Monk-ism

Have you ever watched Monk? He's an extremely bright detective who suffers from Obsessive Compulsion Disorder. I think I do, too. In our new house, we have a light switch at the top of our stairs leading down to the basement, and another switch at the bottom of the stairs for the same light. It really bothers me if both light switches are in the "on" position when the light is off. This morning I actually walked down to the basement to turn the switch to "off," and then walked back upstairs again. Ahhh...much better! Am I weird? Do any of you do things like this?

Help!

I need parenting advice! I really have no idea what I'm doing...I just pretend to know.

My boys dropped their morning nap when they were about 15 months old. Then they took 3 hour naps in the afternoon, and still settled in at their normal bedtime. Are girls different? My girls will be 2 next month, and I think they still need their morning nap. I tried to drop it this summer, but they just couldn't make it to lunch time. Maybe things seem worse than they really are, because I'm dealing with 2 babies at one time. I really don't remember my boys being this fussy all morning before they turned 2.

I'm letting my girls nap in the morning again. When I let them do this, one of two things will happen: either they won't nap in the afternoon, or they do nap in the afternoon and then they're up until almost 10:00 at night. This causes them to be tired in the morning, requiring a nap by 9:00 a.m., and thus the vicious cycle is repeated!

This picture was taken last night about 5 minutes after I put the girls down. They were SO tired! It was nice to have them fall asleep so quickly, but the long day with fussy girls almost wasn't worth having a longer, quieter evening.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

More Pictures of Our Home

Here's a view of the kitchen looking into the dining area. I've yet to hang pictures on the walls, but I'm eager to get started.


Looking into the living room from the kitchen...


The boys are playing on the computer in the corner of our dining area.


Here's our living room. The front door is to the left of the couch.


Here's another picture of the living room. Caleb thought the entertainment hutch should be closed for the picture. The kitchen entry is on the right.

School Days

Corinne found this picture of Phil on his first day of Kindergarten back in 1974 (the year I was born). It kind of looks like I'm waiting there with him--or maybe even Lily--but it's his little sister, Becky. Isn't this the sweetest picture?

Shopping Spree

Phil stayed home with the kids this morning so I could go out for awhile. I went to a thrift store which is owned by a rather large Christian school in the area. Most of the items in the store were 50% off today. Here's a picture of some of the things I found. The creamer and sugar bowl were $0.49 each! My next stop was Starbucks, of course! I sat in Starbucks for an hour, read the newspaper and enjoyed a decaf Pumpkin Spice Latte. My last stop was Hancock Fabrics. I'd like to make new kitchen curtains, so I spent almost 2 hours looking through pattern books for inspiration.

Happy Fall

Here are a few of our Fall decorations. The kids would rather skip Fall and go right into Winter, because we told them it snows up here in Spokane. Another reason they want to skip Fall? We don't have any leaves to pile up and jump into! We have 8 beautiful pine trees in our backyard, but brown pine needles just don't go "crunch" when you jump into a big pile of them. One thing they do enjoy about the Fall is candy corn. When Jared was 1, I told him it was "Mommy candy." A year later he saw them in a store and called out, "Mommy candy!" This is what our family now calls candy corn.

Despite the absence of Fall fans in my home, I'm determined to enjoy the season...apple cider in the crock pot, chicken and dumplings, warm apple pie, candles burning, turning on the heater in the morning, and tea before bedtime.

These Girls of Mine...

When I work in the kitchen, Gracie isn't far behind me with her little stool. She scoots it up to the counter where I'm working and is eager to get to work...no matter what I'm doing. Sometimes I'm making a shopping list and she scribbles her requests over mine. Sometimes I'm rolling out a pie crust and she begs for a turn with the rolling pin.

Lily, on the other hand, walks right past me in the kitchen, only stopping if she thinks I have something yummy to offer. Here she is on that very same stool--only she would much rather work on projects around the house with her Daddy or fix the tractor with her Grampa. Phil was trying to fix a battery charger last night after dinner, and Lily thought she'd offer her services.

Sweet Things

My little sweeties are making sweet things for their Daddy!

