Friesencold

For the letter W, Bauer colored Waldo….and used White-Out to fix the letter U in his name.

He colored and cut out Weather cards and used White-Out for the snow.

We read a couple W books, and did you know The Funny Little Woman is by the same author as that fabulous book Tikki Tikki Tembo?

I also got Bauer a special W DVD from our library, which of course, he loved!

And here’s a fun Wax art project we did.

First you grate the wax crayons.

Then you trace circles onto wax paper and cut them out.

You sprinkle the wax onto the waxy side of the wax paper circles.

You smile as you go.

Then you place another wax circle waxy side down on top of the first circle and iron them together on a low heat setting. Repeat 11 times to get this.

Then tape them onto a window and let the light shine through to see how pretty they all look.

That was really a fun project. I had only planned to make a couple wax circles but Bauer wanted to keep going and going.

Bauer also enjoyed getting to weigh objects that start with the letter W. I had fun looking around the house for W objects and putting them in a brown paper bag for Bauer to reach into with his eyes closed and pick one thing at a time to weigh on the kitchen scale. He also got some practice writing numbers, and he was wearing his patch to help strengthen his eye.

Speaking of patches, check out Xavier the pirate Bauer made for the letter X.

Here’s his Xylophone…

and his X-ray (maybe White-Out wasn’t such a good idea in this case).

I wasn’t sure The Lorax was such a good idea either when I realized how long it is, but Bauer has fallen in love with the story and we’ve read it often during the course of X.

I’ve been reading Gretchen Rubin’s book The Happiness Project, and although you’d think it would be making me happier, I think it’s kind of making me unhappier because I’m realizing more and more how many things I want to work on and improve in my life. That was already one of the things I spend a lot of mental energy on, trying to work on myself, how to be a better mom, a better wife, a better person in general. Like I’ve said a million times before, other than God, it’s quotes and words that are helping me as I build and re-build my life. So regardless of the happiness-unhappiness spectrum I find myself moving back and forth on as I read Rubin’s book, I’m really glad to be reading it.

The author spends a year working on what she calls her Happiness Project. Each month she tackles a different area of her life that she thinks she could improve in. I’ve just finished reading April on the topic of parenthood. One idea she puts forth is that of fog happiness, which is “the kind of happiness you get from activities that, closely examined, don’t really seem to bring much happiness at all – yet somehow they do.” She talks about how having children falls into the category of fog happiness: “It surrounds me, I see it everywhere, despite the fact that when I zoom in on any particular moment, it can be hard to identify.”

I second that notion, for sure.

I also really liked these lines of hers:

“I had two healthy, affectionate little girls [for me, it's boys, of course], and I wanted my actions as a parent to rise to the level of that good fortune. I wanted to stop my quick bursts of temper – I indulged in that behavior all too often, and then, because it made me feel bad, I behaved even worse. I wanted to be more lighthearted. I wanted to take steps to preserve the happy memories from this time.”

I second all that too.

I want so much from life and it all gets so complicated sometimes with all these desires I have, but then it becomes so simple again when I remember words like these from Richard Rohr’s book Everything Belongs:

“There’s no answer, no problem-solving, simply awareness.” Rohr also thrilled me with his words, “Our private darkness is no great surprise. Who cares? Who cares where I am on the ladder of perfection? That’s an egocentric question. ‘Where am I?’ ‘How holy am I?’ become silly questions. If God can receive me, who am I not to receive myself?”

Anne Lamott put it this way in her book Imperfect Birds, which I’m now in the middle of going back through and writing out all my favorite parts, 104 of them to be exact, in my Goody Book.

I’m about a third of the way through doing that and it’s been hours of fun so far, and lots more to come. I really sincerely love more than almost anything in life that I get to enjoy and savor and re-read and hopefully one day become all the words that mean so much to me.

Here’s the part from Imperfect Birds:

Rosie kept asking Rae, through tears, just to please tell her this one time what the secret was. She had never felt lower, skinnier, uglier, more deservedly alone. “Okay, okay,” said Rae. “Here it is.” She wrapped the scarf around Rosie’s shoulders, then leaned over to whisper in her ear: “You are pre-approved.” A calm sense of relief had filled Rosie’s chest, like stepping out of the cold into a warm car.

For me, reading these words, and having the privilege to re-read them and think about them, and now to share them, is like stepping out of the cold into a warm car.

