Wii Fit

 If you read the title of this post, you might think that this is one of my New Year's Resolution posts about my new exercise program.  Well it's not.  Hang tight and you'll see....

When I was pregnant with Lydia, I posted about our concerns about fitting into our suburban.  Our suburban seats 8 people but that is without car seats.

 Soon after her birth, we purchased this additional bench seat in the back.  Although it was the coveted seat of every kid at school when I drove for field trips or ball games (picture 3 middle school boys crammed in this back seat "eating" their knees), it wasn't ideal for us.  The seat belts are not retractable making it difficult with car seats.  Many times we would make a turn and hear a holler from the back as a car seat had just tumbled over with a kid securely strapped to it.  It also made us nervous if we were to ever have a rear-end collision.  After having a kid vomit on 2 different occasions upon arriving in the church parking lot on Sunday morning, we realized that riding backwards after a big breakfast caused car sickness in some of the Fish Sticks.

So it has served it's purpose but not ideal.  On most days the Fish Sticks just cram between car seats in the 2 bench seats.

So why did I pay big bucks for a detail clean on our suburban yesterday?  It's because our suburban that has been such a great vehicle for us and has given us many fond memories and been the collector of our lost, microscopic Lego pieces, McDonald french fries, long-lost ziploc bags of Fruit Loops and countless Sunday School papers has now found a new home.  Our friends from church found it on Craigslist and called to inquire, not realizing it was us who was selling.  We are glad that our vehicle will continued to be filled with happy kiddos and probably more McDonald french fries.

 And drum roll please....TAH DAH!!!  Here is the new Fish Stick Family vehicle.  Our very own 12 passenger van.  If only I had videoed the Fish Sticks exploring the new wheels....you would have laughed for sure.  It's hilarious what kids consider an amazing vehicle feature.  Did you know we can crawl under these seats???  When My Man reiterated that special Fish-Stick-found feature, I asked him if he dared me to try it out.  (I'm a good sucker for dares!)

 And so we took a test drive to visit Nonie and show her the ash trays (most Fish Sticks didn't even know what they were), spacious seats and the new "we can crawl under the seats" feature.

 So no more 2 hour trips to the lake with 4 car seats, 8 people, 2 dogs, luggage and groceries.  (Are you picturing Sanford and Sons or Beverly Hillbillies?  You should be!)

Wii Fit ------- WE FIT!!!

Workin' At the Car Wash

 Yesterday my girls went on a field trip to Andrew Jackson's home, the Hermitage.  My good friend was a chaperone and asked if I could keep her little guy, William.  I had some errands to run and needed to take the Suburban for a detail car wash.  (I'll tell you why next time.)  You would have thought we were on a field trip ourselves!  They squealed with delight for 20 minutes as they watched car after car going through the wash.  We just have too much fun sometimes!

So Sad

This is the view out of my kitchen window.  Normally it makes me very happy.  Today it makes me very sad.  Today there is no white, Peking duck swimming around, dunking under the water with tail up, quacking and playing.  Donald the Duck (while some Fish Sticks still claim it's not Donald but Daisy) is gone.  He disappeared without a trace this weekend.  Friday he was up at the house, quacking and asking for cracked corn treats and Saturday he was gone.  We are all sad.  Sad that we have owned a total of 9 ducks, none of which have survived on the Fish Farm to celebrate their first birthday.  Donald was going to be 1 year this month.  He left just like Daisy did - disappeared.

Oh, but did I tell you I spotted a red fox on the levee twice this last week for the very first time?  We've lived here almost 10 years and never have seen a fox in our yard.

Hmm - We read Chicken Little this week in school.  So if our Donald was any kin to Ducky Lucky and our fox was any kin to Foxy Loxy, then mystery solved.  So sad.

My Middle Flower

 On Friday Leah's class performed a short drama performance that we attended.  At the last minute she had to fill in for a girl who was out of town.  She did a great job and I laughed when she told her teacher how embarrassed she was to wear this apron.  I asked her why it made her embarrassed.  She said, "Mom, it had mermaid pigs on it!"  Oh, I guess I didn't look that close.  :)  Although she looks upset in both photos, she wasn't.  The photographer just lacked high quality photos.  Sorry bout that.

