Well that lasted all of three hours!

Today is Friday, which in our house last week was the first official "TV-Free Friday". That went pretty well, and the kids only watched tv after they didn't go to be and ended up in our room watching Phineas and Ferb with their dad. (Please note sarcasm). So, today, being Friday, is TV-Free Friday once again. The children have been up since 7. The tv remained off until 10:05, which was the exact moment my sanity began to be in question. I am trying to go through the girls' closet and weed out clothes that we no longer need in order to have a garage sale soon (is it a garage sale if there is not an actual garage?). At any rate, a good life lesson for me would be this: Don't try to accomplish a project which involves any amount of thought on a day when you are not letting the kids watch any tv. Also, another good life lesson would be: Send the kids away before you go through bins in a closet. Because they will try to "help" and by "help" I mean jumping from b in to bed and back again, screaming and yelling like banshees, and demanding things.... like entertainment. Just a future fmi (for my information).

I did check and it does appear we have oodles and oodles of books, toys, games and otherwise fun stuff here to play with. I also checked and it appears that occasionally they will utilize these items with no direction required... however, today, for some strange, unknown reason.... everyone is acting a little more "spirited" than normal.... as in freaking out about everything and acting like lunatics.
I went to the dietician, or as Superman calls her, the dietatrician... this morning and took the big two. Big two mistake!!!! The normally well behaved darlings were spinning around on a chair and investigating the storage shelves off of the little office where I was trying to talk to the dietician about the things that keep me from losing weight, you know, like the fact that these kids stress me out and when I'm stressed I shovel food into my face.... AH! The good news for me is that I have maintained a 30lb. weight loss for two months. My lovely dietician is too kind to me though and I really need a drill sergant type who will kick my jiggly butt. Oh, but I digress....
Time to go turn off the tv and encourage my children's imaginations..... :) Maybe we'll play with the tadpoles before lunch.

Walking with Sweet Pea

Sweet Pea and I went for a walk together this morning while everyone else was sleeping. And when I say we walked, I mean, I walked and she rode along in the backpack carrier, because clearly, Sweet Pea is 8 months old and isn't walking. The not walking isn't for lack of desire, just lack of maturity.... Sweet Pea cracks me up because she looks more and more like Superman everyday AND she is hitting milestones in line more with him than with Ladybug. Superman never really crawled until after he was already cruising along furniture, Sweet Pea is bearing weight on her legs and practicing holding onto the couch a lot. I think she'll take off soon but she has no desire to crawl. Ladybug was crawling at six months! Superman didn't get any teeth until right before his first birthday, Ladybug had hers at five months and Sweet Pea is 8 months and currently toothless.
It cracks me up how different three kids are, but how alike they are too! AND I find myself laughing at myself- when Superman was almost one and had no teeth, I imagined him needing dentures and having some sort of freak disease that made it impossible to grow teeth. With Sweet Pea, I'm so much more relaxed, knowing that sooner or later she'll get teeth, and other than her being in pain for a lot longer than I can stand, they'll come when they're ready.
Time has a way of changing your perspective, doesn't it? Gotta run, three hacking kids need some loving!

Questions?

Do fish have eyelids?
(Watching the Penguins playoff game)-Who are the good guys?
How did God make people?

Good news... turning five has made Superman ask A LOT of questions recently. These are just the three from the last three minutes! I'll try to keep a running list for your reading pleasure.

Today!

So today was Superman's preschool picnic at the park. We took lunch, picked Jefferson up from the church and headed out. Superman and Ladybug had an absolute blast playing and possibly even eating something. Ladybug followed her big brother and his friends around the playground practically the entire time! I thought at first he was playing nicely with Ladybug, until I realized that he was merely allowing her presence a few yards away from him. After the picnic, we came home and got ready for a meeting at the church about camp. Jefferson took Sweet Pea over with him and I brought the big two, only after riffling through the house looking for my keys (which turned out to be in the diaper bag with Jefferson at the church). After the meeting, we came home and played outside with the new neighbor girl and came in for dinner prep.

A few noteworthy things=
- There is an enormous swarm of bees on our neighbor's house. It is a rental and he has called the landlord, who happens to be a former DA in town, several times and has received no answer. The landlord, or slumlord if you will, does nothing! Good times. I have never in my life seen so many bees! I'm praying that they don't swarm over our way, although if they do, I have every confidence in the world that the church would act quickly to get rid of them.


- We discovered the swarm while Jefferson was playing "Push the kids on the swings and throw a giant ball at their feet" and I was grilling and attempting to burn the house down. I am no grilling expert and seems like every time I use the thing, I start a major fire that requires shutting everything down and waiting until the flames subside. While I was fighting fires in the grill, Jefferson was out talking to the neighbor about the infestation and the big two were playing on the swings.

- Once the chaos of getting dinner ready died down, we enjoyed our meal in the backyard. The highlight of the meal being watching Superman and Ladybug twist themselves around on the swings and then let go, causing themselves to get so dizzy they could barely walk and narrowly avoiding smacking heads so hard we could have had a double concussion.

- Jefferson was off to do some gardening with the Youth group gang and the rest of us played outside on the swing set. Sweet Pea got to go down the little slide for the first time and she LOVED it!!! She sat on the small bridge of the swing set cracking up at her brother and sister swinging. The big two were demanding to be pushed "the highest of all" and that I "throw the ball at us".... which I was more than happy to do!

