Its a pretty busy week for me

But I feel so blessed at the same time. I really love living in Cedar Falls. I feel like I have a huge support system right beside me in this stage of life while mothering with little kids. I know moms who are in the same boat as me, some who are a little further ahead with some or all of them in school, and some who have college age kids AND little ones at the same time, its so neat. Even though I had to miss the first half of Bible study this morning, the last half was encouraging to me. We are reading this book about Life Management, and the lessons seems so simple, yet hard. I really need to work at creating more fun in my kids' lives and stopping what I'm doing (because there is ALWAYS something else do to!) and give them my attention and time. Today I spent 2 hours outside with both of them on the neighbor's swingset. Calvin didn't mind the swing today, he sat there and smiled each time he saw my shadow get near him. I gave Violet a few underdogs and she laughed so hard I thought she was going to fall off the swing. She kept saying "Do that same game with me mom, run under me!" over and over and over. I met one of the neighbors 2 houses down. Her name is Cindy - she has three older children, one in college. She told me (and I feel like I hear this ALL the time, apparently its true! LOL) that the time just flies by with little kids and all of a sudden they are grown up. How do I sllllow it down? How do I really ENJOY my kids when they are this little and sometimes make me feel like all they do is annoy me and drag me down? I'm still learning, and I fear that I'll learn it too late. I have a lot of help this week lined up, I praise God for him working it all out. A friend of mine brought her two older daughters over tonight and played with my kids (and even bathed Calvin and got Violet all ready for bed!) so I could spend a couple devoted hours in the kitchen baking cookies for the bake sale this weekend. That was so sweet of her to do that, she asked how she could help, so I put her to work! Tomorrow I have a babysitter coming by for 3 1/2 hours, and Friday another friend of mine so graciously agreed to babysit for my kids during the time I am working at the sale, and my mom is coming late Fri night staying most of the day Saturday. Dave's work trip couldn't have been timed any worse, but God knew what he was doing when he sent Dave away during one of my busiest weeks. He wanted me to learn that He could work things out in a way that I couldn't have planned myself. I have a weird tummy ache, I hope it goes away. Last night when I crawled in bed (too late, of course), I fell asleep almost instantly. I NEVER sleep on my back, I can't sleep on my back. But last night I did. I got into bed, turned off the lamp, and I must not have even taken the time to roll over on my side and get all comfy, I just konked out face up, and woke up face up. I surprised myself when my eyes opened to the sunlight pouring in my room, my eyes settled on the ceiling fan, of all things. Usually I see my closet door first. I just couldn't believe I slept that way all night long. This morning Calvin went to his 15 month well-baby check at the doctor (a month late, but oh well). He is doing just fine, he weighs an ounce short of 25 pounds, 31" tall, and she says he's coming along just fine. He got his LAST round of shots until he is 5 and has to go to school. He got 3 shots in his legs, poor guy, he screamed so loud, and kicked his legs so forcefully after the first one that the nurses had to grab his legs and reposition him to give him the 2nd shot. I had to hold his arms, not a fun thing to do. I wonder what he was thinking. He had a dose of tylenol before the injections, and another dose tonight before bed. He took a really long nap today and I'm guessing he'll sleep in longer than usual in the morning. But the good thing is, he won't remember them. A funny thing before I wrap up for the night. Last night when I was getting Violet ready for bed (and she has this thing now where she has to collect ALL her bedtime stuff and crawl into my lap and we sing songs), we were singing "Do, a deer, a female deer, Re, a drop of golden sun..." and so on and so forth. You know the song. We got through the whole thing once, sang it again, and after singing "Re, a drop of golden sun"...Violet stopped singing, got a very confused look on her face, and let out a HUGE laugh, and said "Mooooom, we don't drop the sun!! Silly mommy!!"

Pics from the dairy farm and wallabies

You might have to click on each individual pic, I can't get the whole thing to show up.

Went on a farm tour this morning

I took the kids (well, Violet could appreciate it) to a local dairy farm (Hansen's Dairy) in Hudson this morning at 9:30. It was pretty chilly, but we bundled up. Violet was really excited to see the cows before we got there. The lady who owns the place with her husband was our tour guide. I pushed Calvin in a stroller, and Violet walked with me. We went with a few other moms that I know from MOPS. There were only 4 of us moms, but lots of little kids trailing behind. They showed us the equipment that processes the milk, where the cream goes, the machine that makes the cheese curds, and then we toured the whole farm. They had a whole row of pregnant cows, a field where the cows who are about to be impregnated, a barn with newborn cows, cows who weren't old enough yet, and those who were too old. It was crazy how many different buildings there were for the different ages of cows. There was also a cage full of wallabies!! I didn't even know what they were. I knew they looked like mini kangaroos. The lady gave all the kids little pieces of carrots and let the kids feed the wallabies. They were nice. Violet was scared at first, but after she felt more comfortable and watched others feed them, she got brave and walked right up to one and held out her hand. She giggled and said "It took the carrot from me!" We sampled some ice cream the dairy made and then left. They were pretty tired by the time we were done, but my morning hadn't ended yet. I had to run out to Sam's Club and pick up an order I made online - stuff for the concession stand (pop, bottled water, hot dogs, buns, etc). V was confused why we didn't get a shopping cart and walk around. Both were hungry, so they split a pretzel on the way home and had banana before naps.

