Bright Monday

We are home today! Brian and I both took a personal day so we can fully enjoy the Paschal celebration. The kids did so well this weekend. We woke them up around 11:30 pm to go to Liturgy. The first thing Elijah noticed when we went inside was the bells. During Great Lent we don't use any bells on the censer. The deacon was censing the church and the bells were jingling. The church is totally dark until about 11:55 and then the Priest comes out with a large candle. He chants, "Come ye, receive the light from the unwaining light. Come receive Christ who is risen from the dead," and passes the light from his candle to the faithful who are all holding candles. Within about 10 seconds the church is filled with the light of candles. Then we watch as they bring out the Gospel book. The priest and deacon process with it outside and we all follow with our candles. So, it is now around 12:10 in the morning and there are 150 people standing outside with candles listening to the gospel reading and singing "Christ is risen from the dead..." When we return to the church the lights are on and the church is filled with flowers. When all is said and done the service is done around 2 am, but the fun is just getting going. Everyone has brought their baskets filled with candy, cheese, eggs, meats, and all the yummy treats we haven't been eating for the last 50 days. The priest blesses the baskets and then everyone stays to eat, drink and be merry. We got home around 3 am and the kids slept until around 9 am. This is the first year that they didn't wake up around 6:30 am. We ate candy for breakfast, had an egg hunt, and took naps soon after. Last night we had some friends over and we had another egg hunt for the kids (outside this time) and had a campfire. Today we will rest, clean the house, and get ready to start the week.

today is the big day

Tonight is the Paschal fest. We will go to church at 11:30 and the liturgy will start around midnight. It is the most fantastic service, although it is super crowded. It will be so nice when our new church is built. We realized today that we had family baptisms as bookends to Great and Holy Lent. Little Emily's baptism was just before Lent started and today was Laura's. She will take her first communion at the service tonight. We spent the afternoon buying food for our Easter baskets, dyeing eggs, making jello eggs, and Brian made a country ham. I am going to stuff and hide plastic eggs once the kids are down for the night. Here are a few highlights from today.

It's the elusive "cute baby" shot

I keep trying...I think it is so hard to capture personality on, well, I was about to say on film. I guess, on pixels???

Here are some things Emily is enjoying right now:

She has discovered her hands and specifically her thumb and will suck it if she gets it in her mouth. She also knows how to take her pacifier in and out of her mouth and seems to think it is fun to do so when she is trying to go to bed.

She loves grabbing for toys and has this very determined look when she is reaching. She is also getting very squirmy. I haven't seen much evidence that she will roll soon, but my mom swears that she was arching her back and tilting her head way over.

She is very smiley and has a fantastic laugh.

Because I know you were all dying to know...Elijah has strep throat again. It has been going around the Catholic school system, and many of the families at our daycare are employed there or have siblings who attend there. So, many of the kids at daycare in turn have been exposed to strep or have had it. Apparently by the time you finish your antibiotic from the first round, someone new has been exposed to the bacteria and then passes it along back to you.

Yesterday was a rough day. Elijah was miserable. He cried a lot. He slept a lot though too. After 3 doses of the new antibiotic, he is definitely turning the corner today. It also helps that Mary went to the sitter today (by her request). So he gets more of my attention.

The weather is fantastic. I mowed the lawn this morning and have plans to maybe work some more in the garden this afternoon. I guess there has to be a plus side to being home with sickies!

4:47 a.m.

This is the time I left my bed this morning to drive to school and write sub plans. I was already awake (thankfully--ha ha) and nursing the baby when Elijah came in crying that his stomach hurt and had a headache. Yesterday was the last day of his antibiotic for strep. He is now back to sleep, so I guess I will assess the damage when he wakes up for the day. I am determined to not feel sorry for myself even though I am not getting any kind of regular sleep. Our neighbor passed away at his house on Saturday morning after battling cancer for the last 5 months. His poor wife is a wreck. She had been taking care of him and watching him waste away to nothing because he wouldn't eat and the cancer kept spreading. Brian and I went to his viewing last night. While I was looking up his obituary yesterday I found another one that broke my heart. A little girl, 5 days younger than Elijah, battled leukemia and died last week. Her dad is a teacher and baseball coach at Harrison. Brian knows him. How absolutely awful. So, I won't complain about having to get up every few hours at night. It won't be forever. At least we all have each other.

