Master Chef?

January 7, 2015 | Stacy

Taught our Hungry Alligator how to make chicken parmesan. He did a great job.

Settling…

January 6, 2015 | Stacy

When we moved into our house in 2007, we were aghast over the electric blue carpet in our master bedroom. We sought to have it replaced, but the young man we had come to the house from Christian Floorz was honest with us and said we’d be crazy to get rid of it. It was obviously very new and was in excellent condition. He also added that is was a high quality carpet.

Drats.

So – I sorrowfully tucked my beautiful bedspread from our first house into the closet whispering a promise that we would see one another again “some day”.

As 2014 meandered on, it was our plan to replace the rug, some 7+ years after moving in. I worked extra shifts, and we expected to replace the carpet late fall.

Then John uttered some simple words that would steal all extra money… “Do you think we should tackle the stove before it dies on us?”

So – we had to find a plan B.

See – the current bedspread that I had gotten at Target in 2007 (a bed-in-a-bag for $75) to go with the bright blue carpet was in shambles. First, it started to tear at the seams on the front of the quilt.

So – about 6 months ago we switched it to the tan side… and that started splitting.

So – oddly enough… I prayed about it. What God would have me do. I asked Him to take the longing out of my heart to fix our bedroom.

And, lo and behold, He did. On 12/23 I woke with the sharp notion to find a new bedspread and let go of the update idea. So I spent about an hour online before the kids got up. I looked at Macy’s, JCP, Target, and others. But Target came through for us again. $60!

It took over TWO WEEKS to deliver. (Amazon Prime they are not…)

But it goes well with our bright blue rug, burgundy curtains, tan walls, and light blue skirt. You can’t say that about much. AND it is super warm!

I haven’t given up all hope of retrieving my old comforter from it’s snug place in the closet. But I’m glad for our $60 “band-aid” and am ever more glad for a feeling of contentment.

1 Timothy 6:6-8
Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.

Second half of the school year commences

January 5, 2015 | Stacy

After two weeks off of school, I had a bit of trepidation about heading back to our rigorous schedule. Had we taken too long a break? Would we have to relearn how to manage our responsibilities? Would we crash and burn by lunch?

I’m happy to report we gave the day a 10 out of 10! The kids ROCKED!
And Johanna and I TIED in this massive game of Frozen memory.

New Year’s Eve 2014

January 1, 2015 | Stacy

We had a double feature, and a LOT of food.
We cast our spread in the basement around 6PM and endeavored to watch Alice in Wonderland. I lost interest very early and texted my friend most of that time. Hanny, however, told me as I tucked her in bed around 8PM that she loooooved Alice’s flowers and wanted to dance like them. Ahhh – to be almost-5 again.

Then at 8PM the older crew watch 102 Dalmatians. Which we enjoyed very much.

Friendly competition

December 29, 2014 | Stacy

With no major project slated for the two-week break we took over the holidays (um, the kitchen update left us too broke to take on our pending master bedroom project), we had to come up with other ways to entertain ourselves.
Somewhere along the line we though up Monopoly…
We started our first game ever that first night around 7 PM. Next thing I knew John was excusing himself at 8:15 PM to put Hanny and Katriel to bed. THEN the next thing I knew it was 10:20 PM! For! Real! I decided that we’d have to just end the game at 11 PM, because, well, do I really NEED a because???

Tabby was the first to go out… but she played well against these vultures.

We played multiple times over the course of the second week of vacation. It was mostly fun. Mostly.
How did we manage this with our two too-young-for-Monopoly-girlies?
Well, we tried to do it during Katriel’s naptime. And Johanna would just play dolls near us.

Or… in the case of at least two evening games I know of…

Heh – thanks technology!
But don’t worry. We played LOTS of Princess-friendly games, as well, over our break.
She’s a CandyLand queen!

Christmas Adam…

December 27, 2014 | Stacy

I’m posting this out of order… but I want to remember it.

On December 23rd, my mom had the oldest five to her house for a sleep-over party to celebrate, um, Christmas ADAM. Get it? Adam comes before Eve? They had snacks and Christmas movies and a fantastic breakfast.

John and I had Katriel. JUST Katriel. It was really cool.

First, after I dropped the kids off at my mom’s house I ran through the drive-thru somewhere and grabbed her and I each some lunch.

We dined together in utmost quiet. I pulled her chair right up to mine for our own table-for-two.

I then tucked her in for a nap. She slept soundly for THREE HOURS. (Of late she’s been more of a two hour girl.) I’m guessing a silent house had a lulling effect. At first I dove into cleaning. I got a lot done in an hour. And it was SO boring. After 90 minutes I was watching the clock wondering WHEN she would get up. I decided to wrap the last few gifts and looked up some stuff online. But really – I was bored. I am not designed for child-free-ness.

