This is only the second time I have won at Scrabble against Andrew.  It’s also notable that I only had one score in the single digits.  And no, I did not get a chance to lay out all 7 letters at once.  This feels really good!  (Imagine how Andrew feels most of the time when we play Scrabble!)

I posted recently about Andrew deciding Paul and Hannah could start earning money.  I was sad about it, because I thought it was taking away their innocence and polluting their minds with thoughts of money, consuming desires for coveted items, and introducing them to the work-for-a-living world way too soon.

Well, Paul, Hannah and I are all learning through this process, and I’ve discovered more positives than I thought there would be.  It also helps that Paul’s all-consuming desire for the special car has mitigated.  He is no longer asking for work all day long, and talking about having enough money to buy it by evening time, or tomorrow.  That makes it easier for my mommy-heart.  Also, Andrew looked around online and decided to go ahead an purchase this car while it was in Wal-Mart (secretively, of course) just in case it was no longer there by the time Paul’s money jar had enough coins to buy it.

One of the paying chores I figured out was for Paul and Hannah to clear the table and load the dishwasher.  I usually only have them do it after 2 meals each day, and I give them coins right after the task.  They are still young enough that immediate rewards are in order.  At first, I was having them bring the dishes to the dishwasher and put them in.  It was soon apparent that juices were dripped on the floor all the way from the table to the dishwasher.  I figured out to give them each a square dishpan.  Now, they load it with dishes and carry them to the dishwasher, and then load them.  That way all the drips are close to the dishwasher and easier to wipe up.

Paul generally gets to load all the leftovers into his dishpan and put them in the refrigerator.  (Of course, I do the heavy stuff or the big glass containers.)  He is perfectly capable of putting away the butter tub, the ketchup bottle, little jars of jam, a bag of lettuce, etc.

Hannah usually gets to load all the utensils in her dishpan and put them in the “gray basket” in the dishwasher.  She also loads other dishes too, but the utensils are the easiest for her.

Paul does excellently well getting the plates and putting them in the right places in the dishwasher.  I’m really impressed with his abilities.  For odd containers and cups, I have to point out where they go, or I simply tell them, “the top drawer” or “the bottom drawer” and they put them in there in the right drawer.  After they’re all finished, then I put them around in the best place for that particular dish.

They are pretty good at all this.  Sometimes there’s a squabble when one wants to put something in the bottom while the other is putting something in the top, but hopefully they’ll eventually be able to take turns without quibbling.

Last evening, on their own accord, they snapped beans for me without me telling them to.  They stood their faithfully and thoroughly enjoying it for quite a while, until I was all done.  (Yes, I gave them some coins, even though we hadn’t “bargained” on it ahead of time.)

Today, after lunch, they froze the beans for me.  Let me tell you, it crossed my mind several times to just do it myself and be done in a fraction of the time.  However, I girded up my loins and let them do it.  They loved it so much and had a grand ol’ time.  They stir in the water, make a bean “squeak”, bend the limber, blanched beans and talk about how they bend, Hannah takes some beans apart to get the “bean” out, and there is nothing fast or hurried or efficient about the process at all.  And, water gets everywhere!

I set them up with the drainers, and I went and worked at re-organizing some bedroom closets for a while.  When I came back, Paul had all his beans in the drainer, and Hannah was still working on her sink of beans.  I had Paul start boxing up his beans while Hannah finished getting hers out of the sink.  Then she boxed up her beans.  After that was all done, I changed Hannah’s soaking wet clothes and wiped up the wet floor.

I wrote on some brown tape and tore it off and Paul put the tape (labels) on the boxes.  He insisted on carrying some of the freezer boxes down to the freezer and putting them in  himself.

Now, for the lessons.

1.  All these work opportunities are more lessons in following verbal instructions for Paul and Hannah.  Yes, they do that pretty good anyway, but now this is more complicated.  “No, don’t touch that,” is one simple command.  “Gather up all the utensils, put them in your pink dishpan, and put them in the gray basket in the dishwasher,” is a multi-step, complex verbal instruction.  It requires them to pay attention and listen, to do each step and remember the next one (you’d be surprised how hard that can be for a 2 and 3 year-old), and to stick to the task until it’s finished.

