What a week

It has been, indeed. Last week, I led the PW Bible study on Tuesday, had a COM meeting on Wednesday (that went surprisingly well - but left me exhausted. I really am an introvert - 5 hours straight of talking to adults, while a welcome break from full-time mommyhood, leaves me exhausted.), had my annual appointment with my pulminalogist on Thursday, and then a consult on having M. evaluated for giftedness on Friday. COM, the doctor, and the evaluation were all a good 45 minute one-way drive, which now seems like forever. I know I shouldn't complain - 2 years ago I was living in a small town and had to drive at least 45 minutes to everything - but I have gotten spoiled living in the suburbs these last 18+ months. Anyway, as if that wasn't enough in one week, I had a PW Council meeting on Saturday and preached on Sunday. So, I have come to the realization that - for this time of my life - 6 days straight of commitments is too much. I used to do this and more week in and week out - but the demands of my life are so different now.
So, today began the at-home catch up. Laundry is done for the week, just needs to be put away in the morning (I finished folding after the girls were in bed, and I won't go into their rooms for fear of waking them up unless the house is on fire. Literally.) I have picked up and vacuumed the living room, and cleaned the kitchen. Tomorrow I need to change sheets on the beds, mop the dining room (this is where C. eats all her meals - it needs to be mopped. Badly.), and vacuum the play/sew area in the basement. It is nice to have non-mentally challenging work to do after a week of much head-time. And it is relaxing to me to see the house come into some semblance of order again after a week of chaos. By tomorrow night I need to shift back into getting ready to preach on March 9.
In other news, my mom signed the papers to buy her condo here today. She will be here by Easter. I almost wish she wasn't coming until after Easter, as the time right before is so busy for us, and her sister is driving out with her and will be here for a couple of days to help her get settled - but, what will be will be. It will be nice to have her closer - M. is so excited about this she can hardly stand it. She can't talk about Grandma C. moving here to "Salt City" without jumping up and down. Quite cute, especially when she does this without knocking her sister over.... :)
C. is just so cute herself these days. She is so proud of herself for everything still, and is really starting to communicate so much more. C. still doesn't talk much - not at all really - but in the last few days she has started to make sounds repeatedly like she is trying to say certain words. "Cat" is the most frequent attempt. She loves our cats. Someday, they will love her back....
Oh, and I finished my new purse. Not sure I love it for me - I like it, but it is quite bright. I am thinking I might like it better in different colors. So, I am using it for now and thinking about if I will keep it. 2 things didn't turn out quite right - I added pockets on the lining to hold pens, lip gloss, my phone, and my inhaler - so I don't have to dig for them. They are up kind of high, though, so if I make another one I will move them down lower. It makes it hard to close the purse clasp where they are. Also, I sewed the handles on backwards. This is the kind of thing no one else would notice, but I did. Of course, I noticed after I had gotten to the point that changing them would mean taking out 3 seams of very tiny stitching - so they will stay backwards. I will try to post a picture or two soon. One thing I do love is that I lined it in bright yellow fabric, so it is very easy to see inside.
One final celebration - I am wearing a pair of jeans today that has not fit since before I got pregnant with C. It has taken a year to get back into them, but I did it. I still need to lose about 15 pounds - but I am quite happy about this milestone.
Once again, probably more details than you may want to know. I am now off to bed.

Monday, Monday

So, M. was fine today. It always amazes me how quickly she can bounce back from illness. She is rarely down for more than 24 hours. Yesterday, she took a 3 1/2 hour nap in the afternoon and woke up quite chipper. She slept well last night, and today you could hardly tell she'd been sick at all. Now as long as no one else in the family gets sick, we are in good shape.
I should say, as long as no one else gets the puking sick, we are in good shape, as I am coming down with a respiratory bug. Which wouldn't be bad if it didn't mean my asthma was kicking in again. So, I have a call in for an appointment at my pulmonologist this week. I don't want to let this go and be sick for weeks like I was at one point last fall - I am trying to learn to take care of myself.
On the sewing front, I made M.'s belt - so now we will see if she will wear it. I made it from a European pattern, so it was in centimeters and I had to convert to inches - and I messed up and made the seam allowances 1/8 of an inch to narrow. Which doesn't seem like much, except that the belt is supposed to be 1 inch wide and it is now 1 and 1/4 inches wide. So, we will see if M. likes and will wear it. If not, well, I think I spent a grand total of $2 on it - so, no worries. And I will pay more attention to my math when converting in the future. 1 cm is more like 3/8 inch - not 1/4....
Off to bed now.

Sick day

For M., not me. She woke up and threw up this morning, and then did so 4 more times before she went down for an afternoon nap about an hour ago. I am hoping it's just a short viral bug. And that no one else gets it. She is still pretty chipper in between bouts, so that gives me hope that it will be over soon.
Poor C. can't figure out what's going on. First, M. got a bath this morning and she didn't (they usually take baths one after the other or together - and C. loves, loves, loves the water) and then Mommy would cuddle with M. and not let C. up - because M. was vomiting again. Normally I try to let C. join whatever M. and I are doing - C. usually looses interest in about 2 minutes and gets down to play again - but today I had to keep her away from the action.
So, now I am off to scrub and sanitize the bath tub. You really don't want to know details.....

