We had our family picture taken today for our church’s new directory.  My plan was to order a couple of prints for our parents & one for Jason’s office.

Ha!

An 8×10 was going to be $50!  And the pictures weren’t that great.  Jason was pretty quick to shut down the sales pitch & the salesperson was kind of rude in her eagerness to move us out.  We thought we were being nice by not wasting her time but I guess she didn’t see it that way.

The one thing we did get out of the evening, other than a free 8×10, was a kick in the butt to actually get pictures taken at an affordable place.

The appointment is on Wed.  Just what everyone wants to do on their day off…

K~

 

I know, I know.  Another toothpaste post?!

Tova had to have a new shirt before we even left to take the boys to school because of this mess.

 

Did any end up in their mouths or just on the counter?

The kids even made a special blue cap for the tube.

K~

 

Yesterday I was looking for a book.  In Rural City that meant cruising Amazon & placing an order or borrowing a book from a friend.

Metropolis has a few more options.  Not only do we have a Barnes & Noble, we also have 2 libraries relatively close by & they are staffed by people who enjoy books & children.  What an amazing concept!

So Tova & I are in search of some books.  Tova found a few, her new favorite is Catalina Magdelena Hoopensteiner Wallendiner Hogan Logan Bogan Was Her Name.  The girl loves her word salads…  Anyway, I’m cruising the new stuff & find No Time to Wave Goodbye.  I’d read The Deep End of the Ocean years ago & it was a good albeit disturbing read. I like a good sequel so I picked it up.

And put it down last night at 1:30.

I’m a little tired.

The book was okay.  In retrospect, it was not Reading Till 1:30am Worthy.  There were a few chapters that went on way longer than necessary – I’m talking about you Sheriff Swift & your endless monologue about what kind of weather a rescue team can do an effective search & why you won’t authorize one now & egads, the formula & supply debate too…

Anyhoodle, I baked & salsa’d (fruit salsa, not the dance) & bejeweled trying to stave off a nap.  Now I’m just a little cranky, the camera won’t download the pictures so I can’t do the blog post I was originally planning, & the internet is really slow tonight.  But the kids are in bed, I maintained my composure while Ethan, instead of getting ready for bed, was doing his Risky Business Impression (he didn’t know that’s what he was doing, he thought he was only being ‘funny’.  He says funny, I say annoying).  Now I’m going to finish this post that is way longer than it needs to be, find my jammies, snuggle under the covers & read my next book until I fall asleep.  The book is written by a well-known politician so that shouldn’t take long.

K~

We’ve had a few interesting adventures with our Little Orphan Abbey.  She wasn’t coming around as much for a while but now her first knock after school is usually by 3:45.  The kids have barely thrown their coats, book bags, hats, socks, & shoes on the floor right in front of the door by that time.

Over the weekend LOA’s mom called to find out if LOA was at our house.  LOA’s mom wasn’t home & neither was I.  Instead of sending her husband, who hadn’t known LOA left the house, next door, LOA’s mom called me & I ended up calling Jason to send LOA home.

These houses weren’t built for sneaking out.  You can’t close an outside door without the whole house knowing.  So the fact that LOA’s dad ‘lost’ her is troubling.  And how lazy are these people?  You can’t walk the 20 steps next door & knock to see if your 8yr old child is there?

The love & concern LOA’s parents shower on their child is underwhelming.

It’s arm-chair parenting at its best.

K~

I’m a yeller.  And not a “Go Team!” type of yeller, but a “I can’t believe you’ve had an hour & you’re still not ready for school!” type of yeller.

And I hate that about myself.

In the past, I’ve tried to reign in the yelling, but I always regress.  Usually within the first few hours of my No Yelling Resolution.  I think the reason I couldn’t make the change was because, while I thought my yelling was embarrassing, I never really thought of it as being wrong.  I read this post by another blogger & thought, ‘Yeah, yelling is not great but it’s not that bad’.  Then a while later Jason & I did a bible study at church & a lot of the discussion centered on yelling.  Then shortly after that the same blogger wrote this post.  Something about the 3 things together really convicted me.  I knew it was time to stop making excuses & really make a change.

Quitting yelling is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.  It is also one of the most important things I need to do for my family.  I cringe every time I hear the kids yelling at each other.  They are really good at yelling & they can come up with some really great unenforceable consequences.

They learned for the best.

The thing that finally convinced me was that when I am yelling, I am not in control of myself.  My yelling changes nothing except my frustration level, but even that is only lowered for a little bit.  It never makes the kids move faster.  It never makes them immediately obey.  And more often than not I yell things I can’t enforce.  Am I really going to take away their birthday?  Am I really going to make them go to bed at 4:15 in the afternoon with no supper?  No, I’m not & they know it.

So I’m making the change.  I went a whole week without yelling but blew it today.  The rule is, if you yell, you must do something nice for the person you yelled at.  I owe Ethan.

My goal is to stop my yelling.  But my ultimate goal is to have a family who doesn’t yell.  Jason isn’t completely on board yet & the kids are struggling too.  My hope is that every day we’ll reduce the number of times we yell & lose control & find more constructive ways of dealing with each other.

I hope to never yell “Stop yelling at your brother!” ever again.

K~

It was surprisingly hard to capture a nice smile out of all 3 kids at the same time.  Usually Ethan was the problem.

*sigh*

Here’s the best of the bunch.

Waiting to blow out the candles

Gavin's Happy Face at getting a Peterson jersey

And because I’m feeling nostalgic today you get a baby picture too.

Not so very long ago, these were my little guys

K~

For years this has been my purse.

 

You have served me well little carry-all

Now I’m carrying this.

 

 

Trading up

It feels a little weird.  I feel like everyone looking at me knows I’m just trying to act like an adult by carrying around a purse.  I’m looking forward to having a place for my keys when I don’t wear a jacket, carrying a packet of tissues, maybe even a chapstick!  Now I just need to find the perfect wallet.

 

It has been a fabulous weekend.  Friday the kids didn’t have school so I was able to sleep in until 8!  Friday afternoon one of my oldest friends & her family came by for supper on their way to a family gathering.  Tova was thrilled to play with girls.  Then my friend C~ from Rural City pulled in for our weekend of girl time & shopping.  Friday night we cleaned out Kohl’s.  C~ has more than the average number of kids & I had 30% off, a match made at the register

Saturday C~ & headed out to do Body Pump at the Y.  It was a great way to start the day.  I’m pretty sure C~ won’t be able to lift anything heavier than a fork tomorrow but it was still fun.  After cleaning up we headed out to the nice mall in the area & shopped & shopped & shopped.

I’d forgotten how nice it is to shop with someone other than my 2yr old.  It was marvelous to just wander.  It was fun to get a friend’s opinion on important purchases like brand new adult-looking purses.  It was delightful to go through our bags at the end of the day & compare bargains.  Only having an unlimited supply of money could have made this weekend any better.

I sooooo needed this!

K~

 

Too much shopping.

My pocketbook hurts.

Too many receipts.

Must go to bed to rest up for tomorrow’s trip to the mall.

K~

The first thing I said to the birthday boy?

“Why are you up so early?  Go back to bed!”

He was a little excited.

I think he had a fun day & he was super excited about his presents.  I’ll post pictures soon.

K~

One of my favorite Veteran’s arrives home Thursday from his year in Afghanistan.

 

The fam & Aaron

 

Welcome Home Aaron!

K~