Today was a special day.  First of all, since Michael was off work, we got to wake up together, which was a treat.  Instead of children piling into bed with only me, they had to find a spot between Michael and me to wriggle in. 

Then, Laura and I went out to lunch at a fancy restaurant, “Michael’s”.  (We liked the name, if nothing else!)  We arrived for lunch just as they opened at 11 a.m., and were the only diners in the place for 20 minutes.  Talk about feeling spoiled!  A steaming buffet of delicious food, and it was just us.  We felt like royalty.

When we got home from lunch, it was time for Lilly’s nap, so after she was settled, I laid down for a long afternoon siesta.  I slept soundly!  I woke up at 4 pm and hurried to make supper.  Homemade pizza was on the menu, so I needed to hurry in order to allow the dough for the crust to rise.  The pizza turned out beautifully, and after it was in the oven, I scurried upstairs to get a quick shower before heading out to an evening lecture at Ithaka Fellowship.

Laura and Isaac went with me, and we very much enjoyed our 40-minute drive out there and back, as well as the lecture itself that was about our current economic situation.  Now we’re home and having a hard time settling down very quickly, so all of us are up way later than we should be.  At least tomorrow is Saturday, so we have time to recover.

Miguel was a bit restless this morning, even though I had set aside time to do some school stuff with him.  Usually he attacks his worksheet pages with gusto, but this time he was not motivated.  I suggested he do his coloring page, but he whined at me that he didn’t have any colored pencils to use, and that he couldn’t find green anywhere.  I offered to help him look for some colors, but he persisted that there were none to be found.  Finally I stopped what I was doing and scolded him a bit for not even giving me a chance to look before he declared me a failure.  I sifted through the pencil drawer and realized that he was right…there was a dearth of colored pencils.

Suddenly I remembered a secret stash in the basement.  I turned to Miguel and said, “You rescue Lilly off the stairs while I run to the basement.  I’ll be right back.”  Miguel was intrigued, so he gladly went and fetched his sister off the stairs while he waited for me.  I was back in a flash with a brand new box of colored pencils in my hand.  (I had purchased them last year on clearance at Meijer, and was saving them for “someday”.)

Miguel’s whole demeanor changed instantly.  Brand new pencils?  All neatly sharpened?  What could be better???  He was ready to color!

Those pencils kept the younger children entertained for quite a while, and they were well worth having saved all this time.

For years my favorite store has been Aldi.  No competition.  Absolutely the best thing going.  I only go to Walmart to fill in any gaps in what Aldi is carrying.

While I’d still like to keep Aldi at the top of my list, I would like to add two new stores to my regular rounds.

First is the mexican grocery that opened down the road from us recently.  The store is brightly lit, so very clean, full of beautiful packages, with Latino music playing over the loudspeaker, and best of all, superb tortillas in the refrigerated case.  Every Wednesday we have burritos for supper, and it has become my habit to stop by the mexican grocery weekly to pick up fresh tortillas for our burritos.  One week Isaac talked me into purchasing a package of large, crispy tostadas (like giant tortilla chips), even though we didn’t know exactly what we’d do with them.  After the children gobbled up a whole bag plain, like chips, I decided to try them again with something on them.  Turns out, the burrito filling is delicious when spread on a tostada and sprinkled with cheese.  So now we have a new favorite thing to eat.

My most recent habit I’m forming at this store is to choose one of the unusual candies at the checkout isle every time I go.  I only pick one, and then I share it with anyone who is shopping with me.  Last time I chose a chunk of candied sweet potato.  It was soft on the inside, and so sweet, and quite delicious.  This time I chose a coconut candy, and again, it was scrumptious.  I’m eager to go back and see what else is there to try.

My other new favorite store to peruse is the Dollar General.  I’ve avoided “dollar stores” for years, simply because I didn’t have the time to waste in them.  But some weeks back a friend reported finding dry-erase markers at the dollar store, and that got my attention.  We have a variety of dry-erase boards here at our house, and the children love to color on them.  That means that I’m forever losing my markers to some budding artist.  I finally stopped by our closest Dollar General and took a look around.  What a blast!  Not only did I find dry-erase markers that were too good of a deal to pass up, but I found other treasures too.  My recent purchases include batteries, pencils, and some beautiful soup bowls to replace the ones that keep getting broken by the dish crew.  I figure that at a dollar a bowl, I can afford to replace them as they break.

