|
|
Wake up before 7:00 with alert baby, planning on leaving at 8:30 to take KD and Jessie to the bus station in downtown.
At 7:30 KD reads the email from Mom telling her to get to the station by 9:00 – should leave at 8:00. AAhhhh!
Spring into overdrive, finish cooking eggs and toast for breakfast and making sandwiches for girls, while supervising kids and answering questions.
Into the car by 8:15. By the time we’re done with getting coffee (absolutely essential) and gas (even more so) it’s almost 8:30, will we make it in time?
Yes! Drove into the bus station, in spite of a few wrong turns, at exactly 9:01. Plenty of time. Girls get out and haul their luggage to the door. Drove home without incident.
Still on coffee high, instruct kids to clean up Monica’s room and continually supervise while nursing baby and putting him to sleep.
While calming Phinehas to sleep, Monica gets out a permanent marker from the kitchen drawer and draws on her face and all over the outside of the drawer.
Spend next few minutes trying to clean off the marker with rubbing alcohol, then fingernail polish (off the drawer, not off Monica) while instructing Monica to help the boys with their room.
Success! Room is cleaned and even vacuumed! Unfortunately, the vacuum woke up Phinehas. (my bad, I guess)
Phinehas is all congested so I spray saline in his nose and suck out some you-know-what – he is unenthused in a high-volume way.
Immediately thereafter hear a high-pitched scream from Monica – she’s pinched her finger in her closet door and is running around screaming and looking for her blankie.
Pick up crying Monica and hold her and still-crying Phinehas in my lap. It’s only 10:30. They calm down and I close my eyes for a minute with them on my lap to relax… Phinehas starts to fuss.
Phinehas into the baby-swing, so I can hold the still unhappy Monica and we look at my old cloth Alphabet book that Mom made for me when I was about 5. She’s never seen it before and loves it – a good moment. When we’re done I put her down and go to make an effort to unload the dishes with the now unhappy Phinehas in one arm.
Unloaded a few things when Monica starts screaming – apparently Judah was looking at her owie on her finger. Then Ezra adds insult to insult by daring to look at the new-to-him alphabet book. OK, time for Monica to take a nap.
Monica’s down, Phinehas fights taking a nap. I get the boys a couple of hot dogs and bread with peanut butter for lunch. The last bread in the house. Do I have time to make more before the picnic tomorrow?
Phinehas is screaming, I go and nurse him, swaddle him and put him down, staying with him this time to try to get him to go to sleep the peaceful way. Eventually it works. I go back to help the boys find more food: frozen blueberries, bought cookies, and a popsickle to go eat out on the deck.
Monica is crying again, holding up her little pinched finger, looking like she just woke up and wailing, “I want my Daddy, I want my Daddy.” I try to comfort her and end up giving her some tylenol. For the finger, you know. And because she was sick earlier this week, so maybe she’s still feeling ill? Maybe it’ll help her take a REALLY long nap.
OK. It’s noon. The two youngest are finally both napping, and the boys are jumping around on the deck (I can hear them) presumably eating their popsickles. They come in and want more food. I suggest grapes. Oh well, they’re not that hungry I guess. Instead they go into the living room and continue playing with cars and duplo-constructed ships with rather loud shooting noises. I guess that’s OK.
And here I am typing up this little stream-of-consciousness post instead of unloading the still-unloaded dishwasher and cleaning up the disaster also known as my kitchen. *sigh*
What lovely woman did to herself was nothing compared to the eccentricities of male attire. Consider one of the illustrated manuscripts still in existence which gives a picture of the young king (Richard II). His robe is of blue, lined with ermine, and his legs are encased with a trimness which led at this time to the coining of the word “tights.” Richard’s tights were parti-colored in a diamond-shaped pattern of maroon and pink. His shoes were so long and pointed that the toes curled up and had to be banded to his knees. To climb a stair he had two courses open; he could remove his shoes or go up backward. It was necessary to keep his arms folded in order to save his sleeves from trailing on the ground. A very odd-looking figure he cuts, without a doubt; quite as absurd as the Tudor courtier of a later century with his neck ruff like the cart wheel of a fairy coach and his sleeves puffed up like colored clouds. (The Last Plantagenets, Thomas B. Costain, p.6)
The top 10 things I enjoy about summer time ( in no particular order):
- Seeing all the little girls in their cute summer dresses.
