Family Life | The Mac and Cheese Chronicles

Speechless-again!

April 17, 2007
Lorri
4 Comments
Family Life

I’ve lost my voice! I’ve looked everywhere for it, but’s gone. I’m not talking a little hoarse here, either. Nope -completely. gone.

Phil’s taking a week off of work after finally finishing his school, so he’s here to help with the kids. He even took over the reading for school today, which, if you’re familiar with Sonlight, is alot of reading. There’s absolutely no way I could have gotten through it.

He found me a bike bell to ring if I need something, though right now, Bip has walked away with it. Before that, I’ve been whistling or snapping if I need to get someone’s attention.

I’d be starting feel like quite the princess, ringing bells and snapping fingers to have people do my bidding, the only problem is, my lost voice was caused by a cold of sorts.

It’s not the worst cold ever, besides the whole I-can’t-talk thing. I’m just sort of congested, and have a slight cough, though I’m starting to feel fatigued. I hate that worn out feeling that being sick causes.

I was doing so well this season, too. I’m usually the victim of one cold after another, with some gastro-intestinal flu thing thrown in for good measure. But this year, the feast of St. Blaise, patron saint of throats, fell on a Saturday. We were at Mass that day and all got our throats blessed, even Bip, who thought it was very amusing. Usually there are up to 4 other homeschooling families there at the Saturday evening Mass, but not that day. While all the other families suffered through illnesses this winter, ours was untouched. We chalked it up to St. Blaise.

Well, I guess he held off the germs as long as he could and I am grateful for that.

I can’t believe I’ve lost my voice. It’s really annoying me!

The only fun thing about this whole thing is that when I whisper to Bip, he will whisper back to me.

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A Toddler in the House

We have a toddler in the house again. It’s been a long time and I’ve forgotten just how much fun they can be. Or maybe I haven’t. Our oldest child was such an exhausting toddler that I what I remember most about him was that I just tried to keep up. Then I was further exhausted by being pregnant with his sister and a move from California to Maryland. Our next child was a very easy toddler, sweet, happy and compliant. I was still trying to keep up with her older brother, so I don’t remember many specific things about her toddlerhood. Now with the unintented gap between Bip, our current toddler and Pumpkin, who is now 6, we have the chance to really enjoy a toddler.

And enjoy him we do. His main flaw is how poorly he sleeps at night, but he is such a joy in the morning that he is quickly forgiven. He is so silly, siller than any of our other children and that is saying quite a bit! I once caught him stuffing french fries into his shirt and I asked him, “Bip! Are you stuffing fries in your shirt?” and without missing a beat, nor taking his eyes off of me, began removing the fries. All very innocently, mind you.

I particularly enjoy watching him learning new words. The poor little thing has been terribly confused by the Sandra Boyton book “Moo, Baa, LaLaLa.” He thinks both pigs and sheep say LaLaLa. Oh well. His clearest words reflect those things he loves most – Mama, choo-choo, car-car and Bob. Some people reading my blog will find that terribly amusing, but it’s not what they think! The rest of you will just have to wonder what I mean because I’m not telling. Don’t bother emailing me and begging me to tell you privately. I will turn a deaf ear, or a blind eye as it were, to your pleas. The real explanation is simply that Bip loves Bob the Builder. And Thomas the Tank engine. He is all boy! Whether it’s throwing balls and yelling Ball! or walking around the house holding a car in one hand a Mickey Mouse in the other, he is everything you’d expect a boy to be. He can already “hike” a baby-size football and seeing that he’s our largest baby yet, I am sure he is destined for a Notre Dame football scholarship.

Being the youngest of four children, Bip is into things much earlier than the others were. It’s not uncommon when peering into the refrigerator to be pushed out of the way by a little but strong body who has come in search of a snack. He loves to spend time outside and if he catches even a hint that somebody is heading out of the house, he goes in search of his Mickey Mouse crocs.

One of our favorites times is nighttime prayers. Pumpkin taught Bip to fold his hands while we pray. When each one of us has had the chance to pray, we ask Bip if there’s anything he’d like to thank God for. He starts off, “Mama, Da-da, Boo…” Then we have to help him with Pumpkin Girl’s real name. The children like to say his favorite things for him to repeat after them, both because it’s cute to hear him saying his toddler words and because it’s nice to have him praying with us. “Car-cars, quack-quack, ball, Bob, choo-choo, and juice” are all on his nightly list of things he is thankful for.

