Home Despot Elly

Yes, I expected to get all caught up with blogging after Christmas. And here it is the beginning of FEBRUARY already, and I have written one measly post (mostly pictures) about giving my baby a haircut. Woo-hoo.

But after Christmas, see, it took a whole week – well, two actually, to “dig out” of all of that holiday stuff: get rid of the extra packaging, put the new toys away, get rid of old ones (or think about it anyway), take down decorations, etc. Then after that it was time to really get back to work, put our noses to the grindstone, etc. and get back to school. Tax season started, we all got colds, we’ve been plugging away at school, there was one weekend that was taken up with a last minute move by one of our relatives, and I don’t know… somehow, here we are: February.

So, suffice it to say, we’re not dead, nor have we disappeared off the of face of the earth. We’re not even excessively busy, we’re just living life and I just haven’t had a lot to say. Sorry. but I am seriously considering returning to blogging one of these days, so don’t lose hope. I’ll be back. Maybe.

It’s not his FIRST haircut – that was right before Christmas, when his father objected that, from the back, when wearing a little green velvet holiday jumpsuit, he looked like a girl. It was true. But that was just quick trim around the collar. His hair was long enough to start falling in his eyes, as you can see in the first picture below, and, worse than that, it was getting little rats in it that made it stick out at odd angles, and they were hard to get out without pulling. So today, I cut them all off, and gave him his first true, little boy haircut:

I can’t get over how much older it makes him look! And suddenly, his profile started to remind me of his cousin, Thane. Funny how much a little change, just an inch or two less hair, can make such a big difference!

Well! That was probably the shortest “series” on thankfulness, ever (a month ago)! That wasn ‘t because I wasn’t thankful for much, I want you to know – it was because all of the other things that I’m thankful for, notably my excellent husband and 4 beautiful, healthy, bouncy children, keep me so busy (and perhaps a little braindead) that I couldn’t think of anything else  and when I did, I forgot it.

I did want to write up a  Christmas greeting for my blog friends and visitors, though – and for those who might’ve gotten our Christmas postcard and decided to actually look up my blog, in hopes of a longer version.

So! Here’s a blog-only Christmas letter:

Dear Friends and Family (of course):

Michael remains employed at his CPA firm! At the beginning of the year, he was thinking he might leave and start his own firm, but he was persuaded to stay(no, not by me!) and so there he still is. In fact, he is going to become a Shareholder (his firm’s term for partner) in January of 2011! Not so much tennis playing this year – the soccer games got in the way- but more basketball on Sundays. He’s a great dad, who loves his kids, and does exhausting things for them, like taking the 3 oldest clear over to the other side of the metropolitan area for a fun Christmas tree cutting event (plus a free hot dog lunch), and bringing the Christmas tree (and the kids) back, all without my help. He’s been faithfully doing Advent family devotions in the evenings pretty much the whole season: we’ve only missed 2 or 3 times so far, and far from being a drag, the kids love it. The boys love to wrestle and roughhouse with him and watch him play computer games, and Monica loves to snuggle with him and have him read to her (she often gets in on the roughhousing too, though).

 Oh yes, we got a real tree this year, which we haven’t done since Judah was a baby. Too much effort, too much mess, a fire hazard, the kids didn’t appreciate it anyway… until this year, when we thought the kids WOULD appreciate it, so that’s what happened. Still a lot of effort and mess, but hopefully worth it.

And there’s me. Still plugging away housekeeping, reproducing, child-rearing, homeschooling and baking. Happy to be here. Would be happier if I could get more organized, but I’m working on that. Although sometimes overwhelmed these days, I am so grateful for my husband and kids and relatives and friends and  house and food and minivan and new Bosch machine  and dishwasher and washer and dryer and many other things! I still love to bake and think I might’ve found my niche with a recipe for focaccia bread I’ve been making recently. I’ll post a picture sometime. I’m currently reading Leepike Ridge by N.D. Wilson,  and dabbling in The Omnivore’s Dilemma, by Michael Pollan, and Getting Things Done by I don’t remember who. I’m supposed to be reading Mein Kampf by Hitler for my book club, but haven’t even put a hold on the book yet. Better get that done.

