My Birthday

Yesterday was my 36th birthday. I told the kids I was going to start counting backwards this year, so maybe it's my 34th. It was an eventful day. Not sure I would say a good day or even a bad day. I'm still undecided.

It started at 6 a.m. when Little Bit woke up to nurse. She had slept ALL NIGHT LONG (went to bed at 9). This just means we'd worn the poor baby out all week and she was exhausted. Since I'd had 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep by 6, I figured I would go ahead and get up and have some time to myself. Ahhh, quiet. Oops, then David woke up and crawled his little body in bed next to me because he was cold. So I did what all good mother's would do and took him downstairs to watch television so I could have some quiet. :-)

I decided to make biscuits for breakfast. Turned the oven to 450, made the biscuits in and popped them in the oven. When I opened the oven door, I noticed a bit of smoke and remembered that the cheesecake I'd made on Wednesday had dripped a bit. No big deal, it didn't drip too much. When I checked on the biscuits a few minutes later I realized that I was mistaken. Apparently the cheesecake had dripped a LOT. Here is the way I woke up Old Man:

Me: (whispering) Ummm, honey, I think we have a little problem.
Old Man: (eyes still closed) Huh? What?
Me: (still whispering) Well, we have a fire in the oven.
Old Man: (waking up a bit more) WHAT?

At this point he was looking at me like I'd gone insane. I'm not typically starting fires in the oven. As a matter of fact I'm pretty sure that was my first one. He climbed out of bed and went in the kitchen to check with me. By this time, the fire was out, because, even though I'm obviously not paying attention to details, I knew enough to turn the oven off and NOT open the oven door. In case you're wondering, the biscuits actually cooked in the smoky, turned off oven. And they tasted pretty good even with the smoky flavor added. Oh, and remind me to check my smoke detectors. Not a one of them went off.

My family gave me my birthday gifts while we ate the smoked biscuits. The kids got me a new griddle - a huge one, much needed. My sweet Old Man gave me a wonderful card and diamond earrings. Shock. Not because he doesn't get me wonderful gifts and he has given me jewelry before. This was just unexpected. They are very beautiful, dainty studs. I actually needed some, but never ever ask for jewelry or expect it. I was guessing I would get a new camera body or boots or pots and pans - and those would have been just fine. But these were special and I love them!

After breakfast, we went to a 5K. My dear sister had somehow convinced me to do a 5K "with" her. Really, I just went so a slow person could jog/walk it with Anne and her cousin (they are 7 and 8 years old). Here's a tip: if you're less than 3 months postpartum with your 5th child, you haven't run but once since the baby was born and it is your 36th birthday, DO NOT, I stress this, DO NOT attempt to walk, jog or run a 5K. It will depress you. And you will worry that your uterus is going to be dragging on the path the entire run. But hey, I do have a new PR (personal record for you non-runners) for a 5K. My new PR for my slowest 5K time EVER - 45 minutes. And just to make me feel better, my 10 year old, Dawn, ran the 5K in 30 minutes, 20 seconds and my 7 year old, Anne, did it in 43 minutes. Old. That's how I feel. And tired.

The rest of the day was less eventful. I took a long bath, which I figured I had earned after that "fun run". Old Man took a nap. Tell me, how does that work. My birthday, he sleeps in later AND takes a nap? Oh, he did get me those earrings. He's totally off the hook for the next year. We had good friends over for supper. Old Man cooked seafood for me and we had a fun evening just chatting.

One thing I forgot! I figured we'd go to bed a little early. But Dawn was overtired and when she gets that way she sometimes feels very sick to her stomach and feels like puking. We were up with her until about 10:30. She never did puke. Now that was a nice gift - no puke on my birthday!

Our Oldest

I have a couple of recent pictures to put on. When I realized they were both of Dawn, I decided I could just write about her a bit! :-)

Dawn has changed a bunch this year. She is growing up so fast! Less and less she seems like a little girl, she is definitely becoming a young lady. At this exact moment, she has the microscope out and is putting things on it and having the boys take turns looking at it. Just like a good teacher! :-) Sometimes I feel thrilled about this change, other feelings are fear, sadness, excitement. A huge mix. What a true blessing she is, yet I miss her as a little girl and know that one day she will have her own home.

We went hiking a couple weeks ago with some friends. For Christmas last year, my sister (the first Dawn), gave her a book on cd - Daring Girls Adventure Book - or something like that. In the book, it tells you what to bring with you out hiking. A compass, flash light, notebook and pen (to draw pictures, etc), bandanna (you can put it in your hair or tie it to a stick to carry things), binoculars, and a few other things. She now has a backpack all ready to go. Oh, I think it includes bandaids, her own idea, which she needed!



Dawn has also started baking for me. Her latest is this fabulous ginger cookie. Yum. The other day, she made a double batch, with her baby sister in a sling, on her back. I was able to vacuum. She asked me to put Little Bit on her back. I thought it was so cool!

