Sharon's Babies

I've moved!

2010-01-07T07:30:00.000-06:00

Hello friends,

I have decided to move to a new blog. Please update your bookmarks and links, then stop in and say hello!

Here's the link:
www.texanrose.blogspot.com

See you there!

Sincerely,
Me

Wishing you a Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T07:51:00.003-06:00

This 102-year-old postcard was once my grandmother's. I love it because it looks so joyous. :) Happy new year to you all!

Wardrobe Inspiration

2009-12-28T14:47:00.007-06:00

So I (re) discovered Polyvore. You can create outfits by clicking and dragging images...lots of fun. I just put this one together:

december in Texas by Texas Rose featuring American Eagle Outfitters

This outfit is very "me"--that is, comfy, casual, and well suited to doing the stay-at-home mom thing. You know, lounging around on the couch, watching soap operas, and eating chocolate.

PLEASE NOTE: that was sarcasm.

Of course if you want to buy any of the items you're playing around with on the site, they provide you with helpful links. Though I'm not actually shopping for clothes right now--and I would never spend that much for shoes or a bag anyway (they're $200+ each), plus the yellow shirt wouldn't work because the neck is too low. This was just for fun, and maybe for future shopping inspiration. Actually, I am kind of tempted by that skirt, though--only 17 bucks?

Snow in Texas

2009-12-23T09:02:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago, we got snow in Houston. Snow is a rare event here, something we only see once every few years, or so I'm told. We made the most of it, bundling up and heading outside to play.

We even built a snowman.

My poor rosebush got a little icy. Incredibly, even after the snow and a couple of frosts, it bloomed again. I think it's finally stopped blooming now, but maybe it will surprise me once more.

Just for comparison, here's how it looked shortly before Thanksgiving:

This rosebush is still in the tiny pot it came in. It seems to be so happy there, I'm almost afraid to plant it.

Little Boys and Their Clothes

2009-12-22T07:59:00.000-06:00

Over the past few days, I experienced my first Scottish communion season. I enjoyed it quite a bit. :) But it was hard to keep the boys in clean church clothes through five consecutive days of church services.

Elijah has three pairs of church pants. At the communion service on Thursday evening, he wore his khaki pants, and got grass stains on both knees. To the Friday morning service, he wore his gray cords, and at lunch afterward, wiped mashed potatoes onto them. Saturday morning, he wore his black pants, and fell into a mud puddle. It was almost funny. Okay, it was funny.

Are all boys this hard on clothes, or just mine? By the Monday evening service, I couldn't find anything clean for Noah, so he wore jeans. I hope no one minded. :) Generally we dress in our best to go to the Lord's house, but I figured that Noah is only two, and it was Monday, and after all, these were special circumstances; so we would make do.

Someday I'll be the sort of organized housekeeper who can make it through a communion season with all children smartly dressed the entire time. And with my shoes polished, and car vacuumed, and purse cleaned out. But I'm not quite there yet. Getting closer, though.

A Beautiful Story

2009-12-16T10:00:00.000-06:00

This is the sort of story that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. :)

A couple of very determined residents transformed their Philadelphia alley from a slum--broken out windows, drug dealers, and all--to Philadelphia's "Most Beautiful Block" of 2009.

Read all about it here.

As I studied political science at Indiana University, I became especially interested in local governments and urban planning, so stories like this are right up my alley (no pun intended).

Surprise, surprise

2009-12-15T11:28:00.000-06:00

I elected not to have my children vaccinated with the H1N1 vaccine for several reasons, one being that the vaccine had been rushed to market without time for adequate testing. Well what do you know, 800,000 doses of the vaccine are now being recalled because it doesn't hold its potency over time.

A more serious issue: after the recall, there will no longer be single-dose vials available. All remaining H1N1 vaccines come from multiple-dose vials which contain thimerosal. Thimerosal is a preservative which is 49% mercury by weight. Mercury is a poison. I know that the World Health Organization and others claim that vaccines with thimerosal are harmless, but thimoseral is toxic (see the thimerosal safety data sheet from Merck). I'm not willing to have my kids injected with the stuff, sorry.

Anyway, my children may be immune to swine flu already, as they were probably exposed when a friend came down with it a month or two ago. So I'm not stressing. :)

Meet My Family...Last But Not Least...BEN

2009-12-07T08:34:00.001-06:00

The youngest member of my immediate family: my little brother Ben.

Ben is short for Ebenezer: "Hitherto hath the LORD helped us," 1 Samuel 7:12. I think that Ebenezer is a great name for the youngest child in a large family. :) But I digress. For years Ben was called Joe (short for Josiah, his middle name) but when he reached his teens he decided that he preferred to be Ben. Certain of us objected to the abrupt name change, but as he suddenly became selectively deaf when addressed by the name Joe, we eventually acquiesced.

Ben works in a welding shop on the east side of Houston, helping to build custom railings for million-dollar yachts. As Ben is mechanically inclined, the work suits him, and he seems to enjoy it (though I don't think he enjoys the 45-minute drive to and from work every day). Ben has always had an eye for mechanical things. I remember that when he was small, he would draw intricate illustrations of machines like, for instance, a windmill, complete with all the gears and parts.

Ben was not the easiest child for Mom to homeschool because he wasn't fond of worksheets and assignments. However, he turned out a well-educated young adult just the same, because he soaks up loads of information on his own time. For instance, I often find him reading Wikipedia articles about things that interest him. As a Wikipedia fan myself, I highly approve. :) Not that he cares whether I approve, but anyway... As a result of his extensive reading, Ben often has interesting facts to share about a surprising number of topics, from classical music to current events to cars, etc. etc.

Ben is a talented guitar player, though with his current job, he doesn't have a lot of free time to play. He spends his free time reading, thinking, fixing himself plates of food that always smell very interesting, concocting complicated coffee drinks, doing errands and yard work, etc.

I think Ben has a soft spot for dogs. He has taken all dog-related chores upon himself, and on his days off, he will often take Juneau (our Husky mutt) for long walks of several miles. Ben seems to like those solitary walks. His longest walk to date: 25 miles (though that was actually an accident--he got lost).

Ben's other soft spot, recently, is for babies. His nieces, anyway. He can often be spotted at church holding or talking to Olivia or Shona. They seem to enjoy it. :)

As of last November, Ben is 20 years old! Wow, hard to believe that the baby of the family is out of his teens. And that concludes the series about my family!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-01T09:41:00.001-06:00

I know Thanksgiving was a few days ago, but I wanted to post about the things I'm thankful for this year. :)

Aside from the obvious, like the Bible, liberty, food to eat, etc. I'm thankful for the following (in no particular order):

1. I'm thankful that I am well provided for thanks to my wonderful family. How many single moms get to stay home with their children? Not many. I am very blessed to be able to stay with my boys full-time, and to homeschool Elijah.

2. I'm thankful that my boys are in good health. They've both been seriously ill in the past with asthma (Elijah) and croup (Noah), but since we've moved to Texas, we've not had any major issues. Perhaps Texas winters are easier on them, or perhaps they're just outgrowing their respective weaknesses. Whatever the case, I'm thankful.

3. I'm thankful that Caleb and Leah gave me a rosebush. I am thankful that said rosebush is still blooming, in December.

4. I'm thankful that Elijah has learned to read. I'm thankful that Jeshurun regularly takes the time to sit down and read with Elijah, and to help him memorize Bible verses and catechism questions. I'm thankful that we are surrounded by people who love children, and teenagers who aren't too "cool" to play with the little ones.

5. I'm thankful that Noah likes to give and receive great big hugs. :)

6. I'm thankful that I get to live close to my two beautiful nieces.

7. Last but not least, I am thankful to be a part of a good church and community of believers where family worship is practiced regularly. Morning and evening, we gather for prayer, psalm singing, and reading of the Bible. It's especially nice to be able to share it with our friends--to have guests to join us, or to be visiting elsewhere and to hear the words "Can you stay for worship?" Also, I'm thankful that our social gatherings often include psalm singing, in beautiful four-part harmony, no less.

I would upload a picture of my rosebush to share with you, but I can't seem to find my USB cord. I did, however, find Mom's USB cord. Oops...

A Busy Week

2009-11-28T15:50:00.000-06:00

What a busy week!

Last Saturday, I threw a surprise going away party for Mom and Dad. I thought surely that Mom and Dad were suspecting something, but no, they were pretty surprised when everyone showed up for lunch. :) Our little house was pretty full (and our little street, with all the cars).

Of course Mom and Sam had to get out the violins.

We had lots of little ones running around--so sweet to see them all playing together. This is little Carl. Isn't he cute?

Lots of picture taking. Sam took a lot of pictures which I assume he will be posting to his blog eventually (right, Sam?)

And by the end of it all, Noah was so tired, he just passed out on the couch. Yes, that's a pacifier in his mouth.

Mom has a blog now, did you know that? Check it out--www.hoosierinisrael.blogspot.com Here's where she describes how she felt about the surprise party.

You know, I can't remember what all we did Monday through Wednesday. We've been so busy, it's all a jumble in my memory. I think we did some more visiting/being visited, lots of packing, the usual cooking and housework, etc.

Thursday morning, Mom and Dad loaded up their things and headed to the airport. They flew to London, where they are staying at the FP manse for the weekend. Dad is giving a presentation at TBS on Monday; then on Tuesday, Mom and Dad are back on an airplane and headed to Israel.

After saying goodbye to Mom and Dad, I threw together a couple of pecan pies and we headed over to the manse for Thanksgiving dinner. We had lots of good food, of course, and good company. The young folk were playing croquet and soccer on the lawn; Elijah and Noah played with the other little ones. I held babies and visited.

When we got home, Jesh and I moved all the furniture around. Okay, not all the furniture, but a lot of it. The boys and I now occupy what used to be Mom and Dad's room, and Jeshurun has taken over what used to be my room.

Friday I spent the whole day trying to get things sorted out. I have to find places for all of Mom and Dad's things before I can organize my own. Friday evening we went to my sister's place for dinner. Tonight I'm cooking a turkey and we're having guests over to help us eat it. So I suppose I should get back to work. :)

A Wise Letter

2009-11-25T08:37:00.000-06:00

My mom recently got this letter from her brother. She shared it with me and I liked it so much, that I asked permission to share it with y'all (didn't I say that like a true Texan? Aren't y'all proud?)

My point in posting this is not to start a debate over any of the individual points in this letter. I'm not sure that I agree with every point myself. But I really appreciate the general premise, summarized in the first paragraph.

So here it is, basically unedited (I fixed a typo):
EDIT: wow, didn't realize quite how long this would be, so I am abbreviating it slightly. Ellipses where the deleted portions were.

I have a theory that is hard to explain. It is that many times if not all the time in politics the right things happen for the wrong reasons and the wrong things for the right reasons, and that that happens on multiple levels - so that the right things are also the wrong things and the right reasons are also the wrong reasons.

Jimmy Carter was a good president because he didn't do much: the wrong reason but the right result.

Obama may let all the illegals become legal for free without responsibility for having violated the law. His reason may be compassion (the right reason on one level) but an offense of justice (the wrong reason) on another level -- but what may be the result? The illegals become citizens, claiming benefits (the wrong thing), paying taxes (the right thing), getting educated (the right thing) at our expense (the wrong thing), and eventually becoming "climatized" as true Americans (the right thing). The long term result may be the right thing, while intermediate results may be the wrong thing. Or it might play out a different way.

What about the war? Why are we at war? To protect our country against terrorism (the right reason) except maybe that's only a front for the true reason, which might be to protect private oil interests (the wrong reason). Even if it's for the aforementioned right reason, it might be the wrong thing - the wrong way to approach it. So we may be doing the wrong thing for the right reason. But what is the result? We improve the quality of life and slowly teach a stiff-necked people a little about freedom which they would never learn otherwise (the right thing) but this is also the wrong thing because to do so we must force our will upon them (the wrong reason) and expand our imperialism (the wrong reason). And the result, instead of being becoming more free (the right thing), the Iraqui people become instead only more incensed against their imperialist aggressors (the wrong thing), which is also the right thing because American imperialism should not be allowed to go unchecked. Yet despite the wrong result of creating enemies and slowly alienating the world against us (the wrong thing) the purposes of God are furthered because it begins to breaks the shackles of a Satanic religion (the right reason). It does this by introducing the decadent Western ways upon a religious and in many ways moral people (the Saudis, for example, complain that Western ways are corrupting their people), but these decadent Western ways also bring with them an appreciation and love for freedom - the wrong reasons producing the right results, and so in a back-handed way our American imperialism is just what they need and they benefit even if we have no right to force them.

...

Even people's reasons are both right and wrong on different levels. Democrats often do things out of compassion (the right reason) while failing to understand the principles of self reliance and responsibility. While Republicans, upholding these principles (supposedly), sometimes go too far.

The last Republican convention I watched (2004) had all the right reasons, but few of the expressed right reasons actually made it beyond the doors of the convention hall, and they did all the wrong things.

It is noticed that some economic group is being short-changed and the desire is to fix it (the right reason), so a law is passed which gives that group a tax refund, which is right thing because it corrects the injustice, but the wrong thing because again it singles out one group for special treatment, creating a new injustice.

...

And what if our political decisions result in the weakening of American sovereignty? which any trueblooded John Bircher can tell you plenty about. This is certainly the wrong thing. Or is it? Perhaps in the justice of God a nation cannot be trusted and must be reduced whose people violate His laws and ignore and forget the principles of morality. Perhaps we are not worthy of the freedom we have and so some of it must be taken away from us and we must live under reduced liberty because that is all we are capable of abiding. So the destruction of America by scheming and wicked men may be the right thing for the wrong reasons. And yet through it all the other nations of the world are blessed. Yet they also become more and more sucked in to one world system ruled by a faceless nameless elite. Satan's kingdom thrives ... but only so that it will fall in the end and be taken over at the second coming ... and at this point I must end my speculation because it's more and more guessing and how shall I make sense of it all ... but at least I perceive that there are many levels to all developments, and the worst may yet be the best in some ways. As Charles Dickens said, in the days of the French revolution and the accompaning turning upside down of all the systems of men, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times ..."

Meet My Family: Mercy!!

2009-11-23T08:57:00.001-06:00

I bet you all thought I had forgotten. Here at last is part six, all about my lovely little sister, Mercy.

Mercy, despite the red hair, is a lovely sweet young lady. :) She has always had a mild and good-natured personality. In fact, she only remembers being spanked once during her childhood. (I, on the other hand...)

Mercy's life today revolves around her husband, Mark, her daughter, Olivia, and her stepson, Matthew. Mercy is also fond of her big, black, scary-looking German Shepherd, Luska, though Luska has taken a back seat since the arrival of Olivia.

Mercy is good with animals in general, actually. She worked as a pet groomer for five years or so before she got married. She raised and showed various animals at the county fair. And twice she won the "round robin" showmanship competition. That means she had to handle and demonstrate knowledge of the following animals: a horse, a steer, a dog, a pig, a sheep, a goat, a rabbit, and a chicken. We have owned all of those animals at one point or another, actually, except for a horse; but Mercy took horseback riding lessons for a couple of years, so that part was easy for her too. :)

Mercy has an artistic eye. She is quite talented with graphic design and photography, and can draw quite well too. She also has nice taste in fashion. :)

Last but not least, Mercy keeps a nice blog. So if you want to keep up with her, check it out. :)

Psalm singing at its best. :)

2009-11-16T10:00:00.000-06:00

Someone sent my Dad the link to this video of Gaelic Psalm singing.

This is fantastic psalm singing, set to some familiar tunes that we use in our services here (Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland, Santa Fe). Now if only we had better acoustics in our church building...*sigh*

Dad and Mom are moving...to Israel

2009-11-13T22:24:00.001-06:00

So no sooner do I arrive in Texas, than Mom and Dad decide to up and leave. :) Dad, as you probably know if you read my blog, works for the Trinitarian Bible Society; he is part of a translation team that is working on a new & improved version of the modern Hebrew New Testament (existing versions have some flaws). One of the members of the translation team is Rev. Goldby, a missionary of the Free Presbyterian Church, stationed in Israel. Well Mr. Goldby has recruited Dad to join him in Jerusalem, where Dad will be better able to assist with the translation project, and a few other projects as well.

