It would seem Asher is developing his father’s knack for efficiency. I was just saying that I will have to give them a shower today because we don’t have time for a bath. …The big reason they don’t get bathed regularly being that we often don’t have time for a bath….and they both cry through showers. He was asking why and I explained that when I give them a bath that means I have to sit and pretty much do nothing for 30-45min (quick bath just seems a waste…thus the quick shower. And yes, I do usually read during bathtime, but i’ve got STUFF to do today). He said, “well, you could play your flute.”

This is brilliant! I rarely play my flute anymore b/c the only really good time to do it is during naptime/roomtime. But that would keep Grace awake (not to mention I’m usually doing chores or cooking during that time). Never would have occurred to me, but the next time we have bathtime (again, NOT today kids!) I will definitely practice my flute. Thanks Asher.

I promise i am getting to the “what i learned on my lent vacation” and “how i feel about the bubbleandbee shampoo” posts. As with most peripheral hobbies of mine, when i have the time for them, i often don’t have the brain power or energy to persue them. But persue them I do, just at a snail’s pace.

In the meantime I just read this and it’s something I’ve been purposing more and more lately to remember (reading “stepping heavenward” has helped keep it in view, and to plug it yet again, i promise it’s a really fun read!!). Of course some days/moments it’s easier than others.

anyway, pretty sure it’s quoting a quote, but all i’m gonna give you is the blog where the rest of the goodies can be found (back to that lack of brain power or energy): Radical Womanhood

Years ago when I was going through something really tough as a mom, I had an older woman in my life who kept saying to me, “You know this is for you.” When I was dealing with kids being cranky or not sleeping or not eating or, you know, destroying my house or not being able to keep up with the laundry or feed them or just the myriad things that go along with mothering, she would always remind me, “You know this is not just about your children. This is for you.”
I did not appreciate that statement back then; I really didn’t. But you know what? I understand it now because motherhood is the greatest tool I know for God to shape me and mold me and chisel me for eternity.

3 things I find funny about our first Easter at home w/the kids:

1) My kids don’t seem to have gotten the memo that they’re supposed to get candy tomorrow. Good thing, since they’re not getting any. They’re getting books. muwhahahaha……and i’m 99.99% sure they’ll be excited about the selections.

2) My husband apparently hasn’t heard that most people hide REAL eggs (the hard boiled dyed varieties) on Easter. He seemed very perplexed yesterday that this was my intention. Either that or he’s apprehensive about toddlers finding them & cracking them. For this reason I also bought plastic eggs (stuffed with stickers….muwhahahaha).

3) Before putting the kids down, i said that we would hunt for & have our Easter eggs for breakfast (with some bacon). Asher was VERY excited about ‘hunting’ for his breakfast. ha! did I mention he once went to the backyard during ‘roomtime’ declaring he would hunt for dinner….& i thought he was playing pretend? He was not. he was literally trying to hunt finches in the backyard with a stick. We had to call my uncle joe (who is a ‘real’ hunter) in PA, to clarify the age prerequisite for hunting to ease Asher’s objections.

I felt inspired by a friend to catalog some of Grace’s speech patterns…but I can’t think of anything right now except for: Yasher = Asher
And she went through a phase last month where she was ending all songs (including ones like baa-baa black sheep, the ABC’s ect.) with “Amen” (doxology-style). But even that is waning. Still does it on occasion.

She is however speaking much more clearly lately (not that there aren’t plenty of opportunities to employ the use of our in-house translator…tonight he translated “Fried Chicken” for me…don’t ask me how she said it, i have no idea). She’s never lacked for words…just didn’t until recently have very many INTELLIGIBLE ones.

She has also somehow gotten cuter. I know..doesn’t seem possible. I think it has to do with the increase in understandability or something. All that physical drama with cute little words to match. Cracks me up. I believe she is destined for the stage. I could just chew on her all day if she’d let me (and she does have a high tolerance for letting me chew on her). I talked her into pig tails the other day and decided that she will henceforth and forevermore wear them. That lasted all of one day. Maybe some day she’ll start keeping things in her hair!

Speaking of Asher: That’s his new thing. “Speaking of ____, how about we ____” or “Speaking of ____, can I ____?” Most of the time he uses it properly, which is pretty funny. Today I bought some palm sugar from the Asian grocery down the road and let them have a little bite when we got home. Later i called Grace sugar. He looked up from his “Where’s Waldo” book from across the room and said, “Speaking of sugar, can we have some more palm sugar?” He doesn’t miss much.

Guess while i’m at it I’ll do a book update. We’re still working our way through the Narnia chronicles during naptime, though we hit a wall with the Silver Chair. It’s been 2 weeks and we still have a chapter left. This is partially because I’ve had quite a few bulk kitchen projects to work on during naptime thus cutting reading short (or rather…keeping to time, instead of blowing just about the whole 2hrs on reading), and partially because he just wasn’t as into this one. I can see why though, it was much more nuanced (not sure if i used that properly) than the others thus far and a lot just whizzed over his head. There’s been a lot of that throughout of course, but the other stories had plenty of easy to grasp general stuff-going-on that he wasn’t lost for the main plot. I suspect the only reason he hasn’t given up entirely is because he knows the next (and last) book is called, “The Last Battle”. He’s all about battles.

