BOYS!

I am the mother of sons. 

I imagined motherhood differently. 
I pictured neatly organized play things and doing crafts together. 
I purchased new carseats with the intention of keeping them clean. 
I still believe that short-sleeved shirts, long-sleeved shirts and pants should each have their own drawer and go in neat piles - but unless I want to do everything myself, that's not the usual result.
I most certainly never thought my kids would leave the house in mis-matched clothes or with bedhead!
And it never even crossed my mind that anyone of my offspring would consider using anyplace but the bathroom for "bodily functions".
I used to always vacuum my way out of the house each time we left for more than a day, so that everything was tiptop when we came home. 

But my reality is this:
Sometimes I sniff out dirty clothes stuffed into a little Hotwheels suitcase and stowed in the closet (is that any less work than putting them in the laundry room?)
Sometimes I find a toothbrush on the floor next to the toilet in the boys' bathroom, and NO ONE knows how it got there.
I recently found a frog in my dishes rinse-water bowl as we were camping - his name is Freddy and apparently I frightened him with my screams.
One of my children chose to forego the modern plumbing and poop behind our camper - "just because".
I have a plethora of tiny scars on my feet from stepping on Lego pieces. 
Instead of using all 3 dresser drawers to sort clean laundry, one of my children chose to shove so much into only ONE drawer that the bottom eventually popped out. 
I have a son who likes to unscrew all the drawer handles from furniture, and then forgets where he puts the handles.
Saying the word "bum" in our home will result in uncontained laughter and I might as well forget any serious converation for at least an hour.
One of my sons has a serious aversion to clothing.  He is now 6 and we can be sure he will have pants on when we leave the house - but socks, shoes and underwear are still optional.  When caught without underwear (again), he usually says, "I don't need any today.  These pants stay up without them!"
After I have approved what everyone is wearing before church, my boys have ran back down and put on something else entirely - which I won't notice till we're all in the pew.  It's possible that once or twice the changed shirt had a skull and crossbones on it. 
One of my sons poured out his blue raspberry slurpy on the floor of the van just because he was done and "didn't know where to put it."

This is only the tippity-top of my iceberg. 
I have had a few people suggest a good beating or some solitary confinement on a regular basis.  But I had a grandma who raised 8 sons, and gave me the best advice even when I only had 1 son.  "He's a boy!  This is normal!" 
The things that really get me worked up are selfishness, lying, being unkind, disrespect and other character issues - but not so much the every day details.

I look back almost 12 years ago to who I was and what got me bent out of shape before I had my first son, and I look at who I am now with 3 sons (in addition to our daughter) and I see a huge difference in myself. 
Yes there's a lot of high-pitched shrieking that happens here - and loud instructions like, "Get off of him, he can't breathe!" or "That's really gross, go wash your hands!"  But overall - I appreciate the new flexibility and tolerance that Father has developed in me. 

Yesterday Dean and I crouched down in front of our boys and demanded to know who had relieved themselves beside the truck at our campsite.  "It's okay to go to the bathroom outside if you can't make it to the bathroom, but it's not okay to lie about it."  I guess that sums up my attitude towards parenting boys. 
And I have a new favorite Scripture verse: If any of you who lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally.  James 1:5   I REALLY like the "liberally" part, because in mothering boys I don't feel that just a little bit of wisdom will do me.

There was absolutely no one that warned me one of my boys would pee down their bedroom register to see where it would go. 
No one reminded me to watch the air conditioner in summer because my 5 year old would unscrew every single bolt and lift the protective screen off, reach inside, pull out his toy - all while the air conditioner was running and the blades had just shut off for a few moments.
Nothing in my prenatal classes, or early childhood education classes, or my education degree courses prepared me for a little personality that would take off at the Calgary zoo when he was 2 years old - and be returned smug as could be because he got to hold the hand of a park ranger.
When my friend rolled her van with my 2 youngest sons inside, I pulled up to the scene ready to comfort and console my frightened boys.  But I found them completely ecstatic to have all the emergency vehicles and officers around.  The lights and sirens had made this "the best day ever!"

My boys LOVE fire - and making campfires.  This morning - warm as it was - found my oldest boy stuffing the firepit with chopped lumber.  I stepped out of the camper and he called out, "Mom, is this a bonfire yet?" 

Don't get me wrong - I still have my standards, and am digging my heels in, completely determined to raise godly gentlemen. But I refuse to destroy my sons' individuality, or my relationship with them in order to have my organized and "just so" house and family.  I still have to remind myself of this regularly. 

The amazing this is, that all this "boyishness" has become precious to me.  I value my dignity and composure less, and my time with my sons more. 

