I remember watching an eclipse as a kid in Glenwood Springs and this is how we did it. Since I took one momentary glance at the sun/moon and thought my eyes might be damaged for life, I opted this method again. Just poke a little hole in an index card and watch the teeny “sun” through it. I probably would have done better to place another paper on the ground rather than just see it in the sand, but I hadn’t thought that far ahead. And since it was 7 o’clock-ish when all of this was happening, the angle was a little tricky.

Either way it was fun. The kids weren’t all that interested, but I found the darkened light to be fascinating. My shadow was really funky looking too. My brother tells me it’s because the light that hits you during an eclipse is actually from the future. Sorry, I don’t claim to know anything about the theory of relativity or whatever it is, but it was fun to watch.

The eerie light made me think of some things. One, I thought about the day that Christ died and how the sun was darkened. I wondered a little bit if it wasn’t something similar to an eclipse. The sunlight was obviously still there, but it looked “dark” in a way. I wonder what people thought on that day when the sunlight darkened. I also thought of the end of the earth when again the sun will be darkened. I’m glad that I won’t be here to see that particular event! Just some thoughts brought on by the strange moon shade.

Anyway, I hope that the kids will be more interested the next time an eclipse rolls around. Maybe we can get a telescope with a sun filter on it or something. It was really tempting to look at the sun, but impossible to do so too. Ouch!

That’s right! There were actual Lilac blossoms on that little bush!!!

True, they still looked a little spindly and struggling, but the fact that they were there is certainly progress!

They didn’t last long, sad to say. I’m not sure how long Lilacs typically bloom, but I think it’s usually for more than a couple of days. These blossoms didn’t hang around, but again… with all that is stacked up against them, I think it was remarkably brave for them to show their pretty little purple faces at all!

This year I’m going to prune the bush way back, get rid of some of the branches that have been bent so low by the boys, and try to give it a little extra lovin’ to see if we can get some REALLY good blooms next time around. Anyone with actual green thumbs know the best time to prune a Lilac?? I could use a few pointers…. obviously!

Well, I’m happy to tell you that Liam is still alive and well… quite well, in fact, the cat is HUGE! He has learned a few things since living here with us. Last summer we basically left him outside all summer long, even at night. This helped him get in touch with his feline side. He is welcomed into the house now, for short periods of time, and he behaves himself like a well bred gentleman cat. Occasionally he still heads toward the bathroom, but all I have to do is make a “Tsssssss!” sound and he reverses course. He has been keeping up his end of the arrangement, killing/deterring mice, snakes, lizards and whatever other pests their may be, and he’s done a phenomenal job. Even if he did have to learn it all on his own.

Stuart has claimed a violent dislike for Liam ever since he was so disgustingly quirky after we first got him, but I think if he’d really admit it, he likes to have him around. Liam and Cisco live together in peace if not harmony. Liam still tries to act all offended by Cisco’s presence, and will occasionally make a show of arching his back, or darting up the tree to protest the dog in his presence, but we all know it’s a sham. They get along perfectly well, though Cisco does take advantage of Liam’s moods and teases him on occasion.

All things considered, I think he’s a great cat to have around. I much prefer him to little icky critters and rodents! Oh, and he’s dreadfully attached to me. He has almost as violent a dislike for Stuart as Stuart claims to have for him, but he loves to give me kitty kisses, and still likes to jump into my lap (sans claws, he learned THAT lesson) and demand a little attention while purring away. I can’t say I’ll ever love him as much as I did Nung-Nung, she was my first “official” cat, but Liam has worked his way into our hearts and life in his own right. Plus, Ella loves the Kitty-Kitty.

I’ve been smelling it for a few days. It’s mostly confined to Ella’s room. We’ve searched high and low for whatever it is, and there isn’t a sign of the victim. Only it’s odor reminds us of it’s presence… a lot! I’ve been keeping the window of the room open during the day, and we keep the door open at night so that the smell isn’t too bad in there for Ella. I hate putting her to bed in there with that wretched stink, but it’s difficult to mess with bedtimes and routines. She threw a fit when I tried to put her down for nap in her brother’s room this morning.

