Lego Cereal

Some people add bananas, some add sugar. Some just add legos.

Handsome Nathan

This is a picture I found of Nathan on his computer. He was so handsome.

In Memory of Nathan

My brother, only sibling, and best friend passed away on Sunday October 31st, 2010. It was unexpected. He silently and instantly passed from this life to the next into the beautiful arms of the Savior. Autopsy reports are inconclusive so far. My heart desperately aches for my brother. We were more than siblings and more than friends. We were both at the same time which connected us stronger than any other connection two people can have, bar marriage.

Nathan and I shared memories, some good and some bad. He endured my bossy know-it-all years when I harassed him about taking too much soda and driving too fast. He put up with my controlling habits and tolerated my nagging criticisms. I am still not sure how he did it. He used to say "I hope you marry a man that can put up with you!" Even with the way I tried to mother my brother, he loved me and as adults we got along great.

I appreciate Nathan for the way he made me laugh. He lived a life filled with trials and suffering and his humor sustained parts of me when it was unbearable to watch. He and I shared a childhood that is impossible to explain. As adults we laughed often about all the crazy memories of mom and dad. He called me "CM" (short for Catherine MacAllister). He'd call me up on the phone :"Hey CM, guess what dad did. Hey CM, if I have to hear McDougall's name one more time I am going to scream!"

We laughed and cried together for the nine years he lived with me, just before his paralyzing accident. We hugged goodbye and sobbed in each other's arms as he departed for California to attend Project Walk where he spent the last two and half years of his life learning how to take steps again.

The Saturday before he died, it was as if his spirit knew he was about to leave this Earth. He called all his family members, in an amazingly happy mood, to talk and just be together in conversation. The next day he was gone.

Nathan, there won't be a day that passes that I won't miss you. You leave an irreplaceable spot in my heart. I love you and can't wait for the day when I join you in eternity, in the arms of Jesus. Until then, I just remember all the good times we had and the secrets we shared. I am glad you have no more pain. I am comforted at the thought that you are running through Heaven's streets proclaiming the majesty of God. It must be truly awesome!

Oregon 2010!!!!!

Oregon 2010!!!!!!

My Brother Walks

Go Nathan! Keep working... you'll be walking home soon enough. Miss you and love you brother. I'll buy you some smaller sized shorts when you come for Christmas! ;o)

Sam and Daddy

Sam, you make us so happy. I just love to see you in Daddy's arms with your full of life smile and contagious laugh. What a gift you are to us. We all just love you!

Sierra Mederios Simmons

Grandpa Jim and Sierra standing in a pool of water along the Columbia River in Hood River, OR.

Proverbs 31 Wife Disappointment

I have a wonderful fantasy about keeping the kind of blog that paints a poetic picture of life as a Proverbs 31 wife. She sews, cooks, cleans, owns her own business, and gardens among many other things. But for me this seems more like fantasy than an obtainable reality. Don't get me wrong. I live a lovely life, couldn't love being a mom more than I do, and I don't just blow off any attempt to align my life to more closely resemble the poetic one I dream of. I do. But this post reflects more of my reality. You see, I can't sew, nor do I have the time to with the demands from raising six kids in a hustle and bustle suburban area. Anyway, even if I did sew, I might be able to push out clothes enough for one or two outfits of the 30-40 each season demands for a family of eight, so I figure, what's the point? And, this brings me to my theme for this post... gardening. This year, I figured I'd try my hand at gardening our own tomoatoes, one for my own pleasure, and two for the sake of saving money on one of my summer favorites. I must skip straight to the point. I have only seen a quart of cherry tomatoes from our 5 plants and can you guess why? Yes, hungry Golden Retrievers who go to all lengths to break into my tomatoe jail. Come to think of it, I don't recall the Proverbs 31 woman having pets. Hmmmmmm.

Good Days, Bad Days

Some days are good, and some, well, not so good. Today was a not so good day. This is Sam 18 hours after a mosquito bite to the eye.

Sierra Played to Sleep

I have had the luxury of being married to a man who plays piano beautifully. This is one venue through which he bonds with each of our children.. He takes them to the piano and plays until they fall asleep in his arms. Sometimes, these playing sessions will go on for an hour. This is because he doesn't want to wake them up!! (I can appreciate that!) So, with each child, I capture this on camera. What a blessing to be married to such a man! I just love him. I love watching him love his children. I love how he cares for them in his own way, through his own giftings, ones I cannot offer them myself. He is a loving man, tender at heart, romantically and passionately in love with me and forever fallen for his children. There is none other like him.

