Sunday, January 17, 2010

Laundry Room Redo

It may not seem like much but anything is an improvement! The main thing is I have things on the wall and shoes out of the entry. Nate even found the perfect rug for the boys snow boots. Exciting stuff. So here we go. Welcome to my laundry/mud room version 3.0.








Friday, January 15, 2010

A day in the life...

Today was a day! It started with Physical Therapy for Kaden. Nate was able to keep Luke at the office and I took Jack. We visited with my friends while K was at therapy. PT always means two things: #1 a tired Kaden and #2 SNACKS! Today it was a doughnut and strawberry milk.

Since K's appointment was early we were able to grab a quick lunch with Daddy. Jack had no nap so he nursed and promptly fell asleep for all of 5 minutes. He's just not that into naps outside the crib anymore.

After we dropped Nate off we headed to Target to pick up supplies for LAUNDRY ROOM REHAB 2010. This poor laundry room has been a major deal since we moved in and it has not been touched in well over a year. It needs a table, two shelves, the window framed in and the door completed. This project was started May 2008 when I was on a trip to NYC with my sisters. I may never leave home again. I can't build things and we don't have the money to hire but I figure I can organize and decorate for a very low cost. Every time I think of spending money I think of families in Haiti and I put down the new jar to hold the laundry detergent that already comes in a perfectly fine container.

This weekend's goal is to decorate the laundry room and post my before and after shots. TWO FIRSTS! First to decorate by rehabbing things I already have and spending under $50 for the necessaries and a first to post photos! A lot to keep my little mind busy... and Nate too. He still doesn't know about the blog but he will be providing the hammering and measuring for me. I know how to hammer but he's picky about holes in walls. Life will be better if I just let him do it!

Oh and today I also got to hang out with some really cool homeschool moms and let my kids go crazy at a homeschool soccer event thingy. The kids played and ran and kicked and jumped and spied for 2 hours! Can we say 7:00 bedtime!!! I liked being able to talk to other moms, hear their ideas about math and reading and writing. It was also good to just hear that my struggles are shared, other people have bad days too and boys who hate to read and days that are awesome with breakthroughs. And there was no pressure. We all do our own thing and that's good. No one way is perfect because each kid is different. I have a good thing going with these kids.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Haiti

I am so sad. I here the statistics that only 20% of Haitians have access to clean water or that there are 300,000 orphans and that only 20% of Haitians can read... but that was all before the earthquake! What now? My heart is torn in many ways. As a person with a job and resources, I want to give. As a Social Worker, I want to go and help. As a Mom, I want my kids to get this, to see it and feel compassion. As a follower of Christ I want to impart hope. I am so thankful for every missionary who told a Haitian person about a Creator that loves them. I am thankful that so many have taken a message of hope. I am thankful for those who have hope. My heart breaks wide open for anyone who does not believe there is hope.

Each life matters. I know God is grieved far beyond what I feel.

I had the boys watch the coverage today and yesterday. They ask questions and we talk. But how can their little minds imagine life without parents or the loneliness an orphan feels. How do kids who've never missed a meal understand hunger? Or kids who have learned at a young age to get their water from the fridge understand thirst. I want my boys to have hearts that see these images and they FEEL. I want them to be moved to prayer and action. One suburban Mom, three little boys and a world that needs Jesus. Where do we start?

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Turkeybirds and ABC's

Why Turkeybirds? Why Bitsy, Bopsy & Boo? I have a million nicknames for my kids including, but not limited to: This one, that one, love, lovey, lovey lamb, lovey dove, J, K, L, Luker Duker, K-bird, JJ, JJ the jet plane, Jack Jack Attack, K-man, Lukie Dukie, and on and on.

I love nicknames. They mean intimacy and love and family. They mean affection and endearment. Terms of endearment... someone should write a movie about that and cast some crackpot like Shirley McClain. Anywho, I love nicknames! Maybe it's because I've had so many and gave Nate his first one which stuck and now everybody calls him that so I need to think up a new one.

Turkeybird is how you describe a feisty 2 year old. Bitsy, Bopsy and Boo are my boys and those names are interchangeable and can also be combined, as in "Bitsy Boo what's wrong."

We are also an alphabetical family: Jack, Kaden, Luke, Marjie, Nate. It's all sort of accidentally on purpose. I don't plan on having a family of 26 to get all the letters in there but I never say never! I've learned that as a mom.

Boo

Our latest edition is 7 months old. After having Luke and K so close together we decided to take a bit of a break before we grew our family. Jack came on the scene and we were all instantly in love. It was fun to see the older boys with their new brother.

Jack is currently rolling and schooching all over. Not quite crawling yet but he has the army crawl down and is working on getting up on all fours. He has two teeth with several more in the works and ate his first "puff" tonight. He was able to get the puff between his thumb and finger and get it into his mouth. First he made a "This is horrible" face but that slowly changed into "hey this isn't so bad" face.

J loves to talk about "dada" and he will break his neck trying to locate his brothers if he hears them. He's a super easy baby who loves to give hugs. His reaction is different for each of us though. For Luke and K, he will raise his arms up and down and bang on things like he wants to play. When he sees Nate he will get his legs going and for me he stretches out like he wants to be held.

