Ain't No Lie. Bye Bye Bye.

I know many of you are wondering about the current state of my health. That statement is somewhat sarcastic, but there have been many of you who have asked, so I wanted to keep you sweet little dears in the loop...
Today I met with the surgeon for my pre-op appointment. He did some last minute question answering, checked everything out, then sent me on my way with a surgery date set for next Tuesday morning bright and early. By bright and early I actually mean dark and while everyone else is still sleeping. Ha!
I'll be having a partial hysterectomy(they'll leave my sweet little ovaries) as well as several ligament repairs. If all goes well I should be able to come home by late that afternoon. The recovery time is about the same as having a baby. He told me today I'll probably be up and around pretty quickly, but shouldn't return to everyday regular life for about 6 weeks.
Many have asked how I'm feeling about all of this. The answer is numb. It doesn't really seem true yet. I'm sure when I wake up and there are parts of me missing it'll start to feel real, but right now I'm still in shock that it's happening. Like, for real, happening.
I'm mostly worried about how my life will look for the next few weeks. My right-hand-lady, Aunt Steph, is currently living out of town working on an opera. She's ultra mega talented, and for some reason wants to be successful at something OTHER than being the worlds greatest aunt! We are so excited for HER, but that means she'll not be able to help at all with the kids while she's away. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but we have six kids. That makes finding a sitter we can afford that actually WANTS to watch all six of them together(which is how we like to keep them) a pretty big task. At this point I have no way of knowing what I'll need help with. Because Manly is basically self employed he only gets paid when he works. That means there's no sick leave/pay. So, we are on the hunt for all the help we can get. If you'd like, you can pray that this will all work out great for us. That our children would be taken care of, and that I'd be able to rest in the thought of them not needing me while I heal.
I'm also mulling over the fact that this is, indeed, the end of my childbearing days. Oh, believe me, I know that most of you are rolling your eyes at the thought of this being a tough thing for me while my house is running wild with six children. Bottom line, it IS. I know our baby days were over when Manly had his surgery a while back, but now they are REALLY over. And that's fine. It's just tough.
My heart is so thankful that God allowed my body to hold out and carry all of the kids. I'm so thankful that He prompted Manly to make the decision for Eli to be our last baby. I KNOW that He(The Lord) knew what needed to happen. I KNOW that this is in His plan. You have NO idea how grateful I am that our family felt completed when our little red caboose joined our family. My heart has not yearned for another baby. I know that some day, in years to come, I may feel a sadness about no more babies, but I'm thankful that our home and our hearts are filled with the joy our six kids bring us each day.
So, it's with hope for good health in the very near future that I bid adieu to my poor overworked uterus. It's been good to me all these(ahem) 33 years, but I'll not be needing it anymore.

BWAHAHAhahahaha!

Have you ever just needed a laugh? No, I mean a rolling around, tears running down your face, can't breathe laugh? Sometimes it'll hit me all the sudden. Usually when I'm a little past exhausted. Tonight it was around 10:15. I sat down to browse Facebook and clicked a link(beware there are some parts with yucky language.) I just about wet my pajama pants!
After that there was no turning back! It felt so good just to laugh and laugh and laugh. I read some autocorrect mistakes which are always funny. Then I just joked with Manly(who, it should be known, is hysterical). Afterwards I though. Whoa! It's been a long time since my cheeks hurt like this! That was a GOOD laugh!
Don't take things too seriously ALL the time. Be sure to take the time to gut laugh every once in while. Since it's throw back Thursday I've provided some pictures to aid in your assignment!

Manly's aviator sunglasses broke while were at Sam's yesterday. He jokingly picked them up and put them back on. That's when we realized aviators are really just old man glasses with tinted lenses. HA! I told him he looked like his Grandpa, but in truth, he still looks cute!

 

I wanted to try them on too, but when I did I was just reminded of what I looked like in 7th grade. Don't believe me???

 

Me in 7th(ish) grade. My two childhood  bff's Crystal and Emily. We liked doing pics at JC Penny...

Nice. There's a reason I didn't go on many dates. Ha!!!

 

Seriously? This is...sad. Look! We had three way bff necklaces!!

 

See??? Hey, look! I got contacts! Praise the Lord!!!

 

The last time I needed a laugh! Ha!!

I've got my EYE on you! Hahaha!

 

Lulu getting her crazy face on. Cracks me up every time.

Last, but not least, Eli at about 6 weeks looking hysterical. Love this pic of my sweet babycakes.

grief.

