With temperatures expected to peak well into the triple digits over the next few days, I decided to take the kids to the beach one last time before we hibernate in our air conditioning. Baby E likes the beach. And he hates it. And then he likes it again, but only until he hates it.

He had gotten pretty fussy for awhile, so I found a spot on the beach close enough to the water to keep an eye on Big E as he splashed around, but far enough away to stay dry, and I sat down with Baby E on my lap. I showed him some rocks and some shells and he turned them over in his hands, practicing these new words. That’s when I felt it, a sharp sting right below my neck. My mind was still processing what was happening when Baby E jumped and let out a yelp. Immediately he started screaming and holding his head. It took me a beat to figure out what was happening as I looked up and glanced around just as another rock flew past us. There was a kid, probably about 8 years old, in the water about 15 feet in front of us, hurling rocks at the beach, and consequently us!! And while his mother stood right there doing nothing, I confess that I yelled at him before he could release his next arsenal. Baby E sat there in my arms crying and crying, as I’m trying to explain to this child over his screams that he needed to stop NOW. And the mom just stood there!! No apologies. No telling her kid to stop. She just stood there. Ugh. The kid got the message though and dropped the remaining rocks in his hand and wandered off to play somewhere else. Baby E cried for awhile, and considering how much it hurt when the rock hit me, I am sure it was much worse to receive that blow to the head.

We left when the beach closed, got home, got showers, and had dinner after the sun had gone down. Getting the kids down was pretty easy, and as Baby E laid in his crib I leaned over, rubbed his hair and said, “I love you.” To my surprise, he said it back!

“I love you!” That was the first time he has ever said that to me and my heart is overflowing. In that moment, I was reminded that it has all been worth it- the long nights, all the sicknesses, the fatigue, and all the ups and downs from the past year and a half, because that little boy up there loves me… and there’s nothing better than that!

If you have spent any amount of time around small children, I think you would conclude as I do that their minds and mouths are incredibly unpredictable. They have the ability to vacillate between sometimes painful truthfulness and outlandish fantasy. Sometimes what they say is completely hilarious, sometimes it hits a little too close to home, and often it is heart meltingly sweet and compassionate.

And there are also the phrases that they throw out that make you stare at them slightly dumbfounded, shaking your head in disbelief. Did my kid just say that? 

So I’ve compiled a short list of phrases that my children have tried out on me, that I’ll be honest, drive me crazy!

1- Why do I have to do everything?!?! We were sitting down for dinner this evening when C, who was holding a foam sword gestured with it and knocked over her cup of water. I handed her a dish towel and she looked at me and said emphatically, Why do I have to do everything?!?! Ummm. Come again. Last time I checked kid, Daddy and I pay the bills, cook the food, wash the dishes, do the laundry and so many more things you never even realize! Not sure where you learned this phrase, as it isn’t one we use around our house. We each contribute what we can to make our home run as smoothly as possible, and as you get older, you will be contributing more and more! 🙂

2- I’m scared!! Now inherently this phrase is not bad. I totally understand that little kids get scared. They have crazy imaginations that can turn dark rooms into creepy caves, and staircases into insurmountable mountains… however, when I am standing in the hallway and ask you to go to the bathroom three feet away from me, the phrase I’m scared loses all meaning!

3- I’m too tired! I’m not sure how it is in your house, but my children are amazing balls of energy, dancing and singing and playing right up until the very moment I say it is time for bed. All of a sudden everyone gets jelly legs and are suddenly incapable of climbing the stairs or brushing their teeth.

4- But he likes it!! I’m pretty sure when you run up to Baby E and try to tickle him, or hug him and he lets out that unearthly scream that can leave your eardrums ringing, its probably a sure fire sign that HE DOES NOT LIKE IT!

5– I don’t like that. This phrase in connection with me placing a freshly cooked meal in front of my kids has the ability to send small children to their rooms to think about their culinary choices. After all, MAN CANNOT LIVE ON PB&J ALONE!!!

I’m sure there are more that aren’t coming to mind, but these are definitely the ones that get the most play in our house. Now it is your turn. What phrases do your kids say that get you every time!

Leave a comment and Baby E will randomly pick a winner to receive an awesome-yet-to-be-decided prize delivered straight to your door via amazon prime! Have fun! 