So Dad and Mom are leaving on...Thanksgiving Day! That's right, less than two weeks from now, they'll be leaving the country. Mom has been busy winding up loose ends here in Texas, packing her things, shopping, and oh yes, learning Hebrew. Dad has been busy with his usual translation work, language study, online classes, selling off some unneeded books, and packing the most essential books (seven boxes of them) to ship to Israel. And of course both of them have been quite busy with lunch and dinner invitations, as everyone prepares to say goodbye.

A few people have asked, um, Sharon, what are you going to do now? Well, Mom and Dad have decided to keep their house in Texas, so the boys and I, and my brothers, will still have a place to stay. :) And moving will be much easier on Mom since all she has to do is pack what she and Dad need, and she can leave the rest for me to deal with. (I plan on having a big garage sale first thing--shhh don't tell her!)

Obviously, I am sad that my parents are leaving me, just as I've come home to them again. But I am also very excited for them as they get this awesome opportunity to live in another part of the world, and do some important work. And I'm excited about getting the master bedroom once they leave--with TWO closets! :) Hey, gotta look for the silver lining, right?

Amount of energy we consume?

2009-10-29T13:21:00.000-05:00

Just read in this interesting post at www.theoildrum.com that Americans in 2004 consumed about 342,700,000 Btu (British thermal units, the standard measure of energy), per capita, per year. That converts to about 230,000 nutritional calories per day. Only two or three thousand of those calories are consumed in the form of food; the rest of the energy--well over 200,000 calories' worth per day--is used to heat and cool our homes, transport us from place to place, etc.

Obviously, that's a lot of energy. I wonder how much of it is used needlessly? I know I use more than I need to just for foolish reasons; for instance, making multiple grocery shopping trips per week, when a minimum of foresight would enable me to get everything in one trip. Each shopping trip uses about a gallon of gas, which contains energy equivalent to about 31,000 calories. Plus it uses other resources, like my time--forty minutes of driving alone, plus the time spent in the store. I think I need to try to be more conservative (with resources). :)

I recommend the www.oildrum.com site--very interesting, especially today's post on windmills. :)

He's growing up...

2009-10-21T09:34:00.000-05:00

I'm supposed to be posting some pictures from Saturday, and I also still need to finish blogging about my family members...but the wireless card on our main computer apparently needs replaced, so I'm on Jeshurun's tiny little netbook, which is such a pain to use! So I'm postponing (again) some of the posts I've been promising for ages...

I just wanted to share with my mom friends about how big Noah is getting now. In fact, he has abruptly decided to wean, which has taken me quite by surprise! I guess now that I think about it, I should have seen this coming, but I didn't because I was assuming that he would be nursing for at least another six months or so. But nope, he's made it quite clear that he is no longer interested! He is also making great progress at giving up the pacifier. Now all that's left is potty-training...

I posted this before when Elijah weaned, but here's a great informational page about extended breastfeeding: Extended Breastfeeding Fact Sheet
There's a lot of useful general nursing info on the KellyMom site, so if you are or will be a nursing mom, I highly recommend checking it out!

Another sign that Noah and Elijah are growing up: they are getting along so well these days! They still argue from time to time, but for the most part they play together quite nicely. They even share things, and take turns, voluntarily! Right now they are playing church, which is one of their favorites.

Must run--will post again soon (I hope).

I was going through old pictures...

2009-10-12T10:54:00.001-05:00

...and found a few to share.

I am very sad that here in Texas, we don't have a proper fall (autumn). I miss fall. Here is a photo that reminds me of the beauty I left behind in the Midwest. From left to right, Jeshurun, Rev. Watkins, Mercy.

When my folks lived in Indiana, they had a small hobby farm with about 10 acres and up to 70 sheep plus various other animals. We Hembds believed then as we believe now that it's important to instill a good work ethic at an early age. No better place to instill good work habits than on the farm. Here is one of Elijah helping with some farm work.

Lastly, just for fun, here are some familiar faces for y'all. We have all of the Hembd family here, plus a few of the Smith boys, plus one extra. From left to right, back row: Jesh, Mark, Carl, Jett, David, Caleb, Joseph. From left to right, front row: me, Mom, Dad, Mercy, Ben (then known as Joe).

I'm not sure if the scanner is dusty or if the pictures themselves are dirty...if you click on these you'll see what I'm talking about. Sorry about that.

Also, I found another good one of Caleb. I added it to this post

Bye-bye pacifier!

2009-10-06T09:11:00.000-05:00

Those of you who see us regularly will know that Noah still uses a pacifier. I've kind of spoiled him because I think of him as my baby. :) But the pacifier needs to go, as it's affecting the development of his teeth and gums.

The question is, how to go about it with a minimum of fuss? I did a little google-ing and found the suggestion to prick a small hole in the pacifier. I immediately remembered an old pacifier that got a hole in it somehow--he didn't care for it at all! He said it was too "squeaky." So I guess all of the pacifiers will be getting holes in them as of today. :) Hopefully, once he realizes that they are all "squeaking," he'll lose interest.

I'm posting this here for accountability! I hope it works!

A Nice Picnic

2009-09-23T12:38:00.001-05:00

Leah & Shona, Mercy & Olivia, Sarah, and the boys & I got together for a little picnic the other day. It was pouring rain and a little chilly, but we ate under a shelter/pavilion thing and enjoyed ourselves anyway. Olivia and Shona were looking really cute and snuggly bundled into their little blankets.

Shona just lights up when you talk to her.

I can't decide if Olivia is really, really calm, or really, really, intense.

In other news, I made refried beans with dry pinto beans that Mom says were at least ten years old [EDIT: Make that SIXTEEN years old]. And they turned out just fine. I guess dry beans really do keep forever. I soaked them with baking soda first, maybe that was the key (3/8 tsp. baking soda per cup of dry beans).

Happy Birthday, Caleb

2009-09-11T15:21:00.001-05:00

Happy (belated) birthday, little brother!

Edit: Here's another one for ya.

So I opened an Etsy shop...

2009-09-04T08:30:00.000-05:00

Etsy is a site to buy and sell handmade and/or "vintage" items. I opened a shop to sell some century-old postcards, part of a collection that had once belonged to a distant relative. Check it out:

www.thoughtfuloldrose.etsy.com

Eventually I'll be selling some handmade bags and other handmade odds and ends via Etsy, so this vintage shop is sort of a practice run, if you will. I'll post again when I open that second shop.

So what are you doing this morning? We're going to the library and the park--an exciting morning for the little ones! And later, during Noah's nap, I will head out again to (hopefully) find a new pair of running shoes, as the pair I have has about had it with these country roads.

On the back patio this morning...

2009-09-03T09:49:00.001-05:00

Tucked into the corner right up against the back door, Ben found this critter:

I know it's fuzzy, but do you see the red markings on its abdomen? That's right, it's a black widow, a big fat mama black widow. She was surrounded with little babies, too, and a few egg cases. *shudder*

She was dispatched thanks to half a can of bug poison, sprayed liberally about (by Ben, I wouldn't be so brave).

Once deceased, she served as the subject of the following photo:

Look what I got!

2009-08-22T11:43:00.000-05:00

I went to an estate sale this morning, and look what I came home with:

The spider plant is easy to identify, but I don't know what the other three are. Any ideas?

Baptism Revisited

2009-08-20T14:19:00.000-05:00

Hello friends,

Recently realized that I never updated y'all about my investigation into the topic of baptism (see previous post).

I am now a paedobaptist. :) The key was a pamphlet entitled "Covenant Baptism" by Peter Bloomfield, which I borrowed from the Cosens (family at my church in Bloomington). My sticking point had been my understanding of the covenants, but Mr. Bloomfield explained the Covenant of Grace in such a way that I could finally understand the continuity between the Old and New Testaments. As I read this I felt the light bulbs going on! It was such a delight to have it all finally make sense, after days (weeks?) of reading and pondering.

Love to all,
Sharon

Homeschooling!!?! Yikes!

2009-08-14T11:00:00.001-05:00

Elijah is officially reading now, well enough that he can sing along in the Psalter, for instance, or read most any children's book. He still does quite a bit of bouncing off the walls (literally) and building with Lego, but now he also spends large blocks of time reading to himself--standing on his head, as often as not; right now he's sort of rolling around on an end table while reading "The Sleepy Story."

He's obviously learning quite a lot on his own, but lately I've started to think that perhaps I should be directing his education a bit, via some proper schooling. I started looking at homeschooling curricula, and boy, talk about system overload! There is so much to choose from, it's overwhelming. Plus, there are many radically different opinions about how children ought to learn--so far, "unschooling" has worked pretty well for us, but recently I read this article:

Homeschooling With Textbooks

Mrs. Maxwell makes some good points about textbooks, I think. I don't think she quite understands the motivation behind things like unit studies, and Mom-selected learning materials--she assumes that it's all about making learning fun, but I always thought it was more about going straight to the original sources for info, rather than getting things filtered through a textbook author's lens. I like the idea of reading "real books" a la Charlotte Mason.

But she makes a good point about textbook learning being much easier on Mom. As a single mom, I do have to work a bit, though so far I've been blessed to be able to work from home. Still, I don't have the freedom to devote all of my time to educating my children, so if textbooks would make it easier for them to learn on their own, I need to consider them. Also, I do feel strongly that my children need to have the self-discipline to work and learn independently, even on topics that aren't their favorites, and perhaps some textbook work could help them to learn self-discipline.

But which textbooks? That decision alone is enough to make me learn towards unschooling--besides, textbooks cost money, and the library is free. :)

If you have an opinion to share, feel free!

I haven't forgotten...

2009-07-27T14:34:00.001-05:00

To follow up on a previous post:

I just think that the truth ought to be able to win on its own merits, and that it shouldn't be necessary to exaggerate the views of our opponents to prove that the truth is better. Consider 2 Tim 2:24-26, about speaking the truth in meekness. I thought Matthew Henry was helpful in understanding these verses.

I find myself thinking of a friend I had in college, who was your typical secular Muslim. He was converted his senior year. As far as I know, he became a Christian not because someone sat down with him and pointed out all the errors of Islam, but because he saw the truth in action via the witness and lifestyle of several Christian friends.

I'm trying to imagine how he would have responded if I had gone to him, before his conversion, and announced, "Islam is really a religion of violence!" I would think that he would have been insulted, just as I would be insulted if a Muslim came to me and tried to tell me what Christianity is all about. None of that was necessary anyway, as once he started reading the Bible, he was convinced just because, well, the truth is convincing, at least that's how I would like to see it. :) (And Mr. Friend from College, I don't know if you read this, but if you do, feel free to correct me if I'm misrepresenting you.)

Last point...I feel as though some (many?) think that there's secular Islam, and then there's "true" Islam as defined by the Quran, much as we have secular Christianity today versus "true" Christianity as defined by the Bible. But since the Quran is not inspired by God, then all of Islam's many variations are inventions of man, and no one branch of Islam is any more "true" than another. So we as Christians may as well concern ourselves with what the majority of Muslims think (don't forget to check out this study), since the radical few are no more relevant than the rest. I hope that makes sense.

Of course, this is just all my opinion, so please don't take it personally. I am almost hesitant to click "publish post" but I think (hope) that this is not written in a way to cause offense. :)

Coming soon: A New Blog!!! After I finish the series on my siblings, that is. (Mercy, I know you were hoping I'd forgotten, but you're next!)

This Just In...

2009-07-16T19:27:00.001-05:00

Elijah: "Mama, Mama, Noah climbed all the way to the top bunk!"
Mama: *drops sewing project and races to bedroom*
Elijah, in a tone of wonderment: "I just don't know how he did it!"
Noah, huge smile on his face: "Mama, I seeping on a TOP!"

*sigh*

Life in Texas

2009-07-11T16:47:00.000-05:00

I'm slowly settling in here in Texas. It's finally sinking in that I'm here to stay, and that this is not just another visit. And I'm mostly happy about that. :)

Life in Texas doesn't hold a lot of surprises, as I'd visited a few times during the last year, including in the heat of the summer. However, there have been a few things...like when I drove by a bank in northern Texas on my way down here, and the time/temp display out front read 105 degrees! I checked three times to make sure that I was reading it correctly.

Then, when I had just arrived, I went out to the car to get some things, and came upon an armadillo in the front yard. He went crashing away into the trees...I guess armadillos are rather clumsy creatures, which might explain the number of dead ones I see along the roads. Then the next day Ben opened the back door, then said "Hey, come take a look at this," and I peered over his shoulder to see a big mottled snake slowly slipping its way beneath the threshold of the door.

One thing I really appreciate--it's so nice to have other adults in the house! In Indiana it was just me and lots of small children, day in and day out...and while I enjoy children, I did miss having adults to talk to. With other adults here, I'm able to slip out the door for an early morning walk while the boys are still sleeping. Often as I leave the house, I meet my dad just coming back in from his morning run--he runs between four and six miles at a time. He's fifty-nine. :)

We do have quite a full house here--five adults and two children in a smallish three-bedroom house. :) I think we'll all be comfortable and happy here, but the initial settling-in process is challenging--Mom and I are having to do a lot of brainstorming to make it all work. We do have overnight guests from time to time, as well--at the moment we have Mr. Roland, from London, staying the weekend. And frequent dinner guests--last night we had my two married siblings over for dinner, and their spouses and children of course. We enjoyed hearing about my brother Caleb's recent trip to Kenya to visit the FP mission. He looked a bit hollow-eyed, as he'd just recovered from the amoebic dysentery he got on his trip, but he was still enthusiastic about his experience there.

All righty, it's picture time. :) Here is my super cute niece Olivia yawning. She is a sweetie. Shona, my other niece, was also present, but I didn't get any pictures of her, sadly.

And here's Olivia again, being held by my brother Jesh. Jesh is great with babies and small children.

Here's Caleb smiling politely as I interrupt his conversation with the camera.

And here he is again, deep in conversation with my brother-in-law Mark (not in the picture).

Must go, as we are headed out to dinner.

nice site

2009-06-29T12:27:00.000-05:00

How have I not come across this one before?

psalm-singing.org

Mostly from the good ol' Scottish 1650 Psalter, which is what my family's church uses.

I look forward to listening to more once I reach my parents' house...they have better speakers on their computer. :)

Coming soon....er, someday

2009-06-18T22:32:00.000-05:00

...at some point, I would like to say a few words about how misrepresenting the views of our opponents is really counterproductive; as an example, I will discuss how misrepresenting the views of Muslims is not helping us to win any converts. (And that's the goal, right? Winning converts? As opposed to fear-mongering?)

If you're looking for some interesting reading regarding the real views of most Muslims, check out this Gallup poll research

Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think

But I won't get to this for a while, perhaps after I move. (Wow, I can't believe that I'll be moving in less than two weeks!) I'm busy busy busy going through things in preparation for my move, selling stuff via Craigslist, and of course I have to keep the house looking good at all times for showings. Lots of showings...apparently the economy isn't hurting this sector of the housing market. :)

NOTE: After some thought, I have deleted the anonymous comments. Sorry, I know that others had responded to those comments, so the "comment conversation" may not make as much sense now! If "Anonymous" would like to repost with his name attached, he (or she) is welcome to do so.

Procrastin...I mean Meet My Family, Part 5--Caleb

2009-06-15T10:32:00.000-05:00

I ought to be cleaning my house, but instead, I'm on the computer...so, next up is my wonderful brother Caleb.

Caleb is a Texas A & M grad who works as a technical writer for an oilfield services company in Houston. He has been married to his lovely wife Leah for four years, and has a brand new, long-awaited baby girl named Shona. Aren't they a beautiful family?

I remember Caleb as being a very outgoing, active, and cheerful child, with a goofy sense of humor, and always lots of energy. Today, while he's still athletic, he's also a surprisingly intellectual guy who can maintain a good conversation on topics ranging from politics, to history, to Biblical Greek. He is a talented writer and public speaker.

