Drama Queen?

A short conversation we had today, was another reminder, of Lily's tenderhearted nature. And perhaps one for the record book...

I finally picked the last of Joey's watermelons. In reality, it should have been picked a month ago, or so. But I forgot about it.

So today they wanted to eat it at lunch, despite my warnings that it probably wasn't going to be good. There was no convincing them until I sliced the melon open and they saw for themselves.

Joey got over his disappointment in about 1.3 seconds.

Lily, on the other hand, was just beside herself over the crushing disappointment of not having the coveted watermelon for lunch, and beating herself up over the fact that we should have picked it long ago, and the despair of the poor watermelon's underside being invaded by tiny bugs, and the awfulness of the thing sitting out in the elements for an agonizing extra month.... You get the picture.

My favorite quote was, "We should have never gone to the hardware store in the spring to buy those seeds. Then we wouldn't have this pain."

This pain?

My Handsome Lad

Two weeks ago, I took my children to the mall to get my son's portraits taken. And we just so happened to be visiting on the day that the mall was holding their monthly reading club. Very cool! A nice lady from the bookstore came out and read a few books for the kids, and then they did a craft, which was nice. But the best part was that we got free kids' meal coupons to restaurants, plus 20% off everything in Walden's for the day and some other fun freebies! The kids enjoyed themselves and it was a fun and FREE day out of the house. :)


Anyhow. Moving along.


My son's pictures...oh yes. So he did WONDERFULLY for his pictures! I was so proud of him. This child cried the big crocodile tears for three years every, single time a stranger tried to take his picture...when he was being held by his mother in a family picture or if he was alone...it was a bucket of tears. And then last year, he hopped up on the table and beamed his big Joey smile...my heart is so proud!! He is so handsome. I love this guy...he melts my heart in a different way than the girls. Maybe it's because I know that one day he is going to be a big, tough man, and I only have my smiley, little, cuddly Joey for a few years. I don't know. Whatever it is...it gets me. Every time.

Do you see that dimple on his right cheek? The prominent one? The one he tries to stifle every time he's REALLY happy, and is trying to pretend that he's cool and it's "no big deal?" That one. It gets me. All the time. I love this boy.

Here is the addendum to this story: Yesterday, I was sitting at the table, a mere feet from the top of the basement steps and I heard an odd "stomping" as Joey went down the steps. Only it wasn't stomping. He tumbled, face forward down the steps. The new non-skid strips that Scott put on the steps last year, left some nasty brush burns and scraps on his knee and foot and a welt on his face, but thankfully, prevented him from tumbling all of the way down, and landing on the concrete (I'm shuddering again...every time I think about it).

So Lily and I got him doctored up and he was chomping on a piece of candy (yes, I bribe) and Lily noticed a wound on his HEAD! The poor guy got a scrape so fierce on his head that it left a bald spot about the size of my thumb on the top of his head. :( I found a clump of his hair on the steps. My poor baby! It looks like it will heal just fine...but wow, did he take a tumble! And he is so proud of the scars he has to prove it, too! We took him to get an adjustment last night and he was out in every area imaginable. My little boy! On a vain level, it's a good thing I didn't procrastinate getting his picture taken any longer, or we would be in for a wait until everything heals and grows back!

I need to finish what I've started!

So I'm joining Katrina's Fall into Reading Challenge in order to accomplish that! I am terrible at not finishing books and starting more...with a big stack waiting to be read. So here is the list that I aim to FINISH! I'm going to keep it short and simple. It's all about baby steps. :) Hopefully this will motivate me NOT to start anything else, in addition to the magazines and other periodicals that I normally read, until I finish these. We shall see...