As I drove home this evening, I decided to take the kids to the beach after picking them up. It has been a little while since we have been there, and while it was hot outside, it didn’t rival the heat we had last week. However, once I picked up the kids I found out that C had run outside in her bare feet and had cut the bottom of her foot. It certainly looks worse than it is, and it isn’t causing her too much pain, but the thought of her getting sand in it made me rethink our trip to the beach, so instead we went to the boardwalk and walked around for awhile.

The sunset was perfect this evening.

The big kids enjoyed running up and down the pier and climbing up to look over the edge to spot jellyfish while Baby E made friends with everyone he passed. At the first sign of a meltdown, I packed up the kids and we headed home.

After dinner, everyone was ready for bed, so after laying Baby E in his crib, I crawled into C’s bed for some much needed cuddle time. I loved having her arms around my neck and her face resting up against me. After some time with her, I moved over to Big E. He stroked my face and showered me with kissed while I laid next to him.

No matter what kind of day I am having, I can be assured that a few quiet moments with my loves can set just about anything right!

I took the kids for a walk on the boardwalk this evening, which lasted a total of 15 minutes before they started melting down, so we came home\. One of C’s favorite meals is french toast, so I decided to make that tonight. For my kids that usually don’t eat much for dinner they absolutely downed the french toast with the big kids eating three slices each. Hopefully their full bellies will give them a full night’s sleep!

No one ever warns you about how motherhood will change your friendships.

Before I became a mom, our group of friends was pretty varied. We hung out with men and women- some were single, some were married, and very few of them had kids. After C was born and the dust began to settle, I began to look around and realized that in the matter of a few months our entire social structure had altered. Our single friends started to disappear. Our married (without kids) friends started to fade as well. And since I didn’t know very many people with kids, our social circle got very small indeed.

Thankfully I was introduced to a group called MOPS (mothers of preschoolers), which is a group created specifically to address that demographic. At the meetings I began to meet a lot of women that were experiencing the same season of life as I was, and we could relate to each others stories about things like sleep schedules, car seats, and diaper creams. But more than that, they were women that I could connect to on a deeper level, that shared the same kind of joys and fears that I did.

Over the years I have drawn closer to these women and I am blessed to have them in my life. I’ve been fortunate enough to serve on the MOPS steering team for a few years and Retreat Weekend is always a highlight of my summer. We spend the weekend planning the coming year, divvying up jobs, and learning more about God and each other. Each of these women has had a positive impact on the way I parent my children, and the way I interact with other women. They are special in my life and I love them. I look forward to seeing what this year has in store!

And as much as I loved retreat, I really did get excited about getting back to these three!

MOPS steering retreat day 1 is complete and I have to tell you that I am very excited about our theme and the women that are working so hard to get it all together this year!!

Despite our town’s farmers’ market being mere blocks from our house, we hadn’t made it there at all since it opened at the beginning of May. So this evening I picked up the kids and we headed over. It was good to run into people that we knew and the kids really enjoyed the kettle corn and the italian ice. We took a walk to the end of the pier and then we headed home. Unfortunately it was way too hot to stay much longer than that!

The kids loved seeing the mural on one of the buildings (how long has it been there? I have no idea.) They took turns posing in front of it.

Do you know why my son is crying?

He wants a waffle.

Baby E is obsessed with waffles. In fact, he sees them everywhere. Holding a hash brown? He thinks its a waffle. The magnets that hold your shower curtain to the inside of your tub? Waffle.

He asks for waffles when he wakes up. He asks for more waffles after he has taken two bites of his first waffle. Has it been ten minutes since his last waffle? He’ll ask for another. Lunch? Waffle. Dinner? More Waffles. Even putting him in his crib at night he begs for one more waffle.

Now before you think that maybe he calls all foods waffles, I should tell you that this child knows his own mind and he knows that not all foods are created equal and when he wants a waffle, he will accept no substitute.

So tonight, when I gave him his dinner he begged for a waffle. I said no. His plate was covered in pasta, chicken, and veggies and he wanted a waffle. Sorry sir, not tonight. And so he did the only thing he knows how to do in the face of tragic disappointment, he screamed and shrieked and carried on in hopes it would change my mind. It didn’t. He never got a waffle tonight. He cried for one as I laid him down.

