Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving week and there was a lot of focus on food.  It has been my hope that Grandad and Nana do not leave our house having lost weight due to the meals they have been served.  Every few days we try to go to a restaurant so that they get some good food in them that can sustain through the next couple days of "homemade meals."  I had noticed that our Thanksgiving meal was really good and as I was telling my mom who had cooked what, I realized I had only done a little prep work, no actual cooking.  Todd cooked a good turkey.

Cooking turkey.

Sweet turkey.

Crazy turkey.

Grrr.  I eat my turkey.

Caroline has survived on turkey/chicken and sweet potatoes for a good 4 days straight.  We took Grandad & Nana to Sweet Tomatoes which Caroline aptly calls Sweet Potatoes.  She ate three there.  Three sweet potatoes.  She's only 2 years old.  That, and all the chicken from their chicken noodle soup.  On Thanksgiving, she ate another entire sweet potato and every day since she's had one along with leftover turkey.  For dinner last night she had an entire (good sized) sweet potato, turkey, cashews, an applesauce pouch, half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and ice cream.

I had told Caroline that I was going to make an apple cake that she would be able to eat (gluten free).  She talked about it a lot and was excited that it was going to be made.  I made it today and as it was cooling, she kept saying that it was her apple cake.  I made it for her.  She was going to eat it.  Everyone knew about her apple cake.  At dinner, I brought her plate to her and her first words were, "Where's my apple cake?"  She finally got it for dessert.  At first she was only interested in cutting it up.  She tried it, ate some, ate a bit more, and announced she did not like apple cake.  In fact, it was so bad that she said that she didn't even like apples anymore.  Apples.  Something she eats on a daily basis.  She's through.

Henry has spent his dinners falling apart.  He is still wanting to get up too early in the mornings to spend time with Grandad and Nana which means his evenings are torturous for him and everyone in his path.  He loses all self control and his floppy body slumps down his chair and he doesn't want to eat and he doesn't want to listen.  One night he had a 5:45 p.m. bedtime.  We need to reinstitute nap time for him if he wakes before 7:00 a.m.

The kids have loved getting out almost every day to ride bikes.  Josiah is now a biking master.  He likes to ride fast, take turns quickly, and hit the brakes even more quickly.  He now has tricks while he rides like trying to wave, standing up on the pedals, and turning quickly at the corners of the sidewalk.  Grandad & Todd were kind enough to put on a new back tire for him.  The other one was thread bare.  The way Josiah likes to hit his brakes, I should set a timer for this tire's lifespan.

Since he was riding so well, Todd and I thought we would get Henry started.  So, Todd took off the training wheels of our really small bike.  Our intention was just to get him sitting on it and walk the bike around with his feet on the ground just to get a feel for how to balance it.  At first he pretty much refused to try it.  Once he finally got on the bike, he kept trying to put his feet on the pedals, thus not understanding the skill we were trying to have him master.  I went inside for some reason while Todd stayed out with Grandad and worked with him.  Lo and behold, he started to understand and do better.  The next day, Grandad & Nana took him back out and he was doing even better.  So, now we may very soon have two bike riders on our hands.

Actually, make that three bike riders.  I swear Caroline couldn't even reach the pedals of the tricycle just a couple of weeks ago and this week, she was determined to teach herself how to ride it.  I say teach herself because if we tried to help her, she would yell, "No! Don't touch me! Don't touch it [the bike]! I do it!"  First, she learned how to ride the big wheel.  She got the pedal part down, but the steering was a problem.  Then she tried the tricycle and after a few days she's gotten really good on that, too.  Maybe all those sweet potatoes are giving her just the energy she needs to pedal these bikes along.

She barely reaches the pedals.

She puts on her own shoes and socks...