Judah (7) is an exuberant elementary school child. Yes! He’s finished 1st grade and is now officially reading. We’re still waiting for him to “take off” with his reading – read of his own volition, because he loves it – but he can read enough to continue on with school and really loves being able to read all the signs, so that he knows what’s going on. He also likes to be able to read to others: one morning a week or so ago he laid on Monica’s bed and read Go Dog Go to she and Ezra (he was rather annoyed that they started making noise toward the end… what goes around comes around…) If you mention even the barest hint of a possible craft idea: he’s in! He loves to cut, draw, paint, glue, construct, etc. He’s full of ideas, and extremely full of go-getter energy, at least in that regard. Another of his enthusiasms is for astronomy: We did the Young Explorer’s Astronomy book for science this year and he ate it up – especially the experiments and the few forays into the night to view constellations and planets.  It’s a pity he’s not old enough to stay up late to see the heavens in the summer when the sky is clear enough for stargazing! But time will remedy that.

Ezra (5) is a quieter, thoughtful child. He follows along with Judah with the drawing and the crafting, but it’s not his heart’s delight. When he played soccer for the first time this year, and when he wasn’t gazing off into space or doing funny dances on the field to celebrate real or perceived victories, he was actually pretty good. Much to my delight, he is very eager to learn to read, even asks me to do reading with him, and he’s always trying to read words everywhere, even in the bathroom! He and Judah love tramping up and down our hill across the road, setting up forts ( ”Tree One” and “Tree Two”)  whacking weeds with sticks, and getting very dirty. When we watch movies as a family, he’s inclined to watch them in silence like his Dad (and unlike his Mom and Judah). He’s my universal piece child: he’s the best at playing with Monica, the best at making Phinehas laugh, and of course, Judah’s Number One companion and friend.

Monica (2 and 1/2) is a sweet, snuggly little girl who loves trundling along after her brothers and, unfortunately, messing up their stuff. She loves to be read to, especially Mother Goose rhymes right now, and she loves to sit with her Daddy. Also, she loves her baby brother and delights in “playing with Phinney,” talking to him, and greeting him enthusiastically when he wakes up. Sometimes she’s so anxious to see him that she goes in to see if he’s awake. I try to discourage that. She’s potty training, but it’s a long, slow process. While she seems to have Number 2 under control, pretty much completely, Number 1 still eludes her. *sigh* We’ve just woken up to the fact recently that she doesn’t obey very well and really should be trained not to whine so much. Working on that hasn’t been fun, but we’re starting to see results. Ah, child-rearing.

Phinehas (6 months) is still a cheerful, happy baby. He rolls, sits,  scoots backwards, and chews meditatively on small flakes of bread or grains of rice or cheerios. Just last night he ate maybe a tablespoon of applesauce, which is big progress to my mind. I’m getting rather anxious for him to have an alternative food source!   He’s still nursing pretty much 100%, except for cheerios and such, as mentioned above. He’s a very long and rather heavy boy (18 pounds and in 9-12 mos. clothes), so he’s obviously getting enough nutrition! He lights up like a candle when anybody looks, smiles, or talks to him (which happens all the time) and is most eager, when he first wakes up in the morning, to get out and see what those delightful siblings are doing, rather than eating breakfast.He just started to sleep through the night in the last couple of days – maybe due to the solid foods?  He’s adorable - we all agree!

This Christmas, we’ll be staying in town, rather than traveling to my parents, which we did for Thanksgiving this year.  We’ll go to my in-laws for Christmas Dinner – I’m bringing sparkling cider, filbert onions, and bread. Hmmmm… which bread should I make…. Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas dinner with your special people!

For all of us here, I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I tried out a new recipe tonight, Meatball Soup at About.com. Michael and I liked it pretty well. Judah was OK with it. Ezra and Monica were not in favor. But that’s about normal, for Ezra in soups, and Monica in general. They ate it (most of it) anyway.

Michael suggested grating parmesan on to each serving, which was a very nice addition, I thought.  I made my own meatballs earlier this month and froze them… this soup was pretty fast with pre-prepared meatballs.

Yes, my firstborn is seven years old. I know to those of you whose babies are 30 this is no great shakes, but I’m shocked: like I never expected him to REALLY get to 7. Kind of how I feel about being married for 10 years next August. Is this really me? Can I really have been married for a decade?! Can I really have a 7 year old?!

