Mending

The boys are finally, truly mending! The spunkmeister is back in all his glory; tantrums, time-outs and trouble with a capital T!! It is so nice to see him smiling and being silly again. He is like night and day when he is sick/not sick.

Here he is playing with a new birthday toy from his cousins Jasmine and Sofia, a Zhu Zhu pet. It's a very strange little hampster that barks, moos and makes other animal noises while zipping around the floor:) Doesn't Z look a LOT like Samuel in this pic?

Getting a closer look at the hamster.

The "boss" trying to tell Zman how to play!

I just wish I felt as good as the boys! They very lovingly shared their germs with me. But you know what? Despite how bad I've felt this weekend, I wouldn't take back cuddling them and caring for their every need while they were sick. It's what mommy's are for! I can only pray, though, that this is the last sickness we suffer from this winter!

Dreaming of Florida in 4 weeks!!!

Weary Hope

Today I am weary. Weary of constant illness. Weary of people saying, "You guys are sick again?!", as if we wanted to be. Weary of the constant vigilance being the parent of a sick child requires. Weary of always catching the boys' sicknesses. Weary of winter. Weary of missing family. Weary. But... Despite the weariness and the temptation to slide into sadness or a feeling of hopelessness, I want to choose to be joyful in the little things. And there usually are little things if you look hard enough.

Today I am thankful for:
*Finding a few extra dollars in my purse so I could treat myself to Chipotle for lunch. Yum.

*The sun a few days in a row. The sun has so much power to lift my spirits.

*Friday. The end of a week. The possibility of a better one coming.

*The anonymous giftcard sent to Ben and I in the mail for a date night! It made me cry and I am so thankful.

*A cat nap. Although I'd like a longer one:)

*Zakkai smiling a little more today despite a 103+ degree fever at 3am.

*Z's fever breaking and the hope that he really will recover.

*Our rockin' homemade pizza for dinner.

*No dishes for me to wash for the next 2 1/2 days. It's Ben's turn:)

*The Olympics.

*Lysol and Bleach. And Clorox Wipes.

*Tears. Sometimes a good cry can wash away all the grime and weariness that has built up over a hard season and leave room for hope and smiles.

*Dreams. I do have some good ones.


What are you thankful for today?

Quick Post!

Just a quick post to say that we are hanging in there! Z is on day 65, oh wait...only day 8 of this illness and just as he was beginning to improve...he took a turn for the worse again tonight. Praying hard that he will improve for good tomorrow! I spent a lot of time bleaching toys, the bathroom, and many other surfaces of the house today. It actually felt so good to have a couple windows open (so i wouldn't lose any more brain cells than necessary) and the bright sunshine pouring in. It gave me hope that spring will come. Soon.

We just got done having a housegroup potluck party! Some old house groupies popped into town and wanted to see everyone. We had "Italian night" with Pasta Fagioli soup, lots of YUMMY garlic bread (seriously, I could eat a whole loaf of garlic bread myself! No really.), a pesto noodle/pine nut side, salad and amazing tirimasu for dessert! Coupled with some olympics watching, it was a great night!

Now I'm off to bed and hopefully will have something better to post tomorrow!

Recipes, Grumpies and Funnies:)

Recipes:
I have a few obsessions in my simple life, just in case you haven't picked that up through reading this glorious (or not so glorious!) blog:) Chocolate...crafting...and recipes to name a few! I get a daily recipe to my email and have been saving them in a recipe folder. Of course, who actually uses recipes that are stashed away, unorganized in an email folder! And who has time to look for them?! Not I, said the mommy!

Sooo, I borrowed an idea from a brilliant friend of mine and found a very cheap recipe software program to organize my recipes! I found this:


for $5 on ebay with free shipping! I figured it was worth a try. I am still in the process of organizing, as it takes a bit of time, considering I had 175+ recipes saved to my email! I am really enjoying programming them in and adding pictures. I planned 75% of my menu for the next 2 weeks with new recipes I programmed in! I will be sure to share if they are any good:)
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Grumpies:
As for grumpies, poor poor Zakkai is really struggling to break free of this illness. He really got hit hard. Even though he hasn't had a fever in 2 days now and is eating slightly better (and by slightly, I mean prob half of what he usually eats), he is G.R.U.M.P.Y. and fusses all day long. He has a horrendous cough, which makes him cry. He is easily irritated, which makes him cry. He can't sleep, which makes him cry. We look at him, he cries. He barely falls, he cries. Basically, he's a mess. We even had to postpone his birthday party. So far 3 isn't a good year for him! Hoping it improves dramatically soon!!!

