So I've been sick for going on 3 weeks now. I didn't realize that I had been sick so long until I really started thinking about it. I had a bad cough, but I just kept getting up, doing all my jobs (here and elsewhere), and crashing at night. FINALLY... I went to the doctor and I had bronchitis and the beginning of pneumonia. It took a few days for the meds to kick in and for me to start feeling like myself. My house suffered from my sickness the most. In this economy, I guess you would say the bronchitis "laid me off" of my regular housework. I had no energy, motivation, or whatever to do any dishes/laundry/etc. It's going to take awhile for me to catch up on all that missed work. I don't really like doing dishes, but I actually like doing laundry. I'm trying to use less and less of the dryer, which means that the laundry takes a bit longer. With work, I'm only able to do a load a day. I'm going to try to catch up this weekend.
None of the children have gotten sick although they've all been around me, especially Birdie. Recently, she can't get enough of me, which is very sweet. Since I haven't been feeling that great, it's been harder to deal with her nonstop needs from me, but Lou Lou tries to pitch in and entertain Birdie whenever she can. The big news with Birdie is...she's finally walking. She started on Sunday, February 8. She's not real steady yet, but at least she's willing to practice now. She also voices her opinion a lot more lately. When she says "no", it sounds like "mon".
Lou Lou and Bug went to the YMCA Father/Daughter Dance last Saturday night for Valentine's Day. They had fun. A few hours before the big event, I told Bug that we needed to start getting ready. Her big blue eyes got a little bigger as she said, "Mama, we've got to practice my dancing!"
The last two nights, all 4 kids have slept in Bug's room. The three big kids slept with blankets and pillows on the floor. It was so wonderful to walk in there and look at all of them together. Children are wonderful, beautiful, and sometimes hilarious blessings!
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Snow News
We had lots of snow on the day of inauguration. The bad news was the grownups really wanted to stay inside to watch this historic moment whilst the young ones wanted to play outside. We went outside for awhile. Our "snow" gear was limited, so although they enjoyed themselves outside, once they got inside they realized that they were miserably cold and we had to work on warming everybody back up.
News from this month...
* I've realized (once again) that teaching school is hard work. I think the hardest part is communicating with parents. The planning and teaching parts are the parts I really like. Maybe I could go back and teach 50 years ago when what the teacher said was the gospel.
* Birdie is 18 months old (and one day) and still not walking. She's talking up a storm and moving all around. When she goes outside with her class, she continues to crawl around and the teachers always have to change her near-muddy clothes. She is still very laid back, and her favorite thing to do is give out kisses to anyone. When I ask her if she wants to kiss Brother Bear or whoever, she immediately sticks her lips out towards that person. So cute! She also loves participating in saying the prayer before a meal. She only refuses to participate if I haven't prepared her plate of food yet.
* Bug is still our most laid back kid. A little boy from our church and her daycare class calls her his "Queen of the South" from some song he listens to. He also calls her his Honeybunch. Her teachers said that once when she was crying in timeout, he came over and patted her back and said, "It's okay. You only have to sit here for a little while." Right this minute, she is asking me if she wear two pair of underwear so that she can stay extra warm:).
* Bear participated in his first pinewood derby race today. We had no clue what we were doing as we prepared his car. This was our "learning" year. Bear did not win, but came home with some good ideas about how to make a "faster" car.
* Bear and Lou Lou both had wonderful report cards and they were so proud of them. Lou Lou wanted to know what each little thing on the report card meant, but when I told her that everything was good, she got on the phone with MaJe and told her how great she did.
* Currently, we're reading The Whipping Boy and Kit - American Girl Story. Both very interesting stories!
* My new organizational technique which REALLY works is to lay out 35 outfits on Saturday for the whole week. That's seven outfits per child plus seven for me. This is probably the #1 thing I've done recently to help myself not feel CRAZY every morning.
* Recently, I feel most passionate about the sanctity of life. Thinking about anything that causes life to come to an end is awful. How can it be a crime to kill a human being that's already been born, yet lawful to kill a human being prior to being born? I've been reading a book about the culture of life versus the culture of death. Our current culture is such a culture of death because you hear so much about preventing conception, a woman's choice, etc. Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, "Whatever you do to the least of these my brethren, you do unto me." You can't get much more "least" than an unborn child at conception. Now I'll step off my soapbox!
News from this month...
