T is for The One

Belle’s first day of school was Tuesday.  In our family, that means a special dinner selected by Belle.  She chose spaghetti this year.  Easy enough, really.  However, Tuesday evening, around 5pm, I began watching an episode of Barefoot Contessa while feeding  baby C* a bottle.  And what was she making that day, but spaghetti and meatballs.  The recipe calls for a mix of ground beef, pork, and veal.  I only had beef on hand, so that’s what I used.  I also halved the meatball recipe, but kept the sauce as is.  It was delicious!!  We had the leftovers last night (but with fresh noodles) and they were every bit as good as the first.

*baby C is the sweetest little 9/10 month old I’ve had the privilege to watch a couple of weeks this month.

S is for Scientist

Ever since Belle was just over two years old, she’s taken some time to fall asleep.  When she was younger, she would jabber to herself, playing with white baby and pink baby-original names, huh?  Nowadays she generally reads a book, but occasionally she will color or design clothing.  Yes, she really does design clothes.  Yes, I will be in trouble once she hits her teens.
The other night, however, she designed an elaborate contraption called The Bouncer.  It involved a slinky, a bouncy ball, 2 pillows, 2 bowls, and a few other props I no longer remember.  She even drew a picture demonstrating how The Bouncer worked.  The adult in me wasn’t sure it would work as well as she hoped.  I told her she could try it in the morning, hoping she might forget all about it.  Of course, she woke up the next morning ready to try out her experiment.  I helped her gather the necessary parts, bracing myself for the inevitable disappointment.  Much to my surprise, it worked just as she had planned.  Some times it doesn’t pay to be the jaded adult.

R is for Ready

J has a big exam this coming week. It takes two days (Mon and Tues) to complete. How ridiculous is that? Two days of computer multiple choice questions. Sounds fun, doesn’t it? It’s a true sign of a capable doctor, to be able to pick the right answer from a selection of 4-5 possibilities for every odd combination of symptoms, reactions, ethical situation, etc.
Can you tell I’m feeling a bit sarcastic about this? I’m sick of the studying. Of having J home this weekend, but not really here. Of seeing him push himself to know more, fearful of the unknown, worrying that maybe, somehow, this would be the time he didn’t study hard enough. We’ll all take a deep breath of relief on Tuesday night and spend the rest of the week playing with J’s family. I’m excited to see everyone, but mostly I’m ready to be done!

Q is for Quick trip to the dentist

Yeah, total cop out.  I’ve been completely stuck on Q and I’ve just got to put it past me.  

So, I made my trip to the dental clinic that specializes in TMJ.  My friend whom I would normally ask to watch the kids was out of town, and my appt. was at 8 am (far too early to drop the kids off somewhere during the summer), so the kids went with me.  I grabbed a new spiral notebook and pen for each of the kids from my secret stash in the basement and we headed out.  The lady who took me back to the room didn’t look impressed as we paraded through the office.  But, I knew my kids wouldn’t let me down.
After an X-Ray, a bit of poking and prodding, much opening and closing and shifting of my mouth, it was determined that my pain stems from over-taxed muscles around my jaw.  Many people with TMJ wake up in severe pain which lessens during the day.  That’s because the grind their teeth or clench their jaw in their sleep.  Me, I’m the opposite.  The evenings are my most painful time of day.  Ultimately, my teeth are almost always touching when they should not touch at all except when chewing.  This puts the “closing muscles” (for lack of a better term) in constant contraction, which over time causes pain.  Makes perfect sense really.
My task now is to be conscious of how I’m holding my jaw, to keep it at rest where both sets of muscles are in equilibrium.  Otherwise known as, break yourself of a habit you had no idea you were even doing!  Should be easy enough.  I’m also supposed to use the heating pad for 20 minutes, three times a day for a while.  It’s an odd feeling, laying your head on a heating pad.  
I’ll keep you informed of my progress.  In the mean time, thanks for your concern.  I’m most thankful I don’t have to sleep with some obnoxious contraption in my mouth!

P is for Precious

     I’d decided I wasn’t going to write tonight as the only P word I could think of that was fitting for today is synonymous with exhausted.  But that’s not very exciting.  And then I remembered this cute moment from last night.
     Belle and I are reading These Happy Golden Years together in the evenings.  She’d gotten that funny look in her eyse when Clarence suggests Almanzo is her beau, though we haven’t gotten to the part where they actually begin courting.  Just as we sat down to read last night, she asked me who wrote the book.  I told her Laura and showed her where it says across the top of the book “Laura Ingalls Wilder”.  I light went on in her head and a precious little smile came across her face.  ”They do get married!” she exclaimed.

