Just some pictures

December has been an overwhelming month for me.  Something about Christmas prep, and 2 birthdays being added to my schedule was really the straw that broke the camel's back.  I am feeling slightly better after missing Christmas Eve with my extended family and having a few days to just chill out and relax a little bit.  Hopefully I will be back to blogging soon, but more than that, I am hoping to make use of our last few days off so that I can jump back into "real life" rested, rejuvenated and ready for the next few months!

WoW!

I haven't been on here in a long time!

Time goes quickly, and there is always too much to do.

Baby Everyn is now on the move, and so I am constantly saving her from legos, stairs and Christmas trees.

Berean has entered a difficult stage which involves frequent outfit changes, lots of climbing, and a great deal of ill advised independence.

We are in a push to get certain school things wrapped up for Christmas, and the boys are itching for break.

My house is in shambles, but maybe someday I will catch up.  For now it is time to kiss some sweet little faces and get them all in bed.

Then I will head out to work.

Looking forward to a long sleep tomorrow.

Dropping Things

Hi All!

We are all here, but I feel a little bit like I am treading water.  A rough work weekend followed by a long week, concluding with Noah's birthday weekend has me still playing catch up.

Today is our 13 year engagement anniversary.  Noah made Pumpkin Crisp.  yum.

Then we did pushups and folded laundry while watching Hawaii Five-0.

At 10:30pm I remembered that Lincoln is the "Big Apple" for school tomorrow.  Do you think the kids would enjoy left over Arnie Palmers?

Hopefully I can dig up some Oreos or Teddy Grahms or something.

I am working all of Thanksgiving, but Noah has a couple of days off- hopefully I can dig myself out of this hole!

Have a good week!

Berean

Berean is 2 1/2 now, and she is quite different than the boys ever were.  She is a little bit of a busy-body and likes to help with things and tell people what to do.  

Bre likes Dora the Explorer and has been known to tell Ever, "Ever, no swiping!"  And then she laughs at her own joke.  

Berean is still sleeping in her crib, but she climbs in and out of it at will.  She has been potty trained since her 2nd birthday, and has been wearing undies to bed for months.  She goes through a lot of undies, however, because she loves all of them so much she is always changing them out for "new undies"!  Thankfully, she can manage her own undies and pants now, and just needs a little help with her shirts.

She likes fancy, sparkly things.  Her favorite things to do at the Y are "read the princess books" and dress up in the "fancy shoes". She also likes to make her dolls talk to each other. She plays with her kitchen set and goes "shopping" with her shopping cart.

It has been incredibly fun to watch her form relationships with other little girls her age.  She plays with her little friend Maddie and they giggle and talk to each other.

The dress she is wearing in the next picture she refers to as "my magnet-girl dress".  She has some little magnet dolls that wear similar looking outfits, and she loves to play with them.

Berean is still fearful of animals at times, and is somewhat timid, but she does seem to be loosening up a bit.

She was at the doctor the other day and she has no problem answering questions and talking about what is going on.  She is always very aware of conversation and social situations.

Berean really loves candy, and has been known to try to steal it from the cabinet.  She is very confident in her abilities to pour her own milk and make her own PB & J.  Sometimes her confidence is misplaced.

Over the last few months she has taken a big interest in hanging out with the boys.  She likes to be near them in the playroom, and they are pretty good about including her (or at least tolerating her) as long as she doesn't wreck their stuff.  Usually she just does her own thing near them and that is enough for her.

She certainly adds a whole different dimension to our lives, and we love it!

Random Thoughts

Today I ran 2 miles in 16 minutes (on a treadmill).

Last week I ran 3 miles in 25 minutes, 40 seconds.

I may actually reach my goal of a 24 minute 5K!

I have been lifting weights and seeing major improvements in tone on my upper body.  I am almost to the point that if I were tan and didn't have 5 children hanging on me, wearing a bikini would not be out of the question.

Noah?  Did you read that?

Today I was going to write an update on Berean, but it is already pretty late and I am not really feeling it.

Anyway, now that my fitness plan is firmly in place, I have moved on to other self improvement/home improvement projects. My mind is churning with possibilities.  I am always full of plans and ideas, and I have several brewing.  My ideas don't always make it to blogland, however, because Noah usually is not as enthusiastic as I am about the elaborate schemes that I concoct.

I just want to be different, to live differently than the culture that surrounds me.  I want a plan for our family that is deeper than our material needs and financial goals.  I don't want to just change our spending and our self discipline HABITS, I want to change our motivations and our hearts.

I want to show our kids how to make good goals and then meet them,

how to persevere even if something isn't fun,

how to look beyond what we want right now,

how to realize that we live privileged lives.

I will be very honest.  I don't mind at all living a privileged life.  I actually like to have plenty of income and flexibility- but I desperately want Noah and I and our kids to be acutely aware, at all times, that our situation in middle class America is just that, a privilege that we need to appreciate and that we need to use wisely.

I fear for my kids.  They are bombarded by stuff, by excess.

They daily see people spending what they don't have, borrowing for what they don't need.