2.  I’ve learned that money isn’t the biggest thing on their minds.  Usually, when they’re finished a chore, particularly the dishes one, all they’re interested in is running off to play.  I have to remind them to come get their coins and put them in their money jars.  That eases my mind.  They have not transitioned into folks who think they need to be paid for every little thing, even for breathing.

3.  Almost all the time when Paul has finished a task, he asks, (very cheerfully) “What else do you want me to do?”.  If it’s a multi-stage task, I give him the next set of instructions.  Even at the end of lots of instructions and tasks, he is always asking what else he can do.  And that’s at the end of paid tasks as well as un-paid regular chores.  Hannah sometimes asks the same thing, but not as consistently as Paul does.

4.  Now this one has been one of my long-term goals with Paul and Hannah.  That goal being that work is the usual, playing is a treat.  That way, playing will be a happy fun time, not a time to fight and bicker and whine.  These days, if I manage things right, they have a proper balance between working and playing and play time is a treat.  And they’ll ask to go play, or say they want to go play (instead of doing their chore).  I remind them they can as soon as the task is finished.  And, then they are much happier and play much nicer than when I don’t structure in work and they have free play time almost all day.

5.  I’m learning and figuring out this phase of parenting.  It takes a mountain of patience to teach them how to work and let them do the work.  I nearly always have them “make the bread” when I am using the bread machine.  They dump in all the ingredients, carry the bucket over and put it in the bread machine, and then push the buttons as I tell them to.  (We normally use it a couple times a week.)  Letting them clear the table and load the dishwasher takes 5 times longer than if I did it myself, and I have to be right there supervising.  Yes, I can be tidying up around the kitchen, etc., but I have to be available to give verbal instructions as needed.

Hopefully all this will start to instill in them a good work ethic and life with them as teenagers won’t be a nightmare with lazy sloths.  (Other parents out there, feel free to give me some tips in this area–not the teenagers part yet, but instilling a good work ethic when the kids are 2 & 3 years old.)

I have been rewarding my accomplishments with a treat, a sewing project.  My last sewing project was originally going to be making matching shorts and jumper for Paul & Hannah.  Then, I remembered a big sewing project I started over 8 years ago…and it has been waiting and waiting for me to finish it.  I decided to drag that one forth from the closet and get it done before our new baby came.

Last Tuesday night, thanks to Andrew taking over the kids for a hour or so after supper, I completed that 8-year-long project.  And this is what it was.

It was a friendship quilt for my sister Rachel, originally to be presented for her 25th birthday back in May of ‘03.  So much happened in my life from the time I planned and started the quilt in 2002 until the spring of 2003, that there was no way I could get it done in time for her birthday that year (I got married in June).  I asked a neighbor lady, who is an excellent seamstress, to sew the top together for me, and then we gave Rachel the sewn-together top on her 25th birthday.  I planned to complete the quilt later.  (Obviously, later turned out to be much later than I ever thought.)

There were more patches than would fit in the quilt, so I made those into pillows.

At the time when I purchased the material for the quilt, I made the mistake of not buying enough of the background color fabric for the back side of the quilt too.  (I thought I would come back later and get it when I was ready to do the back.  Ha!)  Now, there was nothing to remotely match that medium blue color, so I finally settled on a very dark blue quilt backing.  When I was getting ready to finish the edges, I got the bright idea to get some white piping, and then put a little blue strip on each side, and then insert that into the edge seam of the quilt.  Here’s a close-up of how that turned out.

It seems pretty simple to do that, until you figure 11 yards of white piping, and for two blue sides, that’s 22 yards of blue strips to cut measure and cut out, iron in half, and sew to the piping, then pinned into the edge, and then sewn in place.  Yeah, it took an entire day.

