Getting Dirty

What could be more fun than a Saturday service project that involves mud and friends? Our church spent the morning at the Latta Plantation Nature Preserve helping out with a few projects, including cleaning out the little pond area and lining the bed with rocks. The kids were all excited to help out with that one, of course.

And of course, in the process, Peanut fell into the muddy water.

It only took a few seconds for his friends to decide to join him. They had fun playing for awhile, and then almost as much fun getting hosed off. It wasn't until the walking-around-wet part that it stopped being so fun. But overall, this goes down as a fun activity. I like it when the kids think doing service is fun. And the new play area didn't hurt, either.

 

Once lunch was over, we had to run home to get cleaned up and then head to the church for the baptism of one of the little boys in my primary class. He was the last one from my class for the year and I was glad that it worked out that we could be there for his big day.

Then, there was a little yard work to do around our own house and while we were out there, I decided that we should finally get out the croquet set that we bought 3 or 4 years ago and teach the kids how to play.

I hadn't played croquet since I was about Bean's age, but I do remember loving it. We had my grandparent's old set, which was a lot more solid than this cheap one from Walmart, but this one works more or less.

 And it was mostly fun, although of course there were tears. I doubt there are any games we can play as a family that won't involve tears at this stage of our lives, but I live in hope of reaching that place some day. I've heard it's nice there.

At least the tears didn't last forever. These guys were taking a little snuggle break and checking on Tumtum who got to join the family outside and pig out on the grass. Poor little guinea doesn't make it out into the real world very often.

In other fun news of the week, I got to go to my first Activity Days on Tuesday night--an ice cream and game night to celebrate the end of school. It was the last night for their previous leader who moves next week, and then I'll be planning and running their activities from now on. I'm pretty excited. I've thought this job sounded fun ever since Bean was born, and it's now her last year in the program, so I'm glad I'll get to do this with her before she moves on.

And finally, a picture from swim practice on the last day of school, which was a very un-summery type day. The kids were FREEZING at practice that night. I think it was 66 and breezy, and the water, according to Bug, was deathly cold from the rain the day before. At least the cold only lasted for a couple days and now were back to normal summer weather. They did an intra-squad meet on Friday night to get their base times before the regular meets start next week and it was nice and hot for all the parents sitting on the deck. Kids did pretty good, although Bean choked, literally, on her butterfly, so we'll have to see what that looks like next week. But it looks like it will be a good season.

Child-led Learning

The other day, we had one of those homeschool moments that make it all worth it.  I had put up a list of choices on the board for each of the kids, trying to give them some say in what they did that day.  They had each worked through a couple of activities while I was putting up our history timeline when we realized that the corner we need to use the most for the timeline was very hard to get to.

 

The next thing I knew, the kids had come up with a plan to rearrange the room, but first, on paper. I helped them a little with the details they needed to make it work, but they were the ones who measured the room, every piece of furniture in it, and we drew it all out on graph paper together. We picked a scale and Bean and I found the area of each piece (great multipication practice!)

 

Then, we each arranged the furniture pieces on our own room diagram.  Bean colored hers in afterwards.  Once we had our 3 different plans, we presented them to Daddy-o.  This next part didn't go so smoothly and there were some tears and a 24 hour break before we could come back together and discuss the possibility that each of the plans had both good ideas, and some questionable functionality.  But eventually, we finally came up with a plan that incorporated everyone's ideas.

 

I was so impressed that the kids mainly thought of this themselves, and that they used so many different math skills they've learned.

 

I was also pretty excited about what it meant for our messy room.  I didn't take the before pictures until we'd already cleaned out the corner above (our filing cabinet, some food storage, and a couple boxes of office junk that have basically been sitting there for the last 4 years), but you can still get the effect. 

 

Our new reading corner--this is the corner that I wanted to be able to see more of the wall--most of the artists and authors we've studied, as well as the book settings we've been reading are in the 1800 and 1900's, and that part of the timeline was inaccessible.  Now, we can get to that part of the wall, and when we take down our jellyfish from our ocean unit (I'm really hoping we can do that soon!), we'll have a clear view from all over the room.

 

 

Before:  the messy play kitchen area (and our school table in the middle of the room).

