Baby Bump Update

Grandbaby bump is about 21 weeks along now.  Miss Sassy is still keeping tabs on niece/nephew's progress.  Only caveat is trying to explain to Miss Sassy that she can not pull up all shirts to admire her friends' tummies.... 

Oldest kiddo is feeling mostly well except for frequent tired spells.  She has an active kiddo in there.  Lots of sommersaulting and carousing.  I'm guessing tired will be a frequent companion after "Hi Baby" is born, as well....  Otherwise, her spirits are good.  She has a little more space with her new room.  Her senior year, she'll be easing up on her previously hectic and difficult schedule.  No first block classes and the chance to study some optional courses that interest her instead of AP, really tough stuff.  She's a little overwhelmed planning for the future.  I think that is often true for later highschool kiddos, but exceptionally so for this sweet, gentle girl who will have a baby in tow as she figures out the rest of her life.

And me?  I seem to alternate between worrying like crazy about her (their) future and looking forward to meeting my Super G'andkid...

Clean?

We were totally snowed in today... close to two feet of the white stuff!  The morning was relaxed.  Very relaxed!  My dad called at 8:30 and woke us ALL up.  Even Miss Sassy, the very early riser.  Even youngest-always-ready-to-go-child.  Even me!  On a weekend with no kids at home, I generally can't manage to squeeze my eyes shut past 7:00.

Then, after sleeping half the day away, the girls and I managed to accomplish nothing noteworthy all morning.  It was lovely.  But by noon I was tired of all that relaxing.  Blah!  Time to do something. 

Hubby has been working on oldest kiddo's new room.  Oldest and youngest have been sharing a room.  Maybe I should add that they comfortably shared a room with no screaching, hair pulling or any of that rotten sibling stuff.  Really!  They are well-matched.  But... incoming!  One baby.  That could tip the scale....

Anyhow, other than piles of tools, sawdust, and pieces of linoleum, the room looked pretty finished to me.  By the way, I have no idea how to spell linoleum.  I hope it is spelled correctly.  Or that you do not know how to spell it either.  I digress...  I don't know how to spell digress either.  We decided to move oldest kiddo into the new room! 

A couple of hours later, all the tools and sawdust were banished and kiddo's furniture was moved into the room.  There was the trail of mess that accompanies any big move.  Miss Silly had spent the two hours alternating between giggling at us and scattering all of her toys.  And... ummmm... housecleaning is not my favorite chore any day of the week, so I often clean tomorrow.  I was several tomorrows behind.

Soooooo... I had the brilliant and impulsive idea to invite my parents over for supper.  In two hours.  With the house a mess and dinner not even begun.  Sigh.  Since there was NO chance of cleaning up the living room and all the various messes on my to-do list, I focused on making the meal that I had promised.

My parents arrived with dinner close to ready.  They admired oldest kiddo's new room.  We hugged.  We talked.  And my mom said, "oh!  Your house is so cozy and clean.   It's all picked up.  Your counters are all cleared off.  The dishes are done." 

Huh??? 

My mom actually LIKES to clean.  She shines the bottoms of her pots and pans.  She washes windows twice a year even if they don't have any spots on them.  She vaccuums ummm... more often than I do.  Beds are washed every seven days without fail.  She dusts before fingers can leave trails.  She thinks my house is CLEAN??? 

I guess it's all a matter of perspective.  When I looked around again, I saw kids playing, rocking chairs and quilts, a braided rug, a mostly-cleared-off table, a couple of projects mid-progress by the sewing machine.  The rug was recently vaccuumed.  The few things on the table were oldest child's cross stitch, youngest child's homework and a book.  Not immaculate.  But tidy.  And very cozy.

Perspective.  Our house is cozy.  Maybe I'll clean tomorrow.   

   

Green Smoothies!

A friend of mine told me about green smoothies.  I had seen recipes before combining spinach and other such yucky green stuff with fruits in smoothies and reacted the way any sane person would... EEEEUUUUUWWWWW!  Why would anyone contaminate a fruit smoothie with green stuff???

She promised me that I wouldn't taste the veggies.  She promised me that I could actually drink the stuff.  And she was right!  Huh!  Who woulda thought that you could hide spinach, carrots, bok choy, even celery under a couple pieces of fruit?  But, even better (or more unbelievable), who woulda thought you could get KIDS to drink their veggies???  After playing around with some fruit/veggie combinations, I added a big handful of spinach and a couple of blueberries to the kids favorite shake.  When they asked about the funky color, I blamed it on the blueberries.  Well... the gullible kids loved their banana, BLUEBERRY, yogurt shakes!  Honestly!  Even after I admitted that the blueberries alone did not provide the exotic color....

