Moses' List for Wednesday Morning, June 10th

Play with mommy a lot
Play with daddy a lot
Eat Cheerios with honey
Play with Gus
Make a new train track (we need a different switch first)
Have orange juice
Play with bubbles in the yard
Read books with mommy
Read the books from Mass that I didn't finish
Play baseball with daddy
Play the letter-game on the computer [ed. http://www.starfall.com/]
Say "gagaga" to Gus
Say "ba ba boo" to Gus
And play peekaboo with Gus
"Mommy, please write, 'Moses is very happy to see Vid at Len's Cabin. And also, Moses likes Len's Cabin"
Make towers with Thomas and he will knock them down.

You can take the Love out of Detroit but...

you can't take Detroit out of the Love


C'mon WINGS! Don't disappoint this little face!

Coxsackie, OUT!

We are very nearly done with this stinking hand, foot and mouth extravaganza. Moses is still on lots of ibuprofen (especially when his parents both administer a dose without informing the other one, oops) but he is eating a lot of oatmeal and tonight we had a major breakthrough for both kids.
PIZZA!
Non-pureed food - and look at those smiles :)! You can't see the lump in my throat but believe me, it's there. It's just so wonderful to see them finally not hungry and able to enjoy the food. Lily kept saying, "this cheese very good." And Moses, our non-food-loving child, ate three pieces of pizza before I had finished my one. Poor hungry dears.
Now that they are moving on from Coxsackie Gus and Lily both have colds and coughs, fresh new ones. Oh yea. But hey, at least they can eat!

Oh, and since we've been stuck at home we decided to potty-train Lily once she started to feel a little better. The first day we had no pee accidents but she pooped on her bed, in the toy room and, to my great chagrin, in the middle of the driveway. But today she made it through the whole day with no accidents and with her new princess panties on. Tomorrow we try pants. Wish us luck.

Time for Bed...

You know you need more sleep (and shouldn't have stayed up to listen to the Red Wings game online) when...
you head up to bed with a banana because you know you won't be able to go to sleep without eating something...
then you see your cell phone and remember to plug it it...
but you can't figure out for the life of you where to plug the cord in...
and you suddenly realize you are trying to plug it into the banana.
Good night.

Down for the Count

All three of the Lovelettes have Coxsackie (Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease). If you are not familiar with it, be grateful. It causes high fevers and very painful sores in the mouth. Poor Lily hasn't really eaten anything (a bite of popsicle or ice cream here or there) for 4 days now. The worst part is that she is SO hungry now that her fever's gone but the sores make it impossible for her to eat anything. It is so heartbreaking to watch her take a big bite of biscuit only to spit it out, grab her tongue crying that it "howts my tum!" Or to watch her get so excited about eating corn but then sob pitifully, "howts too much".

We have a toddler bed in the middle of the living room for whoever is feeling sickest at the moment and we are on a continuous drip of ibuprofen, tylenol, benedryl, malox and PBS. Gus is nearly over it - today seemed like a real turning point for him. As I mentioned, Lily has it the worst so far but I'm thinking she must be towards the end. Moses is at the beginning so his throat hurts but he can still eat some things (popsicles, pudding, yogurt, etc.) - his problem is that even with tylenol/ibuprofen his fever is nearly 103.

This whole thing is wiping us all out. David and I haven't slept for a couple weeks either because right before this we had some cold/ear infection episodes. And when they don't sleep don't nobody sleep.

Then there's the house. The other child. The child who is terribly dirty and uncontrollable. Even this kid keeps me up at night since our radiators clatter and clang every morning around 3:30 a.m.

All this to say that life is good. I'm grateful for a house of my own where I can let things fall apart without wondering if the evil landlady is going to stop by and question my sense of responsibility. I'm grateful for modern medicine, and since that's not working so great for us, I'm glad to know that this virus usually just lasts a week. I'm very grateful for a TV and really boring, old railroad movies that you couldn't pay me to watch but keep some happy. And I'm so, so, so grateful for the special surprise package that came in the mail today with gifts for me and my two sickest kids. Train puzzles, glittery red shoes, and the most gorgeous aprons that I've ever seen. SAVED.THE.DAY. And made us all feel loved. And sometimes when you are far away from the family and friends who would come and clean your house for you when all of your kids are sick getting an apron in the mail makes everything better. To quote one of our movie-friends from earlier today, "just a spoonful of sugar...".

