Keeping Up with the Joneses

2008-11-17T14:42:00.000-08:00

Celebrating ten years together (from courtship) at our favorite bed and breakfast in Cape Cod. Notice that we're wearing our two favorite colors. :-)

A happy day in Gloucester

So I thought I'd throw y'all a bone the other day with that video of Jack. But now I actually have a couple of minutes to write a quick update!

Our lives are busier and fuller than ever. Homeschooling is going pretty well. Actually, I think teaching a third grader would be a cinch if that's all I had to concentrate on each morning. But added into the mix is a needy 23-month-old with a short attention span and a four- and five-year-old who alternate between loving school and wanting nothing to do with it. It's not a big deal if Tucker doesn't want to do school; I don't push him. But when he wants to, he wants me to drop everything and give him my undivided attention, which is usually right in the middle of explaining a complicated math problem to Jed. And Chloe too often throws little diva fits when I say we're going to do schoolwork. But she's learning her letters and numbers one way or another, so all is not lost.

This summer I took on two more publishers. It has made me happy to see my business finally taking off. At any given time I have two or three projects going, but their deadlines are such that I can stagger them, and I have babysitters two afternoons a week to not only give me time for editing but also a chance to preserve the sanity I'm hanging onto by my fingertips. :-)

2008-11-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

Jed's birthday

2008-07-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

2008-07-15T18:43:00.001-07:00

So, it's been a great summer so far. I've had editing and proofreading work coming out my ears, but I'm enjoying a brief lull between projects. Actually, I do have one going, but for quite awhile I've had three or four so I feel like I'm on vacation. Last night I actually got to read a novel before I went to bed--one that I didn't have to correct!

Things our summer has included so far: Jed's birthday (8th); Jed getting baptized; Jed earning his yellow belt in karate (I'm so proud of him!); Jed finally taking the big step of having his training wheels removed, then falling off the bike a few days later and getting a pebble embedded in his forehead (Mommy thought it was cool to remove it with tweezers. No stitches were needed like I thought, just Derma Bond to help it heal). Let's see, other things. Tucker's birthday (4th); a visit to Friendly Farm (see pictures below) followed by a visit with our dear friends D and R (who recently had their first girl after three boys!); VBS at Chestnut Hill Chapel-- It was great to see old friends there. Hearing that our good friends B and C are expecting a baby after eight years has been another highlight!

Chloe is on the brink of learning to read. All she's waiting for is for Mommy to sit down and teach her. All day long you can hear her announcing, "Cuh! Cuh is for cat!" "Tuh! Tuh is for train!" I'm still in awe because I had to force feed the alphabet to Jed until it finally clicked late in first grade. Kindergarten is going to be a breeze this year in the Jones household!

Jack's listening comprehension is finally taking off. Say "basement" (the playroom) or "outside" or "Daddy" or "bottle" or "nap" or "lunch" and he knows exactly what you're talking about. Our baby is growing up!

Here is a boatload of pictures I know some grandparents have been anticipating (so sorry about the delay, Mom!).

Pig pile!

Jed's favorite birthday present this year was his Indiana Jones costume. We won't let him watch the movie but his imagination is captured by the guy's adventures and he does still love to role play.

Our precious boy turns 4!

Have you ever seen a more adorable bunch of pirates?

Tucker spends hours at a time building things with Legos. He also loves to color in his Spiderman coloring book.

Between pirates and soldiers we don't have to worry about any bad guys coming 'round these here parts. (Note the overturned car in the background. Thank God Jack wasn't in it when he had to notion to push it down the hill!)

Summer!

2008-06-03T06:00:00.000-07:00

I have been looking forward to this summer with great anticipation. The other night I was talking about it with Evan, commenting on how it's been a long time since a summer has looked so good. Then we figured out why. These are the reasons:

1. I'm not pregnant or caring for a newborn (summers 2000, 2003, 2004, 2007).

2. I'm not recovering from two miscarriages (2001).

3. I'm not moving into a new house with three little ones in tow (2005).

4. I'm not trying to keep a needy toddler entertained 24/7 while feeling sick (2002).

So pretty much since 1999--which, by the way, was the best summer ever, my first with Evan--summers have held happy things but have been overshadowed by other challenges. This summer looks wonderfully full of playdates with friends, day trips to fun places, the Downeaster campout in Maine, a ladies' retreat this weekend, an AIR-CONDITIONED HOUSE, getting to know our new neighbors, NO SCHOOL . . . you get the picture. :-)

Are you dead, mon?

2008-05-31T05:47:00.001-07:00

Nope, just terribly, terribly behind. I apologize, dear friends, for wasting your time every time you have gone onto my blog hoping that maybe FINALLY I had posted something new and you could stop looking at the dumb picture of the snow.

Not much time to write now but I'll include some pictures from the past few months with this promise: never again will I take so long to post!

Pictures and stuff

2008-03-01T09:37:00.000-08:00

This is the site that greeted us this morning. My very first birthday snowstorm! At 3:00 this afternoon it has stopped and the driveway is clear, but I'd just like to say that we really didn't need any more of the stuff. We still have yet to see what our yard really looks like. Come on, spring!
Daddy's big helper

She claims she's a bride. :-) Isn't it a good thing little girls' taste changes as they grow? Or don't you wish you could wear a dress like this for your wedding, Kristi?

Jed's latest passion--Star Wars Legos. Isn't he adorable?

All four kids have been terribly sick this week--fever, runny noses, lethargy, vomiting, diarrhea, coughing. Have I left out anything? Evan had it last weekend. Had to stay home from church and work on Monday, then limped through a long week of work. Miraculously by God's grace and mercy I have managed to stay healthy. Considering how the others' have been affected, it would have been a pretty rough week if Mommy had been sick too. I am so ready for everybody to be well, though! My best birthday present today was seeing the older three run around playing, even if it was for only about 20 minutes before they crashed. They haven't done much more than watch movies, lie on the couch, and sleep all week. Oh, the other best present was the three youngest taking LONG naps today all at the same time!

Be advised that if you repetitively wipe your nose with your sleeve over several days' duration you will wear down the skin on your nose and end up looking like this poor pathetic guy. Yes, that is simply blood from an abrasion on his nose caused by constant rubbing. Anybody got any clever ideas for getting him to stop wiping his nose or how to help his nose heal without actually using a Band-Aid, which lasted about 60 seconds when I tried earlier?

So today I turned 33. It's been one of the quietest birthdays I've ever had. We had grand plans to go to the Yankee Candle Factory in Mass. today but sickness and a snowstorm forced us to postpone. But I determined yesterday that I was going to enjoy this day anyway, and it's been great! I have gotten to spend it with my five most favoritist people in the whole world. I've had a chance to work on my quilt (more about that in another post), we all watched the new Ten Commandments animated movie this morning (excellent flick, by the way!), we're going to order take-out from our favorite Mexican restaurant in town, and to top it all off, Lindsay and I are getting together tonight for some sister time--a perfect end to a happy day. I am blessed.

update

2008-02-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much to each of you who contributed design ideas on my blog. It was so fun reading what different ones had to say and incredibly helpful. When the room is all done I'll post some pictures and you can say, "Oh, that was my idea!" :-)

I also wanted to thank you all for your prayers and concern last week when I was so low about my health problems. I am very grateful to report that I've enjoyed over a week of very little discomfort and have been able to get through (most) days without (too much) will power. Now if I can just manage to avoid soy for the next few months we'll be golden. . . .

Ideas, anyone?

2008-02-03T10:17:00.000-08:00

Quite a few of my faithful blog readers have a great eye for interior design. So yesterday when I was decorating our mantle Evan and I we were pretty happy with what I came up with, but we knew something was missing. We aren't sure what to hang on the wall, if anything. So I thought, Hey, I'll post some pictures on my blog and beg my friends for their expert opinions!

So, what do you think? Are you proud of me for completely departing from purple and bright colors?! Going with neutral colors is new for me, but one can get tired of the same old, same old after nine years. What do you think we should put on the wall behind the ship? A mirror--and if so, metal or wood frame and should it be round, oval, or long (width) and narrow (height) rectangle?

Also, any recommendations for a paint color? (Yes, Jen and Sue--we really are going to paint after all!) Keep in mind that our couch slipcover is a dark mocha and the kitchen, which opens up from the living room, has purple and blue and green in it (couldn't get away from those colors COMPLETELY!). We were wondering about a warm slate gray but would love to hear what y'all think.

2008-01-29T18:29:00.001-08:00

Pig pile!
Jack's favorite occupation nowadays: climbing the stairs. It's even more fun with his little protectors, provided they don't try to stop him or get in his way. He's only had a few falls. Hard to believe that a month ago he wasn't crawling or pulling himself up on things or eating food with textures. He's come an amazingly long way in four weeks.

Chloe came downstairs yesterday with this outfit on, sans skirt, wanting to know if it was okay to wear to the store. Choking back (barely) my laughter, I told her to go put on a skirt or pants. The outfit was obscene without them. So I figured she'd put on something made of denim. No, we had to make the outfit even more outrageous. Someday I'm going to wear a sign saying "Yes, my daughter dresses herself." If you knew what kind of fight she puts up if I dare suggest something more appropriate and easier on the eyes, you'd know it's really not worth the huge amount of energy it takes most of the time. She definitely has a huge artistic streak, though, and I don't want to squash that. Just maybe DIRECT it into other avenues, like painting and coloring. :-)

2008-01-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

I'm tired of being sick. I'm tired of being oh-so-careful about my diet, only to slip up on one small thing and then pay for it for days. Tonight I crashed on the couch after dinner, fell into a deep sleep despite the happy noises emanating from upstairs, and felt my stomach start to relax. Now I'm up surfing blogs and feeling the need to pour out my complaint. Stomach still hurts. Not exactly sure what it's unhappy about this time, but it's been extra bad off and on since last August. Allergy testing last November revealed a plethora of allergies I didn't know I had but suspected. The doctor said to stay off those foods for a few months and take some supplements, which should give my body time to heal itself. Yeah, easier said than done. Do you know how many foods contain soy, and dairy, and eggs, and beans, and almonds, and gluten, etc.?

I'm tired of having to push myself through each day when I feel like something the cat dragged in and all I want to do is crawl into bed and never come out again.

BUT...I am so thankful for God's grace! Thankful for this thorn in the flesh that drives me to Him over and over and over again, crying out for strength to get through one more rock-in-the-stomach day. Thankful for my dear husband and precious kiddos that keep me busy and give me something to get up for each morning. Thankful that my heavenly Father cares and has a purpose in this suffering. Thankful for hope and faith that He is able to heal me. Thankful that He does give me just enough strength to push past the discomfort and fulfill my many duties. Thankful for the days here and there when the stomach is happy and I feel well.

Recommendations

2008-01-25T15:32:00.001-08:00

If you take your driver's license out of your wallet, make sure you put it back, not in a bag full of other stuff. Especially if you throw that bag away.

If you throw that bag away and realize with horror--too late--that your driver's license was in it and there's no retrieving it, try not to do it around Christmas time when you have seven people coming for the holidays and you're moving right after Christmas. This is a very inconvenient time to lose a license.

If you lose your license, make sure you have your birth certificate handy, as well as your Social Security card.

If you don't have either of those, order the birth certificate and pray like heck the DMV will overlook the fact that that's the only form of ID you have.

Go to the DMV with your four cute kids and a lot of prayer--and get your license in five minutes from an obliging officer who isn't feeling too strict that day.

Yes, all this happened to me. I learned a very important lesson about properly filing away important documents. And from now on my license is going right back in my wallet the minute I'm done with it.

Home sweet home!

2008-01-19T06:35:00.000-08:00

So we are finally settled in and I finally have a quiet Saturday when we don't have to be cleaning the old house. It feels good to sit down and update my blog, something I haven't had a spare minute for in too long. We absolutely love our new house. Here are some reasons why:

1. The gas fireplace you can turn on with the flick of a switch. I think of all of us Tucker enjoys this feature the most.

2. The cleanness and newness of everything!

3. Our neighborhood. It's not easy to find a neighborhood as friendly as the one we left behind, but so far our neighbors here in Patch Hill have proven to be very friendly. There's a family across the street with two boys Jack and Tucker's ages. The mom is a stay-at-home mom who has invited me to go on evening walks with her. She and another neighbor have brought goodies by for us, and another neighbor has snow-blown our driveway a few times out of the goodness of his heart. How rare is that, here in staid ol' New England!

4. Proximity to stores, bank, and library. No more having to drive at least 12 minutes to get to anything useful!

5. Being able to decorate however I want.

6. The master suite! We call it our sanctuary. It has its own bathroom and a walk-in closet--sheer luxury! We have made it a toy-free zone too. And there are no bath toys in our tub to trip on either!

There are lots of other happy perks, as well as things we need to get used to and change, like adding overhead lighting in the living room. (It's lovely having my own resident electrician. :-) ) We plan to finish our basement within the next year or two, making it into a great room and extra bedroom, which will double as a guestroom. The boys' room is pretty crowded with the bunk bed and crib. Makes me appreciate all the space we had at the old house. But until it can be finished the kids can still play down there and there's lots of room for storage.

The kids have been adjusting well to the change and love it here. We got back into homeschooling a week after we moved in, and I've been super busy getting the house settled and doing editing and proofreading. Back in December I proofread a book called The Quilt of Life full of inspirational stories associated with quilting. It was a really sweet book that rekindled my interest in quilting. So I went online to see what I could find for beginners. That led me to a site that has a block of the month kit that's great for beginners. They provide the pre-cut pieces and directions and you put it together. It came in the mail yesterday and I can't wait to get started!

Table, anybody?