I must include here that this quilt is knotted, not quilted.  (I do know my limits!)  When my neighbor, Mrs. Estes, heard that I was going to knot a quilt, she repeatedly insisted that I let her put it in her quilt frame and then just come over to her basement and knot whenever I had an hour or two.  That sounded easier than me trying to do it without any type of quilting frame!  I gave her the batting, the backing, and the top, and then she called me, I think on a Friday, and said it was in the frame and ready.  The kids and I loaded up a few books and toys and headed over there Saturday afternoon.  Lo and behold!  She had not only put it in the frame, but has started knotting on it too.  I’m sure she must have had 1/4 to 1/3 of it knotted.  She and I stood around that frame and knotted and the kids played with all the wonderful toys in her basement.  In a little under 4 hours, we had the whole thing knotted, and she showed me how to finish the edges, and I brought it home!  I was so surprised and pleased to be moving along so quickly on this project.  I expected to spend every afternoon knotting for at least a week before I got it done.

Here are a few of the patches in the quilt.

The patch I did.

My sister Katie’s patch.

My sister Lucy’s patch

My mom’s patch.

If you are interested in seeing all the patches in close-up photos, here’s a link to them on Flickr.

I finished it on a Tuesday evening.  On Friday of last week, Rachel stopped by here after work.  I had asked her to stop to pick up a late birthday present.  (She later told me that Ted, her husband, thought it was might odd, and asked her if it was a birthday present for this year or next year, since the end of July is not near her birthday.  She told him she didn’t know, but if somebody called and asked her to come get a birthday present, she was going.)  Here are a few pictures of her opening it.  She admitted she had forgotten all about it.  I was tickled to surprise her.  I’m sure whenever she did think of it, she wouldn’t expect me to finish it until I was 105 years old.

Well, that’s my latest sewing project.  I highly doubt I will get any more sewing done before our new baby is born.  I have put away the iron and ironing board and closed up my sewing machine.  If I get the rest of the stuff on my lists accomplished and still have a little time, I might start another sewing project.  However, I’m not expecting that to happen.  I am satisfied, very satisfied, to have completed this sewing project.

(Now everyone knows how human I am and how extremely late I can be at finishing what I start.  I will humbly admit that there was another whole string of sewing projects I started many moons ago, as in close to 20 years ago, and when I was cleaning the basement, they didn’t make the cut.  I discarded them.  I had cut out aprons to sew for my sisters, and I was planning to embroider the pockets, and even started on that.  My life is in an entirely different stage now than when I was 13.  I need the room in the basement more than I need to hang onto old sewing projects that will never get top-priority status any more in this life of mine.  Can I add that the fabric I was using was very ugly?  I believe it happened to be on a really good sale at the time, and that’s the sole reason I got it for the aprons.)

Hannah was watching me sew one afternoon after she woke up from her nap.  After a little bit she said,

“I want to sew just like you.  I want a pink ’sewer’ [pronounced so-er].”

Ahhh…there are benefits to not taking the easy road and sewing only when my kids are sleeping.  That warmed my heart to hear her say that.

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Hannah was snuggling with her daddy one morning.  She kept saying how she was going to grow big “just like Daddy”.  Then, she continued on, saying she was going to grow a beard like Daddy.  She didn’t stop there.  She said she was going to sew on her beard and “do pins on it”!!!   Evidently she is combining her desire to be just like Daddy with her desire to sew like Mommy!

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Today, Paul was trying to wear his toy hard hat.  He told me, “Mommy, hard hats mess up my hair.  They make it flat and pointy and I don’t like that.”

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While we were riding in the car today, I was singing “There is Sunshine In My Soul Today”.  I sang the first verse, and then the second (which is “There is music in my soul today…”), and then Paul asked,

“Can you sing ‘There are babies in my soul today’?”

I explained that there aren’t babies in a soul.  Then, he wondered what a soul was, where a soul was (he asked if it was in our stomachs), and I was truly stumped on how to put it into terms he could understand.  The best I could do was tell him it was something we couldn’t see, but it’s what made us want to do good when Jesus gave us a good heart.  Whew!  I wonder how long it will be until he asks about that again.

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On our short car trip, we were taking some ears of corn to Aunt Rachel’s house.  Paul and Hannah got into a rather lengthy conversation about who they liked and didn’t like.  Hannah said,

“I like Aunt Rachel.  I don’t like Uncle Ted because he’s scared of me.”

