Thursday, October 28, 2010

Things That Make Me Happy (update)







no, really, it was  this bright orange!!

All of the above pictures were taken at a nearby landscape nursery, just down the street from us. You hardly even notice it except at this time of year!


First Snow of the Year!


Ugh with capital "UGH"

Jeff got home last night, so it would stand to reason that after two-kinda good mornings (yesterday was a real test as two of them were looking like they were going to go without lunch when they remembered on their own at the last minute, Yippee!!) that today would absolutely BOMB.  Even L, who has been doing the best was caught without having done anything other than eat her breakfast and pack her lunch. So after I told to Jeff to unceremoniously "ZIP IT!" when he started reminding them, all four were in the kitchen and bathroom at the same time, packing, brushing, and doing chores. It was a mess. And I was not very successful in keeping it myself. I don't think Jeff was impressed. Especially since I was so dedicated in keeping myself out of the kitchen that I didn't make him breakfast, OR a lunch.

Epic Fail, as Mac would say.

(ps, yes, that is a slug crawling in Ben's jackolantern. I thought it was fitting)

Monday, October 25, 2010

Update on my Faith

Okay, so officially I started this whole thing on Friday and it wasn't quite as hard as I imagined it would be, although I didn't exactly leave the house, I couldn't really get out of bed. My back decided to flare up and I was unable to do much other than hobble down the hall to get them up and then hobble back to bed.  They did pretty well. Of course, we let them buy lunch so that made it a bit easier for them. The only thing that didn't get done is that I didn't get a chance to check them off for teeth, chores, etc...but not bad for a first day.  Today, Monday, was a bit of a different story. It is only a half day so they were a bit distracted planning what they were going to do when they got home. Lydia came out on top, but only because I messed up and reminded her that she still needed to do a chore after she came in gloating that she was all done.  I didn't give her credit for the chore, but since i messed up too, I gave her one for her bed even though I know she could have done a better job.  Everyone else blew off teeth brushing and chores and one unlucky child went to school without a lunch (they provide them one at school, it just isn't exciting). So I was a bit disappointed to say the least, but hopefully I didn't go off too much. I don't think I did. I know it could have been much worse on my part...Sigh. Jeff leaves today for a business trip in Arizona, not to return until Wednesday. I am going to try really hard to keep this up while he is gone. Today I hid in the bathroom (taking a shower and actually blow drying my hair) because, I'm sorry, but it was POURING outside.  And I think I am getting a cold....

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Today is Ben's 10th birthday. Officially a double digit dude! Wow. I try not to go down the this-makes-me-feel-so-old road, as that gets tiresome with four kids seemingly having constant birthdays...but I still can't believe how fast it is going.



We had a special treat for his birthday last night in that our old neighbor, Jerry, and his new wife, Sandi (whom we LOVE!) joined us for birthday dinner (chicken ravioli, pizza pockets, vegetable chips, salad and garlic bread) and cake (strawberry with strawberry ice cream). It was a really good time, reliving all our memories of when Jerry lived across the street. Hopefully Sandi doesn't hold it against us all... Or him!

It was quite a full day, actually. Jeff took three of the kids to church while I stayed home with Noah who was feeling a bit under the weather, then we came home and did some quick birthday cleaning and scarfed down some lunch while Jeff refinished part of the table so that we could use it for dinner that night. Then it was off to Jordan's house for his birthday party, nice to see all of his family again! Then back to our house to put the table back together and get the FAB-BoOO dinner ready.  Ben was a very gracious birthday boy, as were all of the kids, I was very proud of them. The table manners were without fault and dishes were cleared, vegetables were eaten and conversation was joined. Even the cats stayed out of trouble. This almost made a Thanksgiving dinner seem not completely out of reach....some day.




I did get a chance to get some craftiness in while the rest were at chuch and Noah was sleeping...say hello to my little ghostie troop....I had a little fun with my iphone, i'm really not that creative, or great, of a photographer.  I thought they turned out kinda cute, now I have to figure out how to store them without requiring a whole box of their own. Thank you to Sammi and Gabe for allowing me to use some of their ball pit balls to help in my creations....


