Monday, April 25, 2011

Long Weekend + Family Time = Fun!

   We had a busy but great Easter Weekend!  Of course, it's always busy around here, even when it's not so great!  :) 


   All the fun started on Friday...Daddy has the blessing of working for a small company with Christian bosses, so he always has Good Friday off.  We are thankful for this extra blessing, as so many have to work on that day!  First-Born was out of school, so we decided to break out Daddy's new tiller and get our little garden planted.  We spent the morning tilling the ground and getting the dirt ready for our new little plants.  Then we headed out for lunch, and to the feed store to buy our plants.  We decided on tomatoes, bell peppers, okra, cucumbers, watermelons, cantaloupes, and strawberries.  The "little" garden was getting bigger by the minute, so we finally dragged the boys away and went home to plant. 


   After we got home, the boys were tired, so we tried to lay them down for a nap.  All that we succeeded in doing was putting Daddy to sleep on the boy's floor, so we decided to skip nap.  Daddy had a great idea (!!) to get out the cotton candy machine, so then we had cotton candy for supper.  Well, we had a few other things too, but that's all the boys wanted!!  Then Mommy and Daddy headed out to plant the plants, and the boys were so tired that they wanted to stay in and watch a movie instead.  Well, except for Stitch, who would go outside no matter how tired he was!  With the help of Daddy's work light, we got all the plants in the ground, and then it was time to "plant" the boys in bed! 


   On Saturday, Daddy had to head into work for a little while.  (I guess the thought of two days off in a row was too much for him!)  While he did that, Mommy and the boys dyed Easter eggs.  Middle Biscuit was careful to explain to Stitch that this did not mean that we made the eggs dead, but that we painted them!  Once we had that cleared up, we started our egg dying fun.  Mommy's OCD has struggles with the whole egg-dying thing.  Small children plus cups of paint usually equals a big mess...but we did great!  (Definitely better than last year, when we ended up with an entire cup of PURPLE dye on the kitchen floor...)  Here's what our eggs looked like:

   Pretty neat, huh?  One thing I've decided for next year is not to buy the off-brand egg dying kit.  The boys wanted the dinosaur one, so I caved.  The dye came off on my fingers for the rest of the weekend, whenever I tried to peel an egg to eat!  So, next year it's definitely Paas!


    We went to meet Daddy for lunch, and then decided to go shopping to see if I could find something for myself to wear for Easter Sunday.  After a fruitless attempt at JC Penny's (don't even get me started on the clothes in that store!), I was able to find some really cute things at Ross.  Plus, Ross is always a great deal, which makes me feel less guilt about buying stuff for myself! 


  We ended Saturday night with haircuts and baths for the boys, because we all needed to look our best for church the next day!  


   Sunday we were up bright and early, and getting ready to head to church to worship our Risen Saviour!  All my guys were decked out in their suits and ties looking handsome!  (It was Stitch's first time to wear a suit...he was so cute!  If you're my Facebook friend, be on the look-out for pics!)  While I was getting ready, I overheard Middle Biscuit call out to his brothers, "Hurry up, Mommy is almost done working on her face!"  When I got done with my "work" (!!), we headed out the door.  Then it was time for lunch at Mimi and Pa's house, where we ate turkey.  We called it "Thanksgiving 2", because we had all the trimming to go with it!  Yummy!  


   I thought I would share the reason that we don't really get our kids anything for Easter.  Lots of people do Easter baskets on Sunday morning, or Saturday night, but usually we don't.  This is not for any "moral" reason, except for maybe Mommy's sanity.  It's because of this:





   This is the  bucket of candy that they got from everyone else!!  This bucket is FULL of nothing but candy.  I didn't take a picture of any of the other things they got, including stuffed animals, coloring books, crayons, squirt guns and other water toys, and other tiny plastic things too numerous to mention.  So, I figure they certainly don't need anything else from us...good grief!  My kiddos are blessed to have so many people in their lives who love them!  (What am I supposed to DO with all that!  It would send them into a diabetic coma!  We will probably be eating this when next Easter rolls around...I know there's still a few bunnies floating around from last year!)  *Sigh*


   That was our weekend!  Today was one of those days for recovery...the house showed lots of evidence from the long weekend!  But it is mostly under control now, so I feel better!  Hope all of you had a great weekend celebrating our Saviour!  :) 

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

LEGO Fun!