2007-12-31T07:34:00.000-08:00

Would anyone out there be interested in a free kitchen table? It's almost nine years old and has seen a lot of use, but it still has some life in it. It seats four, though we've squeezed in six. The top and chairs are some kind of light wood like oak and the table legs and chair backs are dark green. We got a new table for our dining room so we need to find a home for our old table. If you're interested, I can post a picture. If there are no bites, I'll just put it on craigslist.com.

And now the news you've all been waiting for!

2007-12-29T06:31:00.000-08:00

Okay, Jen, thanks for the reminder. :-)

So, y'all, the big news is that we are moving! As of January 1 we will be living in Milford, a charming little town about 20 minutes from our current house. Sometime soon I will write a post about the incredible way the Lord led us to this house. It's a brand-new house with a gas fireplace and central air, a big airy kitchen, and lots of other nice touches. Probably the only downside is that it has only three bedrooms, but eventually we plan to finish the basement and add a greatroom. In the meantime the boys won't mind being crammed into a room together (thankfully boys generally don't mind sharing a room, unlike girls!) and we'll be putting carpet scraps and a baseboard heater in the basement for a makeshift playroom.

We haven't decided yet if we're going to have a landline or just use our cell phones. For those of you who are likely to need our contact information, I'll be sending out an e-mail in a few days.

We're a happy family...

2007-12-27T19:49:00.000-08:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my husband's family?! Today we managed to get a decent family portrait. Every time we have had a reunion poor Nana has tried valiantly to get a group picture, without success. So we finally decided to bite the bullet and pay someone to do the job. Let me just say, our photographer earned her keep today.

Addie (on the right behind Chloe) and I both had conjunctivitis this week, making her look very sad and me very tired. We were supposed to have the portrait done yesterday but my eyes were so bad there was no way. Mom graciously offered to have it postponed a day.

Snow, snow, snow, snow!

2007-12-18T19:27:00.000-08:00

It's only December 18 and I'm already longing for spring. Maybe that has something to do with the fact that we can't even open the storm door onto the back porch because it's blocked by snow--about a foot to be exact. And everywhere you go there are piles and piles of it, affecting traffic and parking. It's beautiful stuff, just darned inconvenient! And to think, there's more to come in the next few days! Aagh!

On a more positive note, stay tuned for big news later this week. :-)

Sneak peek

2007-11-27T19:26:00.001-08:00

Many of you will be receiving this picture soon as a Christmas card, but I thought it'd be fun to go ahead and post it here. Do you know how incredibly hard it is to get six people to have decent smiles all at the same time with a digital camera with that fatal four-second pause?! We had quite a time of it the other day. Dear Lindsay got the unpleasant task of taking about 25 pictures of us. Not one of them turned out perfect. This one was the closest to perfection, which tells you a lot considering Jed forgot to smile and Chloe is making a goofy face. At least she looks cute and didn't accidentally stick one of her fingers in her nose like one of her brothers. And Jackson looks so cute I want to eat him!

I have been full of joy these past few days thinking of my younger sister's happiness. She is courting! For more information check out her blog. It's beautiful to see a girl wait patiently for God's best, trusting Him to bring along the one He has for her in His own perfect timing, not jumping ahead of Him in any way or trying to "help" Him find a husband. I'm proud of my little sister. :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

2007-11-22T18:17:00.000-08:00

Big Mama

2007-11-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

Most everyone who knows me and Evan knows that I am slightly taller than he, a fact that has never been an issue for us. But apparently it deeply disturbs Chloe. A month or so ago she said to me, "I thought daddies were supposed to be taller than mommies." To her it just wasn't right that Mommy was taller than Daddy. So I assured her that even though daddy is a little shorter, he's a whole lot stronger! That seemed to appease her for the moment, but Evan told me later that day that she had talked about it with him too, and she's mentioned it a number of times since. Funny how it really bothers her.

As if that wasn't enough, Tucker has somehow picked up on it too. He has some creative ways of communicating since his vocabulary is so limited. So things that are little are "baby" and things that are big are "mama." Not daddy--mama. So his potty chair is "baby kee" and the toilet is "mama kee." Other things are baby size or mama size. Very flattering.

Had a wonderful visit with my dear cousin and friend Penny last night. She was up here for Paige's memorial service and was free to spend the night with me. It was so good to get caught up! We stayed up till 11:00 talking and laughing. I so appreciate her friendship. Thank the Lord for friends that you can bare your heart to and know you're safe with, who love you no matter what. Sure wish she didn't have to live all the way down in Georgia!

Also had a fabulous week with Evan's mom. Once again she blessed us with her presence, washing dishes, babysitting--a lot!--taking me out for dinner, playing with the kids.... Happy times. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I absolutely lucked out in the in-law department. I used to pray before I met Evan that I would like my future husband's family. Wow, the Lord answered that prayer big time!

Another busy week ahead--homeschooling, housekeeping, proofreading, Thanksgiving! We're having Derrick, Wesley, Lindsay, and Lindsay's friend Stephanie for dinner on Thursday. Sounds like fun!

2007-11-12T18:43:00.000-08:00

Evan read this to me yesterday as we were grieving the loss of precious Paige.

"You need never ask 'Why?' because Calvary covers it all. When before the throne we stand in Him complete, all the riddles that puzzle us here will fall into place and we shall know in fulfillment what we now believe in faith--that all things work together for good in His eternal purpose. No longer will we cry 'My God, why?' Instead, 'alas' will become 'Alleluia,' all question marks will be straightened into exclamation points, sorrow will change to singing, and pain will be lost in praise." --Vance Havner

God is good. He can handle our questions. He is utterly worthy of our trust.

2007-11-06T18:48:00.000-08:00

Jack is a huge fan of Baby Einstein. His excitement when he watches it cracks us up. I wanted y'all to see this. My apologies if you don't find it as amusing as his family does. At least I think the grandparents will appreciate it. :-)

Note: Please ignore the obnoxious high-pitched voice speaking motherese in the background. Goodness, I had no idea I sounded like that. My poor children.

Jackson picts

2007-11-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

He's ten months old now and by far our easiest baby. I don't remember the others making us laugh as much as he does.

Buried

2007-10-24T15:44:00.001-07:00

Ever had that buried feeling? Like there's too much to do and too many needs and not enough of you to go around? I think I need to get used to that feeling because it's become the norm! Every morning I hit the ground running and don't slow down till I collapse in bed at night--unless of course it's Saturday when my dear sweet husband makes every effort to make sure I get as much of a day off as possible! And there are some evenings when I indulge in the luxury of reading for a few hours--my favorite way to relax. And most Friday nights Evan and I watch a movie together. So there are definitely chances to take it easy.

Aside from the usual responsibilities of homeschooling Jed, taking Chloe and Tucker to preschool, caring for Jack, and trying to stay above the piles of laundry and dishes (a losing battle), I host a Moms In Touch prayer meeting for the preschool moms on Thursday mornings. You'd think that was enough to keep any woman busy, but I'm insane enough to take on editing and proofreading projects too. And for some reason I have it coming out my ears right now! Which is fabulous. I absolutely love editing; it's extremely therapeutic and my favorite thing to do when I have some downtime through the day. My political consultant buddy Chad, in Washington has been sending projects galore--which will come to a screeching halt about a week before election day. That's my gravy work. He pays generously and usually funds our entire Christmas and then some!

Then I've been compiling some 365-day perpetual calendars for Barbour Publishing that involves taking existing text and condensing it, which requires a lot of thought and prayer. I did one a few weeks ago and am about halfway through another one.

Then, to my great honor and delight, my sister-in-law Sara asked me to proofread some stories she wrote. They're sitting on the dining room table waiting their turn.

And last but not least, my good friend Steve D. recently called asking me to edit some books he wrote. Haven't made the final decision on that one, but I really want to do it and I just can't turn work down. And Barbour wants me back for proofreading soon once I get the calendar done. So the insanity continues.

When do you get all this work done, you ask? I'll tell you--I don't know. Just kidding. The highlight of my day is when the kids are ensconced in the playroom for an hour after lunch and I can sit down and put some time in. Often I'll do work in the evenings as well when the kids are in bed. Except for the times when I'm so exhausted I can't keep my eyes open--and editing would be a bad idea in that state of mind.

Anyway, there's a little window into my life right now. Life is good.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

2007-10-07T19:14:00.000-07:00

Hmm, I guess I've used this title before, because as I started typing it in, the program pulled up the rest of it for me. Maybe the reason I've used it before is because these two rascals bear a striking resemblance to the Dr. Seuss characters. Tucker's outfit is entirely of his choosing. Though it's not as bad as the one he put on last week. One morning Chloe knocked on the bathroom door and told me she wanted me to see her and Tucker. So she opens the door and waltzes in dressed up in her yellow Belle dress. Okay, nothing unusual. But the next image was seriously disturbing. Tucker comes in wearing Chloe's fru-fru-y (no idea how that's spelled) red and white polka-dot Minnie Mouse dress, complete with wiggly star headband. Oh my.

We had a nice little chat about how boys don't wear girl's clothes. You'd think I was talking to them in a different language, though. They didn't quite get WHY, so I suggested that Tucker be the prince. That's when I realized the poor kid needs to hang out with more boys his age. He's usually glued to Chloe's side and she's always the ringleader. He's all boy, but every now and then you'll catch him with one of Chloe's ponies or, as in this picture, wearing her princess shoes. It's nothing I'm worried about, just something to watch and gently work through with him--and Chloe! Gotta get her to stop putting her clothes on him.

2007-09-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

At my older sister's urging, I am finally doing a post, this time with lots of pictures. Please be sure to also see Jack at his finest in the video blog I just posted below.

The one of Chloe and Tucker in front of our van was taken on their first day of preschool last Monday. Tucker is going to the New Boston Central preschool three mornings a week to get help with his speech, and Chloe is going to the four-year-old program affiliated with our church three mornings a week. I think that considering everything, the first week went well. I think I can truthfully say, though, that it was the busiest week of my life to date as a mom. The mornings consisted of getting everybody dressed and out the door by 7:45 (or at least three of the mornings) to get Tucker to school by 8:00. Then rush home to deliver Chloe to her preschool around 8:15. When we got home I would either do a few chores, feed the baby, or get Jed started on school, or all of the above. Try to pack as many of Jed's subjects into a small window of time as possible (while not rushing him or sacrificing quality, of course!), then rush off to pick Tucker up at 10:35. Come back home, do a few chores, and pick up Chloe at 11:15. The afternoons were full with grocery shopping, weekly library trip, Chloe's gymnastics, etc. And Jed starts up Drama Kids this Tuesday. ARGH!

Thankfully, I won't have to pick up Tucker every day, just drop him off. For the first two days I picked him up and then on the third day a little kiddie bus brought him home (another story in itself for another time!), but then a friend of mine who picks up her daughter from kindergarten at the same time and comes right up to the church offered to get him each day. I am so much happier with this arrangement!

At the end of each day I would collapse into bed, thinking of the piles of laundry that still didn't get folded, the e-mails that didn't get written, and the bathroom that desperately needs cleaning. But happy in the knowledge that my kids are getting a great education and are secure in their mommy's love for them because they know they're more important to me than a perfect house. Though perfection is nice. It would be nice to enjoy order and spotlessness for more than five minutes at a time! I wonder, do moms ever get used to never being caught up? Even now it's almost 8:30 p.m. and the kitchen still hasn't been cleaned up because Evan was doing youth group and usually he takes care of bedtime while I do dishes. Since the bedtime ritual fell to me (man, am I glad that's usually his job!) the kitchen is showing it. But I wanted to get this blog done TODAY, so the stinkin' dishes can wait!

The sweet-looking girl in the picture with me is the one I've mentioned several times that I keep running into at different stores (always the same stores!). She came for dinner several weeks ago. We had a great time with her. The kids fell in love with her; she speaks their language and, best of all, she jumps on the trampoline with them! She and I really hit it off, and we talked till 9:30 I think. So good to have another heart friend.

Maybe next time I'll write about something a little more interesting than "oh my word I'm SOO busy." One can always hope.

Jack Be Nimble

2007-09-15T15:29:00.000-07:00

I took this little video clip of Jack today so you could all see what a hoot he is when he gets going in his johnny jump-up. The voices in the background are Evan telling me about the scavenger hunt he designed for the youth group today and me intently listening as I videotape Jack. :-)

This and that

2007-08-15T11:45:00.000-07:00

We spent a glorious week plus in Nova Scotia recently. What a happy, relaxing time! Some of the highlights:

* lots and lots of time with Grandpa and Nana!

* playing on the beautiful quiet beach and swimming in the ocean that was as warm as bathwater

* two--count them, TWO!--date nights with Evan in which Grandpa and Nana took the kids back to their house and left us happily alone at our rental cabin (with Jack too of course). One of those nights we went out for dinner and tried a real lobster for the first time. It was really good. I did have a hard time getting past the googly eyes and long scary feelers, though. Dug out the meat and through the shell in the bowl as fast as I could.

* getting a great tan

* evenings with Evan when we could relax and watch movies and eat lots of snacks and just be together

* sleeping in, taking naps, reading a novel in the middle of the day--unheard of!

* not having to cook! Dad and Mom bought all the groceries for us, bless their hearts. Between Mom doing several meals and cooking up stuff ahead of time like chicken, Evan doing breakfast each morning and lots of barbecues, and eating out several times, I got a lovely break from preparing meals. I actually looked forward to cooking again when I got home.

* one thing that wasn't so much a highlight was Jackson getting hit with a double whammy of teething and flu. So pretty much he wanted to be held all the time the whole time. And all of us had the flu at one time or another--the kids first the day before we left for vacation, then me, then Evan, then poor Mom and Dad.

