So what have we been up to since my last post? A lot. We went to Charleston for a weekend and got so hot, our whole family was just moments away from melting. We played in the rain...literally. We've made frequent visits to the playground. We've been playing outside quite a bit in the torturous heat...and I do mean torturous. I bought Jacob and Annabelle a small inflatable pool for the backyard with a slide and a giraffe that squirts water. That makes the heat slightly more bearable. When we're not in the backyard or at the playground, we've been at church -- our second home. Jacob and Annabelle have started attending the preschool / Mother's Morning Out program at church and I took on a summer teaching position with the same program. I'm teaching three year olds -- 11 three year olds, to be exact.
It's been quite an adjustment for all of us -- me going to work. Even though it is only three mornings a week, it's still thrown us all for a loop just getting accustomed to the new schedule. For example, Annabelle has to be abruptly awoken on school days. She has always been a late sleeper, so waking up before 7:00 AM is something she is not particularly fond of; but, she is a trooper and does fine once she finally opens her eyes. Jacob typically wakes up around 6:45 AM, so his sleep schedule hasn't really been affected. To be honest, my new wake up time isn't exactly ideal for me either -- 5:15 AM. But I'm getting used to it.
Before the first day of school, most of my time was spent at the church getting my classroom ready, mainly creating and assembling a new bulletin board design. Decorating a bulletin board is fun, but it is not easy...especially with a 19 month old running around destroying the room and all your craft supplies. Ugh. So, I enlisted Heath to provide babysitting services over the weekend to give me some time to get things accomplished on my own. That worked out much better...for me, anyway. :)
School days are Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The Monday before the first day of school was an especially trying day. I had a lot to get done and felt like I wouldn't be able to finish anything. Jacob, Annabelle and I were at church all afternoon, then to top it off, I forgot I had a meeting that evening. I stayed for the meeting...with my two tired, hungry, and "ready to go home" children. Mistake. I decided it was time for me to leave when I looked at them and noticed they had found the sunblock stick from the diaper bag. Both of them were covered in sunblock -- faces, arms, legs, hands -- white as ghosts. Annabelle was handing the stick to Jacob, obviously wanting him to paint on her a little more. (She is used to being painted / written on, you know.) By the time we got in the car, we had all "had it." It had been a LONG day. Both Jacob and Annabelle cried and screamed all the way to Jim 'n Nicks (there was no way I was cooking dinner).
I was playing their lullaby CD, thinking that would help them sleep, or at least, calm them down. No such luck. So, after we pulled away from the drive-thru window, I turned on the radio. A song by MercyMe was playing -- All of Creation (I wanted to add it to the blog playlist, but it's fairly new and hasn't been added to the website yet). The second Jacob and Annabelle heard this song, their crying and screaming turned into smiles and singing. Jacob knows the words. Annabelle does the whoa whoa parts. Their singing touched my heart so much at that particular moment. I was stressed, tired, and on edge...and my children were equally tired and on edge. Yet somehow, that song made it all better. There they were, laughing and singing praises to God, their tears beginning to dry on their faces. And there I was, tears welling up in my eyes, not from stress, but from listening to my two precious children singing in the backseat of the car. At that moment, God spoke to me and revealed to me how blessed I truly am. This was His way of showing me that I needed to stop stressing about everything and focus on Him. I needed to be singing God's praises just as my children were. It worked. I sang and prayed the rest of the way home and almost instantly, I felt a million times better. God is good...all the time!!
At National Harbor, there is a huge sculpture called "The Awakening" of a giant man embedded in the earth, struggling to free himself. Kids were climbing all over it and everyone was having a picture taken standing in front of it. To Annabelle, it was a giant sandbox. She played hard and, of course, managed to fill her pants with sand.
Jacob stood near the edge of the water and threw rocks.
I have no idea why, but the majority of our time here was spent playing around this enormous foot. Eeewwww.
A Peeps Store -- I never even imagined there was such a thing. They sell dark chocolate covered Peeps. Sooooo good. They also sell these little chocolate candies called Peepsters. They look like Rolos, but instead of caramel, Peepsters are filled with marshmallow. Yum. Yeah, I bought a bag...and ate the whole thing (over several days).
