What a wife!

Lately, I have been reevaluating my marriage and what kind of wife I am to my husband.

My cousin's husband passed away very unexpectedly over a week ago. She is barely older than me and also has 4 young children. I have thought about and prayed for her every day since. While pondering her situation and speaking to family who live close to her it has strengthened my belief in God and that he can truly lighten our burdens. My dear cousin is a great example to me of faith and strength. I will continue to think of her often, and pray that this time between now and seeing her husband again will be full of happiness. I love you Andrea and am thinking of you!

I mention this because pondering my cousin's situation has forced me to look inward to my relationship with my husband. Am I the kind of wife that my husband would think of fondly if I were gone? Would he remember me nagging him about putting his clothes away all the time or would he think of the things I do for him that let him know I love him? As a mother of young kids who take up so much time, it is easy to let the marriage building things sit on the back burner. I really notice when Dave and I don't take the time to build and strengthen our relationship. We get short with each other, and I start to think of him as working against me instead of the 2 of us helping each other with our common goals.

Anyway, I am more aware of just how much Mr. Bennett means to me and how hard he works for us and our children. He is my perfect compliment in so many ways, and I would be lost in life without him. The song "Lucky" playing at the left says it so well.

They don't know how long it takes
Waitin' for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
Lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been what I have been
Lucky we're in love in every way....

I am renewed in purpose to be all that I can be in the wife department. . . . . . .just as soon as he puts away that pile of clothes at the foot of the bed. ;)On a related note, our power went out a couple nights ago. We just got home from baseball games and dinner with the P's. The kids were trying to get ready for bed since it was well past pumpkin time (8:00). The lights flickered twice and then went dead for a couple hours. Toby, who was the only one awake still, helped me set up all the candles and I had the place bathed in candle light before you could say "Boo." Dave and I joked when he got home several minutes later that I had just sorted and put away all my candles the night before and now they were all out again.It was nice, and a little foreign, to have a quiet and dark house. After the kids were in bed and we took super fast showers, to beat the water heater running out, I hesitated for a minute. What was I going to do? This was usually the time I used to wind down checking email, editing pictures, writing here or snuggling with Dave on the couch if a show was on that we liked. I decided to go read in bed by the candle light, but as soon as I did the lights went back on. Did I turn them all off and continue with my plans? No. Lame huh. I should have. Just goes to show how much of a distraction our electronics are sometimes. I mentioned to Mr. Bennett that it would be fun to have a mandatory candle night once a week, with and without the kids. He said, "you know how we'd end up most the time, right?"
"Mmmm, hmmm," I said.

I finally took pictures of our kitchen, just for fun. Here is a before shot. Thankfully you can't see how stained and dilapidated the counter tops were. I will also spare you the picture I took of the inside of the original porcelain sink with the huge rust spot in it. I stared at that thing a lot so I had to take one picture to remember how ugly it was. ;)Aaaaahhhh. Much better. I love my double sink and big faucet with the pull out sprayer. I call him goose just for fun. Tom did a great job on the counter top and plumbing. Thank you Tom!! I'm glad it was you doing the reno if you know what I mean.
Having just a little bit new makes keeping the kitchen clean so much easier!

Story time with Grandma

The kids were excited to play hooky from school today to spend the day with Great-Grandma Payne. She is here for a quick visit, so we set aside today to get together. Although we live far away and don't see Grandma often, my kids talk about her a lot and miss her after we've seen her. All the kids enjoyed talking Grandma's ear off about baseball, piano, friends, superheroes, church and their interests, and Grandma was so sweet to listen- all day. She is an incredible lady who has traveled the world, knows so much about our country's history, our pioneer heritage, cooking, travel, politics, etc. You name it she knows something about it. I hope I look this good and do as much as she does when I am 80 years old.
Great-Grandma Jaynnan is an expert story-teller, and she loves reading to her grand kids. I knew she would bring some books for the kids. We were not disappointed. She brought her favorites to share. Grandma ended up reading all 6 books straight through for over an hour. Logan, who sits still for maybe 20 minutes max, was glued to the couch for all but one of the books. Grandma does great voices for the different characters and even recited an extra story to the kids from memory. It was so cute to hear the kids giggle and groan while Grandma read. They had so much fun. All the kids loved "Skippyjon Jones" so much they asked Grandma to read it again and held it in our picture at the end of the day. Now I have huge shoes to fill in the story time department. I have to step up my game big time.I wanted the kids to have an opportunity to learn more about their Great-Grandma and to tell her about themselves too. We sat around the table drawing pictures and talking. The kids and I asked Grandma questions about her favorites, her childhood and her family. When we all got restless we went on a walk around the neighborhood. Poor Sydney was accidentally tipped over twice when I let the boys push her in the new stroller I got yesterday. Thanks goodness for a stroller with a 5-point harness. Despite that, the day with Grandma was just what I imagined it would be.

Little Sluggers

Saturday was Opening Day for Warm Springs Little League. We had debated whether to sign Toby up to play T-ball until last minute. He really needs an extra curricular activity so we decided to give it a try. Jessie has been avoiding organized sports at all costs for years even though we want her to try numerous ones. I know it is the perfectionist in her that doesn't want to lose, mixed with a fierce competitive streak, that has held her back. So the first day of Toby's practice Dave noticed J's friend from school is on a team coached by her Dad. Dave came home, emailed the League and begged, borrowed and bribed (almost :) ) to see if Jess could get on a team just over a week from Opening Day. We found out 20 minutes before the next practice that the Dad of J's friend would like to have her on the team, so that finally sealed the deal for Jessie. She loves it! So does Toby! He told me Saturday night after his first game that he was going to be a baseball player forever.
Dave was willingly snookered into being a coach on both kids teams. Jessie and Toby love practicing with Dad.
Jessie is a natural athlete. Her coach and lots of the Dad coaches thought she had played baseball before. J had a great first game considering she only went to one practice before. She is on a Farm team which uses the pitching machine during the games. First inning Jessie is asked to be the catcher. She was awesome and brave to put on all that gear and get out there to stop the ball every time. She got 3 RBI's and was literally batting a thousand. I was anxious to watch her reaction if she made a mistake because I know how negative that reaction can be sometimes. She almost caught a pop fly but just missed it when it bounced out of her glove. I know she learned a lot and didn't get down on herself which was great to see. She is maturing so fast.
Toby was out there to have some fun! It was completely entertaining watching the little T-ball players. They were all satisfied to hit the ball and pick it up if it came to them. The fielders would pick up the ball, wave it in the air and smile real big like they had just won the game. I'm surprised nobody ran the wrong way. Strategy will come later. I could tell Toby loved the team aspect of the game. He likes being silly with his friends and enjoyed the comraderie of being part of a team. He whacked a couple balls good too, which always helps.

Despite the unexpected, toe-numbing cold, we all had a pretty good day. I figured it was going to be chilly and warm up when the fog burned away like the day before. We were not prepared for how cold it was all day. I had to run home for a few heavier jackets and pants for Sydney since I really wasn't thinking when I put her in a cute sundress. Syd was overwhelmed with all the people and just wanted to be held. She is fighting a bug and didn't feel very good either. She slept through most of J's game nice and warm under a blanket in the stroller. Not surprisingly, Logan whined almost the entire time about wanting treats from the snack shack. All the snacks I brought were apparently inedible. He is in a very whiny stage these days. I'm praying it will pass soon before Dave and I accidentally leave him at Grandma's and go out of town for awhile. :)