One last bit for this post and I think I will be caught up.  Ben had his first Halloween party on Saturday, and despite having to call me early because he "wasn't feeling great", I think he had a good time. If nothing else, I am pretty darn sure that he was proud of himself for surviving it. Parts of it were "freaky scary, Mom!!". Apparently they did a really good job on the "Haunted Walk".... He, by the way, was "A Villan".  I think he nailed it.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Some pictures

So we went to the races last weekend to cheer on our friend, "Uncle" Jim. Jim owns a HUGE diesel Dodge truck that he likes to take to the race track and see how fast he can make it go.
This is Jim racing against a new Nissan Z...
Jim won. Quarter mile in less than 14.5 seconds. That truck is a beast!


It was a gorgeous day for the races and the kids and Jeff and I had a blast. The kids especially enjoyed taking pictures of all the cars. Mac's specialty was all of the burnouts. Each car was given the opportunity to "soften up" the tires before their time trial. Made for a lot of noise and smoke, what more could a kid ask for??
The drag racers were a little anticlimatic as they generally blew everything else out of the water. But they were fun to look at and OH so loud!!
All of the drivers were amateurs and most of the cars were straight out of their owners garage.  Of course, there were a few that were tweaked just a bit more than you would drive to work, but all of them were fun to watch. It was especially fun to see cars like Poppie's and Jerry's and such. The boys begged and begged Jeff to race our GTI, but he kept his senses about him (although I suspect there was a little wavering behind the scenes) and kept the poor thing off the track.  I guess it wouldn't have been cool to have to have been driven to work by his wife after blowing out the engine trying to play with the other boys.  It did happen, thankfully not to our car, but to quite a few.  Hope their wives knew what they were doing.....

Letting Go: A Challenge

Feeling a bit overly underwhelmed today. Not much in the mood to do anything and truthfully don't have all that much calling for me to do, other than Bible study (oops, still have to finish that...)

I have just been reading some really great blogs from UndertheSycamore (see previous blog). That woman has more energy and creativity than I could even hope to know what to do with! She combines the two things that I most respect in mothers, the desire to be WITH her children, and the ability to still accomplish things worthwhile, at least to her.  There is a lot of photography stuff in there, which I tend to skim over, but she is a good reminder to me that I need to be more appreciative of my family. And I need to take more pictures.

Today was a bit of a mess getting the kids out of the house. And it was mostly my fault because I want things done the moment the idea comes out of my mouth (or two seconds before). Surprisingly, that doesn't always work with other people's schedules, or the bathroom capacity, or the kitchen capacity. I had those poor kids running every which way today and though I felt bad about it, it didn't stop me from being grumpy with them every time I opened my mouth. I have a hard time believeing that we have been doing this for over 5 years now and we STILL don't seem to get it (notice I included myself in that). At least not in my presence, and maybe that is the problem. You see, every time I am NOT in the picture (ie at school or at other people's houses), apparently my kids are great! So maybe the solution is that I sleep in until 9 and let them have the run of the house in the morning. 

Oh God, just the thought of that gives me hives. 

But seriously, I need to really work on removing myself from their lives every second.  They have a list of what needs to be done in the morning and a clock. Do they REALLY need me there counting down the  minutes for them and mentioning the things that still need to be done? Granted, there would probably be a few REALLY horrible days while they figured things out, but theoretically it would, in the end, make them more responsible for themselves. Right?

Okay, my fear is that it wouldn't. My fear is that certain of my kids just really don't care if they get to school on time or not. They don't care if they get late slips, or miss out on opportunities. They don't care if they don't pack a lunch because the school will feed them anyway. I fear they won't learn from disappointments, only try and assign blame elsewhere to assuage their guilt. Fear is a nasty thing. It is the opposite of Faith. How sad that I am admitting that I do not have faith in my children.  Does this mean that I do not have faith in God that He will watch over them and keep them from growing up to be monsters and leaches on society?

Okay, so here is my plan.  I am going to go out and buy each of my children an alarm clock (well, two already have them, so I only have to buy two).  At 7 a.m. (or 6:45 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) I am going to be tying my shoes and heading out the door as their alarms go off. I will spend the next hour OUTSIDE working on my faith issues. Happily for me, it is supposed to start raining nonstop for the rest of my life today, so this will be a GREAT exercise for faith building.  I am hoping that Jeff will be able to survive, but I have strong faith that he will. He seems to usually do better at ignoring them than I do, and even better when I am not there.  I will aim to be home at least 5 minutes before they head out the door so that I can help hand out doubloons and such but I WILL NOT BE CRITICAL if they are lacking. Starting Monday, we will take a look and see how we are doing according to our To Do lists and doubloon counts. At this point I get to be critical :-). But hopefully I will fortify myself beforehand with a prayer for calmness and fairness before I rip into them (I know better than to ask for patience!).