random musings on the grocery store and other rambling

First of all, tomorrow is Palm Sunday for us!! Hooray!! We will be very excited to complete Great and Holy Lent next week. Lots of services to look forward to and the best part this year is that Brian's sister, Laura, is being baptized and chrismated into the Orthodox faith!! Brian and I took a personal day on the Monday following Easter so that we can fully enjoy the LONG Saturday night Paschal services and celebrations and not worry on Sunday about trying to get rested to go back to work on Monday. We have learned from experience that this is probably a good idea.

This morning I went to the grocery store with the girls at 7 am. It was so much better than going in the middle of the day. Not crowded in the least. It was almost like going during the week. Sigh...Plus, I was home with a re-stocked kitchen by 8:30 am. Here is a question. We eat quite a bit of fruit. Especially in the winter, when fresh produce is expensive and not very delicious, we buy canned fruit. Why are the big cans of fruit only available in heavy syrup? I like that Del Monte now has fruit in 100% juice, but we go through the small cans quickly. It especially troubles me that the large cans are probably mostly consumed by kids in daycare or other group settings--don't they deserve fruit that isn't coated in sugar? Don't you think that I need something else to worry about??

swimming around in my head

There are a lot of issues out there right now that make me wonder about life. Two of those in particular are the organic/non-organic debate and also recently artificial sweeteners. I go back and forth between "it's no big deal" and "it's a big deal." I am getting ready to delve into two books right now: Real Food and The Untold Story of Milk. I'm sure I'll have some more "food for thought" after I finish these. One of the interesting things about blogs is reading comments of people who have strong opinions about these issues. Unlike me at this point, who can't get on one side of the fence or the other on most things.

You don't know me

updating our week

One of the hardest parts of working is having my kids get sick. On Thursday Brian stayed home with Mary because she had a fever and Friday I was going to stay with her. Then Thursday evening Elijah started going downhill FAST. When he gets sick it is obvious. He just lays around and is really quiet. By Thursday night I was really glad I had prepared sub plans for Friday. He felt terrible and had a high fever. I remembered that earlier this week there was a girl at the sitter who had been out with strep throat. With that information I made him a doctor's appointment Friday morning and sure enough he had strep throat too. Come to find out there had been several daycare families who have had it. Since we were already there I made Mary an appointment too, even though she seemed to be feeling better. She has an ear infection. Both kids are on antibiotic and though they are a little crabby, they are significantly better than a couple days ago.

Emily had her 4 month check up this week (a couple weeks late) and her stats are:

17 lbs (yes, she is gigantic)--95th percentile, but in her defense she has been on that projectile since she was born.
28 inches long (off the chart for height)

She actually has a mild ear infection as well, but I don't think she seems too bad so I am waiting on giving her antibiotics unless they are really necessary. We're going to wait to start rice cereal for at least another month.

Today we went to Menards for a couple of things and ended up buying our seeds for our garden. I am getting antsy to start planting things. We got spinach, lettuce, green beans, peas, watermelon, basil, and mint. We will definitely be getting a few more things, but some will be plants and others we just hadn't decided on yet. But at least it's a good start. We're expanding our garden this year because we had such good luck with it last summer and it was so enjoyable.

lentil soup

This weekend I made some yummy lentil soup. Today after school the kids and I were walking home from the park, collecting things for daddy. Elijah asked what we would have for dinner and I suggested Boca burgers or leftover lentil soup. Mary... sweet, imaginative, Mary, was collecting leaves to make her own soup when we got home. She loves to pretend and often gets caught up in one of her games of make believe. When we got home I was busy for about 10 minutes as I caught up with Brian, got the mail, etc. I went into the kitchen Mary had taken a bowl of (delicious) Thai noodle salad out and was "cooking her lentil soup". Well, I wanted to taste the salad to see how the cabbage held up after 24 hours in the refrigerator. What did I find after I took a big bite of salad? Leaves. Oh, yes. She mixed the leaves from our walk into the "soup".

