Laundry-palooza

I'm on my 5th (maybe 6th?) straight week with a leaking washing machine and my 2nd week of a heatless dryer. Repairman was waiting for parts but is now scheduled to come Wednesday. Now that there is a distinctive "vegetative" smell emanating from my laundry room... and I haven't had the gumption to get myself to the laundrymat... i decided that it was perhaps time to just smarten up and "make-do" I am on my 4th load of the morning, the fireplace is on, the couches, chairs, tables are draped with laundry drying and hopefully by the end of the day my laundry room will smell less like dank mold and more like BLEACH. Such a bad home-maker! I'm the kind of woman that, if the house needs dusting, i make bread. If the toilets need scrubbing, i peel potatoes. If the laundry is backed up, i make cookies. I have a sister that does the opposite; cleans when she should bake... I need to get me some of that.

Ellie's Salon

Mom and Dad are visiting. After supper, during which Grannie wore a card-stock, home-made crown that someone lovingly placed on her head, Ellie crawled up behind her at the table and started to comb her hair. Grannie never flinches when the kids begin playing "beauty salon". I hope i can become as gracious as her someday. Anyways, as i was talking to Grannie, I noticed something.

"Umm, Ellie, Why are you combing Grannie's hair with a plastic fork?"

"I know! See, I made it into a brush!" She had bent back the tines so that it made for a "better brush". Then she placed the crown back on the top of her head. "There! Perfect!"

I think my mom must be the best sport in the world.

(pic of Ellie and Grannie during a beauty-fest last spring)

Club Memberships

My children have always had "Clubs". I think it is a genetic thing i passed on to them. My sister Paige and I always had "The Key-Thing Buddies". We were "Toque-lee ONE" and "Toque-lee TWO". We collected old keys, and spare change, converted the chicken coop into a club house complete with purple spray-painted walls. (pictures of "muchkins" which were a big thing in the '80's) Any time a good thing happened (going for slushies, fort building, baking) we would claim that it was happening because we were in the Key-Thing Buddies club and the club was open that day.

My kids, and my sisters' kids have initiated scads of clubs over the years. Some "cousin" clubs even earned club cards that their cousin Haven made up with 2 aliases for each person. (quite the job to find 2 aliases for 19 cousins). She laminated little cards with the club members pictures on it. Very Cute. The fad recently has reached it's zenith with Sadie....and for a freshly minted 4 year old, clubs can be used as a bribe, a threat or a claim to fame just as much as a friendship builder.

"You're in my club."

"You're not in my club."

"My club is the BEST club than YOURS!"

"If you do that, you can't be the president OR the tiger in my club."

"When you give me ice-cream, you can be the Queen in my club."

"My club is cancelled."

"If you come to Robin's party, you can be in my club."

Mostly the reaction she gets are giggles or feigned fear from older siblings who know how easy it is to get back IN the club. Today, for some un-beknownst reason, being in Sadie's club involved the measuring of my scull. I sat patiently as she slowly and solomnly raised the wooden ruler to my head. And then i did something that Curt does to me. When she got close enough and was seriously concentrating, i scared her....

"BOOO!"

"Mom! Don't DO that or you won't be in the club!" I laughed and apologized. The measuring resumed. She came close. I could smell her shampoo.

"BAHHH!!" She recoiled in shock. I laughed. No wonder Curt loves to do this.

"Mom! I said don't DO that! I need to measure you for the CLUB!"

"Fine, I'm sorry. Go ahead." I waited. It was too much fun.

"GAAA!!" Sadie swung the ruler to her side.

"MOM!! You are FIFTY and you're going to be an OOOOOOLLLLLDDDD lady!" Robin, listening to the whole ceremonial measuring episode, burst out laughing. That didn't help matters. I guess I'm out of the club. Maybe I'll get out a tub of ice cream and buy my way back in. (p.s.... I'm 34)

answers

I can hardly believe this is true, but it's been 9 months since Sadie started drinking up the world and we thought no one would believe us that something was wrong. It's been six months of waiting for the "follow-up" MRI. It feels like I've been holding my breath for all that time. Not having anything else to say because all i can think to say is..."We're still waiting..." Waiting to hear whether there is a visible *reason* for her problems. I'm torn. I want answers... but i don't want an answer that is given by an MRI of her brain. Test is on Friday.
Pray that if there is something to see, they won't miss it.
Pray that if they do see something, they will be SURE...no guessing.
Pray that Sadie will do okay with the anesthetic.
Pray for our faith to increase.