* I've realized (once again) that teaching school is hard work. I think the hardest part is communicating with parents. The planning and teaching parts are the parts I really like. Maybe I could go back and teach 50 years ago when what the teacher said was the gospel.
* Birdie is 18 months old (and one day) and still not walking. She's talking up a storm and moving all around. When she goes outside with her class, she continues to crawl around and the teachers always have to change her near-muddy clothes. She is still very laid back, and her favorite thing to do is give out kisses to anyone. When I ask her if she wants to kiss Brother Bear or whoever, she immediately sticks her lips out towards that person. So cute! She also loves participating in saying the prayer before a meal. She only refuses to participate if I haven't prepared her plate of food yet.
* Bug is still our most laid back kid. A little boy from our church and her daycare class calls her his "Queen of the South" from some song he listens to. He also calls her his Honeybunch. Her teachers said that once when she was crying in timeout, he came over and patted her back and said, "It's okay. You only have to sit here for a little while." Right this minute, she is asking me if she wear two pair of underwear so that she can stay extra warm:).
* Bear participated in his first pinewood derby race today. We had no clue what we were doing as we prepared his car. This was our "learning" year. Bear did not win, but came home with some good ideas about how to make a "faster" car.
* Bear and Lou Lou both had wonderful report cards and they were so proud of them. Lou Lou wanted to know what each little thing on the report card meant, but when I told her that everything was good, she got on the phone with MaJe and told her how great she did.
* Currently, we're reading The Whipping Boy and Kit - American Girl Story. Both very interesting stories!
* My new organizational technique which REALLY works is to lay out 35 outfits on Saturday for the whole week. That's seven outfits per child plus seven for me. This is probably the #1 thing I've done recently to help myself not feel CRAZY every morning.
* Recently, I feel most passionate about the sanctity of life. Thinking about anything that causes life to come to an end is awful. How can it be a crime to kill a human being that's already been born, yet lawful to kill a human being prior to being born? I've been reading a book about the culture of life versus the culture of death. Our current culture is such a culture of death because you hear so much about preventing conception, a woman's choice, etc. Jesus said in Matthew 25:40, "Whatever you do to the least of these my brethren, you do unto me." You can't get much more "least" than an unborn child at conception. Now I'll step off my soapbox!
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Happy 2009!
So we enjoyed the holidays and the multiple days off. It was nice for everyone to be home together for awhile. Now we're back in the swing of things with school, work, etc. Tonight was Jimmy's first night back in Chapel Hill. He'll be done with graduate school at the end of May. I'm so glad because taking all four of the children to martial arts for Bear's class is not a piece of cake. Tonight we all went, and I felt like everyone was staring at me and my children. It wasn't because we were too loud, but the baby girls were a little cranky. Thankfully, we left there and headed to Mama C's for supper (while I dashed off to PTA). When I got back there to pick everyone up, I enjoyed some of her wonderful broccoli and gingerbread muffins. Now we're home and all four sleepyheads are unbathed and in bed. We did get homework done though.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
The Ten Commandments
Every night, we TRY to do devotion together. This consists of:
1) reading a toddler devotion book that relates things in everyday life to God (Tonight's was about a trip to the library and pointed out that the Bible is a book full of stories to read.)
2) reading some story from the Bible related to the toddler devotion book - sometimes we act these out and the kids really have fun with that.
3) reading from a Through the Bible devotion book that tells well known and other not so well known stories from the Bible.
4) Bug recites the books of the Bible. So far she knows up to Ecclesiastes. I love the way she says Leviticus and Deuteronomy:). She wants to do this part all by herself and gets mad if the big kids are mouthing the books with her.
5) The twins and I are trying to memorize the Ten Commandments from the NIV. They've worked on memorizing other longer passages of Scripture, but all the ones that they've worked on so far were ones I already knew. This meant that we could work on it anywhere, anytime, and we didn't have to have the Bible right in front of us. The Ten Commandments is the first things we've tried to work on that I don't have memorized, so it seems to be going a lot slower. Jimmy holds the paper that the Ten Commandments is printed on (from the computer) as we work to add a new verse every couple of nights. I've tried holding it myself, but I didn't seem to be able to memorize it as well when I also held the paper. Bug actually knows a lot of the verses because she's with us while we're working on this.
