"I have a photograph..."

In high school I listened to a wide range of music - Billy Joel, REM, Indigo Girls, James Taylor, 10,000 Maniacs, Bon Jovi. The list goes on and also includes Simon & Garfunkel. They had a great little song called Bookends which contains the line "Time it was and what a time it was, I have a photograph. Preserve your memories..." I've had that line stuck in my head all day.

Today is the day I finally began to tackle the huge box of pictures from the last 5 years that has been growing in the basement. Mason's baby book ends around age 2, but it does take up 2 volumes with captions for all of the big events. The girls each have a handful of photos thrown into an album, I feel a little guilty about that. I actually put off getting a digital camera until Mason turned 1. I wanted to have pictures to hold and save. I was worried that if I went digital I wouldn't have anything to put in albums.

Turns out, I still have quite a few printed pictures to sort through. For now at least, I have decided to forgo the individual albums and just get the pictures into some sort of order. What works best for me is to put pictures from one event together with a caption, and not worry too much about chronological order. I am going to devote one album to birthday parties, my sorting revealed some gaps in prints so I will spend some time in the coming days sorting through Snapfish in hopes that I can find missing parties.

Here's my picture sorting latte - first, have a latte to keep you going while you sort. Then make sure you have the time and space to spread out for a while without any small folks coming and trying to "help". Then get ready for a trip down memory lane, you'll be singing "... I have a photograph, preserve your memories..." for hours after.

Queen for a Day (again)

This is a recycled latte from last year. One great thing about The Melon Festival in Milan, Ohio (my husband's hometown) is that pretty much all of what I said last year still rings true this year. As I sit here with the giant stuffed animal my father-in-law won for me at skee ball, we are all exhausted from the weekend fun, and I think I gained five pounds from the festival food. It was fabulous, and here are last year's observations...

I like to refer to Atlanta as a small town, but we all know that it's not. My husband, on the other hand, is from a true small town. A tiny little town in Northern Ohio, population about 1200. We just spent Labor Day weekend there with family as we have many times in the past.

Like many very small towns, I've learned, they have one weekend a year for some type of festival. In Rob's hometown, Labor Day weekend is the Melon Fest. Since I grew up in Atlanta, I never got to experience these festivals as a child. I think I missed out, and I can understand why our kids ask to go every year. There are carnival rides, games where you can pay $3 to win a plastic or stuffed prize, and festival food which is the best - brats, fries, tacos, funnel, cake, and the BEST corn on the cob I've ever tasted (sweet corn for those Ohio natives). Not to mention the cantelope and watermelon ice cream.

And then there is the parade. In all the years I've attended the festival, at least 5 now, I've been to the beer tent and two bars many times, but I've never made it to the parade until this year. Here's what I found out, each town in the area has some sort of festival during the summer, and at each of these events a queen is chosen. That queen then gets to go ride in a convertible or float at all of the other local parades. I'm pretty sure that Charlotte thought she was watching a parade filled with live princesses waving right at her. To top things off, almost everyone hands out candy as they pass by.

I don't know that I have a latte from all of this, it's more of a shout-out to the joys of small town America. I'm glad it's an experience my kids get to enjoy. I have quite a bit of fun myself, and even if they don't sell lattes from a booth at the festival, the corn on the cob is really out of this world!

The Sound of Silence

For 8 years I cherished any time that I had completely to myself because it was not something that happened very often. Don't get me wrong, it was totally by choice. I wanted the chaos of having kids who were close in age - Mason is 46 months older than Mary Jane with Charlotte right in between them.

Then it happened, we were in what seemed to be the middle of a great summer when, all of a sudden, it was time to go back to school. There is one huge difference this year, Mary Jane is joining her brother and sister at the elementary school. She won the lottery and got a spot in the coveted pre-k program at the school. As she starts the 2nd week, I think that she feels more tired than lucky. She is not an early riser by nature, and the school day is now starting 10 minutes earlier (can they really do that?). 7:15 - 7:45 has not been a fun time for us, I'm hoping it will get better.

What does all of this mean for me? My kids are all in school from 7:50 - 2:20. Wow! Since I wasn't really ready to be done with preschool, I've taken a job helping out a couple of mornings a week in the toddler room there. I'll still have some free time on my hands. Maybe I should give cooking a try, and perhaps I'll finally get organized around here. Exercise has got to make it onto my to do list. But first, I've got to get use to the silence. I'm off to get a latte (alone) and run a few errands. And I'm a little sad that I don't have anyone to buckle into a carseat while I'm out. I guess it would seem strange if I stopped at the zoo by myself.

