S – “Gobble, Gobble” while sticking his finger on his nose and dangling his hand.

M – “What are you.”

S – “A turkey! with a waggle”

M – “No. Turkey waggles do not come from their noses.”

S – “Yes, they do, see? Woggle, woggle, gobble!”

M – “No. Then they would just be having a big booger.”

S – “No, it’ssss ssnot!”

BAHAHAHAHA!

Mom? I do not want to play a Tuba when I get older because you have to go pppbbbbttt, and I am not very good at that.

~ Miriam

Tucking Simon into bed tonight and saying prayers:

Me – Is there anything you want to pray for or about tonight?

Simon – Yes, that you don’t get old too quickly. Because you are getting a LOT of white hairs!

Me – They aren’t white, they are silver. I am turning into a fairy queen. When my transformation is complete I’ll be able to grant all your wishes.

Simon – Uh Mom, Did you know that the Fae King has a gold beard?

Me – Well I don’t.

Simon – Actually sometimes you have some little hairs, do you want me to pull them out for you?

I laugh, really what else is there to do? I’ve always thought (pridefully and vainly) that I got those so quickly that no one else has ever noticed. Just like a child to shatter our silly notions and bring us into reality. Motherhood, the cure for self-conceit and all other “self” centered emotions.

Forget the flu shot, that piddly dose of infection is for sissies! I know y’all are man enough for the real deal. Stop on by for a megadose of real true honest to goodness 100% pure Illinois Flu! Come on over and sit and stew for a while in the comfort of our home while experiencing the flu first hand. Expert coughers Grandma and Auntie are sure to provide ample air germ coverage, while  Simon has tissue packets bursting with bonafide live flu virus at many various and convenient locations for those desiring the full physical transmission. If you prefer, germ administration can be supplied by our well practiced specialized hug and cuddle contaminator, Miriam. We guarantee your satisfaction, if you don’t come down with a rip-roaring flu within 48 hours, we’ll come to your house and make you dinner! Hurry before supplies run out, you don’t want to miss this offer! Grandma may be on the mend and if so, germ population will be in serious decline.

1. I wish Zander and me stay best friends for a long time.
2. I wish that someday I get to go to China.
3. I wish that I was better at division.
4. I wish that someday I get to get a dog.
5. I wish that I will be able to get the job I want.

You never know what treasures you’ll find while doing laundry… written on a folded lined sheet of paper shoved in a pocket.

Funny story, Simon told me about writing these wishes in class a few days ago, but he said that for wish number 2 he really wanted to go to Hawaii, but couldn’t think how to spell it so he wrote China instead because, you know, he’d really like to go there too.

For the first time in my life, I find myself voluntarily participating in one of those fad diets. Crazy. Especially since losing weight is not a goal of mine. There’s a movie about it “fat, sick, and nearly dead” and there’s a website something like “join the reboot”. I have not checked the site yet, but we did watch the movie. The guy loses a lot of weight and gets healthy (hope I didn’t spoil it for you) but there was something more important that happened and that’s what interests me. He gained mental clarity and focus and energy! There’s a goal worthy of a diet! I have been sadly lacking in clarity and energy for quite some time now. I have spurts of energy but they don’t last and they are only caused by wanting to serve other people, the energy doesn’t come from within me, it’s merely a reaction to seeing a need. And once the task is accomplished I am wiped out completely for days. Not fun. Not who I want to be. My husband and kids and our home suffers for it.

I have definitely been more wiped out than usual since our move. Haven’t written much about it because it’s too hard, too real, lasting too long, making me think I am seriously screwed up and who wants to write about that? Boring, sad, blah, makes everyone feel sorry for you, yuck! I prefer to spread cheerfulness and light humor with a sprinkling of upliftment.

Back to my title, uproot to reboot. I have been significantly uprooted four times in my life. None of them went well at first, and by at first I mean for a LONG period of “at first” time, like years. The first time I went silent – I was 10 when we moved and for those of you who know me well I was still silent through most of my teens. The second time was for college and I got so sick I had to come home for 2 weeks and drop a bunch of classes. The third time I moved for love (just had to say it, how often do you get to quote a sappy line like that?). It took marriage and a baby before I really blossomed there. And I really thrived there, it was just such an amazing place. Problem is it was an amazing place with no jobs So I have been uprooted again, and it is taking a very long time to get these roots to accept this new soil. I know in time that this will also be an amazing place – I can see the potential. It’s just such a long hard boring daily struggle, sometimes I want to scream and cry, give up and pack it all and move back. But we all know you can’t go back and if you could it wouldn’t be the same anyway. Depressing!

