Friday, November 11, 2011

Ye Olde Facebook Statuses

Eliza: "Mom, I need you to give me a big hug, because sometimes I get a little fussy if I don't get a hug."

Eliza just stumbled into the living room all bleary-eyed, proclaiming she wants to stay up, "...because we didn't even do school yet." But alas, school with a half-asleep four year old at 11:45 on a Saturday night was not on my agenda, so she was tucked back into bed.

This morning while doing errands the sky was very cloudy, but there were a few holes revealing a very vibrant blue sky, or as Eliza put it "Look Theia! Some of the clouds are showing the sky to us!"

Sometimes I hear myself talking to my kids, and I sound so... old

Ingrid (in an accusatory tone): "Mom! Emeth kissed me and hugged me! And then...and then...and then he pulled my hair!! And that wasn't very nice!"

 It's hard to concentrate on learning your letters when your little brother is trying to use your toesies as a teether. Poor Eliza.

(After catching Ingrid in the act of dunking her doll in my coffee cup) "Ingrid! Do NOT touch my coffee! - Ingrid: "I wasn't touching your coffee, Cinderella was touching it!"

"Eliza, it's time to stop talking and go to sleep." - (desperately) "But I didn't tell you enough things yet!"

Even though it's annoying, I still find it irresistibly cute when Emeth immediately dives under Ingrid's chair, searching for leftovers, the minute I put him on the floor after a meal. His manner is so intense, he is after the prize! I usually have to clean him up twice.

Eliza, picking up a garage sale item: "Ew, that bag smells yuck! That bag smells like a man!"

I just had one of those halo-ringed moments of parenthood where I happened to glance out the window and was completely arrested by the fact that the most adorable children in the world were out there, laughing and swinging on swings, in my backyard. I'm so blessed.

Eliza's first celebrity crush: "I wish I could marry Buzz." Yes, that would be Buzz Lightyear.

Pretty sure the bite marks on my shoulder will still be there by tomorrow, and Emeth's ears might still be ringing with my primal shriek.

Theia: "I think these pants are too small for me. They're giving me a pant rash."

Sometime I should record about 5 minutes of my daughter's make-believe play and write a fantasy adventure based on it. 5 minutes contain enough plot twists to fill a 2 hour movie.

After helping me with dishes for awhile Theia tells me "Mommy, you do such a good job of cleaning, I think I'm going to let you finish up here." I think I'm supposed to feel flattered.

I am having second thoughts about escorting my sister-in-law around the town. I may have four children, but the seventeen year old is not my daughter, thankyouverymuch miss hairdresser.

"Ingrid, are those panties clean?" - "Um, dey're a *little bit* clean."

Well, the morning started well, but I could have done without the episode that necessitated stripping the crib, sterilizing the bars, and giving the 9 month old a full bath, all before breakfast.

Emeth has discovered that standing up and clapping his hands gets him a lot of positive attention. I love it.

Eliza, at the dinner table: "Mom,  can we get another chicken that's dead and has it's head cut off?"
After that description, I'm not so sure I will want to get another whole fryer chicken anytime soon. Sheesh!

Few things make me feel more maternal than walking through the house at 6am, making sure all my sleeping children are properly covered.

Theia: "Mom, did you know that orphans can jump even higher out of the water than dolphins?"

I think Emeth is under the impression that I sweep all the food scraps into a pile in the middle of the kitchen floor solely for his personal convenience. *sigh*

Theia wanted to go see her little neighbor friend this morning. I explained that we couldn't, because her Mommy went back to work this week, and now she's in day care. Theia's response: "She goes to day care?! She's probably just playing with washed-up old toys who have no owners."
Can you tell what movie she watched last night?

After this day, I think it's pretty safe to say that Emeth is officially walking. (Oct. 22, 10 1/2 months old)

My kids are entirely too capable of making messes that only I am capable of cleaning up properly.

Typing has become a lot more difficult ever since Emeth ripped half the keys off my keyboard.

Would someone please tell the almost 11-month old that he is too young to be opening doors...

If only we could figure out a way for daylight savings time to benefit parents of small children.

I'm thinking about moving all of Emeth's toys into my kitchen cupboards, and all of my mixing bowls, food storage containers, and food prep gadgets into Emeth's toy box. I think that may be an arrangement more suitable for both of us.

Theia: "Mom, can you change Emeth's diaper? He smells like macaroni and cheese!" I'm not sure whose macaroni and cheese she is referring to, but I guarantee you, mine smells considerably better than Emeth does right now.

While my niece, Sydney, helps me organize her playroom, I ask her a question about a particular toy. She replies "That goes to my Rapunzel - No! Not that Rapunzel! My NAKED Rapunzel!"

Monday, October 24, 2011

Stuff I Made

These are some simple projects I did last week for two different birthday parties we went to on Saturday.

