Olivia keeps me on my toes! Yesterday, I started a new "character training" lesson. I wanted to encourage the children to obey when I asked them to do something, without complaining. For example, if I say, Isaac, would you please help Anna Grace open the door?" It is so nice if he says, "Yes, Ma'am" and does it. So, yesterday I started rewarding those types of responses with an M&M. I put them in a bowl, and they got to eat their goodies and dinner time. It was so pleasant around here! So, when it came time to eat the goodies, Olivia put and M&M in her mouth and promptly spit it out. She got a napkin and started wiping her tongue to get the taste off. She said, "I do not like M&Ms Mommy!" She typically loves all candy, and she has always gobble up M&Ms. I suppose that motivational lesson has lost its effectiveness!

Olivia's newest obsession is playing on the computer. She heads there as soon as she gets up, and wants to play every chance that she can. Part of the problem is that Isaac and Bailey love it too! I did not know anything about computers until I went to college, and it amazes me that my three year old can turn it on, put in her own game, use the mouse and play the game! Her favorites right now are Green Eggs & Ham, D. W. and Freddy Fish.

Today, Olivia decided she wants to let her hair grow out to her toes! Whenever I tell her that I love her, she says, "I love all my family and all my people." I love my Olivia!

Anna Grace

Anna Grace is such a cutie! I really enjoy this age (almost 18 months). My wise friend Connie said this is the age when you start to say, "I could have another one!" Anna Grace is constantly coming out with new words that I had no idea she could say. One of the joys of her life right now is watching the ducks and the geese on the pond behind our house. There is a group of six ducks that stay together, and then another mamma duck with her two little babies. The two groups do not mix (there may have been a scandal in the duck community that I am not aware of!). Several times a day, she stands at the back door and watches them. The two baby ducks sometimes wander into our backyard, and Anna Grace loves it! She also loves watching the Wiggles. She goes and stands in front of the television or computer and says, "E. O. E. O." (her version of D-O-R-O-T-H-Y, one of the Wiggles' songs). I love the fact that little things thrill her heart. Life is certainly more exciting when you see it through the eyes of an almost eighteen month old!

Water Day

We went to "Water Day" at the church property this morning. The children had a blast! It could have also been named "Mud Day" (we had a massive downpour yesterday, that left quite a few mud puddles), but that did not seem to bother the children one bit! Some lovely ladies from church set up quite a few very creative stations, and the children rotated through each station. The toddler crowd splashed in a couple of wading pools and a sprinkler. We finished up with a lunch of sandwiches, chips and homemade ice cream (made by the children). On the way home, Bailey asked why Water Day only comes once a year. I explained how much work went into it and how there were still ladies there cleaning everything up. I really appreciate the wonderful things our church does for my children!

Our First Week of School

It has been a busy week! We started school on Monday. I wanted to start early, so that we would have more flexibility throughout the year. I have two "official" students this year. Isaac is in first grade, and Bailey is in Kindergarten. It is more accurate to say that I have four students, because Olivia and Anna Grace are not about to be left out! In fact, Olivia is constantly asking, "What about my school?"

Monday's school went pretty well. We started with breakfast in bed -- green eggs and ham. This is becoming a tradition (if two years in a row can be considered a tradition). We ended with lunch at McDonald's. It was our weekly Mommy & Me outing, but Isaac and Bailey thought that everyone was coming to celebrate their first day of school!

It will take me a few weeks to learn how to juggle everything and get us set up with a good routine. I had planned to homeschool four days a week, for about an hour and a half a day, for the rest of the summer. I have decided to change that to three days while we still have summer activities. I tried to school on Monday before we went to Mommy & Me and then again on Wednesday before we went swimming, and it was just too much -- I was getting very stressed! Sometimes I greatly overestimate how much I can get done! So, we are going to try doing school on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday for a week or two and see how it goes.

