Our Week in Review

Posted on August 16, 2013 by Amy

1. When we went to Des Moines for the fair, we had a little pre-birthday party for Lass. She was so cute and so excited about the whole thing. Each time she opened a gift she said a sweet, breathless little “Fank you!!” accompanied by a tiny giggle. She melts me.

2. Speaking of birthdays, my Dad turned 70 on Wednesday. We couldn’t be with him, but my girls drew him some pictures:

Lass drew two caribou and one “caribou-snake” and Miss drew a dinosaur (“Grandpa loves dinosaurs, doesn’t he?”), and a “snake-eel.” Sis mostly just likes to hold the crayons.

3. After Labor Day Lass will be starting swimming lessons with Miss. She has been begging to do this for the past year. Each time I took her to the drop in care at the YMCA when taking Miss to her lesson, she asked to take swimming lessons too. I told her she had to wait until she was three. She is so excited to start in a few weeks.

4. We have a swing set/play structure thing at our house. It’s sort of a cheap one, and we won’t take it with us when we move.

I have decided that when we build our new house, I’m not going to get a new “play system.” My girls’ favorite outdoor play spaces are old trees and big rocks and tall grasses. Those are much cheaper.

5. I always forget to pack bathing suits when we travel. In July, when we went to my parents’ house, I packed the girls’ suits, but forgot my own, so I had to run to the only store they have in their town, Dollar General, to grab a suit when we took them to the beach.

This week I forgot everyone’s suits. When the girls played on the beach, I didn’t really care. They just got their clothes wet and sandy and it was no big deal. But when we went to my sister-in-law’s house, I knew the kids would be swimming in her pool. I figured we would all need suits, so I ran into Target on the way to her house to pick some up. The suits weren’t quite the right size since the selection was pitiful, but at least they were on sale. Happily, my husband was merciful and let me out of wearing my ill-fitting, mismatched suit, saying he could handle the two older girls since we didn’t go in the pool until after Sis was in bed. He’s the best. Plus he was the only one in a suit that fit…

6. Cuteness:

7. Last weekend my husband’s whole family (almost) was here to help get things cleaned up. That’s because the annual Labor Day Party/Family reunion that used to be hosted here at the Farm is back this year.

Last year it was at a different venue, and it was amazing. But I’m excited for it to be at the Farm again. It’s a costume party and the theme is “Jobs.” I have no idea what my costume is going to be, let alone for my three little ones. Any suggestions?

Still Dirty, Still Weird, Still Fun

Posted on August 9, 2013April 4, 2014 by Amy

Linking up with Conversion Diary again.

1. Went to the Dirty Weird Zoo yesterday. It just wouldn’t be summer without a visit to the DWZ.

When we visited last year my girls were timid about feeding the animals, and Lass just wouldn’t do it at all.

Not so this year.

We ran out of bread, but they were determined to feed grass to the cows.

Still dirty and weird. I just love that place.

2. What do you do if someone rings your doorbell at 9:30 at night, when your husband is working nights, and you know that the night before your garage door had accidentally been left open all night?

Do you assume a murderer has come for you (and politely rung your doorbell)? Turn off all the lights inside? Turn on all the lights outside? Turn on your alarm system?

Do you go to your garage door after realizing there’s no one at your front door (which you can see through) and yell, “Who is it??” “WHO IS IT?!”

Do you look around for a weapon and then grab your husband’s hunting knife and stalk around the house looking out all the windows?

No?

Yeah, me neither.

But if I did do all that stuff I would have felt kind of silly when I called my husband to double check that the garage doors were all closed when he left, and realized that my mysterious doorbell-ringer was probably one of the neighborhood kids messing around.

If I hadn’t been terrified to open my door I would have gone out there and rung those kids’ necks! I mean, if all that had actually happened, of course.

3. Okay. Obviously, #2 is an account of exactly what I did last night when my doorbell rang shortly after my husband had left for work. Since there was no one at my front door (little jerk ran away!) and I couldn’t see through the door into the garage (note to self to have peephole in new house), I was convinced that someone was lurking in my garage, waiting for me to open the door so he could murder me. I kept the hunting knife on the chair next to me for the rest of the night, even though after talking to my husband and then hearing kids getting up to some foolishness outside, I knew that our garage doors were securely closed and that said kids were responsible for my panic. Or at least for setting it in motion. I guess I can’t blame them for my craziness.