They have no place to learn the value of hard work.

What can I do now to help them understand what is really important?

It is such a goofy thing, blogging about running on a treadmill, while others around the world are running for their lives. This blog post just illustrates what I struggle with, the love of privilege vs. the use of privilege.

They are two very different things.

Day in the Life: Fall 2012

Here is the Fall Edition!

Once again I have been inspired by Laura over at Navigating the Mothership!

Monday

October, 2012

0735: Noah gets up to take a shower.   Lincoln climbs in our bed to claim Noah's now empty spot.  It is our morning routine- a few minutes just hanging out with my "early risers".  We hear Everyn thumping around in her crib, and Noah brings her in to be nursed.  She and Linc are happy to see each other.

Within a few minutes I hear Deacon and Roman turn their "Ramona Quimby" audio book on downstairs.  They don't come up, and I know they are sorting Pokemon cards or playing legos.  

A sleepy Berean wanders in soon to see what is going on.

0800: I set the baby down for play time, the other kids wander off.  I check email, facebook and schedule a couple of well child checkups online.  Ever and I head downstairs.  I haul the kitchen garbage out- Noah has already brought the can to the curb.  As I start hunting around for the camera and battery charger I answer Deacon's numerous questions about the habits of earthworms and whether or not you can ever drown an earthworm.  I finally find the camera battery, it seems that Noah had already placed it on the charger and it is ready to go.  

The boys start on their art projects, they have been really into sketching lately.

 0845: Breakfast is in process.  Lincoln and Berean like to try their hand at making their own toast.  Roman eats cereal.  Ever eats a banana and some baby food.  Deacon and I also eat toast.  I have four pieces of toast (with butter, peanut butter and sugar- we are out of jelly!) and some hot chocolate.

 I run upstairs to get the hamper from our room so that I can start on the laundry.  The hamper is no longer in our room.  Noah has taken it down for me and has already started a load of laundry. What a guy!

 The boys are dressing, brushing teeth and starting on their schoolwork for the day.  I take turns helping them with the stuff they need me for.  They do their math independently, and then they also have silent reading and math facts on their DS's that they do on their own.  I am still feeding the baby.  Lincoln comes up to tell me that he is wearing two shirts, a pair of pants and a pair of shorts.  This way he will be ready, no matter the weather.  Berean makes up a song about going potty.  The lyrics are something like, "I go wee wee and woo woo".

 1000: the boys continue their schoolwork and are already begging for a snack.  I hold them off.  I put Ever down for her nap, and deal with Berean who is throwing a fit over her clothes.

Somewhere in there I talk to my mom about borrowing one of their cars for the night.  It is a long and complicated situation, and not very interesting.  School work continues.

1145: The kids have a prelunch snack.  The baby wants attention and I give her a bowl of cheerios on the floor.  She immediately dumps them out and they fly everywhere.  I knew that was going to happen, but I also knew it would give me enough time to get lunch ready.

 Berean makes a bigger mess of the cheerios, but does get the plates out of the dishwasher so that she can set the table.

 The boys take a break from schoolwork to have a Pokemon battle.

 Since I am busy cleaning up the kitchen and making lunch, Berean thinks it is a fine time to start twirling the broom over her head (narrowly missing the baby's head) and unplugging the telephone.

 Somewhere in the morning I managed to take a shower.  I forget where I fit that in.
I took a picture of the peanut butter while I was putting it away.  Roman balanced his latest Lego ship on top.  The peanut butter is a very important staple of our diet.

 I will spare you the pictures of the french toast (complete with peanut butter and syrup) that I served the kids for lunch.  Everyn loved it, Roman didn't.  In fact, Roman threw a fit over the lack of a likeable lunch and the fact that I told them that I was bringing them to the pumpkin patch in the afternoon.  There was a few minutes of chaos while he lost it and Berean also chose that time to scream about something.

I called Noah to see what he thought I should do about the pumpkin patch.  Taking 5 kids to the pumpkin patch all by myself is one thing, taking 5 kids anywhere when one of them doesn't want to go is quite another.

In the end I decided to go.  I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the kitchen and we finished up the boy's schoolwork.

1400: we leave for the pumpkin patch.  Roman is still upset, he thinks he is going to have to do a lot of walking, and he doesn't care much for walking.

1425: We arrive at the Farm.  I had gotten a Crowd Cut deal, and it turned out to be a really good deal for our family.  There were very few people around, and the kids all had a great time.  The first thing we did was stand in the pirate ship and watch a pumpkin get shot out of a cannon.

 The boys love photo op booths.

 We took a wagon out to the pumpkin patch.  I made the mistake of dressing Everyn in a warm (but blue!) sweatshirt.  She was assumed to be a boy for the remainder of the day.

 Roman was quite pleased about the presence of the wagon.  As he told me, "I like to ride".  Berean was quite impressed with the patch.  One of her recent library books was all about Dora the Explorer in a pumpkin patch.  Bre walked around picking up pumpkins and commentating about their sizes.

