Does anyone else...

feel like they've run a marathon after a grocery trip?

Yesterday I left at 8:15am and we were back before noon. We did have a very industrious trip with 5 stops (I think most of our time was actually spent buckling and unbuckling children) and two weeks worth of groceries. All in all, I felt like I should be more tired (if saying, "Yes, they are all mine and, yes, I am busy" sapped one of energy I'd be really exhausted) but I decided additional exercise was not necessary. It may be a stretch of an excuse. :)

Yardwork, housework, cooking for Sunday, laundry, and maybe a little sewing are all on the "to-do" list for today. This was yesterday's project... a pillow for a friend.

Still no bloomers but I'm set on getting them sewn before the day is over.

Task of the day

If you know me well you know I've been talking about getting rid of all my toxic cleaners for...years. I saw this post from a friend yesterday, and determined to follow her good example and take the plunge. She has several recipes posted on the blog so you could get started right away. I'm off to the store to restock my cleaning cabinet. If anyone has other natural cleaning solutions or recommendations, I'd love to hear about them.

Pondering

The laundry is almost caught up from the busy weekend. The floors are semi-clean. The necessary items are ironed (read: WH's work clothes and our church clothes for this Sunday). Here are the other to-do items:

• put away laundry
• unload the dishwasher
  
• write the last two thank you notes from A's birthday
• edit and upload April/May pictures
• file paperwork
• re-organize toy bins
• dust
• clean master bath
• iron the rest of the clothes (laundry basket is overflowing)

I'm sure there are 10 more I could add, but these are the most pressing (in my mind, which is not necessarily what is most pressing in reality). But as a friend encouraged me yesterday, I'm not waiting until all these are neat and checked off to start this:

Sweet A is long overdue for a pair of bloomers to wear under her dresses in the summer, and I am about to burst I have so many sewing projects running around in my head.

I almost always make these kind of things a moral dilemma, not knowing how to divide my time. It seems there is always something else I should be doing. I know what my responsibilities are to my children, husband, and house. I also know that I am a woman and creating things is part of how I glorify God. But I have not yet found the balance... there is always something else that could be done. A wise woman once told me that I should not think of reading as a luxury; I needed to see it as an investment in my husband and children. When I am well read I have intelligent things to discuss with my husband, and more to pass on to my kids. Do crafty projects fit in that "investment" category as well???

On a totally unrelated note, we just set up a larger monitor with our laptop, so I can edit pictures (hey, this isn't totally unrelated). On my laptop, the background to this blog page was a pleasant apple green, but now I'm seeing it as lime or chartreuse, which was not what I was going for. Do I just need to adjust my monitor or are you seeing neon, too?

Photo recap

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. These weren't even the best, but I don't have permission from all the parents to post kid pictures. I'll try to stick to the ones that aren't close-ups and the photos of my own adorable children. The funniest picture was of one of my nephews standing in the middle of 10 people with hearing protection ear muffs, like you would use when shooting a gun or mowing, or just trying to survive a family reunion.

Lunch at the park on Friday:

Breezy naps at the park:

Poor Coop and Sweet A had fevers and were sick, so Coop sat in a little chair all day and watched the action with a blanket over his lap, like an invalid who had been wheeled out to get some sunshine. Sweet A actually asked to get in the stroller for a nap, and then stayed there for two hours.

Catching a little one-on-one time with Granddaddy:

Water balloons and the sprinkler provided hours of entertainment:

Here's the hot life guard (those sprinklers can be super dangerous when the crowd gets rowdy):

No bathing suit for this little man, but we did pull out the hat:

4-day weekend recovery

I'm an Every Weekday in May blogging failure. Let's just get that out there in the open. Better to accuse myself than have someone else point it out. However (here comes the justification), I was planning to post on Friday and Monday, but I was having too good of a time with our extended family that it seemed wrong to spend time on the computer and neglect the real people in front of me. Not that you aren't a real person, of course. But it almost became a matter of principle, one I think it's easy to forget on many levels. So there may be other days I love on my children and forget about the computer. I don't hear anyone crying, so I'm not overly worried about the lack of blogging. I do admire people who keep their word, though.

