We made it to the new house around 8:30 this evening. Tim had called me when I was still at work and said that he had gotten off early and wanted to go home and surprise the kids and take them out to the new place. I got there before him and I couldn’t wait to see their faces when he walked in the door. I wasn’t disappointed. When they saw daddy walk in and heard his voice all three kids squealed and ran towards him. I know he misses them dearly during the week and the feeling is mutual. Tim drove them in the van and enjoyed his time with them. When we finally got here it was time for bed. I just checked on the kids and everyone is asleep, even Tim, curled up next to Baby E. 🙂

There’s a peninsula at the end of our beach that we have never been around. As you can see from the first picture of Baby E, half of the beach is lined with cliffs. Over the years, the cliffs have eroded and the trees have tumbled one by one onto the beach below. The waves batter them and strip them of their excess, leaving bare skeletons of wood that the children love to climb and play on. If you follow the beach to the end, there is a secret spot, a small path behind the large roots of a fallen tree. The secret spot isn’t my favorite to be honest, because the ground ceases to be sandy, and the beach is replaced with a thick, clay mud that smells if the tide is low. But there is never anyone there, so the kids call it their secret lab and they love to explore. For the first time we have been in the secret area, the water was low enough for us to venture around the small peninsula. I wondered what lay on the other side, and to my surprise, there was a very small sliver of beach over there too. Very small. The water splashed up on it and nearly hit the cliff. There was also a small cave, the type of thing that would be fun to let the kids crawl in if I thought it wouldn’t collapse in on them. But really, one of the most fascinating things about the cliffs is that the water has been chewing on them for close to forever. Sticking out of the very hard, packed cliffside are huge shells being slowly revealed by the crashing waves. I wonder what the world looked like when those shells weren’t wedged into the side of a cliff and I wonder what it will look like long after we are gone. We spent nearly two hours on the beach this evening, only noting the passage of time when we realized we were the only ones left. I hope when my children are grown they will remember these moments and think back on their long childhood evenings with a sense of nostalgia and a continued desire to explore.

The cliffs behind Baby E reach about 20-30 feet in the air. Some old trees sit dangerously along the edge, their roots mostly exposed.

Baby E is steering his boat. 

This is the pathway to the secret area. Even the path itself was different last year, a testament to the ever changing shoreline.

Ankle deep in clay and waves. 

Touching the shells that are embedded in the cliff wall.

Enjoying some ‘friends’ in the water. 

The kids’ daycare had an ice cream party at a local ice cream shop this evening. We were all pretty excited to find out that all of their ice cream is lactose free, and that a lot of them were also vegan. We don’t get to eat much in the ice cream department, but tonight we gobbled up our dessert!

This afternoon I had a dentist appointment. I had a crown that wasn’t put in place correctly years ago and it needed to be replaced. Even with the novocaine, my mouth was pretty sore when I left the office. I’ve never been a fan of getting dental work done, but I’m trying to get it all done in the next few months. The best part about visiting my dentist is that they have tvs on the ceiling and you get to choose the program you want to watch while they are working in your mouth, so I got to enjoy an episode of Psych this afternoon during my torture session.

My daughter made this cute dinosaur in art class. I liked him so much I brought him to work to be my editing buddy!

This evening we met up with my brother-in-law and his family at the local beach. The weather was warm enough for swimsuits and the kids couldn’t wait to get in the water. The temperature dropped quickly, but they didn’t seem to notice and contented themselves with playing in the sand and water.

After playing for awhile, we all came back to my in-laws’ place and had pizza and let the kids run around some more. It was such a relaxing evening and I enjoyed spending the extra time with this part of our family. Even though we all live relatively close together, we don’t see each other as often as we would like. I’m going to try to squeeze in as much family time as I can over the next few months!

I did something big today… something that scared me and I’m still processing. I’ll open up about it in the days and weeks to come, but for now I just need to sit and think. Don’t worry, it’s a good thing. It’s a wonderful thing, but it’s a change and change comes difficult to me, but as I watched my children play at the park this evening, I knew I had done the right thing.

While visiting the insect petting zoo yesterday, they offered for each of the kids to take home a ladybug in a small container with a wet cotton ball. My children love ladybugs, so they jumped at the idea of keeping one as a pet. They each chose one out and spent the rest of the day carrying it around.

C named hers Spots, because, you know ladybugs have spots.

Big E called his Wild, because when he first picked up the little container, it was running around ‘wild’ inside.

