Pirates vs. Rangers

No, the Pirates and Rangers aren't really playing baseball, but today has been full of both and a good time was had by all of our family. A couple weeks ago, Ben, Maddie, and Jon were invited to a pirate birthday party. They had been so excited to get their own invitations and were looking forward to playing and singing "Happy birthday!" I planned to take them to the party and send Allen and Will out to do something fun.

One of Allen's vendors sent him six tickets to a Texas Rangers game, but he didn't ask what dates would work best and the game was the same time as the birthday party. Allen tried really hard to find work friends to go to the game, but the night before the game, it was still just Will and Allen going. Saturday, Ben was on day three of a high fever, so we already knew he wouldn't be able to attend the birthday party. Our plan was to send Ben with Allen and Will if he was feeling up to it. Thankfully, today Ben didn't have a fever, so the three guys headed for the game and met some college friends there. I took Maddie and Jon to the Pirate Party.

Everyone had fun! Maddie, Jon, and I went to the craft store before the party, then went to the grocery store after. We had ballpark foods for dinner while we watched the last few innings on TV, watching for the guys who were in the fifth row behind home plate. Maddie and Jon begged me to let them play video games while I broiled hot dogs, and I let them have a bit of downtime. It was sweet to see that they shared the seat, even though there were plenty available. We finished off dinner with icecream, so they were having a blast!

Meanwhile, at the ballpark, Allen, Will, and Ben were enjoying awesome seats and weather, but the game was a bit long for little boys. Ben was a bit restless, and Will used pistachio shells to spell words on the floor. The boys were spoiled with ballpark treats, but somehow, Allen had the patience to handle two sugared-up boys. ;)

For the Birds - Mockingbird Whoppers are Duds

The night of April 26th, we had a very windy, rainy storm. The mockingbird nest ended up soggy and full of leaves. Though the birds may have abandoned the nest before the storm, it wasn't clear to us until after the storm that they quit caring for the nest. They didn't turn the eggs or clean up the clutter, but everytime I went outside, the two mockingbirds were nearby. I researched it a bit online and discovered that sometimes they SEEM to abandon the nest, but really DO stick around. I was hopeful that that was the situation, but hatching time came and went and still nothing changed. I quit taking pictures, but I still glanced in it every once in awhile.

Two days ago, on May 12th, I looked in and saw that the three eggs had become two eggs. I looked around the tree, but didn't see the third egg. The next day, I peeked again, and I was surprised to see that a second blue egg had been evicted, but in its place was another. The new egg was a bit smaller than the mockingbird eggs, it was bright white with crisp, dark brown speckles. I haven't figured out which bird could have done this. It looks a bit like a cardinal egg, and I know we have a pair of cardinals, but I haven't found anything saying that cardinals take over other nests, so I'm just not sure.

For the Birds - Fluffs fly away

I looked back at all my bird pictures and I realized I got really behind on posting updates.  Rather than narrating each photo, I'll just tell the story then post the pics.

Last I posted was April 25th, since then, as the birds grew, the nest did, too. Oddly, the parents didn't build it up with straw, grass, and lint like the first part. Instead, it looks like they just pooped around the edge of the nest to build it up higher. I don't know for sure that is actually IS poop, but it definitely looked like it. The fluffy white chicks slowly lost their fluff and it turned to sleek brown feathers. Most of the time I photographed them, I couldn't tell how many chicks there were. Though I expected three, I usually could only see two at a time. Unlike the bluebirds, who are used to the dark birdhouse, these little birds would peek out at me, and even open their mouths for food sometimes. This nest was just above my head in an evergreen shrub, so I either held the camera up and hoped I got the shot, or I dragged a plastic chair to the tree and prayed it wouldn't tumble as I perched it on the hill next to the tree. It was difficult to always have the same angle, and difficult to get a focused photo, but I tried to get photos daily so the kids could see the changes. Nothing compared to the joy on their faces when they asked me to lift them up to see the baby birds. I wish I had captured THAT with the camera, but I never had enough hands :) Often, when I would take pictures, the daddy housefinch (Carpo) would perch in a nearby tree and talk with me. He would start out singing, then I would echo his tune, and he would continue. He was a cheerful little bird, but the female usually left when I came outside. The last picture I got of the housefinch babes was on Friday, May 6th. We left town that weekend, and when we got home Sunday, they had flown away, leaving only the bad egg. I keep hoping to see the finches in the yard, but so far I've only seen the bright red of Carpo. It was fun while it lasted, and I'm glad we got to watch this nest.