Tomorrow, son, tomorrow.

But it got me thinking… tonight my son cried like the world was ending over a waffle.  Oh that our problems were that simple. He has no idea that half a world away a man drove a huge truck into a crowd of people that had gathered to watch fireworks. He doesn’t know that dozens of people died senseless deaths and he doesn’t understand how much pain and heartbreak is going on in the world, and how as individuals, we are powerless to stop it. There are broken bodies and broken families going through hell right now, in the early stages of a lifetime of grief. My heart aches for them as the sun will soon rise on a wounded people and a wounded country.

Tonight I pray for Nice. I pray for comfort. I pray for relief. I pray for peace.

When I was 13 I had a friend, my best friend. She was everything that I was not- tall, blonde, beautiful (I was always referred to as ‘cute’ growing up, and as any 13 year old girl can tell you, that is not the same as beautiful.) I grew up in a conservative home and much to my embarrassment, I was always considerably behind when it came to pop culture references, (I never knew the latest bands or the newest movies.) But she had embraced them all. I was shy, she was confident. I was timid, she was carefree. I was terrified of boys, but she captivated them- and to my 13 year old mind, she was exotic.

We were practically inseparable.

We’d skip out on riding the bus after school sometimes and walk the four miles to my house. Every weekend we were together. We’d make up ridiculous dares for each other, and laugh as we did them. We listened to music. We explored in the woods. We even joined a beauty pageant because we thought it would be fun. It wasn’t. 

I remember her mother used to drive us to a lake where we would go camping on long weekends. Her mom drove a pick up truck with a cap over the bed and we would pile blankets and pillows into the back. Her mom would tell us to lie low so cops couldn’t see us and she would drive the 2-3 hours to the lake, all the while drinking a beer as she drove.

(At this point, I’m pretty sure my mother is having a heart attack, because like a typical teenage girl, I always left out a few details!) 

We certainly did our fair share of stupid, silly, crazy teenage things (which thankfully never included drinking or drugs) and also, thankfully did not involve social media and the internet. But she was my best friend and I loved her.

We grew apart a few years later, but I often think of her with fondness and wish her well.

I look at my own kids and wonder how they will navigate the difficult years of adolescence. What things will they do and hide from me? What will their rebellion look like? As a parent, I think the best you can hope for is that all of the teachable moments, all the lessons learned, and the time spent together will somehow sink into their little minds, and are quickly recalled when the time is right. You hope that your own shortcomings don’t sabotage your hard work and that your children will remember the better version of yourself. You feed into them the values and truths you hold dear, repeating them and practicing them in your daily life. But mostly, I think you pray and hold on for the ride.

My children will grow up and they will have to abide with the decisions they make, but I desperately pray that those decisions are rooted in something far more sturdy than their peers and their culture. I pray they learn that their value is greater than their appearance or their success, and that their worth is not determined but their weight, their grades, or whether or not they have a significant other. Their worth lies squarely on the outstretched arms of the One who made them and gave all for them. Only when they accept that will they be free to love without condition, risk failure, and handle heartbreak and rejection in a way that does not damage themselves or others.

The bay was angry tonight, the lapping waves replaced with crashing surf stretching the water high up on the shoreline. No sooner had the frothy whiteness receded back into the surf then it was once against thrust onto the waiting sand. The kids approached it gingerly, curious about what it contained. Baby E stared comfortably from a distance, unwilling to venture any closer.

The shoreline, normally riddled with shells and stones, had been smoothed over by the rushing water, refusing permission to anything that wanted to stay. Big E was the first to take a running leap into the crashing waves, water splashing as his feet dug into the mud. Not to be outdone by her little brother, C skipped in after him, much to his delight.

They lost interest quickly in the water, though, and instead scoured the beach for crab shells and horseshoe crabs, while Baby E, a stick in his hand, positioned himself on the edge of the water hollering at the waves as they crashed around him.

We stayed until the beach closed, the sun set casting long shadows on the turbulent waters. We cleaned off the sand before piling into the van to come home. We ate a quick dinner and I ushered them upstairs to bed with no complaints. Tonight they were definitely ready.