Saturday morning the kids wanted to play with playdoh.  We no longer had any, so I thought I could just make some and all would be well.  I had done it before and it turned out well, easy to use, pliable, playdoh consistency.  Well, I read the directions, mixed the ingredients, but what I did not do was time the cooking process.  It became clear that my playdoh was not cooked long enough and was too sticky.  Henry and Caroline still wanted to play with it, so I gave them a little flour each to make it less sticky.  A little flour, a little more flour, a little more flour, a little more flour.  Pretty soon, they were no longer playing with playdoh, but a dough ball.  Henry pretended he was a baker and he talked and talked about it.  He told Nana that he was making all sorts of desserts.  When he was asked how much he charged for his wares, he said "whatever money you have" and then amended it to say that anyone who did not have money could still eat for free.  Then he said he would have 1300 or 13000 coats available to hand out if someone came and didn't have a coat.  They played like this for a long time.  It was very, very messy, but sweet all the same.

It needs just a little more flour. (food coloring on her forehead)

Caroline has been praying some great prayers at night.  Sometimes they're short and sweet, and sometimes they are looooooong.  She likes to count during them and sort of give God a running commentary of her day.  This evening she told God that she didn't have her car (matchbox car) and that she asked me where her car was and I didn't know and so she didn't have her car.  Praying it up to heaven.  One of my favorites was the other night when she looked around the room and said, "I love Henry & Josiah & Daddy & Mommy & Grandaddy & Nana & TV & Batman & Robin."

It turned cold in Houston this weekend.  We finally turned the heat on for more than a day and we got our warmer jackets out.

This sweet girl has been a Daddy's girl all week.  (We find we take our best photographs at the Costco food court.)

Grandad & Nana Come to Texas

Since we had company coming mid-week, we started our week off with a bang and got a lot of school and activities completed in the first three days.

We did a science experiment measuring volume of water and how much each container holds.  The boys had to guess what the order of the containers would be with regards to volume.  I found it interesting that both thought the slightly tall, but thin water bottle would hold more than a fatter (and almost similar height) cup.  Henry did say that he put his containers in height order.  Josiah only had two mixed up.  Of course, afterwards they thought it would be fun to drink the water out of the containers.  Josiah picked the biggest pitcher and after a few minutes told me his belly ached.  That's pretty much what'll happen when you try to drink 14 cups of water in one sitting.

We made shaved crayon art (shaved crayons ironed between two pieces of wax paper).  After we had finished, Josiah said they turned out differently than he thought they would.  I had to admit the same.  They were not very pretty.  But it was also a dreary, rainy day.  The next day they shone much better with the light and were prettier.

Crayon art in background.

They also got some painting time in.  For some reason, Henry turned into OCD Henry during this activity.  After he finished his painting, he would get a wipe and clean up his area completely.  Then he'd paint another picture.  Then he'd clean up his area again, as well as Josiah's area and Caroline's area.  He actually made Caroline pick up her picture that she was currently working on so that he could wipe up underneath it.  This kid was thorough.  I was proud.  I love thorough.  :)

Henry the cleaning man.

They had a lot of fun with a box for about 12 hours, because that's how long boxes last around here.

They injured each other.  Henry scratched Josiah because Josiah would not stop pretending to be a bus, a bus that consistently ran into Henry.  Henry also threw a harmonica at Josiah because Josiah put Henry's Lego creations back in the Lego bucket (they are allowed to keep their creations out during clean-up time).  So we talked a lot about using our words as well as not provoking one another to anger.  Pretty much the story of our lives around here...every day...all day long.

Yes, we do feed Josiah.  A lot.  

And then Wednesday evening came and the kids were gloriously reunited with Grandad and Nana.  You would think I would have great pictures of said reunion.  Alas, I do not.  (Goal for next week though - more pictures with Grandad & Nana!)

The boys got Lego kits, Caroline got new dolls.  The boys got to show them the library.  Caroline cracked everyone up with her running commentary on life.  She pretty much talks constantly.
I got to go out and spend two hours at Target all by myself.  Of course, most of it was spent in the toy section, but at least I didn't have to say, "No, I'm not going to buy that, but you can save up your money if you want it." ad nauseum.

Caroline wakes up every morning and asks, "Grandad and Nana still here?  I get up and go see them.  I love them."

Henry requested that Josiah wake him up early Friday morning so he could spend even more time with his grandparents.  So, Josiah woke him up at 5 am, two hours before Henry's normal wake-up time.  It was no surprise that when I picked him up from Awana that night, his leader said, "He didn't talk much this evening."  Yeah, that's pretty much because he's probably sleep walking.

