Sunday, January 31, 2010

music to a momma's ear

"I'm working hard"
"I like helping with lunch"
"Guess there's not much work for you to do today"
this is the music that makes a momma's heart sing
~
thanks, My Sweets, for your happy help

Friday, January 29, 2010

baby, it's cold outside




dessert?

We were finishing up lunch
(mushroom cheese scrambled eggs & biscuits)
when Jeremiah said, "Mmm, this tastes like dessert."
as he downed the last of his biscuit
slathered in homemade blueberry jelly.

Which reminded me....
~
AQ Chicken House was one of our favorite restuarants.
We didn't go out to eat very often
(still don't)
so anytime we ate out, it was a treat.
Kids ate free on Tuesdays
so
it must've been a Tuesday evening...
Tyler went on and on
during the meal
about
dessert
and how much he was going to enjoy it.
Dessert?!
We never ordered dessert!
Lana wanted to be sure to save plenty of room
for this fabulous extravagance
so she gave away her dinner roll
and probably some of her dinner, too.
Imagine her dismay
when she realized that the roll
with honey on it
was dessert!
~
Poor little 7 year old sweetie

Thursday, January 28, 2010

oh my!

Swimming suits are so much fun to make!

We were supposed to be in Branson today
whooping it up in the nice warm water
but
the hotel called us Tuesday evening
to say, "Sorry - water park will be closed 'for maintenance'"
which really just means
they weren't going to have enough guests
to make it worth opening today.
They aren't even going to give us any kind of a deal
for when we go in a few weeks.
Bummer!
But
looking at the bright side:
I got to try my hand a suit-sewing!

This little girl
has got to be
the very sweetest in the world!

mom:
(the not sweetest mom in the world!)
"Lily! You just spilled Mommy's pins!
You are not supposed to mess with Mommy's pins!"
"Momma, I know you're frustrated with me.
I'm sorry. I know I'm the one that spilled them.
I'll pick them all up."
~
"Thanks for my skirt, Mom."
"Well, Lily, it's not done yet - I still have to do the hem."
"Well, thank-you for it anyways."
~
If only I could be half as kind and loving as that girl....

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

what is it

about this book?
~
I wasn't going to use it this time around.
Oh
it worked well enough with Brandon
but I just didn't really care for it.
Problem was
we weren't really making any progress with my method.
I'm perfectly okay with a child being a 'late' reader
if
that is what is best for that child.
But Jeremiah was getting frustrated with himself
for not 'getting it'
and I sure didn't want a six-year old boy
thinking he was a failure
when we were just at the beginning stages of formally
'learning to read'
So
I pulled out the well-worn (if not well-loved) yellow book
and within one lesson
things began clicking!

What is it about this book??

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons


Saturday, January 23, 2010

the kindness of strangers

Monday
I emailed these gals
after googling 'swimsuit sewing'.
You know me - until I've attempted it
and it's been proven otherwise
I pretty much figure I can do - well - anything.

Renae sweetly answered my questions
and then some.

And then
Renae sent me another e-mail;
she had a homeless little suit
that just might fix Lexi.
And she wanted to send it to us!

I don't think
Lexi
has much of a future as a swimsuit model

but she's all ready for the water park next week!
~
Thanks, Renae!!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

more than ONE way to skin a cat

I handed Lexi the green block,
"Can you put the block in the bucket?"
She took off the lid
put the blocks in
and went about putting the lid back on.

yep
I guess she can.
~
Happy Birthday
Precious Girl
~
next on the agenda:
just as soon as our family gets home

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

my good helper

She came in the kitchen
right after I'd reached up high
and grabbed the red container.
"You makin' oatmeal? I'll help!"
"Well, actually, I'm just about done;
I just need to finish stirring."
I'd responded kindly enough
but really I was thinking
"No, you can't help.
I just want to get these made quickly
so you kids can get to bed."
She grabbed Tony's chair to drag it into the kitchen
talking all the while about how heavy it was
and how big of a girl she is.
They are heavy chairs;
Josiah usually asks for help moving them.
As she climbed on her chair
she noticed that I wasn't making oatmeal;
I was making oatmeal cookies.
Her eyes lit up,
"That looks like cookies!"
I'm ashamed to admit
that I'd also had the thought'
"I bet you want to help so you can eat the cookie dough."
She didn't even know it was cookies;
she just wanted to help me.

