Archive for 2005
Posted by Tricia at 1:39 pm
On a typical Sunday morning at church, our “pew” is a rather busy place. We have 4 little ones sitting with us now, two of them boys aged 3 and 4, who, while admittedly pretty well behaved for little boys, still require a lot of guidance and direction through the 1 1/2 hours of worship. Our smaller boy often ends up between Jay and I since he usually needs the most attention/help from us. And usually at least one, and sometimes both of us are very attentive and aware of exactly what he is doing as we help him learn what it means to be in worship, behave appropriately, etc.
This morning during the offering, the choir was singing - this is a regular portion of our church service. However, this morning my little brother was part of a trio that was singing a portion of the choral anthem which was a piece taken from Haydn’s “Creation”, and was just glorious. So Jay and I were a little more absorbed in this particular anthem than we might be on another week. Jay passed the offering plate in my direction. As is his usual custom, Nicolas “helped” by handing the plate from Jay to me. But today he added a new component: while passing the plate with one hand, the other hand reached into the collection plate and plucked out a coin. How Jay and I both missed this, I do not know. But as I received the plate from Nicolas, I caught the glint of the shiny quarter in his little chubby hand. Horrified, I whispered, “No, no!” to my puzzled little boy, and since the usher was waiting with a smile on his face (yes, HE saw what Nicolas was up to!), for the plate to reach the end of the row, I gently took the coin from Nicolas and popped it back into the plate. I didn’t figure an extended dialogue with my three year old, ending with a request for him to return the stolen coin himself to the plate would have been fair to the rest of the congregants who were themselves waiting for the plate, hopefully in their cases to put money IN rather than taking it out!!
In any case, I had work hard to suppress my laughter for the remainder of “The Heavens Are Telling”…and don’t you think (without the remainder of the lyrics from this song written in) that this particular title is hilarious given the situation in our pew this morning??!!
Posted by Tricia at 12:42 pm
Hi Everyone! Yesterday I turned 5 weeks old. I weighed 10lbs 12ozs at the doctors, which means I am gaining just over 1 oz a day. That’s because I eat so much! In addition to eating, my biggest project these days, besides seeing how many diapers I can possibly go through in a 24 hour period, is perfecting my smile. I really only smile for Mommy, because well, she’s the one who spends the most time with me and all. It’s pretty hard to get all my little facial muscles in just the right way so as to produce that disarming baby grin. But last night Daddy got lucky and he caught my little smile on camera. It’s only a side shot, so you won’t get the full effect, but i hope you enjoy it. Here’s me, with my sweet Mommy:
Posted by Tricia at 8:45 am
I referenced this book last year on our Thanksgiving Day post. This year I thought I’d mention it sooner in the season so you could look for it at your local library (I see our local system does in fact have a couple copies available!) or favorite local or web bookstore (click on image to purchase it at Amazon).
I purchased and read this to the children last year to give them an introduction to the Thanksgiving holiday. I think it is a fine addition to our library, and recommend it highly. I was delighted to learn it had received the honor of being named a Caldecott Honor book.
It follows one Pilgrim family’s journey from England to America and documents the hardships the Pilgrims endured to make a home in this new land where they could worship God as they felt they ought. It is told simply enough for beginning readers to enjoy on their own, yet also does a great job of not oversimplifying the story. Our two eldest (aged 3 and 5 last year) old loved the book and its beautiful illustrations. Alice Dalgliesh has presented us with a wonderful account of the first Thanksgiving, helping children to gain an awareness of where this special holiday originated, and why we take time on this day each year to thank God for His blessings to us.
We’ll enjoy this book again this year, and for many years to come.
Posted by Tricia at 8:11 am
This morning when my carpooler picked Abigail up for school, I heard a sort of familiar tune coming from her car stereo. It took me a second or two to place it and then I exclaimed to her, “I had this record when I was a little girl! I loved it!” She said that she had it too as a child and enjoyed it, and had picked it up for her kids to listen to now.
I hadn’t thought of this album in years so I got out on the web and it turns out they don’t sell the record anymore - big surprise! But you can get it on cassette or cd: It’s called the Music Machine and here is the best price I could find for the cd online, new ($6.99).
