POPCORN PARTY!

sometimes on cleaning days, i motivate (eh, let's face it, bribe) the kids with the opportunity to watch a movie and eat popcorn for lunch once their chores are done.  i don't know why i do it, really, as my floor ends up covered in popcorn mess and much of the previous progress gets thwarted.  but the kids have fun, so there's that, and that really does matter more than a clean house.  (it really does matter more than a clean house.  i'm a recovering Type-A and it really does matter more than a clean house.)  

ernawerrr.

i'm now realizing that allowing milk glasses to be set four inches away from the laptop is maybe less strategic than i would hope for.

ohp, finneas is losing his attention span for this.

this photo is probably the main reason i felt like posting these.  does he feel suspicious?  saucy?  like dancing?  who can even tell?!?!

so there's 'popcorn lunch' (lunchcorn? punch?) at the van voorst house.  it kind of reminds me of Cookies For Dinner Night.  i suspect i'm only a mediocre mother.

video vednesday: i was full-singing the blues traveler song.

1.  i'm sure you're one of the sixteen million people who have already seen this, but it's worth watching again.

2.  i would love this so much more if that horrific dress was not involved.

IT'S WATER FIGHT SEASON!!

oh, y'all.  it's nice outside.  which means evenings outside.  which means gardening.  which means getting the hose out.  which means water fights.

you know, water fights.  they start off awesome.

and then the five-year-old takes charge.  and it becomes a reign of terror.

(let's zoom in on that last picture, shall we?)

the oppressed voice their opposition.

and a cease-fire is called.

is there any other way a water fight ever goes down?  i'm pretty sure this is the basic schema for pretty much every water fight ever.  all-of-us-minus-finn are really looking forward to more warm weather.

they are a warrior and a princess, and tatters are enough.

i have seen so much beauty in my kids' playtime lately.  their imaginations are growing and flexing.  it's a remarkable thing to watch.

atticus is almost always pretending to be a soldier, with a sword stuck down the waistband of his pants, and this pink winter hat (passed down to penelope from a friend) on his head as his helmet.  his spear is a toy broom.  he has never once asked for a different helmet.  i don't think it has even occurred to him.  he's content; he's satisfied.  with a girl's pink hat with flowers on it.

penelope is almost always dressed as a princess.  she has only one true 'princess' dress to her name, which was handed down from a friend after it had been loved to near unrecognizability.  we accepted it, and i had plans to sew it and patch it and redeem it as best i could.  well, i never got around to it, but she loves that thing with every iota.  she has never once asked for another, different dress.  i know it hasn't occurred to her.  she's content; she's satisfied.  with a castoff dress that's barely held together by a couple of strategic threads.

how beautiful is that?  they don't want for more.  they haven't compared themselves to other kids and wondered why their stuff is so makeshift.  they're just... happy with what they have.  what a lesson to me!  as i look around myself and wish for new counters, or different jeans, or fancy highlights.  i wish for better skin and smaller teeth and a narrower waist and a more frivolous budget and fancier food.  and i have to work so hard to think, 'it's enough.  it's plenty.  it's wonderful just the way it is, imperfection and want and all.'

we got penelope another princess dress for her birthday, among other things, but we've decided not to give it to her now.  not until the current dress kicks the bucket.  because sometimes having more makes us less happy.  i don't think she'd be as satisfied with two dresses as she currently is with one.  i think, knowing that more dresses could be had, two will seem like not enough, whereas one is wonderful.  i think withholding the 'more' from her, at least for now, is a blessing to her.

there are so many things i think about in my own life when i zoom out.  i think god is being gracious to me in allowing me to want.  by confining our walls and restricting our budget and expanding my waistline.  i think i'm in a place of privelege, by the loving choice of god.  i want that to be enough.  plenty.  wonderful.

weekly 'what's up!'

this week was actually pretty eventful!  

on sunday, i started a weight lifting class!  which, if you know me at all, is hilarious.  resultingly, i couldn't even lift my phone up to my ear without extreme soreness until yesterday morning.  and then my second class session took place last night.  i have a feeling this is going to be an adjustment.  but totally worth it in the end if i end up looking anything like superman, who i aspire to look like, and whose full-body image may or may not be hanging on my fridge as a motivational tool.  (it's not.)  my superhero name will be rippedgurrrrrl, so prepare yourself to call me that in the coming weeks, after i inevitably fly to your rescue to save you from that savage dog.  (one of rippedgurrrrrl's superpowers is fortune telling, and another is canine mind reading.  they come in really handy in the event of future dog attacks!  lucky you!)  you'll be all, 'thanks, rippedgurrrrrl!'  and i'll be all, 'you're welcome!  but in all humility, i really couldn't have done it without the help of these incredible biceps.  so, thanks, biceps!'  then i will kiss each one affectionately and gratefully, which you'll be free to do as well, if you so choose.  up to you.