O is for Ouch!

Friday morning I headed downstairs to feed the cat, just like every morning. I was greeted at the bottom of the stairs with a nasty rendition of Hannah’s (the cat) dinner from the night before. I stepped over the mess, choosing to feed her first, looked down at the food bowl, and was suddenly gripped by a terrible pain in my neck and back. I hoped it was the type of muscle spasm that hurts with unimaginable intensity, but then relaxes and the pain disappears as quickly as it came. I stood in the basement, willing the pain to go away. When it seemed clear that the pain was here to stay, I feebly fed the cat, stepped back over the nasty mess, and went upstairs. Thankfully, J had been on call Thursday night which means he was home on Friday. Even more thankfully, J had an easy night Thursday and was able to help with the kids, rather than sleep all day. I spent nearly all day on the sofa, using the heating pad to help with the pain. Even though the kids were sad that I wasn’t able to go do fun things, they were extremely sweet to me, and helped out as much as they could.
I went to bed that night praying that I would be better in the morning. J was afraid I would need a script for a muscle relaxer if I wasn’t better. I’ve never taken anything like that, and I wanted keep it that way.
I woke Saturday morning stiff, but with a much greater range of motion. At my best on Friday, I could turn my head maybe 45 degrees. By the next morning, I was already able to turn my head much further. I spent a little more time on the heating pad and continued to improved throughout the day. I even managed to be able to drive to the mall and take Belle and Little Bear swimming at the pool!
I’m continuing to improve today. Though sitting here typing is beginning to really aggravate it. I’ll put myself to a real test this week as I’m watching a 9 month old baby from 8:30-6:30 all week. She’s not crawling yet, which is a real blessing in my book!

N is for Not there yet

I’ve not liked the look of my blog for months.  I’m clearly still not there, but it’s 11:30 and I’m going to bed now.  I hope you’ve had a nice day.  Mine started off a bit rocky, mostly due to my bad mood.  But it improved vastly throughout the day.  The children played fantastically with all sorts of toys all afternoon and evening.  I love hearing them all play together.  Such amazing imaginations they have!

M is for Me

Today I give you 25 random facts about me.  It’s essentially the same list I used for that huge facebook meme several months ago, though I’ve edited and changed a few bits.  

1. I don’t think well on my feet; I need time to mull things over. I think this is why I don’t use the telephone much and why I like to write things out on paper before typing them.

2. This winter we traded in our rabbit ears for a real deal, pre-cable/satellite days house antenna. Now we get NBC and sometimes PBS!! (Our tree line prevented us from picking up the signal on the satellite with local channels.) [Actually, we often get CBS, ABC, and FOX now as well.  The only thing I've watched on any of those channels so far is Martha.]

3. I make lists for everything and keep a pen handy to add things I did, but forgot to write down. I also keep a marker handy for crossing things off the list.

4. I live in a town of around 4000 people.

5. What I miss about living in Lubbock (besides our friends) is being close enough to NM-Santa Fe and Taos-to visit yearly.

6. I can see the mountains from my home and regularly drive to “the other side of the mountain” to go to the grocery store and Target.

7. I’m the youngest of 3 children and the only one of us to leave TX. 

8. I’m a planner and a people pleaser. Unfortunately this leads to many Saturday mornings of me asking J, “What’s the plan, Stan?” because I desperately want a plan but I also want to make him happy. He doesn’t like this much.

9. I think it’s exciting that I have no idea where I’ll be living two years from now.  [We are beginning to get a plan in mind for July 2010-June 2011, but I can't share that until things are a bit more firm]

10. I’m in a constant tug of war between the world of convenience and doing things the “old” way. This relates to cooking, sewing, raising my kids…everything.

11. I don’t like to admit my mistakes because I keep thinking, given a little bit more time, I’ll be able to fix it.

12. I rarely make it through the night without being woken up by a child.  [This has been much better this summer!  Hooray for sleeping through the night!]

13. I like my cornbread sweet. My Dad thinks it’s terrible and a Nothern/Yankee thing to do; but hey, that’s how I like it!

14. I ate beans (not counting green beans or sickeningly sweet baked beans) and liked them for the first time in the last year.

15. J and I had our first kiss on Friday the 13th. He was expecting a little peck on the lips, but he got a bit more than that!