And that leads to the reboot, I am hoping for just enough energy and clarity to push through the daily doldrums and get myself out there and actively reroot myself. It’s the only way. No one is going to come babysit my pitiful emotional disaster here. Gots to pull myself up by my own bootstraps! (does anyone know what bootstraps are?..)

And the juicing diet thingy isn’t so bad. If it all tasted like dirt I would’ve quit on day one, energy and clarity or not!

Taking a trip without your spouse is single parenting without the safety of a routine. It is quite the challenge, even a somewhat normally calm Momma (which I consider myself to be) feels that extra underlying layer of stress. It’s like a faint song or hum and a tightness in your shoulders, always there just a bit, enough to make you snap quicker. Sometimes the trip felt like this:

And sometimes like this:

But it was amazing, I had been to CA before but had no memories of seeing the west coast and the beauty of God’s work out there was peaceful and inspiring.  The power of those waves crashing on the rocks, the spray flying in the air, the cliffs dropping to deep pools, the colors of the water… Shoved that hum and that tightness far away, of course if I’d been truly relying on Him from the beginning I wouldn’t have had them in the first place, but when you can feel His power around you everything changes.

The kids became part mountain goat until S almost bashed his head in and M slid to the edge of a cliff and we all realized that those cloven feet do make a difference. The rocks were so enticing though, I couldn’t blame them and even had to join them (it was a little safer that way too).

Some memorable quotes:

M upon landing at the San Jose airport – “I can SMELL the beach from here!”, when being told we were in the middle of a desert. S chimed in with “You NEVER want to be in a desert without a dune buggy”

Taxing for over 10 minutes on landing M sings somewhat to the tune of Ten Little Indians- ” When is this plane gonna stop, plane gonna stop, plane gonna stop, When is this plane gonna stop on this sunny morning.”

M lost her tooth and declared – “I really like it because I can stick a straw through it!”

My highlight of the week was not one but TWO bonfires on the beach! The stars, the roar of the ocean AND the soothing beauty of a bonfire? The kingdom has to be like that.

Thanks to Aaron for letting me go and being man enough to hold down (and improve!) the fort, Mom for the encouragement to go, Laura&Jahleel for the amazing plans, and Sonya for motivating me to write about it.

Miriam, it’s time for your first day of school!

Mommy, I am too tired.

She lays in my arms without moving a muscle, then flops over, stretches and raises her head, rubs her eyes open and observes…

Mommy, I think that I will be a little tired… just in the morning.

Also my shots will hurt just a little… just in the morning. (she had to get a new physical to start school, 4 shots the day before school! poor thing)

Can you please brush my hair? It will be just fine down, it’s just fine Mom.

Yum! Rice Chex……. Mooommm I am full.

Mom, today I will ride the bus and the other days you can drive me. Well OK I’ll ride every day. No, you can drive me tomorrow. No, I guess I will ride the bus then too. Mom I will just ride the bus everyday.

I don’t need a backpack, all my things are already there!

Where are my shoes? No not those, not those, oh OK, I’ll wear these.

Wait for me!

Where is the bus?

Simon! I HATE bunny ears!

Where is the bus? I am too tired of waiting for it.

I am so excited for school!

I love you, Big as God!

Have fun being all alone!

And they’re off. Big brother in the lead. A few tears from Mom, and the day all alone stretches ahead of me…

It hasn’t happened yet.

Thanks to Aaron, it is all turned over and has fresh new fertilizer and dirt – that was weeks ago. It’s ready and waiting for the seeds. Waiting, and waiting. But you see I had to go to the beach and snuggle sweet baby nephews and not so baby nieces. Feed them pretzels and M&M’s. Pace the floor with them and vainly attempt to distract them from the fact that Mommy had walked out of the room.

And now I have another beach week ahead of me. Unplanned and a pleasant surprise. Two more nephews to spend time with, I think there will be more cars and running not quite as much snuggling but I’m sure we can sneak some in somewhere, perhaps we’ll diguise it as wrestling.

But today we had big plans for the garden. The kids were dressed in what they deemed old clothes. I was quickly finishing up the kitchen and email. And then the thunderstorm started rumbling. Pooh.

Miriam was sad. “When will we get the garden planted Mommy? We need to grow our food!”

Simon was glad. “Yes! Now we don’t have to work in the garden!” When pressed (I mean really, this was supposed to be fun time together, but sadly I feel he has outgrown the doing-anything-with-Mom-is-fun stage)

He explained  “I would only be glad to work there if we could grow Pizza…. or Juicy Lucys.”

Miriam, after 2 hours of running in and out of the waves, as I held her hands so she could jump the higher ones – “My legs are getting soaked!”
Miriam, on the second flight of the day, looks out the window as we are preparing to land – “We are in the sky!”