Feeling Nappy

Tyler's latest line is 'I'm feeling nappy' which means he feels tired and needs a nap. He also tries this out when I give him a time out: "But I'm nappy! I can't take a time out!" to which I reply "Then you can nap in time out!"

Someday This Will Be Funny??

Yesterday Tyler behaved fabulously. Until 5pm. Wherein he turned into a raving lunatic in footie pajamas. He had woken the night before with nightmares, so I think his interrupted sleep was catching up with him. In the absence of a padded room and straight jacket, I sent him to his room because he was pretty much out of control. He finally settled down (mostly) and I went to get him ready for an early bedtime. I happened to peer into James' playmobil bin and noticed that something had spilled in there. I didn't think much of it because I was focused with laser-like precision on getting the kid to bed. I was getting him ready for bed when he informed me that he didn't need to go to the bathroom. Why? Because he had needed to go, and James was in the bathroom, so he peed in the bin. Arrrrrrgh!!! Why??? I am writing about this because hopefully someday I will laugh about it. Or at the very least, it will be great when Tyler is an adult to remind him of what he put me through. :)

Frostbite And Other Tomfoolery

This goes down as one of my favorite James stories of all time. On Monday he got off the bus and declared "Mom, I have frost bite on all my fingers on this hand!" Now considering that it was in the 40's when we went to the bus and the temperatures only climbed from there, I knew he didn't have frostbite. I mean really....but it did cross my mind that the boy has watched way too many survival shows and it was getting to his head. He showed me his hand and how the skin around each fingernail was bright red, insisting that it was frost bite. And that's when it all started making sense. You see, the day before we had gone to our friends' house to hang out and have dinner. They always have some sort of interesting Mexican delicacies hanging around and this time it was some chips called Taquis. They are like rolled up tortilla chips coated in some sort of spicy, addictive seasonings, no doubt sprinkled with crack to make them highly addictive. And were they ever! Even James kept dipping in for a few more. And a few more. And did I mention that the seasonings were bright red??? Yep. I broke the news to James that he wasn't in fact suffering from frostbite, but indeed more like a case of an 8 year olds idea of thoroughness as applied to handwashing. At first he insisted it wasn't the chips. After all, he had washed his hands!! But when I asked him which hand he had been reaching into the bag with he held up his poor frost-bitten hand and got a grin on his face. Yep, it was the Taquis!

In other news, we got a frost last week and as we walked to the bus, Tyler declared quite excitedly "It 'nowed! It 'nowed!' He promptly got down and licked the neighbor's grass, declaring that it tasted like snow too. He wasn't as thrilled when we told him it was just frost.

And in other, other news, Katie, James and I are back in Farm Hands. On Saturday they basically shut everything down so that everyone could witness the 'once in a lifetime' event of raising a windmill. Who knew? I never thought about it, but a windmill has to get up somehow. They rigged everything up and we all got on the rope and raised the windmill. It is amazing what people-power can accomplish. The windmill was 30 feet tall and went up pretty easily. I am sure arranging all the ropes and pulleys beforehand was no easy task, but the actual raising of it was quick!

Sick Kids

The kids have all taken turns getting sick since last Thursday. Fun times! Fortunately it was a quick, 24 hour bug for Katie and Tyler. James had it for 2 days, and this morning woke up and was much better. I put him on the bus and it wasn't 15 minutes after school started I got a phone call from the school nurse. She said he said he felt fine, but that he was pale and green (seriously) and looked sick. And besides, he was sick yesterday and apparently they have to be fever free without any Tylenol for 24 hours before they don't require hazmat suits. So I had to pick the little turkey up, even though he was clearly not green and looking fairly chipper. It really wasn't a hardship because I kind of like the kid and spending an extra day with him is nice. Now if only I can convince him that his 100% spelling test history is reason not to worry that he missed three days of spelling practice. I mean, hello! The kid NEVER misses a spelling word.

Outtakes

Here are a few pictures from the last...oh, month or so. The first few are from the kids' birthday party.

James and his friend Hudson

James and his friend Richie (both boys brought him a bow and arrow...do they know him well or what?!)

