Sam is "Gwoing Up"

Sam has been doing a lot of responsible things lately without being prompted. He brings vitamins up to Lena every morning when I'm dressing her, he helps her take off her shoes, he feeds Miles, he lets Henry out when he rings the bell, he's very interested in brushing his teeth (thanks to a lesson at school about it). When I praise him for doing these things, he says this to me:

"Tanks (thanks), Mommy. I'm a big boy now - I'm gwoing (growing) up!"


To which I smile and sigh, because he is growing up...way too fast in my opinion. Excuse me while I bust out in virtual song for a moment, hearkening back to "Fiddler on the Roof"...

Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play? I don't remember growing older. When did they?

This is Sam's very first school photo. He really is gwoing up.

Winter Blues No More

I'm like a bear in the winter. I hibernate. I'm lazy, tired, grouchy...and lazy. Maybe it's light deprivation, but it seems to run deeper than that. Regardless, other than loving me a white Christmas, I loath winter.

So as soon as spring days start to overwhelm cold wintry ones, when buds start to decorate tree branches, when daffodils perk up their buttery yellow heads, when the birds' songs are carried through my open windows on a warm breeze, when wild onions start popping up everywhere, when the sun warms the side of my face as I walk outside with the dog; then I wake up.

I immediately need to clean, air out the house, cook a wonderful meal, listen to Don Henley in the car, and take walks. A little bounce returns to my step, my smile becomes easier, I see God absolutely everywhere I look. Not only does the sun wake up my personality and productivity, but it warms my soul and reminds me who I am.

I am my favorite self in the springtime.

So I'm finally awake today. And it feels amazing! It's 70 degrees. On March 13th. Say what? I don't know how or why, but I'll take it.

While Sam was a school today, Lena and I did laundry, started an amazing slow-cooked pasta bolognese sauce, dusted, vaccumed (Hazel, our iRobot Roomba, handled the upstairs for me), watered plants, brushed Henry, hung up some of the kids artwork, cleaned the kitchen. And when we got home the kids ate a big hot lunch, I cleaned up the kitchen (again), did some more laundry and we walked Henry before rest time.

The pasta is bubbling away and the windows are all open...the house smells awesome. And I feel incredible.

Thanks spring, for showing up early and kicking my winter blues right out the door.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

This year was a special birthday for Mom. Her first birthday as a cancer survivor.

Mom was diagnosed nearly a year ago with stage 1 breast cancer. Through surgery, a wonderful doctor and compassionate nurses at the James, a wonderful radiologist in Cambridge, and her faith and determination; she kicked her cancer's ugly ass.

Last year she was also diagnosed with trigeminal neuralgia, which was causing her terribly severe face pain. Now, with the help of a doctor who finally listened and some strong medication, she's kicking it's ass too.

Go Mom! It's your birthday!

I'm not listing the struggles she's endured to relive the last painful year. She'll probably be upset with me that I even posted them. And that I cursed, but that one she's probably pretty used to by now.

Listing them is meant to show what a strong, faithful and determined woman my mom is. She went through a lot in her 64th year, and came out on the other side with a clean bill of health and a stronger faith. She also came out on the other side of 64 with a new role in life - a pillar of strength and empowerment and hope for women in her community who are battling cancers of their own. And there are unfortunately a lot of them.

Mom is an incredible Christian woman who exercises the gifts God gave her every moment of every day. She embraces life, listens to God's guidance and touches everyone around her. I'm so proud of her grace and moxie. I'm so proud to call her my mom.

Here are some photos of the awesome afternoon we spent with her and Dad yesterday celebrating this special birthday.

Mom and Lori - both looking beautiful in the warm sunshiny day!

Mom opening her birthday present - tickets to see Barry Manilow!

Lena and Grant snacking on chips.

Dad and Lena swinging together.

Mom and her two oldest grandsons.

Dad pushing Sam and Lena on the swings.

More swinging.

Catching Up...Again

Has it really been almost a month since I've posted? My mind has been so cluttered and all over the place lately, even if I would have attempted a blog post, it most likely would have turned out a convoluted mess.

I blame Stephen King.


What little capacity for organized thought I've had over the past few weeks has been occupied by his latest book, 11/22/63. I could not put it down. I lost hours of sleep, fed my family mediocre meals and even neglected my kids on several occasions to absorb just a few more pages. And there were a lot of pages to absorb. Around 850. But it was an awesome read. None of the nightmarish terror found in a lot of his books, such as Duma Key, which is still lying half read under my nightstand. 11/22/63 is just him at his best with all his amazing character development, perfect pacing, page-turning thrills and just a few creepy moments to really pull you in. It has become one of my favorite books. Dare I write - maybe thee favorite.


Regardless, onto catching up on the Cole family's goings-on.

A few weeks ago it was so nice outside after church one Sunday that we decided to take the kids to the zoo. It was sunny and warm(ish)...well, it was around 45 degrees, but the weeks leading up to that had been so cold that 45 degrees seemed semi-sweltering to us. We layered and bundled and had a great time. It started snowing as we were leaving, which made for a cozy ride home in our warm car with two exhausted kids.