So the reason that I post about this small drama performance is because every time my middle child gets up willingly in front of an audience and does what she has rehearsed, I am just beaming with pride.  She has come a long way.  I have had to endure many emotional breakdowns and performances with a scowl on her face instead of a happy, singing smile.  No yelling, waving "HI MOM!" from this Fish Stick while on stage.

But since sending her to school, we have seen her blossom and gain confidence.  Positive peer pressure has worked wonders on her.

On Wednesday she was part of leading chapel with her class.  Another great performance and another happy Mama in attendance.  My little flower has bloomed and is a beautiful flower to behold!!

Sunday

It's the Lord's Day...

A Day of Rest

Just Another Monday...

 With the weather hitting the low 80's, it's got the Fish Sticks wanting to be outside and their Mama is no exception.  This a.m. we opened the back door and had Parker Branch Christian Academy on the screened-in porch.  What a way to start the day - and sighting 5 deer in the backyard by the pond just made it better.

Statistics say that kids learn better and listen better when they are keeping their hands busy.  I read a chapter in the Wizard of Oz (the REAL one), read about our 5 senses, silk worms, saris in India and turbans in Saudi Arabia and The Gingerbread Man.  With little hands wrapped around Legos, all were attentive and learning.  I think the hot chocolate helped too.

 Then it was math papers, Green Eggs and Ham (Ruth rocked this one!), phonics sheet on silent letters, language arts with th and wh sounds, introduction of new spelling words, a short snack and a yummy lunch watching those great Kratt brothers on PBS learning about sharks!

And did I mention I got 9 loads of laundry done too and picked up my eldest at school for a hacking cough that wouldn't let up?  Yep...it was a good day.  Homeschooling sure has it's benefits!!  And you can see 3 of them grinning above!

4-Fold Sky

 We have had the mildest winter yet since moving to middle TN almost 10 years ago.  I think I've only put coats on us twice and this is the first time I haven't spent my days picking up gloves, hats, scarves strewn all over the mud room floor.  It's kind of sad we never had a good snow to play in, but now that spring will be here tomorrow, I'm really hoping the cold doesn't show it's face up late!

The storms have been a bit crazy lately.  Two Fridays ago the kids got out of school at noon because of tornado threats.  It was an eery day.  I booked it to speech therapy and made it back just in time.  The tornado-causing weather was popping up all over the radar and we were ready to run to the basement when necessary.

NORTH

It never came.  It totally side-swept us but the sky was just amazingly weird.  I took a photo from all 4 directions one right after the other and here is what I saw.

WEST

SOUTH

EAST

What a beautiful thing to see in the sky made by a beautiful God!

Rainbow Order

 My Roofie Poofie makes me giggle.  She's not a neat freak.  She likes to save everything.  She doesn't mind piles of clutter.  When I tell her to clean her room, I have to check all the hiding spots that Mommy's know all about.

But with some things Ruth is obsessed with order.

 

Each morning one of Ruth's chores is to empty the dishwasher of kid dishes.  This is her cabinet.  Do you see a theme??  She makes sure that all the plates, bowls and cups from IKEA are in the correct rainbow order.  She doesn't like to have anything in the center of the cabinet and if anyone messes up with this order that she has created, she makes sure we know she is displeased.

 

Another one of Ruth's jobs is to collect the chicken eggs.  If we have tons of eggs, she will separate them into cartons of brown and green eggs.  If we have a little of both, this is what you will see.  If I use an egg, she likes to find one of the "correct" color to replace it in the carton.

My job is to figure out how to transfer this orderliness into cleanliness.  I'm considering color coding her toys in the colors of the rainbow with corresponding storage bins.  It just might work.

Super Heroes

 Wednesday was Super Hero day at school.  I found the Spider girl costume in our Halloween stash for little Leah.  I loaned my personal Superman t-shirt to AB.  I did my best to convince my girls to step out of their comfort zone and be silly.  We have a green, padded Hulk outfit that Leah would not even consider wearing.  I thought the padded Superman costume would bring lots of laughs if AB wore it...you know showing a 6-pack with huge biceps.  It would be so funny!  Never on  your life!  I begged, pleaded, told them what a good laugh it would get from others at school to show up in an outfit that people would least expect you, a reserved girl, would wear.  They thought I was nuts.  I told them about my college days dressing up as Pippy Longstockings, braiding a coat hanger around my braids so that I had to turn sideways to walk through the doorway.  What about your mother wearing a blond wig for Halloween in her hippie costume??  Come on, girls!  Where is your sense of adventure and humor??  Not gonna happen.  Oh well.  I still have hopes for Lydia to walk in the crazy footsteps of her mother.