Okay, I am off to practice my not-being-critical face in the mirror.....

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Wanna be a Copy Cat....

Okay, so I am becoming one of THOSE bloggers. The kind who reference other blogs? Kind makes me look high and mighty but I couldn't resist this one.  Check out this idea for a bed!!!  Granted hers is in a nursery and she calls it a "reading pallet", as if she seriously thinks she is ever going to have any time to do THAT....
http://ashleyannphotography.com/blog/2009/06/29/diy-pallet-reading-bed-for-the-nursery/

But what a cute idea!  Had I not bought a similar kind of thing at Ikea for our bed, I would SO try to talk Jeff into doing this! Right down to the door for the headboard. I love it! Also, check out her version of a basket pendant light......hmmmm, where could I put that?

As long as I am doing this, I will tell you that another great crafty blog is http://eighteen25.blogspot.com/. They are very holiday themed.  Y'know, to be honest, I only look at about four blogs religiously, and they all belong to family and friends, but I am finding myself checking these out more and more often. Not that I do any of the stuff, I just fantasize about doing it. Like about 99% of the stuff I look at....

Monday, October 18, 2010

Catch up


Okay, my blog picture file is overflowing and it is time to get some of these things up. I will keep the words to a minimum, though some day I ought to probably write something...



These first few were taken after one of the first days of school, obviously the first day of violin/cello, as I do not believe I have seen these instruments since outside of their cases since....


There was quite the story that resulted from this unique set up!


Manis the Mooch.

Mac's birthday. His 12th!! Ouch!
Yup, I made this (with a cake mold). Paste food coloring is awesome, but red is not my friend....You can hardly tell he was beheaded in transit from the cake pan....

 
This was one of the cooler things being sold at the Annapolis Boat Show.  I truly believe that EVERYONE needs one of these. Even if it means you have to forgo the family car to afford it (yes, they are a bit pricey) But SOOOOOOOOO worth it! The shot it off at the end of the show and the only thing louder was the shouts of relief from the vendors who were ready to leave after a week of standing for 8 hours a day.

Meanwhile, the kids were at home with Nana and Poppy, making/decorating cookies.

And becoming acolytes (she doesn't look in the least bit excited, does she?)

This is apparently every 12-yr-old boy's dream dessert....wontons and chocolate ice cream.

Gotta have the gratuitous "Jeff and the cats" shot.

Jeff gets the update on Handy Manny with our niece.

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Thanks be to God

So I was just watching the video of the first miner being extracted from the mine in Chile and the emotions that overwhelmed me were tremendous. Surprisingly, the first was fear. What if that had been Jeff? How would I have survived that month of living on the edge with my family, not knowing if I would ever see him again but knowing that he was still alive. The next, as I watched the video of his son waiting for the capsule to open, visibly crying and near to collapsing, was joy. I was right there with him. What in the world could EVER cause the same feelings of elation as this little boy must be feeling? Then I was overwhelmed with the amount of thankfulness that must be pumping through that family's brains. Thankful to God over all, for certainly nothing could have happened but for his grace, but also to all of the engineers, the workers, the Chilean President, the fellow families of the other trapped miners, the people all over the world who have been praying for this moment...how can you take that all in? As the wife of the first miner wrapped her arms around her husband I could easily imagine that she could live in that embrace for the rest of her life. I am sure that no moment of her marriage, possibly not even her life up this point, could ever have felt so sweet as that embrace in the midst of all the crowd with the lights and cheers and equipment.  CRIED!! I tell you, the dog had to come in and see what was up. In fact the hiccups are still hanging around. 

Thank you, Lord Father, for such grace as you have bestowed upon these 33 men and their families. Thank you for being with the people who made the rescue happen, the perserverence of the engineers, the support of the governments, the news agencies who kept the world updated, and everyone and everything else that ran and worked behind the scenes to enable this amazing rescue to happen. This was a wonderful shot of positivity and hope in the lives of many. You are truly the one who rescued these men and I thank you, Lord. On behalf of the husbands, wives and children everywhere. Amen.