maybe i should call myself 'the hammer' instead.  idk, i'll let you know.

on tuesday, todd was so sick.  and he never gets sick.  he was all shaky and achy and hot-and-then-cold and sore-throated.  it was so sad.  he basically slept all day, woke up for a while, slept all night, woke up feeling the same, and then perked up a bit wednesday afternoon.  he's feeling better now, but wow.

tuesday was also a big day for the girls:  penelope turned four, and laurelai turned eight months.  this week, laur has also figured out how to crawl!  she's on the move, people.  once, she was crawling around under the table, and i caught sight of her out of the corner of my eye, and my first thought was, 'when did we get a yorkie?!'  considering she's about the size of a yorkie (no, seriously though), it was an understandable mistake.  now begins the vigilant watchkeeping for random pieces of plastic, trash, pretzels, broken crayons, etc., that are always littering the floor.  i swear that stuff must spawn asexually or have the gemino curse on it or something.

our big four-year-old!  while she'll have her party in a couple of weeks, we thought she'd enjoy a small gift on the actual day-of.  socks.  our girl LOVES socks.

laurelai turned eight months, and believe it or not, this was the absolute happiest she got about it.  or about taking the photos, at least.  she weighs around 12 pounds and is STILL in 0-3 month clothing.

this picture was taken shortly before i walked out of the room, returned when i heard screaming, and found her absolutely flattened and lodged entirely under that chair.

and some more photos, that don't necessarily have anything to do with the above mentioned items of note:

no, as a matter of fact, the kids don't really like getting out of the bathtub.  why do you ask?

i could just smooch this photo all the live long day.  just look at those swoony toddler hands!

he's hugging his lightning mcqueen ride-on, if you can't tell.  he kept saying, 'HUG! KISS! HUG! KISS!'  i think he likes it.

maybe all the torment todd's body receives is what made his immune system go all, 'out on holiday!  be back later!'

lastly, pray for our family.  i'm cutting refined sugar from my diet, and when mama's not choco'd up, ain't nobody happy.  (yep.  i'm just going to end this blog post by calling myself 'mama' and speaking of myself in the third person.  you're so very welcome.)

braang on the weekend!

video vednesday: hunting dog (wounded).

happy birthday, penelope-girl!

oh, what can i say about this precious girl i've been given?

she is funny and animated.  she has a rich imagination.  she loves to wear princess gowns and wield swords.  when she grows up, she wants to marry her daddy.  she does not have a sweet tooth, and therefore dessert is never a worthwhile motivation to eat dinner (which she never does).  she is obsessed with the potential opportunity to plant flowers.  she wears two or three different pairs of socks over the course of a day.  she's an 'indoors kid.'  she loves the last chapter of 'dangerous journey,' because it chronicles the wife's journey, and she automatically aligns herself with anything about girls.  she is usually dressed up as 'little david' to some degree.  she and atticus are still total besties, but i've seen her develop this really sweet, playful relationship with finneas lately as well.  she's always looking for ways to help and serve.

she is our 'sissy.'  she makes our days joyful.  she is our wonderful, precious, irreplaceable girlie, and we are so much better because she's with us.

happy birthday, penelope!

rant much?

i saw this funny little video the other day that someone had posted on their facebook wall.  it reiterated a lot of the sentiment i've seen floating around blogs and facebook for a while.  basically, it's about these two guys who go away on a golf trip and leave their wives in charge of their respective businesses for a couple of days.  naturally, the women are totally bamboozled.  one looks at the computer in total fear.  i'm guessing she never took typing classes in middle school.   and the other lady just breaks down in tears because her husband is like an accountant or something and she doesn't even know what numbers are or something, so she's completely incapable of doing his job.  both ladies are clearly morons.

lucky for them, their husbands left them 'work brains,' these crazy hat-things that the women can put on that make them think exactly like a workin' man.  the scared-to-type one is clearly doing some kind of binary or something at this point, and the can't-even-count one is working a fancy calculator so fast her fingers are smoking and the printer next to her catches on fire.  thank god for the 'work brains.'  so then one of the wives actually called her husband while he was taking a steam at the club and was all, 'you have the.hardest.job in the whole wide world, bar none!  i have a whole new perspective on my sorry excuse for 'contribution' to this family.  you're so much better at this than i am, and i'm such an idiot, and i'm so glad i have you to add stuff up for me because i would just outright die if i had to rely on my own peabrain!'

