Books I Love

Today I was mending a book that I have had since Jackson was a baby. Recommended by my sister, it has served me well and has been well loved by all my babies. I love this book. It is called First Hundred Words by Heather Amery and Stephen Cartwright. I love it because it is useful, helpful, and the scenes encapsulate my life. The expressions on their faces capture what they are feeling and these mundane moments (and the family that experiences them together) are celebrated. I really love it.



Look at the baby and mommy in the pool with a bare bottom. Who doesn't want to remember that forever when it's happening to you?


Here is my baby with the living room scene. Dad is playing, Mom is reading a book and all is right in the house.


Do you see what I mean about capturing the moment and expression?


This happens all the time at my house. Kitchen chaos. Only my baby would probably be playing with sharpies under the table instead of spoons.


I love bath time. I love this illustration. May I never forget the many times I've experienced this in our bathroom. Everyone is happier when they're clean.


Nothing needs to be said. (Except I forgot to mention that this little yellow duck hides on every page. It is so fun for a child to find. It never gets old.)


The Dad's face on this is priceless. It encapsulates how most dad's feel when given a baby and a bottle. "What's your problem?" And... "You can't do this yourself?"

I had so much fun photographing this book I decided to make a little visual list of some of our other staples around here. These are some of the first books I start with as early as possible. I could not parent without these books. They have been regulars with every single child.


This one especially with the boys. It has just the right amount of words on each page. An awesome introduction to different kinds of trucks.


This is Eric Carle's The Very Busy Spider in board book form. I can teach animals, their sounds, the sign language for them, and repetition. I enjoy trying to say, "Want to roll in the mud?" how a pig might say it. Hey, it's my theatrical outlet.


And speaking of Eric Carle, he still did the artwork, but the words are by Bill Martin Jr. I actually have an autographed copy (by Martin) but I have no idea where it came from. Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See? is a whole blog in and of itself, but you get colors, animal names, signs, rhythm...it is wonderful.


A classic. Hard for Juliet to sit still for this one for some reason, but I read it with commitment anyway. I love books that rhyme. "Good night nobody, good night mush."


A must have for body parts, this one recently lost the back two pages. I'm going to fix it. It's been through all five kids.


Dr. Suess is also another post, but these two are my favorite for toddlers. They start to finish your sentences once you read them enough and it makes you so proud!


Besides, are there any illustrations better than Mr. Brown? Look at him! He is awesome!


I can't read the board book version of this because they shorten it. They leave out cute pages like Mr. Brown making a sound like a goldfish kiss.



Also love The Eye Book. Written by Dr. Suess (as Theo LeSieg) but not illustrated by. All the kids love pink underpants.


After I finished photographing the books I stacked them up next to this floor chair and later caught Juliet sitting there reading them.


I did not set this up! She was just doing it. I did turn one of the book right side up, but the pure joy from reading is hers alone.


Then later, I caught her sitting at the table with someones school work. They learn by example! Read to your kids!!

Progress, not perfection

I hate that there has been a lack of posting on the J train. Not because I am a slave to the blog, but because a lot has been going on. And the amount of blogging has not met my personally imposed standards. But I have been trying to temper the perfectionist in myself and celebrate any forward progress that goes on around here.

My baby has emerged into a full blown toddler, complete with getting super dirty, finding all inappropriate objects and eating them, climbing on top of everything, and looking extremely cute (most of the time in her diaper) while doing all of the above. It is sad and beautiful all at the same time.

We had the 100th day of home school a couple of weeks ago, and it was complete with counting 100 things, eating 100 things, writing about 100, and the culmination (and probably the only thing they will remember) of burning 100 matches. If you would like to keep the attention of your home school student, just burn something.



The photographer and perfectionist in me really wants to apologize for these flashy, non artsy, quick snap shots but I just didn't have time for much else. We're going for progress here, not perfection. (And the above photo isn't even turned correctly! It says, "I wish I had 100 iPads, but I'm glad I don't have 100 poop.")