But I had to have her out of there so I could do some intervention. See, whether it’s the tummy bug that the kids had, slowly trying to kill me, or just the fact that I’ve been so “grossed out” so much lately, I’ve totally lost my appetite, and feeling rather puny. That smell just makes it worse. I knew I had to do something.

Since we can’t get to ‘the source’ of the smell, the only thing we can do is neutralize or mask it. Blah! Do you have any idea how bad “dead thing” mixed with Febreeze smells? Take it from me… it’s not so nice. I got online (my favorite tool) this morning and read about other people’s “dead thing” woes and some of the steps that they took to ease the situation. Hopefully this creature is just a little mouse and will be done rotting in a week or so. Till then I found some options to make it a little more bearable.

First… I don’t like using chemicals (you all are realizing this right?) so I initially put a little bowl of baking soda in the worst problem spot of the room. That did basically nothing. Really, it has to be in something that air can circulate around and through. After reading a bit I got to work and chopped up a pair of old pantyhose that I had left over from… well, years ago, cause I simply do NOT wear those now. In one “toe” I poured fresh coffee grounds. People swear by them for neutralizing odor. I don’t know if it works, but they on their own smell pretty good! In the other toe I poured more baking soda. I tacked these “sachets” up in Ella’s room where they could get plenty of air circulation. Next I put white vinegar in a couple shallow dishes and set them around the room as well. I’ve closed the door and put a rug across the bottom because I just can’t handle that odor in the rest of the house.

The window is open in there still as well, and the last time I walked in, all I could smell was coffee. SO maybe will a little ingenuity and a lot of extra coffee, we can get through the next week or so without too many whiffs of that revolting smell.

Here’s hoping…

I used to be better about cleaning the coffee maker. I’d run a pot of vinegar through and flush with several pots of water. That’s the way it’s done, and it works. As long as you do it. Somewhere along the line… I dunno, baby 2 or 3… the coffee pot cleanings fell to the bottom of the priority list. COFFEE itself was at the top of course, but as long as the maker kept performing, I mostly didn’t think about it.

Some time ago Stuart bought some CLR to remove some mineral deposits on a shower head. I was reading the back and it said that it could be used for coffee makers to clean out the water deposits there as well. It occurred to me that I should do that sometime, because I know that the water here is VERY hard, and I figured there was “stuff” building up in there. By the way… this was at least a year ago, perhaps more, that Stu bought that stuff. We don’t even have that same shower head any more, and the CLR container was very crusted with dust. It crossed my mind from time to time, and was always a “I need to do that…. later” kind of a thought.

Well, Friday came and when I poured my last cup of coffee and nuked it to warm up, I saw, to my horror, a dead moth floating in my coffee cup. The fact that this was my last cup REALLY grossed me out. Because that meant that, most likely, this moth had been attracted to the clock light on the maker and fluttered in there sometime during the night and perished in the freshly brewing coffee when the timer went off. Which also means that I had been drinking moth-coffee all morning!!! EEEEEEWWWWWWWW!

Why that dead bug got me motivated to clean the INSIDE of the pot which it had absolutely nothing to do with is beyond me, but for whatever reason, I just HAD to clean the whole thing after discovering the moth. And that’s the last I’m going to say about that wretched beast! It turns my stomach just to think about it, blah! I hope that the new pot (which is scheduled to arrive today, yay) will not have a clock with a moth attracting light on it. Because this wasn’t the first moth to die a caffeine induced death, but it IS the first one I didn’t discover till after the coffee had been consumed, gross!

At any rate, I grabbed the dusty CLR container, read over the coffee maker cleaning instructions, and got to work. It worked, let me tell you. The first run through with the CLR produced a bunch of gunk floating around in the pot. Then I was supposed to run 4 pots of clean water through to get all of the CLR and other stuff out.