JOKES!

that movie's not real.

the real one is about mom goggles and the dumb-as-a-doornail dads who can't control their sugared-up, climbing-the-curtains kids for two days while the moms spa it up.

so, here's where i get a little real with you folks:  it bums me out to see all these women on the internet demanding empathy and respect and admiration for their superhuman selflessness.  i'm obviously not bashing the whole stay-at-home mom gig.  i love that gig.  i 100% endorse that gig.

but we are not owed anything.  that's what selflessness means: doing something worth doing, purely for the sake of someone else and not ourselves.  is it okay if people don't understand 'what i do all day,' and that i do, indeed, work hard?  is it okay if i'm not fully appreciated, and my work may not seem all that important or necessary to other people?  is it even okay if i'm condescended for doing what i do?  it sucks sometimes, but the answer can be - should be - 'yes.'  god sees me, and i know i'm serving his purposes where i am.  it may not come with CEO-level adoration from the masses.  but that's okay.  i don't have anything to prove, and i'm not a CEO for a reason.

the question really is, 'can i accept being respectable even if i'm not respected?  is that good enough for me?'  whining and complaining and asserting why we're the awesomest at keeping the human race in existence without the help of those freaking unappreciative idiots we call husbands is counterproductive.  that's not respectable.  if you want respect, let someone else demand it on your behalf.  let your husband and kids tell people how awesome you are, instead of allowing yourself to strap on a sandwich board and scream about why your kids or sister-in-law or husband or mom don't appreciate you enough.

(sidenote: also, maybe you should spend more time mothering than airing all your grievances on the internet.)

secondly, is the respectability of motherhood based on the fact that we work hard?  that our vocation, when compared to careers and the job market, trumps because it's hard?  i'm sorry, but there are a lot of people out there who work a crap ton harder than i do.  who get less sleep and less time to themselves and less respect for it.  i would assert it's not even the same thing, and that's totally okay.  it's not a career.  it's a calling.  motherhood is fun.  it's sometimes super easy.  and that's okay.

third, can we please take a second to realize that our husbands are not just glorified monkeys when left alone with our kids?  if the kids are climbing the walls while he's with them and i'm not home, maybe i'm not doing enough to uphold his authority and respect his intelligence while i am home.  maybe i'm too busy demanding respect and appreciation from him, that i don't take time to respect and appreciate him in front of the kids.  of course someone who feels unsure of themselves and robbed of their authority is going to let the house catch on fire.  if your husband is fathering his children and loving his wife by letting you get out of the house for a while, PLEASE do not act like he's a huge screw-up.

all i'm suggesting is that we stop acting like everyone owes us respect and appreciation, if we're not willing to dole it out ourselves.  and i have this nagging feeling that if we start by doling it out, it will come back to us without us having to write a million blog posts about it.

my two cents.

what's up?

a numbering of things that happened this week.

1.  they brushed their teeth while they watched a movie, which is too cute not to share:

the girl's winter hat that atticus is sporting is his soldier helmet, to clarify.

2.  todd got a shard of pottery glued to his finger and took about a million years trying to pry it off.

3.  we got dressed up for easter, and captured the ever-elusive shot of all of us, though we're varying degrees of happy about it, as you can see.

4.  my mom set up an egg hunt for the kids, and now anytime we go outside, finneas yells, "EGG?!"

5.  my parents also brought a slide for the kids, which they now call their 'very own park!'

6.  i finished tilling and fencing my garden, and planted peas, lettuce, mesclun mix, broccoli, spinach, and cilantro.  it looks podunk because it is.

7.  my friend lisagrace surprised me by coming to visit yesterday.  i wasn't even wearing a bra when there suddenly came a knock on the door.  that's how surprised i was.

8.  todd and i went down to iowa city to visit my dad, who is not feeling well and in the hospital.

9.  i was in this photo with my sistercakes.  it's probably my biggest accomplishment in life:

the endzo!

video vednesday: [so. many. male. tank tops.]

my best friend jeska sent this to me, and it made me really proud of my choice in friends.  i'm a good friend-picker.