Happy Birthday a few days late

Dear Emily,

It is just your luck that you are not only the third child, but your birthday happens to be around two of the biggest holidays of the year. I am terribly sorry in advance for the lack of birthday preparations you will probably experience.

Love,

Mom

The fun just keeps on comin'

Today was such a fun day, starting out with breakfast with my parents and grandparents at Cracker Barrel. Brian and Emily stayed home because she is very sick! So it was just the seven of us. The kids were great and we had a nice meal despite the thousands of other people there. Then we came home to pick up Em and Brian and headed over to my parents' house for some more hang time. It was so relaxing and fun to drink coffee all day, knit, visit, and and play games. We left around 3:00 to head home, but decided to make it a pit stop at home to get the dog and the stroller and went over to Prophetstown State Park for a walk. It was beautiful. We went all the way to the back of the park where we never make it to and walked down to the creek and then took a more brisk walk on the paved trail. By the time we were leaving it was dusk and we drove very slowly out of the park to spot deer. They were everywhere! We even saw a decent sized buck with antlers. Tomorrow is Emily's birthday and gingerbread house making day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving! It has been a very laid back day for us so far. Strangely Thanksgiving is one day that I miss having a tv. I really always liked watching the parades in the morning. Brian tried to make me feel better by pulling the Macy's parade up on someone's streaming webcam, but it actually isn't the same as hearing the banter of the annoying hosts talking about each float.

This is the first year we made food for the Lafayette Urban Ministry meal and took it down there this morning. Elijah was so proud to carry the food in to the church--it was raining and I didn't feel comfortable leaving the girls alone in the van--there were lots of homeless people wandering down there.

We'll head to Brian's grandma's this afternoon and then visit my family later tonight. We've been busy making pies (8 of them in all!) and green bean casserole. YUM! We're all a bit under the weather so we'll probably have a quiet weekend, but I have been looking at some natural toy websites and finding some REALLY cute things for Christmas ideas. I'm usually really bad about having good gift ideas for people when they ask me what to buy for my kids. I personally feel like they already have plenty of things and I hate to buy things just because that's what you do at Christmas. But, this year I am armed and ready with some quality options.

Overheard on Friday night

As we were taking a tour of the Long Center and meeting the conductor of the Lafayette Symphony Orchestra:

Elijah: "Mom, why do they have a microwave down here?" (in the downstairs dressing/warm up room)

Me:

Elijah: (before I can even respond) " I bet they just sit down here and eat popcorn and smoke cigarettes."

Clearly.

Last minute plans

Last night Elijah got to cash in on his birthday present from Aunt Meg and Uncle Everette: a Purdue basketball game. It's all he could talk about all week. (I haven't heard from him yet this morning to know how it went, but I'm sure he'll have lots to say.) But, since he was going out to do something special, we decided to take Mary Grace out too. We had planned to drive back out to Brian's school to see their fall play, but to be honest, I didn't really want to go--he is a big wig there and it's impossible to actually hang out with him except for the drive to and from. And, there's the drive. Mary was pretty tired yesterday and pretty, um, grouchy. I was envisioning us driving her home at 11:00 and our whole weekend being ruined because when she gets overtired she actually ends up sleeping less, not more. So. What we decided to do was just stay in town, grab a bite to eat, and then do something low key. But. As we were at Pizza Hut (Brian was thrilled about her choice, let me tell you) she remembered that her sitter was taking her granddaughter to see High School Musical on Stage at Jeff HS. We looked at each other and wondered. Could we do it? The time was 6:20. We didn't even know what time it started. But, that's the beauty of living in town, I guess. We finished our pizza buffet and headed for Jeff, all the while reminding ourselves that there probably won't be tickets, we probably won't be able to go, our after dinner plans will probably include walking at the mall. BUT.
When we got there there WERE tickets left and the show was just getting ready to start. MARY LOVED IT!!!!!!!!! And I was excited to see a student in the show who helps in my classroom this year and FORMER KINDERGARTNERS!!! Oh my, I am old. My first year of teaching was 10 years ago. I have kindergartners who are now FRESHMEN. In the show. WOW. It was definitely a good night and we couldn't have planned it better.

