Ten Questions answer one, question two

Yesterday I posed the following question, "What's the one thing you would have done differently as a mom?"

My mom's response and one I hope to emulate was, "Spent more time making memories with my children and less time cleaning."

Today's question is, "Why did you choose to be with my father?"

Ten Questions, Part One

Last night I was reading an article in an old Real Simple. Since the magazine was from May the article was fit for Mother's Day and gave ten questions to ask your mother. I'm planning on asking my mom all ten questions, perhaps sharing an answer or two here.

I'm also challenging you to ask your mother these questions if you can.

The first one is, "What's the one thing you would have done differently as a mom?"

Mystery Gift

Last Saturday I took the three littles to Home Depot for their kids' workshop event. While Aidan, Toby and Avery were all making a trivet (yes, they all did 90+% of the work themselves, even Avery!) Evan was home alone. He's nine and we let him stay home alone once in a while; usually for no more than an hour or two.

When I got back he asked me if I'd ordered some flowers. "No, not that I know of, why?" "Some flower shop called and asked when they could deliver. I told them you'd call them back, the number is by the computer." I was shocked and proud of him for not accepting a delivery when I wasn't home (and that he had no knowledge of!)

So I asked Jim if he'd sent the flowers. He denied it (no surprise there!) Toby piped up from the table and told me that he'd ordered them! "Really?" "Yup, it was me." And he said it with this cute little face which was a cross between so serious because he was trying to convince me and a spark of mischief because he was trying to convince me! He kept up his story, elaborating as the day went on. When asked how he paid for the flowers he replied, "when I didn't have enough money they gave them to me for free!" And he decided that "Evan helped me make the phone call because I didn't know the number." (That morning Evan had a lesson in using the phone book to call a business.)

When the flowers finally arrived I was of course eager to read the card! It turns out that the lovely bouquet was an early birthday gift from my parents and brother. As I was pouring over how lovely they were Toby confessed, "I'm sorry I tried to trick you about buying the flowers." I hugged him and reassured him that it was okay and that I knew if he could he would have done it!

PSA time!

PSA for Moms or anyone who's purchased Baby Einstein DVDs in the last 5 years. Baby Einstein is issuing a refund or exchange for their DVDs. The FTC has issued a complaint because of the movie's "educational" claims. Children under the age of 2 (the intended audience) are recommended to have zero screen time.

Print out the following form *at this link*, send in your movies and receive a B.E. book, CD or refund!

Unfortunately we have all VHS Baby Einsteins and can't take advantage of this. But we'd be willing to accept any donations from your refunds! :)

An old story revisited

This morning our pastor spoke on a select few chapters of the book of Joshua. He briefly touched on the story of Jericho, but those brief moments were enough to bring back an unforgettable story from Evan's early pre-school years.

One spring our church offered a parenting class. Jim and I signed up, partly to try to gain new insights, but partly because they also offered free child care for the all day seminar! Evan and his friends had an entire unit that day on Joshua and the Battle of Jericho. They had the Bible story, they sang songs, they watched the Veggie Tale version of the story, they built a wall of cardboard and made horns to knock it down, the whole nine yards. By the end of the day the boys were thoroughly immersed in the tale of Joshua!

A few weeks later I was watching two boys about Evan's age who had also been in that class. With three boys in the three to four-year-old bracket eventually the noise and squirrliness level got to the point where I sent them outside. I gave them the following instructions, "go outside and march around the garage seven times shouting the entire time and see what happens!"

A little while later one of the boys came back in the house and told me that the garage window was broken! It turns out that God did not move the garage in the same way He moved the wall of Jericho so the boys took matters into their own hands. They found some plastic toy golf clubs and started trying to break down the "wall"!

Works for me Wednesday!

Hello all! I'm back. Well, we'll see about that. I'm doing some part time day care here in the house of Kluth so I've been a little busy to blog. At any rate, this morning as I was working on getting Aidan's uniform together I thought, "this would make a good Works for me Wednesday" but it didn't dawn on me that it was actually Wednesday and that I could write it!

I actually got this idea from a more seasoned mom of many. Aidan and Toby are in nearly the same size pants. Evan and Aidan are both in unform and some of their shirts are really close to the same length. It's hard to tell from looking at them whos are whos and since sizes aren't universal that doesn't help either (I once put Aidan in an 8 and Evan in a 6 and the shirts fit both boys perfectly!)