He also like to flirt. This consists of smiling at the ladies and then burying his head in my shoulder, peeking out and starting that whole process again. It's quite fetching!

Jack was probably our most planned kid. We knew we were ready for another baby and poof.. there he was! I found out I was pregnant 4 days before our 10th anniversary. This was the earliest I had ever found out... I was only 4 weeks and with Luke and K I was more like 9-10 weeks. Anyhow, I decided to wait and tell Nate on our anniversary. I had it all planned out. We went to a fancy hotel and had a fabulous dinner out. I gave him his gift and a card and then said I had one more gift. He asked me to wait a second, grabbed something from his bag and came right back. I told him and then he was sweet and excited and handed me a card. I opened it up and it said "So you are expecting a baby..." HE ALREADY KNEW! I didn't think it was possible but the guy said he just knew. And we lived happily ever after...

Bopsy

Kaden is our second child. He is 4... and a half! He is sunshine. Kaden says he is in "preschool homeschool." He pretty much does everything Luke does just in a simpler manner. I think he actually knows more than he lets on. When I ask if knows how to do something... like skip count or read, he will tell me "No Mom that's for kindergartens. I am in preschool homeschool."

Kaden does what Luke does. Kaden likes what Luke likes. If you want to know Kaden get to know Luke. Kaden is a more typical "middle kid." Since both of his parents are middle kids we are determined that K will shine all on his own. It's just tough when your older bro is super cool and you worship every move he makes!

Kaden has sweet stick-em-up hair and an overall sweet disposition. He is helpful and cheerful but also knows how to work a room. Even as a baby he would scan a room, lock eyes with some weak soul and squeeze two tears onto his cheeks so he could get some sympathy. Today he just whines or cries... it's actually still pretty cute and funny.

K goes to physical therapy every week to correct some musculer-skeletal issues he has. Basically all of my kids are huge but K's muscles can't keep up with his bone growth and that causes him to walk on his toes. K was in casts to help out which made a HUGE difference in a short period of time. Now he just needs to learn how to walk heel to toe. He is doing great and handles all of this craziness very well. His only request are cookies and chocolate milk from the hospital snack shop at the end of therapy.

Kaden is the kid who sealed the deal and made us a real family. Having 2 kids made Nate and I feel truly grown up. I found out I was pregnant with K when Luke was 10 months old. It was a surprise...again! We were living in Las Vegas while Nate played ball. Nate was on a road trip and flew in a few days after I found out. I kept it a secret and when he arrived at the airport Luke was wearing a shirt that said "I'm the Big Brother." Nate thought it was a practical joke but was thrilled when he learned it was no joke! The boys are 18 months apart and gave me quite the run for my money. With a traveling baseball player Daddy, we bonded and had a blast as the 3 Amigos!

Bitsy

Our oldest is 6 and in kindergarten. We homeschool and I have loved getting to know him on this new level. He is not always as enthusiastic but we are learning together. We are currently using the My Father's World curriculum and Math-U-See. Luke is flying through math and knows how to skip count by 2's, 5's and 10's. He also knows his 1+ and 2+ math facts. He loves math and science...

Conversely he does not so much enjoy reading. I love to read and want to impart this love of reading but it's been a struggle. Overall he gets it but just doesn't enjoy it so much.

Nate describes Luke as passionate. That's a really nice way to say it! He is so sweet and loving but very stubborn and strong-willed. I have no idea where he gets these FABULOUS traits but I do know if we can harness this power it will serve him well in the future. He has tons of energy, loves every sport, enjoys video games on weekends, will do anything for his Dad and tolerates his Mom quite nicely. He even gives me a secret kiss or hug every now and then.

I love this little guy. When we were in the baseball days he was my constant companion. We went all over the U.S. and for a good 15 months I never left him. When I left him overnight it was for a 5 day trip to Cali with Nate and I cried for 4 hours straight. He also has an honorary MSW as he was with me through graduate school. He LOVES his brothers and is going to make a great Dad someday.

I always tell Luke he saved my life. Before I had him I miscarried our first baby at 13 weeks. I was devastated. Then I was surprised to find out several months later that I was pregnant with Luke. During my pregnancy I think I held my breath the entire time. I waited for each milestone and had a fabulous doctor to walk me through all my neurosis. I was so afraid of experiencing that hurt again and I wanted to hold my baby. During Luke's delivery things started going bad. His heart rate, my blood pressure... things weren't looking good. I had an emergency c-section, heard his cry, saw his face and then woke up 4 hours later. He was perfect and my first reaction was "He's so light." He was light-skinned with blonde hair. I was expecting a Mexican baby but that's another story. Being pregnant with Luke taught me to trust again and to believe God for big things. Not necessarily big things like babies and guarantees of things I want but I believed God loved me, would walk through anything with me, goes before me and behind me, wants the best for me and I believed that even if it hurt He would know that and I could trust Him even with that. That's why I think Luke saved my life. He sealed the deal and made me a real life Mom and now he's my Bitsy.

New Year New Blog

Nate's been telling me to blog forever. I personally am more interested in blog stalking but I am trying something new this year and hoping to surprise him with a family blog for Valentine's Day. He's into techie nerd stuff like that! So here I go... we'll see how long this lasts.