So far, the curriculum we are using seems to be a good fit. This week we have focused on math, reading, handwriting and Bible. We also started Charlotte's Web. I will add in history and science next week. Isaac is enjoying his reading lessons. I had pushed him pretty hard last year, and it seemed to be a bit over his head by the end of the year. He has been able to read the first few lessons easily this week, and that has been great for his confidence! I had started a new math curriculum (Math-U-See) towards the end of the year, and we had gotten about a third of the way through. We had to review a few concepts this week, and we are ready to move on. Bailey is using the Kindergarten Math-U-See program, and she loves it. I think that it has been her favorite part of school so far. Olivia and I have been working on some preschool skills. I want to encourage her love of learning!

Cast Free!

Isaac went for a follow up visit for his arm, and they took his cast off! It has only been three weeks, but it is healing nicely. He still has some restrictions on what he can do (no contact sports, skateboarding, wrestling, etc.), but he can get back to swimming. We go back in three weeks for another x-ray to make sure that it still looks good. He has a brace to wear if he is going to be in a situation where he might get knocked about. He is very apprehensive about being without his cast. Bailey was the same way when she broke her arm a few years ago. She wore a blanket wrapped around it for a day or two, until she got used to life without a cast. I am so thankful that God made our bodies so resilient!

Saturday Morning Happenings

I got back in the garage sale saddle today. It had been well over a month since I had been, and I was having withdrawal! I was not too impressed with the sales today, but I enjoyed looking. My first hit was a yard sale that was advertised to open at 6:00. They also said, "Early birds welcome, please knock!" I arrived a few minutes after 6:00. There was a groggy looking man standing out front. He came up to my van and said, "There is no sale, my 'friends' played a practical joke on me." When the "early birds" had knocked, he had answered the door in his boxers and demanded, "What do you want???" The "friends" had brought their camera and caught the whole thing on film. The victim did not seem to find it too funny! From there I went to about seven or eight other sales. I bought a $3.00 bike. I am hoping to be able to use the training wheels, and pass the bike on to someone else. I also bought a few flashlights (my salute to hurricane preparedness), a toy box for Olivia and Anna Grace's room and a couple of things to put back for Christmas.

I stopped by the bread store while I was out that way. The bread store is a great place! I can buy bread for 1/3 to 1/2 the cost, and I can also get cheap flour tortillas. I usually buy enough bread for a week or two, and put some in the freezer. Now it hurts to pay full price at the grocery store. I also had the added benefit of interesting conversation with the lady who works there. Today she was telling me how much she would like to move back to Knoxville, TN (I understand). She and her family had evacuated there after Katrina and had been really impressed by the beauty of the place and the friendliness of the people. She is hoping to move there in a couple of years. She went on to tell me how she thought that the entire Gulf Coast would soon be under water, and she wanted to move north. Interesting!

I popped into Winn Dixie and Albertsons to take advantage of some deals, and then finished up at Walmart. Thankfully, all three of these place are within a couple miles of my house. I really treasure my Saturday mornings "adventures". A big thanks to my wonderful husband for "holding down the fort" so that I can go!

Our lovely garage

I started attacking the scary place that we call our garage this morning. We do not have attic storage in our house, so anything that we do not know what to do with gets put in the garage. It is a keeping place for yard tools, baby items, bicycles, strollers, toys that are being rotated out, and lots and lots of junk! We do manage to have room to pull our van in, but there is not much room to walk. It gets unbearably hot in there, so I decided I would try to work a few minutes a day, until I can see a bit more of the floor.

I started with our shelves. I am amazed at how many products we have to kill bugs. We can spray them, dust them, bomb them, or swat them. If that does not work, we can put poison in our spreader or mix up some concentrated solution to zap them. I think that if the whole engineering thing falls through for Mark, he may have a future in pest control!

I found a box of yearbooks from middle school through the years that I was teaching. I still have not quite figured out what you are supposed to do with these ten pound books. I did enjoy looking at the pictures and reading the things that people wrote. I have notes from middle school friends that said things like, "I will never forget you." I have forgotten them -- I have no idea who they are! I enjoyed looking at pictures from the eighties and early nineties. I was made for those hair styles! I also chuckled at the description of me in the 1994 yearbook of the school where I was teaching -- "Miss Jones enjoys exercising(???) and reading."

