Journal: January 24

Outside my window: grey and cold.  I hate winter.  Especially winter in January and February.

Clothing myself in: jeans, navy blue long sleeve shirt with turquoise camisole underneath.  It's pretty much my uniform: jeans, tank top, solid colored long sleeve shirt.

Around the house: Finally got all the Christmas stuff taken down last Friday (i think?)  Slowly but surely cleaning.  I made a "schedule" for myself for each month with cleaning goals - it seems to be a step in the right direction.  Life's been a little chaotic lately with sickness and family stuff, so things have had to slide a bit, but it's nice to have goals to work towards.  Finally replaced the water pad/filter in the whole house humidifier (just one of those things I never remember to pick up/look for) I can't believe how much more comfortable the house feels.

Ruby: Gosh she's growing.  There've been so many things in the past few weeks that I've wanted to blog about regarding her, but just haven't had the chance.  She is still into coloring (especially with her markers from Christmas) and cutting paper "candy" - tiny little pieces of colored paper (that she colors after she cuts out - like .25"x.5" pieces) and hanging them on doors (with 2 foot strings of tape - also a Christmas present.)  She's also moved from playing with babies mostly to stuffed animals mostly.  Her chimpanzee is named "Doo Doo"  her dog is named "Sam."  Another monkey is "Thomas" and a big red monkey is "Sir Handle."  She's wanted her hair "like a mama" lately - i.e. I wear my hair in a low ponytail pretty much every day and now that's how she wants her hair every day.  I'm honored and humbled by how much about me she notices.  She's really into whose turn it is to talk/not being interrupted.  For instance, Ira starts to say something as Ruby is finishing what she's saying, so she exclaims, "Ira, I was talking FIRST!"  Hopefully she will learn the ebb and flow of natural conversation soon - it's mildly annoying.  Still has the binkies - although they're like really cracked and beat up.  She says she's giving them to Mandy's baby when he/she is born - we'll see!  She's also been into who/what does and does not poop right now too.  Like, in the car, "does a tree poop?" "does a bird poop?.... why?"  and on, and on, and on.  Fascinating stuff I know...

Ira: Is in 2nd grade math right now.  Before Christmas break, his teacher called to ask if Andy and I would think about him moving up to 2nd grade math because the 1st grade stuff was just way too easy for him.  I was so impressed with her concern for Ira getting the best education and that she took the initiative to clear the logistics of it  (even as his school years continue.)  We decided that it would be good for him and sure enough, it is.  He's said a few times "Second grade math is a little harder than first grade math!" as he's doing his homework.  He was pretty thrilled that he didn't have any homework last week because the second graders were finishing first confession preparations and therefore weren't being given homework.  Score!  He's reading 5.1-5.5 level AR books.  Still loving non-fiction but also really into Magic Treehouse and Flat Stanley Worldwide Adventures as well.  We seem to have come to the other side of the "angrily resisting chores" thing - he's doing better with getting them done and accepting the consequence if he doesn't.  Although, the other night he did yell quite angrily, "Dare I say it, that's the most ridiculous rule I've ever heard!" (When I told him he could eat dinner when his toys were cleaned up.)  Now he's been trying to "engage" me in arguments with inflammatory statements like above, or "you're just a liar, that wasn't really five minutes."  It works best if I can keep calm and respond lovingly "I'm sure you feel that way" or "I love you too much to argue."  It takes a few times of saying it (and sometimes more than a few times), but when he realizes I'm not going to get involved in the power struggle, he comes to terms with whatever he's being asked to do.  Now if I can just consistently do my job and not get in my "I'm going to win this argument" mode.  Still enjoying piano lessons - we're about 15 pages from being done with the Level 1A book.  After our piano lesson yesterday, he was talking to me about something and then said, "you know, like when Father holds up the Eucharist and it turns into Jesus' body and there's that shiny light behind the host."  I was astounded.  Speechless.  What a gift he's been given!  I am so excited for him to receive the sacraments of reconciliation and communion next year!

In the kitchen: Easy Cheesy Chicken Bake, Quick Pasta Carbonara, Cavatini, and Cheese & Black Bean Enchiladas.  The theme for this week is: keepin' it simple.

Hobbies: working on a sewing project right now.  Not 100% thrilled with my design/execution, so I'll continue to tweak it before "going public."

