About a week ago Jordan brought this picture home from school. It's a picture of him working in our basement (which we are currently finishing). I love how he even drew the step stool and the fan that Justin's been using down there. His goal for quite a while has been to be an artist when he grows up, so when I saw this I asked him about it. He said he guesses he'll be two things - an artist and a handyman. I thought that sounded like a pretty complementary combination.
Read MoreJordan made this card for me at school. He also gave me a cool rock with some shiny spots. It's smooth and fits nicely in my hand. For some reason holding it is very relaxing. I love my Jo-Jo!
Read MoreJordan had yesterday and today off of school. Earlier this week he asked me if he could have his friend Nicholas sleep over some time over his long weekend. Then he wanted to know if Nicholas could sleep over, would I make macaroni and cheese from a box for supper. It's so funny how the kid is not that interested in my fabulous homemade mac and cheese but he loves any kind that comes in a box. (Oh wait, he's not a big fan of the Annie's organic mac & cheese either.) Not sure how this all fits into his New Year's resolution to eat healthier, but anyway...
Read MoreWe had a wonderful Easter weekend. Fairly relaxing, everyone was pretty healthy, the kids were happy, the weather was decent, and we made it to church with time to spare. On Good Friday we went to church in the evening. Saturday afternoon we spent at Justin's grandparents house, had lunch and the kids did an Easter egg hunt. This morning we went to church with my sister, brother-in-law and nephews. Then we went to their house for lunch with some of my family. Here's some of my favorite pictures from the weekend.
Read MoreA few days after Christmas, we were at Justin's dad's place, getting ready to go sledding. I wanted Sasha to go to the bathroom before I put her snow pants on, for obvious reasons, but she was having none of it. I finally convinced her to go and followed her into the bathroom. She hopped up onto the toilet and said, "Here goes nothing...because nothing's coming out!" which was followed immediately by a tell-tale tinkle sound.
Read MoreOne of the things that makes me happy is reading kids' writing when they're just learning. Lately one of the best parts of my day is when Jordan shows me what he brought home from school in his folder. I love finding out what's going on in his head. Here's a few samples with captions (in case you have a hard time reading them).
Read MoreThe best thing about warm Novembers is going to the park for Sasha's birthday (this was our second year in a row). I felt bad because "the big day" was none too fun. Sasha was recovering from a fever (meaning mommy wouldn't let her have any sugar) and both Justin and I had to work, so the only time we were together was at breakfast. We did sing Happy Birthday before Jordan left for school, and I managed to dig up a gold party hat and three yellow balloons (the last ones in the party box). We didn't even have her present because we decided to get her a sled and Target (the only store we'd had time to look at) didn't have them in stock yet.
Read MoreToday was such a good day. I got a lot accomplished with a minimum of stress and whining. Admin. asst. work, freelance work, two loads of laundry, made Jordan's birthday party invitations, dishes, remembered to give Jordan his allowance and have him take a shower, balanced my checkbook, paid bills, swept out the garage and did some other stuff.
Read MoreJordan has recently taken to polling the family on a variety of topics as a stalling tactic anytime he's supposed to be accomplishing things. I think it irritates me more than anyone else, particularly because his favorite time to do it is when I'm trying to eat. Questions range from "Mom, what's your favorite color?" to "Mom, what do you think the smallest animal in the world is?" to "Mom, what is your least favorite food?". Of course, he asks me the same questions day after day too, and I'm expected to then in turn ask him his favorite/least favorite/etc. whatever. The other day he informed me, word for word, "My least favorite color is tan. Even though I like tan on my skin, that doesn't necessarily mean..."
Read MorePeople keep asking me how I'm doing. "Fine, OK, alright, good, hanging in there," I say. And I am all of those things. What I don't say is, "I feel guilty." How can I live my life as though everything is normal when Miriam and Eric have had someone so precious torn from their life? How can I ask my kids to be quiet so I can read (a Harry Potter book for the 5th or so time) instead of making the most of every minute I'm blessed to have them here with me? How can I want to laugh when I hear Sasha insisting that Jordan and/or "Tiny Baby" have to pretend to be sick and die and Jordan protesting that he doesn't want to play that when I was, am, and will continue to be devastated by the death of my tiny niece and know that they miss her too?
Read MoreDear Hailey, I will never forget the day your mother told me she was pregnant with you. When she asked me to take a walk with her I knew what she was going to say. I felt joy that our family was going to be blessed with another baby, but I knew that your mom and dad would have a hard road ahead of them. I never could have imagined just how hard it would be.
Read MoreFrom last Monday when I saw how ill my 18-month-old niece Hailey was, to Thursday when she was diagnosed with leukemia, to tonight when we received the news that the cancer hasn't spread to her spinal fluid, I've gone through a wide range of emotions. Some of them were expected - gut-wrenching fear, helplessness, grief, thankfulness after today's news. Others were unexpected.
Read MoreThis is why I shouldn't write about things when they're going well - I jinx myself. Yesterday, a week and a half away from Jordan's x-ray appointment, his patched splint popped its patch. Jordan thinks the wheelies he was popping at the time are to blame, even though he didn't fall down or anything.
Surprisingly, driving to Children's Hospital for casting, cast removal, x-rays and splint fixing is not my favorite thing to do. Especially now that no matter which way I go to get there I'm confronted by major construction and stand still traffic. So I called Jordan's doctor to see if we could get in early for x-rays and maybe ditch the splint altogether, but that was a no-go.
Read MoreIf you're reading this, chances are you know that Jordan has had a broken arm for most of the past 9 months. But since I'm as tired of answering the questions "What happened to his arm?" and "How is Jordan's arm?" as he is of hearing me say "Where's your splint?", "Settle down, you don't have your split on." and "Go put your splint on." I thought I'd address the issue publicly, so to speak.
Read MoreHere it is, 3:42 AM and I'm awake. Again. Still. Not sure how long I've been awake. I try not to look at the clock, but eventually I give in. I'm guessing 2, 3 hours. Tonight I woke up with a jerk from some dream. Don't remember much about it except that it made me nervous. Anxious when I was asleep, now I'm too anxious to drift back. Tried to empty my mind, relax my body, think about something else. My eyes kept popping open, and I couldn't slow my breathing. So here I am.
Read MoreAfter years of reading and re-reading books, magazines and blogs dedicated to the subject of healthy and environmentally friendly living, noting the suggestion to stop using laundry detergent and start washing my clothes with soap nuts, thinking there was no way that could work and purchasing another expensive bottle of Seventh Generation laundry detergent (the only kind that didn't give Jordan a major eczema breakout), I've taken the plunge. Between this blog entry and this one I became convinced that this was something I had to try. So I headed to NaturOli and bought a sample pack of soap nuts. So far I've done three loads of laundry with them, and they seem to be working at least as well as the Seventh Generation detergent.
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