Potpourri of Pointless Prose

In an effort to lift my grouch status after yesterday's post, I will happily share that the train table has redeemed itself back to "fairly appropriate with some practice" on the gift list. My children headed for the basement at 9:15 this morning, and except for the occasional outburst, I did only minimal intervening for the entire morning. It was delightful.

While they played, I cleaned out my pantry. I rearranged, threw out, wiped down shelves, organized, made lists, mopped the floor and dusted the trim. I never understand why I find things like seven ice cream bucket lids with absolutely no containers to match.

I'm having issues with writing my posts. When I want to go back and edit something I've already written above, I can't get the cursor where I want it just by clicking on that spot. Some weird cross thing shows up and a clip/print menu pops up. It takes anywhere from 4-7 tries to make it happen correctly. Anyone else having this problem or am I just a technological idiot? Be nice when you answer that.

It seems like everyone I talk to has news of the stomach flu. They are either related to, friends with, or has heard of someone who is puking. I'm locking my doors and none of us are coming out until April.

I called my husband at work this morning and asked him to stop at the library to pick up the two books that had come in for me. He said, "what are you going to do with two books?" I said, "Read them!" His response: "Because you don't have enough to do?" I think that was secret code for "The house is a disaster, why would I want to give you more reason to sit around and not take care of anything?" OK, who am I kidding. There was no secret code about that. That's just flat out what he was saying.

In the spirit of the snowy forecast, I'll share my son's favorite snow past time.

After 7 minutes out in the cold, cold snow after our last storm, he came to the door crying. He was tired of falling down and not being able to get back up, but he was begging for snow to eat. Why not. It's low cal, fat free, and cost effective.

R.I.P.

This gift may be the death of me.

Did you ever buy something for your child KNOWING it was going to be the PERFECT gift? My 1 year old (almost 2) loves trains. Lives and breathes trains. We've been to three friends' houses with train tables and he will stand there and play for hours. At ToysRUs, he loves the model set they have. At his cousins house - same thing. So we decided this would be the perfect gift for him.

I've been counting down the days until this gift could be opened. Yes, I have been counting down the days. We have this cheap, nasty train set that he asks for every day. The only place to set it up is in the middle of my kitchen floor. The pieces fall apart. The bridges fall down. It causes a lot of tears and drama. And yelling and fit throwing.

I was ready for Christmas. Bring on the train table.

The minute he tore the paper off, he started begging, "Build it, daddy. Build it, daddy!"

The present was opened at grandma's house, since it was from the grandparent's too. We brought it home last night and found a good spot in the basement. I knew it would be the first thing my son went for this morning. He cruised downstairs right after breakfast and I sighed a contented sigh. I could clean up the kitchen in peace. I was mentally making a list of everything I would accomplish today. Wait, what was that noise?

Crying? No way.

Yelling? No way.

Fit throwing? No way. This cannot be happening.

"It's stuck, mama!"

"My train won't hook up, mama!"

"It fell down, mama!"

And, my favorite, "My choo-choo train has a problem, mama!" Great, call in the psych team for that engine, because I am DONE with this train thing.

The disapointment is almost as great as when I was a kid and didn't get exactly what I wanted for Christmas.

OK, technically, I'm still holding out hope that he will figure out what the train can and can't do, how to cross the bridge without causing world war III, and that the magnets don't connect right when you try to put an engine on the front AND the back of the train.

The highlight of my morning - after much crying and screaming (from the child, not me) - was when I read this in the "train manual".

"This toy is intended for the enjoyment and development of children between the ages of 3 and 8. It has been specifically designed and tested for use by children of that age range in a constructive setting...Do not buy your 2-year-old a toy meant for children ages 3 and above...Use of the toy by persons other than children of the intended age may result in injury to the user or bystander..."

Yes, yes, I could see how injury might result from this.....however, they forgot the warning about loss of sanity.

10 Christmas Wishes

I'm stealing a friend's 10 idea for today, but really, if we're honest, it's what we are all thinking about four days before Christmas. I might not only be stealing her idea, but some of her wishes as well.

I wish for:

1. The weather to cooperate so my three out of town friends can gather together this weekend for a short but sweet Christmas moment.
2. Health. I'm scared to even mention that we've (even our extended families) been fairly healthy for many consecutive days now.
3. A quiet fire pager. No fires, no accidents, no false alarms, no CO leaks, no power line issues, no EMS back-ups. I'm guessing this might be asking for a bit too much, but I can always wish.
4. My son to learn his way around Webkinz World so computer time again becomes his thing instead of our thing.
5. To cook as little as possible.
6. To somehow minimize "gift getting" and focus on giving.
7. A strong, healthy back for my mom so she can enjoy the holidays without pain.
8. Safety for all those traveling here and there and everywhere.
9. To feel after the final Christmas family celebration that it wasn't all a blur of frantic activity, but a special time of togetherness and sharing.
10. To keep the main thing the main thing. I want my children to remember the baby in the manger, the special gift from God, and that the story doesn't end with the birth of Jesus. And that it's not just a "story", but everyday truth for all who are willing to accept the gift.