Bringing me joy: Our impending visit to Pope Paul VI Institute.  Test results coming in abnormal (as funny as that sounds, it's a start and an indication that things are definitely not working like they're supposed to.)  My kids.  They've just been pretty good and easy to deal with lately.  Our new treadmill.  It is amazing!  We've put over a marathon's worth of miles on it already (in the less than two weeks we've had it.)  I've run in Hawaii, Rome, Japan, Texas, and New York already.  Don't know what I'm talking about?  See here.  Funny tangential story:  The night we got the treadmill, I decided to do this mountain run in Hawaii.  I ran some of it but walked a lot it because it was just really hard and then felt awful when I finished it.  I told Andy, "wow the incline thing really makes a difference!  That or I've gotten really out of shape in the last month, because I feel like I could barf."  I continued to feel horrible and when he got done running I said, "wasn't it awful" and he was like, "well, it didn't seem that bad, really."  So I thought, "man I am SO out of SHAPE.  I feel like CRAP!"  Well, I finally drug myself upstairs to bed and woke up about an hour later with the stomach flu.  And then proceeded to wake up every 60 minutes for the rest of the night.  Fun times, that stomach flu.

Thinking about: Family.

Pictures to share:

Ira ready for his first day of "Basketball Camp"  He got a shirt last week for being the best at "Chest Passes"  He was so proud!

Ruby's Sesame Street Manicure I gave her.  From left (thumb) to right: Telly, Grover, Elmo, Oscar, and Cookie Monster.

What can I say, I was bored...

Journal: Nov. 19

Outside my window:  Blogging from the basement - no windows here.  But if there were, I wouldn't be able to see anything anyways.  It's dark outside.  Beautiful day today though - 60s, sunny.

Clothing myself in: Jeans and Black short sleeved shirt.  Like I said - it was a gorgeous day.

Around the house: I cleaned the OVEN yesterday!!  It had been awhile since I last scrubbed it down.  That is such a project!  Lots and lots of elbow grease to complete that task.  (It's 28 years old - no self-cleaning burnination here.)  Also, went through the kids' toys and chucked the junky ones (you know, the stuff that sinks to the bottom of the toybox and NEVER gets played with... happy-meal type stuff (although we don't really eat happy meals here much.)

Ruby: Super attached to her "YMCA" jersey.  I never thought I would have one of those kids that always HAD to wear a certain article of clothing, but I am telling you, if we let her, she would wear that jersey (a hand-me-down from her cousin) ALL THE TIME.  It's really funny to me.

Ira: Has been a bit of a pickle lately.  And by pickle I mean really, really hard to deal with.  Just being disrespectful and rude and physically confrontational.  And I haven't handled it well at all.  AT ALL.  Edited when I remembered this: On an upside, we had a humorous conversation today that I had to share:

"Mom, is there still slavery in the U.S.?"
"No, not anymore."
"But there is other places in the world?"
"Yes."
"Like where?"
"Hmmm, not really sure."
"Egypt?"
"I don't know maybe."
"And probably Nineveh.  Did Jonah really get swallowed by a whale?"
"That's the story."
"And do the people in Nineveh really slap each other in the face with fishes?"

Seriously - where does he get this stuff... is that in the Jonah Veggie Tales movie?  I don't remember it, but I'm guessing that's where he got that... And does anyone know where is Nineveh?  By that I mean, what present day country is where Nineveh was?  There isn't still a Nineveh right?

In the Kitchen: Don't really have a lot planned with the holiday this week.  And I just didn't sit down and plan it last night, so I'm flying by the seat of my pants for now.  I don't really like doing that though, so I'll probably have to plan something for tomorrow and Wednesday.

Bringing me Joy: Watching the squirrels in our yard.  I wish I could put a camera on their necks - I would love to see where all they go and where they nest.  Got my hair cut a couple weeks ago and it feels so much softer and more manageable now.  Watching a new episode of Castle.

Thinking about: Focusing my attention on the people in my life not the things.  It seems like my priorities have been a little off kilter lately - keeping my house/internet life up, but not really keeping up with my kids and their lives.  So I've taken to repeating to myself throughout the day, "people first."

Picture to share:

The only picture I took this week is of my oven... Hello my name is Michelle and I have a problem...

What I Loved About Last Week 12th & 13th Ed.

