It's Time to Sleep, My Love

"It's time to sleep, it's time to sleep."

the fishes croon in waters deep. 

 The songbirds sing in trees above,

"It's time to sleep, my love, my love." 

"It's time to sleep, my love."  

"So go to sleep, my sleepy child."

the tigers whisper in the wild. 

The otter utters by the lake.

"It's getting hard to stay awake." 

"So go to sleep, my love."

"Let's go to sleep, my darling love."

so coos the sleepy turtledove.

So drones the drowsy bumblebee

inside its hive inside its tree. 

"Let's go to sleep, my love." 

"I'm getting very sleepy now."

so moos the tired milking cow. 

So croaks the almost-sleeping frog

amidst the settling of the fog. 

"So go to sleep, my love."

Your dreams will be arriving soon.

They'll float to you

in sleep's balloons.

They'll be here when I snuff the wick,

you'd better close your eyelids quick. 

So you can dream, my love, my love.

So you can dream, my love. 

And as you dream inside your sleep,

the fishes crooning in the deep, and 

all the songbirds up above

Will sleep and dream of you, my love,

Of you the one I love. 

You are loved. 

Text by Nancy Tillman 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day already seemed like a long time ago, but I still wanted to document the day.  I love being a mom, although it can be very tiring and mundane often.  I have horrible patience and raise my voice far too often.  My little guy is crazy and my big guy is seriously lacking in the listening department.  I have so much more that I need to teach them, especially about being kind and good people.  All that I'm lacking in and have yet to do with these little people can be extremely overwhelming and defeating at times.  But I know it's a learning process, and I know while I don't have forever to get it right, that my kids are forgiving enough to allow me to try again and again and get things better as we go.  I'm so grateful that I get to be on this journey with them.

I'm trying to take more "selfless" of me with the boys.  I tend to be the one always taking pictures so we 

always end up with a lot more pics of James and the boys.  I know that both the kids and myself will 

love looking back on these photos.  Even if they are not usually my most flattering pics.  

Ben showered me with homemade goodies at his preschool's Mother's Day Tea!

Love my little blonde boys! 

The Psycho's

Ben joined his first sports team and had his first practice/game this Saturday.  His team is the Cyclones. After we picked up his "jersey" and hat from his coach and after purchasing pants, socks, and a belt (the works) Ben ran home and told his dad that his team is the psychos!
We signed him up through our rec. department on a little mini league for three and four-year-olds (you couldn't be five by the time the league started so Ben barely made the cut off- he turns five in eight days!)  It's a very amateur little league to say the least and Ben definitely could have handled a more advanced team, but we missed regular Spring ball because we weren't moved yet.  So it's pretty much hilarious.  The practice (throw balls around) for the first ten minutes or so and then play a "game" against another team for about fifty minutes.  All kids on the team get to bat off a T before they switch (no outs and no keeping score).  The kiddos run one base at a team until the reach home as their teammates bat.  The other team stands in a big clump in the middle of the field and then dog piles each other as they chase after the ball.  The poor coaches out there are working just as hard as the kids trying to manage it all and keep some order to it.  Ben had fun and got a couple great hits off the T, so we love it, and Ben will be more than ready next year for Spring ball.

He was the cutest little guy out there.  But I may be biased.  

 I just love his little profile here waiting on his base for his coach to give him the go ahead to run home. 

Jackson was a proud little brother watching Ben's game.

His Daddy sure was proud too.  I love what he wrote on Instagram when I posted a pic from the game: My dreams came true today getting to watch my son play a sport he loves . . . Hopefully the beginning of a long road of great memories!

Peach Picking

We are living back in our old hometown of Brentwood for a little while.  So when in Brentwood do what the Brentwood folk do.  Go fruit picking.  All the orchards were already out of cherries, so we settled on peaches.  The trees were really low and there were lots of fruit within both boys reach.  Even Jackson got the hang of it and was pulling peaches off with both hands.  In no time at all we filled up our red bucket.  Jackson kept trying to drag it around until it got too heavy.

Then we came home and made some yummy peach cobbler!  Good ol' Brentwood.  We are glad to be home!

Summer Snipits

Just a little glimpse into our summer so far.

We have enjoyed a cold treat or two. 

A beautiful day on the beach with an old friend. 

Lots of swimming and more snacking. 

Bike rides happen almost daily. 

Brotherly bonding!  My favorite.  They love sharing a room. 

A very fun day at the fair with Mimi, Papa, and Ashlynn. 

And of course lots of lounging in the sun!

I've got lots of plans still in mind.  Mostly I just want to enjoy every day with my boys.  Jackson is getting to be at such a fun age and the best part of my day is seeing him play with his big brother.  And I've got lots and lots of blogging to catch up on, so stay tuned.  Moving always throws me off. : ) 

Rapunzel

Sometimes being a stay at home mom makes me feel like Rapunzel. If you know the new Disney movie she sings a song at the opening about all the things she does to fill her everyday as she lives a solitary life and doesn't leave her tower.

7 AM, the usual morning lineup:
Start on the chores and sweep 'til the floor's all clean
Polish and wax, do laundry, and mop and shine up
Sweep again, and by then it's like 7:15.

On those days when I'm feeling energetic and motivated with my kids the days can move so slowly. I think about all the things we have done so far and it's seriously like 10 am and I think to myself now what? But those days are always better than the lazy days that just fly by. I go to bed at night with a better conscious. Part of the reason why days more filled with activities seem to go by slower, as it seems it would be the opposite, is due to the kiddos ages right now. Projects never last long with an almost five year old and fifteen month old. I've been trying to gauge what jacky is ready for by introducing him to fingerprinting and play doh recently. We tried fingerprinting in a bag and he was mildly interested. Ben loved it on the other hand, even though I hadn't planned on him doing it also and had paper prepared. Funny kid always wants to be like baby jacky. Jackson did enjoy the play doh today although it entered his mouth twice. I thought by the look of disgust on his face the first time that there wouldn't be a second time. Well, he never ceases to amaze me that one. ; )

I also put some baking pins to use this week prompted by some very ripe bananas (the bag finger painting was another Pinterest find). Regular banana bread and a banana oatmeal muffin. It was very healthy with no butter, flour, or sugar although I may have ruined that when I topped them with mini chocolate chips. Oops.

Another fun activity we've recently added to our almost daily schedule is walking grandma's dog, Chloe. The boys love it. Ben holds the leash, running and laughing all the way. Jackson reaches for the leash from his stroller and usually gets a hold of it for a while and laughs at big brother. A couple days ago I wrote out a simple nature scavenger hunt list also found on Pinterest ( I've given up reinventing the wheel and just look to Pinterest to do my thinking for me!) Ben was so great at identifying objects to fulfill everything but it cracked me up that his second to last one remaining was "something green." I reminded him that green stuff was pretty much everywhere and then he excitedly grabbed a big handful of grass. The last remaining item was "something you think is a treasure." Before we left on our hunt he identified this item to be a coin. So all along our walk we looked for something shiny to catch our eyes. With the house just a hundred yards ahead or so I resorted to pulling a quarter out of my wallet and throwing it down on the ground where I then had to feign excitement and pointed it out to Ben. He was so excited I didn't even feel bad. Kinda like the whole Santa Claus situation. Lying for the greater good right?

Although there are days when I feel like we do several of the items listed above, and then it's 7:15 (not really that's when we wake up), I know that while the days may go by slow the weeks and months fly by. I have to remind myself often: enjoy every minute.