Summertime Colds

I know that there are germs 365 days of the year, but somehow it seems so wrong to have a nasty cold in the middle of summer. It is fairly miserable walking around hot and stuffed up. When there are tons of fun activities to do outside, it is not fun to have an overwhelming desire to crash into bed and sleep for a few days.

Last week, Rachel started with a nasty cough and slept TONS. There were two days where she didn't want to rouse from her nap and ended up sleeping all night for a total of 16 hours or so of sleep. Next Barry caught it, and I soon followed. NOW I understand Rachel's sleepy days. Sleep sounds so wonderful! But, as a mom with lots going on, extra sleep is a luxury that I can't afford right now. So, I plug away, focusing on what needs to get done most because I am working at a slower pace. I need to be very intentional with my choices of activity or I can find that my entire day is gone and I have nothing accomplished to show for it.

A bit behind

That's how I have been feeling lately. I am bit behind in every area of my life it seems. I had a couple of big tasks on my plate a few weeks ago and didn't keep up on the cleaning and laundry. I have been trying in vain for the past couple of weeks to catch back up and get things back in order and it seems to be an impossible task. There are mountains of clean laundry in both my bedroom and laundry to fold/hang and put away. More mountains of the stuff to wash. I have piles and piles of the assorted papers that accumulate in a house. It astounds me how much paper one household can process! Of course there is just the general clutter of life: toys, books, dishes, STUFF.

Anyway, so that's where I am right now - struggling with continuing to do my daily duties along with all the work to catch up.

Indiana Beach

We took a day trip to Indiana Beach yesterday with our 4-H club. It was a perfect day and no crowds!

Our club goes every year, but we have never been able to go in previous years. I am so glad that Barry was able to get the day off work and we could make this happen. Our younger kids have never really been to an amusement park before and it was a really fun experience. Having never been to Indiana Beach, we weren't sure what to expect. Although it is not a big park compared to say Cedar Point, it has some nice big roller coasters as well has lots of smaller rides for the younger set. I spent a good chunk of my day in Kiddie Land which has a nice amount of rides for the wee ones. Another mom told me she started her kids as young as 10 month on these rides. I was, however, able sneak away with the big kids at one point to ride a few of the big rides. My favorite was the Steel Hawg which was smooth and flips you upside down.


Patrick's fave was by far the bumper cars followed closely by the antique cars. I bet he rode these about 20 times! He wasn't into the bigger rides, too much. We had to really sweet talk him to get him on the log ride and Barry said he quivered through the whole thing. Oh well, there's plenty of car rides.




Abi turned out to be more of a daredevil. She wasn't tall enough for any of the coasters, but wanted to ride just about anything she could. Her fave and Anna's as well was the Tilt-A-Whirl. Here they are high fiving during the ride.

Anna wasn't as fond of the really big rides, but instead preferred the smaller stuff. She did run around with Elizabeth and another friend for awhile riding the big rides. Elizabeth ran around with friends for a lot of the day and rode about every big ride there.

Rachel was too short and got left out of most rides except the Kiddie ones. Here she is hanging with Daddy and watching the rest of the family.


All in all, it was a great day. We got home at 9:30pm and crashed into bed happy and exhausted.

I have a whole album loaded up at Facebook you can see more here:
Indiana Beach 2009

Update

No, I have not forgotten that I have a blog. I've had a lot on my plate the past few weeks and just haven't found the time to update here.

Samuel is nearly 4 months old. The time is just flying by. He gets more personality every day.



Although we had frost on the ground through mid May, it has finally reached "sprinkler weather" and the kids have gotten to enjoy running through the sprinkler and the kiddie pool in the back yard. Abi LOVES it!



Samuel has officially mastered rolling over. Here is one of his first rolls captured on film (well, memory card). Now, often I go to get him up from his nap and find him on his tummy. He gets pretty proud of himself when he does it, too, getting a great big grin.

I have to show off my fun new project here. I made those cute little shoes for him. It was so much fun, I think I may whip up a few more pairs.