Religious Education

For all those who are religious, of the Judeo-Christian strand, check out this. Especially the "bag of plagues." Think we could hand those out at our community Easter egg hunt this year?

eta: link is fixed - sorry about that!

Saturday Night

So, I have to say that the sound of my 2 girls snoring in rhythm is one of the sweetest sounds in the universe. C. stirred just as M. was ready to go to sleep, and I had already promised M. to sit in her room until she went to sleep tonight, so I rocked C. sitting on the end of M.'s bed - and they were both out in about 3 minutes. So sweet.
I went fabric shopping today. Many of the local stores were having President's Day sales - so the girls and I hit 3 stores looking for fabrics for spring/summer clothes. I got a bit stir-crazy this last week and decided that since it won't stop snowing here - I need to do something to bring on spring. So, I have fabric for:

-a new fabric purse for me.
-a skirt for me (blue tiny floral print.)
-matching pink capri pants and white/pink print tops for the girls
-purple print for sundresses for the girls
-one pair blue and one pair purple pajama pants for M., maybe for C. (not sure if there will be enough so I may need different fabric for C.)
-a purple belt for M. (need to make this first - she is so skinny that her pants are always falling down. Hopefully a belt will help - at least with the pants that have belt loops..... :) )
-knit fabric to make pajama tops for summer (have to brag that this was an insanely good deal - $.99 a yard and it takes just over a yard for one top for each girl - )

I think that is everything. I have figured out how to set up my new cutting table that I got for Christmas - it's a fold down table that is about waist high and about 4 ft. by 6 ft. when set up. I can spread out fabric and patterns to cut it out without crawling on the floor, getting "help" from the girls, and worrying about pins getting stuck in little feet. Now I just have to keep the pins in the pin cushion on the table. I also have a new gigantic cutting mat to go on top of it - so I can use my rotary cutter - and again, keep it out of little hands. (If you don't sew and haven't a clue what a rotary cutter is, think a small pizza cutter with an incredibly sharp blade used to cut fabric. Much faster than scissors for cutting things out fabric.)

So, we may have snow until July at this point - but I don't care. I will be hiding in my basement sewing/play room and dreaming of warmer days until they come (in between all the other stuff I have to do....)
(And we won't have snow until July - it just feels like it right now)

