Matthew is five months old & Isaac's half-birthday party

Well, I pretty much dropped the ball on the last few Five for February posts, but the truth is that Matthew got sick and basically quit sleeping--and I was already so sleep-deprived that I turned into a zombie. But he's five months old now! And look at those chubberly little cheekies! (Trying to include myself in more photos, even when I look as tired as I feel!)

And I have to say, a really good way to avoid feeling sorry for yourself when everyone is sick--because now all the rest of the kids are sick--and you're only sleeping in small forty-minute chunks--is to read about the Holocaust. I started reading Rose Under Fire (sort of a sequel to Code Name Verity) and gosh, it was such a pageturner that it was the perfect thing to read when I was just rocking Matthew all night desperately hoping that he would get enough sleep AND reminded me that my problems are so tiny and insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and that I am hugely blessed to be able to take the time to just sit rocking my baby.

Not sure if you can tell in these photos, but his little eyes are all swollen! Neil's eyes always get really swollen when he has a cold, and all six of our kids inherited that...poor little weepy-eyed crew.

We're doing a lot of milk-mixed-with-oatmeal right now and he is starting to enjoy it.

And I think Isaac's party last week was a success!! Five little friends joined us and we carried out Isaac's planned party (although we had to scrap the outdoor obstacle course as it was rainy and cold). He wanted a treasure hunt that finished at a Darth Vader pinata, a cake with his name on it, superhero games (we tied green balloons to everyone's feet and called it the Hulk Stomp--basically you tried to pop everyone else's balloon without getting yours popped), and to paint canvases like we did at Juliet's party. Neil and I were both laughing because it was SUCH a boy party--loud, loud, loud (especially when they started playing basketball, which is funny because we got an indoor over-the-door hoop for Christmas and our kids could not care less about it, but Isaac's friends LOVED it...and Isaac still didn't care about it even when they were playing; he just started working on Legos! We're working on that because both of us LOVE basketball and we've got to get our kids equally in love with it!) and we just could not believe how much pizza all those kids put away! Fun times.

And that wraps up this series. And as always, my favorite things of the day are the little things that happen every day--cooking dinner with a child, listening to everyone's goodies and baddies around the dinner table, cuddling up to read stories, and seeing my children learn and grow.

Best of the best!

Neil had his preliminary examinations this morning for his doctorate--and he passed! Hurray, hurray, hurray!! This is a pretty huge deal. His committee was very impressed by all of the research he has done--one of the reasons why his degree has taken so long is that there were so many avenues his advisor asked him to explore before finally settling on the dissertation research three years ago (that's eight years of other stuff, if you're counting). But those other years have yielded ten publications, which is pretty darn impressive, and two teaching awards, one of which is the very highest award that the university awards to doctoral teaching assistants. Now that prelims are behind him, we are really ramping up the job search, so please let me know if you have any leads for laser-additive manufacturing. ;-)

We are SO proud of him and so, so, so incredibly grateful for all the insanely long hours and hard work he has put in without complaint. I don't know how he keeps going day after day (everyone else who entered this program with him under this advisor was either asked to leave or decided to quit, so he will be the only one his advisor has ever successfully graduated in this program). It has been a long and lonely road for him, and he has borne an enormous burden without complaint--I know I already said that, but seriously, he doesn't complain--he just works tremendously long hours, sleeps very little, and gives 200% to his marriage, his family, and his research. He's a pretty quiet guy, but gosh, I just wish the world knew how amazing he is--so I'll do my shouting from the rooftops here on my blog!

Twenty-two

Today's been a tricky day--I still can't shake this cough and I seem to have passed it on to a few more kids. Matthew isn't coughing, but his little voice is so raspy that it's heart-breaking when he cries.

But there are still lots of good things. I need to start writing these down earlier; I think of so many during the day and then I forget them!

1) Today I got to talk with my mom, my sister Ruth, and my sister Mary Beth on the phone. Such a treat! And I got to talk with Elise via text. (Rosalind is in Hong Kong, so our texts seem to connect only at 8 am and 8 pm!)

2) Tonight was one of the nights where we weren't rushing off somewhere (well, Neil was gone, but everyone else was home). We took our time getting ready for bed--reading stories to tucked-in little boys, rubbing backs, brushing and flossing with great diligence. Luke fell asleep right after his story (with his book on his face and his glasses in his hand) but everyone else somehow migrated in to sit on Isaac's bed and reminisce fondly about past road trips (our topic was the worst throw-ups, but hey, memories are memories).

3) For no reason at all I just really relished the process of brushing Nathan's teeth tonight. Maybe it was the realization that these years are so fleeting and there is something so wonderful about a happy little boy who is so enthralled by his own toothpaste and who leaps off the counter into my arms and wraps himself tightly around me and gives me a million kisses with his peppermint-scented breath.

4) Since I knew Neil wouldn't be around this evening, I made one of the kids' favorite dinners--are you ready for it?--fish and roasted beets (and roasted carrots too, and applesauce, but those were incidental). My kids are obsessed with roasted beets, especially when served with fish, because they rub the beets all over the fish so the fish get pinkish patches and then pretend they are bloodthirsty little savages who have just caught the fish and are now eating them raw. Obviously.

5) I have cinnamon roll dough rising on the counter for tomorrow's breakfast and I think there are going to be some pretty happy little people in the morning. ;-) (It's a special occasion--that's not a normal weekday breakfast!!!)