Where do the days go?

I swear I blinked and it was Sunday. This weekend was kind of a wash, but kind of good too. Friday night we went out to Seeger to watch the staff talent show that Brian coordinated. It was fun, except that after our first week back into the germ pool, all the kids were sick and tired, and we didn't get home until almost midnight. Poor little congested Emily screamed all night until Brian took her to the couch and held her from 3 am-6am. So, Saturday, the first nice day of the year, we spent sleeping and trying to recover. Thankfully, we all got lots of rest and today was a much better day of playing outside and visiting with his parents. The laundry is caught up, meals are made for the week and I am feeling like all the balls I am juggling are currently staying in the air.

I am still alive

I've been a little busy lately, hence my disappearance from blog land. My first week back has been busy, but enjoyable. I am in the process of changing my expectations for a clean house and clean laundry. I am so thankful we have wonderful caregivers to take care of our children. I can go to work and not even worry a little about what my kids are doing during the day. I had still been contemplating staying home next year, but I think we have pretty much decided that I won't unless God makes it really clear that I will. What I want is to stay home and keep the standard of living that we currently have. But the reality is that if I stay home, I would either have to get a part-time job or Brian will have to get a second job. I would not see him very often and our weekends will include one of us being gone. SO, instead I think I am going to be thankful that I have a career that affords me 3 months off every summer, 10 days at Christmas, a week in spring, and various other holidays, as well as very decent hours and pays better than part-time. Oh yeah, and I really like what I do. I guess that is important too.

Phew!

Okay, I'm better. A night out to watch Brian play music with the STH (which was a great show--musicians playing to benefit local charities) and a whole morning with just Emily. I went to school to finish up prepping my room, to the grocery store to get ingredients to make-ahead meals for next week, and them home to bake bread and cook soup. I am back on track and not so stressed. Although, it was encouraging me to be excited about going back to work next week.

Tonight is one of those nights...the kind when you want to scream or cry or maybe both. Brian isn't home, so dinner and bedtime were my exclusive job. The latter of which is still trying to happen. It has been 3 hours now of bedtime!!! Mary has been up 3 times with various complaints and I anticipate more since I just heard a big clap of thunder. Emily is having trouble falling asleep. I know she is tired because she's rubbing her eyes and making tired noises. Every time I put her down she starts wailing within about 2 minutes. She is fed, changed, and snuggled. I AM CLOCKING OUT FOR THE DAY!!!!

Reality check

I have a lot of things swirling around in my head right now, but not many coherent thoughts. I feel like the last two weeks have flown by at warp speed. I am gearing up for going back to work in only 5 days. Today I went grocery shopping, realizing it would be the last time I go with just Emily, during the day. It is one of my favorite times during the week; slowly walking the aisles, picking fresh produce, talking to her about the things we are buying. I also bought food for my lunches for next week. I went into my classroom today to do some cleaning, organizing, and prepping for next week. I don't want to have to stay late after school as I know I will be tired and ready to see my family. Eek, this is really happening. I am torn, because I love staying home (with a paycheck!!), but I also love teaching. I never do transitions well.

We got notice today that Elijah was admitted to New Community School for next year, which has all day kindergarten, only 12 students in a class, and individualized instruction. Yay! We think this school is going to be a good fit for him. We live within the city limits and there is no all day kindergarten available, so this was our only option other than pay for private school. Now I just have to figure out how to get him there at 8:15 in the mornings.

My grandparents were here yesterday for a short visit. The kids were thrilled to spend the day with "great gram and papa". We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel (the kids' choice!!) and played outside. Elijah watched The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe while papa snoozed on the couch. It was a fun day. Unfortunately no pictures since I am out of batteries.

What we've been up to this week

Brian stained and hung a shelf for this beautiful art that Laura painted for us. It looks amazing!!



