A Day In My House

• In the past two days I found that Andrew & Josh got along much better when they were pretending Josh was a dog.
• Josh, after losing a dime from spare change I gave him yesterday, not only asked if I would give him another one, but if I would make it a $10 dollar bill, instead of 10 cents. I almost feel compelled to honor his request for his sheer audacity in asking. But, no.
• Andrew stops in his tracks for car commercials. Josh stops in his tracks for Scotch tape commercials, the pop-up dispenser ones.
• I’ve recently found myself telling friends that I could easily see Josh becoming a rocker when he grows up. He loves to listen to music loud. (Recently, Bob told a story of when Josh was in my car with him, the two of them alone.  Bob was cranking up my sound system, as he can only do when I’m not in the car. So the music is already loud, and Josh hollers from the back seat, “Turn it up!” [Although what Bob heard, was "Come on old man, turn it up louder!])
• I’ve also recently found myself following up the “he could be a rocker” comment with, he could also grow up to be a preacher. He has no qualms with telling Andrew, flat out, “You’re Wrong!” I suspect he feels like telling us the same thing at times, but he also (rightly) feels he can’t talk to us that way. He retells Bible stories frequently. He seems to ponder God a lot, and not in the quesitoning way, rather in the matter-of-fact way.
• Andrew’s brain functions in a way that he has to comment on immaterial things, all the time. Especially if the normal routine is changed, he seems to analyze it out loud as his way of adjusting to the change. If only I could give you examples, but to do so would require me to carry around a tape recorder because no amount of recollection from my brain can do this justice. Yesterday, after just one such scenario, I commented to Bob that Andrew couldn’t help himself. And that he would make an excellent sportscaster some day. Bob replied with the thought that, yes, Andrew could fill dead air with the best of them.
• I can see a maturing independence in Andrew’s 7-year-old self. It brings me both pride and reflective poubtyness.

I’ve been slowly moving up our wake up times, both of the boys and myself in order to readjust to school schedules. Last week, I got up at 6:45 then 6:20 consistently. And today, here I am been up for  a whopping 20 minutes, since 5:45 a.m.

It hasn’t been as hard I as I thought, actually. And I’m hoping for the same with Josh, who values his sleep like he does his stuffed animals.

Meanwhile, there are 10 more days until school starts. Ten! We are all getting excited, albeit for different reasons.

I feel a sense of “nesting” coming over me, needing to get things organized and arranged, ready to welcome 2 kids and their book bags filled with papers and forms and homework each night.

I am sure Josh has some nervousness about starting kindergarten, maybe subconsciously. But I have anxiety on his behalf. Hoping he eats enough of a protein breakfast to get him through until lunch. Hoping he actually eats, and quickly enough, his lunch at school. And as my husband pointed out, hoping he doesn’t choose to entertain the built-in audience he’ll have at the lunch table over eating his lunch. Hoping he can grow to more easily express himself and not stammer for words as he sometimes can when he is overly excited or upset. Hoping he remembers to zip his zipper after visiting the restroom. Because, he usually doesn’t. Hoping that when he visits the restroom that he can break his habit of camping out in there making funny faces in the mirror for an eternity.

I’m not sure what anxieties he may have, hopefully none more than comes with meeting new people. I’ll be happy to bear these hopes in hope of coaching him towards his goal so he can just be him (only a zipped up, eat your lunch quickly, don’t dilly dally in the restroom, version of him).

• Twelve more days until school starts!
• I’ve been super busy planning meals and cooking for various church things. So much so that I’m starting to think I need a better way to be organized. Me! The organization queen! I’m just afraid of letting something slip through the cracks. All is going well so far though.
• Since my diet is nearing my goal, I am almost ready to buy buy new clothes and wishing for a fashion consultant. I don’t want to be fad-ish, just contemporary and better dressed.
• I was so surprised at the heat yesterday and it makes me wonder. It makes me feel like hibernating until the heat wave breaks. But would you call it hibernate if you are waiting out the hot weather instead of the cold?
• I love babysitters! I was able to do some errands yesterday for 3 hours while my sitter stayed with the kids. It is so much easier to get things accomplished when I’m not having to referee the boys around the shopping cart at the grocery store. And, when I got home, I was so happy to be with them that I treated them to dinner out (hubby went out with some friends from the office after work.)
• We officially have girl flowers (read more about that here) on our pumpkin vine, two at least. They haven’t blossomed yet. But I have also recently seen bees, so I’m trusting that once they do, they will get pollinated and baby pumpkins we shall have!

The credit for stumbling on this cool site belongs to my sister, Dana. (Thank you!)

Tonight I plan to make these Bacon Wrapped Green Bean Bundles with dinner.

And as my sister discovered from this site, these are adorable, clever, utilitarian and fun: Pie In A Jar. Pie, Chicken Pot Pie, Shephered’s Pie, vegetables, and more! I will definately be buying some half-pint canning jars to try these.

One day in October, you’ll thank me for these. Granted, while it is August you may just think I’m nuts. (And maybe I am just a little.)

I am still testing recipes for the fancy dinner I’m helping prepare for 70 people in late October. I’ve been seeking out seasonal (to October) recipes. I’ve tested two chicken recipes, one of which has potential. The other was good, but just way too much work to make it to the the final menu.)