-Once the whinging began again (Superman had a screaming fit before dinner and had to go to his room), we came inside to get baths. Ladybug loves to take a shower/bath, but Superman, due to his sensory issues, absolutely refuses to get in the shower. Normally. Tonight, I turned the shower on and left the curtain open, encouraging him to gradually stick his arm in the water. I will spare you the LONG drawn out sequence and tell you that I had to force him OUT of the shower! He even got his face and hair wet, voluntairly! For those of you that have witnessed the kiddos fear of water, you probably understand how huge this is for him. I wished that I had his OT's home number so I could have called to tell her! - Right now, tired and tireder are watching Phineas and Ferb in our room and Sweet Pea is sound asleep. I am looking around, trying to decide what to tackle first, but what I really want to do is head into bed! No rest for the Mom!

PS- The tadpoles have been out on the back porch sunning themselves all day. So far, they are still swimming around and not HOPPING around! I'm beginning to think we're recreating the plagues..... swarms of insects next door, hundreds of would-be frogs on the back porch... Hmmmm....

It ain't easy being green.

Tadpoles.
Lots of them.
Sitting in a pretzel barrel on the kitchen counter.
Happy kids.
Excited mom.
Amused (I think) husband.

Last night at Youth group, Beth mentioned all the tadpoles she collected off of her swimming pool..... :) Having never seen a tadpole go from tadpoley to froggy, I was intrigued. She called tonight and said she had a bunch if we wanted them and it took me a split second to make up my mind!- YES!!!
Off we went, large plastic pretzel barrel and fish net in hand, out to the tadpole oasis! We left with more tadpoles than you can shake a stick at (What DOES that mean anyway?)- which translates roughly to about 100 it seems. We're looking forward to watching them grow into little frogs!

Thinking

What to write about today? The urge to blog, the time to blog (one child sleeping and two more watching an unexpected Phineas and Ferb marathon on Disney Channel)... but alas, writer's block, or is it blogger's block? At any rate, I'm stuck! You should know it's not for lack of subject matter, but maybe more because I'm not sure where to begin!
I got up at 6 this morning, on purpose (I know!), threw on some clothes, grabbed my cell phone/mp3 pkayer/pedometer and headed out for a morning walk. By 7:30, I had walked and done Cardioke equaling just over 2 miles. I love walking because it gives me a chance to clear my head and I have time to really look at my surroundings, something I don't get the opportunity to do that often when I'm corraling three short people about town.
The other morning, at the end of my walk, I stopped at the garden outside our church and just sat on a bench, listening to the sounds of the wind, asking God to show me His presence. I find myself in a strange place- believing with all of my heart and mind in the God who created me, sent His Son Jesus to die on the cross for me, resurrected Jesus from the dead and calls me to live a life that brings him glory AND living a life that doesn't allow for much time to think about those beliefs very much. Between caring for the kids, trying to care for the house (HA!) and the myriad of other things I seem to get myself into, I rarely have time to spend thinking on faith matters. The other day, I sat on a bench, turned off the mp3 player, pulled the ear buds out and simply asked God to hold me. And you know what?
He did. I am certain of it. And then off I went, back to the daily chaos of life. I felt a bit like Punchinello in Max Lucado's children's book "You Are Special". Eli, the woodcarver, tells Punchinello to come back again the next day so that he can hold him, tell him he's loved and can have some of the bad marks left on him by others removed. Punchinello literally skips away, pondering Eli's tenderness and telling himself, "I think he means it" in reference to Eli's love for him. Great story!
Gotta run, wishing you more Punchinello-esque moments in the presence of the Holy God!

Just got new(used) washer to replace our dead one! Now time to take it home and get it in the house. Thank you craigslist and to jackie for watching the kids!

At the zoo with the kids and we just saw the lions mating umm. Loudly!

The day he milked Lilly

Off and running Friday morning- first to the dietitian's office to find out that I lost a whopping 0 pounds in one month, not really surprising given that I have pretty much thumbed my nose at working out lately and eaten a little more liberally than I should. After Angie, the dietician, gave me a pep talk (she's way too nice to me), she also armed me with a blood glucose meter so that I can check me sugar levels occasionally. (as in, when I feel spacey). I know that I've lost sight of the MAIN goal, which is to get healthy and prevent diabetes from taking hold of my body. Instead, I have shifted my mind to "hey... I'm losing weight and feeling good, clothes are too big... woohoo". Anyway, I digress...
After the dietician's office, Superman and I were off to the dairy farm for his field trip. Not just any old field trip, mind you, but THE one field trip he has been anticipating since late into last year's class. He wanted to milk a cow and see a calf be born AND get to name it. Whew!
We arrived at the farm and stood with the other eager milkers in the pouring rain. Sometimes my lack of planning catches me off guard and today was one such day; I grabbed a "rain coat" (ha) from home and threw it on when we got to the farm. Shortly after standing in the downpour, I realized that my head was completely soaked! The "Rain coat" isn't really a "rain" coat as much as a "wind breaker". Never knew there was such a significant difference, but there most certainly is!

Our farm tour took us into the milking parlor, where we were able to see two cows get milked and where I prayed, Dear Lord, PLEASE don't let my precious son mention that Mommy did the same thing with her pump at home... AMEN. Yup, definitely glad the pump is going away for good! We got to feed baby calves and see the cow house, birthing room and Superman got to milk a cow named Lilly. After all the fun, and mud, and fun, we went down to the Spring House to see how the milk gets put into bottles and sample the ice cream (YUMMY)! After that, we headed home with some chocolate milk and amazing cookies to share with the rest of the gang!
Sadly, we were not witnesses to the birth of a calf, but... yesterday at the zoo we got to see how baby lions are made, so you know, it all works out in the end! :)

At the farm for superman's field trip- i brought a jacket that is not water proof! I am soaked!!