I know I'm forgetting many other happy things. These are just the highlights at the forefront of my mind, and I don't want to bore y'all with details. I included a few pictures from our time. In one you'll see that Mom and I have evened out in height to the way it's supposed to be, huh, Mom? :-)

Two years ago I wrote a post called Divine Appointments. I told about how I had run into a girl three different times. The first time was three years ago in line at Wal-Mart where she was really friendly and commented on my pregnant belly. She was so open that we talked for several minutes, which introvertish old me rarely does! A while later we met again at A Market (this time with Tucker in arms)--and remembered each other well. We struck up a conversation again and she was really open again about things she was going through and how she was needing the Lord's help. A year later we ran into each other again at Wal-Mart. She gave me her phone number and I almost called her at different times, but life crowded in and it never happened.

Can you see where this is leading? On Sunday night I had to run to the health food store and grocery store since something unexpected had come up on Monday, making it so I wouldn't be able to do my grocery shopping on my usual day. So I already wasn't supposed to be at the health food store, but as I pulled into a parking spot, I glanced over at the car next to me and who should I see? You guessed it! She (her name is Maria) saw me too and we both burst out laughing at the absurdity of it! She was on her cell phone so I went ahead and went in and she caught up with me a few minutes later. We ended up talking for probably 15 minutes. I've never met anyone so willing to open up to a stranger, but every now and then you meet someone that you really connect with and feel safe with. She's going through some very difficult things. Her Catholic faith offers some hope and encouragement, but in hearing her talk I want so much for her to experience the love of Jesus and how He longs to bear her burdens and pour out His grace on her. The Paraclete is what comes to mind--how the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete and longs to "come alongside."

This time I wasn't going to drop the ball. I left a message with her today inviting her for dinner. If the Lord is so serious about having her in my life that He'd have me run into her four times over the span of three years, I guess it's time for me to listen and seek Him to know how He'd have me reach out to this precious girl.

In other news, Tucker's speech, or lack thereof, has become a concern. So I met with a few teachers at New Boston Central School to see what they could do for him. Some tests revealed that his speech is indeed below average and they believe they can help him. So it looks like I'll be enrolling him in the preschool this fall, three mornings a week. I'm a little nervous and tentative about having him gone; he still seems too little to be away from Mommy! But I trust the teachers and was impressed with the environment, so I think it'll be a good program and he'll really benefit from it.

We start school again this coming Monday. I'm excited in some ways but sad to see the relatively carefree (can that word even be used in connection with a mother?!) days of summer. It's been nice to be free to actually dust or fold laundry before it takes over my room or go to the park without thinking of all the housecleaning that's not getting done. I'm super excited about the curriculum we're using. I just need to remember to ease into school slowly, for Jed's sake as well as mine.

This seems to be the week for divine appointments. Aside from seeing Maria on Sunday, today on the way home from the playground I decided to take a different way than I usually take. I'm so glad I did, because Evan pulled into the road right behind me! He was on his way to the store from a jobsite to get something to eat. It brightened my afternoon to see him and get a kiss. :-) And at the playground I ran into my friend Jenna whom I hadn't seen in a long time. It was good to see her and her kids again.

2007-07-18T14:19:00.001-07:00

Rice is cooking on the stove for dinner and I have a few precious minutes with no demands on my time before putting dinner together (honey chicken stir-fry tonight). I've been bogged down in a major editing project that has taken up every spare minute of my computer time, which has made it pretty hard to find time for blogging. But today was super productive. I babysat my neighbor's six-year-old and nine-year-old daughters for seven hours, which was marvelous because they helped keep my kids occupied all day! I got lots of laundry done, did some ironing, cleaned out the fridge, made cookies, took care of some phone calls and e-mails, and cleaned up a very messy kitchen. So now I feel like I can sit down and blog without feeling guilty that I should be doing housework or editing instead.

Right now Jed, Chloe, and Tucker are outside digging a big hole by Aunt Lindsay's house. They found a few pieces of brick and are pretending it's buried treasure. Jed and I watched National Treasure a few nights ago, so his imagination is running wild pretending someone left clues to buried treasure. They play so well together. I was thinking today how it's actually easier having more kids than it was when I had just one or two, because even though there's more housework and less down time, it isn't very often that I have to entertain the kids or help them fend off boredom or feel like I've got a constant shadow, though the latter seems to happen a lot still. But that's okay. I think I'll miss it someday. Maybe.

Excellent movie we watched recently: Miss Potter. Loved it! Highly recommend it. Have any of you seen it?

Taking all four kids to the store with me has become a thing of the past. I now go in the evenings because the last few times we went my little four-year-old princess has turned into a little monster. You know that wild and rebellious and crazy look kids can get in their eye sometimes? That was Chloe. Even a quick trip into the health food store can be a nightmare. Which is how it was this past Monday. Chloe went berserk and nothing I could say or do would settle her down. When we got back in the car after getting our stuff, I told her she was going to get a you-know-what when we got home. To my utter surprise, Jed pipes up, "I want to take her punishment for her." HUH? Did any of you ever offer to do that for one of your siblings? The thought certainly never crossed my mind.

At first I told him I thought Chloe should get her own punishment since she was probably too young to appreciate Jed's sacrifice on her behalf. But Jed insisted, so when we got home I brought them into the living room and explained to Chloe that Jed wanted to take her punishment for her. I really talked it up how it was going to hurt him as much as it usually hurt her but he was going to take it because he loved her. The thing is, I think she got it! And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to expound on how Jed's sacrifice was a picture of what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross. And the beautiful thing is, I think they got that too. After I was done Chloe hugged Jed repeatedly and thanked him and told him she loved him. I think it was a lesson neither of them will ever forget.

Tucker turned three two weeks ago. Here are some pix of his big day. See that cake? That, thanks to the wonderful gluten-free industry, is completely gluten-free (I cheated a little on the dairy part by using butter in the frosting). It was so fun to be able to serve Tucker a real-looking cake he could actually eat. And do you wanna know something? That was the first cake with frosting that I've had since I was 15! And it was good enough that the non-gluten-free eaters in our midst actually enjoyed it too.

It was also fun having my mom here the evening of his birthday in time to enjoy the cake with us. She came out to see her mother in Peterborough and we got to benefit from her visit too! She took me out for dinner one evening at Carabbas and then we did a little shopping. Yummy and fun! It was good to spend time with her and get caught up in ways that are impossible to do over the phone with little ones competing for your attention.

Hooray! I actually got through writing a post with only one interruption. Time to go fix dinner. The troops are getting hungry.

More pictures

2007-06-16T15:27:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of Jed's birthday yesterday. He turned 7! We were joined by Uncle Derrick, Uncle Wesley, Aunt Lindsay, Amy P., Cherilyn, and Andrew and Alicia for a barbecue dinner and then fun times outside. Uncle Derrick brought his motorcycle, much to Tucker's delight! Wesley got a workout trying to keep two energetic little warriors at bay. Andrew spent the night with Jed for the first time. We were amazed at how well they did. They're such good friends, it's precious to see. Andrew is a great kid. We love having him in our house.

And...we have a new mini-van! We bought it from a used car dealer in Nashua. It's a 2000 Grand Caravan, a slightly newer version of what we had before. It's a step up in several ways, like a better engine and power locks and windows. Yes, it's a little old and has a few dings, but it's paid for! After researching the option of making car payments, we knew we didn't want to go that route. We are so grateful for the Lord's provision.

If you know of anyone who wants a '98 Grand Caravan, let us know!

2007-06-10T12:57:00.000-07:00

Just a few recent snaps of our family. Jack is five and a half months old now. Isn't the shot of Tucker at the beach is priceless. Notice how his waistband is folded over to keep his shorts from falling off. And they're a size 2! (He'll be 3 in a few weeks.) The piratey pictures of Jed were taken yesterday at his closing Drama Kids play. He did an outstanding job. He seems very comfortable on a stage. He needed a little prompting with his lines, but overall he did great. His best friends Andrew and Alicia and their mom came to show their support.

2007-06-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

Hmm, what's new at our house? Nothing terribly exciting, just little stuff, like...

• We're almost done with school! It's hard to tell who's more excited, me or Jed. Friday is our last day. I'm really looking forward to having free mornings. Maybe I'll be able to get some ironing done for once or fold the clothes before they sit in the basket for five days.

• Last week we were having trouble with our water. Usually I can take a shower while the washing machine is running, or give the kids baths without the water running out before we're done. But last week we were facing a serious drought in our house. One day I had to skip a shower altogether. Not cool right after a sweaty workout. But then we got a bunch of rain the problem cleared up. The only thing we can figure is that the water table was low. So though I'm not thrilled with the yucky days we've had lately, I'm thankful for the rain!

• Jed has graduated from speech therapy. Our dear neighbor, Mary Phillips, who lives in what some of you will remember as the Andersons' house (or the old Bible school), is a speech therapist and has been working with Jed since the fall. The other day he had his last lesson. He's made so much progress that you can understand what he says now and he no longer needs her services. He was pretty sad about it, though. He loves going over there. Free cookies are a big draw. :-)

• We are sprucing up our kitchen and I'm so happy! The last person who lived here did a beautiful job decorating it, and she transformed it into a great little room. I have just wanted to make it mine. So, in another month or so stay tuned for some pictures of an all-new room. Then we'll move onto the living room and the mudroom and the dining room and....

Well, I'm running out of stuff to write. We're watching the presidential debate at St. A's right now. Oh, Evan and I (and Jack!) got to meet Gov. Huckabee the other day at a small pastors' meet-the-candidate luncheon. I was impressed with the guy. He's worth serious consideration.

I've been tagged!

2007-05-24T16:51:00.000-07:00

My cousin Penny tagged me today! In a nutshell, that means I have to list seven random things about myself. I'm also suppoesd to tag seven other people, but since most of the people I'd tag have already been tagged, I'll skip that part. Hope I'm not breaking any rules. :-}

I've been wracking (or is it racking? I'm too lazy to look it up) my brains all day for seven random things about myself that would be remotely interesting. I came to the realization that I've led a pretty quiet, ordinary life. Haven't met many famous people or done many fantastic things to wow my blogging fans. But here are a few things you may or may not already know about me:

1. I once held a boa constrictor around my neck but freaked out a couple of weeks ago when a spider started crawling toward me on my dashboard. I had to pull over and deal with it so I wouldn't drive into a ditch.

2. Evan and I were married only six months after we started getting to know each other. When you know someone is the right one, why wait?! If we hadn't had 3000 miles between us, we probably would have courted longer but we've never regretted anything.

3. Purple is no longer my favorite color. Now I gravitate toward green and pink when I'm buying clothes.

4. I was once robbed in Moscow. During a three-month missions trip to Moscow when I was 17 a few of my teammates had a rare opportunity to see some of the sites in that beautiful city. I failed to heed the warning not to bring anything valuable and had my wallet stolen right out of my coat pocket while on a crowded bus.

5. I once shook hands with Oliver North.

6. I went 11 years without being able to eat chocolate without regretting it. Then all of a sudden last summer I snuck some in and discovered to my delight that it didn't make me sick. Let me tell you, being able to eat chocolate again makes a gluten-free, dairy-free life not seem quite so bleak.

7. I hate salad.

Happy Things

2007-05-10T17:12:00.000-07:00

• The faithfulness of God and the assurance that as He has led in the past, so He will continue to. I can trust the future in His hands and rest in the knowledge that He knows the plans He has for us and has only our best good in mind. How grateful I am for the peace He gives that passes all understanding!

• Dear friends whose love and support have carried us through a difficult time. You know who you are!

• Doing school with Jed on the trampoline. This week has been so warm and beautiful, it seemed a crime to make Jed stay indoors to do school, so we took it outside! Ah, the joys of homeschooling.

• Working on a tan while doing school with Jed. Yesterday I was eyeing the kids' gorgeous tans, developed after several days of near-constant play in the sun, and I thought to myself how I wanted a tan too! So I got out the lounge chair, set the baby up in the bouncer with a blanket and hat and his face away from the sun, and got comfortable. The kids gathered around me and we happily read stories, then Jed buckled down and did his math and reading. And I got a little color too. :-)

• Going to the homeschool convention in Massachusetts with Evan two weeks ago. In some ways, the convention itself was a sidenote, because what we both really wanted was quality time with each other. We left the older three with a babysitter (thank you, A.P.!) and spent the day Friday down there. It such a happy day being with my best friend and connecting hearts in a way that our busy schedules don't often allow. Of course the convention itself was very good. We didn't go to many sessions, but one that we did hear was a good reminder that homeschooling is not just about textbooks, it's about discipling your children and raising them for Jesus. Jack, of course, came along for the ride. He did pretty well until the end, and then the noise and confusion seemed to get to him. He screamed inconsolably until we walked out of the building and then he quieted instantly. Good thing we were ready to go too!

• The other day when we were getting out of the car at the grocery store Chloe looked down at her outfit and said, "I need to change when we get home. This outfit looks weird." The outfit didn't look that bad, actually, compared to some doozies she's pulled off, but I just had to laugh because that sentiment is so typical of a woman. Get to where you're going then wish you could go home and change because your outfit isn't appropriate to the occasion or you just don't like it or whatever.

• The other night Evan and I watched an amazing movie called The Last Sin-Eater. I highly recommend it! We both read the book several years ago and were deeply moved by it. The movie stayed true to the spirit of the book and moved us just as much. I cry easily when watching movies, so of course I cried a lot, but even Evan was sniffling a little.

• Having a kitten in the house! He/she (I can never tell the gender) is so playful and frisky and adorable. This evening as I was getting up out of a chair, the kitty came with me! She had been playing on the seat next to me, but I didn't realize her claws were stuck in my skirt until I stood up. There she was, dangling away. I plucked her off before she climbed higher and dug her claws into my back.

• Proofreading again! I took my time getting back into it, not needing another stress factor. But I finally felt eager to get back into it last week. Just finished three small collections of quotations. During the kids' quiet time after lunch I like having something mentally challenging that lets me sit down but is still productive, something other than washing dishes or folding laundry, mentally stimulating as those are!