Really Long Day

Yesterday was a day for the record books. Here's how it went.

8:15 a.m. -- Dropped the boys off at grandma's so I could report for jury duty for the first time ever.

9:00 a.m. -- Jury selection process started.

10:00 a.m. -- Selection process still going.

11:00 a.m. -- The benches are getting really hard.

11:30 a.m. -- Still going, but I realize at this moment I will not be selected. The attorney asked if anyone had experience with adoption, specifically adopted kids. I was the only one in the room, and to top it off, I had biological and adopted kids. So did the defendant, with alleged abuse toward the adopted and not biological children.

1:30-4:15 p.m. -- More questions, more sitting. Finally at 4:15 they have selected the jury. I get to go home.

4:30 p.m. -- I call my husband to let him know I will be picking up the boys and heading home. He answers the phone like this: "We have a big problem. Our son just swallowed a quarter." I automatically think it's the 22 month old, he puts everything in his mouth. Nope, it's the five year old. I tell him to meet me at grandma's in two minutes and I call his pediatrician to see what to do. The verdict: if he's breathing okay bring him to us (hospital 20 minutes away), if not, take him to your local hospital (rinky-dink little place).

He was gagging quite a bit, but was breathing fine, so we loaded up for the hospital.

5:00 p.m. -- We check in with the doctor.

5:15 p.m. -- It's time to head over for x-rays. The first one doesn't show anything. My first thought - "Did he really swallow it, or are we here for nothing?" They take another shot. Oh yes, it's in there, way up high. They take another shot - I guess they need a side view too.

5:45 p.m. -- Back to the doctor's office. There's good news and bad news. The good news: the quarter is in the esophagus, not the trachea, which is why he was gagging so much, but still able to breathe. He will need to go to surgery and be put under to get it out. The bad news: No one at this hospital feels comfortable doing that type of surgery. We have to head 30 more minutes down the road to mega-hospital that covers 24 city blocks.

6:30 p.m. -- Everything is in order to head south. Thank goodness my son is so tired by this point (no nap in the afternoon, too busy eating money) that he sleeps all the way to the next hospital. I'm not sure how kids can sleep with quarters stuck in their throat, but he did it.

7:00 p.m. -- Arrive at the ER, get admitted, IV started, and answer the same questions all over again. "No, I wasn't there when it happened. No, I don't know why he put the quarter in his mouth. No, grandma didn't see it happen either. I'm not sure when he ate last, let me call grandma." The only thing that kept me from feeling like a terrible mother was that I was fulfilling my civic duty in court!

8:30 p.m. -- Time to head up to OR for surgery prep. We head the waiting room. More sitting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting.

9:15 p.m. -- Okay, we didn't wait that long. The surgeon came out, gave us the quarter, and said everything went fine. He's a little roughed up in there, so take it easy with soft foods at first. Wait some more.

10:00 p.m. -- The nurse gives us an update. He's waking up a little, but having a hard time completely waking up. It will be a little while yet.

10:30 p.m. -- They wheel him out. Okay, where are we going? Oh, they can't dismiss us from anywhere in the OR, we have to be checked in to pediatrics in order to be dismissed. Great.

11:45 p.m. -- He has drank some Sprite and gone pee. Good, let's go home. Where did our nurse go?

12:30 a.m. -- She'll be with us in a few minutes.

1:00 a.m. -- Whew. We are walking out of the hospital. Most normal people would have driven straight home at this point, but no, not us, we were starving. No one had eaten since lunch. We drove through Spangles for my favorite - turkey club on pita - and some ice cream for my son since he was so brave (and because he hadn't eaten since lunch either).

2:00 a.m. -- My head hits the pillow. What a day.

In spite of all this craziness, God was watching out for us in SO many ways. The quarter didn't affect his breathing, my husband and I were both 2 minutes from grandma's when it happened, immediate care was open so we didn't have to go to the ER at the first hospital, the other grandma was working at the first hospital, so she could take little brother home with her, all the nurses and doctors were great, we didn't have to stay the (whole) night in the hospital, AND I didn't get picked for jury duty. I can't imagine if I would have had to report there at 9:00 this morning. Ugh.

I'm hoping for an un-eventful Christmas!!

You Know You Live In The Middle of Nowhere When...