Funnies:

And to balance out all the sick, germy talk on this blog that I wish I wasn't blogging about, I thought I would post something to leave you with a smile! I call this "Wii Dancing Men." Enjoy!

Dinos pants and window cleaners

What to do with two little boys who are housebound, yet again?! Samuel still wasn't up to par today so we decided to keep him home from school again. Hopefully, he'll be much better tomorrow and ready to go back. Z has turned a corner, I think. He played a little more today which is a good sign and didn't have a fever. I pray he sleeps tonight!

I made a desperate grocery shopping trip today while the boys were resting and picked up a small "present" for the boys to help entertain them! It's so easy to peak their curiosity!

"Boys, I have something special for you! (after torturing them through lunch, I finally show them the markers). But guess what? These markers are not for coloring on paper! What do you think they are for coloring on?" (Boys are way too excited to guess anything other than "the wall" or something:) "The windows!!"

This great! We get to sit on the heater AND color on the windows! I wonder if mommy will notice if we color on the heater, too?......

Samuel's sun:)

Zakkai's....masterpiece.

I also finished some pajama pants for Samuel tonight! I haven't been feeling very crafty recently (last month took a lot out of me!) and have a bazillion projects to finish. I finally finished one of two pairs I am making for him. He grew out of most of his pj's and has to alternate the same 3 pairs:) I found some really cute flannel on sale for $2 a yard at my very favorite store (JoAnn's!).

He will be so excited when he wakes up!

A closer look at the pattern~dinosaurs:) The other one is trains, which he is most excited about. Who knew pj's could be so exciting?!

Next on my list...work on my quilt! I may or may not have had that on my goal list to finish by the end of 2009. Ahem.

Sickies and R Week

This little heap of misery had a very rough night and day:( He was up literally all night coughing. Doze and cough. Doze, cough and cry. Doze and cough. And cry.

He was so pathetic this morning and fell asleep on the floor at 10:45 am and slept for 3 1/2 hours! You know when this ball of energy who talks non-stop, is too busy to stop and potty train and eats more than me..doesn't eat, doesn't talk, cries and falls asleep on the floor, he is sick! Poor baby. I'm hoping for a better day tomorrow.

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R Week!

R is for:

Rainbow Noodles! A quick and very fun activity shared with me by my good friend! All you need is a box of noodles, a couple tablespoons of rubbing alcohol and food coloring!
Add the rubbing alcohol and shake to coat all noodles; add food coloring of child's choice and let them shake!

I laid the noodles out on paper towels on the heater and they were dry within minutes! Ready for fun!

The boys could not wait to wake up the next morning and play with the noodles again!

Scoop and pour. Pour and scoop.
R is for Roses! My loving hubby surprised me with some beautiful roses a couple days before Valentine's Day!

Sunday, Valentine's Day was dubbed "Red Day!" The boys' faces lit up when I burst into their room and announced that it was "red day!" They knew, whatever it was, it was something GREAT! :)

We all dressed in red. We ate off of red dishes. We had red apple pancakes. Okay pink. But they were supposed to be red!

We decorated some Red and pink cookies!

With lots of sprinkles!!

And the boys made rainbow "R's" for their alphabet wall and for their notebooks, "R is for Roses" and "R is for Racecar!"

R is also for: Running, Race, Rocketships, Rhinoceros, Rabbits, RED!, Rain, Reading, Ready, Rainbows, books "Rain, Rain Everywhere" and "Rumble in the Jungle" (totally thought we had more R books:)

Samuel is very excited for "S" week:) Too bad it's starting out with "sickness."

Spring?

Birthday Celebration

Even though our new little 3 year old was a sick, snotty, juicy, miserable mess yesterday (and there's no exaggeration here!), we tried to do a few things to celebrate with him. We debated for far too long about where to go, thinking to spend the morning at a museum or something, before we realized the child was in no condition to go out for hours!

We ended up taking him out to brunch for a little bit. He perked up after a dose of tylenol and a little food. He is in such a contradictory stage these days. He said he wanted pancakes, then asked for oatmeal ("are you sure you want the oatmeal? "Yes!") and when the oatmeal was placed in front of him, got all teary and asked where his pancakes were! Sigh. He ate 1/3 of my omelet and some fruit:) Then we came home for a nice long nap.