I also unpacked a box of dishes that belonged to my grandmother. My parents mailed them to me before we moved here, but I had not gotten around to opening the box. I really like the pattern on the dishes, and I am looking forward to using them!

The children discovered the box of toys that I had been accumulating in the garage. Whenever I start to get frustrated with toys that are not being picked up, I begin secretively packing a few away. I always choose the ones that nobody is playing with. It was almost like Christmas when they started pulling those toys out of the box!

Our garage still needs a lot of work, but it already looks better!

Sleep

This week has been a challenging Mommy week. My head knows that post vacation weeks are always difficult, but the rest of me still gets caught by surprise. We have had to focus on obedience quite a bit the last few days, particularly with one of my sweet children (My children seem to take turns having challenging weeks. I am thankful they typically do not all choose the same week!). It kind of came to a head today. Thursday mornings are often difficult. We are up later than normal on Wednesday nights because of church, yet the children tend to get up at normal time on Thursday mornings. Everyone just seems to be a little fussier than normal (including Mommy). It was even more exaggerated today because we are still trying to get back to a good sleep schedule. As a result, the child of the week was extremely whiny. Eventually, this child threw a huge, screaming fit. This led to an ultimatum: Either take a nap or go to bed early! After a four hour nap, peace seems to be restored to our family. I was reminded once again how important sleep is. It is so easy to see it in a child -- a normally obedient child can become a terror when sleep is not happening. I know the same is true for adults, yet it is harder to recognize. How often am I fussy with my children because I need more sleep? I will close for now, I am off to bed!

Culinary Ramblings

I was in a culinary mood today. I suppose that it was my way of putting off all of the cleaning and straightening that I need to be doing. I bought a five pound package of hamburger meat, so I decided to cook some things to put in the freezer. I love the feeling of having meals in the freezer that I can just thaw and serve!

I am trying to simplify meal planning, so I am going to try having several nights a week that have a set theme. The children really like Mexican, so one night will be Mexican night. We will have some variety, maybe quesadillas one week and tacos the next, etc. Friday night will be homemade pizza night. I may do breakfast another night. Then, I only have two or three other nights to come up with something to cook (we usually go out one time a week). I am going to try this plan for a month or so and see how we like it.

So, back to my cooking. First, I put on my Mexican hat. I started by cooking a pound of black beans and about two pounds of pinto beans. I mixed the black beans, diced tomatoes and hamburger together with some homemade taco seasoning for tacos and burritos. I also made a second attempt at refried pinto beans. They were pretty bland the last time I made them, so I added garlic and onion when I cooked the pinto beans today. When the beans were soft, I added a little bit of butter and some salt and then mashed them with a potato masher. They were quite a bit better this time.

Then, I switched to Italian. This is a great time of year to buy tomatoes! They are cheaper and yummier than normal, so I bought quite a few at Fresh Pickens yesterday. I pureed them with carrots, green pepper, onions and several cans of processed tomatoes to make spaghetti/pizza sauce. I have a recipe that I loosely followed. I like sneaking in lots of veggies on my children!

I ended up with eight meals in the freezer (two spaghetti, two taco/burrito and refried beans, and four pizza) plus dinner tonight. I do not think that anyone would confuse me with an authentic Mexican or Italian cook, but everything tasted ok. Best of all, I have eight meals I can pull out of the freezer!

Back to Normal

We arrived back home on Sunday night, and I have spent the last two days trying to get back to "normal". The first week after a big trip is always a challenge. The children go through grandparent attention and sugar withdrawal (so do I, for that matter!). I have a to-do list that is about a mile long (unpacking, balancing our budget, cleaning, laundry, etc.). So, while I am trying to work around the house, the children clamor for attention, and we all go a tad bit crazy. I have learned that I need to set small goals for each day during a week like this. I tell myself that if the house is neater when I go to bed than it was when I got up, I have accomplished a lot!
We are going to have "Johnson Boot Camp" during the next couple of weeks, as we try to get back to healthier eating and a more set schedule as we gear up to start school. My goal for next week is to begin training the children to help more around the house. We will see how that goes!