TJ surprised me with something that definitely made me happy, even after I’d had a horrible day with the kids yesterday. It wasn’t entirely horrible (going to Jamba Juice and the park with Jaime and her kids after church was good), but I was definitely in one of my “mean-Mommy” funks a lot of the day yesterday and so it was pretty fitting to get to read the chapter on Parenthood today from The Happiness Project book. The surprise was from Amazon and how crazy that it arrived to our house, via some white delivery van, on Sunday late afternoon! I don’t think Amazon delivers on Sunday, but God does. I didn’t deserve a present for sure, but I did feel very known and loved by TJ when he opened the package and handed me Shauna Niequist’s new book Bittersweet. And it’s light blue!!

Shauna is the writer of one of my favorite books from all of last year, Cold Tangerines. I’ve read a few chapters of the new book already and am happy to have it in my life right now. Thank you, and I love you, TJ.

Ribfest is one of the many things we enjoyed over July 4th weekend, my mom being the main attraction. As always she was a tremendous help with the boys and Bauer loved having Gigi here to share in all the adventures of the weekend.

On Thursday night we went to hear the Naperville Municipal Band give their 4th of July themed concert. There were so many people there that we had to sit way around on the side where we couldn’t even see the band. But we could hear it just fine. Happy Birthday wishes went out to a 108-year old member of the audience. That was cooler than the music to me!

On Friday morning we went to Bauer’s last swim lesson (more on that later) and then took the Naperville Trolley Tour. We had done this tour one time before when TJ’s parents were in town, but I wanted my mom to experience it, not to mention I was looking forward to a refresher course on some of the history of Naperville. We invited some friends along, which made it even more special for Bauer.

Friday afternoon/evening, we attended a BBQ at the house of some friends of ours. Because I knew the kids would be fully occupied by the excitement of playing with other kids and because I know my mom loves to visit Anderson’s bookstore when she’s in town, I suggested to her that she take a break and enjoy downtown Naperville, just walking around and visiting stores and having dinner at her leisure. She loved the idea and had a great time doing that, while we were talkin’ and eatin’ and chillin’ with friends. The best part for the kids was the improptu game of Bumper Cars they came up with toward the end. You should have seen all the Cozy Coupes and similar vehicles in action on the driveway! Or maybe you did if you saw TJ’s Mobile Upload to Facebook that afternoon.

Saturday was the BIG DAY as we went to both Toy Story 3 and Ribfest. My mom joined us for the movie because she was wanting to see it too. That was fun to be there all together and know Cash could be as loud as he wanted at home with our great babysitter. My mom brought a Toy Story 3 art pack to Bauer this trip and he enjoyed spending lots of time over the weekend coloring with Gigi and working on the cover page of his Toy Story booklet.

On Saturday afternoon, my mom offered to watch Cash for us so we could go to Ribfest with just Bauer (and Jaime and Branton again!). It was pretty hot that day so I was glad Cash didn’t have to be out in the heat and fussing cause he’d want to do everything Bauer was doing but wasn’t quite big enough to do. You’re probably thinking Cash got a bum deal on Saturday but my mom said the two of them had a blast and Cash was perfectly content to be home with her, running around and doing all his funny antics that he does.

The first thing we did at Ribfest was the free kids area, with tons of inflatables.

Then it was time for ribs! TJ and I both got the pulled pork sandwich plates from Desperado’s and TJ also ordered a “teaser” of 3 ribs from there. The food was delicious! My once-a-year splurge on the worst meat ever (but it sure did taste good, not to mention the energy I had the next morning for swimming laps!).

Branton and Bauer (and Tucker) are good little buddies.

After we ate, it was ferris wheel time. Not part of the free rides, but definitely a fun, new experience for Bauer.

After the rides, we let the boys do one game each, the one where you pick a rubber duckie from a pool of water and the duck either has an S or an L on the bottom for Small or Large prize. Both of them got S’s but it’s good they did, because I know the Silly Bands (a small prize) were what they both wanted more than any of the other prizes.

As we were walking home after Ribfest, Bauer asked if we could stop and get ice cream like we did last year. He remembers going to the gelati place in downtown Naperville with the friends who we went to Ribfest with last year (different friends than this year). It was crazy that Bauer brought this up after a year had gone by, but he was right! So we thought it would be fun to continue the tradition.

Here is last year’s picture:

And here is this year’s picture:

I actually put this year’s picture in the R section of Bauer’s alphabet book and called it “Rice” Cream since that is how Bauer says ice cream. I had to explain to him why I was putting it in as an R picture so as not to confuse him since I had previously explained to him that ice cream starts with I.

Also for R, we read a couple good books:

and made a couple cute robots:

For S, we read 3 terrific books, all highly recommended if you are looking for good children’s books in general. Swimmy is one of those that just lights up yours and your kid’s face the first time you read it.