Poor little man with pink eye and nasty croup virus. This was one of about 3 smiles yesterday!

Birthday, smirthday!

Opening a few presents after nap perked him up!

His favorite gift so far! A guitar from mommy and daddy:)

He said, "A kintar?! For me? Just for me?!"

And his requested chocolate cake! Using the m&m's from the failed potty training bribery attempt:)

It was a very dense, rich chocolatey cake!

It met with high approvals from the birthday boy. He pretty much ignored most food attempt yesterday (and today) so he had plenty of room for chocolate cake:)

The belly full of chocolate:)

Poor Samuel has now gotten Zakkai's nasty germs and is following in his footsteps with a nasty cough and hoarse voice. I don't expect him to get croup tonight because I think he maybe only had it once as a baby (or that could've been Zakkai...) and I am praying he does not get pink-eye!

Hopefully the boys will get some rest tonight. Zakkai has already been up 3 times crying with terrible coughing fits and it's only 9:30pm. At least we got a couple weeks of health, right?!

Right. Come, spring, come!!

Happy Birthday, Zakkai!!

Can it already be 3 years since you were born? Time is flying by and I can't slow it down even though I wish I could. You were a tiny, adorable little boy with a full head of dark hair and an amazing set of lungs...and now you are a spunky 3 year old old who talks non-stop and captures my heart with your big blue eyes and blond head!

February 2007~5 days old

February 2010~almost 3 years old!

All About You:

*Your favorite color alternates between orange and blue, depending on how you feel that day! Sometimes it's even Red, just to annoy Samuel:)

*You talk ALL the time! You have to talk about every little thing that you see or anything in your little head. Sometimes you make no sense but you say it anyways just to make us laugh!

*You are incredibly observant and notice so many things going on around you. Especially if it has to do with lights! You are absolutely obsessed with lights and made a point to tell everyone how many lights were burned out on their Christmas trees this year:)

*You are as in love with your Rays as you were when you were a baby. They comfort you and you still look so little and sweet when you snuggle with them and suck your little finger.

*You are resistant to potty training, although you don't want to wear diapers anymore! It's very confusing:) Someday we hope you will be potty trained!

*You are starting to really use your imagination when playing with toys. It's really fun to listen to you make up little stories and play with Samuel.

*You are ALL boy!!!

*You really love to read books and come by that honestly!

*You charm everyone you meet with your outgoing personality and funny faces and words!

*You tell me you are a "big boy" now and don't want to be carried too much anymore to bed or anywhere. It makes me sad but I know it's just what you are supposed to be doing.

*You adore chocolate! You have requested a chocolate cake for your bday and I'm about to make it right now!

*You say you want to be an astronaut, a pirate ship captain or a monster when you grow up:)

*You love music and love playing daddy's guitar and mommy's piano! You tell me to turn up the radio in the car so you can hear the music.

*You bring us incredible joy everyday and we love you with all of our hearts! Happy Birthday, little man!

Nice Mommy vs Mean Mommy

There are two different mommy's warring within me on a daily basis. On a good, calm day, I am the "nice mommy" and I love being the nice mommy.

And on the not so good, hectic, crazy days...the "mean mommy" sneaks out.

The nice mommy says, "I don't mind if you splash your bathwater all over the bathroom! Less mopping for me later! Look at you two having fun being children!" in a sing-songy voice.

The mean mommy says, "If you so much as splash one tiny droplet of water on my clean floor, your bath is over! I mean it!"

The nice mommy says, "Just look at this mess all over the floor! You boys must have been having a GREAT time playing! Let's have fun cleaning it up...together!"

The mean mommy says, "Ugh! Toys EVERYWHERE! Can't you clean up after yourself? Someone's going to trip and fall and break their leg! And knowing my luck, it'll probably be me!"

The nice mommy says, "Oh, you don't want to eat another bite of those nasty wasty green beans, pookie? Okay! Let me just whip you up something else to eat! I have all the time in the world!"

The mean mommy says, "You will not move from the table until you eat a bite of those green beans. Even if you have to sit here ALL night!!"

The nice mommy says, "Oh, jumping off of the couch and doing head dives again? You sweet little boys have so much energy and must be dying to get outside! Let's go put on all 18 layers of our winter coats, hats, scarves and mittens and just step outside for some FUN!"

