Happy Easter to All!

Worn out from a busy weekend but will share our Easter pictures.  A great day, a wonderous occasion!

William sat through the whole service with his Daddy as an usher!

A Regretted Invitation

I missed Ash Wednesday service, but on the first Sunday of Lent our priest of the week shared this from the Ash Wednesday liturgy from Book of Common Prayer during his sermon....

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us know kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

His sermon focused on the invitation and how more wonderful Easter feels after a Holy Lent.

I'm afraid I regretted the invitation.  I didn't do a good job reading my Lenten devotional.  I did nothing special with the boys to observe Lent.  (although we did talk about it a lot...just nothing formal...I was impressed on Maundy Thursday as we talked about the Last Supper and I asked what happened next, Philip knew that Jesus went to the Mount of Olives to pray and from there was arrested and crucified.  I was proud of his memory and attention to detail until Daniel piped up with he forgot about Caiphus' house and King Herod's Palace.  They know the story well!)  I didn't make it to one Holy Week service.  Ugh....and I feel it. 

And then there's Walmart.  Do you shop there??  I used to not, but as this family has grown the savings have become more important.  I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw this on display.

More Easter for my money...what??  Easter has nothing to do with money, silly Walmart.  You certainly can't buy it at Walmart.  I'm afraid I'm not the only one who regretted the invitation.

Oh well, Easter will still arrive tomorrow.  The gift of Jesus is still mine to have and for that I am and always will be eternally grateful.

Now onto egg hunts galore.  Maundy Thursday brought Philip's last chance to sing on the red steps as a Kindergartener...

and Daniel's Easter party.

Good Friday brought Philip's Easter egg hunt with his big brother...

  

As always, these two are joyfully along for the ride!

 Our Holy Saturday will be busy....a birthday party, dinner with friends, and last minute preparations for a big celebration tomorrow.  I hope you and your family have a blessed Easter!

Mornings...

I have a vivid memory.  It's early morning in my childhood home.  I hear my Dad downstairs...he's getting dressed or maybe reading his Bible.  I have no reason to get up, and yet I think to myself, "I better get up and go talk to Dad.  He may be lonely."  Oh Pop, as a mom now with a brood quite like yours, I'm so sorry.  So sorry for breaking your silence.  You never showed that my presence was an annoyance...something I hope I am mimicing now.

I love the morning.  Definitely a morning person.  Chris is too.  Our neighbors tease about our lights being out before 9:00 pm, but ours are back on before anyone elses.  I am fresh.  I am optimistic.  All seems right with the world.

No two mornings are the same, but here's how things go in our house.

Chris gets up everyday at 5:00 am.  Rain or shine.  Busy work load or light.  Sick or well.  Late night or early to bed.  The man is a machine and very much a slave to his routine.  Once up, he has two options.  Run or go straight to work.  I generally wake at 5:00 with him, but I do enjoy some time in bed with my thoughts.  My feet typically hit the ground between 5:20 and 5:30.

It's off to the kitchen I go.  The house is quiet....I need that.  The coffee gets brewing.  I start on breakfast.  Once a week, it's homemade biscuits, scrambled eggs, bacon, and cheese grits.  I love this morning.  I get my hands dirty in the biscuit dough.  I work out frustrations kneading it.  And then the smells...oh, the smells.  Biscuits in the oven, coffee brewing, bacon frying....

At some point, my silence is broken.  There are footsteps around the way.  Never know who it may be. 

If it's Philip, he comes in with a smile and a hug.  He's got Bama and Tracker...one in each arm.  "What's for breakfast?"  he might ask. 

If it's William, he stumbles in...hair is a mess...his pajama pants in hand...and breaks the silence with a "meow" or "wanna talk about the beach house?" or "watcha doin'" or "do you like my hat?"...his catch phrases right now. 

If it's Daniel (which it usually isn't because he generally sleeps late), there isn't much silence broken.  Thumb is in his mouth, Sheep in his hands...comes straight to me...needs my touch...my snuggles to help him ease into the morning.  (He did not inheirit his parents morning genes!)  I scoop him up and hold his sweet, growing boyself and love every minute that he still needs of that.

Whoever it is, they ask to "sit up high" meaning on the countertop.  They want to help...want to dump ingredients...lick batters...press buttons on the blender on smoothie day, etc.

My goal for this school year was to actually prepare breakfast everyday.  We used to be cereal every morning type of people.  Happy to say, we are no more....although, we do love a bowl of cereal still and usually have one day a week where we do that!  But no more come and go eat when it's convenient attitude.  We eat together every morning....usually all six of us if Chris hasn't already left for the office. 

