On Being a Young Mom

Part III
Pictures Are Worth a Thousand Words
so I will scan and show what it looked liked - those years.

1991

three five and nine

following one of those ka-zillion baths I mentioned.

Get them squeaky clean, my motto.

October 1984

2 and 3 1/2

Probably ages 4 and 3

They are playing Avon Lady.

This was during that "lonely period" I mentioned in the first part of this series of posts.

I always let the Avon lady in because she was a regular visitor.  I don't even like Avon products, but it was a shopping and visiting experience.  I let her in my house and we'd go through the catalogue.

It was something to do beyond what I was already doing.  

There were a few products I liked.   Hence, Ann and Laura Beth are playing Avon Lady.

1985

This is the age Laura Beth was when I told her and Ann I was going to have another baby.

Laura Beth screamed.  Loud.  This was during her "fearful" period.

I asked her all the obvious reasons why she might be crying.

Her reason?  There would be too many people in the house.  She was referring to the visitors.

I have no idea how she knew there would be visitors.  But that was her explanation.

1985

February 1988

2 and 5 1/2

I suppose I always sent them to the couch to dry off until I could get their pajamas.

maybe it was like an assembly line.  Clean everyone, then dress everyone.  

I can't remember - I just know I thought the bath era would never end.

1991 or 1992

Moving out of baby years.

Kate is 3 or 4

In the above picture.

It was during those years when Mother and Daddy moved up the street, only one house between theirs and ours - so that I could help Mother with Daddy who had Alzheimer's Disease.  They lived there from 1991 to 1993.

Certainly added a new and different dimension to our lives.

But at least it eliminated all those 5 and 6 hour trips I had been making to South Alabama.

I listened to Chuck Swindoll on all those trips...or childrens' music.

Or I prayed for Mother and Daddy, or I would ask, "Lord, what should we do next?"

 Trials in which He shapes us.  Right?

1988, 3 or 4 years earlier.

Daddy holding Kate and he hadn't been diagnosed yet.

We just knew something wasn't right.

But even earlier in August 1982, six years earlier

Mother holding Laura Beth.

We'd just brought her home from the hospital.

Ann is 18 months.

Laura Beth 6 or 7 months later.

The note on the photo says that she can't crawl but somehow manages to scoot under this stool quite a bit.  I remember.  She would do it sitting up.

And that's my diaper bag on the right.  It was always ready to go.

(Check out the bib - always ready for the reflux "deposit".)

Upstairs in 1982 Laura Beth 6 or 7 months.

I was just having fun with her.  She was finally a happy baby.

Still reflux but so much better.  Only about one more month of it and she outgrew it.

Probably in that just waked up period.  Don't mess with me is the look on her face.

That short haircut tells me it's the summer she turned 3.  Her hair would get so sweaty and stringy, I just finally had someone cut it really short.  It was a cute cut.

Sarah is born and Charlie brings Ann and Laura Beth to the hospital.

or maybe Mother and Daddy brought them.

Don't they have a look?

It's January 1986 and Ann will be 5 in one week. 

I planned her party before I went to the hospital.

It was at Pizza Hut.  Her first real birthday party.

This season was some months after Sarah was born, well, it was when Fergie married Prince Andrew.

I googled that and they married July 23, 1986.

So this was right after that and Laura Beth and Ann were acting out all of that and all the long dresses.

Ann had required that Laura Beth play the roll of prince and Ann was the bride.

So I guess this was Laura Beth getting her shot at a long dress with a train.

Check out the mess on the floor behind Laura Beth.  That's hers and Ann's bedroom.

And the baby gate.  Always the baby gate.  For so long.

It was a big day when we could take that down.

It was actually screwed into the wall.  I don't think we took it down until we had new carpet and hardwood floors put in.  That was a wonderful day when we did that.

I know, too, that it was during this time I was listening to John MacArthur on the radio.

I was ordering his study guides and what he taught was tremendous for me in getting into scripture.  

I remember getting together a bible study with some women in the fall at Calvary and we were doing one of his study guides.  It was a good season for me.  I had come through a lot of storms, it seemed.

So - I'm guessing somewhere between one and two for Kate, here.

Check out the outfit.  My big shoes.  Her hand-me-down pjs from her sisters.

They're so twisted, the pajamas.

Back to we have only one child.

Summer of 1982.

We were expecting Laura Beth.

Obviously Ann's still drinking bottles.

You can see them clean and drying behind Ann.

Ann LOVED the cheerios, dry.  Loved them.

That den and that carpet and those toys always over against the wall.

This is Kate and their clothes look summerish.  

Probably spring if she's on her tummy.

3 or 4 months?

And Laura Beth showing off her artwork.

Don't even know who this is.  Either Sarah or Kate and I want to say Kate.

I kind of remember her doing this.

So typical of that time period and the kitchen and all the stuff

and the garbage can in the middle of the floor.

My counter always cluttered.

I still work to keep it picked up.

Kate in my kitchen corner.

3 or 4.

Back to Birchwood Drive.

When I only had Ann and Laura Beth.

I can tell that Laura Beth is just passed 12 months here.

I guess moving into the cold months, seeing those jackets.

She turned 12 months in August - so looks like a cold snap.

November, maybe?  15 months for Laura Beth and Ann getting close to being 3 in February.

Poor Ann and Laura Beth.  They had a rather unstable mom in those days.

I wish I could get it all back and make it better.

They were so very cute and I loved having them,

but I just wanted so much to be alright.

And really soon I was.  But it also took a little time.

Just check out the lunch boxes drying on the counter.

We always had stuff like that.

I think we were headed for Wednesday night church.

Has to be a weekday because I would IMMEDIATELY wash those lunchboxes after school.

Those would be Ann and Laura Beth's.  The lunchboxes would come home rather yukky and sticky and foody.

Can't tell the age of Sarah - maybe before Kate was born - Ann's probably sitting there doing her homework.  That table was a favorite homework spot or snack spot.

Again, the kitchen counters.

Filled up, always.

January 24, 1986

They're all seeing Sarah up close.

Mother, Daddy, Ann and Laura Beth.

This might have been Easter 1989.

I know it's a Sunday afternoon at my friend's house.

We were having Sunday lunch there.

Kate was just passed her first birthday.

And I felt like I was "home free".

Wasn't really, but still. Out of the infant stage and moving on.

Don't they all look somewhat "ragamuffinish"?

Sarah has bandaids all over her knees.  

She fell a whole lot at 2 and skinned her knees so much.

They were 8, 6 1/2 , 3, and 1

Me on the morning I was going to the hospital to have Kate.

36 years old.  That sweatsuit had become my uniform.

So - those are just a few of the pictures of those days.