Having a toddler in the house makes for some interesting juggling during school. One of Big Brother Boo’s morning chores is to prepare a snack for Bip to keep him quiet for as long as possible. We often have to deviate from my nice, neat school “schedule” to accomodate Bip. Sometimes he wants to nurse and one of the other children holds the book while I read aloud, other times we have to skip ahead to their read-aloud time. Most days I can corral him in his high-chair during seat work time. While the rest of us work at the dining room table, Bip happily pulls child-safe kitchen gadgets off my bakers rack while eating raisins. On days he’s not interested…well, let’s just say that I have quite a lot of picking up to do at lunch time. I used to let Bip’s interruptions upset me. I even seriously considered sending him off to child care in the morning. Boo and Pumpkin Girl were so sad at the thought that I changed my attitude. I had to remember that one of the major advantages of homeschooling is having the children being an integral part of each other’s life. Not that it’s easy! But we try to remember how much joy that Bip truly brings us every day. We were deprived of Becca’s toddler years, of teaching her how to walk and talk and sing. Some days I am overwhelmed with both regret over Becca and joy over Bip. So many things I wished I could have done with her, that now I must focus on enjoying the time with Bip.

A toddler in the house means

carrying 2 toy trains and 2 toy cars in my bag at all times, in case Bip encounters a transportation emergency while we are away from the house.
vaccuming and sweeping twice daily.
getting soaked head to toe and not being the one having the bath.
adding 10 minutes to your time it takes to get everyone out of the house
watching in amazement at chubby little hands folded during prayers
sweet, wet kisses
fat, happy legs running to meet daddy when he comes home
reading Goodnight Moon “one last time, then all done”…four times
finding toys in unusual places

We have been truly blessed to have a toddler in the house.

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Life in Minature

Am I the last person in the world to discover the fun of polymer clay?

You know, I’ve seen polymer clay projects before, but I was never
interested. Mostly what I’ve seen demonstrated are milifiori beads
which seem like a lot of work, and I’m just not into it. I’ve also
seen doll faces made with push molds, but again, it just wasn’t my
thing. I just kind of wondered, “what’s the point?”

Then last week, I saw an article in Family Fun magazine about making tiny treats out of polymer clay. These are just too cute and the directions were simple, needing nothing more than the clay and a toothpick. Well, not being one to pass up a good craft, I showed them to Boo and Pumpkin Girl and they thought they’d like to give them a try, too. They were actually pretty excited.

We got ourselves some Sculpey clay and went to work. These little projects are neither difficult to do or too time consuming, even when helping two children do different projects. Pumpkin needed a little more help because she didn’t seem to understand how not to smash the clay out of shape when adding details. But she did great doing things like rolling out balls and logs and squashing them flat. Boo did well with making his shapes look like the pictures, which is surprising because he’s not really not too good at copying objects to draw. I did the reading of the instructions and putting in the tiniest of details. I worked very hard at overcoming my tendency to just step in and do the project myself. I’m prould to report that I managed to demonstrate, step back, make small corrections and let the results be what they may. I guess all these weeks of being the craft lady for Pumpkin’s Daisy Scout troop is paying off. Talk about testing my patience! But that’s a post for another time.

Here’s the tiny little confections we made:

Pumpkin Girl made one of the donuts, the caramel apple and the cupcake. I made the other donut and the lollipop.

We also picked up The Incredible Clay Book and Create Anything With Clay. All I can say is wow! We’ve all spent a lot of time pouring over these wonderful books, choosing our next projects. We’re even plotting some gifts to make!

Here’s the projects we’ve made so far…

The sheep and pig were made by Boo, the rabbit and frog by Pumpkin.

This baby and ice cream cone are Boo’s creations.

I had as much fun and the children! I made these fruits and veggies. The green isn’t showing up well in this picture and the corn looks a lot better in person. Still, aren’t all these things cute?

I’m working so hard on not getting involved in any new crafts. But when I do, the main criteria it has to meet are low start-up cost and easy storage of the tools. Well, the instructions for the treats are free on the internet (click on “tiny treats” above), and you can get by with just a couple of basic colors of clay. We did buy the other two books, which came with clay, but the ideas were well worth it. There are lots of polymer clay tools out there to buy, but we literally used our hands, foil, a baking dish, toothpicks and wax paper. As for storage, the clay should be stored in plastic. I wrapped each open color in plastic wrap and the whole kit and caboodle is in a plastic shoe box. Sweet!

