zoo day

Yesterday, we took advantage of a beautiful day and headed to the zoo! Mr. B was able to take a rare day off, and it was extra fun to spend some time with Daddy. I think the girls were especially excited, remembering the ice cream treats they got the last time we made a family zoo trip. Sadly, Mr. B has chosen to fast from ice cream after our pastor's message Sunday, so I had to explain to Evie and Eloise, as they sat so expectantly after lunch, that there would be no special dessert this time. I did my best to explain fasting to both girls. A couple of minutes later, Evie approached me and said, "I am fascinating from ice cream, too. For three days. How many days is Daddy fascinating?" Despite the lack of dripping, cold treats on sticks, we had a wonderful time. See for yourself! In case you're wondering, I just completed day five without Diet Coke. In other words, I'm still fascinating. Also, in case you're wondering, Evie decided to stop fascinating when the VBS snack last night was root beer floats (she had hers without the root beer).

praying and fasting (and praying really fast)

Yesterday at church, our pastor spoke on praying and fasting in order to discern God's will. He challenged each of us to begin our own "fast" by giving up something to which we are somewhat (or very much) addicted. Now, over the last couple of weeks, I have been much more careful about limiting my carb intake. I know from past experience that my body feels better when I eat this way, even though I am forced to deny myself many guilty pleasures. When Pastor asked us to give something up, my first thought was, "What's left??? I already gave up all my carbs!". But then I knew: I needed to let go of Diet Coke. I've given up Diet Coke multiple times in the past, including before and during my pregnancies. I even gave it up last month and was doing just fine until the time came to help my sister pack for her move to Texas. Getting only three or four hours of sleep each night for a good week, my body insisted that it needed caffeine, and I don't do coffee, tea, or anything but Diet Coke. So I started up again. As I've denied myself potatoes and desserts while doing the low-carb thing, I've reasoned that I still can have Diet Coke, and that has kept me going. I left church yesterday determined to let go of my final vice. Pastor explained that when we wanted the thing from which we were fasting, we would be reminded to pray. I knew it would not be easy, but I also knew how spiritually powerful this could be, and I was excited. Unfortunately, I think Audrey heard about the fasting challenge from down the hall in the church nursery. She decided last night to give up something to which she is typically addicted: sleep. She woke up at 2:30 am and would not go back to sleep! She was awake, and she was mad, and nothing I did for a long, long time seemed to help her at all. We walked and rocked and sang for more than two hours. I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to work so hard to soothe that baby since she was born eleven months ago. Want to know something kind of amazing about Audrey? The very first night after her birth, she was a little bit fussy, so I was singing softly and rocking my new little swaddled bundle. She continued to squirm off and on until I sang the old hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness." I'm not sure what even inspired me to sing it, but as soon as I began, she completely relaxed. Part of the song says, "Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow," and as I sang, it struck me that the name Audrey means strength, and her middle name is Hope. So often I feel like I have neither strength nor hope in different situations, but Audrey has been such a great reminder of Where my strength and hope really lie. Anyway, Audrey finally allowed herself to calm down and relax last night (and yes, it was while I sang "Great is Thy Faithfulness"; it still works!), and I was able to go back to sleep around 5 am. When my alarm went off an hour and a half later, one of the first thoughts that ran through my head was, "How am I going to do this day with no Diet Coke???". To make matters worse, Audrey also refused her morning nap today. As I longed for that beautiful, silver 12 oz can, I definitely remembered to pray. Of course, some of my prayers were not very deep...a number of them were fast, desperate pleas, such as, "Lord, please help me stay sane!" or, "God, please don't let me yell right now!". The day is over now, though, and, by God's grace, I made it. Although I am very tired, I really cherished the time I was able to spend rocking my sweet baby girl, as well as the time I spent talking to my Creator. I am excited to see what He reveals to me over these next days and weeks as I turn to Him, my Strength for today and bright Hope for tomorrow.

