Seven Quick Takes...


There's an icon that goes with this, but as I am not very blog/html savvy I'll just use this title.

1) This week has had a lot of ups and downs, but I'm ending it on a very joyful up after a fantastic Bible Study get together with some local friends.  

2)  I am SO thankful for my genuine friends.  My youth contained many false friendships, and while age and wisdom have saved me from having many of those as an adult, I love being reminded that I am Blessed to have genuine friendships.  One of David's religion lessons this week was Proverbs 17:17  A friend is a friend at all times.


3)  We've had a great week of Indian Summer, and while it's supposed to get cold tomorrow and is slightly drizzly today, I'm thankful to live in a place that has four seasons!


4)  Finished Water for Elephants and One Thousand White Women in the last two weeks, but I'm behind in my non-fiction reading, so I'm feeling pulled toward that material this week -- yay for the Kindle and less expensive books -- great for a compulsive reader like me.


5)  Yesterday was spent in Waynesville at the Veterans Day parade.  Fun was had by all!  Thank you to all the veterans out there and my own veteran (I love you, Shelly), for serving in our military.  It's not an easy job/calling for these servicemen and women or their families. 


6)  Christmas cards came in the mail -- they are SO PRECIOUS!!  Can't wait to send them out, but I have to wait 'til Thanksgiving (oh, and write the "year in the life of the Ferrells" blurb -- something new for me).


7)  Some neighbor kids had a stomach flu, that we, have so far managed to avoid despite having spent hours together in the last week... I'm kind of waiting for the other shoe to fall!

Looking forward to a relaxing weekend!  (might be my fave pic from the summer session with a friend of mine -- I'm pretty sure I have the cutest kids on the whole planet)

Weekend! (aka seven quick takes a day late)

1)  I love weekends.  The first thing I love about them is that I get to go for a long run with a few girlfriends from 6-8 am.  This might sound crazy, but it has become MY TIME.  Which is so important!

2)  I can't wait to post pictures of the boys in their Indiana Jones costumes, and Kathleen in her pumpkin costume that I wore as a child and my brother and my boys.  It's become a tradition, and my little girl gets her turn -- I'm sad that though -- she's growing too fast.  But it's so fun to see them grow, such a tug-of-war in my heart!

3)  Get to share parenting duties with my darling husband!

4) Kids get a little TV time, which they really enjoy now that we don't leave it on all the time.

5)  Time to prep for school next week.

6)  Might be having Chili for dinner tonight with friends.  Maybe even s'mores over the fire afterward!

7)  Mass on Sunday, MCCW, CCD and down time with the family to cap off the fun!

The project that refuses to come to an end.

Look at those pictures in yesterday's post.  See those baskets on the bookshelf behind the boys?  If that bookcase and shelves are not finished this weekend I might implode.  Which would be preferable to exploding since I wouldn't be around to clean up THAT mess!

 What cute, sweet little boys: peacefully entertaining themselves by looking at books after dinner...

Oh no, bad little sister has to come disturb the peace.  See that plastic NERF gun in her hot little hand?  She whacked brother square on the head with it.  Big brother is scolding while middle brother is... well, you can see for yourself.  It was not quiet.  And it was quite the bump.  She started to cry right after I took this picture -- I think she was really sorry!!

Storm in the Night

Much of the country is getting this crazy low-pressure front yesterday and today.  Well.  For us it has meant very strong winds both yesterday and today as well as a fierce storm last night that wreaked havoc on our sleep.  There's just nothing like being woken at 2 am by screaming wind (which was saying something because it was so windy when we went to bed, it had to be quite the increase to wake us up!).  Shelly and I literally jumped out of bed with Shelly racing to close the window on his side.  As soon as his window was closed, rain pelted the panes through the screen.  David came running into our room, as he is PETRIFIED of storms.  Side story: We had three tornado warnings the first week we lived in Missouri, and he was forever ruined for enjoying storms.  He didn't even want to go outside on cloudless sunny days that summer we moved here (which was fine by me in my state of advanced pregnancy), but sadly, he hasn't improved that much -- he WANTS to watch the weather channel.  It's weird. 

