopper - "I'm gonna ask all the kids raise your hand if you like wine, and then okay raise your hand if your Mom likes wine".

2.  A paper clip - "With this clip I'll show the kids how to bend it to make a thing to pick your teeth with".

Pretty Girl to Fall in Love With!

   Just wanted to post a picture of a sweetheart of a girl for Valentine's Day. Her Mamma better watch out - those are eyes a boy can get lost in!

Listen Up Class! Today's Subject is Love, and your Professor is 6...

Ask Jake how big his heart is and he'll probably put his two fists together and show you how big his brain is (we just learned that in Kindergarten), but hang around awhile and you'll see first hand how big his heart is.  Truly he makes me melt sometimes with his sweetness.  Now don't get me wrong, he can be the terror of our house!  But when he's "on", he's got a lot of genuine love to share. This is an example of Jake love at it's finest - when Audrey and I are arguing or I am getting on her about something and he can tell that she is sad or hurting he says to her "I believe in you Audrey".  Sorta like he saying when the world is against you, I've got your back.  Those few words speak volumes to me.  What more do you need in life than someone who believes in you?  Thank you for your wisdom Jake.  So maybe today there is someone who really needs you to believe in them.  Look around, find that person, and tell them "I believe in you". 

 

Did I Really Just Hear That?...

Typical Saturday afternoon in the Heath House - Jake begging and pleading with Audrey to let him go with her across the street to play with the three neighbor girls.  Audrey using all the big sister power she possess to keep him out of her life ... Jake makes one desperate attempt to persuade her.

- his final plea, "I won't pick my butt". 

Me in the kitchen holding my head and reaching for the wine bottle saying "I did not just hear that!"

On another note.  I have talked about Jake "vogueing" when he sees my camera - proof below!

Tender Hearted...

"Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution." - Kahlil Gibran

 

When I witness sweet exchanges between my kids, I feel like I might actually be doing an okay job at this mothering thing.  If there is nothing else I can give my children, I know I can pass along to them my tender heart.  I cry easy and often, usually from hapiness but sometimes from deep sorrow over someone else's broken life.  I have always let my kids see me cry and encouraged them to feel deeply for life - the dark and the light.  It takes a strong person to bear their soul to others and in that way we connect and break barriers and hold hands and help each other make the day. 

Fresh....

So now I'm thinking about babies...  look at this one fresh from the vine!  I took these pics awhile back but it's nice to go back and get another eye cuddle!

These are for you Mom!

I am not happy with these pictures but my Mom keeps asking me "Where is the picture of the tree?  Did you get a good picture of the tree?  You probably didn't because you weren't far back enough.  You've got to start getting more of the scenery.  You get so close to people...." and on and on.  So here you go Mom!  Now next time Mom, you can push the button or climb the tree or whatever makes you happy and you'll probably get a super picture because you're usually right!

As for Jake, he's just impossible to photograph these days.  He is the king of the chessy smile and he "vogues" for the camera in true Madonna style.  Lucky for Tom I can't have any more babies because right now I am looking at my camera thinking...if only I had a sweet little newborn I could put a hat on and roll into a ball and lay on a soft blanket and take pictures of all day long...since that is out of the realm of possibilities I'll have to lay low until the twins come home from college and then I'll stalk them with my camera for awhile!

 

Forecast Cloudy...

This sweet girl is under the weather.  She has been telling me for days she didn't feel good and the "carry on" kind of Mom that I am I have sent her off to school with a few cough drops and a kiss on the head.  Well, today she goes into the office with a fever after having worn her teacher's sweater all day at school.  Bad Mom, very bad Mom!

If it makes you happy....

Makes me happy…

Buying anything at Target on sale.  Breakfast cooked by my husband.  Having Jake fall asleep on the couch while I’m watching American Idol and rubbing his back.  A razor that doesn’t leave bumps.  Jillion calorie yummies from Starbucks. Audrey when she doesn’t know I’m listening to her sing. Stationery. My jovial husband. Two girls with the last name Heath. Izzie drinks. Mail and packages. Friends, friends, and more friends. Making my friends happy. Simple gifts. My Jake’s voice. My Mom doing all my dirty work and being so darn good at it. Anyone under 7 years old that spends their day in my Kinder Cottage. My new American Living bedding.  Having time to think but not overthink. All shades of the color blue. Comfortable high heels. Not having to go to the grocery store. Avacados, strawberries, and asparagus.  When my children eat any of the aforementioned items.  Fleamarkets.  Anything genuine. My passport with lots of stamps in it.