Category - Family Life

Now that we have a name for our school, Phil has been “helping” me come up with mottos. He has suggested “Death before Dishonor” or borrowing NH’s state motto, “Live Free or Die.” Fortunately, more level heads have prevailed.

My aunt emailed me today and wanted to know who Rachel is! We have plans to adopt a baby sometime after Bip turns 2. We’d like a girl and we would name her Rachel. Boo and Pumpkin Girl seem more than ready for her to arrive any day now, and are already including her in the pictures that they draw.

Bip is such a sweet, easy going little guy. He’s just happy to hang out with the family, no matter where we go. He’s getting to be mobile, too. He’s been able to roll over for a while now, but he has just recently figured out that if he rolls he can get himself closer to his dropped toys. I found him on the bed, having rolled onto his belly, looking quite pleased with himself. If he’s sitting, he can s-t-r-e-t-c-h out, pressing himself almost flat to the floor to reach something. He can scoot just a little bit, mostly in a circle. It won’t be long until all the tiny toys will move upstairs and the baby gates get installed. He has a new trick, too. If you hold your arms above your head, hands in a fist and say “yay!,” he will very seriously, very slowly, raise his hands above his head, too. He also gives out kisses. A couple of weeks ago I noticed that he was looking at me during church. I smiled at him and he sent me a kiss. He often does this when I come into view, like from another room. He also does it to get my attention. There is nothing like entering a room to kisses from a cute boy!

Last night Bip didn’t want to go to sleep. Phil took him downstairs to let me get some sleep. With Becca, the Original Amazing Non-Sleeping Baby, we would take one hour shifts during the night so that both of us could get some sleep. When we need to, we do this with Bip, too. We suspect that Becca told him that if he stays awake at night, he can watch movies with Daddy. It doesn’t happen often though and Phil, who takes the first shift, hardly ever finishes out his hour before Bip is asleep. Last night after the two of them left, I just couldn’t sleep. I ended up going downstairs and getting them. I just missed my baby. We snuggled right up together and went to sleep.

It is always good when there is a baby in the house.

Print Friendly

So then it was nap time.  I came out of the laundry room to find the kids desperately trying to put the phone cradle back on the buffet table.  They’d been hiding from me back there where I told them to stay out of.  So after a quick but effective talk, I sent them upstairs for quiet time.  Only they didn’t get quiet.  It took them 7 minutes of running up and down the hallway, laughing maniacly (spell check doesn’t like that one) before they settled down.  So I called them both back down – they came down and said, "yeah?", which I gently corrected- and told them how very sorry I was that they chose not to go to their rooms like I told them, but instead to run up and down the hallway.  I informed them that they would stay an extra 7 minutes in their rooms this afternoon.  And obviously, they need more practice in obedience, so we will practice right now and however long that takes, will be even more extra time for naps.  So I said, "it’s time for naps, please go up to your rooms".  They went quickly and quietly and I waited until I heard both doors close.  I called them down again.  My obedient little sheep answered, yes mama.  I complimented their manners, then informed them it was time for naps and to go upstairs.  They went without complaint.  Then I caught a whiff of breastmilk poop.  I look over at Bip who is sitting on the floor while I fold laundry and he on has his "poop face"  and then I see it…yellow poop bubbling happily over the back of his diaper and making a lovely puddle on the floor, completely missing his pants.  I sigh, get up to get a rag and he leans forward, and more poop bubbles up and over.