Life - an update

I've been MIA here for awhile - almost a month. Life has been busy. I'll try to give a brief update on all facets.
C. is now 1 year old - her birthday was the 19th of January. We had quiet day at home - my mom was in town visiting (more on that in a minute) so we stayed home, and spent the day opening presents and eating cake. It was a fun day - she was thrilled with the wrapping paper. It was so cute to watch her walk up to one present, tear off a piece of wrapping paper, then turn around to another present, do the same thing, etc. Wrapped empty boxes would have been enough for her, I think. The toys inside were a bonus.
I think I had forgotten just how much fun it is to have a one-year-old around. I could just sit and watch C. all day - she toddles around (we jokingly call it the drunken sailor walk, but she is now faster on her feet than crawling - look out, world!) and finds something she thinks is just fascinating. It could be a toy, a scrap of paper on the floor, a pen, who knows. She will pick this amazing object up, and look to another person in the room and just grin the biggest grin you have ever seen and walk up to that person to show off her treasure. She offers it to you for a brief (very, very brief) second and then goes off to find either another admirer or another treasure. The world is all new in her eyes.
C. also adores beyond belief her big sister M. M. is alternately appreciative and annoyed by this adoration - but C. loves to follow M. around and generally get right in the middle of whatever M. is doing and cause havoc. Balancing including C. with allowing M. time alone is a big job these days, but it's fun.
One year olds are also so much easier than infants to care for. C. still needs lots of attention, but she will play quietly for a few minutes while I change laundry or clean something or do dishes - I have hope the house will look reasonable again at some point in the relatively near future. I have said before that there is a good reason the first year of parenting goes by so fast - and I love babies, but they are exhausting.
M. is now sleeping much better overall. Her sleep is still disturbed by changes in routine, like visiting grandparents, but more often than not she sleeps well and calmly, which is a huge milestone and huge relief for us. She is so independent now, and loves to help. And she actually can help - she cleans up when she spills her drink and I don't have to sneak in a clean-up of her attempt anymore. She loves to move clothes from the washer to the dryer and the dryer to the basket to fold and is quite good at sorting and matching socks and folding her own underwear. She really can dress herself and do the tasks of getting ready for bed - we still have to keep on top of her with reminders of what comes next, but she can do 90 percent of it herself, which is huge (especially on nights when W. has meetings and I'm doing bedtime solo).
We have made the decision of what to do for M. for school in the fall in the last month. Some background on this is needed for it all to make sense, I think. M. has been going to a good preschool located in a Methodist church in our neighborhood. She adored it last year when she was in the 2 1/2 to 3 year old class. This year she is in the 3 to 4 year old class and it hasn't been as great a year. She still has a good teacher - the same one as last year actually - but there have been some issues with negative behavior from other kids effecting her and she is not being challenged there. This school follows the "let kids play and don't force academics on them too early" school of thought, which I generally agree with - but M. is ready for more. We are realizing more and more how smart she is - and she wants to learn. I don't see why we should hold her back from learning if she is eager and excited to do it. So, we are moving her to another preschool for next year. The new school does phonics instruction with the class she will be in, as well as basic math and the typical preschool play time and snack, etc. They are more of a "challenge the kids in a supportive environment" sort of school. It will be more like kindergarten but in a 2 day a week preschool schedule. We think it will be a good balance for her energy levels (she is an introvert like her parents and too much time in groups really wears her out) and need for stimulation. The 2 day a week schedule also means we will have Fridays as family days again - that is W's day off and we've missed having that time together this year.
In addition to the preschool in the fall, we have also officially decided to have me start homeschooling M. on the days she's not in preschool. We're going to start kindergarten work and see what happens. This is for several reasons - including that we are seriously considering homeschooling for M. for elementary school and feel like we need to try it out before we have to do anything official. Worst case scenario - M. learns nothing from me next year - she won't be behind a bit because age-wise she won't be eligible for kindergarten until a year from this fall (Fall 2009) Also, if we find homeschooling makes me even more crazy than I already am and we can't swing it as a family - we have time to make other plans for the future. Equally important, we believe M. is really ready for more - and that she will really enjoy doing school with Mom.
On to other topics. We had a nice visit with my MIL right after Christmas. While she was here, she taught M. how to play Rummikub, which is an important family game in W's family. It really amazed her and us how quickly M. picked it up - and how quickly C. can destroy a game set up. (if you don't know it, this is a numbers game - there are tiles with numbers 1-13 in 4 colors and each player draws 14 to start. You must have runs of at least 3 to play - either of one color in numerical order or the same number and different colors. M. caught on right away and is surprisingly good considering her age). I really do love my MIL - she is a real example to me of what I hope to be like at her age - she started her PhD in Russian Lit. in her late 50's and is currently teaching (Serbo-Croatian this year) and starting her dissertation. She also teaches adult Sunday School, has lots of friends, sews, and does lots of other things.
Then, a week after MIL left, my mom came to visit - and to house-hunt. She has decided that Indiana - Utah is too much space between her and her precious granddaughters, so she is in the process of moving out here to be close to us. She found a condo she loves, made an offer, and it was accepted in less than 24 hours - this week. So, she is now starting to seriously hunt for a job - she has several possibilities - and plan her move.
On the church front, I have decided that for now I will not blog about it. The church world in this state is just too small for me to have any illusion of real illusion of anonymity. (There are 23 Presbyterian churches in Utah - and if you know them much at all you can tell which one is being referred to). W's church - and mine, as I am now a parish associate there - is starting to face some real issues that are bringing about conflict. It is hard - very hard, and frustrating at times - but W and I believe that the church will be the better for getting through all this muck. Eventually. I won't say more here, but prayers for the church would be appreciated. On a good church note - visitors are increasing. Another pastor in the valley commented to us that he has never served somewhere and seen so many visitors. Each week, he said, new people just keep coming through the door - people who want to hear the gospel. Most have a very small connection to his church - but they come anyway. And many keep coming. It's happening at our church, too - and it is really cool to see. I don't want to get into an anti-mormon rant here, but the message of the mormon church is, to me at least, profoundly un-Christian. There is a huge segment of society here that doesn't get grace at all - and many are hungry for that message. It is awe-inspiring to watch - and to know that lives are really being changed by the gospel.
I have some more thoughts about this blog and what I want it to be, but it is now past midnight my time and anyone who has read all of this deserves a medal. I'll save the rest for later - and I hope it's soon.

C. discovers chocolate

It was a hershey's kiss that fell on the floor and she found.

Not sure how she got the wrapper off....

Based on how much was on her face, hands, shirt, jeans, and the floor, I think she actually got about half of it into her stomach.

And just for comparison, here is M. eating chocolate for the first time. It was a small chocolate bunny at Easter.
M. was about 5-6 months older than C. is now - and neater. Didn't she have a darling Easter dress? Toddlers are so cute -

Oh, and if you look closely at the picture of C., you will see the evidence of her latest big fall on her forehead - she tipped a rocking chair over backwards today and hit her head on the coffee table going down. So now we have a nice bruise just in time for Grandma H., (my mil) to arrive tomorrow......

Hope all have had a good Christmas. I've been chasing little ones and had little time to blog...but it's been a pretty good week.