Spring Fever

I haven't posted anything for quite sometime. For starters, it has been lovely here in Phoenix and we have been outside a lot enjoying the spring weather and so when we are inside, my time on the computer is limited. Springtime in Phoenix is glorious. It seems like all the citrus trees in the area converge on a specific blooming week, thus filling the atmosphere with its sweet intoxicating fragrance. When the scent of an orange blossom wafts into your nostrils, you are suddenly overcome with peace and tinglys all at the same time. It is a pleasantly beautiful aroma that seals my springtime experience.

Tonight I traveled a whopping 30 paces to my across-the-street neighbors's home to the annual spring block party. I just LOVE this street. It was like stepping back in time. You see, this neighborhood has been here since the mid fifties and some of the folks who live in the houses are the original owners. Take the block party hosts, Lyle and Arlene for example. They are now in their early 70's and have lived in thier house for over 40 years. Can you imagine living in the same home for that long? For young thirtysomething kids like me and my husband, that seems like a has been reality of yesteryear never to be a reality for us. We were the second folks to arrive at the party. The first people there had known Lyle and Arlene for 33 years because that is how long they have lived in their house which is six houses down from us. As the evening progressed, more folks from our street came down with their covered dishes to add. It was so comforting to see these folks connect with one another and actually exchange meaningful conversation as opposed to the obligatory hello wave that comes when we drive by. I learned that some of these neighbors have been coming to this annual spring block party for over 30 years.
I love that.
I could see us living here for years and when Lyle and Arlene aren't able to host the block party anymore we would then step up and continue the tradition. But alas, we are moving away in a few months.
Okay, I am getting depressed so I am not going to dwell on that. This springtime evening was precious and I will treasure it. I will also learn from this community. I am going to try my best to foster a friendly community wherever we end up. Maybe my first block party will be a flop, but heck if I keep it up for 30 years, who knows what kind of relationships will be formed. Happy Springtime, everyone!

The Joy is in the Journey

Some exciting things are afoot at the McIlrath home. Amy is officially crawling! Lookout world here she crawls. She just loves this newfound way of exploring her surroundings. It is so fascinating to watch her and one can almost see the smoke coming out of here ears as a result of the wheels spinning in that little brain of hers. She laughs and squeals when she crawls, too. I think its because she is just so excited to be moving toward something that is interesting to her. Take last night for example...she crawled from our family room all the way into the kitchen. Then she proceded to explore this wonderful new object called the dog water bowl. To us, it is a plain ordinary bowl that holds water for the dogs and gets in my way. Well to her, it was a vast ocean on new sensations. She cautiously began to reach her hand out to touch it. Then she sort of hit the rim over and over. Then, once confident that this is truly an object worth more exploration, she began to hit the water in it an splash it all around. Eventually she was soaking wet and so was the floor. The funniest thing was when she crawled away leaving a wet trail of water behind her.
The floor needed a good mopping.
The other new thing worth mentioning is that I am an official beginner quilter! I finished my first quilt top last night and I LOVE IT! After that last stitch was made, I held up my finished creation of evenly cut squares of color and smiled a proud smile. I didn't know I could do that sort of thing. Even though that one moment of satisfaction was indeed real, the true joy came from the process of making that quilt top. I am a part of a little beginner quilting class that meets in the home of a dear friend. It is just a few of us from my church, but we are loving learning together and being together. Three hours can fly by and seem like minutes when you are creating something along side other precious women who also have the gift of gab sewing. (that is talking and sewing at the same time)
I think I was born a century too late because I would have LOVED to be a pioneer woman who, apart from the daily grind of running a family on the prairie, would have been a part of a quilting circle. I can totally understand the whole quilting circle concept and how necessary that was in so many different ways.
I will eventually give this quilt away and I hope that the receiver will love it. But you know what; it really doesn't matter. The recipient could just fold it up and keep it hidden in her closet forever and it wouldn't matter to me. The joy was in the making of it. I have better friendships, I have learned a skill and I had some good clean fun in making this quilt.
My little Amy crawls around squealing and laughing at the fact that she is simply not sitting anymore. She loves her little journeys around down the hall.

Yes, we all have our destinations we want to get to and goals we want to achieve. There will be a moment of satisfaction as we hold up our 'quilt' and smile that proud smile. Nevertheless, remember there is joy in the journey. It may take some effort to find it, but it is there. I hope you will join me in taking the advice from my 8 month old and be joyful in my journey and not forget to squeal and laugh along the way.

