Thursday, May 28, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Mr. Mom: Day 1
Well, RP is out of town for a few days and our kids, their hygiene, and my sanity all hang in the balance. I'm pretty sure I can handle it. By "it" I mean of course survival. Maybe that's just being dramatic. I mean, we've played this game before, and I think it turned out pretty well!
We started off the Mom-Free weekend with Pizza Night (the best night of the week). Since RP wasn't around, I could finally make that Thai Chicken Pizza I've been craving . And since the kids won't eat anything but Cheese and Pepperoni, I had the whole thing to myself. Having the whole thing to myself turned out to be a bad idea. But I wouldn't learn that lesson until 24 hours later. Think I'll use a little less red pepper flakes next time.
Sunday morning was great. By assuming parental responsibilities, I was able to skip early morning Sunday meetings. This was probably one of the best trade-offs ever. I would much rather be a Mom on Sunday morning than a Dad in the bishopric. At least at our house. At least until 8:30 AM. That's when I woke up to the one of the kids laughing mischievously, and another one screaming. This is NEVER a good sign. The same pattern repeated all morning, so I concluded that it probably comes out about even between Mom's and Dad's on Sunday morning at our house. By "even", I mean I really don't have anything to complain about, do I?
On the "Don't Forget" list I got from RP, there was ONE thing I needed to remember to do today (besides give B his medicine. I'm only batting 0.500 on that one). Just ONE thing! I had to bring the snack for the kids in Nursery at Church today. To help me remember this, I strategically placed the oversized snack bucket filled with Graham Crackers RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR. My plan was foolproof. When we tried to walk out the front door, at least ONE of us would trip over it. Right?
My plan didn't work. There's actually a good chance that I DID trip over it. But in the chaos of ushering 3 reluctant kids out the door, I probably just muttered a bad word under my breath (like "oh crud!") at the inconvenience and hurried out the door without giving it a second thought. Of course, it wasn't until we got all the way to Church (a 15 minute ride) and started unloading the kids when I realized what I had (not) done. And we would have actually been there ON TIME! I loaded the kids BACK into the car for the 30 minute round trip home - to pick up the snack - and back. The lull of the moving car was too much for C and he fell asleep about halfway back to Church. That actually turned out to be a GREAT thing though, because a sleeping 2 year old is WAY easier to handle than a tired-and-awake 2 year old!
After Church, I managed to enlist the kids to help make dinner. Since Sunday is a special day, we kept up the tradition of having a "nice" dinner. To avoid the inevitable "this is disgusting!" theatrics at our house, I settled on Grilled Cheese Sandwiches ("on the stove" grilled) and Chicken Noodle Soup (code for Ramen Noodles). To give our meal a fancy flair, we pulled out the nice dishes and a table cloth. Here are the pictures. Are you oo-ing and aah-ing now or what?
You'll notice B doing one of his favorite things: Pretending his brother is a Pillow. When C is old enough to sock him in the nose for doing things like this, I'll secretly be so proud.
We ended the night talking to RP and playing a nice game of Life. To really get a feel for how relaxing this actually was, remember that the original Game of Life has lots of little game pieces and some of them are shaped like cars. C, (1)has NO IDEA how to play this game, (2) is two years old (3)LOVES cars, and (4)screams when he doesn't get his way. Believe it or not, we actaully finished the game. K won by a landslide. By that time EVERYONE was ready for bed. What a great day :) But we ALL miss Mom!
We started off the Mom-Free weekend with Pizza Night (the best night of the week). Since RP wasn't around, I could finally make that Thai Chicken Pizza I've been craving . And since the kids won't eat anything but Cheese and Pepperoni, I had the whole thing to myself. Having the whole thing to myself turned out to be a bad idea. But I wouldn't learn that lesson until 24 hours later. Think I'll use a little less red pepper flakes next time.
Sunday morning was great. By assuming parental responsibilities, I was able to skip early morning Sunday meetings. This was probably one of the best trade-offs ever. I would much rather be a Mom on Sunday morning than a Dad in the bishopric. At least at our house. At least until 8:30 AM. That's when I woke up to the one of the kids laughing mischievously, and another one screaming. This is NEVER a good sign. The same pattern repeated all morning, so I concluded that it probably comes out about even between Mom's and Dad's on Sunday morning at our house. By "even", I mean I really don't have anything to complain about, do I?