I think she has her who’s scared of whom mixed up!

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Paul was drawing smiley faces on paper this afternoon.  As he was drawing, and then adding the details, he said,

“I’m drawing a smiley face.  [then starts adding the eyes]  He’s opening his blind eyes.  [now drawing the ears]  Here’s some ears so he can hear.”

I believe he was meaning that by adding eyes to his face he was not going to be blind any more.

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Hannah and Paul are currently working at memorizing the Lord’s Prayer (NIV) and Paul is working on memorizing Psalm 121.  Truly “out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks” (Mt. 12:34b).  At some of the most random times, one or both of them will blurt out excerpts from passages they have memorized or are working at memorizing.  This evening as I was weeding flower beds, they were horsing around on the front deck.  They would each jubilantly hollar out, “I’m going into tempatation!”  (Yes, Hannah would say “temp-a-tation” for temptation.)

Then, Hannah liked to stand at the top of the slide and make loud proclamations.  Here are the ones she made this evening:

“Deliver us from the evil one!”

“The Lord will keep you from all harm!”

“The maker of heaven and earth!”

Of course, after making a proclamation, she would sit down and slide down the slide.

It’s obvious that even though I don’t specifically have Hannah working at memorizing Ps. 121, she’s picking it up from hearing Paul say it.

A note about the pictures:

All these are from this past Sunday evening.  Sunday evenings at home can be some treasured times.  Paul and Hannah played in boxes and ate popcorn.  Then, we went outside and they sniffed the hearty, never-fail zinnias I had them plant early this spring.  Those flowers have brought loads of delight to Paul and Hannah, even though they are a rather common, simple flower.

One of the biggest reasons I garden is for the benefit of our kids.  I want them to know that food doesn’t just come from the supermarket, but that a lot of hard work and effort and the mercy of God goes into every bite we eat.  Recently, they got to complete their bean lesson, which has been a long process from start to finish since beans don’t grow and produce in an hour or two.  You might remember this post about planting the beans.  After the beans were planted, all along we prayed for God to make the plants grow and give us beans.  I explained to them that we could only plant, God had to make them grow.

And then as the garden progressed the weeds came and they got to help hoe the weeds and pick the rocks, both of which they really enjoyed.  You can read more about it in this post back in May.

Now, the first crop of beans has been bearing for a couple weeks.  They like to help pick the beans.  In fact, for the first picking, they did all the picking while I was pulling weeds.  They had a blast picking “the great big daddy beans” and not picking the “little baby beans”.  Granted, the novelty has worn off a little bit since that first time, but they still love to go out and help pick the beans.  And, now we get to thank God for the beans he made grow in our garden!

This is Paul with all the beans he picked
from that first picking.  He insisted on
carrying them all in by himself.

Now, after numerous pickings, we had more beans than we were eating fresh, so it was time to freeze a few.  Also, a new degree of lessons has come across the horizons.  The lesson that you have to work hard for money, and when you have money, you can buy something from the store.  (I cringe about all this.  I loved their innocence, where when they wanted something, they simply asked, “How long until New Year’s?” and let us know they wanted it for a New Year’s present.  Their motivators for doing chores were simple–2 M&M’s, or a candy heart, or a little Tootsie Roll, and their rewards for a job well done (school, memory verses) were putting stickers on a chart.  They were thrilled with all this and it worked very well.)  Andrew thought it was time to introduce this concept.  Paul has his heart set on a special car at Wal-Mart (that costs a whole whopping $13.00) and Hannah says she wants to buy candy.  So, they’ve found some coins in parking lots.  And they ask for jobs to do to earn money.  So, I get to wrack my brain over what they can do that is outside their normal chores to earn money.  And it just breaks my heart to see them so excited over a few coins going into the jar (Andrew wanted transparent banks so they could see the money grow), and Paul thinks and dreams of his car constantly, and he is consumed with the idea of working to earn money, and I know it will be a long, long time until there is enough money in his jar to get that car.  And, that it may not be in the store any more by the time he has enough money saved up.  But, Andrew thinks valuable lessons will come from this, so I’m persevering.  Andrew also suggested that I could pay him in quarters rather than pennies to help him reach his goal faster.  So I made that switch only to discover a new problem.  Paul and Hannah get a whole lot more “whoopie!” out of several coins rather than just one.  So, I’ve compromised and use nickels, so they can get to put 5 pieces of money in the jar instead of just 1.  They don’t understand denominations yet, they just want lots of pieces of money that rattle and jingle in the jar.  (I’m sure they have no use whatsoever for that boring, silent paper stuff!)