it's official

This won't be much of a post, but I wanted to let you know that after months of contemplation, discussion, and prayer (not in that order!), Mr. B and I have made a decision. We are going to homeschool Evie in the fall. Poor Evie missed the Kindergarten cut-off by three days last year, and around these parts, those Kindergarten cut-offs are pretty strict and serious. (Except, of course, at the private school where my sister was teaching; but I didn't discover that until the third month of school or something.) Because she was so ready for school despite her actual birth date, we went ahead and did some school at home: I called it preschool, but used Kindergarten material. I was really down on myself because I wasn't as structured or scheduled as I'd originally hoped; but looking back, I realize she has learned a lot! Mr. B and I are not choosing homeschool this year because we want to hide Evie from anything. Rather, we feel led to homeschool for what we can give her at home. Believe me, I see and know the merits of public and private school. This has not been a simple decision! But for us--at least for this year!--it is the right decision. So, that's all the official news I have for now. Oh--except it looks like my sister, Molly, has been reading my blog. Yay! (Howdy, Molly!) I'm hoping to start updating more regularly again. My sister, Sarah, is really good about keeping her blog current. You should check her out...she's so good that my dad even follows her blog! Maybe one day I'll be as worthy, but I don't want to make him be one of my followers... (Molly, was that passive-aggressive enough???)

I love hate technology

Evie had her first dance recital last month. I've been meaning to post the (illegally recorded!!!) video of her tap group, but I could not for the life of me figure out how to convert the video file to something compatible with Blogger. Thanks to my brother-in-law down in Texas--Howdy, Uncle Matt!--I think I finally got it! So here's "Kansas City" (also interpreted as "Pass the City" by a certain little tap dancer), featuring Miss Evalin--she's the third from the left. Enjoy!

new wheels

When Evie turned five last September, we got her a bike helmet and told her we would take her soon to get a new bike.

Does nine months count for soon?

Well, after her long exercise in patience--and a good deal of shopping, both online and on-site--Evie has her new bike: a Schwinn Stardust. She is such hot stuff.

We'd planned to get her a 16" bike, but she would have outgrown a 16", probably by next month at the rate she seems to be growing lately, so the owner of the bike shop showed us how to make a 20" work just fine. Better yet, he had a 20" used Stardust in the back, upon which he put new training wheels, handle grips with streamers, and a big basket, and we made out at about a third of the cost of the new 16".

My mom didn't want Eloise to feel left out with Evie getting a new bike and all, so she brought over one of her latest garage sale finds: a Flexible Flyer tricycle, just enough smaller than Evie's old Radio Flyer trike that Eloise can easily reach the pedals.

(Because, you know, we needed another child's riding/pedalling toy around here...seven just wasn't enough!)

Eloise is equally as proud of her trike as Evie is of her bike.

I was starting to worry about keeping up with them on our walks, when I stumbled across a great garage sale deal on a jogging stroller. (Because, you know, we needed another stroller, too: an umbrella, single, double, and triple is simply not enough for one family!) Now even Audrey and I have some new wheels!

a fantastically fun family day

My friend, Amy, and I were on the phone today, talking about possibly taking our kids to a little amusement park. I asked her if it was even open for the season yet, and when she told me that it was, I told her that for some reason, I thought it was only open June, July, and August. After pausing for a minute, she said something like, "Uh, it is June, right?".

Duh.

Not only is it June, but it's more than halfway through June.

Can you say "mommy brain"?!?

Seeing as it is halfway through June, I figured it's high time I updated my blog. And since I'm all messed up anyway, I might as well post about something that actually happened even more than a month ago, right? Right.

We took the girls to Sesame Street Live! We had gone last year and had a blast, so we made sure to get tickets again this time. We sat in the first row of the balcony where the view was great. The characters (pronounced char-AC-ters if you're Evie, by the way...not sure why!) were getting ready to put on a pageant about what they wanted to be when they grew up. Elmo wanted to be everything everyone else wanted to be, and Big Bird couldn't pick anything to be. In his big, yellow, whiny way, Big Bird became very sad when the pageant was about to begin and he still hadn't determined a career path for himself. Fortunately, Prairie Dawn gave him a very peppy pep talk, he felt better, and they all lived happily ever after (or something like that).