- Picking berries with my kids.
- Being able to let the boys play outside virtually ALL DAY.
- Fresh berries on vanilla ice-cream.
- Family Camp.
- Visiting Tri-Cities when it’s super hot and enjoying all of the air-conditioned houses with my parents or friends while the kids play outside.
- Picnics and evenings at the park.
- Babies staying cool in just a diaper.
- Lush, vibrant flower gardens everywhere (just not at my house).
- Outdoor church events where the kids have plenty of space to run and play while the adults visit or play games.
Can you believe that it’s the end of August already?
To Do Before:
- Find Swimming Suits
- Dry if Necessary
- Feed Baby
- Pack Pool Bag
with:
- towels
- snack
- driver’s license
- camera (maybe)
- drinks
- hats
- something to read, unless going with friend
Also bring chairs, pack stroller in car, don’t forget the pacifier!
Except that you forget the chairs, have to turn around and go back. Can’t find the chairs, they must be in the back of husband’s car, so you scrounge around in your storeroom for the subpar chairs, wedge those into the back and spot the toddler’s swimsuit which was hanging to dry and you had forgotten. Grab that, and you’re on the road again!
I haven’t been posting much lately, and I blame it on Facebook. It is simply too easy to post all I really have to say in 1-2 sentences on Facebook, thus getting off my chest whatever I feel I need to share with the online world! Plus, as a mother to 4, 6 and under, having recently added a small baby to my already busy life, I find that I just don’t have as many consecutive minutes to post thoughts, deep or otherwise on my blog. So here’s what’s been going on in our lives since my most recent post, courtesy of Facebook:
Elaine Emily Lortz…
….needs another day of rest. 8/9/2010
….Because I had dough and chicken I thought it’d be fun to bake a garlic chicken pizza on the grill on my pizza stone. Discovered that I was out of dried basil, the pizza fell apart as I tried to slide it off the pizza peel, the crust got burned, and the pizza stone cracked. Other than that, it was great. 8/8/2010
….feels like the widow of Zarapheth this morning – I used up nearly all of my flour, shortening, and plastic wrap(!) to make a couple of pie shells! 8/3/2010
….decided to go to Honeycomb Kids tomorrow, but doesn’t have bread to make sandwiches for the picnic lunch. So I’m making some. I just mixed it up, but won’t bake it ’til it starts to cool tonight…7/29/2010
….Swimming lessons, reading with Ezra, picked obvious garbage in storeroom and collapsed boxes. Some dishes. Making progress, but now it’s time for iced coffee and a break! 7/26/2010
….why do my blog posts take so long to be imported to Facebook? 7/22/2010
….Picked 7.5 pounds of raspberries with my four kiddos today. 7.5 weeks postpartum. Woo-hoo! 7/21/2010
….decided yesterday to do swim lessons for both boys. Starting today. Aaaahhh! 7/20/2010
….Little Phinehas got his first cold last night. So pitiful.  7/19/2010 ….is looking up pork loin fillets on the internet for cooking ideas… 7/13/2010
….just got home from a trip to Tri-Cities to attend Samuel Lewis Casbon and Valerie M Casbon ‘s wedding! The food was fabulous, and it’s such fun to see people dance who actually know how! So thankful to have been able to be there! 7/11/2010 In more recent news: tonight I fried onion rings for the first time ever. Discovered that thicker batter, rather than making thick, crispy onion rings, makes soft doughy onion rings. So keep it thin, and it’s pretty delicious. Though it makes a terrible mess and is of course, extremely unhealthy. Well, nothing’s perfect!
Also, son #2, Ezra, is at his Grandma and Grandpa’s house for a few days. They came down for the weekend and took him home with them on Sunday. Tomorrow I’ll drive up and meet my mom halfway at Maryhill Museum to get him back. Judah especially will be pleased to have him back, I think. And my mental arithmatic will be back to normal… it messes me up a little to only have to account for 3 kids!
