Cups of Water

Horton Hears A Who! has become one of my all time favorite movies inspired by literature.  Dr. Seuss already is one of my favorite authors due to his creativity...the guy must have been the funnest (I know, not a word) people to be with, seriously!  And the producers did a fantastic job with this one.  Keep in mind for the youngest audiences, or even those that just can't handle a lot of suspense and intensity, there is a bit of that within this feature.  But it is also packed with so much teachable content.  I may just have to do a post fully on the movie.

This is not that; however, I will need to give you some background information before I can go further with this post.  I would love to also post a link to the clip on YouTube, but I couldn't find it.  So much for being able to find everything on YouTube.  You can find almost anything there.

In the story of Horton Hears A Who!, the mayor of Who-ville, Ned McDodd, has many children.   In fact, he has 96 daughters (Yeah, and you thought 5 was a lot)!  And one teenage son.  Imagine that.  "Anywho," when tucking in his children, and yes, he tucks in everyone, one of the little girls asks for a drink of water.  Well, you can just imagine what happens next.  96 cups of water later, every daughter is finally tucked in and sleeping (or at least on their way).  And Mayor McDodd plops down on his bed, exhausted from the demands of his 96 daughters within the simple process of saying goodnight.

And here is where I found some connection.  I do have to admit that comparing myself to a man who is father to 97 children I hardly have room for complaint.  But, he is a fictitious character and 5 daughters is reality for me.  So, when tucked in my children tonight, I made an effort to take some extra time with all of them really, each in a way that seemed to need.  Little Woman K had been struggling all evening after taking a very late nap since we were in Mechanicsburg with some college friends for a large part of the day.  Usually she gets one song as I am dumping lying her in the crib and of course kisses and "I love yous."  So, seeing her emotional need, I decided to rock her in my room and sing to her.  Though I would do it again in a heart beat, she still cried as I laid her down and closed her door (maybe it would have been worse???).  The eldest Little Woman saw me rocking her younger sister, and requested the same thing, as well as for me to rub her back This is requested every night, and most nights I do just that.  Since my own mother rubbed my back faithfully when she tucked me in, I cannot help but doing the same thing for my own...if they request it.  And so I rocked, and rubbed her back, and sang to her as well.  And then of course, Little Woman T saw that Little Woman A was being rocked and she too wanted this extra cuddle time with Mommy before bed.  And so, after her teeth were brushed and she was ready for bed (and had actually been in bed because she tends to get distracted during tasks and they can take much longer than necessary and we both had forgotten her request for being rocked and she was already in bed when she remembered), she then reminded me that she too was to be rocked.  And so, I rocked the third daughter.  And lo and behold, as I'm rocking away, a fourth little woman wanders over to my room and with longing in her eyes makes a silent request to be rocked as well.  So, after rocking 4 out of 5 Little Women to bed,  I thought that it would be an easy lights out night.

But it wasn't.  The three eldest Little Women all needed to tell me something, and then another thing, and another.  And though I wanted to just tell them that they couldn't tell me anything more and they had to wait until morning, that little voice kept whispering, "Listen to them.  Talk with them."  And so I did.  I admit that it wasn't with the most grace and patience, but I let them ask questions and tell me things that didn't even make sense none-the-less.  And again, I thought that they had all they needed and there would be 5 sleeping beauties in short order.  

But there weren't.  One of them was still thirsty and needed a drink.  Which meant that 3 of them were thirsty and needed a drink.  And so, I brought them a cup of water (unlike Mayor McDodd, I made them all take a drink out of the same cup).  

And then, there were 5 sleeping Little Women.  And there was one exhausted, and somewhat definitely grumpy and annoyed Mommy.  And I had to think.  God doesn't mind in the least when we constantly "need" Him in numerous ways...a gentle rocking and snuggling, time to talk, a cup of Living water.  In fact, He longs for us to seek Him in that way all the time!  And, He welcomes us with joy, patience, and understanding.  So weather it is 3, or 5, or 96 cups of water or snuggles, or questions and conversations, may we tend to our children with the same joy, patience and understanding that our Savior ALWAYS gives to us.