(I just turned around to see what Juliet was doing. She is standing on top of a chair playing with a knife.)

This past week was Spring Break and my older girls went with my parents to their house for a few days so I could work with the boys on their bedroom. We have not done anything in there since we moved in last summer and I have been wanting to transform it into something...anything, besides what it was, which was plain and boring and ugly.


So I ignored all housework and laundry for about 48 hours and we painted and shopped and hung posters and emerged much better than we started. There is still more to be done but there has been progress.



The kids and I left to go get the girls and spend a few days with my parents and while we were gone one more poster came in the mail and Jimmy hung it up, along with the mirrors. More progress. Not perfection, but progress.


(Speaking of progress, Juliet is now sitting on the kitchen table flipping through a magazine.)


If you can't tell, the boys decided on a Beatles theme to their room. The walls are gray, but while I was painting them they looked blue and even purple at times but they turned out fine. Sometimes you stick with your color because you believe in it. Sometimes you stick with it because you can't imagine having to take it back and start over. It was a little of both. Jackson bought a disco light with his own money. The black squares are chalkboard paint.


(Juliet has now gotten off the table, down onto the chair, off the chair, pushed the chair in and crawled into the living room. That's actually pretty close to perfection.)

Since returning from my parents and stopping on the boys room for now, I have been working hard to put everything away and clean a little and slay the laundry monster so I can have a fresh start to the remainder of the home school year. I always want to quit after Spring Break but we will press through it and look forward to summer break. I'm going to make all kinds of forward progress and tell perfection it can take a flying leap into a mound of laundry or a stack of school work.

A Date Night Miracle

We had date night last night. This is a huge event. We never go out on dates unless we have grandparents in town who can babysit.

So what did we do??? What do you do on such an occasion?

It is intimidating. But not really. Because we don't really care what we do. As long as it is with each other and without children.

We went to Carrabba's. Ate with a gift card AND a coupon. Not afraid to appear cheap. I overloaded on sweet tea. (The rest of the night I had to pee every half hour.)

Then we went to the gas station and cleaned Jimmy's car and vacuumed it. Because that's exactly what you want to do on date night when you're full of Carrabba's up to the top of your esophagus. You want to bend over and vacuum the floor of a car. And those of you who have ridden in Jimmy's car before know it's...well...MESSY. We pull up and get out and he says, "Don't throw away anything that looks important." Which cracked me up because all I had on my side was a stack of papers in the floor covered with dirt and leaves and such.

We went to this fancy place with rows of parking spaces and high power vacuums that are FREE. We each grabbed one and went at it from both sides. About 25% into it, Jimmy announced that he was going to win. I had no idea we were racing. The vacuuming was full of laughing and trash talking and fun. We ended up tying. It was a date night miracle.

After the vacuuming Jimmy asked me if I wanted to get the car washed. I said, "Do we have to do it ourselves?" and he said, "Maybe."

But no, we (and this is ONLY on a date night, folks) sprang for the $8 car wash and held hands while we were guided by machine through a foamy paradise. Before we went in a young man cleaned our windows and sang "More than a Feeling" (Boston) as we entered into the tunnel. "I see my Maryann walking away..." It was, yes, a date night miracle.

Where can the date night go from here? Well, we weren't done yet. Target was next. It was not extremely exciting but when you can take your time and have no kids, it's super. Target was complete with a four year old-ish boy at the checkout (where we paid with a gift card) throwing a major tantrum ("I want it! I want it!") really loudly and it was like a message from the Lord reminding us to be grateful our children were not with us. And we were. Truly. Really.

Then we went to Old Navy. Bought some stuff. Yes, with a gift card. I don't know how we do it. It was a date night miracle.

Then you know what I did? I went to Publix and didn't push a cart. And even though I needed groceries, I didn't buy them. I bought some cookies instead and ate them immediately. No one else ate them. Just me. And when I got home I hid the box so no one knows where they are.

It was a date night miracle.

A Pizza Hut

Does anyone else remember that camp song...