Now my teens request green shakes.  They are mindful of getting the proper amount of fruits and veggies into their daily diets and are thrilled to be able to sneak a few extras in painlessly.  Best of all, though, is watching Miss Sweetie Special Silly-Pants come running when the blender starts making a racket.  She is notoriously difficult to get veggies into.  Now she giggles when I tell her to drink her spinach! 

Our favorite, so far...

one or two bananas
an orange
BIG, BIG handful of baby spinach
a single-serve yogurt (any flavor, but vanilla is best!)
@half a cup of milk
3 ice cubes

Just throw it in the blender and give it a whirl!  Then get creative & see how many veggies you can hide in your shakes :o)

Have a happy day!

skiing and birthdays and snowdays... oh my!

Little Miss third child had a birthday.  Number 13.  Sweetie kiddo figured out all on her own that bucket loads of sass are what the teenage years are all about.  While getting her dressed in the morning, she swings her legs away from me so that I can't catch her feet to put socks on.  And she giggles.  Then she picks up her pants, throws them behind her and giggles.  When I plop her shirt over her head, she pushes it back off.  And giggles.  She won't cooperate to get dressed until I laugh at all of her shenanigans. 

This morning, the pranks continued all through breakfast.  Make a shake with mom.  Giggle.  Drink the shake so fast that there is shake-moustache all the way up to her eyebrows.  Giggle.  Squirm away from the washcloth.  Giggle.  Hide Mommy's shake.  Giggle.  Refuse to take her medicine.  Giggle.  Finally take the medicine.  Giggle.  Paint the dogs with mom's oatmeal when mom leaves the room for a moment.  Giggle.  Oiy!  Looks like we'll need to start our days in the wee hours to accomodate Little Miss Silly-Pants' pranks before the school bus arrives!

Little Miss Silly's birthday party was last weekend.  What a wonderful day!  Oldest kiddo took Miss Silly and her younger sister for a drive while I finished getting ready for the party.  She loves to go for a ride... and this was the first parent-less ride with newly-licensed big sister.  This kiddo was certain that she was getting away with something extra special!  They even went through a drive-though and got frosties.  (Yup... another name for a shake.  Miss Silly loves her shakes!)

   When the daring trio returned home, there were balloons, party favors and presents on the tables and  friends were arriving.  Miss Silly was way beyond excited to see so many people she loves!  She squealed and laughed and tried to introduce eveyone to each other. 

Miss Silly's interests are very different from most 13-year-old girls.  No rock star posters, glittery nail polish or hours of giggling with friends over the latest hunky crush.  This kiddo prefers coloring books, memory cards and Barney videos.  We invited the kids from her special class at school and a kindergartener that she adores.  I hoped we could keep such a diverse crowd of ages and abilities happy for a few hours.  When I worried about the diversity of the group, though, I forgot about the common connection.  These kiddos all love Miss Silly just the way she is!  And she loves them!  Our gang of kids happily made balloon animals, played hide & seek and created some crazy flashlight game.  They ate too much cake and icecream and goofed around like any bunch of buddies. 

It was chaotic.  It was wonderful.

   

Once again, Miss Silly is faster than the photographer!  She snitched a cupcake (far left) before I managed to take the picture!

Youngest kiddo went to her second cross-country ski race this weekend.  The first race was a bear of a race.  A short, icy, two-lap course which produced four skiers carried out on stretchers and two taken away by ambulance.  Youngest kiddo was knocked flat by a herd of high school B team boys, broke her glasses, and had to be helped off the course by onlookers. 

After such a scary introduction to racing, the second race was a joy!  This course was gentle and powdery.  The jr. high and high school races were kept separate.  The hills were rolling little bumps with no sharp curves.  Kiddo had a wonderful time racing.  It was fun to hear the team chatting happily after the race comparing their races; which hills were fastest, where they double-poled, any tumbles they took, and whether they had any energy left at the last big uphill.  It was a wonderful day full of team camraderie and the excitement of hanging out with 700+ skiers and all the assorted parents and coaches.  Oh... and lots of driving!  Almost three hours each direction.  But the driving time is enjoyable, too.  I love listening to the happy chatter.  First of anticipation.  Later, the joy of having raced hard and the happiness of accomplishment.  I'm so proud of this kiddo for skiing!

Well... I have about a zillion more happy thoughts for today, but they'll have to wait.  I'm running behind again....  Have a happy day!        

Happy 2011!