So far, their chores have been dusting baseboards and chair-railings in different rooms, picking out some of their clothes from the clean laundry and putting them in the drawer, bringing me dirty dishes and putting them in the dishwasher under my direction, some toy pick-up (but that is more of a usual chore than a paid chore), sweeping sand out of the wagon, and the latest, freezing beans.  Freezing beans was the third chore yesterday, and that was pushing their perseverance.  They performed really well, but I could tell they really wanted to go play and read books, etc., rather than work, but I only had to gently remind them a time or two that they would get some money when it was all done, and they stuck right with it and didn’t complain and finished the job.

Hannah loading her sink of beans
into the blancher.

Paul had a lot more fun with the water
nozzle as he loaded his sink of beans
into the blancher.

Hannah putting her blanched beans
into a bag for the freezer.

Paul putting his blanched beans into
bags for the freezer.

Now, the job is done, and they got the
tremendous joy of putting coins into
their banks (Andrew cut slits in the
lids) and then shaking them so they
would rattle good.

A lot more lessons are growing from the bean project than I expected, now that money is involved.  I hope this all turns out well in the long run, and that my aching heart will not be broken if/when Paul gets deeply disappointed if he can’t get the car as soon as he thinks he might.  So far, he’s holding out well.

Someday, when he is older, I’ll have to teach him about how hard it is for a rich man to get into heaven, and that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.  Right now money is pretty important to him.

This morning as I was mixing up the bread dough, Hannah was playing in water at the sink, which she loves to do more than anything else in the world.  I kept cautioning her to keep the water in the sink,  and occasionally a little would accidentally spill out here and there and I’d try to wipe it up in a hurry before it ran too far.  Then, as I was just about done the bread dough, she dipped up a measuring cup of water and purposely poured it out on the counter right where my big bowl of dough was, the timer, and the recipe card.  I said, “Hannah!  You rascal!”  (I know, that was not very good take-a-deep-breath-and-count-to-ten self-controlled response.)  I whisked up the timer and the recipe card and grabbed stuff to mop up the water.

Then Hannah said, “Did you (meaning “I”, I think she had her persons mixed up) do a rascal?”

I said, “Yes, Hannah, you did a rascal.”

That’s not the first time she’s queried about “doing a rascal”.  I believe she’s figuring out what it takes to be a rascal.

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Hannah saw a picture of the header of Life On Sylvan Drive and asked what the little boy’s name was.

I said, “Tobin”.

Hannah, “He is my husband.”  “When he was a baby, I would hold him.”

Oh boy!  I think she has a lot to learn about the role of a husband! (And, Pastor Dale, I am not “matching her up” with little boys like you mentioned some people do when their children are very young.)

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Last evening (Monday), Paul and Hannah were having a good time in the living room while I was dragging around the kitchen cleaning up after supper.  I finally peeked in to see what they were doing.  Both of them were on the couch with their picture Bibles “reading” the stories.

A little later I heard Paul reading about Moses.

“Moses!  Moses!  Do not come any closer or you will get burned!”

I wanted to clarify that last sentence with Paul (it was very close to how I’ve quoted him, if it’s not exact), so I asked him why Moses couldn’t come any closer.

“Because that’s what God told him.”  Well, even though I don’t think that’s what Paul said originally, that’s a very good reason for Moses to obey.

Photos:

Top: Hannah, Gail, Paul, Bobby, & Daniel at the reunion on Sat.

Middle and bottom:  Tess reads a book to Hannah and Paul after church on Sunday.