We also planted Sunflower Seeds in a fold-your-own paper pot that came with a Wal-Mart gift card I bought ages ago. I hope they will grow! It takes 6-8 weeks, which Bauer really has no concept of, but he enjoyed digging up some dirt from our garden to put in the little pot.

Another fun S thing we did was build a Sandcastle from a mixture of sand, cornstarch, and alum. Here’s the recipe if you’re interested. It was kind of like making something out of Playdough. After a week the sandcastle will be completely dry and hardened so we can keep it for a good while (but not forever, as Bauer would hope).

S is also for Swim Lessons, which Bauer really enjoyed. I know I already posted a few pictures in an earlier post, but TJ took a few more great ones on Bauer’s last day.

Gotta buckle my life-vest.

I love my goggles!

Gettin’ in the water.

Working on floating and kicking.

High-fiving the teacher.

Bauer’s group joined up with another group for some kind of circle game in the water. First Bauer watches:

Then he takes a turn in the middle:

He’s a brave boy.

And he loves going under.

The lessons are all done now and Bauer gets a lift out of the water.

Treats await the kids.

And Bauer gets his Starfish Swimming School Achievement Book.

And now back to my mom’s visit since I never quite finished telling what we did. On Sunday morning we went to Centennial Beach right when it opened at 11 and were there for a couple hours. Cash got sunscreen in his eyes near the beginning so that was a bit traumatic for him, but we survived. Once I stuck him in the shower to clean him off, put his clothes back on him, and got him distracted by Bauer’s Silly Bands, he was all set to hang on the blanket with Gigi.

Bauer had a great time in the water jumping off TJ’s shoulders.

And then I taught Bauer that game called Categories. I picked the category, like Colors or Fruit, and then he had to guess what I was thinking. Each time he guessed wrong, I dunked him under and when he got it right, I flipped him over backwards. He loved it!

I like this picture of the three of us in a row.

As you can see, the beach was a popular place to be on the 4th!

We wrapped up the day (and Gigi’s visit) with the fireworks display in downtown Naperville, but I don’t have any pictures to show of that. I’m sure you saw your own fireworks and felt the same feelings of wonder and joy that we did. Hope you didn’t get as many mosquito bites as we did though!

I had a great time in Tampa this past weekend visiting my friend Shannon, who I was roommates with in college. She and her family moved to Tampa just after we moved away from Orlando three years ago, so we hadn’t gotten to see each other in a really long time (at least 5 years!).

We talked and talked. We sat in her backyard and talked, took a walk and talked, went to the pool and talked, ate at Tijuana Flats and talked, ate slices of Publix cake and talked, stayed up late one night and talked, and went to bed early another night and read. We also spent lots of time just hanging out at Shannon’s house with her two cuties, Chase and Siena. Because Shannon has little kids, like I do, it felt sort of like being at home. It made me miss my kids for sure. But I didn’t have to wash any dishes, brush any kids’ teeth, or break up any fussing. That was nice.

I also had the time while I was away to read an entire book, Anne Lamott’s Imperfect Birds. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it because it’s her fiction work, which I haven’t been crazy about in the past. But this time, I loved the fiction because so much of what you could hear Anne Lamott saying in her non-fiction books like Traveling Mercies and Grace (Eventually) came through in the dialogue among the characters in Imperfect Birds. It was also the first book I’ve read in an online format and I enjoyed that a lot more than I expected to, too. I will definitely read another book on the iPad. I loved being able to bookmark quotes I liked as I went along, although now I have to figure out how to print them….or maybe I’ll just take my sweet time and copy them all down in my Goody Book where I write out all my favorite quotes from writers such as Anne Lamott, Elizabeth Berg, Marisa de los Santos, and of course Alexander McCall Smith.

TJ took great care of the kids while I was gone over the weekend. They went to Bauer’s swim lesson on Friday morning. The lessons take place at Centennial Beach, shown below, which is an old rock quarry.

See Bauer? He’s wearing blue goggles and floating on his back.

Bauer is in a class with only 3 other kids which is great, and usually at least one of the other children doesn’t show up, so it’s even smaller. Unlike Bauer’s bladder! If only he can make it through his 30-minute lesson without having to take a break to go potty, I’d be a happy camper. I made him go pee two times this morning before his lesson and he still only made it till 10:26. I didn’t even give him a smoothie this morning, but uh-oh, it must have been all the cantaloupe he ate! At least he doesn’t go in the water.

TJ took the kids for more water fun on Saturday afternoon at a friend’s house. Their mom, my friend Jaime, was out of town as well, so the dads got together and let the kids play outside in the sprinklers.

