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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!!
Yesterday we had doctor’s appointments for Ezra and Phinehas, with flu shots for us all (except Phinehas). My mom always likes to know how much the babies weigh, so I figured I’d just post their percentiles here for all to see, in case anyone else is interested as well!
Ezra, 5 year Well-Child Check (Taller than average and solid)
- Height: 3 feet 8.5 inches, 76.35 percentile
- Weight: 49 pounds, 12 ounces, 90.90 percentile
Phinehas, 5 month Well-Child Check (Very long and moderately heavy with a tiny head)
- Height: 2 feet, 4 inches, (off the charts at 96.86 percentile)
- Weight: 17 pounds 6.5 ounces, 65.27 percentile
- Head Circumference 16.73 inches, 2822 percentile
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!
With every one of my babies I have been anxious to have them start moving. “Come on! Roll over! You can do it!” I say. Many of them have teased me, moving to the point of having shifted their gravity over to the side – then changing their minds at the last moment and flopping back on to their tummy or their back and looking a little alarmed at what they almost did. Phinehas is no different. He rolled over from his tummy to his back at 2 weeks old and did it off and on again for at least a month after that. Then stopped. Hasn’t done it since. I’ve decided that it’s because he prefers being on his tummy. Why roll over when where you’re going is not as good as where you are? But yesterday he rolled the opposite direction – from his back, to the preferred tummy posion – looking a little surprised – and I rejoiced! Even though now I have to keep an eye on him more closely for… oh, the next 2 or 3 years.
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!
For some reason (laziness, lack of resolve, lack of clear thinking, all of the above perhaps) I can’t seem to keep the boys’ room neat and tidy. Don’t snort. I’m sure lots of moms have this exact problem and I am not alone.
But I am down here in their room right now supervising cleanup. My principle is that it is their room, they got all this stuff out, and THEY are going to pick it up, if I have to sit here and boss them around while they pick up ALL DAY LONG!! Unfortunately, it looks like it just might take ALL DAY. *sigh* After it’s clean this time, I swear I will come up with a system that will keep it from getting this bad again. Just like I swore last time. *longer sigh*
The problem is… there are lots of problems.
***** We interrupt this post to note that the toddler got up from her nap and decided to use a toy pan as a chamber pot. We HATE potty training!!!!!******
The problems, ahem, are that 1) the boys have too many toys. 2) We have no regular picking up regime. 3) Their room is in the basement where I forget about it until we’re putting them to bed and it’s too late to have them pick it up. Problem #1 could be dealt with if I did not 1) feel guilty getting rid of toys given to the boys as gifts or bought by themselves 2) was less lazy about making itemized lists and taking things to Goodwill. Problem #2 is simply the same as everything else that needs to be done daily but tends to be either unpleasant or easy to forget. If it were easy to “just do a little every day” I would know Spanish, be a much better pianist, and live in totally uncluttered house by now. Problem #3 is not going to change, so there’s no point thinking about it.
Anyway, just wanted to complain, I guess. The room is now clean – only took about 3 hours (oft interrupted). Next time the boys are playing elsewhere I think I’ll sneak in and make a few “modifications” in their room….
Booker T. Washington on why he didn’t go into politics:
Even then I had a strong feeling that what our people most needed was to get a foundation in education, industry, and property, and for this I felt that they could better afford to strive than for political preferment. As for my individual self, it appeared to me to be reasonably certain that I could succeed in political life, but I had a feeling that it would be a rather selfish kind of success – individual success at the cost of failing to do my duty in assisting in laying a foundation for the masses. (Up from Slavery, p 54)
Sounds like truth to me.
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!!
Surely a fine tonic for the rush and hurly-burly life of a home-schooling soccer mom, mother of 4:
 Taste as good as they look! And a little tip, although maybe everybody else knows this already, but a good way to cut the rolled up “log” shape into individual buns is to use a piece of dental floss – slide under the rolls, pull both ends up, then cross them over and pull through. It doesn’t squash them quite as much as a knife does.
He remembered now. It had been such a humiliation being kicked out of the scouts. It was like being excommunicated from the Catholic Church, where a candle was ceremoniously snuffed out to signify the exclusion. In Angus Lordie’s case, the scout master had taken his woggle from him. Such humiliation. Dewoggled. (The Unbearable Lightness of Scones, Alexander McCall Smith, p 68)
Phinehas looking quizzical:
Phinehas smiling on his heirloom quilt from his Grandma Valerie:
Monica learning to bake. Sometimes I feel that she is going to be a rather mischievious child..
We did the traditional baking soda and vinegar experiment for science last week. I’m afraid Judah was rather let down by what I had described as an “explosion.”
Judah and Ezra are both in soccer this year. So far both of their games have been at the same time at two different places, so Michael and I have had to switch off. I took the camera with me today, so here’s a shot from Ezra’s game:
It’s fun to see Ezra come out from under Judah’s shadow for a little while at his soccer games. He has had to tag along and be second best so much in his short life, that I’m glad he has the opportunity to spread his wings a little on his own merits. Though, he apparently doesn’t mind his big brother’s shadow as much as I might think: at his game today he was proudly telling another player (the best on his team) that his older brother Judah was a good soccer player, even better than him (the other player) and that, and this with the air of someone announcing something very serious and impressive, Judah is SIX.
I went downstairs yesterday and pawed through the box of electronic relics in the basement. In amongst the old computer mice, keyboards, and numberless AC/DC converters for long-forgotten electronic equipment (where does this stuff come from? I almost believe they go off in the corner and breed..) I found an old set of computer speakers! Finally, I can use my laptop (plus the speakers) to accomplish something really good/healthy…. I can use it to watch TV while I walk/jog on the treadmill in the storeroom! See, walking on the treadmill staring at a blank wall is just about as boring as watching paint dry, and getting audio books on tape or CD from the library has never worked well for me (frequently there’s a problem with the tape or CD and I miss part of it, or it stops working or something), but, alas, I will do anything to watch TV. Maybe now I will finally be able to start shaking off that remaining baby weight. Is it a problem if I rot my brains out at the same time?
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?
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