Places to be, planes and pee pee potty

An entire month has gone by and I haven't been on the internet very much to check my email let alone write a post for this blog. Now that the dust has settled and the last load of laundry has been folded, I thought I'd share a few highlights of the last month. We were in Jacksonville Beach, Florida for two weeks at Christmas then we were at home for a week before we headed off to Nashville, Tennessee for a wedding. Our trip to Florida was really great on the whole. Nonetheless we did have our challenges. Mainly the plane trip back was the largest of all mishaps.
Picture this... a precious 7 month old baby girl, happy, yet a leaky faucet of mucous and a 28 month old little boy full of energy and a sippy cup of apple juice, and lastly a frazzled mother who is trying to keep it together despite the circumstances. We are ready to board the plane after a long two weeks away from home and daddy. As we get on the plane and the flight attendants are always kind and cheerful to us, but the looks and comments I get from the folks in first class - well, I just smile and shake it off. "My you're brave to be traveling with those little ones" or "This is gonna be a long flight". The whole flight from Jax to Dallas was fine and uneventful, but the flight from Dallas to Phx - Oh, Lord RAPTURE me now. Eric was exhausted and so was Amy, but yet no sleep came to either. Well, finally the voice of the captain came over the intercom and I was never so glad to hear the words "flight attendants, prepare the cabin for arrival".
As we gather ourselves a few moments later I hear, "Mommy, pee pee potty"

Great.

Eric starts doing the pee pee potty dance and kept saying with panic in his voice, "mommy pee pee potty, pee pee potty". As the scene unfolds, the lady sitting across the aisle from me obviously sees my distress and offers to help. I have no idea who she is, but I thrust Amy into her arms and say "she is a happy baby, here - have fun holding her" and I sweep Eric up into my arms and we rush down the aisle to the lavaratory. No sooner did we get there the flight attendant says "I'm sorry, but the captain requires that all passengers must be in thier seatbelts... the landing gear is already out". Look lady, you don't understand, Eric has to go PEE PEE POTTY NOW!!!!!! I reluctantly sat down in the empty seat right in front of the bathroom with Eric in my lap and we buckled in. By this time almost everyone in the back half of the plane knew without a doubt that Eric had to go pee pee potty really bad and they were all wondering the same thing... will he make it?

Yes, he made it. Whew! We landed and the flight attendant let us get up and go pee pee potty before the captain turned off the seat belt sign. Walking back to my seat, I remembered that I left my baby with a total stranger and I was hoping that the landing went okay for them both. Luckily, it did and Amy didn't cry upon landing. In fact, she seemed more happy to be with this lady than with me.

Well, after that wonderful episode, I was extremely reluctant to get back on a plane ever again, but alas we boarded a plane again in order to attend the wedding of a friend. The Lord heard my unspoken prayers and the kids slept most of the four hours to Nashville!!!

So we have been back home now for about a week and it sure is nice. Eric is totally into his toys like they were brand new and that is a good thing because it's been kind of cold and rainy here.

May the new year bring fun and joy to you all. And a word to the wise... go pee pee potty when you have the urge and don't wait until the plane is landing

My little man

Little footprints in the sand
running, exploring my little man

"Look Mommy look!"a sailboat comes into view
so many sights all so exciting, all these sights so new

"Come, Mommy come!" let's run into the water
So cold the water is today, but that doesn't seem to matter

"Jump, Mommy jump!" let's jump over each wave
Here comes a big one, hold tight to Mommy's hand as with
the new break we play

Oh how I love to see those sweet blonde curls moving in the wind
I take a deep breath, I take a long look, I want to hold this moment in

The tide is creeping ever closer washing our pink cold toes
Oh how I'm thankful for this day no matter how the north
wind blows

He chases birds, he spins around, he dances wild a free
Oh little man you are a delight for every eye to see

Forever forever this moment shall be etched in my memory
My Eric boy, my little man
leaving little footprints in the sand