On Sunday, TJ helped Bauer make quicksand for the letter Q. There were great step-by-step instructions in the back of Tomie DePaola’s The Quicksand Book. Bauer made a brick sink!

Totally unrelated to the letter Q, they also made a Boogle House in the backyard. This was inspired by the book Why I Built the Boogle House by Helen Palmer.

All weekend, TJ was texting me little videos and pictures of what was going on with the boys. That was a fun and easy way to see them while I was away.

And now I’m going away from the computer.

Here is what Cash got into tonight while I was fixing dinner:

Bauer has learned to swing all by himself and he makes us watch him 5 times a day at least!

On Father’s Day, we went to the zoo with some friends. Bauer had to hold on to Tucker while he looked at the bears.

Not sure what these faces are all about.

These faces, however….

For dinner, we dined at Ted’s Montana Grill per TJ’s request. Cash is really into using a fork these days and loved his bison meatloaf. Unfortunately we didn’t consider the fact that meatloaf would have eggs in it, so we unknowingly subjected Bauer to an allergic reaction. Thankfully his tongue started hurting him right away (after only about 2 bites) so it was a pretty minor reaction. He had some hives around his mouth and was coughing into the evening, but Benadryl relieved all symptoms and now we know not to order the meatloaf for him again.

After taking a week off from alphabet activities during Bauer’s week of VBS, we spent some time over the weekend on the Letter P. I had no idea about Harold and the Purple Crayon, but now I’ve checked out a bunch of the other Crockett Johnson books and we are enjoying those this week, even though we’ve moved beyond P.

Bauer had been asking for a hanging plant for our front porch ever since he discovered the hooks on the porch ceiling and wanted to know what they were for. I bought him a Purple Petunia at Meijer last week.

So many things start with P….Pinecones, Picnic Table….He’s even wearing his Pacific shirt (unplanned).

Pasta on a Preserve Plate….

Pink Play-dough….

And more Play-dough for the P verse.

We also made a Pink and Purple Pinwheel and a Panda Puppet (not Pictured).

We’re enjoying Q this week, including a Q-Tip craft this morning, Queen Anne’s Lace being dyed with food coloring overnight, and Quinoa Muffins we will make in the morning. Also on the agenda is making our very own Quicksand, after reading Tomie de Paola’s The Quicksand Book.

Off to get some ZZZ’s.

We signed Bauer up for the local library summer reading program again this year. I don’t especially enjoy having to keep track of how many “15 minutes” we spend reading to him, but it will be worth the effort when he gets to turn in his paper and earn some prizes….not to mention all the actual reading aloud that happens in the process. This year Bauer is tracking his progress on his library chart with stickers – in fact, stickers are all the rage at our house lately. He’s been decorating a large brown envelope and its contents with stickers and markers for days now and plans to give to a friend for his birthday, which is next January!

I decided to join the summer reading program at the library too. I guess they’ve had it in previous years, but I was unaware. This time around, though, I’m excited to try and earn a prize for myself and have a little extra motivation to spend time reading. I love reading if the story is good, but when I don’t know of a particularly good story to read, I find that I have a hard time making time for reading. On the other hand, when a book gets me, I’m a goner for a few days. I love it, though. I finished Little Bee by Chris Cleave at the end of May, and then didn’t read for about 2 weeks, mainly because I didn’t know how good of a story awaited me. When I finally got down to business with Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay, I enjoyed the story immensely. I loved the mix of history and a modern-day story line. I loved the sadness and the trueness, even though it was fiction. My mom is superb at recommending books (she told me about and lent me her copy of both of these), which means now I can be superb at recommending books too. So if you are looking for a couple good stories for your summer reading list, these are my top two recommendations. I also highly recommend two books I read earlier this year: The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, both by Khaled Hosseini.

I love this quote I read today in the Frederick Buechner devotional Listening to Your Life:

“Though we would never have had the courage or the faith or the wit to die for him any more than we have ever managed to live for him very well either, his story will come true in us at last. And in the meantime, this side of Paradise, it is our business….to bear witness to, and live out of, and live toward, and live by, the true word of his holy story as it seeks to stammer itself forth through the holy stories of us all.”

And finally, do you remember my story from last year? How TJ surprised me a month before my 30th birthday and starting posting birthday wishes that he had gathered from my friends on this amazing birthday blog, which he later had printed and turned into a book for me to keep forever? I’ve enjoyed re-reading the book every once in a while this past year, and I love that my story has so many lovely people in it. Today is a month before my birthday again and that is why I’m remembering things about turning 30. I also was thinking earlier today that I like being 30 because I have enough stuff behind me to have learned a lot, and there are still many years ahead of me for living out what I’ve learned. 31 will be the same that way. And it’s odd – yay!