In high school, Caleb raised sheep, and pigs (won championships with both), and played soccer and ran track. When he left Indiana to go to college in Texas, he planned on becoming a veterinarian, and was a bit surprised to find himself at a desk job instead. But the job has worked out well for him.

I'm trying to restrain my impulse to brag on my siblings here...I think I've done a pretty good job of just sticking to the facts, don't you? :)

Okay, I really really ought to go get to work now. Feel free to leave a comment.

Meet My Family, part 4-Jesh

2009-06-10T15:08:00.001-05:00

Hello folks!

Next in line is my wonderful brother Jeshurun.

Jesh (yes, that's Jesh, not Josh or Jess or Jeff or Jett) (short for Jeshurun, Deuteronomy 33 etc.) is just wrapping up his degree at Texas A & M (he worked for a few years between homeschool and college, so he's 28 years old). He is completing a double major in Physics and Math. He's already got a job as a geophysicist lined up, to begin as soon as he graduates in July. He'll be working in Houston, and living with Mom and Dad, as will I. :)

Jesh is great. He is very level-headed, and has a good deal of common sense; I can always count on him to provide me with an intelligent, well-reasoned viewpoint on an issue, that is, when he has the time to share his opinion. Time is not something he has in abundance, as he stays quite busy with school, and in his free time, utilizing his many skills with various projects.

Past projects (not in chronological order): small-scale sheep farming, replacing the clutch on his own car (a project which involved suspending the car from the rafters of the garage), helping design and manage a website (now defunct) for FP youth, working as a butcher at a meat processing place, converting a wing of the church into living quarters for the pastor and his family (he did much of the work himself, including electrical, tile, etc.) and many more. Feel free to remind me of some of his more interesting projects that I'm forgetting. :) Mom told me to add that he finds Winnie-the-Pooh stories entertaining, and plays Sudoku now and then.

I think that's about all I can fit into this post. :)

Meet My Family, Part 3--Me!!

2009-06-01T07:46:00.001-05:00

The next family member is myself. That's right, I'm the oldest sibling (of five). Hmm, what don't you already know?

Well, for those who don't know, I'm a single mom of two lovely little boys (4 1/2 and 2). I live in a college town in southern Indiana, where I work as an in-home childcare provider. I've lived my whole life in Indiana, except for three or four years in Michigan in the early 90's. I'm getting ready to move to Houston this summer--well, technically, a rural area south of Houston (NOT Santa Fe). I'll be living with my parents and two of my brothers, all being well.

My interests include: everything pertaining to children, their education, and their development; theology; classical music; hiking/nature/the out-of-doors; environmental issues; energy issues; and politics to a certain extent (I do have a degree in political science). I like to crochet, sew and quilt, especially out of recycled materials. Some day I would like to start running again, and playing the piano. If I were rich, I would take singing lessons. Hmm, I think that's about it. :)

ETA this is my 100th post! Woo-hoo!

Meet My Family, Part 2

2009-05-19T09:17:00.000-05:00

This is my mom.

My mom is a career homemaker who raised and homeschooled five children. Mom is the middle child of three siblings. She was raised in a wonderful Christian home in Indianapolis. She is a highly intelligent person, and musically inclined--she has played the piano and violin since early childhood. After graduating from high school, she worked and took a few semesters of college (early childhood education) before meeting my dad and getting married.

Mom is more quiet and reserved compared to some of the more outgoing members of my family, but she is happy to talk once you get to know her.

These days, Mom has been spending a lot of time studying foreign languages--at the moment she is studying six!!! languages--Romanian, Hindi, Italian, Spanish, French, and Dutch. I asked her if studying all the different languages at once was confusing, and she said no, she really enjoys seeing how the different languages compare. Hindi is proving especially interesting as it uses a different alphabet with 44 characters, with four different types of "T's" and four different types of "D's." It sounds pretty complicated to me! Mom also plays the violin and the tin whistle--the last few times I heard her play, she was playing a lot of Irish folk music. (Did you know that she has perfect pitch?) She also designs and pieces quilt tops, and gardens.

Mom's mind works in unique and interesting ways (at least, I find them very interesting). She likes numbers and patterns. Once she designed a quilt top based on prime numbers. And just for fun, she recently worked out all of the repeating decimals up to 16 places. Even phonics instruction became an exercise in geometry, as she laid out grids of words that followed certain phonics patterns (all of her children became avid readers, for what it's worth).

Mom is looking forward to welcoming me and her two oldest grandchildren into her home this summer. The oldest of my brothers will also be moving home as he completes his undergraduate studies and prepares to start grad school near my parents' home. Mom will have a full house, but she doesn't seem to mind. She is looking forward to assisting my boys with their education, and I look forward to seeing how the boys will progress with the addition of her expert tutelage.

Coming soon: Meet My Family, Part 3! (Haven't decided if I will do one on myself, or skip straight to my [more interesting] brother Jeshurun)

My Family, part 1

2009-05-13T10:03:00.000-05:00

Updated 12/09

Hello friends,

I have a wonderful family. I am happy to talk about my family to anyone who will listen. Sadly, opportunities to talk about my family do not arise as often as I would like. So I have decided that I will share a little more about my family on my blog.

Many of you already know my family and will not be learning anything new here, so these posts are for those who don't know anything about my family, and are curious. :)

This is my dad.

Dad is a Bible scholar. He works for TBS (Trinitarian Bible Society). He is a highly intelligent individual who loves to study theology and Scripture (and politics). He is also quite outgoing and happy to engage in long discussions of said topics. He acquires books in large quantities. Mom is constantly rearranging the books in the house to make room for his latest purchases. He has excellent recall of almost everything he reads (I wish I knew how he does it!)

Dad grew up in Indiana. He's the oldest of five siblings. He initially got a bachelors degree in music (he played the trumpet) but then became a school teacher, and taught elementary and special ed for years. When I was in high school, he went back to school himself and entered the field of computer programming. He did quite well in programming, but just this last year left the field to take his "dream job" with TBS.

Dad and my family are happy to belong to the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. After years of being a member from a distance, Dad was finally able to get a job in Houston so that he could be a part of the Santa Fe congregation. But shortly afterward, Dad was invited to continue his work for TBS from Israel, so he and Mom packed up and left. They are now getting settled in Jerusalem.

Coming tomorrow (or next week, I'm not sure): part 2--my mom!

Noah's New Favorite Book

2009-05-09T06:56:00.001-05:00

Noah's new favorite book: My World, by Margaret Wise Brown.

I think Margaret Wise Brown must have paid a lot of attention to small children, because she really seems to know how their minds work. Noah, who has a favorite spoon that he requests at every meal, is fascinated by pages like "My spoon. Daddy's spoon. The moon belongs to the man in the moon." Sometimes he tries to pick the picture of the spoon off the page, and says, "Want it spoon. Can't get it spoon."

Which reminds me. The other day I found him with a board book about tractors. He was making distressed noises, and trying to stick his feet into the picture. "What's the matter, Noah?" I asked him. "Can't get in it," he whimpered.

Reminds me of a story Mom tells about when I was small. She found me ripping the page of a book, and asked me what I was doing. "Sure I can put my feet in the snow!" I told her. LOL

Elijah can read My World quite fluently. I think he has it half memorized, as he does most of the books in the house. Nowadays, when I go to the library, I pick out a few books just for Elijah, and refuse to read them out loud to him. "These are for you to read," I tell him, and he does. He does pretty well with "Step 2" readers.
More Noah cuteness (in my opinion, of course): his two new favorite phrases are "Maybe," and "I think." Often I will give him two options, for instance, "Noah, would you like to go a little more quickly, or would you like to ride in the stroller?" (He moves at a snail's pace.) He ponders this, then tells me "Maybe just walk." Or I say "Would you like Raisin Bran or Cheerios?" to which he responds, "I think Bam Ban." Raisin Bran is his favorite cereal. Strange child.

Go Buy Stamps

2009-05-08T21:36:00.000-05:00

Hi friends,

Stamps go up in price by 2 cents on Monday. So tomorrow while you're out, pick up some "Forever" stamps.

You're welcome,
Sharon

p.s. What's that you say? Stamps are for Luddites? Ha, funny.

I like bad puns :)

2009-05-05T09:41:00.000-05:00

So, lately, I have been immersed in the topic of baptism. :)

LOL okay, that was horrible, I know.

I have been attending a membership class at my church for a few months now, and recently spoke to a pastor about interviewing for membership. As I had expected, he told me that upon becoming a member, I would be expected to get the boys baptized (they haven't been). The problem is, I don't understand infant baptism, and never have, really.

So I have embarked upon a quest to "get" infant baptism. I have been talking to my pastor and my parents, and reading extensively from books, articles, and online discussions. The more I read, the farther I think I am from a conclusion (at least, the farther I am from the "right" conclusion, that is paedobaptism). I have encountered some good arguments and some bad arguments on both sides. As soon as I come across an argument that I think has settled the issue for me, I come across an equally convincing rebuttal of said argument. *sigh*

I found these two interesting sites, and thought I would share them:
www.puritanboard.com (discussion forums)
www.monergism.com (collections of articles, sermons, etc)

I'm also struggling with the issue of authority as a single mother. If I were married, then obviously I would have a husband/head to lead in these decisions, but as a single mom, am I entirely "headless"? What role do the church and my father play? Tough questions! (at least for me!)

Well, just thought I would share what's on my mind lately. I hope this isn't too personal! In case you're curious, here's the latest article I read:
A String of Pearls Unstrung
Feel free to let me know what you think of it!

Elijah's hearing, update

2009-04-22T11:21:00.000-05:00

Well, Elijah passed his hearing test with flying colors. The doctor says that based on his hearing test results alone, he ought to be able to hear the spoken word without any trouble. However, his ears aren't quite in normal condition--they do have fluid and bubbles in them, which led the doctor to do a tympanogram (measures vibration of the eardrum). The tympanogram was also abnormal, so the doc prescribed a nasal spray to be used for six weeks, at which point we'll get him re-tested.

I'm not sure how everything fits together--he passes a hearing test easily, yet his eardrums aren't vibrating like they should? And how does a nasal spray have anything to do with the ears? I have a little more research to do.

To clarify, once I get Elijah's attention and he looks at my face, he can understand me without difficulty--it's just getting his attention in the first place that's hard to do. Perhaps he just gets so absorbed in what he's doing that he tunes out the world around him; he can be pretty intense about things like Legos and books. :)

Speaking of books--the boys went to the library with their dad yesterday, and Elijah helped pick out a half-dozen books, mostly about volcanoes and astronomy. The one that looks most interesting delves into topics like quasars, relativity, and dark matter--of course it also extensively discusses how those interesting topics relate to the theory of the Big Bang. I'll probably end up skipping every other paragraph, as I don't want to get into the Big Bang theory just yet. :)

And to conclude, a couple of pictures of the child in question. First, with a book about human anatomy. I told him to pick out his favorite page to include in the photograph, and he picked this one:

And secondly, here he is with a Lego "mountain." I know these aren't technically Legos; maybe they're Megablocks or Duplo or something. Anyway, we call them Legos. This photo is from a few weeks ago--note the old carpet, now gone. :)

Elijah's hearing

2009-04-16T11:39:00.001-05:00

Elijah has a doctor's appointment next Tuesday to get his hearing checked. His hearing seems to have gone downhill the last few months. Please keep us in your prayers!

Tuesday April 14th

2009-04-14T18:27:00.000-05:00

Today is cold and chilly. I went for a long (3+ miles) walk down a route I used to take when I was young and crazy, which would be, oh, seven or eight years ago? Not much has changed since I last went in that direction, except that part of the sidewalk has been replaced with a nifty boardwalk. The "goat farm" is still the same, and the roundabout, and the creek. I ought to go in that direction more often.

I passed a couple of runners, which got me thinking. Two years ago I ran a 5K in June and set a blistering pace--finished up at 37:50. I'd kind of like to run the same race again this year, and see if I can break my record. Which you might not think would be hard to do, seeing as 37:50 equates to well over 12 minutes a mile...but I haven't actually started really running yet , and the race date is June 6th. Do I have enough time to train properly? Meaning, can I get myself to the point where I can run the whole thing without collapsing? Hmmm...

I think perhaps I'll go ahead and register, to ensure that I'm motivated to get going with this running thing. Do I have any Bloomington readers who would like to join me in my quest? To qualify as my training partner, you must be very. very. slow. :) Perhaps I'll use this Couch to 5K running plan again. I just barely have time to complete the 9-week program before the race.

Rose of Sharon

2009-04-07T08:35:00.000-05:00

I was named from Song of Solomon 2:1. "I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys."

Here is a modern-day Rose of Sharon (not thought to be the rose of Sharon mentioned in Scripture):

A humble sort of flower, really. But did you know that hummingbirds like it?

The Rose of Sharon is a shrub or small tree. It comes in various shades of white, lavender, or purple, but I like the white ones best.

When my parents lived in Freedom, Indiana, they had a couple of Rose of Sharon bushes out by the barn, next to the gravel road. One was white, and one lavender. They probably could have used some pruning. It's funny, I don't remember the hummingbirds out by those bushes, but I do remember that the bees liked them.

Success! ...sort of

2009-04-04T16:48:00.000-05:00

Well today I went clothes shopping again, yes, in spite of my lousy experience last time. My unfailingly optimistic self was just sure that I would find something this time around. And yes, I did have some success--sort of. After five hours (not kidding, sadly) of searching and trying things on, I found a shirt that is cute, feminine, and modest, mostly. Of course, the neckline is too low and loose, but I think it should be pretty easy to fix--it's gathered with elastic in a casing, so all I have to do is open up the casing and take in the elastic a little bit. I was so happy to find something that would work, I bought two! I also found a tank top to go under things. So all in all, I had a fairly successful day (if you call finding three things in five hours a success).

Still searching for: a pair of sandals that I could walk a couple of miles in. Sadly, I am having trouble finding a good affordable and practical sandal that fits well.

Now clothes shopping was not actually part of the plan for today. I actually meant to finish up some of the trim work in the living room, and I was also hoping to go for a run (*ahem* meaning, a walk with brief jogging intervals). But now I only have an hour until the boys come back from their dad's, which is not enough time to do both, and besides I have to start getting ready for tomorrow (making sure church clothes are cleaned and ironed, planning meals, tidying the house, etc.)

OH I almost forgot! Yesterday I went to a performance of "St. Matthew's Passion" by Bach. What a treat! Actually it was a dress rehearsal, not the actual performance, but a delight none the less. I've never heard this piece before, but a few parts were quite familiar; for instance, I was delighted to hear the melody to one of my favorite hymns, "Oh Sacred Head, Now Wounded." I enjoyed myself quite thoroughly, even though the pews in that church were very hard and uncomfortable, and the rehearsal wasn't over till 11:30 p.m.!

All right, I'm heading to the park to go for a run (err, walk).

2009-03-30T20:37:00.000-05:00

I made chocolate crinkles the other day. Elijah and Noah helped.

And a couple of weeks ago I got new glasses. I would just like to take a moment to say how happy I am with www.39dollarglasses.com. I got a complete pair of glasses, lenses, frames, and all, for 39 bucks. Well, plus $4.95 shipping. Sadly, I have not got any pictures of myself in said glasses, but Elijah volunteered to show them off for me.

Elijah is less obsessed with the planets lately, because he has discovered a new fascination: volcanoes! I explained volcanoes to Elijah when we heard about the eruption of Mt. Redoubt in Alaska, and they've been on his mind ever since. We got a couple of books from the library to help answer his questions. A particularly exciting moment for Elijah was when we discovered a photo online of a volcano on Mars! Volcanoes and planets together? Wow! He was impressed.

Noah is talking up a storm these days. This morning he woke me up to give me a "Hug and a 'queeze and a kiss on a fo-head." Then he wanted the same in return, and, well, how could I not oblige such a sweet request?!? He also says "I yuv you," a lot, and you should hear the enthusiasm with which he says "Thank you!" and "You're welcome!" It's interesting to see how his and Elijah's talents develop in such different ways. I could go on for ages about the differences between the two...

