Saturday, August 27, 2011

Quirky Week?

First we get an earthquake on the East coast, then a hurricane is heading our way. Well, in between that my kids get to experience their first vicious thunderstorm of the year. Yes, I know, we have had several this year. They were all at night!!

At the first clap of thunder Eann wondered if we were having another earthquake. No sweetie, it's a thunder storm. "I have never heard a thunderstorm this bad mom."

"Well Eann, we have had SEVERAL this year already but you see, you all slept right through them." The look on his face was hysterical. He couldn't believe me at first. These children literally sleep through smoke detectors blasting for 10 minutes in their bedrooms at the 1 AM, "there's a battery dead somewhere and the electric back up is letting you know."

So enter tonight. We haven't been real freaked out to be honest. I mean, we have prepared just in case but no big concerns. But then there are tornado warnings EVERYWHERE. We opted to haul sleeping children through the rain to the basement "just in case". After all, we do live on a hill. Thankfully it was just a "drill". Two stayed asleep through the journey down, laying on the hard floor, and back up through the rain. The other heard tornado and has been awake for a bit. Again, Eann. We get them all back in be and Eann comes out all worried because "the sky looked red". Seriously?? I have no idea what that child saw. It is BLACK out there besides the floodlights at the mushroom farm. there is no mistaking ANYTHING for red tonight but I think he was sure the sky was falling or something.

Meanwhile, Dave is using a SNOW SHOVEL to scoop water out of the driveway because it is running into the garage like it's a riverbed. Problem is there is nowhere for the water to go. It's a losing battle. Now the turtle sand box has become a water catch all in hopes of alleviating it. What next? Empty the garbage bags out of the trash cans and put them out? Put all my packing boxes out to sop it up?

Oh, and Dave just said "The good thing is the eye is still down near Richmond." I asked what is so good about that. He didn't have an answer. I think he is too tired to actually be carrying a conversation.

So what is coming tomorrow? I have no idea but I am ok waiting to find out. For now I will go make myself a cup of Mexican hot chocolate and find something to eat. I missed dinner. :-/

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

And She Scores!! Oatmeal

Rohanna is my picky eater. She always turns her nose up at oatmeal. Just ask my sister - she spoon fed her one day to try to get some in her. No matter what you do to it she whines.

Maybe my baby is growing up!! She didn't complain when she heard we were having it but that doesn't really mean much. What matters is when you put it in front of her.

I made it on the stove with water and threw in a handful of dried cranberries. Once it was done I mixed a beaten egg into it and stirred. Not fast enough apparently because there were those yellow and white little clumps.


I served her a tiny bit and the boys bigger servings, sprinkled a little raw sugar on top and added a moat of milk.

I cringed as I watched her gingerly put it into her mouth. Imagine my surprise when she said "Mommy, why did you give me only a tiny bit?" The child had THIRDS!!!

I will say it was pretty yummy. :)

Friday, August 19, 2011

It's a Plan

My life is so much easier when I actually plan my meals out. Plus we eat so much better. No "throw it together" half meals. With school starting in just over a week I really need to get my act together. This is the first year we are "structured" homeschooling. Don't get me wrong, Eann is fully educated and on track for his age. Anyway, this is about food not school.

I am making THE PLAN. Maybe it will give you some ideas for dinner this coming week.

Saturday: Chili and cornbread
Sunday: grilled chicken, cabbage/broccoli, and mashed potatoes
Monday: halupki and porcupine meatballs (I will post a recipe after I make them slow cooker style)
Tuesday: slow cooker pork chops, rice, mushroom soup and broccoli
Wednesday: veggie stirfry
Thursday: pasta and sauce - I have a ladies' night
Friday: not sure - company is coming

Next I need to print my menu with a list of what meats need to be pulled and thawed in the fridge on what days. That way it actually happens. What do you do to stay on track with meals during the week?

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Struggling with this child!

I have a child I won't name. If you know us well you most likely will know who it is anyway.

So, this child is scared of some any things. Literally - we cannot watch Scooby Doo, Duck Tales, and Atlantis type movies scare him too. These are just a few!! Sometimes the music on games gives him nightmares - I guess the suspenseful sounding stuff(?). He sleeps on the floor because he is scared to sleep on the bed - still can't figure out WHY!!!

We have seen here and there where he needs to know things ahead of time to be able to handle "things".