Grief. It's all around us, isn't it?
Sometimes it's almost unbearable.
Your chest gets heavy.
Suddenly tears spring forth and seem to never end.
There is so much to grieve these days.
A country in need of a Savior.
A mother with no child to hold.
A godly man with a killing disease.
The list goes on and on.
It's can be sad, this life.
Sometimes it seems lonely.
Like you're the only one there...grieving.
Oh there are good things too.
It's those things that ease the pain.
Those things make life seem normal again.
It's those things that make us thankful.
I was reminded in the last few days of a verse.
A verse two wonderful friends of mine who are in the trenches of grief recently shared.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
Truth.
He's got a plan.
We don't understand, but He does.

Goodbye Perfectionism

Hello, Friends!
It's been a while because I've been doing a LOT of work on my home. We are in the midst of a complete remodel. I made the mistake of buying an AMAZING new sectional at IKEA back in April.

That, in turn, got me in the mood to pull up the "we've had six kids in 10 years" carpet. After a weekend of tack strips and the most disgusting dust you've ever seen, we were carpet free!

My nasty finds under the carpet on the stairs.

Manly doing his "we just pulled up the carpet" dance. Yeah, be jealous!

Then I decided to paint. Turns out they were having a buy one get one free sale on paint at Ace(who in my opinion is the best place to buy paint in our little town). We went back SEVERAL times over the weekend to get all the paint we needed. 22 paint cans later we were SET.

Manly finishing up the scary high wall on the stairs. When I tried to lean over and paint it made me dizzy.

Next comes the sanding, removal of wall paper, and taking down cabinets and drawers. Needless to say, every waking moment that isn't spent loving on the kids, changing diapers, or cooking meals is spent trying to keep this project in motion.

A barricade I made to keep tiny tot out of the kitchen while the paint was drying. I finished this up at naptime, and didn't want him to get in there. Again. It worked for about 2 seconds.

Here is proof of the little turkey being present in the kitchen. Don't worry, it's dust from sanding, not paint spots.

Manly does all the tight spot painting. I come behind him with a roller and brush.

One of our first after pictures. I love how they look. They'll be open cabinets and look so nice once they're loaded with pretty dishes.

The boys LOVE to help their dad. I walked into the bathroom where Manly was working only to find this sweet little hammer amidst Dad's tools.

This is my crazy paint face. Only see this one after 10pm.

Of course the end of the school year has brought with it lots of activities for the big girls. We've been to award assemblies, a talent show, taken part of a fund raiser, toured the (GASP!) Middle School, and gone on several field trips. Due to the crazy cold winter we had with lots of snow, our kids still have a few days left of school, but they are SO ready for SUMMER!!

KK with her three awards. The other two girls have their award assemblies next week

The crazy poses I got when they told me they wanted to take a picture with an Indian...I have NO idea!

 

At the Memphis Zoo. They LOVE that place. It's WAY better than our local zoo.

Silly KK walking like an Egyptian.

Jonesy and Momma. He loves his momma. Poor boy doesn't get to leave the house much thanks to his immunity issues. We're hoping after a few more months of good health he'll be stronger and able to fight off more sicknesses.

The "big kids."

Addi with her friend from school having a playdate.

Livi and her friend from school after they sang together in the talent show.

The girls went to see Snow White the ballet at the Children's Theatre with Aunt Em.

Lulu did a presentation on volcanos for Addi's class. The little kids and I came to watch. Here she is with her volcano.

Here she is right before her presentation.

Our "we're crazy for remodeling our entire house with six kids under ten" pose.

 

With all that's been going on I'm learning to let go of a LOT of things that I used to really work hard to keep. It feels good to not be so worried about if the kids have on matching clothes, the house is in perfect order, or the dinner is ready right on time. I'm learning to say goodbye to perfection. I say learning, because I'm not fully there yet. There are still things I like to have done. For instance, it still makes me glitchy if the bed isn't made. Ha! There are a few things that I still try to keep up with because it's the way I like them, but it's been pretty freeing to be able to loosen up a little more in the last few weeks and let my house be covered in dust from the remodel without going nuts.

Stay with me, things are about to get fun around here!

I Need You.

Sitting here listening to music for Sunday, and it hit me. I. Need. You. Yeah, I've posted about this song before. It's probably my favorite for the last year, which is saying a LOT because I have a lot of "favorite songs." BUT, the truth of the matter is, friends, we need Him.
Parenting is tough stuff. Not for the faint of heart for sure. There are days that by 7:30AM I'm beat. I feel like throwing in the towel, going back to bed, pulling the covers over my head and crying myself back to sleep.
There are lunches to fix, towels to wash, beds to make, booboos to heal, tears to dry, porches to sweep, husbands to respect, hearts to mold, minds to teach, lessons to learn...the list goes on and on. It's so easy to get "all up in your head" as a friend of mine says, about parenting. You start thinking too much about yourself  and what YOU are doing. You can have a good day and think to yourself, "Heh! I did it! We had a good day!" only to be followed by the worst day of your life and think, "What did I do wrong?!" Why? Because this little life isn't in our hands. Good thing too, because I'd be dropin it like it's hawt! Ha!
It's the days where I feel weak and cry out to the Lord that I look back on and think, "How in the world did I make it through this wild crazy day?" that really make me feel courage to get up and do it again tomorrow.
Read this, friend. There is NO WAY to parent in these current times without leaning on the Lord. There is too much badness. Too much sadness. Too much tolerance or intolerance-depending on the issue. Our sweet tiny littles are surrounded by "the world." Our MOST IMPORTANT job is to turn them toward Jesus. Teach them to rest in Him. Teach them to love Him. Teach them to rely on Him. Teach them that they NEED Him. Oh, and that goes for us too.