Last but not least, I have a new house! At least, it feels that way. I found a nice individual from my church to redo my upstairs bathroom for me. Everything in that bathroom is now brand spanking new (well, except the vanity, which I found at the Restore--love that place). Said individual was also kind enough to patch a small hole in the floor, and to stabilize my wobbly banister. Shortly after the bathroom was completed, I got new carpeting on all three floors (basement, main floor, upstairs). And Mom has been busy painting trim and walls and wrapping up various small projects. So now my home feels fresh and clean rather than dingy and worn; the place looks great! And all of a sudden, the burden of things to do seems so much lighter--this house is almost done, and ready to sell! Wow!

Bedtime again! Where does the time go?

I hate shopping!

2009-03-07T20:14:00.000-06:00

Why does clothes shopping have to be so difficult? I spent a good part of my day looking for some clothes that would be
1. modest
2. attractive
3. affordable
4. comfortable
5. practical (i.e. suitable for an active lifestyle)
6. well made
and had absolutely no success. I find clothes shopping to be physically and emotionally exhausting.

If I buy stuff in my size, it's too form-fitting to be modest or comfortable. If I go up a size or two, I look sloppy. Am I the only person that finds this so difficult?

If I had more time, I could sew my own clothing; if I had more money, I would be more likely to find what I needed in the stores; but I have neither. *sigh*

I am seriously exhausted and I am going to bed (daylight savings time kicks in tomorrow, yay)

2009-03-03T09:13:00.000-06:00

Conversation this morning:

Elijah: You be the mother bunny, and I'll be the baby bunny.
K: My name is Cinderella.
Elijah: No, you can be the mother bunny, and I'll be the baby bunny.
K: No, I'm Cinderella!
Elijah: But I don't want to play princesses! You can be the mother bunny.
K: No, she can be the mother bunny (pointing at me).
Elijah: No she can't, she's the great-great-aunt bunny. You have to be the mother bunny.
K: But there are no bunnies in Disney!

We have conversations like this almost every day. The other day it went like this:
Elijah: I'll be Elijah, and you be the prophets of Baal. (!?!? I wasn't sure how I felt about this one.)
K: No, I'm Cinderella.
A: *echoes* 'Ella!
Elijah: But you have to dance around the altar like this. (demonstrates by jumping up and down)
K: I know, I'll be Snow White!

Perhaps Elijah needs to have some little boys for friends! Not to criticize K, as I was a girly girl myself when I was that age (hard for me to imagine now). I'm so used to little boys and their trains of thought now, that it's hard for me to remember that when I was K's age, I was fascinated with princesses and ballerinas, and loved wearing twirly dresses (okay, I still love wearing twirly dresses).

I've been waiting for this moment!!!

2009-02-27T09:41:00.000-06:00

Today something exciting happened! Elijah spontaneously read a book to Noah. Before breakfast, Noah plopped himself down in Elijah's lap with a book (which looked slightly ridiculous, I might add, as Noah is almost as big as Elijah) and Elijah obligingly read it to him. I've always said that it would be so nice when Elijah could read to Noah, and now that moment has finally come! This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it, as Noah looks so silly on Elijah's lap:

And here are a few more pictures. Elijah sounding out words (though he insisted that this was chapter thirty-one, rather than chapter one):

Noah, being his cute self:

Elijah and K., the oldest girl I watch: (she does such a better job of posing for pictures than Elijah does! When I get out the camera, Elijah starts making ridiculous faces.)

Noah and A., K's little sister:

And I guess that's all for now, since Blogger will only let me upload five pictures at a time, and it's time to go fix lunch. We're having fresh broccoli!!! The kids will be delighted. Every time I fix fresh broccoli, they practically inhale it. I finally got wise and started fixing two heads of broccoli instead of just one. After the broccoli, we're having what we call chicken enchiladas, though I think technically it would be a burrito. Those are another kid favorite. Better go get started.

More boys

2009-02-21T06:34:00.001-06:00

Since this blog is entitled "Sharon's Babies" I thought I might as well inundate my readers with updates about my boys for a while. :)

Noah has reached the point where he fully expects that I will understand everything he says, and gets frustrated when I don't. This morning, as soon as he climbed out of bed (at the blissfully late hour of 6:45--it was so nice to sleep in!) he was saying what sounded like "inna" or "anna" and pointing at the bed with an expectant expression. I could not figure out what he could be talking about. Finally I concluded that he was asking for a specific stuffed animal which he expected me to find under the blankets, but which stuffed animal? I have no idea which one he would have named "inna" or "anna" or "innit" or whatever it was.

Yesterday Noah was attempting to swing a short length of cord around in circles like a lasso. I heard a number of frustrated shrieks as he just couldn't get it to work. Finally I sat down and coached him till he got it--he was so proud of himself! Speaking of yesterday, that's Noah's new favorite word. He's been saying things like "Daddy deh-daday," to which I reply, "Yes, you did see Daddy yesterday."

Elijah is fixated on the planets! Before he had finished his breakfast, he was asking me, "Why do only three of the planets have rings?" "Why does Venus spin this way and all the other planets spin that way?" (demonstrating by waving his arms around). Etc. etc. We can see Venus in the evening sky (at least I think it's Venus) and he keeps telling me "I think maybe that's Pluto; I'm not sure," even though I've told him at least half a dozen times that Pluto is too far to be seen without a telescope.

Elijah's other interest is anatomy. The other day he created a lego creature that he informed me was a bear, complete with trachea, lungs, and a tailbone. If he makes one like that again, I will definitely have to take a picture! It's not the sort of thing you would recognize at first glance--you would definitely need him to identify the components for you--but it's neat that he attempted to include some of the internal organs!

The other night I found some candlesticks and candles in the basement, and thought, "Hmm, we might as well be using these." So we've been eating our dinner by candlelight the last week or so, with classical music (Mozart, the last few days) playing in the background...makes a very classy setting for our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! LOL Not that we eat peanut butter and jelly every night, mind you, but I find myself more likely to cook a "real" meal at lunch time, and do something quick and easy for dinner.

If I forget to light the candles, Noah is quick to remind me, "Forgot someping. Forgot candles." He is also quick to remind me if I forget to give thanks for a snack! "Forgot to pray, Mama!" Good thing I have this little one to keep me on my toes!

These boys are growing so fast! I'm finally coming to accept the fact that Noah, almost two years old, is no longer my baby. Even the little ones I watch are all growing up; the smallest is now a year old, and walking. Good thing I will soon have two little nieces to hold and play with from time to time. :) Seems like everyone is pregnant these days--six family members and family friends will be having babies in the spring, if I counted correctly.

Well, Elijah wants a second breakfast, and so do I, so off I go.

this and that

2009-02-13T17:57:00.000-06:00

What are the boys up to lately? Hmmm...

Elijah continues to learn to read. We make regular trips to the library. His latest favorite is a book about the planets (he can't read it all yet, but he likes to have it read to him). The last couple of nights he took it to bed with him because he said "When I wake up in the morning, you can read it to me the first thing." He loves our MegaBlocks/Duplo/whatever they're called. And he has been asking tough questions like the following: "I was just thinking about something. Do the worms like it when the birds eat them? I'm not sure about that." LOL That was a tricky one.

Noah is talking quite a bit now. He loves to be read to--his favorite is "Goodnight Moon" and he likes to find the mouse on every page. He is learning his colors and some of his alphabet letters--so far he knows A, M, and O. He recognizes the word "Daddy" which I discovered when I wrote it on a piece of paper to keep him quiet in church, and he pointed and shouted "Daddeeeee!" quite loudly. Any other word that I write for him, he assumes says "Mama." Ever since he got over his tummy illness, I have been hearing a lot of "Eat someping, Mama? Eat someping? Hunnngeeeee." His favorite foods are spaghetti and ketchup. He also likes applesauce which he calls applesalsa. Oh, and he is very polite, always saying "Peese" and "Thank you" or "No thank you," usually without being reminded (he learned that soooo much more quickly than Elijah did!) Last but not least, he has a cute sense of humor. Here is a conversation from the other day:
Me: Do you like to eat pizza?
Noah: Noooo!
Me: Do you like to eat peanut butter?
Noah: No! No thank you.
Me: Do you like to eat chocolate chips?
Noah: No thank you. Eat CARS! *laughs and laughs* Noooo, no eat cars. (said in a "how silly" sort of tone)

And what am I up to lately? Hmm...well I put myself on a strict schedule which has made me surprisingly productive. I made sure to schedule some crafting time too. :) Perhaps I'll post some pictures soon of some of the crafts I've been working on.

On Feb 10th we took our first walk to the park. (2.7 miles round trip, thanks again g-map pedometer) Elijah seems to have gotten out of shape over the winter--last summer he would happily run/walk the whole way there, but this time he prefered to ride in the double stroller, which of course made it much more challenging for me. I am still longing for a nice double jogging stroller, and if I ever find one used, I will buy it, even if I do have to resell it in five months when I move.

Last but not least, I got a new computer from a friend of a friend, whose workplace was selling their old computers for $25...this one runs sooooo much faster, and even my internet works better, strangely enough. Oh, and I discovered Google Analytics. Pretty nifty. I can track traffic to my blog and to my Etsy shop (yes, I have an Etsy shop, but there's nothing in it yet--when I put something in it, I'll post the link here).

Okay, that's all for now, and don't miss the next post about my new favorite piece of music.

All right, here it is

2009-02-13T17:38:00.000-06:00

My speakers still aren't really working--I had to hold the speakers up to my ear to hear this, but it sounds good enough to do for now. I might edit to change the video later.

Saturday mornings in the summer, the boys and I like to go to our local farmer's market. The local farmers' market is more than just booths selling fruits and vegetables, potted plants, honey, and locally raised meats--there are also usually a number of musical performances to see. You might see anything ranging from the lone musician with his/her instrument and/or voice, to a small orchestra set up on the plaza in front of city hall, and everything in between. They might be playing anything from traditional folk music to jazz to classical. Suffice it to say that for those who appreciate good live music, our local farmer's market is quite a treat.

Anyway, one summer morning I took Elijah into city hall to use the bathroom. Sitting in the lobby was an Asian man playing an instrument that I'd never seen before, with a long neck and a bow (later I learned that it was probably a traditional Chinese instrument like an erhu). The music was unlike anything I'd ever heard, and breathtakingly beautiful. The acoustics in the building were perfect for a lone musician of that sort. Sadly, the farmer's market was drawing to a close, and after a few minutes he packed his instrument away. I left wondering what the instrument was and wishing that I could have heard more.

Then a few weeks ago I was listening to NPR late in the morning, and heard the following piece. The violin music sounds much like the music I heard that morning last summer. I was thrilled and of course wrote down the name of the piece to look up later. I'm a little disappointed that the instrument played here is the violin rather than the traditional Chinese instrument, but the violin here is played in a similar style and sounds quite beautiful. Enjoy!

Coming tomorrow!

2009-02-03T20:55:00.001-06:00

Coming tomorrow: my new favorite piece of music--the Butterfly Lovers Violin Concerto by Chen Gang. I heard this on NPR and fell in love with it. I'll check out a few videos on Youtube and pick one to post tomorrow. Right now it's bedtime!

Noah made a pun

2009-01-31T15:10:00.000-06:00

I was getting Noah ready for bed last night and when he was all set, I gave him a few pats on his bottom. He giggled but shook his head "no" and said "Stop spankin' me, Mama." I said, "What, you don't want a spanking?" ...and he said "No spank you." LOL

Snow Day

2009-01-28T08:05:00.001-06:00

Today is a snow day for me. Indiana University is closed for the day, which is highly unusual; and of course all the local middle and high schools are closed as well, which means that all of the parents of the girls I watch are off work for the day; therefore I have an unexpected day off as well.

The above picture is the view out my front door. Looks like most of my neighbors are staying in for the day.

And here's my own car. I don't think I'll be going anywhere any time soon. :)
The only thing that bothers me about being snowed in is the fact that I really need to make a trip to the library. I have overdue books to return, and I need to check out another book to read for a book club this Saturday. But the library is closed due to the weather, so there's no point in shoveling the snow off my car and attempting the short drive.

Yesterday evening I went for a walk in the snow and sleet. The sleet accumulated on my glasses but I was well bundled up and quite enjoyed my tromp through the snow. I went 1.3611 miles (thank you Gmaps Pedometer) and listened to the hush that falling snow creates. The roads were slick--even the snowplows were moving in slow motion--but the sidewalks had all been shoveled recently enough that my non-booted feet stayed dry.

For my southern readers who may be assuming that all Midwestern winters are like this--well, they're not; here in southern Indiana, we only get a snowfall like this once every couple of years. Usually we don't get more than a couple of inches of snow, and it's often melted within two or three days.

All righty, better go be productive.

a few borrowed pictures

2009-01-16T09:53:00.001-06:00

If you read Leah's blog you've already seen most of these--but here are a few pictures from our trip to Texas. Enjoy!

First is Noah playing outside in the driveway. You may ask what is the point of posting a picture of my child undressed. The point is, this picture is taken outside! In December!!! I do look forward to Texas winters. Why wasn't he properly dressed, you ask? Well, he had a tummy bug, and kept getting sick on himself, so his clothes were all in the wash. Sorry, but you asked. (Oh, and I don't usually use those horrid Gerber vinyl diaper covers, but my Dappi nylon pull-ups all went missing one way or the other, and I'm STILL waiting on the replacements I ordered from Little Lions.com, which site is VERY slow to ship, I might add.)

And here we are at dinner--myself and sons, Mom and Dad, Jesh and Ben, Caleb and Leah, and Mercy and Mark. Sorry you can't see everyone. I love not being the only adult at a meal.

After the above dinner, we went to the Aquarium in downtown Houston. Here Elijah is reading the sign to Noah, with Jeshurun supervising.

Caleb and Leah took Elijah for a ride on the carousel. Elijah rode on a dolphin, if I remember correctly. Pardon his goofy attempt at a smile.

And this picture has nothing to do with me but I had to borrow it anyway because it's such a nice picture (hope you don't mind, Leah). These are three of the four Smith sisters--the one on the right is married to my brother Caleb, and is expecting a baby girl in the spring. (As is my sister, by the way--I'm so excited!)

Okay, that's it for now and the children have had more than enough time playing by themselves (they are playing soo nicely, I might add!) so I should go fix lunch. I have absolutely no idea what I'm fixing, I might add, so this will be fun. I suppose we haven't had peanut butter and jelly for a while. :) Oh, on the topic of food, last night I discovered that a can of tuna goes nicely with a pot of white beans--cook the beans with a little onion and garlic, salt and pepper, and when the beans are tender add the tuna and top with chunks of cheddar cheese and Saltine crackers--a great way to use up all those cans of tuna in my pantry. Note to self: Noah LOVES crumbling crackers into his food--you should have seen his delighted face. Must serve more cracker/soup combinations.

January 12th

2009-01-12T21:35:00.000-06:00

Noah spent the weekend in the hospital with a severe case of croup. My poor baby! Friday night when he was admitted, he was struggling so hard just to take a breath. I am very thankful for modern medicine; every time he had another attack of croup, he was given a breathing treatment which had him breathing normally within minutes.

The ER doc diagnosed Noah with pneumonia without even listening to his breathing first. He approached with the stethoscope but Noah cried when he came near, so he (the doc) gave up after a couple of seconds. Because of the pneumonia diagnosis, Noah got a shot of antibiotics and also had his blood drawn to check for the spread of infection. Well all that turned out to be unnecessary as he didn't have pneumonia after all--thankfully our regular pediatrician caught that right away and told us we didn't need to continue the antibiotics. I'm a little upset about the misdiagnosis though and the unnecessary treatment. I mean, Noah didn't even have a fever--pneumonia? *sigh*

Noah is now terrified of anyone wearing scrubs. Which is too bad really, as all the nurses in the pediatrics ward were really nice, as is our regular pediatrician. Actually, come to think of it, Noah didn't mind the pediatrician so much. Perhaps the pediatrics nurses were too much for him because they were all so over-the-top...you know the type..."HI there SWEETIE! Aren't you the most PRECIOUS THING! We'll have you better in NO TIME!" all said very loudly about a foot away from his face. Elijah just loves that sort of thing--when the attention was turned on him, he would beam all over and jump up and down--but Noah is a little bit overwhelmed by really expressive people.

