The Correlation between Marshmallow Fondant and Snakes

This afternoon I was preparing fondant cake decorations for Malia’s upcoming birthday celebration. Matthew was helping me. Not only was he making his own set of fondant ladybugs, but he was snacking on the scraps of fondant as well. I certainly didn’t mind that as I’m one of those moms that believes sneaking cookie dough and licking the cake batter out of the bowl is a right (and joy) of childhood.  But I had a lot of decorations to make and he was obviously prepared to eat all the scraps, so after awhile I told him he had better not eat all of the scraps because it is basically colored sugar. He readily agreed (he’s a really good kid) and then informed me of the following: “Sugar makes you viper. That means you move really fast.”

Laughing…in my head…lots of laughing…

Living the Good Life

In the past week I’ve heard from several friends that are having problems. Epic, potentially life changing problems.  As I’ve talked with them, thought about them, prayed for them, it has made me think about my own problems. Sure there have been times when my troubles were pretty big. But for the most part the things that cause me stress, the things that seem hard, like having a sticky floor, a messy house, children that are constantly bickering, too much to do and not enough time, are actually just the side effects of having it all. I have a sticky floor because we have enough to eat. Having a messy house means I have an amazing place to live. The fact that my children are constantly bickering means that they are strong enough and healthy enough to have some fight in them. And the reason I have so much to do is because I have the supreme blessing of getting to take care of the people I love. So really, my day to day difficulties are just a reminder that I’m living the good life. I really do have the best there is to have.

It’s Burning Again

The mountains around our home are on fire again. But it is farther away than the one nearly two years ago so Kev and I are not terribly concerned. This particular fire has actually been burning for several days, but it jumped the fire lines today and spread rapidly. When Daniel and Nathan got out of school and saw the huge plume of black smoke coming from the hills behind our house, they ran all the way home. They got home a good fifteen or twenty minutes earlier than usual, flying in the door in a bit of a panic. We looked up the news to put their minds at ease, but they still kept pretty close tabs on the situation all evening. Matthew got out his firefighter hat and wore it until bedtime. He kept running outside to see how much smoke there was and then running downstairs to tell Kev (he was doing an online class) how everything was going. Poor kids are obviously pretty traumatized where fire is concerned. Of course, I still remember clearly the fire scare I got when I was about four, so I figure they are probably just going to be scarred for life. Unfortunately for us, due to where we live this is probably not going to be our last fire scare.

Girl Cooties!

Daniel is in the sixth grade. Around here that means square dancing. Yesterday Daniel told me that 1) he was really excited to start square dancing and 2) the teacher who teaches square dancing (A man, by the way. Very impressive.) has a license to teach square dancing. I didn’t think such a thing existed and I’m somewhat inclined to think it is not an actual license but some kind of a certificate. In addition, at the end of the school year they have a big hoe down after school with music, dancing, treats, etc. A veritable shindig.

When Daniel got home from school, he told me that he had a great day. It was the first day of square dancing. He said, and I quote, “Once I got over the fact I was dancing with girls, it was really fun!”

Snicker, snicker…

A Milestone For Matthew

Today was Matthew’s first day of kindergarten. He told me months ago that I was not allowed to take him to school because he would be walking with Daniel and Nathan.  But luckily for me, the parents were invited to attend the first half hour of kindergarten with their children so I got to take him to school in spite of his conviction that I would not.

When Daniel and Nathan started school, I did a happy dance as they got on the bus for the first time. But I have to admit that with Matthew I was a bit emotional. You see, by the time Matthew was born, Daniel was in kindergarten and Nathan was in preschool. Because of Matthew’s multitude of allergies, I was less likely to send him to a babysitter. It was a bit stressful (for me and for them) to hand someone my 5-month-old and say, “Oh, and by the way, he is allergic to some stuff…like milk… and eggs…dogs to, his face will swell up…” So until Malia came along, it was just Matthew and me at home. And Malia is four and a half years younger than Matthew so he has been my stay-at-home buddy for a long time. And for all that time he has helped me make bread, clean the house, run errands, do laundry, you name it and he has been right there with me. Yes, he has had two years of preschool, but preschool was five houses down the street and it wasn’t every day.

So as I left him at school this morning, his response being to hand me the appropriate paper per his teacher’s instructions with a quick, “Bye, Mom” as he headed back to the carpet, I’ll confess that I welled up just a bit. He’s obviously ready for kindergarten. I’m not sure I am.

Uh Oh!

Not only does Malia say “Uh oh” when she drops something, but she has figured out how to open cupboards. Now it is my turn to say, “Uh oh!”

Red, White and Blue Through and Through

Do you remember occasions from your childhood when you were so excited that you could not sleep the night before? It was probably Christmas, right? Matthew had one of those nights last night. He was so stinkin’ excited about setting off fireworks that he literally could not sleep. I guess as a girl lighting things on fire does not have the magnetism for me that it does for those with a Y chromosome.  So I really don’t get it, but needless to say, he was really excited.  Daniel and Nathan wore their tie dyed t-shirts today, but Matthew was so disappointed with how they turned out that he wouldn’t even wear his. He did put on a red t-shirt though, so he was still dressed for the holiday.

We started off our day with some patriotic pancakes.

 

Even Malia got in on the multicolored action.

At dinner we attempted to make some multicolored patriot punch, but our red and blue kind of mixed and we ended up with purple and white. I guess purple is an honorary patriotic color at our house this year. I will definitely try this again though and see if I can get it to work.

Once dinner was over, Matthew could barely contain himself. Waiting for it to get a bit later so it would be at least dusk before we got out the sparklers seemed like an eternity to him.  But the time to light up the night finally arrived. And as always, playing with fire made a bunch of boys very happy.

Malia sat and watched, wide eyed. She only complained about the really loud ones. She didn’t like those. (At the big fireworks last Saturday night, she whimpered a couple of times and then she was just fine. Of course, the neon green glow stick she had was probably a part of that.)

I’ll bet Matthew will sleep well tonight.

Is This What a Heart Attack Feels Like?

You know those moments when you are pretty sure your heart stopped for just a minute and you know for a fact that you forgot to breathe? I had one of those today.

This afternoon as I was cleaning up lunch in the kitchen, I suddenly heard Malia shrieking. This was not the mad cry, this was the “Hey, I have a problem and I can’t fix it” cry.  Knowing that I was the only one in the room, I dashed off to find her. As I rounded the corner from the kitchen to the family room, I saw two little feet at the top of the stairs…and nothing else. I ran and grabbed her ankle to keep her from falling further and then discovered that she was head down, her hands braced against the second stair from the top. Needless to say, she was freaked out. I was freaked out. It took me a couple of minutes to get her to calm down.  It took a couple more minutes to get me calmed down.  It would seem that after lunch Daniel, Nathan and Matthew had headed back downstairs to play with Lego. Unbeknownst to me, the last boy down the stairs (I found out later that it was Matthew) did not close the gate. Malia, who loves her brothers, had tried to follow them downstairs.

Needless to say, I had a very serious come to Jesus talk with my boys about closing the gate.