 Caleb had his own plan...one in which brought me great joy.  He wanted to make a costume for Super Dad.  He would go as his own father, write his dad's number on the back filled in with character traits of his Daddy that he admires.  I helped him write words on the back and complete the outfit with "tights" (under armor), a cape and shorts.  What a "SUPER" bunch of Fish Sticks!

What brought me great sadness was when he hopped in the car after school and told me he had the worst day.  Almost in tears he explained that he was teased for the majority of the day.  "For what?" I asked.  His costume - the leggings, shorts and theme....all of it.  GRRRR!!!  Mama Bear was ready to attack!  After my ears blew steam and I calmed a bit, I told him how sorry I was to hear that and that his Daddy and I were very proud of his costume and that he had thought it up on his own.

Now I know that teasing is all part of growing up, unfortunately.  Every kid is the butt of a joke at least once in their lifetime and probably instigates the joke at least once too and I'm no exception.  BUT as a mother, how I want to shield my children from the pain that sharp words can cause.  He's a tough kid and I let him and his sis stay up late and watch 2 Brady Bunch episodes with me to help ease the pain.  And I hope that when it's all said and done, he will be more cautious of his words to others, whether said in good humor or not, and have boldness to stand up for those who are the butt of the jokes.  No matter what anyone says, I know he DOES have a SUPER DAD and I'm so glad that he knows that and wants to be like his Daddy!!

Special Friends

 In the summer of 1989 I went on my first mission trip to serve at the Greek Bible Institute in Athens, Greece.  My roommate was my high school acquaintance, Allison.  After 2 weeks of living in Greece, experiencing culture shock for the first time, witnessing an international political rally from a rooftop, exploring among remains from cities during the times of Plato, Aristotle and the Apostle Paul, sweating and scrubbing as we renovated the Bible school and spending the 4th of July in London, England, Allison and I went from being acquaintances to close friends.  Our faith was stretched and strengthened on that trip and the two of us were never the same.

Our friendship has stood the test of time although we never really hung with the same groups in high school.  After our mission trip, we learned tons about studying God's Word together in a senior girls small group at church, led by our youth pastor's wife.  We stayed in contact during college and even closer during our married years.  We had our first born sons within months of each other and learned how to smock while our boys played in the nursery at a local church.  During our time in Singapore, Allison called and sent care packages and always supported us in our ministry there.

All that to say, Allison is a special friend though 3 hours of travel separate us.  I don't get to see her often but thankfully her 2 brothers live close to me and this week she came up to visit during her kiddos' spring break.

Although we spent the majority of the day together, it just didn't seem long enough.

 Special friends are hard to find, at least for me, and the friend I have in Allison is very special!

Hat and Shades Day ... Twice

I know I am not a perfect parent.  I try my hardest not to make huge mistakes that will scar my children for life, but last week I fear that I have scarred them.  This week is Spirit Week - the week of school where you get to dress up according to a theme every day.

Being the extra-organized mother that I strive to be, I was a week early ("Early bird gets the worm" didn't really apply.).  I misread my calendar and told the Fish Sticks it was "Hat and Shades" day, so they dressed in appropriate clothes to match their hats and shades and I sent them off to school with a kiss.  Shortly after My Man dropped them off, I received a call from My Man informing me it was NOT Spirit Week THIS week but the NEXT!  As he is telling me this, I received call waiting.  It was Caleb telling me I needed to bring all of them uniform clothes because it was NOT Spirit Week.

*SIGH*

So I throw on make-up and clothes, toss 3 little Fish Sticks in the car, grab my coffee and off we go to the school with a bag of clothes.  I told the school secretary that apparently I had won the school's Horses Rear Award for the year.  All 3 Fish Sticks came out to me, all talking at once to tell me each of their personal stories of classroom humiliation as they walked into their classes bombarded by looks of confusion and questions as to why they were wearing what they had on.  "I was totally humiliated!" said my dramatic daughter.