In the running is Chicken with Roasted Pears and Wild Rice. But I’m still going to try another one this week. So we shall see.

Also, the cooking ladies tested this pumpkin fudge recipe and the results were… yum!

Yesterday I witnessed two sides of a coin in reference to my kids’ behavior.

One minute, I’m separating them, declaring in my motherly tone, “THIS is why I don’t let the two of you play together. You don’t know how to get along!”

The next minute, (well after a while of them being separated) they gravitated back to each other, peacefully. Often they like to trade rooms and play with each other’s toys. I walk upstairs to see why they are so quiet and find Josh playing cars in Andrew’s room (on his wood floor which makes them roll so much better as opposed to Josh’s carpet). And I find Andrew playing Legos in Josh’s room (being the Lego-lover that he is, he is happy to accept playing with different Legos in lieu of new Legos.)

This room-trade eventually morphed into playing together, starting with a dance mix cd (Radio Disney Move It!) Josh got for Christmas a couple of years ago. He loves dance-type songs and he loves it loud. So they turned that on and jammed and danced. Loudly.

After that I quit paying attention, not to mention I had the office door closed so I could concentrate on what I was working on. But for the rest of the afternoon, which seemed to be hours, they played nicely – a welcomed change.

I don’t know who was more affected by my sons camping out in a tent in the backyard with my husband over the weekend. They were ecstatic. They were looking forward to it so much. They couldn’t wait until bedtime (whenever it got dark). They slept wonderfully.

I, on the other hand, was anxious and edgy and didn’t find it easy to fall asleep with 3/4 of my family (rather, 3/4 of my heart) outside asleep in a tent in the back yard. I had nobody to kiss or tuck in when I went to bed (two hours later than when I tucked them in at the tent’s door) or when I got up in the night.

In spite of the fact that I was the only one on an actual bed, warm and cozy in the house, I think I slept the worst of us all. (Except for maybe my husband, who gave the two sleeping bags to the boys and himself, took blankets.  As a result, he froze after about 2 a.m. due to a low of 60 degrees.)

• I’m finally getting around to embracing gmail. I’ve had a gmail account for a while, but only used it sparingly. So while I have yet to move to gmail exclusively, I foresee this in the near future.
• Here’s the recipe for making apple cider from apple juice which I referenced in a previous post.
• Enjoying my new cutting board from Sur La Table.
• With VBS this week, and everyone getting in bed later, I’ve fallen into a routine of waking up later, consistently. The boys are not the only ones who have to get back on school schedule, soon!
• I feel I’m in a reality-tv whirlwind with Top Chef, The Next Food Network Star, Design Star and Project Runway ALL currently airing at the same time. Previously, it’s been two at a time that I’ve kept up with. But for some reason, they are all on at the same time. My DVR is keeping busy.
• With school supplies purchased, my next task will be to review their clothes for back-to-school. I know they will need some nicer shorts to wear, but beyond that I have to figure out if their jeans, shoes, etc. are going to fit so that I can buy now why all the school sales are going on. That includes reviewing their shirts to see if they have enough nice ones (read as “without stains”) for a week’s worth of school days. I am not looking forward to the dress-up session (“Here, try these on. Now these. Ok, take that off and try this one”) that this will require.

Yesterday, I made Apple Cider. Why? Because you can’t find cider in Ohio in early August. And I needed (yes, needed) to test a recipe that our church’s cooking ministry might potentially be making in October for a special lunch for which we are cooking. The sauce for the dish requires apple cider, and well, I had to make my own. I also made cinnamon-maple butter (yum) and pumpkin bread, all for the same reason – recipe testing for this October lunch. So while it was 90 degrees outside, the kids and I enjoyed the flavors of fall wafting through our house.

The kids enjoyed their first night of VBS. And since I took this year off from volunteering, my husband and I also enjoyed their first night of VBS. We went out for a late dinner and then to a sporting goods store to buy my husband a bicycle.

I learned more than I ever knew existed about pumpkin vines as I researched their pollination to determine if ours was normal or abnormal. I had thought something was eating our blossoms, but as it turns out, they (the male flowers) fall off after a day of blooming. These male flowers continue for a couple of weeks before any female flowers appear. So we are on course for some female flowers to show up soon as this pumpkin vine spreads itself across the back of our yard.

On tap for today, absolutely nothing. Slow morning, loose schedule and a welcome sight to wake up to: rain!

One day last week, after eating his dinner successfully (not always assumed), Josh asked for a special treat. I offered him the last part of a Hershey’s bar, about 6 squares. He took it excitedly and sat down to eat it.

While enjoying his treat, he asked, “Mom, what does rich mean?”

Thinking he surely was referring to food, I explained it meant “strong taste.” Met with a confused look, I followed up, “Or do you mean rich that has to do with money.” Without waiting for him to answer, I explained that rich means you have a lot of money. But that in regards to food, it means strong taste.” I then questioned which one he was asking about.

“Money,” he replied, still enjoying his chocolate treat.

Befuddled at both myself for assuming he meant food, and him for questioning such a word while eating chocolate, I dismissed it as just another means for him to figure out his world. But, secretly, I’m wondering what it is he wishes he was rich enough to buy.