Tuesday, May 31, 2011

latest happenings

Did you know that Miss Rose cut the side of her hair, because she had frosting in it?  Which resulted in an expedited full hair-cut (which was in the works already).  It's very cute!  And just like her mama, she wasn't a big fan of having her hair blown-dry straight.  She's a natural girl, as crazy and unpredictable as our hair may be.

Have I told you that Lily is now potty-trained?  She's pretty much a potty training superstar.  She had a few accidents the first few days but after that--all pee has been in the potty!  We still use pull-ups when we are out for a long time or at church, but she NEVER pees in it.  Poop took a few days longer than pee, and there were some pooplets on the floor, but she did get it.  She hasn't pooped in her pants even once, now that she's wearing panties full-time.  We do make a lot of trips to the bathroom.  But still better than buying diapers and wipes.

Gracie is going to make her first foray into sports this fall!  We are registering her for soccer soon.  Miss Rose goes back and forth on whether she wants to play again or not.  Gracie is very much a girl, but a feisty one.  She wrestles and roughhouses with the best of them.  If she likes soccer, I think she'll be a go-getter!

Stay tuned for more.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

in photos























I, among women, am blessed.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

oh so proud

I'm a pastor.

My kids have cut their teeth on the church pews.

Yeah, that last sentance makes me sound VERY old.  But I still like it.

I sang and lead worship while the older two were in utero.  I went on a missions trip pregnant with Miss Rose and she came to Mexico with me three times as a newborn, 1 year old and 2 year old.  I took Gracie on a missions trip when she was 2.5 months.  Gracie came to work with me until she was 6 weeks old.

They have probably been in double the amount of Sunday School classes most kids are--because when they know I'm at church, they want to be there too.  They rarely miss Sunday School.  Unless someone in the family is sick.

So, you'd think they really have the truths of Scripture in them, even at their young ages.

Which is why I was so proud tonight when Miss Rose said:

"Sometimes I like being bad.  I think I'll make Satan my friend."

And not ten minutes later, Gracie said:

"I'm going to kick Jesus out of my heart."

They were in separate rooms, and did not hear what they other said.

Proud doesn't even begin to describe how this pastor-mommy feels.

I'm going to need to have a chat with their Sunday School teachers.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

over-achiever

Every so often I have an experience that reminds me that I am an over-achiever.

I'm no perfectionist.  It's not about perfection per say.  It's just about what I think is best, what I think is excellent and I won't settle for less.

Case in point.

Last month I took a team to Romania from my church.  Yes, the trip I've written one blog about, promised more and haven't delivered yet.  Well, this morning we were schedule to give a report on the trip.  This usually consists of a person or three sharing some stories and details of the trip and maybe some photos on powerpoint.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with this form of sharing about a missions trip.

But I'm an over-achiever.  With a Mac computer.  That has iMovie.  Don't you think it would be cool if I made a video of our trip using photos and then had our team members share brief anecdotes that I would record with the built-in microphone?  Yes, I think that would be fabulous.

Oh, I spent at least 15 hours working on my 4-minute presentation.  I know that's pretty much par for the course.  It drove me crazy.  I am not meant to look at the same screen for hours and hours on end.  I had no idea what time of the day it was when I was working on it.

No only am I an over-achiever.  But I'm a bit of a procrastinator too.  I'm motivated by that adrenaline of a deadline.

So I put the finishing touches on my project last night.

Where I found out, googling my issues, that there is a glitch in the version of software I have, causing the audio level adjustments to not work.  I couldn't get the music to lower, when the narration came in.  I gave up.

Exporting takes a long time, so I started it and headed to bed.  Morning came and I grabbed my flash drive and the computer and headed in.  Time to upload the file for service.  But it wasn't on the flash drive.  Begin export again.  Still not working right.  Try again.

By now, it's time for our first service.  During which I went up and shared about the trip and showed one photo of our team.  Thankfully, I succeeded in exporting the file and uploading it for our tech team right before I had to go teach a class.

It was a super stressful morning.  During which I was mad at myself for procrastinating.  Mad at the software for not working properly.  Mad that I was such an overachiever because it would have taken an hour to create a powerpoint with music.

But no, I'm an overachiever.  So I have to always go one up, on myself.  I never compete with others.  It's always my own brain. I'm the girl who gets a B+ and is mad I didn't get an A, while most people are rejoicing they got a B!  (if I was a perfectionist, I'd have been a straight-A student...but I wasn't)

This is pretty indicative of my life.  I always try to do more.  I always over-commit.  I never want to take the "easy way out" because I expect more of myself.  But I need to take it a little easier on myself.

While cleaning off the "counter of death" (aka where we stack everything and random junk collects) I found a few Christmas cards that were addressed, but had no stamps on them...and were never sent.  Then I found thank-you's Miss Rose wrote for her birthday in January, that hadn't been distributed.

