Happy Halloween!

The costumes are ready and Teresa's birthday present . . . oops . . . is not quite wrapped. (There's no time like the present, I suppose!) ha ha hee hee
(Sorry, the pumpkin guts must have gone to my brain!) :o)
Today was pumpkin carving day! Grandma Shirley and Aunt Amanda were here to help with the event.
First we had to have a plan of attack.

Then we got to work!

I left the "gutting" to the boys and grandma.

You can see our finish products below. Look closely and you will see the resemblance between Landen and his creation!

Customize your own free ecard

If you still follow the tradition of lighting your jack-o-lantern with a candle (and cutting off the top as opposed to the bottom), I do have a couple tips. I use a birthday candle. The flame is big enough to illuminate the pumpkin and it burns itself out. It will stick right into the bottom. Also, light a dry strand of spaghetti to get your flame to the candle waaayy down inside the pumpkin.
Happy Halloween!

Baby Time

Today we are entertaining our friend Henry, who is almost 4 months old. He is easy to get along with and is very cute. We absolutely love his visits.
Days spent with babies fly by. There isn't much time in the three-hour eat/play/sleep cycle to get bored. Henry is also quite fond of spitting up (as were 2 of my 3), so that makes for frequent wardrobe changes for both of us. Then it's time to eat again and start all over!
Before Landen left for school, he said today would get me ready for another baby. I told him I didn't think that would happen, but we could certainly have fun with the babies who visit. He was fine with that. Whew!
Nathan and Teresa love their little friend and doted on him for the first couple hours he was here. Nathan can't wait for Henry to be big like him. He likes him as a baby, but isn't too crazy about the whole erupting thing.
Gotta run. It's changing time again!

Siblings

Nathan and Teresa are having another love/hate afternoon, but that's nothing new. Their relationship has always been a bit tumultuous. It took Nathan about a year to get over his dethroning and accept that our new pink wiggly baby was not going anywhere.
Once Landen started going to school, Nathan & Teresa became much better friends. It was merely out of necessity.
Most of their play is all good or all bad--and it can change without warning. Thus has been the play of this afternoon--giggling immediately followed by crying and, "Stop it!"
When it matters, though, Nathan has his little sister's back. I love to see him watching out for her (when he can't see me watching, of course). It will be a great help for Teresa to have two older brothers as she grows.
It is just too bad her big brother now spends a good part of his time hitting her in the back instead of protecting it!

My little SUPERHEROES from last summer

Busy, Busy

This week has been busy with getting ready for Halloween! I finished Teresa's princess tutu and fixed Nathan's Spiderman costume last night. He is SO excited for his party at school tomorrow and trick-or-treating on Sunday.
So, I apologize for my lack of posts, but hope I can make up for it with some cute pictures on Monday morning. :o)

Thoughts from Today

Wohoo! I managed to get 2 miles in on the treadmill while Teresa was entertained by her favorite friends, "Max & Ruby."
Meteorologist Shawn Cable reported that tomorrow will be the "Best Day Ever." I have high hopes.
I forgot to dust again. Oh, well.
It was pretty clever of Teresa to line up her animals in the coat closet and play "movie theater" with them.
Seriously? I need to drive David's cell phone charger to him again? Good thing he does a few nice things for me, too.
Yes! Teresa fell asleep on the way to pick up Nathan from school.
Lunch at 2pm? Such is life during harvest!
Nathan found his new calling as a teacher of his 2 year old cousin and sister. They did whatever he said and he was in absolute heaven being the "boss" for a change!
But, was it really necessary for the students to use 50+ random puzzle pieces for their lunch?
Having a night off from the Beach Boys was nice.
Landen wants to be a hunter for Halloween. This makes me VERY happy. I kept forgetting to ask him what he wanted to be and was afraid it was going to be something much more complicated!
As Nathan's tiredness increases, so do the number of things that hit the wall downstairs. That kid would have a ball in a padded room.
Not setting a place for my husband at meals has become normal. I don't like that.
Harvest is nearing completion and it is mid-October. I like that very much.
SERIOUSLY--stop throwing things against the wall!

