And this is why I so rarely clean…

The first day of December was bright and sunny. Perfect temperature to send Josh out to play in the (gated and locked) yard with me supervising from the kitchen while doing dishes and entertaining Preston. While watching Josh play, I noticed that the screen door glass seemed really dirty, so I grabbed my spray bottle of vinegar and a hand towel and went to work making it all sparkly. Less than a minute later, this happened: (And yes, I took pictures first, corrected second. Parenting fail.)

There’s an old Erma Bombeck (I think) quote that says “Cleaning the house while the kids are still at home is like trying to shovel the sidewalk when it’s snowing.” (or something close to that) Amen and amen, Erma.

Eventually, the cops will be called on someone

It was a drizzly day a week or so ago when I was busy trying to push one handed a cart loaded with Preston and some groceries out of the store that starts with W and ends with Mart. One hand pushing the cart, the other hand holding Josh’s, half walking with him and half pulling him across in the “hurry it up, it’s raining and there’s cars coming” mommy move. Josh does not like to be rushed. Or half-dragged across the parking lot, apparently. The entire time, he was yelling “Don’t pull me!”. And there really wasn’t room in the cart at the moment, so he was stuck walking to the car (oh the horrors).

Except…except in his 2 yr old speech, the words “don’t pull me” sounded suspiciously like “don’t kill me”.

Loud enough for all to hear. Thankfully no one thought I was kidnapping him and we were able to make it out to the car and get everything and everybody loaded in without incident.

This, by the way, is the same child who told me I was in his space last night while saying prayers.

I must say, I thought I had the only 2 yr old around who pulled these stunts. Apparently not. Josh has a little friend very close in age to him (like 2 weeks). They are usually thick as thieves. Said friend, according to her mommy, has problems staying in bed and will get up time after time after time. After time. One night, the story goes, mommy and daddy had HAD ENOUGH with this whole not staying in bed business, she was the recipient of a little tap on the leg with the “get back in bed”.

Now she tells people she doesn’t like bedtime because Daddy tries to break her leg.

Sigh. At least we aren’t the only ones.

Wordless Wednesday: Cracks me up

December=Christmas Music!

I’ve been really busy lately with Thanksgiving, decorating the Christmas tree, and just other stuff in life going on. But…but it’s finally December, my most favorite time of the year! We have a busy busy month ahead – our anniversary, the children’s Christmas program at church (of which both of my boys are in), Christmas, Preston’s dedication at church, and a court date to finalize Preston’s adoption to make him legally ours!

In the meantime, I thought I would start a new category sharing my most favorite Christmas music. I’ll share the lyrics and album/artist for you. First on the list (and this list will be in no certain order, there’s really too many to choose from) is by Selah’s (of course) Rose of Bethlehem CD.

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

Oh come, Oh come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice, Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel!

Oh come, Thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Thy people with Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night
And death’s dark shadows put to flight

Rejoice, Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel!

Oh come, Thou rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny
From depths of hell Thy people save
And give them victory o’ver the grave

Rejoice, Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel!
Rejoice, Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, Oh Israel!

Wordless Wednesday

…and yes, we finally did get a good picture of the two of them together, but I’m waiting to post that later.

More on conversations

The house has been dead quiet for the last hour while I’ve been off in my own little world catching up on internet reading. Preston is here (sleeping), but Chuck and Josh are gone for the evening. I’ve wanted to blog for a few days, but here’s the thing – I’m just plain old tired lately. The children, they do wear me out. I really should be doing something productive, like laundry or dishes, but right now it’s all I can do just to remain upright with my eyelids open. We knew having 2 little ones would be quite tiring, and we were right. I seem to be in a perpetual state of “mommy needs a nap” lately. Josh is at the age where he takes a lot of time and attention and needs to be kept busy, otherwise his behavior is horrible. Preston is awake for longer periods of time now and expects to be talked to and entertained. And then there’s playdates, dr appts, post placement appts, laundry, dishes (both of which I am never caught up with) and meals. I know, I know…I’m a pansy wimp. And I truly don’t mean to sound as if I’m complaining. I knew going into having 2 kids that it would be hard, especially at these ages. I’m just saying it is.