And the survey says....!

Since Jon spent last Thursday with me, only Ben and Maddie filled out the surveys at school. After we all got home, I asked Jon and Will to answer the same questions so I could keep all the answers together. Their answers kept me laughing!

MADDIE:
My mother is 24 years old. Her name is Sarah. She weighs 4 pounds and is little feet tall. My mother has black hair and gray eyes. My mother's favorite food is tortillas. Her favorite clothes are dresses. My mother's favorite color is pink. My mother's job is cleaning dishes and cooking. She gets mad when we do bad things. She is happy when she goes to the playground. My favorite thing to do with my mother is going to the bookstore. The best thing about my mother is having tea parties and Christmas.

BEN:
My mother is 23 years old. Her name is Sarah. She weighs 23 pounds and is 23 feet tall. My mother has brown hair and gray eyes. My mother's favorite food is chicken. Her favorite clothes are purses. My mother's favorite color is pink. My mother's job is doing work in the office. She gets mad when I get angry at her. She is happy when she gives me a hug. My favorite thing to do with my mother is play with my toys. The best thing about my mother is she loves to play with me!


JON:
My mother is 3 years old. Her name is Mama. She weighs 13 pounds and is 14 feet tall. My mother has black hair and green eyes. My mother's favorite food is macaroni and cheese. Her favorite clothes are the ones that people like. My mother's favorite color is red. My mother's job is doing laundry. She gets mad when we do rude things. She is happy when she folds laundry. My favorite thing to do with my mother is laundry. The best thing about my mother is being a fireman -- she can be a fired for being a man. (??)


WILL:
My mother is 32 years old. Her name is Sarah. She weighs 90 pounds and is about 30 feet tall. My mother has copper hair and green eyes. My mother's favorite food is enchiladas or pasta. Her favorite clothes are that pink shirt and dresses. My mother's favorite color is pink. My mother's job is cleaning the house. She gets mad when I do bad things. She is happy when I stay on green. My favorite thing to do with my mother is play games on her phone. The best thing about my mother is she makes me special desserts and everything. Her favorite sport is baseball.
MINE:
I wondered how I would answer some of the questions, but I also knew I would skip some of them ;) My name is Sarah, but I like my kids to call me Mama. I am 34 years old and I am a little more than five feet tall. My hair is brown and my eyes are green. My favorite food for dinner is breakfast or Thai basil chicken. My favorite food for dessert is tiramisu. My favorite part of breakfast is coffee with cream and a little sugar. My favorite clothes are comfortable jeans with a t-shirt or pajamas, but I like to dress up sometimes, too. My favorite color is pink or red, depending on whether I am picking out clothes or something else.

My job? WHEW -- how do I answer that one? I cook and clean and do laundry and pay bills and shop and run errangs and drive kids where they need to go. I do what I can to make a nice home for my family, to complete and encourage my husband, to teach and love my kids, and to take care of myself. Each day I do what I can, but I can never get it all done.

My favorite thing to do with my kids... with Maddie, I like having tea parties, combing her hair, painting her toenails, shopping and doing artwork together. With Ben, I like getting and giving him hugs, rubbing his back, snuggling, watching bugs and going to the zoo. With Jon, I like to read, dance, sing, and organize. With Will, I like going on trips, reading, learning new things, experimenting, and exploring. With all of them I enjoy teaching them new things, reading, letterboxing, walking, and going to church together.

I am happy when everyone is happy and getting along. I love it when our family encourages each other and works together to accomplish something. I get angry when my kids are mean or disrespectful to anyone. I also get angry when anyone picks on my kids.

The best thing about me? My family! One great thing about each -- Maddie creates, Ben loves, Jon encourages, Will teaches, Allen is awesome!

Real-Life Mom

A lady from the newspaper is working on a Mother's Day article about how moms of higher order multiples (triplets or more) handle every day life: the chores, the discipline, the activities, the bills. At first, she recommended that she and the photographer meet me while I ran errands to they could get pictures of me trying to wrangle the kids. I told her I could do that, but it wasn't very realistic since I do my errands when the kids are in preschool. Instead, she and the photographer are coming to our home at 4:00 this afternoon.

