Say What?

Today at lunch, Princess #3 was inspecting the ketchup bottle. She looked up from her study to ask: "Does ketchup have cheeseburgers in it?"

And being the helpful mother I am, only half-listening, while cutting up #2's lunch say: "No it just has ketchup in it."

My Destiny??

My Dad sent me the link to the following youtube video and it is too funny!! Even if you don't homeschool, it is still a hoot. I needed a laugh this morning-thanks Dad!

Confession

I have a little 'fessing up to do about my ironing. It should probably remain just between us friends.

I don't iron the backs of my skirts and/or dresses.

If I lived close enough to walk to church or my shopping destinations I would probably give the backs a taste of the heat, but since I gotta drive, why bother to unwrinkle what is going to just get wrinkled up on my way! And that was my little secret to getting to the sewing faster yesterday!!

Don't say you've never done it or at the very least thought about it . . .

Bribing Myself

So I hate ironing. It is a loathsome chore to me. I will usually let the items that need to be ironed sit until I have at least an hour's worth of work, you know to make my time worthwhile, it's not like I'm procrastinating or anything. Uh-huh.

Well, today we had nice cooler weather, good sewing weather I thought to myself during school. However, my mom and I have the same deal, no sewing til the ironing is done. So once school let out I attacked the pile. Got the ironing done, the knitting blocked and even a bit of sewing done. Nothing like a little bribery to get a detested job done!

(Note for Friberg girls: I even did it without a stash of green m&m's and pretzel sticks!!)

In A Perfect World. . .

. . . school would have been taught and the garden tended. However, here at the castle the world is not perfect, it is real, and things didn't go according to my plan!

Over the weekend here the temps were sweltering, true August desert weather--100+ temps daily. Soccer games were watched, but just sitting in the sun sucked out so much energy that the normal weekend routine was interrupted! So that left weekend chores for today. So we stripped beds/remade them, and went grocery shopping! Not to mention the normal Monday of chore of laundry-til-you-die!

School will start tomorrow (I hope!) . . . in my perfectly real world!!

More Giggles

My girls make me laugh, which is a great thing! Finding my life amusing is the next best thing to knitting as far as keeping the queen sane! So I share two separate conversations with Princess #2 yesterday that still have me giggling.

We're at the table eating dinner, which happened to include rice. She stops eating and says, "Mama, when I grow up I am going to learn how to speak Chinese a little bit and go over to China with someone who knows how to speak Chinese and Washington, and I'm going to tell people in China that you can eat other things that aren't rice. That way they can have something else to eat." Too funny. Washington.

And then at bedtime, Princess #3 had a tiny thorn or sliver in her toadie and we were soaking it a bit trying to get it to work it's way out without assistance. When Princess #2 saw that our efforts were not working, she immediately ran to mama's bag and got out the "twizzlers", so the thorn could be taken out. I bit back the giggle then because she was so worried about her sister and her willingness to try and help was so sweet, I didn't want her to think I was laughing at her help.
(Twizzlers is "Washington" for tweezers, doncha know?)

Hope you had a laugh now too!

Time's a-ticking

Over the weekend I had the girls' clean up their rooms. P#1 has her own room and the younger two share. P#2 got right to work and put books back up on the bookshelf, and the library books in their place. It was great! I look across the hall to P#1's room and she's curled up on the guest "futon" reading a long lost Archie magazine! Like mother like daughter--those darn sidetracks especially in the form of books or knitting. Anyway, I offer to help and we begin to tackle her room.

From the vantage point of the hall, it sure didn't look too messy, but boy-howdy is that girl a pack rat! We found all kind of things that could be thrown away OR kept in her "special things" box. Well, among the things we found was her calendar, crammed under her desk. I flipped it to August and hung it up again. Then something caught my eye on it, a sticker on Monday August 18th. I leaned in for a closer look and it reads "School Starts". WHAT?! No one told me, and I'm the teacher!!!

Then I remembered the logic of having her put the sticker on that date. We'll be involved in our homeschool co-op again this year, and that sucks up a day of school a week starting in October, and then in September we're expecting company and school may or may not get completely done each day. Soooo, we're starting early. And as I'm reaching for the brown bag to breathe into, I remember, I did all my lesson plans, all I have to do to get ready for next week, is to organize their worksheets for the week. Hooray!

Now, I'm eager and excited to embark on this next year of learning adventure and fun. The smell of newly sharpened pencils to quote "You've Got Mail" has got my nose twitching and ready to see how third grade, first grade part deux, and keeping an eager preschooler busy will work exactly.

Please, be a friend, and remind me that come January when I'm pulling my hair out and ranting to the gods, I wrote this post about how excited I was for school to begin!

Princess #2 is 6!