Help Yourself to Some Cheese, Sam

We are in the process of training our 2 year old, setting boundaries for him, and helping him to see his need for a Savior. One of his areas of struggle right now is wanting to go into the kitchen to help himself to whatever he feels like eating. This, of course, is not acceptable. Yet, as is the case with all of us, he did not learn after the first correction. On this particular morning, I came downstairs to find Sam had decided to eat the entire block of cheese while enjoying an episode of Phineas and Pherb.

Underwear Hat Day

Sam, Sam, Sam, what are we going to do with you? You might just scar Sierra for life, sweet sonny boy. Oh, Sierra, please be patient with your brother. He wears Emma's shoes. He scribbles on important papers. He pees in the bathtub with no concern for his siblings who are sharing the bath. He messes up computer games. Now, he is putting his underwear on your head.

~~~~Of all our 6 children, so far Sam is the most entertaining of the bunch. Yesterday, he was having a generous heart and apparently wanted to share his underwear hats with Sierra. (Side note: We were browsing in Target recently and Sam noticed the underwear with "Elmo" on it. He had no idea of what he was asking for. In his mind, he just wanted "Elmo". So in an effort to start preparing him for the idea of wearing underwear, I bought it.)~~~~

Sam has worn a pair here and there, but my son prefers his underwear on his head. And apparently, he prefers it on his sister's head too. And even more apparently, she seems to be content with that. So yesterday was officially noted as Underwear Hat Day in our house. No, I didn't partake, but I did get some great pictures of it!

I LOVE MY KIDS!!!!!

Baby Who?

Here is a picture of the man I love! It could be one of four incredible men in my life! Who do you think it is?

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Family in Florida

     Florida Family

We had a lovely time with family in Florida.  We have the best family one could ask for down there!  The Pompano area is scattered with Aunts and Uncles, Great Aunts and Great Uncles, and then of course, our amazing Grandpa.  It was time well spent with Grandpa, Great Aunt Sylvia, Great Aunt Ruthie, Flo who is Grandpa's friend and companion, Aunt Sandy, Uncle Barry, Great Aunt Rozzie, and Great Uncle Hy. And just think, to our own kids, the Greats become Great, Greats!!!  Grandpa plays the sax and clarinet. Hy plays the piano. So we had a little shin dig with old time music. The kids played with Aunt Rozzy while Aaron and I caught up with our family.  Well, it's actually Aaron's family, by blood, but since I have no "seasoned" relatives of my own, I feel just as much a part of this group as Aaron does.  Sierra was at a fun age where she would go to everyone and not cry.  A couple months later and I'm not so sure how that would have worked out. Elley was able to give a recital of her latest pieces. 

Heading into Grandpa's condo is an adventure.  Not only is it a trip into the 70's with its decor and style, it is filled with stamps.  Grandpa is a stamp dealer and has boxes and boxes of stamps he trades and sells.  His dining room table is FILLED with pictures of his family, but I'd have to say our family stands out among the crowd.  My mother-in-law, Grandpa's daughter, Karen is faithful to send lots of pictures.  I think she is proud of her grandkids.  Just a guess!  ;o)  So nevermind trying to eat at the table.  It's sole purpose is to display... well..., ummm.... US!!!!  My kids like the fact that they can find little lizards, sometimes, inside Grandpa's sunroom.  That's a Florida thing that we Marylanders don't ever experience up here.  I like the big newspaper book with old newspapers from Grandpa's earlier days.  I photographed the open book with all of my kids' hands + Grandpa's hand laid upon it.  It's my effort to be artistic.  Not so sure I pulled it off, but it makes me happy anyway. 

Our trips to Florida are always fulfilling.  We just love seeing our family and are grateful to have them.  I hope that our children remember them and learn to appreciate how fortunate they are to have so much history wrapped up in their stories...  History of the last century and all its advances, history of the holocaust and all its tradgedies, and finally, history of their lineage and where they came from.  We are blessed to have them!!!!

We were able so spend some time with friends in our June trip to Florida. Hence, the extra child sucking her thumb. The pool was hot.

Buddies

Buddies in the making!

Chubby Jokes Cheeks

Remember as a kid, squeezing your cheeks together and telling "chubby jokes"? Well, this is my sly technique used to cheer up my kids when they are feeling down, grumpy, or are injured in some way. It always makes them laugh. When we are in the doctor's office for a visit, I always try to do it just before I know the doctor is about to walk in so they can't stop laughing and laugh even harder b/c they know it's not time to laugh. What can I say? I grew up with disfunctional humor in my family!!! So pictured above is Sam (2) giving Sierra (6 months) the chubby joke cheeks. Once again, Sorry Sierra.