Anyway, back to last night.  The weather station informed us that we would be under a tornado watch for the next FOUR HOURS.  Really!?!?  We felt like we had to move everyone to the basement to be truly responsible parents.  Dude.  We should have been negligent.  We set up the pack'n'play in the guest room in the basement, got blankets for the couches for the boys and moved both boys and Kathleen down.  Big mistake.  Kathleen fussed off and on for a good 10 minutes while I shushed her from the guest bed, three feet away.  Then the water softener, located just the other side of the guest room wall began its recharging cycle it does each night, and it's LOUD.  I need to change that -- my poor guests for the last year...  So, needless to say, not much sleeping occurred.  Finally about quarter after three, Kathleen stood up in the pack'n'play and started babbling.  Shelly and I decided it was time to move back upstairs as the wind was still fierce, but had calmed down considerably since the rain stopped.

Back upstairs, I put Kathleen back in her bed (we had left the boys on the basement couches), and Shelly and I climbed back in bed.  After being up for over an hour, it took me quite some time to fall back asleep.  Then at some point David showed up again.  I promptly told him to get into his bed and go back to sleep, and that there weren't going to be any more storms (I had no idea if this was true, but OMG, PLEASE LEAVE ME BE!!!!!).  After that, I kept having these crazy dreams that I was in labor.  Yes, like, I was having a baby.  About 5 am I was bolt awake wondering why I was dreaming something so weird when I wasn't even pregnant, when I realized: I have HORRIBLE, AWFUL menstrual cramps.  I traipsed back to our kitchen for some 800 mg Ibuprofen leftover from the birth of one of my children.  By this point I actually considered getting up and going running and abandoning all hopes of sleep, but I couldn't bear the thought of no more sleep, so I climbed back in bed for the third time.  I have better nights of sleep with a newborn baby.  Around 6 am, I woke up to Shelly kissing me goodbye and telling me that he never did really get back to sleep when we came upstairs after the storm.  I lay there feeling a bit sorry for him since he's on call today, and will potentially be up all night tonight wrestling epidurals and emergency appendectomies, then called it quits for sleep and got up for the day at 6:20 am.  The kids will be going to bed EXTRA early tonight. 

Moral of the story:  unless it's a tornado warning, don't wake anyone up. 

I'm sure all children do this finger to the mouth thing, but mine especially do -- it's pretty funny!  I guess in the second one Jack looks like he's going to pick his nose, but if we caught him the second before or after, I think it would have looked just like the top photo of Kathleen.

Their little fingers and noses are so SIMILAR!  I think it's striking how alike Jack and Kathleen look despite their drastic differences in coloring.

Beautiful lazy day!

The local school district is off school today, but we did school anyway on a much relaxed schedule.  We went on a nature hike that was a bit boring since we had planned to look for animal tracks and owl pellets, but the leaves got in the way -- DUH to me!  Our hike was awesome for weather -- slightly overcast and breezy.  The three kids and I trekked down into the woods behind the house and enjoyed the crunch of leaves beneath our feet.  We did see several nuts foraged by squirrels (probably).  I'm always impressed that those little animals can get those tough shells off.   Then we made a bird feeder out of three milk cartons.  Tomorrow we'll finish it off with some paint and seed, then hang it somewhere David determines.  I'll post pics.  We're enjoying the Fall section of Mr. Crinkleroot's Almanac.  Tomorrow we'll also be working on a leaf book.

This weekend was relaxing -- we didn't go anywhere interesting AT ALL.  The hubby and a friend have been working on a built in bookcase to help manage the many toys and books that accumulate on our family room floor, hopefully we'll be painting that by next weekend -- I've been planning this project for almost a year, so I'm ready for some completion!  If I'm lucky there will even be a shelf for all David's school books!

Look!  I wrote again!

David (age 6) and I are homeschooling this year, and yesterday we were able to attend the second "Fun Friday" event that our local homeschool support group holds.  All three kids and I went bowling and we took a neighbor friend who was off school for the day.  Fun was had by all, despite the fact that it took TWO HOURS for seven children eight and under to bowl ONE GAME on our lane (thank Heaven for bumpers!).  I was able to meet a couple of other homeschooling moms who just started this year.  We were able to compare notes and balk at some of the same things and share some of the same struggles.  One woman has two sons, 8 and 6, with whom David is quite eager to become friends.