A few happy shots from the holiday break!  I love these goofy flowers!  Oldest two kiddos ganged up on me for Christmas and made this bouquet.  They know that I love anything loud, bright and colorful.  Ok... so they might have used the word "obnoxious", but I know they *meant* colorful!  I also have a very poor record for keeping plants alive.  The little green thing next to the colorful posies seems to have made an exception to my care.  Probably because it hardly ever needs water...  A colorful bouquet that doesn't need water, what could be better?  The BEST part... these posies are duck-taped to pens!  'Cause I manage to lose mine all the time!  Loud, colorful, easy-to-care-for AND useful... love it! 

Oh!  Sassy second kiddo saved the very best POLKA DOTTED flower for an antenna topper!  No photo yet 'cause this is a quick-'cause-I-gotta-write-out-bills post.  But lets just say, even *I* can find my car now!  (Just one more thing I frequently lose...)

And, speaking of sassy second kiddo... she and I have both been dreaming of making capes!  Big, long, sassy capes!  Kiddo chose black velvet for the outside and red stretchy velvet for the inside.  Have you ever tried SEWING yards and yards of velvet together???  It slithers all over the place!  The two-hour pattern turned into a monster project.  We were up until 12:30 finishing the bugger so that she could wear it to school today!  And we cheated A LOT on the bottom... we just COULD NOT get the layers to play nicely with each other.  But it is gorgeous!  She wanted a cape big enough to wrap her friends into.  It fit the two of us together nicely with room for more (had there had been anyone else awake past midnight).  Hmmm... needless to say, plans for my cape do NOT include yards of velvet.  And it will be a tad more obnoxious colorful.

And one more happy thought from vacation!  Skiing!  We got about 18" of beautiful white stuff the day after Christmas.  I love this line-up of fun gear!  We spent several days out trecking around in the woods.

My sister visited from California.  She gets excited about anything active and has been known to ski with large backpacks full of camping gear.  Can we just say that she is in *slightly* better shape than me?  I kept up bravely for the first couple of days, but by day three, I was wimpering and begging for a slower pace.  Yup, I slowed her down on that last ski.  Besides, I was a little worried about breaking my neck on some of those hills.  Guess I should have been worried about standing still on flat spaces though... I only fell three times.  Once for a hidden stump on one of those hills.  The other two times, I was standing still and got too excited talking with my hands.  Go figure...

But we got some surprise extra time with little sis!  Chicago airport shut down just in time to cancel her flight back and she was stranded on the east coast for four more days.  Aw shucks....  (insert happy dance here!)  Thank goodness I had recovered from the first round of abuse exercise and was ready for more!  We got one more day of crazy sister time!

And my ski team kids!  Love the sister grins!  And sweetie special third kiddo exploring the track behind my skiers! 

Youngest kiddo is my nervous-Nellie.  She needs to be eased into new activites and is very scared of learning new things in front of people.  She's been skiing for a couple of years now, so I didn't stop to think that *skate skiing* is new for her.  (Skate skiing is a very fast, graceful form of skiing used by competitive skiers for racing.)  And we missed the first couple of ski practices after Christmas because we were playing with my sister.  Those were the first team practices on SNOW.  Before the holidays, practices were all spent running.  Yup... tears.  She was sure that everyone else would be skiing gracefully past her while she fell. 

So we got to practice an hour early and sassy second kiddo gave youngest kiddo a lesson.  By the time the rest of the team arrived, my nervous-Nellie was managing a pretty fair skate-ski.  AND... three other jr. high kiddos were brand new to skis.  Yes... brand new to SKIS.  None of them had two years of experience balancing on long, skinny, slippery things.  There was the cutest line of new skiers following the coach around the track that day.  Like little ducks in a row!  Sooooo... that smile stayed on youngest kiddo's face all afternoon!

Ok... that's the happy thoughts for today!  Have a happy day!

Still not organized...

Ok... I seem to have a theme going on here...  I'm in a couple of town bands playing this goofy instrument.  What I lack in talent, I seem to make up for in clumsiness.  And disorganization.  I have an exceptionally long and unwieldly trombone stand, a complex music stand that I have yet to master putting together, and music in no particular order falling out of my folder.  I'm also not known for moving slowly nor for paying attention to what I'm doing.  Yeah... a goofball.

Soooo... this seems to be the week for fixing me.  Well, sorta.  I had to miss a concert last week and one of the goofy guys above (we'll call him MOE) borrowed my music and played my part.  I'm always peeking at Moe's music, trying to figure out what piece we're playing next.  (Sheeesh!  Organization...)  So, when he gave me back my folder, there was a surprise for me!  The music was all in concert order!  And an even better surprise... trombone jokes and pictures punctuated the empty spaces between pieces!  But, as always, the loose pages that don't fit into the page protectors wound up falling to the floor at some point during the concert.  Oh... and I kept laughing at inappropriate times during the concert as I discovered the new jokes.  Soooo.... almost organized. 

