Quick, before I get Sidetrack'd

Over the last 5 weeks our friends and my parents have been abundantly generous in providing food for my family. I feel overwhelmingly blessed by God’s provision! If you ever wonder if a meal you take to a new mom is appreciated, believe me, it is, more than can be expressed.

So, now it’s time for me to feed my family again, and that means back to menu planning. This is what we’re eating this week…

Saturday – lunch: fend / dinner: BBQ, fries, cinnamon apples

Sunday – lunch: leftovers / dinner: small group – breakfast

Monday – chicken broccoli cheese casserole, rolls

Tuesday – leftover casserole

Wednesday – spaghetti

Thursday – either waffles and bacon or bacon, eggs, & biscuits

Friday – pizza

Happy Monday!

While I haven’t yet read Ann Voskamp’s One Thousand Gifts I have heard great reviews of it (and do plan to read it one day soon). Inspired by the book and reviews, I want to keep a kind of thankfulness journal chronicling those every day things that so often get lost in the shuffle. So, from time to time, I will be listing a few, several, maybe just one thing that I have noticed in my days and for which I am thankful. I also plan to incorporate a list of thanks into our Fall schooling and encourage the older children to record a thanks for something each day.

Today I am thankful for…

1. the start of the Bible Study Fellowship year. The children and I were excited to get back to it this morning.

2. a toddler class at BSF so S can go to class instead of the nursery.

3. friends and family who have overwhelmed us with love and celebration as we welcome Baby M into our lives.

4. the abundance of meals that have been provided for our family the last few weeks.

5. the privilege of teaching E to read and the ability to school her at home.

6. a wonderful husband who loves, supports, encourages, and helps me. He’s the best!

7. 4 healthy children.

8. the privilege and responsibility of raising these little ones.

9. the laughter and joy that fill our house (most of the time, anyway).

10. rest time (which will begin as soon as I finish this post).

My children call fishing poles “fishing wands” and root beer “root beard”.

I wish I could record all of J’s speech right now to have when he is older. His enunciation, age-related speech “impediments”, tone of voice are just so cute (and often hilarious). I know that all too soon he will talk like a big boy and I love the way he speaks right now.

S is coming into her own in the speech department. She comes up to us and jabber, jabber, jabbers. Sometimes she points emphatically, sometimes she smiles. We know she’s telling us something, but have no clue what she’s saying. She does have a lot of words, though, including “ha-bow” (hairbow), “to-bus” (toothbrush), and the sweetest little “peese” (please) ever.

The other night after dinner we were discussing (at E’s prompting) what to do in the event of fire. J said that if your clothes are on fire you “stop, rock, and roll”.

J says “choke” when he means “joke”.

Any time a question is asked (such as, who wants dinner?) S raises both hands and says “Meeeee!”

J uses the word “usually” in place of “used to”. As in, “I usually tooked a paci when I was a baby.”

E is getting old enough that she doesn’t have many mispronounced or incorrectly used words. She often brings a smile to our faces with her phrasing or use of certain words, but most of her funny “baby speech” is long gone. It’s kind of sad. However, she currently uses the word “okay” like she’s a grown up. She will tell J or S something and then say, “okaaaaay?” in a high pitched voice.

Oh how I love “kid speak”. I’m really going to miss it in a few years when our kiddos are older, but right now I will smile, laugh, and soak it up (and record as much of it as I can).

We woke up this morning with big plans to visit the zoo with my best friend Stacey and her daughter S. We haven’t been to the zoo since May because it has been too hot.

The weather is beautiful this week. The doors and windows have been open yesterday and today. Mid-70s for highs. A perfect day for the zoo.

Everyone was up, dressed, fed, and ready to go at our appointed departure time. I got everyone buckled in their seats. We set off.

The car needed gas. Not a big deal, but a delay that would put us a few minutes behind when Stacey and I had agreed to meet. I got the car filled up and we were on our way again.

I got about 2 miles down the road and realized that I forgot to put on deodorant after I got out of the shower. U-turn back to the house. Again, not a big deal, just a delay. I ran in, put on deodorant, and we set off once more.

Just before we got to the interstate on-ramp, I heard explosive vomiting in the back seat. S had thrown up all over the car. I tried not to gag as I, once again, turned the car around and headed back home. I had two very disappointed kiddos on my hands, but what could I do?

We got home. I unloaded everyone from the car. I stripped two car seats (yep, the explosion got all over M’s seat and car seat as well). I cleaned the upholstery on two captain’s chairs. I dug into every nook and crevice in S’s seat trying to get it clean.

Once that was done, I gave S a bath to get the yick off of her. And started in on the laundry. I started the day with about 3 loads to do (plus a load of diapers). The explosion added 2 more loads (including the car seat covers). I still have a laundry room floor full of dirty laundry.

Now she acts like she’s fine.

Yep, some days are like this.