"A Pizza Hut, a Pizza Hut
Long John Silver's
and a Pizza Hut...
McDonalds!
McDonalds!..."

Here's what's been going on the past few weeks. You can sing it to the Pizza Hut tune...



A Cowboy Day
A Cowboy Day
Homeschool Art Class
and a Cowboy Day



A Cowboy Day
A Cowboy Day
Homeschool Art Class
and a Cowboy Day




Made Couch Forts!
Made Couch Forts!
Homeschool Art Class
and a Cowboy Day




Made Couch Forts!
Made Couch Forts!
Homeschool Art Class
and a Cowboy Day!

I admit it...

This is why




I find it very hard




to stop




having




babies.

How I [Don't] Do it

Since having a big family, the thing I most often hear is, "I don't know how you do it." I usually just smile and nod, but I have begun to say, "I don't do it. There is plenty that doesn't get done."

I'm not really sure what people mean by this question. I know they are just being nice and letting me know I'm doing a good job. I think. Or maybe they mean "If I were you I'd be mental by now." I guess it's probably a little of both.

But this is not the point. I just wanted to share an example of how I do it. Or don't do it. How I don't get it done.

Last night I turned out the light and as I tried to fall asleep began running the next day's agenda through my head. I had to take Penelope to the eye doctor.

[When she was at her well check she tested just into the red flag area on the eye chart. I had already prepped her for what would happen when I tucked her in.]

As I am trying to fall asleep I realize that even though I had carried the name of the doctor in my pocket as I left the pediatrician...had talked to the office to schedule my appointment...had received a reminder in the mail from the office about the appointment...had written it in the calendar (the time only)...had called again to confirm (as instructed on the post card)...had talked to a friend whose child went to the same doctor...I had NO IDEA where to go the next day. I had even asked where they were located during the initial phone call.

I laid there, wracking my brain, trying to remember anything. The doctor's name. Nothing. Location. Nothing. Is he an optometrist? Opthamologist? Nothing. Wake up, Penelope! Time to go...somewhere! Before I fell asleep I managed to think maybe I knew where the office was. I am a person of faith so I trusted everything would work out and went to sleep.

[How I do it completely hinges on the free gift of God's grace. All the time, every time. Plus, this is how things are all the time so the crazy last minute stuff is normal for me.]

I woke up today and began to google "pediatric op..." and then waited to see what the computer finished my "op" word with. I went with that. I found someone. His name sounded sort of familiar, but not really. Then I remembered that they had called me, over a month ago, to set up my appointment. Would it still be on the Caller ID? It had been a long time.

I get the phone. I begin my search from the oldest numbers. Six numbers in, there it is. The same doctor's name I found on the internet.

You won't hear me say it often. But here it is. Technology saved me. The internet, the word finishing thing, the caller ID, and I was only five minutes late. It was a "how I do it" miracle. And I am technologically resistant most of the time. I don't have the time to go into how much I hated Caller ID when it first came on the scene.

Anyway, this is how I do it. Last minute, fly by the seat of my pants, "Just look for some clean underwear in the white basket at the foot of my bed under the pile of blankets" type stuff. It's not always organized, it's not always a balanced meal, it's not a magazine worthy bathroom (EVER!), but it's done. Somehow.

Did I mention God's grace?

Yearbook Yourself

When I began this blog over five years ago, I made a secret vow to myself that I would NEVER, EVER, write a blog about blogging.

I'm still not going to. But I am going to say that the purpose of this blog is to keep a record of life and creativity and writing for my children to remember our family by. It is not to impress anyone or to feel good about myself or base my self esteem on how many comments I receive. It is for the children. And also, I love to write. And I want to be an example of creativity for them.






And sometimes, you see that you're rubbing off on them. That they like funny things. And art. And photographs. I had a good laugh looking at what Jackson left on the desktop. These pictures were made by Jackson on the website yearbookyourself.com. I put them on the blog because this is definitely something I want to remember. Plus, this may be as close to a senior yearbook picture they get since they'll probably get home school pictures taken by their uncool mom when they graduate.