I wan’t too concerned about it when the first couple of pots had lots of floaters, cause after all it had been “awhile” since the maker had been cleaned. (ahem) BUT I was a little unsettled by the look of the floaters. I mean… hard water is one thing, but I really wasn’t expecting brownish stuff at all. And by the time I got to the 4th pot of clean water and it wasn’t coming through “clean” at all, I was quite concerned as well as officially grossed out for life! I even thought that I might just have to give up coffee as penance.

SO I decided that a good ol vinegar rinse would surely loosen up any of the rest of that “stuff” that might be trying to get through. Rinse I did. And ran about 8 more pots of both water AND vinegar through that ridiculous machine and STILL there were nasties floating in the water. Ugh!

Out of desparation I dug out the old bottle brush from under the sink and started scrubbing away as much as I could reach in that reservoir. And here is lesson number one…. well, maybe two… one would probably be CLEAN YOUR MACHINE!!!! Ha ha! So lesson number 2 is get a machine where you can see/reach all the spots in the reservoir. Ours unfortunately curved up around the front of the pot, so there was NO way, even with the bottle brush, that I could reach those skinny little front sections where the water level windows were. *sigh* Let me tell you though, the brushing sped things up quite a bit. When I took the sprayer from the sink to the reservoir and then dumped it….

Well, lets just say I nearly took a vow to NEVER have a drop of coffee again after I saw what was flowing out of that thing. Eww, eww, ewwwy, ewwwww!

It was at that point that I was pretty sure a new coffee maker was in my future. Because even if I could get a pot of water to come through clean… I wasn’t sure I’d ever get over the impression of that nasty stuff coming out of the machine. Not that I had to worry about it. Even after the vigerous scrubbing and spraying and dumping and cycling through, there was always floaters in the pot.

I’m still trying not to think about that TOO much… I just don’t want to go there.

After explaining the situation to Stuart that evening, he agreed that we needed a new machine. Fortunately he did the research and found a great option on Amazon. Cause when I went to our “amazing” Wal-Mart, of course they had nothing that would work. Actually they had one on display that I thought would work, but none on the shelf. Surprise! I knew I shouldn’t have gone there.

Anyway, I’ve borrowed the coffee pot from “the white house” that also got a thorough vinegar cleaning, for a couple of days till our new machine comes in. And with Stuart’s help, I will certainly be cleaning out our next coffee maker at least once a month.

Viva le Coffee!

It was SUCH a beautiful day! We’ve had a record number of them this spring, and I LOVE it!

Nothing like a PB&J in a “fort” on a warm, sunshiny day!

So I bought a big tub of these “cheese balls” from Costco. The boys like Cheetos so I occasionally buy them those. Yes, I know it flies in the face of all this “natural” stuff I’ve been getting into. Because, seriously, can there be anything MORE unnatural than these little fake orange cheese powdered puffs of… well, whatever they are? Probably not. I have a feeling they could pass the happy-meal-that-looks-the-same-a-year-later test. Blah! I don’t eat these… ever. BUT I did cave in and buy them for the kids. I won’t do it again however because this tub will likely last till Ella goes to college. We just can’t seem to make a dent in it. I only give them a small handful each time they have them, and yeah… it’s not depleting very quickly at all. Oh well, perhaps by summer’s end?

While the boys were reveling in their cheesy powdered PB&J lunches, Ella and I had a more civilized lunch in the dining room.

She enjoyed some string cheese and vienna sausage (also not very natural, ha ha) cut tiny, and some carrots. She likes the ones that come in the “fruit cup” type packages. Yum… or something.

So I confess that I do fall back on “kid friendly” lunch items from time to time. Though I am making small changes to how we eat in this house. Once Ella does a better job of actually chewing her food, I’ll feel more comfortable giving her more raw veggies. I did try some avocado this weekend, but she tossed it on the floor without so much as a second glance. Might have to work on that one a little. She’s kinda on the skinny side, so I’d like to fill her up with food that counts. But regardless, the lads had a great picnic, and I’m happy happy for the warmer days and less wind!

