by Laura Fleetwood | Dec 20, 2005 | Uncategorized
Justin and his mom went to Washington D.C. this past weekend for Amy’s graduation from Georgetown. When they returned on Sunday, Diane decided to spend the night, again, instead of driving right home. Thank heaven she did! I woke up around 3am sick as a dog. Seems I was struck by the same stomach flu that Audrey had a few days ago. Unfortunately for me, it hit me much harder and longer. Grandma to the rescue!
It’s so easy to take for granted good health. I realized this as I was standing over Audrey trying to change her diaper when the nausea hit, yet again. How do single mom’s do it? Luckily, I had Diane to take over while I lay miserable in bed all day listening to my daughter’s sweet little voice ringing throughout the house and wishing desperately that I could muster the strength to get up and play with her. And I had Angie, who took over the Little Lambs Christmas party that we unfortunately had to miss and brought me soup, pears, and sprite to help get me back on the mend!
I hadn’t been that sick since my all-day sickness during early pregnancy with Audrey. This flu brought all the misery flooding back. One of the first thoughts that entered my head was, “if I get pregnant again, how am I going to manage this kind of sickness and take care of Audrey at the same time?” “Is it worth it?” Well, I know how – with the help and support of the family and friends that I love so dearly! And it IS worth it!
by Laura Fleetwood | Nov 30, 2005 | Uncategorized
Last week marked our annual excursion to my Aunt Beckie and Uncle Bob’s home for Thanksgiving. This tradition began a few years ago when they moved into a wonderfully old, massive home that seems to have been built for just such occassions as these. It has quickly become a family gathering that we look forward to all year long. This year, we decided to surprise my Dad’s Aunt Kay (TuTu’s sister) for her 70th birthday. She has been one of the many rocks in our family. A favorite Aunt who has remained in touch through many generations. My Aunt Judie created a beautiful scrapbook for Aunt Kay and on the cover were the words “The Ties That Bind Our Lives Together.”
These words struck a chord with me because I so value the closeness of our family. I remember my Dad sitting me down when I was a little girl, after a particularly brutal fight with my younger sister Sarah, and I remember him telling us that “blood is thicker than water” and that, as sisters, we had a responsibility to one another that was not to be taken lightly. At the time, I understood what he was getting at, but now I understand it in a whole new light. I guess when you have a child of your own, you can’t help but start thinking about the family heritage you have and the legacy that you want to leave behind. My intention for this post is to give you a glimpse of the most important legacy that has been bequeathed to me and hope that I can pass it along, as it has been so lovingly passed to me.
I feel so blessed to have been born into colorful families of such rich and interesting heritage. This post happens to be about the McCoy side. My TuTu is from an Irish family named McCoy and she is one of 10 children. They grew up in a teeny, tiny town in Iowa called Climbing Hill. I tried to find out what the current population is, but it wasn’t even listed on the U.S. census report. TuTu’s mom was Nora Cecil McCoy (my sister’s namesake) and although I don’t really remember much about my Great-Grandma, I know that she was the family pillar, a devout Christian woman who raised 10 children rather single-handedly since Great-Grandpa McCoy was an alcoholic who would leave for unknown periods of time without any word at all.
I wonder if Nora and William McCoy ever grasped the significance of the legacy they created? Moreso, I wonder if the baptist minister who visited that teeny, tiny town in Iowa more than 70 years ago realized that by the Holy Spirit leading him to befriend this family of 12, a spark of faith was lit that would be carried forward generation to generation. A faith that would spur an alcoholic father to become sober. A faith that would heal the wounds of broken marriages, family conflict, illness, and all of the sinful deeds that mark our sinner nature. For you see, when the McCoy family’s faith came alive those many years ago, it didn’t just glow, it blazed. It transformed a struggling family into a family that was marked by the Grace of Christ.
There many interesting stories to tell about the Harm-McCoys. I’ll save those for other days. What I want to leave you with is this…what strikes me most about this side of my family is how filled they are with love and grace of Christ. Believe me, this family has seen more than it’s share of heart ache and heart break. The Irish/German blood runs deep and many a bad decision and bad consequence has transpired in every one of our lives. But I believe because of that sin, not in spite of it, this family gets the meaning of Grace. It’s not an ambiguous concept to us, it’s a marvel…it’s a miracle…and it’s sometimes the only thing that allows us to carry on. Through many dangers, toils and snares…we have already come. T’was Grace that brought us safe thus far…and Grace will lead us home.
by Laura Fleetwood | Nov 23, 2005 | Parenting
How can you fit 15 months of “firsts” in one single post? That’s easy. You can’t. I’m not even going to try. However, I would like to record some random memories that I want to make sure I don’t forget. There are thousands more where these came from, but this will have to be a start.
