Wordless Wednesday

My three athletes

Tball and Grandma Quack

Sebastian has started T-Ball and is doing fantastic. He's hitting great and working really hard on fielding.

Grandma Quack came into town and was here for the lunch party on Friday. The kids had so much fun playing UNO with her in the evenings. I love that they get to enjoy card games with her like I did as a kid.

It's so hard to say goodbye

The bookmobile out of the Kalamazoo Public Library has been a huge part of our life as a family. We decided to start going when Alexandra was less than 2. I remember being pregnant with Sebastian when we made our first visit. Tonight was a really, really tough night. There was something bonding for us as a family going to the bookmobile every tuesday night. We'll still go to the library but it just won't be the same.

Color, Color, Color

I realized the other day that I don't think we've ever colored easter eggs. With the kids being 6, 5 and 3 I thought I could do this. It's spring break and we aren't going anywhere, lets color some eggs.

How are you leading....

I've been in a lot of leadership roles. Even in middle school and high school I loved to be in charge of things, er I mean lead things. :) I've always felt that I was a pretty good leader. I'm involved in a couple of things right now where my leadership is needed. In the last month, I've been convicted of complaining a lot about the people that I'm leading. I've always run under the assumption that If I can do something, everyone else can to. But that's not always the case. Everyone is gifted differently, if anyone should know that its me. In the last couple of years I've tried things that I was not gifted at and struggled. I was clearly convicted about how I'm leading people who are struggling. If you are in leadership, think about the people you are leading. They might not be like you, encourage them as best you can, and lead them. It is easy to write that but not so easy to do as I can tell you. I'm asking God to help me. I want to be a better leader, not just one that sits around and complains about those that I'm leading.

Happy Spring Boy - Wordless Wednesday

I miss Dr. Haddock

When I was growing up, we saw the same dr. almost every time I went into the office. Whether is was for a yearly check up or for a sickness I saw Dr. Haddock. I grew to know what to expect. Although my mom might be able to tell you different, I even remember when my tonsils shrunk, he gave my mom the third degree. He demanded to know why he wasn't informed I had my tonsils out. My reason for reminiscing is that I'm a little tired of large dr. offices where no one really knows you. Atticus has been sick for about 4 days now and the last two days he's been sleeping for about 18 hours a day. I look in his eyes and I can tell he doesn't feel well. I'm not one to run to the dr. at every sneeze or sniffle. I hate to spend the money to have the dr. tell me it's just a virus. What's weird is that he's been very lethargic and hasn't been eating much. That's totally not my 3 year old boy. I get a lecture from the nurse at the dr.'s office that he probably just has a virus. If they knew me and knew my boy, they would know that he tends to have respiratory issues. He was in the NICU for 3 days after he was born with respiratory issues, he's had rsv, croup and has been on the brink of pneumonia. They don't know me and they don't know my child. If they did, they wouldn't be questioning me. Plus, I have a cold and so does Sebastian and I'm not rushing us to the dr. I'm just wishing for the old days where I was known by one Dr. and not unknown by a sea of medical professionals. I could be proven wrong when we do see a Dr. this afternoon and they determine if it's just a cold.

He turned the tables on me a little bit

After last night's questioning, Sebastian decided to ask me a question on camera, kind of. I love his responses.

Another one bites the dust....

Thanks to Mrs. Shank the music teacher for putting the tooth in an envelope to Alexandra could bring it home!

















Oh and Atticus wanted to remind you that he's 3!

What's the best part of being.....

I just randomly asked the kids what the best part of being their age and what's the saddest/hardest. I love their answers.

snug house bug house

This has become a favorite for all the kids. I had to document this great experience.

It happened one morning at breakfast

It was a typical Saturday morning. I was half asleep and the kids were wide awake. We're eating some cereal. Atticus says: Mom, how do I get Jesus in my heart?

My jaw dropped. I wasn't awake enough to really know how to respond. I found a few words finally: You pray and ask God to take over your life and then he'll be in your heart.

Atticus: Can I do that?

Me: Sure

Alexandra: I want to do it too.