   I was reminded by a faithful reader that it has been a while since I have updated this blog.  (The fact that I even have faithful readers still somewhat boggles my mind!)  So, I've been gathering pictures of LEGO creations that have been cropping up around here, and I thought I'd share them with you all.  It's been a while since we had a good LEGO post!  So here goes, from youngest to oldest...


*This was built by Stitch (2 years old) all by himself.  He wanted to be in the picture with his creation, but I talked him into letting me take one with just the creation!  He is definitely not shy about cameras!  It's an airplane, I think...





 
   *The next one was built by the Middle Biscuit.  He is our creative, artistic one, so his LEGO creations are always interesting.  He is meticulous about having them "just so" and he know exactly how he wants them to look, and works hard to transfer his ideas into something concrete.  





    *This next one was done by First-Born.  He always has a story to go with his creations, and he is much more into using LEGO creations to play out his make-believe stories.  He said this was a police ship, with a "punishment rack" for the bad guys it catches.  (Notice the skeleton hanging there also...apparently this person was never sorry for his crimes and had to hang there until, well...he became a skeleton!)  Also, notice the large chest of treasure...police work is very lucrative when there's no such thing as an "evidence locker"! 


 


   *Next comes my recent LEGO adventure.  I am much more into the following the steps and building the "sets."  These next few are from LEGO Harry Potter (Okay, I admit it, I'm a Harry Potter fan!).  They are Hagrid's hut (which has a light-up brick that makes the fireplace look like it's working), then Harry and Ron facing Aragog the giant spider (isn't he great!).  Next is Harry freeing Dobby the house-elf from Lucius Malfoy, and finally a Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin.  (Look, they're flying!  The boys thought that was so cool!)  





   *Last but not least is Our Fearless Leader's most recent build.  He always has something built, but usually de-constructs it faster than I can take a picture of it!  This is a building he is building for the boys...not sure of it's intended purpose.  He usually likes the challenge of building something that will withstand being used by three boys!  :)  Middle Biscuit thought it looked "boring", so he added a workstation before I took the picture! 


   So, that's a few of the things we been working on around here.  If you want to look something else up, I saw a LEGO creation of the upcoming royal wedding.  Whoever did this had to be working on it since before the royal engagement was announced!  You can probably find it if you Google "Lego royal wedding."  It obviously took a lot of work!  Also, we were excited to find out that LEGO is releasing a new line of sets from Pirates of the Caribbean!!  I may enjoy Harry Potter, but Pirates has been my favorite for a long time!  It's the only thing I absolutely had to do on our trip to Disney, and it's one of the few movies I actually bought for myself.  So, since my birthday is coming up soon...guess what I want?  Besides, could there be anything cooler than a Lego man Cap'n Jack Sparrow?  I don't think so!  :)   

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

A Few Funny Moments

   Just thought I'd share a few funny things that have been said and done around here lately...hope some of them make you smile!  :)


   *Last night during prayer time, Stitch, (who is just learning to talk...he has been our late talker) decided to pray a little on his own.  Usually, Daddy leads him, and he copies what Daddy says.  Lately though, he has been thinking Daddy hasn't been praying for all the things that Stitch thinks he should, so he spends time reminding Daddy what else to pray for.  So, last night, Stitch prayed for Mimi & Pa to feel better.  Then he proceeds to pray for Pa's "baby chickens; hungry-eat; drink water; big."  Which I translated to mean that he wanted Pa's new baby chickens to learn to eat and drink so they can get bigger.  Yes, we pray for chickens around here!  :) 


   *While outside, Middle Biscuit was having a good time going down the slide.  He was sliding with hands and feet tightly by his side so he could go a little faster.  He gets to the end of the slide, jumps up and says "Hey, Mom, I went down that slide like a 'torteto' (torpedo)!  :)


   *While conversing with the First-Born concerning his ability to think about the consequences of his actions, I explained to him that you need to try to think about what might happen if you do something.  He looks at me in all seriousness and says, "But, Mom, no one can see the future!"  So I promptly answer him and say "Mommies can.  That's why we get to make the rules, because we can see what's going to happen if you break them."  (See, creative parenting!)  :) 


   *I had gotten a small bunch of roses at the grocery store the other week.  They had blossomed out, and I said "Look at those flowers; they really opened up nicely this time."  A few days later, First-Born looked at them and said, "Hey, your roses are really dying nicely now!"  *sigh*  :)  


   *Yesterday I made a chart for the First-Born of the things I want him to do after he comes home from school before he can get his TV time.  (Put things away, do homework, etc.)  When he got home from school, I told him to go look on his bedroom door and read what I had put there.  He runs off to do it, and then comes storming back into the kitchen.  He then says, "Well, THAT'S not what I wanted to see!!"  I never got out of him what exactly he was expecting... :)  


   Life is never dull around here... :) 

Monday, April 11, 2011

Positively Positive!

