Why?

Lily did this during her "nap" today. Claire's birthday money--Claire was very upset.

Still Currently Reading

I thought that it would be really neat to post the book that I am currently reading on my blog. I started Girls Gone Mild weeks ago. I am on Chapter 5. It is a week overdue at my library. It depresses me to know that I can only manage to read a chapter or two a week during this busy time of my life! I pick the book up every evening with good intentions to read...but I am so tired. Sleep is more appealing.

Watch out...she spits

My infant daughter is a spitter. Not just a little bit every now and then, rather, we wonder how she grows and continues to thrive consistently vomiting a 1/3 of her meals. I change her sheets every other day (one day with her head facing east, one day with her head facing west). Bibs are a constant necessity. The best thing about her bad spitting habit is that she gives a warning burp before the "big mess" actually comes up.

I hold her facing away from me, as it is advantageous for having a clean shirt (which usually ends up dirty anyways) at the end of the day. However, it makes for a not so clean house. I find dried drops of baby spit all over the hardwood floors. My mom says it is great to have a dog when you have a infant spitter...they lick up your baby's messes (very disgusting).

My shoulders are crusty by the end of the day when I welcome my husband home. He sometimes gives me a squeeze and asks if I am wearing perfume. I look at him with "you-have-got-to-be-kidding" eyes. "Eau de Bebe?" He asks. Ha Ha!

When others want to hold her, I will always warn them "Uh...she just ate, and she spits." Too late to turn back now, they take her carefully and hold her for the shortest socially acceptable amount of time before they pass her back to me...and she spits up on my shirt from the jostling.

Crying Babies

Why do babies cry when you are changing their diapers? They should be happy that they no longer have to sit in mucky poo.

Birthday Girls

Happy Birthday Claire and Mom!

Hot Box

So, my husband has always wanted a sauna of his own. For some reason he loves taking a sauna. He says "sweating it out" is the cleanest he can get. He was a tour guide in the Boundary Waters for a summer and the only way to bathe at the base camp was a sauna and a suspended barrel filled with water pumped directly from the ground. He said it was invigorating (ice water usually is) and he has never felt cleaner. Anyways, I found a homemade sauna for sale on craigslist (checking craigslist for furniture is a minor addiction of mine). My dad and brother helped us haul the sauna from a nearby town to our garage yesterday. Chris is very excited about his new purchase. It will be up and running sometime this fall...got sweat?

Camping Pictures

Canoe ride in one of the lakes. The girls all LOVED it!

Gaggle of girl cousins (Lily, Michaela, Claire, Sophia, and Katherine) around the campire with Uncle Russ. Only baby Izzy was missing. Poor Gabe..the oldest and the only boy!

Claire and Michaela in matching swimsuits.

Grammy and Grandpa with grandkids after breakfast in town.

Good Morning Sunshine!

The sun woke us up this morning. My good friend Susan had a recent post about the cloudy weather we have been having...I didn't realize how much we had missed the sun until today. The girls rushed excitedly into our room, "The sun is out!" "We can go for a walk!" We will probably take a walk today and soak in some rays!

Outhouses and Phobias

The campground where my family tented last week did not have flush toilets, just a smelly outhouse. The girls preferred to pee on the grass, lifting up their dresses the way Mary and Laura did on the prairie. I, however, breathed through my mouth and endured the stench. I was always quick inside the outhouse for the obvious reason, but also because, even though it is completely ridiculous, I was concerned that something would bite my butt. What kind of awful creature would live down in a sewer pit and prey on butts? My sister-in-law Jeannette said it was probably a phobia of sorts. I couldn't find a "fear of being bitten on the butt by creepy, crawly things" but I did find some amusing phobias on the list...

Blennophobia- Fear of slime
Bogyphobia-Fear of bogeys or the bogeyman
Bromidrosiphobia or Bromidrophobia- Fear of body smells
Consecotaleophobia- Fear of chopsticks
Helminthophobia- Fear of being infested with worms
Homilophobia- Fear of sermons
Metrophobia- Fear or hatred of poetry
Pentheraphobia- Fear of mother-in-law
Phobophobia- Fear of phobias

Quotes of the Day

To Claire: "Claire, only you would be dressed up in a wedding dress holding a frog and feeding it dead house flies."

