Week in review

I've decided we just aren't destined to have a "normal" week ever...you know, a week without multiple appointments, sickness, big projects,etc. Girls were out of school for MLK day which we marked by buying a 4th fish and 3 shrimp...two of which are already dead. The fish lady gave us 2 shrimp for free because as she said, "the fish like to eat them". For .39, I wasn't sad they got eaten...the girls like their little piece of wildlife in their room.

Tuesday was a wonderful trip to the dentist, I KNEW somebody was going to have cavities because I was pretty sure Jesus wasn't wasting a miracle on my childs teeth. Even though I'm always on them to brush their teeth, I KNOW they don't do it as well as they should. Lacy fell victim with two small cavities that she doesn't have to have filled because they're going to fall out soon anyway. I would have felt vindicated except she was so upset, she thought we would be mad and I could see her holding back the tears when we were leaving. Told her we weren't mad but let this be a warning to brush when I say brush, BRUSH YOUR TEETH.

And since it had been a whole five days since someone hadn't felt well, Lily woke up on Wednesday not feeling great. Our rule is if you're not throwing up or have a fever, you go to school. Sometimes I feel bad for having that rule but usually if its just a bellyache or a cold, they get busy at school and forget they even felt bad. Lily tends to be a wee big dramatic when she doesn't feel well so off to school she went...school nurse called at 2p and picked up her. She had a rough night, fevers, throwing up so off to the pediatrician and it's yet another case of STREP in our house. Pretty sure the pediatrician is going to think I have Munchausens as often as we've been there in the past month. So, Haley was thrilled Lily was home with us Thursday & Friday.

Soooo we missed 4H, missed speech therapy, missed basketball practice, missed parents night out at school, missed our date night BUT I did count my blessings & thank Jason  for the millionth time that I get to be home. I got to hang out on their day off school to buy shrimp and check out the pet store, it's not a big deal that it's a whole afternoon when all 4 go to the dentist, I can pick up a sick girl within 10 minutes of the nurses call, I can hang out with Lily and hand out lots of extra (germy) hugs when she's sick and not stress out about it. Even after almost 10 years of being home, I'm still grateful that we made this choice.

Now for some funnies:
Haley was explaining something to me and I guess I wasn't giving her my full attention so she said "Mommy, I'm serious" and this is the look she gave me.

I think I forgot to post this but Lily gave this to Harper when she was sick. She can be a stinker but that Lily is the most thoughtful, generous girl I know.

Some Harper isms this week:

Harper was tapping foot VERY loudly because thats how she does everything, told her to quit and she asks why. I told her "it's very annoying" and she said "It's not annoying to me" and I say, "well, it's annoying to other people" and then her response "Not to me, I would never do anything to annoy MYSELF" 

We keep all our legos in a drawer in the big girls closet and they were all over the floor. Figured out Harper did it and I called her up to clean it up. I said, "Harper, you just can't leave them all over the floor" and Harper matter of factly replies, "well I can because I did" Can't argue with that. 

Harper has a habit of sitting down to eat and then running to the bathroom, it's like she forgets she has to go until she sits down because Harper moves at a faster pace than most cheetahs. She goes to the bathroom and then sits back down to her chicken noodle soup, lets me know that she has to talk to me in private after dinner. So, after our dinner, here's our conversation:

"Mom, you know how pee is usually just regular pee?"

"Yep, was there something wrong with your pee?"

"Yeah, it wasn't regular pee. It looked like noodle pee"

"What's noodle pee?" trying to keep my composure

"You know, like pee but it has a noodle in it"

"Are you trying to tell me you had a noodle in your pee?"

"Well, it looked like a noodle but with pee"

"Harper, I think you had a noodle on your shirt or your pants, it must have fallen in the toilet when you were going to the bathroom"

"No, I think it was noodle pee"

"Umm...ok, I guess let me know if it happens again"

The next morning at breakfast, Harper announced, "Mommy, you know that problem we talked about last night. It was normal this morning, no noodles or anything"

And last but not least, Jason wanted his beard on the blog...he spends ALOT of time talking about the beard, contemplating the way the beard should look and touching his beard.