Mary got a new big girl bed--did you notice that the blankets are still from her toddler bed, that will be next week's project. Emily moved out of her bassinet crib. We finally made a choice to keep Emily in our room until she can consistently sleep all night and then we'll put the girls together. So today I brought the big crib down from the attic and set it up. She doesn't keep us up, it's mostly putting her to bed that is loud. She often cries then. We were having trouble deciding who was moving where, so Emily has been a little squished in her small crib. Now we have a plan that we feel comfortable with.

So, I guess it looks like we did a lot of sliding at the Children's Museum yesterday...We've been staying busy during Brian's spring break, although it doesn't feel much like spring. Thankfully we didn't have too many outdoor projects planned for this week or we would've been disappointed. We met up with one of Brian's co-workers and his family at the Indianapolis Children's Museum yesterday and it was fun! Probably one of the most successful trips we've had. There were a lot of field trips there so it was busy, but not too bad. It was our last time to go on last year's membership (it expires at the end of March) and we again said how much more enjoyable it makes the trip. You don't worry about trying to do everything because you can always do it next time and you ride the carousel for free. It just makes the whole time feel more relaxed.

I grew up as a reader. I loved books, magazines, the back of cereal boxes...

Elijah has loved books since he was an infant. I have numerous pictures of him pulling every board book from his shelf and then turning through the pages. He will stop what he is doing and sit and listen to any picture book--even The Princess Collection that I am reading to his sister. He has recently been enjoying listening to chapter books, including Charlotte's Web and The Boxcar Children (read twice in a row!!). He has many stories memorized and can "read" them to himself or others. So, I don't know why I am surprised that as I groggily stumbled into the shower this morning my lovely husband comes busting in saying, "Michelle, Elijah can read. I mean really read." Indeed there are several basic books that he can decode the text using the picture clues and sounding out the words.

Last week we were at Barnes and Noble picking out books for the kids and I just blanked out on what to get. I sometimes refer to this phenomenon as "mall eyes." When there is so much to look at, I just glaze over and basically look at nothing. Part of the "problem" is that my aunt is a librarian who buys my kids stacks of books every Christmas and birthday, so when I look at the displayed books, we have lots of them (boo-hoo, right?). Elijah ended up with 2 new Star Wars books (ugh) and convinced him to choose a Kevin Henkes book, Sheila Rae the Brave (yay) . But as I was lamenting I remembered something about my own childhood: my parents always let me buy books, and not always literature. Whenever we went to the mall, I got to pick out a book from the bookstore. Whenever a book order came home from school I got to choose several books to buy. I had lots of Nancy Drew and Babysitter's Club paperbacks that I would read and re-read. He loves Star Wars. He loves looking at the pictures and learning about the characters. It will probably not stunt his development.

But, this does bring me to my next thought: as a kindergarten teacher, mom, and avid reader I thought I would share a list of children's authors and picture books that I particularly like (in no particular order).

Robert McCloskey--Make Way for Ducklings, Blueberries for Sal
Kevin Henkes--Lily's Purple Plastic Purse, Owen, Chester's Way, Julius the baby of the world
William Steig--Doctor DeSoto, Pete's a Pizza
Martin Waddell--Owl Babies
Vera B. Williams--A Chair for my Mother
Munro Leaf--The Story of Ferdinand

I know there are others, but my brain is about done for now. Maybe you have others that you really like that you'd like to leave in the comments...

I had to sneak up on her to get this on video because she always stops doing whatever cute thing she is doing as soon as the camera comes out. And she did. As soon as I put the camera down she resumed her highly self-entertaining squealing session. She started this earlier this week and seems to enjoy it most when she is alone in her crib. It cracks me up to be out in the living room and hear her.

For once in my life

I don't have a lot to say about anything. I am loving my days at home, where I can take a shower at 2:30 in the afternoon and realize that in a few weeks my day (at my paid job) will be just about over at this time. I am thoroughly enjoying cooking, cleaning, and playing with my kids. If only the snow would melt, I think my life would be about perfect.

We just look innocent

the true king

Daddy: Elijah, who is the king of rock and roll?
Elijah: Chuck Berry.
Innocent bystander: What, not Elvis?
Elijah: Elvis isn't the king of anything.

a few more pictures

It's almost midnight...

