It's a Magic Door!

With the 2 ice days in the past week and an early dismissal for teacher training, it doesn't feel like Friday at all, our schedule has been so off!

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New and exciting this week, we now have a "magic door" in our house!

We had our central vacuum repaired a couple months ago and I asked the guy how hard it would be to add to our system one of those doors in the baseboard that you open up and can sweep all the crumbs in and they are suctioned right into the central vac. pipe and whisked away into the metal drum in the garage.  The price he quoted was much lower than I would have expected for such a thing and my husband and I decided with all the floor mess created by our 4 kids and 1 dog, it was worth it.

This week the installer came.  Only they never actually told me when my appointment was or called with a 30 minutes before call.  So the vacuum system guy arrives on my doorstep at 4pm one afternoon, totally unannounced, meaning the house was in disarray.  The kids had recently gotten home from school, there were lunchboxes and backpacks and shoes everywhere.  I'd promised the kids hot chocolate that I was mixing up and they were adding whip cream and sprinkles, so the kitchen was not clean.  But, bless his heart, that installer hung with us all afternoon, through the 3 different grade levels of homework, 2 kids conversing with each other over walkie-talkies, dinner prep., laundry, disputes between children, a barking dog, the phone ringing, multiple costume changes by my 2 youngest children, 1 child's bumped head that required ice, not to mention squealing and screaming when he used his wall cutting tool.  Honestly I'm pretty sure that young man will never have children now!

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The poor man had to cut a couple of holes in the wall to do the installation and he kept describing to me exactly what he had to do and where the holes would be and what size, he seemed really concerned that I would be upset about the holes, and I just kept thinking, "Do you see the chaos of this house, really I'm not worried about a few holes in the wall?!"

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So it's done and we do indeed have holes in the wall, but who cares, because -- MAGIC DOOR!  Really it is fabulous!  With the flip of a lever (that you can do with your foot), a little suction door is opened up along the baseboard in my kitchen and I can easily sweep the kid and dog debris right in and it is whisked away!

One child and the dog are still a little fearful of the magic door, afraid they'll be sucked away.

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Today there was more excitement, a much-anticipated package was due to arrive with a toy my 6 year old ordered with his allowance.  Here are my boys ready to pounce on the UPS man:

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Thankfully now that I have a 10 year old son this year I DO actually know who is playing in the Superbowl this Sunday, in previous years I had no idea until the big game.  But, now I get an earful from football-loving boy.  Will you be watching  the big game?

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 Happy Friday, Friends! Find more Friday Fragments here.

Life lessons From The 500 Freestyle

The 500 freestyle.  

It is a dreaded event for many swimmers.

A right of passage for every swimmer, some say.

As a former swimmer myself, I remember well the dread of an event.

The one your coach entered you in and is convinced you can do, but you?  Think you will die!

My 10 year old son was entered into the 500 freestyle for the first time a few weeks ago.

From the moment we found out his events for the upcoming meet until the event 4 days later, he was filled with worry.

20 laps of the pool!  In a race!

I reassured, "Your coach would not have put you in this event if she didn't think you could do it."  

I downplayed, "Just think of it like practice.  You've swum that far in practices before.  Just go nice and easy and you'll be fine."

I encouraged, "Since you've never done this event before, all you have to do is finish and you'll get a personal best time!"

But really there was nothing I could do to make it better.  This one he needed to live through.  We prayed together about it several times for God to give him peace and strength.

Come meet day, there were several kids his age from his team in the same boat, swimming the 500 free for the first time.

And they all hated it, looked white as sheets, and nervous as turkeys at Thanksgiving, BEFORE the 500.

But after?  They were all smiles!  They did it!  And they were so proud of being able to do something hard, something they'd never done before!

My son even said he'd swim it again, someday.

My view from behind the starting blocks watching my son swim.  The counter that would be stuck down in the water to show him he'd done 11 laps so far!

I told my husband later, "I don't know who had the harder task, him swimming or me watching.  Man I was exhausted when it was over!"

I am so proud of my son for tackling this feat!  For doing hard things.  Not because of a swimming event, but because to do life well, you have to do the hard things sometimes.

Then today I picked him up from school and he was pale, distant, and clearly rattled.  "What's wrong?"  I asked.  No clear answer.  "Did something happen?"  "Are you sick?!!"  Nothing.  So I let him be for a few minutes.  Then a bit later I prodded some more because that's what we moms do.  "Did something bad happen at school?"  "Not really," he replied slowly, forcing me to go through a long list of possibilities that at least got him laughing.

