Loving Coffee, Choosing Joy

I'm over at Sue's blog, Praise and Coffee today. She did a great job with all the pictures, the first one I was all "gasp! that's on her coat rack!" Enjoy! :)


With four boys, there are some mornings I wake up with one thought....I need coffee. We have a Bunn coffee maker here, my husband can't stand to wait for coffee and I have to say....I cannot imagine my life without my super fast coffee maker.
And as fast as it is, I still find myself standing in front of it waiting for it to finish only to take out the carafe to drink it before it's ready.
I had a day like that recently............................................................


http://praiseandcoffee.blogspot.com/2009/12/loving-coffee-choosing-joy.html

The Great Christmas Play

The boys were in a Christmas play for our church this Sunday and I could tell you that it went off without a hitch and it was perfect and all went smoothly.

Then you would look at the title of the blog to make sure that you were, in fact, reading the correct blog and then you would believe it had been hijacked.

But it DID go very well. The play went perfectly. The boys were great......
Well....
Sorta.
Here is what happened.

You recall my bad day that wasn't so bad. Yes, well, the glass places are closed until Monday so we did not have the suburban. But we had the great to the rescue cab and half, nice and cuddly close, plow truck.

On Sunday, the day of the play, we had church, we had dinner and then I had a little tiny bit of time to clean a big huge mess. And cook. And bake.

But I had a great plan. I made the cookies and then when husband brought the boys to church for their last practice at 4:30, I would clean the floors, wait til then to clean the bathroom, and be ready to go by 5:15 to be to church by 5:30 to get a great seat and cheer on my handsome fellows.

I have great ideas.
They just rarely work.

As I was getting the boys their shoes and socks (this is a big deal, they all had socks on!), I told S4 to go in and wash his face. He was gone a very long time. He came running out of the bathroom grinning. “See my hair, Moma?” he asked. “I cut it just like Daddy does!”

And he had. A big huge bald spot right in the very front of his head.

You see, Husband cuts his own hair. He buzz cuts it, along with the boys hair. But he trims his goatee with scissors, it gets singed by the hot wood heat so often he usually trims it every few days. And always always always when we are headed out to church or some other look nice event.

What do you do? I just sweetly smiled and said “Wow...how about we not use the scissors again though, okay?” His hair is so short I am hoping no one notices the bald skin....but I will.
Not long after the boys had left and I was jamming along to great Christmas music, the phone rang. It was husband. “Honey, please tell me that JM is home with the extra set of keys to the Dodge.....”

JM plows with Husband.

“Um, I think so.....” I said, straining to see if she was but not seeing her car. “Why?” I asked afraid of the answer.
“Somehow we locked the truck. And it's still running.”

Well, I skedaddled, grabbed the extra set (we so are making hidakeys after this!) and jumped in the big mean Dodge with the hunking huge v-blade and raced to be the hero.

It's kinda fun being the hero for Husband for once.

Except, the gas light was dinging just as soon as the Dodge rumbled loudly to life.

But I talked to Dodge, told him how to shift correctly and warned him of the predicament he'd put me in if he left me stranded with no gas and made it to the rescue, and then Husband and I celebrated by rolling into the gas station.

We are very romantic.

This put a HUGE crimp in the getting the house ready for the Christmas play party but I figure they are family and they are forced to love us anyhow so we raced to the church and arrived five minutes before the play began, when our family was all there already, waiting for us.

The play went off without a hitch. S1 had a speaking part and he has been grounded from all hunting or target practicing until he memorized his lines and since he said them correctly I am sure hunting will be in the very near future. S2 grinned perfectly, stood perfectly, sang perfectly. S3 was hard to see because he was on the far side of the group and I could only catch glimpses of him from where I was sitting. Then there was S4.

This was a big deal to S4. He was finally old enough to be in the play with his guys. He knew every sang every line with determination, a constant bop of his head to keep time. “Gloooo,oooo,ooooo,oooo, ria” was a fun one to watch him sing. Every new “o” was a new bop. When the play would start up again after the song, he would turn and watch it, I mean, why not, that's why everyone was here. And since he was at the end of the row, why not get comfy? Here's a few poses.

