Meredith Carson... Across the Pond and Back Again...

I hope you are not too disappointed in me.  I am simply not finding the time to sit down and write about all of the tantrums and growth spurts that are happening around  here.  To borrow a phrase, I keep 'waiting to exhale.'  Before we had our third baby, it seemed that I had ample time for breaths in and out, for writing, and for reading the most ridiculous variety of novels you can imagine. But here I find myself, occasionally relaxing, but knowing that while I laze, I am letting something slide.  While I was sipping tea and composing that email in which I reminisced about my 11th grade prom dress, my two year old was pulling all of the shoes out of my closet and filling them with fistfuls of cat food.  It can also be argued that my time would have been better spent changing the sheets after some child ate a sleeve of crackers (apparently using half of them to make confetti) in my bed.  If I were to only write or relax when there was nothing more ...

I have been doing a bit (and hearing a bit) of Christmas griping lately.  I will admit that I was annoyed when the Christmas music was playing on the radio and in the stores well before Thanksgiving.  I have bristled at the Christmas-themed commercials on television telling me and my children that we need to go out and buy holiday-scented toilet paper, battery-operated, musical earmuffs, and the like.   I have rebelled against my own Christmas-loving nature since I do not like to have commercialized Christmas jammed down my throat before I've even had time to properly digest the Halloween candy that I stole from my kids' trick-or-treat bags. But today felt different since a somewhat unexpected winter storm converged upon us last night.  When we woke up, it looked like this in my front yard... School was delayed two hours, so there was extra time for morning chit-chat, hot breakfasts and crawling back into bed with our resident-little squirt to watch Blue'...

Today was Day Two of our Spring Snow Spectacle.  School was canceled again.  My choir's Lenten concert at church was also canceled.  I could have been annoyed or depressed, but instead I chose to take the "Whee-Monster" out on the sled and pull her around the neighborhood.  She did not disappoint and cried out "Whee!  Whee!  Whee!!" all the way home. Her glee was so contagious that we all had to take turns running with her en tow. That was the only sane thing I did today since shortly after our jog through the snow, I thought I should take all three girls bathing suit and shoe shopping.  Lord help me!  Bathing suit shopping after you've had three children is depressing enough WITHOUT having those three children in the dressing room with you as you attempt to squeeze your stretch marks into some horrible piece of floral lycra.  Lili dumped goldfish crackers all over the floor, pulled everything out of my wallet and made several great esca...

What can I say?  Today is the third day of spring and we have about six inches of snow on the ground.  The children in this family are also getting over Strep throat, a wicked ear infection and some sort of virus that requires the afflicted to sleep on her mother's face and cough all night long.  I would seriously be losing my stuff if we didn't have a sunny holiday planned for the near future.  All of that being said, a snow day is still fun and a little bit magical, and I am almost annoyed to admit that it really is beautiful out there.  As Sophia said this morning, "Mom!  You have to come out and see this!  It's so crystal white!" A snow day also means that you must have something nice for breakfast.  On school mornings there typically isn't time for bacon and eggs or Granny's famous homemade coffee cake, but on a snow day, there is nothing but time.  Today this mama made waffles with a healthy twist. Choose a whole grain pancake mix ...

It started snowing again on Sunday afternoon.  By the time we woke up on Monday morning, there was about seven inches of that stuff on the ground.  The kids already had the day off school since it was President's Day, and George cleared the driveway and went to work because he is apparently no longer the sensible Southern boy I fell in love with.  The little girl pictured above has a habit of standing at the window and moaning, "EMMA!!  EMMA!!" while watching her older sisters frolic and cavort in the Winter Wonderland that my front yard has become. So on Monday morning I thought I would make Lili's dreams come true by bundling her up and letting her go out and play with those big girls in the snow.  My favorite weather guy assured us all that the snow was wetter and heavier and perfect for snowman-making, so we were all ready to show off our wintry artistic skills. On went Lili's undershirt, trousers, sweatshirt, snow pants, double socks, boots, mittens an...

