Day Two

So I should clarify: when I said I'd rather give birth than potty train, I meant I'd rather labor with a baby than go through Day One of potty training. Because at least labor has a definite ending, with the joy of meeting a soul at the end. Which brings me to my first piece of advice: Don't judge your progress by Day One. After that first 12 hour stretch, you will want to procure as much chocolate as possible and lock yourself somewhere. (Maybe it's just me...I know some people do have encouraging first days, but don't count on it.)

Day Two brought some ups and downs, but enough encouragement to not turn back (at least for now...no long-term commitments, here). We had longer dry spells, an awareness on Little T's part of what was going on, and more cooperation from the older two. And (to my) Mom- of course there is candy involved. It had to be marshmallows because even jelly beans and gummy bears have milk warnings on them, but that's okay because I am not tempted to pop too many marshmallows during the process.

 

 

 

 

Look- he even got through a meal dry! The older kids were rewarded for their patience by an afternoon of painting and playdoh. Today, I think we will make cookies...fun for them, fun for me.

Artichokes at last, just in case I don't make it

The artichokes were slow in coming, because the laptop that houses all my pictures has a virus and is out of commission. It dawned on me that I have a bad habit of keeping loads of pictures on my camera, so I checked and alas- they were still there. So, the long awaited (or not) artichokes.

Look for this fireplace to sport a glossy white coat in the coming weeks...

One day I will learn to take pictures without blazing lamps

And this is why I may not be alive (or sane) at the end of the week:

Signing time, 100 readings of Find the Duck, and several loads of laundry later, we survived Day 1 of potty training.

He's got this part down

I think I would rather give birth again than potty train, an attitude I am working to change. It's just not my "thing," like pies aren't my thing. I still make pies and I still potty train my kids, but the process never seems to get easier. My husband was reminding my discouraged, weary self last night that they never "get it" until Thursday. So, I'm off to teach life skills with the hope that I will see a glimmer of improvement today. The upside is the hours of mostly one-on-one time I get to spend with the youngest. There's always a silver lining!

Cowboy small

There once was a boy who wanted to be a cowboy. He was past the fireman stage (at least temporarily) and after being assured that being a cowboy was not a sin (? I guess he was thinking cowboy= bandit) he determined to be one.

I think the desire to pursue said occupation comes with being 5 years old, but you could say it's in his genes (not really, his father just likes a good hat).

So after a few months of dreaming, this arrived on his birthday:

Making him a real boy cowboy. And he's worn his chaps for 48 hours straight

A Cowboy Birthday party followed

You could call them the three musketeers, except only two of them are acting like a team

Actually, one of them is very much his own man. We're working on that. A lot.

Happy 5th birthday to my firstborn!

Friday Night Floats

My husband is a genius.

Being the lover of people and crowds that he is, WH came up with a great idea to have people over, even in the absence of a dining room. (And in the presence of a wife who thought she was super social but learned the truth after she got married to a real party planner. Three babies also cut down on her energy level.)

photo credit

Enter: Friday Night Floats

Every Friday night in August from 7-9pm we have invited our church, work friends, neighbors, (our friend's neighbors...it's an open invitation) to enjoy ice cream floats at our house. Everyone stays outside- which in our corner of the world is actually pleasant after the sun starts to set- the ingredients are easy to keep on hand, we use paper cups,  so prep and clean-up is a breeze, and a good time is had by all.  I would be so boring without my husband.

What are you doing this weekend?

Bet you thought I wouldn't be back...

That would make two of us who were doubtful (readers counting as one). And even though my house is hardly in any state of perfection, I am so excited about where the Lord has landed us for a season. Owning a home for the first time has made us feel like grownups (I'd have thought having three kids would do the trick) and we are certainly aware of details we never noticed before. Landscaping, trimwork, window types...all things I saw in a general way but now I see in detail. Of course, the more astute probably don't have to wait as long as I did to see the world through these eyes...

So, we have ourselves a 1960's brick ranch. Who'd have thought?!? When WH and I used to talk about the kind of house we would like to buy or build, it resembled a farmhouse (if on land) or a bungalow (if in a city or neighborhood). We ended up with neither, and yet it didn't take long for this place to grow on me.

Living in this house has drastically changed our lifestyle. We now live in town vs. 20-25 minutes away from church, family, major (ha! there is nothing of the sort in this small town) shopping. So that's 3 minutes from Target vs. 20 minutes. With bad traffic it can take up to 5 minutes, which is annoying. Just kidding. We used to live in a neighborhood on a 1/4 (or less) of an acre. We lived on the corner so I couldn't let my kids go outside by themselves without checking on them every 5 minutes, if at all. So they spent as much time as I could afford outside, but not as much as they needed. Now I lock the back door (I'm not the only one) and tell them to explore (the basement door is still unlocked, but I think they forget about that sometimes). In the old house- and every previous house- we only had one living space.

We didn't have an egg basket hanging by our door in the last house! We're up to 4 eggs a day now.

As I looked through the recent pictures of my house I kept seeing "my new life" evidenced by bizarre objects here and there. At least you will know I didn't stage this.

Before and after pictures are always the most fun, so here goes:

Binoculars for viewing pesky groundhogs (my husband is on a mission)

I finally have a place for some of the photo collages I made over the years. On the left: some of the flowers and cards WH gave me when we were engaged. Middle: baby pictures and a frame that still needs to be painted black.

