I've been a little side-tracked trying to catch up with documenting summer stuff right as life is still happening here right in front of me.
And it's good and frustrating and agonizing and joyful all mixed in together.
Documenting the highlights (especially of the summer favorites) sometimes tends to feel glossy and plastic in hindsight and as much as I love those summer days, I still want to remember the not-so-glossy stuff: Dave and my big fat fight the other day about dumb family pictures, the drama of four girls and the emotions we're wading through as we try to raise them (which sometimes turns out to be pretty hilarious), the doors that slam, the continual battle of wills.
So I sat down on Friday and wrote down a little bit of real life that's happening right here and right now all around me. Not a lot of grit, just kind of an ordinary morning around here...with a little unwelcome house guest :)
Max had his last day of work on Thursday because Friday morning he headed in bright and early to get his wisdom teeth pulled.
It was the regular: family scriptures, breakfast, a scramble to get the high schoolers out the door.
As Max was getting ready leave, Grace was joking about how he was going to "lose his wisdom," Claire was instructing us to make sure to get some good footage of him as he came out of the anesthesia, Elle was claiming that Max wouldn't be funny at all, and Lucy was rambling on about whether she did or did not like breakfast (I can't remember which but she's not shy about sharing her opinions about food), we all noticed a HUMONGOUS spider crawling out from the pantry closet.
I'm telling you, it was giant.
Dave slipped off his flip flop and smashed it at which point it looked like some sci-fi movie where the alien turns to powder. It looked like it almost disintegrated into countless dusty pieces.
Except, to our dismay, we realized when those tiny specs of dust started moving, it wasn't powder at all.
It was teeny tiny baby spiders.
Hundreds of them!
It gives me the heeby-jeebies to write this down let alone stand there as those things scattered.
Everyone yelped in hysteria. Dave scrambled to find some bug spray and came out with WD-40 instead which didn't so much kill the bugs as it did oil the floor and we all danced around trying to squish those little teeny things.
Lucy screeched and pulled herself up on the counter. She couldn't see the baby spiders, but after everyone's reaction she was freaked out and wailed that she felt them all over her.
...Which was a perfect segway to get the little girls to head to the tub (way overdue). After they were done Claire was completely convinced that one of those baby spiders had made it into her ear. I tried to talk her out of that idea three times claiming spiders don't really like people's ears but I was obviously not overly convincing since tears were plopping off of her cheeks as she plunked through her piano lesson.
Luckily she perked up again when she remembered the videos I was heading out to get of Max at the oral surgeon. Lucy speedy-quick finished her math homework we forgot last night, we got the last of the lunches packed up, we opted to drive to the bus stop since we were too late to ride bikes and just like that, they were all gone.
I ran to the dr. office where Max and Dave were just getting ready to head home, Max pale as a ghost but in good spirits. Much to Claire's future chagrin, not overly goofy/funny, dang it!
Life is good. And not-so-glossy and beautiful in so many ways.
And I love the ordinary days that I sometimes fail to stop and see the beauty in...spiders and sibling rivalry and continual messes and sunsets and hugs and whining and laughter all mixed in together to make it tangible and real.
There are golden moments that come in so many unexpected ways if I stop long enough to be grateful for them.