Life is busy with three kids.  I've said it before, but it still astounds me.  When you are a third (or fourth or fifth, I'm told) baby, you just have to learn to go with the flow.  You want to do everything the big kids do...even if you're exhausted.  Sometimes it all just catches up with you... Thank God for babies, for their energy and enthusiasm, for their innocence and their spirited zeal.  And THANK GOD for nap time... whenever, wherever, and however it comes!

Just the other day I was complaining about how busy we are, how we don't have enough time to just hang out and play with our kids.  Life is full of all sorts of running around and organized activities, and I was becoming downright fed up with it all.  But today we had a "Get Out of Jail Free" day.  Today was a SNOW DAY!!!  Our local news dubbed the storm, which dropped about a foot of snow on us, "Snowpalooza."  Bless 'em, those weather guys were so doggone excited.  We were pretty excited at our house too since a snow day means... a little extra rest, lots of good, take-your-time and sing-while-you do-it cooking ( Today's fab meal was real Italian spaghetti Bolognese with plenty of red wine and garlic .), crafty fun for the kiddies, and playing in the snow. It also happened to be Groundhog Day.  I know that Punxsutawney Phil in Pennsylvania didn't see his shadow and predicted an early spring, but we here in Michigan aren't holding our breath. ...

Actually it was the first Snow Fest for ALL of the Carsons on Saturday in Frankenmuth.  The giant snow sculptures were certainly impressive, but the best thing about our day was reconnecting with an old friend who was in town with her adorable family.  She and I were pregnant together twice, and her boys and my girls seemed to pick up right where they left off about six years ago...but without the diapers and oral fixations this time.  Here are three of them frolicking amongst some typical Michigan winter scenery... And here is another particularly impressive snow sculpture.  It kind of makes our anatomically correct snow dude from last winter appear inadequate.  Poor guy. As spectacular as those snow sculptures were, we found ourselves even more captivated by the breath-takingly beautiful single snow flakes we kept finding on each other.  Here is a rather poor photo of a perfectly wondrous pair of tiny snow flakes that landed in Emma's hair... After...

I continue to learn about myself.  I have struggled with wintertime blues for several years, but up here in Michigan the snow actually seems to be helping me.  For one thing it reflects the sunlight, and this is major since we all determined while living in the UK that the absence of sunshine is what drives me into the depths of apathy.  But in addition to simply magnifying that all-important light, it also happens to be beautiful.  There is something wonderful about rocking a warm baby in the big red rocking chair while looking out her bedroom window and seeing hundreds of snowflakes fall gleefully toward earth.  Falling snow is so much more pleasant than the weeping frigid rain that saturated my last five winters. Falling snow is truly joy-inducing for me.  This morning when I was driving with Lili to my Jazzercise class, I got so tickled seeing the multitude of snowflakes hurtling toward the windshield that I honestly had to pull the car over and laugh...

If it can be believed, we had enough of card games and banana pudding yesterday.  So we headed out to the big hill for some old fashioned fun.  Mimi had an old fashioned diet Coke in the chalet and cheered us on from inside.   I was feeling genuinely hopeful that running up the hill with Lili literally en tow would help to burn off some of that banana pudding and apple pie as well as those mashed potatoes and Christmas cookies.  It was worth a shot.   Up and down the hill we went over and over again, and I only complained a little when my glove somehow got filled with snow and I lost all feeling below the right wrist.  Eventually I took Uncle David's advice and "quit being a baby." Now we all feel like we've embraced winter at least for now.  Ask me how I'm feeling at the end of March when it's still snowing up here.  For now these chilly sights are warming my heart.

  We made it through the church Christmas pageant on Sunday evening.  It was really lovely.  Emma played a wonder-filled, humble shepherd while Sophie sparkled as a cherubic angel.  The pageant really was fantastic, but the most awe-inspiring part of it to me was the fact that it happened at all.  I mean there were five inches of snow on the ground.  There were howling winds and even more snow was on the way, and all of these crazy Michiganders trundled off to church (in frilly dresses even) as if it were no big deal.  The North Carolinian in me cried out, "This is so wrong!!  We should all be at home, in our pajamas watching the weather channel... in other words, being sensible... after we clear the super marker shelves of bread and milk, of course."  But that is not what happens here. After the Christmas pageant, we all piled into the big family vehicle and headed for our local Meijer.  With all of the snow, we obviously needed...

