Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Summertime...and the livin' is...easy?

I remember just a few weeks ago I sang the praises of summer...all of the things I love about summer.  I remember how eagerly I anticipated the slower pace of life, how I soaked up the sun's warmth like a lizard on a rock...well.  Fast forward to today, June 22, I believe day 2 of the official start of summer, and I am trying to organize my storage building, sweating like a glass of ice water on my mom's good dining room table, and wishing I had had the foresight to gather some cardboard boxes and trash bags before I plunged into the murk that is known as Kendrick excess.  I hauled hoes, pool noodles, plastic jack-o-lanterns, and a badminton net out of cinderblock purgatory, with two phones, a pair of scissors, and the extra set of house keys stuffed in my pockets.  My shorts were too tight and in between fussing at myself for not losing any weight yet and cursing my husband's penchant for saving every lawn tool, broken or not, that we have ever owned, I answered calls and tried to take care of prayer requests for the email prayer chain and set out the slip-n-slide for my kids and two of their friends.  I safety-pinned a make-shift bathing suit on a 5-year-old, prayed with Will and Emma because they could not play on the slip-n-slide without becoming physically abusive, and replaced Wii remote batteries for Jack and our friend, Jesse.  At about 4:30, Justin stuck his head in said cinderblock purgatory and asked how it was going.  Then he said it felt like it was 110 degrees in there and asked if I had any water to drink.  I said no because I had told myself I would quit at 5:00 and I was almost there and I didn't want to take the time to get a drink.  He went and got me some water and asked me not to have a heat stroke.

Ahhhh...summer.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Weekend Excitement

So, I was folding clothes in the laundry/guest bedroom and one of the kids runs in and says, "You are NOT going to believe this!" and then runs back out.  The other two kids and I follow him (it was Will) outside and there, sprawled across the driveway, is one of the oak trees.  Completely toppled over.
Apparently a disease had infected the root system of the tree and they had rotted underneath the tree.  To look at the tree, you could never tell - it looked perfectly healthy.  My friend Suzanne and I were talking about it on Sunday and she said, "Oh that's a sermon illustration waiting to be used."  Only pastor's wives have these types of conversations.


Anyway, we're just thankful that no one was hurt; Jack had been practicing learning how to ride his bike without training wheels in this very spot about 30 minutes before it happened.  The other exciting part was that this tree's root system was bound up with another oak's, just a couple of feet away.  We were afraid that this still-standing tree might be ready to come down without any warning as well, so today we watched as they de-limbed and chopped up the trunk of the second oak tree.  Now the area beside the house which used to be so shady and nice to park under is a barren wasteland.  Well, at least we're all safe.  The kids climbed all over the bobcat and the bucket truck tonight.  Then all of the folks in the Mt. Calvary exercise class came across the parking lot to get a gander at the tree.  It is something to see.  One elderly lady in our church told Justin she remembered those trees being big when she was a little girl.  I guess if there's disease in the soil, there's no point in planting a replacement tree.  I feel like something green needs to go in it's place, but I guess it will have to be something green in a pot, which can't quite take the place of two 60-foot tall majestic oaks.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Confessions of a Selfish Mother

Yesterday, I used a merchandise credit at Belk's to buy myself some flip flops. While my kids ran up and down the escalators in the center of the store, I leisurely tried on different styles, standing on one foot and then the other, to find just the right shoes I wanted.

The reason this is a confession of a selfish mom is because a) I didn't really need flip-flops. In fact, I had perfectly good ones on my feet when I walked into the store. They were just showing their age a bit. The other reason b) is that the merchandise credit that I used to buy the flip-flops was from returning some shirts that my mother-in-law had bought for the boys. Yes, I am stealing money from my children to buy myself frivolous footwear.

They were totally worth it.  In fact, they are on my feet right now and it makes me happy just to look down at them.