Anyway, his dad took him out for his “birthday breakfast.” He’s been doing that with each child since Judah turned 4, I think. He takes them out to a special breakfast (sometimes McDonalds, sometimes Sherri’s) and, being a forward thinking, non-frivolous type, uses the occasion as a time to (very pleasantly, of course) discuss the child’s interests and desires: especially what he/she would like to accomplish in the next year. Yes, I know. Weird, but wonderful. One nugget from today’s discussion: Judah apparently wants to learn how to make bread. Sourdough was mentioned. Ah, it warms my heart.

He can sit now AND roll both directions.

December is a busy time for us. It seems like every weekend has at least one, if not two events, what with church-related Christmas events, Judah’s birthday, and other holiday-ish activities. Then the weeknights start to fill up, and before long you’re wondering if there’s a single night free for you to go shopping without any kids (or with only one, as has been my practice lately: I leave 3 home with Michael, and take one of the older boys with me to be my grocery shopping helper). You have to go shopping so that you have the ingredients to bake for all of those events, almost all of which require us to bring food!

Well, we’ve just finished one such weekend. I decided, that although baking cookies all day doesn’t sound particularly urgent or necessary, it is a good thing to do with the kids, and could be considered part of child-rearing… and if I don’t do it, who will? So it must be part of my job. So we made cookies for our friends all day Friday.

Then Saturday we went to Michael’s work Christmas party in the evening. But before the party I had a lot of work to do: preparing the Christmas picture card for distributing at church on Sunday, packing goodie bags for the parish party, cleaning up from the cookie baking, and other general Sabbath preparation. I meant to carve the ham for the parish party, too, but that was the one thing that I didn’t quite get to. My sister-in-law Angela came over at 6:00 to babysit and we went to the party. It was a splendid party: the food was great, the setting was very classy, and Michael and I even danced once!

And last, but not least came Sunday, with all of the craziness of trying to pass out Christmas cards in the midst of the usual hub-bub of the Agape meal (our church’s weekly potluck), plus the additional activities related to the Parish Christmas party we had that evening back at the church for all of the parishes in our town. Yours truly was actually involved in putting that on, which was rather an unusual situation. I am not a party planner by nature – but I get kind of enthused about Christmas parties, for some reason, so I was the point person for our parish in the joint parish planning council, so to speak.

So, now that weekend is in the books, and I went at a leisurely pace on Monday to try to recover a little. But here it is Tuesday and I just sat down and drew up another plan for this week again to get ready for this weekend’s activities: house-guests, a birthday party, church Christmas concert and Sunday Before Christmas special Agape meal and more church gift giving and passing out! Wish me luck!

Christmas cookies from top: Shortbread cookie cutouts, dipped gingersnaps, peppermint bark, holly-wreath cookies, and Russian tea-cakes.

I just prepared a pomegranate for the first time this afternoon to bring to a Baptism party. I’d never done one before, but googled it and followed these directions and viola, it worked great! It really was almost no mess, and didn’t take too long (though it seemed like a long time as I was rather in a hurry trying to get out the door in time!). Oh, and it was good, too. And quite pretty.

So today I am thankful for being able to buy a pomegranate in November, in the Pacific Northwest. Hurray for modern transportation!

From The Rational Optimist by Matt Ridley, p. 20

Put it another way, an hour of work today earns you 300 days’ worth of reading light; an hour of work in 1800 earned you ten minutes of reading light. Or turn it round and ask how long you would have to work to earn an hour of reading light – say, the light of an 18-watt compact flourescent light bulb burning for an hour. Today it will have cost you less than half a second of your working time if you are on the average wage: half a second of work for an hour of light. In 1950, with a conventional filament lamp and the then wage, you would have had to work for eight seconds to get the same amount of light. Had you been using a kerosene lamp in the 1880s, you would have had to work for about fifteen minutes to get the same amount of light. A tallow candle in the 1800s: over six hours’ work. And to get that much light from a sesame-oil lamp in Babylon in 1750 BC would have cost you more than fifty hours’ or work. From six hours to half a second – a 43,200-fold improvement…

So, today I am profoundly thankful for exceedingly cheap, clean, safe and healthy artificial lighting!