A Few Tidbits on Mothering

What a lovely Mother's Day we had yesterday. It was very different than those in the past, but as I was lounging on the couch after the kids were in bed, eating Chili's takeout I thought to myself, "I've had a really nice day." That's a god feeling. It's easy to get dreams in your head of what the day will be like, only to have those dreams be blown to smithereens when reality sets in say, oh, around 5AM Sunday morning. While I was thinking last night a few things came to me that I've learned in the last ten years. These things are in no way intended to make you wiser, but you might just get a kick out of them. I'm listing six things. Not because I don't have more, but because that's the number of children we've been blessed with, and it seems like a perfectly good number to me!

• Never leave an unattended beverage. Never. I don't care if you put it on the counter and think there's no way little Timmy is going to climb up and get it. Know this. He will. Little Timmy has climbing powers that are likened to those of Spider Man. He will get on that counter, drink your beverage, and as sure is I am living, Timmy will THROW your beverage container(generally glass) on the floor just to see what happens.
• Don't assume because you close the door it'll stay that way. This goes for bathroom AND bedroom doors. This is a behavior that must be trained. Doors will be opened, and resting mothers(be it on the bed or on the "throne") will be spotted.
• Know that if it's not nap time, and it's quiet, there's something going DOWN in your house. No, seriously, get up and FIND THOSE KIDS. First place to check if you have kids under three-THE BATHROOM, next place-the pantry. If in doubt, seek them OUT! Mine are generally stuffing something in the commode, unrolling paper towels, or squeezing out toothpaste. These are only examples though, don't be thrown off if you've got your own battles.
• If you are ready to go, someone is going to have an accident. This may be an actual "I needed to go potty and waited too long" accident, or they could fall and scrape their knee on the sidewalk, spill milk all down their dress, be wrestling with dad and loose a hair clip, or in my recent case, be "trying to fix a stapler" and staple their own dag blasted HAND! Oh there will be blood, sweat, tears, feces, you name it. If you're ready to walk out the door it's GONNA happen. Mark my words.
• Don't use open ended words like "maybe," "we'll see," "we might," or "in a minute." These only allow your children to question you again, and again, and again. I promise. Try words like, "NO," and "Are you out of your mind," or my favorite, "Not on your life!" But seriously, leaving things up in the air can really get a momma nutso in a heartbeat. Try to be decisive. If you can't, know that you're going to need some distractions...QUICK!
• Go with your gut. I mean, the Lord gave it to you. He wants you to use it! Well, for more than digestion and all. This is one of the most important pieces of advice my dear granny ever gave me. You may have been told there's nothing wrong with Susie, but if you feel in your gut that Dr. is wrong, you go with it. Mother Gothel is right, Mother really does know best. If you've got a feeling, don't ignore it. Go with it!

So there you have it, folks. Don't say I never taught you anything. Ha! Now, you didn't think I was going to leave you without pictures from our day did you!?! Well, here you go!

To say my cup runneth over would be understating it to say the least. I'm so blessed by these littles who call me momma. Each day they make me smile. I'm gushing with pride that they are mine!

 

People always ask me how we get them all to smile so nicely for pictures. THIS is how! I promise them that if they'll smile for me I'll let them take silly pictures. All of these were taken with the camera timer and tripod. Hysterical.

Oh this little boy of mine is a MESS, but OH SO SWEET!

My big girls being...themselves.

 

Sweet Mia Jane.

Face of an angel, I tell you, but she's got the will of an OX!

These two are probably the closest of all my kids to one another. They miss each other so much when Addi goes to school. They are buddies, and friends, and I love that they are so close to one another.

Here's another set of buddies with Livi's new bunny, Ms...something or another. I can't remember.

 

 

Here's my big boy playing with his truck. This boy LOVES to play.

 

And here is my sweet boy just sitting next to his momma taking a break. He loves his momma...and Sprite.

 

When we got home I took off Eli's clothes because he was dirty, and I put my Mother's Day shirt on him to take his picture. He WOULD NOT be still for me, so you'll just have to deal with these instead. He's such a HAM!

He was saying, "Go! GO! GO!" And throwing himself backward trying to make the chair rock! Ha!