The album is about a boy and girl who learn all about the Fruits of the Spirit through a series of songs that this Magical Music Machine creates. The song that had been playing in Elizabeth’s car was one of my favorites, about a little snail named Herbert who races around impatiently doing everything in “double time”, not at all appropriate for a proper snail. His father takes him aside and speaks to him about being patient. Hmmm…that’s one of the Fruits of the Spirit I struggle with probably more than any!
I found some music clips online:
This clip is from the song about Faith:
The second is from the Patience song- this portion of the song is the slow part, sung by Herbert’s father.
The rest of the music clips can be found here. It was really fun to listen to all these and realize I remember almost EVERY lyric to these songs I probably first heard about 26 years ago!
So, tell me: did any of you have this record as kids??
Posted by Tricia at 4:05 pm
I’ve not made time to post recently. We’ve been preoccuppied with some rather frustrating nursing issues, among them a nasty and rather stubborn case of thrush. Thankfully this situation, despite being both painful and irritating, has not hindered young Josiah’s growth. Yesterday morning, on his 3 week birthday he was a respectable 9lbs, 12 ozs. Very nice, indeed! This picture was actually taken over a week ago, but he looks so blissfully at peace in it that I wanted others to enjoy it too:
Posted by Jay at 5:59 pm
Last night, Abigail and I went to an informal father-daughter event for the first graders at her school. While the daughters played together, the men made some tentative plans regarding something the others referred to as “camping”… it involves tents or some such. Then we had a fun activity involving everyone, followed by some informal hanging out among the fathers and more playing for the girls.
Much of that playing involved this fantastic trampoline that had one of those nets fully enclosing it that more or less turned the whole thing into a bounce house. Right about the time I was wrapping up a last conversation and getting ready to extract Abigail, I heard a terrific scream that immediately transitioned into hysterical wailing. I ran for the trampoline… isn’t it odd how you can immediately recognize you own child’s scream?
Abigail had severely twisted her ankle, was in significant pain, and couldn’t bear any weight on the bad foot. I got her home where we treated her with Ibuprofen and ice and finally managed to get her asleep in bed. Today, at Tricia’s prodding (as I thought the ankle was improving quickly), I took Abigail to her pediatrician. From there, I was thankfully able to get in directly with an ortho specialist. We arrived home around 5:30 pm with Abigail sporting a new “shoe”.
Turns out she had done some minor damage to the growth plate on the end of a bone (i.e. she had a minor break). The good news, the very good news, is that it is a walking cast, and she is getting around great.
Posted by Jay at 9:45 pm
Picture guy is in the house!
Posted by Tricia at 10:06 pm
I’ve been waiting to post this entry till my “Picture Guy” can doctor and upload a new photo of Baby Josiah to go with it. But, the days roll by and “Picture Guy” just can’t seem to find the time. Maybe it’s because he’s driving kids to school, giving baths, doing hair, making lunches, cooking spaghetti, cleaning the dishes, oh yeah, and there’s that little detail of a job at Alcatel which he is somehow managing to keep up as well. heheh! Well, “Picture Guy”, you are off the hook for now, and doing a great job! Perhaps, dear Readers, we’ll have some more photos of our darling little man in the near future to share with you. For now, I’ll just give everyone a bit of an update on the runnings of our household now that we are six instead of five!
I’d say that for being home only a week from the hospital, with four children under the age of seven, things are going fairly smoothly. Jay went back to work (some part time days, some full time days) last Tuesday. He doesn’t have a ton of vacation to use to stay home. But, as I alluded to in my rather sarcastic opening paragraph, in the times he is home, he’s been excellent about caring for the older three kids and their needs, and somehow allowing me to sleep in most days. He has kept up with quite a lot of different things this past week, and I am very thankful for his hard work and support.
We’ve had a few family members (Jay’s Mom, and the Aunts Sandra and Jamison, as well as Uncle Andrew) in and out some days to help with the children and things like laundry, which has been really appreciated. And friends from school have begun bringing delicious meals to us, which I find so comforting after welcoming a new baby into the house. Thanks so much to everyone who has been chipping in to help around here.