 

School moved over to that wall, and we're going to try out the table along the wall.  It frees up the center of the room for playing (and since we have a toddler in the room with us all morning, that space is very valuable).  I'm just not sure about me not having a side of the table anymore, but maybe I'll just lounge in the recliner nearby. :)

 

 

And finally, looking back on the school table.  The back corner near the ladder was just storage--bins of toys, some of the bigger toys piled up, completely useless.  And that was my area, back by the ladder, which didn't give me a lot of space to move around.

 

Now, with the school stuff across the room, this side of the room has become our play area.  The kitchen, dress-up dresser, stuffed animals, and all the little furniture are in one area.  Peanut has already been excited to play in here.   I love how cleaning and organizing a space can make it so much more inticing to the kids.

 

 

I guess I feel the same way.  All these neatly stacked books and games and supplies have me itching to get back in here for school Monday morning. If only we can keep it clean for one more day.

 

 

A Little Two Much Responsibility

We've been working on independence and responsibility for ourselves this summer.  I decided that as long as I was going to be the kids' full-time teacher, I might as well teach them some useful life skills this next year, along with everything else.  Actually, Daddy-o and I have been meaning to get some regular chores set up for years, but the last couple years have been full of pregnancy and baby distractions. 

And really, its more work for us to have them do things than just doing them ourselves, and more work did not sound fun these last 2 years.  As evidenced in the picture above, having them fix their own lunch or snacks can lead to disasters (but Bug now knows that pouring his yogurt from the container is not an efficeint way to serve himself).

But with Bean turning 8, we decided it really is time.  It's not that they have been doing nothing--they have set the table and cleared their own places for years.  They occasionally will pull the laundry from the dryer for me, and we all do a lot of picking up together, but they are so much more capable than that.

So now, they have morning chores which we do before we start that day's activities--emptying the dishwasher, vacuuming, feeding the dog, watering flowers, swiping the bathroom, starting the laundry.  It's only 15-20 minutes (if they stay focused--I haven't figured out how to make that happen yet). 

The laundry has been fun for them and a huge help for me--I just made a chart to show them where to set the washer and dryer for each load and then I bring down my laundry load of choice for the day.  They're getting pretty confident in how to put the load

And then we all work for 10 minutes in the zone of the week (following Flylady zones).  We also have laundry folding parties, a before-dinner pick-up, and a table setting/helping with dishes rotation.

 It goes a long way towards keeping the house from getting out of control, even with three kids around all day every day.  Once we can stop dragging it out for hours, I think we'll actually get a lot done.  And they are also learning how to clean up the messes they make along the way--good life skills.

Never a Dull Moment

We just can't stand things getting dull around here.  Tuesday night, just as I was getting dinner going, I heard crying and then screaming.  The first was Bean, who came running out of the playroom, yelling "Ow" and something about the blinds cord getting stuck on her arm.  Next came Bug, screaming and crying about getting hurt.  And then Peanut started to cry, too, because he can't hear that much crying going on and not join in (and he was at that point, alone in the playroom, which isn't ever his favorite thing.)

At first, I didn't think much of Bug crying because he always cries and is always getting hurt and its pretty much never serious.  But as the story unfolded through all the tears, I realized Bean had pulled the blinds down (while jumping off a table--yeah, the story just kept getting better) and they'd hit Bug in the head on the way down, which I was guessing probably hurt.  I was hugging him when I noticed that the Santa hat he was wearing was a little redder than normal, and as soon as I pulled it off, the blood just started pouring down his head.

I pretty much flipped out at that point.  Even though I kept telling myself that head wounds bleed a lot, all I could think of was getting him to the doctor so they could make it stop.  I was having flashbacks to this injury 2.5 years ago.

 I made a couple phone calls, dropped the other two kids at a neighbor's house (thank goodness for great neighbors!!!) and rushed Bug to Urgent Care while Daddy-o hurried home to get the other two kids (and good thing since Peanut apparently cried the entire time I was gone--he is pretty attached to his parents these days).

Turned out Bug's head was one of those looks-worse-than-it-is scenarios.  Once they managed to unplaster his bloody hair from the wound, it was pretty tiny.  I had to hold a piece of gauze on his head for about 30 minutes to get the bleeding to stop, but they ended up not even needing to glue it.  The doctor offered but then told me I couldn't wash his hair for 5 days if she did that, and there was no way I could have taken him out in public until I did--he looked a little too Halloween-ish for February.  So she just put some antibiotic ointment on it and stuck a piece of gauze to that and called it good.