Hundreds of pictures were taken over the weekend between the various cameras that were present, including a group shot of all 35 of us. (I think my computer is sick again though, so I'll have to wait on the photos until it gets a clean bill of health.) The kids woke up today asking us if we would be spending time with the cousins again, and I think it may take them a few days to recover from spending 4 days in a row with 20 other children.

We are so blessed to have a family who, while diverse in opinions and tastes, all share the same faith and Lord. Getting together is a lot of work and yet we still feel refreshed when all is said and done. Advice, encouragement, wisdom, and humor are all passed around, leaving us very thankful for our time together. And, I must say the whole long weekend was made 10x more enjoyable because we were going home every night...it's so nice to be an "in-town-er" for one of these things.

Friday and Saturday nights included some family worship, and both my brother-in-law and father-in-law had some thoughts I look forward to sharing. If I'm really smart I can figure out how to post a clip of all of the kids singing...it was amazing to look at my husband's parents and think of them as two people who decided to get married and have a family, and then look around at all these children and realize what an impact those first two people have had on the world.

Sweet thoughts, but now I'm back to the everyday. WH is working late tonight and I need to figure out what to feed the kids for dinner. We already had cereal for lunch, and I think there is some rule* in the Mommy handbook about not having cereal for two meals in a row. Laundry calls, and my husband left me with the charge to make today fun and joyful for the kids so that the "coming down" from such a delightful weekend would be gentle (vs. a crash landing).

*Except in unusual situations.

Just a few things going on...

The kids are asleep, and I've allotted 10 minutes, until 12:56, to blog while I drink this second cup of coffee. Half caff. Makes me feel better about drinking more coffee in general.

We are having a family reunion this weekend, with my husband's siblings and all their children. My husband suggests that "Family Reunion" has bad connotations and makes you feel like it will be a boring time of talking to people you never see, and wishes to call it "Gathering of the Clans." He thinks that has more of a Scottish Games type feel to it. It can go on the list of unusual titles, along with Superwagon. And for those of you who don't know, we DO NOT have a mini-van, but a superwagon. His logic: Why have a MINI van when you can have a SUPER wagon? I've just used up two of my minutes telling you that.

So, thirty-five (35!) people in all will be spending Thursday through Monday night partying in our neck of the woods. Now that there are three siblings in the area, along with WH's parents relatively close by, we can easily split up all the out-of-towners, which would be the other three siblings and their children. We get to host his eldest brother and wife, and their five kids, although word has it that the older cousins may be doing a bit of house-swapping over the weekend. I didn't really have a lot of cousins my age, but it seems like it would be so fun to be one of twenty-one grandchildren, nine and under.

Since there are six families plus WH's parents, we have split up the meals by giving a day (lunch and dinner) of meals to groups of two families. Our turn is on Friday and we needed to do something simple since we'll be out all day. WH will pulling out the turkey fryer to cook up some chicken and french fries, and we'll do some salads and watermelon. Lunch will be various salads (crab, chicken), cheese and crackers, veggies and hummus, and fruit.

I am taking advantage of having seven extra people in my house and using this as an excuse to deep clean some neglected areas like windows and such. That, and I'm trying to get a last-minute sewing project done for a friend. And WH is sick in bed with a fever and the flu. I'm four minutes over, so I should run. Hope you have a great weekend, and if I am absent over the next few days you'll know I'm enjoying the fam.

He doesn't get it

I had this great idea to try to teach Coop to play Tic-Tac-Toe. I mean, he can write X's and O's now, so I thought it would help his logical thinking skills to learn the game. He was pretty excited to get three in a row, yea, even four.

Why the Pioneer Woman Makes the Big Bucks

...and I don't.

No time to blog...I used all my extra free time tonight trying to incorporate soaked grains and kefir into my usual muffin recipe. Despite the garish looks, they were actually quite tasty. I'm not sure this is the way to try to get my kids to try something different.

My sister and her husband came through today with their baby, and the cousins had 40 minutes to reacquaint themselves again. Unfortunately, small children have no long term memory, so the main benefit was for the adults to see each other and take pictures.

