Mom vs. the Dot: Making it COUNT!

Do you remember when Walmart first installed the self-checkout lines?  They were so cool! Over a decade ago, I went with my future husband to pick up a few items at Walmart and had a funny surprise:  while I was waiting for him to check out his purchases, I leaned up against the checkout area.  When he placed his purchase there, the machine loudly declared, "UNEXPECTED ITEM!"  Josh looked at me with a funny grin on his face and said, "Yep - You're my unexpected item!"  He realized all the items had specific weights and my leaning on the scale (of which I was unaware) caused the alarm to go off. Neither one of us expected to find the perfect match, yet there we were! As married life has progressed, I've heard the mental shout of "UNEXPECTED ITEM" many times.  After two years of marriage, we decided it was time to try to have a baby.  When the baby came, it was an Unexpected Item.  I thought having a baby meant having a sweet little someone...

Yesterday, we tried to kick the winter doldrum blahs by creating our own icy fun.  At first check of the thermometer, I read 2 degrees.  That was perfect for creating our own ice using our giant outdoor freezer: the back porch. I rounded up some cupcake pans and gathered applesauce and ice cream cups that had been washed and saved for a rainy day. Each child was given their own cups to fill with water and decorate. They placed small toys, food coloring, and glitter in each cup to their own specifications. We placed them outside to freeze, and I expected them to be ready by lunch. As luck would have it, in a matter of 2 hours, the temperature had gone up 31 degrees and the sun had appeared, shining full force to melt the ice.  Well, that's not what I was expecting. I went and retrieved our experiment from the back porch, then popped it in my freezer.  They cups aren't very deep, so we waited about an hour.  We ate lunch and finished school, t...

Valentine's day meant a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese and had a homeschool Valentine's Day party.  And no school.  How much fun was that?  The germs must've been flying at one or both of those events because 48 hours later (the incubation period for germs), we were in the emergency room with our son, who was puking up neon green fluid.  We didn't think that was normal, so we took him to the professionals. Would you believe that my coat and his, and my purse, received the full force of the voms upon entering the ER?  A passer-by took one look at me and exclaimed, "You need HELP!"  Yes I do, lady - truer words have never been spoken.   We were triaged and taken right to an exam room - the one good thing could come from such an entrance.  Then followed a 5-hour stint of poking, prodding and testing the poor boy to find out what was happening in his little body.  On Monday, our son seemed to be back to health, so I decided ...

  Does your child try every excuse in the book to get out of brushing his or her teeth?  A friend of mine described her struggle with her 2-year-old when it comes time to brush his teeth, so I told her what we do. I thought it would be nice to share with you, too!  Try it!  You'll LOVE it!  We do.  That's why I'm telling you about it. 1. Download the free app HERE 2. Buy one or more specially marked toothbrush or toothpaste, preferably with your child's favorite character(s). 3.  Try it out! Simply scan a picture of the desired character on the packaging and the app does the rest! During 2 whole minutes of engaging music, a picture of your child's favorite character is magically revealed while they brush.  Ingenious!  Every picture earned is kept in their own personal photo album (they love to show this off), and the app keeps track of how many times they brush during each day.  My husband discovered this last fall, an...

In honor of this week's house of perpetual sickness saga, I have composed a little carol for your enjoyment.  Now that we are almost through the stomach bug, I can make fun of our situation. Instead of making you read all the verses, I'll zip to the end of the song to give you the full effect: (Sung to the Tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas) Click the link below to hear and instrument version of the song posted by Kaye Titular on YouTube. It will fit perfectly if you fast forward to 3:10.   On the twelfth day of the Stomach Bug my family gave to me: 12 loads of laundry, 11 rolls of towels, 10 loads of dishes, 9 cans of soup, 8 long naps, 7 bottles of juice, 6 cups of water, 5 FULL trashcans, 4 crusty pillows, 3 cans of Lysol, 2 stinky sheet sets, and 1 remote for t.v. TADA! Whew!  Glad this week is almost over!!   Thankfully, we've had so many cancellations due to wintery weather and extreme cold, we haven't really missed ...

