Wednesday, September 29, 2004

Random Ramblings...

First, I am not asking for a maid or a nanny. However, if there is such a person who comes over every day just to put socks and shoes on children, I'll take it. :D

Second, There is no better place to observe the differences between Isaac and Elijah than our daily walk. I bring the boys for a walk around the block every morning. I pull the wagon and Samuel rides while Isaac and Elijah take turns walking/riding. While Isaac prefers riding, Elijah considers it a chore. When its Elijah's turn to walk I practically have to jog to keep up with him because the kid only knows how to run. I have to hold Isaac's hand and practically pull him along if we want to get home anytime this week. One day Isaac asked me why we go for a walk and I told him "its very good exercise", he replies "but i'm not fat".

Third, I'm reading a very good book called Dumbing Us Down, The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling by John Taylor Gatto. The author is an award winning school teacher from New York. After teaching school for 30 years, he sums it up very nice when he states "we need to realize that the school institution 'schools' very well, though it does not 'educate' "... This book is not about blaming teachers, or any person, its about the flaws of the institution. I highly recommend this book, its food for thought if nothing else.

Friday, September 24, 2004

Controlled Chaos



Today we had an all out messy craft day. The only rule was the boys had to stay at the table. I covered the table with plastic, opened the finger paints, gave them construction paper, scissors, glue, pom poms, pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks. I'm sure you can imagine the fun (and the mess). Cleanup was a breeze, I salvaged what was worth picking out of the mess (including Isaac's crafts that he made) gathered up everything in the plastic that was covering the table and threw it away. The boys were transported directly to the bathtub, where they promptly turned the bath water green!

Thursday, September 23, 2004

The Simple Things...

Today me and the boys spent a fun filled afternoon baking an apple pie. Meijer had McIntosh apples at buy-one-get-one-free, but it turns out the boys don't like apples that have green in them *insert eye roll here* so we needed to do something will all those apples! Usually I cheat and buy the pre-made crusts because I have always been under the assumption that making pie crust was next to impossible. Today I was feeling adventurous, so I hauled out my Betty Crocker cookbook and followed the recipe for pastry crust. Isaac and Elijah took turns adding the ingredients, and Samuel was happy munching on apple pieces. Turns out that pie crust isn't that hard after all, and it turned out very good. The best part, however, is that the leftover pieces of dough occupied the boys for almost an hour!

I also want to add that I think we can officially declare Elijah potty trained!

Oh yeah... one more more cute story. When the boys need to say sorry to each other they always give each other a kiss. Today Samuel threw a book and it hit Elijah on the arm, he was very upset about this and kept telling me that "Sammy hit me!" So, just to placate Elijah I told Samuel to "say sorry to Elijah" thinking I would just move Sammy's lips and say "I'm sorry" myself. Anyways, what does Samuel do? He gets up and walks right over to Elijah and gives him a kiss on the cheek!!

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Go Isaac!

He did it! Isaac recited his Bible verse to his AWANA teacher!

This is Isaacs second year as an AWANA cubby, last year we did not push him to recite his verse even though he would learn them. This past week I have been talking a lot with him about reciting his verse, he even called up grandma to practice. I told him I would stay and hold his hand if he would tell the teacher his verse, and he did!!!!!!A very proud mommy moment.

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Women of Hope

Women of Hope is a Women's ministry at our church that meets one Saturday every other month. Its something I always drag my feet getting to, but once I get there I am so glad I went. As soon as I walked in the door a friend came up to me and said "oh you definately need to be here!" I soon found why, turns out the subject was a book called Wild At Heart by John Eldredge. This book is about understanding men, and it touches on what moms can do to help their boys develop into men, instead of delaying or distrupting the process which we moms sometimes do. I came away feeling good about what I learned, and I'm checking my library's online catalog for that book as soon as I'm finished writing this.

I was also invited to join a MOPS (Mothers Of PreSchoolers) that actually has room in the childcare my boys! All the other MOPS groups I looked into didn't have room for anymore kids, so in order to go I would of had to find my own babysitter twice a month. I hear great things about this program, and the kids have their own little program that they do. I'm not quite sure if I will be joining as it will be another committment (twice a month) and its a 15 minute drive. I have to make up my mind soon though, before this group fills up!

Friday, September 17, 2004

The Green Marker Strikes Again...

The boys have something called "big boy time" where they spend 30 minutes playing together in their room. Today they emerged looking like this...

I thought I confiscated that green marker last time Elijah used it to decorate his body.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

A Penny Saved...

