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Kids are so fun

When the kids say something I want to remember, I try to write it down. So here’s a clearing of the white-board:

The girls are playing nicely together and Natasha turns to her sister.
N: You’re a great sister. I *love* you.
M: Yup.

~~~

We harvested from our garden Friday evening and Jay let the girls be the curriers. Melody came running in with a respectably-sized “Cuzinni,” eager to make bread.

~~~

The girls playing house:

M: Mom! [I’ve learned not to answer this call when they play this way]
N: I’m the baby.
M: Oh. Baby!
N: I can’t talk.

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Getting organized

I just wrote a very informative e-mail to my sister (her b-day was on the 5th), and decided to add it here, because I’m so excited about it all…
I’m seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. I think my house might actually be organized (as in, have a home for everything– at least for the girls) by the end of the week. To borrow Gma’s phrase, I can’t hardly stand it. It’s amazing. Every wall in the yellow room is coated with dressers and other furnature and storage units of varying types (If I had a habit of illustrating my blog posts I would include a pix of it.) I seriously could not buy one of those corner toy-keeper nets to help with storage b/c we do not have a single open corner in this house. That was an odd revelation…

We reassembled the crib and I began my digging away at the yellow room to get it against the far wall. It’s a floppy thing I only bought for the looks (I like light wood.) It replaced NJ’s dark crib when it was Melody’s, and has to be a against a wall to keep it from creaking w/ movement. It’s not in danger of collapsing or anything, just loud.

We moved Elisha’s Rubbermade into the crib last night to get him used to the new room, and in a couple more days I’ll make up the crib and we’ll pack away the Rubbermade. Feels *totally* different to have him out of the room.

I bought new fitted sheets today (that I was able to force the girls’ mattresses into), and now that we should be able to keep the beds from falling apart on a daily basis, I’m going to add bed-making (and putting away of pajamas) to the morning routine. My theory is that if we can hold the beds in order that’s half the room right there. Add the books to that and we’re soaring.

Part of the deal was, I think, finally finding a way to categorize their stuff, so I had an orderly way of putting it away. Now that it looks like we’ve got that I think corralling their stuff will be much easier. We’ll be down just to figuring out Jay’s and my stuff.

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They’re prolific speakers…

…But their pronunciation could use a little work.

The ones I can think of just now (can you guess all of these?):

Graham crappers (a snack)
Lellow (a color)
Mook bark (to save your place when you stop reading)

“Muddiddee! I’ve got popsilocks!” (Natasha trying to distribute frozen treats to the rest of the family.)

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Grandma’s house

Mom and Dad do plan to continue living there.

They moved-in back in October, and spent the next several months moving their stuff over, and finding ways to consolidate two households into one.

In May, Mom and Dad sold their house, and Gma’s place was officially their home. Now they are going through the steps of buying the house and making it theirs. An element of settling Gma’s estate is selling the house and dividing the price among the three children, so an appraiser came over last Monday and looked over the place.

The last time I spoke with Mom (Thursday) she still had no idea when he would get back to them. Then questioned whether he had the information necessary to do it.

Mom hopes the quote will come back low enough for them to buy out-of-pocket (from the sale of their last place) so that they have some money in the budget (i.e., not going toward house payments) to begin making the many improvements Dad says a house that old needs.

Jay said once (years ago when I was feeling nostalgic and not wanting to lose the house in the indeterminate future) that he never wanted to live in the place. There was the boxy shape, the old wiring and so on.

I asked Mom if Dad didn’t feel the same way, and she said they do plan to make some improvements, but the big shop out back makes up for a lot of the inconveniences of the house.

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She’s started running!

I never thought I’d be this excited about a toddler running. I guess I always thought they went together.

But for the longest time Natasha’s been a runner and Melody has… enjoyed the scenery. It was the most frustrating thing to try and walk alone with both of them. NJ ready to take off and run until the end of the world, and Melody m…e…a…n…d…e…r…i…n…g along.

If I asked her to run, she’d move her feet more quickly for a little bit, picking up her knees higher, but really not moving any faster.

Then on Sunday she just started to take off. We walked part of the way to Gma Florie’s house in the evening, and both girls ran for more than a block (that’s a long way for a body their size). Then they both ran all over the lawn while playing. And every day since then it has taken very little motivation to get and keep Melody moving.

She’s even starting to get a little “air” when she jumps, and that’s another first. I wonder if she just grew into “coordinated” all of a sudden and that’s why she can move in these new ways.

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Hand-washing

We have a whole routine now, and even Melody does a good enough job I don’t have to re-do hers.