One question I asked both the women I had talked to was whether their children liked homeschooling as much as mine.  I have been truly surprised by how much David enjoys homeschooling and how upset he becomes if I threaten to re-enroll him at his previous school!  They both told me that they were having the same experience -- their children truly like being homeschooled, and even MORE amazing -- they're actually DOING more.  They're writing more, they're doing more math, reading, spelling than their counterparts in the local elementary school and we're taking LOTS more field trips which means more hands on learning.  It turns out all the fears I had about homeschooling were WAY overblown.  In usual fashion, I had made mountains out of molehills when it came to guessing what the challenges of homeschooling would be.  To be fair, I was essentially told this by my son's previous school.

It turns out this was a shared reaction.  These other two mothers had also gotten what I term the "nasty-gram" about homeschooling from our school district.  This letter basically says that we're irresponsible parents and a burden on the school system when we take our children out.  That when we decide to re-enroll them (which obviously they assume we will), the district will have to do testing because the child will most certainly be behind a couple of grades.  I kid you not.  They also say some things about how homeschooling is so much harder than we think it will be, and we will have no free time and no resources.

To be honest, until I received that letter at the end of the school year last year, I didn't think any of those things.  I WAS homeschooled.  I had a FULL TUITION scholarship to attend a PRIVATE university -- obviously I wasn't behind...  I still have a great relationship with my mother and she didn't say that I'd experience any of what they wrote.  I read four different books about educational methods and homeschooling over the summer, and didn't really think that any of the things in that "nasty-gram" were addressed, or, to be honest, they seemed to be dismissed!  So I began to think that maybe they WERE going to be huge problems.  I was a little scared when we started easing into schoolwork in July.

Fortunately, and MUCH to my surprise, I found that David and I moved forward quite quickly at first, clearly we were covering at least the ground the school district would expect.  We also ENJOY our school time.  I get to spend one on one time with David, since Jack is in preschool.  David gets to have his religion class during school time, which I know he prefers to the after school attempts I made last year.  AND we're done around lunchtime.  Sometimes David has schoolwork to do on his own in the afternoon, but for the most part, he gets to free-play with his brother.

Yesterday was a great day -- my friend in the hospital is doing much better (miraculously so, it turns out -- more on that later).  AND I met other mothers who have SONS!!! my son's age who also truly enjoy homeschooling.  Life is good!

Well it's been ages since I posted on here, but I think I will try to make a better habit of it... again.

Life has been good. Funny that I haven't posted since October TWO YEARS ago. We have a whole other human being added to our family since then. And we've moved to Missouri. And husband is no longer a resident (thank GOD!). And I've begun homeschooling David after one year in public school Kindergarten. SO, basically I'm starting this all over with a new title.

I was inspired to write here today by the many Christian women whose blogs I read. In particular, there are a couple things they do on their blogs, that I think would add to my family life and prayer life.

Right now I am in an "easy" phase of life. No major crises, not expecting babies, husband with an ordinary schedule. Many of those around me are not. I feel like I'm praying for so many of my friends right now, and by that I am saddened. I wish for these friends, that which I have in abundance right now: PEACE, LOVE and JOY!

In particular, one especially close girlfriend has just had a year and a half of thinking that things cannot possibly get worse, and then they do. Yesterday, after giving birth to her fourth child, a beautiful, healthy baby girl, my friend had a pulmonary embolism. I worried that I had not received word that the baby had been born, and knew as soon as I heard her voice that something was wrong. I thought maybe she'd had a surgical birth. I wish it had been only that.

She had a vaginal birth, they put her baby on her chest then she coded. As in HER HEART STOPPED BEATING. The doctors were able to resuscitate her, but she will be in the hospital for a while. I'm crying as I write this because this woman is amazing. Her life has had so many struggles recently. One of the most beautiful things about this though, is that when she called me from the ICU today to tell me what had happened, she told me that the last thing that happened to her before she coded was that they gave her her baby as soon as she was born. That's never happened with her previous children. All three were whisked away for one reason or another. Through all the craziness of a prolonged labor and near death experience, she can still marvel that she was able to hold her precious baby as soon as she was born. I can't think of a more beautiful example of a person finding a bright spot in a bleak event.

