Wordless Wednesday... because really there ARE no words for this

My fur sisters

I do have a human sister but this post is about my fur sisters. :) When I left home (being the youngest), my parents decided to get a dog to fill the empty house. They got a sweet little shih tzu named Molly. She was with them 15 years but she passed over the Rainbow Bridge in February this year. It was like they lost a child. I know that may sound extreme to some but she was a child of their heart and it was painful to see her go. For such a tiny girl, she left a HUGE hole.

They came here to our house for a week to heal. I love being their safe place.

They mourned (and still do... you understand if you're an animal lover) but couldn't stand the emptiness so they began looking for another. They were only going to get one puppy but one thing led to another, love happened and now they have three. :) So here they are:

The beauty at the top is Pixie. The kids and I got to put our stamp of approval on her name before they sent her papers in. Her official AKC name is Sweet Midnight Pixie Dust (part of that name is a tribute to Molly). The one climbing up my mom is Daisy. Her official AKC name is Sweet Princess Daisy.

Did I say there were three?? Why yes, yes I did. :D But I forgot to take Butterfly's picture before my Dad took her home. He only stayed a day to drop off my mom then had to go back home; he took Butterfly with him. I'll get pictures of her when he comes back to pick my mom up. :) Butterfly was abused by her former owner and brought back to the breeder where my parents were blessed to get her. She has some official name somewhere but it's stupid so we call her something better. lol

So now you know what two of my new fur sisters look like. They are adorable and sweet. Each one has their own individual personalities. Daisy has a zest for living that makes her seem hyper, but she's really just awesomeness in too small of a body. Pixie is playful yet loving, wanting to be near her mommy every second of the day. Butterfly is very laid back and is no doubt EXTREMELY happy that those two puppies who are always annoying her are far far away. lol

Aren't they cute??? I think they look like me. :D

Torrential Tuesdays

Tuesdays are our wild and crazy days. Last year it was Tuesday and Thursday that were frantic so this year I streamlined as much as I could so now only Tuesdays are wild. :D

It all starts at 7am when I get up (sometimes earlier if kids are up before that)
Rush through my shower and try to remember to brush my hair before leaving my room. Sometimes I do, yay me!
Toss a load of laundry in the wash, open up blinds and make beds.
Go downstairs.
As soon as I get downstairs I open up all the blinds. I just HAVE to have my blinds open; I feel trapped in a cave otherwise. :)
Wash off the counter and start making breakfast.
Give the kids their homeopathic drops
Remember we have to wait 15 minutes after drops to eat and try really hard to drag out the smoothie making process for 15 minutes. Not an easy thing!
Kids go eat at the table while I clean the kitchen from breakfast, and get water bottles, lunch, snack and dinner in bowls and into the cooler (I try to start this prep the night before but sometimes I forget) so we can take it all with us.
Remind Grace to feed her fish and practice piano. Remind Tony to empty dishwasher. Remind Kate to leave everyones toys alone while they do their chores. ;)
Pack everyones school work that will be done en route
Pack the van with everything but the kitchen sink.
Rush out the door hollering at kids to make sure they have all their stuff b/c I'm NOT grabbing one more thing.
Start van, turn van off and run back inside because I forgot my phone (I swear, this happens every week!). Roll my eyes as the kids snicker.
Head out to our allergy treatments 35 minutes away.
Spend hours there. It's supposed to be quick but somehow that never ever ever happens!! I am always surprised at how long we are there but we manage to make it out the door in time for co-op. The kids are supposed to be finishing up any school work necessary at the docs but it takes alot of effort to keep it moving and if I get chatting with the doc or his wife, well... they do what kids do... play. I actually don't mind being there for hours, it's a nice social activity for me. :)
Feed kids lunch on the way to school.
Get to co-op just in time, toss Tony out the door, walk Grace in (she is not comfy going in without me yet), let Kate use the potty
Go outside and let Kate play with her bestest friend (who also has a brother in Art class) while Grace is taking piano lessons.
Get Grace from piano lesson
Make mad dash out to the CSA farm and pick up veggies

**incidentally, Google says it's only 20 minutes away from the school, I however know it to be 40 minutes away. I have 1 1/2 hours to get back before Tony is done with his classes. Do the math. ;)

Race back like mad to get Tony just in time
Feed them snack on the way home
Stop by Daddy's work if he's still there so the kids can hug him
Get stuck in rush hour traffic. We live an hour away from the co-op so by the time we get on the interstate, it's 5:00 bumper to bumper (at 4pm I might add) traffic.
Unload kids, food from farm and all paraphernalia from van
Be grateful for my foresight in pre-making dinner... or get irritated at myself if I didn't and scramble around trying to figure out what's quick. :D
Feed the herd
Clean up from dinner and plop my butt in front of the computer for a few minutes.
Orchestrate kids showers
Get everyone's bedtime drinks
Read stories and tuck everyone in bed
Do something useful in the laundry room
Shoot annoyed look at the kitchen b/c it didn't clean itself while I was busy
Plop lazy butt back down in living room
Get back up, start a movie and get crackin' on the kitchen.
Get my second wind and have trouble winding down.

I'm so glad the big kids are able to do much of their schoolwork on their own!! I schedule Tuesdays as mom-light days b/c the day is just too busy for me to do sit down work together. Grace finishes most of it but if she made effort I just let it go until the next day when she makes it up.

And there you have it. Fortunately Tuesdays are the only day like that. While we also have allergy treatments on Friday, we don't have follow up activities so we can come home and finish stuff here. I'll write about a regular day some other time... probably not on a Tuesday. ;)

A Mother's Influence

Our pastor shared a poem a few months ago that gave me a lot to chew on. I have kept the little piece of paper it's written on for months and happened upon it again. I would love to share it with you guys.