...but I can't sleep! The last of our guests just left and I am still reeling from the excitement of this weekend. First, Saturday was a day to celebrate the lives of two of my favorite people--my husband and his sister, Megan. An evening of cooking, laughing, and enjoying our family. Then today, to witness the beauty of the sacrament of baptism...Emily was so perfect during the service. She didn't even cry once! It was so meaningful to have our good friends, Dallas and Bethany be her godparents. We know that they will love her, pray for her, and be a special part of her life.

It's time to prepare

This year Orthodox Easter (Pascha), is much later than western Easter--like so late that we haven't even started Lent yet. Here's why. In any case, we are having our own sort of "fat Tuesday" of eating and celebrating this weekend--Brian and Megan's birthday party (Mexican fiesta), and Emily's baptism. There are no celebratory services allowed during periods of fasting (i.e. no weddings or baptisms.) We will begin fasting from dairy products on Monday and then the following Monday include abstaining from all meat products, oil, and alcohol until April 27th.

It is always a time of cleansing and renewal, drawing closer to God. I've started reading a book about the Orthodox veneration of Mary as I am preparing myself for Great Lent. I'll probably be sharing more about this as I process it. It's a short one, so I'll probably pick up something else once Lent gets going, although I'll be back to work soon--only 4 more weeks, and I have enough trouble finding time to read my Bible let alone other spiritual books, so we'll see.

In the mean time we are preparing a lot of our favorite meals this week: homemade pizza, biscuits and gravy, and chili. I washed and pressed the baptismal gown this morning. My grandma made it when Mary was baptized. It is beautiful! I hope that it will be used again someday.

Mary is loving her gymnastics class! She has one more week in the beginner class and then will move up to intermediate. She has been doing lots of jumping, walking on the balance beam, and beginning to use the bars. This week they started to learn cartwheels too. Elijah is going to start in the boys class.

girls weekend

the inside of our hotel--it even had a small aviary with a parrot
If Laura's career as an art teacher or floral designer doesn't work out, she has a back up plan!!

On Friday, despite the blizzard-like conditions, my sisters-in-law and I took one of our friends to Indy for the night to celebrate her upcoming wedding. We had a lot of obstacles to overcome, but we made it!! And it was fun!! We stayed in a hotel suite so baby Emily (yup, she was there too) could have her own space and we could stay up without bothering her. We went out to eat, sat in the hot tub, and on Saturday we went wedding dress shopping. It was so fun to get away. It doesn't take much to entertain me these days! Emily was the best baby ever. She didn't cry at all and she just hung out in her car seat, or in the pack-n-play, or let someone hold her.

P.S. the bride is going to be her godmother (baptism this weekend!!)

Even I have had enough

I actually like snow. I figure if it has to be cold, you might as well have something to play in. I don't really mind driving in it too much...but this is getting ridiculous!! In December, lovely. At the end of February, annoying.

"From Apostolic times and to our days all who truly love Christ give veneration to her who gave birth to Him, raised Him and protected Him in the days of His youth. If God the Father chose her, God the Spirit descended upon her, and God the Son dwelt in her, submitted to her in the days of His youth, was concerned for her when hanging on the cross-then should not everyone who confesses the Holy Trinty venerate her?" --St. John Maximovich

Many of you know that Brian has become kind of a chef around here. I still make most of the nightly meals, but if there is something special going on, he likes to whip up something tasty. Well, I am ready to give him a run for his money. His inspiration comes from a magazine called Cooks Illustrated, which I think is lovely, but the recipes take all day and require destroying the kitchen to make. He found me a sister magazine called, Cooks Country,which has some equally delicious things, without quite as many steps. Last night I made the most delicious beef stew I can ever remember--in the slow cooker. Granted, it wasn't quite like throwing all the ingredients in and turning it on. But, the 30 minutes of prep work was well worth the result. One key to this recipe: wrapping the vegetables in foil and placing them on top of the beef to steam (so they were not overcooked and soggy). Also, this recipe included parsnips, which I had not tasted before. They were fabulous!! I will be trying some more new things from this magazine.

