Overheard a Conversation...

There was much yelling downstairs while the kids were "trying" to play thw Wii together. If the kids are going to "enjoy" themselves on this sort of entertainment I have one hard and fast rule: as soon as there is frustration, arguing, or bickering, the Wii time is over. I mean, come on kids: its only fun until its not fun anymore!

Anyway, much yelling, mostly from jackson's lungs, got my attention. I called the boys to me and asked for an explanation as to why the fun did not sound like very much fun. Turns out Jackson was asking Davis for help, which he gladly was giving and that is the point that things turned ugly. OK Jackson, I think there was a miscommunication here because you are mad at your brother. He wants to help you like you asked. Why don't you sit and listen to him for just a moment and maybe you two can work this out. Here is the conversation that ensued once I left the room:

D: I was just trying to help you.
J: But I couldn't hear you.
D: That because YOU WERE COVERING YOUR EARS!
J: Well, yeah. Just for the boring part. I didn't like the boring part.
D: But THAT was the most important part of the whole thing!
J: Oh. Well, it was boring.

Davis, some days are like that.

What a Beautiful Mess!

I will not pretend to be embarrassed. This mess in our basement is for a VERY good cause.

And now you see the cause. This poor excuse for a bathaundry room saw its last winter. Bye-bye crazy shaped counter. So long non-existant under-the-sink storage. Au revoir shower that violently sprays out the door if you open it - even quickly - to get in once the water has warmed up. See you never again, toilet that hardly bothers to flush.

You will (NOT) be missed.

Hello soon-to-be functional bathroom.

Hello laundry room with a laundry shoot. I think we are going to be very, very good friends. I still won't iron, and I don't plan on spending quality time with you, but I will think of you fondly while I fold laundry in front of the TV.   Oh, and hello new half-bath-that-Ryan-is-so-excited-to-use-when-he-is-covered-in-mud-from working-in-the-yard. Drywall is up. Mudding will begin soon.

 

And I cannot neglect the widend hallway. Hello hallway. The cupboards which we removed from you to make this space feel less like a dungeon are the REAL reason the basement is such a disaster. Can't wait to install some IKEA magic along your wall!

So, there is the progress for anyone who was DYING to know. We patiently await the return of our hard-working crew. This job expanded beyond what anybody thought when we opened up walls and discovered the ABSURD plumbing situation. Sorry to all their other clients who were put on hold while that mess was sorted out.

Friendly Update

To My Dearest Girlfriends,

I am typing two-handed (something I do not take for granted – yet), but I am typing amid a HUGE pile of receipts and bills. And they call my name (albeit in a rather annoying, nasal voice). Yes, it is another exciting Friday night at the Glover’s. But actually, it is a bit exciting. Ryan has been working all day (over 12 hours now) alongside our construction guys, putting insulation and drywall up in our remodel project. We are re-doing a hideous bathroom in our basement, and converting a portion of our garage in order to add a mud/laundry room (as in, making our garage smaller in order to give a portion to the inside of the house). Following the completion of that, we will replace all the interior doors and trim, re-floor the basement common areas (we re-carpeted the bedrooms down there late last year) and that will conclude the near COMPLETE remodel of the entire basement. We bought this house with a lovely upstairs (well, some of it was lovely anyway) and a gross downstairs. Admitting all vanity, I was always embarrassed when a guest saw that portion of the house (sorry I made you to SLEEP down there Heidi…) but now it will be simple but updated and definitely not gross.


Kids are all good. Basketball season ends Saturday for Jackson, baseball season started last Thursday for D and J. I do a little jig when I remember that this year, the two big boys will be able to share the same team and the two little boys are too young for sports. I take a deep cleansing breath when I think about next year, when they will be separated again and we will re-live the chaos of Spring 2009. And I shudder to think of life when all four are participating in sports. I have already determined that T-Ball is outlawed (what a colossal waste of time) and that if you are too young (scared) to stay at practice without a parent there THE WHOLE TIME, you will likely be sitting on the grandstands with Mom, not the dugout with Dad. One mom cannot be in four places at once: sometimes she HAS TO go deliver another child somewhere in the span of your practice.

We have been in a really fulfilling small group this year. Our pastor and a friend of ours co-lead it. It has been good to get back into a small group after not participating for 3 years. This year has been The Year of Friendship Development and Enhancement for Ryan. He has established or deepened many relationships with other men, and spent a great deal of time with them. It has been wonderful to see this in his life, even if it has meant that I have had to be home alone with the kids a little more often here and there. One thing that has bonded these guys together the most has been “The Biggest Loser” competition that one of the guys has put together. It was offered up to the whole church and there are a couple dozen people participating. They all line up after service to get “weighed in” and there are prizes each week for the man and woman who lost the most weight (on a % basis). In the 13 years we have been married (actually all 17 years we have been together) Ryan has NEVER dieted. He is serious about it (grumpy, but serious). I am so proud of him for his discipline in eating and exercising. It ALMOST makes me want to exercise, too! Maybe I will when the remodel is over and we can uncover our fitness equipment from the piles of junk waiting to be put in their newly remodeled places.

We opened another clinic this year. This time we assisted another therapist in opening her own. That has been good but has added quite a load on to my plate. We are just about through the worst of it… perhaps just in time to add another one (that we would own). Ryan has two more “in the hopper.” Hopefully they won’t BOTH be in 2010. I might fall over.

Me, I am just balancing it all. And enjoying it, though I miss being able to just sit and do nothing from 8:30pm when the kids are all down until 10:30, when I fall into bed and do my Bible read-through daily assignment. I am enjoying this read-through. By the year’s end I will have read the OT once and the Psalms and NT twice. It does not take much time each night but it is wonderful to have the discipline back in my busy life!

I must sign off for now. (Those bills are STILL calling…can you hear them, too?)

Movin' and a Shakin'

The baby seems to have dropped his morning nap. The delightful three-year-old is painstakingly dropping his one and only (still very much needed) nap. In six short months the six-year-old will be in school all day. Last night the eight-year-old took it upon himself to read to his three-year-old brother and then put him to bed - and he was successful.

All my boys are growing up. Sniff. Sigh. A tiny piece of me is nostalgic but the rest of me just loves the move the boys (especially the older two) are all making toward independence and responsibility. What I am finding as we slowly enter this new season is that our roles as parents are changing. The mother-hen, nurture, keep-em-close, protect their world role I have had is giving way to a you-can-do-it mentality (thank you, Ryan, for pointing this out to me). At home, they need to be trained and expected to do more and more things for themselves. As they increasingly face the world on their own, I must create create an atmosphere in our home that is safe for them to synthesize what they encounter out there.

I am hungry for wisdom and resources - and I have found one recently that I think will help equip both Ryan and I for this new season (and it informs parents in the preschooler-season as well). It is a Parenting DVD series that I am previewing for our church and hoping to offer to other families in the fall. (I thought I would tease you fellow C-stoners a little bit...) My favorite concept so far has been this: It is one thing to want to do a good job raising kids - to have well-behaved kids who know their Bible and know how to act in church. It is another thing entirely to raise great kids who are all that God intend for them to be as adults. The two can go hand in hand, but the second one can also be missed, especially in a home that relies too heavily on either legalism or license.

I am excited for what the Lord has for us in this new season - and anxious to share what I am absorbing with my friends!