So, the simple solution would be to label the boys' clothes, but how to do it so the clothes can be easily handed down to the next one without scribbling out the previous boy's name? Here's my solution: I put one dot on Evan's clothing tags, two on Aidan's and three in Toby's. Then as I pass Evan's down to Aidan or Aidan's down to Toby I just add a dot and the label is current! Makes quick work of sorting the laundry and getting it to the correct closet.

Hope this idea helps with hand me downs! Head over to *We Are That Family* for more ideas that may work for you!

Pray for Bethany

Without lengthy introductions, I'm asking you to pray for a little baby girl named Bethany. You can read her story *here*. I can't say much else but to ask you to pray and pass her information along. Because of my own loss of twins at just 13 weeks gestation this family is particularly close to my own heart.

If anyone knows how to format code for a blog button for my sidebar let me know and we can talk about it!

Thanks,

An Avery Story

In my life as a stay at home Mommy I have had many stories that I tell laughing hysterically only to a girlfriend, my mom or my husband. There are some that just should not be blogged about to protect the innocent even though the tale is JUST that funny!

If I knew how to categorize my posts into a nifty system on the side I would categorize this under "Things I'm not sure I should have blogged about".

One morning I was on the phone with Mel. Avery found a small square piece of cotton batting from a jewelery box. She lifted up her dress, pulled down her unders, placed the cotton in her unders and pulled them back up again, reminding me that perhaps it is time to insist on my own privacy in the bathroom not only with the boys! This few sentences long description does not do justice to the hilarity that it struck in my heart!

Monkey see, monkey do is an understatement!

September bullets

* Aidan started kindergarten.
* Evan started 4th grade.
* Jim started year 15 of teaching.
* Avery's staying dry more than getting wet and had two poops in the potty today.
* I'm starting day care for 3-5 extra kids for the next six weeks.
* Toby LOVES doing his homeschool preschool.
* We got a hamster which takes our "no pets" household up to two cats (got rid of all the kittens) two fish and a hamster.
* Oh, and I've also really riled up a bunch of my facebook friends talking about health care reform!

August Update

Here is a conversation Toby and I had tonight.

Me: Toby, what should I blog about tonight?
Toby: Blog about pickles.
Me: What about pickles?
Toby: Oh, you know, how weird they are, how weird pickle people are.

(Me typing furiously to capture all that!)

Aidan's idea was much easier:

"You should blog about how great your children are."

I've had a few facebook/comments asking about how Avery's potty training is going. I'd say we're about halfway there. Occasionally she initiates, she stayed dry at Sunday School this morning (her first time in a real class and not just nursery!) but still doen'st get it all the time. It's been about six days, so we're well on our way!

My goal is to have her basically done by September 9 when I start a temporary day care center at our house! I have two friends who need temporary part time care for their toddler and preschool aged children for the months of September and October. One family has a kindergartener who goes to school Monday, Wednesday and Friday. She also has a four-year-old and an eighteen month old. The other family has one school aged child (so I won't have her at all) as well as a four-year-old and eighteen month old. I'll have Aidan in the afternoons as well as Toby and Avery full time. So, if I can have one less in diapers I'm all for it!

School starts for Jim on Tuesday and the rest next week Wednesday.

WOO HOOOOOO!!!!!

3..2..1...

Outrageous supply of unders? Check.

M&Ms? Check.

Dirty duds bucket? Check.

Fingernail polish? Check.

Sticker chart with stickers? Check.

Singing potty with fresh batteries? Check.

Let the Potty Training (Bare) Boot(y) Camp begin!

Oh, and caramel macchiato ice cream and moral support from a girlfriend? Check!

Your Laugh For The Day

I saw the following sign outside the entry to the fairgrounds today:

No bicycle riding
skateboarding
rollerblading
dogs
on fairgrounds.

Of course. We wouldn't want the less talented dogs there to feel inferior!

Hey, I can blog this!

The well has sort of run dry for possible blog topics lately. Sure, the kids are saying and doing really cute things, I'm reading books and seeing movies I could blog about, but my motivation is at a lull right now.

Until the following email came. I have a friend with five kids five and under. The newest ones are 4 month old twin girls. Knowing my history, you can guess that these little beauties have a special place in my heart. Ironically, the heart is the problem. Not mine, but one of the girls. Bethany and Grace are the baby twins, Faith, Noah and Asher are big sibs, Kady and Karl are Mom and Dad to the bunch.