In news better a week late than never, Princess #2 is 6! The long-awaited day finally arrived. She had a great day. And I love that she always chooses take-out for her birthday dinner, so nice for mama!

It's hard to believe that this little "preemie" has developed into such a lovely, funny, silly, fancy girl. She is my one that consistently runs hot or cold-there is no middle ground with this girl! However, I must say despite the craziness of having a personality like this in our family, it is part of her charm. Her world is black and white and I love that about her, everything is an absolute. She loves very deeply and has friends everywhere! She runs into more friends on a trip, well, just about anywhere, than I do long-lost high school acquaintances at Costco (and that is saying something my friends)!

When I think back as to how scared we were that we could possibly lose her in the womb or shortly after her early arrival, I feel so blessed to have her in our family. My parents always remind us when we get frustrated with her, that once all that energy and fire are channeled in one (positive!) direction, she is going to be a force to be reckoned with, and I have to agree. I am eager to see where the Lord leads her in life. For now, she wants to be a veteranian and a people doctor, and set up practice on Nanny's farm, so that she can take of the animals and her grandparents, how sweet is that?!

Home Sweet Bathroom

We are still (or maybe it's just me) that is recovering from our journey to the Midwest and back again, so I apologize for the lack of posting. Here's one quick one from the day we returned.

Once we all piled in through the door, the happy exclamations began from the older two: my toys! my kitty! my room! air conditioning! and so on. Princess #3 didn't have too much to say, just kind of wandered around. Then she heads into the bathroom to take care of some business, and we hear this shout of excitement: It's my same bathroom and my same potty and my same stool!! Oh thank you Mommy that I'm home!

She is Free

So we're driving today to yet another location to deposit yet another pet in preparation for our long trek, and we're listening to the radio. I'm daydreaming, scratch that, rehashing all the things that have yet to be done and absolutely need to be done before we can leave when Princess #3 pipes up from the back row "turn it up Mama it's my favorite!" So I do. It's this song by the Newsboys called "I Am Free". I don't think too much of it til I hear her version sung as loud as she can. . . "I am three to live. I am three to dance." and so on! It was so cute!!! When she's done, she sighs a happy sigh and says I love that song for three year olds.

Me too, baby girl, me too.

When Pigs Fly

While we waited and waited and waited for our pizza hut pizza and breadsticks at my local favorite shopping destination, we saw some interesting people. We saw the guy at the register with purple hair, who as Princess #2 informed me, can't go swimming or it will wash out into the water. Does he wash his hair I had to wonder. Princess #2 didn't think so or it wouldn't have been such a bright purple. And we waited with another employee who had half pink/half yellow hair and a gizillion piercings that fascinated the girls to no end. Thankfully their comments waited for the ride home! Whew!

Just when I think that the conversation topic has run dry, Princess #1 declares that she will just get a tiny diamond nose thing and not the rest of the stuff that girl had on.

Oh really . . .

Swinging Fun

I need to take some pictures! ARGH! Anyway, yesterday the weather finally cooperated and beautiful. Not that the cool weather has slowed the Princess' in their love of doing anything outdoors, but it has stopped their mama.

So back to yesterday. Princess #3 was on the swing and asking for a "spin doggie", which is when you twist up the swing and then give an under doggie--see, it's all making sense now! Immediately her older sisters said "No spin doggies, Daddy said no, they are too dangerous!" So she replies with, "How about a spin puppy then?"

She's a clever one, that one.

Remembering

It's June. One of my niece's is about to celebrate her 1st year of life. So sweet. It makes me nostaligic for when my girls were that age. And it makes me sad to remember that my second niece was to be born this month. Little Abigail Faith went to be with Jesus all too soon. She was so wanted and so prayed for and so loved.

Miscarriage isn't something that women like to talk about because it is so heartbreaking to remember and yet it's something that most women have experienced, some multiple times. If you think of it, say a prayer for someone you may know who has experienced a loss of a baby, the loss of who might have been. I know I'm praying for my sister and her husband, and am thinking of my sweet niece in the arms of Jesus.

At about the same time that my niece died, another friend's mom died, and she has told me repeatedly that she feels in her heart that her mom, who absolutely loved babies and the Lord, is there in heaven caring for my little niece. What a lovely thought.

Baby Fit Free!

I am so encouraged! Last night was our first baby fit free bedtime (say that 10 times fast) in over two weeks. It was so awesome. I didn't have to pin down a toddler. I didn't have to block the door. I didn't have to take any stuffed animals away. I didn't have to make any threats. I didn't have to pray feverishly that my child would chill out and just GO TO SLEEP. I didn't even have to call for back-up!!

And then, as if last night wasn't enough, this morning for the first time in over two weeks, Princess #3 put on only one outfit without a fit and proceeded to ask me to do her hair. People, this is HUGE. You really have no idea how amazing these past 18 hours have been--seriously!! I know that this is only one small step, but I'll take it. Thanks to all of you who have said prayers on our behalf. I think we are starting to see a faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and I don't think it's a firefly.

