Mustachioed!

 Life has been SO busy lately and I am having a hard time adjusting to it! I got used to "quieter" days at home with as much social interaction. Now I feel like all of my days are so full and I fall into bed at night exhausted! The past few nights, I have been in bed reading by 8:30pm! Is that a sign that I am getting old??

Eliana went through a really long phase where she would only let me do anything for her and was selective with her affection to others. Now in the past month or two, she is crazy about Ben, too! She is super affectionate and loves to spend time with us, constantly turning to us and saying, "I like you" or "I really love you!" It is very sweet. Ben is just soaking up all the love from his princess!!

  I recently got a book from the library about little girl hairstyles and attempted my very first ever French braid! It is not even close to text-book perfect but I was proud of it! And this is after the whole day:)

I loved it so much I attempted another one the next day. My mom used to French braid my hair a lot so it was a happy memory for me!

There are different themes on Awana nights and last week was Mustaches! As you can see here, Ben was looking debonair in his Charlie Chaplin mustache:)

  And Zakkai with his classic handlebar mustache....a fine future look, I think!

 

And Samuel looking dashing! It was funny because you couldn't smile with the mustache on or it would unstick. Of course, that made you want to smile at everything even more!

Ah, my handsome trio of men!!

They talked me into joining the fun! I was going for a snobby, cultured look but then realized my mustache was crooked! Oops:P

So I fixed it. Hmmmm....definitely not a keeper!

 Eliana held on tightly to her mustache and refused to try it out on until after Awana! Very handsome, er, beautiful, Eliana!

So there you have it, the Thomas family Mustachioed!

Apples, Charts and Catch-up!

 The days are flying by so quickly that I hardly realize how much time has passed since I last blogged. Of course, I only feel a little guilty considering there aren't that many people reading anyways.....Not that I blame anyone; this isn't the most exciting place to visit! (Okay, that was totally a shameless shout-out for readers and comments. Where are you?? It gets discouraging!)

Our new schedule is taking time to adjust to. We were so in tune with our old school schedule in Chicago for so long that breaking out of it has been harder than expected. It just feels so different and we feel like we are always running, trying to catch up with all that needs to get done.

Ben goes into work anywhere from 6:30am-8:30am, depending on whether they need him for overtime or not. He gets home at 5:30pm every day which is nice because he's home in time for dinner each night. The hard part is that this is definitely a more physically demanding job than he had before (okay, physical period!) so he is exhausted the few hours he can stay awake. As a matter of fact, he's snoring next to me as I write...:) haha.

We also were used to having him home during the day 2-3 days a week, whereas now he is gone Mon-Fri (like a regular person, I guess!) and sometimes on the weekends, too. He is SO incredibly busy all the time. And so, then, am I....

We have a cute little playground not far outside our backdoor and the boys, especially love to play there after school. I admit, Eliana doesn't get to go often because she wants to go when the boys do and there are a lot of other kids out, too, playing wildly and not generally watching out for tiny almost-four year olds. On this day that I took the picture, it was just the four of us for awhile! I enjoyed watching all three of them swing:)

Then Eliana decided to get silly, of course. She loves to be silly!

She also loves to pick out her own outfits several times a day. I have to fight with her to dress in something cute most days. Then during naptime, inevitably, she changes into something "comfy" which usually includes a Buckeye shirt and shorts, or cozy pants (as she likes to call them) and this pink shirt. She's a goof! I think I may secretly raid her drawers and "hide" some of her regular go-to's to change things up. You won't tell, will you?

This was me scrubbing in for some deep freezer surgery the other day:) In the day or two before we moved in June, somebody closed the deep freezer lid after it was unplugged and before it had completely dried. Ew. Let's just say that I had to arm myself with bleach, my handy dandy mask and some gloves and do some strenuous scrubbing! Thankfully, it is back in operation and mold free!

It became part of Eliana's nightly routine to read books for a few minutes with a book light since we lived with my grandparents this summer. The room we stayed in had no window so it was pitch black when you shut the door and I would lend her my book light after I tucked her in each night. I always found it back on my bedside table when I came in to go to sleep:) She earned her very own little princess flashlight yesterday as a prize (she is holding it up in the picture) and she is very proud!