Baby E didn’t name his, but was just as enthusiastic.

The big kids labeled theirs as soon as they could so they wouldn’t mix them up.

Fast forward to today when it was time to head home from the new house. I was afraid the kids were going to push the idea of keeping their ladybugs as pets, but thankfully they seemed happy with the plan to take them outside and let them go on a nearby plant. Both Spots and Wild had been sitting in their containers on the counter, but Baby E had left his in the van. So I went out to get the poor ladybug and bring it inside ahead of its eventual release.

Except when I got to the van and found the container of our little unnamed friend, it was opened and empty. Uh oh, his ladybug had made a prison break. I didn’t see it anywhere, so I’m not sure if it’s still hanging out in the van, waiting for a stealth attack while I’m driving or not, but I’m just really grateful the insect petting zoo hadn’t been passing out spiders or beetles!! I like ladybugs, so I won’t mind a commuting buddy tomorrow, and thankfully Baby E didn’t even notice it was missing.

C let Spots off on a plant at the new house, and Big E opened his container and Wild flew away, which is totally like him to be all daring like that. It was a neat experience for the kids and I took pictures of them with their little friends as a memento, except for Baby E, of course. 🙂

Today was my birthday and I held a tarantula.

We went into my office this morning to attend (and work) the large annual celebration that is held at the university I work at. The kids look forward to this day all year long, and since it always lands on the last weekend in April, it always lands on my birthday weekend. So, for the past 9 years, (except last year when I had a stomach bug) we have attended. It’s really a fabulous event with hundreds of activities. It serves as an opportunity to open up the campus to the public to let everyone see some of the great things we do on campus.

This year I was given a GoPro to take with us on our day, so we explored all the things we thought would look best on camera. We went to the wind tunnel, visited the campus farm, went to the insect petting zoo (where I held a tarantula… in my hands! Gah!!) And we rounded out the day with a dip in the fountain (the kids, not Tim and I.) I hope I got some fun footage of our day.

The kids absolutely loved it, especially the cotton candy and ‘swimming.’ They were tired and exhausted when we left, but I haven’t seen them have that much fun in a long time. To make it even better, we did it as a family!!

Thank you for all the birthday wishes!! It was wonderful. 🙂

“Mommy, can I lay down in the water?” Baby E asked from behind me as I walked along the edge of the water. “No, hon. You can sit, but don’t lay down,” I said as I turned around to see him sprawled out in four inch deep water. Apparently he was already ‘swimming’ before he even asked. I didn’t mind so much because the weather today was gorgeous. It’s been a strange, inconsistent spring in terms of the weather and I leap at any chance to get the kids outside. When I chose their clothes this morning for school I picked outfits I didn’t mind them getting sandy or wet in, because I figured we would end up at the beach this evening. I would have brought their bathing suits, though, if I had known how drenched they were going to get. 🙂

And yes, I did make Baby E take off his pants to play in the water.

I called Tim on my way into work this morning. I figured he wouldn’t answer his phone, but I wanted to hear his voice so I waited for his voicemail to kick in. I pondered over how to word what I wanted to say, but when the line beeped, a barrage of thoughts came tumbling out. I’ve been dealing with some difficult anxiety for the past week or so. I didn’t realize how bad it was until I started feeling physically sick last night and couldn’t fall asleep. Pair it with night after night of bad sleep (thanks for that, Baby E) and I’m kind of a wreck right now. There are some big things stressing me out in my life, but it is starting to spread into the small things as well and as I drove to work this morning I could feel my chest get tight and my heart start to race.

Tim is my physical anchor during moments like those. To hear his voice or feel his touch calms me almost immediately. Since we haven’t seen each other much for the past few weeks, my anxiety has definitely knocked up a degree, but I knew just hearing him would help.

I rambled for a few minutes to his inbox and then hung up. I sat in silence, inching forward in traffic, feeling overwhelmed. And then my phone made a notification beep and I looked down to see that my Bible app had pushed through my verse of the day…

Sitting in the standstill traffic, endless bumpers in front of me, a tight chest, and a racing heart, I got the only message I NEEDED to hear. The Lord goes with me. Be strong and courageous because the Lord goes with me. I wish I could say the anxiety stopped at that instant and hasn’t returned, but that wouldn’t be true. But I can tell you that in that moment I was reminded we aren’t walking this journey alone. He will not leave us. He will not forsake us. Staking myself on that promise, I will choose each day to follow Him.