The hummm of the dishwasher

As I sit here at the computer in my mother-in-law's home, I am amazed at how much I love the sound of the dishwasher. Let me briefly explain...You see, this tiny little house has been inundated with 10 adults, one two year old and one six month old for a few days now and we have had our fill of food, fun and fudge! Our Christmas Eve was our big dinner with everyone and we had it all. I am so grateful to Bill the 'mastah mixah' for orchestrating the dinner and then many thanks go to his 'little elves' who slaved away in the kitchen all day. The meal was a success and a delicious feast for me, Tim and my two offspring who, by the way, traveled from Phoenix to Jax and were so tired and ready for non-airplane food. Christmas Eve in the Hatcher-McIlrath family is not complete without a birthday celebration for Tim's mom, Buff. Yes, she was born on Christmas Eve 29 years ago :-) and we always celebrate with a spice cake and trimmings. But that's not all! The next day is Christmas Day and we had ourselves a big time! Eric and Amy scored the highest for the most presents and we certainly enjoyed watching them play with their new things. Well, truthfully, Eric played with his new toys - Amy preferred to play with, or rather eat the tissue paper that everything was wrapped in. As far as meals go, my very smart mom-in-law and sis-in-law made a few casseroles days before and froze them. They were quite tasty and even Eric cleaned his plate! It is now 2 days after Christmas and four adults have gone back home with one more leaving tomorrow. The tissue paper is safely out of reach of my six month old, Eric's new toys have been thoroughly broken into and all the Christmas china has been put back in the cabinets until next year. It is now nearly 11PM and all is calm and and all is mostly quiet. All but the dishwasher.

Yesterday was a big day for the McIlrath family. Eric had his first official hair cut and he was in his first Christmas Concert! It doesn't sound like much, but to me it was monumental. The haircut was somewhat unplanned, but turned out to be rather pleasant. He looks great!

The second big event occured at 7o'clock later that evening. As the parents, grandparents and friends of the two, three and four year olds gathered in the activity center I was reflecting back to a time when I told myself I would NEVER be one of those silly moms sitting on the floor, camera in hand ready to capture my child's every move. Well, I must eat my words like I have done so many times since having children. First, the four year old class went up to the stage and sang pretty well. There was one little dominant boy who BELTED out the song as loud as he could so much so that the audience was in stiches! Then the three's class approached and sang well, but with not as much gusto as the four's. Finally, the anticipated event of the evening came and it was the largest group to appear. The two's. As the nine little boys and three girls made their way to the stage, I joined all of the other "silly moms" and scurried to a place where I could capture my son's every breath forever to be recorded. The only reason Eric went up to the stage was because Ava was up there. (Ava is a little girl in his class and he is crazy about her). Well, they attempted to sing "By low, Baby Jesus" but truthfully it was just the teachers singing and the kids stood there looking and waving at the their crazy moms holding the cameras. Eric even jumped off the little platform and started walking over to me. I motioned for him to go back and he did with a bit of reluctancy, but stood in his place until the song was over. After the song was over, I had to laugh because I had spent most of the day wondering if Eric would behave, what he would wear, and other meaningless ponderings. Well, he looked precious in his Christmas outfit, his behavior was totally acceptable and we all thoroughly enjoyed those fun-filled two and a half minutes. Did I mention that Eric did not sing at all during the program? Wouldn't you know it, he sang the song when we were getting ready for bed later on that night.

Typical.

May you have a Merry Christmas!

Someone else's shoes

I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. 1 Corinthians 9:22
THis was the scripture that we meditated on in Holy Yoga last week. This has always puzzled me and I am just wondering what you think about it? It made me think about life from the perspective of others. Take my neighbor for example. We call her "Crazy Liz", but her real name is Elizabeth Casey. This widow is in her 80s, has macular degeneration and is skinny as a rail. What is it like to live by yourself and not be able to see? Sometimes she comes over to our house just to tell us that there has been a recent break-in around the neighborhood and she wants us to know. Sometimes when I am in the yard with the children, she comes out to get her mail (her one daily dose of sunshine) and we chat, usually about her health. So when I think of her and in reference to the above scripture I am stumped. I do not know what it is like to be a widow, practically blind and lonely. But, I do know that she loves to talk with me and look at my children. Maybe by standing in my front yard for an extra hour listening to her talk about the most recent doctor's appointment saved her from an hour of loneliness inside of her dark world inside her home.
Another example. There is a little two year old boy in my life that acts in ways that sometimes are not acceptable to me. For instance, yesterday I told Eric to "come to Mommy" because I wanted him to get in the car so we could get to where I wanted us to go. After I called to him, he ran in the opposite direction. At first I got mad and wanted to yank him by the arm and drag him in the car. But I didnt. I put myself in his shoes. "Why was he running away", I pondered. I think it was because I had been preoccupied with other things the entire day and we had not played together at all. He just wanted to have some of my attention and simply play "get you" with me. Well, I put aside my desire to get in the car and I played "get you" with him in the parking lot for a few minutes. Luckily there was still some daylight left and the parking lot was not busy. After our little "get you" game, I told him it was time to get in the car and he willingly went in and got in his seat. I tend to judge others so quickly. Thanks be to God that He wants me to change and leave the judging to Him. I have been very conscious of my thoughts toward people now. I put myself in their shoes and think about how I may relate to them in order to be a light to them.
Well, enough of my musings. Good night.