It's apple season over here! It was a strange apple-picking year here and Ben never got to go, unfortunately, but we are still swimming in apples and yesterday I finally mustered up the energy to start dealing with them. So far I canned 8 half pints of apple butter (mmm..), made 4 mini loaves of delicious apple bread and froze 2 apple pie inserts. There are still many apples to go....if Ben doesn't eat them all first!

I made a new chart for my kiddos today. (my phone takes awful pictures, sorry!) I originally made this chart just this past spring and while it was very helpful to have the ears/mouths for them to remove, it was also extremely annoying because the Velcro ripped off several times a week and I was constantly gluing them back on! I even attempted to sew them on but after 2 of them, I said forget it and decided to make something a little easier and with a little more of a positive spin!

This chart has room for the kiddos to move up, if having a good day, or down if having a rough day. I got the idea from pinterest and from new color charts that they seem to be using in the schools around here. It's good for the kids to be rewarded, too! They start on Green and move up or down, depending on their choices, attitudes, etc. throughout the day.

Hopefully, they will not be moving down too much, or at least, all the way down! I put "Warning" for the first move down, "Trouble" for the second and "Rough Day/Try Again Tomorrow" for the 3rd. That's a really bad day! Each move down comes with it's own set of consequences, like time-outs for the littler ones, extra chores, loss of privileges/toys/etc. We have an envelope with a notecard in it that will be hung nearby for Ben and I to choose from a list we wrote out of consequences. Makes it easier to follow through quickly!

 

They each have their own decorated, initialed clothespin and they get to start fresh every morning! I even wrote in tiny letters, "His mercies are new every morning" on the Start square as a reminder to them and to me that grace is new each morning:)

 

The boys were really excited when they saw it this afternoon (updates on them coming soon!) and all three kiddos got to move up one space tonight because they got all of their sticks done (yep, we still do those and they still work!) and just had good afternoons/evening. I like being able to reward them in simple ways and make them feel good about their choices. Hopefully, it will inspire them to keep making good choices:)

 

Well, that's all folks. Keep coming back and be sure to say hi in the comments sometimes!

Closing summer and making plans.

 Our boys survived their first week at a brand-new school! This week didn't look anything like we originally thought it would, a couple months ago. I told the boys we would probably be settled in our new place long before school started and have time to scope out the area and meet some kids at the parks, etc.

Instead, we chewed our fingernails to bits (figuratively speaking, of course!), waiting and waiting for the answer to prayer that was sure to come before school started.....only to have the answer not be the one we hoped for. I am SO proud of my boys for doing as well as they did this week. They did a whole lot better than their mama, that's for sure.

The 2nd and 3rd days of school went a lot smoother than the first (the drop-off was frustratingly chaotic) and the boys had some really good things to say. Samuel even got rewarded for good listening at school on a behavior chart all the classes have. He felt really good about that!

My grandma has been hauling us all over town for the past month since Ben started his jobs. The kiddos are in a tight squeeze in the back of her little Taurus, which makes for many repeated reminders that we are in a small space together and need to keep our voices DOWN. But they are happy kiddos, even if ornery:)

Last Saturday, we got to spend some much-needed time with Grandma and the boys cousins! We had a very full day, starting with brunch! We ate, then played at a cute park, went to Target, had frozen yogurt and ended up at the river to throw rocks:)

4 boys and one little princess:) (one boy is missing from the picture!)

That's Eliana carrying her brother's pirate sword around. She's pretty ferocious, isn't she?!

They had so much fun it was hard to tear them away!! We had such a nice day:)

On Tuesday, my trio and I decided to have one last little hurrah before the busy school season started. We headed over to the pool and were one of the first to arrive! It was a pretty low-crowd kind of day, for which we were very thankful.

The boys had SUCH a good time and actually spent time swimming (finally!) and did not want to leave. I feel like they finally got the hang of swimming and relaxing at the pool, only to have the season end!