I love you, sweet Audrey. Thanks for making the last 15 months the best of my life!
As an infant, you would put your tiny hand behind your head and lay your head down on our chest when you were trying to go to sleep. For the first few months of your life, you needed to be rocked to sleep and we were most often very willing to oblige! I wish now that you still needed to be rocked to sleep. Oh, how I miss that cuddling time.
You refused to sleep on your back – you hated it. In fact, you didn’t want to be in any contraption that required laying back – no car seat, no bouncy seat, no swing. So, at about 2 months we bought a breathing monitor and began putting you to sleep on your tummy. Almost instantly you were the best sleeper I ever did see. Soon, you were sleeping 12 hours at night and always awoke sooo happy in the morning! Since you were a tiny baby, I would sing you a made-up song when I came to get you in the morning. “Good morning, sunshine. Good morning, sunshine. How was your night? How was your night? You were a good sleeper. You were a good sleeper. Yes you were, yes you were. Yes you were, yes you were.” You ARE my sunshine, little girl!
For the first 2 months of your life, you had a meltdown almost every evening. At least an hour, maybe more of contstant crying. You would work yourself into such a tizzy that almost nothing would get you calmed down. Every so often, running water would do the trick, but most often we just walked and walked you until you finally settled down. Now, as I look back, I think you just couldn’t settle yourself from the busy day. After this rough period, though, you almost never cried unless you were tired or hungry. To this day, you are the happiest little girl I know!
From the time you were itty, bitty, you liked sparkly bling, bling! We got you to crawl by dangling sparkly bracelets just out of your reach. One of your first words was “puh, puh,” which meant pretty. You would always whisper “puh, puh” when you saw my wearing a necklace, bracelet, or earings. When you were about a year old, you started wearing odd things on your wrists because you wanted to wear bracelets! Your favorites were the rings from the ring stacker toy and some of my large velcro hair rollers. It might have looked strange, but you thought you were really cool.
Two of everything. As soon as you were able to carry things around, you had to have 2 of everything – one in each hand. Two blocks, two little people, two of whatever, but both of your little hands had to be full!
Some of your favorite toys over the past year of your life have included dominoes, tupperware containers, the pink butterfly whose cheeks light up when you press her belly (another story about this toy in another post), sidewalk chalk, the singing books at Angie’s house, the etch-a-sketch magnets, & fridge magnets.
Of course, I can’t leave out your obsession for music and dancing! You come by this naturally – the love of all things musical. Many of my favorite memories as a child revolve around music and dancing and I’m oh so happy to pass this love down to you. We have soul, little girl, and music feeds that soul like almost nothing else can. When you were a a tiny baby and we were on our way to Nana Harm’s, I stumbled on the realization that your car ride screams could be quieted by playing song #19 from your Baby Mozart CD over and over and over again. This was quite an interesting development, especially since this particular song worked itself into a loud, fervor – it wasn’t a quiet lullaby – no it was the loudest & fastest song on the CD! I think it was the only thing that could match your temperment at the time, so it amazed you and quieted you down! Your Dad and I played that song hundreds of times over the next few months as it was, at times, our only respite in the car! You loved Psalty, the singing Songbook. Even before you could walk or talk, you would listed to that tape over and over again. In fact, between songs or when one of the sides was finished, you would immediately say “Uh, oh” for fear that the music would stop. When you could stand, you started dancing and this is when the musical fun REALLY began! How can words adequately describe your stomping feet, shaking rear, or squats that more often than not seemed to go right with the beat? You emphatically move your arm up and down as though leading a marching band and every so often would break out with an over-the-head ballerina move. At some point, you even started putting your right arm straight in front of you and bending your head into your arm, so that you looked somewhat like a swan gliding across the floor.
Your kisses and hugs…your wrinkled nose, and suky face…the two crocodile tears that spill when you get upset…your “I don’t know”/”where did it go” gesture with both little hands cupping your little face and the voice intonation to match…your infectious giggle that could make even the grumpiest person giggle along with you.
