Merry Christmas!

Dance Performance at HAC

Halloween Party 2014

We had so much fun packing our home with colorful kids and costumes!  

This was our second annual Halloween party, and we'd love to do it again!

Adam is Five!

Happy Birthday to our little Buzz Lightyear!  We love you to infinity and beyond!

A Trip Home

Friends

To be honest, it hasn't been the easiest start to a new school year.  Abby is doing the best of all of us in 2nd grade, filling in the gaps with a multitude of playdates (good friend Katelyn below).  

Adam loves preschool but is having a difficult transition adjusting to the accompanying daycare that shares building space nearby.  He misses his Megan and definitely Brynn (below).  

I'm battling the hourglass and can't see a way out:  I gave up my last hour prep to supervise a study hall, and Abby shows up promptly at 3:30 every day.  I'm not able to get my work done.

Eric would rather not talk about harvest this year.  :)

I'm sitting here feeling thankful, though, because we love living here (football games, walks, parks, DQ, repeat), and our hearts are full of people who matter to us, near & far away.  In the end, I think we're all here for relationship.  That's it.  That's the meaning of life.  Love Christ and love others.  Now help me to remember that in the cafeteria study hall 7th hour Monday!

Times, They Are A'Changin'

We are navigating through some firsts here in our household!  

First, we are now a cat family - my allergy test was negative, and we couldn't think of any more excuses, so we drove to the J-town shelter and fell in love.  Meet Elsie.

Second, we said goodbye to our lovely and loving home daycare, as Adam has moved on to preschool.  A few days before Abby and Adam's last day, Megan biked all the way across town, uphill, to our home toting her own little cutie behind her.  It has been a big adjustment these last few days, and we miss her very much.

Finally, three of us started a new school year this week, and one of us started harvest.  Here is a first-day pic for a very grown-up second grader and a stylin' preschooler who decided to comb his hair to the side for the first time that day.

Adam Stories to Tack On:

My adventure this week has been managing a study hall that exceeds 100 students every other day (only 75 or so on the opposite day).  I told Adam this was hard for me to help him feel better about how switching daycares/preschool is hard for him.  He said seriously, "But, Mom, you don't have that many eyes-ez."  He's right.

Today Jeanne kept the kids for the afternoon so I could catch up at school (all I do during my prep hour is hyperventilate about study hall).  Thanks, Jeanne!  I went out to pick them up and Adam attempted to ride his bike across the lawn to the apple tree in the back yard.  On the way there, he commented, "I am like The Little Engine That Could."  On the way back from the tree, he amended, "I sink - I sink instead I am The Little Engine that Can't."

Love literary allusions.

Big Kid Wheels

Thanks, Aunt Darlene!  We'll return it when these legs grow a little more.

Daddy-Daughter Date Tonight

Teeth and Truth

Last week Abby lost her fifth tooth at the movie theater.  It popped out mid-munch, it seems, and thinking it was a hull, she dropped it in our refillable Catching Fire popcorn tub to be recovered later in the dark with difficulty and glee!

Abby has written several notes to the elusive Tooth Fairy, asking for photos and signatures.  The morning-after this time, though, she walked me into our bedroom and shut the door behind us.  She leveled her big brown eyes at me and asked if there really was a tooth fairy.  "Dad said fairies aren't real," she reasoned, "so how could a tooth fairy be real?"

I answered those solemn eyes honestly.  What's that line from The Great Gatsby when the light on Daisy's dock loses its magic?  " [Her] count of enchanted objects had diminished by one."  Just one, though.  She hasn't generalized the concept to anything else yet.

What Does an Adam Say?

You've probably heard the song "What Does the Fox Say?"  In our house, in honor of daddy, we've been playing a parody of it called "What Does a Farmer Say?"  We just can't get enough of how Adam swings his little arms back and forth from the shoulders and growls, "Work, work, work, work, work-work-work-work."  We love it.

But last week at the checkout in Wal-Mart, my little soloist burst into his own version from his ride-along seat in the cart.  "What does a Mommy say?" he sang teasingly, and with volume.  "No, no, no, no, no-no-no-no."

