[A bummer of a] Flashback Friday

I truly hate to admit this today, given that I am in an absolutely gorgeous city with all sorts of new possibilities at my fingertips, but dangit, I'm sad.

I'm sad for a few different (very good) reasons, but the one I am choosing to dwell on today is of a personal nature.  And of Mother Nature. 

In the form of a Flashback Friday (with a regrettably depressing tone), here goes nothing...

I'm sad because my children are young enough that they will probably not remember the time when the most beautiful vacation spot I've ever have the privilege of going looked like this:

And even on the rare days when the tide brought in a sea of greenish algae making the water look less amazing than usual, the powder white sand was still good for making sandcastles the likes of this:

Today, Friday, June 4, 2010, countless news reports proclaim the inevitability of the biggest oil spill in the history of our country infringing on the gulf beaches sometime this weekend.  If I were an optimistic person, I could say, "Well, at least we got a good eight years of beach-going in while we had the chance", but I can't.  Not when the reason this pristine beach will be defiled is nonsensical.  It's reprehensible.  It is so far-reaching in so very many ways, the least of which is my family vacation.

For various reasons, we have not going on our annual Destin trip this year.  We used to go in May, but with a kindergartner that was not possible.  June was out because of a two-week business trip to Chicago (where I actually am right now - and really it's amazing here!  Though I'm less than excited about the 10% sales tax...).  We were going to go in July.  We might still go in July.  I want to go in July.  Our summer beach trip has been the event that motivates me to keep pushing on through the heat, through the dog days of summer, through the exercising so I can have a "beach body". It's been the source of a million and one unforgettable memories that get cataloged by the toting around of our trusty family camera.

And now...

I am mourning the loss of a gorgeous natural resource.  I have shed very real tears over it.

Destin has always felt like "our little secret", especially considering the low volume of people and amazing beauty as compared to the beaches where I grew up.  I don't think you can truly know how incredible the panhandle beaches are until you've been there.  The white sand.  The emerald waters.  It's breathtaking.

To the gulf coast, I am praying for you...from the fisherman to the rental companies, from the restaurant owners to the amusement parks.  I'm praying for your white sand and your emerald waters and your innocent marine life.

I'm praying that these treasures won't just be but a memory of which I'm lucky enough to have a few snapshots.

 

"I think the Panhandle beaches are the most beautiful beaches on the planet, in my humble opinion. The thought of the oil coming here; it's not the kind of thought you want to contemplate. It's disgusting. To think this could be going on for months and months is very disturbing to me." ~Gov. Charlie Crist

You aren't the only one who feels that way, Governor Crist.  Believe me.

If you're a mom and you know it, clap your hands! (Or just read this...either way.)

It seems worthy of mentioning that I have reached and surpassed 15,000 blog hits!  Not bad, folks.  Not bad at all.  I have no idea what this actually means, and I maintain that half of those hits are me obsessively hitting "refresh" for no apparent reason, but still.  A big heaping thanks to you all for reading and commenting and letting me know that you're out there!

Now onto more pressing matters...like How to Know You're a Mom...

If anything ever goes missing, you totally blame your toddler.  Nine times out of ten, it was probably actually their fault.  (Some parents have kids so they can make them do chores, others so they can blame stuff on them.  Me?  I do both.)

You remember the days when a beach vacation meant toting nothing but a book and a chair to the surf and quietly reading for hours.  Those days are long gone...but you wouldn't trade the new meaning of "beach vacation" for anything.

You sometimes wish your fearless three year old was just a little bit more fearful, especially when she runs full tilt straight into the ocean (for example).

You're convinced that your one year old has bionic ears.  No matter where she is in the house, within seconds of opening the refrigerator, you hear her panting and running towards it with the excited anticipation of scoring some type of snack.

You know the relationship between grandkids and grandparents is special, and you love how much they love each other...but you can't help wondering how big a role the fact that the grandparents never enforce naptime or bedtime plays into that love.

You've never seen someone get more excited over a rain shower than the weekend after your kids scored new umbrellas in their Easter baskets.

