The best day ever

Today was Jack's best day ever.

Now, this claim is thrown out there pretty easily. Maybe we have backwards day where dessert is first, or I let him pick out his clothes for school two days in a row. Suddenly, the day has become "the best day ever".

However, this really was a big day. Today was finally DS day. Jack has been dilligently saving his allowance, either $3 or $6 depending on how many chores on his list he completes for the week, in order to buy a DS and off himself from the "last kid to own a DS" list. So, since today was an early dismissal day, which meant Luke was at preschool and Jack and I had some alone time, we decided to hit the road and head to Target.

$120 finally accumulated in the saving cup-I'm ready to shop

Playing his very own DS for the first time-come to papa!

It was really fun to see his excitement build along with his savings, and then see it all come together with the purchase today. I hope the time it took to save the money, along with the fact that he paid for this himself, will encourage responsibility.

Last night as I was picking out his clothes for school, I chose a Life is Good shirt. He saw it and said, "Oh yeah, my Life is Good shirt, I love that one!", and then he looked at me, smiled, and said, "You know what, life is good."

Thanks for the reminder buddy, you are so right.

Day to day

Not much new doin' lately.

We had some quick weekend visitors. Rob's parents decided to make a trip up to deliver some things they had found for us. Paul, Rob's dad, is a hard bargainer extraordinaire. He delights in negotiating a lower price and bringing home his treasures, so we gave him a list of "stuff" to find and he ran with it. So, among the deliveries were a tiller with a rebuilt engine, an air compressor, and a power drill. I love having a tiller to finish preparing the garden, and Rob loves the air compressor. I think he pretty much blew air into everything we own this weekend.

Speaking of blowing air--this is Paul's "hillbilly car drier"

(Sorry, but I gave you ample warning that if you did things like dry off your van with a leaf blower, it is fair game for my blog.)

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Luke had his spring singing program at preschool Sunday. I was SO proud of him! He stood up there on stage just like he was supposed to, and actually sang the songs and did the motions too! This is a HUGE improvement over the fall program where he ran back and forth in front of the other kids singing and kept putting his hand over the little girls mouth next to him so she couldn't sing. YEA LUKE!!

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I love feeling more in touch with the farmers and really noticing the stage that crops are in. I have never personally known this many farming families or driven by so many freshly tilled fields as a normal part of my day, and I really do feel much more in tune with what is happening around me. Listening to the farm reports and daily closing prices on the radio is actually really cathartic!

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Parenthood

I am loving this show.
I am not a cryer. I am also not a TV watcher.

However, this show brings me to the misty eyed/lump in my throat state that is about as close to crying as it gets. Every episode. I think Rob gets there too, though he hasn't admitted it officially. The show is smart, funny, and real. I would highly recommend it.

Happy Earth Day

I have an Earth Day project to suggest.

I love recycling. It started as something that was offered free, curbside pickup next to the trash, in Wisconsin. Then, it was still curbside, but you had to pay a little for it, and they didn't take much, in Indiana. Now where we are, because we live outside of town, it's not even offered, so I have to pack it all up and take it to the recycling center. Which is all fine and good, because I believe in it. In fact, it has become so obsessive over the years, that it has actually become painful for me to throw something like a can in the trash. I will tote a pop can from a car trip two states over back home in order to throw it in my recycling bin instead of the trash, and I feel guilty throwing so much as a post-it note in the trash rather than walking it to the recycling bin. So, I suppose there is some healthy medium ground one can hope for.

My challenge is, for anyone out there who hasn't quite committed to regular recycling, to try it for a month or so. In doing so, I think you might be amazed at just how much you can accumulate in that amount of time, and by seeing it all sitting in bins, you realize just how much VOLUME you can recycle vs. throw into a landfill. And this is just you and your family. Imagine if your whole neighborhood took those bins that month to the recycling center instead of throwing it out. I consider our family pretty low consumption when it comes to packaged and processed foods, but yet, every three weeks or so when Luke and I pack up all of the bins to haul to the recycling center, I am amazed at how much has built up in that time.