I have to send out Christmas cards.  I have to do hand-written thank you notes.

Good execution, poor follow-through.

Sometimes, mediocrity is good.  Especially when it preserves your sanity.  But, I will always strive for excellence in my life.  I can't help it.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

last week in iPhone photos

Sick baby. Too many of my weeks have a sick baby in them.(she's doing better now)

What's missing here? {it's more fun to eat the seeds in the green beans} #ohgracie

So grown up


Rough morning...reset button


Sickie #2 this week


Somebody is wearing big girl panties now!


Ready to go running


Love her style


Small neighborhood parade in our big city. The best.



Free Home Depot aprons are a good place for our kettle corn snack :)

Post-dinner walk. Also known as, we are too hyper and our house is too small and we need to get OUT
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

running through my head

Yikes!  I haven't blogged in 10 days.

I am really ready for summer.  I'm ready to not worry so much about when kids go to bed.  I'm ready to not rush in the morning to have Miss Rose ready for school.  I'm ready to go enjoy the sun with the kids on my days off.  About another month, and summer will officially be here!  I am ready.

Miss Rose got her first true haircut yesterday.  She looks so grown up, it kills me.  She's had her hair trimmed up to a few inches, but this included several inches some layering and framing around her face.  It's crazy how much like mine her hair is.  The stylist blew it dry and it looked exactly like mine does when she blows it straight.  Although the only time I ever have straight hair is after a haircut.  I'm too lazy to straighten it.  And I'm so used to curly hair I think I look weird with straight hair.  {she has asked I not share pictures of it yet.  she's self-conscious.  but next week after more people around us have seen it, I'll share}

Dare I say, in one week, Lily is almost totally potty-trained?  I'm surprised, but I'm not.  I knew she was ready and that she'd catch on quickly.  But she's had very few accidents and even stayed dry in pull-ups while out and about and woken up dry from naps.  This weekend I'm going to not use pull-ups at all.  Except for church.  Sundays are too crazy and if she has an accident, it might be hard for one of us to get to her quickly and that's not cool.

Lily has been sick again.  Which adds to my surprise at the potty-training success.  She came down with a fever on Sunday night and it's lingered.  I took her in on Monday, since it was just two weeks ago her 7-day fever finally broke.  She has another virus, including a sore throat.  Even with fevers and not feeling well, she's kept going on the potty.  It's the saddest thing for your barely 2 baby to whimper out "potty" from her feverish spot on the couch.  But she did it!  Her fever is coming down slowly and she's mostly back to herself.  I am very close to asking for a referral to Ear-Nose & Throat doctor.  I really think something about her anatomy makes her susceptible to these infections and viruses.

Although she did vomit all over her carseat yesterday.  I think she let mucous build up from not wanting to swallow, choked and couldn't stop the gag reflux.  It kept coming and coming.  We had just pulled up to the house.  I jumped out to get her, but every time I went to unbuckle her, she'd start puking again.  You know you are a pro-mom when you pull a diaper out of the seat pocket to catch some of the puke in!  Luckily, she's held stuff down since then.

Gracie.  Oh Gracie.  She's going to be my boy crazy one.  She's only 4, so I hope she grows out of it.  She talks about wanting a boyfriend and wanting to kiss him.  I blame Tangled!  She has watched that movie so many times.  But, if you ask her, she will tell you her only boyfriend right now is Daddy and she's not allowed to have a boyfriend until she's 16.  So there.

So, what's new with you?

Sunday, May 1, 2011

one crazy hour (every night)

This blog serves partially as a record of our family life, an electronic journal if you will.  Because I type way faster than I can write with pen and paper.  I like that people enjoy reading it, and if more people want to start reading, that's super cool.

You will laugh, and you may cry at the antics I am about to recount.  I know I did a little of both.  I publish this, because many years from now, I may not remember these details and if someone else were to tell them to me, I may not believe it.  But here, published in my own words, I have to believe it.

The hour from 6:30pm to 7:30pm is the craziest, hairiest hour each day in our household.  I'm sure it's similar in many homes with young children.  Infants and young babies are often extra fussy in the evening and it's called the "witching hour."  I would propose that the "witching hour" continues to exist as children get older, just in different form.

We typically eat dinner around 5:30pm.  By 6:30 it is time to start getting kids ready for bed.  Bean typically cleans up after dinner while I start bathing children.  We like this set-up.  I would rather be with the kids and he loves cleaning the kitchen.

Sometimes I shower all three kids.  We have a removable shower head that I use for the little girls.  This is the most expedient method, but the little girls usually protest and fuss and sometimes I am just not up for that.

Before baths and showers tonight I trimmed everyone's finger and toenails.

