Broken Down.

And the laptop I used to blog on is broken.

Not sure how often posts will happen now, since they happened few and far between during naps before.  Now that the laptop is broken, I have to do all of my "office work" downstairs in the kitchen.

My younger sister is getting married in early May.  

We have our first craft fair next weekend. 

Creedence has learned how to roll from his back to his front (when significantly angered...)  He is also beginning to babble and wants to be sitting or standing supported all.of.the.time.  No lying down on the job for him!

Million just watched Milo & Otis for the first time.  (Jeepers.  Forgot how "earthy" that film is...Fortunately, he wasn't intently focused during most of the animal birthing scenes.) He's also got about seven letters by sight recognition, and about three that he can consistently write.  He also, without any coaxing from me, is beginning to color in more predictable patterns and name what he's coloring.  He's been memorizing basic poems...mostly silly ones by Lewis Carroll or Jack Prelutzky.  He doesn't quite understand Shel Silverstein's humor yet.  

And there are things that I'm choosing not to post about right now, intentionally, in order to protect the less-than-innocent....lest you think that our lives are filled with bubbles and butterflies (or I guess, in the boyish world I'm abiding in, mudpies and cookies might be more appropriate).  

June: Cheese Month

I've had some time to myself lately. 
Okay... maybe 20 minutes, outside of time that I use for showering.
But I've made good use of it.

Michael mentioned in the grocery store the other day that it would be fun at some point to try some of the fancier cheeses in the grocery store that we don't purchase as a rule.

The wheels in my head got turning.  I had been planning on doing either this cheese kit or this mini cheese kit (probably the mini one---we're on a budget) as an educational experience for the fam during our wait.


So I've decided that June will be our obsessive cheese month.

"Un repas sans fromage est une belle à qui il manque un œil."
("A meal without cheese is a beautiful woman with an eye missing.")
~Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755-1826)

Why June?

Ahem...it's after a race that three of the four of us are running (for which I need to start training.)
It's also after my sister's wedding...and there are no craft fairs slated for that month.

But perhaps biggest of all, our little town has a cheese festival every year in June.
Not that it really focuses on cheese any more than any other fried food, but it will be a little activity we could incorporate.

We're trying to stick with educational experiences more than pure fun.
So, here's what I've got bubbling in my head:

• I'm looking for children's books about cheese. (Recommendations accepted!)
• We rarely watch movies as a family, but we may let Million watch Ratatouille one time during that month. (Particularly the scene where the main rat is trying to explain to his brother about flavor combinations...)
• Some activities with string cheese with basic lessons about fractions ("this is a part of the whole; this is a bigger part of the whole" etc.)
• We'll visit a cheese factory.
• Trying our hand at cheesemaking.
• Million can help us make a grilled cheese sandwich and then narrate instructions to teach someone else.
• Watching the milking of a cow
• Something with how the moon is said to look like cheese
• Basic addition and subtraction with "The Farmer in The Dell" (the cheese stands alone)
• May try basic poem-writing/rhyming skills.  A lot rhymes with cheese.  
• I can't think of the name of it right now, but there's that fairy tale about the guy that impressed the ogre by his trickery (squeezing a piece of cheese to make water come out of it, and if I remember right, the ogre thought it was a rock).  We could act out that story. 

 I'm sure I'll think of a few more.

and they grow.

Our first "new thing."

My boys are so emo.  And in angst.  Donations for future therapy accepted.

I'm working on getting a Pinterest board together with some of our planned learning experiences---things we've never done.   We tried to do one on Saturday.  We had planned to visit a local chocolate factory, but we failed to check the facebook page of the business....and it just went from being retail to online only in January.  Missed that boat!

Ah well, this one is a more for sure bet.

We're going to participate in a local CSA project for the first time this summer/fall.  (I know I have mentioned this little farm on this blog before, but I can't find the post right now...)We have little time to garden with our business and two younguns, but we do love our veggies, shopping locally, and supporting small businesses.  (See how that one fits in with one of my words of the year, "health"?  I'm tricky like that...)   The last time we visited that farm, a cow licked Million, and he's been a little traumatized since then (repeatedly bringing it up at random...and at one point when he stepped outside and smelled manure on a hot summer day bawling and howling "I smell a cow!"), so I intentionally chose THAT farm to do CSA with in hopes that we can get him to bravely conquer that fear. 

On the docket for some of our other projects we also have basic rocket launching, kite constructing, boat sailing, lighthouse visiting, camping, clay oven building, butterfly garden visiting, etc.   I did find this list of 50 things you're supposed to do with your kids in the Twin Cities before they grow up...and we might incorporate some of those activities...

When I get a pinterest board made up, I'll share it here.  And you all can suggest other ideas I maybe haven't thought of... Because you're wonderful like that.

The Work Is Never Done

A Day's Work.
That is the more photogenic part of my day.

The other half is comprised of one infant, sick with a cold.
And one toddler, also snotty-nosed, who composed a song entitled "Daddy loves me more than mommy because he gave me a cheese stick" while being disciplined today (after much, much grace was extended.)
I haven't yet told him that his soulful performance does not merit a Grammy Award.

Sigh.
Days like these seem to happen right after I congratulate myself on achieving a new level of ease or transition into this stage of life.
*I can take the two boys into a store by myself! Golly! I must be amazing!*
*Don't look now...but both boys napped at the same time.  I'm pretty good at this gig.*
*I can parent AND cook at the same time...this is extraordinary!*
*Look at me! I'm being all teacher-ish and teaching the boys about sprouts and weather.  They'll be so smart!*

Consistently humbled.

Roger Miller is Changing Our Lives

Ritz Cracker Recipe

Homemade Ritz crackers.
MSG free.
Recipe found here.
You're welcome.

Birth and Adoption, Revisited (part one)

My heart has been heavy the last few days.
It's been stuck in Wolayta, Ethiopia.
It's been meditating on a little boy, Creedence's age, who was spending his first couple nights in an orphanage, a little over two and a half years ago.


Creedence isn't a big boy.  I should rephrase.  He's tall...just very skinny.  But the weight he is at currently surpasses the weight that Million was at when he was six months old....
The doctors in the orphanage hypothesized that Million was a preemie, because of his chronic lung conditions and small size.  But I realized this morning, that we have no birth weight for Million.  I mean, I realized it before...but it really sat in today.  Million will never know how tall he was when he was born or how much he weighed.

The cuddles that I give to Creedence are reminders that when Million was his age, he wasn't getting individualized cuddles from his mama.  He didn't have someone who was overjoyed at each milestone...as if the stars and the moon were hung just for him.

So it's been a sad few days.  But a happy few days too.  I realize just how far Million has come with love, water, and a little sunshine.  And I hug both boys a little tighter.

I'll never be able to make up for the 13 months that Million didn't have a mother.  That's something that we'll have to work through with him.  And hopefully he'll come out of it relatively unscathed.  But I can pray that God will allow me to fill in any gaps that are existing with a reasonable amount of mother love.  And I can pray that God would help me to be the kind of mother that both boys need.