This week has been so good 🙂
I am just so enjoying each day I have with my girls and it feels like we’re hitting a nice little groove…which I will try not to expect to last too long! Last week felt a bit bumpy and I just felt the Grumpy Mama Syndrome setting in, which is the last thing any of us need these days. So this week I was determined to be positive, say yes when I can, keep things light and just enjoy my daughters. The pay off has been awesome! 🙂
Monday we just enjoyed being together after a busy weekend. Hung out at home, cleaned up the house a bit so we felt sane again and ran a few errands.
Tuesday we went strawberry picking with some great friends of ours. It rained a bit on us, but that was ok. It was wonderful to spend time with friends again, and since these particular friends include kids ages 4 and 6, the girls had a great time. By the time we made it home it was pouring rain and the house felt cool and damp, so we all ended up in jammies making strawberry pie for dinner. On my way home from our friends I had noticed Pizza Hut’s sign…Tuesdays kids eat free…and we couldn’t quite pass that up on a rainy day 🙂 So we ate pizza for dinner and even managed to squeeze in biking up and down the street with Alexis from across the street. Akeisha and Alexa love to bike, especially with Alexis, and I am so proud of how well they’re doing! Akeisha loves to zoom up and down the street, showing off her tricks to us. Alexa is gaining confidence each day and making lots of progress, despite the hard work it is for her little legs to pump those pedals. She’s so proud that she can now bike down our big hill! The girls also had fun watching Alexis try out her four wheeler-turned-two wheeler on Tuesday night. She had been saying for about a week to Kirby, me and her Mommy and Daddy that she was ready for her training wheels to come off! So Tuesday night ended up being the big night, and off she went! The first few rides were rough, but in no time she got the hang of it and by today she’s a pro 🙂 This is what I love about our neighbourhood…the whole street felt like it was lit up as the kids zoomed up and down shouting out “Look at me!” and parents and neighbours waved and smiled and clapped.
Wednesday was the day for grocery shopping, making strawberry jam, and some laundry since it was nice and my dryer is broken 😦 I just have to insert here that I LOVE strawberry jam! I love it on toast, muffins and icecream 🙂 My girls now love it, too, and even though it is super unhealthy because it’s loaded with sugar we eat it almost every day. Alexa loves PB+J…on toast or a wrap, especially with this jam! It is the recipe off the Certo package, which my Mom used when I was a kid. I just can’t quite imagine anything better! Yesterday I realized there is also a recipe on their for Strawberry-Banana Jam, and since I had bananas I tried a bit of that too. Thinking that is going to be super yummy as well, though I haven’t actually tried it yet. Anyway, back to Wednesday.
Early afternoon Alexis wandered over, as she does most days, and she and Akeisha got creative making a fort in the bushes! Copying Franklin’s Secret Clubhouse, I agreed to sacrifice an old sheet and they strung it up over their little house. All afternoon they blazed trails, collected treasures and cared for their worms and caterpillars in their little fort. I love seeing kids use their imaginations to play this way, so I was delighted 🙂 They had hot chocolate…yes, in July…made signs and got covered in mud and sand. Alexa joined in the fun a bit, but was a little less enthralled with tromping through the bushes. Akeisha was so excited, it was all she could talk about all evening.
Today we are enjoying the beautiful sunshine and scheming about our camping trip this weekend. As long as the weather cooperates we plan to spend the weekend roughing it on one of the many crown land islands on beautiful Georgian Bay. If it rains…well…I guess we can always head out early, since it’s so close. FREE, FUN and CLOSE BY! Love living here in the summertime 🙂 We’ll see how tenting treats us and what kind of adventures we can come home with on Sunday. This morning Akeisha woke up early and went straight out to her fort, bundled up in her housecoat and two coats over top of her pajamas! LOL. So far she has eaten breakfast (her toast, milk and banana) and lunch (KD) out there. Alexa cautiously joined the fun a bit later, but was a little worried there would be bears! She came in sniffling to tell me that Akeisha was out bear hunting with her water gun but she was afraid she would get “attackled!” I reassured her that, though there are bears around here, they would stay far away from noisy children 🙂 She still has not ventured back there much, however. I guess the mud, sticks and mosquitoes don’t draw her quite as much.
It is all the wonderfully ordinary moments that I am just loving this week. Dirty feet, sticky hands and messy faces. My bathroom floor covered in bubbles from a little girl’s messy bath; what feels like thousands of ketchup stained purple and pink shirts in my laundry; tousled auburn hair against my cheek every morning on top of a sleepy smile. I guess it’s because that’s what motherhood looks like. KD on the floor, caterpillars on the deck, little arms and legs covered with scabs and bruises, shoes inside the door and markers and stickers everywhere. Right now there’s a little girl sitting in my lap with hair that smells like mosquito repellent. There’s another little girl dashing in the door giggling about something. It’s time for me to go and give them some attention, but I hope this gives you a peek into our lives these days 🙂
The other night the girls were dancing around the living room and snuggling with Daddy while I played the piano. Since we’d just been biking I thought of the song “You Can Let Go.” I started singing it, but even though I’d sung it a thousand times before I only got a few phrases in and felt my throat closing up. For the first time I thought about these two little girls someday growing up and walking down the isle beside my husband. Because of that, I want to treasure every moment. Too soon they won’t be little girls anymore tugging at my hands and holding up their treasures for me to see. There is so much to do, and so little time…so one day, one moment at a time we will treasure this little life we have.
YOU CAN LET GO
By Crystal Shawanda
Wind blowing on my face
Sidewalk flying beneath my bike
A five year old’s first taste
Of what freedom’s really like
He was running right beside me
His hand holding on the seat
I took a deep breath and hollered
As I headed for the street
You can let go now, Daddy, you can let go
Oh I think I’m ready to do this on my own
It’s still a little bit scary but I want you to know
I’ll be okay now, Daddy, you can let go
I was standing at the altar
Between the two loves of my life
To one, I’ve been a daughter
To one, I soon would be a wife
When the preacher asked
“Who gives this woman?”
Daddy’s eyes filled up with tears
He kept holding tightly to my arm
‘Til I whispered in his ear
You can let go now, Daddy, you can let go
Oh I think I’m ready to do this on my own
It’s still feels a little bit scary but I want you to know
I’ll be okay now, Daddy, you can let go
It was killing me to see the strongest man I ever knew
Wasting away to nothing in that hospital room
You know he’s only hanging on for you
That’s what the night nurse said
My voice and heart were breaking
As I crawled up in his bed and said
You can let go now, Daddy, you can let go
Your little girl is ready to do this on my own
It’s gonna be a little bit scary but I want you to know
I’ll be okay now, Daddy, you can let go
Hope you all have a super weekend! I’ll let you know how the camping goes 🙂
AF
Adoption, Mommyhood & the Rest 