So the kids and I are driving home from the office supply store, enjoying the radio and a pair of Frostys, when Sam asks loudly from the far-back seat, “Hey, Mom, how do they hook wheels onto cars?”
I should have been suspicious right then. This is very much a Josh question, not a Sam question. Sam is just as inquisitive as any other five-year-old for sure, but the mechanical engineering questions always come from Josh. Josh, the child who has to sit under the picnic table to investigate its assembly before climbing up onto a bench.
But I answered Sam naively. I explained about axels and suspensions. And then he asked, “Okay, but how do they actually hook the tire on?” Again, I should have been suspicious. But I answered, “Well, they use bolts and a really large screwdriver.”
A huge sigh came from the back seat. “Mom, they use an impact wrench.”
As my brain switches to quiz mode, Josh, who up until this point had been busy with his Frosty, says, “Mmmm, yeah, you need an impact wrench.” I didn’t even know he was listening.
Clearly some sort of test had been administered. . .and I had come up short.
Who taught them about impact wrenches? I don’t even know what an impact wrench is! But the test didn’t stop there. With my brain still reeling from the science portion of the exam, I barely had time to prepare for the spirital section.
“Mom,” asks the same five-year-old mere seconds later, “what is the Amazing Grace song about?”
Oh dear boy, may God bless the little heart that wonders about such things. I took a sip of my Frosty, preparing my answer in my head. I certainly didn’t want to blow this one as well!

I couldn’t be happier. . .

It’s not very often that moms have the opportunity to call in sick. We have babies to rock, laundry to finish, playtime to referee. . . And, for some reason that I cannot figure out, God made children (and husbands) to need frequent feeding. Despite my cries of “You just had a snack” and “I fed you dinner last night”, my family expects three meals and one to two snacks. Daily. Everyday. All the time.

So, in light of all this, I don’t get very many days off. I don’t get very many afternoons off. And usually this does not present a problem. I like rocking babies and grocery shopping and playing baseball. But this month has had some unusual challenges. First I had a two week stomach bug. No one else was sick, and it finally disappeared as quickly as it came. And then it seems this morning brought my second bad cold in less than a week. I was sick on Wednesday with a headache, sore throat and runny nose. But by yesterday, as you can tell in the pictures from the lake, I was much better. And then this morning came with another sore throat, worse than the first, and a bad cough. Seriously?

So Lance has given me the day off. The whole day. To sleep, read, sleep. . . he told me to do whatever was necessary to get better. So I have watched some golf, taken several naps, and gone through a box of tissues. And what’s even better than having the day off? Having a day off with two vases of fresh flowers and a box of donuts. Ahhh. . . I sense recovery in my future!

When I told the boys yesterday that we would be going to Kickapoo in the morning, we shared a good laugh about the silly name of our local state park. After a cute breakfast by the water, all the guys took a paddle-boat ride while the girls played on the shore. We had an incredible time, and here are a few pics to prove it.

We have been absent from the blogging world, as we have traveled to Georgia and learned to use a fancy new camera. There will be many pictures and stories in the days to come. For now, we share a couple videos of Ellie and her new tricks. She seems to do something new everyday, so we wanted to upload these before she does something else!

Yes, to my mom friends out there who babyproof their houses better than I do, I know little ones aren’t supposed to play with matchbox cars. However, if you’ve met Josh and read this post (specifically point #13), you know that’s an impossibility around here. Focus on the crawling, not the safety features of my living room.

In this clip, I love how you can hear Josh, occasionally weeping in the background. If my memory serves me correctly, this was the bi-weekly battle of the banana. True to form, he really ramps up the agony when the camera gets to him.

This one may be my favorite. She makes it so very far, so close to her beloved Ritz, only to be distracted by the chair. And then she re-orients, aims again and over shoots the cracker. When she discovers her prey has alluded her again, the crying and flapping commence. I love how you can assume we starve her, based on the devastation of missing the cracker. I also love how the video ends with no resolution. Well did she ever get the cracker, or not?

Mimi and Paw-Paw came into town over the weekend. They arrived in time for Ellie’s baptism party (more on that tomorrow), and plan to stay for the week.  It’s so fun having them here– they just jump right into what ever we are doing! So in Grapevine tradition, Sunday morning often includes a pre-church doughnut run. Lance was part of the worship team this weekend, so Paw-Paw planned to make the trip with Sam. And when Paw-Paw came down dressed in his old scrubs, Sam was quick to change  his clothes. A new dress code for the weekly doughnut run!