GM, my sister in law, and I especially liked when he was up on his knees waving his butt in the air like he had a tail. And then there was time when just the girls talked in the play and who wants to listen to girls? Apparently not him, because he just laid right down on the middle step in the middle of the stage and waited for them to be done.

But when it came time to sing, he stood up straight and sang proudly.

GM and I giggled through the whole play. Husband, at the other end of the pew, couldn't see him. So only half the church seen S4's antics.
Which is good.

(after the play, S4 didn't get the mic during the play, thank goodness!)

Afterwards my parents, Husband's Mom, my brother and sister in law and Jr and my sister and her husband and baby Back-up all came back to the house to eat the cookies and sloppy joes I had made and we ended up having more food than we needed and having more fun than expected.
It was a great night.

That went perfectly.

A Bad Day filled with Clouds

I should have known back when I wrote that article for Sue's Praise and Coffee newsletter about clouds being a reminder of God being with me I should expect to have to remember that. Because I have failed miserably at it.

Take today for instance.

It's Saturday, the first day of Christmas vacation. The first day of relaxation. Except I woke up in a panic at 5:30 thinking I had overslept to watch Jr today. But I hadn't, it was just Husband's phone alerting him to go plow.

And we weren't suppose to get any snow.

I awoke later to S3 and S4 taking turns tattling. “Moma, he just kicked me FOR NO REASON.”
“Moma, he just took my toy FOR NO REASON.” (which means there was a reason)

And in between all that it was “I am going to tell for real this time....” Then the tattling, then angrily calling out as soon as he stepped out of the bedroom “See, I did tell you on you!”

When I made pancakes for the boys, S3 and S4 had to sit in the same yellow chair I have in the kitchen and not speak to each other at all. That's just not the way you want to start the day.
We were running late, which just doesn't seem right on a day off, a day of vacation to boot, but the boys had Christmas play practice. Walking out the door we got an important phone call and the snow had made the roads truly awful and we were running late.

As I pulled into the church parking lot, still unshowered, wearing Husbands big t shirt, my favorite comfy jeans, a flannel and my big outdoor coat and hoping no one would see me at all, the suburban, that hardly ever slides on me, slid. As I was pulling into the drop off porch area of the church. The suburban was suddenly sideways and I was mere inches from the big decorative rock in the front.

I wasn't speeding, I wasn't in a hurry, I wasn't trying to do such a thing.

Had I hit the rock or, much worse, the church, I would have been humiliated beyond imagination and would beg Husband to never have us return. Ever. As in forever and ever. And move. Far far away. It would have been terrible.

But it wasn't.

Instead, the boys all did a collective, “Woa, that was SO COOL! Did you try to do that? Can we do that again? That was awesome!”

I am so thankful they find me cool.

When I got home, my two favorite neighbors stopped by. EG and KM are sweet girls, I just wish that when they stopped over it wasn't the moment I was not properly dressed, unshowered, have my hair in weird braids or buns for style's sake, have mountains of laundry.....you know, normal every day stuff. But I did have coffee on....and I think they secretively love this about me. And I did mention they are my favorite girls...so we chatted in my dirty dishes cluttered kitchen. They had stopped by to say goodbye to the boys because they are headed out for two weeks. That is sweet, I tell you, these are sweet girls!

But when they left and I jumped in the shower I was soon running late again when I headed out to pick the boys up. But I drove slower and was in four wheel drive the whole time. I pulled into church less than five minutes late. I hopped out of the suburban into the still accumulating snow we weren't suppose to be getting, shut my door and heard a weird cracking sound. As I walked around the back of the suburban, I noticed black things falling on the ground. Like muddy ice from a dirt road or like...glass.

As in my whole back window had just cracked, shattered and fallen to the ground.

I had to pick all the glass up off the ground and the bumper. Every time the boys got in or out of the suburban, more fell from the back. My thumb and finger were dripping blood by the time I was done.