"It's something you will think is good,"  he then told me, confusing me all the more.  Finally he told me he was among 3 boys nominated for Safety Patrol Captain and he has to give a speech in front of a few teachers and his 30 fellow safety patrols (other 5th graders) at school tomorrow and then the kids will vote to decide the winner.

"That's great!"  I said, "It's an honor to be chosen.  Since the kids vote to pick the nominees, that means you are well respected among your peers!  Congratulations!"

"But the speech, Mom.  I'm worried," he said with dread in his voice.  "I've done speeches in my class at school but this is bigger."

"The speech,"  I said, "Is just like the 500 freestyle.  Everybody is afraid to do it.  But once you finish, you'll feel great to have tackled that challenge.  And the more speeches you give the more comfortable you'll get with them, so this is a great opportunity!"

He's only mildly convinced of my logic, but he has a notecard with some notes he jotted down.  Now if I could just be a fly on the wall in that cafeteria tomorrow!

Ice Day, Take 2

School is so very rarely cancelled due to icy weather in our area, like once every 5 years or so, and in the past week we've had TWO days of school closures!  Last Friday and again today the kids did not have school.  It is so crazy!

Because these were not snow days as in fluffy snowflakes, snowball fights, and kids making snowmen, but rather, sleet with no pretty white stuff, just some icicles hear and there, I have no pictures to mark the fanfare.

Except there is this from today:

Yeah, that pretty much sums up our ice days!

What I Buy With Amazon Subscribe and Save

I know I posted a while back about how I get breakfast delivered to my front door, but since then it's gotten even better!

Amazon Subscribe and Save is adding new products all the time and best of all, I recently learned that if you have 5 or more product subscriptions arriving in a month, then you save 15% off the entire order!

I only order things through Amazon Subscribe and Save that are the same price or cheaper than I would pay at the grocery or Target, but to save 15% on top of that is huge!  And the convenience of having the things we use up regularly replenished with delivery right to my front door is awesome!!  Who doesn't want fewer errands to run?!!

You can schedule things to arrive every month or every 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6 months, to account for how fast you typically use up an item and you can change your subscription at any time.

Because I'm always curious about what other people buy at stores like Costco,  I thought I'd share with you what I'm currently buying through Amazon Subscribe and Save:

• The lotion I use on my face at night
• My husband's hair gel
• The Vanicream (thick lotion) I use on my kids -- it keeps the eczema away!
• The lotion I use on my hands
• Cracklin Oat Bran Cereal
• Kashi Go Lean Crunch Cereal
• Kashi Go Lean Honey Almond Flax Cereal
• Puffs Plus Lotion Kleenex
• Cottonelle Toliet Paper
• Cliff Mojo Bars

Do you want to go see if your family's favorite products are available through the Amazon grocery?

Click here (Disclaimer: I am an Amazon affiliate, but also a satisfied customer!).

Grocery Shopping made super easy!

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

Tizzy is a Word! It is!

You know you've got yourself some 1st world problems when your day is thrown all in a tizzy (yes, that is a real word, it looked funny written, so I looked it up) because the groomer called to cancel your dog's grooming appointment.  

But, really we were in a state of dire grooming need!  

First I called too late into the Christmas season and they were all booked up until the new year.  We attempted to bathe/groom the creature ourselves, it did not go well, so I called again early in the new year and was only able to get an appointment for my dog for 3 weeks later.  I was literally counting down the days until she could be groomed.  She was a matted, filthy mess, and worst of all, her long fur kept bringing in a multitude of leaves from the backyard that she would then scatter all over the house!

So, when they canceled due to a family emergency and could not give me a clear reschedule date, we were forced to find another groomer.  Stat!  Thankfully, we did find one and we finally have a presentable dog again!

Before (with a particularly leaf-encrusted face):

After:

'Course she's been fussing at me all day because now she is only wearing her lightweight coat and it's 30 degrees.  She told me, "You know I grow that heavy fur coat for a reason!"  Okay, so my dog does not actually talk to me with words, but look at that face, it says it all!

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One day last week when I dropped Little Girl off at preschool she was talking to her teacher about her snack and about how she got the snack out of the pantry at our house.  Then as I was walking off I heard her tell her teacher loudly (because that's how she always talks), "WE HAVE BUGS IN OUR PANTRY!"

I wheeled around and said, "That was ONE time SIX MONTHS AGO!"

"Seriously,"  I told my friend that afternoon, "She has lived with us for over 2 years now, and for like 4 days of those 2 years there were bugs in the pantry, yet that's just how she sums up the state of our pantry!"