Twenty-one

1) Abigail had some trouble turning in an assignment today; the link where she needed to upload her paper was broken. She wrote an email to her teacher about the issue and attached her paper, and I was just sort of in awe of the fact that she was so confident and knew exactly what to do and was so pro-active about it (the assignment isn't due for another week, but she gets extra credit if she turns it in early). Middle school has been pretty nerve-wracking for me in terms of stepping back and having less and less interaction with her teachers and letting her take charge, but I am so darn proud of how well she is doing and how hard she is working.  My grandmother gave her a 2017 calendar and without any prompting or suggestion from me, she hung it above her bed and wrote down all of her due dates for major assignments, extra credit opportunities, music lessons, etc., and she checks everything off as she does it. Pretty darn amazing to watch your kids functioning as little mini-adults without your interference.

2) Isaac was my dinner helper tonight and he was so proud of the dinner he made (pasta primavera w/ homemade alfredo sauce with red bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, onions, and tomatoes). He does not like either the peppers or the tomatoes, but he ate them without any fuss tonight because he made dinner, darn it! I love how these types of jobs help my kids take ownership (you better believe all of my kids clear and wash their own plates after meals, because the kid responsible for clearing the table and the child responsible for dishes will get after them if they don't and then it just ends up becoming a habit! Hah!)

3) Neil and I have a saying, "Never let a movie go unearned," which is why I bought off enough quiet to nurse Matthew down and put him to bed without Nathan/Luke interfering (Neil took the older kids to piano) by telling the little boys that if they cleaned up and vacuumed the living room and library they could watch "The Gruffalo" (which is one of their favorite books and the short film is absolutely enchanting). This is especially impressive because they had been playing with Nathan's construction wheat tub and there was wheat EVERYWHERE. But it was immaculate by the time they were done, and then I was able to feed Matthew in peace (super important because he is at the stage where if he gets interrupted even once by a loud noise anywhere else in the house, he won't start eating again, and that is not what I want when I'm trying to tank him up before bedtime).

4) Over the weekend, the department IT guy managed to crash all the servers, and I was super worried that--as happened once in the past--I would have to rebuild my website from scratch. But I woke up this morning to a functioning website--hurray!

5) I've been rereading some French parenting books lately. Today I tried out a few of the techniques on Nathan and they worked surprisingly well. This is a very good thing. (I spoke with confidence! I outlined a firm boundary! And I gave him the big "owl eyes" and stared him down! Now where's my pain au chocolat?)

Twenty

1) The kids had a holiday from school today, so we took a looooong walk in the woods this afternoon--I think they climbed every tree and swung from every vine in our path. And lots of stick-throwing! Fine with me because they were happy and Matthew fell asleep, and it was so good for my soul to get some time outside.

2) I made crepes for dinner tonight (which we stuffed with an assortment of veggies, cheese, and ham...nothing beats honeyed goat cheese on a piping-hot whole wheat crepe!). Neil usually does crepe duty because I don't love using our little crepe-maker, but my dad gave me a really awesome new frying pan that is absolutely perfect for crepes! I foresee a lot more of these in the future.

3) I finished going through everyone's summer clothes today. I always dread this task and it's so good to have it done, and I have all the outgrown stuff either boxed up to pass down to siblings, or bagged up to give away to friends.

4) For years I've hated Gatorade, but a few months ago when I was really sick and couldn't keep anything down Neil got me some of the blue powdered kind. I think being able to mix it a little weaker really helps my ability to tolerate it, and I've been using it for my late-night Monday long runs the past few weeks--it's always nice to have something to look forward to every couple of miles! (11.2 tonight and my legs still think this treadmill belt is much harder to run on than my old one...hopefully it breaks in soon!).

5) On that note, I'm really grateful for water. I've been feeling super parched lately and I'm just so thankful that my cold clean water is so easily accessible out of the tap--that is a huge blessing!

Nineteen

1) I snapped this photo on our walk tonight. I sure love this crew!!!

2) We took a walk right after dinner over to the "cat sticks," which is what my kids call cattails. (Funny story--Neil also thought they were called cat sticks for real, because he had never seen cattails until living in the Midwest!). The cattails were fully ripe, so basically if you brushed against them they would EXPLODE, so of course we picked as many as we could possibly reach (probably about 100) and had the time of our lives throwing cattail fluff around. Neil totally hates this (weird, who doesn't like a mouth/eyes full of cattail fluff for the next hour?) and so he stayed at a safe distance with Matthew (we maybe mocked him just a tiny bit for this), but the kids and I came home covered in so much cattail fluff that Juliet looked down at herself and said, "I'm a chicken!" (And we also completely covered a little back road with cattail fluff so we could watch cars drive through the puff...the kids all assured me that it was the most wonderful thing that has ever happened in their lives.) It was getting pretty dark and I couldn't get many pictures, but here's a grainy twilight one about 2 minutes in--just imagine this x1000!!



3) On our way home we watched the sun set and all the stars come out--and we think we even saw the International Space Station for about 45 seconds! (You can check this link out to see when it may be visible for you.) It was a really clear night and we had a great time looking at all the stars--we pretended like we were camping and doing our traditional "no flashlight dark walk" all around the campground. The kids kept asking us to zip and unzip our jackets so that they could pretend it was the tent zipper. Gosh I love those little people!

