the back door

my cousin, http://www.momnaction.blogspot.com/ , has been posting about summer reading. an avid reader myself i thought i'd join in with our family's current reading list. princess: strawberry shortcake books, ten little monkey's, and her new bible mapboy: the first book of america, usborne's book of presidents, usborne's child's atlas, rand mcnally's map hubby: the myth of a christian nation, leadership bible me: just finished and old series called the white pine chronicles, currently reading anne of green gables (yes, i confess to having never read my favorite movie!), ready to begin saint by ted dekker as a side note...mapboy is a very good reader for his age. i'm not sure what level he reads it but it is beyond the 1st grade level. he doesn't like to read out loud, but yesterday while sitting in the waiting room i asked him to read the book to princess and me. in is best humor he read the entire book backwards! oh his poor teacher!!!!! he thought...

since tuesday i've been spending countless hours trying to think of a great post! nothing, absolutely nothing. for those of you who know me, i always have something to say or a story to tell, but for whatever reason this week i'm empty!! it could be that it's that time of month, it could be my dearest friend is far far away on vacation, it could be princess is sick so i'm tired, it could just be that God has me in a valley for awhile. who knows....but for whatever reason i'm lacking inspiration. so for the 3-4 of you out there who check this site i aplogize!! i'm just not myself this week. and like many other things in our house - this, too, shall pass!!!

ever since my kids have been old enough to eat dry cereal by themselves i've allowed them to have breakfast in front of pbs kids. i know, i know, not exactly mommy of the year here. i dread mornings and often am the last one to wake. now that my kids are older, mapboy often gets them their breakfast before i make it down the stairs. this worked great for awhile. i could sleep and they would eat cereal and yogurt while watching educational tv!! what a deal...however, this summer i started noticing that breakfast was becoming a 4-5 course meal dragging out over an hour. i would often find spoons, bowls, yogurt cups, crumbs, and an occasional spilled juice on the couch or floor. i got tired of getting them the next course and tired of cleaning up everything. so we tried making them clean...okay that helps, but i was still serving breakfast for an hour. i made a new rule that started on monday morning...breakfast would be eaten at the table!!! no exceptions!!! mapboy was quit...

so this is a real life event that happened in our home this past february. i wasn't blogging then but this is just too good to not share. so enjoy as i tell a tale of my beloved mapboy.... it is wednesday evening. we are rushing through dinner and trying to get ourselves out the door for church. for whatever reason, mapboy was struggling to fill up on my supper of leftovers. he rummages through the refridgerator and pulls out an apple. now, how can a mother deny her son an apple?!? knowing we are in a hurry and knowing what state my kids will be in when we return from church, i send them both to pick up their rooms as fast as they can! i even allow mapboy to take the apple with him as long as he promises to through the core away. (food in bedrooms is a big no-no around here!). okay...i clear the table and realize i look a little yuck. i know i'm just working with kids but i decide to head to the bathroom to try and find a better looking lady somewhere. as i'm gett...

there are days when i wonder why on earth we think computers make life easier. we are needing to get a different internet provider. i know we live on a pretty tight budget and in rural indiana, but goodness sakes!! this is the most confusing and frustrating thing i've ever done!!!!! i will never understand the world of computers!!!!! i do think we are up and running though - slow, but running!!!

my kids have apparently not had enough of vbs!! after last week you would think we would all want a little break from the madness, but last night my family attended the most incredible vacation bible school i have ever been too. we were in such a rush that we even left the dinner table a complete mess just to be sure that we weren't late!! let me tell you what we experienced! we had the most amazing large group time. they provided couches for the adults to sit on(parents were highly encouraged to attend with their children), and some of the best songs to sing. of course we had an offering time. i placed my dollar in the candle holder. that is what they use to show that the offering goes to show God's light to the world! impressive!!! then it was off to craft time....in that room we created stone tablets and wrote the 10 commandments. it seemed pretty simple and a lot of fun to work with my children on this project. it made for some great conversations!! then it was st...

we have the best daddy here at our house!! he is the most amazing man!! i confess i feel like he got a little cheated out on his celebration, but thankfully he still feels blessed!!! let me tell you about him... he is out of bed everymorning at 5:30. he has quiet time, exercises, and sits quietly! if the kids get up he helps with their breakfast. he always makes sure there is a cup of coffee for me!! he comes home for lunch almost every day! while home he patiently endurese the 50,ooo questions the kids ask him and most days is talked into a game of some kind. he often sends me emails just to say he loves me. he comes home again at 5:00 and enjoys dinner as a family. although he doesn't do bath time, he plays more games, helps with bedtime, and reads to the kids. he loves to just sit on the couch with me at night and listen to me. he will help with projects i'm working on and rarely leaves me a to do list! he plays everything from army men to strawberry shortcake, he c...

so life has been crazy at our house since the end of may!! but today...this very day....life slows down and our real summer begins!! i have worked hard to carve out a basic daily schedule, weekly schedule, and have the plans put together for a chore chart for my precious children!! i'm thankful that God has blessed me with creative, caring friends and shown me what His plans for our summer are!! we had a great saturday at hubby's brothers house. this is a rare thing, but hubby's brother and i now have the same name. our first names were the same before and now that i'm married we share a last name....it is quite fun!!! they have twin girls who will be 8 next week so we went to celebrate their birthday. they have a boy who just turned 9 last month and then ours will be 7 next month and 5 the following month so for a long time it always seemed overwhelming to get together...but over the course of of the past 15 months they have all become best friends and we never ...

this morning it was 7:45 when i rolled over in bed!! ahh...it still sounds quiet!!! sure enough, hubby walks out for work. quiet....i should do my exercise. after just a short consideration i savor a cup of coffee instead. God is so good. i decide to enjoy my coffee with the today show!!! i don''t remember the last time i was able to watch that. most likely when mapboy was still under 2. i watch a very moving piece on a widowed father and the phone rings. it is my bestest friend!! i love talking to her and it is still quiet upstairs! after a few minutes plans are made for my family to head to her house for time in their pool and a poolside lunch! after a week of making my kids play alone while i worked on vbs stuff this is just what they need. as they wander sleepily downstairs, i ask if they would like to go. well, of course i knew the answer, but isn't it nice that i asked? so my kids quickly get their chores done, i throw dinner in the crockpot and by 10:00 w...

when my children were young we lived a very orderly life. everything ran on schedule during the day and our week even had a routine. now...we are older here!! i thought as they got older we would need less structure. i've been proven wrong, so if there are any readers out there i'd love any tips on bringing order and routine into our day/week. i want something with flexibility, creates responsibility, and provides sanity!! this madness has got to end!!!! structure is a must have in this house! i never knew how much my kiddos needed it!

okay...so earlier today i wrote about our wonderful sibling argument this morning. i've racked my brain all day trying to figure out the sudden fascination with the money! well, it just clicked... every year at our vbs we have a coin competition between the boys and girls. we weigh the buckets each night and at the end of the week whoever wins gets to do something silly to me! one year it was shaving cream, and one year it was silly string, but this year it happens to be something the kids are REALLY excited about. well - a few minutes ago i was prepping my kids on the time frame of the night. mapboy has t-ball so daddy will take him to that while princess and i head off to vbs. we have to eat dinner at 4:30 for all of this to happen. and a cousin is coming home to spend the night so we need to have rooms cleaned and stuff out for that. in the midst of all the chatter, mapboy exclaims "i have my money all set out to bring tonight. will you please take it for me! i th...

we seem to have been getting along so well...until today!! this morning has been one bit of trauma after another!! why don't siblings get along all the time??? what started it all - princess asked to look at her piggy bank. mapboy who collects the state quarters (he has all of them thanks to our banker friend) quite kindly asked his sister to give him all of her quarters. she could care less about saving them in a collection and kindly said she would not give him any money. this seems to be going well - until, mapboy jumps up, screams at the top of his lungs, and stomps out of the room. princess begins to cry that he yelled at her and he screams he wants her money!!! it seems to me that this has some deeply hidden lessons in this argument. but i solve it quickly with: "Mapboy, you go to your room and look at your own quarters. these belong to princess." "princess, put your quarters away." end of story......or so i thought....all of 20 minutes late...

90!! there were 90 smiling faces at our vbs last night! now, some of you out there go to mega churches and 90 doesn't sound like a lot, but for our small town, small church 90 is HUGE!! this is the largest number we have ever had. we also usually have our high attendance on wednesday or thursday...we could be close to 100!!! what a blessing it is to see all those kids having fun and praising Jesus! night 1 was great...no problems if you don't count the following: ran out of name tags, out of the 90 only 20 were preregistered, one round of vomit, the video guy didn't show up, and a few inflatables had gone flat. i consider that HUGE success for the first night!!!