That friend then proceeded to tell me that her 3 kids had lice a few months ago, it's totally gone, but now anytime someone comes over her kids tell them, "Watch out!  We have a lice a problem!"

I was rolling on the floor laughing!  Kids, man, they keep you humble!

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Okay, so the pantry comment was last week, well fast forward to this week.  I was cleaning out the pantry and noticed this fine crumb coating, like small brown grains.  At first I thought someone had emptied the remnants of the cereal box in the pantry because that could totally happen with 4 kids around here.  But, then it hit me, "These are probably not crumbs.  What if they are BUGS?!"  

Sure enough, I Googled it, "Grain-like pantry bugs" and there is such thing as a grain beetle and the bugs are as tiny as a small grain!  They love to get in things like flour, oatmeal, grits, spices, etc.  They are typically in the food when you bring it home from the store.  And sure enough, I found them in a canister of quick-cooking oats and a nearby bag of grits that was sealed in a Ziploc bag!  Thankfully most of the stuff in my pantry is sealed well in jars or plastic containers, but the quick oats were in the cardboard canister I bought them in.  Needless to say I will now be emptying those type of store-bought packaging into my clear, plastic containers before they ever go into my pantry!

Gross!  But, on a positive side my pantry is now super clean and totally purged as I threw away many old things just on principle!

And now Little Girl has an arsenal of bugs-in-our-pantry stories!  Good thing I have no shame as evidenced by the fact that I am telling the entire world about the bugs in my pantry!

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We have some "wintry mix" forecasted for our city tomorrow, which happens less than once a year, so the kids are very excited about the possibility of a snow day tomorrow!  We shall see!  I know I'd be happy to not have to leave the house tomorrow.  Really anytime the temperature drops below 50 degrees I don't think I should be expected to go outside!

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 Happy Friday, Friends!  

Find more Friday Fragments here.

Reading With My Daughter

One of my favorite things the past couple years has been reading classic girl chapter books with my older daughter (she is 8 now).

She loves books as much as I did as girl and it is such a joy to see her delight in the stories I read at her age!

After I read a book to my two younger children and tuck them in, I climb up into the top bunk bed with my 8 year old daughter and we read aloud for 15 minutes or so.

We just finished Anne of Green Gables and it was even lovelier than I remembered!

In fact, my daughter and I both fell so in love with Anne, that I've now purchased the box set!

It was fascinating to me to read Anne of Green Gables now as an adoptive mom.  I felt so sad for Anne when she was delivered by mistake to Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert who had requested a boy and they contemplated sending her back!  But, oh how I related so much to the quiet Marilla as she parented the spirited, talkative Anne!  Because parenting a child with a personality type so opposite your own is exhausting!  And how many days has the constant chatter from my younger daughter adopted as a 3 year old also led me to tell her to stop talking.  But, oh how well the book illustrates the ultimate gift of opening your home and heart to a child and how those spirited little girls can bring such joy!

Reading with my older daughter is not always easy, sometimes by 8:15pm at night I am so spent from the demands of my family and the day that I just want to have some free time and be done with kids.  But, I'm so glad that I've made the time most nights.  It's precious one-on-one time with my girl and when I look back over the past couple years those moments reading with her definitely stand-out as the good stuff!

Find more Works for Me Wednesday here.

How the Fourth Child Learns to Ride a Bike

This past weekend the weather was gorgeous, the kids were all riding bikes outside, and my husband and our 5 year old daughter (our 4th child) decided it was time to take the training wheels off her bike.

My husband informed me of their intentions and asked me if I was ready to help.  My mind immediately went to all the chores I had waiting for me inside, but I resigned myself to assisting with what I imagined to be a good hour or more of steadying a bike, encouraging a child, and bandaging knees.  We have taught our 3 older children to ride bikes and although the 1st was the hardest by far, they all took some training and helping and encouraging to learn.  Some of them even got training wheels back on for a while because they just couldn't seem to get it and we all decided to take a break for a few months before trying again.

And I can't even count the hours I've spent holding the back of a bike steadying a new rider, walking/running alongside when they didn't want me to let go.  There was a time in my life I wished for a camp that taught kids how to ride a 2-wheel bike; I was willing to pay money to send my child!

My husband got out his tools, the training wheels came off, and Little Girl got on the bike . . .

AND SHE RODE OFF!

That was it!  Seriously!  No falling! No parent holding onto the back!  No tears!  So easy!

And that, my Friends, is how the 4th child learns to ride a bike!