SLEEP!!!!!

Beautiful, glorious sleep. I went to bed at 11:15 last night and didn't open my eyes again until 7:30 this morning. On our date last night we were just talking about how I don't think I have slept all night in almost 7 months. I can tell that Mary feels different this morning too. I am sure her lack of sleep has been making her a different little girl. She hasn't slept all night in several months. Woo-hoo, we might be on to something!!

So far so good

The sleeping situation has improved greatly so far. Mary likes having her big brother in the room to keep her safe at night. Emily slept, well, like a baby, in her own room. She went down so easily last night and has napped beautifully all day today.

We spent the day with my dear friend Emily and her two boys today. Elijah had a blast!! She is a friend from long ago (well, I guess that's relative; we were friends from our college church). They moved to Florida a few years ago and now are back in Fishers. We don't see each other that often, but its always fun to visit with her. I so enjoy having lifelong friends. Her oldest son is 7 and he and Elijah are like peas in a pod. They always play together well. Today they spent a lot of the day in the slip and slide and playing Mario Kart on the N64. Oh yes, we have entered the wonderful world of video games. Even though they are old school.

Tonight Brian and I are going on our first kid-free date in a lo-o--o---ong time. Too long. We were planning on riding the motorcycle, but now it is raining so we might have to go with plan B. Well, first we have to come up with plan B I guess. At least we'll be out of the house!!!

Even Emily has her limits

Emily, our "go with the flow" third child has finally met her limit of fun. It is our own fault, to be sure. I have neglected her bedtimes, for the sake of taking the other kids to do things and allowed her to sleep in her carseat or the stroller and not gotten her on a schedule. Ugh. What is wrong with me? I never did that with the other two. I was strict, even rigid, about their napping schedule. Now it is coming back to bite me. Last night was the last straw. She didn't get good naps yesterday and cried every time I layed her down. Last night she cried from 7:00-10:30 P.M. and then woke up again at 3:00a.m.. Also, Elijah was up once and Mary twice. At 3:30 I finally just got into bed with Mary and stayed there. So, today. We stay home during Emily's nap times even if they don't coordinate with the other kids. And we are going to temporarily going to move Mary into Elijah's room. Emily has got to have a quiet room for a while. Currently she wakes up every time someone goes in there. I'm sure it will present new problems with the other kids sharing a room, but we have to try something. I cannot keep waking up every 3 hours all night long.

Swimming pictures

Lots to report

First and most exciting is that we got a baby trailer to pull behind my bike. Both girls can fit in it. Today I rode over to my friend's house and we went on our weekly walking date and then I rode home. I think I am going to try to ride as much as possible for transportation. I love it! There is a little pocket in the back to stow things and it's really not heavy to pull. However, something scary happened on our way home: we saw a teenage boy riding a bike get hit by a van! It wasn't serious, the boy was walking around and kept insisting that he was fine. I heard the brakes screech and I looked ahead of me and saw the boy fall on the ground. It definitely made me (who am already a little wary having the girls with me) even more cautious about looking for cars.

Second, I am having a yard sale tomorrow. I am not really prepared to do this, but I really want to get rid of some stuff. So nothing like an impromptu sale to clean house!

Third, I just heard the STH on The Ark. They played with Ron Moore, a semi-famous musician who helps run The Ark, a few weeks ago in Bloomington. He took one of their short cd's and said he would play it. It was awesome to hear them on radio!!!!

Last, we are going to the Warren County 4-H fair tonight. Brian was asked to be a judge for rhubarb pie (which he doesn't even particularly like), but apparently it's the kind of judging that everyone stands around and watches, and my guess is that they were looking for someone with a big personality to do this task. The kids are so excited! They love going to the fair.

Back in action

Alternately titled, "I'm baack in the saddle again!" (But now I can't get Steven Tyler's screaming voice out of my head.)

My camera is fixed!! Well, I am not sure it was officially broken after all. Brian says I had the batteries in backwards, but I know I tried them both ways and it was acting funny the last time I used it. So, whatever. In any case, we are taking pictures again. I am officially a cloth diaper nerd. I just had to take these pictures because it seemed so cute to me. Also, I bought baby washcloths today to use for wipes. My friend who has been doing this longer than me says it is actually easier since the soiled wipes go right into the can with the diapers to be washed and there aren't dirty wipes just sitting loose in the trash can. Which I guess makes sense. We'll see. I am not getting rid of my disposables just yet.

