Sunday, July 6, 2014

Ups and Downs

Last night, we were all outside in our shady, mosquito-infested yard playing when darkness fell. Before the light was completely gone, I pointed out the first few lightning bugs to the girls. We've been seeing them since moving here, but no one had yet done any catching.

We did not have these delightful guys in our Texas yard, though I have happy memories of chasing and capturing them as a child in the Deep South.

But last night was the night: the children scurrying about, following the light.

CJ and CA were sweet and funny about all this, this catching light bugs, as they put it.

There were six in LC's brand-new bug-box after the frenzy was over. The kids' fascination was a delight to see - one of an increasing collection of happy moments and memories in our new home, and something for which to give thanks to the Lord.

We have also had our share of unhappy moments, tears, tension, and rocky days as we adjust to such a big change.

One of my favorites so far: on the plus side, we'd gotten morning chores figured out, so on this particular day, everyone was up and the kitchen was becoming cleaner, and little jobs were getting accomplished while I tried to get a special breakfast going.

Unfortunately, for reasons I cannot quite identify, breakfast prep took way too long. At some point, some of the sizzling bacon got a bit dark in the pan. We are learning that our smoke alarms don't like hotness. It's not merely smoke that sets them off, but rather just things getting too hot in oven or stovetop. So the alarms started blaring.

Meanwhile, CJ had overtaken Baby H's seat. He'd been playing nicely in the kitchen but had gotten up during the alarms, kind of panicked I think. When she sat on his stool, he went bonkers, and sank his teeth into her waist. Yeah, it gets better.

She shrieked in a way that'll curl your hair.

He shrieked louder and longer in response to her noise.

Meanwhile, I realized that the front and back doors were open, in a well-intentioned attempt by one of the kids to get the smoke or hotness or whatever offended the alarms out of the house.

So, added to these layers of crazy was the fact that it appeared the neighborhood was being treated to our pre-9am cacophony. Sigh.

That turned out to be a hard day all around.

But the breakfast tacos were awesome.

We have ups and we have downs, you know?

Oh, and we did have LC allow the bugs to go free at bedtime.

2 comments:

  1. Bless you!! One of those days you are happy are over when bedtime comes! :) And our boys have gotten into catching lightening bugs as well, though it requires them to stay out later than I would like!

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  2. I'm stalking your blog and catching up on your life.
    We have lightening bugs! They're in our backyard most evenings and I chased them my whole childhood growing up in Austin. I think you need more trees and foliage than y'all had in RR...or maybe those bunnies got them!! ;)

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