1. The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling by Debbie Bell (I've been lingering in this on purpose for over a year...but I do need to finish one day)

2. Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson (more like a great reference...but again...a finish would be nice)

3. What the Bible Says about Child Training by J. Richard Fugate (so full...hard to read straight through without fully absorbing)

4. The Three R's by Ruth Beechik (I've read these again and again, and will continue too...hence they are on my nightstand again)

5. Life Skills for Kids: Equipping your Child for the Real World by Christine Field

I guess I could include Farmer Boy and Leading Little Ones to God which I am currently finishing with the children. But I expect to finish those shortly...plus the kids keep me accountable to finish what I've started with them. :)

Feel free to join everyone else who is "Falling into Reading" and if you do, let me know, so I can snoop at your list. :) Ta-ta!

Solomon said...

...in Ecclesiastes, that there is "a time to break down, and a time to build up." Our version of that, lately, is "a time to scrape, and a time to paint that which has been scraped." :) Such is the life of owning an older home. After completely remodeling the inside of our home, we took the last two years off from any major projects. But our trim, especially in the front of the house needed to be scraped and repainted. Badly. So Scott started tackling it a few weeks ago.

Here he is scraping the porch roof with his helper. :)

He did a great job on the porch flooring...

...and the porch trim...

The joys never cease in home ownership! :)

Several weeks ago...

...while my Mom was watching my kids, she gave Gracie her first braid! We reminisced back to Lily's and Sophia's first braids and realized that Mimi first braided their hair, too. We're such slacker-Moms. :) But I'm pleased to say that since then Gracie has had a trim (thankfully!) and I have even experimented with french braiding, which looked darling (and matched Lily, which she loved!) I think I'm redeeming myself. Isn't she adorable?!

Where did my baby go?? Waahh!

Speaking of my Mom... like all good grandmothers, she has all sorts of fun knick-knacks that she has saved for her grandchildren. For example, she has this wooden bench that stuffed bunnies used to sit on. The girls like to put their dollies on it. Or in Gracie's case, she thinks it's a chair for herself. She is always sitting on it. And if that isn't bad, Mimi has this little, tiny rocking chair that a little rag doll used to sit on, and Gracie even tries to sit on that, too...

Cheesy grin!

...and here she is sitting on the teeny, tiny rocker. Silly girl!

Little House Link

A friend sent this link to a Little House unit study. I had heard about this one a long time ago, but hadn't come across it recently, nor had I taken the time to look it up. It looks darling! We may have to check it out! Thought I would share. :)

Fun with Mimi!

While my kids were at my parent's house yesterday, my Mom did this fun activity with them: Ice Cream in a Bag! Very easy and very tasty! My Mom, the genius that she is, stuck the whole thing in a plastic pitcher when it got too cold for the kids to hold and shake. It turned out great!

Lily...shake, shake, shaking!

Gracie, very excited about the whole thing!

Joey took a turn, albeit a lot less enthusiastically (until the eating part came!)

WAY Yummy!

I was inspired to try this recipe, based on a dish I had a darling tearoom we visited in Florida in February. Now seven months later, I have finally done it. :) My Hubs and kids LOVED it! And it was so simple too. Here is the recipe:


Artichoke Chicken

1 (14oz) can artichokes, drained and choppped (NOT marinaded)
3/4 c. Parmesan cheese
3/4 c. mayo (no low/no fat!)
granulated garlic
4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
paprika

In a bowl, combine the first four ingredients. Place the chicken in a greased baking dish. Cover, evenly with the mixture. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 375 for 35 minutes, or until juices run clear.

I served this over wild rice, and I also used chicken tenderloins which turned out so tender that I could cut them with a fork (a plus with kids!). At the tearoom, the chicken was diced and mixed in with the mixture and then baked and served in a rarebit dish. It tasted very similar to this, with variations probably in spices, which I want to try next time. But, I always like to give a recipe a shot, as is, before I mess with it toooo much. :)

Thought I would share a quick and yummy recipe!

How did we get old enough...

...to have a King's Kid?? Here is our little King's Kid on her first night. And so happy about it! (Of course the fact that the girls won the game, helped the excitement of the first night, too!)

Things...

