Prayers With Olivia #3

Prayers With Olivia #2

Abbey: On Dating

Abbey has been asking for over a year if she could start dating.  We have told the kids that until they are 75, there will be no dating.  Just recently, Abbey pleaded with me to let her date, and wanted to know WHY she couldn't.  I explained to her my concerns:

She's too young.
Dating leads to kissing.
Kissing leads to...more kissing...

Best. Birthday. Ever.

Olivia has spent the last year or more enjoying one "Best Day Ever!" after another.  I can't even recall the number of times I have heard her exclaim "Best Day Ever!"  Every time it cracks me up.  She's always making me laugh.

Today she gets the spotlight once more, as I share with you how we celebrated her 8th birthday yesterday.

Prayers With Olivia #1

You can always count on the kids to tell God exactly what they are thinking at any given moment.  We could take lessons in prayer from our children.

Apparently she's okay with cars running into the neighbor kids, as long as they don't do it "a lot."

They're Not So Little Anymore

It was a year or so ago that I realized, with horror, that I had to stop calling my children the Little Bishops.  The kids likely would have not groaned in embarrassment if I had stopped years ago.  But it's my job to embarrass them, right?

But then this odd thing happened.  I woke up one day to find that they weren't so little anymore.  They had become preteens!  And so I see this and I think "What have I gotten myself into?"

I had grown accustomed to quoting my hilarious kids on Facebook, and it gave me an excuse to avoid this.  While there were no bad memories associated with the blog itself, in my mind it represented a time in my life that I am not proud of.  I needed some distance.  But I MISS this blog.

As life continued around us, and my kids have not stopped being hilarious, I found myself feeling nostalgic as I thought about the temporarily abandoned "Little Bishop Chronicles."  This led me to a frantic redesign and an updated blog title, more appropriately named to describe this crazy life that threatens to pass me by.  I wanted to once more share the funny stories and rant about the things that drive me crazy.

Little Bishops Recap

I'm torn when it comes to this blog.  In general, my writing has been infrequent and inconsistent.  It is partly due to working on a computer all day.  It's partly that I feel exhausted when I get home from work.  I know this might shock you, but scanning papers and typing on a computer all day long is less than glamorous.

It's difficult to keep up with two blogs also.  I have trouble writing consistently on Loving When It Hurts, which is where my passion lies.  And then, at the same time, I have hilarious conversations with the kids, and I think "When was the last time I shared those with you?"

So, while I can't promise that I will write every day, or more than once or twice a month, I still feel like I should keep writing here.  I want a place to share my kids' lives, the crazy things I do, see or hear, and to talk about my book.

What is the status of your book you ask?

Talks with Livvy

Funny story.

Last night, I was home with the kids and we were watching TV together.  Livvy started asking about a movie.  She was saying, "When are we going to watch the second movie?"

I said, "What movie?"

She said, "You know, the one with the girl whose friend wants her to die?"

3 minutes

Sometimes all you need is 3 minutes.

3 minutes to breathe.

3 minutes to use the bathroom.

3 minutes to pray for patience.

Today,  I just needed 3 minutes to shave my legs.

Fascination with fireworks

I was never into fireworks much as a kid.  Once I had kids of my own, I thought it would be great to see them experience them.  And yet, I cannot remember a night like last night with the kids and fireworks.  Here is what I can remember.  I can remember Kaleb screaming one year because he was just a baby, incredibly HOT and it had me so stressed out.  Abbey has never really liked fireworks.  She doesn't like the noise.  Tonight was no exception.  Halfway through the display this year she tried to move her chair far away because she said it was giving her a headache.  Then she moved back closer to me because she said it wasn't quieter after all.  Katherine took it all and enjoyed it as any almost 10 year old would.  Kaleb was great.  He really wanted to be near me, for some reason, and I let him.  He was so sweet!  Halfway through, he began massaging my neck and I found out that he was pretty good at it!  How old does someone have to be to start training to be a masseuse? ;-)

Now let's talk about my 4 year old.  That Olivia is something else.  Three years ago we went to a friend's house and they just set off their own little fireworks.  Two years ago we went out to St. James where Kris' dad lives and watched them set off fireworks.  Last year, if I remember correctly, the kids were so horribly behaved and Kris and I were so terribly ready for bedtime that we didn't go ANYWHERE.  I'm pretty sure we just put the kids right into bed around 8pm.  This year we were fortunate enough to get invited to a party where our friends live on a cul de sac that backs right up to the Florissant Civic Center and they have a great fireworks display.  While all of my kids (Abbey excluded) enjoyed the show, it was Olivia that was just enamored.  She was fascinated and it was a moment of pure joy for me to see such excitement and pleasure on her face.  It was amazing and I just couldn't stop staring at her and smiling!  It was the highlight of my night.

The camera on my cell phone was too dark.  Kris has a flash on his camera but he still couldn't get any good pictures.  Fortunately a friend of ours had a 'real' camera and was able to get some awesome shots of Olivia in her sheer delight over the fireworks!