Busting a Gut Under the Big Top

The circus came to our little town today. It made me feel like I'm living in a different century. The whole town heads down to the Big Top and watches the clowns, jugglers, elephants, trapeez-artists, tigers and eats peanuts. When you live in a town with 2,000 occupants the circus coming is a big deal. The town office, the bank and the hardware store all sell tickets for weeks ahead of time. There are posters in all the windows of "all" the shops (by which I mean several pizza places and hair salons). Apparently the circus visits us once a year, so this will be the first of many such exciting evenings.
Moses. Well. Moses. Four-year-old boys are made for circuses, that's all I'm sayin'. When God came up with "frogs and snails and puppy-dog tails" the concept of "circus" could not have been far from his mind. I can honestly say that I've never understood clowns until tonight. That is not to say that I knew how little I understood about clowns. I thought I appreciated their purpose and gave them due gratitude. Tonight I hardly watched the clowns at all because I could not take my eyes off the sight of Moses, generally so reserved in public, dissolving into contagious laughter every time one of those guys fell down or got hit on the head. The veins in his neck were popping out, at times he was screaming with laughs that were just too big for his body, and I definitely think I saw tears when that clown had water spraying out of his ears.
I'm sure that this was the best year EVER for the circus and Moses. We will go to many more circuses but he'll only be a four-year-old for this one. Thank God that He seems to be giving me an endless supply of four-year-old boys, that way the circus will never get old.

Beginning of the pictures

I am very slowly getting my head above water. Therefore I will start to post pics of our new digs! I will go room by room and will go slowly. There's just way to much for one post. Here's the front porch. I shouldn't really post the porch first since only one half is done. The other half has a porch swing that arrived broken 2 months ago and we are getting the part replaced finally but it's close enough. I will eventually post the updates when they are done. We haven't done much to the exterior yet, just planted a couple perennials and replaced the storm door. WHICH, by the way, is much more difficult then it sounds. But David and Glen are my heroes and so now I can enjoy screen weather with a proper screen door. Ah, the good life.
The first picture was about 3 months ago and the next two were a couple days ago.

Cup O' Joe

For weeks, probably months, I have been struggling to drink my morning coffee. This is a stage that I go through fairly regularly, as I'm sure all parents do. You get your coffee (or tea or Diet Coke, etc) and drink a sip or two then all hell breaks loose and a 1/2 hour later when you start to feel the magnetic pull of your bed you remember that you haven't had your coffee. But by this time your awareness of your 75,000+ to-do-list items are weighing heavily on you but you simply lack the energy to get started on them. This leaves you feeling demoralized and impotent - and it's only 8 a.m. All the while, deep down, you know that if you just drink your coffee and/or start to do the simplest things on your list your day will still get off to a good start. But here is the Great Dilemma: do you sit down for 10 minutes to drink the coffee or do you just start the list?
If you sit down with the coffee you run the following risks - a.) you will get distracted and lose motivation to face The List or much more likely, b.) one of your Progeny will require your attention and you will actually still not finish the coffee and still not start the list and at noon you will realize that it's now time for lunch (which you do NOT have the energy to get together) and you have a splitting headache from caffeine withdrawal.
On the other hand, if you just start the list you will a.) be miserable and tired while you do the tasks b.) get part way through the easiest task and then not be able to finish because you realize that your really, really need that coffee c.) abandon the task to drink the coffee and then we're back at the Progeny Problem, lunch time and the splitting headache.
So, today I came up with the solution. What I need is either a hat for beer with a straw or one of those runner's backpacks with the tube/straw. That way no matter what happens I can drink my liquid energy whether tackling The List or The Progeny. I'll be unstoppable.

my new favorite

There has been so, so, so much going on here that the old blog (or new blog?) is seriously falling to the way side. I promise to do a picture post of the new house but I still have some unpacking to do and pics to put up on the wall. In the meantime I thought that I would share with you my new favorite Moses story. This is a melt-your-heart story, for sure - if you're me anyway.

He came downstairs the other day after an unusually long nap.
Me: Hey buddy! Did you miss me while you were sleeping? I missed you!
Moses: Mommy, do you know why I was sleepin' for so long? So I could dream. About you.

Somebody loves me.

