Bye-bye Baby Bear, Hello Little Bear!

Baby Bear decided that he didn't want to be called Baby Bear any more. We convinced him to wait until he turned four. Today that day came, and he is now officially Little Bear.


Jon had to work today, so Little Bear got to open his birthday present before Jon left.






















Last night, Jon asked Baby Bear what he wanted for breakfast. His answer? Pizza! (By the way, we had pizza for supper last night.) So, I made plans with Baby Bear to make a cinnamon "roll" pizza. This morning I made the pizza for Little Bear's breakfast. I got up later than I intended, because I didn't sleep well last night. Jon had to leave before the pizza was ready, so he ate a bowl of instant oatmeal. We saved a piece of pizza for him.
















This afternoon, I asked Little Bear what he would like for lunch. His answer? Oatmeal! So, I made Peanut butter oatmeal with a jelly dollop, carrot and celery sticks, and applesauce. I piled the kids' plates high with the oatmeal. I didn't want them to get hungry too quickly. Little Bear didn't finish all his veggies and applesauce. It was just as well though. He is fighting off some sort of flu bug. I realized that the applesauce would only make matters worse after I served him.


Tonight was a dress rehearsal for the play at church. We all went so that I could help with make-up. After the rehearsal was over, we were all standing in a prayer circle. As one of our elders was praying for everyone to get and stay healthy Birdie threw up on the sanctuary floor. Fun times! (oozing with sarcasm)


We had cake and frozen yogurt/ice cream. Birdie had to sit this one out.


*I had more photos I was trying to post, but for some reason they weren't uploading. I may try again tomorrow. I'm too tired to wait for them.

It Was Only A Matter Of Time

The weather here in Ohio has been all over the place. For example, last week we had a day in the 70s and the next day it snowed. Right now, there is snow on the ground. The children are talking of Christmas. When there is snow on the ground Christmas must soon follow. Right? Wrong. If you live in Ohio, then the chances are you will have snow for Thanksgiving and only need a light jacket for Christmas.

Hmm... I have strayed from my point.

Anyway, when the weather goes through crazy changes, people in my household end up sick. This past week, several of the kids started fighting coughs and stuffy/runny noses. We went through half of a large tissue box in one day. We've been fighting hard to get everyone healthy and try to keep it from spreading. However, last night I lost the battle. I had been fighting off the sickies. I thought I was doing O.K. Then, the girls and I went to Sunflower Scouts last night. It was bitter cold. I got through most of the night fine. As we were waiting for parents to pick up their girls, it hit me hard. All of a sudden, I had no energy. I started feeling achy and unsteady on my feet. I ushered my girls out of the church hoping the other ladies had everything under control (the girls in the age group I help lead had all been picked up).

The kids and I slept in late today. We needed it. Kitty Kat and I had stayed up late last night working on dishes. This morning, I am still feeling blah. Now, I also feel feverish. Ugh! Mamas aren't allowed to get sick!

Now that I've ranted a little, I'm going to go finish getting ready for the day so we can get school done.

Where's the optimism? I didn't have to get up early, get kids ready, and take kids to school this morning!

Saturday Sounds

rain falling

cars splashing through the water on the street outside

rain pinging on the kitchen window air conditioner

rain

rain

silence

no rain?

"Mom, it's snowing!"

A Little of This And a Bit of That

First, Lucille at Who's Going to Tell You? wants to know if she should keep blogging. She says she will continue if she gets fifty comments. She did not specify that the comments had to be from fifty different people, but wouldn't it be neat if she did get comments from fifty different people? I've started her off with ten comments. I'm just ornery that way. LOL So, everyone head on over to Lucille's place. I'll wait. I need to change around the loads of laundry anyway.



Second, I don't think I mentioned before that Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey are in a Christmas play the Stage Right drama group at our church is putting on. The play is (if I have it right) "Scrooge Revisited". Jon got the lead part of Scrooge. The girls are extras in a scene or two and are the great-great- great...granddaughters of Scrooge in a modern day scene. The girls had their lines memorized for their audition. Jon, on the other hand, has a total of ninety-nine lines to have memorized. He is finding that it is a lot harder to memorize lines now than it was when he had less responsibilities.



Third, things have been crazy around here.

The two aforementioned girls had to be at church every day but Friday a couple weeks ago. Sunday: we had morning and evening services and activities. Monday: the girls and I had Sunflower Scouts. Tuesday: Jon, Kitty Kat, and Monkey had play practice. Wednesday: Baby Bear had his Wed. night class; Puppy Dog, Monkey, and Birdie had children's choir; Kitty Kat and Froggie had small group; Jon had Men's Fraternity; and I had Teacher Training. Thursday: we had homeschool P.E. Saturday: our church had their Fall Festival and Trunk and Treat.