Good times.

A couple weeks after that, it was another sunny warm-ish day, so we decided to take our first trip to the Franklin Park Conservatory. It is one of my new favorite places to go. I want to set up permanent residence in the back room with the fountain and the beautiful green plants and trees - I think it's called the Palm House. It was so warm and bright and colorful and tropic in that room, it reminded Rich and I of our free honeymoon trip to Maui nearly 9 years ago.







The kids loved the place, too. The talking parrot scared the hell out of them, but it was funny watching their little brains trying to comprehend a real-life talking animal.







After spending a long morning there, visiting rooms and eating lunch, we wandered outside where it had warmed up enough for the kids to play on the playground behind the conservatory. We will be going back there soon. And often. It is the best cure for my annual winter blues.

I have much more to blog about, but no need to ramble on. I'll save those boring, rambling, brain picking posts for another day.

Valentine's Day and Other February Things

Sam on Valentine's Day morning staring with wonder and delight at the decorations we put up the night before.

"How'd dose (those) hearts get up dare (there)?", he said. When I explained what they were for, he jumped up in my arms, hugged me and whispered in my ear "I wove (love) you, Mommy".


Lena was excited too. She wakes up later than Sam (we all wake up later than Sam), but they opened their special book and stamp set together. I unfortunately didn't get a picture of that because we had to rush out the door to school right after.


One morning last weekend, Rich broke out the kids' giant art set, wrapped the counter in paper and let them have at it.


Sam was using coins to trace circles to use as the heads for the animals and people he was drawing. His artistic ability and ingenuity come from his father.



Lena was pretty much just scribbling, but she asked me to draw hearts for her. Unfortunately, she gets her artistic ability from her mother. (But man, can she sing! I need to post a video of her wailing away. She even shakes her head a little when she hits high notes!)



Yesterday we were home sick from school (Sam had a low fever which, thankfully, hasn't resurfaced). While I was in the kitchen cooking, this is what I saw happening in the living room - Sam pretending to put Lena to bed. What I heard was Lena saying "Night-night Sammie" and Sam singing her one of her most requested bedtime songs, "Jeengle (Jingle) Bewws (Bells)". He even stroked her hair once.

I guess he was making up for the absolute holy terror he was the night before when he was slamming his door and calling me names before his bedtime. Must have been the fever working on him, right? :)


They both must have been in snuggly moods because look at what they did to Miles just a few minutes later.


Then they sat and played quietly together until lunch. I hated to interrupt them - this is a rare scene at our house.

In the Presence of the Lord

One of my lifelong dreams has come to fruition: I'm a backup singer in a band.

Yes, I've always dreamed of being a backup singer. And yes, I'm aware that it's not a normal reach-for-the-stars kind of dream, but it's my dream.

Singing backup is an amalgamation of my talent for finding harmonies and my desire to be part of something cool without completely putting myself out there. It lets me add something to a song without drawing too much attention to my voice (which is a good voice, but not great by any means).

And I completely dig it. (Yeah, I can say "dig it" now. I'm in a band.)

It's a church band, which probably brings the coolness level down a few notches in some people's eyes, but those people have never heard our church band.

The lead singer has a bluesy, perfect pitched, smokey toned voice that blows me away. And she plays piano the same way - she's absolutely amazing. Seriously. And the guys who play guitars and drums (and sometimes sax) are all amazing musicians too. They are no joke. They know and play real music. Not just churchy stuff, which sometimes seems dumbed-down for the masses.

For instance, this Sunday they played Blind Faith's "In the Presence of the Lord" (click the blue words to hear the original). That's Clapton and Winwood. And they did it justice - the singing, the guitar solo...it was incredible. And moving. Just like good music should be.

These people are funny, down to earth, eclectic, intelligent, gifted people who have faith and guts and passion and talent. They play because they love it and are good at it and want to share it. Not for money or fame, although some of them are of that caliber. They have heard God's call to preach his word in the best way they know how - through music. They are inspiring.

I have never in my life so enjoyed serving God.

Ever.

Each time I sing with this group, they truly bring me into the presence of the Lord. Which helps me reach out to the congregation so they can feel it too. I'm so grateful for and blessed by each of them and everything they've taught me musically and spiritually in the couple of months I've been with them.

Yeah, I'm a backup singer in a church band. And it's the coolest thing I've ever done!

Sam-isms

Sam's been saying the funniest things.

Last night when we told him to take another bite of his bratwurst, he responded, "It too picy (spicy), I tell you!".

Or when he was playing this afternoon, he showed Rich how the Lego plane was supposed to go, adding sweetly, "No, no, wike (like) dis, Daddy. Det (get) it?"


He also came over to me the other day and stroked the side of my face and told me that he woved (loved) me.

It hasn't all been sweet or funny things coming out of his mouth (I blame the bad stuff on school, wink wink), but we won't memorialize those here.

That boy of ours is just growing up too darn fast.