Tonight was the first night that the twins started acting out the Ten Commandments. Bear actually started it, and Lou Lou quickly joined in. Jimmy and I were laughing our heads off. The next time my church has a talent night or family night supper or something, Jimmy said he thought the twins should do it. I don't think they would get into it the same way in front of a large crowd. Tomorrow night we're going to try to video it and put it on youtube. We were all laughing so hard while we recited the part we knew over and over as they acted it out with their hands. Lou Lou said, "Stop, Bear! You're about to make me pee in my pants!" I would try to explain some of their hilarious hand motions, but it is so much funnier in person (or on video) rather than in words.
1) reading a toddler devotion book that relates things in everyday life to God (Tonight's was about a trip to the library and pointed out that the Bible is a book full of stories to read.)
2) reading some story from the Bible related to the toddler devotion book - sometimes we act these out and the kids really have fun with that.
3) reading from a Through the Bible devotion book that tells well known and other not so well known stories from the Bible.
4) Bug recites the books of the Bible. So far she knows up to Ecclesiastes. I love the way she says Leviticus and Deuteronomy:). She wants to do this part all by herself and gets mad if the big kids are mouthing the books with her.
5) The twins and I are trying to memorize the Ten Commandments from the NIV. They've worked on memorizing other longer passages of Scripture, but all the ones that they've worked on so far were ones I already knew. This meant that we could work on it anywhere, anytime, and we didn't have to have the Bible right in front of us. The Ten Commandments is the first things we've tried to work on that I don't have memorized, so it seems to be going a lot slower. Jimmy holds the paper that the Ten Commandments is printed on (from the computer) as we work to add a new verse every couple of nights. I've tried holding it myself, but I didn't seem to be able to memorize it as well when I also held the paper. Bug actually knows a lot of the verses because she's with us while we're working on this.
Tonight was the first night that the twins started acting out the Ten Commandments. Bear actually started it, and Lou Lou quickly joined in. Jimmy and I were laughing our heads off. The next time my church has a talent night or family night supper or something, Jimmy said he thought the twins should do it. I don't think they would get into it the same way in front of a large crowd. Tomorrow night we're going to try to video it and put it on youtube. We were all laughing so hard while we recited the part we knew over and over as they acted it out with their hands. Lou Lou said, "Stop, Bear! You're about to make me pee in my pants!" I would try to explain some of their hilarious hand motions, but it is so much funnier in person (or on video) rather than in words.
Pizza Stains
Last night, Jimmy and I went to Greenville and my sister in law, TT, kept all the kids for us. Jimmy picked up a pizza for them to eat for supper. I told her that the baby girls needed to eat naked because pizza stains didn't usually come out, at least not easily.
When it was pizza time, TT told Lou Lou to help Birdie get her shirt off. Bug took her shirt off by herself. Apparently, the twins wanted to eat shirtless too, so TT said okay. Then Bug said, "TT, are you going to take your shirt off too?" :)
When it was pizza time, TT told Lou Lou to help Birdie get her shirt off. Bug took her shirt off by herself. Apparently, the twins wanted to eat shirtless too, so TT said okay. Then Bug said, "TT, are you going to take your shirt off too?" :)
The Original Crazy Face and Kissing
Birdie has started doing the original crazy face. It looks a little like the Incredible Hulk turning into his hulk self. She does it when she wants another bite of whatever she's eating or if she has just handed me something to open. She did it a lot over Christmas whenever she wanted me to help her open presents.
Birdie is everywhere. She's still not walking, but she hangs onto everything as she moves all around the house. She loves these two child-sized rocking chairs we have in the den, and she has no fear as she rocks very hard almost to the point of spilling herself out. She has fallen in love with kissing everybody. If you ask her if she wants to kiss a sibling or other family member, she sticks her chin out, puckers her lips together, and leans her body towards the person she wants to kiss.
Birdie is everywhere. She's still not walking, but she hangs onto everything as she moves all around the house. She loves these two child-sized rocking chairs we have in the den, and she has no fear as she rocks very hard almost to the point of spilling herself out. She has fallen in love with kissing everybody. If you ask her if she wants to kiss a sibling or other family member, she sticks her chin out, puckers her lips together, and leans her body towards the person she wants to kiss.
A New Plan for 2009
This Christmas was over before I knew it. Ever since my husband went to Chicago and my children were off and on sick, I felt like I was just taking one step at a time, putting one foot in front of another until school got out for the holidays. Since I've been home for awhile, it's been nice to think about how I want things to improve during 2009, in relation to household organization. I have written down some ideas and explained some of them to the twins, the major "helpers" in my new grand plan. We'll see how it works!
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