What a Day

Today was "one of those days." All morning D.L.F. was really whiny and into everything, which made it difficult to get ready to go. I have a friend who comes over every Wednesday morning and we take the kids to the park. Eventually, we were all dressed and ready, and we did have a good time at the park. But as soon as we got home, D.L.F. was crabby again. I fed him lunch and put him down for his nap. He woke up after only an hour (he usually sleeps for three) and couldn't get back to sleep, so I got him up and ready to go grocery shopping with me (T was at home, waiting for his friend to come over, so he stayed with Cupcake). A few minutes into our drive to the store, D.L.F. suddenly became very upset and started crying inconsolably. I asked him if something was wrong, and did he hurt himself? He said that his mouth hurt. I thought that he must have bit his tongue or something and he would be all right in a minute or two. But he kept crying and cried hard the entire time we were shopping (which I'm sure all the other shoppers appreciated). I was kind of flustered and couldn't think what to buy, but I grabbed a few things and tried to get out of there as fast as possible. I promised to give him a cracker when we got to the car. D.L.F. kept saying he was tired. I buckled him into his carseat and gave him a cracker, which he didn't eat. He kept crying all the way home.

I pulled into the parking lot, ready to just get inside, fix a quick dinner, and get D.L.F. to bed....but someone had double-parked a couple of feet into our (already narrow) assigned parking spot, and there were no visitor spaces open in the lot, so I drove back out to the street, and there were no spaces to park all down the street, either! I called T and explained my dilemma. He and his friend were just finishing up their meeting, so I ended up grabbing his friend's spot on the street as he pulled out. D.L.F. was extra-upset about driving around and around looking for a spot, so he was still crying hard as T lifted him out of his car seat...and then D.L.F. threw up all over. Fortunately, it hit the pavement, and not our car upholstery. But then everything started making more sense. T took D.L.F. inside, got him cleaned up, and let D.L.F. lay down in his tent, where he promptly fell asleep and is still sleeping almost two hours later. Maybe he'll sleep in there all night. I hope he feels better in the morning. Poor little guy.

My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter

This morning D.L.F. picked up a couple of tiny screws that were lying on the computer stand. He said, "Screw. And Jesus screw!" (There is a song called, "And Jesus Grew," based on Luke 2:52, on one of D.L.F.'s Bible memory CDs.)

I guess it's appropriate, considering Jesus' earthly occupation.

Two Great Deals

1. Check out Catherine's instructions on how to get 5.5 pounds of ground steak delivered to your door (in a cooler) for only $1.98--that's $.36/lb! I did it...my meat should be arriving in about a week!

UPDATE: The ground steak offer is no longer valid.

2. You can sign up at EMusic and download 35 songs for free. You can then cancel your subscription and you won't be charged anything, and you get to keep the 35 songs. I just downloaded a bunch of beautiful Christmas songs from The American Boychoir and some fun Pete Seeger folk songs.

Back Home

We got back yesterday from a fun weekend of camping with my parents. T and I and the kids stayed in a cabin (with heat, praise the Lord!), and my parents stayed in their trailer in the same campsite. There was a lake with lots of ducks and a playground. D.L.F. liked going for walks with "Westley Dog" (my parent's West Highland White Terrier) and tried very hard to exert some authority over Westley ("Westley Dog, get down!"), who ignored him. D.L.F. got to try his first marshmallow. He was not impressed and didn't like having sticky hands.

Sleeping in the cabin with the kids was a challenge. Two of the three nights there D.L.F. kept waking up every couple of hours and crying inconsolably at the top of his lungs for no real reason. Cupcake slept pretty well even with D.L.F.'s crying spells.

We all had a good time, but now we are all glad to be home.

Always Enough

When I was cleaning out the pantry yesterday, I found this poem I wrote for a class at Bible college in 2004 (don't ask me what it was doing in the pantry). T and I were engaged, the date of our wedding was fast approaching, T did not have a job, and we had no savings. So the story this poem is based on, found in I Kings 17:8-16, was especially significant at that time in our lives. The poem is far from a literary masterpiece, but I hope the message is encouraging.