Spoiler Alert

Potential Christmas card pictures coming up...

My sister-in-law, Megan, took our first-- yes, our first. ever. family portraits on Sunday. She has them on her photography business website. MANY of them turned out really well (Does that sound vain or complementary to the photographer?) Anyway, we like lots of them. Except that our kids look, well, old. I know that seems to be a running them among my blog posts.

Well, it's done.

I guess all I can do is wait now to find out if we go to Alaska this summer or not. I've been diligently working on writing a Lilly Teacher Creativity grant for personal renewal. It will be a month long trip to Alaska, flying into Anchorage and then driving by RV to state parks. I totally am not planning on getting it......But. What if I do? It's an $8,000 grant. Just for personal renewal of teachers. They fund 120 every year. Will mine make the cut? We definitely could not self-fund an $8,000 trip. So, if it doesn't pan out we are tentatively making plans for Yellowstone this summer. Although, I can't help but think that in terms of buying a new van (which we will NEED to do if we are going to continue driving across the country every summer) it would be great to not need to use it this summer so that we can finish paying on it before we sell it. At this point with it needing a totally overhauled a/c I can't imagine us getting enough out of it to make a decent down payment on the next one...unless we don't owe very much on it.

Unfortunately I won't have any information about the grant until February. I am trying to not be anxious about it. Actually, I'm not. Yellowstone would be awesome. Heck, I'd go back and do the exact same trip we took last summer and not even be the slightest bit disappointed. But, even still it's the waiting. And the wondering.

I know it's totally lame that this video is sideways and I forget to keep it side to side every time I use my camera to take video, but this was a HUGE milestone in our family so I decided to post it anyway. Elijah has decided to not be nasty about taking piano lessons. He's going to be starting soon, but this weekend we were working with him on getting his musical ear in tune. You know like listening for which pitches are higher/lower, etc. and just having a general feel for the keyboard. He stuck with it until he could play 2 songs by ear: Twinkle, Twinkle and Mary Had a Little Lamb. He has trouble getting over that initial hurdle of getting started with a new thing. He always expects to try something new and know how to do it like an expert.

New Pictures!

I know I just posted about growth, but now everyone seems to think the monkey bars are easy. This is new.

Emily has discovered the word yucky. Lots of things are "Ewww, yucky." Like the inside of this pumpkin. I swear I didn't prompt her.

Football was an interesting experience. Brian was the coach and now that it's over he says he'll do it again, but it seemed a little trying at times. Elijah definitely is more willing to listen to someone other than a family member giving him instruction. I actually rarely went to games and never went to a practice which was also a new experience for us. It just never seemed to work out.

There are definitely some pros to being a 2 teacher family: we'll call those things June, July, and August. But. There are also some cons: we'll call those things first day of school (there isn't anyone to take our own children to their first day of school) and report card and parent teacher conference time. Ugh. Sigh. Zzzzzzz.

Sometimes I am baffled when my children make big leaps in development. I feel like I just turned around and--hey, weren't you just crawling and eating baby food last week? All of a sudden Emily is like a little person. She sings songs. Well enough that you can discriminate what it is. Her favorites are Baa Baa Black Sheep, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and the ABC song (Conveniently they are all the same tune!) She remembers things. For a long time. Like tonight when she was going to bed. She said, "Cup. Cup outside momma." And sure enough I went and looked and she had left her water outside by the playset. She also has this thing about coloring right now. She says, "Look momma, I color E." I don't know why she is always coloring E. Maybe her sitter says that since it's the first letter of her name. When our friends the Fishes came into church on Sunday she exclaimed, "Caroline! Lucy! Annie!" and would not be content until they came over by us. Of course she also tried to gouge Lucy's eyes out when she tried to sit on my lap. She doesn't want anyone coming near her mom. She did the same thing to her cousin last week, so no hard feelings Lucy. Along with the good is certainly the bad. Emily has also decided that everything is "mine." Even if she hasn't played with it in the last hour but has played with it before. It's "mine." Man, I forgot about how fun toddlers can be. The best though is that she has learned to say, "I wuv you." and she says it to all of us at home. She loves her brother and sister so much. She will initiate, "I wuv you Jijah. Wuv you Mee (Mary)." It is neat to see her being able to play with them more. She certainly isn't a baby anymore.