Noah came home Sunday morning. Now all three of us are dealing with a hacking cough and runny noses, and Noah points to his cheeks and says "Owie," so I think he may be dealing with some sinus pain. But at least we can all breathe. Today all my childcare girls came as usual and it was kind of hard; I was able to get everything/everyone taken care of as usual, but I was just tired I guess. Hopefully tomorrow is better. I guess I should get to bed!

no pictures, sorry

2009-01-08T16:26:00.000-06:00

I am safely back from Texas as of Tuesday night. Somehow while in Texas I neglected to take any pictures. If anyone wants to e-mail me some pictures from last week so that I can post them here, that would be great! I know a couple of people got pictures of the boys.

While in Texas, my wise brother pointed out that moving trucks are expensive, and that I should consider selling off all of my furniture here in Indiana, and just move down with what I can fit into my car and my mom's (as Mom will come up to help with the moving process). I thought about it and decided that my brother is right (as usual). But, wow! That means I have a lot of stuff to get rid of! I suppose I'll have to sell most of my furniture on Craigslist, which is always a hassle. Maybe once the weather improves, I'll borrow someone's yard and have a big yard sale.

Anyone want to buy a bookcase? It's solid wood, and folds up. Quite nifty really. Or perhaps you would like an electric ice cream maker? Or a big trunk with Stockholm shipping labels from the 1920s?

I am headed to the local children's resale shop to see if they will buy some of our outgrown boys' clothes and maternity clothes. Perhaps then I will stop by a local used book shop to see if they are interested in purchasing any of my books. Adios!

I'm in Texas!

2008-12-26T17:48:00.001-06:00

My friends in Indiana knew that I was planning this trip, but my family in Texas did not (except for Jeshurun, who helped me plan). We left Indiana at ten till 4:00 a.m. on Thursday and arrived at 1:30 a.m. Friday. Mom and Dad were asleep when we got here, so Dad was very surprised when Elijah walked into the kitchen in the morning and said "Good morning, Grandpa," and Mom was even more surprised when Dad woke her up and she found Elijah standing at her bedside.

The weather here is phenomenal (one of Elijah's favorite words, by the way). We slept with the windows open, and the boys have been playing barefoot in the driveway. This is definitely the right time of year to visit Texas. Sadly Noah came down with a bit of a tummy bug, but he seems to be recovering already. Perhaps it was the stress of the trip, though the boys were remarkably cheerful in the car, which is why I drove straight through instead of stopping for the night someplace. Though they handled the drive well, I was exhausted! I don't think I'll do that again any time soon, at least not when I'm so far behind on sleep to start with.

The rest of the family is enjoying dinner at another family's house. I am home with Noah since he was sick earlier today. Hopefully he is fine in the morning so that we can visit the aquarium downtown with Caleb and Leah and others. I think the boys would love it.

Off to do some housework. Bye!

Photos! Yes, photos, at last!

2008-12-19T21:15:00.000-06:00

I was trying to get a nice picture of the kids together--that is, my two boys, and the two little girls I watch full time (I also watch a littler one part-time, but alas, she was not present for this picture-taking session). Well, as I'm sure many of my readers are already aware, getting small children to pose for photographs can be a bit challenging.

Take one: (I have at least a dozen similar to this one)

Take two: (I find this one hilarious!)

Take three...aha, they are all looking at the camera! Close enough!

In the above pictures you may have noticed some shaggy-looking hairdos on my boys--well later that evening, I took the clippers to their heads (took some bribery) and the result is as follows:
This picture represents a sweet moment in which Elijah gave Noah a hug and kiss. Of course the camera was too slow to capture the moment, but I still thought it was a cute picture. Doesn't Noah look so much older with his curls cut off? I think he looks adorable (but I always think that). Elijah's hair looks pretty good too.

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering, yes the couch cushions are standing up against the back of the couch--the children love it when I do that for some reason. And yes, the littler girl is still in her pajamas. She was brought over in her pajamas, but for some reason they didn't look particularly pajama-like to me, so I kept forgetting to change her into her regular clothes. I didn't get her changed until about ten minutes before her parents came to pick her up! Oops!

ETA: I uploaded these as "large" pictures. Is there any particular reason not to do this? Do they take longer to load this way? Will I run out of space in my blogger account or something?

Things that make me happy

2008-12-18T15:22:00.001-06:00

I was getting ready to order some new prefolds (Noah is getting so big!) and saw that Green Mountain Diapers has a new size in stock! The dark brown edge prefolds will be just perfect for us. I'm so excited. The light brown edge unbleached were just barely the right size, and the toddlers were huge, so I'm glad they've come out with something in between.

I had to order some new diaper covers as well. A few months ago someone at the park walked off with our diaper bag, which of course contained most of my diaper covers. They were thoughtful enough to call me and say that they had gotten my bag by accident (looks just like theirs), but then never followed through on their promise to return it. I bought some of those Gerber vinyl covers from Walmart to get us by for a while, and they were horrible. Most of them are already unusable. So I finally ordered some more covers. I hope they come soon because I am desperate. But I am really excited about having more nice diapers and good covers. :)

Okay I know this post is entitled "things that make me happy" and there are a lot more things to list! But I'm out of time so perhaps I will post more later (and maybe I'll even post a few pictures, as I now finally have a digital camera!)

ETA: diapers have arrived! Noah is excited too, as you can see in this picture (I know it's dark, haven't downloaded a photoediting program yet).

The bright side

2008-12-17T09:17:00.000-06:00

I hope I didn't leave my readers with the impression that I am wallowing in misery. Generally speaking I am able to stay positive. But once in a while it does all kind of hit me at once, so I wanted to vent. By the time I was done writing that post I was laughing at myself, so I suppose the post served its purpose.

Most of my complaints from the last post are resolved or soon will be, thanks in large part to my wonderful and generous family who have come to my rescue more than once in the last year. My car will be repaired this Friday, I should have a new dishwasher in place by this weekend, new glasses and contacts are on their way, etc. My dryer seems to have fixed itself. I thought it was broken because one day it kept running and wouldn't shut itself off, but it's worked perfectly ever since, so perhaps that time was a fluke. And a few more lamps and brighter lightbulbs (and a Mozart CD on loan from a friend) have been enough to dispel the gloom brought on by the perpetual cloudiness. I suppose I am still a few pounds heavier, but that was by far the least of my worries. :)

I suppose I haven't made specific mention of this in my blog before, but I have been a single mama for about a year now. Lately I've been receiving a lot of commendation for choosing to do what I've been doing, that is, working as an in-home childcare provider so that I can continue to stay at home with my boys. I've kind of been wincing when I've been getting those compliments, though, because the reality is, it's not working. :) I still believe that in theory it ought to be possible to support oneself working as an in-home childcare provider, and perhaps I will return to doing so in the future, but the reality of my specific financial situation at this time is that I can't make it work.

So this summer, I will be packing up and moving to Texas to live with my family for a while. Living with my family will feel like living in some sort of paradise, I think. To not have the financial stress, and to live in a nice home that's not a perpetually unfinished work in progress, and not have to work so much and be able to focus on my boys a little more, and to have other adults to talk to at dinner time, and my wonderful parents and siblings all close by...well, I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. It will be wonderful.

Of course, to get to that point, I have to dispose of many of my belongings, pack up the rest, do some repairs and get my house ready to sell, and prepare to move across the country, all while working fifty hours a week providing childcare, caring for my own two children almost 24/7, and attempting to sell a few crafts on the side to pay my bills--a daunting task to say the least. :) I feel like I have to climb this mountain of impossibility to reach a valley of repose on the other side. I must remind myself of the verses taped above my sink: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." And again, "My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory through Christ Jesus."

Perhaps to find the time to do all I need to do, I should give up blogging. What do you think? :p

When it rains, it pours: a pity party

2008-12-11T21:44:00.000-06:00

My dishwasher broke

My dryer broke

My glasses broke

My contacts expired three years ago

My car needs new brakes (and more)

Elijah outgrew his car seat

My HOA fees went up

My mortgage went up

My water bill went up

My income went up (Oh wait, no it didn't)

It's been cloudy for weeks

I gained five pounds

*sigh*

Coming tomorrow: the bright side

Maybe I'm weird, but I think this post is kind of funny. LOL

Are you a scanner or a diver?

2008-12-04T08:22:00.000-06:00

Came across this article today:

Are you a Scanner or a Deep Diver?

This article discusses the philosophy behind the book Refuse to Choose!: Use All of Your Interests, Passions, and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams, by Barbara Sher. I haven't read it yet, but would like to.

A quote from the article: "Deep Divers can by temperament and disposition fit happily and deeply into one career focus. Scanners can't, or at least not easily and happily. Scanners by temperament need to do different things, follow different ideas, fulfil different parts of themselves, and in many cases have a series of careers or be involved in parallel fulfilling activities."

I am most definitely a scanner! A serial scanner, to be precise. I think this is part of why being a stay-at-home mom is such a perfect fit for me--I have the freedom to pursue a variety of interests, at least as time allows. And since most of my interests are related to the home in some way (however tangentially), the home is the perfect setting for me to pursue my interests!

Thought I would share this in case any of my readers are finding themselves frustrated with the notion that one must find that "perfect career" and stick with it for life. Are you a scanner or a diver? Feel free to comment and share!

p.s. Did I use the term "tangentially" correctly? Any vocabulary enthusiasts want to comment?

regrets

2008-12-03T22:27:00.001-06:00

This evening I had a sad memory. About a year ago I participated in a big rummage sale. I met a lovely elderly lady selling an assortment of antique toys and dolls. Atop an old crate sat a lovely quilt top--a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top in beautiful antique fabrics, bold colors and excellent workmanship. I like to quilt, so I asked how much she was selling it for, and she told me she would let it go for thirty-five dollars. At this point I remembered that I didn't actually have thirty-five dollars to spare, so I made some sort of apology and departed (after a little conversation about quilting). At the end of the sale she came over with her hands on her hips, fixed her clear dark eyes upon me, and allowed that she might be willing to part with it for a mere $32. But (this is the sad part) I still declined to purchase it.

Tonight as I was drinking my evening cup of tea (Bigelow Cinnamon Spice, if you're curious), I was suddenly struck with regret about that quilt top. I am thinking of it this evening as "the one that got away." I would have gotten a great deal of enjoyment out of quilting that quilt. I might even have been able to sell the completed quilt for a nice profit. Ah well.

If you want to see what a Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt top looks like, do a Google Images search. They are made with hexagons. Hexagons are great. I remember reading something about why honeybees use hexagons to build honeycomb. I tried Googling this and came up with some interesting phrases like "tesselations" and "tiling of the plane" but nothing I could put into my own words for you. Suffice it to say that hexagons are the most efficient way to enclose the space for the honey. Less wax, more honey. Okay, it's waaayyy past my bedtime, so bye.

ETA: please note that this post was supposed to be tongue-in-cheek. I am not actually in misery over the loss of this quilt top. Sometimes I think that my sense of humor does not come through well in my posts. Or perhaps in general?

The Planets

2008-11-26T07:10:00.000-06:00

The boys and I were returning from an errand last night when Elijah said, "Look, Mama, I see two bright stars." I took a look and realized that what he was seeing were planets, not stars. We talked about the difference between planets and stars, and how you can tell them apart (stars twinkle, planets don't), and I promised to look online to find out what planets we were seeing. At home, I learned that Venus and Jupiter are converging in the southwestern sky just after sunset; on December 1st they will be joined by a crescent moon to make two eyes and a frowning mouth. :) We will be watching.

Prior to this, Elijah's only exposure to the term "planets" was in the context of the piece "The Planets" by Gustav Holst. Our favorite is Mars, the Bringer of War, and this is our favorite video:

I also like Jupiter, especially the beginning of it, and there's a video on Youtube of a performance by the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Eiji Oue. I think Mr. Oue is an interesting conductor to watch--he is really dramatic. But in the end I think I prefer the version by the orchestra/conductor I posted here (not sure who this conductor or orchestra is--can't find the info). ETA: See comments section--this is the Tokyo City Philharmonic, conducted by Taijiro Iimori.

I love being a mom, and seeing the world through children's eyes. If it weren't for Elijah, I would probably have driven home lost in my own thoughts, and totally missed this celestial phenomenon. :)

Oh, another thing Elijah said on the way home: "Mama, I can hear the Willum Tell Overture--it's playing in my head!" *pause* "Can you hear it?"

My newly-discovered talent

2008-11-22T11:46:00.001-06:00

I just upgraded the memory on my computer all by myself! A generous fellow from Freecycle gave me a bigger computer monitor, and a case that was supposed to contain memory sticks that would be an upgrade for my computer. I got home and got the monitor hooked up pretty quickly, then opened up the case, just out of curiosity. I saw something and thought to myself, "Hey, I bet those are the memory sticks." They had little latchy things on either side so I undid the latchy things and pulled the memory sticks out. "Wow, that was easy," I thought to myself. "I bet I could stick these in my new computer."

So, not knowing any better, I unscrewed the case to my computer and peered around till I figured out where the memory sticks went. There were some things in my way so I thought to myself, "I wonder if I can unplug this to get it out of my way?" *yank* "Well, that didn't work, do I just need to pull harder?" *yank yank* "Ah, there it comes. Now let me stick this memory stick in. It won't go, do I just shove it or something?" *shove* "Oh, there's a wire in the way, that's funny. I'll stick it over here so it's not in my way. Aha, now the memory stick is in, I think, but I can't see anything! I wonder if I can take apart the other side to see what's going on in there?" I got the screwdriver and undid various screws until the other side of the computer came off. "Aha, the memory stick was NOT in all the way. I'll fix that with a little more muscle. Now how did this thing go back together again?" I wiggled things around for a minute, then dropped everything to run and restart the washer so the diapers would get a warm rinse instead of a cold one. Back again: "Huh, that's funny, I don't remember these wires being here. How did that happen? Oh look, this whole box thing has shifted over. I'll just push it back and then the wires will tuck behind it. Oh look, the computer has been plugged in the whole time I've been messing with these wires. I wonder if I could have electrocuted myself. Well the cover is back on now, and I think everything is plugged in properly in there. Let's see what happens when I turn it on." So I turned it on and....IT BOOTED UP! I watched with bated breath and sure enough, IT WAS RUNNING FASTER! I jumped up and down and pumped my fists in the air and said, "It works! It works!" Elijah poked his head around the corner and gave me a very strange look. Anyway, I feel very smart now.

I hope that didn't bore anyone. I just was so excited about figuring it out on my own, that I had to post.

My latest plarn creation

2008-11-15T22:48:00.000-06:00

A few months ago I wrote that I was crocheting a reusable bag out of plastic grocery bags, made into plastic yarn, also known as "plarn." Well, I finished that one ages ago and have been using it on a regular basis. Here's another one I just made. As you can see, this is a large bag, rather larger than I had intended, in fact. I am very proud of this one because I came up with a top-secret method to brace the bottom so that it stays square (involves a wire coat hanger--*shhh* don't tell anyone). I also applied my fabulous design skills to come up with an extra-strong reinforcing stitch for the bottom and handles.

This reusable bag was created from over 100 plastic grocery bags. I didn't accumulate them all myself--they were passed on to me by lots of generous people. One nice lady that I barely know dropped two huge black trash bags crammed full of plastic bags on my porch. And other people were quite generous with their plastic bags as well. In fact, I quite quickly reached the point where I had to turn down plastic bag offers. *confession* I have an entire closet full of plastic bags in my basement. I know, crazy, huh? I need to get going and crank out some more of these nifty reusable bags.

I haven't decided if I will keep this one (probably not), or if I will try to sell it (probably). Etsy, here I come! How much do you think I should charge for it? $100? $200? Just kidding.

Yikes, it's bedtime!

I was googling plarn bags for inspiration, and wondered if adding the word "plarn" to this post would cause it to turn up in a search. So plarn plarn plarnity-plarn.