Why, oh why did I drink a coke tonight?

Now I am awake when I should be asleep. We had such a fun evening tonight! Since the weather was so comfortable we decided to have a backyard camp out tonight. We set up our big tent and got a camp fire going for dinner. It was great to sit and watch the stars come out and watch the lightning bugs--way better than watching tv. Brian is sleeping out with the kids and I am staying in with the baby because I have to go to a meeting at 8:30 tomorrow morning. I am just convinced I'd be late if I slept out there and I'd be worried about it all night. So, maybe tomorrow night will be my night. It looks like the weather is supposed to be great all week!

Tomato plants

If anyone wants some free tomato plants let me know. I have tons of volunteer roma plants that are fairly large without flowers yet (a result of not doing anything to our garden last fall). They are about to take over the garden and I will be digging them out and pitching them at the end of this week.

Anyone notice my lack of pictures lately?

That's because my camera is broken, again!!! I brought it with us to Michigan this weekend and thought it needed new batteries. I bought some, but it still didn't even come on. Grr...SO, I will have to give you wonderful descriptions of our 2 days in Holland.

We just barely fit in my parents' boat when it was the 4 of us; now that we are 5 there are definitely not enough places to sleep--unless someone... ahem... passes out, I mean sleeps out on the deck. We drove up on Friday morning not knowing if we would camp (the cheap option) or get a hotel room due to the forecasted severe weather. It did drizzle on and off, but it seemed fairly harmless, so Brian and I dropped the kids at the marina to swim with my parents and we drove around the lake to the state park campground. We got one of the three spots left and set up our tent in the rain. It wasn't a bad rain though, just the lightly steady warm variety. I just can't stand the thought of spending $100 on a place to sleep for the night. So, when we got back to the boat the kids had swam and were about done being cooped up in a very small space so we decided to go for a walk in this wooded park where we wouldn't get too wet. It was the perfect time to do this! The rain had cooled the air enough that walking up 100 steps at a time wasn't too hot, and you could hear the light drips on the trees above (when Elijah wasn't talking anyway) and it made this sort of mystical canopy around us. By the time we got back it was definitely dinner time and the rain had let up so we decided to grill some hot dogs. Now if you have never spent time at a marina before let me explain to you how not easy it is to entertain a crowd--especially with kids. First of all, the boat is almost at the end of a long dock. So, if we want to eat up in the picnic area, you have to haul all the food up from the boat, down the dock and around the playground. If you forget something at the boat, guess what you have to do? As we are waiting for the hot dogs and making 5 trips back and forth to the boat for forgotten dinner supplies we notice some very strange looking clouds. We are watching them come in over the lake and a small crowd is starting to form. Within about 10 minutes we are noticing not only clouds, but out on the water you can see sheets of rain and the wind is starting to blow. The temperature dropped about 15 degrees in a matter of minutes. Brian now has the baby under his shirt and we decide to make a dash for the boat. Not before the rain got to us. We scooped up all the multiple trips of dinner in one large handful and walked...FAST (no running on the dock) back to the boat. So we ate dinner in the boat and as fast as this storm came, it was gone. Only leaving upper 60's for temp. and a beautiful sunset. I'll save day 2 for another post. Boy, pictures sure would've made this post shorter (I'm thinking about 1,000 words).

nature vs. nurture

I am sure in reality it is more of nature and nurture that makes us who we are, but I am continually amazed at how different my children can be. For example, today I took Mary to get her hair cut. She sat quietly (in fact, silently I think) and still while the lady cut her hair. She didn't scream when she brushed the tangles out (like she does for me) and she just watched in the mirror. I went over and sat in a chair with Emily and relaxed for 15 minutes. Now lets contrast that with Elijah's hair cutting experiences. I think up until a year ago when he started going to the barber with daddy we had to go to a new place every time because it was so traumatizing for the stylist! He would scream and pull and thrash around. We tried scissors, we tried clippers, we even did it at home a few times--it took almost an hour! We tried suckers, tv, distraction toys...nothing seemed to work to keep him still. He does much better now that he is a bit older, but how does that happen? How can they be so different?