I figured Paul would want to be apart of this so I told them that we could do it later. Last night at prayer time, Alexandra reminded me that we need to pray that special prayer. So Paul and I led them in a prayer to ask God to forgive them of their sins and be in charge of their life. It was quite a moment.

Today at church, Atticus had his hand up for a while during our intergenerational teaching. Paul and I wondered what he wanted. When he finally got the teachers attention, he told him that he gave Jesus his heart. Tears welled up in my eyes. It was so cool.

Repairman, we don't need no repairman

So our HE washer has been not working on and off for about 3 months. It's only about 3 years old and it's been very, very frustrating for it to not work. It throws off my routine. Can't have that. So we took the panel off and ran a diagnostic test and found something wrong with the drain pump. There is a valve hooked up to the drain that we thought about taking off and seeing if something was clogging it. I had an inkling that maybe a kid sock was stuck in there but we weren't sure that was possible.

Well as you can see from the pics it's possible and it was clogging up the whole drain. I had to drain the water, which is the other pic and then pull out the plug and there was the sock and a lot of other things. I'm now running a rinse cycle and it seems to be running fine. Yahooo! I wouldn't recommend it but it worked for us. Oh and just for the record I didn't work on the washer until I unplugged it. :)

How we blow off steam in the winter

We don't get the winter blues, we get down.

Just a rough week

This last week was one of those weeks that hits you out of nowhere. We all ended up with the stomach flu and after we thought everyone was on the mend, I ended up with an infected lymph node which has felt like an ear infection. I'm on meds now but man it's been pretty tough. I felt like we were treading water. On Thursday Paul and I tag teamed the kids. They would watch PBS kids upstairs while I rested in bed. Then we'd get them lunch, they'd watch a movie with Paul in the living room, while he rested and I slept upstairs. Then they got a snack, came back upstairs with me to watch PBS kids. Whew...We were just surviving. I have to admit that we worked pretty well together to make it through. I guess we didn't have much choice. I did a ton of laundry on Friday and then started to feel bad again with some sinus stuff Friday night. I was pretty down and out Saturday and Sunday. Paul even took the kids to church on his own Sunday while I slept. I got an appointment to see the dr. today and we waited 50 min after the appointment time and yest I had all three kids with me. I had to get creative. I thought ahead and brought juice pouches and crackers. That only gos so far though. It was my dr. so it had about 5 books and that was it. No other toys for the kids to play with. I mean after a while you can't blame them for playing with the water fountain. I did get to see the dr. and the kids got a treasure out of the treasure box. The kids needed to let out some steam later tonight so we did a dance party right before bed. Whew, we made it through. I'm writing this so that later when the kids are older we can look back on this and maybe not laugh but look back and be thankful we aren't in this last week anymore.

What a day, what a day!

It started out like many others but it sure wasn't an ordinary day. Sebastian had an appointment with an orthopedic foot dr. With many of his physical delays have come balance issues. He should be able to stand on one foot for at least 5 seconds. He hasn't been able to do it. He's extremely flat footed and it seems when he runs that his ankle is not straight over his foot. He said he literally has no muscle tone in his feet. He took x-rays and what's really cool is that all the bones in his feet are not fully formed yet because he's five. He put inserts in his shoes and said he wants to see us in 2 weeks. He mentioned that he would be a candidate for an ankle implant but not now. Maybe in a year if the inserts don't work. So we got through that appointment, did some shopping and got some lunch. Came home, worked out, loaded the boys into the van to get Alexandra. Atticus was sleeping in the car while we were waiting. I hear him cough and he throws up all over himself. We get Alexandra and get him home. I thought maybe a fluke, I mean he seemed fine all day long. We picked her up at 3:30 PM. He vomited every 1/2 hour until 6:30 PM when he went to bed and has stayed there. I have a really hard time with vomiting. I mean who doesn't but when one of the kids is vomiting it's like I'm waiting for the next explosion. This is really like the first time he has struggled with vomiting in his young 3 year old life. The first time he was so disturbed, second time he seemed upset, after that just tired and pretty much ok with it. I was amazed. I mean for me vomiting is like one of the worst things that can happen, thank goodness he didn't inherit that quality from me. This video is how we finished our day, per Alexandra's request.