Now I know that seems like a no-brainer.  For some folks (so I hear) it’s daily.  For others it’s weekly.  Around here, the schedule is flexible.  Very flexible.  I just finished cleaning them both tonight.  Here’s what I’ve discovered.

If you only clean them once every 2 months, they are just as clean afterwards as if you cleaned them every week.

If you only clean them every 2 months, yes you might have to squirt cleaner on the stains twice in order for them to rub off easily, but it still saves lots of cleaner over cleaning them every week.  (Hence, it’s more frugal to clean every 2 months.)

If you only clean them every 2 months, you can get a lot of other things done in the hour or (when I’m moving slowly as at this stage of pregnancy) hour and a half that you would spend cleaning the bathrooms every week.  In 2 months, that’s 12 hours of time you would have spent cleaning the bathrooms that you can use to work on special projects.

If you only clean them every 2 months, you won’t be very tempted to have spur-of-the-moment company because you won’t want them to use your filthy bathrooms.

Last, but not least,

If I only clean them every 2 months, all of the above is true, plus I nearly go insane because I can hardly stand dirt and filth!

As I was cleaning them this evening, huffing and puffing away (I have reduced lung capacity, remember), I mentioned to Andrew that I hadn’t learned the tricks and ways of other pregnant women who have managed to beguile their husbands into believing that no pregnant lady is able to clean a bathroom or wash a floor, and therefore the husband does all that for the entire pregnancy.

Andrew responded with something to the effect that confirmed my suspicions (if I was to try that on him):  the bathroom and floors just wouldn’t get cleaned for 9 months.

Yes, it’s too hot to run the oven.  Yes, I should have bought bread yesterday while I was getting groceries (but I decided not to and make bread instead, just because that’s what I do).  But, we made bread today.  While I was trying to knead it over and around my huge stomach that was sore and in the way, I wondered what in the world I was doing this for.  When it was time to shape the loaves, I was reminded anew of one of the reasons I make bread, and why a long time ago decided that I wanted making bread to be a normal, regular occurrence in our home, especially while we had children who still lived at home.  Now, you’ll see why too.

So, do you think it was worth it to knead that dough for 10 minutes while hugely pregnant, and to run the oven on a blazing hot day?  I know Paul and Hannah would say yes, and that’s what I say too.  (We even made some “baby bread”, which is miniature loaves in mini loaf pans.  Paul and Hannah especially love to eat it.)

One more thing is off my list of things I really want to accomplish before our baby is born.  This is the last big item, unless I discover something else.  I was going to take a “sewing reward” break after cleaning the basement before I started on the closets in Hannah’s room, but then I got scared that our baby might come and I wouldn’t have the closets finished, so I took on the closets before the sewing break.  (Now, I really am going to take a sewing break!  I believe I need one.)

Hannah’s new purple room has 2 closets, and I took out the flimsy wire shelving that was in there, and I wanted to put in real wood shelves and a rod to hang clothes on.  I thought I might get it all done in one day, perhaps as long as two.  Well, it took two days to get the shelves in there, and then today (the 3rd day) I painted the nail heads and now it is officially done!

One thing that I hadn’t counted on was all the large gaping holes that were left after pulling out all the drywall screws and nails from the hooks that held up the wire contraption.  That meant I had the extra step of filling all those holes with joint compound, letting it dry, sanding it down, and then painting over the spots.

After I had done that, and mildly complained to Andrew about that extra step, he reminded me that I wouldn’t have had to do all that.  I said, “What!  And leave big holes in the walls?  Bugs would crawl in there and we’d have no end of problems.”

He said, “Well, I don’t think we should leave holes in the walls.  I meant you didn’t have to take down all those hooks.”  Then, knowing me pretty well, he said, “Let me rephrase that.  You wouldn’t be able to leave the hooks there, but we could have left them there.”  (Somehow, my parents’ and my Grand-daddy Gardner’s teachings have gone into my bones, and well, if I’m going to do something, I want to do it right, and get it done.  I guess Andrew has figured that out by now.)

