We are hitting the road in June.

When I sat down in January to write about what's ahead in 2015, all I really wanted to write about was the road trip we are planning in June. I've been hatching this plan for years and waiting for the right moment. This year, I'm not pregnant and I'm not nursing a baby.  Now, we are really a family of elementary aged kids with a piggy tailed toddler who tags along. The key is that most of my kids will remember this ride and we can dare to venture out without a pack n play or stroller.
We are going to see all the middle bits of America, from the Mississippi River to California and back...Mt. Rushmore, the Oregon Trail, the Great Salt Lake, the Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon, and Route 66. The road is our destination. Our kids will be squashed together in our car for so long seeing America for the first time through the same windshield. They will never be able to deny they are siblings.
I'm going to be living out all of my homeschooling fantasies. We'll have road trip passports. We'll have glass bottles to collect flowers or rocks that we can then draw in journals with our travel water color set. We'll be listening to books on tape. I'm also dreaming of making a stop motion movie of the road as a family. Then, weeks after we return, I will send them back to their school and recover.
Everytime I see one of our destinations on TV, I do a little happy dance. I'm so, so excited, and I'm forcing Stephen to be excited too. I love that this isn't just us showing our kids our country, but Stephen and I seeing all these places for the first time ourselves.




This Land Is Our Land | My new trip on Roadtrippers.com!

St. Louis is fun.

Last spring break, several of my friends posted pictures of their children crawling through crazy tunnels on top of a large building in downtown St. Louis.  This City Museum is one super cool, fun place, and we were told we needed to take our big kids there.  It totally lived up to the hype.  It was unlike anything I've ever done before.  Tunnels everywhere.  Slides two, three, five, and ten stories high.  Pretty good food, too.  Stephen and I did everything with the kids because we were afraid of losing them.  My heart started beating fast when I saw some of the small spaces we had to crawl through.  The thought of getting stuck makes my skin crawl.  Parents, if you ever go, buy yourself the $4 knee pads at the gift shop.  

My absolute favorite part of the trip was watching this old documentary of the making of the arch.  It was way old school, slow paced with a really calm monotone voice over.  The beautiful part was that these kids we took actually sat and watched this movie with interest.  No one fell asleep or asked when it would be over.  We were all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting for someone to fall off the top.  They estimated thirteen people would lose their life in the making of the arch, but no one did.  

We rented a house off of airbnb.com, and I loved that Schroeder thought that the owner's sleeper sofa was amazing.  I think he has seen one before, but I suppose they are modern miracles.  

Stephen's mom gave each of the kids ten dollars as pocket money to spend at gift shops.  Schroeder and Julian put their money together to buy this rock collection set with a magnifying glass.  They came back to the house and marvelled over quartz and granite.  Julian is excited to go back to get the mineral set.  What?

We went to the city's Butterfly House.  Hundreds of these beautiful blue morpho butterflies were flying around.  After a mid-west winter, you forget what it is to be uncomfortably hot.  My camera's lenses steamed up immediately from the change of temperature.  What did it matter, how do you photograph a butterfly in flight anyway?!  

It was a fun trip.  Lots of sweet time with our big kids.  We had fun finding places to eat off the beaten path.  I read a whole book!  St. Louis, we'll be back.

#thosewilliamskids #siblingtime

This is the St. Paddy's Day installment. They are warring leprechauns.

#thosewilliamskids #siblingtime

We banish our kids to the second floor as soon as dinner is over.  Years ago, we asked them to get ready for bed, grab a book, and spend some time reading in bed before lights out.  Sometimes that happened, but that hour before bed morphed into what I call sibling time.  It wasn't something I crafted or suggested, it just evolved.  They play games, read books together, color, play school, the sky's the limit.
People have gotten hurt during sibling time, both intentionally and unintentionally.  Schroeder came down the other day and reported the following, "We were having a contest on who stays up while we are spinning.  And I won.  And I saw Maggie fall down.  And then I saw some red stuff and then I saw some more red stuff running down."
Sibling time can be kind of loud.  If you have been our guest between 7:30-8:30, you can atest to the amount of sound coming from upstairs.
This is why we had five kids, though.  This pack of wild humans who talk and play and fight and dance and laugh and grow together.
Tonight they made a Pokemon spaceship out of a ridiculously large Amazon box.  I think a ton of toilet paper came in it because we buy toilet paper by the ton now.

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Kids say the darndest things....

It's been awhile since I've posted funny kid quotes.  I've been storing a few up.

D'arcy typically sings in our church's Christmas cantata.  This year all the kids were going to be singing together, but D'arcy was eager for a solo.  She thought long and hard about what she should sing and came to me wth her decision.

"Mom, I decided I'm going to sing Santa Baby at the cantata."  She handed me the lyrics she printed from the internet.

It's February, and I'm still giggling at the idea of my ten year old singing Santa Baby after Silent Night and before Amazing Grace.

She also randomly asked, "Mom, what is the third Christmas color?  I know there is red and green, but isn't there a third?"  I told her that I wasn't aware of a third.  "Oh, yeah, I guess not.  But I think we should add yellow or purple as a third Christmas color.  That would be nice."

I shared this one on Facebook.  D'arcy asked who was singing a song.  I told her it was Ben Folds.  She asked if he went to our church.   I said no.

