Seth

I have a to do list that is growing by the minute, but that's another story entirely.  I want to take a few minutes and get some thoughts down about each of my sweet boys.  Tonight I'll start with Seth.  And yes, I set my timer again so I'm going with it and posting and not thinking too hard.

• Reader.  Although he would rather play outside or play on the Wii or play a game on the Kindle or one of our phones.  I love that (1) he has to start working on a book report for school and (2) he has an "assignment" to read 15 minutes a night 4 or more nights a week.  LOVE being able to say he has to read and him not having room to argue.
• Fears embarrassment.  I am learning with Seth that he often seems fearful but I think the real fear is embarrassment.  I'm not sure he fears something bad or scary happening as much as he fears not knowing what to do and doing the wrong thing.
• Argumentative.  Sometimes I think he doesn't even hear what I'm saying because when I start to talk he is already formulating a different opinion.  No matter what I say his opinion will be different.  I am learning he and I are a lot alike and this will likely always be an issue that we will have to work at.
• Social.  This kid knows everyone's name at school and loves to greet people by their names (very politician-like). 
• Talkative.  Yikes, he could talk your ear off!  He was playing the Wii the other day while I was working on something at the table.  I was focused on my task and he was playing alone.  It suddenly hit me that he had not stopped talking the entire time.  Talking to the Wii, trash talking the Wii, talking about his Wii skills.  I really think he has a promising career as a sports commentator.
• Smart.  He likes to learn and school comes fairly easy for him.  He rushes too much and often wants to just be done but if he can slow down he's great. 
• Growing up.  He had a bad case of poison ivy and the doctor warned him the medicine didn't taste great.  However, I was glad to be able to reason with him that the short time he would have to taste the icky medicine was SO worth the benefits of the taste.  He's been a trooper and is feeling much better! 
• NASCAR fan.  He knows every driver's name, number and sponsor.  One day we were watching a race and he said, "That's [insert whatever driver's name]'s wife."  Huh?  Who knows that?
• Big brother.  This goes both ways.  The younger two pick up on his bad habits but, wow, Max adores his Sethy!  And sometimes I think he actually has a glimpse of understanding how important this role of big brother is. 
  
   

Okay, I'm at 13 minutes.  Must move on for tonight...

Surprise!

Let's see if I remember how to do this blogging thing.  In the interest of jumping back in, I have set a timer and am going to type for the next 10 minutes - no going back to edit, just going with it.

Where have I been?  Busy living life and raising three crazy, sweet, argumentative, crazy, rowdy, sweet, wrestling boys.  And that sums up about 2 minutes with the 3 of them!  There are times when they finally fall into bed and I just want to lie on my bed, motionless, and absorb the quiet.  There are times when I want to scream, "Please do not touch me for five entire minutes."  And then there are times when they've been in bed for just a few minutes and I have to resist the urge to go snuggle up next to one of them just to be sure they are okay. 

My heart feels heavily lately knowing so many people are struggling with sick kids (or worse)  financial struggles or relationship woes.  I feel like it's hard to keep track of everyone I want to care for, pray for, worry about, encourage, love on, etc.  Maybe this is just an age thing, getting older leads to more grown up problems perhaps?  Or maybe it's just making me more sentimental?  Or maybe there just really is more tragedy and sadness?

Well, this isn't where I thought I would go with this post.  Where have I been was the question...

I'm nearly out of time so I think I'll share about our summer since I neglected to blog even one minute of it.  I would say this was my best summer as a mom!  Seth is 7 and I've been home for 5 years and I must say this summer rocked!  Part of it was the creation of Sister Sanity Day nearly once a week.  My boys LOVE hanging out with their cousins and my sister and I learned our kids were finally at ages where it was fun to be together and just hang out with all five of them so we did - the pool at the Y was a huge hit.  We also did found a beach (beach, in the middle of the Midwest, YES!) about 45 minutes away.  It was small and rather in the middle of an apartment complex but there was sand and water and five kiddos who had a great time and two sisters who could sit on towels near the water and chat and soak up the sun and keep a close eye on their sweet kiddos loving on each other.  (Note: leave before rush hour or just stay later next time - tired children sitting in a traffic jam were not the highlight of this day!)

Eek, I'm at 12 minutes.  Time to wrap it up for tonight.  Hopefully I'll be back soon.  But I think I won't make any big promises.