Two different storms last week left us cold and without power for a few days, and then running around in our snow boots a few days later. Since I missed my Friday 10, I'll take this moment to enlighten you with this list.

You know you live in the middle of nowhere when...

1. The dirt road you live on is smoother after the snow drifts across it than it was before it started snowing.
2. Your electricity is off, but you can't completely move the entire family out because someone has to stay to bail water out of the sump pump every two hours. So you have buckets and buckets of water sitting in your basement, but...
3. You have no water to shower with, drink, or flush toilets with because it takes electricity to run the well.
4. The "neighbors" across the way have to park their cars in the road because there are so many tree limbs covering the yard that they can't drive in the driveway.
5. You question if the trash truck will actually come to your house on the scheduled day.
6. The electric company tells you that they will have power back on sometime in 1 - 30 days.
7. It is pitch black in the house when the lights go off because your yard light turned schizophrenic two years ago when the power line to your house got struck by lightening.
8. Your electricity still goes out three times each day, even though your power is officially "back on" again.
9. You grill steaks in near blizzard-like conditions because you promised your friends and because no one can see you performing this idiotic task.
10. You can't see where the road ends and where the driveway begins because of all the drifting - and you only got five inches of snow.

Sacrilegious??

My 1 year old loves music of any kind, and loves singing everything he can remember. His latest favorite is a camp song I sang as a young child. The boys and girls always had a competition to see who could sing their part the loudest. It's the "Hallelujah" song.

"Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah"
"Praise Ye The Lord."
"Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah"
"Praise Ye The Lord."
"Praise Ye The Lord."
"Hallelujah."
And so on...

I've been singing this to my 1 year old while we rock for a few minutes before bed. He's starting to sing with me.

So tonight I sang: "Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah"

Then I stopped to see what he would do.

He belted out: "Craa-zy Lord"

Close. But not quite. We may have to work on that line before he's allowed to sing in church.

Memorable Holiday Moments

I am really loving the holiday season this year. I don't know if it is because of the age of my kids, or that my Christmas shopping is pretty much done, or the list of fun holiday get-togethers coming up soon, or because I am not teaching a room full of holiday-spastic kids, but I am SO EXCITED for Christmas. So, in the spirit of the season, here are 10 fun memories of Christmastime.

1. Trips to Illinois to grandpa and grandma's house. One year we traveled the 600 miles there and then got stuck in a blizzard one mile from their house. We weren't sure if we were going to make it or not, but we finally got through!


2. Christmas Eve kid programs. They weren't of any great quality, but they were fun to be in.


3. Candy sacks and oranges for all of us after the program.


4. My very first (and only) Cabbage Patch Kid. Her name was Renetta and her birthday was October 1.


5. Finally having an excuse to eat a lot of junk - and mom and dad usually letting me.


6. My first Christmas after getting married. We had no ornaments at all to put on the tree, so we bought little kid "stained glass" ornaments and spent the afternoon together painting them. We still hang them up!


7. Christmas Caroling in -20 degree weather. It's at those moments that you decide nursing home residents need much more Christmas caroling cheer than anyone else in the world.


8. Trip to Branson with good friends and no kids (we didn't have any yet). An ice storm arrived the first night we were there, shutting down nearly everything in the entire city. The only restaurant open was Ruby Tuesday's and the only business open was Walmart. We swam during a thunder ice/snow storm and the electricity went out, locking us out of our hotel rooms. We played Phase 10 and watched CMT all weekend long. It was great!


9. Nursing my baby by tree-light. Just when I was SO TIRED of getting up in the night with our newborn, it was time to set up the Christmas tree. Being able to sit in the living room with only the tree lights on for the 3:00 a.m. feeding made being awake bearable once again. It's a good thing the little guy figured out the skill of sleeping through the night before the tree had to come down.


10. Christmas of 2006 - stuck at home with two little boys with fevers. Granted, the kids were sick, but we still decorated Christmas cookies and enjoyed a leisurely Christmas together without having to rush off anywhere. It was our first Christmas with two children - it just felt complete.

Happy December!

BEFORE

AFTER

There is still a lot to do -- finish trimming out the window, wire a phone line, put up the hall light, install a handrail on the stairs, put in door knobs...but at least it's usable!! I AM SO THANKFUL for my husband and all the work he has put into this, which is basically every detail except installing the carpet. It made for many stressful evenings, but now seems worth every one of them.

Random Thoughts

The basement is scheduled to be carpeted tomorrow. I have been counting down to this day for many, many weeks. Stay tuned for drastic before and after pictures.

The reindeer cupcakes were disappointing. The cookbook neglected to mention that if you put the reindeer faces on the cupcakes and store them in a container for any length of time that the oreo cookie will get soft and the pretzels will no longer be crunchy. I probably should have known that.