Katie getting some advice from her friend Katie about how to open/use her birthday presents

Katie, Katie and Emmy

The rest of the pictures were ones Tyler asked me to take of him in the tree. I think he was enjoying hamming it up, you think?

Packing A Shoe Box: More With Less

Operation Christmas Child is something we love to participate in as a family. Recently, my husband's co-worker gave him $20 and a shoe box to fill for a child. He wasn't sure how far the money would go, but my husband assured him I could do two boxes with the money and that we'd pay the shipping. Such confidence in my shopping skills! This inspired me to document the contents of a shoe box, along with sources and prices to give you an idea of just what can be done. This is a great project involve kids with, as they can make simple crafts or write a letter to the child. They learn about giving in the process!

The Goods! Here are the contents of one shoe box for a girl, aged 10-14 years old.

The Details:

Crayons: Walmart, $.25

Toothbrush: Walmart or Target travel section, $1

First Aid Kit: Walmart or Target travel section, $1

Notebook: Walmart, $.17

Frog Hopper: Walmart party favors, $.10

Glue Sticks: Walmart or Target, $.25 for 2

Rainbow Loom bracelets: kid-made, free

Cross Craft: kid-made, free

Painting: kid-made, free

Peppermint Candies: Walmart, $.50 (I usually get these at BJ's for cheaper)

Soap: Amazon.com, $.18

Washcloth: Walmart, $.22

Kleenex: Walmart or Target, $.50 for 2

Pencils: Walmart or Target, $.50

Chalk: Michaels, $.10

Hello Kitty Bag: Target Dollar Spot, $.30

Pink Shirt: Walmart, $.50

New Old Navy jeans: free at a yard sale (seriously...how awesome is that!)

You didn't believe I could fit it all in the box, did you?! I have skillz. Also hours of experience playing Tetris in the days of my youth. And the grand total: drumroll please....$5.57 if I did my math correctly! Add $7 for shipping and the total cost to send this box is $12.57. The only thing missing from this box is a pencil sharpener which I will add when I get them.

Now, on to the boy box. The 10-14 age group is the most under-represented, especially for boys. I try to pack a number of boxes for this age group each year.

The Goods!

The Details:

Peppermint Candies: Walmart, $.50 (I usually get these at BJ's for cheaper)

Soap: Amazon.com, $.18

Washcloth: Walmart, $.22

Kleenex: Walmart or Target, $.25 for 1

Pencils: Walmart or Target, $.50

Chalk: Michaels, $.10

Blanket: made from brand new fleece from thrift store, $.75

Toothbrush: Walmart or Target travel section, $1

First Aid Kit: Walmart or Target travel section, $1

Notebook: Walmart, $.17

Frog Hopper: Walmart party favors, $.10

Rainbow Loom bracelets: kid-made, free

Cross Craft: kid-made, free

Painting: kid-made, free

Check out these shorts! I paid $.50 for them, and they come with a belt too!

Toothbrush: Walmart or Target, $1.00

Crayons: Walmart or Target, $.25

Gluesticks: Walmart or Target, $.37

Shorts: Walmart, $.50

Shirt: Walmart, $.50

The total cost for this box is $7.39, and with shipping $14.39.

Other tips:

• Add a letter! You might hear back from your child. (I have...twice!)
• Buy in bulk and split the items up: for example, I got soap on Amazon in a 16 pack, and I ended up paying $.18 a bar. Way cheaper than the dollar store.
• Let your friends and neighbors know what you are doing. They will bring you stuff. My neighbor brought me 80 (!!) brand new toothbrushes his sister was going to throw away. The same neighbor is also a travel agent and has given us lots of the free promotional stuff she gets like water bottles, key chains, and tote bags. 
• Look at yard sales. This one is new for me, but I have found a lot of stuff this year at yard sales and thrift stores. Keep in mind items must be new. I have found Happy Meal toys, stuffed animals, games, and much more this year, still with tags and for dirt cheap! There is also a thrift store in Trenton that sells new with tags beanie babies in bags of 4 for $2. Can't beat that!
• Stick with a normal sized shoe box. I know, I know! It is hard to fit everything in, and in the past I have always thought bigger shoeboxes were better. However, now that I've worked at the collection center at church I have changed my ways. The shoe boxes are packed into cartons, and each carton is supposed to have at least 17 shoe boxes in it. (I am 94% certain that is the magic number) It is really hard to fit that many in, and when you have a boot box it is impossible. The problem comes when the distribution points believe they have a certain number of boxes to offer, and sometimes come up short of what they anticipated. 

