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Randomness

My goal is one blog post a week, on Tuesdays. And this Tuesday morning I’m squeezing in a post before we head out the door for preschool, sewing class, and errands.

After making breakfast for the kids, I have about two minutes to write a blog post before it’s time to get them dressed and head out the door. I am really looking forward to summer when the only think on our schedule is a trip to the pool!

The other day a friend gave me a couple bags of Amish Friendship Bread Starter, so, yesterday we were baking – also yesterday my husband was home sick, and we had ballet lessons and grocery shopping. Anyways, back to the baking. So, Amish Friendship Bread makes great bread and muffins, but it does not make great pizza crust. I tried a pizza last night for dinner, and while the crust turned out great, it was too sweet. It would have been perfect for a dessert pizza, but with cheese and pepperoni on it, it was pretty bad. Well, I thought it was pretty bad. The kids loved it – I don’t know what wrong with them!

I did save myself another starter and in 10 days I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that I’m going to try. Since the dough is sweet, they should be pretty tasty!

Yeast is such an interesting thing. One person starts a bag, lets it sit for a while then shares part of it with someone else, who can then just add sugar, flour, and milk, and the yeast keeps producing. No need to add more yeast. It’s amazing how it keeps going and going and going.

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Shopping

So, I’m enjoying shopping at WalMart less and less. Now, lest anyone get the wrong idea, I’m not against WalMart, or large retailers, for that matter, but WalMart has less and less stuff that I need these days.

For example, my shopping trip today, which is just like all my shopping trips to WalMart for the past year or so. I’m just about to give up on the store. I’m not sure if WalMart is stocking less or my needs are just more specific, but I find that I just can’t find what I’m looking for these days.

Back to my shopping trip today. First of all we (me and 3 little kids) stopped off at Office Max for some paper and file folders because I know from past experience that WalMart doesn’t carry the large box of paper I need and I’m really not sure whether or not they carry file folders and why put myself through the frustration of looking for something that’s not there. I really did try to only look for things that I expected WalMart to have.

Next, on to WalMart. First on the list blond bobby pins and hair nets – I need these for ballet buns for my 5 yr old’s ballet pictures and performances. Well…WalMart only has brown or black bobby pins, which is kind of ok since no one sees the bobby pins anyways, but blond ones would hide better. And they only have brown hair nets, which are not going to work. I decide not to get the bobby pins either because I’m going to have to stop somewhere else for hair nets anyways so I may as well get the blond bobby pins I want while I’m at it.

Next on the list, large storage bin. I have about 8 of these in my garage with kids clothing and I need one more for some clothing the baby just outgrew and WalMart is always where I buy them. Well…they’re out of stock.

Next item, birthday gift for the Girl’s friend. WalMart does have barbies, 1/4 of an isle of barbies, but at least enough that the girls find a good gift that they’re happy with.

On to bottles. I’m switching to bottles for the baby because he just won’t stop biting me and it’s becoming a real problem – btw, stopping nursing is more painful than starting, in my opinion. I have one bottle that he likes but it’s only a 5oz bottle and I would like to get a 10oz one for when I know he’s going to drink more than 4oz. He at least understands the word “more” and gives me the bottle to refill when he wants more so refills are not a problem. Also, having one bottle is very inconvenient. I get to the bottle aisle and there are push carts full of packaged diapers and other baby items all lined up in front of the bottles (no stock person in sight). So, I have to basically climb over boxes to look at bottles, and of course, they only have the newborn nipples. I want the 6month+ nipples since they flow faster and that’s easier for my 9month old. I give up, I’m going to have to try Target or Babies R Us later this week. Probably Babies R Us because if they don’t have them I’ll have to order them online somewhere.

On the way out of the store I grab a bag of puffed goldfish because the kids want a snack, and we pass these almond joy pudding mixes. I don’t understand, why do they have almond joy pudding mixes and taco flavored goldfish puffs but no blond hair net? – I actually found the blond hair nets AND blond bobby pins at Kroger, it’s sad when my grocery store has more selection…

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Help

Last week I had two of my sisters stay with me for a couple of days. They’re teenagers, and one of the things I love about coming from a large family – though we did figure out that my youngest sister is closer in age to my kids than I am to my youngest sister. Anyways, having help for a couple of days was so nice!

