And she passes!

My modest little sister would never toot her own horn, so I'm going to toot it for her. I just got an e-mail from her last night that she passed a CLEP test yesterday in humanities. I believe that makes at least three tests that she's passed so far (3 for 3). Out of a possible score of 80 she got a 75! I'm pretty proud of her. If you're not familiar with how the CLEP tests work, with each test she passes she earns credit toward a degree without having to take college courses. It's all very complicated and I probably didn't explain it right, but Kristi can explain it much better.

Monday evening was really special. Don and Betty Best, missionaries in the Amazon region, joined us for dinner and then gave a powerful presentation at the church about the work they're doing. What an incredible couple. They absolutely radiate the love of Jesus. Serving the Lord is their passion. They breezed in here with happy smiles and kind words--all genuine. Nothing phony or put-on about these people. Mr. Best won Jed's heart when he let Jed "shoot" a special native dart gun. He also told Jed about some of the horrific animals they have down there. I asked him myself if they had lots of spiders. He said yes, but they don't really bother them much. He'd only gotten bitten twice in the three years they've been there. My goodness, I'd say that was invading my personal space!

Darren, Evan's brother, was also with us Monday night. He flew up that afternoon for a hearing he had to speak at in Concord, so we got to enjoy the pleasure of his company through Tuesday morning. Speaking of yesterday morning, I totally got spoiled. Usually the kids come in and wake me up in the morning. I haven't used an alarm clock in years; in fact, I don't even have a clock on my side of the bed. I would, except there isn't an outlet close enough to my nightstand. Anyway, the kids never came in to wake me up, Tucker never hollered for me, and I was dead tired after a busy day, so I kept on sleeping--till 9:00! I woke up to hear the kids playing happily with their beloved Uncle Darren in the playroom. He had gotten Tucker up and was busily entertaining all three kids. What a great guy. I tell you, the Jones guys are one-of-a-kind. I'm sorry there aren't more of them for some of my single friends.

Could someone please tell me how a mother is supposed to maintain her sanity when from the time she gets up in the morning till the kids' blessed bedtime she is either changing a stinky diaper, wiping up spilled juice, sweeping crumbs off the floor, pulling a 14-month-old off the table, answering a 5-year-old's question, answering the phone, comforting a 2-year-old who's just bumped her head, keeping the 2 and 5-year-olds from killing each other, pulling the 14-month-old out of the snack cupboard . . . and some of this ALL AT THE SAME TIME WITH NO BREAK?!?! Maybe the insanity part is already a foregone conclusion, but at least tell me how you do all these things and still remain a calm, patient, sweet little mother who never hollers at her little darlings.

CLEPtomaniac

My modest little sister would never toot her own horn, so I'm going to toot it for her. I just got an e-mail from her tonight that she passed a CLEP test today in humanities. I believe that makes at least three tests that she's passed so far (3 for 3). Out of a possible score of 80 she got a 75! I'm pretty proud of her. If you're not familiar with how the CLEP tests work, with each test she passes she earns credit toward a degree without having to take college courses. It's all very complicated and I probably didn't explain it right, but Kristi can explain it much better.

Last evening was really special. Don and Betty Best, missionaries in the Amazon region, joined us for dinner and then gave a powerful presentation at the church about the work they're doing. What an incredible couple. They absolutely radiate the love of Jesus. Serving the Lord is their passion. They breezed in here with happy smiles and kind words--all genuine. Nothing phony or put-on about these people. Mr. Best won Jed's heart when he let Jed "shoot" a special native dart gun. He also told Jed about some of the horrific animals they have down there. I asked him myself if they had lots of spiders. He said yes, but they don't really bother them much. He'd only gotten bitten twice in the three years they've been there. My goodness, I'd say that was kind of invading my personal space!

Darren, Evan's brother, was also with us last evening. He flew up yesterday afternoon for a hearing he had to speak at in Concord, so we got to enjoy the pleasure of his company last night and this morning. Speaking of this morning, I totally got spoiled. Usually the kids come in a wake me up in the morning. I haven't used an alarm clock in years; in fact, I don't even have a clock on my side of the bed. I would, except there isn't an outlet close enough to my nightstand. Anyway, the kids never came in to wake me up, Tucker never hollered for me, and I was dead tired after a busy day yesterday, so I kept on sleeping--till 9:00! I woke up to hear the kids playing happily with their beloved Uncle Darren in the playroom. He had gotten Tucker up and was busily entertaining all three kids. What a great guy. I tell you, the Jones guys are one-of-a-kind. I'm sorry there aren't more of them for some of my single friends.

Could someone please tell me how a mother is supposed to maintain her sanity when from the time she gets up in the morning till the kids' blessed bedtime she is either changing a stinky diaper, wiping up spilled juice, sweeping crumbs off the floor, pulling a 14-month-old off the table, answering a 5-year-old's question, answering the phone, comforting a 2-year-old who's just bumped her head on the table, keeping the 2 and 5-year-olds from killing each other, pulling the 14-month-old out of the snack cupboard . . . and some of this ALL AT THE SAME TIME WITH NO BREAK?!?! Maybe the insanity part is already a foregone conclusion, but at least tell me how you do all these things and still remain a calm, patient, sweet little mother who never hollers at her little darlings.