I'm a frugal mom. Look thru my cupboards and you will not find much besides Meijer cans and boxes (that were purchased on sale). Look thru my medicine cabinet and you will not find much more than Equate (Wal-mart) bottles and tubes. If there is a knock-off brand I will try it. Just about every item of clothing I purchase is 50% off the clearance price. I'm sure Jeremiah is tired of hearing "but its not on sale" (although he tells me he loves that I am thrifty.) I'm also learning that you can clean almost anything using water, vinegar and baking soda.

I recommend Amy Dacyczyn's The Tightwad Gazette to anybody interested in saving money. I agree with the author when she says that in a one income family, being thrifty is almost like generating another income.

With all that being said, there are a few items I have found that aren't quite up to par with the national brands. Meijer frozen pizza, Equate toothpaste, Target's knock-off of Pantene shampoo (although Sauve's is great), and Great Value zip lock bags.

I have also come to the conclusion that nothing works like Tide, although even Tide goes on sale!

Please feel free to post store brand items that you have found to work/or not work in the comments, I would love to hear.

Friday, September 10, 2004

The best $2 I've ever spent.

I made an exciting discovery today, there is such a thing as childproof locks for the fridge! I cannot tell you how many times a day the boys rummage around in the fridge, seriously I would lose count by noon. Last week Elijah broke an egg on the floor three different times, and somehow a whole bottle of pop was spilled on the floor (Sammy allegedly did it, although somebody had to open the door for him)

So, for the longest time I have been whining to anybody who will listen "why can't they make a childproof lock for the fridge?" Well today my mom informed me she had seen one in a magazine so I did an online search (hello? why didn't I just do a search before?) and sure enough they exist. Before spending $8.00 to order online I decided to check Wal-Mart first and they were right there in the baby dept. for $1.96.

So we get home and I immediately attach it to the door. Two minutes later Isaac wanders over and in 2 seconds flat figured out how to open it! However, I suspect that as long as it keeps Elijah out, my life will be a little bit easier.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Doctors and Dentists

Well the older boys had their six month dental checkups today, no cavities!!! Elijah wailed the whole time (at least they got a good look.) Isaac was superb, no tears at all. We are very proud of them. Also, you have to admire the brave souls that decide to go into pediatric dentistry.

Right after the dentist appointment we headed to the pediatricians. Samuel has a mystery rash on his neck that even stumped the doctors. Their closest guess is impetigo, even though it does not look like classic impetigo. They are treating it with antibiotics and bactrim ointment. If it is not improving by Friday we need to go back and they are going to culture it. It kind of looks like chicken pox, although they are smaller and only on his neck. So, any prayers for Sammy's skin would be appreciated.

Monday, September 06, 2004

And its only 10:00 a.m.!

In the few short hours they have been awake today Elijah has managed to get a huge gash on his knee, color himself with a green marker (although he did color several pages of his coloring book first so he is making progress) and Samuel has picked the same gogurt wrapper out of the garbage three times. I think its time to get these boys outside!

Saturday, September 04, 2004

Persistence Pays Off

This story begins several months ago. We had a nice dining set that sits four people (since Samuel still uses the highchair, we were okay.) We are all sitting around the table enjoying a nice meal when all of a sudden *Crash* , Jeremiah's chair falls apart from under him sending him sliding on his butt with a stunned Samuel in the backpack. Nobody was hurt, so we laughed. However, it left us with only three chairs. Three chairs, five family members...

We did shop around for new dining sets, or even new chairs. We decided that spending $1,000 (at least) was just not something we wanted to do. So here I am faithfully checking the classified almost daily for a dining set. There were many listed, but they were never quite right. Four Chairs (too small), Seats 10 (too big..at least for now :), distressed wood (nah), Paid $10,000 will sacrifice for $4,000 (too expensive.) You see my point.

Finally, this week I saw it: solid oak dining table, six chairs, two leafs $200. Sounds great, we call, we drive out there, looks great, we buy, we save $800 (at least). There are a couple scratches on some of the chairs, but no doubt it would not of taken the boys long to do that anyways!

Thursday, September 02, 2004

Being a "Boy Mom"

Being a boy mom means:
  • Matchbox cars everywhere. I find them in our bed, in my dresser drawers, even in the fridge. The plus side is that stepping on a matchbox car is much easier on the foot than a lego.
  • Stepping over the wrestlers.
  • Having a 2 year old that can eat more than me.
  • Helping a 4 year old pee outside...in February (he insisted).
  • Having every single ambulance, fire truck, police car, towtruck ect. ect. pointed out to me.
  • Not sitting on the floor (your open game for the wrestlers that way)
  • Walking the extra distance in a parking lot so we can park by the cool "bug car" (VW Beetle).
  • Asking myself "Is this too girly?" before I buy any clothing for the boys.
  • Dirt. Enough said.
  • Oh yeah...I did mention the wrestling right?