Grandad has spent the past couple of days refining Josiah's bike riding training.  He had him practicing his starts and braking.  Josiah has improved immensely since their arrival.  He pretty much can ride around completely on his own now.  He is much steadier while he rides as well.  I got to watch him from inside today and I could see the big smile on his face as he rode down our sidewalk.  He was very proud and happy to be riding so well.

The boys even got to see the new Peanuts movie.  Henry and I struggled to stay awake at times, but we all enjoyed it.
We should have an easy week ahead.  A vacation of sorts from school to celebrate family here, as well as Thanksgiving.

Cough Into Your Elbow

There seemed no better title to describe this past week.  All three kids had a very rough cough.  Caroline had her fever last weekend, Henry got his mid-week.  Just a tough lingering cold.  Because of that we have had to go over certain lessons in proper germ etiquette.  "Cough into your elbow" became a favorite mantra, since coughing was the major symptom.  We also went over the fine art of blowing one's nose.  While what would appear to be a simple lesson, it proved to be quite difficult.  Josiah, who knows how to blow his nose, often just chooses not to do so.  Sniffling every 1-2 seconds was more pleasing to him.  Since this is one of my worst pet peeves, I was going slightly nutty with him at night when he would sniffle/snort with such force and duration of time that I considered buying noise cancelling earmuffs to save our family from my wrath.  One night I walked away while looking at Todd with eyes that said, "I must get away from the snorting."  He understood, as this was not one of his pet peeves.  Henry, too, knows how to blow his nose.  When it was suggested to him to go get a tissue and blow his nose, he often replied, "I don't want to."  Well, son, that was not really a suggestion, more of a directive.  There are lots of things in life we do not want to do, but we must.  Keeping your mother sane is also a good thing, so go blow your nose.

Because of all the coughing, Caroline's schedule has been completely off for most of the week.  She didn't want to nap at the normal time, so I naively thought she could stay awake all day and have an early bedtime.  Except, she didn't get that memo and fell asleep at 4:00 and 4:30 p.m. on a couple of days.  That's always a blessing, those 4 p.m. naps.  Because of the coughing, she also wants to drink more to help her throat.  So, we've had a lot more bed-wetting than normal.  Shockingly, when she wakes up from her late afternoon/early evening naps, she's quite cranky and then does not want to cooperate at night.  With all the accidents at night, I have not been as inviting at 2 a.m. when she comes to sleep in our bed.  I make her use the potty first and she's not too happy to do so.  One night we had a stand off from 2:00 to 4:00 a.m.  She never went, and she was mad as a hornet to have to sleep in her bed.  Nothing like singing Old MacDonald at 4 a.m..  He had lots of cows on his farm because I kept singing "moo."  I think it required less of my mouth to move at that hour.  Even poor Josiah has been affected by Caroline's night time wakings.  In the middle of one night he came in our room to say Caroline was sleeping on his bed.  When I went to remove her, I discovered she had peed all over his comforter (missing the mattress, thank goodness).  For some reason, I've been a bit crankier as well.  This parenting thing is not for the faint of heart.

Caroline demonstrated her crankiness by completely melting down when I would not pour 64 oz of apple juice into her 6 oz cup.  The cup in front of her is full, just not full enough.



Unfortunately, because of all the coughing and fevers we had to cancel our zoo trip on Thursday and our CC friends coming over on Friday.  I felt horrible because it always seems to be me who cancels everything.  And then who showed up on our doorstep with chicken noodle soup and a rotisserie chicken?  Our super kind friend whose zoo trip we did not get to attend.

I did end up taking Caroline to the doctor's office Friday morning since she was just not getting better.  I always wonder if I should be taking her - if it's just going to end up being a virus and they can't do anything for that, etc.  She was dancing around the exam room, chatting it up, acting very non-sick which made me think I had made the wrong choice.  That was until the doctor examined her and she had a bad ear infection, bronchitis, and she was wheezing with low oxygen stats so she had a nebulizer treatment.  She went home with an inhaler, antibiotics, a probiotic, and directions for Tylenol and Vick's Vaporub.  Poor girl.