I don’t know why I automatically go into extreme-plan-to-confront-crazed-killer mode whenever there is the slightest indication of shady business going on.

Like the other day when a guy came to deliver something for my husband. I had forgotten he was coming, and he wasn’t wearing an obvious uniform. So in my mind all I saw was a strange man at my door with no business there. I quickly assessed the situation, considered how quickly I could press the panic button on my alarm panel, looked for an easily reachable weapon (a heavy vase was the closest thing I saw), thought of a few different ways I could inflict pain with my hands/knees/feet, and then cautiously opened the door a tiny crack with my foot wedged behind it to hopefully impede an attempt at forced entry. Yes. I do know this is crazy.

Or the time my husband and I were in the drive through of Starbucks after church and a girl, who was probably around 20-ish and all of maybe 110 lbs, started walking along the side of our car. She was a little close for (my) comfort so I automatically scanned to be sure the car doors were locked, looked for the best way for my husband to drive the car out of the danger lane, and thought about how I would punch her in the nose and the put my knee into her face if she tried to carjack us.

I don’t mean to come up with this stuff. I’m not at all a violent person. It just happens automatically. I don’t know if it’s because I grew up just outside Detroit in the days when carjacking became a thing. Or because I read a few too many true-crime novels in my early 20s. Or because I worked in prisons for several years. Probably it’s all those things combined, plus a hyper-protective don’t-you-even-think-you’re-going-to-mess-with-my-kids Mama-Bear instinct. Plus a little bit of insanity for good measure.

It’s what I do.

4. We got the first draft of the plans for our new house yesterday. We have a few changes to make, but I’m very happy with the initial drawings.

5. I have some serious stroller envy.

Super Friend has all the good stuff. She brought this double jogger today for both of our stroller-size littles to ride in:

I’ve never had a jogging stroller, because I have had a total of zero interest in jogging since running my last marathon in 2008. But I want it.

Super Friend is also loaning us her Super Stroller again. We used it for our trip to Disney World, and though I carried sis the whole time it is capable of carrying all three girls.

She’s letting us take it on our trip to the Iowa State Fair next week. I need to get one of these:

6. I don’t think there’s any worse feeling in the world than needing to take your child to the emergency room to assess a potentially serious health threat.

I got KFC for dinner last night, because we had to eat quickly between a doctor’s appointment and our Baptism class. As dinner was just getting started I noticed that Lass had bitten off the end of her chicken drumstick and swallowed it. The remaining end was pretty jagged looking so hubby called the ER and they told us to bring her in for X-rays. If they saw the chunk of or shards of bone in her stomach they would have to do a procedure to try to get it out.

Well, I was freaking out the whole way to the hospital, knowing they were going to see this thing in her stomach, because I knew she had swallowed it and praying that it had not yet moved into her duodenum or beyond.

We got to the hospital, got the X-rays, and found…

Nothing.

(She got that ostrich toy after her X-ray.)

Nothing was visible in her stomach or further along her digestive tract. I texted my babysitter and had her look around for the piece of bone, thinking that maybe she had just spit it out.

Nothing.

The mystery was solved when we got home. Hubby picked up another piece of chicken and chomped the end off. He proceeded to chew it right up like nothing. It was super soft and broke right up in his mouth. He had me try it with yet another drumstick. Yeah, I bit right through that bone. And then proceeded to gag and spit it right out. It was disgusting, and I have a thing about textures.

Apparently my middle child doesn’t. I’m so relieved she’s okay.

7. Today Super Friend and I are driving an hour to attend a Scholastic Warehouse Sale. With only one child (her littlest). Do I need to tell you that I’m way more excited about uninterrupted Mommy Friend time than about the book sale? No. I don’t. But the book sale should be good too.

Hoping you have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend. We’re heading to the Farm today after my Mommy date.

I’m Just Rambling Because This is My 5th Post in 5 Days

Posted on July 26, 2013 by Amy

Linking up with Jen’s 7 Quick Takes again.

1. I have found the most adorable dresses for my girls to wear to be baptized. I bought them on Etsy, of course, my favorite place to shop for such things. You can see the dress here. The woman who made them was delightful to work with. She got the dresses made and shipped very quickly, and they are beautifully done.