One Year ago

One year ago this month I was HUGE... I was SORE...I was limping...I was IMPATIENT... I was 9 months PREGNANT. One year ago this month I was huge, sore, impatient, pregnant and eating chocolate in the hospital bed excited as I felt the contractions coming on stronger and stronger. An hour after that, i was contorting into all kinds of pretzle-type shapes as the nurses and midwives and my own Dr. tried to figure out the best way to get Wesley out. He was facing the wrong way and mighty stuck. I was beet red, willing to try whatever idea was blurted out of whichever intern spoke first. Maybe this is why i haven't writen about his birth yet. I still can't get the shock out of my system. After he was born, everyone was saying "post your birth story!!" Hmmm. Do people want to hear that they wouldn't let me get into the position i felt i NEEDED to get into? That i shamelessly twisted my tortured body into all kinds of unlikely positions and did it with a "LET'S DOOOO THIS THING!!!"? (I always get embarassingly excited when i'm going to see my little one...even when i'm in horrendous pain.) Do I say that when Wesley was finally was born, he entered the world flanked by rows of nurses, doctors, interns and midwives like a football player entering the field flanked by cheerleaders....and they were all holding my legs down as i pushed against them? Curt didn't have the heart and kept getting in trouble from the doctor for not pushing against my "push". And i sobbed. I was too tired to care when pictures were taken of our new family. Me, the "center-piece" of the photo with disheveled hair, broken blood vessels on my chest from "pushing" and a sweaty, ruby face from my labours. One year ago this month another layer of my heart entered the world.

Learning (on the fly) to sketch with the kids

I have never taken art but have always wanted *deeply* to be able to "do" art. When we've done read aloud during the course of our home school i always got the kids to draw or do an art project while they listened. This year we got good sketch books and pencils from Staples and started watching YouTube videos to get some inspiration. Yesterday, during fiddle lessons, we drew from reference pictures i had printed off of the Internet. I am always shocked when something turns out better than i expected when it is something i have no training in doing or teaching. Anyways, here is my unfinished fish with the horrible tail and some of the kids' sketches. Carrie (10), Ellie (6) and I all did the baby face. Robin's is the birds from a folksy picture and Darren's is the eyes. Carrie did a foot that she is quite pleased with as well. I will have to take more pics as she did not think that the baby face was her best one.

The morning game show

Usually, in the mornings, i roll out of bed and start working in my pajamas. When I've had my breakfast and got all the machines running, i sneak off for my shower. This morning, bright and early, two children were crawling on the counter to devour the last of the brownies from last night's snack (directly out of the pan with spoons) two were helping unload the dishwasher and two were stalking Curt to make sure he wouldn't do chores without them. I was dumping clean dishes on the counter and filling the washer with a new load. (I'm never *done* doing dishes it seems.) We have a wall of cupboards and the kids always leave them all open after putting away the dishes. I walked over and shut them all one after the other. Curt walked into the kitchen and i comented "I always feel like vana white when i do that." He smiled. "Yeah, You LOOK like Vana White." I looked down at my disheveled droopiness; barefeet, hair askew, looking at him through my dirty glasses. "Thanks!" I laugh in my crazy woman voice. (someone is not going to win the bonus round)

Listen for the Harmony...

The kids were asked to play fiddles at a local church's hymn-sing tonight. Before they got up to play, the congregation sang a number of hymns. Curt's uncle Ronnie led the singing from the front and I couldn't help thinking of Sunday morning services 25 years ago with Ronnie leading. My mom, dad, my two sisters and I sitting together on the orange upholstered pews. I looked down my row, me and my 4 kids, hymnals on their laps. (Curt was in the foyer with Sadie and Wes.) "Hymn number 114!" The pianist started the introduction. Ellie scrambled up onto my lap. "Quick mom, I can't find it!" I flipped the hymnal open to the right page, pointed to the first verse and traced the words as I tucked my head down and sang the harmony part into her ear. Suddenly the memory of my own mother doing this came back to me. "Listen for the harmony Ellie."