We did get a few service projects in this week.  We all packed two shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.  I had intended to have the boys help me fill them up with toiletries, candy, toys, shirts, pencils/crayons and paper.  But, I didn't want them coughing all over the items and sending their germs overseas.  So, they sort of sat near me while I packed them.  Hopefully, next year they can be more hands-on with it.  That's why I don't have a picture of them either - keeping those boxes germ free.  :)

As a family, we also purchased a goat.  Samaritan's Purse has a program whereby they give needy families a goat.  They teach them how to raise it, feed, it, milk it, and breed it.  That gives their family a new source of income as well as food (milk/cheese, not meat).  We made it clear ahead of time that we wanted the kids to contribute a week's pay each and we would pay for the rest.  The boys were all excited about picking out a goat (there were many animals/programs to choose from), but then when it came time to giving the money, they were less than enthused.  Henry paid using his coins instead of his dollar bills and then he got quite upset that his money cup no longer jingled with coins as it had once done.  Josiah whined a bit about having to give up some of his money.  Caroline didn't fuss too much since she didn't know what the heck was going on anyway.  Plus, she picked out baby chicks from the catalog, not a goat.  So, we're working on developing servants hearts around here.

Caroline holding her baby in "sleep" mode.

Caroline waking her baby up with a choke hold.

With company coming soon, we decided that, gee, maybe we should keep unpacking boxes around here.  Once we started school in August, I basically stopped unpacking.  So, one benefit of being housebound with the kids is that things are getting unpacked again.  We even hung a few things up on the walls.

Throw-back to an old Josiah picture since I have no new ones of him this week.

We are glad to start a new week getting healthy and anticipating the arrival of grandparents.

Owl Pellets

Small rant...
When Todd and I were making the big decision of naming our children, we knew we did not want a name so common that there were two or three of them in the same classroom.  None of the names we chose were anywhere close to the top ten baby names.  None of the names were particularly common; two were classic English names, one an old biblical name.  And yet here we are.  Josiah has another Josiah in his Awana class.  Henry has another Henry at church.  And Caroline, her name is everywhere.  Todd and I have an adult Caroline in our Sunday school class, our Sunday school teachers have a daughter Caroline and another couple in our class have a Caroline.  Who knew that Caroline of the 2010s would be the Jennifer of the 1980s.
Rant over...

This week's theme at home has been, "Be Encouraging or Be Quiet."  I thought I was clever with this one.  :)  Just a shortened version of, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."  That was just too long to say 50 times a day.  I needed it for myself, too, because some days after lots of not listening, it was very difficult to be encouraging and even harder to be quiet!  Josiah has been "encouraging" in his prayers at night.  He spent a lot of time asking God to help each of us work on character traits (I need to work on yelling, Henry needs to work on being nice, Caroline needs to work on sharing, Todd needs to not spend as much time at work and play with them more, etc.)  Apparently, Josiah's good, because he never asks God for help for himself.

When Josiah and Henry have their computer time each day, they usually request lego.com.  They used to spend their entire 30 minutes playing games.  Recently, they spend the first half of their time watching videos of Lego Creators - guys who have created Lego sets and how they came up with the idea, how they made it, and how to play with it.  This came out in Josiah's CC presentation this week.  He had made a very cool missile launcher that could move and shoot two missiles any sort of direction.  While giving the presentation he encouraged his classmates to "keep on building" and that one day they may even be building from a set that he created.  So, since we ruled out all medical careers with the crayfish last week, maybe we can add all sorts of architecture, building, engineer-type career paths this week.  Or he could become one of the lanky, bearded, knit cap, jeans, and hoodie wearing Lego creators that he likes to watch.

Josiah giving his presentation at CC

The boys did impress me at CC this week when we dissected owl pellets.  Owl pellets are basically giant hair balls that owls throw-up.  They are full of matted fur, feathers, and the bones of moles, shrews, rodents, and birds.  Josiah had the smallest owl pellet in the room and it was 2 inches long by 1 inch wide.  Henry had the largest in the room.  I didn't get the measurement, but it was huge and chock full of bones/skulls.  The boys really got into it and were fascinated by their finds.  Henry even brought his bones home with him (so that's one less tupperware container we have for food...).

