All the rest....

"all your ways are loving and faithful..."psalm 25:10

sometimes life is a bowl of cherries...and other times it's the pits

like when you spend an awesome memorial day weekend with the fam, have a picnic supper and play date at the park on the way home and then...BOOM!

your van tire explodes on a busy MN highway

and you've got four littles and 15 bags of mulch in the back end

it only took an hour and a half to get us back on the road.

while i would not put my children in the "angel" category 100% of the time,

they apparently know how to shine when it counts because they were nothing short of perfectly patient while j worked on the car and we waited for help

while i was having visions of tackling them as they wandered away from me like littles tend to do, they happily tickled each other with grass, sang songs and wrote their names in the dirt.

i kept thinking...here it goes, they're going to get crazy.
if we have to wait here five more minutes, the wheels are going to fall off...
any second now, this whole, peaceful thing is going to come crashing down.
but it never happened.

in fact, i'll take a moment to brag...

the police officer who stopped was so impressed that he busted out some teddy bears to reward their patience and sweet attitudes.

i won't lie...it stunk to end our memorial day weekend like that.

but, if we were going to be stalled on the side of a busy road, this was the night to do it.

it wasn't cold.

it wasn't hot.

it wasn't raining.

and i did not feel one bug...not one.

stranger angels stopped to help j and worked for over an hour to get the spare tire loose before the tow truck was able to get there.

the kids played happily in the dirt and we didn't hear one fuss out of any of them...

the baby slept through it all...

though i feared it, i did NOT have to nurse a 6-week-old baby in tick-infested grass.
that, in itself, is cause for wild rejoicing.

finally our awesome neighbor came to the rescue, picking up me and the kids while j continued to wait for the tow truck

when i looked back on these pictures, i got teary thinking how lucky i am to have a guy who was still smiling at the end of it all.

we tucked peach into bed at 10:30, after baths and a thorough tick check and i told her that i was kind of glad we had that flat tire.

she asked why and i had a fabulous opportunity to tell her how proud i was of her for being a good example for her sisters.  she was tired, but i could tell she was proud of herself, too.

i fell into bed next to j, exhausted but smiling...

there are days when life is beautiful.

and there are days when life is hard.

but choosing anxiety and frustration only magnifies the mess

sometimes we miss teachable moments.

sometimes we blow it big time with our kids

but this time, we chose to laugh 

and they learned to be thankful for all the good things

and to trust the Lord with all the rest.

4 and 2

the end of april is party time in this family....

tulip and sparkle entered the world exactly two years and two days apart from one another, so they will forever have the joy of sharing a birthday party.

tough bounce, chickadees....you win some, you lose some.

j made tulip's actual birthday extra special by taking the girls for donuts at the bakery, packing the pool bag for swimming, going to a giant tree house and taking them for mc donald's.

i readied the house for the party the next day and tried to do it up extra fancy to make up for the whole sharing business.

tulip requested a garden party this year - how appropriate for my lil' spring flowers!

my mom added her crafty touch...aren't these party favors cute?!

we had cake and coloring and lots of playing outdoors.

as you can see, Jason and our brother-in-law, Ben, did a spectacular job holding the babies while we women ran ragged after the big kids

a good time was had by one and all..and now we rest until the next big birthday shindig in november!  ;)

A new normal

a great many people have asked me...how do you do it?

my reply:  do what?

their response:  take care of four kids?

well...it's a lot like taking care of three kids, but, well, there's just one more.

and i have a rock star hubby who is in it with me 100%, so although there are CrAzY moments where absolutely every single human being in the world needs something from me at the EXACT same moment....we're getting good at managing this whole multiple kid thing.

and most days are really....normal.

we go for walks (and pick up litter, of course!)

we eat snacks

and plant flowers

we play in the sunshine

and snuggle

we ride bikes and scooters and chase each other around abandoned parking lots and race from one end to the other and mommy calls this "exercise" because let's be honest...there's not a whole lot of time for real working out these days, so playing with and lugging around four children will have to just be enough, okay? ;)

did i mention that we snuggle?

too many snuggles are never a bad thing...

we take naps...sometimes, blissfully, all at the same time

and enjoy the first watermelon of the summer in the back yard.

we dress up and eat popsicles on hot days

we pick dandelions, 'cause, duh!  who doesn't?

we try to have lots of patience and grace with each other and sometimes we get frustrated that we have to wait and that things don't go our way but we try to remember that having each other is a gift.

and, if we're being honest...we had to do all those things before we had our newest love in the house.

now we just have to practice them a little more and people named mommy and daddy have to remember in the wild moments that there is a crown of splendor in heaven for those who calmly survive temper tantrums and blow out diapers.

i won't lie:  there ARE moments when i look at j with wild desperation in my eyes and he looks back with the whole "WE ARE DONE HAVING KIDS" face....sometimes it happens more frequently than i'd like.
but we ride the wave and then its over.

and we laugh about it afterwards because...well, what else can you do?
the moments when it all comes crashing down make for good stories later on.

maybe we'll write a book about this wild adventure some day.
right now we just drink an extra cup of coffee and hang on for dear life

but when we really consider all we've been given, the gray hairs we are earning seem like a small price to pay.  we are finding a new normal, which is actually a lot like the old normal.

just one person bigger.  :)