And here’s your laugh for the day:

I’d rather hunt with Dick Cheney than
Ride in a car with Ted Kennedy

Print Friendly

Well, the big ‘uns (as opposed the the little ‘uns) are off with their Dad at CCD.  Phil is filling in for Pumpkin Girl’s teacher today. Our Sunday mornings here have become less than idyllic.  Without school to do and Phil off singing in the choir, the children have tended to run amok and just not listen to me.  They have spent a good portion of their Sunday morngings with one of them sitting in the hallway and the other sitting in the kitchen.  Last week Phil and I decided that we need to have a Sunday schedule.  We moved chores and bathtime to the morning and added in time to watch a video.  At first they were disappointed that they would be having their baths in the morning until I explained to them why.  Everything went well, no fighting, no insane silliness, no time -outs.  The trash has been collected up by Boo, and Rose the Hermit Crab is enjoying her own bath.  I’ll move her back into her clean cage with her fresh food and water later. The bonus for rearranging things today is that our Sunday evening will be far less hectic.  Always a good thing.   Now, if only I knew what we were having for dinner…

As for me, after lunch I am going BY MYSELF to the PX to buy flowers for the garden.  I may wander aimlessly around the rest of the store, too.  I wish our library was open on Sundays, but then I probably wouldn’t come home until dinner time.  Not that I know what we’re having.

Well, the house is quiet and I should probably find a more productive way to spend my time.  Like rescuing Rose the Crab from her bath, folding laundry and figuring out what we’re having for dinner.  Until next time…

Print Friendly

Busy, busy, busy!  I spent most of my time yesterday updating our family website.  We got a new computer when we moved along with updated software.  What should have been a very simple process turned into an all day ordeal, checking for broken links, losing the homepage and general frustrations.  I didn’t get a chance to write an entry here yesterday because I chose to use my computer time, and any spare minutes I could find, to work on the website.

Having both a boy and girl in the house makes for some very amusing imaginary play.  Boo is always willing to play house with Pumpkin Girl and her friends, as long as he gets to be the guard.  Yesterday the two of them were playing princesses. Pumpkin sets up all her Polly Pocket-esque Disney princess sets and Boo gets out the Bucket o’ Plastic Soldiers.  He sets them up on the castle walls like snipers on the White House.  All princesseses need top notch security, don’t cha know? Belle’s good friend Batman presented proper ID and was allowed in for a visit.  Other times, they play soldier. Pumpkin named one of the soldiers, "Oy".  Apparently, he’d fallen behind or had been captured by the enemy, and like all good soldiers , his buddies went looking for him.  Not being well trained in stealth tactics, they tramped around the battle field calling…wait for it…."Oy!  Oy!"

When Pumpkin Girl was 2, she really wanted her own Batman, so we got her one for Christmas.  He was one well loved Batman.  One day she woke from her nap and asked me to put her hair up in pig tails.  She grabbed the Caped Crusader, who’d been resting with her and said, "Come on, Batman, let’s get piggy tails."  I can’t imagine what he thought about that.  I wonder if the other superheroes gave him a hard time later.

Chore time is now well established.  The children are doing a wonderful job and work without complaint.  However, they found some loopholes in their evening chores.  Their jobs are: fold the blankets in the living room, put all their books into the book bin, straighten up their shoes and return the toys in the basket to the playroom.  The toy basket is where I corral up any toys that have been left lying around during the day.  Well, they have decided that because the chore card says "empty toy basket",  any toys that didn’t make it to the basket don’t count.   Obviously, that was not my intent.  I’ll have to re-write that card. Pumpkin has a card for cleaning her bedroom that says "return all toys to playroom."  She took that to mean dump all the toys on the playroom floor for poor Boo to clean up.  Nice try!  Boo was rightfully outraged, so we fixed that right away.

Print Friendly

You know those rubber bracelets that Lance Armstrong made popular?  Well the children got some for St. Nicholas Day at CCD, but they aren’t really into them, so they gave them to me.  One says strength, one says courage, another says faith, plus I have a blue one that says "I love My Baby."  Today I am wearing strength.