I had no idea how it broke.

We had quite the little kid crowd staring at us.

When I pulled out of the parking lot to take the boys home in the broken window suburban, it was 12:30. They had to eat lunch and be back at the church by one for caroling with their WOL group.

I didn't have any food for lunch for them.

So, we stopped at the grocery store on the way home, grabbed two family cans of ravioli (can't even stand the sight of such food but they love it) and hurried home where I started barking orders to get the car seats (S2 and S3 still have to be in boosters and S4 has a car seat still) into the plow truck.

In the meantime, I was getting the ravioli in a microwavable bowl and into the microwave, getting disposable bowls and forks from the cub hoard and then we were all in the plow truck headed back to church where I would have the boys eat the icky smelling food they all so loved. We were home a full five minutes.

I have never driven this plow truck. I have not driven a straight blade plow truck in a long time. And did I mention it was still snowing snow we weren't suppose to get? The roads had completely deteriorated now.

So I am driving in an unfamiliar truck on nasty roads hoping the plow does not cross the center line.

We made it to church late but not too late and I spooned up the boys food and as they were scarfing it down so they could leave with the group, I felt like crying.

It was too much today.

But I held it all together, got the two younger back into the truck after cleaning up the church kitchen and headed slowly home. When we arrived home, I recalled how Husband wanted me to get familiar plowing with this truck just in case I ever had to help him in a pinch and so I began to plow the driveway. It's been many years since I have plowed. I got our driveway all done, not too great but not too shabby and headed over to do the rental. I made one great push of snow, impressive really how smoothly it went, when I noticed the front blade was dripping fluid.

And that is not good.

Remorse filled my tummy and I did began to cry.

I went back into our messy cluttered home to wait for Husband to come home and pray to God it wasn't a bad break whatever I had done.

I had a message from my Mom asking if I would have cookies and cocoa and coffee after the play Sunday night. I looked at the messy house and bickering boys and nearly called it all quits. It wasn't my mom's fault, it was a great idea really. I just felt like such a failure at that moment.
S4 jumped on the couch in joy to watch a movie, fell backwards and hit his head on the heater.
He didn't seem to have a concussion or anything so I left him in the house because Husband was pulling in and after I had just sobbed my apologies on the phone to him (very literally here) even though he assured me he was sure the plow was fine, I figured I had better go face the awfulness my 'helpfulness' was.

He was right, it was nothing. He had just filled the fluids and they were just dripping from being full. No problem at all.

So I jumped in the truck with him so he could finish plowing and poured out my woes to him.
Not a thing was wrong. I hadn't hit the rock, the insurance will cover the window, the truck was not broken, we had an extra vehicle for me to drive, we have a warm home people want to come over to....blessing upon blessing upon blessing.

But I had forgotten it all, and Husband gently reminded me.

Which was good, because when I got back in the house, S3 had a bruised eye because S4 had kicked him to get him off the spot he was sitting in to watch Clifford.

God was in the cloud that followed the Israelites thru the the desert in Exodus. He never left them, He kept them protected. Just as God never left my side today, kept us protected and sent blessing upon blessing upon me.

And the biggest blessing was my Husband, who reminded me of all that as we sat in an unbroken plow truck and just him being near me was making my day better.

Beware of the Name Stinky

As I write this, I am wearing a crown.

No joke.

Some lovely friend of ours gave us a bag full of hats to S4 and S3 thought we all should sit around tonight with one on. He and I were the only ones who kept one on but S3 has long since fell asleep on the couch beside me as we watch Miracle for the upteenth hundredth time but for the first time on our brand new Blu Ray that my hubby won at his Christmas party so we are feeling spoiled rotten and watching Husband's all time favorite movie...or at least on his top ten list.
There has been so much going on these past days that I have had no time to write at all. And even Husband has mentioned I have more than enough to write about...funny how when life is most write worthy I have no time!