Hey Y'all.  Winter is arriving in Michigan, and it is COLD!  I opened the door this morning at ten minutes to eight to send my little darlings out the door and down to the end of the driveway to wait for the bus, and it felt as I though I had opened the door to an enormous freezer.  "Goodbye, my babies!  I love you!!" I shouted and quickly closed the door to block out the arctic weather.  Sending my kids to school in snow pants and snow boots is new territory for me. I suppose all of this winter weather nicely accompanies our preparations for Christmas.  On Sunday evening after nursing my ruined "toddler back" all day, we decided to head out to a local tree farm and find the Carson family Christmas tree.  (Incidentally "toddler back" involves literally crippling back pain that results from hoisting on to one's hip and carrying a 20+ pound toddler all day every day.  It takes its toll after a while.  I had a brilliant case of it for at least...

This happy little girl was baptized at our new church yesterday.  I really wish that our faraway friends and extended family had been able to attend since it was rather special.  George and I were a little worried that Lili might turn into a wriggly monster up in front of the church.  She was starting to get antsy and was lunging toward the table behind me that was set with hand bells as we responded to the baptismal vows, but when I handed her to the minister, Dr. McCummons, her two favorite fingers went into her mouth and she watched his face intently as he spoke about why it was such a special day for her.  Before she was "sprinkled" she reached out her little hand and had a good splash in the baptismal font.  Emma and Sophie who stood right by our sides were delighted. Finally she took a walk down the aisle and back in Dr. McCummons's arms and didn't make a peep.  She seemed to be impressed with the fact that she had so many admiring faces watching he...

This morning when George's alarm went off (far too early), the song that played on his clock radio was  "Winter Wonderland."  When I finally managed to pry my eyes open, I noticed that it actually looked a bit like a winter wonderland in our back woods.  I failed to become excited about this until a little later in the day. Lili has been making a nasty habit of waking us up in the middle of the night in hopes that we will play peek-a-boo with her for an hour or two.  The end result of those shenanigans is a not-so-chipper mama in the morning, one who snarls things like, "Don't forget your lunch box!!  I love you.  Grrr!" After I got up and showered and got myself out and about in the aforementioned winter wonderland, I noticed that it was indeed quite lovely.  Lili and I managed to finish our charity Christmas shopping, pick up a little Christmas something for George AND stock up on some new festive Christmas lights.  The variety of lights out t...

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Isn't that just about the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen? Look at those little frozen, puckered lips! Lili wasn't all that impressed with our snow today, but we took her out for a proper, brisk winter walk anyway. Every girl at our house was thrilled with the frosty excuse to stay home and lie in bed for an extra hour this morning. Too bad George was off for work before 7:30 this morning. We all did a little relaxing and snowball throwing on his behalf though. First thing on the agenda this morning was the building of snow-women. Emma, Sophie and I built this Snow Mama and Snow baby while Lili 'chilled' in her swing and watched us through the kitchen window. Emma and Sophie tell me the snow girls' names are Rhiannon and Elora. We also just got the news that school is closed again tomorrow!! Another day of hot chocolate, Wii and guilty pleasure daytime TV for us... it's a rough life, but Christmas vacation was far too short anyway. Happy Wi...

It's snowing in Wales!!! Flurries mainly, but that still counts when one hasn't seen a flake of snow in two years. I am hoping that it will really kick in tonight and that we will open the curtains in the morning to reveal glittery, white fabulousness as far as the eye can see. One day of snow is all I require. Every channel on the BBC is broadcasting how this is the biggest snowstorm the UK has seen in 18 years. Is it so much to ask that a little of it come down to South Wales?? You know there will be pictures if I get my wish. It also goes without saying that I am as good a weather forecaster as Phil the groundhog...either that or I am just "at one" with the winter rodents. As I predicted yesterday, Phil indeed saw his shadow! Bring on the trumpets...and the snow while you're at it.