The Rumplestiltskin book got booted and No More Wet Kisses, daddy!

I should have taken it out of her bookshelf long ago; its not exactly a good book and I don't want to be teaching her that girls held hostage can spin straw into gold. Anyway, tonight at bedtime she pulled the book off her shelf and turned it over to see the back cover. It has pictures of other books in the same series on it. One of them pictured is Beauty and the Beast with a picture of a pretty girl next to a scary black creature. She points to the scary looking creature and says "Mommy, what is that?" I said "Its a scary guy." She said "Sometimes he makes me wake up and cry." So I said "Ok, well, that's not good, lets take it out of your room so you can sleep better." She seemed extremely happy to see the book go, so I threw it away. Problem solved. As daddy and I were giving her goodnight kisses and hugs, she got kisses and wiped them off with the back of her hand, saying "Daddy, those are juicy. Don't make the juice, ok?" HA! Dave also took Violet out to get some ice cream tonight after Puggles, just the two of them. She didn't really eat any of it (apparently ice cream is just too cold for her), but when she got home she was very excited to tell me that she spilled "the funny ice cream all over her funny arm". The ice cream was funny because it was a blizzard with peanut butter cups in it - not "normal" like smooth ice cream with nothing in it. So funny!

Another beautiful day!

I spent most of the morning at a park with a friend and her kids, we packed lunches and stayed as late as we could before the kids melted down and wanted naps. It was beautiful outside, and my friend brought trikes and ride-on toys for them to use in the outdoor shelter that had a huge cement play area. Violet and Calvin loved being outside today. Violet only napped for an hour and a half (she's been cutting them WAY too short lately! agh!), but Calvin is taking a nice long 3+ hour one (he went down at 12:30 pm and is still sleeping now at almost 4 pm). Violet is itching to go back outside, but we have to wait until Calvin wakes up. We'll take a short walk then come back in and grill brats for dinner. I think, anyway, that can always change at the last minute. We're setting up tables tonight at the location where the MOPS garage sale is going to be from 5-7 tonight, so most likely Dave will make/have supper with the kids while I'm doing that.

So funny

This isn't a conversation, but totally funny. Earlier today Violet was playing with a big box of those foamy stickers that you have to peel the back off. She stuck about 10 of them on her shirt and left them there all day. Well, after a long afternoon of playing outside, I plopped them both in front of a video and Calvin came RUNNING up to me 15 minutes into the video screaming. His head was covered with those stickers!! Silly Violet!

Spring is here, I think! Random kid stuff.

Besides a four inch snow fall last week (it has all melted, thankfully!) I think spring is here to stay (horray!!). We have a forecast ahead of us that seems ok, 50s and 60s. I took the kids to a park yesterday but they didn't like it as much as I thought they would. They were both really shy to walk up to any equipment and sort of clung to my leg the first 15 minutes. I almost packed up and left, but then they started playing with stuff. Calvin hated the swing, Violet just wanted to go down slides, and Calvin wasn't really enthused with stuff to climb on...I dunno, maybe it was just bad timing, but the weather was nice. Its hard to take them to the park together because they both want to do different things and both need help with whatever they're doing. I saw someone I knew with her 3 kids there, it was nice to talk to her. I really feel like part of the community when I go places and recognize people almost everywhere I go! The other day I went to Walmart and saw three people I knew. Maybe I should stop wearing my grubby sweatpants and brush my hair before I run quick errands! LOL Calvin is becoming a one-step expert lately. He loves to climb up one step at the bottom of the stairs, turn around the face the floor, and step down to the floor. He claps enthusiastically for himself when he doesn't fall, and expects applause from all who are watching. He has learned some sign language - he knows milk, more, hungry and all done. Sometimes he uses it, sometimes he doesn't. He can say mama, bye bye, ee-ya (see ya), nana (for banana), mah (for milk), and I think that's it. He loves to run and crash onto soft things, lay on his special blue blanket with his paci on the floor in random places when he needs a break, and he also is beginning to pick on his sister in a physical way. He knows how to annoy her by pulling her hair or pinching her skin. There are moments when the kids play together well, even separately when engaged with different toys, but those moments are few and far between. Most of the time, they want to do EVERYTHING the other is doing, and it starts a big screaming fight. Cups is the latest. If one has a sippy cup, the other has to have the same one, not anything different. This has been hard for the last couple weeks, because they've taken turns being sick. Calvin is finally over his raspy croup cough, and Violet got a bad fever for 5 days, and today is finally over it and back to her normal self. She has a bladder of steel lately. She went to the bathroom around 6:15 pm last night, and didn't go before bed, woke up dry, and this morning said she didn't have any pee. She eventually went (A LOT), but I don't get why she wouldn't go before bed or when she woke up? Dave and I have started exercising outside. I've been going to the step class but I am getting kind of tired of it, feeling like the one hour work out wasn't pushing me like I wanted it to. So we decided to trade off going running each morning, we take turns. I listen to the streaming music stations on Dave's phone, and it makes running more tolerable. Dave said he wanted to start exercising, so if we're both doing it, we can push each other to keep it up. Just being OUTSIDE is relieving to me...after such a frigid cold winter.

