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Easter Wine     Sun, 24 Apr 2011 05:14 pm
Actually, in our house that would be 'Easter Whine.' The kids have had a good time, but this is by far the most whine-filled Easter we've ever celebrated.

We spent the week working towards Easter with our Easter advent calendar. Some highlights would be Philip giving donkey rides to all the kids and having a banquet night with the kids (acting out the parable of the wedding banquet). This weekend we got to participate in the community Easter egg hunt, have dinner and another hunt with wonderful friends, made our resurrection cookies and ate them for breakfast this morning before we had another egg hunt around the house. We made our way to church and spent a good portion of the time walking kids out to the car for a 'talkin' to' because of behavior. The girls got to wear their sister dresses that a friend made for them to celebrate their first Easter as sisters and we headed home for our annual egg war. The kids and I have been filling empty egg shells with confetti for the past few weeks so we could enjoy chasing each other around the front yard throwing them at each other and making a huge mess. It's actually quite therapeutic to crack an egg over a kids' head after they've spent the day whining at you!




In the midst of all the eggs and diapers and time outs and baskets you sometimes wonder if the kids have absorbed any of the real reason for the celebration. It was encouraging to overhear Josiah teaching Leeza the Easter story during nap time and Gracie getting upset when we got to the crucifixion part of our reading. Leeza has no idea what's going on, but she's learned to yell 'Hosanna' when she's excited about something...it's a start. :)
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And so it begins     Sun, 10 Apr 2011 06:53 pm


If you are curious, the images above is how the older girls where entertaining themselves while their brother was busy. Kasia? Well she was off being amazingly adorable somewhere else in the house. So, exactly what was Josiah off being so busy about? Well, I am glad you asked. I finally got the kids computer set up and they (Josiah) is very excited about it. We decided they would earn computer time in various ways. One of these is for Josiah to practice his reading. So, he does! If given the chance he would go through 10 or more books a day. Just watch him below:


Yep, he's a natural. I expect we will be moving on to Pride & Prejudice within the year. On a very different note, I also have a video of our 2 hour wait in the Neurosurgery clinic before heading down to Texas last month. What else do you do with four kids under five in a 6' x 10x room full of medical equipment? We weren't sure so we recorded it. I hope you enjoy!


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I'm Tired     Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:03 pm
As a parent you expect to be woken up for things like dirty diapers, midnight feedings, wet beds, throw up and a baby cutting teeth. At least one of those things happens at least once a week around here. It's the other, more creative reasons, that are causing me to turn to caffeine far too many mornings. Here's just a few we've had recently...
  • "My foot itches/hurts and I want you to scratch/massage it."
  • "My stuffed animal fell over and I want you to pick him up."
  • "My water is old. I want fresh water."
  • "What are we going to have for breakfast?"
    • (at 4am)
  • "Leeza sent me to get you because she got her arm stuck in her shirt."
  • "Leeza crawled into a cubby hole and she's stuck. But she's reading a book so she's ok."
  • "I've been trying to read, but you turned all the lights off and that makes it really hard."
    • (It was 2am)
  • "I think I might have to poop but I don't want to do it without you."
  • "I think I have a boogie in my nose. Would you check?"
  • "It's 2:37. You said I could get up where there was a '7' on my clock."
  • "My blankets fell off and I'm too tired to put them back on. You do it."
  • "The girls are going swimming so why won't you let ME? And where is my snack?"
    • (he was still dreaming)

I'm wondering if it's really immoral to drug your children to sleep...just once a week or so. Just kidding. Sort of.
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Stir Fry Trauma     Tue, 22 Feb 2011 05:56 pm
Meal times have turned into traumatic events around here lately. Leeza apparently has a lifelong goal to never voluntarily eat a vegetable and Grace has entered the 'BUT IT'S YUCKY!!!' stage. Unfortunately the house rule is that you must at least take a no-thank-you-bite of everything on your plate or you sit there until nap/bed time and are re-served the same plate at the next meal. It's not a lot of fun, but we're sticking to our guns and refusing to have picky kids. Hopefully some day mealtimes will once again be pleasant, but for now we end up with kids sitting at the table an hour after dinner.
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Trips and Pooh     Sun, 20 Feb 2011 01:49 pm
We made our first real road trip last weekend since Leeza's been home and it went amazingly well. Leeza had calmed down about being in the car for longer than 30 minutes and Kasia got to face forward for the first time so she loved it...until she starting throwing up. A little over half way to Minnesota to visit some friends she got sick and by that time it made more sense to keep going so we could get her settled for the night in a hotel. Even sick she's a trooper! God has truly given us a ray of sunshine in her to get through some hard days recently. That night, as all 6 of us were supposed to be quieting down to sleep, Philip and I listened as Josiah explained to Leeza how to get into Heaven, Kasia threw up, Grace coughed and then spontaneously broke out in a loud version of the Zacheaus song and Leeza kept trying to convince Josiah it was OK if she laid on him. We had a good time, but we're VERY thankful we don't live in a one-room house!

Our other funny for the week happened at the chiropractor's office. When I walked in the doctor had told me I had something on my shirt and brushed it off for me. I didn't think much of it and figured it was just a bit of fuzz or something. Later as I was being adjusted he was talking to Leeza who was sitting on the floor watching. He was happily chatting with her when I heard him ask her, "Do you have pooh on your shirt?" My first thought was that she (and maybe I!) had poop on our shirts somehow. With 4 kids you just really never know. It suddenly dawned on me that she had her Pooh Bear sweater on. Man, was I relieved! I trust that some day our trips will be quiet and our shirts pooh-free...until then I suppose we just have to laugh at it. :)
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Notes to Egypt     Sat, 12 Feb 2011 09:00 pm
**This post is a few days old, but at least it's finally finished.**
Our house has been invaded this week. A nasty virus managed to knock out 3 of the 4 kids and is about to knock Philip and I out if they don't start sleeping through the night again. Two of them are on the mend, but Grace is still feeling pretty puny. I'm just praying we can make it through tonight without having to do laundry at 2am. Thankfully Leeza was spared so she could go get her sutures out yesterday and she enjoyed her first bath in almost 3 weeks this morning. I've never seen a kid get so excited about a bath before!


We happened to have the TV on the morning when news that Egypt's ruler had finally stepped down. Josiah and Grace thought it was cool to see Egyptians because we had recently read about the Exodus. I told them our job now was to pray that God would bring godly leaders to their country to teach them about Jesus. Josiah got very excited about this since his new passion is writing notes in a little spiral he got from the Awana store. He informed me he could write letters about God and send them to Egypt to help them learn. The funny thing is, his grandparents are going to Egypt later this year so he could actually do this.



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Uh-Oh!     Wed, 9 Feb 2011 02:14 pm
Josiah and Grace's first words were a bit prophetic. Josiah, our book worm, started with 'book.' Grace, our social child, started with 'hi!' This makes us a little nervous because Kasia said her first real word last night...and it was 'uh-oh.' Since then she's said 'Mama' and I'm considering just conveniently forgetting that first word and putting down 'Mama' in the baby book.

We also wanted to take a chance to say Happy Birthday to Mimi! When I called her today she informed me she was 38. Considering that I know how old my mother is I'm not sure how she pulled that off. They have some funny math down there in Texas. :) Regardless of how young she is we wish we were there to help her polish off some birthday cake tonight. Love you Mimi!


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