An example, he loves to have sleepovers at my parents. He will beg to have one. However, if you spring it on his last minute he is a crying mess. Literally, hiding under their table crying, with the thought that we can;t say good bye and of course, can't leave. He has to have 2-3 days notice - even with something he LOVES!!!

Today just clinched it. At the Y you have to be a certain age to go to the BIG kid zone. HE has had a rough time with the fact that his brother can and he can't. There are so many things that he can't do that we chose not to make an issue of this one. Older brother is waiting for him to be big enough. He has been waiting for 3 months and wants to "go to the Y on his birthday so he can go to the big kids' class". Well, they are slightly busy today and the main guy said the older one could go so I explained why we were holding off and he said "Oh, his birthday's in a week, he can go too." Any "normal" kid would be excited, right?? As we head upstairs he begged me to let him stay downstairs. By the time we got up there he had tears!!! I ended up making him stay up there because I just didn't have the time to keep going back and forth but it was horrible on him. He did have an ok time but I only stayed 1/2 hour because I wasn't sure how he would do. He didn't look thrilled when I got back but hard to get out of him whether it was good or not.
I try to give him notice as much as possible but sometimes it just isn't an option and I need to teach him how to cope with that. I can't deal with these meltdowns every time something unplanned happens. Do any of you have tricks to help?

Thursday, August 4, 2011

We call it a "God thing"

Ok, so background. Our church has what we call community groups. It's groups of people, families, couples within the church who connect 2 times a month in another member's home, our community group leader.

Way back in, I think January, we were talking about something - I can't even remember what. It had something to do with commuting and one car being stressful. Anyway, so one of them said "Well, since you guys can't afford a car, we need to start praying for a free one." Yeah, uh, me? No really, I believe that God can do some crazy things. But a car for me? It's so easy to see where someone else deserves something or needs something so much more than I do. I prayed about it a few times. I honestly have no idea how often they did. We didn't really talk about it again for awhile. Well, it came up again with Dave's new job.

It's been a hard thing to figure out what to do. A 25-27 mile commute one way may not seem like that big a deal but when you have 1 vehicle it is difficult. Especially when our lives don't just stop. It's been stressful. VERY stressful. Some mornings we have all had to be out of the house at 5:15 and not been home until 8 PM. Other times I have been home for 3 days straight, with no way out. LITERALLY. It isn't like I live in the city and can walk anywhere. We are just stuck. It's enough to drive a person insane. I know, I have been on the edge of insanity a few times these last few weeks. Our options were 1) move - we even spoke with our landlords about the potential of breaking our lease and they were very gracious. There were few strings attached. A move would mean our rent would be 1.5 times what it is now. 2) Buy a new car.

The issue was this. We can't buy a car and then move in 8 months because we wouldn't be able to afford the payment and the increased rent. Time is most important to us as a family so we decided we needed to rough it until we could move. This is why the last few weeks have been so stressful.

Last Friday was a bad day. I wasn't feeling that great and between Dave's schedule and my work schedule I wasn't getting much sleep, which I don't deal well with. I get sick. Add sick kids to the mix it was ugly.

My community group leader/friend (the wife half)called and asked me if I was sitting down.

"Yes," I said. "Why?" "Well, you know that free car we were praying for? You got it if you want it." The owners had heard we were a 1 car family commuting and wanted to offer us the car (from some one other than the cg leaders)

After several days of back and forth with the owners, who by the way didn't know we were praying for a free car, details were that they thought the car had pretty much died permanently. Their mechanic looked at it to see if he wanted it for parts,etc. and said "All it needs is a starter. What do you want to do?" They replaced the starter at no cost to us and called us at 9 PM last night to say we could have it today if we wanted it.

Ironically Dave and I were much closer there than our home since we went away over night. We met at the auto shop this afternoon, went to the tag shop, and after an hour of paper work we own, at $128 in tags, title, and reg. - a new to us car.

Unless you have been there you cannot even fathom the relief this is already. The stress is already melting away. We are so very grateful for how we have been provided for and truly feel like we don't deserve it but here it is. We have been provided for. call it coincidence, call it whatever you wish, but for us, it's a "God thing".

For 10 years we have been a "1 car family". Today, our 10th anniversary, we are a 2 car family. We are blessed beyond anything we could ever imagine.