ETA: If you think crocheting with plastic bags is weird, you should see what else I was crocheting with this week (hint: something else recycled). Photos to come as soon as I get my hands on a camera again.

How fast can you read?

2008-11-13T12:44:00.000-06:00

I was sitting in the "Preschool Exploration Center" i.e. playroom at the library the other day, reading through a children's book to decide whether or not to check it out for the boys. I've learned the hard way not to check out a book that you haven't read all the way through first, no matter what, even if you remember it from your childhood and thought it was a great book. This book, as it turns out, was excellent, as were a couple of others by the same author, Marjorie Flack.

Anyway, my point was, I realized that I was reading as fast as I could turn the pages. This made me wonder how fast I can read, so I did a google search and found this test:

How Fast Can You Read?

As I suspected, I am a pretty fast reader, between 500 and 600 words per minute. However, I have trouble staying focused, so my mind wanders and I find myself having to re-read the same paragraph twice. I also have trouble remembering some details like place names and names of characters. I wonder if there's a way to maintain my reading speed while improving my focus and memory? Perhaps I just need more practice--practice, that is, without a million distractions in the background. :)

Speaking of reading, I just read this book:

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

...and I loved it. Fantastic book--food politics has always been an interest of mine. The author discusses the sad state of our farming and food industries, and describes her family's attempt to eat nothing but locally and sustainably produced food for an entire year. It's a great story, marred only by the author's dismissive attitude towards those who believe in creation. Her attitude actually didn't bother me much, because her story made clear the bounty of God's creation and the blessing of His abundant provision for us, whether she intended it that way or not; and she was modelling good stewardship of that bounty. Very inspiring.

Anyway, reading the book motivated me to visit our winter farmer's market this weekend--while I attend our fabulous outdoor market weekly through the summer months, I've never been to the indoors winter market. Maybe I can even scrounge up the money for some more of that delicious raw clover honey raised right here in Bloomington...mmmm...

The children are napping, so I should take this chance to do some work.

Interesting article

2008-11-08T10:48:00.000-06:00

A friend recently posted their dismay that a "socialist" has been elected president, and wished that McCain had been elected instead. I tried to point out that Bush and McCain are pretty socialist as well, but I think my point was perhaps not getting across very well.

Here's an interesting article for your perusal:

Like Barack Obama, John McCain is a Socialist

Note that the New American is a very conservative publication. I say this to point out that you don't have to be a "radical left-wing nut" to disagree with Bush and McCain's policies.

And to clarify, I did not vote for Obama because I am very strongly pro-life (the only vote I cast this election cycle was for this guy), but I am excited to see an African-American family in the White House. I will be praying that Mr. Obama and his family are kept safe and sound, and not hurt by the racist hate that is unfortunately still alive and well in our society. I will also be praying that Mr. Obama has a change of heart regarding the rights of the unborn (but I'm not holding my breath on that one).

Elijah can read!! ...Almost

2008-11-06T21:28:00.000-06:00

Elijah is now sounding out simple words, thanks in part to this website:

www.starfall.com

The kids (the older three anyway) love this site--Noah lets out an ear-piercing shriek of excitement whenever he sees me pull it up on the screen. We started with the ABC's page and that's still where the kids spend the most time, but Elijah has now developed quite an interest in the beginning readers' page too. A couple of times a week when it's time for me to prepare lunch, I'll pull up this site and put Elijah in charge of navigation. Elijah, Noah, and K (the 3.5 year old girl I watch) will huddle around the screen and watch with fascination. Today the favorite letter was "T" for tiger, ten, and taxi. They must have watched that tiger roar at least a dozen times in a row.

So if you have a little one learning his/her alphabet, check it out. :)

He's all grown up! sort of

2008-11-01T16:49:00.000-05:00

Today I find myself alone with Noah, as Elijah has gone to Chicago with his daddy to visit family. Tonight will be Elijah's first night away from his mama ever, except for the night I spent in the hospital after Noah was born. I just called to check in, and it appears he hasn't missed me in the least. :) I don't expect that he will, as I'm sure he's having a great time with his cousins.

Elijah is such a big boy now! As of his fourth birthday, he is now weaned. I'm happy that he got to nurse as long as he did. I know that extended nursing of children is unusual these days, though it was the norm for literally thousands of years prior to recent history. In case any moms or would-be moms or soon-to-be moms are reading this, who would like any further information about extended breastfeeding, here's an informative and helpful link:

kellymom.com Extended Breastfeeding Fact Sheet

Today started out as a "bad day" but after some attitude adjustments (Philippians 4:4-19 helped with that) I am doing much better. Now that I am done being negative, I am looking at Noah being his cute self and wondering how I could ever be so grouchy with him to keep me company. I feel very blessed to have the wonderful children that I do. Noah right now is singing to himself, "Da-da-da-DAAAAAA" accompanied by dramatic waving of hands. I think this means that he would like to hear Beethoven's Fifth, so I will go start the CD player.

Bye for now.

I'm so excited!

2008-10-20T21:56:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that I can listen to All Things Considered online! This is great. I always miss the program when it airs on NPR at 5 or 6, because I'm busy fixing dinner and reconnecting with my boys after my daycare girls leave. Now I have something to listen to after the boys are in bed, and I can simultaneously do housework or crochet. I can be more productive this way than I am when I read the news online (I doubt I could crochet and read at the same time...)

A nice picture

2008-10-13T12:19:00.000-05:00

Taken at a friend's house the other day. Me, my mom, and the boys. Elijah is good at saying "cheese" for the camera but the smile doesn't quite extend to his eyes. Noah was grouchy as it was past his naptime. Personally, I think he is pretty cute when he is grouchy. Actually, I think he is pretty cute just about all of the time.

Elijah is getting so big, that I can no longer think of him as cute. He has graduated to "handsome." LOL It's hard to believe that he will be four this week. (And I'm 29 as of yesterday! Wow!)

Both boys' communication skills are improving. Elijah is getting much better at using words to express his feelings instead of whining. For instance, the other day Noah threw some cracker crumbs at him. He started to get upset but when I rebuked him, he calmed down and explained, "Noah threw slobbery crumbs at me and I didn't appweciate that."

Noah's vocabulary consists mostly of words like truck, plane, tractor, vroom, etc. but he is now adding words like wet, and funny; and he's putting words together into phrases more often, like "baby book," and "shoes on." He loves shoes! He will happily stomp around in my shoes, Elijah's shoes, or even, if all else fails, his own shoes. Elijah, on the other hand, is happy to kick off his shoes the first chance he gets.

Did I mention that I am now watching another baby part-time? She is 7 months old and very cute. Now for a couple of hours every morning, I am watching 5 children ages 3 and under! But it all goes pretty smoothly. The only downside is that I have to get up earlier as the newest one arrives at seven, but that's kind of an upside too, I guess. I've often thought that it would be nice to be up by six thirty every day.

Well, back to work.

Mom's visit

2008-10-06T19:10:00.000-05:00

My mommy is here! She arrived Friday night and will be here for two weeks. She is helping me out with a lot of things around the house and we are greatly enjoying her company. The first night she was here (Friday) I got sick. She was kind enough to help out quite a bit with housework and childcare on Saturday so that I could get some rest. By Sunday I was better, but Elijah was ill, so we all stayed home together and listened to a couple of sermons online (check out sermonaudio.com) and a taped sermon by John MacArthur. And drank lots of yummy tea that Mommy had bought on Saturday. :)

Today we are back to normal health-wise, for the most part, though Elijah is still pretty tired and grouchy, poor guy. Mom is helping me rejuvenate my bathrooms--they are getting new caulk, new grout, and a good scrubbing. They will look so much better!

The boys are really enjoying their time with "Meemaw." It's so cute to see Noah bring her his favorite book (Bears on Wheels) and climb up into her lap so that she can read it to him. Both boys are delighted when she plays the violin or the penny whistle. And she is great at pretending with dolls and animals.

Well I need to get going...need to put some fresh sheets on the bed and get Elijah to sleep. Good night.

Budding musicians

2008-09-29T21:57:00.000-05:00

The other night before bed Elijah was humming to himself. Then a thought struck him and he looked at me and said, "Mama, when I'm a grown-up, I can play Tai-chow-sky on the pany-o." :) :) :) I assured him that yes indeed, when he is a grownup, he can learn to play the piano and then he can play all the Tchaikovsky he wants.

Noah knows and can hum the opening line to Beethoven's 5th, and part of a piece by Mendelssohn. Elijah sometimes puts a name to pieces whose name I don't know, and I have to check to see if he's right. He usually is. Both boys like to "play instruments" while they are listening to music. They have decided that the broomstick is a cello, and a shorter stick has been labeled a violin. Both instruments are "played" with mixing spoons. Occasionally arguments erupt when Elijah decides that he would like to trade instruments, but Noah is not ready to do so; then I have to intervene...but this is an ongoing issue, Elijah deciding that he would like to "trade" toys whether the other children are willing or not. *sigh*

Perhaps one of these days I'll get a "real" instrument for the kiddos to play. Elijah would really like a triangle. Seems to me like a triangle would be pretty much indestructible, right? Indestructible is nice. Come to think of it, we do have a harmonica somewhere--I put it up during naptime one day, and never got it back down. Hmmm, now where did I put it?

Actually, come to think of it, maybe the pretend instruments are better than "real" ones, as they can play along without interrupting what we're listening to! I mean, the music to which we are listening! Sometimes correct grammar just sounds so awkward. Anyone want to suggest a better way to end that sentence?

Changing subjects--I have recently learned that several family friends (and my sister-in-law!!!) are expecting little ones. Congratulations once again! All are due I believe next spring.

For a while I felt like I had a house full of babies, with my own two and the two I watch; but now they are all getting so big! There aren't really any babies in the house any more. The older two are preschoolers now, and the little ones are fully toddlers. The littlest one just turned a year old this month. But I did get to babysit a really-truly baby for a few hours on Friday--she's 7 months old. That was nice. :)

Okay, this might be a bit disjointed? But I'm off to bed. I meant to go to bed early tonight. :( I would like to wean myself off of emoticons but it's hard.

This saddens me

2008-09-20T10:29:00.000-05:00

I don't know why I'm trying to post when I have to leave in fifteen minutes, but this really struck me (in a sad way) and I felt like I ought to share it.

http://news.yahoo.com/page/election-2008-political-pulse-obama-race

Take a look at the box on the left--survey respondents were asked to pick adjectives that describe blacks. Notice where white republicans fall on this graph (the red squares). They are the least likely, of all white political groups, to apply positive adjectives to blacks, and among the most likely to think that negative adjectives apply. Note that less than 15% of white republicans think that the word "law-abiding" applies to most blacks! That's right, 85% of white republicans think that most black people are NOT law-abiding! Yikes!

This makes me wonder how many white republicans actually *know* any black people. I would have liked to see that question in the survey--how often do you interact with black people, and on what level?--and to see how the answer to that question correlates to the adjectives chosen.

But to a certain extent, your familiarity with black people ought to be irrelevant--surely any charitable American would be willing to assume the best about people that they don't know?

Elijah

2008-09-16T14:30:00.000-05:00

Okay, three posts in a day--this has to be a record. Anyway, the other day Elijah was playing with dominoes, and after a while he announced "I made 'lion'!" I took a look, and sure enough, he had carefully lined up the dominoes to spell: LIEAN. Which does say 'lion' if you think of it as LIE-AN. I thought this was very cute. :) Oh, and he had it backwards, reading from right to left.

So far he is self-taught--I really should get my act together and teach him some proper phonics. I started the book "Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons," but stopped when I realized he was not even close to being able to do the writing sections. A couple of months later I thought about the book again, and realized, duh, who says we have to do the writing sections? We can just skip them. Now it's just a matter of remembering to do it with him (at an opportune time, like when the other little ones are napping).

Okay, that's really all for the day.

Oh yes, the wedding

2008-09-16T14:03:00.000-05:00

It has come to my attention that I have failed to post any pictures of my sister's wedding. Unfortunately, since I was in the wedding, I was unable to take any pictures, and the other expert photographer whose pictures I usually "borrow" was also in the wedding (that would be my sister. :P)

So the photos I post will be borrowed from several sources. For now I will just post this one, borrowed from Anna:

Above we have: Leah (my brother Caleb's wife, and the groom's cousin), Haley (best friend of bride, and married to groom's brother James), moi, Mercy, her new spouse Mark, Carl (groom's brother), James (also groom's brother, and spouse of Haley), and John (also groom's brother). The groom has a lot of brothers, six in fact.

The wedding was lovely and of course Mercy looked beautiful. She was a bit stressed out before the wedding though. I was not at all stressed out before the wedding, but I was stressed out after the reception when we all went outside to take pictures by this lovely pond, which you can see behind us. I was stressed because Elijah found the pond quite fascinating and didn't want to stay away from it. It had steep banks, down which he wished to venture. You can see him eyeing the pond again in the picture above. Just before this picture, he went out on a bridge over the pond (also behind us in the picture--note the highly inadequate railing) and leaned way out over the water to drop fluffy seeds into the water (cattails maybe?) and I couldn't do much about it because I was supposed to be posing for pictures. Fortunately a few other people assisted me in keeping him from plunging into the depths.

Oh, and as we left, Noah got into a nest of fire ants. I have been dreading fire ants ever since I first heard about them. But my imagination was worse than the reality. Once I got them all brushed off of him (and out of his clothes), he was fine--they didn't seem to cause him any lasting pain. The bites I got weren't too bad either. I am much relieved. :)

Okay, several children are waking from their naps, so I should go. Perhaps I will edit in more pictures later.

Plastic bags are yucky

2008-09-16T13:25:00.000-05:00

Here's a slideshow about plastic bags, and the impact they have on our environment and our economy:

http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016

I've switched to the reusable bags that you find selling at most stores nowadays for $1, and...they are so much nicer! I love the big handles that I can put over my shoulder. I love that they're strong enough to hold two gallons of milk. I love that they are big enough that three of them hold a week's worth of groceries (well, that's if I don't put the milk in bags). I like the flat bottom that enables them to stand on their own when full of groceries. They're so much nicer, that I wonder why everyone doesn't use them all the time. Oh wait...maybe it's because they are always forgetting their bags at home, like I do. :) Seriously people [Mom], they cost a dollar; you should give them a try.

Note: the ones at Walmart for $1 don't have the hard bottom that makes them so much more supportive--so pick some up at Kroger or another store, where they still cost $1 but have the hard piece in the bottom.

Of course, the bags you find for $1 aren't exactly the ultimate in reusable bags--the best ones are the ones made of heavy-duty canvas, that you can run through the washing machine. But those are significantly more expensive...I've seen them at the farmer's market for $10. Maybe someday I'll be able to afford them. I bet they would last forever.

I hope that in my lifetime, plastic grocery bags will go extinct, so that the bags I crochet out of them will be a novelty item. Someday I'll tell the stories to my grandchildren. "Gather round, kids. Once upon a time, people brought their groceries home in these flimsy, ugly plastic bags. They hardly held anything, and wouldn't stay upright in your trunk, and sometimes they would rip and send your groceries rolling across the parking lot. And they had to put these warning labels on the sides, because sometimes babies would suffocate in them." "Eeeeewwww!" reply the kids. I can just see it, can't you?

I'm in Texas...

2008-08-28T16:03:00.001-05:00

...and keeping quite busy, so I may not be able to respond to previous comments for a few days. My parents' church recently bought a new building and my brother Jesh and others have been transforming a wing into living quarters for the new pastor and his family. We spent a few days there this last week, helping out; the place was humming with activity--painting, tiling, new doors, trim, etc. Mom and I repainted the kitchen cabinets and replaced the handles. It was very satisfying to see those hideous yellow cabinets transformed into something beautiful...(ahem) well, tolerable at least. (Sometimes there is only so much that you can do.) I enjoyed working at the manse (parsonage) in part because I enjoy that sort of work, but also because I had nice company, like Mom and my brothers. :)

One person I haven't seen much is my little sister, but as she is getting married tomorrow, she has a good excuse for not being more sociable. Today she tried on her wedding dress for a few last-minute alterations (she looked lovely of course), and I got to think a little more about how my little sister is all grown up, and leaving home for the first time. I also scoped out her room, since I hope that the boys and I will be able to move in now that there's a vacancy. :) Well, not right away, but before too long.