A Mother's Influence
Author unknown

I took a piece of clay
And idly fashioned it one day;
And as my fingers pressed it still
It moved and yielded at my will.
I came again when days were past,
The form I gave it still it bore,
And as my fingers pressed it still,
I could change that form no more.
I took a piece of living clay,
And gently formed it day by day,
And molded with my power and art,
A young child's soft and yielding heart.
I came again when days were gone;
It was a man I looked upon,
He still that early impress bore,
And I could change it never more.

I am reminded once again that my children are constantly watching me. They see my impatience, they see when I put my own selfish desires over the good of others, they see my procrastinating tendencies. They also see the love in my eyes, the smile on my face, the laugh at their antics.

And each of these things leaves a mark on them. I pray I leave more good than bad.

Juggling subjects during school hours

I think we are getting our school groove even more smoothed out. (Something looks grammatically wrong with that sentence but I can't figure it out. lol)

I have totally scrapped my plan to use Learning RX read with Kate; her attention span is far too short and we were both getting frustrated. She learns almost exactly like Tony so I dug out my old copy of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and she loves it already. Thank goodness!! lol

So Tony does about an hour of alone work upstairs, Grace is in the schoolroom right off the living room working on her alone work, while Kate and I read. Then we play some Learning RX games and she's off. Soooo much smoother for both of us that way. She still gets her special toy box daily if she wants it and I'm learning that just because I like what's in her box doesnt' mean she does. ;) Then Grace is done with alone work and I can help her correct it and start her reading while Tony finishes up his stuff upstairs. By the time he comes downstairs with all his stuff for grading/checking, we are ready to work on our Mom-led subjects.

I think this is really going to cut down on the hours spent running in circles around here. Last week, we finished school at 6pm. Yep, that's 6 PM! I am a fan of all day learning. I mean, if you breathe you're an all day learner; but I do want a definite "put the books down and be done for the day" period. Although I will say we're running slower today because we were listening to Beethoven on youtube and got carried away for HOURS there. Once we discovered Trans-Siberian Orchestra playing Beethoven... school was over for the day. We just couldn't stop listening! Kate really enjoyed twirling to the music and who can stop that cuteness???
** please note we do not watch the videos on youtube, we scroll the pictures off the screen and listen so viewer beware, I have no idea what the video looks like!**

I think life is going to get easier. I hope anyway. Now if I could just school myself to spend less time on the computer and phone... :)

A house without testosterone

With Daddy and Tony gone camping, the house sure was different!! It was so... quiet. lol

The girls played store, kitchen, cooking, watched Tinkerbell movies cuddled up in bed with me, listened to Tchaikovsky (by request), rode bikes, played fairies, more kitchen. I was fed like a queen today, being served all the fake food and tea I could fit in. No loud sword fights, no screaming and running away yelling "He's going to hit me with his sword!", no loudness of any sort really; just quiet girly-girl noises.

It was SO weird.

Quiet for a day is good. We got a lot of cleaning done, got a lot of important playing done and enjoyed each others company a lot. We did have a wonderful day today. But it was so quiet.

Tony and Daddy are home now. It's back to it's usual mess and loudness.

All is right with the world. :D

Camping with food allergies

Tony and Daddy are off with friends tonight to try their hands at camping. It's a rather scary thing really (for me anyway) because there will be plenty of food there that could kill Tony; but he has Daddy there to protect him. :D

Tony's anticipation has been through the roof today. He has never gone camping before b/c of the danger of anaphylactic shock lurking around every tree stump and stick. I can only imagine the amount of food trash in any given forest area due to people who think the world is their trash can. And I can't be there, which is new to me. I am the primary protector and have not let him out of my sight overnight in years. And even then, he was with my parents so still no danger for him. But he's getting older and wiser and needing guy time so this is the great experiment.



I love that we have a church that not only invites us but makes sure we will be safe. The food may or may not have dairy or nuts in it; we're not worrying about their food. But everyone around Tony has to remember not to touch him after they eat, not to hand him an oar after they polishing off a PB&J, not to tousle him on the head after drinking a cup of whatever... something most people don't give a second thought about.

When the church invited us, I reminded them of the danger. Rather than do what everyone does (and understandably so, don't get me wrong!) and saying "Oh, ok", the guy in charge said "Let me know what we can do to make it safe, we want him there". I kept it together on the outside (laughed and made some small remark) but in my head, my jaw dropped.

WHAT? Does this guy KNOW what he's saying???

But he was serious! He repeated himself even!



So Daddy and I talked about it. Discussed the risks vs. benefits. Daddy was up for it (yay for Daddy!!!), the church group was up for it, so away they went. My heart...

You should know that Daddy has never, ever, ever had to give an epipen. He has missed every single anaphylactic episode that required one. Lucky dog. lol He has always been at work; oftentimes overseas but frequently just at work. I have administered every epipen to these kids, other than the ones the EMTs administered after mine. So this is a big step for both of them b/c there is every possibility that Daddy will have to give an epipen this weekend without me there for support. Support matters. :)

But what I really wanted to show you all was the enormous amount of food I made for Tony. Daddy took a cooler for all Tony's food. They will be there for approximately 24 hours. That's 3 meals and a snack. Here's what I packed:

It's ok, go ahead and laugh. I couldn't help myself. :) The child will have plenty to eat if they get marooned on a desert island for a week. I can't be there to protect him so I will overfeed him from afar. I rock! lol