This past week was all mixed up.

A week ago Saturday, Birdie was playing ghost in a sleeping bag after I warned the kids to put the bags away before someone got hurt. Birdie tripped and chipped four of her teeth.

A week ago Monday, I dropped the other kids off at Mom's and took Kaycie to the dentist. Jon met us at Mom and Dad's and we ate supper with them before the girls and I had to run off to Sunflower Scouts.


Last Tuesday was election day so we tried to focus on the elections. The kids and I went over to Jon's Mom's place and picked up her pop cans (to recycle) and ran her vacuum. We took all our cans to the recycle center and then picked up lunch. We ate lunch at Jon's workplace. It was a nice day so the kids and I played games (i.e. Mommy Says instead of Simon Says) on the lawn while we waited for Jon to get off work. When Jon got off work, we went together in the van to go vote. The kids did great! They only got riled up when one of the poll workers started encouraging them. The workers were bored and enjoyed the lively chatter of the children. After we voted, we went shopping and then picked up Jon's car. The evening was spent watching the voting results, watching an online video about how the voting process works, etc.


Wednesday Birdie had an appointment at the E.N.T. doctor. Monkey, Kitty Kat, and Froggie stayed in the reception area and read. The boys went back to the examination room with Birdie and me. They all behaved well at the doctor's office.


Thursday the kids had their homeschool P.E. class and I got a chance to talk with some of the other homeschool moms from our church. We also had to run some errands.


Friday the kids and I (my mom came too) went to watch Jon at a forklift rodeo. As the day's events ended, Jon was in first place in the masters division. Jon's supervisor invited the children and I to go eat with them afterwards at Lone Star.


Saturday was the final day of the rodeo. We went again hoping that Jon would stay in the top six. During the final half hour, he was knocked down to seventh (I think) place. Needless to say, he was very disappointed. Jon stayed for the catered award ceremony while my mom, dad, the children, and I went to Frisch's. We then went back to our MESSY :. ( house for pumpkin pie that my mom had brought.

We also were getting back into our early rising routine this past week and dealing with the time change. Our pets are still messed up over the time change.

The children were really trying my patience this last week or so. They have been fighting and arguing, talking back, grumbling, complaining, deliberately disobeying, and making messes without cleaning them up. Between our busy week and trying to fit in school we didn't have much time to keep up the house. When we were working on the house, it was like we would take one or two steps forward and at least five steps back. I'm still trying to find the optimistic side of things.

This morning before he left for work, Jon told me I really needed to enforce a mandatory nap time "right now". He gave them all a talking to as well. The kids were already at each others throats before 6:30 am this morning! The kids have been watching preschool programs this morning ever since breakfast was over. They're not allowed to mess around or the T.V goes off. The girls won't take a nap anymore, so this down time is about as close as we'll get to naps. I was hoping the boys would fall asleep, but they're not. They are close though. We might just have to start our school day with story time. We've really got to get the kids back into a better routine.

This post is getting pretty long, so I'll end it here. I'll have another post up soon with yesterday's creative writing assignments.

A Busy Weekend

We had a pretty eventful weekend. I finally have something to blog about! LOL I could do without some of it.

Saturday, the kids and I went to a Pow Wow. It's not something we will do again. It was a BIG letdown. The kids and I were all bored, we had to pay to get in (more than was locally advertised) and they had merchandise booths surrounding the center circle , and I got sunburned.


Did you know that you "can't see" this man. He is doing a "stalking dance". He is supposed to be sneaking up on buffalo and when he is crouched down he is "invisible". The announcer even said if we had our pictures developed, then they would come back without the image of the dancer. lol
The kids thought the announcer was insane.


These two showed up on/around our porch Sunday early morning. Jon was a pushover and we have now adopted them. It wasn't too difficult to persuade me.

Tiger is a little timid. He likes to hide in their new refuge. Lily is more adventuresome and curious.

This tree fell in the wind storm Sunday and blocked our side street.



It almost hit a neighbor's car.


We had some damage around our house, too. This is one of the sections of privacy fence that fell down.

