old and busted ... new hotness

It started with "old and busted". drip. drip. drip.





And ended with shiny "new hotness".




Our crew chief and his assistants having a moment of silence for the old sink.



Thanks Marcus for all your help, time, tools and a new sink. We love you.

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

If you give a mom a muffin, she'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.

She'll pour herself some.

Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.

She'll wipe it up.

Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.

She'll remember she has to do laundry.

When she puts the laundry in the washer, she'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.

Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.

She will get out a pound of hamburger.

She'll look for her cookbook ("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger").

The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.

She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.

She will look for her checkbook.

The checkbook is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.

She'll smell something funny.

She'll change the two-year-old's diaper.

While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.

Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.

She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.

Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.

And chances are... If she has a cup of coffee, her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

~author unknown

Sweet Nell

Nell Elizabeth Couch. My grandmother. My mother's mother.
My SweetNell.



When I was a little girl - mid 70's - there was doll at Dairy Queen, called "Sweet Nell". The story goes something like this:

Little Jennifer gets up in grandma's lap. "My doll's name is Sweet Nell."
Grandma says, "Nell, that's my name too."
Little Jennifer says, "You SweetNell?"

Yes, she is. To me, to the other grandkids, to her friends... "Sweet Nell".

Don't be fooled by the name. She's not your average, do whatever you want to grandma. She's the one that taught me to play Scrabble, cut throat style, even at 10. We had an official Scrabble dictionary and "board's play"... meaning, if you let go of it, that's where it stays. Amy's game was Monopoly. I guess we didn't do much but drink Coke and play games at her house. Yahoo! That's what I'd like to spend all my time doing right now.



Hard to believe Amy and I are old enough to have kids old enough to say funny things to SweetNell. All of our kids make a great- grandmother. And that she is - great. And "sweet".

The Sisters

I've never had twins before, but I knew I didn't want to refer to them as "the twins". So instead, we called them "the sisters". And it seems to work so far, although we do have lots of sisters in this family. And if you can't see their face and you aren't sure which one it is, they will answer to "sister". (I am already planning on doing a post for each one - but they are hard to separate.)
Since I've don't have my own personal twin, I don't really know what it's like to have someone my same age, with me, all the time. A built in playmate and another little voice inside my head, except it's on the outside. If I want to do something, we might have to take a vote, or take turns. (Oh wait, I do - it's Darren. Hahaha.)

Emily and Becca really get along well. They spend lots of time together and lots of time with the other kids. But there is a protectiveness to be "equal" all the time. Sometimes it's because I don't want my sister to get more and sometimes it's because I don't want my sister left out.
For example the loosing of the first tooth fiasco! (Wiggly Tooth Post - April 08)

The Sisters have a habit of deciding to play in the mud in their cute little dresses. Which I think makes them all the cuter. If it had walked out to find one of the other kids in the mud, they might have gotten in trouble. But if the sisters are both doing it, I run for the camera.

Other days we wear our pretty dresses with no mud in sight :)

It is wonderful fun to see these two growing up, a little every day.

Don't know what the next year holds, but I love the sisters . They are double the fun and apparently double the trouble!

Claire Belles

Since some of you haven't seen the littlest one lately.
Here's a fun video of her and cousin Gabriel.



Of course there is more to life than sticking everything in your mouth - but she hasn't figured that out yet. Other things going on in her life right now :

• new tooth (front bottom left)
• rolling over from back to front
• found her hands
  
• about 16 lbs
• big talker/ screecher
• full of beautiful smiles
• slobbering on everything... mom's watch, dad's wrist, Katy's neck
• laying (or sitting) next to Gabriel

Her 5th month looks to be a busy one. Things to look forward to:

• first Thanksgiving
• getting to be the baby Jesus in our living nativity
• more teeth
• more drool

Good times!

Tabernacles

Jesus was Jewish, which means he celebrated the Jewish feasts. I am not Jewish, but I want to know about the feasts and celebrations that the Lord told the Israelites to do...forever.

During the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) the people build succas (or tabernacles or booths) to remember when they were in the wilderness for 40 years and the Lord said make me a booth so I can tabernacle with you.

We did our best to tabernacle with God at the end of September.

We ate lunch in the booth (tent).

We ate marshmellows ...

...roasted over an open flame.

We slept in the booth. Our booth has two rooms (thanks Aunt Mel and Audrey). So the littles slept perpendicular in their "room" on 2 crib mattresses and some couch cushions.
And the big ones slept parallel with our longer legs stretched out on a twin mattress thing and more couch cushions.

While the littlest one was warm and cozy inside the house. She was in the pack-n-play in the big room and I took the monitor outside with me.


It was fun and we only did it one night. Next year we'll go for two.

turtles and the 45 minute hour

So you may be wondering how I get anything done with six kids. Most days I get to the end of my day and can see all the stuff I HAVEN'T done... without giving myself credit for the myriad of things I do get done.

It is a wonderful season in my life, even if I can't remember if I've brushed my teeth or not.

In the midst of trying to balance the big kids with a new curriculum (that we are really enjoying), the sisters who want to "do school", a potty training toddler who wants a movie (which bring everything to a stop because they all want to watch whatever movie the 2 yr old picks) and a nursing baby that wants to be held - much less the regular cooking and cleaning... I had an idea.

I know, I know, it's not very often that I have a complete thought these days. This one popped into my head in the 27 seconds I was in the bathroom...

The 45 minute hour. Stay with me here. What if we do school for 45 minutes? Then I let them play for 15 minutes...while I do some kind of mommy thing?

The big kids get a break, the little sisters get to play with the big kids, and I get to finish cleaning up breakfast, start a load of laundry, check my email, regroup for the next chunk of school or brush my teeth...

The other brilliant part of my plan involves the Kindergarten class. I have figured out that I cannot do school with both at the same time... just doesn't work. So while I am with one sister, the other sister has a job - play with Amanda. Then they switch. So far so good. This idea is a keeper!!!

And here we are making the life cycle of turtles with clay
- part of Jacob's science for the day.