So I realize, I'm still a week behind, but no more!  I'll catch you up on the last two weeks around here. (Don't mind the highlighting, blogger is being dumb...)

Week of June 4-June 10:
1. Picked dozens of cups of snap peas and started digging up potatoes.  This new method of gardening is rocking our socks off so far.  We are digging up red potatoes that are 4 and 5 inches across.  I've never  seen red potatoes that big before.  They are also mighty tasty!

2. Celebrated 7 years of marriage to my wonderful hubby.  He surprised me with flowers and dinner out sans kids.  We ate sushi at our favorite place and took my ruby ring to get it fixed (I lost the ruby on vacation.)  We also browsed through a kitchen store and found lots of cool gizmos and gadgets.  It was a just our style of date.  Love that guy more and more with each passing year!

3. Took the kids out to harvest wheat with Grandpa Bill.  We all got to ride and eat lunch out at the field.  We took lots of pictures at Bill's request because this was apparently the best wheat they'd ever had at that particular field (and probably the best they ever will.)

4. Washed my car.  We borrowed the power washer from the farm to wash the dune buggy (it's for sale by the way, so if you know anyone...) and decided to wash my car as well.  It was a fun family project with everyone scrubbing and spraying.

5. Got new tires on the car.  One of those things that you love to hate spending money on.  I always get a dorky satisfaction from taking care of things like that though...

6. Along the dorky lines.  I got new laundry baskets and I could not be more excited.  They are red and sturdy and so much nicer than the falling apart ones that we were using from when Andy was in college.  It's the little things, really.

7. Probably the biggest news of the week (at least in Ira's books) is that he finally got all of his toys back.  Not sure if I ever shared that story on here, but about 6 weeks ago, Andy and I were so disgusted with how Ira had acted at church the last 2-3 weeks, that we took every single toy he'd ever gotten and put them away until he could behave as we thought he could at Mass.  He improved little by little each week and finally on the 10th, he was good enough to earn them back.  It was like Christmas morning at our house seeing all the long-lost toys.  I must say, I didn't really miss them much, and quite honestly, the kids didn't seem to either.  I foresee a toy-clearing-out-athon in our future (if the hubs and I can agree on what to keep and what to let go of.)

There you have it for that week, now onto this past week - June 11-17:

1. Legos.  One day during Ruby's nap, Ira and I spent some time building with his newly-returned Legos.  It was really, really cool.  I built a fire truck.  I don't think I'd ever really built anything with Legos in my life, so it was a lot of fun to share that experience with Ira.

2. Laundry.  When Ira ran out of shorts (I know, I'm a terrible mother), I finally decided it was time to do the laundry from vacation and the week following.  It was a TON of laundry, and my washer ran pretty much the entire day nonstop, but it sure felt good to get it all done!

3. "Blunk beds."  Well I thought I would just be bragging about the fact that I finally ordered bunk beds for the kids, but the company we ordered them from is awesome and after ordering them on Monday afternoon, they were delivered on Thursday afternoon (for free no less!)  Andy got them set up that same night and both kids were sleeping in them by Friday (when Ruby's mattress came in.)  The kids have done excellent in their new beds.  I think all they really needed was their own spaces, because the circus that is bed time has calmed down significantly and I think everyone is sleeping better!  If you are ever in need of bunk beds, I would highly recommend Bunk Bed King.  The service was excellent, the shipping was free, the prices were great, and the bunk beds are S.O.L.I.D.  No fake wood here.  We could not be more pleased with our purchase. (And no, I am not receiving anything for this review, just a satisfied customer.)

4. Ira has figured out how to snap (for the most part) and it is so cute because he does it whenever his hands are free (like when he's waiting for his turn in a game or when he's in between steps on building legos.)

5. Swimming.  We've been spend a lot of time at the pool lately.  I can't believe how much more confident Ira is in the water.  I also cannot believe how comfortable Ruby is with it.  She'll wear just her floaties and float around the 4-5 ft. range just kicking and splashing and having a jolly good time.  Going to the pool this summer is so much more fun than last summer when all she'd do was stay on the step!

6. Celebrated my nephew's 6th birthday.  He had a swimming party and all the kids had fun swimming and "slip & sliding"  - even Ruby!

