Staying Busy

Well, we are half way through!  So far this has been a much better separation than basic training or NTC.  I'm able to talk to Brandon on the phone every night.  And every morning he sends me a text telling me how much he loves me and that he hopes I have a good day.

We got out of the house and went on a few play dates and trips to the store, but for the most part the kids have been really content to stay home and chill out.  The girls have also pretty much turned into nudists this week.  They've enjoyed running around in just their pullups all day long.  I pretend that this helps with potty training, but there really hasn't been that much potty training going on.  In reality I'm just too lazy to wrestle them into clothes.

Our days at home have been nice.  Here are the things that we have been up to this week.

Derrick loves soft pushy blankets.  He will carry them around the house.  When he gets tired he loves to rub his face in them.  The other day he fell asleep on a blanket on the floor during the 9 millionth viewing of Up.

During Derrick's naps the girls and I usually go into the office and do a project.  I've been working on cutting old T-shirts into blocks for a T-shirt quilt.  I keep the girls occupied by letting them play with various things.  The other day I made them a little play house out of the desk, chair, a blanket, and some pieces of cardboard.

They loved it and brought all their babies and bears into the "house."  Here is Lydia at the "window."  She'd sit by this window and ask for all the leftover pieces of T-shirt cloth.

We've also spent a lot of time outside.  Derrick learned how to climb up into the little lawn chairs.  He loves sitting in them.  He also loves trying to climb up the back which lead to one fairly nasty fall.  Luckily he only had a small bruise and a few little cuts.  I've learned to keep the chairs on the grass.

The girls insist on sleeping on the floor almost every night.  I'm just fine with that because at least they are in their rooms.

The other night I put the kids to bed and then went to my room to read for a while.  I could hear the girls out in the hall, but I ignored them.  Later I found that Charlotte had snuck into the office and fallen asleep in the little play house.

For the most part I like to include the kids in the work I do around the house.  They like to follow me around every where I go anyway, so I really don't have much of a choice.  The girls love when I let them "help" make my bed.  It is an elaborate process full of at least 6 separate games that we have to play every time we make the bed.  First we push everything off, then we do bubbles with the  fitted sheet, then we do bubbles with the top sheet, then I wrap the kids up in the top sheet and call them each a "cute little baby," then the kids pretend to fall asleep under the sheet and I come and tickle their toes, then we tuck in the sheet, and then put a blanket on and do everything all over again.  It's time consuming, but that's kind of the point.  It keeps us occupied.

Since I'm working on a T-shirt quilt I thought I should actually use the last one I made.  So it's on my bed this month.  This is a quilt made from all the T-shirts I had when I was a teenager.  There are shirts from Girls' Camps, Youth Conferences, OEFY, Oakcrest, Orchestra, and there are even a few shirts that date back to Elementary School.  The girls love to find the different things on each square.  It's kind of like a giant I-spy page.

Friday night we had a really bad rain storm.  Our power was knocked out for about 3 hours.  One of the little neighbor girls had randomly come over to make cookies with us and I'm so glad she was at my house when the power went out.  She helped with the kids while I looked for the lantern.  When I finally found it I discovered that the batteries were dead.  I had no idea where the flashlight was, and we didn't have any candles.  (So much for my reputation as an emergency preparedness guru.)

Thankfully my neighbor just ran over to her house and got some candles.  I am so glad that she just happened to be at my house.  I really don't know what I would have done without her.  I couldn't have taken the kids out in the pouring rain, and I couldn't have left the alone in a semi-dark house.

Charlotte and Lydia were pretty scarred when the power went out.  Even now they keep talking about when "Mommy's fan - STOP."  They also loved to play with the candles - at least until I put them away until we need the again.  

Here is a cute picture of my Mr Derrick.  This kid is so much fun right now.  He isn't talking - but he is communicating.  He uses different tones of voice to communicate different emotions.  He's such a sweet and happy boy.

Naptime continues to be a problem.  The girls just can't seem to make it through most days without a nap, but if they get a nap they are up until 10:00 or 11:00 at night.  I've learned to not make any plans for any projects or relaxing that can't be done without a toddler around.  They have a least started sleeping in until 7:30 or 8:00 so that is a nice consolation to having them up with me until 11:00.

Somehow every surface of my kitchen felt sticky on Friday.  So I spent the better part of the day taking care of getting it less sticky.  I succeeded too.  Then Saturday my goal was to get the rest of the house less cluttery.  I was so proud of the results that I decided to take pictures just to document the fact that some rooms of my house had been clean AT THE SAME TIME.

Here is the play room with all the toys picked up.  This room actually isn't such a problem now that half the toys have found a permanent home hiding inside the window seat (shhhh don't tell the kids).

The kids' room.  People always are surprised to find out I have three cribs in one room.

The office.  The girls made me put the house back together for them once I was done vacuuming.  I'm just glad I was able to get it cleaner.  Lydia had lined it with so many T-shirt scraps that it was starting to resemble a giant rats nest.