The Case of the Cat Ghost

2007-04-22T17:46:00.000-07:00

To get the full benefit of this post, you'll want to read the one below, posted earlier today.

Okay, so now you know that our cat got hit by a car and that Evan took it in to be put to sleep this afternoon. On his way home from the animal hospital he picked up a kit the vet recommended that would allow us to bottle feed the kitten. He buried Emily when we got home and that was that.

After dinner I headed up to Chloe's room to get the kitten for her first feeding. Imagine my utter SHOCK at seeing EMILY in the closet with her baby!!! Now we do have another black and white cat, a male named Casey, but he looks different enough that I can tell them apart even when they're not side by side. So I know Casey wasn't in there trying in vain to feed the poor orphaned kitten. It was definitely, without a doubt, Emily. So that leaves us with a very puzzling mystery--whose cat did we put to sleep?! The only other family on the hill with a black and white cat assured me theirs was down in their basement this evening. I could have sworn on a stack of Bibles that the cat we killed and buried today was ours, but apparently not.

Lindsay reminded me that cats have nine lives--but not literally!!! I'm totally weirded out. Very glad our cat is okay, but definitely weirded out. And from now on Emily and Casey are indoor cats. Our proximity to the road is lethal. (We've lost one cat to the road and Lindsay has lost one or two.) We're also going to get safety cones to help keep the kids from getting too close to the road and to warn people who drive into our yard to watch for kids. Today's incident made us more aware of the danger to the kids.

R.I.P.

2007-04-22T14:18:00.000-07:00

This afternoon a man came to the door to tell us a black and white cat had been hit by a car and he had just moved it to the side of the road. It was still alive, and he wanted to know if it was ours. Evan and I made sure the kids were okay and hurried down the road to see. Sure enough, it was one of ours. And as luck would have it, it's Emily, who has a three-week-old kitten that's still nursing. It broke my heart to see her lying there in great suffering, not able to understand what's going on. I cried as we moved her away from the road, over by the cemetery across the street from our house, and Evan called an animal hospital in Manchester to see about taking her in to be put to sleep. He found one and took her about 20 minutes ago.

I told Jed as gently as possible. He cried a little but he's more concerned about the kitten's loss than ours. I assured him we'll take care of it. I'm hoping Chloe never asks. If she does I'm not sure what I'll say. She feels things pretty deeply so we definitely won't give her the details. Evan is going to ask the animal hospital what we can do for the kitten.

So that's our drama for the day. I hope none of you ever have to see what we saw today!

A word of advice...

2007-04-04T05:13:00.000-07:00

Consult with your pregnant kitty before you choose a day to start potty training your toddler. Yesterday morning I had one of those wretched experiences that made me think, "This stinks but it'll make for good blog material!"

Yesterday morning I started potty training Tucker. Bless his little heart, he took to it right away. And once he discovered he got a jelly bean every time he relieved himself, he started camping out on the potty chair whether he needed to or not. He even figured out the #2 part and was giving himself hernias trying to produce, all for the sake of that purple jelly bean! So that part made me happy. What made it not so fun is the way a boy's plumbing works. Girls are so much easier to potty train! Every time he went there was a huge mess to clean up. So a good part of my morning was spent cleaning him and the potty chair and the floor, even giving him a bath once. And in the midst of all this excitement, Emily, our very pregnant kitty, was following me around, meowing and desperate for affection. I started to suspect she was in labor, and my suspicions were confirmed when I picked her up and some nasty fluid dripped from her onto the carpet. Since cats like dark, quiet places for delivering their babies, I set up a little nest in Chloe's closet, put her in there, and shut the door. She howled and scratched for a while, but when I let her out she went back out to hallway where she'd dripped and started to nest there. Um, no, not happening. Back to the closet. She spent several solitary hours there until she produced the adorable little gray baby you see here.

Jed and Chloe have had all sorts of fascinating names for the wee one. Chloe wanted Soy Boat and Jed wanted Pistol ("because it's the color of a pistol!"), so they compromised and called it Soy Pistol. Evan and I in no uncertain terms made it clear that name wasn't sticking. Tongue in cheek, I suggested Smoky, figuring that one would get shot down for lack of originality. (My older sister, the queen of original names, never let us give our cats run-of-the-mill names when I was growing up.) But Evan agreed and the kids loved it. So Smoky it is.

I finally succumbed! I got my hair highlighted last night! And I'm thrilled with it. Lots of blond streaks. I'm growing my hair out to my shoulders and it's taking forever, so to help keep up morale I thought I'd do something different. Had a great time visiting with the hairstylist, who's a good friend in the very same stage in life that I am.

I'm not free to give out any names here, but recently the Lord did a mighty work in the lives of some friends of ours and we are rejoicing. God is powerful and still able to work miracles, and His faithfulness and love know no bounds. Nothing is too difficult for Him!

2007-03-29T18:06:00.000-07:00

Jed and Tucker have recently discovered how much fun it is to play dress-up with each other. Tucker feels like pretty hot stuff playing army with his cool big brother, and Jed is thrilled to have someone to play his war games with and order around.

Evan stayed home today to do some electrical work on our house. The wiring in this house is what my dad would call "Micky Mouse," very poorly done and much of it by amateurs. It's positively scary some of the things Evan has come across. I think our fire prevention angel has been kept very busy since we moved in.

In order to work on the house without getting zapped he had to turn off power from about 12:30 to 7:30 this evening. So the kids and I took off to the children's museum in Londonderry, then the chiropractor. It was back home again for an hour or so of reading books and playing games (what else could we do without power when it was cold and terribly windy outside?) Then I left Jed with Evan and took the little ones out to pick up Burger King and Applebee's takeout. After dinner Lindsay and the kids and I wrapped up in blankets and shivered in the living room while I read them stories in the waning light. Finally Evan was able to turn on the power again at 7:30 and we're starting to warm up again. He feels much better about the state of the wiring now.

Warning: any men reading this post might want to skip the following paragraph :-)

I've always heard that the more kids you have the harder it is to lose the baby fat. Ain't that the truth! After Jed was born I got down to my pre-pregnancy weight within three months without even trying. With each successive pregnancy it has taken longer, and the extra weight I gained with Jackson isn't coming off without a fight. It's not that I'm so very vain; it's just that I want my clothes to fit! And there are some sizes I refuse to have in my closet, not to mention the fact that elastic waistbands have never done anything for my figure. I recently started doing a workout DVD called Postnatal Bootcamp with Lindsay Brin. It has fairly short, quick, intense workouts designed specifically for moms who've just had a baby. I absolutely love the workouts and am feeling great, but the waistbands aren't budging. Oh, well. I guess I just need to be patient. If any of you have some tips, please do tell!

Jack wins all the jelly beans!

2007-03-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

That's an expression Evan's family has used for years. I don't know the story behind it, but we use it as an accolade when someone has done something great. Last night Jack definitely won all the jelly beans! Several nights now he has slept for seven or eight hours at a stretch, but last night he fell asleep around 8:00 after eating only half a meal--and proceeded to sleep till 5:30. I fed him on one side (one very sore side!) and at 8:00 he's still sleeping soundly. None of my other kids slept through the night till they were eight months old. Jackson has been our easiest baby yet. Hurray for Jack!

And in other recent Jones household news, Jed is now reading! It finally clicked that if you put C-A-T together it makes a whole word. Evan has been working with him quite a bit in the evenings since January because I was burned out and getting nowhere with him. Whatever he did got Jed over the hump. It thrills me to no end to hear my boy reading words on a page!

Tucker is showing great signs of improvement since we took him off gluten. He's still skinny as a beanpole; can't keep his pants on. (Thank God for overalls!) But he's much happier and less clingy now, making all of us happier.

My parents and Kristi were here for a visit last weekend! It was lovely to see them and spend time with them. I love seeing Evan and my dad conversing. With both of them being in the trades and both being pastors (or erstwhile pastors), they have a lot in common and never run out of things to talk about. My mom spent all day Thursday with me and the kids (Daddy and Kristi came a little later). It was fun having her be a part of our daily routine. She held Jack while I taught Jed school and helped entertain the little ones. It made a happy day for all of us.

2007-02-24T07:14:00.000-08:00

Evan and Lindsay just took the older three kids to the library this fine Saturday morning, and since Jack is napping, I'll just sit meself down and write a long overdue post! The wind is roaring around our house so loudly you'd think a freight train was bearing down on us. It roared ALL NIGHT LONG and made me and Evan sleep fitfully, between the noise and the draft creeping in through the window at the head of our bed. Didn't help that Jackson was a little restless too. He slept seven hours straight the night before, but lest we get too excited about that accomplishment, he changed his tune last night. Honestly, the Lord must give moms an extra dose of adrenaline to keep them going after nights like that.

There was more than adrenaline keeping me going last weekend, though. Many of you know Jackson was in the hospital for four and a half days with a respiratory virus called RSV. It manifests itself as a bad cold in children and adults, but in infants it can be life-threatening because their tiny little airways get blocked by mucus. (His cousin Daphne had it a few weeks ago and was also hospitalized. Jack just wanted to keep up with his cousin!) We took him to the ER last Friday morning in the wee hours when we saw him laboring to breathe, coughing, fussing, and feverish. How incredibly good the Lord was to have prompted Evan's mom on Thursday morning to drive down and help out with the kids. It was actually a sick Tucker that made her come, since he was in pretty bad shape at the time with an ear infection and flu. But her coming was so timely as it allowed me to stay with Jackson in the hospital till Tuesday afternoon.

I actually kind of enjoyed the whole hospital experience. I hated being away from Evan and the kids and felt for Nana and Evan and Aunt Lindsay as they cared for sick kids here (yep, Jed and Chloe came down violently ill over the weekend too--then Nana and Evan), but it was actually almost a therapeutic time for me because there were so few demands on my time and energy. When Jack was awake or being fussed over by nurses I was tending to him, but he slept a lot so I had time to take little naps, read my Bible, watch some TV (only at night! daytime TV can be so raunchy), read a novel, and wander down to the cafeteria. My melancholy loner side didn't mind the quiet too badly, but by the end of the time I was practically chasing down nurses to get some people contact. I even became good friends with several of them. One night I called my friend Jenna to thank her for providing dinner for the family, when I realized I was rambling and she probably had stuff to do other than talk on the phone. :-) Evan was able to come by every day, sometimes for several hours at a time, even giving me a few chances to go home and hug the kids and gather more clothes and things (thankfully my room had a shower!).

Jack is doing great now. At his follow-up appointment yesterday the doctor said he was just fine, there was no junk in his lungs. Thank you all for your prayers for him and our family. I certainly felt the prayers buoying me up through the weekend and keeping me cheerful and hopeful. I had some special times with the Lord through the time and felt His love and care. Jed and Chloe are on the mend now from their ear infections, and yesterday morning we were actually able to do school. Tucker is still not 100 percent. He keeps complaining about his leg hurting and he's constantly fussy and clingy. I'm beginning to suspect a gluten allergy and am going to see what taking him off gluten does for him. I'm already on a gluten-free diet, so doing the same for him won't be a big deal. We miss our sweet, cheerful, happy-go-lucky little guy!

I decided after last weekend that I want to be an RN when I grow up! I've always been fascinated by medicine and have wanted to do something in that field, but after watching the nurses work and even assisting them at times I know now it's something I might actually be good at. It certainly wouldn't work for this season of my life right now, but it's fun to dream about it maybe happening when the kids are grown.

2007-02-09T16:29:00.000-08:00

Okay, kids are in bed, Baby is contentedly digesting his meal on the couch beside me, and Evan is out doing pastor duty. So we'll see how far I get here. I have written so many mental blogs over the past few weeks but alas, sitting down to write them out is not so easy.

Some of you have been wondering how things are going, what life is like in the Jones household now that we have four little urchins. Well, overall it's going surprisingly well. But it also depends on what time of day you ask me. I'm losing track of the times lately that I've had a meltdown at dinnertime (a.k.a. Arsenic Hour--for reasons you'll soon see). Usually this pleasant feeling is brought on by a feeling of utter inadequacy--there isn't enough of me to go around! Around dinnertime it seems that the whole world caves in and everybody needs a piece of Mommy--Jed needs his software turned on, Chloe just stubbed her toe and needs sympathy and a Band-Aid, Tucker desperately wants to be held (ALL THE TIME!), Jackson is screaming for HIS supper, and I haven't started on dinner yet--which has to be by a certain time so Evan won't be late for a meeting. However, I have a secret weapon--AUNT LINDSAY! Over the past few weeks she has developed an uncanny knack for coming over at just the right time. On Monday night she came in just in time to scrape me off the floor and let me cry on her shoulder about how I hated being a mom and was SICK OF MY JOB. In her wisdom she didn't try to offer platitudes, which wouldn't have done a bit of good, but just held me and let me cry and didn't judge me. When I was functional again she went to see what she could do to bring the household back to order. I am so very grateful for her and for her friendship.

Evan just got back from his meeting and we're going to watch Fellowship of the Rings, or as much of it as our exhaustion level will allow. I'm pretty tired most of the time these days, since Jackson is nowhere close to sleeping through the night (though thankfully he does fall asleep quickly after his midnight feedings). But it's a different kind of exhaustion than you feel during pregnancy. I can function quite well on the level of sleep I'm getting; my brain just doesn't function at its best and my eyes feel bleary. But this too will pass!

