“cry… cry.. Cry. CRY! CRY!”

Written by Scott AKA Dad... :)

 

A triplet is losing. They don’t lose well. Yet, I think they lose better than they win…

“YES! OWNAGE!!” – Eve Polhamus

It’s genetic.

Lately we have picked up this game where we all have an equal chance of winning and the girls seem to really enjoy the challenge of playing with Mom and Dad. Settlers of Catan is probably the best board game fun we’ve had together in a long time if ever. Sadly, (or gently hilarious) the girls are evil to each other.

“If you don’t trade with me I will just knight you.” – Keona Polhamus

They will lose just to wreck the plans of their sister to frustrate her to tears. Today Charity was the one who cried… or was it Prayer? It may have been both. If you want to make one cry, simply see where they are plotting to build, go there, smile at them, and watch the fire burn. First it’s a “whhyyyyy”, then it’s a “noooo” then it’s a “SLAM!” as they smash their hand on the table, and finally, the face goes into the hands and everyone laughs at the misfortune. Then comes the “cry” chant. Priceless. If we were primates in the jungle, one of them would have pushed another out of a tree by now. Thankfully, we are a very forgiving family.

Meanwhile, the little kids playing on my PS3 in the other room, not so forgiving. “ElijAHHH!!!” Ella screams and Elijah hisses out his signature sinister laugh. “I’m telling Mom…. Mom! Elijah is killin me on purpose.” Co-op kids games… the person who came up with that idea had one kid… I better step in before someone throws a 50$ controller at somebody else.

Sure, yup, we may be just a tad competitive when it comes to our “family fun” time, but it’s been so great to see our kids mature into little people. Their tendencies and personalities excite me; each one having a different soul, with different likes and dreams and purpose. Yet all are so much a like, and so much in harmony. Our house is pretty funny at times. Today I think we could have won ten grand on AFV several times with just Prayer alone. If I’m bored, I just give the triplets sugar, and then watch the room erupt.

Prayer came into the living room this afternoon while someone was practicing the piano (which never stops… #earplugs) and she just starts a wiggling. Jac and I both gave her a crooked look and then out of nowhere she starts doing some crazy victory dance she saw on a game show.. and that to this classical music. Jac just started heaving in laughter. Sometimes I really do wonder if these children have a chemically induced mental instability. It just goes off. Like a kitten that sees a laser pointer light, triplets start a riot. I’m not complaining, just kinda… venting? … informing? … better yet – forewarning. If you come here, you may not be impressed, but it will leave an impression.

Eve was practicing some really nice music on the piano the other day, so I complimented her on how lovely it was and thanked her for playing. Prayer pipes up, “Oh if you like that one you will love this one…” followed by a chuckle, and a crazy grin, and Prayer sitting down to the piano. She then, from memory, played some freaky classical piece that, had it not been so funny, would have given me nightmares.

“What did you think?” She asked, as my eyebrows were still raised and I began to search for an exit.
”Um… I’m pretty sure that’s gonna give me nightmares… thanks for that.”

“No problem!”

 

The girl is destined for something… odd. Not quite sure what yet.

Some of these kids have taken quite a liking to our Toronto Blue Jays. We have a pretty healthy split down the middle as to who will watch.

Lily is trying to say everything. Even if she can’t say something, if you tell her to say it she will try and then just mumble out some craziness. Her hair is… enviable. It’s beautiful and insane and fun. Sometimes I just mess it up and frizz it up for fun. Then I watch as this giant head of hair with legs goes running through the house. I could snuggle her all day long, that is, if she could stay still for 30 seconds, which she cannot.

Is it just me, or does she resemble Richard Simmons here? -Jac

Tonight we took our black Clifford dog to the field nearby and let him run back and forth between Jac and I. I’m not sure if I have ever seen an animal move that quickly. Justus was running at me so fast that I thought for sure he would run right through me. Earlier, Charity, Eve and I had been playing catch in the back yard with a softball and the dog took it. I got sick of chasing him so I linebacker tackled him and pinned him while one of the kids grabbed the ball out of his gator sized mouth and ran with it. Needless to say, I am not fast enough to catch this dog. He is a lot of fun, and has a lot of spunk in short spurts. The rest of the time he just hogs the couch and sleeps on his back with his feet straight up in the air.

Tonight Jac and I went out for dinner and a sunset. It’s been too long since we did that. She is the love of my life, and my favourite person to be with. In fact, as I write this she is snoring beside me. I think I might join her.

Home

 

A few months ago, I started working on a personal project. I recorded something everyday that I was thankful for. I did this for one month, and then I chose my favourite clips and edited them to create a home video. The song I chose was a favourite of ours when we were dating. It’s one of those songs that brings back good memories the instant that I hear it. Though I hadn’t listened to it in a long time, I thought it was appropriate for this project.

Wherever my people are, feels like home.

 

Fresh Starts & Mothers

Here I am, up far too late once again. Tonight, I’m taking a step back and prioritizing things. As we try to finish up the school year, frustrations build, papers stack, kids rush, I hurry, chores are left undone, dozens of papers are waiting to be marked, and everyone suffers. I must admit that I have lost my temper more than once in the last few weeks. Tonight I realized, what’s the rush? Why am I stressing myself out about getting it all done? We have no deadline. I have taken the fun out of learning.

So tomorrow…

is a new day.

I’m so thankful for fresh starts.

We will enjoy music and art. We won’t stress about integers and gerunds. We will read books and talk about what we learned. We will slow down and enjoy the freedom that God has gifted us with.

The last few months have been a whirlwind and I feel like there is so much to catch up with! Instead, I will do a quick recap…

 

My Mom turned 50, and we surprised her with a girls’ road trip to Washington D.C.