And last but not least, tonight I mopped my kitchen/dining room floor!!! Hooray! Let’s not try to guess how long it’s been since I did that last, shall we?…
Michael is not an outdoorsman. He takes no pleasure in mowing the lawn on a pleasant summer morning, doesn’t hike, doesn’t swim, doesn’t hunt, doesn’t climb, doesn’t garden. The closest he gets is playing tennis outside – but that’s probably because it’s cheaper than paying play tennis inside. So it was a measure of his boundless love for his children when he took Judah and Ezra camping for a night around the fourth of July. They left in the rain – an inauspicious beginning – and hinted at the possibility that they might come home that night if the weather didn’t improve. But it did, and they ended up having a splendid father-sons outing in the Columbia Gorge. I think they camped at Wyeth, hiked all the way up Multnomah Falls plus some, and visited the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. Here are some pictures:
I’ve always thought of oatmeal as barely edible. The sort of thing you eat when you can’t afford anything better. But I have recently started eating it much more often. Why? For Health? For Frugality? No. Because I’ve discovered that you can substitute milk for the water in the recipe, and voila – a wonderful hot breakfast! Adding fresh fruit (nectarines, today, frozen blueberries, if we don’t have anything else) ramps up the taste factor even more. Now I love oatmeal. Not so good as toasted bagels with cream cheese, perhaps, but significantly better than slightly stale honey nut cheerios. (not that we ever have any of those…*ahem*)
I suppose, if you want to quibble, that using milk rather than water ramps up the calories and decreases the heart-healthy benefits significantly, but I said I wasn’t doing it for health, didn’t I?
We just got back from a weekend in Tri-Cities where we are able to attend (and in my case, be in) my youngest brother’s wedding. He married a girl named Valerie, which will cause no end of confusion, as my mother-in-law’s name is also Valerie. Now my children have both a Grandma Valerie, and an Aunt Valerie. They already have two Uncle Sams, and their dad and grandfather share the first name Michael, so there’s plenty of confusion, already. All that aside, it was a very fun wedding. I was asked to be in it last minute, and just happened to have a red dress that met the required specifications for bridesmaids dresses, so I got to dress up and be in a wedding again – second time in the last year! I thought my bridesmaid/matron days were over long ago, but this goes to show that you just never know what might happen!
My sister-in-law is Hispanic, and, if you know me at all, you know that my family is very much your average mongrel mix of Northern European white folks, so the wedding was quite a cultural melting pot. The wedding ceremony was much the same as mine, with traditional vows and hymns, but the reception was a little different. The bride’s family hired a caterer who provided some of the best Mexican food I have ever had – it was soooo good. After the wedding, the floor was cleared for dancing, and THAT was when you saw the cultual amalgamation really swing into action, with a combination of Spanish pop/dance music, country tunes, the occasional Oldie, and some current American dance music. While there weren’t many songs my husband and I knew how to dance to (and he was roasting to death and uninterested in dancing anyway), it was lots of fun to watch, because there really were quite a few folks who actually knew how to do the Latin dances and did it with a lot of flare. For the toasts, the names of all of the people who had helped with the wedding, either with time or money, as well as the wedding party were called to the front and stood in a line and served special wine (ice wine from Kiona – don’t know what it’s called) with which we toasted the bride and groom during the four toasts. It was all good!
So, here’s to the new couple, Sam and Valerie, and may their cultural union continue to produce pleasing results for the rest of their lives together!
5 weeks ago, I was REALLY pregnant and wondering if I was ever going to have this baby. I was wondering if he would come before my scheduled inducement that Saturday. I was wondering if I would have time for an epidural during labor, unlike last time. I was wondering how long my labor would take, and if it would go smoothly. And I was wondering what my baby would be like, and who he would resemble.
Now I know the answers to all of those questions! Continue reading Baby #4
We’re home from Family Camp! Not to complain, but boy are we glad to be here! That is, Michael and I are delighted and Monica seems happy to be reunited with her toys and sleeping in her own bed. The boys wanted to stay at Family Camp forever.
I’ll probably post more about Camp later, but suffice it to say, I get to sleep in my own bed tonight with my children in separate rooms NOT waking each other up or being woken up when I have to change the baby’s diaper at 5:30 in the morning! Hurray!