What goons children can be!

today was relaxing

We spent most of today relaxing. My dad stayed over at our house last night. He came to BBC's Good Friday worship to go to the program and also hear me play my flute during the service. It was nice to see him for awhile. He got up earlier than we did and had Violet entertained most of the morning. She came into our bedroom, all dressed, and said "oh! you're still sleeping? I'm going downstairs with Grandpa Jon, you guys go back to sleep, Ok?" After he left, Dave went to an appointment with the accountant who is filing our taxes for us, then came home and helped me get the kids to bed. They EACH took a FOUR hour nap. We didn't even know what to do with all that "free" time! It was great though, it was nice to relax. I went to the grocery store to get some things for tomorrow's meal, I baked 2 dozen muffin's for BBC's breakfast in the morning, we let the kids play around the church's playground equipment after I dropped the muffins off, then we went out to eat at Applebee's. The kids were well behaved (amazingly) and then when we got home, they turned on the crazy switch. Calvin was darting all over from room to room, we could barely keep up with him. They fell asleep pretty good. Violet is a little sick, I took her temp and it was 99-100, she hasn't eaten or drank much, but she bounces back and forth all day between being down and out, and lively and perfectly fine, so I don't really know what to do. My contacts are so dry, I need new ones. It affects me most when I'm up looking at the computer screen past 8 pm.

Sold the flood boat today

We found a buyer for the flood boat. A friend of theirs came to pick it up this afternoon, so now our garage has much more space in it. Still organizing - making progress - but now we have room to breathe in there.

Violet in typical female form

She wakes up from her nap, comes downstairs, gives me a cuddly hug, and then says "Hey! Do you want to come to the bathroom and go pee with me?" I say "sure!" And then she makes absolutely sure that we can't pee at the same time, so she babbles "Mom, but, we can't go pee together. Only one person. Not two, because we can't go on the potty seat together. just one, not two, so we have to take turns, ok? I'll go first, THEN you can go."

Silly conversation

Violet and Calvin were both playing upstairs in Calvin's room. His crib, changing table, and bookshelf are all smashed together in the middle of the room because we're working on repairing the walls after peeling wallpaper off. When things are all out of sorts in one room, they're attracted to it for some reason. So they played in there, walking in circles and messing around. Violet plopped on my lap and said "Mom, can I have a biiiig strawberry hug?" I said "what is THAT?" She about fell over laughing. Then she said "Can I have a biiiig teeth hug?" I exaggerated even more and said "What is THAT??" I thought she wasn't going to catch her breath she was laughing so hard. She thinks she is just so funny sometimes. She gave Calvin a big hug and said "Aw, buddy, I love you." and then gave me a big hug and said "Aw mommy, I love you too."

Garage organization is under way, barely

The garage sale that I plan to sell some stuff in is quickly approaching at the end of April. When we first moved into this house, we sorted through all the boxes that were piled in the garage and only brought INTO the house what we wanted to keep. Everything else was sell or get rid of. Well, this "sell" pile got bigger, and bigger, and bigger!! It is taking over the garage. The van squeezes in between two boats and the rest of this stuff was surrounding the sides of the boats. And all this stuff was piled onto flooded machinery that needed to be cleaned up and fixed. The garage has been something on our minds that absolutely needed attention. Well, somehow we found the motivation to start organizing it while the kids slept during nap time. Dave moved all the dirty flooded machinery out to the shed for later clean up. This left us some room to move things around. I used the ShopVac to vacuum up the whole garage floor so we could start sorting. The log splitter is enormous - that thing needs to be cleaned up, too, since it was completely under water last year, but we haven't had the room to wheel it out of the garage yet, it is behind a huge pile of stuff and a boat. We hope some day to get it cleaned up and working again so we can sell it. We have a potential buyer for the small boat, he just hasn't picked it up yet. So once that boat is out of the garage, we'll really have the space to spread out and label things for sale. We made some small progress. And just starting is the hardest part. Going through all that stuff is tough. Most of it still smells like the flooded house. In our minds, its absolutely unmistakable. We get one whiff of something that sat in that house for a few months after it was all wet and it takes you right back to the dirty mess. After labeling one large plastic tub worth of stuff, both kids had woken up, and having them awake makes progress nearly impossible, so we quit working. I feel like the amount of things to get done is so huge, with so little time to work on it.