I had a harder time finding shoes for the girls that wouldn’t cost me a small fortune. $60 seems a bit much to pair for a pair of little girl’s shoes that will most likely only be worn once. I bought three pairs of Stride Rite (love Stride Rite, because they have wide width shoes for my two youngest who have been blessed with my fat feet) shoes from Amazon only to receive them and have the ones I ordered for Miss arrive in the wrong size and with only one shoe in the box. I started to try to exchange them, only to find that all shoes in the girls’ size range were sold out. So, I returned all of those and turned to Zappos.

Normally I love Amazon. I have Amazon Prime so I get free two-day shipping on almost anything. Amazon and Target are the places I buy almost everything. But shoes? Shoes really need to come from Zappos. Free one-day shipping and free returns means I can basically order a mini shoe store (the shoes from Amazon I ordered a bit too big for the older girls and too small for Sis), try the shoes to get the right size, and then send the rest back, without having to enter an actual shoe store with three impatient littles. The only reason I didn’t go to Zappos first is because they tend to be a bit more expensive. But desperate times and all that.

Of course, Zappos provided. I found another brand of shoe that comes in wide width and ordered two different sizes to try on each girl. They were just a little bit more expensive than the Stride Rite shoes. I picked the best-fitting shoes for each girl and sent back the rest today. So easy. Love Zappos.

2. I like to get new gadgets and small appliances to make my life easier. But I have a strong aversion to getting said new gadgets/appliances out of the box and set up for use. I got a fancy new crock pot several months ago, and it sat, in the box, in our front closet until my husband got it out this past weekend to make pork adobo.

I got a new iPad a week ago or so, and it’s only because I knew my hubby would give me a hard time if I left it in the box for very long that I got it out right away and forced myself to go through the setup. Even so it took me several days to get some apps on it.

Last weekend I finally bought an appliance I have been wanting for a long time. I hate mopping. The process of mopping – the bucket, the squeezing, the slopping, the dirty water – makes me want to throw things. But to make it worse, the tile on our kitchen floor has a weird texture that tends to hold residue from mopping, which drives me crazy and makes the floor seem more dirty after being mopped than it did before. So I don’t mop. I clean my floor on hands and knees with vinegar and water and a microfiber cloth. And not as much as I ought to.

I have been dreaming of buying a steam cleaner mop thing for my floor. My Mom and Super Friend both have one and swear they are the best things ever. They also both have the same kind, and highly recommended the Shark brand. So last weekend I was in Target (aka – The Very Favorite Place of All Stay At Home Moms) and saw the beautiful Shark steam cleaner thing. I excitedly bought it and brought it home.

And put it in my laundry room.

And there it sits, looking accusingly at me every time I go in there. Getting it out and setting it up (and maybe even using it) is my goal for later today. Or maybe tomorrow…

3. Neither of my older girls is very interested in playing with baby dolls. Miss sometimes does, but Lass would rather play with her snake, horse, wildebeest or other animal toys. The last time Miss tried to play baby dolls with her, Lass took the doll and called it a “baby wildebeest.”

Sis, on the other hand, loves baby dolls.

She sleeps with one. She usually is carrying around at least one. She tucks them into bed and walks them in the stroller. She wears them in her baby doll sling. She rocks them and says, “Shhh, Shhh, Shhh.” Love.

4. I never used to have a set laundry day. I always just ignored the whole idea of laundry (other than diapers) until things reached critical mass and either our baskets/hampers were overflowing with dirty laundry, our towels were stiff enough to stand up themselves, or my husband was down to his last pair of clean undies. Then I’d do a few loads, usually leaving some in laundry baskets and/or in the dryer until the wrinkles became ridiculous. Laundry used to be one of my least favorite chores.

Then one day I came across something (probably on Pinterest) that showed a 7-day cleaning schedule where the writer recommended doing ALL your laundry on one day, folding, putting away, everything (I tried to find the source of my inspiration for this and can’t find it, sorry). I don’t know why the idea of a laundry day never occurred to me before this. But I decided to try it. And I love it!

I do laundry on Tuesdays because that is the one day of the week when a show is on in the evening that I enjoy (Chopped) and I like to watch TV while folding. I LOVE doing all my laundry (except diapers) on one day each week. I almost never have to fold sheets anymore because I just pull them off the beds, wash them and put them right back on. The wrinkles have decreased because the clothes (almost always) get folded and put away right away. At least they get folded pretty quickly, though sometimes I get a bit behind in putting them away. Now I don’t hate laundry anymore. My laundry room looks like a disaster only one day per week:

How lovely that you get three pics of my laundry room in one post.