last night while i listened to mapboy beg to be held while we were waiting at lowes i said (what i thought was to myself but instead was said out loud) that i might have to make a list of 7 things he needed to learn before he could turn 7. there would be no birthday party until he could do those things. you see, for some time we have struggled with him being independant. we hear a lot of "i can't do it!" "you do it, mom!" simple things: buttering his own bread, using a fork with certain foods, tieing his shoes, etc... you get the point. i hadn't thought about that conversation again. this morning, mapboy and princess were outside with daddy. the door flung open and there stood mapboy with muddy shoes, muddy legs, dirt smeared across his face, and a HUGE grin! so before i could rattle out the the usual "STOP! Take off those shoes!" he starts shouting, "I DID IT, I DID IT!!!" now, honestly i'm trying to figure out what he di...

now i am usually quite organized and structured and our home life runs on routine, but it is the end of our first week of summer break and i'm exhausted!!! for whatever reason i can't seem to get much accomplished by the end of the day. it seems like this week has been utter chaos!!!!! the kids have played really well, for the most part, but i'm struggling to maintain order in the other areas. my to-do list just keeps getting longer. whenever i cross something off, 2 things get added! can i just say it is really getting to me?!?! IT IS GETTING TO ME!!!! so i decided to take a few minutes to stop and smell my roses. i have 2 of them blooming in my back yard. this allowed me some time to consider the chaos around me. i learned that although i'm left handed and my organization is not the norm to most right handed people (a whole other post) i crave order in my life. i also am a party girl, but definitely got used to some time of quiet in my life. having mapbo...

i would never have guessed t-ball would be so much fun!!! last night was our first game and they were just so stinking cute! all these little kids out there running around in cute little pants and hats that made it hard to know who was who! mapboy did great! he did have to use the tee each time but made it home each time too. we all got a chuckle because when he would make it to 2nd he would be so focused on cheering on the next runner that he would forget to run himself! it was great fun and he was beaming when it was over!!! princess had the time of her life digging for treasure with her 2 best friends. the treasure: worms! go mapboy!!!!

visiting the magic kingdom was definitely not our norm! but on sunday evening we walked back through our back door into reality again. yuck....what does that mean for us? hubby - work, where he currently has nothing to work on, a fence that needs painted, a porch that is falling apart, a yard that hasn't been mowed in 2 weeks, and a tub that needs the faucet fixed. nothing exciting there; atleast he doesn't think so! mapboy - no more school, more battles over the tv, first season of t-ball, and summer chores. some exciting things, some not-so-exciting. mostly thrilled with checking on our birds, swinging, and playing with our dog oscar. princess - the loss of time to play girl things like a girl, no more school, wearing sundresses, summer chores, lots of strawberries. mostly bothered by having brother around all day to "rescue her polly" from the trauma he creates. she likes her polly to just be happy in paradise. me - picking strawberries, vbs chaos, picking st...

on the first day at the campground i was walking back from the bathroom and saw a turkey with 3 babies on my way. i quickly grabbed mapboy whose next favorite obsession is birds and took him to see the turkey. he quietly said he thought it was a peacock with her babies. now, every peacock i had seen was quite colorful and this one was all brown. i just smiled and pretended to agree. later, hubby came back and said he had seen a momma peacock and her babies. hmm...so maybe mapboy was right. a quick look in our book proved he was. this was the first of several times during the week that mapboy was right about things the rest of us were all wrong on. we were getting back late a few nights later. we were all wondering what time it was when mapboy shouted out the answer. he does not have a watch and we kinda joked about the time he gave us. sure enough, he was exactly right. we laughed and asked him how he knew. he said he could tell by the stars. at this point i realize he i...

we are back!! princess summed up our trip when she looked up at me on our last boat ride back to the campground, held out all 10 fingers, and said, "mommy, i had this many dreams come true!" she smiled, put her head on my shoulders, and fell asleep. we did have a great time! it is hard to think of a great way to sum it up in one entry. i might have to devote a couple of days to giving you all the details but here is our top 10 of disney: 10. perfect weather - mid 80's, partly sunny/cloudy, breezy 9. no lines - seriously! the longest wait was 20 minutes 8: co-pilots of the monorail 7. helped open disney world 2 mornings! 6. the new nemo ride at epcot and the musical at animal kingdom 5. spending a day at the atlantic ocean on the way home 4. a dinner date at the lodge with my hubby 3. the parades and fireworks (okay, princess despised the fireworks) 2. meeting all 3 princesses, mickey, donald, daisy, goofy, pluto, minnie, buzz, peacocks, and armadillos 1. ma...