Calling it a day after that one.

Let me start with a disclaimer - we live in town. Not a bad neighborhood from anything we've seen, but we've got neighbors. Lots of them.

We went for a walk today. The kids had been itching to go for a bike ride, it's been well below freezing for many days now, and it's finally warming up. It was 49 degrees and we headed outside. We were on the next street up from ours, and I stopped to fix Sterling and Ruby on the trike (that's a sight - photo another day) and a car pulled up near us. I ignored them. We started walking again, they followed along. It's daylight and an old guy is in his yard nearby, but it was still a bit strange. A "brown" - in my kids world, they're brown. And they are kind of right. Anyway, a brown man stuck his head out the window and asked why I didn't have at least one black baby in my group. Didn't I want a black baby? Would I like to add one to the mix? Uh... I just looked at him. "Why don't you have a black baby? You need to experience (stress on the word 'experience' here) a black man. Where's your man?" I said, "You mean my husband?" "You're married? For real?" "Yeah, definitely married. To a white man, obviously. Nothing personal, just the way it is." Then he told me he was just trying to be friends. Yeah, sure. The weird part was when Eden asked what he'd wanted as he drove away. What do I tell her??? And where's Blaine when I need him??? I have to admit, I'm a bit freaked, even though the guy, despite his crude suggestions, was polite - but my doors are locked and I couldn't help but wonder when the cops drove up and down my street 12 times in the hour after we got home if something bigger was going on. Ugh.

Maybe...

With Blaine gone, I let Eden sleep with me last night. She was thrilled. This morning, I told her that she was a great bed companion - I really expected to be pushed out of bed, kicked, something, but she did great. Her reply? "Yeah, but you kept taking the blankets. I kept having to pull them back to cover me and keep me warm."

Maybe Blaine's complaints about me stealing blankets has more merit than I gave him credit for.

Teething at it's finest.

Yesterday I thought Ruby fell asleep in the shopping cart. A good 20 minutes into her full-face plant into the handle, one of the kids ran up to her yelling. I scolded them for trying to wake her up and was informed she WASN'T sleeping. She'd been chewing on the handle the whole time. Ewwww.

"Mom, are these oranges or tactarines?" Sounded like something dangerous...

Sterling's wearing his undies to bed without accidents! Now that I type that, I'll be washing sheets - but he's been dry all week!


Blaine's in CA. He left Tuesday, driving the box truck full of photo shoot stuff. He called yesterday afternoon, having arrived and needing to rub in his surroundings. It's not even funny. A pool, two hot tubs, two full time gardeners... it's a rough life. Meanwhile, it was 3 degrees when I got up this morning. All five of us are in layers and more layers, and I gave in and turned the heat up to 69. Brrr. Poor B had to put a long sleeve shirt on over his t-shirt when the sun set, because it cooled off. Poor thing. I'm starting to rethink this whole "Sure, go to CA!" idea that I agreed to. Asking that in the mild November temps didn't sound nearly so bad as the frigid temps we're currently experiencing.

Whining over. Just had to get that out of my system.

Where do I find a boy's scarf? Or at least not a pink and purple one? Sterling wants one desperately, but all I can find are pretty feminine. I'm running out of ideas - but I'm not so desperate that I want to learn to crochet/knit/whatever skill I don't know how to do that involves making a scarf. Maybe I'll sew him one. Hmmm.

Puking seems to be done in my house. Ruby is happy when awake but sleeping lots - but with the impressive number of teeth currently making their way into Ruby's mouth, it's no wonder. Sterling escaped it all together, lucky guy.

Someone in Aldi yesterday commented on my children - particularly the number, ages, and lack of gender balance. She said Sterling was "a lucky boy" in a voice that said she didn't think he was so very lucky at all. I told her that his wife would be one blessed woman, and she looked at me with a puzzled look, then dawning, then complete agreement. I mean come on, wouldn't you have loved to marry a man who grew up with three sisters? One who understood what he was in for? Then again, my husband has five sisters, and I'm not sure if he knows what hit him yet. Maybe my theory's bunk.

Thank you, Eden.

In the dressing room at Target:
"Mom, your belly looks kinda like fireworks."
What?!
"You know, your belly button is the middle and the lines are like the fireworks."
Be still, my beating heart. The words I've so longed to hear.
"Eden, YOU gave me those lines."
"So did Liberty and Sterling and Ruby, right Momma?"
"Yeah, they helped too." Way to spread the responsibility, Eden.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, there was a pretty distinct snort from the neighboring stall when Eden told me my belly looked like fireworks. I'm just hoping it was another mother with an impressive case of fireworks herself. I'm hoping.

Cookin'.

Sterling loves to cook.

Resolutions

I looked up the word "resolution". I typed it into dictionary.com, to be exact. I have a dictionary floating around the house somewhere, but I didn't bother to find it. That's so... yesterday. :)

At any rate, I was wondering if resolve means to decide to do something differently, or if it just means to decide to do something, period. I want to resolve to do the things I've been doing - to continue them. Turns out, I can! So, without further ado, :

I resolve to care for my four children. I resolve to love them unconditionally, and to "bring them up in the way they should go".

I resolve to cook, to clean, to do laundry. Not always well, and not always every day, but I'll try.

I resolve to shower at least once a week. That's a resolution I know I can keep.

I resolve to love God and my husband with all my heart.

And with that, I'll stop while I'm ahead. I'd say I'd get dressed every day, but then I'd get the flu and being sick on the couch with blue jeans and a bra on sounds like not so much fun.

Random Christmas Photos with a personal narration by me...

Some random photos from Mom's camera - because she's better at uploading photos off her camera than I am! I'll narrate, but I make no guarantees for clarity. With as much nastiness as I have in my head right now, clarity is not likely. Ruby shared her cold very well, Eden's been on the couch for a good 24 hours now with fevers on and off and a mandatory bucket in case that stomach decides to talk back a bit more than the cramps she's been complaining of. Liberty seems to have escaped everything, Sterling has about as much clarity as I do, Blaine's popping cold meds around the clock on a strict schedule, and Ruby is in great spirits for looking like she feels like I do. Mom? Dad? Did Ruby share with you too???

Without further complaining...


Christmas morning... actually Christmas Eve morning, because we opened gifts early to accommodate a few plans for Christmas morning, all of which didn't happen in the end. Oh well!


Grandma and Ruby became somewhat friends before they left. That's a lot coming from snobby Ruru!

Eden was more than content to snuggle with sleepy Grandpa after they drove all night to get here before the snowstorm hit SD and stranded them at home.


Cowboys in fleece. Is that wrong? Does the jean jacket make up for it?


This photo is funny on so many levels. Dad looks positively evil and Sterling's floppy ears... yep, just funny.

Merely the fact that he let me take this photo makes me love him all the more. That he didn't forbid me to post it on my blog is even more amazing.


And this, dear friends, is what my parents came home to. I'm not certain if all the shoveling was done before they got home or if that's what they had to do to get into the house though. I'm thinking Naomi - and if Naomi reads this, thank you thank you thank you for doing chores so Mom and Dad could come - did it with the Bobcat. I'm hoping.