Please lift this family up in your prayers. You've never seen such strength and hope in the Lord as you will with this Momma!

Here's Kady's email:

Hi Friends, I'm sorry that I haven't updated many of you on what's happened with Bethany. She has a very rare condition in infants called Mitral Arcade (or Congenital Mitral Regurgitation). She'll need Open Heart Surgery or possibly a transplant in months / years to come. Her condition is evidently "severe" or serious.. but the doctor feels good about her chances because of how hard she's fought thus far. We don't know how quickly she's been deteriorating so now we have a starting point to compare to. She is on 3 different medications at this point and seems to be tolerating them pretty well. We'll be seeing alot of the pediatric cardiology dept at Mayo and are thankful for their expertise and care. I'm planning on setting up a caring bridge site in the next week (hopefully).. in all of my spare time ;). Karl and I are confident that God's already got all of this figured out and His purposes are so much greater than anything we can imagine. Our prayer requests are for #1 a miracle if that's God's will, #2 her heart to grow stronger and last until she's a little older for surgery.. her chances are far better the older that she is. #3 that she won't have pain from all that her body is having to go through #4 for strength for our family and finally #5 for God to use her for His glory! Please feel free to share this with anyone.... the more prayer warriors the better :) In His Arms, Kady

Boys and Books

This is a self-imposed backwards edition of WFMW. To find other ideas please head to "We Are That Family" today!

I do believe I've mentioned that Jim, Evan and I have been reading through the Harry Potter series. Evan and I are finished and Jim just hit a MAJOR point near the end of book six. That's all I'm going to say about that.

My rant here is about the quality of good books for kids Evan's age (he's heading into fourth grade). I haven't done the actual math, but I'm guessing that ninety percent of the books I pick up in the library are geared towards girls. They have a female main character dealing with female issues (hair, make-up, periods, babysitting and the cheerleading team). Or the female lead is off doing heroic things like slaying the dragon (which in my opinion should be a male lead, but that's another topic believe it or not).

So, that leaves ten percent of "literature" with a male protagonist. But how many of that ten percent leave us with a positive male role model taking his leadership position seriously? Evan wanted to read the "Diary Of A Whimpy Kid" series next so I checked them out of the library. In one afternoon he polished off a book and a half. I got through about thirty pages and declared them unfit for, well, anyone. Agreeing with me, Jim will be returning them to the library today. The main character, though a boy, is a middle school boy. These books are written at a second grade level at best. Children who are in middle school *should* be well beyond the level of these books (but again, that's a post for another time!). The main character also showcases blatant disrespect for his own father, his mom, his friend's father and all other adult/authority figures in his life. And that is just in the first thirty pages!

Here's my plea for help. I have a voracious reader with a heart bent towards Christian worldview. What books do you recommend for him? We'd also like the books to encourage boys and men in their God given leadership roles. We'd like him to have some positive reading for the rest of the summer.

So, what would you recommend? Oh, and no pressure here, but library day is Thursday at our house, so if you've got a suggestion please leave it!

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to M, the winner of my "Green Bag Lady" green bag giveaway! I contacted her to let her know she won and to get her address. I knew she lived here in the great state of Minnesota and learned that she is actually from the same town I am! So thanks, M, you saved me some postage!

If you'd still like your very own "Green Bag Lady" green bag I'm more than happy to mail you one. All I ask is $2 to cover shipping. Email me your info and we'll work on getting your bag to you ASAP!

Thanks to all for entering!

Works for me Wednesday complete with a *GIVEAWAY!*

I found a fun blog by a lady who calls herself the "Green Bag Lady". She makes fabric shopping bags, has given away over five thousand of them and even posts the pattern for free so you can make your own.

And I've made bags! And more bags! In fact, my handmade bag count for yesterday reached about a dozen. I made bags like there's no tomorrow. I have hoards of fabric lying around, so I just started sewing them up into bags. And you know what? I'm going to give one away. Just leave a comment promising that you'll use whatever style and pattern I made and I'll send you one free of charge! :)

Free stuff. Works for me! Go to We Are That Family for more things that could work for you!

**Edited to note that I'll pick a winner on Saturday to give more people a chance to win!

**Edited a second time to add a link to the Green Bag Lady's blog. Sorry, I guess I'm out of practice in blogging! Here she is: www.greenbaglady.blogspot.com

The Experiment

This summer Jim and I decided to conduct a little experiment. We, along with Evan, are reading through the Harry Potter series. School let out on May 20. Evan would be done except that we placed a rule on him that he could not be more than one book ahead of us.