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Happy Easter

Happy Easter! Christ is Risen, just like he said he would!

Even though being without internet service for almost a week almost killed me, the fact that the outage occurred during Holy Week was not lost on me. Sometimes I wish the Lord would speak a little louder when He wants me to do something. Sometimes He speaks loudly enough. I guess He thought I’ve been spending a bit too much time on the computer.

On Holy Thursday we got a chance to attend Mass. We’ve got a great pastor who explains many of our traditions to us. I had never realized that at Holy Thursday Mass, the Blessed Sacrament is removed from the church and that mass will not be celebrated again until the Easter Vigil. The significance of the empty church really hit me.

Pumpkin Girl has been using her new subscription to Magnifikids to follow along with not only the usual parts of the Mass, but with the readings, too. I’m hoping this helps her focus on the Mass more. I always enjoyed following the readings in the missalet as a kid. Actually, I still do, but more and more churches have stopped supplying them. I know they want us to be listening to the readings, but hey, some of us learn best by reading! Our family has a Missal that I like to use, but it’s hard to use while I’m in exile in the crying room with Bip.

I’ve actually seen a real increase in Pumpkin’s faith over the last year. She has a new notebook that she uses to write stories and draw pictures in. Most of her pictures during Holy Week were of scenes of Jesus’ life – His cruficixion and Resurrection, the story of Lazurus (complete with Him saying “Open the toom”), Jesus sleeping on the boat during the storm and the shephard going after the lost lamb. Today, while reading Leading Little Ones to Mary, I let her draw while she listened and her pictures were of the life of Mary. Well, that is, Pumpkin’s idea of the life of Mary. You know, Mary swinging from monkey bars, jumping rope and helping her teacher clean the white board.

So anyway…On Good Friday, our parish had an outdoor Stations of the Cross. The adults took turns carrying the large, wooden cross from station to station, while the children held pictures of each station. It was bitterly cold, and I felt bad for our poor pastor who came dressed as a priest, not as a soldier, so he had no hat. It was a nice to walk the stations, even if it was cold.

Saturday morning, we woke up to…

Just ten days earlier it was 80 degrees. Gotta love Spring!

We braved the elements to go in search of dressy sandals for Pumpkin Girl. Good dressy shoes for little girls are getting as hard to find as modest clothing is. Why in the world do shoe makers think that heels on a girl of 6 is a good idea? The same shoes, heel and all, are even available for toddlers! Fortunately, we did find a suitable pair – in her size even! We then came home and decorated our Easter cookies.

Yes, we make chicken and bunny Easter cookies. This year I took the time to explain to the children why we see things like bunnies saying Happy Easter and how we can look at these things as symbols of Christ’s Resurrection. We also talked about how some children enjoy the Easter Bunny and we should never ruin the game for them by telling them that he doesn’t really exist. However, it is OK to tell them that the Easter Bunny isn’t really what Easter is all about.

Philip went to sing in the choir for the Easter Vigil and Boo went bowling with his best friend, leaving Pumpkin Girl, Bip and I to watch “The Sound of Music” on TV. When Boo returned around 8pm, we made Resurrection cookies. We were interrupted by several loud bangs and then I remembered that Saturday was the firework display for the Cherry Blossum Festival! We grabbed coats and shoes and ran out to enjoy the rest of the fireworks!

Easter morning dawned bright and cold! The church was decorated beautifully, and this year Pumpkin Girl was well dosed with her allergy medicine, so the lilies didn’t bother her (the children insist on sitting in the front row). We sang my favorite Easter song – “Jesus Christ is Risen Today” and one that always makes me cry- “I am the Bread of Life.” We sang that one at the first Easter after Rebecca was gone. The last line – “and I will raise you up on the last day” just chokes me up. Sometimes it makes Boo cry too, so I left the crying room early to check up on him. He was fine, but he gave me a big hug, because I was not. I was fighting back sobs during the last verse. Don’t worry, I’m better now.

Back at home, we had our annual family Easter egg hunt…

…and dyed eggs.

One of these years I’m going to get organized enough to get those eggs dyed before Easter!

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Ducks!

March 28, 2007
Lorri
3 Comments
Family Life

My life is just so interesting, I can’t even bring the clean laundry upstairs without getting bothered by ducks.

