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7月4日 Happy Fourth of July!I haven't been posting much lately party out of frustration with the blog space that I have and because we've been busy.
The Fourth of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. In the early years of our family, we would watch the parade from our front yard and host a BBQ with family and friends. We'd walk the half a mile to a local park to enjoy the carnival and fireworks. Nothing like that planned for today, but we are enjoying some festive family time. The boys and I made some star-shaped cookies and then we headed out for some berry picking at Spencer Farm (I'd link, but that option isn't working for me right now.) I think we picked 4 pounds of blueberries and 1 pound of black raspberries. Yum! Our hands are stained red and we're all drooling over the things we can whip up in the kitchen with all of our blueberries. James is making some barbeque pulled chicken and potato salad to add to the watermelon and deviled eggs I had planned and then we'll try to catch some fireworks from the balcony. Happy Day! 6月2日 Sick and Celebrating!Izzy and Jack are sick AGAIN! Another stomach virus resulting in puking as soon as child is tucked into bed. Jack started in on Saturday evening after I made a big deal about picking his toys up. And Izzy joined him last night. I sent James to sleep in Jack's freshly made bed and kept the sick kiddos with me since I figured that we wouldn't be sleeping much. They surprised me though and slept fairly well after 1 am or so.
Today is James' birthday. Happy Birthday Honey! Alex and I managed to make some cupcakes that we're hoping to frost in a bit and I made an executive decision to order pizza for dinner tonight. We already let him open his presents this morning before leaving for work. He seemed to like what the kids and I got him, new shoes and a water filter for camping and hiking. He's planning his next trip for July. Oh, and I never posted James' new blog link: http://www.myspace.com/jadoakes He has it set up as private so you'll have to request permission, but it's worth all the effort.
I've almost finished knitting up a project and started thinking about Christmas. I have to be vague, but I can tell you about what I have in mind for the kids! For the boys, I'm going to knit up a farm play mat from Living Crafts: http://www.livingcrafts.com/page/Winter0708 Here's a completed one from another blog: http://mollyreads.blogspot.com/2008/...-farmyard.html I'm hoping to find a small wooden tractor and a few farm animals to go with it. And for Izzy, I'm planning on knitting her up another pair of longies and I'm not sure what else. 5月6日 Weird Formatting?Obviously, my blog and our new iMac aren't getting along and there appears to be some formatting issues. I'll have to look into it. Girls Only DayJames went on his hiking/camping trip last weekend and had a few mishaps, mainly his car not starting when they went into town to get a few dry things on Saturday. They were in a Walmart parking lot and despite trying to jump the car, it would not go and some random computer error light came on. He had it towed to a local dealership and rented a minivan and continued on with his trip. He drove the rental home on Sunday only to find out on Monday that his car only needed a new battery. Yay the fix is cheap, but grrr about the rental car bill, the towing bill, and all that gas.
So today, James took the day off of work to return the rental and pick up his car down in Kentucky and he took the boys with him. I had a full day planned in the midst of a busy week, so to say I was grateful for a lighter load today would be an understatement.
The boys left around 8 this morning, which left plenty of time for me to gather my things for our day and pack them into the car. I leisurely made my way to the car and actually made it to my LLL meeting early for a change. It was lovely being able to chat without having to compete with piano playing, dragon talk, or little boys jumping chairs.
Izzy took to taking a nap in the car afterwards, so I had a quiet lunch in the car and knit a round or two. When she woke up, we had a girly day at the mall, window shopping for a new quilt. Everyone complimented her sweet curls and lovely eyes and cooed over her, which we both ate up.
We continued with our errands and picked up our produce and did some light grocery shopping before heading homeward with one last stop at the polls to vote. I threw some crab cakes into the oven for the two of us to share for dinner and then we'll split a basket or two of laundry to fold together.
As nice as it all was, I miss my boys and look forward to their homecoming in another hour. 4月30日 A Little Spring UpdateJust wanted to post a little update on us.
James is preparing for his hiking trip to Hoosier National Forest with his best friend. He's been planning it since November and is really looking forward to it.
We've been swamped with unexpected happenings. James car had some sort of valve blow and it needed repairing. Less than two weeks later, his brakes went out. So he got new brakes for his car and I got two new tires for my car (I think our mechanic would have let me load up the kids and drive away knowing the condition of the old ones.) Then the laptop stopped working. After running diagnostics, James discovered the hard drive was fried, so we went shopping. Fun stuff!