And my room, which by the end of the cleaning streak had apparently been visited by some sleepy toddlers and their various animal friends.

The girls discovered the robes that were hanging on the back of their bathroom door.  So they stopped being nudists and started looking like mini Hugh Hefner's.

All the kids have developed a fascination with the front yard and driveway.  I insist that the girls wear clothes when they go out in the front yard so the girls usually put their bathrobes on and run around outside.  (The exception was Wednesday when I totally forgot and let them out the door in just their pull ups.  That's when the "potty training" cover story was invented.)

Movie night has become a family tradition now.  We did it every week when Brandon was home, and we still do it now.  We watched the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe and the girls LOVED it.  They were so excited when the beaver started talking.  And they were enchanted by Aslan.  They keep talking about "Lion, cut his hair, go to sleep, feel better, YAY!" 

We watch a lot of movies.  I don't really feel bad about that.  The girls get into every movie no matter how many times they have seen it.  For example when we watch Toy Story they always cheer when Woody, Buzz, Jessie, and all the characters make their appearances.  Even Zurg gets a "Zurg, Mama, Zurg, See Zurg, ZURG YAY!" when he shows up.  I took this picture because it's actually a rare thing to see all three of the kids watching a show while laying down and relaxing.  - And I thought it was funny that they were all laying the same direction.

Here are the girls playing in their cupboard.  Sometimes they like me to feed them lunch while they are in there.

Brandon gave me a Mother's Day gift before he left.  He knows me well and bought me Apollo 13.  I was so excited I started jumping up and down.  He also made me this card. As you can see, Lydia helped.  

This is the little Mother's Day gift that the girls made in nursery.  Apparently Lydia refuse to get her hands traced.  That makes me proud in a weird way.  

Mother's Day itself was pretty good.  My talk went well in church.  I started it out saying that depending on how my kids behaved it might end up being more of an object lesson on the importance of mothers.  Charlotte and Lydia had to be taken out within the first 3 minutes, but Derrick was just fine the whole time.

In the evening I invited my friend and her kids over for a real casual dinner.  Her husband is at Fort Polk too.  We had Dejourno Pizza, root beer, mini cupcakes, and watermelon.  And we used paper dishes so I wouldn't have to do a lot of cleaning.

In the morning I was greeted by this wonderfully small pile of dishes.  Usually I have a whole counter full of dishes that I take care of during breakfast - but not today!  I think I might make paper plates a tradition every Sunday.  For sure it is something I will do for every Mother's Day.

(BTW check out Lydia eating her cereal while standing up.  I don't sit down for breakfast, and the kids have picked up my habit.)

Sleeping on the floor has evolved into sleeping "in a nest."  The girls put blankets in a circle and then cuddle up.  I didn't get a picture of the nest while Lydia was still in there, but you can imagine.

Because I didn't have to worry about a kitchen full of dishes I was able to turn my attention elsewhere today.  I decided to organize the laundry/mudroom.  Here is the before picture.  Some of the stuff on those shelves has been in the same spot since we moved in.

Brandon set this table up to put his stuff on while he packed.  After he left it turned into a terrible clutter drop spot.

And here are the after pictures.

The bench was in a give a way pile in the gutter in front of my neighbors' house the other day.  So of course I went and got it that night.  I thought it might make a fun art table for the play room.  I imagined sanding it down and painting it with finger paints to match the window seat.  However, once I brought it home, I realized its actually a really nice bench.  So now it's under the window so the girls can get up on it and see outside into the front yard.

I left the table up because it is nice to have somewhere to place things.  I just need to be better about putting those things away in a timely manner.  One day I'd like to move the jackets to some hooks lower in the wall so the kids can reach them.  But that's a project for another day, month, or season.  

One project leads to another around here so I also ended up doing something in the play room.  My mom likes to send me copies of pictures of things that have happened at her house.  For years I've struggled with what to do with the pictures.  They aren't nice enough to frame, yet they don't deserve to be ignored.  A few weeks ago I figured out a solution.  I had large blocks of fabric from a project my friend Erin and I did.  I put the fabric on the wall with sticky tack and then put the pictures on the fabric.  

Today I found a whole stack of pictures while I was cleaning off the card table.  I put up this orange fabric and meant to put some of those pictures up there.  However, Lydia found the pics and claimed them as her's.  (She says, "That's my's pick-tures.")  So until I can get them away from her I guess the orange fabric will remain blank.  

Speaking of Lydia here she is eating a popsicle.  I can't get over how good her hair looks.  It's like prom hair every single day.  About two weeks ago I had an epiphany.  I'd been wracking my brain trying to figure out how to keep the girls' hair from turning into dreadlocks in the back.  Then I thought, "Duh, I should probably start putting conditioner in their hair."  I tried that and problem solved.  It still tangles, but the dread locks are gone!

And here is one final picture of the kids all playing together on my bed while I sat on the floor and folded laundry.  They are all such good kids and I am so happy to be their mom.