16. I don’t know how people live without digital cameras-I often take more than 100 pictures in one week.

17. I’m coming to terms with the fact that Little Lamb will be our last child.  As crazy and hectic as things are, I’m a little sad not to see all those precious firsts again.

18. J and I were friends for a year before we dated. As little as 2 weeks before our first date, I NEVER would have guessed we’d get together, much less be married and have 3 kids together.

19. I believe God brings you just what you need when you least expect it.

20. I think there is nothing cuter than 1-3 year old boys in Jon Jons. 

21. I love the sound of a good belly laugh.

22. I moved once as a child, but 6 times since I’ve been married.

23. I love to cook and bake from scratch as much as possible. I’m thinking homemade pasta may be my next experiment.  [Still haven't tried this.  Though I'm tackling bread right now.  Pasta WILL be next!]

24. I don’t think a family can ever have enough children’s books.

25. I have an uncanny ability to overlook mess while obsessing over important matters-like identifying the birds in my yard with my kids.

I know after I originally did this, I thought of all kinds of “better” random facts.  Fortunately for you, I can’t remember any of them now.

L is for Library

Not long ago, I wrote about my love for our library’s summer reading program.  I really do love it, and my only complaint is that it is simply too short!  We had some books that were due today, so I looked online to check the hours for today.  I was sooo glad I did because today was the celebration for the last day of the reading program.  Every year they thank all the kids for participating by hosting an ice cream party at the library.  They also announce how many books were read.  This year the total was over 8400.  Just in our tiny town!
The kids had a great time, and even got the chance to meet Biscuit, the much beloved dog.  We have several of his books, so the kids were anxious to give him a hug.  Little Lamb chickened out in the end, but gave him a couple of sweet waves.  That’s all I really expected anyway.  Here’s a few fun pictures of our evening.  I know, actual pictures!  J isn’t home from work yet, so I was able to sneak a little laptop time.

Little Bear was happy to give Biscuit a big hug!

So was Belle!  This is a seriously big step for her.

Little Lamb enjoying her ice cream sandwich.  In the interest of keeping her from making a complete mess of herself, I took the fall and ate half her sandwich.  Tough job, but somebody has to do it!

Little Bear chose a popsicle which turned his lips and tongue ridiculously red.

My three angels.  Nevermind that it looks like LB is bleeding all over his mouth.  He saved that for the road home when he announced he was bleeding in his nose.  Poor kid was digging for gold, I guess, and gave himself a whopper of a nose bleed.  As for Belle’s smile, I have no explanation.  I’m working on it, but clearly haven’t come up with the magic words.  Little Lamb was far too concerned with her messy hands to worry about a picture.

K is for Kind

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, there is nothing as important in the life of a parent as teaching your children to be good people.  Academics, sports, whathaveyou will all come in time and can readily be taught by someone else besides yourself.  But character, that’s one I am not willing to pass over to someone else.  That’s not to say they can’t learn good behavior from teachers or other adults, but it’s not their duty.  It’s mine and J’s, as the parents to our three children, to help them be kind and gentle children who will some day grow up to responsible, thinking adults.       Unfortunately, not everyone shares my opinion.  And while I’m not so bold as to speak up to a random child out in public, unless perhaps they do something to my child, I’m not afraid to say something when I’m in an authority position of some kind.  Take for instance my week teaching VBS.  I was the crafts teacher, so I dealt with all the children each day.  There was one group in particular that tested my patience regularly.  As is usually the case, there was one child that seemed to light a spark of misbehavior in the other children.  At one point one of the boys (not the starter, but frequent joiner) did something particularly mean-I don’t remember the exact offense, but it likely involved smacking someone with that days’ craft.  I looked at him and said “Alex* was that a kind thing to do?”  He looked back at me, stunned, as though he had never been asked that before, and said “No” turning his eyes toward the floor.  I asked him to think about that next time before he did something to a friend.  I didn’t make a big deal about it, but I wanted to give him something to think about.  I don’t know that it changed his behavior much that day, but I do hope that some day he will remember to stop and think first.
      I am often complimented on my children’s behavior.  When Belle was young, I usually made an excuse like “She’s just shy” or something.  But now, I thank the person for noticing and generally I tell them that we (meaning J and I) have worked hard to make it so.  Parenting is hard work, but the payoffs are immeasurable!

*Clearly I changed the name, seeing as I’m not certain I even remember the child’s name anyway