Thank goodness today's "fun Christmas thing" was Take a Special Christmas Treat to a Friend. How convenient that we had cupcakes around. Wonder how that worked out so well?

My five year old and I went on the great toy clean-out today. We went through his toybox, shelf, and three living room toy baskets. He helped me decide (with a little parental persuasion) which toys to keep, which ones to pass down to little brother, and which ones to pass on to other children in need. I was proud of his willingness to get rid of stuff.

I've learned it's never safe to say "I'm done Christmas shopping." Every time I speak those words, I think of one more gift I need to purchase. I think I may need another girls' shopping weekend to finish shopping.

If I'm not alive tomorrow it's because my husband read what I just wrote about another girls' weekend.

I have been introduced to flylady.net. She overwhelms me. But I will say that at least my sink is clean, my dresser tops are not cluttered, and I completed the "throw away 27 pieces of paper" task for today. Ahhh, I can sleep tonight.

Kitchen Crazy

I've updated my "kitchen" status. After accomplishing this feat, I am no longer kitchen challenged, I'm just crazy.

A friend of mine told me about a tradition they do at Christmas time. They come up with 25 fun Christmas things to do -- i.e. make cookies, go look at lights, take a special treat to someone -- and they draw out one thing each day of December until Christmas. So, last night (we got a late start on this tradition), we made a red and green chain with 22 things to do between now and Christmas. It was no easy task coming up with 22 things.

Here was today's "fun Christmas thing" -- Reindeer Cupcakes.

I had two little girls here today, and they were excited to help us with this project. This is what we sounded like:

"Can I eat some chocolate chips?"
"Can I eat these red things?"
"Oh, these are spicy." (from three year old who then spits it back on the table)
"Does anyone want to watch a video?" (me)
"How many white ones can I have?"
"My eye won't stay on!"
"This is fun."
"Achoo. Achoo." (Yes, she just sneezed all over the two reindeer faces she was working on.)
"Can I eat more chocolate chips?"
"Is anyone ready for a break? You can watch a movie." (me)
"I'm waiting for more white glue stuff."
"How many pretzels can I have?"

After they had each completed three reindeer faces - minus the antlers because the white "glue" was still too soft -- I made the executive decision that it was rest time in the living room for the these little people. Whew.

I then spent the rest of my afternoon assembling reindeer faces, making cupcakes, frosting cupcakes, and putting the reindeer on top, all while grumbling about Christmas traditions.

Then the little people saw them. You would have thought I had just built a ToysRUs in the backyard. They were excited.

Christmas traditions really are worth it, even if it seems crazy.

The Reward

See, they loved them.

Very much.

Although, the "popsicle" concept didn't work to well for little guy.

And yes, I know they would have loved them just as much if I would have bought them at the store.

Kitchen Challenged

I have never proclaimed to be a good cook. Or even remotely knowledgeable about anything related to cooking. But I can at least keep my family fed and decently well-nourished. Today, however, one would have to wonder about me.

My son has been begging me to make strawberry popsicles again (we did this one time this summer) and I finally agreed to do it today. Why not? It's at least 37 degrees outside.

So I started searching for the recipe. Where would I have put a popsicle recipe?

Under appetizers and beverages? No. But I found a missing muffin recipe there.

Under snacks? No. But there was my playdough recipe.

Under cookies and candies? No. But I think that is where ham and potato casserole landed.

I was getting desperate and just started looking in every category because obviously my filing system was not that reliable anyway.

Twenty minutes later I still had no popsicle recipe. I know, most of the world could probably pull off strawberry popsicles without a recipe, but I was not that brave. I had searched through every possible category and even my 2nd recipe box - the one that holds the recipes that people have given me on cards so gigantic they don't fit in a regular box - to see if somehow it had jumped in there. I was about to give up and suggest something else when my five year old said to me, "mom, last time we made popsicles, didn't we use that kids cookbook that grandma gave us?"

Ah hah. I'm glad someone in the family still has a brain. Maybe I can train him to be the cook of the family.

Another 20 minutes later we had everything combined, poured into the little cups, and ready for the freezer.

The recipe said to freeze them for two hours and then put in the popsicle sticks. I even set the timer so I wouldn't forget.

I guess I need a louder timer. Guess where the "popsicles" (really just frozen stuff in a cup at the moment) are right now?

Sitting on the counter THAWING so I can put in the sticks. I almost tried a hammer, but it's too cold to go to the garage to find it.

I do not remember popsicle making occupying my entire day last time we attempted the task. Oh, what we do for our kids. They better love them. They will love them. They don't have a choice.