All things LM Montgomery

For our entire week on PEI (just Madison and I celebrating her entering the teenage years) we stayed in Cavendish at Shining Waters Inn.  It was an old farmhouse that belonged to a cousin of LMM, Rachel MacNeill (who is generally acknowledged as the inspiration for Rachel Lynde).  It has since been developed into an inn with many cottages surrounding it.  The building itself is over 150 years old.

We first visited "Silver Bush", the home of LMM's Aunt Annie and Uncle John Campbell.  LMM stayed here numerous times, was married here in 1911, and referred to this home as the wonder castle of her childhood.  She wrote several books with this home as the setting (including Pat of Silver Bush and Story Girl).

In this home were numerous pieces of memorabelia from the life of LMM.  2 of my favorite pieces were the Enchanted Bookcase, and the Blue Chest

"In our sitting room there had always stood a book-case used as a china cabinet... When I was very small each of my reflections in the glass doors were real folk to my imagination.  The one in the elft-hand door was Katie Maurice, the one in the right, Lucy Gray... I would stand before that door and prattle to Katie for hours... I never passed through the room without a wave of my hand to Katie..." ~The Alpine Path (from the journals of LMM) - the obvious inspiration for Anne's bookcase friend Katie Maurice!

A true romance from the Campbell home in 1847 is the inspiration for an episode in The Story Girl called "The Blue Chest of Rachel Ward".  It's a story about Eliza Montgomery (distant cousin of LMM) who was to be married at Silver Bush.  On her wedding day the groom didn't show.  Eliza buried her cake and locked all her wedding clothes and gifts in this chest for almost 40 years.  She never married.  LMM obtained permission from her cousin to open the chest, and some of its contents were displayed.

We took "Matthew's Carriage Ride" along the red dirt roads surrounding Silver Bush, and along The Lake of Shining Waters.

Madison and I posed against a little gazebo in the mist, alongside the Lake of Shining Waters.  We included a little pink octopus in many of our pictures - Inky.

 I never got tired of the vivid colors of the island.  LMM was quoted: "I love this island of sapphire, emerald and ruby."  Truly the red dirt, the greenery, and the blue sea created this trio of color.  Something I hadn't expected were the thousands and thousands of lupins in bloom.  They were all along the ditches - everywhere we drove.

We stopped by the birth place of LMM, and wandered through that farmhouse - it was kind of sad b/c she only lived here with her parents for maybe the first 18 months of her life. 

She and her mother went to live with her grandparents until her mother, Clara, died when little Lucy was only 21 months old.  LMM's father remarried and moved to Saskatchewan.  Grandparents MacNeill raised Lucy in Cavendish.

LMM stayed with her grandparents.  When she was 31 the Reverend Ewan MacDonald asked her to marry him, but she chose to stay with her grandmother b/c by this time Grandmother MacNeill was all alone.
5 years later when her grandmother died, Lucy happily said yes when Ewan came calling.  He was now living in Toronto, and they moved there together, and had a family. 
Ewan and Lucy are both buried back in the Cavendish cemetery up the road from our inn.

We visited the tourist Village of Avonlea and were treated to characters interacting all over the streets and on backyard garden stages.  We loved listening to Songs from the Shanty, and the one man tried to teach Madison to play the spoons.

"Oh Marilla! I thought red hair was bad -

but green is ten times worse!"

Josie Pye and Dianna Barry joined our music group for some east coast step-dancing.  The music was FANTASTIC!!

Madison and I stopped for raspberry cordial at the General Store.

 Charlie Sloane grumbled because Gilbert Blythe got to stand beside the pretty Madison.

Another beautiful place was Green Gables - the home of LMM's grandfather's cousin.  They spent a lot of time at this home, and we were able to wander through the Haunted Woods, and down Lovers' Lane.
It truly is an inspiring place of beauty.

We explored the red and white sand beaches, the dunelands, and the cliffs.  None of these figure too much into the Anne series by LMM, but oh how breathtaking everything was! 

 

Our first lobster ever - we also had fresh haddock, halibut, and poached salmon.  I tried my first oyster and it went down fairly well.

We took a horse and wagon tour through old town Charlottetown - and loved every minute of the old buildings and beautiful architecture!

We took in 2 amazing theater performances - Anne of Green Gables in Charlottetown, and Anne & Gilbert in Summerside. 

We finished our week with a Canada Day boat parade out North Rustico Harbor.  We loved the seaspray and friendly people. 

Madison and I are now racing to see who gets to re-read the Anne books all over again - and I'm thinking of getting the LMM journals.  She was an amazing writer, a unique and creative individual; she was quirky and imaginative - and seems quite unapologetic about it all.  I would have liked to have known her.  We surely would have been kindred spirits!