She Loves Me??

Some of you know the battle of the wills we have been having at the castle as of late with Princess #3. And most of you with young children know that "terrible 2's" are nothing compared to the power of the "terrible, horrible 3's". That horrible power unleashed in a three year old whose will is being thwarted (in their world) is an awesome sight to behold I must say, being witness to it several times daily over the past weeks. But there is hope . . . here is a conversation I had with P#3 today.

Princess #3: I love you Mama.

Queen: Do you really? Because when you love someone you want to make them happy. And what makes Mama happy?

Princess #3: Lotsa kisses and hugs, and back scratches!

Queen: And Mama loves it when you don't have baby fits and when you obey the first time right? So you can show Mama love by not having baby fits and by obeying right?

Princess #3: Yah. I guess I only love you sometimes. But I want to love you always.

No Good

No good can come from a day that started at 10:30pm the night before can it? I guess I'll find out today. Princess #3 was up then for quite a while, and then was woken up just a "skosh" before 6 this morning by her dear bunkmate. We made it to 7:30 with no problems, but then those darn panties felt "funny" again and there's no end in sight to the cranky-pants.

Thankfully, school's out, so I can deal with just her and not have to work with the older two on school stuff. Well, the crying has slowed, so I'll see if we can find some breakfast that suits her royal self!

School's Out!

School's out for the summer at the castle, I am happy to report! Last year all of the "extra" stuff made for a longer school year, but thanks to the hard work of the princess' and the determination of the queen we are done!! I promised a trip to Sonic as a fun done with school treat, so we'll go do that maybe Friday, since the king will be home. Princess #1 is most excited about that, the servers are on skates mama, and I saw him skate backwards, with food and he didn't fall. I love how easily pleased and amused they are (just like mama).

Today we had another experience with a home-schooling doubter. Someone just curious as to why my school-aged-looking daughter could be done with school by noon. . . you know those helpful little comments. I think I need to order a t-shirt I saw a while back. It said something to the effect of: I am in school now and you're talking during class! Too funny.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting my spring cleaning done in the next few weeks and maybe some weeding done too (notice I didn't say gardening-just the weeding). Kind of a boring post, but baby fits are no fun for anyone and that's been most of the mothering "fun" I've had as of late.

Morning Conversations

I'm drying my hair, Princess #2 is perched on the plant ledge in our bathroom, thoughtfully looking out the window. And the conversation goes something like this...

Queen: Whatcha thinking about little love?

Princess #2: I love mornings.

Queen: What do you love about them?

Princess #2: It's just that when I wake up sometimes I have sleep in my eyes and I love to get the sleep out of my eyes. It just feels so good to get the little crisp things out of my eyes. And you only get to do it in the morning, unless you take a nap, but then after nap you may not have any sleep in your eyes. It really just depends. . .

Queen (speechless, thinking . . .): I had to ask, I couldn't just let the comment go at mornings, I had to ask.

Overheard in the bathroom . . .

Princess #1 to Princess#2: Have you seen my nail polish?

Princess #2: Nope. Which one was it?

Princess #3: I've seen your nail pole-ash.

Princess #1: Where?

Princess #3: It's on your fingers. (giggles giggles giggles)

Princess #1 (with frustration!): Not that one, the one that looks like SPIT!


I guess put that way, clear nail polish does kinda look like spit . . .

Princess #1 is 8!

Old news I know, but thought I'd finally get some pictures posted. No she didn't get the present of her dreams (see a couple posts down, I'm too lazy to link), but she did have lots of fun opening her gifts. Birthday lunch was drumsticks, rainbow jello (of course) and root beer, followed by a teddy bear shaped cake.

It's hard to believe that she is the same baby that I used to read the weekly menu/grocery list to in order for her to fall asleep. Or that she is the same toddler telling us all about her "betty bullon" (belly button). Or the same little girl who wanted to be called "beach girl" the entire time on a trip to the OR coast. Now she is so self-suffcient. She likes having the freedom to get herself to bed on time and she likes to ride her bike solo up to her "sniffing spot". She had a speaking part in her latest KIX program for pete's sake! Who is this GIRL?!?

Some things haven't changed, she loves to talk. She loves to cuddle at bedtime. She loves to plan her future-currently it involves living in her own house with her own pets so she won't be lonely (a future cat lady?) and being a missionary. I love that she dreams big. I love that she writes me secret notes and then tells me where to find them so I won't miss them. I love that she loves the Lord with all her heart and wants to find ways she can serve Him (Mama, holding Mrs. U's baby at MOPS was showing Jesus right? Oh yes honey!!).

Anyway, Happy 8th Birthday Princess!!