Chicken on a Lease + First Day of Preschool = Fun Times!

This is roughly the 54th attempt by James to walk a chicken on a leash. This time he was successful in tying her in such a way that she wasn't thrashing about bawking, but she was not so cooperative with walking. Can you blame her?

He was so gentle in trying to pull her along. Maybe the next batch of chicks we get he can train one from the get-go.

Katie mercifully took her back to the coop.

Tyler's first day of preschool co-op

He know asks everyday when he can go back.

T and K hamming it up under the tree

This girl and her faces...she can get Tyler to go from fuming mad to a fit of giggles with her looks.

Little Artist

Here is one of Tyler's latest drawings. Not that I am biased but I think he is a little Picasso! :) I love watching the kids develop their styles. James draws detailed little scenes with speech bubbles. His sense of humor shows through. Katie draws all sorts of things, and really likes to write her name on everything. Tyler so far specializes in people. This one has a 'happy mile'.

Quote Of The Day

**We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog post to bring you the quote of the day**

I overhead this on the walk back from school:

Why don't you just get a public defender and spend the money on something better?

Yeah, let that one sink in. Maybe congress needs to hear this one, because we are paying for public defenders so people can spend their money 'on something better'. Sounds perfectly logical.

Two Posts In One Week!

I'm failing in the blog arena. Sorry Grandma. So, because I am lacking anything witty or insightful, I will give you some brief tidbits from the Franch:

• Someday I aspire to have an actual Franch with a sign over the driveway heralding the entrance of the Rocking G Franch (or something like that...I can come up with something), like this:

• James is a voracious reader. I get the little turkey a chapter book and he reads it in 2 days. If you have any suggestions for good books, leave a comment! He really likes western history, civil war, indians, history, adventure.....he brought 3 books to school today, 'just in case', to which I say: Awesome! 
• Homework: James is not a fan. Katie did her entire weeks' homework on the first day, then asked when she was getting more. I had to print homework sheets out for her today so she would have some to do. Tyler didn't want to go to bed 'yet' because he 'had to do his homework'. I wrote his name a few times and he traced over it, then drew a bunch of little pictures in all the blank space on the page. He told me in detail what he learned about in preschool yesterday (Daniel in the lions' den, the letter M, writing his name) so the kid is paying attention!
• Rachel and I are working in starting an Etsy shop. Woo! It is something we have talked about for a long time. Right now I am busy making a few more items for the shop.
• I also finished another painting (way different than the last one, but fun!). I will post pictures soon. It may involve an armadillo.
• When I let the chickens out yesterday I noticed that my black Australorp was hanging in the nest box. When she saw me, she did the egg squat. Now, I am no chicken expert, but I am getting better at spotting the signs. (The comb gets red, the egg squat, staring at the nest box, becoming less flighty) She sat in the nest box for at least an hour, which made me very exciting that she might actually lay her first egg! The reason this is so exciting is that she is supposed to lay dark brown eggs and I really want to see one. So basically I spent the morning stalking the chicken coop, but no egg today. Maybe today?

That's it for now. I have important things to do. Like stalk the chicken coop.

First Day of Preschool

Tyler's first day of preschool went swimmingly. He was so excited. He adopted James' old backpack, into which he loaded a folder, glue stick, a new box of crayons from me, a 'nack', and another one just in case (you never know when you're going to eat next!) and a water bottle. He was also supposed to bring something for show and tell that started with an 'M'. He chose Giraffey, his favorite stuffed animal. When I told him that Giraffey started with 'G' he said 'I will name him M-ee M-ee M-eee!' and that was that.