So there has been Christmas shopping, Christmas programs, practices, Christmas parties, S4's issues, S1's special dinner, S3's special reward, S2's fashion advice.....

All upcoming blogs. I just have to write you this teaser now.

But here is a thought to leave you with...

A few days ago, S4 was sitting on the toilet and stinking just terribly.

“Ewww! You are STINKY!” I declared.

Instantly his feelings were hurt. “Why you call me Stinky?” he asked.

“Cuz you are super stinky!” I laughed. I should not have laughed.

“I don't like that name. I not Stinky.” He explained to me.

Every single day now, no matter how many times I have apologized, S4 will say to me.

“Remember when you call me Stinky? I did not love that so don't do that again.”

Sometimes, you just can't win.

Blizzard

Yup, here on the farm we have a blizzard. At least that is what the meteorologist keep telling us. I am in hopes that it doesn't get that bad, really, I am. But we were supposed to end up with 20 to 30 inches of snow. We have five. Where Husband plows, they have two at the most.

Not exactly what one would call a blizzard.

It is supposed to be bitterly cold today. As in, wind chills below zero. That is the coldest it's been since last year some time. And I am not looking forward to that at all. But yesterday we had a snow day. It wasn't even bad out, not that I am complaining at all, it was just rainy. But every news cast said we were getting a blizzard by one in the afternoon and I was thankful to have the boys safe at home.

As I type this this morning, way too early, I am watching to see if we have a snow day today and desperately hoping we do.

All that to say....

Snow days can drive a moma insane.

I would love to tell you that we all had a joyous, fun filled, Norman Rockwell type day but it wasn't at all. It was an odd day. Husband was trying to get some sleep for the upcoming storm and couldn't. The boys were ecstatic to go out and sled in the maybe one inch of really wet snow we had received over the night but it was raining and miserable. I refused to let them watch TV so they made paper airplanes and somehow they all flew next to the few nice pretty things I have left in the house. The tonka truck races through the house (I will have to write a blog just on those) were insane. But the worst was that they just kept fighting. Literally. They thought it would be fun to punch each other and act like boxers, until two punches later one or two of them were crying because so and so had hit them. Makes me want to pull out my hair I have been trying so hard to grow out.

At one point a very whiny S3 and very "I don't know why I hit him with my stuffed animal" S4 who had fought and annoyed eachother all day long had to sit on the same couch cushion until they could get along. They sat there a long time....but it really did seem to help. Well, that and I gave in at night and basically begged them to watch a movie. Upstairs. Away from me for a little bit.

And food! We had three kinds of pancakes for breakfast; grilled cheese, ravioli, mac and cheese for lunch and BBQ beef and fried potatoes for dinner. And they were still hungry. And always in need of hot cocoa. With extra marshmellows.

And that is a lot of dishes, by the way!

I had visions of us playing games, catching up on home work, cleaning their rooms. Instead, I looked at the clock and it was nine thirty and I had no idea where the day had gone....other than all the time in the kitchen.

So, yes, I want a snow day today. Why? Well, because I want my boys to be safe today. I would like them to enjoy the few inches of snow we have today, even if it is not a blizzard. And I would like one more chance to have a fun snowed in day. I desperately want another chance.

We Made Christmas Cookies

Rarely do I do a blog with mostly photos but sometimes a photo is worth a thousand words so, well, let me explain the photos.

My mom has these awesome Christmas cookie recipe she has handed down to me. Okay, really she probably got it out of some cookie recipe book of Christmas ideas in the check out line in a grocery store when we little but it's our family recipe and it's a tradition and there a million happy memories surrounding these cookies. She has perfected it, she and i have tweaked it and oh my, they are scrumptious.

S4 has been very anxious to put the 'sparkles' on the cookies. But he was happy to help roll out the cookies. My plan was to have cookies baking for the boys when they got off the bus and then they could decorate their own cookie before making their own.