Kind of a wasted 1.5 hours, but he got a sucker out of it, and some Angry Birds playtime, so I think Bug was pretty happy with the whole expedition.

Firsts

Today was a big day for these two kids. They were finally introduced to the world of movie theaters with the $1 showing of Madagascar 2, and came fully prepared--snack bags, drinks, favorite animals,

. . . sunglasses in case the screen was too bright.

They really enjoyed it. I was a little surprised when the movie started and it looked like they just played a DVD--that was what flashed up on the screen for a second before it started and the visual quality definitely wasn't normal theater quality. I know we only paid a dollar, so I shouldn't complain, but is that even legal?

After the movie, we had a busy afternoon. I hadn't been grocery shopping for over a week, so we had 3 stores to hit, lunch and nap to squeeze in the middle there, all in time to pick Daddy-o up from the bus stop at 5:30 and rush home to have dinner on the table at 6 p.m. for the missionaries who were coming over tonight (in our church, we take turns feeding the 19 year-old missionaries who serve in our area,), so they would be able to go out with Daddy-o at 7 to visit a few people.

All afternoon I kept thinking of how this busy day was going to pay off when I got to put the kids to bed as early as possible and enjoy a couple hours of a quiet house before I crash.

But of course, plans never work out exactly how you plan when kids are involved. About 2 minutes after everyone left, Bugaboo slipped on the wood floor and split the back of his head open on the corner of the stair rail post. His curdling scream sent me running from the kitchen and as soon as I picked him up, I could tell he was really hurt because he stopped making noise and was kicking his legs as hard as he could while he inhaled to let out another scream. When I pulled my hand away and it was covered with blood, I figured I needed to call Daddy-o back with the car so Bugaboo could have another first--first trip to Urgent Care and first staples.

He's fine now. Three staples that will need to be taken out in a week and a new dolphin toy. He was actually more than fine when he got home and he proudly showed off his new toy for Bean, who said she wanted to go where he did so she could get a toy (I told her she just had to split her head open first, but to wait until tomorrow since Urgent Care closed at 8 pm and I don't know if the ER gives the same toys.)

I wonder how many incidents we'll have like this with our Buggy. It's only been a couple weeks since he fell head-over-heels down the stairs from pretty close to the top (more curdling screams, preceded by a lot of thumps, and Daddy-o's terrifying yell that made my stomach churn as I ran out from the bedroom). Amazingly, he didn't even really get hurt that time. Or a couple days ago when he fell down the last 3 steps, and took Bean with him. Neither one of them got seriously injured that time either. I'm starting to regret buying a 2 story house, but at least they seem to recover pretty quickly.

So now that my evening was delayed, and I'm beat, and have another early morning workout session to look forward to, I think my relaxation will be going to sleep before 10 p.m.

My Little Fun Machine

We've had a very social week--lots of playdates, playgroup, storytime. . . Who knew a 2 year-old's calendar could be so packed?

I've started trading off babysitting a couple mornings a week with a neighbor who's little girl, B., is just a few months younger than Bugaboo--they get along great and just this week have started actually playing together instead of just talking about it and then ignoring each other once they get together. We love having friends so close.

And then there's our playgroup friends--I am glad that K. invited me at the beginning of the school year because its been really fun getting to know some other families here in Charlotte and most have kids the same ages as my two, so with a couple of them, we've gotten together in the afternoons as well for all 4 kids to play.

And of course, what would a day with Bugaboo be if it didn't include one humongous mess. Bugaboo and E. got into the packing styrofoam I forgetfully left out in the living room.

They looked like they were caught in a snow storm. Luckily, the vacuum worked pretty well, even on their hair, which E. thought was pretty funny. Bugaboo, not so much.

And finally, the quote of the day, from my little daddy's boy, "Mama go work, Daddy stay home." We wish there was some way that we could trade off every other day, but I don't think that is going to happen any time soon.

