Playing with Fire

Photo found here

The oldest just turned six. Apparently, that makes him all grown up.

Son: Can I light the charcoal?

Mom: Uhhhhh....

Son: Dad let me do it!

Mom: Errrrr....

Son: MOM! I'm six years old! I'm practically an adult!!

Surprise Vacation Little-House-Style

Image found here.

Don't give the kids any advanced notice.

Pro: No whining "Is it Friday yet? Can we go to California yet?"

Con: Didn't get my Mother's Day gift the oldest made in Kindergarten.

Let them think they are going to visit Grandma (either one, take your pick)

*Run the risk of them being disappointed. Oh wait, be disappointed because you are at Legoland, instead of Grandma's??? They got over it.

Borrow books on CD from the library. Oh, I love the library. Where have you been all my life?

*Heard Charlotte's Web an uncountable number of times. My children now call themselves Fern & Avery and the baby gets to be Wilbur. Lucky him.

Driving south feels different. It's been so long since I've done so. Even the oldest tried to convince us we were going the wrong way.

*Coming back from the south gets noticeably hotter as we near the place we call home. Why, oh why do we live in the desert?

Changed a poopy diaper out in the "open" at L-land. Tried to find a secluded spot, but I had passers-by anyways. I'm sure I disgusted them.

*Pooing beach sand for the next few days upon returning home. Yum.

The almost-four-year-old daughter was just barely too short (I'm talking millimieters) to go on three rides.

*I've got words for whoever came up with some of those restrictions.

Surprise Vacation: I'd do it again. It was good fun. Much needed and well worth it.

Kissing the Babies

She tucked each one in, arranging them so carefully, nine assorted dolls and stuffed animals on one American Girl doll bed. One Dora the Explorer, one we call Saphira, one Strawberry Shortcake & one Lemon Meringue, one FunShine Bear, one pink baby, one Dreft bunny, one pink teddy bear, one lion Beanie Baby, and lastly one butterfly Beanie Baby perched on top of Felicity's bed. No, no Felicity doll, just the bed. She tucked each one in and kissed them each good-night. Kiss, kiss, kiss, nine kisses all around and one more through the drapes for good measure.

Antics of a Five Year Old

Pillow in the Fridge. Because he wanted it to be cold.
Passing the time on a Sunday morning. Not very conducive to having the Spirit in our house.

Wind

22 mph gusts, that is.

The children were afraid to go to sleep. Afraid the house would blow over.

Medicine for the Soul

My son hands me a dandelion as a sweet smile spread across his face. Then he hugs me around the waist and says "I love you Mom." Of course I hug him back and shower him with kisses.

Later that night he asked if he could tuck into my bed. He asked me to lay with him. He asked which side was my side. He said I was pretty. He patted my back. He hugged me. He fell asleep knowing that I was right by his side.

It's that time of year

Every 12 months or so I get itching to rearrange the house. I discover some way that I think my space will be better utilized or will help our lives run smoother, etc. This is how it goes: I make a big mess, move all the furniture by myself, clean up, sit back and sigh in contentment (or fatigue). This time around it's putting the baby with his big brother and giving the girl a room to herself.

Feng Shui

In attempts to make my living room space a comfortable place, I place my pink wing-back chair and lime green loveseat on an angle in the corners. The children find this very amusing and, of course, the empty space BEHIND the couch and chair has become a secret hiding place, a clubhouse, a spaceship, etc. Even the baby, in his not-so-baby-ness, climbs over my stack-of-suitcases-for-an-end-table and squeezes between the wall and the pink chair to crowd in with the guitars that call that corner Home. Give him a few megablocks and he will play by himself for what seems like hours (really probably 30 minutes - until someone finds him) because he knows back there he won't get sat on, carried by his armpits, get toys taken away from him, get poked pushed or prodded. It's his own quiet place.

Babysitting the Cousins

6 kids

A plate of carrot sticks & red bell pepper strips

5-5-5 deal from Domino's

Half a bottle of Ranch dressing.

We went through half a bottle of ranch in one meal.

Size Does Matter

Taken from the preface of "A Pleasing Birth: Midwives & Maternity Care in the Netherlands" by Raymond De Vries

To the casual observer, these cute Dutch homes (row-houses) are nothing more than practical adaptations to limited space. Had we not lived in the Netherlands, I would have been satisfied by the simple syllogism: tiny country = tiny homes. However, after a few months in our Lilliputian house, I came to understand that Dutch homes are not just about economizing on space; they also reflect and reinforce peculiarly Dutch ideas about the importance of the nuclear family. In accommodating to our new home, we discovered we were spending more time together than we did in our much larger house in Minnesota. Small homes force families to live together in a way inhabitants of large American houses can avoid.