Here is what I've been struggling with.... If shopping with four kids is not my "real everyday life," can I leave my house as-is? Do I need to get all the baskets of unfolded laundry put away first or just let them take pictures of the kids doing it? Do I need to get all the toys picked up and the mud of the back porch, or can I leave that as-is? Do I need to put on lipstick or should I go with the real-life chap stick? Do I need to dry my hair for the pictures, or will the ponytail tell the real story? This has been a constant internal argument for the last several days, because some days I really do not know what "real-life" is.

I woke up this morning prepared to be the mom I aspired to be. This morning, the kids were eating breakfast before Will went to school. While Allen was getting ready (out of the room), the boys started a belching contest. I patted them lovingly and asked them to be polite. The second time, I calmly asked them to stop. The third time, I ordered they stop. The fourth time, I yelled loud enough the dog left the room. After that, I think my vocal volume got stuck on "yell." About that time, Allen hugged me and asked if I was the same mom the paper was going to interview. I was still frustrated with the kids, but I was disappointed that only thirty minutes had passed since I had made plans to be the "good mom." I explained I had to get the "bad mom" out of the way early. I started the mental-list of all I wanted to accomplish before company came, but I was also aiming to get out the door in time for our MOPS spa day.

As stressful as the day started, it really wasn't any different than every day -- LOUD and chaotic! I finally got a chance to sit down with my coffee, and I prayed God would help me through the day. It was a miracle that I sat still long enough to overhear Ben, Maddie, and Jon playing, and I watched them "bath-tize" each other. One at a time, one child held his or her nose, another asked "Who is your Lord and Savior?" The nose-holder said, "Jesus is the Lord of my life." The asker tipped the other back on the couch, then helped him sit back up. The each were the baptizer and baptizee at least twice before I asked where they saw that.

Jon said, "Big church!
Ben said, "Mama, Jesus loves you, too!"
Maddie said, "He died on the cross for all of us and now he is alive!"

I know that was all God. I know he needed me to witness their playtime. God knew I was being hard on myself about losing my temper with them, but I felt like He was patting me on the back saying, "You are doing just fine with the things that really matter. I am right here helping you and Allen raise them." It was SUCH a humbling and joyful perfectly-timed moment, and I came away with a different understanding of Matthew 18:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.". ~ Matthew 18:1-3 (NIV)

I enjoyed that moment for the last several hours. As I look around the house, I am STILL wondering how to perfectly balance real-life with my own expectations. I'm not sure yet what questions they'll ask this afternoon, but I'll give the truth. As far as the pictures, I plan to aim for outside, but just in case that doesn't happen, I've consolidated all the laundry piles into two baskets - clean and dirty, and I've used a third to hold everything I'm sweeping off the kitchen counters -- bills, piles of school papers, a paddle, books, seed packets, to-do lists, craft-supplies, Legos, Polly Pockets, and overflowing baskets of pens that don't work anymore, and a plant that needs to be repotted. All three baskets will be on my bed behind a locked door.
I guess they might not capture real-life completely, but for now, I will believe that sometimes "real-life" means sweeping little things out of sight so we can focus on our blessings.

Brotherly Love

How can feelings between brothers change so quickly? Yesterday afternoon, after the kids didn't nap (but were supposed to) Jon, Will, and Maddie came downstairs and watched hockey with Allen. Some time went by and we wondered where Ben was. It is not uncommon for one of our kids to stay upstairs getting some alone time while the other three are off playing together, so we were not too worried. Allen asked the other three what Ben was doing and Jon said, "He's probably just playing." The alarm word was "probably" since that meant he was not too sure. I went upstairs to check on Ben, and all I could hear was faint crying. I started searching, and when I opened Maddie's bedroom door, I heard him a bit louder, but still muffled. Then I saw the drawers of the dresser were open, and Ben was sobbing inside. It turns out Jon put Ben in Maddie's bottom drawer of her dresser, but in reality, Ben had to have climbed in. Then Jon opened the drawer above it and trapped Ben in. Jon left the room, closed the door, and came downstairs as if nothing was wrong. Ben was pretty upset with Jon, but otherwise, he seemed fine.