I spent last Friday taking the boys to get Christmas pictures done. Josh, at 2 1/2, has NEVER cooperated for professional pictures. He screams, throws a fit, latches himself onto me and refuses to let go. This time, however, we did manage to get some pictures. There was plenty of fit throwing and crying, but we worked hard and got some good pictures. (Pics coming tomorrow for WW post.) I know that I draw attention when I’m out in public with the boys. I’ve talked before about it, I’m getting a pretty thick skin about it. While I was getting jackets on the boys to leave the picture place, a lady walked up to Josh and said to him, “You boys must look just like your daddy, huh?”

This type of comment has been discussed to death on the adoption forums. What do you say? A lot of people tend to have a quick-tongued retort consisting of something along the lines of “I don’t know, never met the guy” or “I don’t remember” just to leave the questioner a bit shell shocked. And for a brief nanosecond, I considered a smart answer like that, but then thought…how does that validate Daddy to them? It doesn’t, not at all. And she was just making conversation.

Smiling my best trying-not-to-look-frazzled smile, I just said, “Actually they look nothing alike.” and left her just as dumbstruck.

Friday update

Nice: Your 7 week old sleeping through the night.

Awesome: 3 nights in a row!

I’m truly not expecting it to be consistent at this point, but it’s been nice to have a bit of a break and actually sleep for 6 hours at a stretch. Last night, Preston went to sleep at about 9:30. I snuck a feeding in a sleeping baby about 11, and it’s nearly 7 am now and he’s still sleeping.

Good thing, too, because I have to get hopping. We leaving in 2 1/2 for me to take the boys up to attempt to get Christmas pictures done. Me by myself with both of them in a mall…I’m not sure if I’m completely sane or not. I must remember to load up the stroller. And snacks. And matchbox cars. And tranquilizers. (KIDDING)

Also this week…our very sweet neighbor lady informed me Wednesday night at church that something happened and she can now hear us through her baby monitor. We’re right across the street, so we’re certainly in range. She said it has only happened a very few times, but I immediately wondered if she heard a certain mommy lose her patience with a certain 2 year old earlier in the week at about 4:30 AM after being up with him for 2 1/2 hours. Wow, I hope not. Then yesterday after Josh’s naptime I shut off our monitor and before I could turn off the receiver part, I could hear a movie playing over at their house. Our monitor is a junky one that has 2 channels, a good channel where everything comes in pretty clear, and a bad channel where it constantly fuzzes out. We were on the good channel, but I messed with it enough on the bad channel that it was ok for last night. We’ll have to see what happens in the future. Neither one of us wants to be spying on the other with our monitors! (Ok, the thought of leaving it on for the evening so I could hear what went on in their house did cross my mind, but just briefly. Honest)

Happy Friday all, hopefully I’ll have some pics to share of our adventure today. It will either be that or a traumatic story, one of the two!

Why it matters

I started working on a post this morning and still haven’t finished it.

This, however, is the best thing I’ve read in a long time. Promise me you’ll go read it. Take a couple tissues.

Wordless Wednesday

ps – sorry for the lack of posts yet this week. It’s just gotten away from me!

Water for Christmas: first gift

Those of you who have been around here for a while know that both Compassion and Charity: Water are two organizations that are near and dear to me. Last year my big Christmas gift was a big Charity Water donation made by Chuck. This year, as part of their Water for Christmas campaign, Charity Water is putting on a water drive called

1 in 6 people in the world don’t have access to clean water. That looks like this:

Or this:

Today you can do something that changes that statistic.

Without even leaving your computer. While drinking a nice glass of water.

4500 children die every day for lack of clean water. That’s 4500 mothers–women just like you and me–burying their children every.single.day.

But for $10, YOU can provide clean water for someone in Africa for 10 YEARS. You can change a life. Save a life.

Today, November 13, some of us are giving water. For only $10. Will you join us? Click here to make your donation.

$10. They don’t know you, but they’re counting on you. And me.