Buddies:) (Well, okay, let's be honest here. This came after some screaming on Eliana's part and a refusal to scoot over on Z's part. But finally the law won and peace was made.)

Chillin' in his own chair:) He has begged to go back to the pool every day this week!

And something fun! Guess whose book is out?! That's right. Check out that name at the top!

And it's a doozy, too, coming in at 508 pages. Yes, sirree Bob, that's a whole lotta work that went into that book. 4 years to be exact....Oh, well, 5 if you count the painful process of editing!

Don't be asking for a copy anytime soon, though. A) You probably won't understand very much of it:) and B) It costs a whopping $160 a book. Wow.

Ben likes to say that it also doubles as a fly-swatter, a cure for insomnia or a great window-holder upper. His joking aside, I am super proud of him! He accomplished what few people can with his studies and even though we can't exactly see how God will use his knowledge and giftings, we are trusting that someday we will!
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And as for other updates, Eliana got into preschool! It's been very difficult to sign up for anything at all since our whole life has been up in the air but we found a place for her 2 days a week and she is SOOO excited! She was bringing her book bag to her brothers' school open house and wanting to put her supplies inside their desks (break my heart!) so we kept assuring her we would find something soon! This just fell into place a few days ago, very easily. And as I am needing to count all of my blessings right now, however big and small, I am very thankful for this! She starts in just over a week.

Also, we are trying to learn not to be stressed out by deadlines because we are learning that our timelines and God's are apparently not the same. Boo. We only have until September 1st here before we absolutely have to leave. The only way we could get a really brief extension would be if we could tell them a specific date we were moving into a new place. The board has been gracious enough to allow us to stay here all summer but the time has come for us to move on.

Not that we haven't been trying. I admit, I have been incredibly discouraged and frustrated this week by all of the dead-ends and bizarre experiences we have had with trying to find a place to live. We have never ever had trouble like this. Some days I really want to give up and move to England. Please pray, of course, that this would be the week God would open up something for us, but most of all, for me to fix my eyes on Him and not on things that I think would make things easier. Like, I don't know.....having a place to live and being able to settle and make plans. Things like that. I'm having a hard time letting that go and keeping my eyes upwards and I really need some prayer for grace.

After all, drawing close to our Father, in the midst of trials and pain, shows us that nothing here on earth can really ever satisfy us or give us true peace. I need to learn where my true source of Peace is and draw from it (Him), instead of assuming I'll feel peace once my prayers are answered. Tough lesson to learn.

And I think I'd rather learn my lesson asap instead of feeling the way I have this past week or two....

Happy Friday!

 We are wrapping up a long week here in rainy Chicago with some delicious homemade pizza and mini banana cream pies. Mmmm...I may be trying to cook healthier options but that doesn't mean we don't thoroughly enjoy our Friday night desserts!

Here's a picture of Eliana the other day, wearing her Easter bunny ears, a gift from her Grandma:)

Last night Eliana earned yet another prize for completing her sticks (she gets prizes every 7 sticks; the boys every 10). She picked a puzzle, which Daddy helped her with!

She doesn't get doted on or anything around here:)

Ben often dances with me in the kitchen (which the kids love to watch!), especially when he is playing music on his computer. Yesterday at lunchtime, he was playing a fun jazzy tune and did a quick dance with me. Next thing you know, Eliana hopped down from her chair where she had been happily munching on lunch and begged to dance with her Daddy. A sweet video we will cherish forever! Gosh, she's cute:)

*Can't figure out why blogger is not showing the top half of the video. The original video does include Ben's head:)

Happy Friday!

Big Do Part II!

 It was MY turn to sit in the haircutting seat today, although not in a pink airplane like Eliana:) She asked me this morning if I was going to get to sit in a yellow airplane. Just picturing how funny that would be.....

I found groupons for both of us (different places, of course!) since we were both in dire need of some sprucing up. It's been almost a year since my last haircut and it was a weird experience. The groupon I found was for a higher end salon and it was a great deal!