Roughin' It

OK, truth be told, it was far from roughin' it.  Though the guys did set up and sleep in a tent, they used air mattresses and the rest of us were quite comfortable. Two large, air conditioned campers with beds, full bathrooms, and kitchens makes camping not too much different from going to a cabin.  Especially when you go with Paw-Paw and Grammy who are quite experienced in the preparation, set-up, and whatever else goes into a smooth weekend in the great outdoors.

Before we left on our excursion several people gave me looks and comments that inferred "You must be insane!  Taking 5 little children camping?"  As I spent the entire day Thursday cleaning the camper and packing us up, I started to wonder if I was in fact a little nuts.  What were we getting ourselves in for?  I was either being exceptionally brave (at least in the eyes of others), or ridiculously naive.

What is camping without a campfire?  In the foreground, the girls were working on their own rock pile/fire ring.

As it turns out, I didn't need to be brave, and looking back can't really be called naive either.  Did we sit for longer than a 5 minutes at a shot?  Not before the kids were in bed!  But, it was a wonderful weekend (actually more than wonderful since we were able to go with my sister's family...since their youngest daughter had a transplant in March of '07 our time with them has been limited and sporadic at best) of being mostly out of doors.  The girls spent hours exploring the woods surrounding our camp sites.  We spent 2 afternoons at the pool cooling off (even thought it was one of the less humid and more comfortable weekends of the summer) and enjoyed walks and the playground as well.  Though we almost had a few casualties on the rocket slide.  I think the maintenance crew waxed it a few days before we came.

The adults spent time talking and laughing around the campfire late at night (too late) as well as playing multiple rounds (and I might at highly competitive rounds) of Ticket to Ride, our new favorite game.  The most difficult part of the trip was getting the girls (along with their cousins Mariah and Aliyah) to stop giggling long enough to eat a meal and keep them half decently clean.  The gray dust from the gravelly (this might be a new word, not sure) camp site made that quite a challenge.  The pool along with sink baths in Grammy's camper kitchen helped.  Thanks to Grammy, the Mommies even got to sleep in a bit with the youngest ones since 4 of the 7 girls slept in her camper.  Talk about extreme grandparenting!  Lucky for her, the big girls were only up early one morning.

So, would I go camping again with 5 Little Women?  Sure, but not without a camper or two and extra hands.  Did you know that many, maybe most, campgrounds now have cable hook-up?  Though we didn't take a TV and indulge in that modern convenience (note:  we've also come to discover that watching television doesn't fit in our day real well, nor is it extremely fulfilling), I have to admit that we did let 6 of the 7 mini campers (Sweet baby M was sleeping peacefully) watch a movie on Saturday night.  After 2 1/2 days of outdoor adventure they needed a bit of down time (and admittedly, so did we).

Over the last couple of years, I've come to accept that "vacation" as I knew it will not be the same for quite some time.  It is no longer about lying on the beach or lounging inside the cabin, napping and reading at my pleasure.  That happens occasionally.  And am I grateful when it does.  Now it is an opportunity to make memories for our children, memories they'll talk about when they are older.  Already the oldest Little Women are referring to "Camp" in their conversations and dreaming of when we can go back.  And so, we probably will.  My only regret from the weekend is that I failed to capture more images of our fantastic weekend at Eagles' Peak.

Love Overflowing

Queen of random, this child of mine is always brimming over with love that she cannot help expressing. As I was working on another post, she came trotting on her tippy toes (always) out to the kitchen, got right in my face (always) and said, "Excuse me Mommy, could I kiss your cheek?" Only the wicked step mother would say no, so I responded with, "Of course!" After matter-of-factly planting a perfect 5 year old kiss square on my cheek she trotted back to the living room just as quickly as she had come announcing, "I love You Mommy!" Now my cup overflows with love. Some would call it impulsive. We big people could learn a lot from our little ones about expressing our love impulsively. Why not? The next time I am brimming over with love for someone else, I will think of my eldest Little Woman, and express my love freely - maybe not in the form of a kiss, but with a hug, in words, or a loving touch.