Last night, the chores took forever.  I think it was because we’ve gone too long with just saying, "go clean up" without following up and giving them the proper training.  At 6:00 I had to stop them so we could have dinner.  Phil called and we all chatted with him, then we went back to cleaning up.  Boo stayed with Bip while I helped Pumpkin Girl.  That girl is a packrat!  She’s squirrelled away all sorts of stuff, some of which I’ve been looking for!  I’m not sure what to do about that. She gets it from me.  I was, and still am, a collector of just about everything.  This morning she was admiring my collection of buttons.  And just this afternoon I unpacked my childhood shadow box.  I haven’t even seen it in years, it’s always been packed up.  The box was labeled "games" so I opened it.  It was filled with all my little treasures.  I remember almost all of them and why they were special to me.  But I think I’m ready to pack up all the little things into a good strong storage box.  Maybe I’ll take a picture of it all filled up and of each little peice and do a scrapbook page about it.  Or maybe a whole brag book size album.  Hmmm.  Anyway, back to Pumpkin.  It’s not that she’s hoarding stuff, it’s that some of it’s not hers to take.  She made off with Philip’s slippers last fall.  He vaguely knew they were missing.  I found them wedged between her bed and the wall.  I said, "Pumpkin!  Did you take Daddy’s slippers?"  She answered, "Yes," so I asked her why.  And she said so sweetly, with those big giant eyes looking at me so innocently, "I like them because they are soft and squooshy."  I laughed so hard I almost cried.  She got him new slippers for Christmas.  I have also found my calculator, Bip’s toys and even school books tucked away in her secret spot.  I don’t think there is any thought of stealing these items, it’s just something that attracts her attention.  Like I said, I don’t know what to do about this.  On one hand, it’s kind of cute, finding the things that she’s made off with.  Such an eclectic collection.  On the other hand, I don’t want her taking things that aren’t hers.  Wouldn’t call it stealing quite yet.  I’ll have to give this more thought.

But back to the chores. It took so long to get all of Pumpkin Girl’s room cleaned up.  I’m hoping that with proper daily maintenance, it won’t take this long again.  Same with the playroom.  Boo’s definition of cleaned up is very different from mine.  (Yuk it up, Mom, I know you’re thinking that it’s payback for years of my sty of a room!)  After I helped Pumpkin, we worked on the playroom.  It was 7:30 by the time it was all done.  They have way, way too many toys and a microscopic room to play in.  I’d love to go in there and just get rid of more than half of it.

Finally all chores were done and ChorePacks turned in.  Into jammies and there was just enough time to watch an hour long video.  I got Bip ready for bed, then got the others a snack, cleaned the kitchen up and then it was off to bed with them.  I was frustrated and tired and still needed to take a shower.

So today’s bracelet is strength.

Morning chores went so much better.  I had to retrain Pumpkin on not spraying the whole bottle of soapy water on to the school table.  Boo needed to work on his sink shining, but all went well.

For me, the Flylady zone this week is bedroom. Bip is usually asleep during my chore time, so I worked for 15 minutes on the children’s bedroom instead.  I unpacked a box and used it for a give-away box.  Then after lunch, I had Boo hang out with Bip while I worked on my bedroom for 15 minutes.  That’s when I found my shadow box.  I also tried a new recipe for dessert called brown sugar pudding.  We’ll see how it turns out.  Right now it looks like a cake floating on top of about an inch of syrup.  Maybe the syrup gets absorbed by the cake as it cools.

It’s only 2 o’clock and I’m just hoping that tomorrow’s bracelet won’t need to be courage.

Print Friendly

Ah, Monday.  It’s like over the weekend, all the good behavior and positive attitudes we developed over the previous week have just disappeared.  Not to mention simple things like the correct way to hold a pencil, why one does not need to look up on the number line to see what 15 + 1 is, and the correct way to write an "f." And most importantly, unless you want to spend the morning sitting in a permanent time-out, one shouldn’t roll their eyes at their mother and say "I know."

Doesn’t help that Daddy is in New York for 3 days.

And why oh why does everything they say have to be the line from some movie?