We’re approaching thanksgiving, and, shamlessly following the example of Facebook friends, I thought I’d list a few things that I’m thankful for. The main things to be thankful for (Jesus, husband, children, church, friends) are rather obvious, so I will focus only on those things that you might not guess right off the bat, or have thought of recently.

So today, I am thankful for hot water. Not hot and cold running water, indoor plumbing, that kind of thing (though those are of course wonderful!!), but specifically for hot water as usually experienced in the shower. There are just not many more delightful things that stealing a lovely shower whilst the children are otherwise occupied, or better yet, asleep, and luxuriating in the white noise from the shower and the all-encompasing warmth from the water. Of course, being interrupted in the midst of a shower by children complaining about the current squabble regardling whose drawing what picture, or whose turn it is to play with x toy, is truly infuriating. But that didn’t happen today, and what a way to get the morning going! Thank God for hot showers!!

Time flies when you’re having fun… or at least when you’re busy.  If people ask me what we’ve been up to, my mind stalls and I go, “uhhhh…. not much..” And yet, somehow, we’re always occupied. I used to think that a year was a long time, but I’ve been married for 9 years now, and have an almost 7 year old, and now in my memory all of the years sort of run together and I’m starting to realize just how fast time can fly by.  For instance, Judah will be driving in 10 years. Ezra will be a grown man in 13 years. Monica will be planning a wedding within the next 16 – 26 years (maybe).  So what are we doing with all of this time?

Well, we’re doing school. Judah’s finishing up first grade and Ezra’s in kindergarten. We do that 4 days a week, and ideally it would only take the morning, but with all of the interruptions (by the names of Monica and Phinehas), we sometimes finish up our last subject late in the afternoon.

Then there’s laundry. And more laundry. And more… Not to mention cooking, and dishes. And of course, bread-baking. I’ve been making a lot of Light-Whole-Wheat Bread from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day lately – I’ve made it plain, with rosemary,  and with garlic. I also made Sourdough No-Knead bread with 1 cup whole wheat flour with dried cranberries and toasted walnuts a week of so ago. Mmmmm. It seems like we are eating copious quantities of food lately – these boys (especially Judah) are eating us out of house and home! I shudder to think what it’ll be like when they’re teenagers. The days when we would make dinner off of two chicken thighs, 1/3 of a bag of frozen broccoli, and 3-5 mashed or baked potatoes are Looong Gone.

Then there are social and sports activities. Today, we all went to soccer games at 9:00 am. It was cold outside. And foggy. Oh, and rainy. Monica decided she wanted to go with me, rather than Michael, which is who she normally goes with when we divide and conquer, so to speak. Not such a good idea. Sitting in the rain, with a borrowed umbrella, with a fussy baby, and a whiny toddler to watch a 5 year old’s soccer game in the mud… well, it was actually pretty much OK, but there were a few hairy moments and I think we were all happy to leave and come home to hot chocolate in our nice, warm, dry house.  Judah’s game went well, I hear, but Michael sent him straight to the bath when they got home due to extensive mud splatter.(more laundry) Both boys made a  couple of goals, so all and sundry were happy.

Sunday is a holiday known by many different names: this year we’re celebrating All Saints Day at church. I still don’t know what costumes the boys are going to wear. Bad Mom.  I was thinking Judah could go as Judah the Patriarch, and Ezra could go as Ezra the Scribe.

In their spare time, the boys color and draw – mostly battles, airplanes, army men, etc. Not many pastoral scenes. They also play outside, though less often now that it’s frequently sopping wet, building teepees with broken fence boards and playing soccer on the deck, among other things. Judah loves to craft – he even bought his own scotch tape because I was so stingy with mine. Now he’s also using duct tape and he loves to do anything involving paint, glue, staples, paper, or cardboard. Sometimes all of the above. Ezra’s enthused about learning to read and frequently tries to sound out words he sees around him. I heard him in the bathroom looking at a US map in a magazine (one of those red and blue political ones) and naming the states that he knew. We think maybe he’ll be the more studious of the two boys, in time.