And here is just one more shot that I couldn't resist sharing. My little moo cow - isn't he cute?


It is late and I should really be in bed, so I'm signing off for now...

American Idol

In a shocking upset, underdog, Kris Allen, became this year's American Idol. Much speculation has taken place as to why. His co-finalist, Adam Lambert, is a stellar performer with a great voice and even greater showmanship. Kris, however, just quietly, but passionately sings his songs. And he won. After seeing this video posted of him on You Tube singing to God with his voice aimed toward heaven, it makes me think. Perhaps, God's hand has been on Kris Allen through this. Very cool!

Roses are Red...

Violets are blue.
I'm still alive;
How about you?

Although things have been pretty quiet here in blogland, it has been quite the opposite in real life. I am finding that in adding an 8th member to our household, my days are incredibly full and I really need to plan out my days and be disciplined to follow a schedule/routine or my days slip away and nothing has been accomplished.

This year I was too cheap to buy the refill planner pages for my Franklin Covey planner and decided to put my scrapbook supplies to good use and create my own. I downloaded the "Daily Docket" page from the Simple Mom blog and have been using this for my daily pages. It isn't a perfect fit for me, but I wasn't quite sure what I wanted in a daily page and thought I would use this for a while until I figured it out. One thing a I do really like about it is that it has a "Things to Do" list with 10 spaces as well as "Today's M.I.T.s" (MITs = Most Important Tasks) with 3 spaces. I have a master to-do list that is a mile long, but these daily lists force me to prioritize what is the most important to complete. I don't always complete my list, and I carry this over to the next day's list. This has helped me be much more productive in my day.

Ok, so you may be wondering about this photo I posted here of the marker covering the arm of my couch. It doesn't really fit into this topic of daily productivity - or does it? Yesterday, I walked into my kitchen/family room to discover my lovely 2 year old daughter with a 5 color highlighter marker drawing on my couch. To say I was upset would be an understatement. She got in BIG trouble and has been banned from anything that writes for the time being. Thankfully, the Bissell carpet pretreatment spray took this all off. I was so relieved. Anyway, I share this because interruptions like this happen continually every day. Today it was the numerous potty training messes I dealt with today. It is always something. That's why it is so important to have that daily docket, so once the current drama has been dealt with, I can refocus on what I need to be doing.

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth. I'm still around, but struggling with my day to day routine and getting it all done. I have been oversleeping (at least for me) and not getting up until 7 or 7:30 which just seems to throw my whole day off. I feel like I am behind all day long then.

On a good note, though, things are going well. I have got the little guy on somewhat of a daily schedule/routine that is fairly consistent. Knowing when and how long he should nap each day is incredibly helpful. He is also sleeping really well at night (Knock on wood...) once I get him to sleep.

Also, it is beginning to look and feel like Spring which means that I can send the kids outside to burn off some excess energy. Wonderful!

I also want to share a link with you today that I have recently discovered. It is called the Daily Audio Bible. At this site, you can listen to a portion of the bible being read each day. It follows a plan to read through the entire bible in a year. The man who does the reading, Brian, has a wonderful mellow voice and I have really been enjoying having him read to me each day. His nine year old daughter, China, reads a kids version of this, too. Very cool. Check it out.

25 years ago today...

On this day 25 years ago...I had my first official date.

This boy from my church had called and asked me out and I said, "yes." After I hung up the phone and came into the family room where my parents were, the questions began.

"Who was that?"
"What did he want?"
"A date?!?"
"I'm not sure we can let you do that."

It had never occurred to me that they wouldn't let me date. I suppose the whole thing was a surprise to them since I really had not shown a huge interest in the opposite sex. I can still remember their discussion. My mom pointed out to my dad that this was a nice boy from church. My dad simply stated that there ARE no "nice boys." I do think the fact that they had known the boy and his family for years at church helped and they relented and decided to let me go.



So, the next Friday, I came home from school and spent the entire afternoon deliberating over the clothes in my closet. I was clueless as to what to wear. I can still remember the outfit I finally chose: jeans, a pink and blue striped polo and a white cardigan. In retrospect, it was pretty bad.