As you can see, we have sort of a Mutt and Jeff situation going on here:



I'm sure one day Eli will beat up Little T.

Changing Demographics

When I first saw this I thought it was a little distorted, but the further into it I got, and the more quotes I saw/read, the more I was convinced of the enormity of the issue at hand.

Muslim Demographics

And if you are pregnant or raising up Christian children, or encouraging anyone in this category, know you are a vital part of God's work! (Edited to add: I still have total confidence in the sovereignty of God and His ability to completely overcome any "trend" or prediction. If 1/100 of these statistics are true, it is still motivating to preach the Word, pray for God to work in the world, and figure out how we can be a part of that Kingdom work. That's all.) :)

P.S. My Dad sent this YouTube video to me...and totally unrelated to that: today is his birthday.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Morning Post (from somewhere in the Pacific)

It's morning somewhere, right?

We've had an unusually busy 7 days or so, and after a particularly low point last night I decided the computer was not going to be looked at until nap time. The kids have been so mischievous lately, even Coop (which is not like him), and I'm wondering if one factor is my own busyness. Is this some sort of desperate plea for attention and love? I'm sure that's only a small part, but the computer lay dormant all morning and I didn't even open my reader. We read lots of books, tried to find the missing dollhouse people (two weeks later the family has shrunk to a mere two people), and did our work without the thought of worrying about doing it quickly so as to get to the next thing. I don't mind that life is full, and that as a mom of three small children I will always be busy, but I do mind the rushing about and having to tell the kids to do their own thing so I can finish my work. And that work is usually so I can be a blessing to someone else...I'm not sure if I will ever learn this lesson. This post is sounding very familiar.

So I either need to learn to be very busy in a calm way or we need to do less. The verdict is still out. Or (option #3) we may just be in a season of needing to pull back for a short time in order to reassess needs and address behavioral issues...or maybe just to rest and gear up for the future. I'm also praying about it a lot.

Tonight is book club...The Excellent Wife is our book to discuss. I'm thinking it might be better for me to stay here and be an excellent wife (haven't seen a lot of my husband this week) but I always come home from book club motivated to "do" and "be", and this is a great topic on which to be inspired.

I was looking for a picture that reminded me of how in love I am with my children, and found this. Coop was the only grandchild at the time...look how enamored we all are! That's how I want to be with all my children, even when they are past that adorable baby stage and on to the destructive, arguing stage. :) God is so patient to forgive us and lead us as we go through our stages, and I desperately want to be a picture of Him to my children.

Dream come true

So much for early morning posts. We've been going to bed late for the last few days, and our early rising, get up and exercise and get going plan is not working out so well. Apparently going to bed is a big part of getting up early. I've almost decided that it's not worth the extra sleep to wake up head-on to a house full of children. I really need to have some adult thoughts, a shower, and worship before facing them with joy. So I hope to hop back on the wagon tomorrow. Dad always said it was better to go ahead and get up and then take a nap later. I'm beginning to think he was right (with the exception of the occasional exhaustion that comes from motherhood...sometimes I truly need some extra sleep). Only took me 30 years to realize you were right, Dad.

I had a longer post planned, but it's already 8am and I'm burning daylight. Last night I stayed up late hemming WH's suit pants, and here's the dreamy part: I have a sewing area set up now. Before I got married I had a little sewing corner in my parent's house, but we've never been able to dedicate any space for that due to small living quarters. I still sewed away, but it was more trouble to haul everything out whenever I wanted to work on a project. Last weekend, we absconded with an extra long desk from my in-law's basement, which has a great big surface for projects as well as two sets of drawers on either side. They are begging to be filled with notions. I have a million projects planned, including a big one I'll let you know about in June.

Ironically, my dream come true is keeping me from sleep, which is keeping me from my regularly scheduled program, which includes blogging. Oh well, this is not my life, just a report of my life.

I'll have to write my post on children and chores tomorrow.

More or less

Coop to me, when asked to confess whatever recent thing he'd done wrong:

"But I don't know the letters!"