So, maybe rig up something like this:

in a place that is close and convenient for you, with each bin labeled for easy dumping at the recycling center, and take a whirl.

You will feel like you are making a difference, and if you do have kids still at home, you can be a powerful model for them in the process.

Asparagus, revisited

Thursday night, I toiled and tilled under the blazing sun to get my asparagus planted. (Ok, it wasn't that hot...) But, it really is a lot of work digging trenches, I must say! So, I'm all proud of myself for getting my first item planted, and I am telling my neighbor, who is a certified master gardener, about it. Well, as it turns out, due to a stroke of pure gardening genius, I planted it all upside down. Classic. So, I had to pull them all back out, hoping those exposed roots didn't dry out too much in the aforementioned blazing sun all day to still be viable, and replant them Friday night. Talk about livin' and learnin'. This won't be the last of it.

It should not look like this

On Saturday, I planted potatoes and onions, and replanted the oregano I dug up from last year's mini garden. I didn't realize it was a perennial!

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I just finished reading The Lacuna—it was a tough read for me so I would not recommend. It's a Barbara Kingsolver and I gather from my book club group that she tends to write with lots of history and politics so it really wasn't up my alley. However, I finished it because it's almost impossible for me to not finish a book once I've started.

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Sunday we packed up our picnic basket—I made chicken/spinach/artichoke calzones (yum, but a hard sell for kids!) and went to a state park, which is my favorite thing to do with my family to relax and enjoy each other and nature. It was a beautiful day and a great way to refocus and remove yourself from all of the chores and outside work staring you in the eye every day.

I dressed myself today!

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Here's another classic quote from Dave Barry:

"It is inhumane, in my opinion, to force people who have a genuine, medical need for coffee to wait in line behind people who apparently view it as some kind of recreational activity."

A beautiful sign

I believe in signs. I also believe that they are around us all of the time, trying to guide our way, but we are often too busy or distracted by the noise of the world to notice.

Rob borrowed a tiller from our neighbor, and worked on preparing the ground for me Wednesday night. (Unfortunately, it broke midway through the process, bad both because it's not ours, and we weren't finished).

So, as I've been hoeing like a madwoman trying to get out the bits of grass and weeds and prepare the garden for planting, I've been thinking about Grandma and Grandpa a lot and appreciating all of the hard work gardening really is. Last night, I hoed that part you see that Rob was able to finish and de-weeded as much as possible, and planted a row of asparagus. Ironically, the row is about as straight as the rows I used to crochet after Grandma taught me. She was genuinely astounded when I showed her what I'd completed on my first afghan—not at my great progress, but that I had kept going and not ripped it out and started over based on my veering edges. Hers, of course, were always perfectly straight.

I'm sorry Liz but I cannot say the word afghan without thinking of the time back in the mid 90's when you called it an Afghanistan. I love you my favorite Puerta Rican English-as-a-second-language-friend.

Anyhoo, after the row was planted, the boys went off to fight play again, and I was alone. That's when I discovered this, just laying there right on top of the ground in the middle of the garden:

A perfect, beautiful arrowhead, sent straight to me from my grandparents. I have absolutely no doubt about this. They have cigar boxes filled with all of the arrowheads they found over their years of gardening, and in all of my years spent there, I have never found a perfect one like this. It is so amazing to me to hold something in my hand that was made hundreds of years ago, by people living their lives so differently than we live ours now.

A few years ago, on the beach, another sign was sent. My mom, sister and I had gone to Florida to celebrate my Mom's 60th birthday, and my sister and I were walking on the beach, looking for sanddollars. For some reason, I was thinking about Grandma and urged her in my mind to send us a sanddollar. Heather and I picked up over 50 sanddollars in the next hour. It was awesome.

I find it very comforting to know that not only are God and His hosts of angels watching over us, but also our loved ones who have gone before us.

Tuesdays with Luke

After a lengthy hiatus to an unspecified location, energy has once again returned to me, so today was housecleaning day. (Don’t you hate it when it just runs off like that? I always tell it to stay close, but it has a mind of its own). My house smells like dust and pee. You know it’s bad when Jack says, “Boy, mom, you sure do need to vacuum.” It’s been a while. 3 hours today, progress has been made, but much to be done.