The other night at our young adults' Bible study Evan asked us all to open to Exodus 3, the passage about Moses and the burning bush. Silly me opened to Genesis 3, the first few verses of which are about the fall of man. So I was shocked when Evan announced that this was one of his favorite passages in the Bible. I said, "Are you serious?! I hate this part!" Everybody drew back in shock, thinking they were about to witness a marital spat right then and there. Then I realized my error and we all had a good laugh. Boy, did I feel stupid! I'll blame that one on lack of sleep. :-)

If you look closely at this picture of Chloe and Jackson, you'll notice that Chloe has one ear pierced. Yes, that's right, just one. I took her to get them pierced several weeks ago, and so low is her pain tolerance that she wouldn't have anything to do with another one once the first one was done. I tried every trick in the book to try to change her mind, and Aunt Lindsay even took her one night to try again, but no bananas. Oh, well. We'll get it done one of these days.

Jackson is a wonderful little baby. Nursing is going really well and he's pretty easy to please. The kids adore him. Gotta watch Tucker around him, though, or he'll literally love him to death.

Well, I'm off to the Shire. Talk to ya later!

2007-01-19T18:08:00.000-08:00

Don't let him fool you. Jack-Jack may look a little grumpy, but he is actually quite the sweetie. He's even smiled at me a few times! It's hard to believe he's already four and a half weeks old now. He sleeps a lot, probably more than any of my others (though still not as much as I'd like him to at night!) and eats voraciously. I guess it's paying off, as you can see from the chubby cheeks and double chin. Wouldn't that be interesting if Evan and Jill finally had a fat baby!

I'm on my own this weekend with Jack and Chloe. Evan and Lindsay took Jed and Tucker up to Nova Scotia with them to help my father-in-law celebrate his 60th birthday. They made it up there safely this afternoon, in spite of snowstorms. What should have taken them 10 hours took 14. Poor things!

Jack's waking up from a little snooze so I better run. I'll try to write a longer post this weekend. One can always hope anyway. :-)

Happy New Year!

2007-01-01T07:33:00.000-08:00

Thought y'all might enjoy seeing some pictures from our Christmas. We had a very happy, low-key day. I got up feeling like a zombie that morning after a rough night with Jackson, but seeing the kids' joy and excitement soon snapped me out of it. Jed's favorite gift was the colonial general uniform you see him modeling here. Chloe got all kinds of pink girly things, including this feather boa (don't ever buy one of these! They shed EVERYWHERE!) and a beautiful nightgown made by Grandma. Tucker got a police car tent that has provided all kinds of fun. His favorite gift, though, was a big semi that makes truck noises. If you say, "Tucker, is that your favorite truck?" he'll look at you scornfully and say, "No, BIG truck!"

My favorite gift was having Jackson there to enjoy! He brings us so much joy. He's been badly congested ever since he was born. We're trying to figure out how to help him with that. And he eats like you wouldn't believe--every two hours, with great appetite. The nights are pretty hard, since he hasn't figured out yet that nights are for sleeping and not eating, at least not with the same frequency as during the day! But he's awfully sweet. We get a kick out of his constant scowl. He looks grumpy most of the time but it's all for show.

Nana (Evan's mom) came down on Friday and has been blessing us all with her presence. Once again I am in awe of her ability to put her own needs aside and look for whatever she can do to bless the people in her life. The kids adore having her around to play with, and I've been so grateful for the chance to go take a nap whenever I can. She even did Jackson duty on Saturday night so I could get a few extra hours of sleep. (I might add here that Lindsay took the little guy for a few hours too, bless her heart.)

Mom, Evan, and Lindsay have all been hit hard with a stomach flu, though thankfully it's short-lived and Mom and Evan are back on their feet, pretty much, today. We're trusting for a quick recovery for Lindsay too. And since the roads are sheer ice, I get to have my hard-working husband stay home today after all! Thank You, Lord!

It's a boy!

2006-12-20T10:35:00.000-08:00

Jackson Josiah decided to make an early appearance yesterday afternoon. We're all thrilled he did, especially his mother, since he was 9 pounds 2 ounces--15 days early! Somehow my midwife had a sensing he was an extra big baby, so she took measures on Monday to help things along. I went into labor on Monday evening and he was born Tuesday at 3:42 p.m. A long, fairly hard labor, but we're so happy he's here. He's wonderfully healthy and so far very easy.

The kids are thrilled with their new brother, even if Tucker's nose is a little out of joint. Jed is especially excited about the baby. It's precious to see him read Jackson stories and talk with him.

Jackson's hollering for some attention. Better run!

Pupple!

2006-12-17T18:33:00.000-08:00

Somehow Tucker has become passionate about the color purple. It could have something to do with the fact that Evan and I love the color, or it could have to do with the fact that purple is the only color he can pronounce. But whatever it is, he gravitates toward the color, and every color is "pupple" until we tell him otherwise. So we'll be in a store and he'll point out a pair of pink socks. "Pupple?" "No, buddy, those are pink." Pointing out a blue pair, he'll ask the same question. When we actually get to a purple pair he goes crazy. Here he is with his beloved purple sippy cup (which has helped greatly in the painful weaning process from a baby bottle!) and his favorite purple truck.

I apologize for the frightful amount of time that has gone by without blogging. There just hasn't been anything interesting to blog about, though I find that it doesn't always take earth-shattering news or events to make my friends' blogs enjoyable. Baby is due in two weeks, though by the way I'm feeling some days lately I wonder if he'll be early! At this point he can come at any time and be considered full-time. Hurray! I'm so thankful for the Lord's hand of protection on this pregnancy. I can't wait to hold that little one in my arms!

Evan is out in the kitchen trying to get our excessively clogged kitchen sink unclogged. Multiple bottles of Drano and other similar products haven't quite cut it, though it's a little better than it was earlier today. He's trying everything he can to avoid having to go down to the basement and open up the pipes. Can't imagine why he wouldn't want that exciting job.

2006-11-29T05:09:00.000-08:00

The other day as I was getting ready to do my exercises Jed took a look at my tummy and said, "You sure are getting fat with that baby in there!" But lest my self-esteem should be dealt too hard a blow, this morning he said to me, "I'm so glad you're not a mean mommy!" I said, "You think I'm a nice mommy?" "Yes!" This very enthusiastically. Okay, so maybe I'm not Supermom and my son thinks I look fat, but at least in his eyes I'm a nice mommy. :-)

Speaking of being heavy with baby, only one month to go before Baby arrives! If the Lord had consulted me at Creation about the gestational period for babies, I would have recommended six months rather than nine. Nine months is just too long. I was ready to have this baby a month ago. Not much fun feeling like a house, when none of your clothes fit and your back hurts and it's hard to get a breath sometimes and blah, blah, blah. But it'll all be worth it when we can finally hold little Jackson in our arms!

We have been homeschooling very steadily now for over three months, with our only vacation being last week for Thanksgiving and a few days here and there for sickness or appointments. I'd say that overall it's going very well. Keeping Chloe and Tucker occupied is still a battle, but lately I've been able to come up with some special activities for them so they don't just end up watching Little Bear. I consider it a good day with Jed when we read a Bible story, do a page of math, and do a reading lesson. Extra good days are when we're able to do other subjects like Heritage Studies, art, music, or science. Thankfully in first grade he's not going to be screwed for life if we don't do the extras every day! Next year and the years after that I'll push those harder. Homeschooling Jed is extremely fulfilling, even though there are days when I want to pull out my hair or stick him on the school bus, or both. The Lord is so good to have not only given us the calling to homeschool our family but also the desire and grace to do it with joy!

Don't try this at home

2006-11-21T08:43:00.000-08:00

This morning as I was putting in my contacts I absentmindedly reached for the bottle of Clear Care solution and squirted my right contact with it. The minute it was in my eye my eye started burning like crazy. That's when I realized my mistake. Clear Care has to go in a special case that contains a metal that interacts with the solution and is neutralized after six hours. I felt really stupid. Three hours later my eye is still red and not a bit interested in wearing a contact any time soon. Thank the Lord my glasses are still fairly up-to-date!

We're having a stir-crazy kind of morning. It's sunny but all the kids are fighting colds so they can't go outside. We're not doing school this week and the kids are bouncing off the walls, even with the games we've been playing and stories we've been reading. As my grandma Abram used to say, "You'd sell them to the gypsies for a penny and a half if there were half-pennies, but since there aren't you'll keep them after all."

2006-11-14T15:47:00.000-08:00

Today Jed and I saw the Superman emblem on something and I brought up the idea of Supermom. He said, "I woudn't say you were so much Supermom as Tired Mom." Well, I'd be the last person to call myself Supermom, but it was humbling to hear my precious son point out his observation of my energy level these days. He can be brutally honest but at least he's very sweet!

While we were out running errands today Chloe said, "When I don't have money I'm sad for money." I don't know where her fascination with money came from. Maybe it's from seeing Jed get paid for doing his chores or finding it fun to play with change. Whatever it is, she has said some pretty funny things about it lately.

We have had the worst luck with vacuum cleaners. In 7 1/2 years of marriage we've been through three. Of course we've always gotten (almost) the cheapest one at Wal-Mart or Best Buy. When our last one died recently, Evan went out and bought me an Oreck! He won major husband points with that move. :-) He got a fabulous deal on a machine that vacuums like a dream, is lightweight, and doesn't put your back out when you're pushing it. I think we've learned our lesson that sometimes it's worthwhile to pay a little extra to get something that's going to last more than one or two years. So maybe someday we can afford to buy a stereo to replace the cheap one we got at Wal-Mart only 15 months ago that recently quit working.

Accidents that make you laugh

2006-10-23T05:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we took the kids to the playground. As we were on our way back to the car, Jed was plowing ahead, running and roaring (which he seems to do a lot of these days). Chloe was walking sedately a few feet in front of him when she stopped short and--you guessed it. Jed bowled her over, stepped on her head, and landed on his nose. Now normally I don't find the kids' accidents humorous, but this one really hit my funny bone. As I knelt down on the ground to comfort two screaming kids, it was all I could do not to laugh my head off. Of course neither one was seriously injured; they were fine five minutes later. What added to the humor was that as Evan took Chloe to comfort her, Tucker took advantage of the opportunity to race back to the playground from which we'd already had to forcibly remove him. I was so glad Evan was there to help! Lindsay drove in to the playground at that moment and was met by quite a sight!

Time to go get the kids some breakfast. It's grocery day and the cupboard is bare. I'm hoping we have enough milk to fix cereal. It's amazing how much food we go through these days. What's it going to be like when they're teenagers and their appetites have doubled?!

So what DO you like?

2006-10-11T13:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the kids and I were at a playground when a friendly boy about Jed's age walked up to Jed and asked if he likes Power Rangers. Jed gave a slightly scornful no. The kid then wanted to know if he likes Pokemon. Slightly scornful no again. "So what DO you like?" "I like the British!" Oh, of course! The poor kid looked at me all puzzled and wanted to know if I could tell him what he likes. I gave some vague answer, because I was definitely not feeling up to giving the ten-second version of who the British are and why Jed likes them. I guess this story illustrates one of the beauties of homeschooling: kids can choose for themselves what they're interested in, not what's popular at school or what's considered cool. Of course we're thrilled that he's so fascinated by history, but in a school setting that might not be considered completely normal or cool, which is kind of sad!

We're having Derrick and Wesley over for dinner tonight to celebrate Wesley's birthday. It's always a treat to have the "uncles" over. The kids adore them. The other day at church Chloe sat in Uncle Wesley's lap for probably 20 minutes, just as still and quiet as can be. Can she sit with you every Sunday, Wesley? You're the only one that can work that kind of magic with her. :-)

Bunk bed and Concord

2006-10-08T12:24:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Concord again. This time Jed got to talk with a man dressed as a Colonial! Here are some pictures from our day, along with a picture of the boys' new bunkbed, which has been absolutely fabulous. We got it at Bob's furniture store. For those of you on the East Coast, you know the commercials are beyond obnoxious, but they gave us the best deal compared to three or four other stores. The trick with the bed is getting Tucker to realize that his bed is on the bottom, not the top with his adored big brother. :-)

2006-10-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

I am grateful to report that Jed came through his surgery this morning with flying colors. In case you hadn't heard or had forgotten since reading previous entries, Jed had his frenulum clipped, or a frenectomy. That little string of tissue under his tongue was a wee bit tight and may have been contributing to his speech difficulties and slooooowness in eating. Anyway, he had it cut this morning at the Elliot 1-day outpatient surgery center. I was very impressed with the doctors and nurses and their way with children. They took excellent care of Jed and made him feel at ease.

As far as recovery goes, his has to be about the quickest recovery in the history of surgery. He was groggy when he came out of the operating room and said his tongue hurt and felt funny (they numbed it), but by this afternoon he was back to his rambunctious self and bouncing off the walls. (I rather miss the quiet little boy who snuggled in my lap this morning.) He hasn't needed any of the Tylenol with codeine we picked up at the pharmacy and was even asking for toast at lunchtime, which seems like a rather scratchy food but didn't bother him one bit.

So thank you all for your prayers and concern! We're very grateful for the Lord's hand on Jed and for blessing the whole procedure. We are now free to pursue speech therapy and finally get him some help in making himself understood.

2006-09-23T05:56:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken up in Maine last month. Chloe and Tucker love dogs and couldn't keep their paws off this one.

I'm grateful to report that my back is completely better now. It resolved itself with a good night's sleep and I didn't have to go to the chiropractor. God is good!

Last evening we were cleaning up after dinner, enjoying the company of our good friend Clyde, when suddenly the house shook with a loud BOOM! We all ran outside, thinking maybe a car had hit the house. Derrick, our friend and neighbor down the street, called a few minutes later saying he'd heard it too and wondered if we knew what it was. We told him we were as mystified as he but call us if he learned anything. Well, bless him, he checked into it and found out that an unexploded ordnance on the grounds of the nearby Air Force Tracking Station had been discovered and duly exploded. Get this--the bomb (or whatever it is) has been there since the fifties! Jed was a little scared at first but then he thought it was pretty cool, especially when he learned it had been there since just after World War II!