Stats

Stats on Gus Gus...
7.5 months
16 lbs
5 % (a squirt)
Scooter/crawler
Pacifier-aholic
Big Brother

Look out world. Demographics is power and by the looks of it Love Life will be a force to be reckoned with.

So, I lied. Of course the news is baby-related, who did you think we were? It seems time to bring out an oldie-but-goodie.

This blessed morning...

Guess what I am NOT doing this morning? I am NOT painting cabinet doors. After weeks of spending 1.5 - 2.5 hours every morning painting 6 (SIX!) coats of primer and paint on 20 cabinet doors I am now sitting in my kitchen typing on a computer, sipping coffee while sitting on my awesome window seat. Also, I am NOT staring at my tupperware and canned goods and cleaning supplies. I am staring at lovely white doors. Which, by the way, actually need one more coat of paint - seriously, this is ridiculous.
All I'm saying is that you don't know what you've got until you are living without it. We have a lot of crap in our kitchens. And the scary thing is that we haven't even moved all of kitchen stuff over yet. But staring at it all for weeks makes a person a little bit ashamed.
WhatEVER. I'm done with the most time-consuming, tedious job on the face of the planet! I would really recommend thinking twice about painting cabinets if you value your sanity and/or time. Either don't do it, or hire someone to do it or buy a paint sprayer and become proficient at using it. I will be putting up pictures of kitchen redo when I can get my head above water. So, be looking for them no later then December.

This is what I'm up against...

Lily turned two on Friday.
While I drank my coffee, held the baby and perused some of your lovely blogs this morning she made herself a breakfast in the kitchen.
1/4 bag of Cheetos and 1/4 bottle of Hershey's Strawberry Syrup - straight from the bottle.
Happy Birthday, darling-girl! It's going to be an exciting year!

*Sigh*

We're home. Life is good. Praise be to Jesus.

Quick Takes, been too long version

If you haven't noticed yet, I'm not the most consistent blogger out there. Sometimes there are too many posts and it's annoying to have to "catch up" and other times people are thinking, "just throw me a bone here. I faithfully check, the least you could do it throw a picture up!" Here's a bone, just for you. Even the dogs get the scraps, right?


This lack of consistency is due to my newly discovered Sanguine side. I have long thought that I was a Choleric-Melancholic. This has always nagged me for a couple reasons. 1. I really hated thinking of myself as a combination of the two most intense, least likable, least humorous temperament types. 2. I have always had a certain inconsistency and lack of follow-through that I felt was a disgrace to all Cholerics out there and it made me hang my head in shame when around other Cholerics. Plus, I like earth tones and have been known in the past to indulge in long flowy skirts and wear Birkenstocks. As a rule, I don't think Cholerics do that.
And now, I find out that in fact, I'm much more Sanguine then Melancholic - although Choleric is still dominant, as Choleric is wont to be. Now I feel free to actually like people and to get distracted and interested in other things besides my schedules and routines.
I am finding this new diagnosis really interesting because if there are two things about myself that I have never liked and would change in a heartbeat it would be 1. my intensity and bulldozer-ness and 2. my inconsistency and what I perceive to be a lack of faithfulness.
I am at WAR with myself. My Choleric driven-ness hates my Sanguine distractibility and my Sanguine people-person-ness hates my Choleric insensitivity.

P.S.
From Choleric Alia (aka Field marshal Alia, HT Kiersey): The whole buying a house thing is going perfectly. All the details are worked out, we have contractors ready to work on the kitchen, paint colors picked out and loads of furniture bought to fill out the new nooks and crannies of our FIRST HOUSE! And don't forget to spring forward.
From Sanguine Alia: Quote from Moses, "Lily's butt is like a dancing butt."

Ripple Effect

This is serious people. This is going to be haaarrrddd. The first unforseen casualty of this particular Lenten discipline has been the snooze button. Or should I say, the snooze husband. Usually David wakes me up in the morning after he's been up with the kids for a while. It generally takes him several attempts, and a good dose of frustration, to actually get me out of the bed. But today - no hesitation. That does not, unfortunately mean no grumbling or resistence.
Either way, I am already encountering areas of my life where hesitency and resistence to live the life that God has called me to has creeped in unnoticed, and it is clear to me that it will be hard to root it out. And it's only 6:30 am Ash Wednesday. Yikes.

Love Lent 2009

Keep it simple stupid.