Frontier Vest

Apron with matching potholders

I didn't take the time to set them up for a pretty photo-shoot, so cell phone mediocrity is all I have to show you. They were both great projects for a novice sewer like myself to tackle. It's nice to make something for the 5 and under crowd, since they don't care if there's a dropped stitch or two. Especially when it's only meant for dress-up purposes.

I got the vest instructions HERE, and I modified a couple of different ideas from the same site for the apron and potholders. The apron and potholders are made from a thrifted set of placemats. I plan on making similar ones for our girls sometime.

I've been pretty busy otherwise, hence the absence from blogging.

Thursday, September 29, 2011

It's a family thing

One of the greatest highlights of our trip was the almost daily riding that took place. Jessie's little sister, Joy, has two horses. She bought Misty several years ago, and discovered months later that Misty was with foal! What a deal - two for the price of one! Actually, it took Mom a little longer to be excited about that than it did Joy :). So now Joy has her hands full with training a headstrong two year old colt. We only rode Misty. Destiny, or "Buddy" as he is more often called, still has too much attitude to be a safe riding horse. But Joy is doing a great job with him.

Anyone who knew Jessie before we got married knows that horses were his all-consuming passion. He trained horses semi-professionally, and he regularly participated in competitive team penning (which he is very good at). If you told him then that less than 8 years later he would live in a big city, own no horses, and sometimes go for stretches of more than a year without even sitting on a horse, he would have laughed in your face.

Things weren't supposed to work out that way, but like most young people who are in love, we didn't really look very far down the road in regards to some things. When we got married he still owned the best horse he'd ever had, and I had bought a horse of my own in the hopes of becoming a better rider and sharing in his hobby. We were renting a little house in a smallish town that was on 14 acres of land, and our landlord assured us that it would be absolutely fine to keep our horses there. We had not been there a week before a tersely smiling county employee showed up on our porch and told us that although the land across the road was zoned agricultural, ours was not. We had 24 hours to move the horses.

Well, life happened fast, and after a series of temporary horse-housing solutions over the next 18 months, a pregnancy, a baby, a job change, a move to the suburbs, and another pregnancy, our options and priorities shifted so much that we felt we needed to sell Jessie's horse (My horse was old, and he had developed a health problem that had required his euthanization some months before). That was a tough day. Jessie had adopted a very pragmatic attitude towards the whole situation, but I knew he really hated to see his buddy go.

Someday I hope we can have horses again, or at least be involved with horses regularly in some way, but for now it is just a joy to see him combining his old passion with his newer, greater passion whenever he has the opportunity. And our kids love it, from the tallest to the smallest.


I feel much more comfortable riding now than I used to when we were dating. I wasn't afraid of falling off, just of looking stupid in front of Jessie. The comfort now is that after being married to me for six years, he's pretty much seen the full extent of my stupidity, and I can't hardly look stupider at this point.



Theia asked to ride every day, and when she did, she couldn't stop laughing. She was also very interested in relating to the horses in their pasture. Always the bossy big sister, she made it her personal mission to reprimand Buddy every time he put his hoof on the gate.



Eliza didn't want to go fast at first, but after she realized how much more fun it was than trotting, she was all about it.



Ingrid is another giggler. I could hear her gales of laughter from across the field.


And Emeth was just as delighted as he could be. He thought it was pretty cool stuff just sitting up there, but when they took off, he was in 9 month old heaven.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Cue "Man From Snowy River" music

I'm afraid that if I narrated these pictures, more than one person would be embarrassed, so I'll just let them speak for themselves.











He's pretty much a stud.




Friday, September 23, 2011

The Swing

I could sit on this swing for hours.
And this week I think I have.


Of course, its the best when you have a joiner.


 Eliza shares my love of swinging.


 It has been a wonderfully rejuvenating week.
Tomorrow we go home,
but certainly not before we take one last swing.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

target practice

Theia is absolutely loving this vacation out in the hollers of Pennsylvania with Grandpa, Grandma, and Aunt Joy. She is spending most of the days out of doors, and is particularly enamored of Aunt Joy's horses. But earlier today she showed that she is still very much a city girl. She asked Joy about some gunshots she was hearing. Aunt Joy explained that it was just some people shooting at a target. She accepted that answer, but a few minutes later, after hearing the shooting continue, she commented "That must be a pretty big store!"

That's my little shopper.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

in his glory

















With two horses, and one a 2-year old colt only partially broken,
We might not see Jessie outside of the round pen much this week.

Monday, September 19, 2011

Vacation Day 1

After being long overdue for a vacation,
we chose a place where we could spend our unhurried days doing relaxing things like

swinging on a rope swing

feeding livestock


"driving" tractors




jumping on the trampoline


 and most importantly,
getting lots of hugs from grandparents.

Just Perfect.