Saturday morning fun

Although this wouldn't be my choice on a Saturday morning the kids choose it and it was a great activity for a cold Sat. morning.

I had a why do I bother moment

I think I'm gonna start calling this our sticky floor period. Atticus hasn't been using a lid and he's spilled about once a day and Alexandra has been spilling a lot oh and so has Sebastian. I mopped on Friday of last week and it was still really sticky. So because of so many spills I decided to mop both the kitchen and dining room. I was feeling really great about myself. How great am I to do mopping on a weeknight with no one coming over. Then, I go to get something out of the fridge and one of the kids cups spills all over the floor. Then later, I spill a glass from the table on to the floor, table and chair. I've realized that it's ok for me to have these moments. it won't keep me from mopping the floor, giving kids baths (even when they accidently hit me in the nose and spit in my face) or cooking dinner or giving kiss and hugs at bedtime. But sometimes a momma gets frustrated and feels like it doesn't really matter that I mop the floor, but it does. It does matter. Can you tell I'm working on giving my self grace.....

A new outlet for Creativity

I heard from a friend via facebook that she got her kids the new Crayola window crayons for Christmas and that they loved them. With all the stuff we are trying to do with Sebastian to encourage crossing the midline I thought this would be a great thing.
I tried to find them around Christmas but Walmart didn't have them yet. Today when we went we found them. Wow, the kids fell in love right away. Many times I saw Sebastian crossing the midline. It was so cool. Hopefully, the new ness won't wear off too soon.

Alexandra decided to draw the pigeon from "don't let the pigeon drive the bus". She did a really great job and then got out the book and copied some of the word bubbles. Very good idea!

Sledding

I really wanted Paul to go with us to go sledding at least once this season. Even thought we've had above freezing temps in the past few days, there is still plenty of snow. Unlike the other day when we went today it was really, really icy. The kids had a lot of trouble getting up the hill but going down was really fast. There are a few hills where we go and two are really, really big. The kids went down the first big hill and couldn't get back up. Paul helped them up and then I decided I would go down with one of them to help them get up. Then after a couple of times of that, we headed for the really big hill. I went down with Atticus and it was really fast. We hit a bump and slid to the side. We were going so fast I clutched my legs with Atticus between them and took the blow of the icy ground right in the shoulder. I think I bumped the ground a couple of times. It really hurt. Atticus was laughing and then said, my leg hurts a little. The next time down the really big hill, Atticus wanted to go down the hill by himself. No big deal right, well think again. There was a jump at the bottom of the hill that we couldn't see from the top. He hit it and flew off the slide and I saw him slam his head to the icy ground. He got right up but was screaming his head off. Paul went down with one of the other kids and I started down the hill on my behind to make sure he was ok. Earlier in the winter a kid hit a tree and died so I'm a little nervous about seeing my 3 year old fly off his sled. Paul went and grabbed him right away and he kept crying. What's hard is not knowing if it's cause he's really hurt or if it just scared the crap out of him. Paul talked to him about it later telling him that he went off a jump that big kids go off of and then he thought he was pretty awesome. I'm not looking forward to my sore shoulders tomorrow.

The Gospel of Lost

I cannot express the excitement I feel when I think about the last season of Lost starting Feb. 2 on ABC. I just started blogging reviews for Thomas Nelson publishers and my first assignment was to read the book "The Gospel of Lost" by Chris Seay. Now this isn't my official review and I just got through the first two chapters and I love it. For a fan of the show, this is a must have book about the characters and the deeper meaning of Lost. With the way I read and the time I have to read it may take me a week to get through this fairly short book, but I'm excited to read more and see what he has to say about it. More to come...

Hey Good Lookin'

This guy comes up with some really, really funny stuff. I prompt a little and he takes off running with it. I love him so much. He (as you can hear in the video) cracks me up.