What People Think

I was recently reading on a good friend's blog, Half a Dozen Productions, that she was worried about what other people would think when they saw her child out without a coat. Sunday, while sitting in church, I looked down at my beloved children and realized that maybe, just maybe I need to be more concerned about what people think of me. David, our 2 year old, had a head band on and Anne, our 7 year old was wearing tennis shoes and mismatched socks with her skirt. Add to that the discussion before church at my house:

I was just generally grumbling and complaining about how horrid I looked.
Old Man: Shall I nominate you for What Not To Wear?
Me: Ha ha, funny, they'd take me in a heart beat. Fuddy duddy home schooling mom with 5 kids...
In walks Dawn: What are you talking about?
Me: Oh, Dad just thinks I should go on What Not To Wear.
Dawn: (she's seen parts of the show a couple times) You look better than one person on that show.
Me: ONE person? Wow, thanks!
Dawn: I mean, better than some people. I mean, most people. I ... (I'm glaring at her by now.)
Me: Well, I feel just great now!

So as I looked at my lovely children at church and thought of that conversation I realized that I need to worry a bit more about what people think. I think about those families you see where noone's cloths fit, they don't match, their hair is a mess, kids are dirty and I'm starting to think that maybe that is ME. Whatever happened to the days when I made sure my clothes were nice, my hair done, makeup on ... hmmm, maybe those days never happened for me.

Oh What a Night

Yes, that song is running through my head. Old Man is out of town, so I'm a little loopy at this point! :-)

I've been cursing Daylight Savings Time all day. Ever since 5:18 this morning, to be exact. The time David, who is 2-1/2, woke up. No, he is not adjusting to the new time AT ALL. Since I didn't go to bed until 11 last night, 5:18 was a tad too early for me. And no, Ranee, I didn't feed him until 6:30 or 7. :-)

In light of the early rising and Old Man being gone, I have had a very very very long day. No breaks at all. I tried to have quiet time while David was napping, but Little Bit was wide awake and smiling and cooing at me (which, while adorable, didn't give me a nap!).

Around 8, I was nursing Little Bit and talking to Dawn and Anne. (Praise God, the boys were sound asleep already!) I mentioned that I hadn't even started to clean up the kitchen after dinner. Dawn went into the kitchen and started cleaning it all up for me. I put Little Bit to bed as quickly as I could and went to help her. She is such a blessing to me!!!

That's all I originally was going to post, but have more to add. I was on the computer, checking the news and Dawn came in to talk to me. I started explaining to her how HUGE it is that we have an African-American (all right, I said black to her) man as our president-elect. Discussed the whole civil rights thing, how abused blacks have been in our country for so long. Just how big of a deal this really is. Then we started discussing some of the issues that polarized this election. I mentioned abortion. She asked what that was (I truthfully thought I had discussed this with her at some point - but apparently not). By the end of explaining it to her, we were both in tears. How sad that our kids have to grow up and face the reality of life. I so wish they could stay young and innocent and never know about difficult things.

So, off to bed for me. I am looking forward to Old Man returning tomorrow. I might be a puddle on the floor when he gets home though! :-) My body aches, my eyes sting, I feel like crying (and have quite a bit the last couple of days). I am just so tired! Good night!

Psalm 4:8

I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for You alone, O Lord,
make me dwell in safety.

Misc.

Not sure I have a full point to make today. Just some funny things and thoughts.

First, a few random photos:

Joseph loves holding his baby sister. He's so cute!


The girls found a turtle in the cattle guard at my grandparents house. They rescued it and took it to the pond to save it's life.


David's hair was hilarious after his nap one day. I couldn't resist taking this pictures.


I mentioned the snow one day. Here's a picture of it in our backyard. Yep, that's our yard. Notice the lack of trees? If there weren't snow, you'd see lots of sand and weeds.


And here is our precious baby girl.


Last night, Joseph was running around saying "Hadio Sim E Gose". Now, you might ask yourself what that means - think Spanish - Adios Amigos. :-) He was also really bent that I wouldn't go buy him a SCARY costume on Halloween - specifically, a skeleton costume. He really wanted to scare his younger brother. He talked about things being "spooky" and all thing Halloween related. Now, you have to understand that we don't celebrate Halloween in any way "normal". We stay home and have a family party - good food and games. How does he come up with all this stuff? I'll tell you - far too much PBS in the last couple of weeks. When the boys come in our room at 6:30 a.m. (or before), I've taken to turning the little tv on in my room so I can lay there and nurse the baby longer (and not have them pester me about food nonstop, or start fighting on my bed). Through PBS, he is getting a great education about speaking Spanish and Halloween!

I realized I haven't given an update on the house in Maryland. It is rented! Not sold, which was my preference, but rented, which is apparently God's preference. The really amazing thing is that even with paying our real estate agent a month's rent to cover her help and not having a renter move in until the 23rd of October, we are out only a few hundred dollars total for the mortgage. We did not have to pay 2 full mortgages for even one single month. Isn't God amazing!!! He has shown us He is watching us and taking care of our needs so often in the past few months. How sad that I still fret and worry over these things.

How sad that I've had to go and check my blog to see if I've already posted this stuff. My brain is definitely not working very well these days. I'd like to blame it on lack of sleep, but I'm actually getting pretty good sleep these days!

I've had a few questions about how the baby is doing. She's great! We've been trying to come up with some nicknames for her. So far, David wins, not because he's trying, but just because he pronounces the ones we've come up with so cutely - she is either "Miffabess" or "Wiza Kake". So far she's being called Wiza Kake a ton. She's smiling at us more and more every day. Getting fat and just plain old precious!

Oh, on the Wiza Kake name. Anne said, "It sounds like we're saying 'why is a cake...?" I thought it sounded more like "Wise as a cake".