For his part, Josiah is absolutely wonderful. I am so in love with my baby boy, and I think I am enjoying him more than I’ve ever enjoyed a newborn before (and I’ve enjoyed all of them very much!). He is generally a very contented baby, and there are certainly plenty of people here to make him feel quite loved! He’s having some trouble getting to sleep at night, yet while he doesn’t sleep for long stretches at night, he nurses well and goes back to sleep pretty easily after each feeding. This is a blessing for it means I get to go back to sleep pretty easily too!
The children are mostly adjusting very well, though our little Nicolas is feeling a bit displaced as evidenced by his behavior of late. While he loves his little brother, and is very gentle with him, he is often very sad and cries a lot about most everything. I am hoping that with extra measures of love, and ongoing reassurance that we love him very much even with this new addition to the family that he will begin to seem more himself again soon.
Thank you to all of you for your warm welcome to Baby Josiah, and your calls and notes of congratulations over the last week. We feel God has blessed us abundantly with our four children and we are full of joy and thankfulness.
Posted by Jay at 2:22 am
Josiah is here! He was born Friday, September 30, 2005 at 1:33 a.m., weighing in at 8 pounds 8 ounces and a healthy 21 inches long. Though the labor dragged out a bit, Tricia is doing very well. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, I’ll just leave it at this for now:
Posted by Tricia at 6:12 pm
In some of my “spare” time lately, I’ve been cooking and freezing meals, hoping to stash up a nice amount of food for after the baby comes, so that when we are in the midst of wakeful nights, and lots of feedings, and just the exhaustion that comes from having a sweet newborn around the house, I will not feel much need to spend time preparing food. Along the way I’ve logged what I prepared into excel so that I do not lose track of all of it . Today I printed out my inventory spreadsheet and learned I have an amazing 28 meals (and by meal, I mean things like a 9×13 pan of lasanga, which is way more than just one meal for our family!) all set to go! Wow!! Here is what they look like in my garage freezer:
I do not think much more will fit in here, do you?? Some of this food is from a class at Super Suppers a couple weeks ago, which I tried for the first time. I’ll let you know what we think of it AFTER we taste some of the food! But it was definitely a fun time with friends, and I put together twelve meals in just a couple hours. The rest of this is soups, chowders, casseroles, meatloaves, lasagnas, and other meals that have been all prepared, minus the final cooking. To say I feel a sense of accomplishment over the state of my freezer is an understatement. Indeed, I feel rather like a mother squirrel storing up for winter!!
Posted by Tricia at 9:19 pm
Those of you who may be in doubt as to my love for “nature”, when nature means bugs or tiny creepy crawly things, should have no trouble understanding my thoughts on such matters after reading this.
The other day, as on most days, I was doing laundry. I had set a group of towels/sheets on the kitchen floor just outside the laundry room to await their turn in the washer. When I went to pick up the linens, I noticed a tiny little worm that must have been hiding underneath them, wiggling about on the floor. I’d never seen a worm like this…it was very thin, and had unfamiliar coloring and markings on it. And then there was the matter of the way in which it was wiggling - such a strange way for a worm, sort of twitching back and forth on the tile. “Odd,” I thought to myself, “I’ve never seen a worm behave that way before.” Still puzzled, I continued picking up the towels until, to my surprise, a tiny gecko darted out from the rest of the pile. When I looked at him closely, I about swallowed my tongue because I knew then that the worm I had seen was in fact no worm. Know why? because (you guessed it): the gecko was TAIL-LESS!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!
My husband, who is almost never home in the middle of the day, had just dropped by quickly on his way to a lunch meeting and heard my screams. When he asked what was wrong I could only point and gape and make sickening faces at him.
The little boys came running to see what all the commotion was about, and of course offered their enthusiastic comments to brighten the situation for mommy:
“Oh, look at the cute lizard!” “Where, Mommy, where’s the lizard?” “What’s wrong, Mommy?” “Can I pick it up?” “Oh, look, he lost his tail - poor lizard!” “Look Mommy, there’s his tail!”
And on, and on, and on.
Before we could do much about the gecko (or his tail for that matter) he darted under a well-placed chest of drawers, where I most certainly was not going to chase after him. I finally stopped having contractions and went back to my laundry.
Fast forward to later that evening: as I was heading back to the bedroom with my snack (Baby likes a snack before bed!) who should appear in my path but my amphibious friend from earlier in the day!?! I just about stepped on him. Again, he managed to flee to safety, this time under the bookcase. I wasn’t about to move the large bookcase to try and extricate him from the premises, so I guess you could say we had a houseguest for the night.