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Luke and I went to the mall today. I don't know what has made me realize it, but I truly have seen how easy and enjoyable he is to hang out with all day. When it's just he and I, it is peaceful and relaxing. He goes with the flow, doesn't ask for much, and makes me laugh. I'm sure going to miss him when he's gone every day next year!

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A few daily Luke-ism’s:

I used the younger brother of our regular babysitter last night for the first time. He is younger than I usually use, a 7th grade boy, and not an especially tall fella. When I got home with him and the boys, Luke asked, “But who’s gonna watch us now mom because there’s 3 kids here?” I’m sure that made the babysitter feel like a super stud.

Today while he was eating his cereal, Luke asked me, “Why does Father Mike say according to me?”

I loved that one .I’ll give you a minute….

”The gospel, according to Luke…..”

Lest we think our kids aren’t listening.

Weekend

Although we expected the weather to be nice Saturday, it didn't pan out quite that way so we weren't able to accomplish as much as we'd hoped. We went to evening church, and then Rob and the boys went to see this:

which they all enjoyed, while I went on a "training" mission to do homebound communion for parishioners. Wow, that was quite an experience—much more emotional than I had planned for! There is a section that is for Alzeimers patients, and although I have visited these before as my grandmother suffered from Alzheimers, I cannot say I am comfortable there. It was so difficult to talk to two different women who practically begged us to help them get out of there— what can you say? Having never met any of these people, you don't know their level of lucidity, and I found it difficult to know what to say. Then, another woman worked on a kids wordsearch book the entire time we were there, tapping her pencil in agitation against the book and counting, 5!6!7! without ever really acknowledging us. The woman I was shadowing never seemed flustered and always seemed to know just what to do or say, while I felt that I never knew what to do or say. Wow. I know it will get easier, and need to focus on my intentions of the visit more than doing everything perfectly correct.

Today truly was a beautiful day, and we did get a lot accomplished. Although we've never had this much work to do outdoors at all times, it is enjoyable, and a great way to get some exercise without feeling like you are exercising. We hit all 3 big box home stores over the course of the weekend, so today, Rob put this together:

(I promise Jack is not really riding in that wagon naked as it appears)

which only took him about 3 hours. Thank God I am married to someone who can put things together, as I would rather {insert my favorite fear here} take a career public speaking/encounter a bear/swim with sharks than put anything together. He also worked on other projects like this:

using these stones we keep finding all over the property.

Meanwhile, I spent the whole day working on these:

It is so much fun to see what was planted when you move to a new place

This is a little blueberry bush I bought and planted today

I wish I could have stopped what I was doing to grab my camera in time to take a picture of Luke laying in the dirt of these beds and just lifting handfuls of dirt and pouring it all over himself, but I didn't. He loved playing in the dirt and squishing his toes in the mud, and I loved that we have a place he can finally do that.

Bad words

Jack informed me yesterday morning before school that he now knows the "f" word. He then proceeded to tell me that he also knows how to spell it (demonstration here), but would like to know how you would use it. Like, would you say, you did it to someone? or that someone has one of these? After pulling out of him WHO he heard that word from, I proceeded to explain that we just wouldn't use it any of those ways because we just don't say that, and that it would be a quick way to get himself in trouble. He also mentioned that he'd seen this word on the slide on a playground we stopped at last week on the way home from Indiana. Perfect. This now joins his collection of other bad words he's learned, such as the "a" word and the "sh" word. Superb! You know Allie, tell your husband I agree, nothing good ever happens on the bus, and you are certainly being reasonable to decide that your child might NEVER ride the bus.

Big ambitions

Yesterday Luke had "career day" at preschool, where they ask the kids to either dress or bring props related to what they would like to be when they grow up. Luke decided fireman in the morning (such an improvement over his previous answer of "stay at homer"!), but by the end of the day, decided he really didn't want to do that. Maybe it's the danger associated with the job. Earlier in the day, he mentioned, "Mom, there are free (of course the "f" is a stand-in for "th" on all "th" words) things we have to be careful of that might kill you; floods, lightning, and tokens". Hmm. Well, I guess that would make sense. If anyone has ever spent a day at the Kid's Casino, you might agree that by the end of the day tokens might drive you to your death. Very introspective.