So, there you have it.  Not just one store report, but two.

I’d love to hear about your favorite places to shop.

Lilly is turning into a mischief maker.  She is not yet walking, but she sure gets around!  She is able to reach much further than I give her credit for.  This morning she reached Judah’s little play-doh bucket and took every toy out and spread it on the floor.  I picked all that up, and she turned to the next thing.  She is learning to climb stairs, but hasn’t yet fallen on them, so she doesn’t know how hazardous they are!  Lilly loves to throw things off her highchair onto the floor.  She has Mac perfectly trained to sit and wait for the next gift to come sailing down.  Mac loves graham crackers.

Lilly has discovered the joys of playing with the books on Daddy’s night stand and all the junk on Mama’s side of the bed.  And that little rascal knows how to scoot away from me in a hurry as I’m trying to catch up with her.  She’s not even walking yet!  But she sidles away with a huge grin on her face as I find her going around the bed to get to my things.

This morning when I wasn’t looking, Lilly found the lower Lazy Susan cabinet open in the kitchen, so she proceeded to remove several stacks of plastic plates and cups and bowls from the shelves.  To add to the fun, she also spit up some of her breakfast oatmeal right in the middle of it all, just to keep me guessing.

Lilly is officially changing from a sweet charming baby to a mischievious little pest.  I think the next few months are going to be interesting.  I hope I can keep one step ahead of her, but since she’s already beating me at this game, I don’t have a good feeling about this.  And every time she beams her charming smile at me, I forget all the trouble she causes.  She’s good at that.

Tonight I took some children to the library.  We used to go every Monday night, but fell out of the habit, so I’m hoping to start going weekly again.

Miguel wanted to go along with the older children and me, and even tough he’s not finished learning his letters yet, I took him anyway.  While we were there, we happened to find a book that he could read some of the words in.  It’s called “Indian Two Feet and His Horse”.  It’s a very cute little book about an Indian boy who desperately wants a horse but can’t seem to make that wish come true.  Miguel was able to read and sound out about half of the words, and I filled in the other half for him.  The more words he read, the more excited he got.  By the time he finished the book he was downright giddy, exclaiming in an excited voice that he couldn’t believe he was actually able to read a hard book!  He read through the story again to Michael, doing even better the second time through.

As Miguel was getting ready for bed he asked me if he could read the book tomorrow again to everyone.  I told him he could read it to people one at a time, and that seemed to please him.

Seeing his excitement makes that trip the library priceless.

If you ever need to work off some excess energy during this long winter, try playing Uno with six kids and a husband.  It’s enough to wear ya’ down in a hurry. 

It is with great relief and satisfaction that I report to you that I was successful this afternoon and evening as I methodically (and hesitantly and unsteadily) cut hair on three of my boys.  I keep thinking I have to cut four heads, but then I see Luke’s mop of curly hair and remember that he is growing his hair out, which means one less haircut!    I like long hair, especially if it means I’m off the hook for cutting hair.

One of these days, when we decide that we want to put a line item in the budget for haircuts so that I don’t have to mess with it anymore, I’m afraid I might actually decide that I like cutting hair.  Until then, I dream of the day that we’ll be rich enough to splurge on store-bought haircuts.

Well, after two different people have expressed a desire to have me update my blog, here I am!

Nothing has been wrong here.  We’ve just been busy with school, and I have been strangly lacking in inspiration on things to write.  Sometimes I look around and wonder what exactly folks want to know about my day.

But today I have something to write.

Last night Isaac came home after his guitar lesson, went to put his guitar away in the study, and was irritated to yet again find the baby gate blocking his way.  He picked it up and tossed it over to where he intended to put it.  Unfortunately he misjudged his strength, and the sound of shattering glass quickly made its way to the kitchen where Michael and I were standing.  Michael was totally irate with Isaac.  It took him many minutes to calm down enough to be able to figure out what to do about the broken window.