I'm so glad I didn't insist on finishing up on my own.
She had such a good time helping
and I enjoyed listening to her chatter
while we worked.
Turns out
she's a pretty good cookie-maker, too.
~
gotta go eat some fresh from the oven cookies
cheerfully made
by the most helpful big little girl I know.

Monday, January 18, 2010

walkin'

I was about to go to bed without writing;
I'd already turned out the light.
But I realized
I've not been very good at cataloging Lexi's accomplishments.
I suppose
if I were to be completely honest
it's partly due to the misguided thinking that
If I don't record it, maybe it didn't happen.
As if.
~
The girl walked halfway across the living room!
almost 5 ft!!
The boys have proclaimed her 'a walker'
but I am not so eager to bestow that title just yet.
I know how it works;
one day
they walk.
And then,
just a few days later
they walk out the door.
for keeps.
and I'm just not ready for that yet.


Thursday, January 14, 2010

a day of firsts


Poached eggs for the first time ever.

bet you can guess what movie we watched last night
~
Lily named something for the first time;
her little goat
is now
Valice
~
Tony's first time to go to
the first show
of the first tour of RED with Pillar.
(with The Wedding and Me in Motion, too)

too bad he's not at all looking forward to it
~
and sadly
today is also the first time
that Lily has ever gotten upset with her little sister.
They were playing with the dollhouse she got for Christmas
(2 bucks from a yardsale, plus a little elbow grease)
and Lexi was apparently crowding her.
"Go away, stupid girl!"
It just about broke my heart;
Lily is always so patient with Lex.
Neither of them harbored any ill-feelings, though;
Lily apologized and they were happily playing together again
less than a minute later.

~
it's probably not the first time, though,
that I've been quickly typing up a post
when I should be finishing up getting the house picked up for Papa
oops

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

of knights and fair maidens

I gathered all the kids around the computer
so I could show them the mugshot.
Only a few miles away,
a murderer had escaped
while being transported to another facility.
I didn't want to scare them
but I wanted them to understand the urgency;
if they saw this guy
they were to get in the house immediately!
Jeremiah said,
"If I see him, I'll run up and slap him in the face!"
"NO! You will get in this house immediately!"
I responded.
not very calmly.
And the poor boy put his head down and sobbed,
"I just want to protect the family and you guys never say,"Yes""
~
We talked about how running in the house
would be protecting the family.
That a guy like that,
while he looked nice enough,
wouldn't be detered by a slap in the face
or even a kick in the p***s
(the boys think it's hilarious when to talk about tenders,
for some silly reason; I like to humor them)
We talked about how you have to 'work up' to big protecting...
A short while later
I tied up a particularly foul-smelling bag of trash,
held it out the bathroom door
and called out,
"I need someone to protect the family from this stench!"
I figured Jeremiah would be thrilled at the prospect.
Lily, my eager little servant,
was the only one to step forward.
Guess Jeremiah isn't quite ready to protect the fam
no matter what.


Thursday, January 7, 2010

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

treasure at the library


I rarely have time to look upstairs
but
I can sometimes sneak in a few minutes
to quickly browse the new non-fiction shelves.
~
When I saw the title, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone,
I snatched it up.
Relaxed?
no - I'm not generally relaxed while cooking.

I figured maybe I'd get some kitchen inspiration;
Lord knows
- and so does everyone else in the house -
that I've been severely lacking in inspiration
in the kitchen.

I'd barely looked at the pages when Josiah asked
if I had any paper he could look at.
The big boys were reading the newspaper
and he was feeling a bit left out.
"Well,"
I told him,
"I got a cookbook at the library today.
It has a lot of pictures; you might enjoy looking at that?"
Needless to say,
that was the end of the book for me.
I can't get it away from the kid
and when I did have a moment to look at it the other day
he caught me and said, "Quit lookin' at my book."
I told him I'd have to look at it some
if we were going to make anything from it.

The banoffee pie was a big hit
(I followed the recipe exactly - except I had light brown sugar, instead of dark)
and
after dinner this evening,
we'll be having Pomegranate Martinis
(If you've never heard a four year old
ask for a Pomegranate Martini - you're missing out :-)
~
I highly recommend a peek at the book
but if you're planning to borrow it out from theFSM library
you'll be waiting awhile;
we're definitely renewing this one!

Sunday, January 3, 2010

togetherness


Everyone wants to know -
How do we fit 'so many people'
in to such a tiny house?

the people fit just fine
it's all the stuff
the people like to keep around
we have trouble with...

'all those people'
taking up about 25-30 sq ft of the 975 available.

I do love those people