Also, Jackson started a blog: screensandheadphones.blogspot.com. Congratulations! Will you sign my yearbook? Stay cool! Love ya like a sister! We love the 80's! Pumps with socks! Sweater vests! Sorry so sloppy! Class of '95! Go Scorps!

www.juliealley.com

Hello Monday! Hello new Julie Alley Photography website.

Today I launch my brand new photography website and just thought I'd put it on the j train for a little additional self-promotion.

This weekend someone asked me how long I've been taking pictures. I had to do the math and it made me feel old to have to say 17 years! I guess one good thing to come with age is experience.


Here is the link. From the website you can go to my blog and facebook page. Thanks for taking the time to look!

www.juliealley.com

Much love,
Julie


Thanks to:
Jimmy (for numerous reasons)
Tara for the logo/pics of me (sorry for stepping on your counter top)
Gary for the beach photo (sorry I didn't ask if I could use it)
Jeremy/Christopher for website help for many years (and for 3X5 cards)
Everyone in every single one of my photos!

I heart Music

Last night I was driving the van with my two youngest and "Tiny Dancer" (the Ben Folds live version) began to play. The catchy piano melody always evokes emotion. (And reminds me of the scene in Almost Famous.) Anyway, a few lines in I hear a sound behind me and I think I know what it is but I check the rear view mirror to be sure. It is the sound of my baby's hands clapping together. She has a huge smile on her face. No one prompted her to clap or smile or do both at the same time. She's just hanging out in her seat clapping and smiling and feeling good.

I cannot explain how I felt in that moment. The music, the baby, the chubby hands, the 6 toothed smile, the legs bouncing...there are no words. Now this song will forever remind me of my little tiny dancer and her clapping that made me feel good all over.

Music does that. You can close your eyes and hum a melody and you're somewhere else. Of all the things God created music is one of the most amazing. From just a few tones we can make an infinite number of melodies. And they can make you feel things. Even one note played in a certain way can convey a feeling. It is incredible. My cello teacher used to tell me to "make it sing!" And I knew exactly what she meant.

My older kids have been into the Beatles. Tonight the whole family is in the car listening to "Ob La Di Ob La Da" and we're just together. We're in it together. There is no escaping. We're all listening to the same thing. The windows were down, it was loud, it's about a couple of kids running in the yard-- there is laughing in the song for crying out loud-- it just made me love music all over again.

And then "Julia" comes on and everyone gets really quiet. For the entire song. It's never quiet in the van. It was amazing. They were really just listening.

Then we went to our church Fellowship group and talked about the excellencies of Christ. I'm going to proclaim it. Music! Music is excellent. I am truly grateful for it.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above.." James 1:17

"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." 1 Peter 2:9

Happy Year!

Happy New Year and Happy Birthday Juliet! Not necessarily in that order. Many are confused by the fact that this onesie my sister bought me while I was pregnant was wishful thinking. My due date was December 31, 2010. She was hoping I would not have to carry Juliet beyond my due date and we were all relieved when she popped out at 7:11 p.m. on New Years Eve last year.


So this year New Years Eve was twice the celebration and we could not have brought the new year in any better as we were with friends at a cabin in the mountains of north Georgia. This year I actually stayed up to wince at Dick Clark and kiss my man. Last year Jimmy and I turned out the lights in our hospital room at 11:45 p.m. and went to sleep.



We have been very busy getting back to normal. Today we began school again and I was reminded what home school and normal for me means...Having to call the Dr. because your 4 year old stuck a Q tip too far in her ear and it's been bleeding for 2 days. Having to insert the ear drops. Having your husbands car act weird. Having to deal with mail and papers. Having to do these and many other things simultaneously. We had a successful day and I even took some one year photos of Juliet. (I posted some on my Julie Alley Photography facebook.)


It is definitely bittersweet, the first birthday. My precious angel is getting so big. The end of babyhood forever for me is rearing it's toddler-like head. But to see how much she's grown, how blessed she has been with good health...it is a celebration indeed. Happy Birthday Juliet!