The sun is coming up through the windows of our dining room and for just a little while all seems right with the world.  In a little while, they will be off...at the office, at their schools...at the influence of the rest of the world...but for just a little while we are together and it is my prayer that our time together each morning sets their feet (and mine) in the right direction.

Here's My Trouble...

Our Weekend through the Eyes of the Cell Phone Camera

Saturday was packed...Azalea Trail Run for Daddy (which he rocked, by the way....must have been all of our cheering!)...

then hunting camp for four little boys...

Beautiful day....tons of fun!

Thoughts on Spring, Speech Therapy, White Polo Shirts, and all things Suessical

Bear with me friends...I'm going to be all over the place.  Lots of nothing going on here but lots of living.  Some things we're doing and things we're going through to record...

First, spring is here.  And it is HOT already.  We've been enjoying the good weather by spending lots of time outdoors.  Nerf wars, baseball, playground trips...you name it and the Gills are doing it.  Love, love, love the warmer weather.

The boys have become quite obsessed with all things basketball.  They love to play in the driveway and have enjoyed watching the tournament with Daddy at night and on weekends.  We also still love to play baseball.  No organized sports for this crew yet, but there seems to be no need when there's always a parent to pitch and a brother to play with!

Moving on...speech therapy.  Both Philip and Daniel have recently begun speech therapy.  Philip has trouble with his 'r' sound and the speech therapist reccomended a little help.  After waiting six months to see if it would develop, we gave her the okay to begin.  It got me thinking about Daniel, who has trouble with lots of sounds.  I had the SPS therapist test him and subsequently realized it was worse than I thought.  All that to say, Daniel has now started speech therapy too.

He loves it!!  He gets to get out in the morning at the SPS carpool line.  He loves Ms. Kraus and all things St. Paul's.  He brings home flashcards that we play 'Go Fish' and 'Memory' with...at least four times a day!!  I don't know if it is going to St. Paul's that is so exciting or if he is truly thrilled to be speaking clearly, but he is so very happy.  His improvement is unbelieveable...we are so proud of him!!

Speaking of St. Paul's, my sweet Daniel has some major clothing issues.  He only has about four pairs of pants that he will wear (despite about six other pairs we have in his size) and he always wants to wear a white polo shirt with them.  To top the outfit off, he must have his blue Columbia fleece....even when it is 80 degrees outside.  Bizarre...but the upside, to the shirt at least, is that he always looks nice.  I mean, it could be a ratty t-shirt that he wants to wear everyday.  I think the white polo shirt comes from the fact that Philip wears one as part of his uniform everyday.  Oh how glad I'll be to get this one in a uniform next year!!

Moving on, we are in the midst of a little Dr. Suess love affair these days. 

Philip and Daniel celebrated his birthday earlier this month and I guess that brought his books back to the forefront.  I love his silly books and the boys do too.  At night, Philip, Daniel, and I crawl in bed with a Dr. Suess book and take turns reading pages.  I am amazed at how fluent Philip has become...reading the pages without stops to sound things out.  Equally amazing is Daniel's ability to read and sound out words at his age.

Earlier this week, I was busy putting William and John down for naps.  I peeked into the boys room afterwards to find this...

Philip was reading Green Eggs and Ham to himself.  I've caught him flipping through books hundreds of times, but this was the first time that I caught him reading silently by his own choice.  Oh how that makes my heart happy!  I love to read and truly hope that my boys will grow up loving it too!

Well, friends, I think that you're all caught up now.  Life is good here at the Gill house...hope you are enjoying your Spring days too!

Simple Days

I've written to you before about what a change full day school has been for me.  Lots of days I am left feeling like I have little quality time with the boys...too much rush time getting everyone in and out of the car for carpool.  Many days, I am left longing for the simple, ordinary days where not much is accomplished other than together time.

What to do?   I try to grasp it whenever I can.  Yesterday, no one napped in the afternoon.  Instead of  Despite being extremely frustrated at my inability to get anything done, I offered a trip down to the park...one of our favorite pasttimes that we simply can't fit in much these days! 

The fun continued at home where little boys found lots of water puddles to splash in!

After carting John and William around running errands yesterday, I promised John (who cries whenever I put him in his carseat) that today would be spent at home.  We napped and picnic'ed at home...

Sometimes when it is just me and the two littlest, I am taken back to those slower days with just Philip and Daniel.  Days when we had all the time in the world to explore the outdoors, read lots of books, and simply be together.  There's no doubt in my mind that our pace in those years created the bond that is so strong between Philip and Daniel.  I am trying desperately to give these two little guys that same gift...despite all the carpool runs!