Always Enough


In Zarephath, a widow lived, when drought and famine cursed the land
With heavy heart and downcast eyes, she gathered kindling in her hand
And sadly considered her son

They had enough for one more meal, but after that, the time would come
When either she must watch him die, or die herself and leave her son
Alone, all alone in the world

Approaching footsteps startled her; she looked and saw Elijah there
A leather belt around his waist, his garment made of camel hair
His weariness mirrored her own

"Please bring me water in a cup to quench my thirst," the prophet said
And as she turned to go, he called, "Please bring me back a bite of bread."
The widow replied in despair:

"I swear to you, I have no bread, and what I do have won't go far:
"A dash of oil in the jug, a little flour in the jar
"I tell you, there won't be enough"

"Don't be afraid," Elijah said, "First bake a little loaf for me
"And then prepare yourself some bread with flour and oil, and you will see
"That surely, there will be enough

"The God of Israel has said your jug and jar will yet contain
"The oil and the flour you need until the time the Lord sends rain
"To water the crops of the ground"

The widow baked Elijah's bread; as she obeyed, she realized
Her jar of flour was not used up; her jug of oil did not run dry
For days they continued to eat

And for the widow and her son, the Lord was faithful to provide
Thus God fulfilled His promised word: her daily bread was multiplied
And so there was always enough
With God, there is always enough

I Fought the Pantry and I Won!

So I've been meaning to organize my pantry since...uh...well, probably since we moved in a year-and-a-half ago. The main problem is that we buy a lot of spices and grains in bulk, and I have been just tossing them into the pantry, unlabeled and still in their plastic bags. The pantry was really, really, really a wreck.

But now (are you reading this, Mom?), everything is in jars or other containers and labeled! So, Mom, now if you come over and want to make spaghetti, you won't have to guess what's in all the mysterious baggies.

And it only took me seven hours (yes, it was that messy). I need to go put my feet up!

Wagon

Me: Oh, I see you are sitting in your wagon. What color is your wagon?

D.L.F.: It's red! And it is interesting and comfortable!

Stating the Obvious

The error message that always elicits a cynical "heh" from me after I've been waiting and waiting and waiting for a page to load:

"The server at _____.com is taking too long to respond."

Yeah. Tell me something I don't know.

Quotes from D.L.F.

D.L.F. has a pair of earmuffs that look like baseballs over each ear. He was playing with them the other day and called them headphones. I said, "Well, they are like headphones, but you can't hear music through them. They are only to keep your ears warm. They are called earmuffs." D.L.F. thought for a moment, and then said, "Not headphones...muffins!"

When he was washing his hands today at the kitchen sink, he saw the green loofah-ish thing I use to scrub pots and pans. He said, "It's a green flower!" I said, "No, that is my scrubby. It is for washing dishes." D.L.F. responded, "It's a green scrubby flower!"

Salad

I was just tearing up some lettuce and remembered something funny. Last January for our anniversary T and I stayed at a nice downtown hotel with its own restaurant. I think one dinner at the restaurant was included in the price of the hotel, otherwise, we probably wouldn't have ended up eating there. But anyway, I ordered a $10 side salad and was amused when it arrived to find that it consisted only of three whole romaine lettuce leaves, four croutons, and some white dressing. FANCY!

A Milestone

A friend of mine came over today and we took the kids to the park. While we were talking, D.L.F. climbed onto the play structure and went down the slide--all by himself! He seemed pretty pleased with himself and did it again several times before it was time to go home. He wore himself out and was very ready for his nap this afternoon!

A Pointless Post

So I left the house shortly after 6 this morning to go for my walk. I was simultaneously walking along the sidewalk, messing with my MP3 player, and evaluating traffic flow from both directions to see when I could cross the street. It was still pitch black outside. I paused, intending to cross the street after a few more cars passed, then looked up and saw a man standing there, probably waiting for a ride. I was so surprised that I jumped/gasped/snorted. He smiled (probably trying not to laugh out loud) and said (I hope) something like, "Sorry I scared you." Only I'm not really sure what he said because I was already listening to a program through my headphones. I mumbled, "That's all right," so I hope he didn't actually say, "Good morning" or something, because then what I said would have made no sense. Bah. I'll probably see the dude again, and he'll think of me as the girl who snorted.

A Change in Plans

Well, this weekend did not go as planned, but it turned out all right. It was our church's annual campout. T took Wednesday off work, and all that day we planned and shopped and ran errands and packed. Then we continued packing all day Thursday, and finally got out of the house, exhausted, around 4 (we had intended to leave at 1). We were the only ones able to make it for Thursday night; everyone else was going to come on Friday. The camp site was very shady and woodsy (as it should be...that's real camping to me--being out in the trees), so it was already cool when we got there, and the temperature just kept dropping after the sun went down. We bundled the kids up as warmly as we could, but they were freezing and miserable all night in the tent and woke up crying just about every hour. I was grumpy, too, because when they cried, I didn't really want to get out of my sleeping bag to change, feed, or comfort them, because I was so cold that my teeth were chattering and my toes were numb, and so tired that I couldn't think straight. It was awful. I count it among one of the hardest, most stressful days of my life. Finally, around 4 in the morning, we all piled into the car and cranked up the heat so we could thaw out. I vehemently declared that there was absolutely no way I was going to go through one more night like that, so we packed up the kids' and my things and T drove us back home. He helped us bring everything in, took a catnap, and then set out again for the campground.