Return on investment

This week was one of those in which I wonder if I will ever see a return on my investment of blood, sweat and tears. When I feel like all I've done is correct kids, instruct kids and remind kids of the same thing over.and.over.and.over. When you feel like you're going to scream if when you ask if they've brushed their teeth and the answer is NO, even though you remind them every.single.day. When you've sent a child upstairs to change so you can leave in 20 minutes and then 1 minute before it's time go, they act surprised when you ask them "why aren't you changed?" When you've spent the whole dinner saying, "chew with your mouth closed, sit on your bottom, don't use your fingers, eat your food, stop interrupting your sister, stop slurping" I have no desire to ever hold a paying job but sometimes I think it might be nice to have a job where I didn't have to wait 20 years to know if I was good at it or not. Or if I was even qualified. Am I too hard on them? Not hard enough? Am I focusing on the right things? But still letting them be who they're meant to be?  How do I even have time to do all these things when I'm spending a ridiculous amount of time making sure people BRUSH TEETH!!

On a lighter note:
Harper brought home some worksheets that she had colored, they were obviously Martin Luther King. She's all excited and says, "Mommy, I know EVERYTHING about this guy" I said, "fantastic, what's his name?" She replies, "I don't remember." She did remember all about different water fountains for "colored" and "whites" though.

Lacy is getting ready to do her state project for school, she picked Kentucky Yay! I asked her what Rosemary, her best friend got.
"She got South America"
Me, "Um, Lacy that's not a state"
Lacy, "Yep, she got South America"
Me, "You mean South Dakota?"
Lacy, "Nope"
Lily, "South Carolina?"
Lacy, "Oh yeah, that's it."

Harper in the car is the best conversationalist around, you just can't have a better more enthusiastic person in the car with you.
"Mommy, did you know cars are made up mostly of water?"
Me, "Ummm...no. are you sure it's cars?"
Harper, "yep, you wouldn't think they had that much water in them, did you?"
Me, "No, I didn't"
Lacy, "Harper, where did you learn that?"
Harper, "In gym, we watched a video about it."
Me, "Do you mean your body is made up mostly of water?"
Harper, "Yeah, but cars too."

Quotable Kids

Lily was reading a comprehension story for language arts about Anne Frank, so she comes to tell me how they only had one toilet for 8 people and could only flush it ONCE A DAY.  So I said "Oh, you're learning about the Holocaust?" and she looks super surprised and says "How do you know about that?"

Harper eating a giant piece of Mammy fudge and says, "Wow, I just can't resist Mammy's peanut butter fudge...what does resist even mean?"

Friday funnies

We had a few extra days of Christmas break this week due to the frigid cold..we went out anyway so I must be growing immune to the cold..or numb.

Harper has an experiment kit from  her birthday so they got it out to "experiment" which means mixing a bunch of stuff up & making a mess of the kitchen but not to worry, she told me  "don't worry mommy, I put a pan down in case anything explodes"

Lacy is my child that doesn't seek my attention, doesn't demand much & is so easy going so I HAVE to be intentional about spending one on one time with her. She wanted to make parfaits like in a cookbook so I taught her to make the homemade granola & she put them all together for a treat. I could also tell Lily was a little miffed because she's usually my sous chef..probably good for her to be off her pedestal for a night!

Lacy organized a talent show for our entertainment on Friday evening, I love how Haleys' performance says "cartwheels only" and I'm not sure what mouth singing is either...we were entertained.

Haleys so proud of herself, she put her hair is a ponytail all by herself...something Lily & Lacy still struggle with.

Jason doing Bible time @ dinner...reading and teaching about being "fishers' of men"

Moments

My sweet sweet Lacy, she's not as much of a talker as some other girls we know but she's a pretty deep & thoughtful little girl. Today, my new iPhone case came & it has a scripture verse on it. All the girls were reading it & I explained its much easier to stay focused on what God wants you to do when you're always looking at it. I was putting napkins out for dinner & Lacy said, "I bet you wish they had bible verses on napkins Mom, then we could read them at dinner" awhile later she puts these napkins writing side down at each of our places. After we prayed, she told us we could turn them over. She wrote different verses for each of us.

These our are new pets, or the big girls new pets. Three fish + a snail. It's not a puppy but they do report every day what the fish are doing, how gross the snail is. Lacy set her radio right next to the tank yesterday so they wouldn't be lonely while they're at school. 

