AJ, Sporting Green

I have a friend who blesses us with clothes for Solomon when her boys outgrow them. She recently gave me a bag in which I found these cool sunglasses. Her little guy must have accidentally thrown them in.

AJ found them on the counter and decided to wear them as she was playing waitress at lunchtime. Is it the hair or why do I see my sisters during the 70"s??

Be Nice, You Two

Nathan and Franchesca were goofing around on his birthday, she was singing Happy Birthday in her opera voice and generally bugging him; throwing things in his hair repeatedly after he had asked her to stop. Being a boy, he resorted to physical dominance to try to subdue his (perceived) attacker.

I was huddled UP on the hearth, in front of the fire trying to generate some heat. (See future blog for advise from teenage son on this topic). I had been playing with my camera, deleting pics and pretending to shoot a few for "technical reasons". I was recording them the entire time. I got a few shots of them in the midst of the struggle for control. It was super funny to see him get her hands tied and make her promice to stop just to watch her throw more decor into his hair and the battle resume. Frequently, she will be injured from this sort of play. She always returns. They are only 20 months apart and have always been really good friends.

OOOOOKAY...?

Keeping up with this house is an ongoing, never ending series of little tasks, that when done consistantly, will keep the officials from condeming it. Nothing formal although I've researched lots of ideas and tried several official "systems". One thing that I have to do is when I notice that 1 of the commodes needs cleaned is to immediately get the cleaner (which is blue), raise the lid, coat the bowl and leave. Someone (including myself) eventually needs to use the facilities, wonders about the blue and reminds me that it needs scrubbed. If I walk away without first coating, forget it. Today I coated the bowl early in my bathroom early, then walked away. Later I asked Solomon to assist me with the 14 t-shirts of his waiting to be carried to his room. As he walked past, he moaned "OOOH, I LOVE THAT TOILET SMELL".

Here he is at Nathan's Boys Only Sledding Party

Good Word Picture

Today Franchesca was working on a story and including this: "The fear melted away like a Popsicle in 100 degree weather". I could really get ahold of that.


Here she is with Lily. Obviously not in the recent weeks.

Kids ask lots of questions

Today we had been talking about vertibrates and such which prompted Solomon to ask "Momma, when you were in Florida, did you almost step on one of those poisionous Jell-O fishes?".

It reminds me of when Nathan would call the thing on the wall the "billitin board" and other such adorable words and phrases that I wish I would have put down in writing somewhere.

The Breakfast of Champions

I've been a bit concerned about Adrianna's limited food list as it is shrinking (and there has never been a ton on it). She doesn't like very many foods and honestly, isn't really interested in eating very often (she MUST get that from Doug).

This week in an effort to get some good, old fashioned FAT into her (not the good kind either) and encourage her appitite, I bought her favorite thing: frozen, breaded chicken. (Horror).

She was tucked in when I returned from the store so I told her what I had bought and said goodnight. When morning arrived, she actually jumped up, made her bed, got dressed and began pleading for me to let her have "just 1?" piece of chicken for breakfast.

She is growing according to the charts. It seems like just yesterday this pic was taken.

Good to Laugh

Solomon has been doing copy work latey and was working from a story about the Wright Brothers when the name Orville came up. I told the kids that one of Daddy's Uncles was named Orville and there is also some famous popcorn called Orville Reddinbakker (sp). Solomon was thrust into one of his fits of laughter that go on and on...When he finally could speak in sentences he questioned "Oval Roverbaker"? Then more fits of laughter. We've been laughing over it for days.

White Christmas

Ok, I'm a little behind.

We did have a delightful Christmas Day, yes-even without opening any gifts. I realize now that the kids really had not developed that full blown American addiction to "more". This was a good way to find out for sure.

One thing the kids really wanted to do that day was go sledding and boy was it icy and fast.

I was the only Mom on the hill that day. I imagined all the others sitting with their female relatives around the fire, taste testing their fabulous deserts with steaming coffee in peace, having sent their husbands to manage the sledding hill....(Probably they were picking up all the wrapping paper, tripping over all the new toys on the floor, flipping the dishwasher, and getting ready for round 2 of food).

We had a lot of fun and got a great workout as those hills on the golf course are a bit more than sitting behind the tractor while it pulls you around in circles!

On New Years Eve we had a grand evening of eating lots of junk (and pop), playing games, exchanging gifts and counting down the hours until the new year. Some of us made it until midnight (6 minutes after was the best they could do).

Now for January and February and March....