4) Neil made cookies tonight (he makes the best chocolate-chip cookies I've ever had in my life; his secret is that he only bakes them for 8 minutes and then cools them on the hot pan for another 10 minutes--chewy and gooey perfection!). And he made sure that I got a nap today--I've been totally running on empty the last few days and just can't seem to kick this cough! I was so tired that I fell back asleep for another 90 minutes after I nursed Matthew after I'd been sleeping for an hour, but I felt SO much better when I woke up!

5) This is from yesterday, since I forgot to write about it then...the kids were super excited to get their shorts & short-sleeved shirts out of storage since it's so warm. So they came into our room first thing in the morning asking if they could get the storage boxes down, and I groggily said, "We have to fold the laundry first...we did 4 loads of laundry last night but just dumped it all on the couch and didn't fold it because Dad and I were both working late." And so those kids quietly folded ALL the laundry and put it away while Neil & I slept in until 8 AM--what an awesome start to a Saturday!

Eighteen

We had crazy warm weather today--mid sixties! The girls and I went for a run this morning through the woods. Poor Abigail didn't enjoy it so much; we think she stepped on a really sharp rock and her foot bothered her for the last half of the run, but she was a good sport and hung in there! Juliet was super excited about this because one of her goals this year was to run a 5k, so we made it happen today! (Abigail opted out of the photo.) It was really nice to have some alone time with my girls this morning--they always ask me to tell them stories from my childhood, so we revisited a lot of stories this morning and the girls made sure to pick some cattails for their brothers (our backyard looks like it snowed!) And we enjoyed our first popsicles of the year--crazy!

After I fed Matthew, we headed to the library. Juliet really wanted to bike over there, so I ran alongside her while she biked; Neil was a good sport and drove the other kids (normally he works while we hit the library, so I was really grateful that he took the time to come today!). We picked up our February Family Read Aloud prizes and a huge sack of books, then Juliet and I biked/ran home (8.3 miles total for me today, so it ended up being a pretty good running day, and got me up to 42.3 for the week! These days my Saturday runs are some of my shortest since I don't want to infringe on family time, so this was a nice little mileage boost). 

We had a great night tonight just enjoying the gorgeous warm weather--Neil built a fire and we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. We played baseball and soccer and just generally had a really great evening together. It was absolutely lovely. Everyone was cheerful and happy and delighted to be spending time together. And everyone was so worn out by the end of the day--we played hard!! The kids were outside for 90% of the day and I kept saying, "Can you believe this is February? Last year we were skiing on this weekend!"

One more good thing: this is my worst grading week of the semester because my biggest projects were turned in last night. I dread this so much because it always makes me kind of anxious all the time until it's done--so yesterday I was like, I'm just going to have one HORRIBLE day of grading and try to pound it out and get it over with, and so I graded every free minute that I could (the warm weather helped a lot with that since the kids wanted to play outside after school) and stayed up super late working after the kids were in bed, and I only have 4 left to do tonight now that everyone is in bed! And that will make Monday so much more enjoyable (kids have no school that day).

And we had our first popsicles & homemade lemonade of the year. I was so parched from running in the wind and gosh, I don't think anything could have been as delicious as that Outshine strawberry rhubarb bar!!!

Sixteen

1) We were building with Magnatiles yesterday, and I was helping Luke with something and Nathan said, "Mommy! Look! I made a clock tower!" And so he had! (He popped out the tiny little clock I keep in the library from its housing and then figured out how to prop it on the sill of the tower so it would stay put.) He was SO proud of himself.

 

2) Luke and I spent quite awhile figuring out what kinds of bracing we needed to build a chair out of Tegu blocks that would support his weight. He was thrilled when we finally figured it out!

3) Loved watching Nathan and his friend reading together--neither of them can actually read, but Nathan would summarize the picture and then she would repeat it after him. They did this for quite awhile yesterday and it was so sweet!

 

4) We figured out a new (very amusing for us) way to entertain Matthew--he was loving watching the little car zoom around and around on these tracks, and it was a double bonus because it kept all the other kids fascinated as well!

5) And last but not least, my new treadmill belt came yesterday and my rockstar husband changed it out with the old one--so I was able to run 7 miles last night after the kids were in bed and all was well with the world. :-)

Five for February, Day 15

Things I'm thankful for today:

1) Matthew has been sleeping much better the last few nights--I feel like we might possibly be starting to settle into a schedule! Hurray! He has spent the entire night in his crib (no 3 am throwing in the towel and transferring him to the swing!) for the last nine nights and that's a pretty big deal. :-) We've still had a few rocky nights but the general trend is going upwards!

2) Ever since the injunction on the immigration ban, I have been feeling much more hopeful about the political sphere. I felt so much despair and sadness and fear after the election--but I have loved seeing all of the good and kind and intelligent people in this country who are working so hard to ensure that we don't slip backwards. Reading the news is still totally crazy, but it's not quite as bleak as it was a few weeks ago.

3) Tonight the kids all went outside for half an hour before dinner. It was still pretty cold (30ish?), but they were thrilled to be outside, and I really relished the quiet house with the pleasant hum of outdoor play in the background. I got a little grading done and thought happily about spring--Nathan, in particular, is SO ready to be out digging in his sandbox again (and I am ready to have him digging outside instead of using his wheat box inside...that kid loves his construction vehicles so much and the wheat box is a decent compromise, but I feel like there are wheat kernels everywhere! At least Nathan loves vacuuming up the wheat).