Husband was home (being laid off now) so he snapped a few photos. Oh look how happy we look. It really is a cute photo. You must realize, S4 has on this apron, but no pants. He is good on wearing pants only out of the house. otherwise, they just slow him down.


mmmmm! Don't they look yummy baking! My cookies are boring circles (snowballs I call them). We have a polar bear, a reindeer, a Christmas tree and a snowman cookie cutter.

The boys were ecstatic to get home and see I had cookie dough all separated for them and ready for them to make their own cookies. I had thought this up ahead of time...if everyone has their own dough and their own cookie sheet and their own frosting germs might not be so bad and then when they are starving (again or still) they can just grab the cookies they made. A brilliant idea, don't you agree? Really, it is. See S3? He is already sneaking tastes of the cookie dough.
S1 took a diligent approach to cookie making. I see a potential great pizza crust maker in his future...which is good cuz his moma can't make pizza crust to save her life.S2 said "Oh, this is cool, dude" many many many times. His cookie dough got rolled out so thin you could see the table through the dough. I made the dough up and it needed a light dusting of flour. In the time it took the boys to make cookies, they went through an extra four cups (approx) of flour. They think their cookies are scrumptious still, however.S3 was worried about the dough stuck on his hands. He hadn't noticed I kept seeing him sneak pieces to eat so when this was stuck I could see the "I really want to eat this but I could get in trouble" look on his face so I said, "Just eat it off!" Oh man, after that almost all of his cookie dough just disappeared. I seen S1 began to nibble a bit, S2 said it was great and S4 claimed the whole idea to be disgusting.S4 FINALLY got to put the "sprinkles" on the cookies. This was what he had waited for with anticipation for FOREVER.Here is one of my circle/snowball cookies baked, frosted and sprinkled. Notice my fancy spancy Wendy's napkins. When these cookies are still warm they are just the best. Like, I can eat way too many warm and nibble once in awhile on the regular 'room temperature' ones. I hadn't even eaten one at this point but prepared this cookie all ready for Husband who had run outside to do something......
And apparently it wasn't going to well with the plow truck. He was kinda too busy to eat a cookie....This is love. He is trying to get the fan belt on and he still sorta smiled for me. Notice he is not looking at me but still concentrating on getting that fan belt on.....

Only the boys ate the cookies rolled out, cut out and frosted on this table. It's scary a little, isn't it. But I love this picture, you know they are having a great time!Husband even made it in to enjoy the cookie and survey the mess. He didn't say anything other than "yup, this cookie is good."Here is S1. He made a monster cookie.S2 couldn't wait for me to take this photo. Notice the deer has blue eyes. He spent a long time decorating this one 'just right'.I love these photos of S3. He hardly noticed me taking pictures of him until I told him I needed to see if the cookie was good when he took a bite. I think he liked it.This picture of S4 eating the cookie is just great. I decided to add the photos of him dancing around with a cookie because that is just S4. He is always doing something like this.It took a LOT of elbow grease to get the table clean. I had no energy to make more cookies after that, but I still have a bunch of dough left to make some more cookies today... alone. I would not take back an evening making cookies with my boys...it took close to two hours...but I would so not eat anything they made either! And I just wanted to share a little snapshot (okay, a lot of snapshots) into our making Christmas cookies adventures.

I hope you loved this post! I just have to say, it took nearly five hours to get all the pictures on it. My computer went super duper duper duper slow (that's an understatement!) but I think it was worth it to share it with you! Besides, I was busy in between times checking out Carrie Underwood's dresses on her TV special (that girl can sing! I would love all those dresses and heels...I'd have no where to wear them but they sure are fun to see!) and getting a few things taken care of for the next day.

Hope you have a chance to enjoy making Christmas cookies with your kiddos!

S2's Style

S2 has his own sense of style. I think you can see that by the photo here on the side of the blog. He dresses to the beat of a different drum, if that makes sense. Sunday's are true challenges. Why can't you wear gym clothes to church? I like to have one day he looks 'normal', that's why. However, when he looks normal he ends up looking abnormal.

It's one of those things I just love about him!