To Lily: "Lily, STOP baptizing Claire with the bath water!" (Done in the name of the Triune God...only the pastor's daughter!)

Before and After

They wouldn't win any prizes at the County Fair...but it'll do. There are enough tomatoes in the garden to "do" this about 5 more times! Our neighbor was a little zealous planting the seeds...

Flooding

Our old town in Minnesota was submerged in flash floods this past weekend. Christopher and I have been "googling" STOCKTON MN FLOOD to look voyeuristically at video clips, photos and news articles. I feel terrible looking at the awful, muddy mess to clean up at a safe and dry distance. We are so sorry Jesse and Elizabeth--can we help in some way?

First Day of Kindergarten

A very exciting and emotional day here. All is well. Surprisingly there were no tears from mother or daughter.

6 Weeks To Go!

Nebraska Pictures

Charles and Kyle before their "HUSKER 5K" race

Squishy kiss

Isabel and Charles

Vacation Time

Our family is going on a celebratory camping trip with my husband's family. His father recently finished chemotherapy and wanted to go camping at the tradional family campground. Should be fun. I have been packing here and there all week--you should see all the STUFF! I don't know if we will fit everything in the van. We will leave after church on Sunday and plan to be back in Wisconsin late Thursday night. Friday morning I will fly with Kyle and Isabel to Nebraska to visit with Kristen and Charles. I am looking forward to spending time with my brother and sister. It has been a while since we were able to be goofy together.

Good Friends

Our good friends the Braatens came to visit yesterday, on route to another good friend's wedding in Minnesota. Chris and I both remarked that spending time with them, eating and laughing, made us realize how lonely we are here. I am glad that my family is nearby, otherwise we would be a very sorry lot. Isolation from friends is a definite occupational hazard of the pastoral ministry.

Harry Potter

I finished Harry Potter the other day. I felt a little sad putting it down, as I do with any good book--sad that I am finished reading it, and sad that I can never read it again for the first time. J. K. Rowling is a brilliant author. The entire series was simply amazing. I am already looking forward to the time when my children will read them. The Deathly Hallows was a wonderful story--as are all books in the series--full of love, friendship, sacrifice, and the struggle between good and evil.

I do not understand why some Christians don't like Harry Potter. So what that there are witches and wizards and elves and goblins and MAGIC? The last time I read The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf was still a wizard who did magic. The last time I read The Chronicles of Narnia there was still a White Witch and the magical wardrobe took those kids into the land of Narnia. I find it hypocritical to despise Harry Potter and not LOTR or Chronicles. They are ALL fantasy and they are ALL virtuous stories from which one can draw any number of Christian truths.

Dual Purpose Toy

The neglect-o-matic is entertaining both the baby and the middle child...what more could I ask for?

"Dating" as a Mother

We were invited to a "Kindergarten Icebreaker" last week for Claire and her new classmates (and their families). The girls and I went while Chris was working the LFL booth at the County Fair. It was very enjoyable. I, of course, was introduced as the "Lutheran Pastor's Wife", but reactions to this label were surprisingly benign. I talked with many of the parents in attendance. We had many things in common, most evident was that we were all fairly conservative and interested in our children's education.

I am always fairly nervous meeting new people. I wouldn't call myself shy, but I am self-conscious of the fact that I want to have friends so desperately that I fear "coming on too strong". I feel like it is like dating all over again.

Chris asked when he got home: "Did you meet anyone?"

"Yes! I even got her number!"

I usually wait a day or two before calling.

Real Food

Yummy...green beans mixed with oatmeal cereal!

The Truman Show

There was a movie that was released while I was still in high school called The Truman Show. Jim Carrey was the star and the movie producers promoted the film to be a funny, silly, Jim Carreyish movie. The basic plot was that Truman (Jim Carrey) grew up on a reality TV show. Everyone around him were actors and Truman grew up never knowing that his entire life was caught on film. Finally after too many years, Truman figures it out and escapes the TV show. The End.