4) After the girls & Neil headed out to scouts & Activity Days at the church tonight, the boys and I curled up on the rug in front of the fire and read, read, read. I took a little break to feed Matthew his cereal (and he's getting better at that every time!) and Isaac took over reading duties. What would we do without books?! They are the lifeblood of this family.

5) Neil told me the roast I made for dinner tonight was the best one he's ever eaten in his entire life (it may also have been the fact that he got home after we'd finished eating so he could enjoy the quiet while he ate!). I, on the other hand, was grateful for the fact that I was done with dinner prep at noon--I love cooking but I HATE cooking when I feel rushed, and the "witching hour" of trying to cram in everyone's homework and music practice and dinner prep is always crazy, especially with a nursing baby. So three cheers for make-ahead meals!

...and I'm thankful for fat baby cheeks back in my life again, like that picture of Luke up above from 2012. Did you know that Luke had the very best cheeks ever, and I named one Strawberry Fluff and the other Marshmallow Cloud, and for years Luke and I have had a very elaborate bedtime ritual kissing Strawberry Fluff and Marshmallow Cloud to sleep? Sadly, they have gotten smaller and smaller as his cheekies have gone from giant toddler puffs to lean little boy face. But Luke has reassured me several times that Matthew is working really hard to grow Strawberry Fluff Jr. and Marshmallow Cloud the Younger!

Valentine's Day!

Aren't these two little lovecakes sweet? Can't get enough of them. Today Nathan was laughing like crazy today playing with Matthew--I asked what was so funny and he said, "Oh Mommy, he just has a funny little face and he makes even funnier things with his mouth!"

One of my good things for today is Nathan's newfound obsession with Tchaikovsky Discovers America--he listens to it ALL DAY LONG. This morning he turned it on (thanks, Alexa) as soon as he was done eating breakfast and then got out his play-dough and was like, go run, Mom, I'm all set. Best $12 I've spent in a long time! (He's had it for two weeks and I think he has the entire thing memorized already. Fortunately Alexa understands him better when he asks for this as opposed to Vivaldi or Mozart--he was always getting frustrated with her because she never played the right albums!)

Love seeing my beloved people with my little baby. Abigail is just absolutely the sweetest with him--she is always asking if she can go get him up from a nap or put him down for his naps, and she spends most of her free time playing with him while she reads next to him.

And there's nothing I love more than seeing how tender Neil is with our children.

 

Started this little guy on some oatmeal yesterday. He was less than impressed, but he did a little better with it today! (Was I emotional about feeding my last little baby his first solid food and giving up that "I'm the only one who is feeding you, my sweet sweet baby" thing? Absolutely.)


 

Some pictures of Neil napping on Sunday and Matthew having a ball going after him with his "scrabbly hands," as Neil likes to call them. (Mary Beth--he shaven't.)
 

Time for a new treadmill belt after 5 years. I'm actually really impressed that it is still going--I ran 9 miles Saturday night and noticed that it was tearing, so I stopped. Then I ran 12 miles last night, kind of expecting it to go at any minute (I took the treadmill housing off about halfway through because it was getting so creased that the tears were catching on the housing at every rotation.) Then it made it through another 6.5 miles today. It's kind of exciting running right now...hopefully the new belt will be here by the weekend!

A couple more good things from today (I fell off the wagon over the weekend because this dang cough pretty much knocked me out--except for running, which was a lot slower than usual, and only happened because I am in a much worse mental state if I don't run and so it's always a trade-off if I take an unplanned rest day to recuperate when I'm not feeling well--I've been going back and forth lately between running 5 and 6 days a week, and I am really struggling on the weeks that I only run 5 days. There's a lot I could say about exercise addiction but I won't get into it now.)

Anyway.

1) I don't know about you, but there is always a fair amount of push-back from the kids learning to read...they just don't want to read the same dang books over and over that come home from school. I seriously hate this so much (which is why I've done a lot of knitting when teaching kids to read--the repetitive and calming motion keeps me from going crazy!). Today Luke stayed for his Valentine's party, so he was at school full-day and I was trying to get him to read to me while I made dinner, and he was SUPER grouchy and uncooperative. I finally took a 30-second break to just walk away and walk around the living room for a minute, and when I came back Juliet had somehow magically coaxed him into reading the book to her--she winked at me and gave me a thumbs-up when I came back in. Bless her!

2) Isaac was peeking over Abigail's shoulder while she was typing a paper, and I heard his little voice pipe up: "Don't forget to say what page you found it on! You have to cite things or get expelled!" Hah! I have taught him well. ;-)

3) Neil made pink heart pancakes and sausage for breakfast this morning. He is awesome.

4) We had a really fun FHE last night--Luke wrote everyone's names on a big giant heart, and then we passed them around and wrote the things we loved about that person. And then the kids ate heart-shaped sugar cookies and Neil and I resisted and put ours in the freezer (but we did make an exception for our no-sugar thing today because it's Valentine's Day and gosh, those cookies were good).