I actually ended up having several surprise projects come up while they were here and it was wonderful to be able to get my projects done AND have a clean house – this week I got lots of projects completed or made progress on them (I’ll post some of my latest logos once I finish them), learned some new things about illustrator, got my bathrooms cleaned (actually I didn’t do this part), laundry done, and my kitchen miraculously stayed clean (thank you kitchen genie…i.e. sister!). I even made it to a meeting all by myself, alone, with no kids!

Oh, and they helped my 5yr old with her school work – we’re all homeschooled so they know how to teach as well as I do – or almost, my one sister did tell my 5yr old that 5+3=7…not going to let her live that one down…, It was actually kind of nice, because they could get her to read way more than I can, maybe she just expects more help from me, so she finished up a couple of books while they were here. Very nice! I did make up for it by helping my one sister with her algebra (this is the sister who “can’t” add 5+3). I discovered that I actually still remember how to do it, it’s been a few years, but, I did always enjoy math, gives me hope for my kid’s teenage years!

And, we had time for some fun stuff, Rummikub is a favorite game for my family so we played many rounds of that – with good natured teasing and cajoling. One day we even started teaching my 5yr old how to play, which was pretty exciting for her, she got to be one of the “adults” for a few minutes.

As much as I enjoy bing a mom it was so nice to get a break and have fun hanging out with my sisters at the same time.

It’s so refreshing to see that there’s an end to the tunnel of young kids. Actually, it’s more like a cave than a tunnel, with pretty pictures on the wall – figuratively and literally (with pink sparkly nail polish), that most of the time I enjoy. But, sometimes, when I get tired of my current pace it’s nice to see that there’s more to life than sticky fingers and the alphabet song. And it’s good to laugh and play, and see the bottom of my laundry basket!

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Birthday Party Woes

So, I went to my daughter’s friend’s 6th Birthday party the other day and I find myself puzzled as to why we as parents continually put ourselves through this. Not that I hate birthday parties, but they all seem to operate the same way, and I can’t figure out why we all do it this way. I’ve been to over a dozen such birthday parties – children’s museum, bounce houses, pool party, splash pad, princess party, gym party, pizza party, and I’m sure a few more I can’t remember at the moment.

They all go the same way, a group of parents (usually just the moms and a few dads), most of whom do not know each other, all arrive at the designated party location. Every child present at the party knows the birthday child and usually knows a few of the other children so there’s a general mobbing/following of the birthday child as she plays because every child wants to play with her and they don’t know most of the other children.

The parents stand (or sit, if there happen to be seats) at the edges of the room and watch the kids play, if you’re lucky, you know one of the parents (other than the birthday child’s parents) at the party and you have someone to talk to, but over half of the room doesn’t know any one else at the party so you say hi to the person you happen to be standing next to, carry on a short awkward conversation about where your kid goes to school (I homeschool so my conversation usually ends with the other parent saying something about having a cousin or other distant relative that homeschools). Then you wait for an hour to an hour and a half while the kids play.

After playing the kids enter the party room and are served cake, icecream, and juiceboxes. Sometimes they even get pizza, chicken nuggets, or other snacks. Really nice hosts have over prepared and have enough food for the parents as well (which only half of the parents will eat because you feel awkward eating at a kids party). But, at most parties, the parents just sit (or stand) and watch as their kids eat.

Next, the birthday child opens presents – which are generally all toys, with lots of admonitions from parents telling their kids to back up and give the birthday child space. Your child receives a goody bag (full of candy and other small objects that will soon be lost or destroyed) and you go home.

Now, what I can’t figure out is why we do this to ourselves multiple times a year. First of all, why do we all stand by bored as can be and watch our kids play for over an hour? You’d think someone would have something for the parents to do. Second, why is there never any food for the parents – we’ve been there just as long as the kids and I’m always hungry come cake time. Usually if the host family provides the food there is food for the parents but if the food is catered by the party place then there is only food for the kids, you’d think they would provide something for the parents as well.  Third, why do we always purchase toys for other children – I dread all the toys my children receive on their birthdays, I never have room to fit them all, and yet I always buy toys (and so does everyone else).