Umm… yeah, excuse the juice cup!

We took wrong turns, drove through unnecessary mountains, shopped, saw monuments, learned new things about history, went to museums, enjoyed good food…

Had long talks, late night YouTube prank videos, and lots of tea! (We were very excited to near the border and have our Timmies again!)

Then… we surprised her again.

That was fun!

I almost gave it away so many times! The girls kept saying to me, “You’re lying to your MOM!” Haha… Yes, I am always willing to lie about good surprises and gifts!

I love you, Mom! I’m so thankful for all the memories we were able to make together, and I can’t wait until the girls are a bit older and we can do another road trip with all of them! I promise to map it out and not depend on my iPhone GPS next time…

I had a great Mother’s Day lunch with my family. Sadly, we watched the Leafs lose game 7 the next day. :( Charity and Prayer may have cried…

I thought about the fact that I have some seriously amazing women in my life. My Mom – of course! I also had two completely different, but equally wonderful grandmothers growing up. I still have a great-grandma that can out-work a lot of younger people I know… and I couldn’t have asked for a better mom-in-law. I mean honestly, I hear so many people complain about “mother-in-laws” but I love mine! Scott and I both agree- we have the best moms!

A Good Morning

(Written by Dad two weeks ago while Mom was at the CN Tower stair climb)

 

“Good mornin’ Dad.”

“Good mornin’ Ella.”

Ella is always the sweetest morning greeter. With her gentle sweet tone, and oft mispronouncing of words, Ella snuggles in beside and sooths the soul to start the day. I would keep her four years old for a couple more years if I could. Every girl has been different at this age, but all have been most pleasant and a delight to be with.

I don’t understand why everyone has to line the upstairs hallway just because it’s morning. Board games, Lego, books and everything else you can imagine fill the long pathway past each of the kid’s rooms towards the stairs. The problem is that these kids are early risers, while I am the one who works the night shift. By the time I’m up, they are pretty famished and bored. Such good kids!

Jaclyn is out this morning, our little food beggar Jed with her, so it’s up to me to begin the day. As I pass the boy’s door, the dog spots me. Like the sound of an arriving train, Justus’ tail clanks the bars of his nighttime cage. “Rooorooooo…” I can’t resist when he sounds so sad, unless he has just whipped me with his tail or stuck his nose into my food, then I can resist.

“Release the hound!” I say to Ella.

“Release the horse…” She responds. I can only assume she picked that up where she got the rest of her 10-year-old vocabulary and need to make fun of people. She thinks she is a 10-year-old girl and a boy and a princess all at the same time.

“Ella, can you open the shutters for me?” I ask. “Sure!” she replies as she skips over to the first window. From her tiptoes she can just barely reach the top row.

“I will do the top row El, you do the bottom.”

We go around the ground floor opening all the shutters, making it morning, revealing the mess I had forgotten we left here last night.

“Who made all this mess!?” I asked Ella. She just chuckles as she finishes the last bottom shutter. We begin to tidy up some things.

“Mom should be home any minute. Let’s clean up a little, then we can have some breakfast.”

Ella is such a helper. She runs the stairs six or seven times to bring things up to our room while I sweep a little. “Elijah, you put the shoes away. Charity, you let the dog out and feed him breakfast. Ella, you take these things up to my room and put them on our bed.” Together we tag team the mess and in a couple of minutes the clean house buried underneath is revealed.

“Mom’s home!” A voice calls out from up in the roost that is the girl’s front window. We are always alerted as soon as someone we expect makes the turn onto our street. Mom and Jed return with a coffee and some breakfast for me. What a sweet woman. She’s so sweet! As we sit in the living room and she and Jed start to tell us all the details of their adventure. She begins with, “Wow, there were so many people puking halfway up the CN Tower!” …just as I unfold the last corner of packaging from my Sausage McMuffin. Yum…

The children are chattering and the dog’s feet patter around the kitchen. No one is ever alone in our kitchen any more. As soon as you enter either a curious little person with an inquisitive pleading smile accompanies you, or a mammoth mooch with ears perked and drool dripping. You can guess which one is the dog.

“Up! Up!” Lily stands beside her high chair, sensing the coming meal. Her sweet little language is tonal. She has a sweet soprano twist up at the end of each word when she is being lovely, and a low-pitched grunt as she is being… difficult. It’s as though we got all the traits of each of the previous seven children jammed into this cute ball of love-hate. She is a chatterbox and sleeps in like Keona did. She raids the cupboards and climbs things like the triplets did. She loses her mind and smashes things with rage like Elijah did/does. She eats like an abyss, begs food and can take a hit like Jed did/does. She cuddles, plays with boys toys and flirts with her sweetness like Ella did. And then, with all of that, somehow she got my eyes and Jaclyn’s hair and build. She sings and tries to whistle. She yells, “DA! DA! DA! DAAAaaaaaaa!” When I come home. Everything she wants she points to, looks at you, and says, “sare” which of course means “share”. As soon as we taught her to share she started guilt tripping everyone else to share with her.

Breakfast is served! Everything we have that doesn’t take any work is available this morning. Some get donuts, some get pizza buns from last night, some get anything they can convince us to let them have. It’s so late anyways that we are having lunch in a short while. At least, that’s how I justify it as I sit on the couch and check Facebook.

Morning is special here. I love it. And as we settle into our Bibles for a little nourishment, or into our cups of tea and coffee for a little fellowship, we all enjoy a sweet start to the day together.

Thank you Lord for our home. Thank you for mornings together. Thank you for loving and teaching us to love.