Stuff and stuff

It's 9:45 and I'm exhausted, but after being out all evening till just 45 minutes ago, it's impossible to just go to bed without "unwinding." It's a curse I inherited from my dad; I think Lori got it too. So, I'll probably stay up till 11 blogging and reading, then kick myself in the morning when I can't pull myself out of bed. But sometimes just having uninterrupted time to yourself can be as beneficial as sleep. It's sheer joy to have the house all to myself right now. :-)

Jed went to his first Awana meeting tonight at a Baptist church in Nashua. Well, actually, the first one was last week but it was just an orientation. He starts out in a big gym with close to 100 kids (not all are in his group). He's a Sparky this year. They start out playing group games, then move down to a classroom where they have a Bible story, quote their verses, etc. Jed looked pretty overwhelmed when I left him, but he was okay with my leaving and seemed to have a good time. Apparently the verse we'd worked on together--John 3:16--fled from his mind because he wasn't able to quote it. Probably has something to do with being tired and fighting a cold. Oh well, we'll keep working at it. I'm so thankful for this wonderful program that helps kids hide God's Word in their hearts.

You learn all kinds of new things when you're a parent, things you never thought you needed to know. Jed was on a big kick for a while studying about cobras, having watched Rikki-Tiki-Tavi umpteen times. Thankfully I'm not grossed out by snakes (spiders are another story), but it still took some sacrificial love to sit down with Jed and pore over pictures of fangs and long scaly bodies and animals being attacked and consumed. Did you know there's a snake called an egg-eating snake that eats nothing but eggs? It swallows the egg, then a little tooth-like thing inside its throat breaks the shell, at which time the snake swallows its slimy contents, then spits out the shell? Aren't you glad you know that now?

Jed has recently been fascinated by bees, since they're about as plentiful around here as flies right now. Only he's terrified of them! It's been in the 90s here, but Jed keeps shutting windows because he's afraid bees will come in. In true Jed fashion, he has wanted to learn more about these fascinatingly horrible beasts, so we sat down together to read about honeybees and wasps and other insects of the same family. Apparently there are three kinds of bees in a hive--the queen, the worker bees (females), and drones (males). I may be getting these mixed up (if you're reading this, Bria, feel free to correct me!), but the point I'm getting at is that the female bees' job is to care for the hive, feed the larvae, gather pollen and nectar, and generally do all the domestic duties. The male bees' job? Make babies. When I mentioned this interesting little bit of information to Evan, he said, "And now we know why Solomon didn't say, 'Go to the bee, thou sluggard!' "

It's election season, though most of us hardly think about it during non-presidential election years. We love election season in our house; it's a lucrative time of year. My buddy Chad Minnick, whom I worked with on a gubernatorial campaign back in 1996, runs a political consulting firm with his wife, Julie, in Washington State. They have more talent between the two of them than you can shake a stick at. Their job is to help candidates get elected. I don't know all the ins and outs of exactly what they do, but they do design fliers and brochures for candidates. Julie is a professional graphic designer who does beautiful work, and they're both outstanding writers. Whenever they have a flier about ready to go to press, they post it in a folder on the internet for me to download and edit. They pay well, and it's quick and usually fairly easy. So election season is a happy time here. :-)

Where chocolate milk comes from

Today at the grocery store Jed asked me, "Is chocolate milk made from bunnies?" I burst out laughing and asked if he really was wondering or if he was just being silly (he's always saying silly, off-the-wall things). But he really wanted to know! Perhaps if I was of a more sadistic turn of mind I would have answered him with a straight face that yes, bunnies make chocolate milk. But I explained--between gales of laughter--how it's really made.

About six weeks ago Chloe started losing hair. Poor girl looks pretty pathetic. She has almost no hair on the back of her head, while the front is still normal. It's been a little hard on her mom who is vain enough to want her little girl to look at least put together! Several trips to the doctor and some blood tests have revealed nothing out of the ordinary, so I took her to a nutritional specialist today who pinpointed the problem right away. It's a malabsorption problem. She isn't digesting certain nutrients needed to nourish the hair follicles (poor thing got the malabsorption problem from her mother). So she needs to take digestive enzymes and "friendly bacteria" and she should be showing signs of improvement within the week. Thank the Lord!

We seem to be breeding a vampire. Today during the kids' quiet time I was lying on the couch enjoying a desperately needed nap when Tucker let out a blood-curdling scream of agony. I tore myself away from the couch and went upstairs to discover Chloe had tried to take several bites out of Tucker's back--and nearly succeeded! He has two hideous looking bruised bite marks on his back. Chloe got a bite from Mommy on her arm for her pains, but I think she was so traumatized at seeing what her actions did to Tucker that she probably won't ever do it again. Here's hoping. This isn't the first incident! Jed has gotten several nips as well from our resident bulldog/weasel/vampire.