I have had three different friends ask me unrelated questions recently and after typing out some fairly substantial responses, I figured maybe I’d get a little more bang for my buck and post them on the blog for others to see and share in, if you happen to be interested.

Friend 1 Question 1: Do you have a schedule you follow during the time TJ’s at work? You know, like a routine for the day?

Answer: To answer your question, parts of my day during the week are scheduled. Cash always goes in his crib for an hour of rest/play time each morning from about 9-10am. I love that break I get so I can spend the time with Bauer and/or do other things I need to, like take a shower or send an email or two. Usually I spend the first 20-30 min doing some sort of activity/craft/reading/etc with Bauer and the rest of the hour I take a shower and get ready for the day while Bauer watches TV. He usually watches 30-45 min in the morning and that’s it for the day. Once in a while I may let him watch 15-30 more min in the afternoon if I need the time to do something. But now that it’s nice and the kids can be outside more, I feel like we don’t need the TV as much for entertainment.

After Cash’s rest time – which by the way, is not a nap…I just put toys and books in his crib and he is very happy to play by himself for that hour. I never did that with Bauer but when Cash started to give up his morning nap, I never stopped putting him in his crib, except I just started giving him toys and leaving the light on and the curtain open so he can see outside. He doesn’t know any different and it’s the bomb to have him trained like that to be back there for an hour each morning. I definitely plan to do this with any other kids we may have – so anyway, after Cash’s rest time, we often will go and do one errand, sometimes in the van, sometimes walking. Today we drove to Costco, some days we may walk to the library or the post office, and 2x a week it is a trip to the chiropractor. We get home by about 11:30 from whatever little outing we take and then the kids play outside in the backyard while I fix lunch. We eat out there too now that the weather is nice and by 1, I have them back inside and getting ready for naps. Cash goes down by 1:15 or 1:30 and sleeps till 3:30 or 4. Bauer naps probably every 3 days, not as often as every other day but sometimes it works like that. If he naps, it’s for about 2 hours so he’s usually up just before Cash wakes up. If Bauer doesn’t nap, I make him have Quiet Reading Time in our bedroom, which is an hour of him being on our bed either reading, coloring, drawing, or doing activity books (but no toys). After his hour is up, I let him come out and play something quietly like Legos or puzzles. After about a half hour of that kind of quiet play, I will usually do something with him for a little bit until Cash wakes up or Bauer will help me get started in the kitchen on dinner prep. After they are both awake, we usually do something outside before I have to start really cooking dinner. Bauer still loves to go to the train station so sometimes we go over there to watch the trains….Bauer rides his bike and I push Cash in the stroller. Or we walk to the post office. Or play in the backyard. If we end up staying inside, Bauer might keep helping me in the kitchen while Cash has a snack or wanders around getting into trouble. Or Bauer and I may do an additional alphabet activity for his ABC book. Another favorite thing to do is listen to music, sometimes inside, sometimes in the backyard, but my favorite is on the front porch. Bauer takes his CD player out there and we sit in beach chairs on the porch and listen to his music CDs and watch the cars go by. Or the boys might be out there listening to music and having a snack on the porch while I’m inside getting more stuff done in the kitchen so when it’s time for dinner, it will go a lot quicker. Once about 5 pm rolls around, I send the kids outside to play while I fix dinner. I keep checking on them of course and they keep coming to the door for something or other anyway, so it’s not uninterrupted cooking by any means. TJ gets home by about 5:30 most of the time, so he plays with them while I finish getting dinner ready and then we eat by 5:45 or 6.

Not sure if this helps you in any way, but it does show you that we have a bit of a routine. While the boys nap, I try to sit down and do some sort of Scripture reading / praying / journaling. That is often no more than 20 minutes and not even every day. I also send emails, go through mail, fold clothes, clean up the kitchen, do research on the internet about whatever I need to figure out, make phone calls, reply to MealBaby emails, etc etc. I don’t do all of this every day obviously but that is just a sampling of the kind of stuff I do. I want to spend more time just reading for fun during their naps but it seems like I stay busy with everything but that.

I work out in the mornings, either before TJ goes to work or I’ll take the kids for a walk in the stroller first thing. I bring something easy for them to eat in the stroller and then I’ll fix smoothies when we get home. I probably work out 5 days a week and I try to do free weights every 4-5 days or so. That is something I’d do in the afternoon during their nap time or if Bauer wakes up, I’d perhaps let him watch a little more TV while I finish.

Friend 2 Question 1: We travel a lot, and it is almost impossible to find fruits and vegetables on the road. What do you guys do when you have to travel?