So, I can pray for her life to get easier and to heal, and I will. However, I will also pray that when she does have difficult events in life to deal with, that she talks about them the same way she did today. Relating the awful truth, but focusing on the shining moments that happen, no matter how brief.  

What we've been doing...

Well, Jack had his first haircut, so people who tell me what a pretty girl he is anymore! Also, Shelly will not be shaving Jack's head tomorrow -- which he was threatening to do if I didn't have his hair cut. Jack has also had a vocabulary explosion over the last few weeks. He now not only says names (Mama, Dada, David, Tilly, Doggie), but he says pretty much everything you tell him to, unless he is not in the mood, and then he just says "no" (picture vigorous head shaking). So far we've had poop, cow, moo, baa, quack, duck, puppy, baby (which is applied to any child whether they're larger or not:), nose, eyes, ears, mouth, tummy (all of which he points to as he says them).

David now can identify and tell the sound of most letters in the alphabet, which makes me think we are very close to reading basic words!!! Yea! David is also NOT scared of Halloween this year. He has worn his costume several times without a problem, WITH THE MASK!! (he is being Optimus Prime from the Transformers). He has also watched every preschool cartoon show's Halloween special, and I asked him if they were scary or silly, and he said silly!! Yea! Huge progress for David.

ALSO, David has just completed his first soccer season! They lost most of their games (except for two towards the end of the season), but there was marked improvement over the eight weeks. He usually played goalie for one quarter of every game, something about which Shelly was immensely excited!

Shelly had about 3 months in the Fall where he was home every weekend, but now we are about two weeks into 8 weeks of away rotations in Dallas and Corpus Christi.

I have started work on the golf tournament (held in April), and we've had a couple of donations so far. I've still got TONS of work to do to pin down some serious donors. I'm sure that's going to keep me very busy through the next 5 months, so if updates here are sporadic, or pictures only, you'll know why! These pictures are the four of us at Love Creek Orchards, a fun pumpkin patch in Medina, TX that we visited a few weeks ago -- we had a blast and got to taste VERY fresh unpasteurized cider. IT WAS GREAT. If Medina weren't an hour away, I'd buy it all the time! It tastes like eating an apple! I'll post some soccer pics soon!

This morning, David decided he needed to poop, and since Shelly and I were getting ready for church, he went in our bathroom, which has abundant reading material in it. So, David spent about 30 minutes going poop and perusing the latest issue of Motor Trend (I wonder whose reading material that was?!) When he was done, I went in to help him clean up, and he showed me a picture of a bright green Lamborghini saying that it was a "really cool car" and proceeded to ask if we could get one. I told him that we couldn't because it was way too expensive for us and we couldn't all ride in it. His response: "Ok, well I'm going to buy a Lamborgini. I'm going to buy a Lamborghini next week when they go on sale."

Someday, maybe David will be as much of a car buff as his daddy, and he can appreciate how funny that statement really was!

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/exotic/112_0808_2009_lamborghini_gallardo_lp560_4_test/index.html

Pictures just for Erin

I keep promising to send pictures showing how skinny Tilly is since her thyroid replacement, so here they are!

More funny things, and an important lesson for cooks everywhere.

You know how so many times we hear the phrase: "I have good news and bad news..." Imagine this coming out of the mouth of a four-year-old and what might follow that phrase. It is great! Of course neither the good news or bad news is usually good OR bad, and occasionally they are flipped, but he says it, and it's funny every time! (and he is well aware that we think it's funny, unfortunately). Frequently these conversations go like this: "Mommy, I have good news and bad news." "Oh yeah, what is it?" "Well, the good news is that (LONG pause) the transformers are the good guys and the bad news is that they are not coming to our house." "Really, well that's interesting, why aren't they coming to our house" (because what else can I say to that???) And usually the conversation ends there, because David hasn't put any more thought into this and has been distracted by actually playing with a transformer, his current obsession.

We've added to funny things that come out of children's mouths with Jack, now. He has said doggie (his first word) for a while and mommy and daddy and David, but now he's added a few more: OH NO!, oops!, Doggie, NO! and NO! BAD! Are you noticing a theme? Jack has now learned how to be defiant (such an endearing trait in one's offspring...), and so I spend a lot of time (an unacceptable amount of time) correcting children and the dog, and so I suppose it is understandable that this particular array of words has been added to his vocabulary. The best part of these words is the drama with which he says them! If I can get them on video, I will post them, they are pure entertainment!