I've been taking the kids out at every opportunity. As it turns out, there are 3-4 other families in our building with toddlers and preschoolers. We've been meeting by chance every afternoon while the kids ride bikes and play.
We've been spending the weekends outdoors as well. We've enjoyed local playgrounds, hiking at state parks, outdoor festivals and Conner Prairie over the past couple of weeks.
Alex is finishing up Peter Pan and is thoroughly enjoying the story. We'll likely start Dr. Dolittle in another week or two. He's definitely going through the seven-year-change,
Jackson has been a joy lately. I love listening to him talk and tell me about his favorite parts of his day. He loves to cuddle up with us for a story. He begs to go outside from the moment he gets out of bed. Oh, how the boys have taken to riding their bikes and racing each other! He plays hard, eats well, and has been sleeping fairly well too.
Izzy has conquered the skills of walking and climbing and is working on dancing and running. You should see her dancing with her papa! She adores ring-around-the-rosie, which we do everyday as part of circle time with the boys. She's working on getting her top canine teeth in to make a total of 12 teeth (8 on top and 4 on bottom)! She repeats "mneeechkkkk" several times a day and we have no idea what it means.
I've been up to the usual organizing and de-cluttering around here. I've learned it's a never-ending process. I'm also working hard to finish knitting a pair of boot socks for James in time for his trip. I have many more knitting projects in the works and just need to find the time to work on them.
Izzy has finally succumbed to sleep and the boys are read for some mama reading time. 4月16日 Peter Pan - Chapter 5 - In Alex's WordsThis is the beginning of the chapter we read today:
After one of those lost children shot Wendy, his name was Tootles, the lost children ran to the spot where Wendy fell. They discovered tht Wendy was not a bird as they had thought, but a human. After that, I think Tinkerbell said, "Silly Ass!" and flew off.
Then they heard a fearful, dreadful noise, Peter's crowing. It was dreadful because they had shot the person who would be their mother and so that is why they were afraid of Peter and all because of Tootles had shot Wendy. One of the lost children, maybe Slightly, said, "Hide her!" So all the lost children, including Tootles gathered around Wendy in a thick crowd to prevent Peter from seeing her.
And then, they heard Peter's crowing again, and then Peter came down from the sky. Peter said, "Good morning, I have returned." The lost children applauded, but in silence. And Peter said, "Why did you not applaud me like you used to when I returned?" And they applauded again, but in silence again.
Then, maybe Tootles or Slightly said, "Show him," so the thick crowd of lost boys undid their crowd and then when Peter had seen what they were trying to prevent him from seeing, his jaw dropped.
"But this is the girl I have brought to tell stories to you and take care of you and be your mother." And then, he noticed the arrow in Wendy's chest, walked right up to Wendy and pulled the arrow out.
"Whose arrow is this?" Tootles was shaking so much that he had to hold onto every shoulder he passed to get to Peter. But Peter noticed that Tootles was trembling even before Tootles went out to Peter.
"Tootles this is your arrow?"
"I'm sorry, but Tinkerbell tricked me into thinking it was a Wendy bird."
Then, Peter raised his hand with the arrow in it as if it were a spear and he was ready to strike when his arm dropped. He tried again, but his arm dropped again.
He said, "Something keeps me from striking." Then he noticed something. Wendy was lifting her arm up.
"Oh, my! She's alive."
Tinkerbell was on a branching, crying because Wendy had lived and Tinkerbell had wanted to kill Wendy because she didn't like Wendy one little bit.
Then Peter heard Tinkerbell crying and walked right up to her and said, "Tink you did this and I know it. You will be my fairy no longer."
Then, Tinkerbell spoke in fairy language to Peter pleadingly and flew on his shoulder, but Peter took Tinkerbell off and then saw Wendy's other arm rise.
And then, he said to Tink, "Well not forever, just for a week." Then he got tinkerbell by a wing and threw her in a bush.
Then Peter said, "We shall build a house around her."
And so the lost boys got to work. Some went into the forrest to get timber to build a house with and others went to gather wood for a fire to go in the fireplace. Then, they began to build a house. Some boys put walls up, which were a bunch of sticks tied together with some very strong vine that the boys had found. And then, Peter used his sword to make triangle-shaped curves out of logs and tied them together with more of the very strong vine and some lost boys all heaved and pushed until it went onto the top of the house. The house wobbled a little dangerously, but it stopped when Peter tied it up with the very strong vine ans the same with the walls and the roof. Then the house stopped wobbling.
