Breakfast for Dinner

Growing up, I remember occasionally have breakfast for dinner and it was always a big hit. I've done it a few times since the kids have come along, and no one but me seems to really enjoy it. It seems like Perry is just humouring his wife's strange eccentricities, and the kids all insist that you can't have pancakes for dinner because it's breakfast food (they also correct me if I call lunch dinner by accident). We had Kris's recipe for buttermilk pancakes, since I had some buttermilk left after making some KFC clone coleslaw (it was really good- which was good because I had tons of leftovers after the pool party). The buttermilk was very different from the kind Perry usually makes. He adds vanilla, which almost makes it like a dessert, it's really good. So go and mess with your kids' heads- make breakfast for dinner!

Good Morning Mommy!

How I was awakened this morning by my 3 1/2 year old.

"Mommy, the pee come out! And it was banana pee!"

Yummy Lunchtime

Boy, you know you're life is slow when you start posting about a sandwich, lol. I'm really trying to start eating healthier (and lose weight!) and lunchtime doesn't seem to have the same promise it did when a 99 cent chicken sandwich with fries was on the menu. The Sonic being built next to the church I go to MOPS doesn't help, either. Mmmm, Sonic....Lunchtime around here is pretty dull. Leftovers for me, corndog for Joshua, that sort of thing. I'm not very inspired to cook when the weather is so hot, so ungrilled cheese sandwiches are often on the menu for Mischa. Caleb will have a double mustard, mayo, and ketchup sandwich with tomato (he'll even have it without the tomato, lol). Today I was trying to come up with something that would compete with the evil fast food and came up with this- a grilled turkey and tomato sandwich with cheddar and mozzerella cheese. Pretty yummy, and Mischa even got her sandwich cooked, too! I might have to go out and buy some more bread and tomatoes. It was hard eating just one, but what good is healthy eating if you eat too much. Darn those calories!!!

My Sleepy Baby Is Gone *sniff*

When Anneliese was a baby, she would wake up around six in the morning, but I would be able to nurse her back to sleep, and she would then sleep until 10 or so. It was so nice having such a warm and soft baby snuggling against me. I would touch her cheeks, marveling at the soft colour under the surface of her peachy skin (I had read an article about Madame Tussaud's wax museum and remember how they said that this quality was important for them to make the statues lifelike, but that it is really hard to do). Her soft hair would tickle my nose. Now she is entering her toddler years, with all the zest of life and energy to go with it. Getting her back to sleep is just a dream now (even when she woke up at 6:30, well ahead of her new wake up time of 8, I knew it would be hopeless). She can't sit still long enough to get sleepy. Always looking around and wanting to play. I watched a show yesterday about the first three days of this couple bringing home their baby, and watching the little baby sleeping in his crib made me want to rush over and pick him up. I guess I'll have to wait until I'm a grandma. *sniff*

Favourite Song

This has been one of my favourite songs for a long time now. It always makes me mist up now that I have kids. I hope that they always remember who they are and how special they are.

Fingerprints of God
By Stephen Curtis Chapman

I can see the tears filling Your eyes
And I know where they're coming from
They're coming from a heart that's broken in two
By what you don't see
The person in the mirror
Doesn't look like the magazine
Oh, but when I look at you it's clear to me that...

I can see the fingerprints of God
When I look at you
I can see the fingerprints of God
And I know it's true
You're a masterpiece
That all creation quietly applauds
And you're covered with the fingerprints of God

Never has there been and never again
Will there be another you
Fashioned by God's hand
And perfectly planned
To be just who you are
And what He's been creating
Since the first beat of your heart
Is a living breathing priceless work of art and...

Just look at you
You're a wonder in the making
Oh, and God's not through, no
In fact, He's just getting started and...

Hear it here.

Is Daddy a Superhero?