And speaking of battles: Being that Knights are among his favorite things: We have been reading “The Story of Sir Lancelot and his companions“. Yeah…published in 1927 or something? Old English style, chock full of “thee, thou, whilst”. It was one of many (similar) books we picked up from the library that I randomly put on hold looking for “knight books” at his request. When we went to pick up the holds, Asher saw them before I had a chance to put them back and after seeing the title and flipping through the pictures, home they went. However, I told him I would not be reading any of them until after we finished the narnia books….and even then…that he probably wouldn’t understand these ones (i know, i probably shouldn’t say those things… i so didn’t WANT to read it). Anyhow, one day he suckered me into reading a chapter and sure enough, he understands more than I’d expect. I can’t decide if he REALLY knows what’s going on or if he just likes to sit for books (there’s almost no pictures in this one)…sometimes i wonder if he’d sit through the dictionary. But then i remember that twice he’s asked me to stop reading “The silver chair”. I’d love to see a movie clip of what’s going on in his mind while I read. Besides, it’s much more interesting (and funny) than I expected and though slightly tounge-tying, not as much as I expected. It’s kinda fun to ‘talk medieval’. However, since I’m a stickler about such things, I plan to get through the last ‘narnia book’ before continuing on with Sir Lancelot (& then a similar old english King Arthur book is on his wish list….).

And a final note on Grace: While she has no interest in novels or dinosaur books, she has come to enjoy books geared for her age, which has been really fun. Every evening she picks out books for Ryan to read, often the same books that she’s asked me to read multiple times that day. I really enjoy hearing his rendition of them. Sometimes he gives me good ideas for ways to change up a book that has been read a million times. She’s also come to the stage where she ‘reads’ them to herself (always out loud), which is super cute to listen to. I like her renditions as well. In fact often when I’m reading Asher’s choice for story time, if it’s a longish one, she’ll go get a book she likes & ‘read’ it while I read his.

Alright. Enough babbling. Good night.

Ryan has made me a list person. It’s all his fault. In case you were wondering.

I’ve even gotten to the point where I have lots of random things flying around in my head & i feel overwhelmed & ‘stressed’ until I finally write them down & realize, “oh, that’s not too bad…” or at the very least, not PRESSING.

Part of the issue is the fact that all the little things that have to be done everyday (like housework & cooking), not to mention the joy of having fun with the kids (i can easily get ‘into’ housework & cooking & forget we should probably…oh I don’t know…PLAY sometimes??)…anything ‘extra’ wigs me out if it’s not in writing.  To the point that I ignore the voice that tells me i have a ‘mental list’ and watch tv or read during ‘free time’.   Sigh.  I’m a work in progress.

Today I finally typed up the current “extras” list:

TO DO:

iron patches onto mine & asher’s pants (asher currently owns 2 pair of pants w/o holes)

choose some dinners from fix freeze feast

plan april dinner calendar

re-do weekly schedule

plan breakfasts & lunches (? optional…i hate meal planning)

Go through craft book & choose activites/ add to calendar what days to do them (or i’ll never get around to it).

There ya go. Another nugget to file under “wow, Jenn is so super cool & hip”. I AM that 30-something minivan mom. Sigh.

I’m looking forward to blogging about my ‘internet fast’, which has really amounted to “email during (most of) the day and forums fast”. However when I first started, I went through and cleared out my feed reader. Trimmed the ‘fat’ if you will (actually, given my opinion on fat, i’ll change that to ‘trimmed the refined carbs’, ha). I’ll stop there otherwise I’ll have precious little to talk about when it’s “time”.

Anyhow, it has been AMAZING to only be reading blogs that are really important to me, whether that be because they are written by dear friends, a breath of fresh, funny air, or spiritual encouragement. The other day the ‘encouragers’ over at Girl Talk provided the latter. It was not JUST mommy encouragement (which I apparently ‘needed’ due to my response to the short post), but a reminder and encouragement of the ultimate purpose in my ‘mommying’. To teach them “the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ”.

Besides, it’s always nice to hear from someone “on the other side” let me know that the toddler stage (while fun and adorable, and so sweet) IS exhausting. I easily get to thinking there’s something wrong with me that a four year old and two year old can take so much out of me….and my kids are pretty laid back in the scheme of things!

I do want to note though, I’m NOT complaining about their stage….yes, there’s hard days/moments (weeks?), and there’s moments where I ‘can’t wait’ till they’re more self-sufficient, but at the same time, I KNOW I’ll pine in many ways once we pass this stage. There will be plenty to miss, so I also try to keep that view in mind as well as we press on and celebrate growth – to ‘enjoy them now’ as much as possible. Always that tension isn’t there? “Enjoy them now, but remember you’re training them for LIFE.”

Not that those two things need to be mutually exclusive. But that’s another thought entirely, and I need to unload the dishwasher.

Asher woke up this morning and said, “I wish we lived in Florida. Not our Florida House, because there were too many snakes, but in Florida.” I asked why. “Because I miss Syd.” I didn’t say too much about it, just sympathized wordlessly a bit, then we moved on. However throughout the morning he kept talking about various friends he missed, and finally I suggested he send some pictures and notes. He really liked this idea and made out his list of friends he wanted to send to. It was mostly “Virginia friends” and then Sydnie (ok, I can’t figure out if it’s “Sydney” or “Sydnie” or some other variation i’m missing. I’m sorry Heather if her Note is spelled wrong!). He has also this past week been mentioning a lot totally out of the blue things like, “I wish we could go visit Oma and Opa” or, “When will Nene come visit us?” or “Does Pop and Gigi live far away too?”….. It’s sweet but of course a bit sad. I’ve been a bit homesick lately too.

On a totally different (& more cheerful) topic: Today Grace was stuck on doing “knock knock” jokes. She only does one (until tonight at dinner where I worked hard to teach her another one b/c I needed some variety), which is a variation on Asher’s favorite joke.

The real version:
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Cows
Cows who?
No! Cows MOO, OWLS hoo!

Grace’s Version:
Knock Knock
Who’s there?
Grace Who? (or Princess Who? or…enter whatever..Who?)
Grace Who?
NO! Owls hoo, Cows hoo! She does this a lot, but today it was pretty incessant.