Don’t get me wrong, I love a good party, but it just seems like there must be a better way to do kids parties instead of putting ourselves through this over and over.

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Winter Hacks

So someone on facebook shared these “life hacks” for winter. Actually, if you do a google search you can find them everywhere, and some of them are pretty cool, like kitty litter for if you’re stuck in snow (now, I never have kitty litter so a lot of good this information would do me were I ever stuck in snow). And apparently if you spray your windshield with a vinegar/water mix it will keep the ice from sticking to it – that would be nice, if it works. I like the dry your shoes quickly with newspaper trick and the spray your snow shovel with pan spray so the snow won’t stick – but I never get the paper, I don’t use pan spray, and I don’t own a snow shovel. All very useful tricks if I had something to use them with.

Some of the “hacks” were just downright entertaining.

1. Leave your oven door open after baking so you can help warm up your house – obviously this person is neither clumsy nor has kids. It’s like asking for someone to get burned. Even if I didn’t have kids I would probably trip over the open oven door or do something else to come in contact with the hot oven interior.

2. Place socks on your toilet seat to keep it warm – I can just hear it now “Mom! there’s ANOTHER sock in the toilet!”, “Mom! the toilet won’t flush!”, “Mom! Mom! Mom! come quick, there’s water all over the floor!” Most likely, I would enter the bathroom to see one of my children holding a soggy sock or to see the toilet running over…

3. Try heating a room with tealights – huh? what? how about try burning down your home with tealights? Really, could you heat a room with these? Maybe…but sounds pretty dangerous

4. Use tin foil behind your radiator, space heater, or heating vents to reflect heat back into the house – aaahhh, the aliens are coming! (so, I’ve watched a few too many scifi movies) But, really? Tinfoil in all my rooms?

5. Wear cotton gloves over your hands after you moisturize. This will help lock the moisture into your skin – because I have nothing better to do than sit all day with my hands in gloves…

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Rest

Rest, as a Mother, it’s one of those things I always need but can never seem to get.Really, it wasn’t that bad till my third child came along and now I just can’t seem to get a break. I’m constantly on, constantly alert to what the kids are doing, and constantly just trying to keep up.

This Sunday at Church our class was about resting in God and everyone was talking about how they find their place of rest, or their quiet place. Now for some people, that’s just simply finding time for Bible study. For me, being slightly introverted, it means that sometimes, I just need quiet and alone. Do you know how hard quiet and alone is to get with 3 young children? Yep, really hard!

It’s a constant struggle to find that quiet, with 3 young kids, homeschooling my oldest, freelancing from home, and just keeping up with friends, family, kids activities, and other events. Quiet is hard to come by.

First I had to overcome feeling guilty about giving myself some quiet time away from everyone, and I had to give myself permission to just rest, relax, and unwind every so often (that means no cleaning, no working). Some weeks it just works out, the kids go to bed and I get a few hours to myself, other weeks I’m just desperate for quiet time so I put the baby down for his nap and send the girls to their room to play quietly. They have to play with the door shut until I come and get them. Usually, a little over an hour.

The first time I did this I felt bad about shutting them in their room for an hour, but really, after an hour of quiet I felt so much better and was able to get so much more done and engage with my kids so much better that I no longer hesitate when I need some space. I’ve done it enough times, they know the rules. They don’t have to take a nap, they just have to play quietly and get along for an hour. And, usually, when I come get them, they are so busy playing I just poke my head in, tell them they’re allowed to come out now, they say ok, I close the door, and they appear an hour or so later.

Second, I had to learn to be ok with not getting everything done. It’s ok that the kitchen isn’t always clean, the laundry isn’t always done, and my floor looks like a toy factory.