Andrew called this my project.  However,
at my invitation/request, he graciously
stepped out of his programmer mode
and did the power-tool steps of the project,
such as cutting U-shaped holes for the
closet rods and cutting the boards to the
correct length and width.  I was afraid
I’d end up cutting one of my limbs off if
I tried it (I’ve never sawed with a power
saw in my life–only hand saws).

O.k., these are my painting clothes, folks!  Overlook
the painful color clashes, please!  Also, I was bent
on finishing the closets yesterday and didn’t take
time to fix my hair.  (Hey, I’m not superwoman, o.k.,
and I wasn’t trying out for Miss America.)

I decided to do all the painting outside so I wouldn’t
risk getting any on the hardwood floors in the closets
and have to scrub those floors again.  Andrew kindly
set up these buckets, the chair, and an insulated cup
of tea and ice for me to ease the burden of painting
outside in the hot shade.

Finding exactly where the studs were and marking them.

Once again, Andrew graciously came
to my inquiring aid and provided significant
help getting the shelves installed. He was
sure I was crazy for doing this at 11:00 p.m.,
hammering, drilling, and all, while the kids
were sleeping.  All I had in mind was I wanted
to get this finished, and I knew it was much
easier and faster if they weren’t helping us.
We never heard a noise out of them.

The finished closets (except this was
before I painted the nail heads today).
Andrew says these are boring pictures
unless you are the one who built the
shelves.

Well, it’s done.  I think Andrew is more than ready for me to move on to something more benign and insignificant like a sewing project, and along with that, more decent cooking around here.

While it is nice to accomplish something “outside the hamster wheel”, it does take a lot of effort, and well, combining something like this with meeting the needs of two toddlers, it stretched my nerves a lot at times.  For instance, I thought I was going to get all the painting done while they were napping.  I only got the first coat on.  That meant I was doing the entire second coat while I was also meeting needs.  And, I had hardly started when Paul accidentally put his hand in the wet paint (the entire palm).  I took a deep breath and instructed him to wash it off in the swimming pool.  I declare, no less than 60 seconds later, Hannah managed to back into a board coated with wet paint.  I had to stop, take off her dress, and go try to scrub it out (it didn’t quite all come out; paint does not come out of clothing, ever, if it dries on there), and then get another dress and put it on her.  So, after that, I moved the boundary line that they had to stay behind back even further.

So, there will be other seasons of life when significant projects that involve construction and painting will be less stressful.

Paul, when noticing peppers on the pepper plants:  “They’re hanging their peppers!”  (Meaning like we hang decorations on a Christmas tree.)

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Paul is still learning where things come from.  He has been playing with some stuffed sheep recently, and he announced to us, “Sheep give us apples.”

We informed him that sheep give us wool to make clothes with.

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Whenever Paul tells me he doesn’t like a certain food, I tell him he has to eat it anyway.  He’ll say, “But I don’t like it.”  Then, I’ll tell him, “You have to eat it anyway.  It will build your character.”

Tonight, we had that little exchange over the half of blueberry muffin on is plate (no, I have no idea why he doesn’t like blueberry muffins, but he never eats them very well).

Then, Paul volunteered, “My chicken (which he does like) will build my character.  I’ll eat my chicken.  But the muffin will knock it down.”

Sorry, my son, it’s eating the foods you don’t prefer that build your character!

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One day, Hannah went around asking Andrew and I, “Where are my sins?”

The first time she asked me, pretty soon in the morning, I said, “Well, I think they’re in your heart.”

Then Hannah replied, “No, they’re in my leg.”

I did follow with a brief information session about needing to ask Jesus to take away our sins.

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Today we went to Hillandale Park.  The only other children there were a brother and sister, Noah (3 yrs.) and Erin (4 yrs.).  We had never met them before.  While they were playing, Paul started calling out, “Moses!  Moses!”

I gently reminded him that the little boy’s name was Noah.

These pictures were taken on our outing to the park today.  The very last one is at Wildwood Park where we were on our way to feed the ducks (with Grandma), but they were on the far bank of the river so we didn’t get to feed them.  We found some fish to feed some old bread to instead.