  Okay, so recently I've been doing some musing on conversation.  In the Bible, the word conversation can mean your way of living, but in common usage it means the words that you share with others.  No matter which definition you choose to go with, it is a struggle to keep a positive conversational outlook.  It seems that everyone is complaining about gas prices, government, peoples' behaviors, and the list goes on and on...  I mentioned my frustrations with this way of conversing to hubby the other day.  I said "Look, the world has been going to end since it began, so I don't understand why everyone is so concerned with it all of a sudden!"  It seems everywhere you turn, someone is saying something about stocking up, building shelters, or making other preparations for the next great disaster or a governmental shutdown or whatever. 


   The Bible states that God did not give us a "spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7).  Also, Jesus talks about the blessings of a child-like faith in His teachings.  Now, I look at my boys, and I realize that they have no idea the world's coming to an end, and (here's the important part!) I don't want them to!!   How can they learn to be joyful and happy and loving if they grow up under a shadow of fear?  Why don't they have this fear?  Because they know that their parents and God will take care of them.  I think God feels the same way about us.  He wants us to grow and mature knowing that He is always there for us, no matter what happens in the world around us.  He is the only thing we need to have "on hand" to be prepared for the coming days! 


   This leads me to the point of what I wanted to say.  It seems that the Christians are not immune to the fearful "conversation" that the world seems to have.  And, here's the crazy part...we have the Answer!  We already know the "end of the the story" and our part in it!  So why is it that Christians are just as quick to fall into the trap of fearful worrying and "what-if" conversations?  My pastor has been teaching through the book of Colossians in our Sunday night services.  Last night we were on Colossians 4:6.  "Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."  He brought out the fact that the word "grace" in this verse comes from the Greek root "charis" which is where we get our word "charisma" from.  It means positive, upbeat, cheerful. This verse is saying that we as Christians should make sure our speech remains positive throughout our day.  With this goal in mind, it would be very difficult to complain, fret, worry, and "what-if" your way through life!  


   The next part of the verse mentions our speech being "seasoned with salt."  Because my father has a thing for alliteration he stated this as "palatable."  We as Christians should make sure our speech is something that others can hear, and are left with a pleasant "taste" in their mouth.  That pretty much knocks out any other negative speech patterns that we find ourselves falling into!  Criticizing, comparing people, and gossip have to be eliminated with this part of the verse!  


   The verse ends with "that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man."  This moves away from what we should not say into the realm of what we should say.  We need to be prepared with a positive, palatable means of conversation in our lives.  This will lead to our speech being a powerful tool in our Christian walk.   We can use our conversational opportunities to bring people back to the Answer for all the problems...Jesus Christ!  


   So this is my personal mission for now.  I am asking God to help me put a watch on my speech, so that I will be a more positive, palatable, and powerful witness for Him.  I hope to be able to pass on the behavior to my boys as well.  I bet there will be a lot less whining and fussing if we are all trying to be as positive as we can!  I bet it would even work for grown-ups too... :) 

Friday, April 8, 2011

Wacky Wednesday

   When I was a kid, we had this book called "Wacky Wednesday."  It was about this boy who got up, and everything was crazy all throughout the day, and you had to find the silly things on every page.  My sisters and I loved finding the things that were out of place and messed up.  


   Well, this past Wednesday, I felt like I was inside that story!  The day didn't start out crazy, but it got that way in a hurry...


   I got the First-Born up for school, and then made some scrambled eggs.  The boys sat down after setting the table for breakfast, and actually ate their breakfast with only a bit of prompting.  Then we got dressed, and sent the First-Born out the door.  That's when it began to go down hill.  Stitch immediately began crying because big brother didn't give him a kiss before heading to school.  After calming him down, I tried to squeeze in a workout on the Wii Fit.  Then I began my actual workout of cleaning the house.