OK, not all was irritating this morning.  We did get started using "Managers of Their Chores", by the same family that wrote MOTH.  It’s a great system.  Boo had all his chores done before I even came downstairs.  Only problem was, he had swiffered the floor before I had a chance to sweep it. Pumpkin Girl needed some re-training on not skipping a chore card (making the bed) just because she wasn’t in the mood.  She’s only 5, though.  It’ll come.  This was our first day using the Chorepacks, so I’m sure we’ll find little things that need to be ironed out as we work through them.  Someone on the Sonlight Forum asked about this new book and it was kind of cool to be the first one to have read it.  I gave it a glowing review and now several people have ordered it too!   Too bad I don’t get a commission, LOL!

And speaking of the Sonlight Forums, two people I "know" from there are moving here soon.  How fun!  We’ve got a huge homeschooling community on base, but it’s nice to have other Sonlighters here.  I’m sure there are others, I just haven’t found them yet.

Print Friendly

We took the children to get portraits done at Sears yesterday. Bip went first to prevent him from getting bored and crabby.  He did pretty well until he got tired of being on his belly.  The photographer was trying to get him to laugh, but everytime he would, he’d just wiggle with happiness and then lay his head down on the pillow so we couldn’t get a good picture.  Then I had him positioned so sweetly, hands in front, head up, looking right at the camera and she wouldn’t take the picture.  She kept trying to get him to laugh.  I told her twice just to take the picture.  Finally he just laid his head down and cried.  I could have cried, too.  So he went off to be distracted by Phil and next up was Pumpkin Girl.

She wanted to pick her own background, the blue one with a sort of pastel rainbow.  We put the big number 5 on the stage and she sat down in front of it.  She looked so grown up!  She smiled so pretty and we only had to take one picture.

Then Boo.  He stood up next to the number 7.  He looked stiff and unnatural.  He kept raising his eyebrows and facing the camera, but looking with just his eyes off to the side.  He does this at home when I’m trying to take his picture, too.  Not sure what that’s all about.  FINALLY got a good picture of him.

Then the children all together.  We brought a framed picture of Becca to include in the portrait.  I have seen this done a couple of times and I really needed to include her.  The end result is just wonderful, all four of our sweet children in one picture.  It was a bear to get though. Bip kept tipping over, Boo kept looking at Bip or off to the side, Pumpkin Girl kept frowing and tilting the picture.  We got a keeper, though.

And now the long process of choosing which pictures to buy in what sizes.  Then the other photographer who was there did an amazing thing.  She had made a collage out of the group picture and close up head shots of each child.  Each child’s face was placed in an oval and they formed a quarter of a circle surrounding the group shot.  She offered to scan Becca’s picture and include her little face in with the close ups of the others around the main picture.  It turned out so beautifully and it just brings tears to my eyes to see it.  Our sweet baby, right with her brothers and sister, right where she belongs.

And at the end, I had 5 more points to spend on my package and I just couldn’t get it to work out, so I said don’t worry about it.  Then they offered me a print of the scan of Becca, in an oval, a rose printed on the "mat"  and "A special place in my heart" written on it.

The children were wonderfully behaved the whole time.  Blessings all around.

Print Friendly

I recently found my favorite bookmark of all time. I got it free from the library when I was a kid. I loved it so much that I eventually had to protect it by covering it with clear contact paper. The poem on it is:

Books

I got
Books on the bunk bed
Books on the chair
Books on the couch
And every old where

But I want more books
I just can’t get enough
I want more books about
All kinds of stuff, like

Jackie’s troubles
Raymond’s joys
Rabbits, kangaroos
Girls and boys
Mountains, valleys
Winter, spring
Campfires, vampires
Every old thing

I want to
Lie down on my bunk bed
Lean back in my chair
Curl up on the couch
And every old where

And read

more

books.

by Eloise Greenfield. It has a little picture by Rosemary Wells. If my daughter keeps up her love of books, and bringing them all over the house, I may have to pass the bookmark on to her. Maybe not. Every time we move I think I’ve lost the bookmark, but I find it eventually. Right now it’s on the computer table.

