Boys are gross. And sweet:).

Yesterday morning as I was saying goodbye to my grade school goers, I went to give my first grader a hug and apparently squeezed out a burp.  Right in my face.  It smelled like old milk and cereal.  But it didn’t end there…ooooh no.  My reaction elicited a burst of giggles from both boys who then proceeded to burp their way to and out the door.  

Yes, I live with sounds of all sorts, all the time.  Besides the obvious bodily function sounds, both real and re-created, I get car sounds, animal sounds, gun sounds, crashing sounds, automated basketball hoop sounds, wrestling sounds…it gets pretty interesting around here!  Though I will never understand the male fascination with sound effects, one thing I am learning to appreciate about this species is their need to be moving.  This I don’t mind so much, because when they are active, the house is happier.  There is more of a risk of injury to each other or damage to decor, yes.  But the boys are in much better spirits when they are able to work up a sweat.  I don’t know exactly why, but I have noticed, particularly in my almost teenager, that when laziness in the chosen time killer, the boys’ attitudes begin to sink right along with their activity level.  

Enter…January.  The dreaded month of all things cold and dead.  If this snail paced time of year is coupled with static activity,  the outcome is a very unpleasant Barrus household.  And so, to help prevent mom’s eyeballs from popping out of her face, January in our family means basketball.  Thank you, thank you, basketball!  Basketball means the boys are happier, the home is happier, and mommy is happier.  And, thanks to a busy schedule filled with practices and games, the bonus is that the month that normally moves slower than any other in the year tends to pick up it’s pace just a little bit! Can’t complain about that:).

Sadly, we don’t have very good action photos of Talmage’s games.  His get a little more intense, so we tend to forget that we need to be trying to get some good shots in. Here is a little of what we were able to capture:

Perfectly cool at the free throw line.

(Oh dear.  Why yes, that is a chubby mommy in the background.)

 And just like that, January is now over.  Thank goodness for a condensed following month to help us cruise even a tiny bit closer to spring when these four boys can become reacquainted with the outdoors.  Such a blessed day it will be.  

Until then, it’s all about teaching these boys how to express loooove to each other:). (Yeah for February!).  Joseph has this skill pretty much nailed.  He was just born with an ability to love unconditionally.  He was putting the finishing touches on his valentines for everyone last week.  The other boys may require a little more nudging in the paper heart department, but I’m sure come Feb. 14th they will have some kind of offering to give one another.  

You know, another thing I have learned about boys over the years is that while they love to display toughness and grit on the outside in order to establish dominance, they also have big, squooshy hearts that can love tenderly and forgive easily.  Yes, boys are gross (no, they reeeeally are), but they are also just big sweethearts in disguise.