I am quite sure that I can't articulate how I have been feeling lately as I finish reading (and listening--I love audio books) the Little House on the Prairie series. There is a part of me that thinks of the Dakota prairie every day and longs for it like something I've never had before. Maybe everyone connects with these stories--that's why they are so wildly popular. Anyhow, I have now plunged ahead to read more writings by Laura and her daughter, Rose. I just have to know more!! I found several books at the library today and started on A Little House Sampler, writings from mother and daughter. Here is an amazing quote from Rose as she writes about herself as a writer:

"I love life because it is always, always interesting. Pessimists say that life is bitter and cruel and hard to bear; optimists say that it is bright and joyful and full of hope. I think they are both right. Pain and joy, happiness and suffering, as they enter an individual life, are alike in the one quality of being always a new experience, and therefore interesting. The value of life, to me, is that it is so big, and we are so small, that we can never get hold of all of it: there is forever something more, still unknown."


By the way, my new header photo is one of the cottonwood trees that Pa Ingalls planted at their Dakota claim. Still standing. We've seen it and touched it.

If anyone still reads this blog : )

Here are the pictures of the girls at the Feast of the Hunter's Moon last weekend. My mom spent the better part of last week putting Mary's dress together and it turned out splendidly! Just beautiful. Emily got a bonnet as well, after seeing how much she enjoyed her sister's. Unfortunately the weekend didn't pan out quite like we'd hoped--the rain made the Feast a mud hole and to make a long story short I ended up taking the girls on the shuttle bus to get there and upon arrival didn't have a way to transport our 'wants to run away' toddler, so I ended up carrying her most of the day. I started feeling sick and didn't even get to play my fife with the corps like I was planning to, and it was a good thing I decided I just wasn't up for it. I ended up sick in bed Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday with the worst strep throat I've ever had. Elijah was also down sick with a sinus infection for 2 days. His school closed today for the next two days because they have so many out with the flu.

Hold onto Hope

Next Saturday, October 10th, I am taking Mary and Emily with me to do a 2 mile Walk for Life around Lafayette. This walk raises money for Matrix Lifeline Pregnancy Center in the Lafayette area. Matrix provides assistance to pregnant women and families with young children and offers guidance to women looking for alternatives to abortion. If you are interested in sponsoring our walk, please add a comment or email me at michelle@elmills.com. They will send you a letter to collect the money. Here is more information if anyone is interested.

A few pictures and our fun weekend

Our new back-to-school mantra goes like this: "No...No...No." We are learning that for us, less is more right now. So far our weekends have been a great balance of housework and relaxation. It helps that Brian is finally to the point that he desires a clean and orderly house too, and that our kids are old enough to actually have real cleaning jobs so I have lots of help.

On Friday Brian and I went out on a date--one where we actually hired a sitter that isn't related to us. And paid her money. We went to the Seeger football game. Romantic, huh? It was a lot of fun! What we love more than lots of things is talking in the car, so it actually was just perfect for us. When we got home we rented Sunshine Cleaning and I would highly recommend it. I watch about 5 movies per year anymore because they mostly are garbage in my opinion. This one was thoughtful; with well-developed characters and only a little bit of ridiculous sex scences (even though it is rated R).

On Saturday evening we celebrated Brian and his mom's birthdays at his parents' house. He got a laptop for his birthday!! Wowzers. An ipod and a laptop within 2 months. We are almost not technologically in the dark ages anymore.