Yesterday we went to Mommy and Me at the Parish Hermitage. The children enjoyed their swamp tour with Mr. Eddie. They were also happy to see their friends! It was worth enduring the Louisiana heat!

Happy Birthday Bailey Girl!

Yesterday was Bailey's birthday. She turned five!!! I can not believe how fast she is growing up. Nanna and Grand-Bob let her choose the menu for her birthday supper. She said that she either wanted left over hot dogs or pizza. Thankfully, we went with pizza. Uncle Bo (my brother) and his girlfriend Lindley came and joined us for our celebration. We were planning to eat outside, but it rained so we headed inside. Nanna had bought her a birthday crown that Bailey was very proud to wear. She received a pink suitcase, a new doll, complete with tent and sleeping bag, an Island Princess Barbie and money from Uncle Bo. She was thrilled with her presents. Happy Birthday Bailey Girl!

Our Visit with Mamaw

We drove to Mamaw's house in Johnson City on Sunday afternoon. We packed a lot of visiting with Mark's family in the three days that we were there. We started with a family reunion on Sunday evening. Sue is one of seven children and six of them are still living. All six of them, along with many of their children and grandchildren were able to meet for a picnic. There was a lot of food (of course) and a lot of visiting. The children had a great time playing with their cousins on the playground, and some of the men gave the horseshoes a workout.

We drove to Uncle Jim's place in Southwest, Va on Monday. We stopped at Pal's for lunch. It is becoming a tradition to pick up some fattening hamburgers and fries on the way (yummy!). Uncle Jim still lives in the house where Mamaw and her brothers and sisters grew up. You have to drive on a gravel road over a hill that seems like a mountain. The drive in is a bit terrifying for us city folks in our minivan, but it is worth it. The children love going to visit Uncle Jim. He has eighty-one sheep and seven cows, which Anna Grace especially loved. The biggest attraction is the river that runs through the property. We headed to the water soon after we arrived. Uncle Jim stopped on the way to make a fishing pole for Isaac to fish with. The children loved wading in the water. It took Bailey a while to warm up, the thought of getting her feet dirty was a little unsettling. Uncle Jim and Isaac waded on the rocks all the way across the river (Mark and I decided it was a "dangerous boy" thing to do!). Mark had never done that before, so he followed suit. Isaac and I decided that if he lived at a place like Uncle Jim's he would not need a television. He could spend his time exploring.

We stopped at Aunt Brenda's house after we were done visiting with Uncle Jim. She is Mamaw's youngest sibling, and she and Uncle Joe always makes us feel welcome at her place. She babysits her granddaughter, so she had lots of girl toys that my girls enjoyed playing with. One of her sons collects Star Wars memorabilia, so Isaac loved looking at those treasures.

Afterwards, we headed to visit with Aunt Novella (Mark's dad's sister) and Cousin Lisa in Kingsport, TN. We enjoyed visiting with them over pizza for supper.

Tuesday was full of visiting as well (I described it in my post about Isaac's arm). We packed a lot of visiting into a short amount of time. It was tiring, but we loved doing it. I am so thankful that our children are forming relationships with our extended family. We loved our time with Mamaw. I know that she was sad to see us leave, but I think that she was ready for a big nap!

A New Blue Cast

I spent the morning trying to figure out how to get Isaac seen by an orthepedic doctor. I started at 7:30 by calling our insurance company. It took me a while to get through the menu to talk to a "real" person. I finally got a nurse who told me to call back at 8:00. At 8:00, I talked to someone who told me that our insurance only covers urgent and emergency care outside of our home area. We had to call our PCP to get a referrel and to find out who to see. That meant I had to wait until 8:30 when our doctor's office opened. I called and left a message with the doctor's nurse, and began the waiting game. Mark called back again and got the ok to find a doctor on our own and then call back for the referrel. My mom had talked to a friend who is a pediatric nurse, and she recommended someone who was considered the best in the area. I then spent a total of about forty minutes on hold trying to get an appointment with the doctor. We finally decided to go to the doctor's office and try to get an appointment that way. When we got there at 10:00, they directed me to a phone in the lobby, where I called the same number I had tried earlier. I spent almost twenty more minutes waiting to talk to someone. I was finally able to talk to someone, who found out we were in the waiting room, and worked us in for 11:00. It turned out that it was well worth the wait. We were very impressed by Dr. Madigan.