Print Friendly

  Mystery solved!  Bip, VFB*,  popped out his first tooth today!  He’s been such a crabby crab lately, not sleeping well, wanting to nurse all night.  He responded very well to the "happy pills" (Hylands chamomilla tablets) which helped him settle down enough to get to sleep.   Phil thought it could be a growth spurt.  I didn’t think it was. Well, now we know what was wrong.  I let Boo and Pumpkin Girl feel his new tooth.  They hugged him and told him congratulations. Pumpkin said, "Maybe we can give him a pickle."

Boo is growing up so fast, too.  Today he heated up his own corndog in the microwave.  I was nursing the baby so I just told him what to do and off he went.  It’s a big deal to me since I didn’t learn to use the microwave until I was at least 16.  He’s at a fun age.  He is able to do so many things and he yet still has his sense of wonder.  He saw the Donald Duck DVD that came from Netflix the other day and said, "Oh! Donald Duck!  He’s my buddy.  I need to go visit him at Disneyland."

Pumpkin Girl is busy being 5.  She so wants to do everything Boo does.  She was complaining that I don’t let her do the same school work as Boo.  Sorry, sweetheart, but you need to learn to print before you can have a spelling test, LOL!  She sure wasn’t complaining though, when she said she didn’t want to do math and was done with school for the day.  Because she is only 5 years and 2 1/2 months, I don’t require her to have school.  She always listens in anyway and has her own workbooks.  But when she gets tired, I let her be "dismissed" and she can stay in the room as long as she’s quiet and not a distraction.

On a side note – we made shamrock cookies today.  I really hate making cut-out cookies.  My recipe is good, but I hate rolling the dough, cutting the cookies, having them fall apart on the way to the cookie sheet, then those that survived breaking on the way to the cooling rack.  (Yes, mom, you gave me the shamrock cookie cutter.)  I did get a chance to try out my brand new silicone rolling pin. Pumpkin Girl said, "ooo, I like it.  It’s pink!"  It rolls the dough like a dream.  No more sticking! And fast! So now all I have to worry about is the cookies breaking apart.

After all that cooking I did yesterday and the cookies today, I’m not in a mood to cook dinner.  Guess it’ll be leftovers.

  *Very Fat Baby

Print Friendly

Wow, what a beautiful day! The children have been outside all day, playing with their fellow Jedi knights and the neighborhood princesses. Our climbing/sliding thing made a great fortress for the princesses while the Jedis protected them from the dragons. Sometimes the princesses would go out picking flowers and a Sith would capture them. They are taking time out to have lunch right now.

We’ve got all the windows open in our house and our windchimes are ringing gently. Such a mild day with a gentle breeze, hearing the chimes always reminds me of living in Grover Beach. No, we didn’t live on Sesame Street. We could see the Pacific Ocean and parts of Pismo Beach (and all the clams you can eat) from our kitchen window. If the weather would stay like this until October, it would be perfect. Of course, this is just the start of the buildup to a hot, sweltering summer. The long time local residents tell us not to get used to this spring time weather, there is still time for a spring snow storm.

“Bip”, our Very Fat Baby, is going to need toddler size diapers soon. I’ve never had to buy toddler cloth diapers before! The others were potty trained by the time they weighed 30 pounds. Nicholas makes me laugh, he’s so fat. He’s already outgrown so many of the cute clothes we have for him. I’m knitting him a sweater to wear next fall. My good friend Shanti knit him one that he wears right now. It was so cute I just had to make him another one in a bigger size. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’ve never knit more than a scarf before. It’s not that bad, really. I just wish I knew what I was doing. I’ve had to pull out several rows, but I’ve kept more than I’ve unraveled. Of course, now I’ve been pouring over knitting and yarn catalogs, thinking I’m just going to whip up all sorts of fun clothes for the kids. The problem is, they grow faster than I knit.

Print Friendly