Third, I’m learning the importance of teaching my kids to do things for themselves. My oldest is 5 so there’s obviously a limit to what I can expect the kids to do but we do require that the girls pick up their room every night, and that they take their plates and put them on the counter after dinner. The 5yr old is responsible for feeding the fish every morning. I’m working on teaching them to consistently put away their pjs when they get dressed in the morning, and hang their coats up when they come in the door. Every little bit helps and it’s important for children to learn to be responsible for helping around the house.

And lastly, I’m learning that when I’m taking my time to rest, I need to actually rest. If I’m tired, I need to nap, if I need to think, I need to sit quietly and process through decisions that need to be made, whatever my goal is for my quiet time, I need to focus on it while I have the chance. And there are those days that it just doesn’t work for me, the baby is cranky, the girls argue, or my phone just won’t quit ringing. Those days, I just know when it’s time to give up and I’ll give rest another try when I get the chance.

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If you Give a Pig a Party

Hopefully everyone is familiar with the children’s book “If you Give a Pig a Party“. If not, you’ve probably heard of  “If you Give a Pig a Pancake“, it’s by the same author and has the same basic story. We acquired it in a Chick-fil-a kid’s meal one day and I can now quote the book (and probably draw you all the pictures) by memory. Basically, the premise is if you give a pig one thing, he wants something else, if you give him something else, he was something else again, and on and on.

There are just some things in life that I do that remind me so much of this book. And it’s frustrating and amusing all at the same time.

For example, my 5yr old had been asking for a pet for ages, and my husband kept talking about getting fish or a bird, so, one day at a yard sale I picked up a 10 gallon fish tank for $5. It had colored pebbles and lots of little rocks and accessories. My husband is all excited, we clean it, and he sets it up. About $100 later we have all the right filters, lights, etc. and my 5 yr old dutifully feeds the fish every morning.

We have 3 guppies, two males and one female. So…the female has babies, at least 30 babies. That’s a LOT of babies for a 10 gallon tank.

So, we get a 55 gallon tank and my husband and his brother build a cabinet (which still doesn’t have doors – so the baby gets into it all the time) for the fishtank. So, we fill up the fishtank and $200 later we have mostly the right lights, filters, bubbles, plants, and fish.

We let the tank sit for a few days then my husband starts moving fish from the small tank to the big one, the small fish tank was supposed to be put away before our Christmas party (which was a week and a half before Christmas). Well…both fish tanks are still up. The larger tank has an algae problem so he can’t move all the fish just in case they start dying. Which, we’ve lost a few fish, but we have over 10 guppies still so I’m really not at all worried about them. They’ll probably be having more babies soon… The moral of a story, don’t buy a fishtank!

Or, once my kids discovered their first barbies and polly pockets it just snowballed from there. They also discovered that said toys can be easily acquired at yard sales and Goodwill. Now, they have a room full of them! To be fair, they do play with them every day so it’s not a huge deal, but I am beginning to think that I should get rid of all the rest of their toys so they have more room for their dolls. Never buy that first barbie for a girl who loves pink, dresses, and lace unless you really want your house to be overrun by them!

Oh! and, my husband has recently discovered the fun of purchasing items on Craigslist. He purchased a copy of Rocksmith and decided he needed a guitar. He purchased 3 guitars on Craigslist (sold one of them so we’re down to two). How does Craigslist work at my house? I sell things and he buys things. I think we come out even in the end. Actually, hopefully, one of these days I’ll get around to trying out the game myself!

None of this stuff is bad, I’m glad the kids have their toys and my husband has his hobbies, just some days, I wish it all took up less space in my house!

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Sleep

So, what is the definition of a good night’s sleep? Seems like it changes every few years. I was reading an old health book the other day and it said 12 hrs a night was needed for an adult. I thought it was 8? And is 8 hours of interrupted sleep enough or does it have to be uninterrupted. As the mother of an infant, I’m definitely getting interrupted. What I considered a good night’s sleep before kids is way different than what I consider a good night now.