Our A/C broke this week.  You may think that an odd thing that we still need our A/C in November, but we do.  I had thought about opening all of our windows to cool the house since it was 84 degrees inside.  Then I checked the temperature outside.  83 degrees.  That's November in Texas.  It started off with lots of loud noises and the entire second story of our house would vibrate when the A/C turned on.  Then there were loud whooshing noises of air.  Then I noticed a funny smell in the bedroom closest to the air filter site.  So, we filed a claim since we have a home warranty for the year.  Apparently "loud noises and odors" did not indicate the system was malfunctioning.  So, the next day the A/C just stopped working.  Broken A/C's are covered.  Lovely.  I'm pretty sure that vibrating an entire story of the house pretty much meant the system was malfunctioning.  The repair man came and, of course, he had to order a part to fix it, and since it was Friday at 4:30 pm, that part wasn't getting in before the weekend.
By Friday evening it was 87 degrees in the house and Josiah said he was dying.  The boys went to bed under a ceiling fan with just pajama shorts on that night.  Josiah must have been praying hard, because on Saturday we had a cold front come through and the temperatures dropped to the 60s.  Saturday night they went to bed with long pants and their blankets.

The boys have been eating soup all week.  We found Star Wars soup at the grocery store and they've been all in.  Of course, Josiah wanted the Stormtrooper soup.  Henry wanted Yoda.  The contents were exactly the same, so to avoid yet another fight I took the labels off both, gave them the labels to look at, moved the soup cans around for a bit and cooked a can.  It killed them to not know whose can it was.  I lied when I said I didn't know which can it was, but it was kind of fun to mess with them.  (They ate Yoda's first.)

Poor Caroline has spent the entire weekend sick, coughing up some owl pellets of her own.  She has a horrible cough and congestion, and has not exactly been the best at coughing into her elbow.  So, now Henry has a rough sounding cough and this evening Josiah mentioned he wasn't feeling too great either.  It would have been a perfect time to get sick, really, since we have an off week from CC.  However, this was also the week we made plans with two different families from our CC group, so I'm really hoping that we don't have to cancel.  One plan is a trip to the zoo that got cancelled twice last spring due to sickness (Caroline again!).  So, lots of prayers for getting healthy by week's end this week.

The two sickies home from church.

Crayfish, Plantains, & Pumpkin(fest)

For CC this week, we examined crayfish.  They had been preserved in formaldehyde and, had our kids been older, we would have dissected them.  However, for our purposes, we just examined the outside of it identifying all the parts we could see.  Each child had their own crayfish, a set of tweezers in one hand and a plastic glove on the other.  I had the joy and pleasure of being in Henry's class this particular day.  It was Henry and five other girls.  I think Henry was the most squeamish.  That and he kept poking at the crayfish with his tweezers and then bringing his tweezers dangerously close to his face/mouth area.  I was going slightly crazy telling him to keep the tweezers near the crayfish, keep your hands away from your face, stop being squeamish and just look at it.  The smell, which wasn't too strong, also bothered the kids a little.  Towards the end of the science time, most of the kids had gotten a little more brave with their specimens.  All but the tutor's daughter who cried for the first part and refused to come back to the table.  :)

Well, I thought Henry was squeamish, until it was time for Henry's class to go wash up in the bathroom and I happened to pass Josiah's class.  Josiah was just downright dramatic.  I took a quick picture.  At least he was entertaining his class with his reactions.  We do not seem to have any future doctors, nurses, medical technicians, paramedics, pathologists, biologists, or morticians on our hands.

Henry and Josiah occupied themselves one afternoon this week looking out the back window and drawing a picture.  I assumed they were drawing what they saw out the window since they kept looking up and out.  Henry showed me his picture and he drew our whole backyard.  Josiah showed me his picture and it was Batman. 