Out of the mouths of babes

2006-09-20T05:22:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at breakfast Jed, our resident enthusiast for anything military related, proclaimed, "I'm so glad America is fighting in Iraq so I don't have to be scared that they'll come to America and hurt us!"

Also at breakfast yesterday Chloe noticed the fog outside and said, "When it stops foggying [this word took several tries for her to pronounce clearly] we can play outside."

The other morning I woke up with inspiration for a blog that would be titled something like "You know it's going to be a rough day when..." I'll try out a few here.

1. You know it's going to be a rough day when you wake up to one of the kids hollering at you that the cat has thrown up on the living room rug (barely a foot away from the hardwood floor).

2. You know it's going to be a rough day when you wake up to the announcement that Tucker has taken off his very stinky, messy diaper and is running around upstairs with nothing but a shirt on, sitting on stuff and such.

3. You know it's going to be a rough day when you wake up and can't find your glasses on the nighstand. Being blind as a bat, you flounder helplessly. Later, after you've put contacts into your sleepy, scratchy eyes, you discover Tucker absconded with them and hid them under your bed. Thankfully, they're still intact and unharmed, unlike Evan's, whose got mangled beyond repair recently by aforementioned toddler.

Just a few fun things that have happened recently. On a more cheerful note, Jed started Drama Kids yesterday. It's a fabulous drama program that helps kids with elocution, being comfortable in front of an audience, finding an outlet for their love of acting, etc. He was bubbling with excitement about it yesterday afternoon when I picked him up. It's so nice for him to be able to channel all that role playing into something really constructive (not that what he does in dressing up isn't constructive, but you know what I mean!).

We're hoping to buy a bunkbed for the boys this weekend. If it all works out I'll post a picture. Tucker is so ready for a bed, and with his crib and Jed's full-sized bed their room is pretty crowded.

I'm putting off the inevitable. I did something to my lower back (or my expanding belly did) that has suddenly made walking extremely painful this afternoon. Since sitting brings relief, I'm trying to think of everything I can to blog about before heaving myself into the kitchen to fix dinner. Think I'll wait till Evan gets home and enlist his help. :-) Maybe I'll go catch up on some e-mails now. Wouldn't that be a novel idea!

First day of school

2006-09-12T14:28:00.000-07:00

Today was Chloe's first day at Chestnut Christian Preschool. We had a bit of a traumatic start, witnessed by the back-to-the-camera shot. But once she got there and saw the "pretend food" and had Jed play with her a few minutes, she was fine. When I picked her up two and a half hours later she told me she'd had a great time, though of course a little while later when Jed asked her if she loved preschool she scowled and growled no. Oh, well. I think she had a lovely time. The teachers and program are fantastic, and I'm proud of my girl for taking such a big step. :-)

Thing 1 and Thing 2

2006-09-11T15:05:00.000-07:00

Thank you, Aunt Lindsay, for providing hours of fun with your discarded wig.

2006-09-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

SO sorry for wasting y'all's time every time you go onto my blog hoping that maybe, finally, there's something new to read. Things have been super busy around here lately! The biggest events were starting school, my sister Kristi's visit, and our long weekend in Nova Scotia, all of which I shall elaborate on forthwith.

I was really enthusiastic about teaching Jed at home this year. He is in first grade now and "official" with the state of NH, so we really got down to business. I had a great time perusing websites and catalogs researching the best curriculum for him. So I was rarin' to go on August 21 (we started extra early so we can take off the month of January after the baby is born). Jed was excited at first, but halfway into the morning he started to balk at all the work. Let's just say day 1 was not a walk in the park, but things have gotten a little better since then. Some days he declares he hates school and I have to push him every step of the way, others aren't quite so hard. Some days I wish he could spend a week at a "regular" school just to show him how good he has it!

For those of you who might happen to be curious, we are using Horizons reading and phonics (which actually has yet to come), A Beka math and Health, Safety, and Manners, Horizons penmanship, Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory for Bible, history, and science, a book about animals, Veritas Press's geography, The Story of the Orchestra, and a simple program that teaches basic piano to 4- to 6-year olds. It does look a bit ambitious, but my mother-in-law, a retired schoolteacher and very wise woman, recommended that we do the basics--Bible, math, reading, and penmanship--every day, then assign a day of the week for the other subjects. So far that's working out well, though Jed is always ready to quit before we're done. Oh, well, he'll get used to it soon enough, I hope!

And the other recent event was having my sister Kristi visit for almost a week from Washington State. We had a lovely time together laughing, playing with the kids (who all adored her), watching movies, visiting our grandma, going to Strawbery Banke, and so on. So glad she could come out!

Last weekend we went up to Nova Scotia for a whirlwind trip to help Evan's parents wrap things up with their recent move. Lindsay and Mom and Dad put on a very successful yard sale on Saturday morning, and we were able to move the rest of their stuff from their old place to their new. Most of it had already been moved, but there was a bunch of stuff for storage that Evan was able to help them take care of. Evan loaded up their old piano, which they had bequeathed to Lindsay, as well as some of Lindsay's and Darren's stuff from storage into a U-Haul truck which we brought back down on Monday. But the time wasn't all about work. By 1:00 on Saturday afternoon we were home free, so we all (well, Evan and Dad made a detour to the dump) headed to the beach nearby. The weather and water were gloriously warm and we all had a fabulous time playing in the water. We had a chance to go to their church for the first time on Sunday and meet their wonderful pastor and other friends. The whole weekend was a really happy family time, and I was reminded once again that I have the best in-laws in the whole world!

Tongue-tied

2006-08-15T05:09:00.000-07:00

Now for the latest on the Jed's speech delay saga. I took him yesterday to an ear, nose and throat specialist, where they first checked his hearing (it was fine) and then his tongue. When the doctor asked Jed to put his tongue on the roof of his mouth he couldn't do it. The doctor said he's seen shorter frenulums (the little flap of skin under the tongue) and didn't overwhelmingly assert that it is causing his speech delay, but he thinks it's a good idea to have it clipped. So, Jed is scheduled for outpatient surgery on October 2. He'll have to go under general anesthesia and it'll be a 15-minute procedure. I guess the older they get the more intrusive the surgery is. Liane's little boy Drew (seriously-lee.blogspot.com), who's 8 or 9 months old, just recently got his clipped and he was awake and alert, poor baby! It will be interesting to see if this procedure really makes a difference. I asked the doctor what he called the surgery, thinking it was some long medical name. Nope. It's called surgery for tongue-tie!

Jed the Minute Man

2006-08-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

At least one of you asked if I had a picture of Jed wearing his minute man costume, so I finally got around to taking one. I had to take what I could get, though, since Jed didn't feel like changing into pants, which would have made him look a little more authentic. :-) Here he is using a metal pipe for a musket. He has informed me multiple times that he needs a musket for Christmas. In the meantime he's uncomplainingly making do with what he has on hand.

2006-08-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Ay-yi-yi, it's been a long time since I last blogged! We're all alive and well here. I'm finally feeling like living again now that morning (or rather ALL-DAY) sickness is a thing of the past and several other little health issues have cleared up.

Last Saturday the five (and a half!) of us went down to Concord, Mass., which for those of you who aren't familiar with it is a paradise for American history and literature buffs! Which, incidentally, Jed has become, much to our delight. His fascination with weaponry has naturally introduced him to both world wars, the Civil War, and the American Revolution. On Saturday he was in seventh heaven as we checked out the Minute Man visitors center, which showed a fabulous, award-winning multimedia presentation about Paul Revere's midnight ride, as well as other Revolution paraphernalia. Jed learned what a minute man was--a civilian who was always ready to take up arms at any moment.

In fact, the next morning when he got up he came downstairs to Evan's office dressed up (surprise, surprise!) in his rendition of a minute man's garb, which was actually amazingly authentic--even if he was using Chloe's little pink purse to carry his musket balls (a.k.a. marbles). Evan, ever the preacher, saw a teachable moment--to use at church! He asked Jed to wear his outfit and stand in front of the congregation for him that morning. Jed readily agreed (he seems to have no fear of standing in front of an audience). Evan explained what a minute man was, then proceeded to give a beautiful analogy of how each of us should be "spiritual minute men," ready to move at the Spirit's leading at any moment, no matter what we're doing.

The picture above was taken at the Minute Man visitors' center. It was a truly happy family day. It's a vastly rewarding experience to take your kids places when they're genuinely thrilled about what they're seeing and are learning things that make history come alive.

2006-07-19T17:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we went down to Virginia for a Jones family reunion at Evan's brother Darren's house. Darren and Sara have two adorable kids, Addie and Stuart, shown here in this picture helping Tucker and Chloe give Evan a chiropractic adjustment. The cousins are very close in age--6, 5, almost 4, 3, and 2, with two more on the way (Sara is due in September). They get along beautifully. Chloe and Addie spent their time together playing dress-up, while the boys banded together to defend us all from bad guys.

My brain is in a fog and not feeling like writing, so I'll try to tell y'all more about the trip another. Just wanted to at least let you know we're still alive and well!

All Tuckered out

2006-07-03T04:48:00.000-07:00

Tucker has a bad habit of getting out of his crib repeatedly after we put him down for the night. On Friday night he realized he was tired but couldn't climb back in. When I came upstairs a little later to go to bed, I couldn't find Tucker. I looked high and low before I finally found him curled up in this laundry basket in our room.

A short WHAT?!

2006-06-27T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today I took Jed to an appointment to be evaluated by a speech therapist/pathologist. Any of you who know Jed and have talked with him know that certain sounds are hard for him to make, making it difficult to understand sometimes what he's trying to say. This problem has not improved with time. The school system evaluated him last fall but didn't consider him bad enough to want to offer their help. I finally got desperate this spring and sniffed out a speech and rehab center in Nashua. And I am one happy mama tonight to finally have some answers and some hope!

At the end of the nearly two-hour evaluation today the therapist shared her preliminary findings with me. What she found makes so much sense! Apparently Jed has a very weak tongue, making it difficult for him to form certain sounds. He can form his problem sounds if he puts his mind to it, but it takes extra effort. And some words, like calendar, come out ca-ender. This is because his tongue is not strong enough to make some of the rapid sounds that most of us can make. Now her belief is that this is due to a short frenulum. I'll be impressed if any of you know what one of those is! I completed a medical transcription course four years ago and never came across one in my studies. Well, it's that little stringy thing under your tongue that anchors your tongue to the bottom of your mouth. The therapist wants me to take him to his doctor to have it evaluated. If the doctor considers it too short, she'll snip it. Ouch! Once that's done, or that possibility is at least ruled out, the therapist will know better where to begin with his therapy.

Jed has also had difficulty learning to read. Time after time, using different methods, I've hit a brick wall in his mind trying to teach him his letter sounds. In math and other areas he's brilliant, but reading is extremely hard. When I told the therapist, she said there's often a connection between speech problems and literacy problems. Sure enough, another evaluation revealed that he has difficulty with phonological awareness. For instance, she would have him say CAT, then ask him to say CAT without the K sound--AT. He couldn't do it. With about ten words he completely bombed out. Same with other similar tests. His poor little brain just doesn't get it. So apparently this is something they can help him with too. PRAISE THE LORD! I'm not just a bad homeschool mom! There's help and hope!

Pickles and ice cream

2006-06-20T14:14:00.000-07:00

When referring to the sometimes odd cravings pregnant women can experience, you often hear about pickles and ice cream. So far I haven't had any bizarre cravings, but last night when we were watching a show, one of the characters was eating a pickle--and suddenly I NEEDED a pickle! The only thing that kept me from jumping into the car was the fact that it takes 15 minutes to get to the nearest grocery store, not to mention it was 9:30 p.m. I managed to squash that longing until this afternoon when I went grocery shopping and grabbed a jar off the shelf of Vlasic dill spears. I had to eat two spears on the way home. Ahhh, happy tummy!

Some of you have kindly asked how I'm feeling. Much better now. For about four weeks I was feeling nauseated almost all day, especially around dinnertime and into the evening. But the worst of it has passed. Tomorrow Baby will be 12 weeks along! One website said the baby is about the size of a fig. The previous week it was a walnut. I'm in that frustrating in-between stage where I'm too big to wear many of my normal clothes but too small to wear many maternity clothes without looking ridiculous. Ah, well, that'll pass soon enough!

2006-06-15T18:35:00.000-07:00

If you had dropped in on us at any given time through the day today you would have found Jed riding his new bike or playing with his new toys, Chloe and Tucker running around outside--and me hunched over the dining room table slaving over THIS. Actually, I haven't had this much fun in a long time! When I bought this kit for Jed at his request, I failed to study the package. If I'd known that it came with about 200 unassembled Legos pieces and the youngest age they recommended was age 7, I would have put my foot down. When he opened the box today and asked me to assemble it, displaying four plastic bags full of hundreds of tiny Legos, I groaned. But once I got started I was hooked! The kitchen didn't get cleaned up till nearly 4:30 and the kids had to drag me away anytime they had a need, but it was fun!

Jed's cool new bike and helmet--Daddy rocks!

2006-06-15T18:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Narnia fan

2006-06-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

Jed's Narnia sword cake...

2006-06-15T18:30:00.000-07:00

...complete with Aslan and his right hand centaur, Oreus (sp?).

Happy birthday, Jed!

2006-06-15T18:24:00.000-07:00

Jed turned six today! Here he is with his cake. Can you guess what it is?

I think he had a very happy day, which started out by going out for breakfast with Daddy. He played with his new bike, Narnia figurines, army tank, and catapult. We were supposed to go to the park for a picnic but--surprise, surprise--the weather didn't cooperate. At least the rain stopped by mid-morning and the kids were able to play outside. This evening we went to a great restaurant called Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse that has stuffed animals (some real, some fake) all over the walls. Uncle Wesley, Aunt Lindsay, and Miss Amy (Partin) joined us. Good times! Amy gave Jed a disposable camera--a fabulous gift idea! He spent the whole camera at the restaurant capturing pix of animals and our jolly group.