*SIGH*

All I knew to do was apologize profusely and tell them it wasn't the end of the world.

Fast forward 1 week.  Monday rolls around and guess what?  IT'S SPIRIT WEEK!  And Day 1 is HAT AND SHADES day!!  We are set!!  We already know what outfit we are going to wear. 

Sunday night my drama queen starts dreading the morning.  "I just know what they will all say when I walk in the room - they will say 'NOW it's hat and shades day!'  Anna Blair, I KNEW you were going to wear that today!' (giggle giggle)  I don't even want to go.  I would rather just wear my uniform than hear them say that." 

I gave her all kinds of clever, cheerful come-backs about having double school spirit or even pretending she didn't know what they were talking about.  It didn't bring her any consolation for the humiliation she was anticipating.

So there!  Scarred for life.  They will forever remember the day they were utterly embarrassed by their mom's early mistake.  I'm sorry, kids.  (If that is the only scar you will remember, I'm one happy Mama.)

And if you were wondering how many 5th graders teased AB on Hat and Shades Day for her double dose of school spirit, the answer is NONE!!  All that drama for nothing.

Mom and Sis Luncheon

Every year at the first of March my mom invites my sister and I to attend a women's luncheon with her through a women's organization that she and my sister are very involved in (we are 4th generation women in this organization in our family).  Most years I have been able to go but a few times I have not.  I was so excited to get to go this year with Mom in Murfreesboro and hook up with my big sis there.  We never have lunch out together so this was a real treat.  Mom's about to become the state president in this women's organization so she was in demand by the other women attending, but we are proud of her and didn't mind her needing to be the social butterfly that the VP requires.

Thanks Mom for treating me to this special lunch.  I sure did enjoy being with you and Kt.  Maybe one day little sis, Rach, can join us too!

Fowl Play

I haven't posted about our poultry in a long time.  I guess no news is good news, but unfortunately it is time to share some sad news.  You might remember that about this time last year we woke one morning to find our beloved Peking duck, Freckles, beheaded.  Aflac, her husband, wasn't taking it well either.  So we purchased 3 ducklings in the spring.  When they were full grown, one died of a seizure while swimming in the pond and Aflac attempted to drown one of the poor drakes several times a day as his masculinity was feeling threatened.  Aflac is now enjoying life at the Triple L Ranch down the road.  So that left us with 2 new ducks.

They have been living happily ever after all this drama occurred last summer....that is up until now.

First we made the assumption that they were both males as they never laid any eggs for us.  This was proven wrong 2 weeks ago when My Man noticed the tree stump in the pond that stays under water for most of the year had several eggs sitting on top of it.  Now I believe that God gave females an innate desire and knowledge for motherhood and that the fall of man has brought many distortions of that mothering instinct, but really???  What normal mother duck would lay her eggs under water on a tree stump??

And that's not the end of the duck drama.  Just one week after noticing these duck eggs under water, one duck came up missing.  I have scoured the property and there is NO evidence of "fowl" play (pun intended)!  No feathers left behind, no evidence of a struggle, no remains of duck body parts...nothing.  Just one lonely duck that quacks far more than usual as he/she  mourns the loss of a loved one.  And if that wasn't strange enough, I found it knocking off several of the under-water eggs down off the tree stump to the bottom of the pond.  Maybe just throwing a fit as part of his/her grief?

There's much debate in the Fish House as to whether a male or female remains.  Some claim the freckled beak stands for female and some claim the darker beak was the male.  Who knows.  I believe firmly that none of them are talking from true facts but pure speculation disguised as solid knowledge.

And if you look closely in the photo of poor quality, you will see the dark tree stump on the left side and if you can squint really hard you  might be able to make out the white speck of an egg that sits on the stump.  Those poor ducklings never had a chance.

Barney's New Home

 I meant to post these photos last week but it slipped me.  They are just too cute to ignore.

We had a play date with our Bender Buddies.  Lydia's Bender Buddy is a crazy Barney fanatic.  She just loves Barney and can't get enough of him.  When a Fish Stick showed her our Barney costume, she was in heaven.  She was just adorable and couldn't wait to have her picture made.