The children were all outside in our backyard when our friendly, neighborhood mallard couple came wandering by. “Mama!,” Boo yelled through the screen door. He yells this twenty times a day, so I wasn’t really paying attention. “Yes, Boo,” says I, heading upstairs with the laundry. “Mallards! In the backyard!” “Ok, Boo,” I said, halfway up the stairs. When I reached the bedroom, I had to stop to think. Did he say ‘Mallards in the backyard?’ I looked out the window and there were all three children, peering through the fence at something I couldn’t see. Not wanting to miss out on the chance to fill ya’ll in on the insane details of my life, I grabbed the camera and went out to see what all the hubbub was about.

Sure enough, mallards in the backyard. It’s important to note that my children are properly homeschooled children and called them “mallards”, not just “ducks”. In a couple of more years I expect that they will be calling them by their Latin, scientific name. Or at least make up some scientific sounding names like mallardus quackus. So anyway, the mallards were walking through the backyards. Some neighborhoods have stray cats or wild turkeys, our neighborhood has ducks and geese wandering through.

I went to get crackers with which to feed the ducks (which I located quickly and easily, thanks to my Wonderful Pantry of Love) and we went in pursuit of Mr. and Mrs. Mallard, who by this time, were now 2 houses down. Here’s some pictures.

Bip walked around, both nibbling the cracker and throwing it at the ducks, saying “Cack, cack, cack.”

Ok, duck fun over and now it’s back to the laundry…

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Birds

March 27, 2007
Lorri
One Comment
Family Life

Boo’s Wolf Den has been working on earning the World Conservation Award. His

project for this week was to chart the birds he sees during the week. We decided to make the project a little easier for him and bought some birdseed from the PX. For $2 and a Rubbermaid lid, we have a durable little bird feeder. I would rather have a St Francis bird feeder, but this one works for now.

First we had the birdseed on our picnic bench, but Bip was able to climb up and sample some. Boo was quite indignant about this, but Bip was no worse for the wear. We moved the seed to a higher location, out of Bip’s reach, with the added benefit that it seems to attract more birds this way.

By far, the most frequent visitor to our yard has been a common sparrow. We see the same little bird every day. I think he and his mate are building a nest nearby. We’ve seen mourning doves a couple of times and driving to church along the Potomac we spied seagulls. Sunday morning, the male and female mallard who frequent our housing area were looking for breakfast in our front yard. Today, this happy guy was partaking of the birdseed. I hope he’ll be back.

We’ve had a lot of fun looking for birds and trying to identify them with the field guide. While we’re pouring over the books, looking for the right bird, Bip will go over to the bookshelf and grab a different field guide, bring it to the living room, and sit and "read" it. We were so surprised when he first did this. The books are an unusual size and shape, but I didn’t think he ever noticed them, let alone knew where they were located. But he wanted to do what we were doing and knew exactly where to find the guides.

We were able to identify every bird we saw, except one. It’s a little black bird with a yellow beak. They seem to stay in flocks all over the base, snacking in the grass. We couldn’t find it in the field guide. I thought it was a European starling, but it is not iridescent. An internet search proved fruitless. Any ideas?

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Happy Fries

March 27, 2007
Lorri
Family Life

Sandy asked me about the Happy Fries. Unfortunately, they aren’t a recipe, I bought them from the store!

Smiles_2
They are actually called Smiles and you can go visit their website and see if and where they sell them in your area. I think they are generally sold in the Northeast US. We first discovered them with the kids meal at our bowling alley and then we found out they sell them at our commissary! They’re fun and tasty, but will pretty much blow your low-carb diet in one 8-smile serving.

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They Just Make Me Happy

March 26, 2007
Lorri
One Comment
Family Life

Nothing says "Lovin’ from the Oven" like Happy Fries.

Don’t they make you happy just looking at them? Shouldn’t all food be happy to see you?

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Overheard…

March 23, 2007
Lorri
Family Life

Pumpkin Girl, from inside the laundry room: Boy, it’s dark in here.

Boo: Don’t you see the light switch?

pause

Pumpkin Girl: Boy, it’s light in here!

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Shoes!

March 20, 2007
Lorri
2 Comments
Family Life

Bip would like you all to know that he has new shoes. Here they are, from his view.

They are the new Disney Crocs and we actually found them at our PX! I found them in his size and he walked up to Pumpkin Girl (who got a pair in yellow), took them out of her hands and insisted on wearing them right away.

Don’t they look cute?

Here he is pointing to them and saying "shoes."

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Category - Family Life