After we dropped Katie off at school Tyler and I went on a 'date' to the Amish market. He stood before the giant glass case and picked out the donut of his dreams. Interestingly, he wanted plain chocolate, no sprinkles. He also asked for a spoon and a knife to eat it, which he gets from Jeff. Jeff even eats pizza with silverware. It was fun to have 'the Squatch' all to myself and watch him devour a giant donut. I, for one, was very happy to find a maple donut!! That was/is/forever will be my favorite variety of donut, and I have had a hard time finding them in the great state of P-A.

Katie & Kindergarten

I would like to promise that someday I will post something coherent and sophisticated but that would probably be shooting for the stars. So here goes: Kindergarten. PM Kindergarten to be exact. Who exactly invented afternoon Kindergarten? It is annoying. In the morning, I get everyone ready to go to the bus. Sometimes being 'ready' is more like Tyler in jammies, Katie in some wildly mismatched clothes and James looking presentable (mostly). We clomp off to the bus like a rag-tag band of oversized lawn gnomes and send James off to school. We come home, I get ready for the day and then we squeeze in any activities/errands/etc. that needs to happen. Then we get ready all over again. I am learning rather quickly that Katie needs at least an hour to get ready for school. (I mean, yes, she is a girl...but still?! This is Kindergarten!!!) This is how it usually goes down: at 11am, I start by feeding her lunch. This involves offering her a few different kinds of tasty leftovers and she decides instead on the usual: a bowl of puffed rice. Not the rice crispy kind, but the actual super healthy (and pretty bland) real puffed rice. She loves that stuff. She also loves art. She combines the two by attempting to make a Picasso while shoveling cereal into her mouth. That is, if she's not talking. Because she does that too. She tells Tyler things like 'If you eat 3 more bites, I'll give you this penny!' and 'Tyler, when you're done we can set up a restaurant and we can sell donuts!' At some point, she will think of something she was going to do earlier and wander off to do it. I call her back to the table and she takes another bite. Then she draws a stick figure and wanders off to go to the bathroom. On the way, she sees something shiny and runs after it. She refocuses, onto something entirely different. In the meantime, I am sweeping the floor/getting her snack ready/loading the dishwasher. I see she has again wandered off and have a mental debate about redirection?consequence?tough love?does she have ADD?look, squirrel!! and send her back to the table. She finally finishes eating and it is time to get dressed. I don't know about your kids, but my kids can't stay clean to save their lives so she usually changes before school. She goes to grab her clothes and sees her baby doll, whom she decides needs to be held and cuddled. At which point she sees her rainbow loom and remembers that she needs to make bracelets for her 10 closest pals before we leave for school in 5 minutes! I remind her that if she doesn't get dressed she's going to school naked, which is mostly effective at lightly a fire under her butt. She then remembers that she's supposed to go to the bathroom BEFORE school and I remember that I should probably brush her hair, which is somewhat akin to trying to give a squirrel a manicure. She brushes her teeth, I brush her hair and we're ready to go. Except she can't find her shoes. Because she didn't put them back on the shelf. So we run around finding the shoes and finally she's ready to walk to school! Its a Christmas miracle! My theory is that if we had AM kindergarten, I could get everyone ready at once. Katie would still be a bit groggy from waking up and that's when I would pounce! I would get her dressed and give her breakfast before she knew what hit her. That's the theory anyway, which will stay firmly in the theory category since there's no switching now. You better believe I'm requesting AM Kindergarten for Tyler!

Tyler's New Interest

Tyler has lately been fascinated by the show 'Hogs Gone Wild'. Basically, people hunt down wild hogs and either catch them or kill them. Despite the fact that I have aspirations to hog hunting someday, this show annoys me. It is basically the same thing every show and after the second episode you are left to wonder why they don't just shoot the hogs. And I'll tell you why: that wouldn't make for good TV. However, Tyler is entertained. Last week we were walking back from school and Tyler saw a small tree with some scarring on the bottom. He walked up and carefully inspected it. Then he declared that a hog must have done it, and that he and Dad would have to come back at night to hunt it. That kid is too much!