So, it was really no surprise after watching Davy Crockett (the original) that he would decide he needs a coon skin hat. And it shouldn't surprise any of you by now that he had a coon tail all ready...thanks to my loving parents.

He put the coon tail on the back of his beloved Red Wings hat and I could tell by the light in his eyes that this was going to be his new fashion statement for a good long time.

The next day, when he wore his hat proudly to school, he got many a reaction, as I am sure you can imagine. Our first drop in the morning is the kindergarten room for S3. All the little kindergartner's swarmed S2. They all seemed to have a bit of fear in their eyes.

“Is it real?” they asked.

“Yup. But it's not alive,” S2 replied.

They would look at the tail, then the front of the hat. All hovered near him, but not too close. Finally one little boy dared to ask “Can I touch it?”

“Sure”, S2 allowed.

The little boy held out his hand and it was quivering. The closer he got to the tail, the more his hand shook. He would get very close and then jerk his hand back. It took him SIX tries before he actually let his fingers just barely graze the tail.

It was all I could do not to cheer for the boy as well as laugh hysterically.

S2 has caused quite the phenomenon at school now. I wouldn't have expected anything less.

A Morning with S4, Part Two

For breakfast we made chocolate chip pancakes. By we I mean I had two shadows, S3 and S4, who were determined to be the first to stir, the first to flip, the first to eat. I first drank a cup of coffee.

Husband was out to breakfast with a buddy so it was just the five of us. We just got our first snow of the year and it's measurable snow (well, technically we had a dusting the day after thanksgiving that was gone with the sunshine). We have about four inches, if you really stretch the ruler down into the grass. Just a bit north of us, where AD lives they were dumped with well over a foot of snow from the same lake effect snow storm. Anyhow, the boys were discussing going sledding as we ate our pancakes.

Just on a whim I looked to S4 and said “Hey, did you ever go sledding when you were a little kid?”

He chewed his pancake slowly as he began to sit higher in his chair until he was on his knees so he was as tall as any of us and with a swallow declared loudly “Yes, I did.”

“Really?” he had all our attentions now. “What happened?”

“Well,” he began, “When I was a little kid I went sledding out there (he points out the window) because I lived here, you know. And I went sledding for a little bit and then I got a Christmas tree all by myself.”

“Really?” S1 asked excitedly.

“Yah,” he answered as if to say 'duh!'. “You remember the tree because you were there too.”

“I was?” S1 asked.

“Yah, you rode the horses to pull the tree and you shot a deer while you were on the horse.”

“Cool!” S1 agreed.

“So you cut the tree down all by yourself?” I asked him.

“No, I was just a little kid. I was only five. S3 was three then.”

S1 began to snicker. “He just swapped ages with S3!”

“Yah, I was five,” continued S4, “And when I was done being five I turned, um...” He began counting quietly, one, two, three, four, five, six.... “I turned six. And then S3 was five!”

“So what did you do with the tree?” S2 asked.

“I decorated it all by myself,” S4 answered. “And then I opened all the Christmas prizes by myself cuz they were all for me. I had a Mater and Lightening McQueen and Doc and Mac and real road.” He sat down and speared another piece of pancake. “But that was when I was a little kid.”

A Morning with S4, Part One

He was just too funny to not blog about today.

We heat with wood here on our little farm. That means the house is usually toasty warm and our skin is super dry. I found a bottle of baby lotion the other day and after my shower this morning decided to lather up on it. S4 knocks politely on the bedroom door (this shocked me, he usually bursts in like thunder wherever he wants to be) and came in with his nose in the air sniffing like a dog. “What is that smell?” he asked quizzically.


“What smell?” I'd taken a long shower, who knows what smells the boys could have cooked up in that time?


“The smell like sunblock.”


“Oh!” I handed him the baby lotion. “It's baby lotion, not sunblock.” You see though, I DO lather my boys in sunblock. Even S4 knows this! So if they burn, it wasn't because I neglected their lotion!


He handed me the bottle back with a “moma is crazy” look on his face and in his voice when he said “Moma, we are not going to the beach.”


