Mother's Day

Well, I told you I would post about Mother's Day.

Usually, we don't do anything on Mother's Day but hang out together at home. No restaurant, ect. It's a day like any other except that I don't have any "chores" to do.

Now, as my husband knows, I did not marry him for his planning ability. I am the planner. I married him in big part because he has a great sense of humor, which I, have NONE.

So, when on this Mother's Day, he decided to surprise me with an outing, I was super excited! Last year for my birthday, he tried to surprise me too (to Carlo's Bake Shop) but Nathan got sick and we couldn't go. (You see where this is going, right?)

We hurried out of church (see previous post) and after all of that commotion was through, began what he explained would be an hour and a half drive. I didn't know where we were going, but I didn't care. He was surprising me! He planned this!

One half hour into the trip, we passed our house, and headed onto Route 17 M. As we were driving onto the ramp to merge onto the highway, we all heard a "clink" like a piece of metal in the road. I turn to look out my window and see a square shaped metal object flying in the air which lands on the ground. Hmmm..what was that?

Darrin looks a tiny bit concerned, but we don't pay it much mind.

As we head onto our next highway, we notice that the air-conditioning quit. Ut Oh. Then, 40 minutes away from home, the engine temperature gauge starts rising. BEEP, BEEP our van tells us in a very panicky way.

Our engine is going to fry if we don't stop the car. So we pulled into a Quick Chek, and ordered some sandwiches.

It is very soon determined that yet again, Darrin's plans would fail, and we would need to get home.

Everyone was disappointed.

Dare I ask where we were going?

http://www.walkway.org/visit-walkway/item/general-information

Whaaah! That was going to be so much fun! What beautiful sights we would see! No fair!

After we ate our sandwiches, we decided to try to head back home, slowly. We didn't get very far when the car started screaming at us again, so we pulled into the closest place we could. Darrin got out of the car, and called his cousin who is a mechanic. I got on my phone to text friends for prayer. I didn't know how we were all going to get home. Darrin raised the hood of the car, and I looked up, only to see a cross, just above the hood. Turns out we had pulled into a Catholic High School which has a cross perched high on top of the building. The way the hood was up, I could only see the cross, just above our hood.

Lately, I have been reminded to try to find the good in things, and give thanks for everything.

(1 Thessalonians 5:18)

This means that we don't have to give thanks for every turn of events in our lives, but we should cultivate a thankful spirit, giving thanks for the good things in our lives, looking for the blessings God has given us in the situation.

In this situation, I was thankful for a husband who kept calm, and a cousin on the phone trying to help. I was thankful for a DVD player that kept Nathan entertained for a little while. And, I was thankful for my husband's planning that day, because he packed a cooler of drinks with ice. He was able to put the ice where the coolant usually goes, and that got us home.

So, once again my dear husband tried to surprise me, only to have it fail. I didn't get to see the beautiful views from The Walkway, but because I chose to see the good in the situation, I did get to see some beautiful views right here in my own backyard. Really, nothing can compare.

Always making me laugh!

It was bound to happen!

One thing that I notice is that when I meet someone for the first time and we start talking about our lives, their eyes get super wide when I mention my four children and their age ranges. FOUR! Wow!
For me, four children has never been harder then I can handle. (Five, well, that would be a different story and not one I will ever experience.) Or so I thought. Last Sunday, Mother's Day, really hit me over the head.
We went to church, brought two of our children to their Sunday school classes, and listened to our Pastors message. Darrin had told the children to hurry up after church, no doughnuts today, we are going to surprise mommy so get right in the car. So, I picked up Nathan from the nursery and headed out to the car. We're all settling in and chatting about the surprise, and Darrin says we have an hour and a half ride so we better get moving. A man named Vaughn happened to be walking out of church and saw us, so he stopped to chat for a minute. He looked in the car, and spoke to each child and just as we were saying "OK, we better get going" he says to us "WAIT! Where's Zachary???"

Turns out I never (or anyone else) got him from his Sunday School class. Yikes! We forgot to get him!

I was mortified. How could I have done that? Well, you say, it's because you have FOUR children. No way, that's no excuse. Honestly I am still getting used to the very important rule that he is not allowed to leave the classroom without someone going to get him. BUT STILL!!!

Thankfully, my family and Vaughn decided to give me grace by making a joke about the scene in Home Alone and easing my mommy guilt a bit. It was Mothers Day after all.

So I RUN into the church where Zachary and his Sunday school teacher are still waiting, and then again, receive grace when his teacher says "No problem, I was just going to take him to my house for a BBQ". And my Zachary, again, gives me grace my laughing and saying "hey mom, I'd really like to go to that BBQ one day!"

Yes, I almost left a child behind. But this Mothers Day, I received grace from friends and family. What more could a very busy mom of four ask for?

(next post, the rest of the day which included our car breaking down)

Don't Blink!

The strangest thing has happened. I blinked. In the second it took to blink, my oldest son was behind the wheel. Wait a minute! Wasn't I just buckling him in his car seat? Let me check, do his feet REALLY reach the pedals?

Yes, they do.

I took him to get his permit on his birthday. To him, this was a great birthday present. Of course he passed the written test with flying colors and the officials decided to entrust my 16 year old with a 2 ton machine that if not used properly, could result in tragedy.

Wait, where was I? Sorry.

So, he was happy that finally, after a year of counting the hours, minutes and seconds, he was rewarded with the privilege (see the underline?) of driving. I must say, he is a very cautious driver. Then again, a lot of these "backwoods country" (Thanks Lori, love that!) roads don't have lines so he has to judge which is the correct side of the road to drive on. Remember when people heard you were going to start driving? "I'll make sure to stay off the sidewalks" is what they used to say. From recent experiences, I'd say that's a good idea.

Being on the passenger side of the car your child is driving (and in your minds eye he is still buckled in his car seat drinking out of a cuppie while doing this) is hard to describe. If you want to imagine entrusting your life to your "little boy", that's exactly what it's like. Glad I was a pretty decent mom to him!

To all of you still buckling your babies in, take this as advanced warning. Oh wait. That's me too.

Happy Birthday to my forever baby. You're a great young man.

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!

A New Look!

So after HOURS of working on this, here's the new look of the blog!

Also, I have decided to post this blog to Facebook. Welcome, new readers! To read previous posts, click on the archives on the left side. Let me know what you think, and make sure to subscribe via e-mail so you are updated automatically when I post something new.