He's very aware of letters these days, and he knows they make up words, so I guess technically he was right.

Post-Mother's Day Post

Hope you had a delightful day full of realistic expectations and joy in your children! :)

Last year, my creative husband started the tradition of taking all the kids out for some pre-Mother's Day fun in order to give me some quiet time at home. (I have to add that Quiet Time at Home is the greatest gift one can give to a mother, at least in my book.) So Friday evening would be the night, he decided during a delicious pancake dinner. Except that it was supposed to rain and the lawn was looking pretty scraggly. That task really needed to be done, and it only takes about an hour for our little yard. We were expecting out of town company at some point in the evening as well, so time was running out. I decided to go ahead and give the kids a bath before they went out so we could just pop them in bed after the pre-Mother's Day outing. So I stripped Sweet A (you may give her another title after you hear this) down and started the water, but got distracted by Baby T who had decided bedtime was not on his agenda and was screaming in bed. Go in, turn the mobile on, get him quiet, get back to Sweet A. Except by the time I got back to her, she had, how shall I say this judiciously, lost control of her bowels in about four places on the floor. Ugh. Disgusting. I cleaned her up, drained the tub, cleaned the tub, refilled the tub, and called Coop in to join her for a quick bath before the pre-Mother's Day take-the-kids-so-Mom-can-have-some-peace outing. I left Cooper to put himself in the bath (he's almost four, and a reliable first-born) while I rushed around trying to clean up after dinner and finish making the beds for our out-of-town company. I returned to turn off the water only to find Coop had put a wad of toilet paper in the bathtub. In his defense, I don't think he had any idea it would disintegrate into a million little pieces. Doesn't mean he didn't get some correction and instruction in righteousness, either. By the time everyone and everything was cleaned up it was 7:45pm and my thought was just to put everyone to bed. But my husband was determined, and whisked all three kids out to the van superwagon. Apparently he had his work cut out for him with Baby T in the sling (spitting up as he went on his merry way) and a massive thunderstorm to navigate. Not so fun with three kids in car seats.

What did I do with my 40 minutes of bliss? :) If this sounds pathetic then you aren't a mother. Shaved my legs, painted my toenails, cleaned off the stainless steel trashcan (been bothering me all week), cut some flowers for the guest room, and finished getting ready for our guests. It was very brave of my husband to insist on a little quiet for me, even if it was shorter than he would have liked.

When I woke up on Sunday morning, this is what I found:
Notice the dry erase markers and sharpies, which she sported all day on her hands. But how sweet is that (not the markers, but the card-making scene)? They got me a plant, a trash bag for my car, and some Burt's Bees foot lotion (comes with a foot massage). It was all very thoughtful and I know WH is trying to teach them how to celebrate and do special things for me, which is priceless.

We had a big Sunday lunch with all our in town family and even a few friends added into the mix, which made for a grand total of 12 adults and 12 kids. I didn't get any other pictures because the day was non-stop, but I did make this for our (extended) family lunch. It was light, and very pretty, but I wish I had made this instead. There's always next year! (Or next week...why not?)

In celebration of motherhood

In honor of Mother's Day, here is one of my favorite articles on mothering.

Here are a few people I praise God for every day...

My mother

My mother-in-law

My husband

And the sweet bambinos who call me mommy

Happy Mother's Day!

Powerless

Last night our power went out around 8:15 due to a storm and didn't come back until we were in bed around 9:45. It was so nice to be "forced" to do nothing and sit around and talk by candlelight (and console our hysterical children who are noise dependent, thanks to our years living in a duplex, I mean, triplex). It was a cool evening so we sat out on the porch and watched the sun set and didn't miss the distractions or productivity of electricity at all.

Speaking of the old days, check out the ingenious contraption my husband set up for me last weekend:


For those of you born after 1990 (it's hard to believe, but there are ADULTS who were born after 1990!) and have never seen one of these, it's a clothesline. Except this one has a pulley, with one end attached to my side deck, and the other secured to the fence. This means I can open up the door on my side deck and hang out my laundry with these benefits:

• I don't have to put shoes on or get my feet dirty
• I can stand in one place and hang and collect my laundry
• I am just a step outside the door so I can still hear the kids
• My cloth diapers are sun bleached again
  
• I can see it flowing in wind as I stand in the kitchen

My husband is a genius, that's all I can say. He spent $7 to put up a clothesline that would make me excited enough to use and blog about it. That's one smart man.