As an English teacher, I had to appreciate the cleverness of his impromptu parody.  I laughed with appreciation.  It encouraged him to add the subsequent verses of "Brush Your Teeth" and "Put On Your Shoes."

Summer Travels

We broke tradition and visited Bowman twice this summer!  Both visits overflowed with meaningful time spent with friends and family.  Our hearts are full (and so is my laundry room right now)! Grandpa and Grandpa, we love your new surroundings!  Wherever you are, it's home.

Grand Ole Summertime

I will tell you straight out - I'm loving ages 4.5 and 7.  Abby and Adam do not wake me up in the morning unless a crisis emerges.  I haven't slept like this for, well, seven years!  Instead, they "get into" things that I may well put a kabash on once sentient.  A favorite pastime right now is reliving babyhood.  As I got out of the shower just now, I was greeted by shrieks of glee as they modeled clothing from Adam's baby box.  Hey, midriff is trendy again, though it's usually paired with high-waisted pants rather than Ninja Turtle skivvies.

Seven

We were up with the sun today (but not as much as seven years ago)!  Happy Birthday, Abby!

Saturday

I love to sleep in on Saturdays.

Today, however, was the flip side of a sleepover.  No one slept in.

It is only 9:45 AM, and I have already made bacon, egg, & cheese biscuits, made dinosaur and unicorn pancakes, cleaned up above-referenced dishes, built Spiderman's Lego car with Plan B pieces from the big Lego box, read a Bible story to three syrupy children, allowed a fourth child to join us, wiped up spilled gray eye shadow, washed two loads of laundry, placed the sleepover laundry in queue, supervised Icy Pop consumption for four sticky children, swept two floors three times, allowed a water fight, filled buckets for a water fight, cleaned up a water fight, and answered to the name "Mom" 127 times.

Pretty sure the sleepover is over now.

Mother's Day at the Zoo

What To Do With a Cow

Sometimes during dinner or dishes Eric will pitch the kids math story problems, something my dad used do to me in the wintertime.  (e.g., If you have four calves, how many ears and tails would there be?  As I grew older, I had to figure in frostbite for a few unlucky ones, etc.)

The other day Eric asked Adam how many legs there would be if he had two cows.  Adam was stumped and started guessing wildly:  "Nineteen?"

I intervened and popped some fingers up for him to count:  "Okay, Adam, here's one cow, okay?  One, two, three, four," I counted out.  He watched.  "Now," I said.  "What should we do with the other cow?"

He thought for awhile, and then finally shrugged.  "Milk it?"

Happy Easter!

Birf-Day Coincidence

Poor Adam doesn't have a completed baby book yet, and he's going on five.  Abby has one and loves to show it to anyone and everyone.  I'm quite surprised she hasn't shown the Schwan man yet, come to think of it.

Anyway, Adam thought maybe I could make his baby book while he took a bath last night (dear, dear soul; Michael's would be bankrupt), so I went downstairs and dug around in tubs for some pages I knew I had started years back.  I found about a dozen completed pages, to my surprise, so Abby and I worked them into the sleeves of his empty book and presented him with a good-enough-for-now, genuine baby book.

He has cradled it ever since, though it made a rocky sleeping partner last night.  This morning they're out on the couch, flipping pages again and memorizing the photos.  A few minutes ago, as I was selecting an appropriate outfit for Jeans Day (Hello, Four Day Weekend!), I heard a surprised and delighted exclamation from the newly created book's owner:

"I - I was born on my BIRF-DAY???"

Sledding Again

Well, the snow has finally melted on our hillside in the backyard, so the kids are out sledding again.  I know; it doesn't make sense to me, either.

Frozen

We are not a movie-buying family, but Frozen is just...an exception!  I can't believe I've lived 31 years without Olaf in my life. We hit Shopko tonight after daycare pickup, a bit skeptical that there would be any DVDs yet on the shelf.  To our surprise, there were!