This year I have decided to focus on the priorities that my vocation calls for and to simply try to meet them without hesitation. The last bit is italicized because therein lies the sacrifice. I will be focused in on doing things immediately, according to my hierarchy of priorities (you know, the Pierlot stuff - Prayer, Personal, Partner, Parenting and Providing). No more watching a rerun of Law and Order before doing the dishes. No more drinking my coffee slowly, allowing it to cut into my regular prayer time. And most especially, NO MORE putzing around on the internet instead of attending to my children. I am giving up the phrases, "just a minute", "in a bit", "a little later" and "JUST WAIT!" I am anticipating seeing a ripple effect through all aspects of my life and day. How often do I put off doing what needs to be done, and therefore put off doing God's will for my life? So that is Lent for me in 2009.

No hesitation - just abandonment to my vocation, and through that, to God.

Now pardon me while I sit like a slug on my couch watching TV and not doing the dishes or putting the laundry away on this Fat Tuesday.

Peek into my life

I just took a fabric softener dryer sheet and rubbed it on my clothes so that I could pretend that they are clean. And such is the state of my laundry and life. Just thought you'd like to know.

Why the light blogging?

This is the very good reason.

More on my paralyzing excitement about this in a future post.

Brainless Blogging

Photo Meme from Minnesota Mom
Here are the rules, then:

1. Choose the 4th folder where you store pictures on your computer.
2. Select the 4th picture in the folder, and post it on your blog.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag four people to do the same.
5. No cheating (cropping, editing, etc.)

Need I explain this? It's a Lily (circa Dec. 2007) in her natural habitat.

I'm tagging:
Favorite Aunt
The Mother Load
Rosemary
Lerin

Kid Glib

Get a load of that. I've been cracking up at this picture all day. I don't know what I like most, the look on her face, the gut or the pants she insisted on rolling up.

I should really post something deep and insightful soon (ha!). It's becoming a little glib around here but I thought that until I have a deep thought worth sharing that I'd just leave you with another Love-child moment - had this morning.

Daddy: Lily, do you want to be a stock-broker?
Lily: Uh huuuhhhhh.
Daddy: Do you want to be a lawyer?
Lily: Uh huuuuhhhhh.
Daddy: Do you want to be a doctor?
Lily: A gocter!
Daddy: Do you want to be a garbage man?
Lily: No!

I don't think that she'll reach any of her lofty goals with revealing pictures of her like this one floating around on the net. She and Michael Phelps - done in at such a young age by the candid camera. Better get used to the stench of garbage, darlin'.

While You Were Sleeping

More on Moses and the "train movie".
Moses: Mommy, you know the movie, "Peter gets pushed on the tracks"? Well, that lady, I don't remember her name, says that he married a Bumbo and Peter says, "Lucy's not a Bumbo."

Ahhh...the subtle difference between a

Bumbo.... and a..... Bimbo.

Pet Peeve

What is up with well-meaning people abusing the term Pro-life? Recent actual examples:
"What do you think of Pro-life?"
"Pro-life is so important."
"I need to do something about Pro-life."

"Pro-life" is an adjective people- possibly an adverb - but it is not a noun. There is no big Pro-life walking around out there. It is not a person, place or thing. It is a description of a set of ideas, beliefs, truths - a description. An adjective.

Phew. I just had to get that off my chest. It's been bothering me for about 8 months.

The Curse

And so it starts. Last night I couldn't fall or stay asleep until about 7 am, when it was time to be out of bed. What was I thinking about?
Curriculum, unit studies, my own lack of wide/varied experience, limited educational options for my children, limited social options for my kids, the homemakers role as an educator, my own personal energy levels.
And so it starts. The question is, where does it end?
And he's only 4.

Small Successes

1. I stayed awake all day. If you knew what my night was like last night then you would know why this is a success.
2. I made soup for dinner for a crowd of college students by 10:30 a.m. They did not come and we did not eat it, but I was ready. Now I've got a LOT of Chicken and Wild Rice soup on my hands.
3. And this is not so much a small success as a large success, as far as I am concerned, but it bears mentioning - we all went to the March for Life in D.C. today. All 3 little kiddos and David and I. We drove 45 min. to the metro and then rode the train in for an hour (could I give Moses a better gift?). It took us many moons to make it home and I am thoroughly exhausted but I'm proud of us. We also got to see my brother who came down from his college to participate and spend time with wonderful friends.
5. My very dear friend had a great job interview today. More her success then mine but hey - I was praying for her.
4. I emailed 4 people today and wrote this blog post. I've been electronically responsible.