FINALLY at 4 she started to make some noises. I shot upstairs to collect her.

When John got home the THREE of us (yup – that felt weird) went to the food court at the mall for dinner. I love food court Chinese and only get to eat it about twice a year. This was the night. I realized how dumb it was to buy her nuggets at lunch, b/c now what was she going to eat? She eschewed the fries and only licked the ketchup off the burger. It didn’t seem right to give her Kung Pao or General Tse chicken, either. After we poked around JCP for a few minutes we decided to head home for my $10 off coupon at JCP. Except when we got there we couldn’t find it. So we went to Wal•Mart instead. And that is where John did something I’ve never done before. He let Katriel walk in the store. You can imagine when I take kids solo into Wal•Mart that I NEED to contain the smallest ones. I’m the lady with that monster-sized cart with the big plastic fore-piece where I can buckle in Johanna and Katriel. But tonight, Katriel delighted in the opportunity to use her own two feet to navigate the store.

We headed back to the baby section where so I could find some onsies for her. (Yes, she was seeing her Christmas gift.) As I considered the merits of the different brands and sizes she and Daddy checked out one of those things where you can push the squares representing all the children’s CDs for sale. She pushed and listened and danced.

Merry Christmas Day

December 26, 2014 | Stacy

Kids started waking around 7 A.M. and some dressed… some did not. We took a few pictures and waiting for Nan, Nene, Ba and Poppy to arrive.

As if there were not already enough presents… Grandparents are known for bringing a “few” of their own…

Katriel couldn’t figure out why we were just eating…

But then we showed her what we DO with those colorful packages and everything changed. She was into it after that. 😉

My funny boys…
Yes – that small Elsa-wrapped gift was his, while Stewart opened that enormous one.

Marie got her own bow.

We paused for a feast.

Katriel got a new toy animal? doll? animal-doll?
Katriel got a new pillowcase.
Katriel took good care of her new baby.

New Jersey and cap for Stewart.

And let’s just say there is a lot more princess stuff in our house as of this day…

Katriel was so enamored with her new clothes that she sought to put them on immediately.
She did this with each gift of clothing.

We have a Barney Fife fan in our midst.

Marie is so tall that she can no longer wear dress-up gear meant for kids. We had to locate women’s-sized options for her. The good news is they are much better made!

A recording device for the boys for their movie productions.

Every dad needs Cookie Monster jammies – right?

My treats — eight new candles to cheer me through the winter.

It was a fun, fun day. LOTS of rest and an easy dinner of steak and pasta Alfredo. We watched two new movies in the evening. One before the littlest two went to bed and one after.
The oldest 6 of us give 12 enthusiastic thumbs up to the 1996 movie, “101 Dalmatians” with Jeff Daniels and Glenn Close. It was just hysterical!

Christmas Eve 2014

December 24, 2014 | Stacy

This year’s Christmas Eve was hosted at the Brookses’ house. I dare say it was one of the funnest.
Food was different. Maybe that was part of it? Our menu changed as new dietary restrictions have crept up amongst the kids. It made Emily and I be more creative.

Nigel offered up some happenin’ dance moves.

While there was a full-on nail salon in Leah’s room.

Stewart became close friends with Minky.

Photobomb. It’s what brothers do…

We forgot to take our kids-only photo…
but I like the moms-and-kids ones…

NINE kids! And the boys are sorely outnumbered!!!

Unposing was another story…

Nigel looks perplexed!

And the littlest ones enjoyed a pilfered candy cane!

Then it was off to church where Marie and Tabitha decided to ~~defect to~~ sit with the Brookses.

For reasons I don’t understand, Emily refused to take Johanna. Could it be she had a premonition that Hanny would roll all over the chairs and the floor and sing to herself while waiting to light that candle?

It’s hard to be a four-year-old at Christmas.

Disciples’ Construction Company

December 20, 2014 | Stacy

We’ve had different gingerbread-building experiences over the years and have always enjoyed ourselves. This year we went with the at-home-kit plan and had a blast. At $8 a kit (even with Rollback prices) I just purchased 3 sets. I gave resident cheerful-person, Marie, the first box and asked her to pick a partner. All these disciples love one another, but not everyone can work together. Marie lovingly selected the high-spirited 4-year-old, thereby creating just about the best possible building-buddy-sets I could have hoped for…

Stewart and Nigel were a team, and Tabitha and Katriel were a, um, team… (Hard to build from your high chair…)

I lent some hands to Tab, and Daddy lent some hands to Marie. (Hanny proved a rather disinterested builder. She was more into exterior design and taste-testing.)