Tonight, a joint bath sounded much easier.  I run the bath and undress Lily.  Gracie comes in and poops on the toilet, stinking up the small bathroom.  Gracie loves to lay down in the bath, putting her lady parts right in Lily's reach.  Which is starting to interest Lily.  I can't tell you how many times I tell Gracie to sit up.  And then she lays down again.  Gracie spent the first 10 minutes of tonight's bath with her ears underwater, singing her rendition of the chorus of "Firework" over and over again, quite loudly.

Miss Rose always protests getting in the shower.  It takes her way longer than necessary to undress.  Usually because she is cavorting around half dressed or naked--often in full view of our picture window in the living room.  This is rather awkward because she is a 7-year old trapped in a 10-year olds body.  Hear head almost reaches the top of my shoulder.  The kid is tall and very solid.  She's like this pre-teen running around, yet with a child's spirit.  Awkward is just the best way to describe it.

After demanding and sometimes yelling, she's finally in the shower.  Then I have to fetch the brush for her, because no matter what I do, Miss Rose's hair is terribly tangled by the end of the day and the best solution is to saturate it with conditioner and brush it while soaking in the shower.  And we still have to brush more tangles after she's out.

Miss Rose spends the last half of her shower singing made-up songs into the shower head.  She is never happy when I say it's time to get out.  I have to dry her hair enough that it's not dripping.  She tries to talk me into drying her whole body, but I usually make her do it on her own.

Back to the other bathroom where Gracie and Lily are playing and Gracie is saying "Lily's gonna bite my bottom"  Then for goodness sake SIT UP!  A quick scrub down and conditioning of hair.  (curly hair girls, we don't use shampoo usually)

Miss Rose is taking forever to dry off, and is singing again in our bathroom.  So I have to continually call to her to go get her jammies on.

Get the little girls dried off and they insist on being wrapped in their towels.  They love running to find Bean and talk about being naked and there is often mention of nipples.  Bean is usually done with the kitchen at this point and helps with the rest of the extravaganza.

Lily always runs away when it's time to get jammies on.  And lately she's been insisting on choosing her own.  She wants "pink" although I don't think she always knows what is actually pink.

Then it's time to brush out tangles.  Miss Rose thinks I'm torturing her on purpose.  I think she will get a significant haircut in May.  Her hair is long, so there is some to spare.  Gracie's hair doesn't tangle as much, but she still hates getting it brushed.

Miss Rose goes into the bathroom to brush her teeth and do her fluoride mouthwash.  When I check on her, she's making silly faces in the mirror.  She somehow gets toothpaste everywhere while brushing.  Lily tries to get in the bathroom, but this only distracts Miss Rose. I have to drag Lily out, while she tucks her legs up, and close the door.  Lily plants herself right in front of the door and screams at me.

Finally it's time for the little girls.  Gracie stands on the stool, Lily climbs on the toilet.  Both girls start out themselves, then I finish up.  Lily plays with the soap and mouthwash bottle on the counter, knocking them over.  I usually have to sing to get the girls to focus on the task at hand.  I go back and forth, telling them not to touch something, to focus, to not fall etc.  I floss Gracie's teeth, because they are close together and that's

I've been wanting to read more from our children's Bibles and so tonight I put my foot down that Mama was reading and everyone else was listening.  Miss Rose wanted to read "but Mom, you always say that it's important for me to read, so I don't know why you won't let me."  Gracie wanted to look at her own book.  And Lily had to be on my lap, and kept grabbing the Bible.

It was a comedic 8 minutes.  Gracie was sent to her room for moaning and whining and writhing on the couch.  Lily started being goofy and saying "poop" and "pee".  Miss Rose was laughing the entire time.  And then Bean started laughing.  Lily kept going to check on Gracie.  Finally Gracie returned.    I could only get five words out at a time before having to direct a child in something.  Bean thought it was all hilarious.  I told him I had no use for him.

Gracie flips through the children's Bible and comes upon an illustration of Naaman washing in the Jordan River.  She thinks he is naked and it's funny.  I tell her he has shorts on, they are just underwater. Then she starts talking about seeing his nipples.  Seriously.

Finally, bedtime.  We pray, we sing.  During which Gracie is singing her own song.  Miss Rose is trying to hold hands with all family members from the top bunk. She gets mad when Lily doesn't want to hold her hand, which is almost every night.  Lily insists on being held.  She's getting heavy these days.  I rest my foot on the bunkbed ladder so Lily is sitting on my leg instead of my hip.  Which Bean thinks is a great opportunity to tickle my leg, so I'm laughing while we are singing, and from the top bunk Miss Rose thinks she's missing something.  Sigh.

During this crazy hour, I hardly ever stop talking.  I'm always telling a child to do something, or stop doing something.

The kids finally in bed, we collapse on the couch.

And I wonder, 10 years from now, when they can do all of this on their own, what are we going to do with that hour?

It's crazy.  But I'm sure I'll miss it.

What are your nights like?

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