7. Climbed a silo.  Now that was pretty awesome.  After the birthday party, Andy's parents watched our kids so that we could climb the silo at the dairy farm.  I picked the tallest one (figured if I was going to do it, I might as well do it right) and up we went.  It was kind of grueling climbing it (but that could be because I'm an out-of-shape-lame-ozoid) but boy was the view at the top worth it all!  Just amazing.  Such a fun mini-date with my hubs!

We climbed the one on the right. About 85 feet tall.

If you look real close (or click on the picture to make it bigger,) you can our town on the horizon. It's about 6 or 6.5 miles away in this picture.

And if you look real close (or click on the picture to make it bigger,) in this picture, you can see the town I grew up in on the horizon.  It's about 13.3 miles away in this picture.

Although the sunset surely would have been beautiful to watch from on top the silo, there was no way I wanted to climb down in the dark!  So this was as close as we got to a "sunset" picture. Ad n by-the-by, you can see Andy's parents' house in this picture (the two silos in the middle of the photo are theirs.)  We were going to climb them, but decided to climb the taller ones at the farm.

8. Father's Day.  The kids and I got Andy a new smoker for Father's Day (along with all the fixins - wood chips, charcoal, a cover, ribs.)  We decided to have both of our dads (and moms too of course!) down for dinner on Sunday night.  Andy smoked ribs and potatoes and we had a delicious meal together.  Ruby thought it was pretty fun having two grandmas and two grandpas in the same place.

9. Rubyism - "Ira give me my stink eye back!" (She was referring to a pirate eye patch.)

10. Iraism - "Mom, I know you want the house clean, but that won't happen until nobody lives here and they demolish it."  Thanks Ira, thanks a lot.

Hope you have a great week!!

What I Loved About Last Week 7th Edition

Here's what I loved about the week of April 30th - May 6th.

1. The scent of roses wafting through the house.  When we have the windows open, I often catch the smell of the rosebushes in the front of the house.  I don't like the smell of rose-scented things (lotions/soaps/perfumes) but there is nothing like the smell of a fresh garden rose (our yellow ones are especially fragrant.)

2. My Kitchen Aid Mixer.  It was our wedding present from my parents and although it's almost 7 years old, it still works (and looks) like it's brand new.  The kids and I used it this week to make pretzels and it made the whole process SO simple.  Well, as simple as baking can get with a 6 year old and a 2 year old bicker over pouring in every. single. ingredient.  Not that that frustrates me or anything.

3. Mulberry Vinaigrette.  Andy was feeling all hunter-gatherery and foraged some Mulberries from a vacant lot that backs up to ours.  Then he made them into the most delicious vinaigrette to eat on our home-grown lettuce.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

4. Ira. Ira. Ira.  One morning before school, he was looking at some papers on the desk.  One of them was a sign up sheet for Room Mothers.  At the bottom it said "Please circle which grade you would like to serve" then had each grade listed out: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.  So he says to me, "Mom!  Look what the teachers are doing this year!  What grade do you think I should be in next year?  I'm pretty smart."  And in case that isn't clear as mud - he thought that he was going to get to pick what grade he'd be in next year.  Love that kid!

5. Diary Fieldtrip.  Each year Andy's mom's kindergarten class takes a field trip to their dairy farm.  Before Andy was in Kindergarten, he got to go along.  Before Ira was in school, he got to go.  Now Ruby gets to go.  Marilyn delights in showing off her grandchildren and her students love getting to meet the kids behind the stories she tells at school.  Not to mention it's just a little more in-depth of a look at the dairy than we get when we go to get milk each week.  The kids get to see a cow being milked, feel a milker, feel fresh, warm milk, see and learn about the milk tank, bottle feed a calf (pronounced "kev" for those who've never been around a dairyman), take a hay-rack ride, climb in a tractor, a combine, and a swather, and eat an ice cream sandwich.  Ruby was a little shy at first, but after awhile she was marching around acting like she owned the place.  She put her finger in the milker twice (that's a big deal, a lot of kids are scared of that) and ended up being in each of the 3 kindergarten classes' pictures (with "Crampa Beel")  She's such a goose!

6. Swimming.  It was hot on Friday, so I set up the kids' pool for the first time.  They LOVED playing in it.  Seriously, they were in there for no less than 2 hours.  I foresee LOTS of swimming this summer for those two.