Someone posted an article the other day on how nursing a baby at night is so good for your baby. That’s nice, but how about some sleep for me? (actually, I sleep while I nurse at night). I saw this awesome nursing timer for using in the middle of the night, it lets you know when it’s time to switch sides so you know how long the baby’s been eating. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve woken up over an hour after I started nursing and found the baby sound asleep in my lap. (no worries, I know this happens so I make sure my arm is well supported with a pillow and the baby can’t go anywhere when I fall asleep)

The advice to “sleep when your baby sleeps” is great advice, but I’m not sure how I’m supposed to do that with two other little kids as well. I’ve tried it, and the house turns into a disaster zone while I’m snoozing. Or, better yet, they decide to join me in bed. I’m remarkably good at sleeping through things like i-pad games, dvds, and spilled beverages. (in the days before kids I also slept through tornado alarms, fire alarms, alarm clocks, and who knows what else).

So, what is a good night’s sleep? For me these days, it’s getting at least 8 hours and only getting interrupted once. And somehow, my day seems normal after a night like that. Even having to get up twice to take care of kids in the middle of the night isn’t too bad…

I compare this to my days before kids when I was getting 9 to 10 hours of uninterrupted sleep and if something woke me up I was so tired and grumpy the next day.

I remember as a teenager calling my mom in the middle of the night (1 am, 2 am, something like that) and talking for over an hour because I’d just had a really bad day. For some reason, mom never seemed to mind. I never understood, how was she not totally irritated that I’d woken her up?

As a mother with 3 little ones I finally understand, if my kids need me, I’m there for them. It’s ok that it takes me 3 cups of coffee to wake up in the morning. I still prefer my full night sleep, and 1 cup of coffee in the morning. But I know, there’s just those days when I’m needed, and when I need to be there, I’ll be available. And the truth is, I really don’t mind. (like these last couple of nights when the baby is teething, or last week when the girls were up sick, I know they need me and it’s all ok).

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Walking on Water

Last week I talked about my difficulty with “setting out” and I talked about a song “Oceans” that I loved. The song to me, is a reference to Peter walking on water. So, the other day, I was really excited when my 5yr old’s Bible lesson was about Peter walking on water. I was like, last Sunday we sang a song about walking on water, last Tuesday I wrote a blog post about walking on water (really it was on setting out, but same thing), and today we’re studying Peter walking on water. Pretty cool. Not sure where God’s taking me with this, but you have to step outside the boat sometime, right? (actually hanging my foot out and testing the water with my toe sounds better, but we’ll get to that in a minute)

So, I’m always telling people how similar my daughter’s personality is to my own. And, one of the things I love about teaching my child the Bible is seeing the story from her perspective. So, some things to know before I describe her opinion of Peter walking on water. My daughter asked Jesus in her heart shortly after she turned 5, so months ago. We often discuss what it means to have Jesus in your heart and how she relates to others and circumstances because of that. My husband and I have agreed that her faith is genuine and we will allow her to take communion next time she is present with us for that, and we have begun discussing baptism – she’s terrified of water on her head so we’re not pushing it because this needs to be something she does when she’s ready but we’ve started dialogue to help her understand why we do it, what it is, and what it means.

Anyways…all that to say, I have a lot to work with when we do our Bible lessons. So, I’m excited about Peter walking on water, it’s one of my favorite Bible stories. It’s a story about faith, and trust, and doing the impossible. I start by telling her about this big storm, and all the disciples including Peter are out on the lake on the boat and they’re scared. So they see Jesus walking on the water coming to the boat. At this point, she thinks that’s pretty cool that Jesus can walk on water. He’s Jesus, so he can do anything!

I continue on by telling her that Peter sees Jesus and says “I want to walk on water too!” and Jesus tells him to “come on out!”. At this point my child states that “that’s crazy” (you see where I’m going with this now). I kept on with the story and told her about how Peter walked out on the water, he was actually walking on the water because you see, Jesus can do anything but with Jesus in our hearts we can do anything too. She looks skeptical. So we continue on, Peter looked around at the storm clouds and the big waves and he got scared and when he got scared he started to sink so he cried out and asked Jesus to rescue him. Jesus came over and pulled him out of the water, placing him back on top of the water and they walk to the boat together.