Some words to describe our life lately would be "sporatic" and "distracted." So in that fashion, I present a disjointed list of things...

1. I thought I would display a few of Joey's many structures (which he creates multiples of on a daily basis!). I stated earlier that he is not much of an "arts and crafts" type of a guy. Building structures is definitely more his speed. (He couldn't have gotten that knack from his engineer-father, now could he?)

The sheep fold. Complete with feed bin and watering trough. While the dogs stand guard in the north pasture. :)

A calf pen

Here is where the Mama cow lives.

And lastly, the ranch. He builds and re-builds these all day long

2. Which brings me to my second tip... After a long day of not seeing Daddy's smiling face :), I found a marching band site for the kids and played loud, marching band music to help motivate everyone to stay on task at cleaning up the 300 wooden blocks littering the floor. :) It works great!

3. Look! I found a binder (appropriately- pink and chocolate stripes!) that I bought on sale and stashed for another use, but never needed it. I forgot I had it and now Gracie has her own "art" binder like the big kids. She has really been coloring a LOT lately! Like on bed sheets and her forearms, and tables and on all sorts of wonderful things! :)






4. I thought I would share my non-scrapbook idea. Since I do not scrapbook, I thought this was a nice alternative way to document our family activities. Of course, I take lots of photos whenever we go on adventures/vacations/day trips etc. But I saw this idea and have found it to be very "do-able" for us.

I purchasd a simple spiral-bound notebook (pictures above). And I have the kids draw pictures and dictate their comments on our excursions. Now that Lily is getting older, she is starting to journal in here about our fun. This is handy enough to just stash in our suitcase if we're going away, and not too fancy to whip out and just draw in to kill time while we're traveling or in the car. And again, it's fun to look back at how the kids remember and enjoyed our adventures. I hope that I can phase myself out of this one, as they all learn to write. :)

Here is something from last year's day at the pumpkin patch...

4. And lastly, (I'm glad this is a disjointed list!) since today is September 11th, here is a link to my recollections from 9/11/01. I'm realizing that September 11th is starting to feel more and more like history, rather than a recent event. That tragedy, alone, has changed so much about the world around us, and it's hard to remember what it was like before that day, in many respects. It amazes me that we took newborn Lily all of the way up to the gate to welcome Granddaddy when he flew in to meet her for the first time. Something that would never happen today, obviously. And so many other things have 9/11 stamped on them. That event has woven itself so deeply into the fabric of our society. It's hard to remember what it was like when things were more innocent. And it's only been six years.

My Kind Baby

Gracie learned her first Bible verse, and it is absolutely precious to hear her say the first few words of Ephesians 4:32 ("be ye kind") so enthusiastically!

(Listen carefully!)

Overheard at our house...

I read somewhere that the average 4-year old asks 400 questions a day. Well, I have a 4-year old and a 6-year old who has not slowed down her question-asking (and has always been more prolific in the question-asking department). So, I’m guessing that I’m fielding about 1,000 questions a day. Aaaaah!


Take lunch today for an example:

"What part of the chicken are we eating?" (asked at almost every meal!)

"How did this chicken die?" (we really do have the loveliest dinner conversation, don't you think??)

"Why do we have bones?"

(after a brief explanation of the necessity for bones) "So we wouldn’t be able to stand or play if we didn’t have bones? And if Pastor Hammett didn’t have bones, he wouldn’t be able to preach??"

"Mommy, did you know that if we didn’t have bones people wouldn’t get saved?! Because Pastor couldn’t preach, and then people wouldn’t get saved, if we didn’t have bones." (No, kidding? Really?)


Or how about an example from a recent ride in the van:

Me (said to Scott with both palms pressed to my temples): "Is it just me, or has it been 40,000 questions since we got in the van??"

Lily (from the backseat): "What's forty-thousand questions?"


Aaaah! No wonder I've had trouble forming sentences since we started school! All of my brain power is being zapped from my head. :)