This morning, Jon acted completely differently toward Ben.... Ben had been having tantrums and causing trouble. One of his fits was directed toward Jon and he spit out lots of mean words, ending with, "You are stupid!" The S-word isn't allowed in our home, so I put some dish soap on my finger and put it on Ben's tongue, explaining I was washing the naughty words out. Ben hated that and sat and cried and cried that I was killing him and he would soon die. I hugged him and told him I loved him, but that I wasn't allowing those words. Jon sat next to Ben and tried comforting him by rubbing his back. Then, Jon marched over to me and said, "Mama, I'm angry that you are being mean to my brother. You shouldn't do that to my brother." I explained to Jon that discipline was part of my job and that Ben was using bad words. Jon went back to rubbing Ben's back. When things calmed down a bit, I playfully asked Jon if he had gotten his Good Morning hugs and kisses yet. He frowned at me and calmly explained, "I can wait. Why don't you give my hugs and kisses to Ben right now. I think he needs it more."

After everything was back to normal, Ben was still pouting. Then he said something to Maddie and Jon, and they all started laughing and cheering. I asked what the commotion was about and the three excitedly told me that Ben had his words back! They seemed to think I washed all words out of his mouth, and they were thrilled he could talk again. Maddie and Jon have stuck right by Ben since then, and I know I am the outsider. I suppose I should get used to it, though. For now I will just be happy that those brothers really do love each other, they just have different ways of showing it.

Chapter One Ends

Last Sunday was the last day I opened the bluebird nest box until Friday afternoon. Here are this week's pictures! Monday, we had some rain. This is Sialia taking a break on a wet branch. She is scoping out the garden before delivering dinner to the wee ones.

Tuesday, Sialia was up bright and early to feed her family fresh greens. ... really fresh (still wiggling) and really green! Silas brought the kids a plump grub, and Ben, Jon, and Maddie enjoyed watching the birds on the fence.

Wednesday, I put the zoom-lens to the test when I spotted Silas across the field, clinging to a tree as he searched for birdie snacks. Around that same time, Sialia brought a spider in for the wee ones.

Thursday, I finally had the camera handy when Silas perched. At dusk, he is often atop the swingset or on the corner of our porch roof, but only for a quick second before he spots the bugs and darts to grab them. It is so hard to catch him still long enough to focus the camera.

Friday, I saw the birdhouse looked a mess. Part of the nest was coming out. Just a few moments after I noticed that, Allen and I spotted a "different" kind of bird on the garden fence. We wondered if it was a fledgling, and just then, Sialia showed up to feed her babe breakfast. (The photos were taken right at daybreak, so they are kind of dark).

I tried walking outside to get a picture from outside our yard. I used the zoom to get one picture of the lone juvenile. Just as I clicked the button, Silas showed up to chase me away. I didn't want them upset, so I didn't get close to the little one and I left quickly when Silas told me to go.

Friday afternoon, I peeked in the hole to see if all the peeps left, and when it was empty, I opened the top and found a big mess. As I was walking back out of the garden, I found a sad, sad pile of feathers and wing parts covered in ants. I was completely heart-broken, knowing one of the bluebird family faced a violent end. I don't know if a hawk got it or something else. I don't know if it was pulled out of the nest box or was caught in flight. I know life happens and this is part of the cycle, but it stinks and it has depressed me a bit.

I don't know whether the feather pile was Sialia or one of the wee ones, but I know we have seen Silas several times, and I think I've seen some of the little ones since I found this mess. I haven't spotted Sialia since then, and none of them have been back to the birdhouse. I hope she is fine, mothering her next clutch, having moved her family from the danger-zone.

After watching the box for two days and seeing no indication that they've been back, today, Allen and I cleaned out the box and disinfected it. Now, we have a vacant bluebird home and I hope we have new nesters soon.

VACANCY! 

Clean home is move-in ready. Friendly neighborhood (mostly). Beautiful garden view. Bluebirds preferred, but everybirdy welcome who allows photographer to intrude a bit.

UPDATE - 2:54PM - Sialia is alive!! I just saw her on the fence looking like she was wondering what happened to the house...