We learned that Isaac actually broke his arm in two places in the elbow area. It did not have to be set, which was a wonderful blessing. The doctor prescribed three weeks in a cast, and three weeks in a swimming pool! He said that older people need physical therapy, and children need to get in the pool. He also said that older people with this type of break often do not regain full motion. Because of Isaac's age, he should have a full recovery. He said it is important that Isaac gets moving again as soon as possible. We were glad to hear that he should get back to playing the piano with both hands as soon as possible. It will be a bit awkward for him to play with the cast, but the finger movement is helpful. So, Isaac is sporting a new blue cast. We will see someone in Baton Rouge in three weeks. Hopefully he or she will take the cast off and Isaac can get to swimming!

A trip to the ER

We had a great day yesterday. Mamaw has a good friend named Dessie who invited us over to swim in her pool. Mamaw packed a picnic lunch, complete with birthday cupcakes, and we had an early birthday party for Bailey. The children had a great time in the pool, and Bailey was happy with her party.

Later in the afternoon we went to have supper with Mark's cousin Chuck and his family. They do not exactly live in the country, but it has a country feel to it. The children had a great time splashing in their pool and playing in the yard. They have sheep, and it was fun to watch them wander around the yard. We had a delicious supper, followed up by homemade ice cream. Isaac especially liked playing on their zip line that ran from their play structure to a tree. He was very proud of himself that he could do it! Right before we were about to leave, his hands slipped when he was riding across the yard. He fell, and started screaming. Isaac can be a bit melodramatic when it comes to injuries and sickness, so it was hard to assess how badly he was hurt. He cried the entire way back to Mamaw's house (about thirty minutes). We decided to take him to the emergency room to have his arm checked out. It turns out that he cracked his elbow. They put a splint on it, and we are going to try to get him in to see an orthopedic doctor in Knoxville either tomorrow or Friday. Thankfully, it is not a bad break, so it should heal well.

The ramifications of Isaac's injury have begun to sink in today. The first thing we thought of was music practice. He is going to have a hard time playing hands together for a while! My second thought was of all of the outdoor activities that go along with summer. He will have to skip playing in the pool and sprinkler for a few weeks. I have also thought about the Louisiana heat, and how nice that cast is going to smell in the near future.

There are several things that I am thankful for in this situation:
--It happened after we went to the beach.
--He broke his left arm, and not his right.
--He did not fall on the rocks that were close by.
--The people in the ER were great.
--He did it while he was out having fun, being a little boy!

Time Away!

My parents took care of our four cuties while Mark and I went away for the night. We left at lunch time on Saturday, and had lunch at Aubrey's, which is one of our favorite restaurants in Knoxville. We had salads and shared an appetizer. Afterwards, we went to McKay's used book store and spent a couple of hours browsing. We have not found a used book store in Baton Rouge that comes anywhere close to McKay's. We stopped and had a treat from Starbuck's. I had a Raspberry Mocha Frappaccino - it was yummy! We explored two more bookstores -- one discount and one used. I love the fact that Mark and I both think that exploring bookstores is a good time (I would say he married the right woman!). We had supper at a Japanese restaraunt and had Hibachi. The food was delicious! We had a lot left over, so we stopped back by and left it in the refrigerator. Isaac chowed down!

We spent the night at the Mariott. I really enjoyed relaxing and reading the books we bought. I slept through the night and stayed in bed until almost 9:00 (that is like noon in Kim time). We ate breakfast at the Mariott restaurant and then spent more time laying around and reading. We went back to my parents' house around noon.

I am so thankful that my parents were willing and able to give us a retreat. It was so good to spend time having fun with Mark, with no parenting required. One of my favorite things was having no time schedule on Saturday, not having to get back at any certain time. I really enjoyed my time away, but I was thankful to see the children and get back to being a Mommy!