Peter had left a hole in the wall for the door to go on. So they got some more logs and made them into a door, tied together with more of the very strong vine and attached it to the door, which was made with wooden hinges.
Then Peter said it needed window. So the Lost boys made some windows with just a few punches of their fists.
Then, Wendy opened her mouth and began to sing., "I wish I had a dainty little house with red paint on the inside and little babes right outside the door and some flowers stuck in between the crack"
At this, the lost boys cheered because the logs they had used were filled with red sap and when they had attached them to make a house, the sap had came out of the logs, forming a strange sort of red paint.
Then, Peter said, "Get some 'raisies' (bacause they look like daisies and smell like roses)!"
And so the boys got some 'raisies'. They would look very pretty going with the house.
And then to prevent Peter from ordering some babes, the boys sang, "The house is built. The paint is dried. The flowers are attached to cracks. There are babes outside the door and the house is finished. There are windows and I bet you already knew, there was a door. And the inside is decorated with nice red paint, which is really tree sap. Oh, the house is complete!"
The singing of course woke up Wendy.
Startled she said, "Where am I?"
Peter heard her voice and said, "Quick put on your handsomest clothes." So they all put on their most handsome clothes and when Wendy opened the door, when she saw the boys plus Peter.
All the boys except Peter, whom Wendy already knew, said, "Wendy, would your please be our mother?!"
Wendy was dreadfully excited, but still a little nervous. And she said, "I really would like to be your mother, but I don't know how to be a mother quite yet. Afterwall, I am only about 7 years old."
And the boys pleaded please.
Wendy said, "Yes I will do my best. I will tuck you in bed and while you are sleep, I just have the time to finish Cinderella." and she tucked all the boys in bed.
Peter kept watch outside, for even now he could hear the pirates singing their terrible song and laughing their horrible laugh and the redskins getting closer and closer. And then after a while, Peter fell asleep for he was tired.
While he was sleeping, Tinkerbell, leading some other fairires, crawled towards the house and this is the end of the chapter. 4月14日 In the midst of spring cleaningHaving clothes-line lust. This was my self-constructed clothes-line in North Carolina that I strung up between two trees. James put up the swing that Alex (almost 4 in the picture) is enjoying. I miss this view.
I keep telling myself that we did the right thing resigning our lease for another year, but I haven't convinced myself yet.
Alex and Jackson are tripping on each other, needing to get more outdoor time. Izzy is into everything and we're out of "safe places" to stash things. In order to do laundry, I have to move the trash can and the craft cart out of the way to get the wet clthes into the dryer or from the dryer to the laundry basket. To get anything into or out of the chest freezer, we have to move 2 recycling bins, the food dehydrater, and a basket full of potatoes and onions. The bookshelves are emptied several times a day with books being torn.
Must get back to spring cleaning and find more things to give away. 4月8日 InspirationYet another video clip that really inspired me this morning:
If the link doesn't work, search for it on YouTube.
She walks It happened a week ago from Sunday, that would be the 30th. She crawled into the hallway while I sat on my bed folding laundry at 9:30 at night. She pulled herself up usinga couple of boxes lining the hallway to help herself to a standing position, and let go. She walked SIX FEET! Before this point, she only furnitured walked and would let go to stand for a second, never moving her feet if she didn't have a firm hold of something. She continued practicing this new skill all last week and has almost given up crawling. I even saw her try to run the other day to chase after Jackson. 3月28日 HomeWe live in a 800-square-foot 2-bedroom apartment and we've just decided that we will continue calling our small sapce home for another year.
We've spent the past 3 months looking for a space similar to our apartment only with a fenced-in backyard, a driveway (I hate having to hunt for a parking space), and a wee bit of storage space for my husband's work things. We found a place that was perfect, but it didn't work out. I looked at another place yesterday and it met all of our criteria, yet we're not moving. I ache for that backyard for the kids, but packing and transplanting the kids only to move again in another year doesn't seem worth it. I went back and forth about wanting our space closer to the city (in the city, really) so a trip to an organic grocery store or to see friends and family wouldn't have to be a well-planned all-day affair, to wanting a nice piece of land to disappear on, where we could grow and raise our own food. We still want these things, but instead of settling for "almost," we've decided to wait, plan, and save to get exactly what we want: our OWN home and land.