Freeze!

That title looks like a command, but really it's just an excited statement (hence the name, exclamation). Anywho...

I need to take a meal to a friend who is having surgery next week, but I wanted to make something that would freeze well so I could just send it frozen and let her decide when she wants to eat it. Thus the web search ensued for freezer-friendly meals. I have a deep freeze and we get a lot of use out of it, but I don't typically freeze entire meals. I didn't find anything that looked satisfactory (I'm not a huge casserole fan, especially these (dairy-free) days) but settled (happily) on meatball subs with fresh mozzarella, which I've been craving for about a week now. I love homemade french bread, and my sister in law just passed on her baked meatball recipe, which is easy and delicious. We had it last night and now I can enjoy the leftovers for several days to come (or freeze them).

I ran across this article by Mark Bittman in the NY Times. (Yes, I squeeze in light reading of various papers around the country in my free time. Okay, the link was on another blog I read from time to time.)

Here are a few of the highlights:

• Freeze things as soon as you realize you won't be eating them soon. Very few things get better after time spent in your refrigerator. The goal is to prolong the life of the food, not just throw it out later, so only save what you will really use.
• Wrap things well- he suggests even triple wrapping food. I've been wrapping my quick breads and french bread in saran wrap and then foil, and it really does help. (Just don't stick it in the oven without taking off the inner layer of saran wrap. Do as I say, not as I do.)
• Label things. Ahh, who hasn't suffered from ignoring this advice? Dad, you were right all along.
  
• Make extras (especially time consuming foods like cooked beans, breads, etc.) just to freeze. It's really not any more trouble to make a huge pot of black beans vs. half.
• Save chicken bones, extra bits of meat, vegetable peelings, and other stock-making material. Homemade soup stock is not expensive or all that time consuming if you are just emptying your bag of leftover materials into the water to boil. (Although I like what he says, "Remember, though, that stock is not garbage soup..." and he goes on to say what you should use in moderation or avoid all together.)
  

Those are obviously basics, but he lists items that freeze well, and gives ideas you may have never even thought to freeze. Things like biscuit dough, cookie dough, fresh herbs, extra wine (for soups and sauces, or I guess if you are really not picky, to drink), egg whites, and other useful things. He argues that the freezer is the most under-used appliance in the kitchen, and I would agree.

So next time I need to freeze a whole meal for myself or someone else, what would you suggest? (Besides lasagna...)

Cheater Post

I read several posts yesterday, and I thought I would pass on a few links that were too good not to share. There are also a few other gals (if I can refer to my Mom as a "gal") who are blogging Every Weekday in May, two of whom came up with the concept. My guess is that next year the idea will really take off in the blogosphere.

Great post on loving your husband, from Lea@blog it all- I was inspired.
Fun topic to follow every day in May (hint: if you don't know what to do with all your magazines, help is on the way), from my Mom@cheaper by the baker's dozen
Serious but wonderfully challenging mothering post from Ann@Holy Experience

If you are a man and you read this blog, I have nothing for you. But I'm thinking if you are a man and you read this blog, you are probably related to me so it's okay.

Happy reading!

Lead Us Not Into Temptation

"She was being a BAD example to me!"

Said by Coop, after I discovered he and Not-so-Sweet A had dumped cups and cups of water on the bathroom floor. I threw three completely soaked bath towels into the wash and gave him a lesson on standing up and doing the right thing even if he is tempted to join the crowd in doing the wrong thing. Flooding the bathroom is definitely the wrong thing.

He said the same thing about an hour later when I discovered crayon all over the children's table. I disciplined Sort-of-Sweet A for drawing on the table (we've discussed the "only paper" coloring rule a million times) and she said, "Coop next- he did it too." Apparently his days of hiding his sin are over with the advent of her developed language skills.