As we walked out, Abby read the cover:  "Best animated film of the year."

Adam disagreed.  "No," he said, "It's the most bestest film of the year."

Abby corrected his grammar.  "No, Adam," she said.  "It's the most greatest."

A Brave Heart

I have treasured Adam's first year of Sunday School.  When his class lets out, he walks directly to our Sunday School room and sits against the exterior wall, waiting patiently for me to come out so he can retell his lesson to me.

Today I cracked open our door and slipped out to kneel beside him, as is our custom.  He smacked his little lips, sat up on his knees, and proceeded with the story of David & Goliath.  The details of how the battle came to be escaped him momentarily, so he handed me his papers and asked me to read the story aloud.  I did, and he listened carefully until I reached the part about David declaring that he, a boy, would take on the giant.

Adam placed one little hand on mine to pause me while he placed the other on his heart.  He said, "At - at this part, I - I just feel someping so brave in my heart. Cause - cause God was him, you know."

Golden Teeth & Politics

Spring visited today! It's been a winter of oft-closed daycare, flus, and colds, so we are all desperate for a change.  Yesterday at 2:30 I'd had enough.  I took an hour of personal leave, scooped up both kids, and skipped town to see Mr. Peabody.  We bought the biggest popcorn they offered, sat in the back of the near-empty theater, and laughed raucously whenever we felt like it.  It was refreshing.

Adam had seven baby molars capped off a couple of weeks ago.  He went through anesthesia like a champ and is so proud of his "golden teeth."  He called them golden until his sister teased him.  Now he calls them silver.  Mispronunciations and misnomers are so precious; one sound round of teasing, though, and they disappear into thin air.

Abby is six but still calls hamburger hang-a-bur.  I like it.  I will forever treasure the days of birthday puh-cakes (Abby) and pahnilla shakes (Adam).

Adorable language faux pas and all, we talk a lot of religion and politics around our house - and during most car trips, too.  Who knew that the developing mind is intensely interested in the topics most adults set aside in company?  We talk about presidents, past and present, and God vs. Satan.  We talk about Obama and helping the poor and doing our fair share.  We talk about heaven and hell.  And then everything usually comes around to Olaf from Frozen, somehow.

iFamily

I had been counting down the days until my contract with Verizon would allow me to get an iPhone. That day was yesterday.  I left papers scattered across my classroom and rushed to the store at 4 PM with my early upgrade email printed and folded in my purse.

For Abby, yesterday meant that she could now use a free app on her iPod to text my iPhone!  We texted all evening, sitting on the couch side by side.

Saturday is Pancake Day, but more importantly, Saturday is also Mom Sleeps In Day.  Four-year-olds and six-year-olds get that!  It only took SIX YEARS AND EIGHT MONTHS to be able to sleep in one day a week. That's not so long.

This morning I heard a gentle "Ding!" beside my head around 8:15 AM.  I picked up my favorite new toy and read, "Mom wack up!"

Tickle Bumps

Adam referred to his goosebumps as "tickle bumps" tonight.  I loved that.

Abducted by Daddy

Last night Eric put the kids to bed while I was out at a Cafe Concert with friends.  Between that time and the time we both wound down, Adam was up three times, crying and having scary dreams. Around 11:30 I finally climbed into bed with him to hold him.  My heroic husband would have none of it; he sent me downstairs and lifted the sleeping boy into our bed with him.

In the morning an excited voice and story reached me through the shower curtain.  "And - and I was sleeping in - in my bed and then - then - I disappeared into Daddy's bed!"

Eric filled in the gaps later.  Apparently Adam woke up, surprised, within ten minutes of being carried into our room, and he popped out of bed and went back to his room to sleep soundly.

Guess the surprise of a Daddy abduction trumps scary dreams!

Breakfast Topics

• good names for an American Girl doll
• cops and whether they "hunt" (this one is complicated)
• how to get your face on money
• Frozen

Soybeans

You know you're married to a farmer when there are soybeans rolling across the kitchen floor most months of the year.