My days are still busy, after school we have homework, playdates, karate, gymnastics, choir, etc. I just have a different type of day now, and Mary Jane and I need to adjust to the new schedule. I'm glad that for 8 years I spent most of my time with my kids, it has flown by. Today's latte - listen to your kids, it's much more fun than the sound of silence.

A Whole Foods Latte

Literally, I had a latte today from Whole Foods and it inspired me to write again. Who knew they made such a good iced, non-fat mocha with half the mocha? The summer is winding down, and we're spending this last week of vacation shifting gears so that next Monday won't come as quite a shock. We were running low on practically everything and expecting some friends for lunch so off to Whole Foods we went.

I know, it's a little pricey, and I've heard it referred to as "Whole Paycheck," but it really is a great store. It is worth it to me to spend a little extra money to shop in a store where my kids don't keep asking me to put more junk food in the shopping cart. They seem to have figured out what I'm doing. Today Mason asked if I would buy a box of lollipops, "but Mommy, they're organic" was his plea. We didn't get the lollipops, but we did get some sorbet from the gelato counter right next to the lattes.

I realize that Whole Foods might not be the right place for every mom to shop. I would prefer to grow tomatoes in my own garden, but since I haven't gotten around to that, yet, I feel better knowing that I'm getting local organic tomatoes for my family. Today's latte is to at least go try a latte, they're really good and actually a little less expensive than at some other coffee shops, and while you're there, stroll around. I've gotten a few great organic cotton tees while shopping there. My kids may not understand what organic means, but they know it's something healthy, and so that's a start.

A Summer Latte

Summer is flying by! The last six weeks have been a blur of Disneyworld, pool, playdates, Hilton Head, humidity, trips to Starbucks, Super Mario on the Wii, and more time at the pool. I had visions of being organized this summer - packing a picnic for a walk to the pool each day, educational and fun outings in the afternoons. I was going to give up caffeine and write new lattes at least once a week. Then reality set in. After a week of packing lunches, pushing the stroller to the pool and spending several hours each day in the sun, I was exhausted, sunburned, and my house was a mess.

I don't think I've found the summer balance, yet. Today is a playdate day. My kids need to be entertained by friends every few days so that we don't all go a little crazy. My house is still a mess, but that is really nothing new. A lovely new Starbucks opened near us, and Mason and I biked there yesterday morning to check it out. Maybe I'll go there to write one of these days, in my mind I've composed at least a dozen lattes about a wedding, video games, family vacations, and organizing pictures to name a few.

In no time at all, the summer will be over and I will be both relieved and sad. I am enjoying this time that I have with my kids, but I also struggle to let them make their own choices and to not get mad when things go wrong. They all make their own beds in the morning, it's getting a little easier for me to not go in and remake them to my liking each day. Tomorrow morning I'll pack some lunches, load up the stroller, and we'll go to the pool. Perhaps we'll all learn something along the way so that I can chalk it up as an educational summer outing.

Party Time

Cinderella was not in attendance, neither was Sleeping Beauty. There were not any clowns, magicians, or storytellers, and there was not a bouncy house anywhere around. For 2 birthday parties, here's what we had - pancakes, bacon, a sandbox, tree house, craft projects (including decorate your own cupcakes) and lots of little girls running around in pajamas. The six year old party was Friday evening from 5:30 - 8PM, and the 4 year old party started at 9:30 Saturday morning.

I'm pretty sure that the parties would not have been a big success if the best Grandma & Grandpa ever had not been at the stove keeping the pancakes and bacon coming for all. Friday night we topped them with whip cream and Saturday morning we had chocolate chips. Who knew that, with the last minute delivery of the piano bench from my dad's house, we could fit 11 giggling girls around our dining room table.

I won't lie and say that I didn't get stressed while planning these soirees, but once the cupcakes were baked (another thank you to Grandma) and the party favors were assembled, things ran relatively smoothly. Of course, a week later, I'm still looking for some of the items that I put away (hid) at the last minute so that the house would appear relatively clutter-free.

I'm sure that I will have new insight and party lattes each May as we tackle the 2 parties in a row for the girls. Here it is for turning 4 and 6 - top everything with lots of sugar, and, for some reason, wearing pajamas is a huge hit with little girls. Running out for a latte before the arrival of the 2nd round helps, too.

Letting go...

"Mommy, try letting go!" That is what Mason said to me last week as he was riding his bike. Granted, it's time for him to learn to ride. He boycotted the bike when we removed the training wheels a year ago and the scooter has been his preferred 2-wheeled transportation. Still, his words caught me off guard and I found myself getting a little teary as I ran along beside the bike.