5) Last night I served this cheese board as part of dinner, and the kids went crazy complimenting it--the cheeses I chose, the fruit, the freshly-baked bread...they were a pretty appreciative little bunch and it was a delightful meal. (Honeyed goat cheese, the most delightfully gooey Brie covered in Provencal herbs, a crumbly peppercorn-studded sheep's cheese, pumpkin Gouda--which Luke and Isaac have been asking the cheesemonger about for MONTHS!--and a surprisingly sweet yet stinky blue, which Abigail packed in her lunch for tomorrow, so I hope her friends enjoy the smell! Hah!)

6) Neil and I met for lunch today. Loved getting that little bit of Valentine's romance in with him in the middle of a busy day.

7) We had a long conversation at dinner tonight about what national park each of us would choose to visit if we were going on a dreamy road trip to everyone's picks. It was so spirited and fun and the kids got lost in good road trip & camping memories, and I thought how much I enjoy these people, and how much I'm dying to get back into the woods & mountains with them! After Neil left to take the older kids to piano I went to nurse Matthew and when I came back into the kitchen Luke & Nate were sitting there listening to John Denver, and Natie looked up at me and said, "He is reminding us about mountains," and Luke said, "Mom...I just want to go hiking. The kind that's not in the woods here, but the real kind with streams and mountains and rocks and deer." Can't wait until it's time for us to hit the mountains again, because they are sure calling us!!

Five Favorite Winter Reads

A few months ago I promised another winter books post, since I just had too many favorites that I wished I could share on my Christmas books post! All of these are listed on my favorite books pages, but you know, some are more favorite than others. ;-)

First off is The Tomten, by Astrid Lindgren (pictured above). This is an absolutely enchanting story about an old tomten (a tiny little gnome-like creature), who has "seen the snow of many, many winters" and lives on a farm deep in the woods. He goes around at night when the people are asleep and talks to the farm animals in his tomten language as he gives them their food and reminds them that "winters come and winters go, summers come and summers go, but soon the swallows will be here." The language in this story is just as beautiful as the illustrations. 

Next up is Jane Yolen's Caldecott-winning Owl Moon--this is one of my very favorite books ever ever ever. Again, absolutely beautiful illustrations and incredibly poetic language describes a little girl's first midnight trip to the woods with her father to go look for owls. The majesty of the snow-bright woods, the dark shadows under the trees, and the quiet reverence she feels staring into the eyes of a great horned owl are all so beautifully described: "when you go owling, you don't need words, or warm, or anything but hope--the kind of hope that flies on silent wings under a shining owl moon."  

Daniel San Souci's North Country Night is another beautifully illustrated (are we sensing a theme here?!) book that describes the animals' night as they move through the snowy northern woods. Each page flows into the next so that the readers understand how the animals interact with one another--the porcupine in one page passes by the cottontail rabbit without incident, but on the next page the rabbit backtracks into the woodland to avoid a hungry bobcat, and on the following page a beaver has caught the scent of the bobcat and swims into his lodge, whereas the weasel downstream paddles against the current to take shelter in a patch of brush. My kids absolutely adore this one; it's the next best thing to taking a quiet moonlit walk through the woods. (Plus you can buy it for a penny on Amazon!)

Another lovely Caldecott winner, The Big Snow details the preparations that each animal takes as it prepares for winter. The wild geese fly south, the cottontail rabbits nibble tasty carrot tops in the garden, the squirrels store their nuts and seeds--but what will all the woodland animals and birds do when there is so much snow that it covers their food stores?




This story by Jan Brett is such a fun twist on the traditional Gingerbread Man story--the bold and brash Gingerbread Baby still gets up to plenty of adventures, but his ride atop the fox does not end in his consumption! Instead, Matty, the boy who originally baked the Gingerbread Baby, saves the day by cleverly baking a beautiful gingerbread house in which the tired-out little Gingerbread Baby dwells happily ever after. The illustrations are a delight with tons of little hidden gems (Matty's progress with the gingerbread house is shown in the sidebars on each page) and the very end features a lift-the-flap gingerbread house for eager little toddler fingers who will be delighted to find the happy Gingerbread Baby. Each of my kids has gone through a stage where they want to read this one every single day!

Ten

Tonight we had the first of two half-birthday parties we are hosting this month (Isaac's is in 2 weeks). It may sound silly, but I have been so stressed over this wondering if other parents thought I was totally ridiculous for doing it (I promise we won't ask you to buy another gift in six months!). But Abigail is the only one of my kids who has ever had a legit birthday party with friends and gifts, as opposed to having friends over for a playdate and serving cupcakes as the snack--something about having so many birthdays in a row and perfectly lined up with the end/start of school has made it easy for me to push aside the party thing. But this year I promised we would do parties. Hence, the half-birthday parties since I am just giving up on doing parties for birthdays that are five days before school starts (I also have a late summer birthday and most years we were blowing out the candles on vacation!)

Anyway.

1) I'm really grateful that Juliet's friends were able to come over. She had a wonderful evening and I think it was everything she'd dreamed of--she wanted to do crafts and play games and eat. So we made pizzas and cake, and we decorated canvas totes with fabric markers and painted canvases with acrylics, and played some rousing rounds of Twister. (And Nathan watched dump truck videos during the painting because I've learned a few things.)

2) Did you know you can peel off poorly piped frosting if you nab it before it sets? I seriously did the worst job the first time I tried to pipe frosting onto her cake. Luke looked at it and said very seriously, "Well, we can tell her we tried our best, but I think she might be embarrassed when her friends see it." Fortunately our second attempt was much better and I thought it looked pretty respectable when we were done. :-)

3) I hate throwing parties with a messy house, and things worked out really well today to get everything deep-cleaned just in time for the party hoopla to mess it up again. Haha!