“I know, hon, we won't for a long time.”


He looks out the window and then explains to me slowly, as if I didn't hear him the first time. “Yup, there is snow in the sky and it is snowy on the ground. It is almost Christmas.” He turned to me for dramatic effect. “It is NOT beach time.”


“Yes, I agree.” I nodded seriously. If I had laughed, I am sure he would have thought me a lost cause.


He walked out of the bedroom. “Well, goodbye.” He shut the door and I heard him authoritatively tell his three brothers, “Guys, it is NOT beach time. Not for long time. Not until we have Christmas.”


“We know.....” they had a 'roll my eyes' type of response. That taken care of, he jumped on the couch to continue watching his Saturday morning movie.

"When I Was a Little Kid"

S4 began this story – or bunch of stories – this summer. I have thought to not write them out to you but was encouraged to do so the other night so here it is.....

One night when we were eating dinner, S4 began telling us a story about when he was a little kid. I don't recall how this all even began but it went something like this...

“When I was a little kid, my other Dad and Mom........” and he would tell this elaborate story with all sorts of details.

Here is why I didn't want to share this story...he would end it with “But then they threw me in the fire so now I live with you.”

How awful does that sound? Why would he say such a thing?

Now he doesn't end them that way, thank goodness. But I have found the other boys begging for his stories but I think I ask for them the most. It is such fun to hear his imagination! The stories usually happen when we are cuddled together, as in, Moma needs a nap will you cuddle next to me and tell me about when you were little? And then he will snuggle up next to me, tell me the story, tell me he will tell me another he just has to think of it and then he will fall asleep.

This week with my fuzzy head cold I got a chance to hear a new story so here it is for you...
“When I was a little kid, a long time ago, I went hunting. I shot a bear and a racoon and I made the racoon into a hat and then I shot a deer just because I seen one and could. Yup, I was a good hunter when I was a little kid.”

When he gets some new stories, I'll try to remember to post them.

Why the Coffee is Always on...or Should be

When we came up for the name of this blog, the thing we debated over the most was “coffee please”. Coffee now, double shot, espresso on the double...those were coffee terms I thought resonated more with my life. But if you say the word “please” desperately, it gets the point across.

And this is why I need coffee.

I have this fuzzy head cold thing going on. I will feel fine and then not be able to breathe thru my nose again. I know, lovely image there. But it's my sinuses that are so sore and leaving me feeling wiped out. So, I took some cold medicine before I went to bed last night that is just for sinuses. It worked great. Today I have a zillion things to do so I took some more of that cold medicine last night as soon as I got home from church and figured I would wake up feeling wonderful and fully healthy this morning.

I woke up alright.

Husband came home from Bible study and I woke up to realize he was home and fell back asleep. I remember thinking “oh, blessed sleep!” That was elevenish.

Some time later, I woke up again and just reveled in the quiet waiting for the alarm to go off. I waited and waited and waited and waited and then I looked at the clock. It was just after one.
I found that odd, but then again, I get to go back to sleep!

Except I woke up at 2, 2:45, 3:15 and at 3:15 I never fell back asleep. I just laid there waiting for 4 to come around when I would have to get up. My leg was twitching. My mind was racing, a thought would come to mind and I would be seized with panic (the biggest thought was PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let us find S3's glasses tomorrow morning at school! Because, as you can now guess, he had lost them the day before). The panic things really frightened me.

And oddly, one line from Miley Cyrus kept running thru my head “who's that chick rockin kicks, she must be from out of town”. Why that line, why that song, I don't know but it was on insta replay in my brain all night/morning/whatever.

Jr arrived at 4:30. Jr was happy swinging in his swing at 5:15 so I took a quick shower. He was dozing when I got out. Until Fernie Cow the cat decided to pull a surprise attack on Josie the dog and the cat ran into the baby swing and woke Jr up. I tried to get him to sleep because by then the cold medicine was beginning to wear off and I was finally a little tired and thought an hour nap might be nice. But Jr never fell asleep.

