You Don't See That Every Day

Behind this sweet face is One.Stubborn.Girl. We are in the 'throes' of potty training and it's all in her court now. I tried over and over to get her interested for the past few months. And after training 4 kids, I knew it was something I couldn't force her into. Earlier this month, one Saturday we were visiting with my niece who had stopped in for a visit. Little K. slipped away without a word, and then a few minutes later we found a bare-bottomed girl who had gone in and used the bathroom. By herself. Without a word. And then the girl would not do this again for at least another week. Well, this week has been different! We've been home more, and she has been choosing to go without diapers. Maybe it's seeing all her friends use the bathroom, I don't know. Whatever it was, it clicked in her brain, and she is on track! In our circles, opportunities for 3 year old's who wear diapers seem limited. The biggest blow for Little K. was not being able t...

Is it the changing of the season that does it to me? Or maybe the rain? I'm getting that claustrophobic feeling again, that my house is crammed with t oo much stuff . Everywhere I look I see something that needs to be cleaned and cleared. When I see it that way, I get overwhelmed and sit down and eat ice cream. Ok, not really but I want to. So I'm trying to take it little by little. Maybe I will make more progress that way instead of getting overwhelmed, throwing up my hands and sticking everything in a box with a lid. So I won't have to see it. Yesterday I recycled (because this IS Oregon and we recycle, we don't throw it away!) over 3 years accumulation of my running magazine. 3 years! Holy cow! Why did I have those, all nicely lined up in magazine boxes!? I really thought I would go back through them "someday" and read those pages I had marked. So yesterday I did that, but on speed-dial. I went through each one, looking at the cover, looking at the pag...

* We had a birthday this weekend. My 7 year old turned into an 8 year old. She is full of spunk and sass and sweetness. She will tell anyone just about anything. And sometimes it bothers me, but most of the time I am blessed by this gift God has given her. A tradition we try to do in our house on birthdays is to go around the table and have everyone say at least one nice thing about the Birthday Person. And as parents, I think we were, once again, blessed by our children and how they see their sister. So we had a birthday party for another relative on Friday night; we celebrated our girl with our little family on Sat night, and then had a the grandparents and aunts/uncle over for a party for her on Sunday. I've had enough cake and ice cream for at least 3 days. And I hope to go run some of it off this week. If I can find the time and the energy. My Little K looks like she is coming down with a cold (too many late night parties for that one) and I am feeling it. * Did I mention...

We've been in school for two weeks. Normally, this isn't an anniversary that most people notice. But to me, it means my girl has been gone away from home for two weeks, to the school building. And she still likes it! Hurrah! She is learning so many things in academia; the girls at her school have been so nice to her, inclusive for the most part, not exclusive. That was one of my fears - the cliques that middle schoolers can have. But from what I have heard from my girl, she's making friends, and always has someone to sit with during lunchtime! (phew!) And at home here, schooling just 2 girls while dealing with a 3 year old has been much easier for me. Partly because Little K likes to sit and do bookwork at the same time. Miss M has really taken to a science project from her book. She lobbied, successfully, for a terrarium, and started building it up the night she brought home the container. So far, we've only got one bug in there, but I think she is working on finding...

I woke up this morning and thought, I can go for a run! There was nothing pressing that I needed to do, no deadlines, or places to shuttle children to. And it sounded like a really good idea to just go run. Yes, I admit, I am one of those people who just likes to run. I like the feeling while running, and afterwards too. But I had other factors motivating me too: 1. My son's cross country team. Watching him and the other high schoolers run, makes me want to join them; it reminds me of those days so long ago running around southern Oregon. 2. My Runner's World magazine came this week. I read it cover to cover, this time without eating ice cream! 3. Usually at this time of year, my husband and I are running a 5k for the Oktoberfest in Mt. Angel. We've done this race for the past 5 or 6 years, this year being the first time neither of us are. 4. The dog looked like it wanted to run too. It's always more fun to run with a buddy, so I hooked up the pup and took her along...

(( It has taken nearly a week for me to write this post. argh! Every time I sit down to write, I get interrupted. Sheesh, it's almost like I have 3 kids at home who need an education ... oh, yeah, maybe that's why. So if it doesn't flow too well, you'll know why. )) A whole week has gone by since school has started. It has gotten easier each day to send the older two off to school. Not that I don't miss them - we've just gotten into routine now, back in the swing of things: school lunches, the bus times, schedules, sports, and all the trappings of the day. But this past weekend G and I were finally able to get a weekend away. We hadn't gone away all summer; and with all his traveling, we needed some time for just us, without the kids. So we unloaded the girls on my brother and sister-in-law (who were happy to see them) and the Boy had a cross country meet away for the weekend. And we headed west. With the points G accumulates from traveling, we were abl...

I've taken a small hiatus from blogging this past summer. I know it it was infrequent, but our days felt jam-packed! But I am going to try and be back on top of things now that we are into scheduled days once again. (I just love September!) Last year we were at this point: getting into the school year; And now it has come to say goodbye to another summer's end. We had the cousins here last weekend. My newest nephew was born in August, so we took the opportunity to have the older girl cousins over for sleepover, and let mom and dad get some rest (if possible) Of course my girls just wanted to hold the new cousin! Other highlights from August  - we made it to the State Fair; two of the girls entered photos into the youth contest.  The pictures were hung, but no prizes.  - G. got a trip to Florida - for work. He was gone for a long 2 weeks.  - The Boy decided not to play football after all; he is now running cross country for his school....