30. Handwriting

Today, in honor of the "handwriting" prompt, I give you a picture of a pencil that I found in our work room at the office a few weeks ago. I rarely have need for a pencil at work, and apparently no one else uses them often either because this was the ONLY pencil I could find. The only one.

Roll Tide

I was smirking at the fact that the only pencil available to me was an Alabama one and how that would further perpetuate what Luke started last fall with his Roll Tide obsession, when I rolled it over and saw this on the other side.

Weagle, weagle, War... well, you know.

Someone hand wrote the score from Auburn's 2010 victory over Alabama. This, ladies and gentlemen, is how we do football rivalries in the great state of Alabama. Ya'll.

 

P.S. If I were as hardcore as Wuke Boper would have you believe, I would have taken this pencil straight to the bathroom and scrubbed that blasphemy right off the back of it before sanitizing my hands after touching such uncleanliness. I just took a picture of it instead.

 

 

29. In my bag

If the size of it doesn't give you a clue, the contents definitely scream, "Mom Bag!" 

Inside the Mom Bag

Here is the full inventory of things in my purse that do not belong to me: 1 plastic hammer, 1 carrot bubble necklace, 1 red crayon from Hooters, 1 Wise Man, and 1 plastic man from a Happy Meal.

Be prepared.

They didn't all get in there at one time, of course. It happens gradually as more things are brought out of the house and left on tables and in buggies as we go about our business. It's okay though. My purse is big enough to handle it and you never know when you'll need a little extra distraction while waiting somewhere with children.

28. Red

These are tomatoes from the plants on our back porch. I said I would count it as a success if they bore fruit, and they have, so I guess, technically, it's a success.

Tomato Harvest

They are yummy. However, the plants look pathetic, so I'm not sure we will get any more than the 14 we've picked and the few that are still turning red. I didn't take a picture of the plants because there's no need to document in photographs how truly bad at growing things I am. I think I just don't care enough, or gardening doesn't interest me enough. Something just isn't enough, and their priority assignment is rather low on my list of things that need doing.

I'd like to say that I probably won't try this again next year, but I doubt that's true because I'll forget by next Spring and because the kids are so excited about it. They've been checking on the progress every few days and now that the tomatoes are turning red, they want to pick them and wash them. Ella is good about only picking the really red ones. Man Cub brought me one that was half yellow last night, so we had to have a conversation about waiting a little bit longer until they are red all the way around. We'll see if it took. So, yeah, I'll try to grow tomatoes again next year; I'll even attempt to keep these alive and growing for the rest of this year, but I'm kind of over it.

The citronella plant is big and beautiful, apparently not taking objection to being mostly ignored, but it doesn't do much to keep the mosquitos away. In its defense, we do have supernatural mosquitos around our house - the kind that drink Deep Woods OFF for breakfast.

As for the rest of the vegetables I planted, something is eating them. I spray them, but they are still being eaten. One of the bell pepper plants was full of blooms one day, and all but one were gone the next. The other plant actually has some tiny bell peppers on it right now, so we'll see how they do. Every squash and zucchini blossom gets eaten before it can open. I suspect deer. The okra is pitiful, but hanging in there, and the cucumber has a few tiny cucumbers on it. I don't think those plants get enough sun where they are, either, and that's just going to be an issue in my yard.

I guess this means we'll just continue to buy our vegetables, and of course, off load any fresh ones that those with greener thumbs than mine are trying to place in a good home.

27. Into the sun

It's cloudy today so I can't take a fresh "into the sun picture" and I don't have time to put together a collage of all the sunglasses wearing we do, so I'm sharing this throwback of Dave and I (and my infamous white Oakleys - no, this is not the same pair I wear today. Yes, I do need to update my sunglasses style, and I'll do that just as soon as the perfectly good pair I have now breaks. I have been completely spoiled by good sunglasses.).

This is from 10 years ago. We left the day after Christmas and drove to Savannah to spend a few days because we had both just read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (John Berendt) and we needed to see the city for ourselves. We fell in love with it, and one day we'll go back and stay in a nice hotel or bed and breakfast in the heart of the historic district, but we couldn't afford that back then. It didn't matter, though. We spent our money on good food and we explored the city. We loved it so much that we had plans to name our daughter Savannah, should we have a daughter one day. Time changed that, but it is still one of my favorite adventures with him.

I keep this picture pinned on my cube wall at work.

At the top of the Tybee Island lighthouse.

26. Empty

Is that what I'm filling their heads with when I turn on Disney Jr. in the morning because it's ten minutes after six and I've already heard the whiny, demanding, "Mommy, find my football!" enough times to make my eye twitch?

I hope not. I don't know how I'd ever get out the door or cook supper if I couldn't instantly induce a trance-like calm first thing in the morning and on the evenings when the witching hour strikes. 

