Ebeth's 4 and no more

Mr. I am now 12 and refuse to "play" with my family kicked in this year. Yep, plan A and B didn't work out so we ended up at Zachary's park for plan C. We ate, splashed in the water, played follow the leader through the water, and experimented with a bouncy ball and the water spouts. It was a super fun day of just being together. Big man was mad at me for not allowing him to be home at the time of his birth (1:21), nor sit in the car stating it was the closest thing to home. I love the way his mind thinks even if I do not understand it all the time. Beyond that he managed to be blessed by family and friends giving him enough money to buy a Kindle Fire. PLUS an awesome friend got him the wall track he wanted, then a surprise gift by a friend of G left him with a Wii game too. He is pretty thrilled with all that. Timing being everything another present came in the mail. He doesn't yet get the complexity of this gift but I sure do. It happens to be inserts special...

Today is a Father's day to remember. This morning #2 carrying #4 arrive in my room bright and early at 6am. Apparently littlest who had spent the night for the 5th day in a row in her brother's room fell out of his bed. The sweet big sis she is came to rescue her from big brother who try as he might is less than nurturing. She deposited her to my car with as few words as possible then promptly headed back to her room to sleep.  Good for her bad for me. Being a day for dad's I took one for the team and headed to shower with my sidekick. Once everyone was up we made "rollups" (cinnamon rolls), bacon and coffee. We even saved one of each for G next door, delivering it not so smoothly before church. After church were to head for a cozy brunch at Brother and SIL house. But instead of a pleasant uneventful ride hubby informed me we had to detour to pick up other Brother, SIL and nephew who had hit a deer. There is one thing that is for sure with the Colbert clan, and t...

Tonight as my crew of 6 sat down to eat a dinner together it was everything typical. Typical being a relative term really as nothing is ho hum with 4 kids! Chinese was the venue of choice as tomorrow is hubby's bday. There really isn't any family member who is unhappy about this choice and it has been several months since it worked out. Anyways.... while there my husband didn't have to start the chanagans it was my oldest daughter who did. Well maybe they both get credit as it was hubby who stuck the chopsticks in daughter's ice cream, but daughter who returned such action with pulling them out and calling them chocolate spears. She then proceeded to swipe one down his entire arm smearing the somewhat liquefied products even. I couldn't contain my laughter which made the waitress come over and retrieve our plates and politely shush us, LOL! Then my oldest son dropped the bombshell of the night. Munching quietly hubby sat across the table from me. "How old wil...

This is the question I answer most of the day. When you are the mom of 4 kids, the youngest being 3 this is expected. Then when you teach 1st graders, 2nd and Kindergarten um yeah more why's. But it has become an increasing observation of mine that we adults ask why a lot too. Why do I let me kids this? Why do other parents who are not even present to defend themselves do such and such? Why do we need, take or have to be here or there? So many questions so little time. I am guilty of this line of thinking, I suppose to be empathetic one must put themselves in the frame of mind of others but there is a fine line. Either way the best question happened this evening, while at dance, when I was asked, "Do I like to run?". Hmm, I took a literal step back and paused. Well, "Yes, part of the time." It was at that point that our conversation was interrupted and I headed out before my allotted time before class was over ended. Being the first time I ran from this locat...

I just finished reading http://travisjenny.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-no-his-yes.html It made me reflect in just the opposite way. You see there have been SO MANY TIMES I was stubbornly set upon doing or having something beyond rationale or prayer. I set out to be married in 1998 so badly that hubby and I jumped into a boat neither of us were emotionally prepared for just yet. Then I was determined to move forward in the steps of future that we tried getting pregnant for 9 long months while I worked on finishing my Bachelors degree. God knew I needed to do one thing at a time but solely focused on achieving an end goal NOW I trucked on having no concern for his will for my life. Well, then there was the pregnancy fairly easy but ending in an early delivery, unwanted c-section and surprise unexplained imperfections (extra finger, dislocated hips). Still unshaken I moved on in a naive level of parenting certain of my future. It was this blindness that led me through 5 surgeries in his f...