Monica was dry for 4 days in a row this week! Then she crashed and burned yesterday, after one day in the coveted kitty underwear. Oh well, she’s on the upward track. Her school consist of looking through an alphabet book, when I happen to think of it, singing the alphabet song, and watching letter factory. She can sing many songs, at least snatches of them, and she loves to be involved in “circle time” when we do our bible memory and memory songs for school. She’s learned 2 verses in Sunday school and stands up on the hearth and says them for any even-semi-willing audiences. She still takes a good long afternoon nap, thank goodness!

Phinehas is still a very sweet baby. In a way, he’s the least demanding of my kids. Lately, he’s been a little less happy to just lay around and kick, but he’s still pretty contented most of the time going from saucer to floor to swing to saucer and smiling at everyone and laughing at Ezra, especially. He’s 5 months old, but he doesn’t do anything: doesn’t roll, doesn’t crawl, doesn’t scoot, doesn’t sit, nothing. (he rolled once the other day and hasn’t done it since, no matter what we do to try to convince him to) But he loves us and we love him, and I know by now that it really doesn’ t much matter what order and when they do these things: I don’t remember when Ezra or Monica rolled or sat or anything, and here they are: happy, healthy kids.

So… what are we doing? Uhhh…. lots.

At IKEA the other day I bought: (drumroll please) – an apple slicer! Yes, indeed, a brand new apple slicer, in bright (apple) green. It’s a beauty and it has improved my life all out of proportion to it’s size, weight, and price (3.99). With it I can whip out an apple, quickly rinse it, and in less time than it takes to write this, slice a whole apple into 8 pieces for my kiddos – eliminating the risk of cutting myself, and cutting down on my resistence to providing my kids with a healthy snack. They’re excited about it to, and, after begging me for days, I finally let them try to do it on their own – which they can do reasonably well. Needless to say, this makes my part of the operation even easier! The only downside is that I have to handwash it, so between time sitting on the counter, and time drying in the strainer, it almost never makes it back to its drawer – but that’s a small price to pay.

Also new, from Target, are some Gerber all-in-one training pants, which combine the traditional cloth training pants and separate plastic pants, well, all in one. If you have a toddler who you feel probably could be potty-trained, but who is showing no great motivation, these might help. They make, ahem, “elimination” more obvious to the toddler, while at the same time preventing large smelly puddles on the floor and saving you from wondering if you can reuse the plastic pants or have to wash them every time (probably not, but I always wonder..) The only reason I bring these up is that there are many more expensive, nicer options out there, but I wanted to let you know that this cheaper option does work pretty well (though not so well if they’re sitting down), and that, if you dry them inside out, they won’t melt to the back of your dryer like a few of mine did before I figured that out. So there, hope that helps somebody in the universe. As an addendum, Monica is nearly potty trained, having been dry for the last couple of days, and hopefully getting to switch to her “kitty underwear” tomorrow, if she continues to be so today. Hurray!

Thank you, and have a nice day!

Ezra had two birthday parties this year: a family party and a kid party. Aunt Abigail made the amazing cake featured in the above picture. Unfortunately, the camera was “lost” in the bottom of the diaper bag (I looked there, but missed it somehow), so the kids party will have to be remembered the old fashioned way: without pictures.  I buzzed his hair before the second party, just so you know.  For his kid party, we decorated cupcakes, and the kids played a kind of hide-and-seek, and with sidewalk chalk outside on a lovely fall afternoon.

At 5, Ezra is still an affectionate, solidly built little guy with an infectious smile. Although he’s the least interested in holding the baby, he’s the best at making Phinehas laugh! He’s started learning how to read, and reading the Bob Books series 2. He loves to read – actually asks me to do reading with him and is always happy when his turn comes during school. His head is frequently in the clouds and instructions frequently have to be repeated. He loves to follow Judah around outside and play on the hill, but does not care to play games. In fact, he didn’t even want to play hide-and-seek (where the successful seekers earned candy) at his own birthday party! He learned how to ride a bicycle without training wheels this summer and he and Judah can frequently seen zooming around on the road outside. He has more of a flair for fashion than Judah – he’s more inclined to have favorite shirts and come up with interesting combinations in clothing. It’s perhaps a good thing that his hair is more manageable than his older brother’s!

Thanks to home schooling I now have a partial song listing all of the U.S. Presidents, and a Greek alphabet song rattling around in my head driving me crazy! At least now I should be able to navigate towns organized around the names of presidents better!!