Pocket Full of Random Anna

So our Anna, as I've mentioned, is simply a barrel of entertainment.  The child tells me eighty-eleven times a day "I'm hungwee, Mamma.  I'm hungwee."  She'll tell me this with a hamburger and a half and two handfuls of chips barely swallowed down.  If that doesn't work, she'll pitifully say; "My tummy says it's hungwee, Mommy."  I shake my head and hand over a banana.  

She obeys most commands to retrieve something ("Anna, go get your shoes."  "If you'll pick out a book, I'll read to you."  "Find a comb so I can get the rats out of your hair.") with a happy grin and a thud-thudding of her feet as she runs off.  A moment or two later, she returns with her hands behind her back grasping whatever object it is.  "Mommy!  I have a suh-prise fo you!!!  1-2-3...SUH-PRISE!!!"  And from behind her back she brings out the object and holds it up in front of her bright, happy smile.  

And of course, I'm always surprised.  

She's a confident little tyke.  She will out and out tell you "I'm cute, Mommy!" as she spins and grins and shows off an outfit or hairstyle.  Or song, or dance, or jump, or...well, anything.  In fact, she asked me to take pictures of her 'cute face'.      

Your convinced, right?  She's cute!

She also wanted me to take a picture of her 'fave-wit silly face'.

Don't get me wrong, she can pull out the shy card in a heartbeat and manage to hide herself behind my leg, but for the most part, she loves to believe she's the center of the world.  Even if it's just her own made up world.  Which is why she can ballet dance on the coffee table for an hour if left to her own vices.

The Fragrance of Mother's Day

I'm sure we could sit around and rehash my less than stellar moments.  I've shared more than is dignified.  So I'm not gonna link to any.  Pretty much rest assured that if you check over there in the sidebar and click on any month, your gonna find one of my antics.

And you thought this blog was all about the kids.  Puh!

If I'd use the camera intentionally, I'd have shots of the kids doing things and I could blog about them.  But apparently, I'm only capable of still life.

Saturday was beautifully overcast.  We were hesitant to undertake any of our bigger outdoors projects, so we piddled about the house with little things.  Well, I did.  Joshua started his garden and washed my van.

I flitted from one ting to the next and never really got anything accomplished. 

At some point, I must have felt industrious.  I started bread.  Then I popped it into the microwave to rise for a little while.

I started to iron, but that seemed like far too much focus for a Saturday.  And the baby was fussing.

We'd made plans to spend the evening with friends from our college days.  They have five children (just like us) with book-end boys (just like us) and the kids play brilliantly together!  We ate and sang and visited until entirely too late by little people standards, and Joshua and I grinned as all of our kiddos zonked out on the ride home.  We dragged into the house and all crashed within minutes.

Sunday dawned and the kids brought me beautifully made Mother's Day cards.  I should document those on the blog.  Because they were pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.  We bustled about getting ready for church and didn't spend much time dwelling on breakfast.

After church, we drove around for an hour and a half waiting for me to have a stroke of brilliance as to what I wanted for lunch.  Plus, the baby was sleeping, so we weren't in a hurry to wake him up.  By the time all was said and done, we made it home about three in the afternoon.

Which is when I discovered this: 

So apparently if you leave bread to rise for too long (like 20-ish hours longer than usual), it maxes out and then falls like a scared souffle.

And that's why the house smelled like a pub for Mother's Day.

Cleaning With Children

Yes, with them.  Not after them, not around them, not behind them.  With them.  Because I have this weird sense of self-preservation that demands I not clean every little mess that every little person makes lest I be chained to my house for life.

Trying to keep the house orderly while homeschooling and being present with my children is an ever-evolving undertaking.  We've done daily task assignments, weekly task rotations, whatever mamma hollers out to do at any given time randomness (which never goes out of style and we still ascribe to) all in an effort to find the system that works best for our family. 

One of my mentors has twelve children, so when she speaks, I listen. She spoke of longer term job assignments and I jumped right on that boat. So I began assigning a chore for the week. This was okay, but I still wasn't happy.  And we all know that if Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy.

So we divided the house into zones. This is super easy in our house. There are four main rooms on the downstairs level and four kids who are old enough to be in on the workload. The first Monday of each month, the kids rotate zones. The Living Room, the Dining Room, the Kitchen, the School Room. I also assign Laundry Helper to one of the older three.

I chose to assign zones for an entire month at a time. This allows the child working in each zone to take ownership of their zone. They have time to really learn the ins and outs. This is especially helpful with the Kitchen Helper and the Laundry Helper (since these are huge undertakings in our house, these two assignments do not fall to the same child). A month gives time to learn more cooking skills, become more familiar with where the little odds and ends belong when unstacking the dishwasher, learn to better separate laundry and watch for stains.