Now I can't keep up with him as he bikes all over the place. He has mastered yet another skill. I can check "teach bike riding" off my to-do list of parenting. Now Mason would like to be in charge of teaching it to his sisters, and I know I should let go and give him room to try.

As I sit here on Mother's Day - here, of course, being Starbucks, I'm trying to figure out how it is that my baby will be 4 tomorrow and her sister will be 6 on Thursday. My kids are almost 4, 6, and 8, letting go is going to be a bigger part of my job every day. That makes me a little sad, but it will put my kids on the path to becoming independent adults. Although I never say no when Mary Jane asks if it's alright if she lives with me forever. I'm taking baby steps to letting go. Happy Mother's Day!

5 year plan...

5 years ago my life got busy. Charlotte was almost a year old, and I was settling into life with 2 small children. In early May, we spent several days basically homebound while we worked on potty training with almost 3 year old Mason. Soon after that, we decided to move back to Atlanta from our home in Denver. Now, as we approach birthdays 4 and 6 for the girls, we are almost 5 years into that move.

"Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" was once a standard interview question. Now, it's probably a question that the job candidate asks the potential employer. We are living in a state of constant change. When we bought this house, I had a 5 year plan in mind - it involved some very drastic renovations. My plan did not involve putting the house on the market for 2 weeks and then changing our minds about a cross-country move. I still have a plan for renovations, but they are on a smaller scale. After living here for almost 5 years, I realize that we have alot of what we need without moving walls around.

5 years ago, I was too busy chasing toddlers and changing diapers to realize that in 5 years my kids would be done with preschool. I could not have imagined that I would blink and all of a sudden we would be done with diapers, sippy cups, and episodes of Barney. I guess it's almost time to plan for the next 5 years, at the end of which my babies will be "tweens" whatever that means. I'll probably still have renovation ideas that only exist in my head at that point.

I haven't come up with my plan for the next 5 years. I know that my husband is hoping there will be fewer trips to Starbucks during that time, but I have a feeling I'll need some good lattes. As I gear up for another birthday party weekend (the girls' parties are a week away) and the end of another school year, I'll make the switch to iced lattes for the summer and I'll try to soak it all in because if I blink another 5 years will have passed and I don't want to miss a thing.

A wedding latte: Part 1, the road trip

A wedding is a wonderful thing. My baby brother got married last weekend, and it was a truly fantastic event that took place in Houston, TX, 800 miles from here. We drove there. 4 adults, 3 children, 2 laptop DVD players, and 1 top carrier on the rented Tahoe.

My husband loves a good road trip. I tolerate it. My kids don't know the difference, although Mason did notice that everyone else did seem to get there much quicker by flying. I will admit that the Tahoe made it a much easier trip so did having my in-laws along for the ride. Geographically, Louisiana is an interesting state to drive through so the scenery on the way was new and different. As soon as we arrived at our destination, after 14 hours and only 2 stops on Thursday evening, I realized that Sunday morning was going to come way too soon. The drive home was not so smooth. 15 hours and too many stops to count. I think that Mason logged upwards of 10 hours on Super Mario that day, and we wore out the car charger for the laptops.

The mood is always less festive when returning home from a trip. The flower girls and ring bearer lasted until almost 11 at the wedding reception on Saturday night after being ready for pictures by 4 in the afternoon. Everyone was tired, cranky, and impatient. When I say everyone, I really mean me and Mason. But we made it. A stop at a Target with a Starbucks helped a little. I got a soy mocha, the kids picked a toy from the $1 section. At each of the many stops the kids and I all did 10 jumping jacks before getting back into the car.

My latte is this, sometimes happier memories come from thinking of the destination - a great family and fun filled weekend - and not the journey.

Follow Through

I've come to the conclusion that follow-through is not my strong suit. I'm good at starting things (like this blog), but I then let them dwindle. I haven't even followed-through with ordering a replacement piece for my coffee maker so I can make lattes at home.

I'm much better at staying in reactive mode. So much of being the parent of young children revolves around being able to change plans at a moment's notice (and often after very little sleep). Today is the 4th day out of the last 10 that I've been at home with a sick child. It's hard to make many plans with those odds. I've already cancelled plans for tomorrow just in case. Perhaps I'll use the time to finish a project or two. I still have mounds of pictures that need to be sorted into albums sitting in the basement. Besides, there is never a shortage of laundry, dishes, dusting, etc to do in this household.

My latte today, or regular coffee for those of us who have a broken machine and sick kids keeping us from going to Starbucks, is to follow through. Pick a task and stick with it so that you don't become overwhelmed by all of the loose ends in your life.