Answer: When we travel, I bring along a lot of our own stuff, especially for the kids, but also for myself. When we fly, I pack almond butter or sunflower seed butter  sandwiches for all of us and I bring along steamed sweet potato, cut into chunks, for the kids. I always have bags of veggies, like sugar snap peas, carrots, cucumbers and celery, all cut up and ready to eat. I cut up a few apples and slice them and have them in bags for the kids to eat. I bring bananas, almonds, raisins, dates, little cups of applesauce (organic, no sugar added), little cups of diced pears or peaches in their own juice…..you get the picture. When we get where we are going, I try to buy similar things that we eat at home. I’ll usually go to a grocery store and try to buy things that are healthy and not too difficult to prepare when we’re traveling. The kids really enjoy vegetarian baked beans (I drain and rinse them from the can and they eat them unheated), avocado chunks, Ezekiel 4:9 cinnamon raisin bread, and of course more fruits and veggies. I haven’t found it to be too challenging to travel and have plenty of healthy stuff to eat, but as Bauer has gotten older, I have become a little (not a lot) more flexible as far as letting him eat some junk when the occasion calls for it.

We don’t do much fast food at all, even when we travel. If we ever make it somewhere where there is a Chick-fil-A, we’ll eat there with excitement and Bauer gets the nuggets and fries and an apple juice. I still usually have food for Cash to eat, but let him have a few fries. I also make sure Bauer is eating some veggies along with his nuggets and fries and he’s pretty good about it, but even if he doesn’t want any, I know he eats so well the rest of the time, that it’s not such a big deal. We eat at Chipotle when we can because it is a healthy “fast-food-type” place. Do you have Chipotle there? All Bauer knows about McDonald’s and Burger King is that they have fish sandwiches and he thinks that sounds gross. I’m glad that’s his perception of those two joints

Friend 2 Question 2: My son has become pretty picky with food … I made all of his food when he was a baby, and he ate anything I gave him. Now that he is a toddler, he has done a 180. He still eats mostly organic fruits and vegetables, but he has his favorites and doesn’t like to try new things anymore. I know that he and Cash are pretty close in age … have you had any issues with Cash not eating some of the meals that you make? I’m a little nervous about what I am going to do if and when my son refuses to eat some of the new things.

Answer: I do feel blessed as far as Cash’s willingness to try new things. Bauer wasn’t as willing as Cash, but even so, I think my overall philosophy has been to only offer them healthy things, and even if they eat a lot of the same things, it is way better than eating a variety of junk. Bauer ate a lot of steamed sweet potato and raw cucumber when he was younger, and he still does. I think his nose even started looking orange-ish at one point (TJ remembers that, but I don’t). Some things I just don’t buy, such as yogurt or cheese sticks. Bauer knows he likes yogurt because we have bought it occasionally and his friends have it sometimes, but I just tell him that we don’t have yogurt at our house, and he really has no concept of eating cheese. I buy shredded cheese for 1 recipe I make a couple times a month and that’s all the cheese he gets (other than our occasional splurge on pizza).

So what would I do if they refused to eat what I cooked? Well, I guess I would try and see if they have a true aversion to it…..like Bauer really dislikes the texture of potatoes in this corn chowder I make, although it’s one of Cash’s favorite meals. I have learned that Bauer isn’t just saying he doesn’t like it to get out of eating it, and every time I make it, I still make him eat one good bite. I figure he may eventually learn to like it. I always plan to fix him something else when we are having corn chowder, or just let him eat the other stuff we are having at that meal. He is pretty content eating the same stuff over and over though. Every day for lunch lately, he wants an almond butter and honey sandwich, and besides that, he will often eat steamed sweet potato chunks (cold, by the way) and veggies from the veggie tray that I keep in the fridge at all times. He likes eating them plain, or dipping them in hummus, or even dipping them in ketchup (Cash, too!).

If your son were to start refusing to eat what you make, especially as you try new recipes, I think my advice would be to have other healthy options you know he likes, such as the veggies he likes or some other sides you have prepared that he likes, and let him just eat more of that, and just do your best to get him to try a bite or two of the new stuff. I wouldn’t deprive him of food altogether just because he doesn’t want the main thing you are preparing, but at the same time, I wouldn’t prepare a whole different meal for him or  just give him grilled cheese all the time because he likes it (not saying you do this, but I’ve heard of moms who just always fix their kids grilled cheese or something similar because their kids don’t like the meal the rest of the family is eating).

Friend 2 Question 3: Do you buy all organic? I was wondering what things you tend to buy organic and the things that you let go. It’s hard for me to buy anything conventional anymore, but I am not a millionaire, so I have to.