Good stuff.
As Danielle puts it "It’s important for moms to recognize that all the small successes in our days can add up to one big triumph." So you can visit her every Thursday at Faith and Family to participate in the triumphs.

Inauguration thoughts (I promise to be brief)

Having come from a homeschooling family where everything is a "teaching moment", especially moments like the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, or Clinton's inauguration, or the Olympics, I couldn't in good conscience ignore the news yesterday. So I called Moses - the oldest, age four - and began to explain to him in a haphazard way why what we were watching was important. To begin with the positive, I said that this was the first black man ever elected as president (you know, the important man who tells everyone what to do). This is a big deal, I said, because all of the other presidents have been white.
Suddenly I realized that my "positive" was introducing my son to a very negative concept - that skin color matters. If we have any chance at being a "post-racial" country then I think that we need to protect our children from this "historical moment" - just let them think that it's perfectly normal and expected that a black man can rise to the highest office in the country.
Not to mention that then I had to, much to my own sadness, explain why we can not be perfectly happy with this particular man - black, white or blue. I certainly did not give the 4-year-old details but it broke my heart a little bit to have to begin to introduce to him the concepts of hate and selfishness that run so deep in the human heart - through both racism and abortion.
Now it's off the the March for Life. And so begins Moses' introduction to "the morally defining issue of his generation," as my father puts it. Race defined the moral-battle for the country two generations ago and yesterday we witnessed a major victory in that battle - now the battle ground lies in the protection of the unborn. God bless America.

Fly on the Wall

Moses is trying to put a puzzle together and I'm on the computer, definitely NOT listening at all - just answering in the affirmative to everything (which by the way is a sure-fire way to end up with kids eating cupcakes around 8:30 am).
Moses: Mommy, does this piece go here?
Mommy: Um. Yeah, sure.
Moses: (trying to fit the piece in) Oh, that's NONSENSE.

Moses' comment about this picture of Lily (circa 3 months):
"Who is that fat, crazy guy?"



Moses: I think we should have LOTS of kids in Bumbo seats.
Mommy: Oh yeah, what about 5 kids or 7 kids?!
Moses: Well...how about twelve kids? Or 40 kids?!

Moses: Sometimes I pray to God at night. I ask Him to make the Polar Express crash into our house and make me a conductor when I'm older. Can He do that?

Over the Hill

What can I say about my main squeeze? Seriously.
The words are failing me right now. There's just too much to say on this particular birthday so I'll have to post something later or just confine it to a greeting card for the sake of keeping the mush-factor on this blog low.
Either way:
HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY, LOVE!

Happy 4-months, Gus Gus!!!

Ski baby, ski (*updated*)

I ski. I'm a skier (said nonchalantly, with a head-toss).
I skied the bunny hill 3 times. The next green hill 3 times and then the big green run from the top of the mountain to the bottom 2 times and one short blue run twice.
Bo and I skied the bunny hill twice and the next green hill twice together. Bo is my new ski friend.
I was really nervous about going for the first time because it's been years since I was "a skier" and I'd be alone since no one else around can/wants to be a skier. But after the first terrifying ride up the chair lift by myself (up the BUNNY HILL) where I practiced my deep breathing, God sent along Bo. Who showed me the bar that you can put down on the lift, reminded me of a technique to make better right-hand turns and explained to me how to get up after a fall (it's amazing how easy it is to forget these things. Skiing is not like riding a bike, that's what). What would I do without Bo?
So Bo and I rode the chairlift and talked about all manner of deep things. Luckily for David, Bo is 12.
I will be making use of my new pass again tonight. Oh joy! I need to think of something to do on the ski lift by myself though, it does get a little tedious. I've already thought of a Rosary, David suggested menu planning (mostly joking?), any other ideas?

Update: "Wintry Mix"= no skiing=taking down the Christmas tree instead=breaking the vacuum cleaner.

My Normal

(Sung to the tune of "If you happy and you know it")


There's a hotdog in my coffee, don't-cha-know?
There's a hotdog in my coffee, don't-cha-know?
There's a hotdog in my coffee,
Why doesn't this surprise me?
There's a hotdog in my coffee, don't-cha-know?