We got new carpet installed in several rooms yesterday! Made a HUGE difference, as in the upstairs doesn't stink anymore. Evan's office has dark blue carpet, and the upstairs hallway and playroom got light beige. Amazing what a difference new carpet makes in a room.

Sometimes I feel the way Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett of Pride and Prejudice feel. At one point in that excellent story one of them comments that neither one of them likes to say anything unless it's extremely witty and would get the attention of everyone in the room. I forget the exact wording, but when it comes to blogging, I hesitate to write anything unless it's of extreme interest or might make people laugh. But I've noticed from reading my friends' and sisters' blogs that I enjoy just knowing what's going on in their lives. So, assuming you all might feel the same way, I'll just tell you what's going on and how we all feel about it!

Today has gotten off to a happy start, since we got to sleep in. Evan is always up by 4:30, but today, in honor of the holiday, he slept till 7:00! The kids were in and out, but the VCR kept them mostly out. Then we had a waffle breakfast. Now, at 9:15, Evan is upstairs hanging a new light fixture in the boys' room. He is going to be puttering around the house all day--oh, happy day! I told him at breakfast I think he needs to retire and just hang out with us all day. That would probably get old fast as the cupboard got bare and our clothes fell apart, but it's nice to pretend for a day that this is the norm.

This afternoon some friends are coming over for a barbecue. I think I'll be brave and make shish kabobs. The other families are bringing the rest of the stuff. At 7:30 Amy Partin, Derrick and Wesley... are coming over for our first young adults' Bible study of the season. We did it last year and we all got a lot of good out of it. So we're starting up again tonight. We'll be holding it at our house every other Monday. Lindsay comes too but she's off in the Bahamas right now getting all tanned and rested and stuffed with exotic foods. Hope you're having a wonderful time, Lindsay!

I have become aware that Jed is old enough to help with chores, so borrowing from several different people's ideas, I came up with a chore chart that so far has been wildly successful. Getting Jed to brush his teeth and get dressed and do other things around the house has been a major battle, but human nature is such that we all like some kind of reward for our work, right? So I created a chart that lists all of his chores on one side and then for each day of the week that he does those chores he gets to put a sticker in the appropriate boxes. At the end of the week if all the boxes are filled he gets a quarter, which he can save up and take to the dollar store once he has a dollar. You should see Jed getting all excited about emptying the trash!

Our biggest news of late is that we got rid of our pug, Maxi. He was a wonderful, sweet dog but a little too much for our family with three little ones. Pugs need a lot of care and attention and you have to stay on top of their training. I really didn't have the emotional energy to train a dog AND three kids! So we found a home for him the other day with a loving couple that's going to spoil him rotten. The kids were a little sad at first but are doing remarkably well about it.

I've started working for Barbour Publishing again. Had to take a break for several months while we moved and settled in and then went on vacation. Some of my girlfriends who know I do it think I'm crazy. Why would I want to add one more thing to my already very full days? All for the very simple reason that it's therapeutic. I have perfectionistic tendencies that have an outlet when I get a manuscript in my hands. It's exciting to get a call or e-mail from JoAnne, the assistant managing editor at Barbour, asking if I can take a project. She tells me what kind of book it is, what the ceiling is (how many hours they've budgeted for a proofreader to work on it), and when it's due. If I say yes, and I almost always do, she'll ship it UPS and it'll arrive the next morning. I eagerly rip open the package to examine the manuscript. I can usually tell right away about how long it'll take (it usually doesn't take me anywhere near as long as the ceiling--they give generous amounts of time) and what kind of shape it's in. If I'm the first proofer to see it, there'll be a lot more errors than if I'm the last. But since the proofer sees the project AFTER the copyeditor, my job is fairly easy. So at the first opportunity--during the kids' quiet time or after they go to bed--I get comfy on the couch and get to work. Essentially I get paid to read! I look for errors in spelling, usage (stuff like clamor vs. clamber--does anyone know the difference?), punctuation, typesetting, etc. It's extremely satisying--especially when the check comes in the mail! And Barbour is a Christian publishing company, so the books are uplifting. Occasionally I'll get a Heartsong book, a frothy romance with little substance. Those are my least favorite, but sometimes there will be a really good devotional or somewhat meaty novel. My latest project was called The Quilter's Daughter by Wanda E. Brunstetter. I highly recommend it--for the female readers among us anyway! It should be out in print sometime this fall.

Evan just came downstairs and informed me the vacation is over. As I've been writing this blog all the kids have been upstairs watching him hang a light. Now they're all thundering down the stairs getting ready to watch Daddy hang a light here in the dining room. That means interruptions galore. Guess I better sign off. :-) Have a lovely Labor Day!