Writing Prompt vs. Caleb

A while back I found a Crayola book of writing prompts in the dollar bin at Target.  They were "finish the drawing" and write a story pages.  It really helped with getting Caleb to write some on his own!  We finished the book, so I tried making a homemade version. 

I thought this would be a funny one, what would Turkey find?  Big trouble, it turns out...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quotable Natalie

(After being sneezed on...)

"Ew!  You bless you'd on me!"

"lipstick"

Annalise Gets a Pie in Her Face

As I mentioned before, Annalise earned the opportunity to throw a pie in someone's face.  I asked her who she wanted to throw it at and she eagerly said, "MYSELF!"

 And, not one to miss a good opportunity, Caleb put the leftovers in his face.

5 Years of Big Tires

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

Sugar Festival 2013

This was at least our 5th year at the Clewiston Sugar Festival. It is a cultural experience.

And actually it is a very good deal.  We got the kids wristbands to ride the rides and it doesn't get so crowded that you have to wait that long - especially if you are going to stay all day rain or shine anyway!  So they got to ride everything they wanted at least twice, some much more than twice.

Ponies.  Natalie talked about how she would ride the pony, but when she got next to them, she shrieked and cried and wouldn't go on them.

Ferris Wheel - they rode this one about 4 or 5 times

Annalise's favorite - The lightning bolt ride.

Caleb made it to the top!

Annalise turned a flip!

Natalie - with her wristband - although the only thing she would ride was my hip and the stroller.  Ah, live and learn.

You will notice in the above picture that I had my umbrella out - functioning as a parasol.  I brought it because rain was forecast (and it did rain), but it also turned out to be just what I needed while standing in the blazing sun!

So we did the whole nine yards - the gigantic caldron of boiling sugar cane, the authentic Mexican tacos with real queso blanco, the flamingo plant holders made from old tires, the enormous tractor wheels.

And we spent the night in LaBelle - here is the view from our room:

From a table full of Bahamians and Haitians to a woman wearing a rebel flag tank top.  Florida sure is a varied place to live.

Fair Fare

'Round Here

The weekend seemed unusually long.  It was an unusual weekend.  First off, Rob and Caleb got up Saturday morning at 5:30 to help set up the church rummage sale.  By the time I got there at 8, Caleb had already bought a milk crate FULL of tennis balls for $1.  I am not even slightly exaggerating - it was FULL.  Caleb said there had been 11 crates FULL of tennis balls and one shopper bought 10 of them and he bought the 11th one.

I dropped the girls off with the guys to go to a VBS training seminar in Miami Shores.  It was a cultural experience to say that least!  Although I am no so unused to that anymore.  I ended up at a discussion table where I was the only person who was not from a Caribbean island.  On the other extreme, there was a Lifeway vendor there who had family in Bearden, Arkansas.

When I got home, Rob said, "I'm so glad you're here, I'm going to bed."  And he stayed in bed for pretty much the next 36 hours.  He caught the "bug".  Sunday was our 12th wedding anniversary, needless to say, we did not celebrate it that day!

Both C and A finished a math book this week.

Capacity Exercise

When they finish a book, they get to pull a "goal stick".  The Goal Sticks have numbers on them which correspond to a list in my notebook.  Caleb got a day off school and Annalise got a week off one chore, but she thought that wasn't very exciting and asked to try again.  On her 2nd pull she got "Throw a pie in someone's face" and she is really looking forward to that.

Last week, Rob was throwing out a big box.  And so far it has become...

A store (with a tree)

A 1...2...3....

SURPRISE!

A shipping container, "Mail me to Grandma!"

And a dog bed.

Quotable Natalie

"Mom, when I grow up, I want to be a pink princess."

Quotable Natalie

"It's raining cats and dogs!  We're gonna get a new pet!"

Wednesday's Post

Life has become very orderly.  In a lot of ways that is good - in fact it is very good.  I don't have a lot of time to feel monotonous about it because so often things go off track and I get my dose of spontaneity that way.  For example, our schedule was working perfectly last week when Natalie unexpectedly got a stomach virus, became extremely dehydrated, and shared her virus with Annalise.  After being thrown up on 3 times, I'm more than happy for some mundane order.

Wednesday has become "blog day" - because there is so much else needing my attention.

Natalie potty trained quickly and neatly on Monday.  She's been telling me she needs to go, keeping dry and been extremely cheerful about it.  I mentioned before that her call is, "The pee pee is coming!".  She also "twinkles" in the potty and "slushes" it afterward.  After that she cheerfully reminds me to praise her efforts, "Say, 'Good Job, Natalie!' and clap."

None of the kids have been quite as sick as Natalie seemed last week.  I am sure it was the dehydration.  She couldn't keep anything down and also was refusing to drink.  In just a few hours she became very lethargic and slept almost all the time.  Her lips were dry and so was her diaper.  We ended up force "feeding" her liquid with a medicine dropper.  It worked because the next day she was awake more and getting back to normal.  She was sick for 4 days. 

Annalise got it too, but milder, she was better in 2 days and never got dehydrated - partly because her mother had transformed into the hydration queen and kept her on a regimented 1 oz of water every 15 minutes the first day.  Probably and over-reaction, but I'd had enough.