When you splurge on a family dinner at the Japanese Steakhouse, you're shocked to find out that your ordinarily fearless three year old is terrified not only by the fire, but more strangely, the chef's hat.  Maybe you'll show her this picture later and see how she reacts...you know...just for fun...

When all else fails throwing things into water is an excellent source of entertainment, be it stale bread into a duck pond, pennies into a fountain, or rocks into a stream (just to see the splash).

You find that your one year old loves music so much that it takes a mere two beats to launch her into giggles and an all-out dance party.  She is the living definition of "dance like no one is watching".

You walked in the living room to find your five year old lying in crunch position on the floor, so you inquired, "Doing some sit-ups?"  To which he incredulously replied, "Not me.  I'm doing some lay-downs."  Kids...

#28 - Complete a 30 Day Challenge on EA Active...check!

As part of my goal to shed some baby weight, feel better about myself, and set a better example for my kids, I began a 30 day exercise challenge on April 1st of this year.  I committed to doing 30 straight days of dedicated exercise.  Despite a business-traveling husband, ailing back and neck muscles, and the general chaos otherwise known as my life, I managed to complete the 30 days on on the last day of April, a day before my second 5K.  My first 5K was part of the list, and I got addicted (for lack of a better word).  I found it so fulfilling and rewarding that I opted to sign up for another so as not to fall into my usual habit of couch-sitting and potato-chip-eating. 

And because I'm sneaky and that pesky 101 list is always on the back of my mind...I started my second attempt at completing a 30 Day Challenge on EA Active (on the Wii) halfway through my 30 days of exercise, thus forcing a few extra days of exercise onto the original 30.  The EA Active 30 days started on April 13th and I finished up on Sarah's 1st birthday.  (Are you keeping up?  It's only slightly convoluted.)

It's curious to me that finding time for an EA Active workout was far more difficult than doing other unstructured exercises of my choosing, like jogging 2 or 3 miles.  For some reason, I found myself dreading it.  It's not that it wasn't a good workout.  It was decent, though hardly extremely challenging.  I just felt that if I was going to spend 25 minutes exercising, I really wanted to get my heart rate up and do some serious sweating.  You know, the kind of exercise that you're sure is working. 

At the end of my 30 days plus half of my EA Active 30 Days, I had gained 4 pounds.  Hardly the kind of results I want to post for the blog world to see.  However, I felt good.  I still feel pretty good (though, here I am couch-sitting).  That was part of my goal.  The "shedding baby pounds" part will have to come some other way.  (I'm just SO not ready to utter that terrible, horrible "D" word...because, well, I love food too much.)

As for setting an example, I think there was some success.  Throughout many of my workouts, Abby stood right by my side mimicking the moves.  Ben was more interested in my outdoor jogging adventures.  And Sarah, well, she just ate inedible objects whilst I was exercising.  (She's her mother's daughter...always scrounging for food.)

But now my kids know that I value exercise, and that's an example I hope and  pray that I can continue to set for them.

P.S. - They were the world's best 5K cheerleaders!

(Look it, I even got a fist pump from Abby!)

If that's not worth every drop of sweat, I'm not sure what is. (And believe me, there was a lot of sweat...here is proof...EWWW!)

In conclusion, summation, and all of those other lame closing words:

#28~Complete a 30 Day Challenge on EA Active...check!

Next stop...triathlon!  Just kidding.  (Maybe.)

how cool is this?!

I'm famous! 
(Click this.  Yeah.  I'm bossy.)

The very same friend who inspired me to embark on the journey that is The 101 List has featured me as a favorite blogger! 

I'm so very flattered, Sarah!  Thank you!

And now I'm going to return the favor. What you may not know is that Sarah is an extremely gifted photographer.  So amazing, in fact, that she is the reason I have recently entered the intimidating scary terrifying realm of manual photography.  I sincerely doubt that I will ever be able to do what she does behind a camera, as it's highly unlikely that I'll ever do it as anything more than a hobby, but that won't stop me from learning and trying!  Just like I enjoy writing about my children, she chooses to photograph her own precious kids (and other people's too!) and does so beautifully.   I only wish I lived closer so I could have her take pictures of my own family.  (I google mapped it.  It's about a 5 hour drive.  Hey maybe someday!)