Adventures in Warren County

Today, after a high energy walk with my dear friend Annie, Brian and I (and Emily--it was the kids' day at the sitter) drove out to his school to do some cleaning. This was not totally by our choice as his principal called last week and asked him to come in. Brian almost literally has a wing in the school--2 classrooms with a large hallway between and another small room off to the side, all filled with stuff. Stuff from previous teachers that has accumulated over the years. They are taking one of the classrooms and turning it into a math computer lab so Brian needed to get any stuff that he wanted to keep out of that particular room. There. is. a. lot. of. stuff. We only spent a few hours, but I feel like we at least made a dent in it. I think it will be good for him to have less classroom areas because the stuff gets so spread out and it's not organized. So, we will be going back to do more organizing and weeding out, but all that is actually not the story I wanted to share. So, here goes...

Brian's place of employment is about an hour from our house. Literally when we got out of the car at school, Brain says, "Oh, I forgot my wallet. Did you bring your purse?" Hmmm...nope, I didn't. I was rushing out the door and since I wasn't driving I left it. So we said, darn we would've liked to get some lunch while we were out, and then went into school and started working. It wasn't until we got back into the car and turned it on that we realized that the gas tank was almost empty and we did not have any money. We started driving home and I was nonchalantly like, "oh, we'll make it. It'll be fine." (Me, who makes the drive all the time! : )) Brian was less convinced. Then he remembered that he had a couple of $50.00 checks from school that we could cash--except that we had no driver's license or anything. We went to the bank in Attica where we were shot down. We were practically begging. We don't have enough gas to get back to Lafayette (and we get no cell phone reception out there.) No dice. So we tried the IGA (that's a small independent grocery store for those of you who don't know). We were hoping there might be a Seeger student working that could id Brian. So, I am sitting in the parking lot with the sleeping baby rummaging around the car for something, anything to help us. What do I find tucked down between the seats? Brian's passport!! Yes!!! A photo id!!! So, I grabbed the baby (who was actually awake) and took it in to him. We got a check cashed, picked up some chicken fingers from the deli, hit the gas station and then we were on our way. What an adventure!

Not a lot is new

Brian is home. Today was kind of a catch up from the weekend day. We went to the park with my sister-in-law, Megan and my nephew, Jonathan, and ran into my friend Kerrie and her son, Warren. We went to the park with them last Monday. So, we all walked around the zoo together and were about to ride the train, but got rained out. Apparently riding a metal train in a thunderstorm isn't "allowed." On the way to the park my other sister-in-law, Laura called to invite us over to cook hot dogs and s'mores for dinner. How can you say no to that? So we all went out to Battle Ground for the evening.

They're here, they're here!!

And by they, of course, I mean the diapers. And the ants. I bought traps today. Ugh. More of a hassle than a real problem at this point. We've never had any trouble with pests in our 88 year old house, so I am not complaining.

So, the diapers. Who knew I would be this excited about cleaning and caring for excrement? I found out about the best detergent to buy (usually the cheap stuff with no dyes or fragrances) and got them prewashed tonight. I also went and bought a stainless steel trashcan. Since we did not yet buy a diaper pail, for lots of reasons that I won't bore you with now, I decided that this option would allow us to possibly use it at a later time as a trash can. I am hoping that since I will be washing diapers every night at this point, the stink won't get too bad in there. Plus, you flush lots of the "solids" down the toilet anyway. So, maybe it won't be as stinky as a pail full of disposable poopy diapers.

Also, I went to Nature's Pharm today. I haven't been there in a while and I found a few things of interest: raw milk cheese, cage-free local eggs, and bacon without nitrates for starters. Does it seem like I did a lot of shopping today? Mary had a good night last night and her fever was gone this morning, so the kids went to my mom and dad's for the day (and tonight!!), so Emily and I had the day to spend as we, okay, as I pleased.

One more thing. Mary's sickness keeping us home was definitely a blessing in disguise. If you have watched the weather at all, you know that southern Indiana got hit hard with severe weather. No camping, not even entering the Bloomington area today as the interstate was closed due to flooding. The STH still played, but to a very small crowd I am told. They're coming home tonight.

Update: They are now driving back to Bloomington to stay the night due to flooded roads.