I stayed up last night turning a t-shirt into a sundress for Monica. What was I thinking? Well, I’ve been wanting to do this project for several months, ever since a friend of mine turned an unused mens sweater into an adorable baby cardigan. I found directions at Happy Together, a blog I’d never seen before, but which had an easy tutorial for just what I wanted to do. The internet is an amazing place! Here it is:
 An old T-shirt from the RCC Exchange became a sundress for Monica
Judah loves to craft, in case I haven’t mentioned it before. But his crafting tends to be more about volume than concentrated effort on a few exquisite pieces of art, as I’ve mentioned before. So the other day, when he wanted to paint with watercolors, and I knew that would inevitably lead to 10 or so pieces of computer paper with stick drawings on them (using paint just like a pencil), I told him that if he did a complete painting, where the whole paper was all filled in, I would take a picture and post it on my blog. Which promise greatly excited him, and he promptly did as asked,two of them, in fact, and I am finally keeping my end of the deal. So, because everybody desperately WANTS to see watercolors from a 6 year old, here they are:
 Fish Underwater
 Flowers
I called Kaiser Permanente today to see if I could get a charge reversed from about 2 months ago (I’ve put it off for a long time). To my delight, after minimal number pressing, I got to Membership Services where I talked immediately to a real person, who was a native English speaker, very pleasant, apparently very competent, and very agreeable, as she agreed that I’d been charged twice and sent it back to Accounting to be credited to my account. What a pleasant surprise on a rainy, dreary day to find that you can still call a huge company and be treated so well!
Monica is without a doubt our most snuggly child yet. She loves to just sit with us, especially with her dad, and even sometimes with her brothers. But snuggling for her is incomplete without her cozy purple blanky (made by my Aunt Kay). Her “blanky” is more of a security blanket for her than her brother’s special blankets ever were – we bring it everywhere, church, shopping, weddings, to friends houses – anywhere in fact where she might be expected to get either sleepy or nervous or injured! In fact, she loves it so much and keeps such a close eye on it that it’s very difficult to wash it! It giveth and taketh away – on the one hand she can be comforted more easily and is much more secure when babysat than her brothers ever were. On the other hand, it seems like we spend 15 minutes every day looking for that blanky!!
But don’t get the idea from that that she is the shy retiring type! She loves to talk - to anybody! She talks much more than the boys did at this age (especially Judah, who didn’t really start talking until he was 27 months old). She speaks in complete sentences frequently, and can use pronouns almost correctly. She can say most of The Lord’s Prayer and sings several songs, most notably Jesus Loves Me and a liturgy song at church that goes “Hosannah, hosannah, hosannah in the highest… blessed is he, blessed is he.. blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord….” She’s adding Baby Beluga to her repertoir now as well. When she doesn’t have anything original to say, she’ll just parrot what everybody around her is saying – like a little magpie!
In her newest role as big sister, she’s very involved! Not as involved as she would like to be (“don’t pick up the baby” “don’t wake up the baby” “Don’t get in the baby’s crib” “that’s enough kissing, now..”), but quick to do whatever she may. She automatically wipes him off if he spits up, rocks him in his carseat, talks to him when he’s laying on the table looking around, holds him whenever allowed and throws away his diapers! Although we can tell this big change in her life has unsettled her (the beginning of the week was especially traumatic, as evidenced by her constant whininess and tendency toward loud complaining and crying), she doesn’t seem to blame the baby, thankfully, and is already getting into the groove of her new place in life.
Both Monica and Phinehas are taking naps now and the boys are running errands with their dad, so I’d better scoot along and get a rest, too, or my opportunity will be lost! Time for a Siesta!
Phinehas Kirk Lortz
Born May 29, 2010. 7 pounds 10 ounces, 20 inches long.
For my non-Facebook friends, I thought I should note that so far everything is exactly the same: No progress, no baby, no labor, and a decreasing pool of patience on my part. I have an induction scheduled for Saturday am (as in, 12:00 am), so unless he surprises me by FINALLY deciding to come out, our little boy will probably be born on Saturday sometime. I had a Non Stress Test yesterday at my doctor’s office and they decided to send me over to the hospital for longer observation, but after 2+ hours they decided that everything was still fine and sent me home! Not sure how I felt about that.. Hope you all are having a good week!
An atmosphere of expectation can do strange things to your mind. I am in a constant state of expectation right now, all centered around that exciting, mind-blowing, awful occurrence so blandly called “labor and delivery.” It’s so strong, that every time I hear the phone ring, I think, “Is this it?” And then I remember, “no, I’d be the one calling.”
 Judah at his first piano recital!  Monica opening one of her several dresses
 Aunt Abigail made the cake! It took several tries for Monica to blow out her two candles!
|