Remember this carpeted, beige hall that lead to the Room O' Paneling? Not so scary now...

Next we move to the living room. My goal was to go a little more modern here, and yet I didn't really have the option of ditching everything I already owned. We did get a loveseat from IKEA (did you know their white slipcovers are $11? I'm thinking about dying my extra one a charcoal grey). My $10 (for both) Craigslist chairs are a nice retro touch until I recover them in the not-too-near future.  My grandmother's artichoke pictures have always held sentimental value to me, and now I find they are quite the conversation piece (why artichokes, they ask).

Gotta love the shotgun on the mantel. Nothing says "welcome to our home" like guns. You can blame the groundhog.

Ottoman still needs to be recovered...

Little T's room...with a guest bed. We also have bunks downstairs for younger company

Last stop upstairs: my room. This house has one bathroom (for now) and no formal master bedroom. This room is the most unchanged in decor, but now that the elliptical machine is not 18 inches from my side of the bed and our closet isn't used for storage, it seems like a little suite.

These gaudy gold plates took on a new charm painted white...they will be even more charming when we change out some of the electrical plates and make them white, too.

 Hope you've enjoyed this little tour- if you're ever in the neighborhood, feel free to drop by!

This has probably always been my mantra, but now it's framed and in my kitchen as a constant reminder of the joy of making a home.

A few days to catch up

Every time I think about blogging I imagine a post filled with jumbled ramblings, due in part to the rarity of my blog entries, and in part to the three little people who seem intent on calling my name every 4.2 seconds. It's hard to keep my train of thought going, let alone write it down. But I have received a little encouragement of late to keep it up, and so here I am. And I do miss you, my bloggy friends!

My kids are sitting at the table having a tea party with pretend food and real tea. The real tea is a result of a full teapot and my resolve to switch to tea vs. coffee. The coffee seems to be tearing up my stomach and while I'm certainly not vowing off coffee for life (I miss it already...I miss the caffeine jolt, too), I'm at the point where it's worth it if I will feel better. We have a great selection of loose leaf teas on hand, so I'm not suffering (much).

So, the tea party will buy me a few minutes to catch up and, if all goes well, I plan to spend the next several days in the same manner. I'm an eternal optimist...

First- family

Next Monday is Coop's 5th birthday, and we are looking forward to a cowboy party. He doesn't know it (despite asking me 10 times a day if I can please tell him what he is getting for his birthday), but he has this to look forward to (they were having a great sale). I'm trying to move more towards the "tools for exploring, not toys for adoring" mode when I think about giving my children more "things." Toys that help them pretend and explore are welcome...we're just trying to avoid more stuff that doesn't have much of a purpose. Coop spends hours with Playmobil, legos, and even more hours outside. Sweet A is all about her dolls and kitchen, and coloring...typical girly stuff. She is less inclined to be outside and even prefers to help me work if it will keep her inside. There is the mandatory outside playtime, but I'm happy to encourage her to work with me if she wants!

Baby T desperately wants to be potty trained; I'm trying to psych myself up for the task. With his eagerness, it probably won't be as much of a drag as I expect, but he is only 21 months and I just don't want to draw out the process. I keep telling myself he's probably not really ready, but that's not true. He has used the potty on multiple occasions and there is no fear and he's all excitement. I need to jump on board, stay home for a few days and just get 'er done.

I finally finished Teaching the Trivium, and to my great pleasure it turned out to be a philosophy of homeschooling with which I readily agree and can easily embrace. It's not the latest greatest in the world of homeschooling ideas, and actually, most of their ideas are old-fashioned (i.e., circa 850-1700). After much reading, and evaluating our own personal homeschooling experiences, WH and I were interested in making intense academics an important part of our curriculum, but not at all in the early years. I wanted to be ordered in my laid back attitude toward the early years, with a clear idea of where I would like to be and what we need to have accomplished by the time we reach that more intense schooling stage. This book gave us just the plan and outline we needed. As with any book or system, there are aspects we will omit and ways we will adjust to fit our family and children, but all in all I was very pleased. Our goal- especially in the early years- is not academic superiority but training our children up in the Lord. We don't want them to be numskulls, either. But if they gain the whole world of knowledge and lose their souls, I hardly think I will have accomplished the work I've been given to do. Here are the 10 Things we plan to focus on during the next few years (read the entire article here):

1. Reading and Writing (phonics, reading, dictation)
2. Oral Narration
3. Memorization
4. Hearing and Listening (with a goal of reading for 2 hours a day)- they include history in this section, keeping a history notebook and a time line and map
5. Family Worship (we also have a separate Bible story time)
6. Arts and crafts
7. Field trips
8. Work and Service
9. Discipline
10. Play and Exploration

Over the last few weeks I've tried to implement a new element of our "school" schedule every few days so we don't have to jump right in and then fall on our faces because we tried to make too many changes at once. I can't say it's been a smashing success, but there have been some extenuating circumstances (we'd better get used to that!) and also some small successes.

Here's Baby Little T working on his new morning chore assignment:


The tea party has long since been abandoned in favor of outside playtime. I'm still finishing my second cup, hoping for the caffeine to eek its way to my brain and give me some energy. Maybe I should down the tea and THEN blog next time.

Tomorrow: House update