Though it did not make it in Henry’s picture, our lime tree on the side of the yard has been producing a lot of limes that are now ready to be picked.  We have a lot of limes!  In true Tex-Mex fashion, we use them to make guacamole, and I put slices in my water which tastes nice.  I think what we really need is an apple tree because we eat a ton of apples.  What we most definitely do not need is a plantain tree.  We have been studying Ancient West African Kingdoms in our history lessons recently.  I thought it would be fun to eat some of the food from the region.  I bought two plantains, which was overly optimistic.  I fried up one and had the kids try it.  They stared at their small slices for quite some time, calculating the risk they were taking to eat something foreign. 

Henry spent time kissing his.  (He’s into “lip kisses” lately, much to our chagrin.) 

They finally each tried it.  None were fans, but at least they tried.  I didn’t think they were too bad, but they probably will not make any future grocery lists.

Caroline has been the puzzle master for the week.  She has gotten into puzzles a lot lately.  Every time she goes to bed for a nap or for the evening, she’ll ask me if we can do puzzles when she wakes up.  So, this is how it works when “we” do puzzles:  I am required to attend the puzzle making event.  She tells me to sit down, she picks out the puzzle for me to do, and promptly dumps all the pieces in front of me.  She does the same for herself and we’re off to start putting them together.  I get about two pieces of my puzzle put in place when she interrupts my focused concentration to inform me that I need to stop putting the puzzle together.  She will help me when she’s finished with her puzzle. So there I sit.  And wait.  Then she doesn’t really help me do the puzzle, she takes over and does it herself.  Every. Single. Time.  I put her down to bed yet again, and she says, “We do puzzles when I wake up?”  “Yes, dear, we’ll do puzzles when you wake up.” 

The boys were allowed to dress up for Awana this week.  Josiah made the decision to dress up as Benjamin Franklin days beforehand.  We made him circular frames out of sunglasses with a brown mullet attached.  He held the Declaration of Independence.  Henry decided upon his idol George Washington.  He made a cotton ball white wig that attached to an inside-out pirate hat, so it appeared to look like a tricorn hat.  Socks over pants finished their ensembles.  Caroline and I stayed around for the Pumpkin Gospel presentation.  She was very excited to see the boys coming with their classes.  We saw that Henry was at the head of the line for his class.  This was a coveted position of honor.  He had told me several times that he was always the first one up out of his seat when it was time to line up, but he never made it to the door in time to be first in line.  When his teacher opened the door and I saw him at the head, he was marching like a drum major knees high and with his arms going up and down in the air.  It was exciting to be George and the line leader.

Saturday was Pumpkinfest at our church, which got moved indoors due to rain.  The kids all enjoyed going around to all the different stations, playing the games, and getting candy.  Todd and I signed up to work our class’s Star Wars themed booth for a 30-minute time slot.  We (I) had the brilliant idea that it would be good for the kids to learn how to serve others by working alongside us (and we thought the Star Wars theme would help).  They started off wanting to help by giving the nerf gun to the kids in line (to try and shoot off the Death Star), but our kids were fighting with each other as to who could put the darts back in the gun and then who could hand it to the next kid.  By the end of the 30 minutes they had grown tired of “helping.” 

Josiah had made his own Green Lantern costume to wear there.  Henry dressed himself up as a nondescript superhero, but then fell apart when we got home and he saw his George Washington hat/wig combo that he had intended to wear.  Josiah made himself sick on cotton candy.  Caroline got a balloon sword (purple, of course) which we had to control her from swinging all over the place.  Josiah got a black sword which he used to duel with Caroline.  Henry got upset because he chose a hot dog over standing in line to get a balloon. 

Sunday morning the boys got to the car to discover new booster seats in lieu of their carseats.  Henry was getting close to the weight limit of the car seat, Josiah not so much.  But since we have company coming soon, we thought we could move the boys into them sooner so we could all fit into the car together.  They spent most of the drive to church and home again looking out the back window.  Apparently it was fascinating to watch what was going on behind them.

Don't worry, Henry puts his seatbelt at his shoulder when we drive. 

Tomorrow for CC we inspect/dissect owl pellets.  Here’s hoping it goes a bit better than the crayfish.