Today was Caleb's singing debut in Church. He sang in a quartet, with each kid getting to solo on half a verse. He did really, really well. Definately gets it from his dad's side, though, lol.
When we were leaving, though, the funny thing happened. Everybody walked through one set of doors, but Joshua went to the right instead of straight to go through the next set of doors (there were kids his age over there). Perry kept calling out, "Joshua. Joshua". Joshua looked up and said, "Are you invisible?". He finally turned around and saw Perry, wherein he remarked, "You're not invisible!".

I've Gotten Better Since High School

I guess motherhood has sucked out all of my nerdiness- I probably would've scored higher, but I didn't remember a lot of my periodic table. Mr. Forsman would've been sad.

Family Ties

Today is my uncle's birthday. I feel bad because it just made me realize how unclose (is that a word?) I feel to most of my family. We've lived 30 minutes away from him for two years now and I haven't seen or spoken to him. I saw his wife, once, taking Grandma back to their house. My dad works with him and rarely sees him. They have no kids, so there are no cousins for me to feel connected to. But it's just not this uncle. I an uncle in South Carolina and an aunt in North Carolina, and I haven't called them since we've moved here. My other aunts, uncles, and cousins live 1-3 days away and even when my mom talks about how close her family is, I can't help but not feel close to them. It's not awkward when we get together every 5 or so years, but I could go just as long without calling them or only exchanging Christmas cards. Even with my mom and sister, they do most of the calling.
All of this makes me miss New Mexico, when we lived in the same town with Pat and Kris and their kids. It was the closest I had had family, and I wanted my kids to have a chance to be close to family. They now have 2 cousins that they get to see once or twice a month and more cousins that we see every 6 months or so, but it was great to get together twice a week or more. When we were deciding whether to move out here or not, that connection carried a LOT of weight. I miss that.
Happy Birthday Uncle Paul!

Redecorating

Today the blog- tomorrow the bathroom! Yeah, if I had the time or energy or inclination to live with the mess. I have it all planned out, though. For me, the hardest part of any project is what I want the finished product to look like, so I'm over halfway there!

A Male Perspective

Well, Perry has decided to join the blogosphere, so now you might be lucky to get his take on the craziness that is our home. He is very competitive with his twin and now he can claim the most posts title- and I get the credit, lol!

Run Away! Run Away!

I had been promising to take the kids to feed the ducks for awhile now. We tried one pond that I knew of, but there was a sign posted not to feed the geese. So, I talked to my friend when I overheard her mention taking her kids to feed the ducks. Turns out there is a lake not too far from us and she said the ducks were usually nice, though the last time they went, the geese started to get a little snippy. Deciding to take our chances, we gather our stale bread and head on out. We find a nice parking spot by the lake and an adult and 3 juveniles (they were still downy, but were getting the colouration of adulthood, but the markings were grey) come waddling out of the water and into the grassy area between the lake and the parking lot. The goslings were peeping left and right, it was really cute. I take out the bread and instruct the kids to throw it away from us as far as they can. I hear some loud splashing from the lake- there are more geese showing up. It was really neat to see them landing in the water. I look down the path along the lake side. More geese are coming, and coming fast. Joshua starts crying. He's got his bread and those geese are as tall as he is. I look around and we are outnumbered 10 to 1. I counted 40 geese around us, with probably about that many on their way. I decide to cut and run while we still had time. "Ok, kids, back to the car, and fast!" The geese started following us to the car. I was starting to feel a little scared at this point since I was the one holding the bread. Luckily, Joshua dropped his entire piece of bread. The goose that grabbed it couldn't swallow it, so the other geese were following him, trying to get their share. Those geese got only 4 slices of bread. I guess the birds in our yard will be getting a little treat tonight.