I love that D'arcy is still a kid and the she still says some of the darndest things.

We were listening to the National Anthem on some sporting event and Schroeder and Maggie ran down the stairs and asked, "Are you listening to George Washington music?!"

Maggie has lots of four year old observations to share.  For example, when Jesus' name came up one day, she said, "I really know there is power in Jesus' blood."

After the superbowl, Maggie asked me, "Is Katy Perry a real person?  Because we don't ever see her in person.  I guess that means Justin Beaver is a real person too.  D'arcy doesn't like his songs.  He's too cocky.  He sings too cocky."  In light of his recent Calvin Klein ads, this observation makes me totally crack up.

Her list of adjectives is growing.  That's one of the beautiful things about kids.  The simple addition and use of a new word makes you smile.  Maggie was writing her Valentine cards and wanted to draw a heart on Annie's.  I told her to do the best she could.  After making a pretty good attempt she looked up at me and said with a squished up face, "Grrrrr, it looks a little clumsy, Mom.  All my hearts look clumsy."

2014 looked like this.

I want to write about 2014 without boring myself.  So let's do this quick and to the point.

I went to cardiopump almost every Monday morning of 2014.  I walked on the treadmill.  I bought a bike.  I rode that bike up Virginia with fifty pounds of baby girls hitched to me.  I wore my fitbit and hit my ten thousand step goal a couple of times.  I lost nine pounds of that weight I put on when I was pregnant with Penelope and decided I could eat whatever I wanted whenever I wanted.  I'm proud of myself.

I started this book club/dinner club that meets once a month.  We were only able to invite as many people as would comfortably sit around any of our dining room tables.  That way we can eat, linger, talk, and laugh.  Crying is allowed too.  As is true in most group settings, I talk too much.  It's been fun.

Penelope turned one.  Then she turned into a toddler.  It's been so beautiful to watch.

Stephen was working for a start up company, and then he wasn't.  He was told it wasn't a good fit.  But ExactTarget and he fit well together so he took a job back there.  We were relieved, at first, that we didn't get completely screwed by this adventure, but eventually there was some grief and disappointment to wade through.

I told Stephen not to spend money on Valentine's Day since he was, for a brief moment, unemployed.   He surprised me and took me to the City Market so we could renew our vows.  It felt silly standing there in our hoodies, holding our two little girls, repeating the mayors words with dozens of other couples.  Then all of a sudden it felt heavy, strong, and intense.  We both shed a tear.  Well played Stephen Williams.

I finally started that backyard garden.  We grew 500 tomatoes, 15 strawberries, a dozen bunches of basil, and three peppers.

Schroeder started kindergarten which led to a couple of conversations with the principal.  "Yes, he did attend preschool.  Yes, he has been five for six months.  No, he isn't a feral child."  We've persevered and his last report card indicated that despite having lots of days where he is "work avoidant", he is a lovely, learning child.

I painted the trim in our living room white.  I painted the trim in our front room white.  I painted the trim in our dining room white.  I painted................  I'm not done.  It's never ending.

Stephen's brother Joshua eloped.  And then they moved to California.  And now they are having a baby!  Shelly, his wife, has really pretty red hair.

My brother adopted a baby girl.  Katie is my third niece.

My sister delivered a baby boy.  Ryan is my third (sixth) nephew.

I worked to implement a children's lesson each Sunday at church using my Worship Woodworks toys.  I've collected lots of these toys this year with the hope that they will help me share my faith with my kids.  Hoping that my children will use them to share their faith with their kids.

This summer, I got these sores on my feet from walking around barefoot.  I couldn't walk or stand without pain for literally five months.  Around month four, I finally walked into a CVS to try to find a medical cure for my ailment.  Five dollars and three weeks of steady application, my feet our back to normal.  This story should indicate that I'm stupid and ridiculous.  Also, I'm not going to do well as an old, ailing person.

I took a lot of pictures with my iphone this year.  I feel continually guilty that I have abandoned my trusty, high performing dslr for this cracked, pixelated tool.  #southeastindyhouses #thosewilliamskids #williamstimestamp

Our travels took us to Washington DC and our beloved Edisto Island.  Stephen and I drove Zuzu to Story, Indiana.  Stephen went to San Francisco for some work related mission and I to Louisville for a MOPS conference with my friend Christie.  I am a professional mom.  I feel like I'm always hungry to visit new places.  But I'm also hungry to have a life here, uninterrupted by constant travel, to explore our home, our city and state.  Thankfully the sheer cost of moving seven persons anywhere for too long helps me balance those two desires.

My grandpa died.  He was ninety and beloved.  He was my last surviving grandparent.  It's been good to reflect on the relationship I had with him even if he was a quiet man and difficult to know very well.

Stephen and I spent some time envisioning our future.  Most of what we had written down during premarital counseling has come to pass.  We've moved.  We've had kids.  We've bought a house.  But what's next?

I think we came to the conclusion that we could make a list of to dos.  But if we are busy completing this to do list, we might not have time or energy to do the unexpected that pops up in our life.  We have an open road in front of us, and we've decided to travel it with open eyes and hearts.

Oh, and also, I got to be mom to these five kids everyday.