This approach has revolutionized my life. The older two kids work almost wholly independently. Elizabeth and Anna require more direction, but are enthusiastic and love having their own tasks.

In making this switch, I have to readjust my expectations each month. If it is Thomas' month in the kitchen, he stacks and unstacks the dishwasher without assistance. He makes simple meals with little or no assistance. If it is Elizabeth's month to be Kitchen Helper, I am right beside her the entire time. If Sarah Grace is doing the School Room, everything is neat and orderly. If Anna has the Living Room, I have to remind her of each task to do and pitch in with some of it.

The first week of each month is a refresher course for each child, and that week tends to be a bit slower. After a few days in their new zones though, they really do very well. The first month of this new system left me at loose ends because of the amount of free time I found myself with. I now fill that time with more reading to the kids and more just being present.  It is very much so win-win.

How do you handle household cleaning responsibilities at your house? Do your kids help, and if so, how much?

Square Pegs and Round Holes

I like thrift stores.  It's fun for me to walk into one and wander and poke about.  I gaze at random items that catch my attention and dream of ways to make them pretty in my home.  Or sometimes, they are perfect just the way they are.

Like this little guy... there he was, sitting forlornly.  A round little vase with a dime size hole just begging for some of my lovely pink roses to be popped in for display.  A beautiful steal at forty-nine cents. 

Actually, that odd little pedestal bowl behind the vase came from some thrift store, too.  It was all wooden and dingy and scratched up.  I brought it home, aimed a can of spray paint at it and then lightly distressed it.  It makes me happy.  Currently it's holding a bunch of letters cut from the Cricut, awaiting a project that I can't find time for.

I'm always trying to think outside the box or recall something I've seen on Pinterest.  There are several items in a dresser in the garage waiting for some day when I get to them to gussy them up the way I've imagined.

Sometimes I look at something and put it in a box in my head and can't see past the purpose I've given that particular item.  So when I saw a dozen or so of these little Ikea jars, I immediately thought 'spice jars' and walked away.

 

However, my Thomas, with his seven year old boy mind, didn't see spice jars at all.  He saw the perfect answer to the current lightening bug dilemma.

"Mom!  Look!  These jars have a place to open so the lightening bugs get air and the other side you can open to let them fly out when your done!"  

Sure enough, the lids opened dually like you would imagine from a spice jar.  One side with little holes and one side to spoon from.  He grinned at me and realized he had made a superb point.  

"Mom, we have to get them!  Pleeeeeeeee-zah???"

 See the two bugs lit up in the two jars to the right? 

 At 45 cents each, we bought half a dozen.  The kids could hardly wait till dusk.  Thomas spotted the first lightening bug and requested the jars.  He and the kids ran around for two hours collecting lightening bugs.  I consider this a fantastic investment!

What are some of your favorite thrift store finds?

Choclate Cake Meets Daniel's Face

There he is after his first official cake smashing.  I think he may have packed more chocolate icing in his ears than in his belly.  It was a good weekend.  A very good weekend.

He's 1

I can still remember the disbelief when I realized the power was out and that I wasn't going to have the induction.  My body was stretched to it's limits and my arms were aching to hold my baby.

Five days later, I remember pacing around all night, speaking soft words to the little life in my belly as my body started the Great Eviction.

I remember those first precious cries and the call of "It's a BOY!!!" and the feel of him as they placed him on my chest and he wriggled and cried his little newborn cry of angst that his world had abruptly changed.

I remember bringing him home, keeping his sweet little body stripped down and in the sunshine, hoping that he would be the one to break the jaundice chain.

Soon, we were past freshly newborn and into calling his age by weeks rather than days.  He spent hours being held and loved on by his grandparents, aunts, siblings, but mostly his Mommy and Daddy.  We were just as awed by our fifth as we were by our first.

He spent his days sleeping and eating and watching the crazy cycle around him.  Kids in and out and hovering over and in his face.  He smiled big for them, especially his brother, who was more in love with him than any of us knew possible.

He laid on his back and reached for toys or listened as somebody read books to him.  He sat up and engaged in play with sisters who thought they had a real live baby doll.

He giggled and laughed at the entertainment of his siblings and screeched out his discontent when they bothered him.  He became very successful at communication sans words.

He began crawling and reveled in his new found mobility.  As a family, we had to learn to keep colored pencils and Legos off the floor, along with a whole slew of other small choking-hazard type items.

He is full time motion, more active than any of my others, and yet a snuggler like none of the others.  He never fails to greet us with his big smile.  He's had to learn to be heard over the loud percussive noise that is the rhythm of our days.

Happy 1st Birthday, Daniel!  We love you so very much!

Daddy, Mommy, Thomas, Sarah Grace, Elizabeth, and Anna