Answer: As far as organic goes, I always buy organic spinach, organic strawberries (fresh and frozen), and organic applesauce. I buy organic potatoes 9 times out of 10, and I used to always buy organic sweet potatoes considering how many of those the kids eat (but it became too much trouble to make special trips to Whole Foods for them and they are more than double the price usually). So now I just scrub the conventional sweet potatoes extra well and I always peel them before steaming.

I would like to buy organic grapes and apples and celery all the time as well, but have not been able to find good quality, reasonably priced organic options for those. So I always peel our apples, wash and rinse the grapes in a big bowl of water SIX times, and I wash and peel the celery. Oh yeah, I also usually buy organic carrots, not so much because I worry about the pesticides on those, but because they aren’t much more expensive and I really think they taste better.

I have recently starting buying more greens (mainly Swiss chard and kale) and if the organic selection on those looks good, I will buy those and if not, I’ll go conventional. Dr. Furhman’s newest book, Eat for Health, really inspired me to get serious about adding greens to our diet much more consistently.

Friend 3 Question 1: How is house hunting going?

Answer: We actually went through a 4-month process of trying to buy a house that was a “short sale” from Jan-April, only to find out after about 100 days that the bank said no to our offer. We went up some on our offer at that point and they were hemming and hawing (basically giving us the runaround) until they finally came back and said we could have it if we brought an extra $1,000 to the closing, as well as having the seller bring $1,000 and both realtors taking a lesser percentage than their usual cut. It all seemed a bit sketchy to us, plus we had started to feel like maybe we were trying to force something to happen that basically wasn’t going to happen on its own. We had been in prayer a lot through the whole process and it just seemed like God wasn’t giving a certain YES. Even though there wasn’t a certain NO either, we made the decision, after taking advice from some people we trust to the core, to back out of the whole process with that particular house we had been trying to get for the previous few months. TJ and I both felt very comfortable with our decision and are looking forward to spending another summer here in the house we are renting in downtown Naperville. We love the location and we especially love our backyard with our new (used) Rainbow swing set some friends passed on to us when their kids outgrew it. Tonight was our first weekly backyard BBQ of the summer with some friends and it was a joy to host them in such a pleasant setting in such pleasant late-spring weather. I definitely don’t miss Orlando this time of year! So, we are not house hunting at the moment, just trying to focus on other things that are moving forward for us (MealBaby being one of those – yay!).

Friend 3 Question 2: Any great reads?

Answer: As far as what I’m reading, well, Little Bee by Chris Cleave was my most recent read and I loved it to pieces. You may have seen this on my blog already. I have been trying to get into Cleave’s other, earlier novel called Incendiary, but I have not found it nearly as appealing. I think I may take a pass on it. My mom lent me a book called Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay and I was hoping to read that next. But I haven’t given much time to reading at all lately. I did decide to re-read Todd Cartmell’s book Respectful Kids during the month of June, and then another parenting book during July. I am excited about Respectful Kids and starting to implement some of the practical training tools. Bauer has responded quite well so far. It is so cool when you realize you can train your kids to make good choices (such as fast listening, flexible thinking, or even sitting still in the chiropractor’s waiting room) if you take the time to be intentional and to set out your expectations for them before you are in the upcoming situation. That’s something I learned from Dani Johnson’s book Grooming the Next Generation for Success. That might be my July re-read. Or the book by John Gottman called Raising an Emotionally Intelligent Child. I figure I have found these few books that are full of wisdom and rather than keep trying to read new books on parenting, I should just re-read these few good ones and put them into practice, so help me God.

In no particular order, thank you to my friends Maggie, Lindsey, and Beth for the questions you asked and the blog material you provided.

This morning, I finished reading Little Bee by Chris Cleave and it ranks right up there with The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns (both by Khaled Hosseini). I loved the story of Little Bee so incredibly much. I loved it from beginning to end. My life stopped so I could read, read, read it. The book ended and I have been a bit out of sorts all day. I am really looking forward to reading Chris Cleave’s earlier book called Incendiary.

One reason I got to read so much over the last few days was that my mom came into town for a quick visit. It was a lot of fun and I always wish she could stay longer. At dinner tonight, which was after we had just taken Gigi back to the airport, Bauer and I talked about all the things we did with Gigi and I asked him what his favorite was.

Here’s what Bauer and I named that he got to do with Gigi while she was here:
-Went to Target
-Walked to downtown Naperville for dinner at Lou Malnati’s
-Went to Barnes and Noble
-Played in the backyard a lot
-Had numerous picnics in the backyard (at least 4 in 3 days)
-Played with cars
-Read books
-Played and jumped on the air mattress

Bauer said his favorite thing was going to Lou Malnati’s with Gigi (and the rest of us) to have pizza.