So after all that, I got a fever and chills, but that was all, Caleb and Rob escaped it evidently.

We haven't gotten back to our normal yet.  I try to do a big stock up trip to Aldi and Walmart once a month.  It causes a pretty big dent in our normal.  We did the Walmart portion today and confirmed that I no longer like Walmart at all.

The bigs have been climbing trees when time allows:

This is the tree Caleb is in, sitting at the fork above Annalise's head.

VBS is three months away...I can definitely wait!

VBS on the Brain

I had a meeting this week with a VBS guru.  Or I suppose she would be my VBS guru, if she will have me.  She's the children's ministry director at a not-far-from-here-but-not-exactly-nearby church that has a spectacularly well run VBS.  I know this because I have been there with my kids and experienced it first hand.  After our meeting, I felt challenged, but extremely overwhelmed.  I have a lot of ideas for changes, but she pointed out a lot more that are not "make things more effective" changes, but "serious errs in procedures" changes.  Things like not having background checks on workers, allowing teenagers to care for babies, and a lax check out procedure.  In thinking about it, I am pretty sure our church's child-care worker requirement is : breathing.  The way we do things is totally old school - and even though most of the workers are trustworthy, I am afraid it is a huge liability for our church.

She also suggested we split the worship rally into two - one for bigs and one for littles (Pre-k to Kindergarten).  This would solve some of the check out problems, but would be a huge break with tradition in our church.  There is one tradition in particular that I think splitting it up would be good for - The Happy Song.  Every year during The Happy Song the kids race around the pews and I think having 100 kids ages 4 to 12 running in a huge circle around big wooden pews is probably a liability too.  But so far I've never seen anyone hurt.

One suggestion that I have that she thought might work is alternating crafts and rec so that the kids went to only one on each night - so 2x each.  Friday night we will not do either.  She also thought I was right to axe the musical.  She pointed out something I didn't think about - although Caleb likes crafts, lots of boys do not, so if we only have crafts and no recreation, who are we catering to?  Just the girls for the most part.  And vice versa if we only have rec and no crafts.

She also said we need a nurses station - preferably manned by an actual nurse, although she said any medical background would do.

It was good to have her help me think through the problems with a dismissal from the sanctuary (which I think we have always done).  There are two alternate exits, one a fire exit with no alarm that would be an easy place for a person to sneak a kid out. She also helped me think out the two sides of what to do with the teenagers (last year they had a class, I want them to volunteer this year).  And gave me a great idea of where to move a worker I thoughtlessly replaced without having a plan for her.

So I am assuming that some of your churches have child care workers policies that are more defined.  If you know them or know a link to them, could you email me?  I know I have no real influence on the issue of background checks.  To me it's a no-brainer, but others with more clout feel differently.  I just want to do what I can where I can.

The World's Longest Board Game

In length, not playtime.

A Blog Entry

A summary of today:

Potty Training + Stomach Bug = A lot of laundry

This is precisely why I no longer post updates on Facebook.  I could easily post this as my status - and it would be accurate, but while maybe half of my friends would empathize, my uncle, my 8th grade grammar teacher, and my brother's high school classmate probably don't want to know.  What I don't like about Facebook is the over-mixed crowd.  No that's just one of the things I don't like about Facebook.  A friend of mine from enrichment brought up this other point that I share - a lot of my "friends" I like and I just didn't need to know we disagreed about so many things. 

So today - Natalie has a stomach bug.  The potty training is suspended until this thing passes.   I know my limits.

Two people have congratulated me on being the VBS director.  I feel awkward at being congratulated at that - because although I know being asked shows the secretary has some confidence in me, I don't feel like it was a goal I was trying to achieve.  I do truly want to do a good job, but I also hope they don't ask me again next year.

The kids and I made bag puppets on Monday.  They turned out really funny.

Mine - C's - A's

 Our 2nd Little House on the Prairie project was to build a well in an aquarium.  We put in 2 inches of water and filled it half full of sand.  It seemed to need time to set.  Caleb dug this well on the 2nd day.  He has really enjoyed having a box of wet sand to dig in and stand on.  For some reason he's been very curious about quicksand.  We got a book about quicksand at the library by Tomie de Paola.  I am a big fan of Tomie de Paola's books.

And I think we've made a productive start to our school year.  Now that we are familiar with our daily routine, we seem to be able to easily add extras that we have not had time for in the past.  Of course, the other two could wake up with this "bug" tomorrow and all bets are off.

Have I Mentioned that I Love our New Pencil Sharpener?

I can't think of any other time that I've bought something that I could see myself enthusiastically selling door to door.  Something tells me that it wouldn't be a terribly profitable venture.  I guess not every home needs a serious pencil sharpener.  Ours didn't in the past.

So what else is going on...

We had another surprise in the last month (besides my VBS promotion) - our house is no longer underwater.  It is technically at the surface - not really above water yet.  Being on this side of the housing bubble is interesting.  Since we were never in a situation that required we sell our house, we really were able to sit back, let the market run its course and enjoy the steady drop in property taxes.  I guess that will change now!

Natalie is potty training in earnest I believe!  She had some accidents today and some successes.  The way she talks about it cracks me up!  She comes running and shouting, "The pee pee is coming!  The pee pee is coming!"