We start with sleeves up and water in the sink. The girls get their hands wet and are alloted soap by a grown-up (many incidents have reinforced this is the way to go). Soap is placed out of reach if children are left alone to finish, most of the time now.

The girls rub as fast as they can, “to make bubbles” everywhere. Maybe when they’re older we’ll introduce a song for length, but this works for now. Then they rinse in the sink again.

There’s usually still bubbles on their hands, so they’ll often get a second rinse, but either way this system uses less water (by my uneducated calculations) and gets the girls doing their own washing up (formerly one of my least-favorite activities, for whatever reason). Both useful features.

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Power struggle

Jay and I had an… incident yesterday evening.

The short description was that we both wanted to be in-charge and not to back-down.

The irony of it all (and the point of this post) was that right before this all began we were reviewing our second Navigators verse, Galatians 2:20.

“I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

~~~

I pointed this out during our discussion of the incident, after the girls were asleep. Jay promptly began quoting, with the modification, “Part of me has been crucified with Christ…”

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Elisha’s first haircut

I just finished cutting Elisha’s long hair. All the brown came off and we now have a second little blondie.

Very different look at first. I hope we’ll hve pictures up this week (we’re a few months behind, I know). I really want to highlight the change ;o)

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We’ve found perfection– until we make it better

Do you like Wendy’s Frosties?

What about them do you like? The cold? The texture? The chocolate? (Grandma asked more than once if we could “talk to Dave” about making a vanilla Frosty. She didn’t like the chocolate so much).

But if you like choc, and have an ice cream maker, try out this recipe:

2 1/2 cups milk,
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar

Mix and dump into your maker of choice (ours is the kind with tumblers you put in the freezer, and only hold about a quart. We used to have the gallon-size kind you use with ice and rock salt, but we wore out two of those in, hmmm… 1, 1½ years. Seems they weren’t actually made for regular use).

Let it run until the ice cream is firm, and then just eat it (as opposed to letting it “ripen” in the freezer). Wonderful smooth texture, minimal work and wait and still no guilt about potentially poisoning your guests/friends/loved-ones.

Cook books emphasize the importance of cooking the eggs into a custard before using them in ice cream. This effectively doubles the prep time. No such thing as spontaneous ice cream there. And more dishes to wash. And I still have never managed a custard w/o scrambling the eggs.

This is much better.

I’m still playing with the ratios and whether or not to include vanilla, but I am eating this one right now and it is veeeeery good.

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Thank Yous

Tomorrow morning, I’m going planning to spend at least half an hour writing thank-you notes.

Would you believe I haven’t written any clear back through Christmas (of course you’d believe it– You haven’t seen any have you)?

*Sigh*

I hope you know I was (am) grateful. And more for you than what you actually give us.

That’s meant as a complement.

Anyway, I think I’m just going to have to write off Christmas with it being so long ago, and just try to jump back in with Baby stuff.

~~~

So here’s 3 1/2 months with three kids.

I’m finally getting into the swing of this. And if I can trust my memory at all, I’m doing better this adjustment than I was with shifting to two.

For example: After Melody was born, Grandma spent much of many days at my home with me. Grandpa had died two weeks before Melody was born, and I think she appreciated having something to do. Often she just held the baby (kept her happy) while I worked. But Melody was 3-months old before I cleaned the house on my own.

I remember this, b/c we had music practice that night and we were each asked to share a praise. That was mine: I’d finally gotten my house back, on my own.

This time I had a similar feeling before three-months, and less-frequent help. Though I have had help. Two different women have come over and washed my dishes and folded my baskets of wrinkly laundry.

The week before Grandma died, I woke up to my sloppy house and didn’t know whether to scream or cry. Of course I did neither. I called my mom so I could talk and figure out what to do.

Half the time I think it’s simply the process of talking that helps me figure out a solution, but she gives good advice too, and on her suggestion I called the two ladies who had offered their help. One came over that same day and the next. The other came over two days after Grandma died, and cleaned my kitchen and bathroom while I wrote the obituary (and told-off that political caller).

~~~

I am convinced that Elisha’s easy sleep personality was divine provision for the timing of Grandma’s departure. I think I would have been a much more anxious/disappointed person if I hadn’t been able to spend as much focused time with her as I did in the hospital. (I have a longer list in process I will eventually post, listing the many ways God provided during this time.)

I’ve said it many times when people ask me about Grandma’s death, but it’s the best description I have: It wasn’t good, but it was as good as it could have been; and I’m thankful for the way God brought all the details together. The great orchestrator…