Adventures in Baking

I had an appointment cancel this morning and was excited about the prospect of an extra hour. After a very productive household day yesterday, I thought it was time I did some crafting and was ready to start a sewing project for a long overdue gift, but Buggy had other ideas. He wanted to bake.

He has been really interested in helping me in the kitchen lately, but this is probably the first time he's actually initiated it. So I told him I'd go look up a muffin recipe that I saw yesterday and wanted to try. And then I got a little sidetracked--there were a couple phone calls I needed to make that I didn't get done yesterday since our phone wasn't working, so I quickly took care of those, but before I finished the second one, I got a whiff of the delicious combination of cinnamon and vanilla.

I didn't think much of it at first since we had french toast for breakfast--I just thought the smell was lingering. And then it got stronger.

Buggy had decided he was going to start without me. I'm kind of dissappointed that I didn't get to see his face when he added baking powder to the mix and got a nice bubbly foam, but if I'd been around, there's no way I would have let him do any of it.

So now I won't be doing any baking because we no longer have baking powder, cinnamon, or vanilla. And Bugaboo used up at least a week's baking budget, not to mention the book he ruined. That was a full bottle of Costco vanilla--good price, but still means I lost almost a pint of vanilla. Now I'm kicking myself that I forgot to get more cinnamon when we were at the bulk spice store on Tuesday.

But our house smells great.

A Little Bit of Sweetness

I had decided that this was going to be a sugar-free Valentine's Day, but the other night we were making cards and decided it would be nice to send some treats to Daddy-o's little brother who is on a mission for our church right now. Now, 10 cookies in my belly later, I'm not so sure it was such a great idea.

Not only did I eat too many cookies while working on them (although at least I made these smaller than I usually do), but I had some problems with the frosting, too. I think I've just about decided that even though I like the effect of a plate of pretty cookies, I don't really love the process of decorating sugar cookies. I only make sugar cookies a couple times a year so I tend to forget between times, but it's been the same experience here and here .

I do love my sugar cookie recipe--my mom always made a sour cream sugar cookie and I think its so much better than traditional sugar cookies--I even love the cookies with nothing on them.

Sour Cream Sugar Cookies

5 cups flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

Sift together.

1 cup soft butter or shortening

2 cups sugar

2 eggs unbeaten

1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup sour cream

Cream butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and flufft. Add alternately sour cream and sifted flour mixture. Refrigerate until easy to handle. Roll out and cut. Bake 8-10 minutes at 425 degrees.

I did try something a little different this time--I cut out a smaller heart from a couple of the cookies, making a window in the cookie, and dusted those cookies with powdered sugar. Then I used lemon curd as the filling and made a cookie sandwich with one whole heart and one window cookie. They were really good. So good that Daddy-o and I were too busy eating and I forgot to take a picture of them.

And finally, doesn't it look like he just finished eating a bloody heart?

Needless to say, the kids had a great time decorating them.

Snow Day!

Last night, the forecast was for 3-5 inches of snow by morning. And in Charlotte, that pretty much means the city shuts down. So I started to get pretty excited about the thought of my first "snow day". It never snowed in any of the places I lived in CA and while UT gets plenty of snow, BYU never cancels school. There was one day when I was in school that we got a couple feet of snow and the whole state shut down, except BYU. I still got to wade to class.

We woke up to only a light dusting--maybe half an inch or so. But schools were all closed, almost everyone in Daddy-o's office decided to work from home, and so we got our first snow day.

Can I say how much I love not having to rush out of the house in the morning, first to take Daddy-o to the bus, and then an hour later to take Bean to school. Of course, the kids got dressed faster than ever because they wanted to get outside.

Bugaboo didn't really remember snow from last winter so he was quite curious about the whole thing. When he first looked out the window, he asked Bean, "Why white?"

Bean remembered and was so excited to go outside and "play" in the snow. I tried telling her it was just cold outside and there wasn't all that much.

But we had fun for a little while.

Although Buggy wasn't so sure about the way it stuck to his mittens.

We did build a snowman. You can't have the first snow without a snowman.

The kids thought he was pretty cute :)

And for 10 minutes of play time, we ended up with this:

Thanksgiving Prep

Busy day--didn't get pictures of all the fun (like Daddy-o's all day activity of installing 2 new toilets, which ended up taking 4 trips to hardware stores and wasn't wrapped up until 9 pm--just in time to start the pie making). But I did take a moment to memorialize making rolls with my daughter. :)

Doesn't get much better than this! And in the theme of thankfulness, I'm thankful that I hadn't mopped the floor yet.