Finally, I have a public service announcement for cooks everywhere: Don't put a cup of water into a glass pan in a 450 degree oven, as it will explode.

Yes. I did this. I swear it was in a recipe! I decided to follow a different method for roasting a chicken, one from Real Simple magazine from several months ago. It's very basic: rub some olive oil on the chicken, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 450 degrees for 20 minutes, add a cup of water to the roasting pan and roast for 40 more minutes or until the temp reaches 180 degrees. VERY basic. Normally I just roast for an hour or so at 350 degrees, but I thought I'd mix things up and maybe get a crisper skin.

Now, to be fair, I did think that 450 degrees was pretty hot for using pyrex, but I already had the chicken in the pan and figured that since it didn't say NOT to use a glass pan, that it wouldn't matter. Clearly I am the reason there are silly notices telling you there might be a hot beverage inside a coffee cup! Anyway. I put the water in the pan and it IMMEDIATELY exploded, and that is NOT an exaggeration. There were little pieces of glass EVERYWHERE. Thankfully, the chicken was salvageable, and so I just stuck it in a different pan and waited until tonight to clean up the mess inside the oven, but it was a huge mess. I'm actually not going to finish the clean up until tomorrow. Hey, it does force me to clean the oven, though, and it did need it!

Cute little boys just can't be beat!

 

Again, it has been far too long since I have posted here, and we've done a LOT of things.  Most importantly, Jack is now walking, and even attempting running!  I am so proud and it is SO funny to watch.  He's got quite a belly on him, so he looks sort of like a pregnant woman.  He had been almost walking for so long, just holding on to things, and he pretty much crossed the threshold the second we got to KY on 5/21.  I now get to chase him all over God's creation, and I am NOT kidding.  Today I took them to Barnes and Noble (i.e. the "train store" -- wander into the children's area of your nearest B&N, and you'll see what I mean) and ended up having to leave after only about 10 minutes, since we were about to have the front doors of the store locked since I had already lost Jack!  Thankfully, he reappeared, and that was unnecessary.  But the point is that walking has been a mixed blessing.

As for David, he is still as cute as ever.  He is having a rough time, though, with being a brother.  Since Jack is more active and more interested in toys (and can get to them more quickly), David's toys have become coveted playthings for Jack.  Usually, Jack will grab some toy of David's, David will realize and come over and snatch it out of Jack's hands.  Frequently, David follows this with some kind of hitting/punching/knocking over of his clearly insolent smaller sibling.  So, David gets punished, A LOT.  We have had several conversations about this, and it is slowly improving, but I did spend some time tonight, showing David (by going through the events of our day) that I don't dislike him, or like Jack more, in fact, I choose to do a bunch more things that are fun for David than for Jack.  But you know, I think that this might last a while, so I am preparing for a long haul with this thing.

However.  David now says the funniest thing:  "it just popped into my head to..."  you fill in any old 4 year old activity - petting the dog, building an airport in the backyard (!), making a lego city...  It's so hilarious to hear him say this, and tonight he made it even better by telling me that the idea (I don't even remember what this idea was) went into his toe and shot like a rocket up his leg and through his tummy and just popped into his head.  Gotta love the graphic description.  Now, I know that he learned this particular phrase from me, so every time I say that I am going to be picturing how it came in through my toe and shot up through my body to get to my head.  Interesting to say the least!  

Well, that's all for now, I think Bedtime is in order for me!  PS the picture is from Jack's first birthday when we celebrated in KY

Jack has found a new use for the giant dump truck!

And his middle name is danger.  Just so you know.

I thought I'd share some family fun.  It's so exciting that the boys play together now.  Not all the time, but, for instance, Jack now appreciates David's lunacy.  Right now, David is running around the playroom like a total maniac and Jack is laughing his fool head off!  

Is it crazy.  Yes. 

But I am getting things done, the boys are entertained and most importantly, no television is running in the background, so behavior for the evening should be good!

Kids say the darndest things

OK, so I think I spelled darndest wrong.  Not going to fix that, although it would probably have been faster than typing all this...