   Normally, the two little boys will play happily for most of the morning together while I get the cleaning wrapped up.  Not that day.  Stitch (who was probably still in a mood because of his thwarted affections) began trying to break every Lego creation made by the Middle Biscuit.  Now, our Middle Biscuit is very laid back, and usually handles himself fairly well, but when he reaches his limit, it's all over!  After breaking up the fight, the boys decided to begin following me around while I was cleaning.  The way I usually handle this is to give them jobs to do...they quickly lose interest in being with mommy when she makes them work!  So I set Middle Biscuit to dusting and made Stitch gather up all the bathroom rugs so I could mop and vacuum.  Then we were done with cleaning and it was time for lunch and nap.  ("Hallelujah Chorus" swelling in the background!)


   After getting the boys settled, I sat down for a few minutes to wait for the First-Born to arrive home.  And arrive he did... with a ton of homework (for him anyway) and two demerits.  Well, this knocked him out of the running for a Friday out of school, but he didn't seem to mind very much.  He had also whittled down his TV time from 30 minutes to 10. (I knock off 10 minutes per demerit usually.)  Settling him at the table to begin his homework, I then took the opportunity to get in the shower.  (I try to do this when Stitch is napping...it saves my sanity!)  When I got out, he still wasn't done, so I subtracted the rest of his game time, and he finally got moving, and was done in five minutes.  (It wasn't that much homework...)  


   While I gathered stuff for Patch Club performance that evening, and began supper, the boys started "playing."  I say "playing" because it was really fighting interspersed with moments of quiet.  Middle Biscuit came running to show me a facial injury given to him by his big brother, and so we had the talk about being careful and watching what you're doing while you are playing.


  I don't think 10 minutes went by when M. B. came running up crying with fair-sized mark on his head from where big brother had thrown the wooden sword this time.  Well, as this was a direct disobedience of the warning we had just had, we had to go to my room for a "conversation."  After this, I recommenced supper preparations and fielded a phone call from our Fearless Leader saying he was on his way home.  At the end of the phone conversation, First-Born comes running up and starts babbling about an emergency that he needed me for.  Hanging up, I headed into the front room, and saw soda spewing all over the carpet and wall.  He had thrown the wooden sword (AGAIN!) and hit a box of soda cans that was on the floor.  I told him to get a bucket (in a "not calm" voice, I admit it!) and start cleaning up the mess.  We then had another, longer "conversation" in my room, after which it was time for supper.  By this time Mommy was ready for bed, but we had still church and a performance to get through!  

   Thankfully, it went well, and everyone was still alive at the end of the day.  Including me!  Needless to say, I was facing Thursday with some amount of trepidation, but it was a much better day.  I'm glad the Lord knows our limits, and doesn't throw at us more than we can handle!  Today has started much better also, and we are headed out the door to the park!  (Running off energy is always helpful for the smoothness of the day!)  Hope you enjoyed a glimpse into one of our crazy days!  :)   

Monday, April 4, 2011

Random Observations

   So, after a busy week, I just thought I'd share a few of my random observations of late...


   Random Observation #1:  Most of the time, the things you think will work out a certain way rarely ever work out that way.  For example, we took the in-laws to a knife-making symposium on Saturday.  I really thought that Grandpa and Daddy would enjoy it, and that the boys would be kind of bored, but maybe they would learn something.  Ha!  Try reversing that!  We could hardly tear the boys away from the class on forging Damascus steel, which involves combining two types of metal to make a third type of stronger metal, which is then used to make the knives.  They were full of questions, and I was trying to explain it to them in terms they could understand.  I felt like one of those people who  have to interpret for preachers in another language!  Even Stitch was enthralled with the pneumatic hammer they used to pound the hot metal, and of course, the forge itself was fascinating!  


   Random Observation #2:  Be careful what you ask for, because you'll never know how it may come to you.  Let's just say that I have had lessons in flexibility, patience, self-control, and joyfulness this week.  Sometimes your best laid plans are not what God uses to teach you these things!  I had planned a few fun activities for Spring Break, but most of them involved being outside.  The weather had other plans though.  I was thankful that by the end of the week, the sun was back, and we could take advantage of it!  


   Random Observation # 3:  Jury duty is less exciting than I thought it would be.  I was excited to be called up, and I was one of the few people who actually wanted to get chosen to sit on a jury.  (Does this mean I have no life?)  And when he said that we would be earning $10 a day, most everyone laughed.  I thought "Well, that's more than I usually get paid in a day!"  But apparently, juries strike fear into the hearts of criminals faster than Superman, because every case on both judges' dockets settled their cases rather than have them heard before a jury.  So we were all dismissed, and my visions of "Matlock" faded away.  Oh well, maybe next time!  :)