The girls were mesmerized by the singing, dancing, acting, and lights. It appeared that a good time was being had by all...which is why I was stunned when, as we walked out of the theater and asked Eloise if she liked the show, she burst into tears, crying, "I just feel really sad that Big Bird was really sad!". When we reminded her that he wasn't sad anymore at the end, she calmed down and admitted that she really did like the show. Poor thing...she's so sensitive!

All tears were definitely long forgotten when we had lunch afterward at Sweet Tomatoes. We all ate way too much, and then polished it all off with ice cream cones. Yum.

It was a fantastically fun family day.

And what did Audrey think of her first show? I'll let her tell you herself:

I will never catch up...

Nothing like the power of positive thinking, right???

I haven't blogged for three weeks.

I'm still in the process of switching the girls' sizes and seasons of clothing (the bins have been out for a couple of weeks!).

I made what seemed like a very reasonable to-do list this morning, and only made it through two-thirds of the jobs.

I hung a load of clothes on the line on this warm and sunny afternoon, only for it to start raining just when the laundry was almost dry.

Speaking of laundry, Mr. B seems to wear clothes faster than I can keep them ironed for him.

Our "vegetable garden" is not sporting any vegetable plants as of yet.

No, I will never catch up! But I'm okay with that...I'll just keep plugging along, loving on my babies that are not going to be babies forever!

In fact, Audrey turned 9 months old on Sunday! She amazes us daily at what a good baby she really is: she eats well (rice, oatmeal, carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, peas, pears, bananas, applesauce, and just recently: Cheerios!), sleeps well (somewhere between 10 and 12 hours each night, with two good naps during the day), and is generally happy all the time. She doesn't crawl yet, but she gets around, primarily by rolling and "scootching."

Miss Eloise is a character. Perhaps you remember Joanie? She's still around. We buckle her into the van, help her out of the van, hold her hand in parking lots...she's a wonderful comrade (and cohort in crime) for Eloise. Last week our newly-three-and-a-half-year-old surprised us by climbing up on Evie's tricycle (a feat in and of itself for the little peanut), s-t-r-e-t-c-h-ing to reach the pedals, and proceeding to pedal the trike around the block by means of a cute little hip-shifting maneuver she somehow managed.

Evie seems to become more precocious by the minute. I've noticed her saying, "I have no clue," about different things. I've been trying to figure out where she got that, but I have no clue I'm not really sure...Anyway, the other day she and Eloise had been swimming in the neighbor's pool, and when we got home, they both went upstairs to change out of their wet swimsuits. Evie came into my bedroom and announced, "I know this is not appropriate, but I'm going to wear it for now because we're not really going anywhere." I quickly spun around to see what "inappropriate" clothing item(s) she had found (you know, in the bins of clothes that were still lying around, waiting for me to finish loading and unloading???). The inappropriate outfit: a skirted leotard, tucked into her silky pajama pants, and a velour hoodie (because sometimes you're chilly after swimming, even when it's 85 degrees outside!).

Eloise took off her swimsuit, put on her Elmo panties, discovered Evie was wearing the only clean skirted leotard and she really, really wanted to wear a leotard, too. What's a girl to do? Why, put the wet swimsuit back on, over the Elmo panties, of course. Oh, and add a nice warm cardigan, just in case the wet swimsuit makes you cold.

This is the pose she struck when I asked her to put her hands on her hips (so I could be sure to see the Elmo underpants). I guess we need to work on body part identification...

And yes, those are some of the infamous clothes bins in each of those pictures. And other stuff all over the place. I will never catch up, remember? And it's okay, remember???

Excuse This House

Some houses try to hide the fact

That children shelter there;

Ours boasts of it quite openly,

The signs are everywhere.

For smears are on the windows,

Little smudges on the doors;

I should apologize, I guess

For toys strewn on the floor.

But I sat down with the children

And we played and laughed and read,

And if the doorbell doesn't shine,

Their eyes will shine instead.

For when I have to choose between

The one job or the other,

Though I need to cook and clean,

First I'll be a

Mother.

--Unknown