She is a bad example because even though he's had his share of making mischief, he's never been very daring or creative in his disobedience. I guess we'll just have to drive home the importance of standing alone...maybe I should start teaching him about how to give a biblical reproof.

Back in their younger days...

A fresh start

I feel like today is the first day of the rest of my life. My husband went back to working the day shift this morning, and it just seems like everything has been righted. We went to bed at the same time last night, got up together (okay, he got up about 45 minutes before me, but we were both up before the kids), and just had a normal morning like a majority of the world. And you know how much I long for normal. We both exercised and I think WH is going to start getting the kids up to eat breakfast with him while I feed the baby and have some quiet time. I think it's sweet that he will miss having two meals with them, so he wants them up before he leaves. I'm not quite that sweet, but having them up earlier will probably mean earlier bedtimes. :)

The party weekend is over and with it all my party projects. My mother-in-law was a big help; it always seems easier to have someone else to help think through the little details and tie up loose ends.

These turned out wonderfully:
If you have a little girl (or a big one) I highly recommend making them. They took just a little more effort than your typical cake, but if you had a helper it would go pretty quickly. Sweet A wanted pink cake, so ours were strawberry cake with strawberry and chocolate "frosting." I'm guessing these little cupcake bites would be even better if they were chocolate with dark chocolate icing. But I'm a "more chocolate is always better" kind of person. I only wish I had some M&Ms on hand from Valentine's Day, because M&M is kind of stingy with the red ones in the everday packages. I had to resort to green ones on the top. The kids loved them, and even the adults were enticed to have a few...they were just too cute to resist. I couldn't resist eating half a cupcake (keep in mind these are about 1 1/2 inches tall) and Little T spit (spat?) up most of yesterday. So I guess he's still sensitive to dairy.

Sweet A has entered the world of Playmobil with her new take-along dollhouse. Coop is probably more enthralled with it than she is asking to play with the 45 or so tiny pieces I had to put away for now. She also got some new clothes, a tea set, and a great play-doh set with all kinds of fun extras.

So for the picture hungry, here are a few:

The adult party

Just to give you an idea of what 8 adults and 12 children under 10 feels like:
Party favors:

The morning after on the porch, with grandparents who spent the night:
It's raining here and I'm looking forward to a catch up day- hope yours is a joy!

A Post a Day in May

My mother and my friend (she was my friend first, but she and my Mom are best buddies now) Lea have started a yearly tradition to get themselves back into the blogging swing of things, hence the name:

A Post a Day in May

They have all sorts of fancy themes and what-not and I am sort of new to the blogging world so I am joining in all the festivities, sans the theme. For today my theme is:

What I love about my little people

Coop is saying the most hilarious things these days, and more than anything he wants to be a man like Daddy. Second to that he wants to be a brave fire man, only he doesn't seem to understand the concept of "faithful in little things" like killing bugs and remaining calm during thunderstorms. Anyway, these are a few of the funny things he's said lately:

After coming out with his shirt neatly tucked in to his jean shorts (and no belt, of course)..."I've pucked my shirt in real tight."


"The red Spiderman and the green Spiderman are both grumpy." I can only assume that seeing pictures of superheroes with their "mean" faces and no context is confusing. Maybe we need to get some superhero cartoons.

To Sweet A after being denied the privilege of watching a movie: "If we watch more than one movie we won't be able to read anymore. That's what the Bible says." I'm delighted that he got the point from the Patricia Polacco book, Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair, but felt the need to emphasize Biblical vs. moral.

Yesterday, before opening presents, in one breath he said, "Can I tell Sweet A about her sunglasses? No? Okay, I won't." He must have seen my scowl from across the room as he divulged the secret of what he got her for her birthday.

Sweet A- I love how much she loves to sing and how she gives a loud "Amen" after every hymn & psalm. She has a lot of gusto in every aspect of life (which makes for a lot of battles) but I think she's going to do great things when she gets older

Baby T- I love the fact that he looks like he is so fat he is going to bust out of his baby skin. Reminds me of the P.G. Wodehouse quote: He was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and forgot to say "when."