And at six in the morning, I jumped with shock to hear the huge crash coming from the boys room. I hurried upstairs to see S2 dragging S4 from his room by his feet. “What is going on? What was that noise?”

“We bonked heads and I want him out of our room,” S2 explained as if it's a normal occurrence. I think more happened than that, but how could I prove it so I just told them to go downstairs and get some breakfast. S1 clicked the light off and I am pretty sure I heard him sigh like “finally, peace”.

S3 had been sleeping on the couch (not sure why) and when he woke up he was crying (have no idea why). S1 finally came downstairs to show me his drawings of how he thinks a gun could be improved. That seems too difficult a conversation to comprehend before seven in the morning. Jr was jumping up and down in his exersaucer as if to say, “Hooray! I woke you all up!”

I was debating whether or not to make a pot of coffee. You see, Husband is home today (he will be for awhile, he is now laid off) and I was pretty sure the sweet aroma of coffee would wake him up. Who wants to get up early on their day off? So I had put it off until adorable KM (the next door neighbor girl) knocked on the door to plead “Denise, I am so sleepy from taking NyQuil for my cold...could you make me some coffee?”

Oh, I love this girl who loves coffee like me!

The pot was on before she was all the way in the door. My cup was gone in mere moments (I had a lot of milk in it to cool it), why had I ever wondered whether the coffee should be on at all? Then all five boys and I were out the door, leaving husband to sleep and me to herd them to school. We arrived and found S3's glasses under the computer table where they had fallen (said many “thank you, God”'s for that, really) and when we arrived home I got the next pot of coffee ready to go when husband wakes up.

Yup, two pots gone before nine am.

The Tooth Fairy Found Our House

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to all of you and Merry Christmas season to all of you! I apologize for not blogging earlier (it's been EIGHT days) but we were swamped busy for five of them and now I have a cold and my head is all fuzzy. I do not look pretty at all....and I have sent the boys outside to run hard on this clear blue sky day so I can catch up with all you, my dear friends! Besides, they need to run off some energy before the snow storm hits this weekend and I need let the 'get charged' tea I am drinking to charge up my fuzzy brain.

All that to tell you this story....................

The tooth fairy arrived at our house last night.

S3 has kept 1st Lost Tooth on tour for quite some time. It spent a few days lost in it's home baggie under some laundry but nothing too traumatic. It was finally time to bid it goodbye and hope the tooth fairy really did exist.

Somehow, S3 has in mind that the tooth fairy gives out gold dollars for first tooth lost. Since he has another loose tooth, I have a sneaky guess that tooth 2 will need a gold dollar too.
S1 and S2 came pounding down the steps an hour after they had been sent to bed to get another pee and drink and to inform Daddy that S3 was sound asleep. “Go be a tooth fairy!” they giggled to Husband who retorted, “Hey, don't be calling me a fairy!”

Visions of husband as Tinker Bell made me laugh out loud.

He was able to remove the tooth from the bag and leave the bag and the gold Sacajawea coin behind. This morning, Husband didn't have to be to work until later and as we laid in our bed to get a few more morning snooze minutes in we heard our usually earliest riser, S3, suddenly exclaim “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! The tooth fairy did come!” Laughter. “Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Guys, the Tooth Fairy came!”

His pajama-ed feet came sliding down the steps. Husband had gotten up by this time and greeted S3 at the foot of the steps. He was waving the gold coin. “The tooth fairy came!”
“Alright!” Husband high fived him.

I stumbled out of bed and S3 gave me a giant hug. His face was beaming, all trace of sleep gone as he held up the gold coin. “Moma, look, the tooth fairy came and left me this!”

I rubbed his back, “that's great, honey!” His enthusiasm was contagious.

He walked toward the table for breakfast staring at the coin and saying “Yes, yes, yes! It really is a gold dollar! The tooth fairy came! Oh, yes!”

Now that is a great way to start the day!

He spent every free moment of the morning wiggling away on Tooth 2.