If you have a chance, check out her photography blog.  You will not be disappointed! (And you can check out her "regular" blog too!)

And thank you again, Sarah!  You are a truly beautiful person...inside and out!

A [seemingly minor, yet significant to me] Rite of Passage

I remember shortly after having my firstborn when it hit me that I could no longer just hop up to get my haircut or take a jog (not that I did it that often, but still) or even just go work in the yard.  There always had to be a plan, and that plan always had to be flexible.  I remember how having that one tiny, little baby rocked my world. 

Then I had another.

By the time I had gotten used to my one constant little companion, we decided it was time for a playmate.  And I'm not sure why no one warned me (not that it would have changed my mind, but it might have prepared me a little better) that having two children is more than two times harder than having one.  It's exponentially harder.  Orders of magnitude harder.  Worth every ounce of difficulty, absolutely.  But that doesn't change the fact that it's hard.

Then I had another.

I started itching for our third blessing when our second blessing was around a year old, even in the midst of that oh-so-difficult transition of adjusting to life with not one but two children.  I think somewhere in the mix of postpartum hormones, baby blues, and new mommy brain there comes a bit of temporary insanity.  For some reason, when we finally added number three to our family, she just fit right in.  She was like a missing puzzle piece that had always been there, but had fallen between the table and the wall.  We knew we needed her and having her here was another step towards helping complete the picture that is our family.

It might be because Sarah was a particularly easy baby (especially as compared to the first two) or it might be because I (and we) had grown so much over the previous 5 years as parents that we were more confident and we knew what to expect.  It was just a surprisingly seamless transition from two to three kids, considering my propensity to expect the worst.

This doesn't mean that it was easy.  And it doesn't mean that I wasn't scared to death, lest I sound like that.  Believe me, I was scared to death.  I like to pretend the fact that I am so scared just indicates the amount that I care about doing right by my three blessings.

This time last year, I was home on maternity leave with my three kids.  In a week's time, I went from working 40 hours a week in an office with two kids in daycare to being a stay at home mom with three kids on summer break.  Now that summer is here, I can't help but going back to that time and remembering the time we had together.  And how elated I was when I finally braved the world with my three kids on an adventure.

I didn't count our well checkups at the pediatricians office as adventures.  I didn't even count Monkey Joe's because it is a secure environment where kids cannot come and go without matching wristbands to an adult.  They weren't getting away from me there.

The day came when we ventured to a local playground and accidentally happened upon storytime at the library.  And I even took my camera along for proof!  (It helped that Sarah was still in the sleeping-all-the-time phase.)

I'm not sure words can describe how accomplished I felt after that day.  And it seems so silly now, in retrospect, how terrified I was to take my own children out in public.

I'm not sure I can explain how necessary it is for us, as moms, to just do it.  To just believe that we can do simple things like go to the library with three kids.  And all it takes is one time to convince ourselves.  (Sure, the second time might be a disaster, and that's why plans have to be flexible.)

I had a similar confidence boosting experience this weekend.  We ventured to Orlando, Florida and stayed at the Nick Hotel while Sam attended a work obligation all day on Thursday.  This left me alone with the three kids at a waterpark.  I was nervous, but I think it helped that I had so many other things to think about that I didn't have time to be terrified (you know, like getting Ben through his last day of school, packing a family of five to get to Orlando, preparing our house for my parents arrival the day after we got back).  To make a long story slightly shorter, I'll skip the mushy gushy stuff and just say this...

We survived.  

Not only that...we had a blast!

Even in the hotel room...because you can find fun anywhere, if you just look for it.

At the end of the day, I was utterly exhausted from being on Mommy Alert all day.  But my heart was full, and my confidence-in-my-Mommy-abilities tank was overflowing.  I even gave myself a little extra credit for avoiding every bit of sunburn on 4 out of 4 pool-goers.

Because when it comes to being a Mom, I'm not too shabby.

And I finally believe that.