Some small branches fell on some wires between our garage and house (we got them off each time) and a large limb fell on our house. There doesn't appear to be much structural damage, though I could be wrong. I think God was really looking out for us!
Do you see the crack in our next door neighbor's tree? We were really watching it Sunday. None of our children slept upstairs Sunday night. Our neighbor moved one of his daughters out of her room that is on the corner of their house near the tree. It really looked like it was going to crash down. We think the ivy vines wrapped around it are holding it up. Our neighbor isn't allowed to mess with it and has to wait on the city/county to take care of it.

Our electricity went out Sunday at 4:11pm. It came back on a little after 5:00am this morning. Now, I need to go clean out our refrigerator and freezer before I put our food back in them and catch up on the laundry.

After The Rain

The kids and I went with my mom to visit my grandmother. Along the way, we saw a lot of flooded areas. The water here was almost up to the house. Just below the house you can see the water rushing past (look for the white area). I took this photo on the way to Grandma's.

Behind that house was another house; the water came right up to the house. I took this photo on the way back home. I was hoping to get a better view, but this will have to suffice.



I also took some pictures of the covered bridge in Lynchburg, Ohio.




The bridge was built the year before our house was built.
From what I understand, this is the only covered bridge in Ohio that joins two counties. The Highland county side is paved (over the planks) and the Clinton county side is not paved. The bridge is blocked on both sides, so it is only open to foot traffic now.

Rain and More Rain

All right, now sing with me in a normal volume:

"The raindrops fall with a pitter-patter-pit,
a pitter-patter-pit, a pitter-patter-pit,
the raindrops fall with a pitter-patter-pit,
showing God's great love."

Now we sing in a whisper:

"The raindrops fall with a pitter-patter-pit,
a pitter-patter-pit, a pitter-patter-pit,
the raindrops fall with a pitter-patter-pit,

showing God's great love."

Now we sing very loudly:

"The raindrops fall with a pitter-patter-pit,

a pitter-patter-pit, a pitter-patter-pit,

the raindrops fall with a pitter-patter-pit,

showing God's great love."

(I'm not sure who wrote this song.)

We are getting the rain we expected. I rained off and on yesterday. Jon plugged in our pump before he went to work. I didn't have to venture into the dungeon. Last night it rained all night. It's coming down pretty hard right now. I notice, as I walked out onto the porch with Jon this morning, that he had stretched out the hose that is attached to the pump. The water was poring out of the hose as if a spigot was turned on. Jon checked the basement (dungeon) this morning and the whole floor was wet, but there was no standing water. The pump is working.

That Crazy Ohio Weather

Last Saturday, we had our "Civil War" snowball fight. We had somewhere around a foot of snow. Throughout the rest of the week, we experienced a weather roller coaster. A couple days we were able to go out in t-shirts or light jackets. One or two days it rained. Yesterday, we woke up to a very thick fog. Visibility was close to that of a blizzard. Jon had to drive to work about three hours before the following picture was taken, when visibility was even worse.


The girls had choir practice yesterday morning at nine. I took this picture just after nine from our spot in our church's parking lot. I included the parking lines to give you an idea of distance. The space between the sets of parking spaces is about one and a half times as long as the spaces.


This picture was taken of the same area at a little after eleven when the girls got out of choir practice.


This is a picture of the area where our snow "forts" were (Fort Leaf was on the left and Fort Bush a.k.a. Fort Mush was on the right). Yep, that is green grass growing. My tulips are about four to five inches tall now. Last Sunday, the snow and roads were so bad that church was canceled for the whole day. This picture was taken today.

I about forgot to mention that several days this week were cold enough to need our winter coats. On our way to church our van temperature gauge said that it was 34 degrees out.

NORTH BEATS SOUTH ONCE AGAIN

Yesterday (Saturday, March 8, 2008) the North once again prevailed over the South. The South was totally dominated by the power and resources of their northern opponents.

It was a girls verses boys plus a volunteer. The boys chose the northern location for their fort and Officer Jon proceeded to use the recycle bin to build their fort (instead of the allotted bucket). Kitty Kat offered to join the boys, and Officer Brandi, against her better judgment, allowed her most promising soldier to defect. The girls built their fort using the allocated bucket. Fort Leaf in the North was fortified with a supply of wetter snow for better ammunition; thicker, higher walls; and a stronger officer. Fort Bush in the South had a nice supply of lower quality snow, thinner weaker walls, confused soldiers, and a commanding officer whose back went out while building the fort.

Both sides put forth a valiant effort. The Fort Bush soldiers had a hard time packing their snowballs. Officer Brandi had some pre-made ammunition, but her soldiers have not yet acquired the dexterity and strength needed for making snowballs. The Fort Leaf soldiers did not make ammunition ahead of time but Officer Jon and his soldiers were able to make their ammunition quickly during the battle.