The mean mommy says, "Boys! What did I tell you about jumping off the couch?! Someone is going to crack their head open and I do NOT have time to go to the ER right now!"

The nice mommy sings, "I'm on the phone, sugar plum! Would you like to say hello? Try to be quiet for 2 peeps and we'll play a fifth round of Candy Land!"

The mean mommy hisses (so the other party cannot hear), "Shhh! I am on the phone! That means you do not talk to me until I am done! Do you understand?!! (and then)Hello? Oh, so sorry about that! Boys...."

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So many days these two mommy's are fighting to get out. Most of the time I would say I fall in between, which possibly is where I need to be! Not too lenient and not too harsh. But it's so easy to feel like I need to be the "perfect" mommy even though I know there is no such thing! The world today tells you if you don't do everything just right with your kids, they will be messed up for life and in counseling for 16 years!

I try so hard to be balanced, loving but consistent with discipline, affectionate and tender but firm when needed, full of fun and great ideas but making time for mommy, too! (sounds great, huh?) I wish I could be like this more often! I too often look at other moms, wishing I could be just like them when the reality is, they probably have many of the same struggles I do!

The amazing thing is, even after a really tough day full of tantrums or mini crises, too much busyness and stress, I go peek on them as they slumber in their beds and as I watch their peaceful, content little faces, all of the yuckiness of the day washes away and I am suddenly renewed for the next day.

I do love those little boys, even if I am not "the" perfect mommy, I am their mommy. And that's just what I'm supposed to be!

Sickness strikes again!

Well, my evening took a sudden turn for the worse about an hour ago! This poor little man suddenly came down with croup...again:(

He woke up with a weird cough today but acted fine and then started losing his voice this afternoon. I was a little worried by the time he went to bed that he might head in this direction but really hoped not. Then, not even 5 minutes after the last of our housegroup friends walked out the door, he woke up barking and gasping for air. I had terrible flashbacks of the last time this happened in December but thankfully knew what to do this time!

I had Ben open the window right next to our rocker and sat with him laying on me, facing my chest, covered with a Snuggie. He sounded so bad for awhile and I sat rocked him and held him and prayed over and over. After awhile, his cough sounded a tiny bit looser and he threw up a little and almost immediately his breathing eased a bit. He is asleep again and I am afraid this isn't our first midnight meeting tonight. Poor little guy! Thankfully, he has a dr appointment for his 3 year check-up anyways in the morning!

I'd better get some sleep in case I'm up again tonight! Hopefully, I will have happier things to post tomorrow!

Chicago Auto Show 2010!

You know what's weird? I had no idea that I didn't blog yesterday! When I got on today and saw that Monday was the last time I posted, I was like, "Wait, what day is it?!" Yeah....

Anyhoo...Ben got tickets to the Chicago Auto show for his bday from some friends (thank you!!) and we, and some good friends of ours, went to see it yesterday afternoon! Here are just a few pics:) With narration, of course!

The Auto Show

"This is GREAT!"
"Ready to do some shopping:)"


The boys first "ride" of the show! Nice convertible!

We saw everything from right side up cars...to upside down cars....

To sideways cars....

We saw giant cars like the F750 (Zakkai SOOO wants this one...)

To teeeny tiny cars like the Smartcar (modeled generously by Mr. Josh!)

Yes, a perfect fit for your average 6ft 5(?) inch friend!

And...the boys very first ride in a BMW!

Don't get too comfortable in there boys! Boys?

The boys took their own rides in a police car!

Ready, set, go!!

And...Samuel bailed after being repeatedly bashed by a tailer, a very aggressive 4 year old girl in a fast pink jeep:) So it was up to Zakkai to take over!

And, are you ready for this? My personal favorite of the auto show and a car I have been dreaming of since....

Oh yes, I have crossed over to the other side. I give you...The Honda Odyssey 2010. Further details are available upon request:)

Wiping drool now and moving on. Zakkai taking a ride with his favorite buddy!

One Happy almost 3 year old boy!

Miss D and Mr Josh taking a snooze on the new Toyota Sienna reclining seats. Oh yes, minivans are moving up in the world. Such lovely models!
Samuel and Daddy checking the seats out!
"Just checkin' out a car magazine, mommy. Hey, can we get one of these? I'll take....a red one."