Well, the next day saw the end of the gecko’s tale. It was little Abigail who discovered him, expired, not far from where I’d seen him the night before. “Poor little gecko!” she cried, bemoaning his sad end. “Poor, poor thing,” she echoed, again and again. Sweet girl, she has such a tender heart, even for reptiles.
I admit, I am not so tenderhearted toward geckos, but I am touched and humbled by my children’s fascination and respect for God’s creatures, be they great or small.
“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful: the Lord God made them all!”
~Cecil F. Alexander
Posted by Tricia at 8:51 pm
The last week in August (yes, I am a bit late, but we’ve had illnesses around here and my picture guy has been totally under the weather!) was “back to school” week, and part of the fun was that because each of our three children returned to school on a different day, we had the pleasure of focusing on that particular child on their special day. (It should be noted that Jonathan refused to pose on his own on his first day so his only pic is with his brother on Nicolas’ first day of school!)
Jonathan returned to Rainbow Connection Preschool on Monday morning, to attend the Pre-K class. He was very excited to get back to school. His teacher visited us at home the previous week to introduce herself to us and Jonathan and to help him feel more at ease on his big first day. They are doing so many fun things this year in Pre K and his particular teacher does a lot of music along with other activities in her classroom, so this appeals very much to Jonathan. Perhaps his greatest excitement is the fact that he will get to enjoy lunch at school this year for the first time.
Nicolas’ first day at the same preschool was on Tuesday, where he entered the “2 1/2’s” class which meets two days a week. This class is somewhere between the 2’s and 3’s, and designed for “older 2’s and younger 3’s”: they stay with the smaller class size but utilize much of the 3’s curriculum to teach the class. Nicolas’ teacher has won his heart already, and he is thrilled with his little class. Like his big brother, he too is very excited to get to take his new Bob the Builder lunchbox to school and eat with his classmates this year.
Abigail returned to The Covenant School this year as a big 1st grader. Wednesday morning was opening Chapel for the entire school and our whole family trooped down for the big event. We are delighted with her new teacher, a dear lady who put Abigail (and several of her other nervous classmates!) at ease immediately and whom I am really looking forward to working with this year. Here is a great pic we got of Mrs. Beller and Abigail:
The transition from Kindergarden to 1st at Covenant feels like a big deal. Abigail now attends school 5 days a week for the first time (their K program meets M/W/F or T/TR depending on the option you choose), she and her classmates are in desks instead of seated around tables, and there is even homework, in very tiny amounts. But in addition, she will enjoy Choir, Music class, Art class, Nature Study class and a few other activities which she will enjoy having as part of her school week. She (and I!) still get to enjoy early dismissal on Mondays and Fridays and we take advantage of the 12:30pm end time on Mondays to allow her to attend ballet in the early afternoon instead of the late afternoon/early evening, which is a lovely fit for our schedule.
I’ve never said much about Covenant, but after a year there, we are truly in love with it. It’s a classically-based Christian school, with a lot of Charlotte Mason influence thrown in. The balance between outstanding academics and a nurturing environment where these little hearts and minds are cultivated to love learning and all that it entails is wonderful. The faculty is loving and caring, and because the classes are so small (at 13, there is technically one more student than there “should be” in Abigail’s 1st grade classroom!), the teachers get to know their students and their families extremely well, and can work individually with children as needed. The families, which make up the heart of the school, are wonderful, and the whole place feels more like a close-knit community than an educational institution. We learned firsthand last spring after our accident about the amazing compassion the folks at Covenant have for one another as people brought meals to us for weeks and weeks, and Abigail was transported to school and back by different moms and dads for the remainder of the year. We feel very thankful that Abigail has such a school to go to.
It has been a huge blessing to get everyone settled into their school year before our 4th little Horne makes his appearance. Carpool is up and running at both schools, and I have some wonderful help this year which I am so grateful for, esp as we look forward to the birth of our baby and me not driving perhaps so much in the first few weeks after that great event!
I hope everyone else is enjoying their “back to school”, whether your school is far away, right inside your home, or somewhere in between!
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