The Truman Show is almost always on my mind. When I finally go a little gaga in old age, I will be suffering from a severe form of Truman Showitis. I am constantly thinking about my own Truman Show. Are my own children miniature actors "sent in" to create comic moments and boost ratings? Does my husband really love me? Does he have another (real) family somewhere else--that he visits when he goes to work and during all the evening meetings? Does the auidence like my life or is the network going to cancel me?

I never took a philosophy class in high school or college, but my husband took quite a bit (his minor at RF) and he says that my struggle with The Truman Show is actually a very basic philosophical question about whether I exist or not.

Curried Zucchini Soup

I made this soup the other day with zucchinis from the garden. It was pretty good. I will make it again. Thought I would pass it on...

What did you say?

We love baklava. I don't make it very often. Claire was maybe 3 the last time I made a batch. She kept asking for a piece of "enchilada", or after she learned the name of it--"ba-ca-la".

Lily asked for a piece baklava today after lunch. Chris and I both thought she asked for a piece of "Barack Obama".

Vaccinations

Boo hoo! My biggest and littlest had to get shots today. A nurse had to hold Claire down while I held a hysterical, post-vaccination Izzy. Lily felt traumatized too, watching her sisters she got a little misty-eyed. They both SCREAMED on my way out of the doctor's office. I am pretty sure that everyone in the building heard them crying and I received pitiful glances from all the other moms that saw me.

I feel so awful. It is kind of hard to explain why something that hurts is good for us. Ice cream and kid movies today...to make myself feel better.

On the plus side...everyone is napping right now. (Bad mommy!)

AC/DC

My girls spent the weekend with my parents and were subjected to my brother's classic rock mix on his iPod. After listening to AC/DC's song "Thunderstruck" Claire asked him: "What language is he singing in?"

Mean Librarians

Why are all children's librarians mean? Is managing juvenile fiction the bane of all library science majors? I can possibly understand the librarians in the adult non-fiction section being annoyed at kids running around and their mothers whispering a million times for them to be quiet. But children's librarians should by necessity be tolerant of children's behavior.

Being quiet is a concept completely alien to my toddler. Lily is always too loud. I am reminded of this after trying to go to the library. (I seem to be very forgetful about why the four of us shouldn't go.) The librarian at the desk kept giving me disapproving glances.

When she is quiet...she's either asleep or causing trouble.

4 Months

Isabel is four months old today. She is growing up fast!

Virtual Scrapbooking

I don't like scrapbooking. I think some women are extremely talented scrapbookers, and their books are beautiful keepsakes. It is just not my thing. But, I realized the other day--my blog is a virtual scrapbook.

Curator of Children's Artwork

How does a mother decide which pieces of her children's artwork are worthy of archival? I always have a terrible time choosing the artwork to be put in "the box", and an even harder time throwing the remaining pieces in the trash.

Sadness

I was a little sad all day yesterday. I invited my neighbor and her daughter to the beach, and she in turn invited some more moms to come along. I don't mind, more kids for my kids to play with. The girls certainly had a great time in the sun and sand. The problem is that they are all from the Bible Church down the road and I am the "Lutheran pastor's wife" (this is how I am ALWAYS introduced--why not "this is my neighbor Erin"?).

Our conversation topics seemed to settle on theology. I just listened. They believe in the rapture and don't baptize their babies. They don't believe in the Lord's Supper ("it's just a remembrance thing") and they were all talking about their personal "walks with the Lord". They think that Lutherans have it all wrong-- "believing in all that man-made stuff that is not in the Bible". I know that it is not my job to set them straight, but I couldn't think of one thing to say in defense of Lutheranism, in defense of the richness I "experience" every Sunday through the liturgy, hymnody, and the preaching of the Gospel. Where would I even start with these women? I felt pathetic on my drive home.

Grrrrrrr

Umm...I am irritated. Lily got into the van this morning without putting on sandals. I neglected to grab them on my way to the van. We are usually a spectacle to behold--a frazzled mother of 3 daughters under the age of 5--but today was extra special, NO SHOES! Ha.