We spent lots of time doing nothing this weekend. Which is new for us, but we sure like it. Today we found a u-pick apple orchard between here and Indy and picked about 30 lbs. of apples. We used our new Jack LaLanne power juicer and made apple juice (which is actually more like cider) out of some of them when we got home. We also juiced a veggie mixture to use as a base for the chili that I simmered all afternoon. It had carrots, swiss chard, onion, tomatoes, and celery in it. I'm sure it's healthy, but boy was it ever ugly.

In closing, if anyone has any ideas about how to keep a girl from taking her diaper off and peeing in her crib every day, please inform. Or maybe just get me some more laundry detergent.

Overheard in my van

Aunt Laura, you'll love this one.

As we were driving through downtown Lafayette the other day, we passed by Trinity UMC. Elijah exclaims, "1869 !! Mom, that church was built in 1869. That's the same year Henri Matisse was born."

I can hardly believe it, but in one hour it will mark 7 years that Elijah has been out of me and living in this world. We decided to have his party next Saturday in light of the first week of school, but we did our fair share of celebrating today anyway. We had an impromptu breakfast at IHOP complete with singing and clapping wait staff (and an ice cream sundae for breakfast--this is after his hot chocolate with whipped cream and pancakes, eggs, and bacon!). This evening we took him shopping for his first big boy present-a bow and arrow. It's still a little surreal to me. Five was getting big. Six was kind of big, but still just kindergarten. Seven seems different. Like, no longer a little kid (well, who are we kidding? Elijah hasn't been "little" since 2003.) He is a school aged child. Happy Birthday man cub!

cutting back

In the interest of my sanity I am cutting out some things that I think are important, but just not attainable for me right now. No more cloth diapers during the week, no more teaching flute lessons, no more fall garden; and we are making a serious effort to not plan up all of our weekends. I am trying enjoy my job and not to start the countdown to next summer when I can "be me" again.

We got rid of our entertainment center and tv on Sunday. Took them to the curb and they were gone within the hour. We found an ad on craigslist for a free piano that we are picking up this week. Man, does it ever feel great to not have a tv again!

We have a houseguest this week: it's our dog buddy, Judah! Carter is so happy having a friend here that we are considering getting a second dog. It is breathing new life into that tired old dog. Believe me, it won't be anytime soon. But it is at least something we are considering.

My tomatoes are ripe! We've had the little delicious bite sized ones for about a month, but we've been waiting and checking each day for the larger heirlooms to be ready. There have been a few, usually just one at a time. We used one for BLT's and a couple I froze because they were ready as we were getting ready to leave for vacation, but I think we're about to hit the motherload. I've got my canning jars prepped and I am ready to get my canning on. I hope there are more ready this weekend.

In other news I am going to have a large class this year. Tonight was meet the teacher open house. I think I will end up with around 23-24 students, which is several higher than last year. We'll see how that goes. Should be interesting. We have a new kindergarten teacher in our building and get this--she grew up in a town in Michigan where a lot of my family lives. Sara M.--if you are reading this, she remembers you and your sister from Brighton HS! Her name is Karen. (This is where you start humming 'it's a small world after all') Crazy.

We have reclaimed our back porch after it's use as command central all summer. It is nice to not have it full of power tools, random nails, and other garbage. I don't even care that there is no table and chairs. I am just happy that the siding is done and for the first time since we moved in, there is no painted plywood looking trashy back there.

I can definitely tell that I sat in a chair for most of the day today. All I want to do is get on the treadmill and run. So, I think I will. Brian is out tonight for a much needed "out of the house" adventure. The kids are in bed and I have the whole night before me. Well, it is 8:45, so at least the next two hours before me.

girls versus boys

This is how you know girls are different than boys:

Upon finding a Buzz Lightyear laserblaster, Emily proceeds to pick it up and use it to dry her hair. Not even shooting sounds.