7. Cream in my tea.  I've been skimming the cream off the top of our milk and using it in my tea in the mornings.  It adds such richness!!  I always wondered why my friend Jolene's tea tasted so much better than mine (despite the fact that we had the same tea.)  Turns out, cream vs. milk makes a BIG difference.  Yummy!

8. Playing Monopoly.  Monopoly has LONG been my favorite game to play.  When my younger sis and her hubby come over, we like to play games.  We usually rotate between Canasta, Pitch, International Rummy and Monopoly.  For the longest time we avoided Monopoly because it took FOREVER.  Well, it turns out, if you play by the REAL rules (not house ones like putting money in free parking, selling houses/hotels back for the same price you bought them, giving immunities when trading properties, etc.) it actually doesn't take any longer than any other game.  So we played on Friday night.  My brother-in-law royally trounced all of us, but it was still tons of fun.  I got out first, so I made the pizza (because it's not a get-together with my sister if we don't make a second dinner at 11pm.)  Life is good!

9.  Saturday.  It was just a great day.  Andy and Ira got up early and went fishing.  They brought home enough fish for lunch.  After lunch, I got to go shopping for new clothes by myself!  Andy watched the kids and put in the rest of our garden (tomatoes, peppers, herbs, melons, cucumbers...)  I shopped 'till I dropped and for once had WONDERFUL luck.  I feel like a new woman!  It's so nice to have "pretty" clothes to wear each day.  Maurices and Vanity were where I got most of the clothes.  Those stores just "get me."  I never have luck at the department stores because I feel like all the clothes are either way too young (and tight and short and skinny) for me or way too old (and baggy and dull and big.)  Although I did pick up a few pairs of shorts at the dept. stores (and another 2 lightweight cardigans - that I now have 4 of because I love them SO much - the picture in the link really doesn't do them justice) I got about a dozen (I really needed clothes) short sleeve/sleeveless shirts between Maurices and Vanity.  Vanity also had some really GREAT camis/layering tank tops that were both long and had modest necklines.  I am excited that all the clothes I found are both stylish and modest.

10. Birthday party.  We celebrated my Mother-in-law's birthday on Sunday and had a wonderful time.  The kids got to play with their cousins, we ate lots of delicious food, and just had a great time in general.

Can I bend your ear for a bit?

When Ira was nearly 2, I was seriously concerned about his speech.  He said very few words and had only strung together a 3 word sentence a couple times.  It didn't make a whole lot of sense to me, because we talked all the time.  We talked about everything.  And it wasn't like he was mute or anything - he just didn't say much.  I think he was just waiting until he could talk like us, because shortly after he turned two, he started talking in full 5,6,7... word sentences.  He's only paused to take a breath a few times since...

I think part of it is the nature of the beast of being an only child for so long.  Part of it is that I too talk a lot.  And part of it is just his personality.  He is a kid with lots to say.  We've written down "Ira-isms" since he was 2.  We keep a little pad of paper in the desk and when he says something particularly hilarious, Andy and I will look at each other and say "Write that one down."  Ira's caught on, so now when he says something that results in uproarious laughter from Andy and I he'll say, "Write that down!"  We usually include a few of them in our Christmas letters, but I thought I'd share a few of our recent favorites.


"Mom, where's that place that you give junk away that people don't need?" 

"Huh!  16 o'clock!  I stayed up LATE!"

and "How do you say konnichiwa in Spanish?"

It really is fun having a kid that talks so well and understands so much.  It does make it a little difficult for Andy and I to talk to each other though.  Because he does understand so much so well.  It's why we rarely (ever?) have the TV on in our house when he's up.  It really is good for us all though.  Andy and I were just talking this morning about how little there is on TV that is appropriate for kids to watch - and I think that's true whether you just get over-the-air channels or whether you have 200 channels (granted it's a little easier to find something appropriate with 200 channels, it's just not worth the money to us.)  Perhaps I'm just a stick in the mud though because he's our first and he's still young...

Back to the subject of talking though, Ira has been SOOOOOOO talkative lately.  And not really conversational-talkative either.  Like yesterday morning, he talked for 13 minutes straight - I was scarcely able to interject a "how interesting."  I'm not really even sure if he took a breath.  It's CrAzY!  And while funny for awhile, by the end of the day, I was glad that Andy's parents were over for dinner so he could talk to (at?) someone else!