Life At The Circus — Juggling my roles as wife, homemaker, and mother of four

There is HOPE

January 30, 2012

For all those wondering if there is truly hope for the hopeless… those who’ve made their resolutions and long since broken them… for those that thought, perhaps your just destined for failure…. to those… I offer this little glimmer of hope….

Our last visit to the library—if that trip didn’t redeem us, I don’t know what will!

Those who have been long time readers here at the circus… might recall I have a bit of a bad history with the library… first, we have the whole circus family wing of the library thanks to the $18 fine visit and the $42 fine visit. Then we have the patronizing librarian who made me feel insecure in my mothering skills…

I’ll be honest, for awhile I just avoided the library at all costs.

But, they keep luring in me in with the promise, the hope of free books. (and really great story times for the younglings). And now that my oldest is reading a chapter book a night, I had no choice but to buck down and get a system in check for the library. Because 1. I don’t want to discourage his love for reading and 2. I can’t afford to keep paying $40 a pop for a library visit.

So, my e-mail address is registered with the library and they e-mail 3 days ahead of my due date warning me that it is coming.

But, here is the miraculous part… now I actually do something about it.

Last Wed, we had a bunch of library books due. It was a kinda rough day at the circus, b/c my oldest was home sick from the tutorial and I was scrambling to take care of him, help him with his school work and do my normal Wed chores… not the ideal day for the library. Here is where old Crystal would say, “oh well… it’s not a good day, I’ll return them another day then.” but the new Crystal actually hunted down the books and put them in a bag before heading out to pick up my daughter from tutorial. However, we were running late (as usual) and I didn’t have time to gather them all. Old Crystal would have just returned what she had and given herself an A for effort for the others. But, instead, we picked my daughter up from tutorial, drove home, I left the kids in the van while I ran in and gathered ALL the books and we headed to the library. I had 2 books which I was still reading so I left those on my passenger seat so I could see if I could renew them and if I couldn’t, I’d just drop them in the book drop before pulling out of the parking lot.

LOOK AT ME GO!

Well…. when it came time to check out, the most amazing thing happened. We were checking out with our giganto bag of books and everyone, including the youngest, was begging to give their book to the librarian.. I was juggling the baby, the bag of books, the purse/wallet/library card… and in the midst of all this chaos, the librarian said, “Your kids are always so well behaved.”

REALLY?

Because I had shhhhshed them at least 10 times in the back of the library reminding them to use their “library voices” and thought for sure we were ahem… noticeable to say the least. I even said, “Really? Us?” to which she said, “Oh yes, you should be very proud, I see all kinds here at the library.”

This totally made my day. (funny how a few little words of praise can really brighten someone’s day… hmmm… I am sure there is a lesson to be learned there)

Turns out those 2 books on my passenger seat where in fact unrenewable as someone had put them on hold and OH WAIT… there is another book we forgot to return which is also unrenewable. So…. we head back to the car, I drive around to the book drop and have my oldest run the 2 books up to the book drop, then we drive home and I send my oldest up to his room to find that missing library book. He comes down book in hand and we head back to the book drop to return the book.

THIS IS A TRUE CIRCUS MIRACLE!

I must have been walking on sunshine from that librarian’s praise, b/c the old Crystal would have said, “eh… I tried… I went to the library that’s good enough” and $5 and 43 cents later I’d have found the book and returned it.

Because, yes, I really was that pathetic.

When Scott got home from work, I was literally beaming from ear to ear as I reported what a good job we did at the library. We got complimented by the librarian and wait Scott there’s more… NO LATE FEES!! Strike up the band, order up some balloons, let’s have a party…it can be done folks!

{ 8 comments }

There She Goes

January 28, 2012

in bike riding,Circus Shots,growing up

Truthfully, the circus family doesn’t spend much time on bikes. We do a lot of fun things here, don’t get me wrong, but there are only so many hours in a day, and teaching our kids to ride bikes has not been where we’ve spent ours.

But, today the sun was shining, the weather was unseasonably warm here in MD again, and as the kids played in the backyard while Scott did yard work, our oldest daughter decided that today she wanted to ride her bike without training wheels.

And I just had a feeling that she was going to do it. You know, how sometimes you just know?

They set off around 4:15pm. At 4:20, Scott sent me this text.

“Great strategy. Let’s not ride for 6 mths then go for it.”

I began to doubt that feeling I had earlier, But…

at 4:39pm he texted me a picture of her riding off into the distance.

That’s right!! She did it!!! My girl’s on two wheels!!!

My Happy 2 Wheeler!

{ 6 comments }

Sisterly Love

January 27, 2012

in Circus Shots,sisters

Nothing like a surprise package of clothes in the mail to bring smiles to the girls faces and provide an impromptu photo opp.

(the boys appreciated it too, but not to the same extent)

Thanks cousins Ben and Eli!

{ 2 comments }

What? Do I have something on my face?

January 26, 2012

in Circus Shots,mess

{ 6 comments }

She said…

January 25, 2012

in Darndest Things

I think 4 is a great age for a lot of reasons… one of which is the funny little things 4 year olds say…

Today we were walking to the van and she was carrying her coat, Kit, and her baby. I said, “If you wear your coat you’ll have more hands.” to which she said, “No, Mom, I’ll still only have 2 hands.”

Last week before she went into her gymnastics class I told her to work hard and have fun. “Oh Mom, that won’t be a problem at all… when I’m doing my back hip circle and I swing back from the bar and flip around, it’s just like I am flying through the air.” The look of pure joy on her face as she described flying through the air is one I want to remember forever.

A few weeks ago I served split pea soup for dinner. While my husband and sons both enjoyed it, my girls did not. AT ALL. I suppose somewhere during the dinner I said something about how I worked hard to make that meal for them and I didn’t appreciate their disgusted faces and comments about the food. And I suppose it sunk in a little even though they didn’t really eat it all that well. Because a whole week later out of the blue she says to me, “Mom, remember when you made that soup last week that I didn’t like?” “Well, it wasn’t that I didn’t like that you made it for me, it’s just that when it was in my mouth… pause… well…. when it was in my mouth it just made me feel like I had to cough.” (essentially she said, “Mom it’s not that I didn’t appreciate your cooking me food, it’s just your food made me want to gag).

Seriously, I love this girl and am not at all eager for her to grow up anytime soon.

{ 6 comments }

T-R-O-U-B-L-E

January 19, 2012

in Circus Shots,Darndest Things,Motherhood,things that make me laugh

This afternoon my smiley, mild mannered, easy going baby suddenly channeled his inner Dennis the Menace and went all toddler boy on me for 30 minutes.

First I looked over and found him standing on his tool bench (oops look who forgot to put away the advent calendar with her Christmas decorations)

I got him down and shortly after realized things had been mighty quiet for awhile and went searching for him. Found him in the master bathroom STANDING on the toilet.

After shutting all the doors in the hallway we headed back out to the kitchen/living room. He attempted to get water from the fridge dispenser but thankfully it was locked. So, instead he opted for emptying my clean dishes from the dish washer into the dog bowl.

I didn’t get them out right away b/c I figured the harm had already been done, and I would go ahead and finish emptying the dishwasher before he got into more mischief.

But, that plan was thwarted when he then decided to DRINK FROM THE DOG BOWL! While I moved the bowl onto the counter and the dirty cups into the sink, I turn around to find him standing in the dishwasher reaching for my leftover pizza from lunch.

At this point, I decide that this has TRULY BEEN THE CRAZIEST HALF HOUR OF HIS LIFE and strap him into his booster seat with my pizza in hopes of keeping him safe and me sane!

{ 8 comments }

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →