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!