That picture is on TJ’s phone, but I have some others to share. We have been on the letter L for the past couple of days, which was perfect for Lou Malnati’s pizza on Friday night.

Here are the L books,

and here’s Gigi reading them to Bauer over breakfast one morning.

Another big hit for the letter L was the Lite Brite I recently bought for five bucks at a homeschool curriculum resale. I was unsure of what exactly I would be getting inside the taped-up box, but I figured for such a small price, it was worth the chance. Everything works, and there are plenty of the unused Lite Brite punch-through black pages for Bauer to do. A nice surprise!

Of course, his first pick was the train!

This is a great activity for eye-patching, too.

Before L was I, J, and K.

For I, we looked at igloos on Google Images and then made an igloo on construction paper.

Next Bauer made an igloo out of letter blocks.

Then we went to a nearby park and saw that the tiered climbing wall looked like an igloo.

If You Want to Read Some I Books….

Or you could play I Spy Bingo (fun times).

I had trouble deciding on J books. I had first gotten the Jellyfish one and a couple of books by Jan Brett to be our J books. But then I realized I really wanted to use the Jan Brett ones for N (Noah’s Ark) and T (Trouble with Trolls, which also includes a dog named Tuffi). So we went with these two shown below, and then on the last day of the letter J, Bauer was looking through the books on his bookshelf and pulled out A Big Bed for Jed and said that should have been a J book too. Oh well…

We went all around downtown Naperville looking for places starting with J to take pictures of. Our first stop was Jamba Juice, and Bauer (and Cash) got a smoothie from there for our J snack.

Ezra Jack Keats was featured for the letter K. We had checked out all of Keats’ books one time a while back from the library, so this time, I knew just which ones I wanted to get for Bauer. A Letter to Amy is the one he liked best.

We made a koala mask, which Bauer really enjoyed putting on and showing to Cash first, and then to TJ when he got home from work that day. I found the pattern on EnchantedLearning.com.

And last is our K snack: a kiwi shared by Bauer and Cash, who shared a dislike for the fruit as well (this picture was before Bauer had tasted it).

Oh, I just realized we’ll start M on Monday and Gigi bought Bauer some little packets of M&Ms for him to have on Memorial Day. That’s sweet!

I haven’t been reading that much at all lately and it’s kinda making me crazy.

I have come across a couple great quotes recently, though.

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it. -Gandhi

The only courage that matters is the kind that gets you from one moment to the next. -Mignon McLaughlin

I’m gonna have a whole bunch more quotes to read soon, and you can too – don’t miss out on (Miss)ion Amy K.R. this week!

I hardly ever quit a book halfway through, but I just quit one. I tried and tried to read Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani, but I finally decided it’s okay for me to quit in order to pick up other books that I know I will like more. I am very happy to be reading Alexander McCall Smith’s newest installment of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, called The Double Comfort Safari Club. I hope it’s doubly comforting to me as I try and make my way out of the reading desert.

I did just finish a re-reading of Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr, and loved the chapter called “Ego and Soul.” If I tried to write what I liked from that chapter, I’d end up writing out the whole chapter, so I’ll spare you. But don’t spare yourself – if you need help letting go of control, this is a book to read.

I have a couple more books lined up that my mom happily mailed to me when I asked for book help. Of course, she sent the AMS one, but the other two are Little Bee by Chris Cleave and Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay. Which makes me think of Marisa de los Santos and wonder when she’s gonna come out with another awesome book like her last two.

Arts Hour has been replaced by MealBaby Two Hours. I’m not complaining because we don’t want to neglect our other child, but by the time I get in bed at 11:30 at night I’m too tired to read. And now I’m also starting to feel tired of not reading. Something must be done!

Going out into the backyard to sit in the sun and read a book until the kids wake up!

I couldn’t think of an H snack, so we’ll call this Having Smoothies!

Cash is super Happy the minute he gets his smoothie in the morning.

H is for Kevin Henkes, one of our favorite children’s authors. Bauer loves A Weekend with Wendell and Chester’s Way. Of course I’m partial to Birds and My Garden.

H is also for Hula Hoop.

I had planned to look online for some hula hoop games, but ended up making up a game instead when one recent afternoon (before I had a chance to look online for ideas) we were out in the backyard and I realized we needed a structured activity to keep things fun for a few more minutes. Bauer enjoyed racing against the timer on my phone as he went from one side of our yard to the other while only stepping inside the hula hoops, which meant he had to keep moving the hoops from behind him to in front of him.