Surprise Blooms

Something caught my eye in my backyard flowers a few days ago. My Cosmos were blooming again--in October! Earlier this summer they had light pink flowers and this time they are almost purple.
I brought a few into the house to enjoy. I hope you like them, too!

Tunes

The office moving continues. I have 99% of my stuff upstairs (David helped with the desk) and have been busy organizing. David's stuff will be downstairs until after harvest, but that is fine with me. Landen is the one who is getting impatient! He can't wait to move into HIS new "office"!
He found a CD/tape player that I had been storing downstairs. We don't have the cord anymore and I didn't have enough C batteries. I finally bought some today. Landen just couldn't wait to get his favorite CD playing on his own player. His grandma even gave him an old microphone to use yesterday, too.
Unfortunately, we found soon after the battery installation that the CD feature does not work anymore. He did not take this well. What followed was a wail as loud and incessant as the mating call of a moose. It was the most obnoxious sound--and I hear A LOT of obnoxious sounds in a day.
I had to put the player away until he cooled off. Then I suggested a tape. He had no idea there was such a thing as a tape that played music. I came downstairs and grabbed the first one off the top of the pile--The Beach Boys. It took him a minute to warm up to the idea, but after a few songs he decided it was OK. Now we are rocking away to "I Get Around."
He did have one question about how to find a song. I told him you have to push forward or rewind and you have to guess how long. "You have to GUESS?" he asked. He was horrified that finding a song could be so inconvenient!
Judging by how fast the turn around has been for "I Get Around" in the time I have been typing, I'd say he has it pretty much figured out!

Jesus Loves the Little Children

Last Saturday evening, our family was in town working on the Lutheran church lawn. I was mowing and David was trimming trees away from the parsonage. David told me this story after we got home. I thought our boys had finally gotten the concept that Jesus and our priest and pastor were all different people, but apparently not.

As they were trimming trees, Pastor looked out the window.
Nathan said, "Pastor is looking at us."
Then Pastor went back to what he was doing inside.
Nathan then asked, "Why doesn't Jesus want to look at us?

Moving and Stuff

I'm moving again! This makes . . . hmm . . . move #5 in the past 9 1/2 years, and I've never had alert the post office. That's right--all of those moves have taken place in the same house.
The new office is finally finished and is move-in ready! David wanted a dark brown, so that's what I started with. My friend/third-cousin by marriage (I'm related to most people here) Roxanne gave me the idea of staining the walls over the paint. She came over and gave me a run-down on the technique. The most important rule, she said, was to do it all at one time. That was going to be the tricky part!
Since I can barely use the bathroom without being interrupted (on a good day), my new brown walls stayed that way for a couple weeks--just waiting for the perfect opportunity. It was such a long time that David even suggested I just leave them as paint--and he has barely been home during that time to see it!
As soon as all three kiddos went home with Grandma on Sunday evening, I cracked open the can of walnut gel stain and got to work. It only took me 2 hours to do the room and it made such an amazing difference!
I didn't think to take a "before," but here are a couple "afters"


(That is the one completed corner I have moved into.)
These periodic mini-moves have been huge in keeping the level of stuff down in our house. I thought I had just cleaned out the basement office not long ago, but I was amazed at how much stuff I had still been holding onto! Back-up disks for my first 1995 computer? Gone. The owner's manuals for our circa 1980's microwave and previous phones? Gone and gone. Magazines I was holding onto for reference, but hadn't looked at in years? See ya! Two copies of "Your Pregnancy and Birth?" I allowed myself one out of sentimentality. 60,000 possible baby names? I kept 10,000. (You know--in case we get a goldfish or something.) All of my scrapbooking supplies? Newly organized in the previous dresser drawers!
Now I just need someone to help me move my desk upstairs. It isn't too heavy, but it is a two-person job. I hope Landen is feeling strong--and helpful--when he gets home from school today.