On Saturday we had our Small Group picnic and basically the adults let our whole collective pack of children run feral and semi-unsupervised. One of the families brought their 'Oma' who was the only one out there watching them. After a while, some of the dads went out and relieved Oma. When she came in, she said she now knows everyone's family secrets. She knew that Emmy had a tea party with her Mom, and that Tyler's mom thought he looked very cute in his new coat. (He does!!) And...she said that Tyler was fearless. We all cracked up, because it didn't take her long to figure him out! Sometimes when people ask me 'what happened to his face?' or 'how did he get that bruise?' I just want to tell him: just watch him for 5 minutes! It would save a lot of explaining.

And one more Tyler note: we were looking at James' baby album the other day and Tyler spotted a picture of Jeff, with hair. He looked quizzically at the photo and then at me. He asked 'Is that Daddy?' I told him yes, and he looked again at the picture and asked 'the same Daddy???' I forget that he's never seen Jeff with hair.

Update Overload

Yikes! I have tried to blog several times lately and gotten distracted. Look!!! Something shiny!!! More likely I was distracted by piles of dishes and running to the bus stop. The kids are settled in to school and working out a new 'normal' for them. They usually do great in school and save their meltdowns for home. Tyler joins in just for kicks sometimes. 'You cut up my chicken!!! I didn't want my chicken cut up! Now its gross!!!' which from a preschool perspective means 'ITS THE END OF THE WORLD!!!' So to fill you in on the last few weeks, I present to you the trusty bullet point list:

• I got my CPAP machine last week. I've slept with it for about 7 nights and I think I am getting used to it. Katie says I look silly, James says I look like an elephant trying to pick up a box, and Jeff calls me 'Goose' from Top Gun. It has helped me to sleep more soundly and I think when I get used to it and don't wake up I will start to feel a lot more rested. Apparently these contraptions are pretty expensive and the insurance company won't pay for them unless they know you are going to use them. It has a memory card in there that records when I use it and I have to turn it in after a certain amount of time to verify I have used it consistently. At that point, the insurance company will cease to rent it and actually purchase it for me. Very interested, as Grandma Heppner would say.
• Katie LOVES school. She pretty much skips to school on a big puffy pink cloud she's so happy to go. The very first day, she had already made a friend to sit on the bus with. (More on that later) She loves music, art and library. And recess, and pretty much everything else. She usually comes home and goes into meltdown mode. Its a lot to adjust to for someone who has made a successful career out of having tea parties, climbing trees and making art projects out of everything imaginable. 
• So, the bus....putting the kids on the bus freaks me out a little. Isn't the bus where so much bullying happens, and you learn new words you know you're probably not supposed to say? Not to mention that a big bus makes even my swiftly growing 8 year old look tiny climbing up those stairs. So knowing that Katie would ride the bus home (we walk to school; there is no midday bus) was enough to freak me out. I told James he was to look for her on the bus and sit with her the first day. I also told them to sit toward the front of the bus. Well. Apparently I failed to recognize that Katie wouldn't need to have James with her, because dang it! She don't need no stinkin' brother to boss her around! She can do it herself! Not to mention she made a friend the first day whom she sat with on the bus. When they got off the bus the first day, they were fighting and crying and spitting mad. It took me a long time to figure out what happened. James was being protective and told her to sit right behind the bus driver. Katie was not going to listen to him, and sat 3 seats back. The bus number also changed since last year, causing James no small amount of anxiety. Once he got on the bus, he didn't see Katie and panicked. Once he found her, he was mad! She didn't listen to him! He actually pushed Katie's friend (or maybe Katie...this part was fuzzy) and sat down with them. Katie was mad, because hello! Bossy brother!!! Then, when the bus stopped at our stop, Katie was sitting there smiling like the prom queen while James yanked on her backpack for fear that she wouldn't get off the bus in time and it would be...drumroll please....THE END OF THE WORLD!!! We had to establish that they don't have to sit together if they don't want to, as long as James keeps an eye out for Katie. Sheesh! Such drama for the first day of school.
• Speaking of drama, the kids had their birthdays a week ago. They were both bestowed with some cold hard cash for their spending enjoyment. Notice I said 'their enjoyment' because it certainly isn't for mine. Let me explain. You give the kid a crisp shiny $10 bill, or in Katie's case, a $25 gift certificate to Target, for the purpose of acquiring the fake American Girl doll of her dreams. Somehow it is the parents' job to taxi the kid to the store, all the while praying that there are only 2 dolls to pick from so that we can get out of the store by closing time. (P.S. Its only 10am...ha!) Parent and child arrive in the doll aisle where mercifully there are only 3 doll styles to choose from. After several minutes of deliberation, a doll is chosen. Success!!! Parent breathes a sigh of relief and heads toward the art supply section to let her pick out a box of crayons to round out the gift certificate because there is no way I'm coming back again so she can spend $2.18. Epic fail! We pass through the home section where we see bean bag chairs, and low and behold if she doesn't declare that she's wanted one forever and she needs it now!!! In an instant the carefully chosen doll is cast aside in favor of an oversized pink corduroy bean bag chair that happens to cost $40. I carefully try to convince her to love the lesser priced (but not pink) beanbag chair next to it: look! Its lavender! Its everything you've ever dreamed of! And more!!!' At which point she looks at me and declares mournfully that she doesn't want the lavender one, she wants the PINK one! We discuss the logistics of paying for the thing, as in, $40 is more than $25 and if you pitch in the rest of your birthday money on this thing you will be broke as a joke with no income in sight. And you will be left with a beanbag that you will probably end up cutting a hole in with scissors when you are bored. None of this logic worked. It kind of had the opposite effect. I also tried to remind her how much she wanted the doll and how she could just walk away from the bean bag and into the plastic arms of the doll she loved. Yeah, that didn't work either. Finally, I hit on the idea that the college dorm stuff was on clearance and if there is anything that shouts 'college dorm' louder than a bean bag chair I don't know what it is. OK, maybe milk crates or lawn chairs. We struck out on the bean bag chair but found a big super-soft white pillow, the kind with arms on it, for $10. She decided it was worthy of her love and $$ and we threw it in the cart. Here's the problem: $25 minus $10 still leaves $15. So back to the toy aisle we went. At this point I begged the Lord for mercy and began to wonder if there really was such a place as purgatory. She pointed down a row that was dangerously full of $50 baby dolls (seriously, who buys these things? don't they know it will end up getting shorted out when the kid trys to give it a bath and it will never say 'mama' again?!) and what Katie refers to as 'Spinach Dolls'. Which really means Cabbage Patch dolls. I was bracing myself for the inevitable 'I really like that doll! It talks! It pees! It makes a sandwich!' that would have to end in another lecture in economics, also known as the 'Money doesn't grow on trees' speech. She miraculously spotted a baby stroller that cost exactly $15 and we put it in the cart. I was looking for the quickest escape route when she changed her mind. Ugh!! Fortunately she had spotted a doctor kit that was also $15 and I never left a store quicker. She spent her money and left a happy girl. Which is amusing, since all I left the store with was a nervous twitch. Also a greater appreciation of what my parents put up with when we were growing up. In the end, Katie had a great time deliberating how to spend the most money she's had in her life, and so far, no buyer's remorse.
• Remorse is probably what you're feeling after wasting your time reading this, so I'll stop for today. I really need to blog more often.

Photo Overload (And For Once I Won't Ramble On)

Digging a James' sized hole in the sand

Keep going!

Playing with their friends

Katie and her best little friend

Tyler 

The girls collecting water for their project

Burying Tyler in the sand

The guys going out on the jetty with the kids

Cool sand art courtesy of a plastic egg carton

Crazy girl: its a shame she is lacking personality ;)

Finally deep enough to bury him!

My latest favorite picture of James: seriously? How stinkin' cute is he?!

And my latest favorite of Katie: adorable!

Looking for critters

Aren't these kites cool?

Moving along: first day of 2nd grade (waaa!!! Where has time gone?)

And first day of Kindergarten! My babies are growing up.

A Vision of Cuteness

Getting off the bus

And the birthday girl who just turned 6! (James turned 8 on Tuesday, then Katie had her birthday the next day...too much for me to handle!)

She seems more grown up just since she started Kindergarten

A beach treasure

Tyler found this at the beach: any ideas what it is? According to my google research, it does not resemble a shark or a turtle. 

I would like to solve the mystery. Whatever it is has some sharp little teeth!