5. I love that my husband can teach my girls the same kinds of things that my Dad taught me. Fishing and shooting and such. Miss even wants to go out deer hunting with him this year (I think he’ll just take her out in a blind for a bit to watch for deer).

6. Super Friend and her family are coming over tomorrow evening for a cook out and movie night. In preparation, I’ve been trying to tackle the mess that is the weeds in our backyard.

I have filled bucket after bucket with weeds and taken them into the woods to dump them out. I have pulled weeds the size of small trees.

It never ceases to amaze me how out of control the weeds get in our backyard. I start out the spring pulling them here and there. Then we go out of town for a week, and it rains a few times while we’re gone, and we come back to a jungle, and I never get caught up again. I’m making progress. Hopefully I can make it presentable by tomorrow (it’s raining out now).

7. I have been practicing my songs for the Labor Day party my husband’s family has every year. I play the songs in the car and the girls are getting into them quite a bit. Yesterday I got a text from my babysitter, “Miss is singing ‘Love Shack’ right now…!”

Miss and Lass have both informed me that this B52’s classic is their new favorite song. They do love to sing.

Have a great weekend!

The Rest of the Week

Posted on July 5, 2013August 2, 2013 by Amy

I’m linking up with Conversion Diary again today.

My seven quick takes are pretty much all about what we’ve been doing this week with Grandma and Grandpa, in addition to the horseback riding and scavenger hunt that I’ve already posted about this week. That’s because I’m in the middle of nowhere and I have nothing else to talk about. But I do have a fabulous recipe for you that I’ve been meaning to share. So I’ll start with that.

1. Cauliflower crust pizza. Dee. Lish. Us. It is a great way to eat pizza if you don’t eat gluten or grains. You start by making cauli-rice (which itself is a good substitute for rice):

Then add a few ingredients to make it into a crust (recipe here).

Before baking the crust:

After:

It’s surprisingly easy, and my kids LOVE it. Get the recipe here. It really is good. You can even pick up a slice and eat it like regular pizza.

One tip – Don’t skimp on the step that stresses that you must get as much water out of the cauli-rice as possible before mixing in the other ingredients. I wrap it in a towel and squeeze the heck out of that stuff and still end up pressing a paper towel on it after shaping it into a crust (but before baking) to get out as much moisture as possible.

Try it. You’ll like it.

2. Okay, here’s where I’ll get into telling you all about what else we’ve been doing with G&G.

Swimming:

This pool sits on a hill in my parents’ yard. One corner of it has no water. The opposite one, the “deep end,” has only about 8 inches. Still, you’d think it was the best thing ever.

3. Another visit to the local nature center. This time we got to see all the animals.

The snakes were still the favorite though.

My big girls both chose $2 rubber snakes as their souvenirs. They have been sleeping with them. Are my kids the only ones who like to sleep with fake rubbery snake toys?

Lass has even named a new snake species for hers – “Jumping, Flying, Camouflage Snake.”

4. The beach:

Chasing butterflies:

The beach was awesome until a work crew of half a dozen adolescent boys showed up on their lunch break and decided to go for a swim. In their underwear.

We got out of the water at that point, but we had already had a great morning.

5. I was just informing my husband that we are going out to dinner tonight with my parents and the girls. The conversation went like this:

Me: “We’re going out to dinner again tonight”

Him: “Okay.”

Me: “We’re going to try to get there at about 5, because it’s a sit down place where they bring food.”

Him: “You mean a restaurant?”

Ah motherhood, where every conversation is affected by thoughts of your kids and you feel the need to clarify that the eating establishment you will be attending has wait staff who will bring the food to you instead of a buffet or order-at-the-counter arrangement.

6. Because you know you were dying to see pics of our parade yesterday:

7. And the grand finale:

My parents have some friends who were kind enough to invite us to watch the fireworks at their great lakefront house, which just happens to be right across the bay from the spot where they launch the show.

No battling traffic. No porta potties. No crowds. Nice.

They even had some pre-show home fireworks in the yard.

We tried to catch some fireflies, but it was too windy. We could only see them in the woods, and it was too freaking dark for me to go very far into the woods, even for fireflies for my kids. Plus Lass heard a boom from some fireworks and she turned around and took off running willy nilly into the dark and toward the water, so we had to abandon Operation Firefly promptly.

But the girls forgot all about the fireflies when the big fireworks started.

Have a great holiday weekend.