It was actually good in a lot of ways that T was there by himself with the rest of the group. He was able to help others in ways he probably wouldn't have been able to if the kids and I had been there. He helped people set up and tear down and shared some of our blankets and other things.

I was so grateful to be home that taking care of the kids by myself for the rest of the weekend seemed like a breeze compared to what we had been through. We went to the library (twice!) and the park, read lots and lots of books, and D.L.F. watched a sign language video several times that we checked out from the library. I was able to spend some good time with the Lord, and I repented of my selfish attitude (still, we will think twice before going tent camping again in cold weather with small children!).

Just Having Fun

 

Cupcake has some johnny-jump-up skeelz. She's getting the bouncing part down and can whirl around to face you if you call her name.

 

D.L.F. often requests to "wrestle on the bed with pillows with Papa!" That's what's going on here.

 

Cupcake and D.L.F. chillin' in the tent.

Tutu

Last night T and I were talking about things that take up a lot of space in our (small) house, and I thought of my wedding dress slip/crinoline thingy. Only I didn't know what to call it (I still don't), so I said, "You know, my wedding dress...tutu."

T didn't miss a beat and said, "Honey, that thing is a three-three, at least!"

Yes, Son, Some Days It Will Feel Like That

D.L.F. and I were comparing the sizes of our hands. I told him, "Your hands will keep growing and growing and someday they will get bigger than Mama's hands. They will get as big as Papa's hands." D.L.F. appeared to be thinking this over, so I continued, "You will grow and grow and someday you will be a man like Papa. And you will have children of your own, and they will call you Papa. Won't that be nice when you are a papa and you have your own children?"

D.L.F. replied, "At the ZOO!"

A Random Quote

From D.L.F. this morning: "Open your mouth and say...how 'bout...MEOW!"

Portraits

I took Cupcake to get her first professional pictures taken today. She didn't fuss too much, but we didn't get a really good smile out of her, either. Still, we got a couple of cute poses where she's at least looking at the camera. I've been very pleased with a studio called Portrait Innovations. We've used them a couple of times now, and they do a great job, give you lots of different poses to choose from, have some nice props (like rocking chairs, etc.) to use, and seem to always have a special running where you can get 1 10x13, 2 8x10s, 4 5x7s, 4 3x5s, and 32 wallets, plus 6 portrait greeting cards, for $9.95. That's a really good deal, considering that they print the pictures immediately, so you can take them home right away. Of course, you have to sit through their spiel where they try to get you to purchase tons of additional photos and decorative options, but my experience has been that they're still nice about it even if you say you just want the special.

We have friends coming over for dinner tonight, so I'm off to cook and clean.

The Big 2-5, Or, I Hope My Children Inherit Their Father's Sense of Direction

So now I'm a quarter of a century old. T came home for lunch and brought me cashew chicken from my favorite Thai place, a cute card, a shiny rainbow-colored helium balloon which D.L.F. has claimed as his own, and a new watch.

BUT, before all that happened, I thought I would try taking the kids to a park that I had seen recently on one of my morning walks. We entered at one side of the park, had a good time playing on the toys, and then exited the other side of the park. I walked along at a good clip for a while until I saw a street sign and realized I was going in the wrong direction and was now over twenty blocks from home. By this time, I was completely turned around and didn't have any idea which way to go. I knew if I got to a major intersection, I could figure out where I was, but I didn't want to walk any farther in the wrong direction. So I did the only logical thing--picked up my cell phone and called T, hoping he could bail me out with Google Maps.

Me: Hi...ummm...are you in front of a computer?

T: No, why?

Me: Well...this is going to sound sort of silly, but I took the kids to a new park, and now I'm at (such-and-such street) and don't know which way to go.

T: Where's the sun?

Me: Um...I don't know. I guess it's kind of...up...and behind me.

T: Okay. Walk away from the sun and then take a right.

How does the man do it? His directions got me home without a hitch. However, now I know why I have never walked that direction with the double stroller (or any stroller, for that matter). 14 (bumpity, rumble, rumble, bump, ka-THUNK) of the 20+ blocks on the way home had no real sidewalks...just trampled down gravel and grass alongside the busy street. The vibrations actually put both kids to sleep, although I kept squeezing D.L.F.'s knee and telling him to wake up so he would still take his afternoon nap.

Three Things

I have been a little under the weather for the past couple of days, but I'm on the mend. I made chicken soup today, which seems to nourish both body and soul.

Cupcake rolled over from back to front yesterday for the first time and has been practicing that new skill a lot today.

Tomorrow is my 25th birthday.