And fast forward to a concert Satruday with the other band!  Not knowing if I would make the concert, I had given my music to one of the guys for safe-keeping.  (Always safer not in my hands...)  When I got my folder back, it was all in concert order!  (Definitely not the way I had left it, just in case you were wondering.)  My friend, guy-in-the-outragous-green-sparkly-I'm-so-jealous-that-he-found-that-great-hat, took pity on my lamentable systematization.  Ok... total lack of it.  I happily set up for the concert... and forgot to bring in my stand.  Until it was too late to go get it.  Guy in the great hat shared his music stand.  I haven't been in this band for very long.  I guess he didn't know my history with music stands.  (The flute players in the other band might consider helmets concert attire.) For the first song up, Trombones on the Rooftop, our conductor wanted the trombones to stand.  Trying to be helpful, I leaned forward to adjust the music stand higher.  And promptly pulled the top of the stand right off the bottom, sending BOTH folders of music to the floor...  Mmmmmhmmmm... the concert was delayed a few minutes while we scavenged our music off the floor and great-hat-guy and I frantically searched for music from a communal pile between songs.  But, look!  The photo was taken after the concert!  He's still speaking to me!  And the music is safely in his hands again.  And I *promise* I'll remember my music stand next time.  Or at least try to remember my music stand...

One more quick happy thought!  This beautiful ornament arrived in the mail last week!  It's from Attilla the Mom!  You *know* I've got to love a moniker like that!  Her screen name is just the beginning of the snark you'll find on her blog!  Check out Cheaper than Therapy for fun reading!

Ok... that's all for now!  Back to the Christmas countdown!  Have a happy day!

Holidays are here!

It's happened again.  A couple of weeks ago, I was WAAAAAY ahead of this Christmas season.  I had my list figured out.  Decorations were up.  The outline of the Christmas letter was forming in my brain.  Almost all of our shopping was done.  Crafty things were almost finished.  Then we flipped the calendar and the kids got all excited and started counting days.  And time sped up.  Youngest kiddo was jumping up and down this morning reminding me that it is only ten days until Christmas.  TEN DAYS????? 

Suddenly having the Christmas letter ALMOST done and the shopping ALMOST done and the crafting ALMOST done is not quite cutting it....  TEN DAYS???? 

Oh to be a kid again!  The exciting anticipation of Christmas!  The warmth, the extra time with family and friends, the traditions, the mystery.  I think sometimes we grown-ups (I grudgingly concede to being almost grown-up) forget the wonder of the season.  Shop, wrap, finish, cross off the list.  But Christmas is joy, love, wonder, surprise.  Unfathonable goodwill.  A gift given which didn't follow protocol, yet was so much more.  So I am suspending my obnoxious pace and am determined to enjoy the season even if I don't get everything done.  I'm hugging my kids, getting most of the letters out, sitting down for dinner with my family, forgetting about that last shopping, cuddling with my husband and writing notes instead of joining the parade of mugs, ornaments, and light-up ties.  Ah... to be a kid again!  I think I'm almost there....

And for friends and family... a "Hi, Baby!" update!  Even sweet, smiley, special kiddo joins us in greeting the wee one! 

Oldest kiddo is 13 weeks along now.  Her days are a roller coaster of emotions.  It's not easy to be pregnant at 16.  One foot in the teenage, high school world.  And one foot in the expectant mom, grown-up world.  She has cried more in the last week than in the past ten years as her two worlds sometimes collide.  And all I can do is hold her and let her know that everything will be ok.  And it will.  It's just hard to see the future while standing in the present. 

Oldest kiddo and teenage father-to-be had their first prenatal class on Monday.  Finally a bright spot in an otherwise gloomy week!  Rather than an oddity, they were just another expectant couple.  Younger, yes, but sharing stories of morning sickness and mood swings along with everyone else.  And they heard their baby's heartbeat!  Both kiddos came out of class with smiles on their faces that reached right into their souls.  They are connecting with a new group of peers that can share and relate to this new life path which they are traveling.

And... sassy second child had a birthday!  What a spirit this kiddo is!  She had a bunch of giggly friends over for a party this weekend.  Totally girlie-girl time.  Yet this kiddo is really more about muck boots and shoveling poo.  She and most-recent-guy-friend broke up on Sunday.  Amicably.  And a new guy-friend asked her out.  I'm so darned proud of this kiddo!  She said, "not yet"!  Not yes, not no.  But not YET.  What a great answer!

Whooops... enough happy thoughts for today!  I just got called to sub!

Have a happy day!  Relax and enjoy the season!