4) One of my favorite bits of today was watching Luke laugh hysterically every time he made Matthew laugh, and then Matthew would laugh even harder and Luke would just go crazy giggling.

5) My sister sent me a really awesome sound machine that is Matthew's new favorite thing--he took the best nap ever in the history of Matthew naps the first time I set it up in his crib. Three cheers for Ruth!!

Nine

1) So grateful today for the friend who had Nathan and Luke over to play with her kiddos this afternoon--I got all caught up on grading and then spent an hour blitzing my house. It's amazing how much cleaning I can get done when I don't have little helpers! My freshly-mopped floors make my heart rejoice.

2) Parent-teacher conferences for Juliet today and I left feeling so blessed to have a teacher who loves Jules so much and is working so diligently to help her develop good habits--doing her best work, checking her answers, and staying calm when she feels frustrated. I love thst her teacher recognizes Juliet's need to be in constant motion and views it as something to accommodate rather than something to punish! Juliet loves her teacher with all her heart and I sure do too!

3) I was watching Neil help the kids with their homework tonight (another day of playing in the snow right after school!) and thought how lucky we are to have a father in this family who LOVES to help with homework and wishes he was able to do it more often. What a good guy.

4) I love the dividends we are reaping from all the hours we've put in teaching our kids how to do their dinner jobs. Tonight Neil and I even got to sneak in a few minutes lying in the rug in front of the fire playing with Matthew while the older kids cleared the table, swept, washed the dishes, wiped down the counters, and packed their lunches. Pretty dang awesome.

5) Jules is having a few friends over tomorrow night to celebrate her half-birthday. She baked her cake tonight and she was SO excited and my heart was so happy to be her assistant as she measured and mixed and poured.

Eight

1) We finally had some snow today! It's been a balmy winter (60 degrees yesterday!!) so this was SO welcome! I sent the kids outside the instant we got home and they played for almost two hours  sledding down our tiny hill and building a fort & snowmen and gleefully pounding each other with snowballs. Frosty heaven. (And then we had a looong evening of homework and music practice after dinner.)

2) Kids all had dentist appointments today. This is always something I dread so I'm thrilled that it's over! And I'm SO grateful that the practice we go to has enough pediatric dentists that they will schedule 5 appointments simultaneously--that is awesome!! I even had a blissful fifteen minutes with my Real Simple magazine after Matthew fell asleep in the waiting room.

3) Neil wasn't home for dinner this evening so we had a ridiculous dinner of things the kids love (green smoothies, pan-fried potatoes, frozen fish sticks, and Chinese steam buns) and everyone told me like ten times I was the best cook ever. Which is always nice to avoid dinner battles, but kind of sad when you're like...really? The fish sticks? (But they did gobble down Brussels sprouts last night, so I guess it evens out.) I was actually planning to do roasted beets tonight, since the kids all loved them and Neil only tolerates them to set a good example of eating foods you don't like, but I forgot. Oh well. He can set a good example tomorrow. ;-)

4) Matthew slept four hours in a row last night. That is his longest block ever. I'm coming down with a cold, but even so, I feel 1000x better than I did yesterday...something about that stretch of unbroken sleep sure helps with the crippling fatigue. :-)

5) On that note, I got my run done today as soon as the kids were all off to school! So nice not to have that waiting for me when everyone is finally in bed!

Day seven

Oh gosh. This was another long day. A few weeks ago I spiked a really high fever and was super sick for a couple of days, but I never really had downtime to recover...I've been feeling run-down ever since. I think I'm coming down with something now and it's just hitting me like a ton of bricks!

1) Matthew slept in his own room last night. Not particularly well, but it's a start!

2) I cleared almost all of the baby stuff out of my room today--all that's left is his swing. My room suddenly feels SO HUGE! It's awesome. No more baby clothes, diapers, blankets, pacifiers, portable crib, rocking chair...it's so nice to walk into my room now and just see no kid stuff anywhere. So much more peaceful and relaxing.

3) I somehow managed to gut out 6.5 miles tonight. I didn't get to start until after 9 and I was so dang tired that I honestly did not know if I would make it past the first mile. But I did.

4) Isaac's teacher told me tonight at parent-teacher conferences that she has taught many high-ability children in the immersion HA class, but Isaac is truly gifted, and that's extremely rare. She rattled off a bunch of the little behaviors that drive me nuts (she's so frank! I love it! No glossing over anything!) and told me that they are all markers of the intensely gifted child. In her words, "He's a hot mess, but I love him, and he is absolutely amazing and tremendously gifted." A wonderful wonderful reminder for me on days when I'm just seeing the hot mess. :-) Which is pretty much 99% of the last few weeks. (Does it sound like I'm bragging? Maybe...but trust me, this is like the ONE GOOD THING I have to cling to about parenting right now, because we are in crisis mode with 3 of our children right now and I do not understand how I am still functioning other than the fact that somebody has to do it and that someone is apparently me.)

5) I got more "alone" time today driving from piano lessons to PT conferences and back than I have had in months. That's sad, but true, and it was a wonderful part of my day.

Day six

today was a hard, hard, hard day, and I'm typing this while I nurse Matthew, so it will probably be typo-ridden and brief.