Some Miscellany – 7 Quick Takes Friday

Posted on June 21, 2013June 21, 2013 by Amy

— 1 —

I am kind of obsessed with reading the blog Conversion Diary right now. Is it possible to be “kind of obsessed”? Probably not. I think that’s an oxymoron. Whatev. I’m calling it “kind of obsessed.” It’s a blog about the author’s conversion from Atheist to Catholic, among other things. Love it.

Every Friday the blog’s author Jennifer writes a post called “7 Quick Takes Friday.” Then lots of other people write “7 Quick Takes” posts and link them to her blog. Fun, yes? I enjoy random thoughts on a Friday. So this week, I’m going to throw my hat in the 7 Quick Takes ring and see how it works out.

— 2 —

During the seemingly endless winter that we had here this past year I was desperately wishing summer would come. I was so eager to be able to take my kids outside to play without spending 3 hours getting them stuffed into several layers of clothing, snow pants, boots, coats, etc. And the mittens! Oh geez. I loathe mittens. Can’t anyone make mittens for toddlers/preschoolers that actually go on easily and stay on and keep their hands warm and dry?

Anyway, I don’t love the process of getting three kids under five ready to go out and play in the winter. So I was excited when spring arrived.

Except I had forgotten about sunscreen.

*Insert audible sigh here*

I think it takes at least as long to get sunscreen on them as to put on mittens. But sunscreen is messier. And they squirm and scream more during the process.

— 3 —

We have two butterflies in our little butterfly cage. Of six caterpillars that came in the mail, two of them successfully formed chrysalides and emerged as butterflies. There is one more chrysalis that may still successfully birth a butterfly, but the rest didn’t work out.

The girls are so excited about the two they’ve got. They are sure one is a girl and one is a boy.

I, on the other hand, am worrying because they don’t seem to be eating. I mixed the sugar water as instructed and even put a piece of fresh watermelon in the little butterfly house. I keep looking in there, “Come on little Painted Lady. Unroll that proboscis. Doesn’t that sugar water taste yummy when you step on it?” But I don’t think it’s happening.

In case you’re thinking me cruel, don’t worry. They’ve only been “hatched” for 1-2 days. We’ll be letting them go soon and they can find their own flowers and drink all the nectar they want.

My girls have even been scoping some out for them.

— 4 —

Miss completed Safety City this week. Yesterday I went to watch her graduation and she got to show off some of the stuff she learned. They had a karate instructor to teach the kids about “stranger danger.” He called Miss up to demonstrate what they are supposed to do if a seemingly nice stranger speaks to them, such as a little old lady asking for help finding her dog. Karate Man knelt down, imitated a sweet old lady voice, complete with sad face and “Can you please help my find my little lost dog?” Miss turned and ran and yelled, “NO THANK YOU I’M GOING TO GET MY MOM AND DAD!!!!” I was so proud. I almost started to cry.

— 5 —

In the past few weeks I have read three Awesome-with-a-capital-A books. Two of them were on my Summer Reading List.

“The Hiding Place” by Corrie Ten Boom has just gone straight to the top of my list of all-time favorite books.

And “The Screwtape Letters” by C.S. Lewis has made the favorites list as well.

The third one wasn’t on my summer list but I had to read it anyway. “My Sisters the Saints: A Spiritual Memoir” is an amazing book (and another favorite now).

From my summer list I’ve also read “On the Beach,” “The Sun Also Rises,” and “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry.” All enjoyable reads as well if you’re looking for a good book.

— 6 —

My hubby starts working nights tonight. I don’t love the weeks that he works nights.

I’ve been trying to plan ways for us to be out of the house next week during the day, but Miss has Wee Camp at the YMCA in the mornings, so we can’t take any big day trips to some of the fun places I’m wanting to visit this summer (See our Summer Fun List).

So far I’ve got grocery shopping and two play dates with Super Friend (God bless Super Friend) to help us get through the week. And one day I’m just punting to our babysitter to take Lass and Sis in the basement to play while Daddy sleeps. Throw in Church one day and a possible closing on some property another (I’ll post more about this if it happens, because I don’t want to count my chickens…) and I think we’re pretty well covered.

— 7 —

Speaking of our list of stuff to do this summer, I would like to note that I officially changed the name of it from “Summer Bucket List” to “Summer Fun List.” I did this after reflecting on the origin of the phrase “Bucket List” and realizing that the name came from the movie characters’ lists of things to do before “kicking the bucket.” Seemed a bit extreme for a list of fun things to do with my little girls before summer ends.

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!