The Toilet

The title of this post is where I would like to put one of my daughters. Not forever, just until she realizes that she CANNOT pitch a fit everytime she is playing with her sisters and doesn't get what she wants. I kid you not....she has spent the majority of her day in her room by herself.... I feel like I am constantly spanking her, or giving her 'hot spicy sauce' (aka Tobasco)....what else can a Mom do, but flush her down the toilet?!

On a happier note, my grandparents just celebrated their 65th anniversary last week. Crazy, eh? 65 years. My hats are off to them for their commitment to each other and their family over the years. What a legacy they continue to leave for their children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. I pray that Art & I will live to celebrate our 65th year together (he's gonna be really old then!).

Gone Fishin'

My man is fishing this weekend. For the whoooole weekend. And, I am at home with the Girls. All 4 of them. And me. And we are going to have lots of fun!

This is a trip that Art does every year with 2 of his friends, and us wives get together with our children.....11 of them between us all. And it's a bit of a gong show. We have every age, from 10 through 1, with a couple of doubles in there.

Tonight, we were all at one of the families house, and I had put Ellie Mae to bed, but all the other 10 kids were downstairs watching a movie together, laughing. We walked down, and got a camera to take a picture. I didn't have the camera, so I don't have the picture, but it made my heart happy. Some of you may know that we in the Goerzen home love tradition....and this is one that I love. All the kids were on the floor or couch, the younger with the older, cuddling and watching the movie together. They will have these memories when they are older.... something that we did every year (this is now year 5!).

It's funny, because when the guys first started going, a weekend by myself with the kids (I only had 2 then!) seemed so overwhelming and even daunting, but now, it's no big deal, and I have double the kids. I guess, as they get older and a bit more independent, that helps. Also, I'm not up in the middle of the night nursing a baby!

Anyhow, Friday was a big hit with the Girls....now I have to figure out how to spend the rest of the weekend. I am thinking about making some raspberry jam, painting my entrance way, playing outside, reading a magazine, and perhaps watching a chick flick tomorrow night. We'll see how much of that gets done. :-)

Hopefully, the weather is good and the guys have a great time away. Frankly, they deserve it. They are all great Dad's....husbands.....work their butts off kinda guys.... Happy fishing, boys!

Here I sit

It's a glorious fall day outside, and here I sit. On my butt. I keep thinking that I need to get out and get all my fall cleanup done, but it's just too nice to do such things. You shouldn't be working outside in the fall, sweating. You should have jeans and a hoodie on, feeling the crisp wind which isn't biting, but it isn't warm. And you should have to have a kleenex to wipe your nose when it drips from the crisp wind...not be wearing capri pants and a tank top and sweating.

And so, this is what I tell myself to justify my procrastination....and apparently it's working, because here I sit. On my butt.

More fear

It's interesting to me how, in my life, fear rears it's ugly head. I wrote about this subject a while ago, but once again, it's staring me straight in the face. And it's stupid. I realize that I have some fear in my life, and how it comes out is kinda crazy.

We have been painting our house, and I really wanted to do something different. We've always had darker, warmer colors, and I really wanted to brighten things up, and chose two different, very light colors (muslim and white down....you can imagine what they look like!). I was very happy with my selection, and then we painted the walls. And they were light. Really light. I knew that this is what I wanted, but now that it was here, I wasn't sure. Everything in me wanted to go back to what was comfortable and familiar, to these dark colors. At first I didn't think much about it, but then, I started to obsess about it. Truly. And I realized that it was fear that was making me doubt. Fear of what people would think, if I would really like this color, fear of change and something different. Stupid, I know, that I would be obsessing about paint. But I was.

As I thought more about it, I realized once again that our house has kinda been symbolic of what's going on in our lives. God's been teaching us new things, and we're walking a different path these days. And it's not usually easy, and we can't go back to the old and comfortable, but it's good. Really good. Kinda like our paint. New, different, but good. So, there you have it. Isn't God crazy? Using my house to show me some of what is in my heart...Bizarre, yes. But cool.

I think I (will) love Wednesdays!

I think that I (will) love Wednesdays, and here is the reason:

Wednesday is AWANA. This year, Hannah, Abby & Molly will be going to AWANA. All three of them. That means that I will have only one child, every Wednesday night, until May. Can you believe it? I am awfully excited! Three down, one to go....

CPR

So the other day, we were at church and I look over to see Ellie Mae on the ground, with Molly pushing on Ellie Mae's stomach. This is the conversation that entails...

Me: "Molly, be careful! You have to be gentle with Ellie Mae!"
Molly: "Mom, I'm doing CPR..."
Me: "Pardon me?"
Molly: "I'm doing C P R...."
Me: "Did you just say CPR?"
Molly: "Yes. I am doing CPR on Ellie Mae!"

Here are the baffling parts of this story:

1. I don't know CPR
2. I've never talked to my girls about CPR
3. Where did they learn this?!
4. Molly is THREE!

Lots to say...

Once again, I've been a bit negligent in my blogging....sorry! Lots has been going on around here during the past week...here's a short rundown

1. Hannah started school. Yup, you read right...school! Do you believe it? She has started grade 3 in a program here which I am thinking (and hoping) will be fantastic.... She goes to school 2 days a week, and then is home the other 3 days, where we do math and language arts together. That's it - just 2 simple, easy subjects. She started on Tuesday, and besides having some butterflies, she did great. She has a couple of friends in the program, which helps. There's also lots of parental involvement, which is nice as well.
2. Abby started grade 1. I am keeping her a home full time for another year, and depending on how things go, she may go to school with Hannah next year. We went into the city yesterday to meet with our facilitator and pick up all her curriculum, so she was SO excited to start. She did school for about an hour and a half, and begged to do more. So, being the generous Mom that I am, I let her do more math during her 'alone time'. Yup, I'm great...
3. Our ceiling is FINALLY done! We worked like dogs this past weekend (happy labor day to us!) and Art got it all done, and I painted it all. We even decided to do the ceiling in the bathroom because we love it so much.
4. Fall is here. Really. It doesn't feel like summer anymore, unfortunately, so today I planted about 400 bulbs in my gardens. We'll see how it looks in the Spring....I can't wait!
5. My kitchen is coming. Soon. This actually happened a while ago, but I haven't had a chance to write about it, so I thought I'd mention it here. I can hardly wait! It's only been about 10 months that I've slowly been losing a cabinet here, and a cabinet there...now I have 5 cabinets. Literally. Everything is stored in boxes in the basement, so whenever I want to bake, I have to rummage through all the crap in the basement to find whatever it is I'm looking for. My kitchen should be here the first week in October.
6. With kitchens, you need faucets, which I finally found and ordered. I may have to sell one of my children on the black market to pay for it, but it's really nice....
7. Lights...or lack of them. With finishing the ceiling, it meant that we had to take down lights, which means that I have none, and had to go and find some new ones...they are super nice, but, of course, they will take 3 weeks to come in.... Since it now is fall (remember #4?), and the days are much shorter, we light lots of candles here! So, if you are driving down our driveway and see candles everywhere in the house, don't think you're interrupting anything....it's just that we have no lights!
8. Paint....I will soon have a painted house. Well, couple of rooms actually, but still. It's better than the drywall and putty I've been looking at for months
9. Ballet, which Abby is starting next week....I still have to find her shoes!
10. Awana....Hannah, Abby AND Molly are in it this year. Three down, one to go.... Yippee!!

That's it. The short version of what's been going on here in the last few days. I'll try to be better at this blogging...