Here's my before: sitting in the parking lot before I went in to relieve myself of some of the serious weight of my hair! I start to look like "It" from the Adam's Family once my hair starts getting so long. I have such a long narrow face that I need to break it up a bit.

So I did! I got a good 5 inches chopped off and it feels great!! Ben says he loves it and he's a tough critic so that makes me happy:) On a side note, why do I look so...old?? I guess it has been a rough year so it's to be expected. At least I don't have gray hair like my dearest husband...haha. (Shhh, don't tell him I said that!)

Eliana is just infatuated with her new hair-do and has been worried all day that sleeping and the wind have messed it all up. She was satisfied with a couple brushings today and even requested a blow-dry at bedtime tonight. Ha, what is she turning into?! She says next time she'll get a cut like me:)

She and I finished our last week of grocery shopping today. I am waiting to make sure we make it through this last week of April with no more trips to the store before I share the results. It's been fun this month doing the budget makeover! Never though I'd say it was fun but....it was. Mostly:)

On a random side note, Ben and Zakkai have been learning Latin together! Zakkai faded out pretty quickly (although he did like hearing the Lord's Prayer in Latin) but Samuel seems to have the same love of learning as his dear old dad and I am pretty impressed at what they have learned! Not something you would hear in many households:)

And I don't know about you but I am very thankful for the sunshine and signs of spring starting to bloom. It always makes you feel a little more hopeful, especially after a LONG winter!

Birthday Celebrations, Pizza and Cute Girls in Pink!

Do I win the prize for most boring blogger ever this week? A medal perhaps? My blog is about as exciting as NBC's Olympic coverage....

Yesterday, we had the honor of making our main guy feel like King of His Mountain! It was Birthentine's Day! The boys and I were up early, sprucing up the place and making a yummy breakfast of homemade biscuits with lemon curd, sausage patties and OJ. A nice change from our standard weekly fare of cereal!

I did something fun this year to show my family that I think they are pretty special! I cut out lots of pink and red hearts, 4 each for the kiddos and 8 for Ben, and wrote on each of theirs something I love about them. I taped the first one by their beds so they would see them first thing, put on on the wall coming downstairs, one at each place at the table and one little one in the boys' lunch boxes. Eliana's were a little lower so she could find them; even one on Baby Anna! Ben's I hid all around the house, like on his desk or on his coffee grinder, a sure place for him to look:)

They all really enjoyed it!

Here is our littlest Valentine, checking out her hearts:)

I loved her outfit and braids yesterday! She was very Valentine-y.

She moved her hearts all around the house all day:)

The kiddos worked very hard on a "Happy B-day Daddy" sign and were very excited to surprise Daddy with it!

So colorful!

The boys hung up all of the streamers:) We had pink from when Eliana was born and red from Z's party last year.

Later in the morning, Ben got suckered into playing with Eliana's dollhouse by a cute little 3 year old:)

They worked hard to set up all the furniture!

Hard to resist a little girl with purple glasses and beautiful blond braids!

Oh and the dimple doesn't help either:)

Giving me the stink eye! She thought she was pretty funny!

We presented our guy with a pizza stone for his birthday, something he has been wanted in hopes of perfecting our homemade pizza! He was really happy about it and is about to use it for the first time tonight.

The reason we didn't have our Friday night pizza is because I treated Ben to lasagna last night! I wasn't sure I was going to do it but I know it is one of his favorite meals and they do say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach.....

He was thrilled to pieces! He and Zakkai, I should say. They share the same hearty appetites and often like the exact same things:) Eliana declared the "Tasagna" good! I wasn't sure if she would even try it, having an unpredictable 3 year old appetite but she did! She thinks it's "telicious!" ha;) I feasted on salad and breadsticks. Yum. I tried a specially cheese-less tiny corner piece of the lasagna just to be a good sport. I'm pretty sure my taste buds will not change on this one but the sauce was delicious!

We finished our evening with ice cream sundaes and a movie. A nice quiet night! Now tonight, we'll see if we can bring our pizza to a whole new level....