A Day in the Life of a Bug

So, you saw a part of my life, but I think a glimpse into Bugaboo's is much more entertaining. I know its only been a little over a month since the last "tornado warning", but on Monday, he had a very busy day. Everytime I turned around, he was onto something else. (Sorry I don't have pictures of all of it--in a couple of cases, I thought I should be more concerned about his safety than a great photo op. Sometimes it was a toss-up. Sometimes I was just lazy.)

I found him:

ironing books (thank goodness the iron wasn't plugged in),

trying to reach the remote controls for the TV (and rearranging the mantle while he was up there--he gets sidetracked just like I do),

toasting his own bagel (the toaster was plugged in),

trying to cut a butternut squash (with a 10" chef's knife! Knife block has been relagated to the top of the fridge--I'm hoping he doesn't figure out a way to get up there anytime soon.),

hanging from the refrigerator shelf (yes--this picture is a repeat, but seriously, it makes me laugh. As I walked into the kitchen, I heard this pitiful little, "Help, mommy!" We are so glad that we didn't get one with the pull-out shelves which would have just been asking for a disaster.),

grating a potato into a pot,

soaping down the bathroom counter, again (yes, we got the doorknob covers, but they only work when everyone remembers to close the door all the way),

and helping himself to a before-dinner snack.

Just another day for Bugsy (okay, not really, thank goodness. He doesn't always have quite so much on his "to do" list.)

Tornado

This week has felt very busy. And one of those busy weeks where I haven't actually accomplished much. I think a lot of it is due to the tornado who has replaced my fairly laid-back little boy.

He has

* completely drenched his bathroom, three times (I've never mopped a bathroom so many times in one week--or probably in one month, for that matter),
*dumped milk and other wet food off the table often enough that I've actually been mopping the area under the table on a daily basis, sometimes more than once,
*emptied out my bag, strewing various craft supplies and papers all over the family room,
*soaped down EVERYTHING in the half bathroom downstairs and then dipped a roll of toilet paper in it,
*emptied the pencil sharpener all over the table and floor,
*tried to climb the TV stand, which is not bolted to the wall yet,
*filled his car seat with crackers or other crumbly snack foods twice,
*run into the only wet paint spot within his reach, ruining his overalls,
*dumped a 1/4 full can of paint out, ruining another pair of pants, a shirt, and my pants (luckily it was in the driveway, not the house, but our driveway doesn't drain properly, so it was a very time consuming, water-wasting effort to clean it up).

(I sound like a neglegent parent, but at least half these messes were made while I was cleaning up the mess he'd just made before that.)

Add in two trips a day to the bus stop for Daddy-o, the normal preschool runs, grocery shopping, a couple trips downtown to finish with the apartment down there, two dinners for extra people beyond our family, and several night wakings each night, divided pretty evenly between the two kids (my favorite was the 2:30 a.m. "Daddy, I need more ice in my water"--and in a sleep-induced stupor, he actually went downstairs and got her more ice! That's the way to teach her to stay in her bed at night), and I guess that explains why this week has been so chaotic.

I have learned a couple things from all of this:

1. Our house is not toddler proof. I NEED to buy the doorknob covers for all the bathrooms. Thorough mopping is not on my daily "To Do" list.

2. We need more babygates--with two staircases, one gate does absolutely nothing unless I lock the little tornado in one room all day.

3. No matter how hard it is and how tired I am, I have got to exercise every day. I've let it slide the last two weeks because I haven't quite figured out how to fit it into the new schedule where we have to leave at 7:15 for the morning bus run. But I've been reminded again of how strongly my mood is affected by my level of physical activity. The kids are probably as tired of me as I am of their antics lately.


I just hope that the rest of today is a little more productive. We sent the car with Daddy-o today with the intention of staying home and getting some projects done and maybe even a little more unpacking.

Why I Should Only Blog at Night

That has to be at least 1/2 a roll of toilet paper. And no, the toilet wasn't flushed before he started. At least pee is sterile, right?