3 Month check in

Today marks Emily's 12th week of life outside of me. She is growing up quickly and more so than with the other two kids, I feel like I want her to just stay little. (I can definitely see the whole birth order thing coming into play here!!) She is getting into a routine of sleeping and eating that is helping me to feel more calm about our life. She is often falling asleep on her own at night now, and especially joyful news--at a really decent hour (sometimes even allowing Brian and I to have that much coveted couple hours of quiet time before we collapse into the bed). It's hard to believe it was just maybe 8 weeks ago that she was completely backwards and keeping us up until almost 2 am some nights. We felt like we'd never sleep through the night again, and here it is only 2 months later...I am especially thankful again, that I was not back to work at 6, or even 8 weeks. I just cannot imagine functioning at work with such little sleep.

Emily is learning to enjoy her awake time by just hanging out with us. I am a lot less vigilant about stimulating her all the time than I was with my other kids. This morning she sat in her seat for 30 minutes while I walked on the treadmill. She was quiet and just looking around the room. I used to feel guilty for not interacting if the baby was awake, but I think I am learning new things as a mom too. She does enjoy being tickled, making throaty gggg sounds, and being snuggled. She does not enjoy being on her tummy, but I still try it if the stars are all aligned. Elijah reminded me this morning, "Mom, are you going to lay Emily on her tummy today? The doctor said you should do it every day."

I am truly thankful each day for the time that I have at home right now. I feel like I am trying to lock these feelings and moments away in my memory. I just want to hold on to them. Mary climbed into bed with me the other morning at 6:00 and locked her arms around my arm. She kept saying, "Mommy...my mommy," over and over again. These are the times to treasure.

I love 3 day weekends

Even though I am currently a stay at home mom, I absolutely love the 3 day weekend. I think we should have them twice a month. We are able to have a good balance of work, fun, and relaxation that you just can't get in 2 days off. We did lots of family stuff all weekend and on Monday Brian got to come to see Mary's gymnastics class (she is moving up to the intermediate class in a few weeks!!!) and we took the kids out to Happy Hollow Park to run around even though it was cold outside. We went for a (SHORT) walk on the path and got to see running water in places that are usually dry all summer. It's always hard to get outside when it's cold, but I think once you get out, it's not such a big deal.

An assassin lives at our house

He might look [fat, lazy] old and slow, but this de-clawed cat has taken down 6 birds this week! We are so proud of him! We have this problem with birds nesting above the window on our back porch and they make a huge mess--poop, nesting materials, feathers...we don't really want them there. He has been single-handedly getting them out of our hair. I don't know how he does it, but I would like to see it some time. I am imagining him launching into mid-air and catching the bird in his mouth. It would be a sight to behold. Not to mention that he weighs like 15 lbs or something.

Welcome to the Jungle

Elijah is so much more visually-spatially oriented than I am. He got this new gorilla as a birthday party favor last night and wanted to use his blocks to make a jungle for it. The standing up blocks are the coconut trees and the group of blue blocks are the water. I never would have come up with this idea.

the key to a good day:

the morning nap. If Emily can go down for a nap 1- 1 1/2 hours after waking up, she will:

a) lay down awake and drift off to sleep
b) nap well for the rest of the day
c) allow me to enjoy my day because she will not be fussy

It's amazing what a difference it makes! She came with me to the dentist on Tuesday (what in the world was I thinking?) and couldn't sleep in her car seat due to the awful sound of the hygenist scraping my teeth with this awful tool. The rest of the day (and that night): awful. Have I mentioned before that I love routine??

Where has the week gone?

I can't believe that it is going on Thursday already. I truly don't know what has been happening. Well, I've been watching kids--Caroline, as previously mentioned; Warren (age 2) all day today, and Jonathan (my 4 month old nephew) tomorrow. Tomorrow is the last day of swimming lessons and parents can swim with their kids, so I am gearing up for getting into my swimsuit with an extra 10--okay 20 lbs., on my body in front of people. Both kids really enjoyed their lessons. Elijah can now do front and back floating and can swim the width of the pool in 2 different strokes. I am impressed with his growth this time. Mary now puts her whole head under the water, is beginning to use her arms, and jumps into the deep end with a floatie.