Sledding

Last Friday when we saw the OT for Sebastian she told me that sledding would be really great for Sebastian. Oh, I thought. It's just so much work to do it all by myself with either just the two boys or with all three kids. I knew it would be a good workout for him and would meet his movement need plus I knew it would help Atticus to run out some of his energy. It was sunny today and actually right around freezing so I decided we should go sledding. It still seems to daunting and kept trying to talk myself into it all morning. Knowing this would be so good for the boys. So, as I'm driving home I think, hey wait, there might be another mom who would be available to go with me and then our kids could sled. I called her and she was available and we decided to wait until our older kids got out of school and take them all. It seemed so much more do-able with another mom. It was so much less hard with another adult there to help out. We even ran into a mom with her two girls from the same school and all the kids sled together. I even got on a sled and went down a couple of times. The kids had so much fun and the boys are tired out and will sleep well tonight. Yea, for other moms to help me get out and enjoy the snow.

Sadness

I worked the younger kids door today at school. It was too cold to go outside so the kids were in by their lockers. A 7 year old boy came up to me and asked if I had seen the movie District 9. I told him no. He told me he saw it last night and it was violent and bloody. I told him I didn't think I would watch that movie cause it would scare me. He said it did kind of freak him out. At first I was appalled. I couldn't believe a mom would let her son watch a rated R movie at 7 years old. Then I was sad. I kept thinking of how seeing that kind of violence would affect him as an adult. You see i know a little girl, about 10 or so who was sure she would be ok to watch the exorcist. I watched 5 minutes and was freaked out of my mind. I couldn't sleep without a light on for a while. I also know a young boy who saw pornography at a young age and it shaped the way he viewed women into his adulthood. I just feel so compelled to protect our kids from what they see and hear and experience. We have enough time in our lives to watch those things as adults when we can process them through more mature eyes or be able to make the decision that it's not right for me to see. I don't want to see that movie. It does nothing to encourage me or to entertain me. It's not that I'm against all rated R movies for adults, I just don't want our kids to be exposed to that before their time.

Alexandra did this without the camera on and It was so funny I had to take a video of it.



Although Sebastian flipped out, the rest of us thought it was funny!

Hop on the Erbe Train

Instead of going out and spending a lot of money on a Saturday night, a $10 buy on EBAY for the brown and blue track adapters and we've got an Erbe Train Party. Paul was the designer and the boys were the engineers. Although it was hectic at times, boy it was fun.

Mom, got a question for ya....

We get in the house after picking up Alexandra from school and Alexandra says this:

Alexandra: Got a question for ya.
Me: sure
A: I wondered when you die or something can I have this house?
M: You want this house when I die?
A: Yes, I mean you won't need it.
M: Cause I'm dead or something.
A: yes
M: What got you thinking about wanting the house.
A: My friend at school Hunter is already saving his money for a house. So I told him that I wouldn't need to save my money for a house since I'll just have the one my mom lives in now. Then I won't need to worry about saving for it.

The things this girl comes up with...the mind of a 1st grader.

I need a t-shirt that says.....

...I survived Chuck e Cheeses! Ok, It wasn't that bad. It was a Saturday afternoon on Christmas break, so it was busy but I tell you my plan came together like a charm. I had planned for 1 1/2 hours. We got there about 3 PM. I got a couponchuckecheese.comby signing up to be in their e-mail newsletter club.

The coupon was if you bought 40 tokens for $10 you would get 60 free. Pretty good deal. I gave each of the 5 kids 20 tolkens and hoped it would get us to 4 PM. Right around 4 PM all but one of the kids (Alexandra) had like 1 tolken left. Yes! We turned in the tickets and because we rode a lot of the rides and didn't get many tickets we were in the car by 4:25 PM. Now that doesn't happen very often, that we are on time that is. The kids had a blast and really didn't realize that we were actually having the birthday party there. We picked up pizza on the way home and then had cake and ice cream after we opened presents. Pretty successful If I do say so myself.

Sebastian is 5

It's pretty amazing that Sebastian is five.