1) I got my run in even though my legs felt like lead. Ten miles on the treadmill after the kids were in bed and I kept reminding myself that for every good race there are a lot of miserable training runs thst you just have to gut through.

2) It was warm enough today that the little boys played outside for about half an hour--that quiet was amazing and I got so much done!

3) We are really buckling down on sleep-training and did a whole bunch of rearranging so thst Matthew can (temporarily) have his own room. Fingers crossed bc the status quo is untenable.

4) I made treats to take into school tomorrow for Juliet and Isaac's half-birthdays, and I did not eat any of them. Doubled recipes of brownies and Rice Krispie treats--I'm pretty proud of that self-control!

5) Matthew ate right before we left for clarinet and slept through the grocery store stop-off in the way home. Little miracles.

Day 5

Today's five good things:

1) Stake conference today meant that church started an hour later, which meant there was time for me to make waffles for breakfast! (And for the kids to exhaustively recap all of the nightmares they've ever had that they can remember. Interesting way to start the day off...)

2) Abigail & I made orange rolls for dinner tonight--the last time I made them all of the kids HATED them and tonight they loved them! Good thing because who does not love orange rolls?!

3) Neil got a nap today. He's been living on the knife-edge of exhaustion, so I'm glad he got a break this afternoon.

4) I got an email earlier today notifying me that my federal and state tax returns, which I filed yesterday, have both been accepted--hurray!

5) Morning church means more leisure in the afternoons (the best!), so we made Juliet's favorite little tuna cakes for lunch today:

2 cans tuna, well-drained
1 small onion, diced finely
2-3 eggs, depending on size
1 c. panko crumbs
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. fresh lemon juice
2 T. mustard (either Dijon or yellow)
1/2 t, salt

Mix all the ingredients together--you should be able to squeeze them into a cohesive ball in your hand without it either slopping away or crumbling apart. It was a little crumbly today so I added another egg. Flatten into little round cakes (I usually do them 3-4 inches in diameter). Heat a nonstick pan, add a couple tablespoons of oil, and fry the cakes until golden-brown (2 minute or so), then flip and fry another 2 minutes. Yum!

Date night

Please tell me we're not the only people in the world whose date night involves standing in front of a Valentine display calling our kids to find out which ones they want to pass out and if they are SURE we can't make cute "Thumbody loves you" ones...ah, the grocery store. That repository of romance and inevitable stop on every date. :-)

1) Always fun to eat a dinner I didn't cook, especially if it's delicious Thai food! Neil was working from home today, but it still felt like I hadn't talked to him in ages. Anything is delightful when I'm with him. Even buying Star Wars Valentines. And Abigail is a stellar babysitter who is thrilled to be paid in sushi! :-)

2) One of my goals for January was to work on making my bedroom a peaceful haven again. I repainted and bought a new duvet cover, but unfortunately Matthew and his baby paraphernalia are still in there (I told my mom yesterday that I would put him in his real crib last night...all that happened was that I moved his bassinet up next to my side of the bed so I didn't even have to get out of bed to get him...so dang tired from his "I will wake up SIX times a night now!" thing). But I listed my storage hutch (which used to be in the kitchen and then got moved to my room and I so hated it being there!) on Craigslist and today someone bought it and took it away, so I waved goodbye to it with a mental thank-you for the 13 years I loved it--but a big sigh of relief that it's someone else's to love now. :-)

3) Last night I was doing my usual check of sleeping kids and found Nathan and Abigail tucked in together. They've started doing this on Friday nights (since that's the only night we have neither school nor church early the next day) and it's pretty cute. Abigail sure loves her littlest brothers--she always wants to hold Matthew or put him down for a nap or get him up, and yesterday as she was taking him into his room for a nap I saw her kiss his cheek over and over and whisper into his ear, "Oh Matty, I love you so so so much! You are the best baby in the world!"

4) I did yoga today after my run--I wanted to run a couple of extra miles just to bump up my weekly mileage (from 40 to 42) but I knew that the better long-term choice was to spend that time on really stretching and working on the painful spots. I don't always make this choice so I'm pretty proud of my maturity when I do. ;-)

5) I took the kids to the library this afternoon to give Neil some peace and quiet, and we picked up a couple of holds for Abigail that she has been anticipating for quite awhile. When we checked them out, I told her that she needed to finish a book for her English class before getting immersed in all the library books, since it would make it much harder to do well on the AR quiz for her assigned book if she took a big break in the middle. I knew she was not happy about this, but she took a deep breath, and said, "You're right--I will finish it first." And I was SO PROUD that she didn't make a fuss about it and just took it in stride! Parenting victory!!

Made it to Friday!!