Copy Cat

I hate to be a copy cat . . . really I do, but I can't help it! It seems that Alicia at la famille and I have been on the same wavelength lately.
I have been hit with a bit of a bug. It is quite unpleasant and has hung on for weeks. It is a "comparing myself to everyone else and always coming up short" bug. I'm not proud of this, since I know that I have nothing to complain about, but I'm throwing it out there as further evidence that I am not, in fact, Super Wife/Mom.
At Alicia's recommendation, I bought a copy of "Calm My Anxious Heart" by Linda Dillow. It is a Bible-based woman's guide to finding contentment.

Usually I am quite content, but this bug has taken contentment from me. In many ways, I am thankful to be home with my children. BUT, when the laundry and dishes are endless, the crying and fighting constant, the toys are hitting the wall, and the "MOOOOOOMMMM"s never stop, I start to get a teensy-eensy bit resentful of my husband who is living out his dream career. I also start to think that every other mom and her children must have it all together, unlike our family. But, here's the scary part. I don't have a real desire to go back to teaching (my former dream career) when the time comes either. That's what, as Landen would say, "freaks me out."
I enjoyed every part of "Calm My Anxious Heart" and will refer back to it. It is full of Biblical wisdom. As I was reading, I realized how these quotes and readings were overlapping in my life--daily mass readings, Sunday readings, and the book. I started to realize God REALLY wanted me to get this message!
Here are a couple of my favorite images:
1. Psalm 16:5 "Lord, you have assigned my portion and my cup. You have made my lot secure." We all have different cups and different portions. The one I have has been given to me by God. It doesn't matter how it differs from others; it is the one I am meant to have.
2. On the difficult days/weeks/years, I need to remember that it will not be that way forever. I liked Andrew Murray's prayer, "I am here (1) by God's appointment, (2) in his keeping, (3) under his training, (4) for His time."
3. He will present the next step of the journey in His time.
The events of the past days have helped in calming my heart, too--a wonderful time with my sister at a women's conference on Saturday, spending quality time with my husband and family, and my mother-in-law's generous offer to take all three kids home with her last night.
Ahh . . . things are looking up.

Mom Quote of the Day

Here is my Mom Quote of the Day:

"Be quiet, guys! I'm trying to see!"

I am aware at how this mom business has affected my spoken grammar, but now I'm not even making sense!

Flat Tire

Today I experienced my first flat tire. Nathan & Teresa and I were taking dinner out to a field about 15 miles from our house.
Teresa had just dozed off, Nathan was quiet, I was gratefully listening to the radio. Then something odd happened. The low tire pressure signal came on. This time it was different than the times the tires were cold or a tire had a slow leak. This time the pressure in my left rear tire was dropping--and fast. I managed to get to a safe place to stop about a mile from where David was harvesting. We hopped out and watched the tire finish its descent to pancake status.
As always in situations where I am easily stressed, my husband was super patient and we worked together to locate and lower the spare tire, and put it on.
I think I could almost do it myself if it ever happens again, but I don't want to take that chance! Having a flat tire wasn't how I planned to spend my afternoon, but at least it happened close to our destination! It could have been much worse.

Oh, to Be a Goldfish

One would think that today would have been an easy day. I'm sure my husband thinks so. He has had at least one of our children with him all day, leaving only one or two for me at a time. It sounds wonderful! Too bad it hasn't been.
It just so happens, the child or children who have been with me at any given time today have been especially high maintenance. If they aren't fighting with each other, they have been challenging me. It's not even 7:30pm and I'm wiped out.
I sent Nathan & Teresa downstairs awhile ago after a pillow and temper-tantrum throwing incident turned me into Ugly Mom.
I sat down in my chair with a book to give me some perspective and the Food Network to soothe me. Then the funniest commercial came on TV. I had never seen it before. It is for a brand of frozen food--Farmfresh?--I don't remember exactly, but the commercial goes like this:
"When my kids were babies, they were so cute I could have just eaten them up.
Some days, I wish I had."
Sometimes God gives me a laugh when I need it most.
Here's to early bedtimes and a better day tomorrow!