The problem with Autumn is that bags of little candy bars call out to me at Wal Mart and every grocery store I walk into! One whole aisle of Halloween candy isn't enough--they have to place the bags of candy on every end display, as well. And they do this months before Halloween! I broke down and bought a bag of Milky Way. At home I tell myself, "These are small, so I'll just eat 3." I'm eating one right now as I sip my cold coffee.

The other day Phil smelled a candle burning and thought I had baked sugar cookies. Nope! But yesterday we did and we surprised him when he got home from school. We decorated them after dinner...frosting, sprinkles and all! Aren't the girls cute in their little turtlenecks? They look like school girls. The crisp Fall weather comes a bit earlier up here in Washington than in California. It's refreshing after spending a very warm summer in Lake County.

Happy Tuesday!

Phil bought these for me last night to dress up our new porch.


Jared had a haircut yesterday. Caleb said he didn't need one.


Caleb is trying to arrange the numbers on our new address plaque.

Everyday is getting easier for us. We finally have some sort of routine, which puts most of us at ease. I put the girls down. I sit at the computer to blog while sipping my cold cup of coffee. Ah, the familiar!

Peace and Quiet

What is a mother of four young children supposed to think if she's working in the kitchen and her house is extremely quiet? My curiosity sent me searching for my quiet children. Grace and Lily were playing with their dollhouse and Jared and Caleb were playing with their Leapster in the recliner.

Yum!

I prepared this Amish Baked Oatmeal last night before going to bed and baked it this morning. Everyone but Jared tried it and enjoyed it. It was delicious with vanilla yogurt on top. Gracie had thirds.

Gracie Homemaker

I found Gracie in the pantry this morning. "What?! An open pantry door?" says Lily. She was not far behind! Gracie woke up from her nap this afternoon and saw that I was working in the kitchen. She pushed a chair over to the counter and helped me roll out the dough for our chicken pot pie. Here is the fruit of our labor. She was quite proud of the pie when I placed it on the table this evening.

In other news, we took a drive to a uniform shop after dinner tonight. Phil had to purchase a white doctor's coat! I don't have a picture yet, sorry. Our family outings are very interesting now that we live in the city. While I'm scouting out Starbucks, the kids are on the look-out for McDonald's and Burger King restaurants with playgrounds. Even little Lily joins in when she spots the golden arches. Would you believe that I've been up here in Spokane for 1 week and yesterday was the first time I went to Starbucks? Thank you, Brooke!

Just Catching Up

Jared and Caleb love to snuggle together at night.


I finally found the box where I packed my scissors, so Lily had her bangs cut last night.


We met Brooke, Addie and Paige at the park today. It started to drizzle as we were finishing lunch, so we packed up and headed back to our cars.

Wow!

All 4 of my children are napping right now IN THE SAME ROOM! I'm off to make a chicken pot pie and to get some apple cider in the crockpot before Phil comes home.

O Yes, He Cares

"Does Jesus care...As the burdens press, And the cares distress, And the way grows weary and long?

O yes, He cares, I know He cares, His heart is touched with my grief; When the days are weary, The long night dreary, I know my Savior cares."

This song has been going through my head all morning. I hesitated to get out of bed today because of yesterday's happenings. The kids have been especially clingy since we've moved. I struggled to get things done yesterday with little ones screaming while pulling on my clothes for most of the day.

While I don't want my children to spend their day in front of the T.V., a 30 minute video is a lifesaver for me! It keeps all 4 of them occupied so I can fold laundry, do dishes, straighten up the house, etc. Our VCR broke yesterday, but Phil discovered that PBS comes in pretty well, along with 2 other channels that we probably won't waste our time with. The kids were able to watch Clifford this morning while I did my "morning rounds." Does it sound trite to say that discovering that we get PBS is an answer to prayer?

The girls went down for their morning quiet rest time very well--another answer to prayer--so I was able to sit down and check my email. We don't have a phone yet, so this is my only way to communicate with family and friends. I was very excited to see that Phyllis sent a Southwest Airlines travel itinerary to come visit in 2 weeks--another answer to prayer. Yesterday I asked the Lord to send help.

This picture was taken this morning at breakfast. Lily was at my feet crying (she wanted to take the picture), but the others are enjoying the "chwocwat" donuts that Caleb picked out for them at Wal Mart last night.