To those bravely serving our country, at home and across the world;

May God bless you and keep you. May He guard your steps and make straight your paths.

Thank you for protecting us.

Sometimes I long to be a 50’s or 60’s wife. I think it would be fun to wear an apron and one of those gathered skirts. And dress my kids in cute little outfits with hats and knee-highs. My mom remembers her mom going to the hairdresser. It was often the only time she drove anywhere alone. Can you imagine driving your big, American-made car (with no air conditioning) to the salon and ordering your beehive? Or your Mary Tyler Moore haircut? Or your Jackie O do?

Of course, I cannot imagine some poor, unsuspecting stylist trying to tame my unruly, sometimes curly, always big hair into a beehive. Or a Mary Tyler Moore. I do remember when I tried the Rachel. Disaster.

Here at the Grapevine, we are celebrating our new do. Provided by the starving artist herself! As promised, my sister created a banner just for us. And then she did one better (because she had always been the one-up type).

So this is Lance, in bird form. I opened my email, and this darling bird, a caricature of my dear husband for sure, was just sitting there. Stripes and all. I laughed and laughed.

And then here’s me. Notice the tail feather that looks suspiciously like a ponytail. So me. And Jes was more than generous with the eyelashes.

Next was Sam’s birdie. Bright eyed and bushy tailed. With super long and skinny legs. I bet this birdie’s pants are too short too.

And here’s dear Josh. In contrast to Sam’s bird, this little guy has no legs whatsoever. And then, of course, there is the surfer-dude hair, as Unkie calls it.

And, finally, little Ellie Bean. With her bow and her chunky little legs. And this darling bird just happens to be sucking her two middle feathers. . .

So soon the birdies will work their way into our sidebar, but, of course, I have no idea how to make that happen. I couldn’t wait until then to show them off! Thanks, Jes!

As I typed the title, I had this vivid memory of sitting on the old blue couch we had growing up and watching TGIF with my sister on Friday nights. Was Home Improvement part of TGIF, or was it on another network? Remember the kid with the long hair, the middle brother, maybe, that everyone thought was so cute? I wonder if that kid and Josh go to the same hairdresser. . .

Anyway, we spent this warm weekend doing some outside home improvement. Our backyard needed some serious love. The grass is looking better, you know, from the yard poop exercise, but it needed mowing and weed-eating. Badly. And the flowers that I bought nearly two weeks ago were beginning to die, unplanted, still in their little plastic containers. And my beautiful vegetable garden had become a mud-pit and Tonka truck construction site.

So I decided to scrap most of the tomato space, and put in something we clearly needed.

This project involved cutting up some sod and moving it to other areas. And then a lot of dirt leveling and re-leveling. And then we placed the pavers. Once, the pavers were set and mostly level, we got to add the turtle sandbox. The kids are delighted, but I think I might be even more pleased. I logged in countless hours in my turtle sandbox, and I know I will enjoy watching my boys play in theirs. And maybe, just maybe, if they play in the sand enough, they can be persuaded to leave the remainder of my garden alone. Maybe.

The other big project for today is not quite finished yet. Two years ago, when we put in the fence and brought in the fancy sod, we decided not to sod the low-lying area behind the fence. The sod was already so expensive, and we knew that the boys would primarily be playing inside the fence– it just seemed like a waste to sod there. Not to mention, the electrical boxes for half the street are just to the outside of our fence, so there’s quite a bit of workmen activity back there. We didn’t want to spend the money on extra sod, and then have it torn to pieces the next time an electrical line needed work.

So we seeded out there. Several times. And last summer, as I hung out in the house, confined to the couch, Lance would entertain me with stories of the weeds from that area. I felt like a fisherman’s wife. “Seriously, honey, it was this big.” So he would spray Round-up, and the weeds would continue to grow, unfazed by the chemicals. And then we would try to seed again. The weeds were winning, Little Shoppe of Horrors style.

This year we have tried a different approach, we tore everything out of that area, weeds, grass and all. And we planted four lovely shrubs. And we plan to smother everything else under a thick layer of mulch and brick edging. That’ll show those weeds who’s boss. Either that, or we will be smart enough to surrender the area entirely.