Ella's 5th Birthday

It’s June 25th, the day she’s been waiting on for at least 6 months, her birthday. The party happened over the weekend, but today is the day that she is actually 5 years old. I wonder what all she imagines that to mean?

Ella has become such a responsible, self-sufficient kid. So much so that I sometimes forget that she is just 5, not 12. I have to remember that just because she isn't demanding my time like she did when she was younger (like her brother does now), doesn't mean she does not need me to spend the time. She still loves to be read to, she can sit in her room and play Barbies or Fairies or Little Princesses for hours at a time. She still teaches her imaginary classes – school sometimes, but mostly gymnastics and dance these days.

She and Luke have started playing more and more games together. Her increasing patience with him and her willingness to accommodate his lingering toddler-ness amaze me. Now, instead of being mad when he is melting down in the evening, she makes comments like, “He’s having a rough night, isn’t he?” She tries to distract him or make him feel better when he’s upset. It’s a beautiful thing.

She seems to have set a few goals for herself for this summer, and she’s been working hard on all of them.

1. Learn to swim. We signed her up for lessons, which she loved, and she hasn't used floaties since her lessons ended. She's not strong enough yet to pass a swim test, but she's getting there quickly - especially if we just leave her alone and let her practice without instruction.

2. Learn to read. She often selects books that are way too young for her because she wants to study the words as we read, not the story. She has started recognizing printed words that she learned to spell aloud. I first realized this when she told me the binder that the gymnastics coach carries around says “love”. When we talked about how she knew that and that she was starting to read, she started listing off the other words she knows – a lot of them from her chore charts that she looks at every day. I've also been finding her using the VTech V.Reader a lot lately, and even playing the word games that go with the stories.

3. Practice writing. I made some lined paper like you get out of a writing tablet and put a stack of it in her school drawer (that’s where she keeps her teaching supplies), and she frequently gets a piece and practices her letters and numbers. The numbers are the trickiest, so she’s been working on them a lot, but she likes to write people’s names, too.

She is tired of gymnastics, but she still loves soccer and plans to play again in the fall.

A friend suggested we take her to eat lunch at the school this summer so she can get accustomed to the lunchroom, so Grandmother has been taking them a few days a week. Ella has declared the school lunch to be “the best food ever”. I would take that personally, but I know she’s excited about eating lunch at school like a big kid. Unfortunately, the elementary school is under construction for the summer, so they have to eat at the high school, but she’s still getting the lunch line, food tray, serve yourself, open your own milk carton and ketchup packet experience. And she has learned about the noise, and the fact that not every food service establishment has ranch dressing for your every whim. Also, she has decided that she will not be taking her lunch to school next year, so, whoop! She’s been drinking cow’s milk, too. I think that might be the best part about the whole deal for her. The only drink choice is cow’s milk. She loves it so much and she hasn’t really gotten to drink it since she was two. I told her she could try it for a while and see how it goes, and so far she hasn’t had any extra snot or eczema so I'm hoping she's outgrowing that allergy.

We pray with her every night and I've recently been caught off guard by the thoughtfulness of some of her requests.

Of all of us, she has put the most things in our Good Things Jar.

When I first imagined myself with children, I couldn’t think past the baby stage. I was truly nervous about having kids – not babies, but actual kids. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to relate to them, or that I just wouldn’t like them as much as I liked babies. I just couldn’t think past the first couple of years to figure out how the kid thing would work. Do you know what happened? She changed from a baby to a kid before my very eyes without me even realizing it was happening, and she’s a pretty cool kid. She’s a kid I want read to and talk to and cuddle up on the couch with. She makes me laugh and she makes me think, and I’m so thankful that God put such an amazing person in my care. I am humbled by the beautiful person she is becoming.

Cake and ice cream for breakfast.

24. Negative space

I had to Google "negative space" to figure it out, but I immediately thought of this picture I took a couple of months ago while we were eating supper on the back porch. The balloon was low enough that we could hear the hot air blowing into it.

Dinner with a view.

23. Last

He's the last one sleeping this morning - even through the alarm clock, Ella's voice, and our shower running. Man-Cub was tired. 

22. Enjoying life

                  Costa del Roper

21. Lunchtime

Praise and worship music playing, quiet house, birthday project, no lunch in sight, but this is lunchtime today. 

20. Cute

For some reason, I just can't get over the little girl cuteness when Ella lets me do her hair in braided pigtails. The only thing cuter might be her crazy big and curly bedhead when she sleeps with wet hair. I should have taken a picture of that this morning.

19. Currently reading

I recently did that thing where I forego sleep and read 5 books in one week, then it was VBS time, then I caught up on sleep, and yesterday I started this book. It's a retelling of the book of Hosea, which I've never read, so I guess that will be next.

This is the last stack I read before this book. Imagine another Nicholas Sparks novel and the last Sookie Stackhouse book on top of these three.