Thus saith the Lord

2006-06-08T05:29:00.000-07:00

Dear Chloe has lately become quite attuned to prayer. She loves to pray for her friend Alicia Bright every morning, and last evening as I was fixing dinner she wanted to make sure we prayed before we ate. Well, apparently God has been talking to her too! The other day she informed us that God had talked to her. Wanna know what He said? "Clean your room." We had to laugh, as you can see from this picture how badly in need of cleaning her room is. So far she hasn't taken any steps to heed her Lord's voice, but then she's only three. Cleaning her room is one of the most discouraging exercises in futility imaginable, as it will be just as messy again in two days. Oh, well, eventually she'll be old enough to clean it all herself. At this point all I can do is tell her stuff like, "Put this dress in the hamper; throw this away." It's a start, I guess! Jed was never this messy, so this is a new experience.

Lovin' the outdoors!

2006-05-31T13:04:00.000-07:00

2006-05-31T12:59:00.000-07:00

Last night Chloe actually asked me to take her picture, rather than recoiling from the camera in horror. Maybe turning three will mark a change in her feelings toward picture taking. Mom, do you recognize her dress? She loves to wear it. Last night she wore it to bed. As you can see, she loves to accessorize.

At her well-child checkup today she was a little monster (scales and stethoscopes are SO scary), but the good news is that she's grown five and a half inches and four pounds since last August. Her hair is growing back beautifully since we eliminated her allergy foods from her diet. She's a pretty special girl, if I do say so myself!

Favorite pastime

2006-05-31T12:51:00.000-07:00

The lawnmower is Tucker's absolute favorite toy. Even better, it doubles as a free babysitter. His thoughtful daddy is now leaving it out on the lawn all the time so Tucker has access to it whenever he's outside. If I need to go inside while Tucker's playing in the yard, I can pretty much guarantee that when I check on him out the window he'll be either on the lawnmower or very close to it. He's in seventh heaven and I'm able to get some work done!

Expressive phrases

2006-05-25T04:37:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of proofreading a collection of three novels about a hillbilly woman from Kentucky who is a midwife and "healer" back in the 1870s. It's a fascinating story, one of the few fluffy romance novels I've done for this company that isn't too treacly. The author has a good grasp of the hillbilly's "language," and there are some pretty funny lines. My favorite, though, is one that I latched onto as soon as I saw it and laughed my head off over it. It's very satisfying to roll off your tongue. I drove Lindsay nuts with it last weekend when I kept saying it over and over. The midwife used this phrase to describe how a woman felt right after giving birth. The phrase is "catawamptiously chewed up." Isn't that hilarious?

Along about the first week of January, I'm going to be feeling pretty catawamptiously chewed up meself for the same reason as the woman in the book. Yep, number four is on the way! We're very excited, and the kids are ecstatic. Jed has his heart set on having a sister so we can have our own set of Pevensies (boy, girl, boy, girl) from Chronicles of Narnia. But he's okay with a boy too because that would mean another playmate to fight battles with. :-)

Life is good

2006-05-17T05:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I overheard Chloe singing this song as she was playing: "My life is good! My life is good with my pretty shoes." Later it got scaled back down to just "my life is good," which tickled me pink to hear her say. At the grocery store she was still in singing mode and sang a song about a lady standing at the milk case: "Her shirt is blue, her pants are black, her hair is white." All this in a singsongy voice. I laughed my head off. Chloe is coming out with more funny things all the time. Sometimes she reminds me of her cousin Addie, whom her parents have nicknamed the Randomizer because of the hilariously random things she says out of the blue. (You can check out Darren and Sara's excellent blog at thebookbeast.blogspot.com.)

2006-05-11T18:47:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all you dear people who commented on my recent blog and extended your sympathy. It was much appreciated. :-) So far we've managed to escape any more incidents as horrendous as the tick and dung dance, just more typical stuff like Tucker escaping from his crib repeatedly, and his propensity for stripping off his clothes and relieving himself on the carpet. Just typical toddler stuff.

Dad, you asked what the nurse told me to do about the tick. She discouraged using a flame (I couldn't anyway since it was on Tucker's head and covered by hair) but said to use a pair of tweezers and grab the tick close to its head and tug gently. I managed to do this and keep its head intact. Then per her instructions I washed the site with warm soapy water and put some antibiotic ointment on it. So, that was that. Now I'm supposed to watch for a bull's-eye rash, fever, and cold symptoms within the next few weeks that might indicate Lyme's disease.

Avalance Cowpoke, you're absolutely right--there isn't any other kind of tick than a nasty tick. The things are just plain vile.

Another birthday picture

2006-05-11T04:38:00.000-07:00

Here is Chloe with the Angelina Ballerina doll and DVD she got for her birthday. I love her smile in this picture. Somehow it makes you forget all the mischief she loves to get into.

Never a dull moment

2006-05-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Life is never dull or predictable when you have kids. Today has proved that. The morning went fairly normally, though it did seem like the kids wanted to argue and negotiate about everything. That's not terribly unusual around here, though. Chloe and Jed are very strong-minded, strong-willed little individuals. Their phlegmatic mother has had to develop some spine to try to maintain some sense of control. :-)

Anyway, the excitement started this afternoon when I discovered a vile tick behind Tucker's left ear. Not having grown up with those nasty creatures in the West, I wasn't sure what to do with it. I tried removing it with tweezers, but its head was already embedded. Rubbing alcohol didn't seem to loosen it, so I put in a call to the doctor's office. They assured me the nurse would call back.

A little while later as I was visiting with someone I'd just met, whose visit turned out to be somewhat more demanding on my time and energy than I anticipated, I began to get suspicious about how quiet Chloe and Tucker were being, so I ran out front. There to my horror I discovered that Chloe had defecated on the driveway in front of the steps. Not only that, but she and Tucker were dancing in it and wiping it on each other! ARGH!!! This marks the third time she has done this in the past week, though never actually wallowing in it. She knows perfectly well how to relieve herself in the toilet, so I have no idea why she insists on continuing this nasty habit. After spraying her down with a cold hose and revoking her outdoor privileges for the rest of the day, I'm hoping I got through to her that going stink on the driveway is not socially acceptable behavior.

Thankfully Evan had come home a little early and was able to take care of the driveway. I will never understand the toddler psyche. Of course our middle-aged male neighbor had to be walking by our house as this drama was unfolding--Chloe there half naked dancing in her dung while I nearly holler in exasperation: "Chloe, why do you do it?!" Who knows what he thinks of the pastor's family! (He doesn't go to our church so he doesn't know us well and could be forming all sorts of opinions about our family.) Cherilyn and her kids came by a minute later just to say hi after getting their mail. Dear Cherilyn said, "You poor thing!" and that was extremely comforting! At least I know she's been there--if not with a situation like this, at least other situations where her kids have done wild and crazy things that don't mean you're a bad mom. :-)

Well, I got the kiddos washed up, all the while lecturing Chloe on the purpose of indoor plumbing (waste of time, I'm sure). She did say several times that she knows now to do it in the house. We'll see.

The nurse called back and told me what to do. So, Tucker's tick-less, thank God. I didn't even want to pick up the poor child, that thing grossed me out so much. We'll keep an eye out for signs of Lyme's disease, but I'm not worried.

For now things are under control. Maybe with only two more hours till bedtime we'll be able to escape more escapades. . . .

Lovin' the outdoors

2006-05-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

Birthday Girl

2006-05-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

Chloe turned three last Sunday! In the afternoon we had lots of friends over to help her celebrate. Here she is modeling her gift from Grandma. She has brought so much sunshine to our lives!

2006-04-14T19:46:00.000-07:00

This past week I added to Jed's daily chore chart the job of making his bed each day. Only he doesn't understand that it has to be done EVERY DAY. On Tuesday I reminded him that he needed to make his bed. His reply: "But I made it yesterday!" Ah, yes, my little man. This is your first lesson in the DAILYness of life!

Today Chloe informed me that a cut on her leg was all better. In her own words, it died! She also informed me she had seen a pink dog today that bit her leg and then ate her blood. Sigh. It's hard to raise a feminine girl when she has an older brother. Well, I guess that's not altogether true. In most ways Chloe is altogether feminine, to the point of scaring her parents, as I'm sure you can understand from reading past blogs. This afternoon I informed Chloe that we were going to a Good Friday service at church tonight. "Oh!" she said. "Me wear my heart dress and these shoes!" I do this too, and I think many women do--almost the first thing I think about when I know I'm going to a special event is what I'm going to wear. Chloe's already doing that and she's not even three yet!

Success!

2006-04-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

It's official! Chloe is completely potty-trained--to the point that she pitches a horrible hissy fit when we try to put a pull-up on her at night. Her level of independence scares us sometimes. It's an affront to her if you try to help her with something she feels quite capable of doing herself. It's just hard to take her seriously when she flits about all day in one princess dress or another, complete with necklace, bracelets, and pretty shoes. The pretty shoes, by the way, never come off, even for bed. And if you want her to wear something different from what she's wearing, get ready for a bloody battle of the wills. I guess she's going through a stage right now of trying out her newfound will and testing the boundaries and all that rot, but man, it's exhausting! Seeing how well-behaved Jed is now after going through his own little monster stage gives me hope for Chloe.

And she also is sleeping in her own room now--most of the time. Sometimes she goes to sleep in our bed when she's convinced there are sharks, divers, and spiders in her room. (Those are her current phobias. Never let your two-year-old watch Finding Nemo. Though that doesn't explain the arachniphobia. That was probably just inherited from her mother and aunts.) And for the past couple of weeks I have awakened every night in the wee hours to a little body crawling into bed and snuggling against me, which is pretty precious. But at least she's no longer sleeping in Jed's bed. This is major progress.

Recent Jed quote: "I laughed so hard my bones came out!"

I just spent a wonderfully restful, inspiring day at Fairwood yesterday, taking part in the ladies' retreat there. God bless the wonderful women who put that time together! It provided a much-needed shot in the arm. I enjoyed the testimonies that several shared, the chance to get caught up with different friends, seeing Aunt Pam and Aunt Jeannette and being happy all over again to belong to my husband's precious family--the aunts always make me feel like one of their own flesh-and-blood nieces--playing a hilarious game that's a spin-off on Pictionary, but probably most of all the chance to leave behind the cares of life and really listen to the Holy Spirit without distraction. He spoke to my heart in several areas yesterday, some of them not so comfortable. But sometimes I just get so taken up with LIFE that I don't hear the Spirit's still, small voice or allow Him to work on those areas of my life that desperately need His healing touch. Evan kept the kids, bless his heart, and said they had a good day. I'm blessed to have such a loving, supportive husband who understood my need for a break!

Big Girl

2006-03-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

I will try to keep the details of this blog to a minimum, since those of my readers who are not yet parents may find it a little tedious. I think the mothers (and baby-sitters and day care workers) among my readers will appreciate what a BIG DEAL this is that I have to report.

Chloe is finally potty trained! She's been able to use the potty chair for about a year now and has been in pullups since last summer. All my attempts to get her completely switched over to underwear ended in disaster. I've always heard you can't push these things and you have to wait until they recognize they're ready. Well, on Monday, apparently Chloe made that switch in her mind when she woke up, because there's no going back for her! I bought her some more big girl panties on Monday night, which she announced she loved. She had a few accidents yesterday but did manage to use the bathroom at the grocery store, so thankfully all the accidents were confined to home. I am very happy at the prospect of my grocery bill being a little smaller. Now we just have to convince her to wear a pull-up at night, because she's definitely not ready to give that up, as the past few nights can attest!

Another milestone we hope will happen tonight is her sleeping in her own room. Ever since we moved here last summer she's been sleeping with Jed in his double bed. Although this wasn't our favorite arrangement, it was a battle we weren't willing to fight. Well, today I rearranged her room, and as I was rearranging it Chloe and I talked about how now that she's a big girl wearing big girl underwear, she's old enough to sleep in her own room. She got all excited and has assured me that's what she wants to do. Tonight will be the test!

Let's see...other news...oh, we got to have my dad here last weekend. He was out for the church convention at Fairwood and spent Thursday night with us. On Saturday we met him for lunch in Peterborough, and on Monday he joined us for lunch and a visit. It took Chloe no time at all to glom onto Grandpa and declare him her best friend. It was precious to see the two of them talking and see Chloe really connect with him.

As if it wasn't special enough that we just had one grandparent here, we get another one this weekend! Nana is coming tomorrow afternoon and staying through Monday. Though the reason for her visit is a very sad one (she's here for Aunt Jan's funeral), we're thrilled to have her for a few days. The kids are terribly excited. We all love having Nana visit!

Of limps and leukemia

2006-03-14T10:10:00.000-08:00

On Sunday morning Jed woke up with a bad limp and pain in his left leg, as well as a vomiting spell. Now Jed has cousins on BOTH sides who have had leukemia (my niece Jessica and Evan's cousin Bethany), and since leg pain and vomiting can be symptoms of leukemia, I freaked out. That afternoon I took him to the ER where it was confirmed that he does NOT have leukemia; they couldn't figure out what was wrong. That's when I realized how much I'd over-reacted! All I needed to do was take him to the chiropractor. So we went there this morning and found that, yes, his hips were out of whack. She said that can happen when a child is going through a growth spurt. She recommended that he go in for an adjustment every three months and get X-rays when he's 10. Since Evan and I both have scoliosis, the poor kid has a pretty good chance of being susceptible to it himself.

We are thanking the Lord that he doesn't have anything serious and that it was easily remedied!