On the "Don't Forget" list I got from RP, there was ONE thing I needed to remember to do today (besides give B his medicine. I'm only batting 0.500 on that one). Just ONE thing! I had to bring the snack for the kids in Nursery at Church today. To help me remember this, I strategically placed the oversized snack bucket filled with Graham Crackers RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE DOOR. My plan was foolproof. When we tried to walk out the front door, at least ONE of us would trip over it. Right?
My plan didn't work. There's actually a good chance that I DID trip over it. But in the chaos of ushering 3 reluctant kids out the door, I probably just muttered a bad word under my breath (like "oh crud!") at the inconvenience and hurried out the door without giving it a second thought. Of course, it wasn't until we got all the way to Church (a 15 minute ride) and started unloading the kids when I realized what I had (not) done. And we would have actually been there ON TIME! I loaded the kids BACK into the car for the 30 minute round trip home - to pick up the snack - and back. The lull of the moving car was too much for C and he fell asleep about halfway back to Church. That actually turned out to be a GREAT thing though, because a sleeping 2 year old is WAY easier to handle than a tired-and-awake 2 year old!
After Church, I managed to enlist the kids to help make dinner. Since Sunday is a special day, we kept up the tradition of having a "nice" dinner. To avoid the inevitable "this is disgusting!" theatrics at our house, I settled on Grilled Cheese Sandwiches ("on the stove" grilled) and Chicken Noodle Soup (code for Ramen Noodles). To give our meal a fancy flair, we pulled out the nice dishes and a table cloth. Here are the pictures. Are you oo-ing and aah-ing now or what?
You'll notice B doing one of his favorite things: Pretending his brother is a Pillow. When C is old enough to sock him in the nose for doing things like this, I'll secretly be so proud.We ended the night talking to RP and playing a nice game of Life. To really get a feel for how relaxing this actually was, remember that the original Game of Life has lots of little game pieces and some of them are shaped like cars. C, (1)has NO IDEA how to play this game, (2) is two years old (3)LOVES cars, and (4)screams when he doesn't get his way. Believe it or not, we actaully finished the game. K won by a landslide. By that time EVERYONE was ready for bed. What a great day :) But we ALL miss Mom!
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Happiness
Want to know what has been making me so happy this week?
1. The leaves on the tree outside my front window are finally starting to grow!
2. Wearing my flip flops everyday!
3. Watching my garden grow.
4. Running outside in beautiful weather pushing an almost 30-pound kid!
5. Talking to Fred, our friendly neighborhood crossing guard.
6. Finishing a Mother's Day project at school.
7. Finally soakin up some sun on my don't-look-without-sunglasses legs!
8. Playing basketball outside with my kids.
9. Watching Caleb master his scooter.
10. Having lunch with Wally outside one day and not being cold.
and
11. Not cleaning my house because it was too nice to be stuck inside!
*Is there anything in your life that is making you happy right now?
Please share!
Have a happy weekend--especially to all those special mom's out there!
1. The leaves on the tree outside my front window are finally starting to grow!
2. Wearing my flip flops everyday!
3. Watching my garden grow.
4. Running outside in beautiful weather pushing an almost 30-pound kid!
5. Talking to Fred, our friendly neighborhood crossing guard.
6. Finishing a Mother's Day project at school.
7. Finally soakin up some sun on my don't-look-without-sunglasses legs!
8. Playing basketball outside with my kids.
9. Watching Caleb master his scooter.
10. Having lunch with Wally outside one day and not being cold.
and
11. Not cleaning my house because it was too nice to be stuck inside!
*Is there anything in your life that is making you happy right now?
Please share!
Have a happy weekend--especially to all those special mom's out there!
Friday, May 08, 2009
Spring
Here is my latest quilting project. I've actually been done with it for about a week, and am just getting around to posting a picture of it. It's my spring quilt for my front entryway. I have always done simple patterns with squares, but was feeling a little daring this time. I really like how it turned out and I love the pinwheel for spring. Remember all the pinwheels you used to make in school? So fun.
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Curious?
Have you ever been curious enough to know what Wally does for a living? Check out this video:
This is a lot of the work that he did while at Penn State. It's a lot easier to understand it this way if you're confused by anything past neutron and electron-talk like I am.
This is a lot of the work that he did while at Penn State. It's a lot easier to understand it this way if you're confused by anything past neutron and electron-talk like I am.
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