I anxiously waited for my date to arrive. When he finally did, I was surprised to discover that he had a friend with him who was going to drive. I suppose that he was even more nervous than I was and brought his buddy along for moral support.



I don't recall all of the details of that night, but it did include a lot of driving around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do. I believe we ended up eating at Pizza Hut and walking the mall. The whole evening had an overall tone of awkwardness! It is probably a miracle that there was actually a second date after that one. But there was. Although things may have been a bit rocky at first, I continued to date this boy all through high school. We went to our proms and school dances together. We hung out and went to movies. We grew into adulthood together.



If it had not been for that awkward date 25 years ago that took place on the day after my 15th birthday, I wouldn't be the wife and mother I am today, I wouldn't be the same person because I ended up marrying that nervous boy. He is now my husband, father of our six children, and best friend.




Happy Anniversary, Barry!

It's been a fun time - let's shoot for at least 25 more!

Scrapbook Page: Barry and I at my Junior Prom. Credits can be found here.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yes, today is St. Patrick's Day. We like to celebrate the day in our house for several reasons.
1. We have a bit o' Irish heritage.
2. We have a son named Patrick.
3. It is the perfect time to discuss the characteristic of God being One yet three persons.

As to #1, my maternal grandfather, Earl Patrick, was Irish. That brings us to #2. A bit of family trivia - my grandpa's middle name was Patrick (and everyone called him Pat). My mother's name is Patricia. MY name is Patricia (although everyone calls me Trish). We decided to name our firstborn son Patrick because we like the name and wanted to carry on the tradition. Now, the tricky thing on St. Patrick's Day is explaining to my son that although he is named Patrick, he "ain't no saint."

Now, if I am going to discuss #3, I have to share with you one of my big pet peeves lately. The significance of the shamrock/clover on St. Patrick's day comes from the fact that the original Patrick, who was a missionary in Ireland, used it the help explain the Holy Trinity - the fact that although there is one God, he is three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is NOT because the leprechauns like to dance amongst the clover and finding the four-leaf variety is lucky. So it really bugs me when I see St. Patrick's day decor with the four-leaf clovers. [sigh] I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when the holiday has become merely a time for celebrating the leprechauns and drinking green beer to excess.

Now, it wouldn't be right to talk about St. Patrick's day without sharing this video. This is a short from the VeggieTales video, "Sumo of the Opera." It is a "flannel board" story to teach the history of the man and the holiday. We think it is adorable and funny so therefore, it is tradition to watch this every year.



Another tradition that I have been trying to do is to have Corned Beef and Cabbage. Growing up we never did this. It think it has something to do with the fact that my mom bought a really nice corned beef to cook one year and the spices were so strong and repugnant that it stunk up the whole house. So, she never made another. Now, me, I buy the cheapest corned beef that I can find and our family loves it. We may try to make some Irish Soda bread this year to go with it.

Whatever you do to celebrate this day (even if it is just watching the above video), make it a great one!

Monday...Monday

It is Monday once again. Here I sit, still in PJs because I overslept and needed to feed the baby and grab what little quiet time I was able to before jumping into my day. My littlest ones are still in their PJs, too, watching Franklin on PBS. Am I proud of this? No, but life doesn't always go the way we plan. This is not ideal, but it will work for today.

In just a few moments I will go lay down the sleeping baby nestled in my lap after feeding to contentment, Then I will start breakfast to cooking and rally my troops to start making things happen - productive things (hopefully). We are all a little under the weather fighting off some germ that is making us tired, stuffed up, coughing, and incredibly achy. The forecast is good for today and I am hoping to open up the house a bit and let the spring breezes blow the sickies right out of our house. Perhaps we can even motivate ourselves enough to take a little walk and look for some signs of Spring. Finding little green things poking through the ground and listening to the commotion of all the birds that have returned will certainly lift our spirits.

Scrapbook page: A photo of Rachel taken at the hospital on the day her baby brother was born. Credits for the page can be found here.