Why yes, I am a Nicholas Sparks fan.

18. Street

In this case, "Dead End" is code for "Home". The Brown One is my welcoming committee. She doesn't wait nicely at the sign, though. We faked that for the picture. If Dave is home first, she barrels off the front porch and meets me at the end of the driveway to escort me in. 

17. Centered

She has always been very expressive.

This was Ella's reaction to the Tilt-a-Whirl at the fair a few months ago. We were ready to leave and didn't have enough tickets left for Dave and I both to ride. The Tilt-a-Whirl is too circular, so I decided not to ride and she had to ride with Dave and Luke, without me. I entertained myself by watching and laughing every time they passed by and I could see her in the full, dramatic wail - head tilted back, mouth wide open, screaming like a banshee. She was obviously still mad at me for bailing when the ride was over.

16. Family

Ropers, May 2013

Here we are, in our most recent family picture. I love, love this picture that my friend Jessica from Simple Gifts Photography took of us on the UM campus recently. It's past time to update the pictures on the mantle, and I can't wait to put this one front and center.

I try to make a point to have a professional family photo taken every year. We usually do it in the fall, right after the kids' birthdays, but we skipped it last year because Dave wanted to have hair in the picture. We tried to work it out for late fall, but I really had my heart set on doing it at UM, so we postponed it until the spring when everything is green and blooming. They turned out beautifully. Jessica is so talented and so good with the kids. She didn't give me a single picture of Ella with the horrible, my-mother-is-making-me-do-this, fake smile.

I don't know if it's because Dave had a bloodwork appointment with the oncologist last week or because it's summertime, but my mind has been turning to cancer a lot lately.  His bloodwork was all normal, so we have three more cancer-free months behind us, but I keep thinking about what we were doing at this time last year and how different this summer is already - how fabulously, unworried, and unencumbered it is. I took so many pictures last summer because I was on a mission to capture everything, but when I look at them now, I can feel the worry and fear mixed into the joy. I let it wash over me, and then I praise God for all of that hard stuff and for my happy family of four that survived it and came out better on the other side.

When I look at this picture of us a year later, all I feel is joy.

15. From above

Ella got water in her ear at the pool this week and it got infected and started draining. We've been irrigating it with vinegar water and putting antibiotic drops in it. She hates the vinegar water because it stinks. Dave holds her hand while I do it and last night when I finished, she asked him to cuddle with her. He's a wise man, so he took her up on that offer. 

14. Texture

I added some texture to my face at VBS last night. 

So did Luke and Ella. They can pull it off. I cannot. 

13. Kitchen

This is our kitchen today.

The sign says, "Many have eaten here, few have died."
Rebecca made it for me.

I still love it like I did when we moved into the house. I love the big window over the sink and the functionality of it, but now that I've worked in it for six years, there are some things about it that I can't wait to change. The weird lighting, for instance. There isn't enough of it and sometimes one of the two flourescent fixtures won't turn on at all thanks to our old, low-voltage electrical work. I'm looking forward to seeing that replaced one day. I also want two ovens.

My biggest beef with the kitchen isn't with the kitchen itself, but with the family room on the other side of the penninsula where the stove is located. For one, it has carpet and that carpet is absolutely disgusting from the tracking in at the front door and the cooking on the stove. Also, the penninsula and the stairs make it a weird space. It's hard to arrange the furniture and have enough light where we need it. We have a kitchen table that fits decently in the eat-in space, but if anyone in addition to the four of us eat there, it gets very crowded. It boils down to needing more space for family - for eating and for sitting around, and if some upgrades come with it, well, that will be fine with me.

After our trip to IKEA, this is the kitchen we are picturing in our heads. We have some work to do to figure out how to fit it in our space, but it has all of the things I want, including two full-sized ovens.

Our model kitchen, courtesy of IKEA.

We've been collecting pictures of kitchens for a while now, so who knows if this is what it will actually end up looking like when we finally do it, but we both like it and it renewed Dave's hope for a classic black and white tile floor.

12. 11 o'clock

Water break. I just finished practicing for a client presentation and my voice is tired. 

11. Something funny

Luke's surprise from our trip to Six Flags was a Batman cape. The next day, he wore it with his Batman t-shirt. He was running around Grandmother's living room enjoying the feeling of the cape fluttering behind him when I asked for bye-love. It was then that I learned something very important about Batman.

"Batman don't need hugs."

Luckily, Grandmother convinced him that even though Batman doesn't need hugs, he does give them out to mommies who are about to leave for work. Because, even though Batman doesn't need hugs, Wuke Boper does, and he would have had a bad day about it if he'd missed it.

After telling me goodbye, he realized a part of his costume was missing.

"Where my Batman eyes?"

Because he was already dressed the part, I relented and went home for the mask. You can't be Batman without the eyes.

Luke is Batman