Full Swing

We just finished up a great weekend of beautiful spring weather, well almost. Friday and Saturday were beautiful, Sunday was cold, wet and dreary but hopefully it won't last. The Brady bunch was in full swing of sporting events and busy weekend activities.

On Friday when Bennett came home he had a note in his bag saying that his art work had been chosen by MAIS (Memphis Association of Independent Schools) to be in an art exhibit on Sunday afternoon at Baptist Women's Hospital. We were thrilled and so proud! I said, "Bennett what did you draw?" His response, "I have no idea." So not only was it an exciting event but an unveiling of sorts as all of us waited in suspense to see what the art work would consist of.

Saturday morning Bennett played in the first soccer game of the season. His team lost and lost bad, friends. He was all smiles until he got in the car he said, "I think I'm done with soccer, I want to play lacrosse like Preston." Well, much to your dismay son, you signed up for soccer and you are going to finish what you started but you can play lacrosse next year. He wasn't too happy with that response but hopefully after a win he can move forward.

We left the soccer field and went straight to the lacrosse field to watch Preston play. This has become my new favorite sport. It is soo fun to watch, like football with sticks. I find myself becoming that aggressive mom in the stands (what Braxton likes to call the Bartlett coming out in me-if you are from Memphis you will get that) the one that yells a little louder than the others, and embarrasses her husband and children but I only do this when the game gets a little rough, usually. And if you know anything about lacrosse it can get a little rough. A few times I found myself yelling "hit him Preston, knock him down." Yes, I did just turn 34 and not 13 but sometimes my competitive spirit takes over. Covered by grace people, we are covered by grace.

All in all it was a great weekend, no stomach bug, no floods, no lady bug infestation, and no busted chins. We did go today to the art exhibit and Emma rubbed two ladies' behinds. I think she got distracted and walked up to them thinking they were me and just gently started rubbing their behinds. Just a wee bit embarrassing but not quiet as embarrassing as her standing in the middle of the exhibit pulling up her dress and trying to take her diaper off. For real, Emma? For real.

Bennett's art work was beautiful. It is a tree house made from popsicle sticks and painted in bright colors. He was so funny, he walked up to it and said, "Oh yeah, I did that, can we go now?" He's got a real appreciation for art if you can't tell.

Here are a few pictures from the weekends events.

I love this one, doesn't she look so proud of him?

Bennett with his art work

I love this, look at that tongue hanging out!

Preston plays middie in Lacrosse, I have no idea what that means but I figure if I am going to scream I might as well look knowledgeable!

Boogers on my Pillow

The past week in the Brady house was completely exhausting. 4 out of 5 of us had a violent stomach bug. And I don't use the term violent loosely. Picture what you may in your head and I promise it was worse. Much worse. I am pretty sure I reached whatever legal limit may be on the consumer warnings for Clorox. The only good part was that the bug hit us during spring break and so everyone was out of school, oh wait a minute, that's not good news according to my children. We all survived and I must say I do like the "skinny" feeling you get after that much of an exodus from your stomach and intestines. I had that thought as I shared a donut with my children Sunday morning before church. Oh well, skinny like happy is a fleeting feeling, I like chubby and content much better or at least I have worn them well for the past 34 years.

In the days prior to the above mentioned Bennett glided into age 7 and I slammed into the "thirty somethings." I guess there are some things worse than that, like cleaning up vomit and other unmentionables for 72 hours straight.

This morning I woke up with a two year old turned sideways in my bed. Feet in my chest, her head in her daddy's chest. As I started to get up I noticed her boogers on my pillow and I had to laugh. It seems that there have been lots of boogers on my pillow lately, both literally and figuratively. I think sometimes that is just life. You wake up and there is some yuck you have to deal with.

I also think there are two options of how to respond. I was reading in Colossians yesterday and in chapter 1:9-13 it talks about walking in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him. So I think we can respond to these "boogers" by being discouraged, frustrated, angry, bitter, etc... or we can seek wisdom in the Lord, trust in Him and respond how he would have us to respond.

It doesn't matter how old you are, where you are in life, what you do or even if you have children, at some point you are going to wake up with boogers on your pillow. I pray that my friends, children and husband see me handle them having "patience with joy and always giving thanks to the Father" even when it means cleaning up vomit for what feels like the 10,000 time.

Chin Up

Today was a rough day for our Emma Sanders. At approx 10am she took a spill from one of our barstools and hit the concrete chin first. Split it wide open. It was traumatic and in case you don't already know your face bleeds a lot more than other parts of your body. I managed to get the bleeding to stop for a little bit and then it would start up all over again. I took her to our pediatricians office and they cleaned it up and glued her back together. It took me and a nurse to hold her down while the doctor worked on her. It was so sad, she was screaming her head off and there was nothing I could do. That's the hard part of being a momma, or one of the many hard parts I should say.

She was a trooper and we were both worn out when it was all over. One cute highlight while we waited on the doctor was that she kept kissing herself in the mirror. I am not sure if she was kissing her boo boo or if I should worry about her being a little vain but it was cute nonetheless. Hopefully the rest of our week will be a little less uneventful. I think we are due for some boredom.