I must have called on at least 50 different listings for various rentals and gone through the converation many times. "Yes, I know it's only 2-bedrooms and I have 3 children." Most people didn't understand how or why we would only want 2 bedrooms. Honestly, I was right there with them a few years ago, but life has a funny way of teaching you what is really and truly important and having that big house full of "stuff" isn't on our list anymore.
When we moved into this apartment a year and a half ago, I was newly pregnant with Izzy and we had just spent a year living with family. We had been through tough times and our apartment represented a new beginning. I think we're still on that path and that's where we need to be for a little bit longer.
Having a small space with young children means that you have to be picky about what is in your space. It's a constant de-cluttering and organizing project. We only keep the toys that get played with, the clothes that get worn, the books that we reference frequently, etc. Playspace is at a premium and so is a quiet space, which is why we fairly strictly enforce rules of the play-bedroom and the sleeping-bedroom. There are no toys allowed in the master bedroom. It is the quiet, relaxing space for reading a book, praying, sleeping, and just thinking. The play-bedroom is the place to go to be loud and rumbunctious. The family room is exactly what it sounds like, the place our family comes together. We do circle time and school work in the living room. We build forts together, read, play games, enjoy handwork and hobbies, and watch a family movie in this space. Spaces need to be well defined for function so that everyone gets along and is happy.
I hope that by keeping our small space that we will continue to grow. 3月23日 Happy Easter!!!I am so very blessed! Thank you to all of you who share your love and friendship with me and my family! Happy Easter! 3月18日 DressOne of Izzy's prized birthday presents is a dress that my mama made for her. My mom asked if she could make her Easter dress and I thought this was it...
I found out yesterday that my mom is still working on her Easter dress, so Izzy gets TWO grandma-made dresses this spring!
And did I mention that one of Izzy's five or so words is "dress?!" 3月13日 Happy First Birthday Izzy!I sit here wanting to write this amazing letter to my daughter on her first birthday, but I can't think of what to write. I want to hold on to this first year with Izzy. She's brought so much love and joy into our family.
She's got such spunk and personality.
She's letting go more and finding balance and confidence. When she's tired, she stands by herself and even takes a step or two before realizing that she doesn't walk yet and drops down to crawl.
She's strong and doesn't take crap from the boys. Jack grabbed a toy from her the other day and tried to run off. She grabbed him around the ankles and held on, tripping him and retreived her toy!
She's communicating more, mainly "Urse!" and trying to decrease the amount of time wasted with sleep. She wins daddy's heart with "dada" and "papa" quite frequently. "Mama" is, of course, my favorite. She signs "more," but I think it means "I want ..." to her.
She has NINE teeth, a molar snuck in on us!
She's her papa's girl. They light up the room together, whether they're dancing, cuddled up sleeping (like they are right now), or just playing.
She steals Jackson's baby doll and holds it up to shoulder while rocking and patting it.
Today, she played with the boys around the train table and "helped" build with blocks. She spent the afternoon on the patio watching the big kids play outside and helped me to decorate her cupcakes. It was a good day with the promise of many, many more to come. Happy Birthday Izzy!
3月11日 Making Buttermilk...and sour cream, yogurt, and all kinds of cheese! I'm not doing it all at once, but I just found a wonderful resource with directions for making it all! I did start a batch of buttermilk this evening. I can't wait to see how it turns out. It should be done in time to make some pancakes for a special little girl on her birthday. 3月10日 More "Stuff"3月6日 Better Luck?It's not much, but I just found out I won second prize in a contest that I entered, Zoob one millionth piece sweepstakes. Just in time for Alex's birthday too! Yippee!
Maybe it's a sign that our luck is changing? I hope! 2月29日 And the Search Continues...They waited until 5 when the office closes to call and let us know that the owners of the house didn't think we were a good match because of our big dog.
Before I ever asked to see the house, the one and only question I asked was "What is the pet policy? We have a mature lab mix." Happy Leap Year Day!This one extra day holds a special place in my heart with my maiden name being Leap and all. Happy Day!
I'm so grateful that this is a Leap year so I can have one more day of Izzy being my baby, Jackson being 3, and Alex being 6.
Izzy will be turning one in less than two weeks now. A toddler. She's beginning to stand on her own and have balance.
Jackson is insistant that he is a LITTLE boy and is sure to correct us should we make the mistake of calling him big.
And Alex started reading A Wrinkle In Time yesterday. He found a copy on the bookshelf and started telling us all about it at dinner. Does he realize that he's only 6?
Where has time gone? |
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