Anyway.  Yesterday, while Jack was napping, David asked me to read him a favorite book:  The Berenstain Bears and the Week at Grandma's.  We've read this book approximately four billion times, however, he took note of something new.  At one point Brother and Sister bear comment that Gramps and Gran are "sort of... old" and so David asked why were they old.  I told him they were just older than Mama and Papa Bear and so the cubs thought they were old.  

This did not satisfy, so I then asked him if he thought GranGran and PawPaw (my parents) were old.  He said "no, but Granny (Shelly's grandmother) is old".  I asked why he thought this, and he didn't have an answer, so I asked him if it was because her hair was gray, and he looked at me with wonder and said "yeah".  For no particular reason, I told him that he would never think that GranGran was old then, because she'd probably never have gray hair.  David asked "why", and I told him that she colored it, and his response...

"Does she color it with CHOCOLATE?"  

This produced major laughter from me.  And him.  Although he clearly did not get why this was so funny.  And honestly, the funny was magnified by the fact that GranGran's hair is not brown.  It is decidedly blond.  This does, however, hearken back to an incident about a year ago when David was insistent that I purchase brown eggs instead of white.  The next morning, he INSISTED that I cook him a brown egg, and was subsequently quite upset that the yellow of the egg was still yellow, not CHOCOLATE!  Child logic is SO AWESOME!

Oh, and Jack can wave...  and dance...  both with serious gusto!

It's been quite a while, but I thought I ought to write a little more regularly.

So, the boys are getting very big. David is 4 years old now, and very busy. His favorite activity right now is his Monday swim lesson. He is doing SO well! He can already jump in the pool, roll over onto his back, breathe, swim the side and get out all by himself!!! He just started the lessons in January!

John Raphael "Jack" was born May 20th, 2007, 5 days after his due date. The labor was QUICK if nothing else! Thanks to Shelly and my doula, Pat for getting me into a room before he was born! Jack is now 10 months old and on the cusp of walking. He is a very busy baby and a FAST crawler.

Just tonight, the two boys were full of giggles during bathtime and wrestling afterward, they are very funny to watch.

Shelly and I are keeping busy. This is my busiest time, as the golf tournament I am working on is on Monday. Shelly is excited because tomorrow he starts a week of leave. We are going to drive up to Ft. Worth to see the Dinosaur State Park and the Ft. Worth Stockyards (which sounds stinky, but is actually a "town" style museum!). We are definitely looking forward to some extra time with Daddy.

When your child says such funny things you laugh so hard you cry...

The munchkin and I were playing playdoh this afternoon, a pretty benign activity - except - is it weird that it makes me edgy that he totally mixed the green and yellow? Anyway, moving on, I took off my wedding rings to roll a ball for him. He had to go check out my rings and commented that they were "very pretty, mom", and proceeded to ask me where I got them (dad gave them to me) and that he wanted some. I told him that someday he might meet a girl he really liked a lot and he could buy her some pretty rings, and maybe she'd buy him one too. He said (and I promise I did not make this up), "OK, I like girls, but sometimes they get mad!" Out of the mouths of babes!! He is so wise, and only 3 years old - I think we're in for it!

And while I'm on the subject of hilarious things munchkin said, here's another gem: I am getting into the shower on Sunday morning, and munchkin closes the two doors out of the bathroom (one to the bedroom and the other to the closet). He says, "Look mom, we can't get out", and I respond that "oh, we'll have to climb out the (second story) window..." and he responds, "Oh no, mom, that would be very dangerous!" Again, where do they learn these things? So funny. Of course maybe it's just because we can actually hear him say these things with a perfectly straight face. Anyway, I think the upshot of all of this is that munchkins are much more perceptive and intelligent than they look, so WATCH OUT! Oh right, and don't swear, EVER, they WILL HEAR YOU!!!

Learning to use the potty, part 10,642...

So, we've completed the transition, VERY much to my surprise. Which is exactly how everyone told me it would be. A week and a half ago on Saturday, I decided to dress David with nothing underneath. The idea came from David himself. In the mornings, he always takes off his diaper because "Ew, it's wet, Mommy" and goes potty reliably in the potty until I dress him in his clothes with either underwear or a pull-up underneath. I finally got the clue. He WILL NOT poop in his pants if there isn't anything underneath - he always asks for a pull-up during that morning period.

He didn't go #2