But this morning when I was surveying the carnage, I just couldn’t seem to cope. Seriously, all the “stuff” everywhere was completely overwhelming. I didn’t “feel” stressed out or anything. It was only after the fact that I realized I probably spent about an hour and a half walking around in circles flapping my hands uselessly because I just couldn’t figure out where to start on the mess! Ha!!

I also have other things on my mind, so that didn’t help. Myles has his nose appointment today, I needed to bake some bread BEFORE we left for that, going to drop off the other 2 with a friend, and needed to get dinner in the crock pot, but I couldn’t find our internet card, and didn’t have the recipe written down. Ella broke out in hives, and I couldn’t figure out why. So all of those things kept intruding on my “get it all cleaned up” mode and making me a little crazy.

Eventually, I got some laundry started… there’s still random bits of clothing strewn all over the couch and floor, thanks to my helpful children, from laundry I didn’t get put away before we left on Friday. Oh well, might as well add to the pile, huh?

After that, I decided that dishes were the first priority, so I got those loaded and the washer running. Once the sink was clear, my mind was a little more clear as well. I started preaching to myself, “FINISH IT! Whatever you pick up to do don’t put down till your DONE with it!” See, I like to think I can multi-task, but truthfully, I just end up doing lots of things half way. Ha! So I’d make myself finish doing whatever it was with the Costco sized package of Q-tips before I would stop to refill the paper towels or take something to the pantry. Seemed to work pretty well.

I’ve still got plenty left to do, and I’m trying not to think about the suitcases and such that are waiting for me in the other room. But right now, I’m taking a little break to drink my coffee… and actually taste it.

My mom saved the day, and dinner, by looking up the recipe I needed from my blog, so that’s all good! The bread machine is busily mixing and kneading the dough that hopefully I will have time to finish before we have to get out of here. Ella is napping, and I’m hoping will be hive-free when she wakes. The boys are busy getting filthy outside. It’s all good.

SO the dentist. Had I mentioned that we had all 3 kids scheduled for check ups ON THE SAME DAY??? I sometimes believe that I really do have a completely insane streak running through my brain. BUT when you have to drive 2.5 hours to get there it’s kinda the only option.

Anyway, after spending all kinds of mental energy dreading the whole process, I remembered that I just needed to pray for help and peace and let it go. So I did somewhat, though I still thought that I “knew” it was going to be a horrible experience. I have panic issues personally whenever I think about dentists… not something I enjoy at all. Blah! So, I was probably putting more stress on myself to NOT let it be a traumatic experience for the kids, more than anything.

This pediatric dentist’s office is AMAZING!! I took Myles last year when he tried to rearrange his teeth on the cement steps, but I didn’t really get the full experience then. The staff there were FANTASTIC with the kids. Both of the lads were comfortable with them in no time! Imagine my surprise when they climbed onto the table, wore the “cool” sunglasses and opened up wide without even the smallest resistance!!! Wow!

Ella was a little less interested in having her teeth looked at. With kids as young as her, they do a “knee to knee” exam. That means that I have her sit on my lap facing me then lean her back so her head is on dentist’s knees. She yelled about it a bit, but was thrilled with her new pink toothbrush.

The boys both got x-rays because of a couple things we were concerned about. Myles will likely loose those front teeth that he injured earlier than normal, but it’s not a concern. Qade has one front tooth that may be problematic. We’re to “keep an eye” on it and if he has pain from it we’ll take him back in and have it taken out. But overall they are doing well, and the whole experience was positive!

I was afraid that I would be there with all 3 by myself because Stuart had an appointment also a little later, but we got there a bit early, and they got us right in. All three were back there at the same time, and we were out in about 45 min start to finish!! Yay!! God really does work things out, and I waste a lot of time and energy trying to “figure it all out” on my own. Lessons He is gently teaching me.

Well, coffee is almost gone, and I need to get busy again. Perhaps I’ll be more effective this go round. Ha ha!

There’s lots of pictures in this post so I’m going to hide most of it, just click here to read/see the rest.

Qade is cautious about new experiences. He wasn’t very interested in participating in all of the group fun, but he did enjoy climbing and exploring on his own during their free time.