More door trouble

2006-03-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

Some of you may remember I wrote a post last August about it seems that all the doors in this house are cursed. Well, on Thursday I had the worst trouble yet.

The door in our bedroom has never latched. The doorknobs finally fell off a few months ago after being loose for a while. When we needed to get out, we would just stick a finger in the doorknob hole and pull. Let me repeat here that the door has NEVER actually latched. That fact is important to the rest of the story.

I was in our room on Thursday morning ironing some clothes and Chloe and Tucker were playing on the bed. Jed was occupied in the playroom. Tucker pushed the door shut, which he likes to do, and I didn't think anything more of it until he tried to pull it open a few minutes later. When it wouldn't budge, I went over and tried. It really wouldn't budge! That's when I realized we were stuck. I just had to shake my head, because this had already been a really hard week. I tried pulling out the hinge pins but only one of them came out. I tried various tools but nothing worked. Finally I asked Jed to call Alden. Thankfully, he knows how to use the phone now! Alden wasn't home, so I had Jed call Evan. Evan said he was on his way and would be home in half an hour.

Well, there was no way I was waiting half an hour with the kids getting antsy, and I hate for Evan to lose an hour-plus out of his day because his wife has locked herself in her bathroom. So I fell back on plan Z--use the fire escape ladder. We have one in our closet, so I hooked it up to the window and climbed out. As I climbed down (after I made sure no cars were going by!) I thought how good it was that there was a big bush below me to catch me if I fell. I made it down safely, then ran in the house, found the new doorknob that should have been installed months ago, and got the door open and let the little ones out. Chalk it up to a bad experience, great blog. :-)

2006-03-08T16:30:00.000-08:00

Jed sporting his funny lemon-faced smile. Killing time coloring while he waits to board the plane.

2006-03-08T16:24:00.000-08:00

2006-03-08T16:18:00.000-08:00

Here is silly Chloe wearing Aunt Lindsay's jacket and hat. She is still the queen of dress-up.

Howdy, partner!

2006-03-08T16:04:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of Aaron Sandford. (Thank you, Aaron! It's probably the best picture we have of Tucker!)

2006-03-04T17:56:00.000-08:00

Our household has been hit hard with sickness. We've had a relatively light winter in that regard, but first Evan came down with a bad cold about a week and a half ago, then it hit Tucker, Chloe, Jed, and me in rapid succession. Yesterday and today I've been so sick I've hardly gotten out of bed. Evan has been absolutely wonderful, taking care of the kids and making sure I'm able to get all the rest I need. Chloe has been hit hard too. It's so hard to see your little ones feeling miserable, especially when you're so miserable yourself you can hardly lift a finger to help them. One good thing today was that Chloe took a nap with me in bed. Later when Evan was out getting a haircut Jed and Chloe were a little bored (Tucker was napping), so they played quietly on my bed and read a book. Jed has been so solicitous and concerned for me. He'll ask me if I'm feeling better and say things like, "You'll feel better after you get some breakfast." (This he's heard from me a number of times when I'm explaining to him that I'm grouchy before I've had anything to eat.) And many times through the day he's said, "I sure do love you!" Such a little sweetie.

As much as I don't like the idea of kids and parents having favorites, we're already seeing how Jed and Chloe have strong leanings toward one of us over the other. Jed is definitely a mama's boy, and Chloe is Daddy's girl through and through. Yesterday morning she crawled into bed with us and said to Evan, "You're my best friend!" She's never said that to me! Jed and Evan's relationship and Chloe's and mine are very good and strong, but you can definitely see how they each gravitate toward one of us over the other. We're not sure yet what Tucker will be like in that regard. Right now he's happy with anyone who'll give him lots of lovin's!

Emily and kitten continue to be doing well, though the poor baby has been manhandled by Tucker a time or two. Somehow the laundry room door got left opened today, and Evan found Tucker in there gleefully dangling the kitten by its head. Poor thing! It's probably still seeing stars.

New Family Member (if only temporarily)

2006-03-01T06:33:00.000-08:00

Our cat Emily has been great with kitty for several months. I think the deed happened around Christmas when she was yowlingly in heat. I was afraid she might have her kittens when I was gone last weekend, but Evan assured me she never did. Well, on Monday night before I went to sleep she hopped up on the bed--and she was decidedly thinner. She was also excessively affectionate, more so than usual, which she usually is after having babies. I guess it's her way of seeking affirmation and praise for the great work she's done.

My joy was tempered, though, as I realized we had absolutely no idea where she'd had her baby(ies). Our house is so big and holey they could be anywhere. I had horrible visions of tiny kittens freezing in the 20-degree cold. And it wasn't very reassuring that Emily spent all of Monday night purring in my ear and rubbing herself all over me (not a good night for it either, having been on the plane all night the night before and being utterly wiped out). She should have been with her offspring!

So yesterday I did a little sleuthing. Around 1:00 p.m. she begged me to let her into the mudroom. I let her out then watched where she went. Sure enough, she went where I was hoping she had NOT had her babies. In our mudroom there's a huge whole that someone stuffed with insulation for reasons we don't know. Emily went way back in that hole, far out of my reach, and stayed there the rest of the day. I was concerned about the kitten (we later learned she only had one) inhaling insulation so I begged Evan to get them out. He's used to working with insulation and it doesn't bother his skin. Still it wasn't a pleasant job, especially since the stuff had been used previously by mice and was filled with grody evidence of their habitation. Evan pulled Emily and her adorable mewing baby out, and I declared him my hero! Now mother and baby are safely ensconced in our laundry room. So far I haven't had the courage to tell the kids about the kitten, since they'll never be able to leave it alone and poor Emily will go out of her mind.

For those of you who might be curious, the kitten is black and white, just like her mom (and dad and, I might add, her grandfather. Yes, there's been a little incest going on in the neighborhood).

I'm still riding high on my time last weekend in Washington! Since my birthday today is turning out to be a rather crummy day, I'm extra thankful for all that my family did last weekend to give me a happy early birthday party, especially on Saturday night, which was complete with special dinner, presents, cake and candles. Tucker was up late last night and in the wee hours of the morning feeling miserable and feverish with a bad cold, and Chloe's sick too. That rules out Evan's and my plans to go out for lunch. Oh well. That's okay. I'm privileged to have these little ones to care for. This dying to self stuff is good for the soul. :-)

What am I saying! I hardly have room to feel sorry for myself after the fabulous weekend I just had. And tonight Lindsay and Sue are coming over to watch the new Pride and Prejudice with me while Evan takes Jed to AWANA. And Evan is going to bring dinner home. I always say no woman should have to cook dinner on her birthday. :-)

We got a new oven yesterday! The old one was leaking gas, and when the repair guy came he vacuumed out three vacuum cleaner canisters' worth of insulation that mice had chewed up and spit out! It was time for a new one. The church approved a beautiful electric one with a flat rangetop. No more burner plates to clean! And all the knobs are up top, well out of the reach of little hands. Evan installed it this morning. I love it!

I guess I need to stop frittering time away and get my kids corralled and this house back under control. Amazing how a few days away messes up one's routine, though Evan did a fabulous job keeping the place picked up.

Home again, home again, jiggety-jig!

2006-02-27T12:46:00.000-08:00

Jed and I just got back this morning from a WONDERFUL time in Washington with my family. JetBlue had an incredible deal on tickets that allowed us to fly two of us for the price that one ticket would normally cost. The only drawback was that we had to fly at night, but that was a small price to pay and one you can eventually get over.

We flew out with Lindsay from Boston last Thursday night. (She was visiting friends in Olympia.) Lindsay and I didn't get much sleep, but Jed managed to. We got out there at midnight--only a six-hour flight with no layovers! My mom was prepared to spoil us rotten and give me a blessed break from the responsibilities of life. On Friday we went to the outlet mall and did some shopping and gave Jed a chance to play in a play area that has huge pieces of plastic breakfast food--bacon slides, a huge bowl of frosted flakes and blueberries, etc. At a candy/toy store Jed picked out a huge stuffed snake that's taller than him and as big around as my upper arm. It was amusing to see him walk through the mall and talk to his snake and teach it things it didn't know.

In the afternoon I got to take a long, delicious nap, knowing no little ones would wake me and that dinner and dessert were all taken care of. That evening we all ate dinner in my parents' cozy family room, followed by home-made pie. What a new sensation it was to have no responsibilities regarding the meal and actually to be served dessert. I told you my mom was prepared to spoil me! She did it royally. I wish all my friends who are mothers could have such a chance to be pampered every now and then.

On Saturday Kristi and I went out for lunch and shopping. That was a sweet sister time. For an early birthday present she bought me the CD Celtic Woman, which I'd never heard before but fell in love with. Jed, meanwhile, got to go out for donuts with Grandpa and get a highly cherished Narnia storybook from the bookstore.

That evening Lori and Chris and their four kids--Zach (11), Jessica (9), Zoe (7), and William (3)--joined us for dinner, and what an uproarious time we had! Jed had a blast with his cousins. He's not used to being the little one, since most of the kids he hangs around with are younger than him, but they played right along with him--hide and seek and such. Lori, Chris, Kristi, and I played a rousing game of ping-pong. Later we sisters and my dad, with my mom observing, played a jolly game of Beyond Balderdash that had us laughing our heads off. One of the words we had to write definitions for was "zobo." When one of the definitions my dad read was "the cross between a zebra and a yak" we girls burst out laughing. But it was so ludicrous we voted for it--and sure enough, that's what a zobo is! Now you know.

They stayed till 10:30. It was hard to wrap it up, everyone was having such a good time. On Sunday we went to church and heard a heart-stirring sermon. After visiting different ones we went out for lunch at one of my old favorite Mexican restaurants, then to a used bookstore. Finally we ended up at Chris and Lori's for a short visit and to say good-bye. I was totally wiped out by the time we got home, so I took another delicious nap--what luxury! We had to leave at 10:30 last night. We all slept quite a bit on the way home. It's now 4:00 and I'm feeling rather zombie-ish, longing for bedtime. But it's good to be home and I cried when I saw my babies! Evan said the weekend with the kids went really well. I'm pretty proud of him for doing it.

Tucker is either punishing me this afternoon or making sure I get a taste of what I missed out on for three days. While I took a quick snooze on the couch he was merrily emptying out the diaper pail--very full and very stinky--pulling Jed's shirts off the hangers, and clearing an entire shelf of its books. Welcome home! Sometimes diving back into real life isn't much fun after such a lovely vacation, but I'd rather have the hard work and drudgery and frustrations WITH my babies than a life of ease without them.

The Superbowl

2006-02-07T06:32:00.000-08:00

Having lived in Washington State at one time, Evan and I were of course rooting for the Seahawks on Sunday night. Lindsay joined us in Evan's office that night to watch the excitement. Even the kids watched for a while, mostly for the great commercials (minus the ones that we had to turn off). Some of you will be disgusted to know that I sat in a chair reading throughout the game, only putting my book down for the commercials. Being married to a football fan for seven years has still not managed to make me love the game. I just can't see the thrill in watching 300-pound gorillas run around on a field crashing into each other and giving each other horrible injuries. I watch for a few minutes and then start cringing and hollering "Ouch!" and making my boys swear they'll never make it to the NFL. Poor Evan. I wish for his sake I could get into it more. Thankfully Lindsay knows how the game works and can watch it intelligently with him so he's not totally alone.

The kiddos are doing much better, thank the Lord. Still some runny noses but their energy is back. Don't know if that's all a good thing or not. :-) I'm feeling pretty crumby today. Had to cancel having my good friend Sue and her kids over today. :-( Maybe I'll put the kids in front Ben-Hur or some other long movie and take a nap today. Just kidding. Well, sort of.

Little helpers

2006-02-05T12:48:00.000-08:00

2006-02-05T12:37:00.000-08:00

The kids are happily playing in the living room listening to some lively music. Looks like a good opportunity to snag a few moments to blog. After a blessed month and a half without any sickness, we recently got socked. Chloe was first with a runny nose, then Jed got sick yesterday--runny nose, throwing up (only once thankfully!), and general yuckiness. Then Tucker woke up in the wee hours this morning burning up with fever. And I feel like someone pumped lead into my veins. Could be that episode with Tucker in the night or else fighting it myself--or both. I AM thankful it all hit when it did and didn't interfere with Evan's and my weekend in Boston.

Yesterday we went to Congress 2006--a huge ecumenical gathering of evangelicals in New England. It was held at the Hynes Convention Center in downtown Boston. Evan was able to go all day Friday and then we both went on Saturday, leaving the kids with Lindsay and Amy Partin. It's hard for me to decide what was the best part about the day: a break from little ones' incessant needs, 12 sweet hours with Evan all to myself, the outstanding talks by some of Christianity's biggest names, or the resource room where you could get books at a fraction of their usual cost. Probably all of the above. It was a wonderful day, and I came away challenged and encouraged in my walk with the Lord.

2006-01-29T15:34:00.000-08:00

Lindsay and I built a snowman today. Isn't he cute?!

2006-01-29T15:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we went to the New England Aquarium in Boston and had an fabulous time. These fake turtles were among the kids' favorite attractions.

Gotcha!

2006-01-29T15:16:00.000-08:00

After church today Uncle Wesley joined us for lunch. Here you see him and Jed playing Narnia--Maugrim being slain by Peter. This evening around the dinner table we were talking about how much we love Uncle Wesley when Chloe piped up, "Him cute guy!"

Elisha and company

2006-01-21T05:48:00.000-08:00

Last night for our family Bible skit we did the story of Elisha leading the blind army away from Israel. Here you see Daddy Elisha holding his assistant. Jed is a blind soldier, the same one who tried to arrest Elisha, and Chloe was just along for the ride. Mommy played the king of Israel (well, we pretended she was a queen). Fun times!

The tooth fairy is on her way!

2006-01-21T05:40:00.000-08:00