 In the end we chose not to get any pumpkins from the actual patch.  It seemed easier to pick up ones at the exit- I had little desire (and no hands!) to try to manage 4 pumpkins.

 And the kids were surprisingly ok with that decision.

 I love it when I can get photos of them together!

 There was a big slide with a lot of steps to climb.  I think Berean went down that slide about 20 times.  She was crazy- hair flying everywhere with a frenzied expression on her face.  It was fun, I guess.

 I liked the "How Tall This Fall sign".  Good idea.

 I finally drug Berean away from the slide and the boys started chasing each other all over the dirt track on the large trikes.  As near as I can figure, when they saw the trikes and  a couple of buildings that they could play in,  their imaginations went wild and they soon were in character with an exciting storyline.

There was a Criminal HQ and lots of chase scenes, that's all I know.

 Berean couldn't quite make her trike go.

 Next we went to look at the petting zoo.  I had no quarters for food, and Roman apologized very nicely and eloquently to the poor goats. Berean actually enjoyed herself.  Maybe her fear of animals is lessening?  This donkey was braying loudly and looked quite scary as he did it.  I don't know what made him so angry.

 We looked around a little more and then I let them each pick out a pumpkin.  They wanted ones that they could carry, so my total pumpkin bill (at 35 cents a pound) was only $7.25.

 1630 we drove home and arrived around 1700.  I had been intending to make Wild Rice Soup, but it was really too late to start if we wanted to eat before 8pm.  I called Noah and  asked him to pick up Papa Murphy's Pizza.    The girls stayed sleeping as I brought them in from the van.  The boys cleaned up the family room, completed their jobs and started their "screen time".

Since I was off the hook for supper I wrote up a list for Noah for the weekly Tuesday shopping trip and tried looking at some recipe/menu plans.  I got distracted by the allure of emeals and looked into the details of that plan.  I may sign up, and it may be soon.  I also packed up the boys swimming bag for the next day.

Noah arrives home around 6 and we throw the pizza in.  He gave me a package. I had been looking at this book online, and must have left the page up.  He ordered it for me.  We talked about emeals and menu planning.  It is a lot of work to homeschool the kids all day, then do all the cleaning/other stuff and then come up with suppers.  Next to the book is Fels-napha laundry soap.  Time to grate some more up for laundry detergent. sigh.

 Everyn is always very excited to see Noah.

 After this the pictures stop.  We ate supper and then loaded everyone up in the van to drop Noah's car off at the mechanics.  Next we swung by my parent's to pick up the vehicle we were borrowing.  When we finally got home everyone was read to and pj'd.  Noah took over the bedtime routine so that I could lay down.

2030-2200  I slept.
2200: Noah woke me up and I got dressed for work.  No time to do my Monday night pushups (we usually do pushups together on Monday nights- we use a deck of playing cards and keep flipping and pushing until we are through the deck).  Also, although I have kept up with the laundry all day, I have not put it away.  Oh well.

2225: I leave for work.  Noah stays home and does pushups.
2300: my night begins!

Everyn Laura

The other day at the Y the worker wrote out Everyn's name like this: Everynn.

I liked it.  I looked at it and wondered why we hadn't thought about adding the extra "n".  I mentioned it to Noah when I got home and he said, "why would you do that?  Why just add an extra letter that doesn't do anything?  That is crazy."

I guess that is why we didn't spell the made-up name with an extra letter.  That would be too crazy.

Ever is about 9 1/2 months now.  We moved her bed into Berean's room, and that has been going well.  Ever goes to bed around 8pm and sleeps until 7 or 8.  She occasionally will get up earlier than that to nurse and then goes back to sleep.  I am having to supplement a little, and that helps her to sleep longer.  She shares a bedtime story with Bre most nights, and then we give her a kiss and pop her in bed.

When one of us goes to get her in the morning she is usually just looking around, and when she sees us she starts kicking her legs with great rhythm and abandon.  It is the same thing she does in the bathtub.  That girl loves to kick those little legs!

This little girl really likes to eat.  She eats baby food, but also is quite good at bananas, bread with jelly, waffles and pancakes.  She can eat soft fruits, vegetables and beans.  She is not a big fan of pasta.  She is doing better at "big people food" and really does prefer to feed herself.

She is not crawling yet, and even though we are anxious for this milestone, we are also kind of happy that she can't get everything yet.  She likes to put things in her mouth and I will be quite busy as soon as she can get wherever she wants to go.  She tries to move, but usually ends up going backwards or gets frustrated.An eager sibling is always ready to run over to "rescue" her and either dumps more toys in her lap, or delivers her to my lap.

Ever loves her siblings and her Mom and Dad.  She watches the other kids and laughs and laughs.  It is so funny because she knows when they are being silly and she is quite willing to give them lots of positive feedback.  She demands attention when anyone walks in the room- if they don't pay enough attention to her, she tries to get their attention by making little noises, then louder noises.  She rewards anyone who acknowledges her with a big grin.  I haven't had her to the clinic lately, but she will be going soon and then I will see how big she is!

As Deacon often says, "I think we have the happiest baby in the world!"