Moments before our last baby was born Tonight I went to meet my cousin who is having a baby. Awhile back I offered to help her with the baby registry stuff because well it is hard the first time around. Companies have smart marketing campaigns that create things like a mattress cover for a baby mattress that oh is waterproof anyway! I remember vividly how daunting the task was and thought I could be helpful. Time treked forward as it always does and BAM she is 6 months pregnant. Whew that was like a blink for me, an hour's drive away that is. She called and wanted my help after her and fiance got frustrated. My sidekick and I The crew and our parade traditions Fast forward to tonight and it was tons of fun. I shared my opinion or suggestion of preference on some things that made no matter. In turn she said several times, "Just tell me which to pick." We sat in the registry chairs for a few minutes to chat and then each went our own ways. As I drove though...

First let me preface by the fact that I previously was a stay at home mom for 5 years until this past fall. It would be safe to jump to the assumption that I SO remember what it is like to do the unpaid mom gig. EXCEPT in my selfish comparison I actually had multiple children at home, AND didn't have anyone to get our children ready for me before I head to work. BUT, since I recognize that God did not create men and woman equal, including my husband who has a role very different than me it is unfair to expect him to be me. I mean I didn't want a husband just like me. We WOULD kill each other I am sure! :) Anyway, let me now add an important fact that hubby is an AMAZING Dad! He can also cook a great meal, manage our 10 acres outdoors wise, among other very important things I do not do well myself. Now having mentioned all of that which didn't need to be said let me get to the main event. Today, the second official day hubby was home involved NO children until he pick...

By the 3rd day of Disney adventure I had relaxed and accepted that life involves imperfection. This was a Saturday as well so we were certain that we needed to arrive as early as possible to Epcot. Thursday and Friday were slow in Disney terms so the weekend simply had to be busier. We were correct, but this first 2 hours we AWESOME. Heck, the first hour felt like there was no one but us riding things. The first ride was called the Test Track which reminded me of G and #3. It was just like it sounds with test dummies and cars/tools all along the way. #4 was not tall enough again so we split up into groups. I did force under duress #1 to ride it who nervously made it one time. He would have been fine if they wouldn't have shown you that it gets up to 70 I think outside for just a short time. This picture was taken just outside the Mission Space ride. Again we went in two shifts which really meant that Daddy and I rotated. It was a pretty cool simulation ride and #1 LOVE...

I think I had too many pictures for them all to upload in one post. But without them the story is much less interesting.  After the tea cups we all went and rode the Lilo and Stitch. #1 really wanted to do it and littlest was about 1/3rd of an inch to small. Daddy liked it least for sure. While they were in there #4 and I went to what ended up being a family fav, The Laugh Floor. It was basically like a comedy show with Mike Wazowski or however you spell that as the MC. His part was prerecorded and always the same but the other bits changed based on the audience each time. I think we went two times this day and 2 more our last day too. The one time they used Joey's picture and had the words "wonders just where he is at," under him.  Our first sit down meal was a character one at the Magical Kingdom. It was a late lunch and we were HUNGRY! As promised the chef came to our table as the other kids had gotten their food and were eating it but he did come. #4 and I wer...

Day 2 began EARLY, like earlier than we get up at home. The park opened at 9 which means we wanted to be on the first shuttle bus to the park by 8 therefore getting up at 6:30 for grownups, 7 for kids. This doesn't sound too bad except that Florida is in fact 1 hour ahead of home. Yep on vacation we got up at 5:30 home time, WHAT? It was totally worth it though. The first 2 hours the parks were open each day proved to be like it was just for us. We did not wait for anything, grabbed fast passes for later too. Once at the park we waited awhile at the gate with some fabulous people who were old pro's at the Disney experience. It was them who told us about the opening show when the characters come in by train and the park opens. As you can see Joey was less than interested in Daddy's overzealous joy.  Next we have a recap of little Miss Evangelene the Queen throwing a royal fit about taking a picture with the crew at the entrance. How rude of me to do so before she h...