Snowmen in January

I know, it sounds normal enough. January=winter=snow=snowman. Logical conclusion. But up here it is usually soooo bitterly cold in January that any snow we get is dry, not very good for making snowmen. In fact, I don’t know if our kids have ever even made one before. This last weekend was 32-34 degrees. FOR REAL!!! So we had some wet, slushy snow coming down. Jerem and Paige went outside to have a little fun in it.

Monday ended up being a snow day, so I thought I’d try and do some “snow” activities. We made snow candy, which was fun-but messy. And some snow ice cream. Yes, I said ice cream. First of all we aren’t too concerned about so called “pollutants” that might be found in the snow, I think we live far enough away from the city. And if there were some in there, a little dirt never hurt anyone. Second, don’t saw “eeeww gross” till you’ve tried some for yourself. All you do is take about 4 qts of snow, 3/4 c sugar,  1 c milk, some vanilla or desired flavor. Stir it all together and something quite magical happens. The snow is transformed into something amazing. Okay, maybe not amazing…but pretty darn good. I thought maybe I had preserved the memory of snow ice cream as better then it really tasted. I didn’t. It’s yummy. I didn’t tell Paige or Anson what I was doing and gave them a taste asking them what it tasted like. “oh yum..it’s ice cream mom! This is soooo good”. So yea, my kids had snow candy and snow ice cream for lunch on Monday. The snow day.

Crazy Day

Since Monday was a school holiday we decided to have Chloe and Abby over for the day. I knew Jill could use a little extra sleep and figured the kids would enjoy getting together. They had a fashion show/dance. Although it was the girls idea and Anson will deny any involvement, his Spiderman suit tell a different story. That and a very incriminating video of him dancing with the girls. Might have to save that one to use when he’s older. As you can see Abby was more interested in shooting the gun then dancing. They decorated cookies for baby Thad, well…for mom really I guess, and caused general disarray in the house. Fun day though!

 

To Moms Everywhere

 

There were things as a girl I could never imagine ever getting used to. One was cleaning up after sick kids. I would see my mom be such a comfort to us when we had the stomach flu. Always there to hold the hair back out of our face, rub our backs, and dispose of the mess in the bucket. And I would think, “never, ever will I be able to clean up puke without throwing up. Never.”  Turns out motherhood changes you. Surprise, surprise, huh? Last night at Bible study Paige got sick. Jerem made it to the bathroom with her, but it still sprayed all over the toilet. It took me 15 minutes just to get it all cleaned up and I didn’t gag. Not even once. She threw up 3 more times between church and home and I was right there holding the bucket for her telling Anson (who was gagging) to stop looking at her and put his hands over his ears or something. Anything. I didn’t know if I could handle two puking at the same time.

After a very restless, sleepless night of Paige dry heaving in her sleep, moaning because her head hurt, legs hurt, nose hurt. Rubbing her back telling her to go back to sleep. Looking at the clock to see if time was even passing, morning finally did come.  Ava slept till 4 am before waking up to be fed, the first time since birth she’s done that. The Lord knows our limits.

Paige is tired, weak, but not throwing up today. And I am cautiously hoping she will be the only one that gets it. How foolish I know. I’m sure as soon as one child started throwing up in our house growing up mom would see the other 10 children that would soon be running for the toilets, moaning and yet I never once heard her complain or get upset when we were sick. Her and I have similar tactics to avoid getting the stomach flu when someone in the house has it. We eat all the time. I think I get a little nauseous psychologically when someone has the flu. So I munch and repeat, “I will not get sick, I will not get sick”. It works. Sometimes.

So here’s to all the mom’s out there that have been up all night with a sick child. Thanks to my mom for being such a good example. And thanks to the Lord for giving me the strength to get through it.

Early Morning Moments

Often times I don’t feel like I “get much” out of my morning Bible time. I attribute it to the fact that I usually have a squirming, fussing 4 month old on my lap. So whenever I am able to walk away from my quiet time with the feeling I have gleaned something it is so encouraging to me. I have been reading through Isaiah for awhile now and a couple verses really jumped off the page at me this morning

Isaiah 38:17-19

Surely it was for my benefit that I suffered such anguish. In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins behind your back. For the grave cannot praise you, death cannot sing your praise; those who go down to the pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. The living, the living- they praise you, as I am doing today; fathers tell their children about your faithfulness.

What a wonderful gift our salvation is. My prayer is that we are faithful parents in everything we do so our kids in turn see the faithfulness of the Lord.

Friday Night Fun

Last night we had Derek and Jill out for the evening. I was hoping she’d have to call and cancel cause they were on their way to the hospital, but nope, they made it! I know we’re all getting pretty excited to meet this baby, but I think Jill is the most ready of all of us. :)

The girls all had to play dress-up, of course. Paige told Anson, “Anson, this is the way it’s going to go. First we are going to play dress up, then we are going to dance, then we are going to have a party. Then you can play with us”. Here they are dancing.

Ouch! Who knew legs could go that high?!

After a little dancing we had to have a little Wii action. Abby was boxing Jerem and made sure to tell him, “your going down jerem. I’m gonna box you down!” And she did.

The guys were very serious about it. In spite of concentrating so hard Derek still knocked Jerem out in the first round. What a great way to spend Friday evening.