Today's 5 good things:

1) Last night Neil and I were finishing up an episode of New Girl (thanks, Elise, for recommending it!) when we heard a knock on the door. We opened it to find a surprise visitor--one of our dear friends who now lives 8 hours away! It was so funny to me because at first it totally made sense to me that Jason would be there, especially since I'd just been texting Melanie about something and THEN I was like, wait, what the heck! So fun to get the chance to spend a couple hours catching up with him as we haven't seen their family since August! Hopefully we'll see Melanie & the kids soon too. :-)

2) Tonight we watched The King and I with the kids for "Classic Movie Night" (something we made up a long time ago to ensure that our kids have seen all those awesome old movies). Such a great film and immediately afterwards Isaac unbuttoned his pajama top, put his hands on his hips, and started strutting around saying "Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera!" I have the feeling we're going to be hearing that a lot! They were all completely fascinated by the "Small House of Uncle Thomas" play and we talked about the beautiful ways in which different cultures practice religious worship and use different forms of dance and costuming. Since my ulterior motive in picking this film this week was to fight back in my own little sphere against Trump's ban on Muslims and refugees, I ended the evening feeling victorious in my goals of teaching my children appreciation and respect for other cultures and religious beliefs. Even if it's through something as simple as a good movie. :-)

3) Luke and Abigail were working together on Luke's Valentines today (that Abigail is so sweet and helpful! She saw that he was having trouble fitting some parts together and she came right over and offered her assistance). At one point they were listening to a Coldplay song and Abigail said, "Why do they keep saying 'it was all yellow'"? and Luke--totally deadpan and without missing a beat--responded, "Probably because they are thinking with the minds of ducks." Hah!

4) Nathan is totally in love with the vacuum cleaner right now. Mostly he's super excited about vacuuming up his indoor-sandbox-of-wheat messes, but today I had him vacuum up all the flour dust that accumulates in a couple of the cabinets. Sweet!

5) I was nursing Matthew earlier and when he finished up I was just playing with him on my lap and making faces at him. At one point he made this really crazy laugh-thing (kind of like a dinosaur or bird call!) and it startled him so much that he totally jumped and then started laughing again. Oh, I love babies!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Whew! Today was a busy one. Got the kids off to school, got myself & the boys ready, and then we left and didn't get home until about 8 minutes before Abigail got home this afternoon. Yowza.

1) Part of our errands today involved the little boys and I driving Neil somewhere and waiting for him--we were in the waiting room for almost 2 hours and the boys were SO great! Nathan and I read about a million stories and Matthew took a good solid nap in his carseat, then played happily in my lap for awhile.

2) I caught the last day of the 99 cent blackberries sale. Yum yum yum!

3) I knew today was going to be super crazy, so I planned for a freezer meal dinner tonight. I was so glad to have dinner already made so that I could spend that time catching up on everything else & getting everyone through their homework!

4) Piano lessons were split up this week to accommodate some scheduling things; it was so nice to hear the lessons for the girls tonight! I always really enjoy chatting with their teacher and it's been months since I've been able to talk with her (lately Neil has been taking the kids since Matthew has a hard time with evenings). And I was really worried about how Matthew was going to do, but he fiiinnnally fell asleep with about 20 minutes to go, so I got to enjoy a little quiet space. :-)

5) I stocked up on my favorite tea at the store today...yum! I've got a mug steeping right now and I'm looking forward to sipping it in my nice clean kitchen before I call it a night. (This stuff is so good...I never put any sweetener in it and it's still delicious!)

Five for February

And here we go again with another year of Five for February, which I started back in 2011 as a way of instilling some gratitude into my bleak winter days. :-)

1) Tonight while Neil & the girls were at the church for Scouts/Activity Days, I had a peaceful hour reading stories with all four of the boys. Lovely! I reflected on how different storytime is with the computer-in-the-pocket era here to stay, as we ended up watching four YouTube videos when the shark book we were reading left us with lots of unanswered questions about the different swimming styles and leaping abilities of various sharks. Is it possible that my random shark facts obsession is passing to another generation? :-)

2) On the reading note, a new book arrived today! This is such a silly one that we all loved, but it's never checked in to the library so I finally just ordered our own. Luke giggles like crazy whenever we read it.

3) And speaking of which, Luke is a reading superstar! He's progressing so well (right now he's reading at a second-grade level). I love watching that world of words open up. We're getting close to the magical point where I start having him read Harry Potter to me and from there it just explodes. (Sidenote: Isaac finished the 7th Harry Potter book over Christmas break and Abigail just read Anne of Green Gables a couple weeks back. Good golly I love how reading takes us on such fantastic journeys!)

4) We had some great news today about Neil's research. I'll blog about it more in a few weeks, but things are looking really good for him these days.

5) Tonight's dinner was met with much acclaim from the kids, which is always so great to hear (Neil got home late enough that I didn't even hear his reaction to dinner, poor guy). It was not the dinner I'd planned to make, mostly because the last 3 days I've been too tired to go to the grocery store and get all the stuff on my list (Matthew is totally killing me with the 4-6 wakeups a night!!!). But the broccoli was SO good and got so many rave reviews that it made me feel like I'd pulled off some amazing feat overall. ;-)

So I was scrounging for dinner stuff tonight and this is what I ended up making: broiled chicken and apple sausages, garlic mashed potatoes (combo of russets and red potatoes because I didn't have enough of either), rice pilaf (with jasmine rice, which was a little odd but it tasted okay if you like rice pilaf, which 2/5 kids did), and the REAL hit--broccoli sauteed so that it was crisp in spots and tender in others (such good flavor with slightly blackened broccoli!!) and then tossed with lemon zest, fresh-squeezed lemon juice, and pink Himalayan salt. I've roasted broccoli quite a few times but this was the first time I've tried to replicate it on the stovetop. And Luke, who was my dinner helper tonight, was SO proud because he chopped the potatoes and broccoli, then squeezed the lemon juice. (I have this juicer-thingie and it is a total game-changer. AMAZING.)