Myles went back and forth between participating and observing during group time, but was quite the little monkey when turned loose during free play. Not that there’s a big surprise there! Ha! Stuart commented that our kids do most of this gymnastics stuff in our living room just with not as soft landing spots.

Helen is quite the acrobat and one of the most bendable children I’ve ever met!

I mean, look at this “dance” move!

The boys got more involved when the balls and the bubbles came out.

Love how he totally missed the ball with this high kick, and the Michael Jordan tongue is hilarious too!

It was a fun time! I’ve often wished there was something like this for Myles to participate in since he’s such a monkey-boy, but it’s true that he does most of these things on the trees and logs around our home. Just without the music and the buddies and instructor. The boys had fun, and I was happy to see them loosen up a bit toward the end at least. They let the instructor give them hand sanitizer and a stamp, so that’s progress. Ha ha! Thanks Auntie Joy for letting us tag along on your gym day! Maybe we’ll get to do it again sometime!!

This was the culmination of some grumbly issues the lads had been having about keeping their toys neat and cleaning up the messes that they made.

Their favorite activity at that time was to empty their toy box of all toys cover it with blankets and play IN the toy box. Which is totally fine with me. I love it when they use their imaginations!! But I don’t love it when it came time for clean up and they balked, threw fits, fussed, whined and cried about having to clean up their toys.

Part of the problem came from the fact that they had too many toys out at once. And a lot of those toys were in lots of parts. (think lego) So the clean up did seem like a monstrous task when all 175 train track pieces were scattered all over the floor, not to mention all the matchbox cars, legos, and each and every stuffed animal along with an assortment of McDonalds happy meal type toys. It was overwhelming to ME and I’m not 3 and 4 yrs old.

We tried various tactics including tossing out some of those trinkety toys if they hadn’t made progress on cleaning up in a certain amount of time. It made an impression, especially on one little lad who hates for things to “go to the dump.” But unfortunately it didn’t take care of the above issues with cleaning.

Finally Daddy decided that enough was enough. After dinner one night, he packed up every toy in the boys’ room and took it out to the garage. The reaction was not very positive to be sure, but Qade mellowed a bit when he realized that they were just put away, not thrown away. He looked in his room and said, “I don’t think it looks nice in there.” Then he amended it to say, “Well, I think the floor looks nice, but the toy box doesn’t look nice because there aren’t any toys.”

They were toy-less for a weekend, and were not allowed to play with Ella’s toys. That next week, I brought in one of the boxes of jumbled up toys and told them that if they could help me clean up THAT box of toys, they could put those toys back into the toy box. We got through about 1/2 of the box before the whinies took over. I packed it all back in and out to the garage it went.

I have to say that I was surprised at how well they did without toys. Initially I told Stuart that I was going to be punished as much as the kids because they’d be bored out of their minds and driving me crazy all day. I was happy to discover that this wasn’t the case. They adapted very quickly and made up all kinds of games to play together with no toys!

Eventually, before Christmas Day, I had them help me sort their old toys. We put a LOT of them into a Goodwill pile. Qade was a little more able to cope with them going away if he knew they weren’t going to the dump. Another pile we are donating to my mom who wants more toys for them to destroy her house with when we go visit. And there was the trash pile where broken, and Micky-D’s type toys went. A few got put away into a bin to “rotate” out later. The very slimmed down toy box became much easier to manage, and most of the toys with a zillion pieces got put away to be used in Mom initiated quite time play.

We still get complaints when it’s time to clean up, but it’s NOTHING compared to what it was!! The lads play with their toys just like they did, but they also continue to play their toy-less games much more frequently. All in all I think that the time without toys was good for them, and the time now with fewer toys is also good for us all!

The lads went outside to enjoy the snow, and as they were out there it started to fall! Myles right away stuck out his tongue to catch some of the snow! Ha ha ha! I never did figure out what snow tastes like when I tried this tactic as a kid. Not sure they did either, but I had fun catching a few of the funny moments with my camera.