We know the controversy about the books in the Christian circles where we run. I myself had an editorial published in a parenting magazine spouting off about the dangers of witches and wizards becoming commonplace and filling young minds with the idea that magic can solve your problems. And yet I myself wanted to read the books! So, we decided to read them together as a family. And we're discussing what we find and comparing it to Scripture. (And it's also a good lesson in self-control because we're learning things about the characters that we cannot share with others who aren't as far along as we are!)

So here we sit on July second. Jim is somewhere back in book five (something about not being able to sit around and read all day because he's working, excuses, excuses). Evan and I are each a couple hundred pages from finished with seven. And I still don't really know what to think. The books aren't as much about witchcraft (which I hereby acknowledge is a real thing very much alive in the world today) as they are about friendship and fighting for the greater good. It does seem that to get to the greater good requires much rule bending and breaking and sneaking around. The setting seems to be just that, the setting for a good story.

What do you think? Have you read the series? Would you let your children read them? Why or why not? (Have full license to discuss in the comments, but please let's play nicely and understand that different people may make different choices.)

Driving lessons

This week is Vacation Bible School week at our church. We have had a fantastic time and I think the kids like it, too! :)

Our neighbors around the corner have been bringing their two boys, D and N to VBS with us. Last night due to circumstances beyond their control they needed me to transport their kids. In trade, they kept Avery for me (and also because I didn't have enough seats for my three boys, two neighbor boys and an Avery). Their boys are sweet and very cooperative. And they also give driving lessons.

Part of the fun of VBS is the music (and overloading on sweets just an hour or two before bedtime, but I digress). Each child takes home a CD of the music to listen to all week. I keep mine in the car and we get to listen to it to and from church. As my kids jam out they assign each other different instruments they hear and "be" those instruments. A common phrase you might hear is, "I'm the guitar, you be the piano".

Last night they were jamming out in our usual manner when I told them that they needed an audience and that I'd be the audience. They told me that I should clap and cheer once the songs were over. So I did. And a very nervous little voice came from behind me, "maybe you should just cheer and not clap while you're driving".

Do you know how hard it is to laugh your head off without letting a little guy know you're laughing???

The Update List

So summer has started, well, summer started two weeks ago so I guess I'm a little behind. I have so many things I'd love to write a complete post about, but am lacking in time to do so, so here's my Cliff's Notes version. Enjoy.

Jim finished up his fourteenth year of teaching. We sound old, don't we?

The boys have befriended some little boys across the street. D is finishing up first grade and N is entering kindergarten next year. They're really sweet little boys and I'm looking forward to a summer of sharing our yard with them! And as a bonus, our street is pretty much local traffic only I'm able to let the older boys travel back and forth pretty much by themselves.

The boys also got to go to the dentist yesterday. Good reports all around. The only concern is that Aidan and Toby need to stop the finger/thumb sucking to avoid orthodontia in the future. Yup, made a sticker chart for that. Toby's totally on board because the reward is a donut! :)

Avery's doing well in her big girl bed. In fact, I made black out shades out of a navy blue twin flat sheet. Say it with me now, "red neck curtain". I think she's too scared of the dark to venture out of bed because in the morning and after nap she cries out, "I want my mamma" instead of getting out of bed. A little trauma never hurt when trying to train a kid to stay in bed, right?

I'm swimming along here. I'm mostly trying to implement this year's chore chart system and schedule. As usual, I'm my own worst enemy! As I type Aidan is making his own breakfast and offered to make me some. Avery cleared her own place at the table this morning without prompting and even put her spoon in the dishwasher. Evan is plowing through books at breakneck speed. Toby is, well, Toby. He cracks us up. We're starting to work on letter and number recognition with him.

Enough bragging on my family? We're overall doing well!

Please remember my friend's eight-year-old son in your prayers. He's hospitalized right now and that's about as far as I'd like to go on that without his Mom's permission.

Out of the Mouths of Babes!

This morning Toby learned that we were going to run errands and thus he needed to go get dressed. In typical Toby fashion he asked, "where in the world are we going this morning?" as he danced and pranced around the living room in his birthday suit. I informed him that we had to go to Target because we need to buy gifts for open house season. Dead stop. Tone as serious as Toby can get it. "You mean we're selling our house again???"

Do I have to explain or do you get it?