I've been taking lots of pictures and will hopefully get some posted soon, maybe on Saturday?

I can't believe that my visit will be ending so soon (Monday). Perhaps I can just skip my flight back and stay here for good! (kidding, kidding, though I'm tempted).

Adios for now.

I got a new stroller!

2008-08-16T16:30:00.001-05:00

...not the double jogging stroller I've been wishing for, but a single jogging stroller, which is a big step in the right direction. I found it cheap at a local rummage sale. The fabric is faded, but it's sturdy and a good brand (baby jogger) and has the fixed wheel I wanted, and it turns on a dime, and I can drive it straight over a curb without stopping (an advantage of great big wheels). I love it! Now I can make trips like I did yesterday--Noah in the stroller and Elijah walking on the way there, and Noah on my back and Elijah in the stroller on the way home (a mile each way)--only the trip will be sooo much easier with a nicer stroller.

My neighbors had a yard sale of their own today, and thoughtfully included a few items of mine that I wanted out of the house--some of them big, like an extra twin mattress and a broken computer desk--and sold them for enough to compensate me for what I spent on the stroller. I feel good about getting some of those big unwanted items out of my way, and (effectively) getting a new stroller in exchange!

Please don't take this post as an indication that I'm "done" with the last one--I'm still welcoming comments and meal suggestions. :)

cooking inspiration

2008-08-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

I've been lacking inspiration in the kitchen lately. Seems like every day I go into the kitchen, open the fridge and stare into it, open the freezer and stare into it, and open my pantry and stare some more, all the while thinking, "What on earth am I going to cook?" Finally after eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner the second night in a row (Elijah's idea--he LOVES peanut butter and jelly sandwiches), I thought, "Something has to change." So I went to allrecipes.com for inspiration, and discovered something new--a budget cooking page! I'm so excited! One of the first recipes I came across was sloppy joes. Of course my first thought was, "Sloppy Joes! Why didn't I think of that?" Sloppy joes are a perfect freezer food. I like to make big pots of food and then freeze some to thaw later--makes for less time spent cooking, in the long run. So I made a triple batch of the top-rated recipe. However, I'm not sure that any will make it to the freezer, as it's pretty good!

I have a lot of good meals in my repertoire, and I tend to be quite successful with new recipes as well (probably because I don't attempt anything particularly complicated), so I think our lackluster meals of late are mostly due to bad planning on my part. With some proper meal planning and a little browsing on allrecipes, I'm sure I will find myself re-inspired.

If my cooking readers would like to comment and mention two or three of their family's favorite meals, perhaps that would help. :)

Stroller frustrations

2008-08-06T23:05:00.001-05:00

I decided this week not to use the car at all until Saturday. Then of course I ran out of milk, which is a big deal because coffee is just not the same without milk. :) So the boys and I walked to a local pharmacy and got a gallon of milk. For this trip, Elijah went in a small umbrella stroller, Noah went on my back in the mei tai, and the milk, once we got it, went in a bag which I hung from the handles of the stroller. Of course every time Elijah hopped out of the stroller to investigate something, over the stroller went with a thunk because the milk hanging on the back made it so unbalanced. I had to keep reminding him to stay put. LOL

I am very grateful for our big double stroller, which was a gift from friends at church. Without it, I would not be able to get out nearly as much as I do, especially not for our longer (more than a mile) walks. However, I'm starting to get frustrated with some of its limitations. It's a swivel wheel, which means if I'm going along a sidewalk which slopes towards the street, the stroller keeps wanting to turn and roll into the street, and I'm fighting with it the whole way. And it has the boys positioned one in front of the other, which means it takes a lot more muscle to turn it, as I don't have as much leverage with the narrow handlebar. On rough surfaces like gravel, the front wheels shake and rattle alarmingly, causing a very jolt-ey ride, and even some dead stops as the wheels manage to turn themselves sideways. And whenever I encounter a curb, I have to haul back on the handle (with my foot on a crossbar at the back) to lift the front of the stroller up--very difficult to do with one of my heavy guys in the front seat. Needless to say, all of these features add quite a bit of exercise to our excursions! On the bright side, I am getting very strong!

SO....I have done a lot of research, and concluded that my dream stroller would be a side-by-side double jogging stroller with 16" wheels, a fixed front wheel, and an aluminum frame. I have a specific model in mind, and I am checking Craigslist and the local children's consignment store on a regular basis...but no luck so far. I'm beginning to think that I will either have to wait till winter, when more people are willing to sell their used strollers, or buy new. But new are so expensive!

The thing is, I really think that with a good stroller, I could walk a lot of places that I now drive. So by driving less I would be saving money, which would somewhat offset the cost of the stroller. But do I really NEED a new stroller, or can I make do with what I have?

Sometimes it's hard to have to make all of these decisions by myself. It can take me forever to make up my mind! I did however make a rather impetuous decision today--I ordered a steam carpet cleaner! From initial idea to purchase in less than two hours!

Now that I have this post typed up, I realize that it's probably not going to be particularly interesting to anybody, but I stayed up so late typing it that I'm going to post it anyway.

EDIT: my stroller may not be as bad as I thought! See the comments section!

a rainy day

2008-07-30T21:03:00.000-05:00

Today was hot and humid and overcast. This evening we went to the park. My boys played for all of two minutes on the huge, fantastic playground, then wanted to go see the waterfall. (This particular park is situated in a narrow valley with steep sides and, in one spot, a waterfall). I am always tickled when my boys choose nature over big playgrounds. :) So we crossed the street and went down the long, windy trail through the woods to the waterfall. It was drizzling rain and the light was dim in the woods, which were much more lush and green than the last time we went--how long has it been? When we got to the waterfall, the boys entertained themselves by climbing around on the slippery rocks and throwing pebbles into the water. Well, they were supposed to be throwing pebbles, but Elijah preferred to throw rather large stones, which made me nervous as his aim is still a little wild. After a bit we headed back down the trail and out of the woods.

And then, we came to the highlight of our trip: the mud puddles in the gravel parking lot. Yes, the mud puddles were the highlight, apparently more interesting than either the huge playground, or the beautiful waterfall. The boys started out by watching the ripples caused by the raindrops hitting the puddles; then they made ripples of their own by tossing in some gravel...and then Noah accidentally stepped into the puddle with a splash, and a look of sheer delight crossed his face. Of course then I had to take off his shoes and let him splash away. Elijah quickly followed suit. I watched and smiled and looked around at the trees and the water and thought about how much I will miss Bloomington when we leave. After a while I packed my very wet boys back into the car and brought them home and put them to bed.

As Elijah was going to sleep, he sat up and whispered loudly, "Mama, I want to watch the Willum Tell Overture tomorrow." I said "Okay dear, now go to sleep." But he wanted to clarify: "I want to watch it lots of times." "Yes dear, we can do that, now go to sleep." He laid back down and whispered, "I like that kind of music, Mama." Yes, the William Tell Overture (our "piece of the week") has been a smashing success in this household, and before lunch every day we watch this clip over, and over, and over:

William Tell Overture (part 2) as played by the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Claudio Abbado. (By the way, this was my first attempt at embedding a link from Youtube--easier than I would have thought!)

We also watch Part 1 which is fun because you see and hear the rain starting to fall, and all the umbrellas opening. :) But Part 2 is by far the favorite.

Okay, I have a sewing project to complete.

An Apology

2008-07-24T07:20:00.000-05:00

I know my blog has been short on pictures lately. It seems that I am always missing either the camera or the USB cord. Well, I will be more diligent about trying to find the two so that I can post some pictures. Thanks for your patience. :)

Noah

2008-07-23T17:58:00.001-05:00

Noah's new word is "cookie." This afternoon, he spotted the chocolate cookies on the counter and said carefully, "Cookie?" then made the sign for "please." Of course I had to give him one! As soon as he had one in his hand, he pointed at the cookies again and said, "Bubba cookie?" (Bubba means brother.) Awwwww! So I gave him another cookie and he took it to his brother.

Noah has been very sweet lately about sharing things. If he has anything nice, he wants to make sure that Elijah has some too. So cute! He is being a good example for his big brother, who is not always so generous!

Noah lately has been a bit rough with his brother and with the little girls I watch. He will sometimes hit, or pull hair (I think he's just doing it to get a reaction, as he doesn't seem to be angry or upset when he does it). If they get upset, or if I rebuke him, he smiles sweetly at me and then gives his victim lots of little kisses to make it "all better." It's hard for me to be strict with him when he is so cute! Fortunately he is more gentle with the baby than with the older two--I guess he senses that she is more "fragile" (her big sister's word).

I am very much looking forward to visiting my family in August. We will be in Texas for nearly two weeks--our longest visit yet. And yes, we get to fly down again--thanks Mom!

Well, we are off to take a walk before it gets too late.

A typical day

2008-07-17T20:58:00.000-05:00

A typical day:
7:00a.--Noah wakes me by crawling out of his crib into my bed. I take him downstairs and have a bowl of cheerios, sharing a few bites with Noah. I brew a pot of coffee and do my hair (take it out of its braid, comb it, put it into a bun).
7:45--The girls I watch (K., 3 1/2, and A., 10 months) arrive. The older one is still in her p.j.s so I get her dressed for the day. Then I drink my coffee, supervise kiddos, and read the free newspaper that I found on my porch.
8:30--Elijah finally gets up and we eat breakfast--cinnamon raisin bagels, cream cheese, and o.j. After breakfast I find an old video of the BBC orchestra playing Beethoven's 5th, 1st and 2nd movements (our "piece of the week") on Youtube. The kids watch while I clean up the breakfast dishes. Then I give A. her breakfast and put her down for her nap. I do some more kitchen work, then read to/talk to/play with the remaining three for a while.
10:45--I have the kids pick up all the toys, put on shoes, use the bathroom, and we go outside. The big ones ride tricycles up and down the sidewalk, and Noah pushes a push toy. I water the plants on my front porch. Noah tries to escape a few times and giggles when I chase him. After a while we go back in (I couldn't take the heat, though the kids didn't seem to mind it).
12:00--I fix lunch. Peanut butter & strawberry jam sandwiches on whole wheat, and carrot sticks. We eat (carrot sticks first, to make sure they get eaten). By this time A. has woken up and joined us. After lunch I have the kids help clear the floor/move chairs, and I vacuum the main floor. The kids think vacuuming is very fun and exciting. We put on naptime diapers, read a story, and have a glass of milk. K., as she does every day lately, asks me to tell her where milk comes from. I say "from cows" just to tease her, but she says, "No, tell me the story," so I tell her the long version. I put K. down for her nap, feed A. her lunch, put Noah down for his nap, and put A. down for her nap.
1:30-3:30--a relaxing few hours with just Elijah to keep me company. I clean up from lunch, have another cup of coffee, check e-mail, etc.
3:30-4:00--K. gets up. Noah wakes up. A. wakes up. We read/talk/play/the usual.
4:45--the girls' mom picks them up. Once they leave, I cook dinner (chicken dijon, brown rice, green beans). We eat. Noah decides that he really likes green beans (has strongly disliked them until today). I have a cup of green tea. The boys drink the last drops (our tradition). Supervise kids--Noah in the evenings gets mildly fussy and needs a little more attention.
6:45--we get ready for a walk (shoes, hats, etc.) We are headed to a local rails-to-trails conversion. To get there we have to cut through a few parking lots, cross a busy street, cut through a couple more parking lots, go over a pedestrian bridge, and cross another busy street. Finally we are there. The trail is straight and level (as you would expect, seeing as it was once a railroad). It's well lined with trees, which keep it cool even on hot days. The sun is low in the west and slanting through the trees--very pretty. We go about a mile down the trail, and see runners, bikers, dogs, rabbits, and birds. Elijah collects handfuls of pebbles and tosses them into a creek, which Noah finds very funny. Now it's time to head home. We stop at Dairy Queen and wait in line, only to realize that they don't take debit cards. Fortunately, my bank is right down the street. I feel funny walking up to the drive-through ATM with a stroller, but I get over it. We go back to Dairy Queen and get ice cream (note to self: in the future, one small cup/cone/blizzard will be more than enough for all three of us). Then it's back through some parking lots, across the strip of grass, and home again. The sun is slipping behind the trees and it is now 9:00p.
9:20--the boys are changed and ready for bed. I take them upstairs to put them to sleep.
10:00--Noah is FINALLY asleep. I come downstairs, eat leftovers, and type this blog entry.

Well, that's a typical day in brief. I did leave out some things, like the diapers I changed--seven (yes, seven!!!) poopy diapers. And of course I mediated squabbles, supervised potty trips, nursed my little one, answered dozens of random questions, fielded phone calls, etc. etc. :) So...now it's past my bedtime and I still need to shower. If you have actually read all this, I am quite impressed. :)

Yes, I switched to cloth!

2008-07-10T07:33:00.001-05:00

In response to a comment on another blog...

Yes, I finally did make the switch to cloth diapers. I'm keeping it simple with Chinese prefolds (a few bleached and a few unbleached) and I fasten with Snappis. For now I'm using some Gerber vinyl pull-up covers and they actually work really well except that the vinyl rips too easily, so I think I'll try to find some Dappi nylon pull-ups. I do have one Thirsties wrap cover in blue which is sooooo cute, but it's much more expensive, and doesn't work any better than the pull-ups, so not worth the extra $$$ in my opinion.

All right, that's it--I would be happy to discuss further if any of you cloth-diapering fans have any comments or questions. :)

I love babies :)

2008-06-30T21:11:00.000-05:00

Usually I wake in the mornings when Noah climbs out of his crib and into my bed. Well the other morning I guess I was sleeping a little more soundly than usual, because I woke to find Noah's chubby little arms wrapped tightly around my neck. He was struggling with all his might to lift my head off the pillow. He was grunting with the effort, "Oooooof! Eeeeerrrrf!" It was so adorable that I will confess, I pretended I was still asleep, so that he would keep doing it. But when he got tired of trying to lift my head, and instead tried to stick a finger up my nose, I got up in a hurry. :D

Now for a happy post. :)

2008-06-26T22:03:00.000-05:00

Hi friends. I got tired of seeing the grouchy post at the top of the page whenever I would check for comments...so here's a happy one to replace it :)

My brother Jeshurun (college student in Texas, for those who don't know him) recently drove to Ontario to visit/work for a friend who has a farm up there. He tried to stop by my place for a visit on his way through Indiana, but was prevented due to the crazy flooding we had--he tried three different possible routes to get to Bloomington, but all three were flooded. So we didn't get to see him on his way up. But on his way back from Ontario, a couple of weeks later, he was able to stop here for a couple of days.

It's been nice to see him again. He's been busy both helping me with a project--installing ceiling fans--and working with pencil and graph paper to plan his next project. His next project is to help renovate a church building (his church will be purchasing a new building next week, and they are renovating a wing to house the pastor and his family). At the moment Jesh is working on the ceiling fan in my bedroom actually--so I won't be able to get to bed for a while I guess. Good excuse to brew some tea and eat more cookies...as if I haven't had enough caffeine and sugar today already. :)

After a few days of grouchiness about the state of my house, I have returned to my usual state of optimism. Yes, my basement smells musty, but thanks to the dehumidifier I found on Craigslist for a great price, the odor has greatly diminished, and the carpet is finally dry again. Yes, my dishwasher is malfunctioning, but I bet I can find a good one at a local used-appliance store, and they aren't all that difficult to replace (right??). Yes, I have a lot of unfinished projects around the house, and the unfinished trim in the living room/kitchen/entryway has been kind of bugging me, but I just discovered that I can run the miter saw in the basement at night without waking up the boys upstairs, so I bet I will be able to finish that project soon. Etc. etc.

