Ring the Dinner Bell

The only person I know who still calls the noon meal "dinner" is Big Pappy.  Dinner makes me think of a big meal at noon that farmers ate because they worked so hard during the day that their bacon, egg, biscuit, and gravy breakfast is all worked off and they need some more energy.  The best I can tell from my Little House on the Prairie books, at supper time a dinner eater would just have leftovers...possibly the cornbread all crumbled up in some buttermilk.  Well, of late, our schedule has been such that the concept of "dinner" has become a part of our normal routine.  I have to say that I like it.  My body likes not having that big heavy meal at night.  We don't work in fields...Woody still has his desk job and the kids and I just kind of hang out during the day, but it is still good.  By the way, we don't eat buttermilk and cornbread at night.  We eat what normal folk eat for lunch: PB&J, Mac and Cheese and the like.  I prefer just a bowl of cereal, but my kids do not. 

This day was chili day.  See why he has to have a bath every day?  The only down side is that he has several hours between lunch and bath time.

The dinner hour is some of Hope's best quality time with Dad.

After lunch, unless Will has had a morning nap, he goes down for a nap and Hope and I do school.  Today she was learning about bugs.  Insects to be exact.  Do you know that insects have 3 sections to their body, 6 legs (so a spider is NOT an insect), 2 antenna, a hard shell, and 2 wings?  Well, they do.

Drawing the parts of an insect.  Too bad it is cold out, wouldn't a bug collection be the perfect activity here?
So that's more of our daily routine.  Do you like routines?  Woody breaks out in a cold sweat at the mention of the words "routine" or "schedule."  I like them.  I'm a firm believer that kids like them too.  I bet Woody even did well with a routine as a little kid. 

                                                 

Ho Hum...

Well lately, there just has not been a whole lot to blog about.  Our post holiday winter life got crazy with sickness and then moved right on into Woody working hard mode.  So, right now, honestly we are just kind of making it.  Every had a time like that in life?  Our kids do cute things every single day and gosh they really do say the darnedest things, but I rarely have my camera ready for all of those precious moments.  Hope is our deep thinker.  We have had some interesting conversations lately about life in general.  "Mom, if my Little House on the Prairie Books are true and the Bible is true, why can't we just read Little House instead of the Bible?" Will is talking more too, but he just says his few words over and over.  The biggest excitement in his life right now is a Cars (the movie) night light in his room.  "Cars, Cars, Cars..." Yep, that's how a conversation with Will goes.  Not having anything to really blog about, I decided to start occasionally documenting just what life around here is like.  I do not fast for Lent as I'm not Catholic.  But, if I were, I'd give up facebook.  That is the single biggest contributor to my feelings of total inadequacy.  If I wanted to impress you with a facebook status update of my breakfast in bed or my children's perfect lives, well I'd have to lie about it.  My kids are not perfect, my house often looks like a bomb exploded in every room, and I don't shower for days at times.  But, life is fun and short so here's a snippet of real life.

The first place I'll start is actually at the end.  The reason is simply that this idea hit me at the end of the day and not the beginning and so that's when the camera started snapping.  Our bedtime routine officially starts at the end of
"The Ding Ding Letter Show" (aka Wheel of Fortune).  When that ends, Will gets a bath. Almost every day.  Hope gets baths or showers too, but not every day like Will because she does not smear peanut butter in her hair everyday.  Will loves his baths.  His first official sentence was "Bye bye bath."  He can also say "bubble" and can be kind of demanding about that Elmo bubble bath!

Next is a bedtime snack.  Not because they are actually hungry but because I am hungry for sleep and I have tricked myself into thinking that if they eat right before they go to bed they will not wake up before the sun asking for pancakes.  Hope likes to try to con me into letting her eat "marshmallow cereal" for a snack.  "Marshmallow cereal" is Lucky Charms.  Her Grammy recently brought over a box of it from Sam's.  Do you know how much Lucky Charms is in a Sam's box of Lucky Charms.  John, do you remember anything of the sort ever showing up on Lexington Ave when we were kids?  We have a deal, if I give her the cereal, she has to eat the cereal part too and not just the marshmallows.  They fortify the stuff these days with good things, right? 

Okay, time to get the hair combed.  I would let you comb my hair for hours (right Hillary?) and often try to con my kids into playing "beauty shop" to get them to comb my hair.  Will has my affinity for hair combing. 

And now for teeth brushing.  Here's Hope's first photo contribution to the blog.  Do all kids love brushing their teeth or is it just mine?  Hope brushes her teeth, too but Will is too young to take pictures of that. 

Next is bedtime stories for Will.  Hope is always present for this.  Then, Will gets rocked for a bit and put to bed.  Since the addition to of the Cars night light, he sings a song while we rock.  It goes like this: "cars, cars, cars, cars, cars," until finally Hope says, "Lets just put him in his bed and let him cry!"

After Will is in bed, it is jammy time for Hope.  She can dress herself now but rarely wants to.  The independent streak for Hope is faint. Hope also potties but you don't need to see a picture of that :).

The most important part of Hope's bedtime routine is the proper zipping of the jammies so that the beloved "feel good" can still be felt.  There are few times Hope can ever be spotted without the feel good attached to her cami.  The infamous "fingers" go right along with the feel good.  Her dentist and I have had a heart to heart about this.   Finally, we read to Hope.  She gets one Bible story and one other story which has lately become a chapter of a chapter book.  This has been a good development for us both.  I get to read stories with an actual plot and she can more easily con me out of more reading time before bed.  After stories Hope usually says "Lets talk about stuff." And we talk..... mostly right now about our favorite flavors of ice cream but I like to keep the lines of communication open for more as the years go by.  Life can seem so monotonous at times.  I am often overwhelmed and extremely tired.  I was telling my brother the other day that I may never get to rest until I die and even then I thought Jesus would come back that day and I wouldn't even get to sleep in my grave.  He reminded me that I would at least get a new body then and may not need sleep.  Until that day, I'll enjoy the day I've been given.  It is the day the Lord has made!

Well, it's good to have your limits tested every once in a while.  That way, at least you will know what your limits are.  I know my limits now.  RSV, strep, and a husband working 60+ hours a week.  That is my limit.  That's a shame since today at Will's well child visit I learned that he also has double ear infections.  Overall, the kiddos are doing so much better.  Not being contagious has allowed us to go to our regular weekly activities and that helps so much. 

They do, however, have a terrible case of the sillies.  And that IS contagious.  Just a note on these photos of Will.  For some reason, they look nothing like how he actually looks. Funny how that happens sometimes.

This is one of Will's favorite tricks.  He pulls his shirt or bib to make his eyebrows go way up.  He thinks that's so funny.

See how funny he thinks that is?  I promise, his mouth is not actually that big and he looks more like a baby than this picture shows.  It makes him look like a 3 year old with a big mouth.  He's not.

Hope's silly face.

Switching gears:  Usually you tune in to my blog and see all the art projects the kids have been up to.  But today I proudly present Woodrow III's latest project.  Please note, he is not a wood working kind of guy (not yet anyway).  But, he conquered the unknown and got plans from the Internet, went to Menards, stained the wood, drilled a few holes in the carpet wood, and made the kids a little zoo cage for their stuffed animals.  And all while working his crazy schedule!

It is a vast improvement to the laundry basket where these toys had previously lived.  They were overflowing and always needing to be picked up.  Now, the kids can see all of them at once and pull out whomever they wish to play with.  I must say- and I don't exaggerate -that this one looks better than I had pictured in my mind.