Sierra Flower Girly

Sierra is just one of those babies that is always smiling.  What a gift she is to us!  God has been so kind.

A Taste of What's To Come!!!

Last weekend we indulged ourselves in a backyard fire and Smore's. The air was cool, we had just cooked out, and the anticipation of summer couldn't be helped. We just had to. We had to break open our first round of Smores for the summer. Making a fire in the yard (in a chimnea) and roasting marshmallows on filthy sticks tops the list of my kids' favorite summer night activity. They will spend a long time collecting wood of all sizes just to make this favored event perfect. It's ironic, because normally, asking them to do anything laborsome is quite a task and often becomes a battle... but not for Smores! They are more than willing. Aaron usually builds the fire to get it going, but then Eric and Andrew are the "fire keepers". They covet this job. It's Sam's job to guard the chocolate, although when it's time to eat, there never seems to be enough. Hmm.... I think I might need to reconsider this one!
After all Smores have been eaten, that is when everyone has a stomach ache, it's bath time. For me, this means getting 5 kids bathed at 10pm or so... this can be quite a challenge. (I must clarify, I don't bathe my older ones, but somehow they always need help of some sort.  "Mom, I forgot my towel!"... "Mom, can you get me some soap."  Mom.... you get the idea!)

Anyway, we enjoyed the evening and eachother.  I love my family!
Hurry, Summer, we're waiting!!!

A Forehead of Many Colors

I thought perhaps that if I could teach Sam to color on paper than at least we could escape the "coloring on walls" stage that many of my toddlers seem to have gone through. We also rent our house so I would prefer that the kids did not color on the walls for the sake of wanting to take care of that which does not belong to us. Never did it occur to me that my 5 month old would become Sam's "paper". Sorry Sierra... I'll try to make sure this doesn't happen again.

Even the dogs need a beer after a day in our household!

Finding Waldo

Ok, so maybe Waldo isn't really hiding in these pictures, but what you can see is that we have a serious problem here. The problem is stuff and mess. You take the stuff of 6 kids, none of which like to pick up after themselves and here is what you get... a messy, messy house. Don't get me wrong. I don't like it and most of the time it doesn't look like this, but often enough, the clutter becomes overwhelming. This is an excellent testing of my heart. Above was the scene in my house on Sunday morning, before church. So here I am wanting to prepare my heart for worship and all I can do is dwell on what's right in front of me. Here is a blurb from a "help" email I sent to a friend:

I currently have 15 balloons scattered all over the house from our parties on Thurs. and Fri. One of Emma's sneakers is in the bathroom, and the other is on the kitchen counter. I have a pile of money from The Game of Life that Emma brought upstairs on the end table by the couch and I think there are a few crumpled up from Sam in the sun room. There is a cup from someone's water on the floor, under the computer table. Eric's redskins jersey ("Go Redskins") is on the kitchen table b/c that is the catch all space when coming in from outside or for items brought in from the car. There is McDonalds trash on the wine table, orange peels from Sam on the homework table, a card from the deck on the couch (where's the rest of the deck?), 50 match box cars scattered around the first floor like eggs for an egg hunt, 4 pairs of shoes in random places (even though they have a place), a peacock feather (where did that come from?), a roll of toilet paper on the kitchen floor (huh?) bla, bla, bla...., oh, and fortunately Sierra was not in the infant carrier as seen in the picture. "Phew!"
In other words, there is clutter and stuff everywhere I look. And I don'tknow where it came from or how it all got there.

Ok, so rather than getting angry or blaming my kids for my discontentment, I went to the Lord, asked for help, and prayed that he would meet me in church.  I spent the rest of the morning trying to navigate my heart and my cravings.  I wanted to know if I was upset because I should be, or if God was trying to put to death a different part of my sin, such as idolatry (making my house more important than him).  It's a tough place to be because on the one hand, I don't think that my vision of a perfectly orderly home is really practical in this season of life with a newborn and a busy toddler.  On the other hand, I don't think it's too much to ask of my kids to put their stuff away either. Hence, I have a dilemma. I arrived at church, still composed but ready to burst into tears.  We began singing a song "Greater Than We Can Imagine".  The first three lines read:

Every day we’ll bless You and praise Your name

And on Your glorious splendor we will dwell

On Your wondrous works, Lord, we’ll meditate

So here it was... my answer to prayer.  God's spirit gently nudged my heart through these words.  I was dwelling on MY desires, MY discontentment, MY kids, MY cirumstances, giving no place to Him.  Don't get me wrong, I need to think about all these things mentioned, but they must each be framed within the boundaries of truth.  God's splendor needs to color every other part of my life.  God's wondrous works must be at the forefront of my thoughts, with all others trailing behind.  I want to bless and praise the Lord even when it's hard.

So I am grateful for God's truth and his conviction and his personal care for my heart.  God, please help me to always put you first. ...off to do the dishes now!

"Pants on the Ground, Pants on the Ground, Lookin' like a fool...."

Sorry Sam, I just couldn't resist.

I sent Sam across the yard to say hello to our neighbor's dogs so I could grab a few cute shots. And here they are!

The dog's face says it all!

Blowing Dandelions

Sam learned how to blow a dandelion today. One of my greatest pleasures is watching my littlest ones discover life. Especially when life gets stuck on the bottom lip!

My Brother

The best brother anyone could possibly have!!!!

The Great Game of Golf

My son Eric has a talent when it comes to hitting a golf ball. I have my awesome brother to thank for this. Ever since Eric was just a toddler, my brother put golf clubs into his hand and took him to the range to hit. Nathan worked at various country clubs on the course, including Congressional Country Club. He mingled with all the senators and congressmen and made some pretty impressive connections. But even more important to him was my son. He would take Eric on "the real golf course" (that was Eric's way of distinguishing "the driving range" from a real hole on a course) to hit a few holes and that was the most important thing to Nathan. My son who is now almost 11 years old, still idolizes his uncle who now sits in a wheelchair due to a tragic, stupid accident that wasn't his fault. Eric still talks about when he and Nathan will golf again someday, if Nathan regains his ability to walk well. And as far as Eric is concerned, if Nathan doesn't walk well enough to play 9 holes, well, he will still take him and just watch. Eric doesn't care if Nathan golfs or not, he just wants to be on the golf course with his uncle again. They are two peas in a pod.

In the pictures above, Eric was passing on the gift of golf to his almost 2 year old brother Sam.

Inconvenient Baby Diaper Blowouts

So I don't think it would be appropriate to post a picture, but I will try to tell the story as vividly as possible so you can appreciate it fully.  My husband and I were out on a much needed dinner date.  We love to go out to eat together.  We both LOVE food and I, especially, love being served.  We went to "Growlers" restaurant located in Old Town Gaithersburg, by the train station.  I put Sierra down in her infant seat so I could eat my burger with two hands.  I watched her turn red and knew that the worst had just happened.  Just when I thought I could relax over my meal.  Sure enough, it was a blowout... you know the kind that soaks their clothes up the back?  What could I do, but change her?  I laid her on her belly across my knees to assess the damage.  Fortunately, this time her diaper only leaked about an inch up her back.  I thought, "Maybe I can change her here without anyone seeing!"  The challenge tempted me.  I had to try!  Yes, my friends, I changed a blowout diaper right then and there at the table.  We were not sitting near anyone else or I would not have done it.  When the waitress walked up to the table, I just scooched Sierra's hiney under the table so she couldn't see.  I did it!!!!  I changed her at the restaurant table.  (I am not proud of this by the way.  It's just after 6 kids, I have decided not to let these kinds of moments interrupt a good meal.) Now, where to put the diaper?  It was about this time that I asked for a to go box and... well, you can use your imagination.  :o)

King Xerxes and Queen Emma

 

Today I came home from school with 4 extra kids, on top of the other friend that was already at home! Just call me "The old woman who lived in the shoe, she had so many children, she didn't know what to do."

These are two of Emma's friends from school. Twins if you can believe it! They were dressed up like King Xerxes and Queen Esther. They recently saw the musical performance of it at church, which was amazing by the way.

 

Emma is giving me the royal bow.

 

Here is Emma giving me the royal hand!

And the kicker... As I served Emma her lunch, she looked at me and in her Brittish accent announced "The king is pleased with this lunch!"