We finally decided that Isaac needed to pay for half of the cost of replacing the window.  That means he is in debt for $100, which is way more than he thinks he’ll ever be able to pay off.  Meanwhile, he can’t use his dad’s technology until the debt is paid.  Poor Isaac thought his world had come to an end.  He shed many tears of anger, frustration and hopelessness.  Fortunately the world seemed a little brighter for him this morning.

Today was a busy day.  We did school stuff, had some friends over to play, and then I got ready to hurry to the theater to get some tickets for the new Inkheart movie.  As I walked to the van, Laura and Isaac followed me outside to ask a few questions.  When they started racing back inside, Isaac beat Laura inside and tried to keep Laura from getting in.  Laura put her hands out to keep the door from closing, and she put her hand right through the glass in the front kitchen door.  I was climbing into the van when I heard the shattering glass.  I quickly looked back to the porch to see Laura holding her hand up.  I hollered, “Are you hurt???”  She answered in a shaky voice, “YES.”  So I hollered as I went running toward her, “I’m coming!  It’s going to be ok, Laura!”  When I got up there and saw the blood on her hand and arm, and saw the blood dripping to the porch, I reached inside and grabbed some paper towels so I could sop up the blood and see what damage was done.  I saw a puncture on her wrist that didn’t look too bad, but then I saw a more serious cut on her right ring finger, and I realized she needed stitches.  So I told her quickly that she was going to be ok, that it wasn’t too bad, but that she did need stitches, and I was going to call Daddy.  I called Michael and he said he was on his way home.  As I was fumbling in my purse for Laura’s insurace card, our neighbor from across the street showed up at the front door, and we hollered to be careful of the broken glass.  I told her I was going to take Laura to get stitches, and right away Monica replied, “I’ll stay here with the baby.”  I gave her a quick rundown of where Lilly was, that Michael was on his way home, and that Isaac would clean up the glass.  When Monica saw Isaac’s hesitance with the glass, she grabbed the broom.  “I’ll sweep.”

So I left home with great confidence that Monica would hold down the fort until Michael got there.

When Laura and I walked up to the desk at the PromptCare place, I explained that she had just put her hand through a piece of glass, and that I didn’t think it was needing the emergency room, but that I did want a doctor to look at it.  I must say, that’s the best service we’ve ever gotten at the prompt care place.  They didn’t even have us sit down.  They took us right back to a room, and a nurse looked at Laura’s hand right away.  When the doctor came in, he did a check to make sure no muscles or tendons had been hurt, and then decided it was something he could stitch up.  He was such a kind doctor, and he was so nice about reassuring Laura and visiting with her about horses while he was working on her finger.  Turns out this guy’s wife has two Arabian horses, so he knew all the lingo and how to talk to a horse-crazy girl.

Anyway, Laura is all put back together, Michael got the window patched up, I managed to make supper without ruining it completely, and now I’m finally sitting quietly wondering when this day will be over.

We now have two windows to replace.  We have a child with 4 stitches.  But all is well, and life will go on.  I can’t imagine what tomorrow will bring.  Hopefully it won’t bring any more broken windows.

I just took down the Christmas tree.  Counting the time it took to pluck the ornaments off and drop them into a bag, the whole process took less than ten minutes.  That’s my kind of Christmas tree!!!

Long ago I was a tree snob.  Only real trees would do.  And they had to be big.  And you had to leave them up for months.

But a few years ago I bought a 4-foot pre-lighted tree, and it’s been the best thing to come into my life in a long time!!!  Last year it sat on an entry table out of reach of little hands.  This year it was cable-tied to a milk crate, and the children decorated it.

When we’re done with it, we cram it back into its original box, tape it shut, and wonder why we didn’t think of this idea a lot sooner.

If we ever live in a bigger house, I’ll probably go for the idea of getting a huge live tree and making a big deal out of it.  But for now, I’m so happy with my 4-foot, artificial, arboreal friend.