A Wonderful Life

This morning Evelyn was a 3rd grade reader for Kindergarten through fourth grade mass.  It was a complicated piece with uncommon names, Apollos and Cephus, and there were many commas requiring pauses.  She read very well.  Henry attended his very first school mass with his kindergarten class, and he was in the front row directly in front of Ev as she read.  Vivian again insisted upon wearing a plaid school uniform jumper, and I cuddled and kissed her during the whole mass.  I chatted briefly with familiar faces afterwards, then Vivian and I walked home hand in hand.  Our shadows were in front of us, and my heart swelled with love for my little gal.  I miss her now that she attends preK part of some days.  After spending the summer running all errands and buying groceries with all four children in tow, I firmly believed I would relish kid-free shopping.  On the contrary, I was incredibly lonely yesterday as I picked up items at the store.  Henry goes to school all day, and his energy seems astoundingly to be quite depleted once he returns home.  He and Vivian are TIRED and quiet.

I can't believe nearly a year has passed since I wrote.  We unexpectedly found a house near school and church, sold our little home of the last decade plus, and moved.  Things were rather busy.  I went to Europe to visit London, Paris, Berlin, and three cities in Poland with Anthony and Dad last October.  That was an experience of a lifetime, and I can't believe I received that blessing.  Last night something came up about the trip, and I explained to Evelyn how Uncle Anthony flew me there and covered astronomically priced hotels in London, Paris, and Berlin and how Grandpa Tom paid for our stay in Poland.  Ev said, "So they were very generous?  Henry would never do that for me!"  I laughed.  I also laughed after school yesterday when Vivian kindly offered to do Henry's homework for him so he could craft her a parachute out of coffee filters and thread for her "ninja" toy.  She obtained this new treasure in Branson recently.  Daddy bought us a few races on go carts at a really cool track.  The Tulsa cousins were there, and we played musical drivers as we traded kids as passengers.  It was exhilarating to race around the curves and pass our loved ones.  We yelled and had a blast.  My children have their father's love of speed, danger, and excitement when it comes to amusement park rides.  They are so short that adult riders were required to accompany them on many of the intense roller roasters.  Roller coasters terrify me in a way that I kind of enjoy.  I dread riding them, and I'm a wreck during the 90 seconds of plunges, loops, turns, and more.  Even though my mental talk during the ride is, "This was a BAD idea!!  I'm going to fly out.  I'm going to DIE!!  Never again!," somehow I keep riding new ones.  There are worse areas in which to make unsafe decisions.

Here are a few antics that come to mind regarding the children over the last months.
-When we moved into our home 3/4 of the backyard was mud.  I thought I would not survive the mess, despite the presence of a mud room.
-Henry and Vivian took almost 20 earthworms that I found while transplanting in the backyard and sprinkled them on the kitchen floor with some dirt.
-Henry exploded a bag of grout dust on the brand new hardwood floors.
-We discovered once the little two slept in their own rooms that Vivian has been the early riser who was waking Henry all those years.  We wrongly accused our son.
-I call Vivian a stealth baby because I sometimes awake in the night to find her asleep next to me.  She doesn't make a peep.  She simply crawls into our bed and ends up crowding me.  I slept with her at my mom's house, and she'd whack me in the face with her chubby hands or sleep at a diagonal with her feed in my side.  She was a mess.
-Henry learned to ride his bike over the summer.
-All the kids really took off with their swimming.  They can all dive.  The last week the pool was open Vivian jumped off the diving board and went down the water slide.

We are very thankful for the space we have in our home.  We treasure our walks to mass as a family down a pretty street with lots of shade.  We are healthy and happy, surrounded by helpful friends and a loving extended family....what a wonderful life.