 We decided to send her home with that costume, after all... it has gotten us through several Halloween's and we all know that it will bring much joy in the Bender home by one special little girl.

Her dad said they couldn't get the Barney costume off of her for a few days.  It has found a great home!!

Boo Boo Missing

My Man and I have a treadmill and we have some pretty clear rules about the treadmill. 

1.  One Fish Stick at a time on the treadmill.
2.  You may only push the speed buttons 1,2 or 3 OR 4 if you are a big Fish Stick and ready to run.
3.  You may only stand with your feet on the treadmill.
4.  Take turns.

So when Lydia came to me sobbing and showing me her hurt leg from the treadmill, I made a quick assumption (and correct one at that) that some Fish Sticks were not following the rules of the treadmill.  When the story came out, it seems they set it going and all sat on it until they fell on the floor.  Somehow her little leg got caught on the conveyer belt and as Lydia told me "her skin was ripped off." 

"Mommy, I looked everywhere in the school room for my skin but I can't find it." she told me.

Thank goodness because I don't know if I was up to performing a skin graft if she had found it.

We covered it with a band-aid and all was well until the following day when we decided to check it out.

It was then that she discovered it was a pretty nasty-looking boo boo.  She started limping and whining, keeping her pants leg pulled up and showing everyone she came in contact with.

That night at supper, her pant legs has slumped down to their normal position and right in the middle of our Lent family devotions she started screaming in a panicky voice, "My boo boo is gone!  My boo boo is gone!"  I giggled and whispered to her that she was looking on the wrong leg.  To which she quickly pulled up the other pant leg and then burst into tears.  I asked her why she was crying and she sobbed, "Because I thought my boo boo had gotten all better, but it did not!"

Aspiring Cop to Cop

Last week Josiah declared that he was no longer going to be a pirate when he grew up.  This time he was sure he was going to be a police man.  He promised he would NEVER change his mind again.  He started dressing up in my dad's old police shirt, having me belt on holsters for his guns and asking me 50 million questions about what police do and have.  I told him that when I was his age, my dad was a police man.  I remembered once he dressed up like a granny to work under cover and catch the bad guys doing drugs.

Later Josiah kept asking me when he was going to get to go to Nonie and Pops.  He asked me over and over.  I finally asked him WHY he was dying to go to Nonie and Pop's house.  He said it was because he had some questions to ask Pops about being a police.  I told Nonie.  Nonie told Pops and Pops came by for his interview on his day off.

He and Little Man sat on the couch and with a big grin, Little Man began asking my dad about his life as a cop.  He wanted to know where he got his weapons and what weapons he had.  He asked if he ever shot any bad guys.  He wanted to know if he ever rode a police motorcycle.

Pops began telling Little Man stories I had never even heard.  By the end of the interview, Little Man was ready to sign up himself.  He just needed to know who he could get his weapons from so he could start.

Some of the Fish Sticks were sad to hear that he was no longer aspiring to be a pirate missionary.  With Dog the Bounty Hunter (tv reality show) in mind, I told him that he could certainly tell the bad guys about Jesus after he caught them and locked them up when he was a policeman.  He liked that idea.

Sticker Clothes

 These 2 little monkeys are such goobers.  I love watching them become closer and closer buddies.  I never had a brother close to my age, but I see the relationship that My Man has with his little sister and the relationship that my little sister has with  my little brother and the relationship that Caleb has with AB and I love it.  When Caleb and AB were this age, their relationship worked well because Caleb would tell AB what they were playing, what she was to wear in their play, what she was to say and how she was to say it.  She heartily agreed with all his bossiness and all was good. 

Josiah is not quite wired like that and neither is Lydia so their dynamics is a bit different.  There is not always a "big chief" among them but occasionally there is a "feisty squaw" in the mix.

For Josiah's birthday, Nonie and Pops gave him 2 great, sticker, activity books.  They thought it would be wonderfully funny to cover their legs with stickers.  And because it's 75 degrees in February, why not take off half their clothes to add to the fun?

 And what is silliness without crazy dancing?

 How about a close up?

Wonder Twin Power, Activate!