During the battle, Private Bear came out into the open in enemy territory. He was met with an onslaught of snowballs from Officer Brandi. Officer Jon put himself in dangers way to rescue his brave, wayward soldier.

The battle ended when Officer Brandi received a cannon ball sized snowball to the chest at the hands of officer Jon. The blow was enough to "knock" her over. She went down and stayed down. Officer Jon then stormed Fort Bush and declared, "We are victorious over Fort Mush!" Officer Jon then proceeded to help Officer Brandi to her feet to receive medical attention (read kisses and hugs ; ).

This is on the north side of Fort Leaf.

This is behind Fort Bush looking toward Fort Leaf.


Do you see why the girls were at a disadvantage?



The girls didn't have a chance, but they get Fort Leaf next time!
(That is if Officer Brandi's back recovers.)

Monkey's Prayer Was Answered

We had hoped to have a "civil war" of our own the last time we had a good snow. Unfortunately, the snow was powdery so we didn't get to have our war. That night, when Monkey was saying her bedtime prayers, she prayed that we would have a good, big, packing quality snowfall before Spring. (Changed to update: The 11 o'clock news just said we were officially at 12" of snow.) Yes, we were able to pack it. Yes, we were able to have our "civil war". (For those of you who didn't already know, we are currently studying the civil war in our homeschool.)

Our county and the surrounding counties have a level 3 snow emergency. Only authorized personnel are allowed out on the roads. If someone is caught out on the roads they can get ticketed. Jon took Puppy Dog back to our garage with him and PD had to go through some snow that was up to his waist.

Never underestimate the prayer of an eight-year-old (or any child for that matter). I learned several years ago that I shouldn't.

Click here for a WDTN article about the snowfall in our area.

One of my favorite things...and a bane to others

This winter and in winters past, I have taken pleasure in looking out my front door and looking at one of the trees in our front yard covered in ice and backlit by the street lamp.




I took this picture tonight, started the download to my blog, and then turned on the news. One of the first things covered was the dangerous ice on the trees and power lines in my county and a neighboring county. There was even a picture that looked a lot like mine. I'm not sure if you can see it in this picture, but the ice covers the branches and there are mini icicles from the rain that froze as it dripped from the tree. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, then you can see the icicles lit by the street lamp. No, those are not Christmas lights on the tree.

The ice is so beautiful, yet oh so dangerous.

Today was beautiful!

I had an appointment this morning and I got to go on my own (J. was home with the kids). I came out of my appointment to go home and it was so nice out I couldn't help but get excited. Some kids were out at recess at a nearby school, and I was reminded that I had been talking about taking the kids to a park as soon as it was nice out. The boys especially needed to go somewhere that they could climb without getting into trouble.

I got home and the kids are excited. Daddy was up to something. I went into our room where J. was and found him packing up our swimsuits and beach towels. He was feeling the urge to get out of the house and get some exercise, as well. I let him know my park idea, he let me know his YMCA idea, and we decided to try to do both.

We went to a park and let the kids run, climb, swing, and get as loud as they wanted. We had one main rule. They couldn't play on the Cinderella carriage. The carriage is in a sandy area and the sand was wet. We didn't want the muddy sand in our van or all over the kids before going to the Y. After we had been there for a while, three of the kids wandered over to the carriage and we had to call them over and remind them of the rule. The kids handled it well. Then, J. called over the rest of the kids and started a game of "I Spy -- Race". J. told the kids that he spied such and such and that the first person to touch it would get a prize. The kids had a blast with this game. The first prize was a kiss and Kitty Kat got it. She had to pass the kiss back to Daddy when he solved her "I Spy". The prize changed any time Dad or Mom "spied". They could only spy within the play area and after the first warning, Mom took over a "spy" if anyone picked something outside the designated area. After prizes of being tickled, flipped by Daddy, and double flipped by Daddy, everyone was worn out.

We had lunch and then it was evident that naps were needed, so we had story time and naps. We didn't make it to the Y, but our things are in the van ready for the first chance we get.

The boys' hair was getting pretty long, so we decided it was time for a buzz. J. worked on clipping the boys' hair while I fixed dinner. Puppy Dog was amazed when he saw a boy with a tall mohawk the other day at Wal-mart. J. decided to have a little fun and left the boys with mohawks. He tried to get their hair to stick up, but their hair didn't cooperate. We took these pictures during supper:

Puppy Dog

Baby Bear

Baby BearPuppy Dog

We will finish their hair cuts before church Wednesday.