We are finally getting over the sickness that has been hanging on. Emily is just now starting to sniffle. Hopefully she won't get it full on.

Tomorrow night is Valentine's Day and we are actually going on a date--a double date! Woo-hoo! Our friends' son is having a b-day party so parents can go out for the evening and Emily will go to my parents' house. Definitely something to look forward to.

Last, a couple of recent pics of Emily. She is almost smiling for the camera.

Happy BIRTH day, Lucy!

This weekend has been one of those busy, but not really feeling like you got anything accomplished weekends. Friday night Brian and I went out on a date and had a fantastic time! We bought a new loveseat for our living room and went to Mountain Jacks for a relaxing dinner. We are funny about going out to eat these days. A lot of people think Mt. Jacks is a really expensive dinner, but it's actually not that much more than say, Outback or Texas Roadhouse; but to us, the ambiance is worth the extra $15.00. It is a quiet, relaxed meal, with well-paced courses and great service. The last time we went to Applebee's (which used to be our favorite eatery) we couldn't believe how expensive their prices had become.

So, the crazy started Saturday morning. I went to exercise at 8:00 am and my mom called to say that Mary's fever was back (she has had a really nasty cold all week). Fearing another ear infection, I made her an appointment at the Peds. clinic. We spent most of the morning waiting on lab results only to find out that she has a bad cold.

When we got home, we found out that our friend and goddaughter, Caroline, was on her way over because her mom was getting ready to have a baby. She spent the whole afternoon and evening here and we had such fun. Caroline is about 17 months old and is such a sweetie! Her mom called at 6:30 to report that Caroline's little sister, Lucy had been born after just one push!! So it was great fun, but I am glad that we only have 3 kids. We were beat at the end of the day. I suppose it made it worse that Mary is so sick and truly not easy to deal with right now.

Here's hoping for a good day today!

The most disgusting thing I've seen all day

Sonic Airheads do this to your mouth. Gross.




And, not disgusting....


Everyone has one of these pictures, don't they? Mary was relaxin' (or maybe chillaxin'?) in the tub with the jets going and lots of bubbles to play with. The bubble beard is a classic.

The Greene's go green

I escaped germville last night for a brief visit to Target to replenish our beverage selection and a few other essentials. I got to use my new string bags to take home my purchases. I decided as my first ever new year's resolution that I am going to make an attempt to stop wasting plastic bags. Every time I go to the grocery store I bring home at least 15 bags and I just can't reuse all of them. I admit it--I throw them away. They take up so much room under the sink. SO, I decided this year I will be one of those annoying people at the grocery store that you hate to be behind because they are taking so much time. They certainly drew a lot of attention last night. They are cute colors and can hold up to 40 lbs. each. I think I will buy another set because I see that they are on sale right now and one set of 5 bags is only packing about 2/3 of our typical weekly groceries.

Next stop churning our own butter and recycling old cereal boxes into paper in the garage.

visions of a sick day

This one was so tired this morning that she literally fell asleep sitting on the couch. We had a pretty rough night. I was already sleeping on the couch due to a certain unnamed man who was snoring so loud I was about to plug his nostrils. Mary came out about 10:30 and was burning up with fever. I let her sleep on the loveseat. Emily was having a hard time falling asleep, and Elijah was up around 4, also with fever. He had been sick yesterday, but of course Mary always has to get it 10 times worse. So today, instead of my day to run errands, such as the grocery store and going to the dentist for the first time since I won't tell you when; I am washing sheets, washing children, and watching Disney movies.

For anyone who cares...

A few people have asked, so here it is...our new 4Runner. We are enjoying it. The kids actually like it better than the van. And incredibly there is more leg room in the back seat.

Snow Day

Yes, she is eating celery. We didn't have any carrots for our snowman, but Mary ended up just munching it.
The amazing Aunt Laura in her orange snowsuit. In case she gets lost.