Which leads me to the ridiculous conversation in the car yesterday, Lacy asked me how you can tell if a snail is a boy or a girl. I said, "I don't know" the girls responded "ask your phone" So I did. Apparently, most snails are hermaphrodites. I was not going to use that word so I just explained the snail had girl parts and boy parts. The girls then asked which parts it had more of, if it had a vagina and a stomach does that mean it's going to have babies...aaaahhhh!!! Then Lily coined the term shemale for the snail. 

Onto the family tree, Lily's working on her family tree which led to discussion around the table about our grandparents. Jason was telling the girls about when his grandpa passed away & he used the money Pappy gave him from his Grandpa to buy Mommy's engagement ring. So, of course Lily responds, "Can I have all your money when you die?"  

Harper is forever leaving stuff at school, hats, mittens, stuffed animals, you name it. One morning, she wore my hat to school, of course left it there. I told her, you need to bring home everything in your cubby, especially my hat. She says, Yeah, cause school is almost over so I better clean out my cubby before"  I hate to tell her, she's less than 1/2 way through the year....

Photo dump!

Haley Mae striking a pose before the mall

I don't know why I think this picture is so sweet. It's just a little ordinary moment but reminds me that even though hanging out in a tween store isn't his number one thing he would like to do, he's happy to do it to hang out with his girls. He even helps pick out earrings at Claires. Add to that he's upstairs reading a barbie book to the little ones before bed.

Crazy excited to go to the mall with their first gift cards..ever.

They had an olympics themed day at gymnastics..Haley was a little too into it!

Not Harper's best Christmas, except the excessive screen time she was allowed. Lacy did not think this was fair,

That's Lacy under the crazy hoodie at our favorite Mexican restaurant

This cracked me up when I saw it. I think it's hysterical that Harper thought she needed to put last names on the tag..in case there was any confusion.

Car line selfie waiting to pick up the big kids..it will be a lonely car line next year waiting for EVERYBODY

Haley in her Christmas program at preschool

Lily at her first game, Jason's really happy to have her in a sport he can help her with.

Looking way too grown up lately...before her first band concert. Jason said he thinks they use that music to torture people at Guantanamo

Pretty sure this was the girls favorite Advent activity...kind of looks like a gingerbread trailer park

Caroling at the nursing home with our 4H group...we pulled up at Lily says, "Wow Mom, this is really nice. Do you hope you can live here one day?"

Haley Mae helping me bake!

Look how big she is! Not too big for Pappy's lap...

Shopping with the big girls @ Target

This is a great example of the random craziness in our house. Hey, let's stack our gymnastics mats, crawl to the top in our pajamas, grab our purse and a stuffed dog. Now, take a picture...

Haley Mae helping with dishes, she LOVES to wash dishes.

Harper the peacock in motion...I've already told Haley she has to be a peacock next year...spent way too much time on that costume for just one person to wear it. 

Jason with some kind of weird facial hair going on, taking a nap with his favorite nap buddy..Harper

New Years REVOLUTION

On New Years Eve we told the girls how some people set goals in the New Year and call them New Year resolutions. Lily, who only half listens to every conversation because she's so busy thinking about what she wants to say must have heard "revolution" because when asked what her New Years Resolution would be she answered:

"I want my New Years Revolution to be having better hygiene. I'm going to brush my teeth every time I eat something, always wear deodorant, wash my face and brush my hair"

We congratulated her on a great revolution. The next morning getting ready to head out to the mall she informed us that she had brushed her teeth SIX times. However, like most New Years Revolutions it faltered a bit by the next day. I had to remind her to brush her teeth and brush her hair.

I also asked the girls if they had any goals for me, like things I could do differently. Lily told me I should wear less makeup (not happening) and not talk on the phone in the car (which I rarely do), Lacy told me I should do less chores..BLESS HER!

We do have some goals for our family, mostly faith based that sometimes get lost in the day to day. At church tonight, they used the example of filling up a container with big rocks, little rocks, sand & water. Basically, you won't be able to fit the big rock (GOD) in the container if you've already filled it up with the little stuff (everything else in your life). Instead of looking at our calendar & saying we have too much going on to get to church, what needs to come off the calendar to make that happen? If Jason isn't here to do bible time with the girls, I need to pick that responsibility up, not just wait until he is home. Making time to pray one on one with the girls & making time for my own bible time & making sure the girls know this.  Practice makes progress as I tell the girls every.single.day.