Other nice things going on in my life: Noah has been the cutest thing lately. He is very affectionate and likes to laugh at things. I love hearing him laugh. I get the best laughs when I put lotion on his neck after his bath--he is very ticklish. Elijah is making good progress with potty training, and at random moments will tell me, "Mama? I love you most in the whole world." We've been enjoying Bryan Park and the farmer's market on a regular basis. And I have my sister's wedding to look forward to...and all of my plants look fantastic these days...and I have other nice things going on in my life too, but you get the idea. :)

Okay, I'm sleepy.

feeling overwhelmed

2008-06-16T21:08:00.001-05:00

Hello folks. I have a computer overnight so I suppose I should make use of this opportunity to update my blog.

The last few days I have been feeling a bit overwhelmed. My basement flooded a couple of weeks ago, on an afternoon in which we had some torrential downpours. Fortunately it wasn't too bad--I just had a soggy carpet, and it was limited to one room, and nothing was damaged. But it was a big hassle to clean up. I comforted myself by telling myself that the flooding was a fluke event, not likely to reoccur (I have seriously never seen a downpour like the one we had that day).

Well I had just succeeded in getting the carpet completely dry, when it flooded AGAIN! And we hadn't even had that much rain. Well two times in two weeks was just too much for that poor carpet, and now it smells, well, musty. To be more precise, it kind of stinks. Can you imagine how embarrassing this is? I don't even really know what to do about it.

I think I really need a dehumidifier. But they're expensive. I'm looking around for a used one, and perhaps I will rent one over the weekend as a temporary measure.

I wonder if sprinkling baking soda over the carpet would help? I have lots of baking soda. Anyway, besides the carpet, I am just feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the work that this place needs. (Did I mention that my dishwasher is also smelling rather unpleasant? I think it may not be draining properly. Oh, and it's leaking, too.)

I'm learning that I'm capable of doing a lot of repairs and upgrades myself, which is good because I don't have a lot of money to hire professionals to take care of things. The problem is, since I'm not a professional, it can take me a lot of time to get things right (see the post about my bathroom sink for an example of this). Unfortunately, I don't have much spare time.

Perhaps it would help if I used the spare time that I do have to work on things, instead of updating my blog. :)

On the bright side, my wonderful brother Jeshurun will be stopping by next week on his way back to Texas from Ontario. If he has time, he will be helping me install ceiling fans. I am very excited about the possibility of having ceiling fans. And perhaps he will even have time to help me with something else, like replacing my dishwasher. But even if he doesn't have time, it will be nice to see him again, since I don't get to see my family all that often. :)

Okay, I've wasted those precious hours between the boys' bedtime and mine, updating Facebook and my blog. I guess I'll go sprinkle baking soda on the carpet with a flour sifter--this will be kind of fun--and then I'm off to bed.

EDITED to remove some of the whining. :) I'm feeling better now because the HOA has done some repairs to the gutters and drainage systems that should prevent future flooding. Also, the baking soda did help.

Just so you know...

2008-06-03T20:09:00.000-05:00

...I am now computerless. :) I've been using a borrowed computer for the last...uh...six months? And it is now finally returning to its owner, so I will be without a computer until I find a new one of my own. I will still be checking e-mail a couple of times a week but I don't know if I'll have time to update my blog, so be forewarned, entries will be a bit sparse for a while. :)

I hope all who read this are doing well. Stay in touch!

new recipe

2008-06-02T14:23:00.000-05:00

I've often wished I could properly appreciate oatmeal, as I know it's such a healthy breakfast, and the kids really enjoy it. But I could never really get into it...too sticky and goopy and bland. WELL...finally the other day I tried this baked oatmeal recipe, and wow, it's great! I love that I can prepare it the night before, and just pop it into the oven in the morning for a hot breakfast.

1/2 cup applesauce, vegetable oil, or melted butter
1/2 cup sweetener (I used brown sugar)
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
3 cups regular oats

Blend all ingredients. Cover and refrigerate overnight. In the morning, sprinkle 1 tbsp of brown sugar on top, and bake at 350 for about 35 minutes or till firm in the middle. Serve hot. I like to eat it in a bowl, crumbled up a bit, with milk over it.

This recipe is highly adaptable. You can add raisins or chopped apples or dried cranberries, if you like that sort of thing. Or substitute canned pumpkin for the applesauce, and add extra pumpkin pie sorts of spices. Etc. etc. Enjoy!

May 28th

2008-05-28T18:25:00.001-05:00

I suppose I'm due for a post. There isn't much exciting going on here. The girls I watch were out of town for a week and a half, so the boys and I enjoyed our "time off." I got some organizing and cleaning done. I also completed my reusable bag made out of plastic grocery bags. It looks pretty neat. If I ever find the USB cord for the camera, I'll upload a picture.

Elijah has a cold and asthma again. He just went through this a couple of weeks ago. He is not at all himself, poor thing. The weather today is beautiful, though, so I loaded the boys in the double stroller and we went for a long walk. I stopped by the utility place and paid my water bill--saved myself a 41 cent stamp! Woo-hoo! When we got home, we had a picnic out in back of our place. The meal was not particularly exciting--tuna sandwiches to be precise--but it was nice to sit on a soft blanket in the cool evening, to watch the birds and the trees, and to spot the first clover blossoms scattered throughout the lawn.

I'm excited to hear of Mercy's engagement. I miss my family quite a bit, so it will be nice to travel to Texas for the wedding.

Hmm...well I suppose that's all for now. Oh, I've been learning recently that I have a few readers who have never commented (and thus I was not aware of their presence). So, hello, anonymous readers! *waves*

Racist Incidents Give Obama Campaigners Pause

2008-05-14T07:39:00.000-05:00

Sadly, I think most white Americans (at least the ones I know) are unaware that this kind of blatant racism is still alive and well in the United States. I have certainly witnessed more than I care to have witnessed, and it saddens me greatly to know that my children will most likely experience this kind of racism for themselves.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/12/AR2008051203014.html?sid=ST2008051301359

I think most of the racism my kids will encounter is the kind based in ignorance rather than malice, i.e. "You are such an articulate young man!" "So, do you play basketball?" "Hey bro, do you know where I can score some weed?" which is bad enough...but the odds are, they will also encounter the more malicious stuff at some point in their lives. I wish I knew how best to prepare them for it. :(

On a lighter note, I am out of coffee!!!! Aaaaahhhh! Must run to the store before the girls I watch arrive!!!!

The Story of Stuff

2008-05-12T13:53:00.000-05:00

I keep coming across recommendations for the little 20-minute video "The Story of Stuff" but I've never gotten around to watching it, till now. I just watched it and appreciated it enough that I thought I would recommend it here. Check it out:

www.thestoryofstuff.com

If you're not already on the same page as the creator of this video, Ms. Leonard, you might not like everything that she has to say, but it's worth a watch anyway. The most surprising tidbit, to me: only 1% of stuff purchased in the United States is still in use 6 months later. The rest has been consumed or trashed. Yikes!

The older I get, the more of an environmentalist I become (tho the seeds were sown by Mr. Blok, a science teacher from long ago). My latest "eco-nut" project--crocheting a re-usable shopping bag out of strips cut from disposable plastic shopping bags. I get such a kick out of knowing that I'm taking something disposable and petroleum-based, and turning it into something re-useable and not half bad-looking, either. I promise to post a picture when I get it finished--but it might be a while before it's done, because it will take like 50 bags to make it, and I only have a dozen in the house, so I'm collecting them from friends (trying to get all matching bags, LOL).

On a semi-related note, I've decided that my sewing projects from here on out will be made from recycled clothing. I have a chest full of denim cut from old jeans that is designated for rugs and quilts. Denim makes a very heavy and warm quilt, quite nice for cold Indiana winter nights, especially when the mama of the house keeps the temperature quite low (to save on both energy and $$$). If any of my Indiana readers (do I even have any?) have any old/holey/stained jeans to pass my way, I would be happy to recycle them into something useful. :D

Well, three of my children are asleep, and the other has been kidnapped (kidding, kidding) by his dad for a walk, so I should use this rare quiet moment to get some housework done.

Success with naps!

2008-04-28T21:25:00.000-05:00

Noah has switched from two naps to one, and naptimes are SO. MUCH. EASIER. He gets a bit grouchy late in the morning, but not intolerably so, and by the time I put him down after lunch, he is tired enough that he falls asleep straight away. No more spending half an hour or forty-five minutes trying to get him to sleep! Bedtimes have been easier too. He's started doing this thing where he grabs a handful of his shirt and tucks it right up underneath his chin. He seems to find it soothing for some reason. I've never seen another child do that. Anyway, it seems to help him go to sleep.

I made the mistake of trying to put Noah in the nursery at church a couple of times (new church, by the way!!! Yes, I finally switched), with the idea that I could then focus on teaching Elijah to sit through church. Well that was a bad idea, as Noah has now developed separation anxiety and cries the minute I set foot in the nursery. And he cries any time that I walk away and he can't see me. Well, not at home so much, but when we are elsewhere. When we're away from home, he just clings so tightly to me...which is really kind of cute, he's such a sweet little cuddlebug. :) So anyway, I guess I will have to teach Elijah to sit in church while at the same time holding Noah on my lap. This will be challenging. I am afraid that I won't get as much out of the sermons now, which is a shame because I have been enjoying them.

Oh, and Noah is now officially walking. He walks 90% of the time and crawls the other 10%--I can call that walking, right?

I have pictures to post but I'm sleepy. Maybe another time.

New Favorite Recipe

2008-04-28T16:50:00.001-05:00

I have a new favorite recipe...Honey Baked Lentils. Here goes:

1 cup lentils (I used brown but I hear red are better)
2 cups water
2 tbsp honey
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp ginger
1 clove garlic
1 small onion
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients. Bake in covered dish at 350 till tender (recipe says an hour and a half, but mine only took an hour--I might use more water next time).

Serve with either white or brown rice. YUMMY.

Two pictures

2008-04-14T16:28:00.000-05:00

I took two pictures today for the sole purpose of posting them here. :) First, here is the beautiful magnolia tree that I drive by every time I'm out and about. Springtime in Bloomington starts with the magnolias and the daffodils--but the redbuds and tulips are not far behind.

Mom tells me that in Texas, most of the magnolias are cone-shaped like a pine tree. That's not the case here at all.

And the second picture--this is a brand new neighborhood about 1/2 a mile from me. I think it's pretty. :) When we're out, Elijah will suggest, "Let's go look at the colorful houses." Each house on the street is a different color--one of my favorites is the one that is teal with chocolate trim (Mercy, I bet you would love it). They are all beautiful Craftsman-style homes with big front porches and gorgeous wood trim inside (I haven't been in, but I've seen pictures). And they all have cute little matching garages out back along the alley. :) Around the corner from this street, and part of the same development, is a row of traditional brick shopfronts--can't wait to see what stores will go in there.

But what itty-bitty yards!
You can click on both pics for ginormous close-ups. If you click on the magnolia picture, note the cute little seat that someone built around its trunk.

At long last...the story of my bathroom sink

2008-04-04T18:37:00.001-05:00

I'm getting ready to make chicken pot pie. Chicken pot pie tends to take me a while--seems like there are a lot of steps to the recipe. So I thought I would tell the story of my bathroom sink while I'm in between steps. For instance, I just emptied leftovers out of the big pot I want to use, and set it to soak for a minute. While it soaks, here I am. :)

When we bought this house (townhouse I should say), it had been a rental for a few years and felt a little dingy and run-down. There were a few little things around the house that had obviously been done by a do-it-yourself-er. Like the living room trim. Apparently someone attempted to "upgrade" to nicer trim, except that the stuff they put down as baseboards was actually door casing. And they apparently didn't own a miter saw, as all the ends were just blunt-cut and stuck together with gobs of silicone caulk. Yes, it was ugly. :) But hey, we got a really good deal on the place, and I knew I could fix all the little "issues."

The "guest bathroom" (half bath on the main level) was done in similar fashion. Someone had attempted to touch-up the paint, and as you may know, there is no such thing as a successful touch-up paint job. The color never matches right, and it always ends up looking, well, patched. Also, the wall-hung bathroom sink was sagging away from the wall a little bit. Someone had attempted to hide the gap between the sink and the wall with--you guessed it--gobs of silicone caulk. Yes, it was ugly. :)

[Scrubbed the pot and a few other dishes, put Noah back to sleep, realized chicken was still frozen & set it to defrost under running water] Well I started by cutting away all the caulk with a utility knife. Then I got out my largest wrench to undo the drainpipe under the sink. Well my largest wrench wasn't big enough, and the neighbors didn't have anything big enough either. A couple of weeks later--oh wait, I should explain. I didn't have a car at the time, so I was relying on borrowed transportation, and errands of any sort were hard to do. We do have a hardware store within walking distance, but it closes at 5:00 and I work till 4:45--not enough time to bundle up the boys, load them into the stroller & mei tai, and make it there before closing.

Anyway, a couple of weeks later, I finally made it to the hardware store and bought another wrench. Got home and what do you know, the new wrench wasn't big enough either. A couple of weeks later (as you can see, this story spans a long period of time), finally made it back to the hardware store and got a proper wrench. Took apart the drainpipe, disconnected water supply lines, got the sink off the wall.

Wall-hung sinks hang from a metal bracket that is screwed into the wall studs. Well this bracket was screwed in with just two screws, which was clearly not sufficient--it had holes for five screws. No wonder the sink was sagging. Oh, and the bracket also was not level. Well I didn't have any screws that would work, so of course this meant I needed to make another trip to the hardware store.

[Checked the chicken, disciplined my son] Well a couple of weeks later I finally made it back to the hardware store and got screws to match. I decided to rehang the bracket about two inches higher than it had been previously, because I thought a slightly higher sink might be nice. So I marked and drilled the holes and screwed in the bracket (which sounds simple, but in reality I ran into several more obstacles, for instance not knowing how to get the screws in, until I finally found a ratcheting socket wrench in the basement).

[Checked chicken again, set it to boil with herbs, showed Elijah that two pretzels plus three pretzels equals five pretzels] Well before I could actually rehang the sink, I needed to patch some damage to the drywall behind it. But I went ahead and set the sink on the bracket just so that I could admire how straight and level it would be. And when I did, lo and behold, the water supply lines and the drain pipe would no longer connect, because I had raised the sink two inches. Why, oh why, did I not think of such an obvious consequence? *sigh*

But I was not to be deterred. I re-drilled and re-hung the bracket at its original height. I patched and sanded the drywall behind the sink, primed and painted the trim, repainted the entire bathroom in a light neutral shade, and replaced an old towel rack with a more practically located towel ring. And I hung the sink again...but....

[Made a mad dash to the kitchen because the chicken was boiling over. Then leaped over several obstacles and halfway up the stairs to turn off the smoke alarm which of course went off. Then explained to Elijah the difference between steam and smoke] The water supply lines and drain pipe (I hope I'm using the proper terms for things here) still do not connect properly. This is because the sink, while at its original height, is now more level than it used to be. So while I can screw the connectors together, I get a little leaking when I actually run water. I think this is something that I can fix with some tugging and a little teflon tape, but given my history with this particular sink, I would not be surprised if more obstacles lie in store. :D

Well, that only took me an hour and a half! I thought it would be much longer! I'm not sure how many of you will find this interesting at all (perhaps Jeshurun will, though I'm sure he could have done the entire project in one afternoon), but now you know the story of my very challenging little project. And I must clarify, that I have enjoyed this project very much, in spite of all the roadblocks!

I would like to edit this post to death, but I know that would take ages, and I don't have ages, so it's going up as is.

A few very belated pictures

2008-04-04T17:44:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple more pictures from Texas. The first is just of Noah being his cute self. The story behind the second one...Mom ordered a dump truck load of sand/topsoil to fill in a soggy place in the back yard. Then a bunch of helpful young folks came over to help haul the dirt from the driveway (where it was delivered) to the back yard. This meant a lot of trips back and forth with the wheelbarrow. Caleb (doesn't he look spiffy for someone who is hauling dirt?) decided to put Elijah in the wheelbarrow too. Elijah was nervous at first (as in this picture) but soon warmed up to the idea.

Enjoy!