Oh, I could go on and on, but then this post would never end for each day you do something more sweet and precious than the day before. I know you have to grow up, sweet girl, but for the time being, I think I’ll pretend that I can keep you just this way for you’ll always be mommy’s little girl!
by Laura Fleetwood | Nov 23, 2005 | Uncategorized
Time is sliping away. Every day I look at the miracle of a child that God gave to us and I try to burn her voice, her expressions, & her quirky little motions into my mind. I don’t ever want to forget any memory of her, yet I find myself doing just that every day. I think to myself, what did she do when she was 3 months old? What did she look like when she was 9 months old? Here she is, only 15 months old and I’m already forgetting the subtle memories of her babyhood.
One of the blessings of being a parent is that each age, each stage seems to be the best, yet! The flip side is that life gets in the way each and every day. I find myself having to make time to just sit and watch her. To ward off the nagging ambitions that drive me to do, do, do and just soak in the moments of her reality – that precious innocence that never ceases to amaze me and always makes me grateful for the lessons she teaches me.
In an effort to combat the creeping fingers of time, I’m determined to use this blog as a means to record my thoughts, feelings and memories of Audrey’s childhood. I haven’t been good about putting things in her babybook and really the only record I have are my posts on our family web site. I’ve been wanting to journal more, so I figure this is about as good a reason as any! Maybe in a few years, Audrey will read these posts and get a glimpse of just how much I loved her from the very first time I saw her face and she became real.
by Laura Fleetwood | Aug 21, 2005 | Travel
At the beginning of this month, we took our first family vacation. Having never been to Camp Arcadia before, we didn’t have many expectations other than getting away from the chaos of everyday life for 7 WHOLE DAYS! To say we were pleasantly surprised was an understatement. Camp Arcadia is a paradise island in the stormy seas of life. When you arrive there, you just feel as though you are home. A home that feels as though it’s from ages past, yet strangely
familiar. A home that you almost want to keep secret for fear that allowing the world to know would change it. A home that you know must be guarded by angels because it feels like heaven right here on earth.
It took Justin a few days to adjust to the idea that laying around doing nothing was actually one of the reasons we went to Camp Arcadia! His antsyness finally gave way to a reluctant rest and Audrey had her first taste of the beach…literally! The deans for our weekend were wonderful and gave us plenty of new thoughts to chew on. We are not g0-getters when it comes to meeting new people, so we kept mostly to ourselves and that was just fine.
Just a few memories…unbelievable sunsets and the sound of the waves hitting the shore. Discovering Audrey’s fascination for flowers as she ferociously held the delicate pettles as though she would never let them go! Justin dancing the Virginia Reel AND LIKING IT! Petoskey stones, walks on the beach and down by the cottages, long naps, fun music, talent shows, great food, perfect weather, ice cream in the WigWam, Taps, reveille, and so much more.
It was a week packed with fun memories and we can’t wait to go back (hopefully with more of our family members next year)! Long-live RKD!
by Laura Fleetwood | Aug 2, 2005 | Uncategorized
There’s something about putting my personal journal online that scares me to death. First of all, I haven’t journaled in years and although I certainly find it a therapuetic excercise, just knowing that anyone who happens to find this blog can read about my innermost thoughts scares the living daylights out of me.
You see, although I am considered to be a highly successful person in all areas of my life, I’ve never been one to be publically candid about my views or beliefs. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that I absolutely cannot stand any type of conflict. I am a mediator, a soother, a “fixer.” So, when confronted with views that I disagree with, I retreat in silence. This has begun to bother me – a lot. Maybe it’s because I am now a mom (of the most beautiful and intelligent soon to be 1-year old girl on the planet) and I want to be an example so my daughter will stand up for her beliefs or maybe it’s because I’m quickly nearing the 30 year mark and feel like it’s finally time for me to really figure out who I am, or maybe it’s because I’m tired of keeping in my thoughts and feelings. Regardless, I figured what better way to “put myself out there” than to write a blog that anyone, anywhere can read. Perhaps, in the process, I’ll learn to be proud of my ideas, stick up for my beliefs, and at the very least, have a written record of who I am to pass along to those I love.
For now, nobody in my life knows I’m writing this. That may change. In the meantime, I’m proud to unveil me, Pixy Mom. Welcome to my life!
by Laura Fleetwood | Apr 3, 2000 | Uncategorized
A ship I saw a-sailing,
A ship so wondrous fair
The crew were difficult to see,
So small were they, all there.
The bow was made of rose-petals,
The mast was a rose’s thorn;
A beetle stood at the steering-helm,
And a beetle at the stern.
Lovely four-winged dragonflies,
Rocked to the wavelets’ measure,
Traveled as the passengers
And had the greatest pleasure.
O dear good evening breeze,
Blow only sweet and low
Else the ship will sink with man and mouse,
And all the joy will go.