I think I did a pretty good job telling the story and emphasizing that with God all things are possible. However, my 5 year old’s opinion was. “if I was Peter I would have stayed in the boat, I might have sat down and put my foot over the side and put my toe in the water” (thought she seemed doubtful that she would have even ventured this far, the boat was obviously much safer)

I was shocked, what child doesn’t think walking on water would be awesome? Apparently mine.

But then I realized, actually, I agree with her, putting my foot over the side and swishing it in the water while remaining in the safety of the boat sounds like a pretty good idea to me. If I don’t like the water I’ll just pull my foot back into the boat and we’ll be done with the water. When I tell people my child is a lot like me, I’m not kidding. We seem to have the same automatic opinion of “setting out” or “walking on water”. We just like the boat better.

But, you know, when Jesus calls you out on the water, it’s important to go.

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Setting Out

Numbers 9: 23a “At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out…”

Numbers 9 is talking about the Israelites traveling in the wilderness and following the cloud. When it lifted they followed it, when it stopped they camped.

Now, I’m not a big fan of change. And one thing I’ve learned about life, is that there’s always change. Babies are born, children get older, my kitchen is clean one second and dirty the next, children learn to read, children learn to walk, people get married, etc. We’ve had lots of changes this year, and as we just passed our 8 year marriage anniversary I’ve been reflecting on all the changes in the past 8 years. Change is good, you don’t grow without it, but sometimes I just want to sit still, rest, and have no change. (maybe that’s why I like yoga so much)

Some changes are harder than others. Some changes I even welcome. My oldest is learning to read, it’s SO NICE having a child who can almost read in the house! My baby just started crawling, while I rejoice in this next stage in his development, I also mourn that I must now put the baby gate back up in front of our steps – I’ll be climbing over that thing for the next year or so. (actually, I’m really happy he’s crawling, now he can follow his sisters around without requiring my assistance). We’re outgrowing our house actually, really, I think we have outgrown it. We’re looking for a new, larger house. Which is so sad. I love my house. We bough a foreclosure that needed work and things are the way I want them, we re-did the bathrooms, kitchen, flooring, doors, and even the roof. If I wasn’t running out of room, I would be happy to stay here forever. We’ve begun the house hunting process and it’s no fun. My husband doesn’t like the price, I don’t like the layout, it’s in the wrong area of town, it’s ok but not great, and on and on. It’s a good thing we don’t have to move anytime soon as this house hunting may take a year or so at the rate we’re moving. Added to that, we need a new car. I have 3 kids stuffed in the back of an SUV, so far we’ve determined that we need a van, we haven’t agreed on how many seats, how much we can spend, or even when we can purchase one. (if you haven’t figured this out already my husband and I both take a long time to make decisions, he has to research a lot and I have to come around to being ok with the change). I really like my car – actually, I really like my husband’s car but it’s way too small for 3 kids in the back – if only BMW made a 10 passenger van!

With a child in school – I’m homeschooling btw – things are just busier, I’m more tied down to a schedule because we do school every day. I’m loving that she’s learning but it’s changed everything. I’m having to evaluate what activities I have time for and what, if anything I need to drop.

Since the birth of our 3rd child I just feel that things have been constantly in a state of movement. New baby, oldest starting school, need a new house, work is busy (I freelance from home), etc. It’s a bit overwhelming.

As my husband was reading the girl’s devotions the other night he read this verse and it just made me pause. “At the command of the Lord they camped, and at the command of the Lord they set out…” What if they had just decided to stay where they were, there’s water, we already pitched the tent, we’re comfortable here?  Then Sunday we sing this song called “Oceans“. I love the whole song, especially the first line “You call me out upon the waters, the great unknown where feet may fail”. “At the command of the Lord they set out” Even if they didn’t want to set out, they still set out. Just like Peter set out to walk on water when Jesus told him too. I probably would have looked at the water, and at the boat, and said, “nope, I think I’ll stay right here, I know the boat is safe”. But, what if once, I just quit evaluating the circumstances for myself and “set out”? I wonder what would happen?