My baby boy - now 3 1/2 years old - was scared. Scared of the dark. Why? Because he watched a Batman cartoon where Superman is killed by Joker (he revives later in the episode when Batman rescues him) and had been scared of the dark for weeks after that fateful viewing.  He slept with his lamp on.  He feared the shadows on the ceiling were Joker coming to get him. I banned the dvd from kids' viewing choices, but I'm stuck with the after-effects.  Comic books and superheros are my husband's department.  They were from his collection of dvd's.  I don't like to sit and watch cartoons, so my little ones viewed this without my supervision.  Yep, I take the blame, but I have also had to deal with his fear of the dark and the guy on the ceiling. Oh yes - I've had my comeuppance. My little boy didn't want to go to sleep up until 10:30, when we'd rather to be watching a "grown up" (aka non-cartoon) show.  A little visitor would come at 2...

We've been running around like crazy the last two weeks - on top of our normal daily stuff, we ordered, picked up, and assembled new children's furniture at our church.  And we put together a Valentine's party for our homeschool group (which I loved doing - it just sort of added to the busyness this week)  My husband, head pastor of a local church for less than 5 months, has had to conduct 2 funerals, one last weekend and one this, on top of his normal workload.  A very stretching experience for a man whose ministry was pastoring teenagers for the last seven years.  He did a fine job.  As a family, we tried to support him in every way we could think of.  But stress is stress - there's no two ways about it. So our Valentine's Day started out with a funeral.  Hubby came home just before nap time, so I greeted him before I headed up for my nap. Yep, I nap too.  Parenting is exhausting!  I awoke with 1/2 hour left to talk to hubby about his ...

I am very much alive, but today I went to a funeral. of a man I didn't really know. just his first name and that he sat in a pew on the other side of the church. we've only attended this church for a few months, so i don't know anyone particularly well. he was at church last time i was there and today i watched as his casket was placed in its grave. and the mourners sat in silence. but there was no crying.  very few tears. was it because this man wasn't loved?  unlovable? no.  it was just the opposite. every story i heard about him  every tale shared spoke of a happy life. a content man. never raised his voice in anger, never worried about things, even when he knew he faced death was a good employer who hired men no one else would take to give them a new start in life loved his wife and spent time with her loved Jesus who forgave his sins and told people so raised money to improve the church building took immaculate care of th...

What better way to start the day than to build Lego balloon race cars? Our homeschool enthusiasm has slowed to a crawl lately.  Maybe it's because one gray day follows another, every day is cold or colder, and we have to spend 20 minutes putting on layers of clothing just to walk to the car. I spotted this idea on Pinterest the other night and we just had to do it! 3 Supplies Needed:  Extra bucket o' Legos, Balloons, Creative Kids After a half hour or so of constructing our own individual race cars, (ok - so Bram and Kylie played while I built all three of ours, but that's to be expected) we built some pretty awesome cars (if I do say so myself), but then we needed to come up with a way to attach the balloons.   We built up the back of each car and created a hole in each of the back stacks to insert balloons. It is also important to insert the balloon with the air escaping out the back.  Unless you want the car to go backwards...

Ah...The Game of Life!  Love this game!!  Played it back in the 90's.  Went to college and married, had a great career, huge house, 3 kids, and retired in richy-rich acres, or whatever the wealthy retirement place was called.  Perfect! Did you ever answer that question at a job interview...you know - "Where do see yourself in 5 or 10 years?" I could never answer that question. During my college years, I discovered a verse in the Bible that helped answer why I never had an answer to this question...at least, not a good one.. "Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord ’s purpose that prevails." Proverbs 19:21 In other words, "A man tells God his plans, and God laughs," so goes a Yiddish proverb. There you have it. Through all the trials of life, I have realized that I have to hold on loosely to the things of earth.  Certain things are infinitely more difficult to loosen one's grip on, such as my family members.  I th...