Procrastination

A few years ago, my sister sent me a magnet that said, "Housework is evil. It must be stopped." Now, I don't know about it being so evil that it must be stopped, but a little procrastination here and there can't be too hard a punishment for it. Contrary to what my mom might remember about my teenage years (and college years), I love organizing things. My problem is that I have to find *just* the right system for whatever I'm organizing. And that hardly happens when I need it to. Flylady is helping ("you can't organize clutter"), but I'm not as devoted to that as I need to be. I'll let things slide one week ("it's not that bad today, I don't feel like doing it"), then the next week they'll be too big to do in the limited amount of time the kids let me have. I also have a little Gemini cleaning personality- a room that is constantly clean and organized makes me feel really calm and happy. On the other hand, the rush of accomplishment I get when I wipe away noticeable dust or pick up a very cluttered room gives me a sense of pride ("did you see what I did?"). The downside to that is the anxious feeling I get and I can't think straight in a messy room.
Well, the laundry is piling up and the dishes stacked on the counter are balanced precariously, so I'd better stop procrastinating and get cleaning.

The Upside of Travel

Perry does a lot of traveling, which isn't the funnest thing for me at home. I'm SERIOUSLY outnumbered, especially now that school is out. Finally all of that craziness paid off. Perry called last Friday and said that he and some co-workers were talking about their Fourth of July plans and where they were going. Perry realized that there was no reason for us to hang around home and started looking online at places near the beach. He found a sale using his hotel miles and later that night we were starting to get things ready to go to Destin, Florida. This would be everyone's first trip to Florida but mine. We took off early Sunday morning- Caleb even set his alarm clock to 5 a.m. Michaela made up songs for Alabama and Florida when we entered over the state lines. The hardest part of the trip was trying to explain the time change to the kids when they were hungry for lunch at 11 for them and it was only 10.
We arrived about an hour early for check-in. We went to a nearby store to buy beach towels and then crossed the street to go to the beach. Joshua, who had made us take his shoes and socks off about 10 minutes into the drive, insisting that they had sand in them, stopped and would not move when it came to walking on the sand. We had to carry him, kicking and screaming, down the sidewalk and onto the beach.
We checked into the room and went out to dinner. After dinner, we went to the pool. Anneliese hated the water, even though it was really warm. The next morning we got up, ate, and headed to the beach. We are used to California beaches and were unprepared for the complete difference ahead of us. The water was WONDERFUL! So warm. I still remember how freezing the water in San Diego was 3 years ago. We wore water shoes, familiar only with the rockiness of California. Anneliese cried the whole time, even sitting on our laps on the shore- and let's not talk about the screaming that took place when the water would occasionally come up to where we were. Josh cried and wouldn't even make sand castles. Whenever the waves came up, he would hold his hand out, palm facing the wave. We finally asked what he was doing and he replied that he was using his "blue power"- I think I have a Jedi knight in the making. Caleb and Mischa loved the water. Mischa loved the "ooey-gooey sand" that was a mixture of water and sand. We went to Destin Commons, an outdoor shopping mall that evening and got dinner at a drive-thru since Josh was losing it. We were originally planning on hitting the pool before check-out the next day, but made an 11th hour decision (okay, it was more like 10:00, lol) to hit the beach instead. The kids fought us a bit on that in the morning. We decided just to wear sandals instead of the water shoes because it was such a pain getting the sand out of them the previous day. The instant our feet touched the velvet softness of the sand, we were kicking ourselves for wearing shoes the previous day. We had a rule, that since the kids didn't have floaties, that they couldn't go in more than knee deep without one of us. Caleb found himself in trouble a few times the day before. He got knocked down a few times, and it was funny to hear him say "too deep!". Right before we left the day before we had a scary moment where he was in almost literally over his head. I'm glad I looked up to see where he was while I was rinsing the sand pails out. Josh and Anneliese didn't like the water that much more on this day, but they calmed down once they were out of the breaking wave section. Josh played in the sand and used the force on the waves some more.
We took off back for home on July 4th. We made it home in time to eat some dinner and head out to watch the fireworks. Last year, it rained and stopped only enough to have the fireworks show. This year, the rain started right after the show. The three big shows in downtown Atlanta were cancelled. The Roswell (where we were) and Stone Mountain shows started about 15 minutes early, since they saw the rain coming in.
All in all, it was a really nice vacation. The drive was a good length (and the DVD player didn't hurt), the weather was perfect, and we got to spend time together. And the hotel was almost free. Couldn't forget that little factor that made the whole trip a possibility.