The best laid plans

Subtitled: A disappointing turn of events

The SmallTown Heroes are playing at an Orthodox music festival in Bloomington this weekend. Originally we planned on taking all three of our kids and camping. As the weekend got closer we thought it might be better for us to have Elijah and Mary go to grandma and papa's for the weekend. Then on Thursday Mary started running a high fever and had sore throat. This morning I took her to the doctor so we could head off anything serious and I could still hopefully go. But the strep test was negative and that means this is a virus that will have to run it's course. I just couldn't, in good conscience, leave a sick girl while I went off to have fun. At least if it was bacterial we could've started antibiotic today and she would have been feeling better tomorrow. So today Brian packed up his things and drove with Dallas and Bethany down to Bloomington. I think he was the most disappointed of all. Since Emily has been born I just don't make it to many shows. He was so excited about me being there. I was excited about taking a book to read, watching Emily play quietly on a blanket, carrying her around in the Maya wrap and talking with people. Darn. This is one of the hardest parts about being a parent.

My favorite parts of today

I love that Brian and I are both teachers now. We are having the best time at home as a family. It makes me sad that not everyone gets this. Okay, back to my favorite parts of today:

• the garage is organized! The shelves are built, the tools are hung, the strollers have hooks, even the wheelbarrow and ladder are off the floor.
• I weeded the garden. I love doing this!! Although I was surprised at how many weeds popped up since the last time.
• all of my planting projects are done. Including the pots I had been trying to find to fit the cool holders. They are full of herbs and are ready for cooking.
  
• I got to ride my bike to return a movie to RedBox.
• Emily got her naps today and went to bed without too much crying.
  
• Dairy Queen Buster Bars
  

Big Changes!

I guess life is really a series of changes, isn't it? Here are a couple of the biggest ones in our life right now. Elijah lost his first tooth!! It became loose over a week ago and he was really excited at first, but then for some reason, didn't want it to fall out. So he stopped wiggling it. A couple days ago I suggested he use a tissue and just give it a tug. I think it was so loose that he didn't even have to pull it. When he pushed it one direction it just came loose. He had this surprised grin on his face and was so proud--he didn't even care that there was blood dripping out of his mouth.

Also,

Tonight is the first night Mary is sleeping in underwear. She has been wearing underwear during the day for over a year, but still wearing Pull Ups at night. She is almost always wet in the morning, but the fact is, I think she knows that she can pee in it, so she does. If we ever get her ready for bed early and she is wearing a Pull Up for a while in the evening she often will pee in it, but never does that in her underwear. So, I imagine I will be stripping sheets in the middle of the night for a while, but I think it's time we made the switch.

And,

I ordered my first set of cloth diapers yesterday. They should be here by the end of the week.

I swear, I just keep getting crunchier every day. Do all you moms know about natural suncare products? I think I have been of the mindset that we have government regulations on things to keep us safe, and all the people who spend the extra money on organic, natural, etc. products are not hurting anything, but the products probably doesn't make that much of a difference. Call me a conspiracy theorist if you will, but I am starting to think that the government doesn't always tell us the whole truth about things. I have been reading in my book Real Food, about the industrialization of agriculture in America and I am realizing how unaware I really am about the things I put in to (or on to) my body. Like for instance, the difference between grass-fed and grain fed beef. I just assumed that if meat is available in the store it must be good for you. But, what I didn't think about was the fact that everything is big-business these days. Even "fattening" cows. Grain-fed beef actually have a higher fat percentage than what is healthy, and several health benefits are lost in the name of speed--that is getting the cow onto your plate as a steak. Maybe I am just getting old enough now to realize that some products haven't been around long enough for us to know what kind of long term effects they will have. So the great debate in my mind ensues: to stay in town or move to the country. I keep thinking that if we lived in a more rural setting we could raise a few chickens for our own eggs, maybe keep 1 cow and grow lots more of our own veggies. Then I wonder if that is a romanticized idea in my mind. Would I hate having to muck stalls and collect eggs? Probably. Would it be worth it for higher quality food products? I was just coming to terms with staying in our house. I love walking to church every Sunday. I love riding my bike to Marsh. I love that our house is on the way to so many things that people often drop by and there is rarely a day we don't have visitors. I love that when I have to have my kids to a birthday party in less than an hour I can zip to Target to pick up a birthday present and be back in time to nurse the baby and get everyone dressed and out the door with minutes to spare. I just wish I could have it all. Isn't that an "American" thought? That I even could have it all.

P.S. I did check the city ordinances. There is a specific one that says you can't have livestock in town. Rats.