Favorite Things about a Rough Week.

Traditionally this is one of my favorite weeks of the year.
I mean who has a favorite week?

Me.

I guess really I would go ahead and include every week that is entirely in September.
I love it.
One of my very 1st blogs posts was all about it.
It is still warm enough to do everything you want outside, but the cold has crept in too.
It rides in on the wind with the smell of drying hay, and the mountains, and old-ness.

The grasses are all blonde.
I kind of like blondes.

This week is nostalgic.
A good portion of my favorite memories come from this time of year.
Today is actually the date of the 1st time Jake told me he loved me.
It was the Sunday before Labor Day, two days before school would start.
He had just returned from Harvesting the family farm.
I guess he missed me.

Plus even though I don't start school any more, my mind is conditioned to get excited.
It is also conditioned to buy school supplies and lay newly sharpened pencils in my desk.

I have a picture in my mind of me laying in the hammock outside at our 1st house under the apple tree reading novels one afternoon. It was this week of 2003. I always remember this moment. There was nothing special about the day. But they say smell is the biggest trigger of memory. And it smelled just like the 1st week of September outside.
Does it get more September than reading novels under an apple tree in a light sweater?
Just moments ago my children dug in the dirt watching airplane and catching grasshoppers while I ate cherry tomatoes straight from the vine
I live a charmed Autumn existence.

You get it.
I love this month.

So far the month has been rough for us though.
Two sick kids. It never ends.
Until last night not one member of our family had slept for more than four hours a night this entire week. I have knots up and down my arm and back from literally holding sad, sick children 20 hours a day.
Thankfully yesterday afternoon things started looking up.
And when we didn't see the hours between midnight and 5:00 am last night- they looked even better.

I hate when the kids get sick.
But not even that can bring me down on my favorite week.
even if instead of bike riding through the Autumn air I am Lysoling my home and cleaning up puke.

Here are some of my favorite moments from sick kid week.


1. Kate and Samuel sitting on the couch.
They haven't eaten solid food in two days really, until Sam requested a PB & J minus the PB
and Kate requested a PB & J minus the J.
I loved this. Not only that they were eating FINALLY
But that I realized Sam always only eats bread with only jelly and Kate always only eats bread with only Peanut Butter. I guess they are a perfect match as siblings.

2. The dance party we had to
"Shake, Shake, Shake, Shake a Shake it" (Metro Station)
"Single Ladies" (Beyonce)
"Tonight's gonna be" (Black eyed Peas)
Say what you want about popular music- but my kids love these songs.

Mostly because I was dancing. And my children were dancing around me in circles. And Sam copied Kates every action. And it looked choreographed. So much so I am sad Jake was not there to witness or tape it. I'm talking side by side somersaults, high kicks, and disco arms.(by the children- not me- just to clarify).

3. I taught Sam to kick a ball.
Every time he would kick it I would praise him, and then he would run into my arms for a hug.
Now he thinks that is what you do all the time when you kick a ball.
I can't wait until he is 5 on a soccer team and runs to give his mom a hug after every kick.
I am pretty sure that would get him kicked off the team...
or at least teased.
I guess I am not finished teaching him yet.

4. Kate's Halloween costume came in the mail.
She had told me that she wanted to be Ariel
We talked about what kind of costume she wanted.
I ordered it off ebay.

When she opened it she said "MOM THIS IS JUST THE ONE I WANTED!"
She put it on and the went to examine herself in the mirror for a good 10 minutes.
It is awesome to make her dreams come true.

5. Jake mowed the lawn yesterday. He was wearing camo shorts and a white t shirt with some logo on it. Sam went outside to follow him back and forth on the lawn like he does every time.
Turns out I had dressed Sam in camo shorts and a white t-shirt that morning too. Jake and mini Jake back and forth, up and down across the backyard lawn. They looked exactly the same except for the fact that Sam was wearing Kate's old shiny black church shoes.
He has shoes of his own.
Lot of shoes.
Boy shoes.
He just likes to change his shoes, and that was the last change.

He threw a 15 minute tantrum this morning because he found some of his old tennis shoes despite all my stretching and pushing I could not get them on his feet.
15 minute of tears and begging. Really! I should have had the video out for that too.


6. The family of birds that lives on our front porch.
This was not a happy moment- but I'll let it be a funny moment of the week.
I want to get rid of these birds.
They poop all over the front walk. It is gross.
Jake gets out the hose and ladder. Children watching, he sprays them with the hose with intent to cover their happy home in sharp spikes so they won't sit here anymore.
The birds fly away
Within seconds twenty or more bird friends literally dive bomb us almost getting into the house, hitting the children and have Jake on the ground for fear of being hit by barn swallow flying 30 miles an hour at his face.
Upon closer examination it looks like that column is hollow. And a nest or two of baby birds sits inside out of reach.
The attack- plus the fact we can't reach them -has left us resolved to letting the birds live there until their babies are old enough to fly away.
Then we will put up the spikes,
and hopefully have no more BIRDS scenes.


UPDATE:
Our 3 Mama birds never returned.
We heard baby birds later that evening, but not the next day.
We haven't seen or heard a bird near since.
I think we may have drowned/ frozen the baby birds.
It makes me feel real bad.
But I went ahead and put up the spikes.
Scrubbed the bird poop off and repainted everything.
It looks better.
So sorry birds.


Guess I had a lot to say. Well I haven't been out to talk to an adult other than my spouse, aside from a pediatrician all week. Cut me some slack.