Anyway, on the topic of firemen, Jack's Scout troop got to visit the local volunteer fire department last night. Is it wrong that I lined up along with the kids to climb in to the trucks and asked possibly more questions than they did? Fascinating stuff I think.

Trying on the air pack

And the whole uniform

Afterwards, I asked Jack what he wanted to be when he grew up (because you know this one always changes). Apparently I have made the occupation of stay-at-home-mom so glamourous, that this is what he wants to do when he grows up. He's decided he will stay at home with the kids while his wife works. I would not recommend he advertise those ambitions whilst shopping for future wife. Just a word to the wise, kid.
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Jack is VERY excited about his upcoming birthday. He has spent the last several nights getting the basement set up for his party, which is over a month away. I love this enthusiasm. He asked me yesterday if I'd like him to show me around and see what he has planned so far.

This large piece of wrapping paper is the stage where you can play music in a band

This is like a cakewalk where you play music and if you are standing on the winning number when it stops, you win a prize

These are his own toys you can "win" with the right number of tickets.

If only our own birthdays were still this exciting and dripping with anticipation.

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Luke spent the morning with his "sharebag" from preschool. They send a new one home each week, with a game or activity they can play while learning. Really fun and a great idea but finding those pieces to return each week is beastly. Anyway, this week's bag dealt with which items float and which items sink. Anytime it involves water, it's a good time. Well, it was a good time but of course like a fool I left him alone which turned into the sink stopper not working any more, so he moved the party upstairs, and then started screaming at me that he couldn't get the water to stop (always when I'm leaving a message at a doctor's office or something), so by the time I got there, indeed the sink was full, and the faucet would not shut off. Luckily, this stopper still worked, so I opened that up to let out the water before it overflowed, but could not turn the faucet off, leading me to call my male neighbor who I knew was home for the day and could quickly direct me on what to do (turn off the water under the sink with a knob-genius!) Whew, sometimes these simple things are not too easy.

Editor's note:

In Rob's anticipated defense, he would also have known what to do to stop that water--said editor was just sure she could not reach Rob at work quickly enough so deferred to other source instead.

Celebrating Easter

So sorry I have been M.I.A. for so long! I know I always get disappointed when I log on to the blogs I read and keep seeing the last post I read. (Of course, I am taking liberties here assuming hordes of people are all gung ho about seeing what good ol' R. Miller and clan are up to and that is a stretch, I know...)

Anyway, we traveled 1100 miles in the last week to visit family for Easter. I am so thankful that my kids are such great travelers since we do it so frequently! I hope to instill the same sense of adventure and wonderment of all the places to go and things to see in our great country that Rob and I feel.

We had a great time visiting with my sister and family, as well as my Mom and my Dad and his wife Donna. This is Grandpa after being bamboozled into putting together the very gift he'd just given.

The kids played lots of Wii, and my nephew celebrated his 5th birthday while we were there.

Then we were off to Grandma and Pappy's for more Easter fun with the other side of the family. The Easter Bunny was good enough to stop by there for the boys:

I made the yummy Peeps cake that my friend Liz told me about, and below, you will see the evidence of that with Aunt Amber:

Aunt Amber and Uncle Brian like to ask Luke if he's sweet or sassy. He usually says sweet for most, but almost always replies sassy for Uncle Brian. When Grandma asked him what she would be, he said, "Well, that's a tricky question." This boy knows where his bread is buttered when he's at Grandma and Pappy's, don't let him fool you.

Rob and I were able to attend not one, but TWO church services kid-less, which was wonderful, although once we got to the Easter Vigil, I felt that maybe we should have taken Jack to appreciate the more magical side of church.

Finally, it was very nice to come home and see that all of my daffodil bulbs had bloomed while we were away. That's one of the fun things when you move to a new place, discovering what is planted where and watching it all take shape. Spring is finally here!